Christ With You Or In You

Some of you who are visiting, we have been teaching through the Book of John, the Gospel of John, and I don't want to go through all the review again. I know that repetition is the key to learning, but I do want to make a little bit of review to lead us into the message this morning. In chapter number 14, you remember we understood this connection, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit is now in the Church of the Lord Jesus, and we saw an analogy of this in John 15, of the vine and the branches.

And I tried to draw up here, that's my artwork there. The vine and the branches, through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, we are connected to Him.

And the goal is for much fruit. So we talked about fruit, and the first and the greatest fruit that Jesus mentions here is that which is love, the fruit of love. Love is the supreme goal.

The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart. Love is the goal of all that God has written. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God is the greatest commandment, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself is the second.

And so on these two hang everything, on two love commandments. And so the first fruit that comes out of being connected to the Lord by the Holy Spirit of God is love. The Bible says, and I've used this verse a number of times, that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given unto us.

So it's the love of God. And love is one of the great fruits, or the great fruit of the Christian life. And then last week, and this is a challenge I know for us, I think many of you have come from a background where this concept was never taught, not taught and not lifted up.

But the Scripture says when we go forth to not just love the brothers, but also to love the world. God so loved the world, and we're connected to that One who loves the world. And Jesus loved the world.

He died and gave His life for the world. And so now we're connected to those two by the Holy Spirit of God. And so we also, we love the people of the world.

We love to take the Gospel to them, and to try to save them, and to bring them into the Kingdom of God. It extends to all men. Remember when Jesus said, love your neighbor? He wasn't talking about inside the church per se.

He was talking about that man that fell among thieves, and the leaders of the Jewish people went by and looked at him and walked on. But there was a Samaritan who came and went down and ministered unto him. He didn't even know the guy.

Love your neighbor. So we talked last week about how we should go forth and love our neighbor, and how our neighbor will respond to us. In large part, from verse number 18 on down to the end of chapter 15, we saw that as you go forth and try to minister and try to speak the Word of God, the truth to this world, that they are going to hate you.

In most instances, you're going to find yourself hated. Look at verse 18 of chapter 15. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you are of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I have said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.

If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they did it to me, you're connected to me. We're one.

They will persecute you. And someone asked, well, why does the world hate God's people? Well, John chapter 3, John talks about this a lot. He says in John 3 that men love darkness rather than light.

Men love darkness. And everyone that does evil hates the light. And so sinners who are living in sin, who are loving sin and loving pleasure, they hate the light.

They hate the light. And of course, Jesus is the light of the world. And guess what? They hated Him.

And you and I, the church, are supposed to be the light of the world. And therefore, they will also hate us. And we talked about why last time.

How to be a light and uncloak the world. John 15, verse 22 says, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had had no sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin.

And he that hateth me, hateth my Father also. And so if you're going to love the world, if the Spirit of God is going to move in your heart and you're going to love those people out there, one of the things you have to do at the very beginning is to uncloak their sin. To go and speak to them about their sin.

And that's not hating them, that's loving them. You know, if you see your brother in sin and you go and speak to him, that's loving him. That's loving their eternal destiny.

And so as you go out and you preach the Word of God and you share with them their need of a Savior because they're a sinner heading for a Christless hell, they are going to react to you in hatred. And of course we rejoice like on the Day of Pentecost, some of them, they react with humility and they repent and they come to Jesus. But Stephen found out they didn't always do that.

Sometimes they react with stoning you. And so that's what we looked at last week. Loving the world will get hatred in return.

You know, the truth of the matter is, many of us are not hated by the world because we're not out there trying to win the world. We're simply in closed-in groups. And it doesn't work.

It's not going to bring any persecution if you stay in a closed group. Now I realize, and I believe this with all my heart, that we stay in a closed group here and the world won't bother us. However, when things fall apart and we go into some serious political problems and the devil takes truly control of this country, they're going to come into this church and they're going to drive us out.

Then people are going to say, oh, now we're suffering persecution. Well, we should have been suffering persecution long before then. So don't wait until they bang the doors down and take our Bibles and put us up on stakes and burn us to say, well, now we're suffering persecution.

Actually, if you go out there in that world now and unclothe them, you'll find yourself persecuted. Well, we come now to John 16, and I want to go from John 16, verse 1, down to John 16, verse 12 this morning. And you follow along here as we go through this.

Let's acknowledge the Lord first. Heavenly Father, thank You for the Word of the Lord, and I pray as we sang today, breathe on me breath of God. And may the breath of God and the Spirit of God encourage our hearts and strengthen us, help us to see the truth and to live the truth and to find ourselves in union with the Father and the Son.

Lord, bless the teaching of Your Word this morning. Inspire my heart, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

So after saying here at the end of John 15 that you're going to face hatred, you know, most of us think if we go out in the world and we show some compassion and try to help them with their issues and deal with sin and try to show them the Savior that they're just going to love us. But the truth of the matter is, most of them are going to be very angry and hateful. And so, in John 16, verse 1, Jesus starts out by saying these things, what He said in John 15 about the world hating you, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended.

In other words, don't let this trip you up. That's what the word offended means. Don't let this stumble you.

When you go out with a message of forgiveness, you know, some of these new converts, they get all excited and they have the message of salvation, they've experienced themselves, and they go to their relatives, they go to their neighbors, they go to their community in excitement and they say, hey, Jesus can save you! He saved me! And the people slam doors on them. The people curse them. The people throw rocks at them and they say, whoa! What is this? Well, the Lord understood that they were going to face very great suffering for going out and reaching out into the world and loving the world, and so He says, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended.

As you go out with a message of forgiveness, with a heart of love, and they in large part are going to hate you. Truth of the matter is, He's talking to twelve men outside of Judas. I think ten or eleven of those are going to get martyred for doing that very thing.

Well, Jesus Himself was an example of this. And they've lived three years now. Jesus is going out doing good things.

The Bible says He went about doing good. He helped people, He healed people. The problem was He preached to them.

He spoke to them about their sin and about their issues and that's what caused people to be angry with the Lord Jesus. But He has been an example to them these last three years and they're about ready to see Him go to a cross. Of course, there's been attempts to take His life.

He's been hiding. He's been persecuted. And they've observed these things.

We read this in John 10 verse 31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. And Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from My Father.

For which of those do you stone Me? I think Jesus had a sense of humor. Here they are ready to stone Him. He says, hey listen, I healed this person over here.

I opened these blind eyes over here. I raised this person from the dead. For which of these good works are you going to stone Me? Well, the reason why we want to stone you is because we don't like what you're saying about us.

You're exposing us. And we talked about that last week. And so many people think that if you live like Jesus, the world will love you.

I've got news for you. If you live like Jesus, the world hates you. The world hates you.

Jesus said, they hated Me, they will hate you. They persecuted Me, they will persecute you. If you're actually connected here to the Holy Ghost, the Son, and the Father, if they hate My Father, they hated Me.

If they hate Me, they'll hate you. It's one of the reasons why me, personally, as I go through this, I wonder, are we on the right track here? Are we on the right track? And so I look at my own life. Lord, am I really connected? If Jesus Christ were here and walked in the United States, walked in our communities, would He be loved by everybody? Oh, these are nice people.

Or would He be hated? I don't believe you ought to go out and be purposely mean, but if you have a concern about lost people going to hell and you know that you need to speak to them about their sin, and in speaking to them about their sin, they get angry at you, you ought to be willing to take that wrath and hatred and anger for the salvation of their soul. The truth of the matter is, most of us don't like to be hated by the world, so we'll just let the world go to hell. That's the truth.

Sometimes we don't want to face the truth, right? Just let them go to hell. So if you live like Jesus, people will hate you. We read these verses there in John 15.

We ought to have enemies. Jesus had many. Well, let's keep reading here in verse 2. They shall put you out of the synagogue, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service.

And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. Now I shared a little bit about this, but I want to rehearse it because this is so important. I feel it's so important for you to understand this as we get down closer to difficult times in our country here.

There are two ways this hatred comes out, especially from religious people. They separate you from their company. They'll put you out of the synagogue.

They'll excommunicate you. And number two, they will seek to end your life or they will seek to kill you. Now why is this? Verse number three, these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me.

Here's why they do this, because they're not connected to the vine. They're not connected. They don't know the Father.

They don't know me. Now if you ask the average Jew, do you know God? Oh yeah, I know God. As a matter of fact, they're going to kill you thinking that they're doing God's service.

And so when you are connected to the vine, listen to this, the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. And that love ought to motivate you in being a peacemaker. Amen? That love ought to motivate you in being a reconciler.

It does not motivate you in being a caster-outer, a separator, a divider, and a killer. It doesn't motivate you in that way. And as my brother shared here this morning in John 17, Jesus goes on to say, oh, that they all might be one.

That love motivates life, not death and destruction. The Bible says the devil's come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. When you see people trying to kill others, I don't care what their religious beliefs are, that motivation to kill another person is from the enemy.

He has come to destroy and to kill. I am come, Jesus said, that you might have life. Life.

Verse 2 says they think they do God's service. You know, many religious people will hate you thinking they are doing God's service. And as I shared last week, and I want to just go over this again, how do you know who is right? How do you know if these Jews who are cursing Jesus at the cross who say they're serving God, how do you know that they're not right? Or who is right? Is Jesus right? He's up on the cross saying, Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do. Who is the right one? Both say they serve God. How do you know who is right? Here's how the wrong crowd promotes separation and destruction and hatred and anger, bitterness.

We talked about this in John chapter 8 and how they who thought they did God's service brought a woman taken in adultery to Jesus and said, hey, we're doing God's service. This woman was taken in adultery. Let's kill her! Let's stone her! Cast her out! And Jesus said, no, let's save her.

Let's save her. I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more.

Let's try to save her life, not destroy it. And so Jesus wanted her saved and forgiven. Now let me remind you, the Jews had some convictions.

They believed adultery was wrong. Half of them were in adultery anyway, but they at least had conviction. They knew what was right from wrong, but they had the wrong spirit.

Convictions, listen, are not the testing ground for who is right or wrong. It's the fruit of the spirit that's the testing ground. By their fruits you shall know them.

Listen, Muslims have conviction. On these campuses, Muslims dress as modest as anybody. They have head coverings on.

They're against the homosexuals. They're pro-life. They have many good stands and many good convictions, but they're killing people.

Their spirit is wrong. The Catholics are the same way. They have many good convictions, but the spirit, the root from where this thing is coming is out of anger and hatred and bitterness.

You can go right down the list. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons. I mean, I talked to Jehovah's Witnesses.

Do you believe in homosexuality is okay? No. Do you believe in abortion? No. Do you believe in family? Yes.

Do you believe in modesty? Yes. We're on the same page. The problem is they're not connected to the vine.

Because they're not connected to the vine, the fruit of the Spirit is not there. 1 John 4 says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God. Try them to see if they're connected to the vine.

See if they have the fruits of the Spirit. I don't want to belabor this point, but I want to get into something here that I think is going to be very important for the next couple of months and certainly for the next number of years. But let me go back and ask you to turn to James 3. I've shared some of these things before, but I want to lead into the political things that are going on here to give you, I believe, some wisdom in how to deal with our country and all the divide that's happening.

But in James 3.13, James is addressing the same thing. In verse 13 he says, Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But, if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.

This wisdom descendeth not from above. It's not coming down from the Lord, but is earthly, it is sensual, that means it's fleshly, and it's devilish. It's demonic.

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. That's the wrong side of the tracks right there. But, the wisdom is from above.

Here's the wisdom that's coming down through the channel. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Now, if you look at the two crowds there on the crucifixion day, you've got this crowd out here and you've got Jesus on the cross.

Maybe you're a young man. I used this illustration last week. You're trying to figure out who's right.

These Jews are yelling at Jesus and they say they're serving God, and here's Jesus. He says He's serving God. Who's right? Well, you look at the spirit coming out of these people.

Envy. Anger. Wrath.

Kill Him! Crucify Him! Wow. And you look at Him. Father, forgive them.

Father. You say, well, I'll tell you what, both of these people may have conviction, but I'll tell you what, this spirit over here is the one I'm going to follow. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge.

Let me explain something with you, and I've shared this with you before, but I want to emphasize it. I really think we're on the verge of having to deal with these things in a real way. But in the United States, there's two political factions in many ways and they're starting to war against each other.

And on the one side is the conservatives, on the other side is the liberals, and the conservative side, there's many religious people, many people who profess to be Christians, many people who have strong convictions about abortion and gay marriage, and many things that we would stand for. And we look at that and we say, there's some good things there. But you know what? There's going to come a time in our country where you guys make a choice.

Either choose one side or the other, or you say, I'm not choosing either side at all. And those Catholics and those Jehovah's Witnesses and all these conservative people are going to say, we're on the right side of things. We're taking the biblical stand and these are the ones, many of them, who are loading up with ammunition.

These are the ones who are ready to go to war and to fight against these liberals, these God-haters, these baby murderers, and we're going to fight. And you're looking at, some people are saying, at a civil war coming to our country. Conservative against liberal.

Who's going to take control of this nation? Well, I know a lot of Christians are going to jump in on the side of the conservatives and they're going to yoke up and they're going to get guns or whatever they're going to get. We can have a war. But I just want to tell you all here, we're not into doing anything of that nature.

We're not into fighting. We're not into taking up arms. We're not into getting into these arguments and political debates.

We're supposed to be the gentle and the peaceable. We're supposed to be the ones who are reconciling. We are not here to save a nation.

Did you know that? We're not here to uphold the Constitution, for that matter. We're here to save the souls of men. That's about there.

To preach the gospel unto the ends of the earth. That is our mission. And saving men does not include bullets.

Would you agree with me on that? You're not going to save anybody by shooting someone. The Bible tells us we're not to fight for the temporal things. We're to be fighting for the eternal things.

And our weapons are not carnal, the Scripture says. We are even encouraged to be willing to lose our life. This life that we have is only a temporal thing.

We are supposed to lose our life for Jesus' sake. I think we're going to be challenged to if you don't stand up and do something, you're going to get killed. If you don't get on our side, listen, we're the right side.

We're standing with the conservative side. I don't see how even Christians are getting wrapped up in this thing already. They're involved in this political war back and forth.

Listen, that's not our war at all. Our fight is for eternal life. Paul said this, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.

Something beyond this life. So when you see the conservative political movement start calling for volunteers and you see all this stuff happening now, these conservative militias fighting against the liberals and this war that's going on, they're going to call for you to stand with them. Do we agree? We want one nation under God.

We want the gay marriage out. We want the abortion out. Stand with us.

Here's a gun. Let's fight for our country. Well, it seems like it's the right thing.

I'm going to do God's service and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It's not even close to being God's service, amen? So what I was telling people we ought to do is we ought to go out on the battlefield and just preach the gospel and encourage people to come to Jesus and when people get shot, go try to help them and try to save them before they die. But I'm convinced that we're going to face these things.

We face them and are going to face them. People are going to ask, what side are you on? We have to make choices in our country. So let's go back here to John 16.

Sorry to give you the bad news there, but John 16. Going down to verse number 4, Jesus says, But these things have I told you that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them and these things I said not unto you at the beginning because I was with you, but now I go my way to him that sent me and none of you ask me whither goest thou, but because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Now his personal presence, Jesus being with his disciples, was very comforting to them.

Now he is going to leave them and he's going to send them another Comforter. And if you go back here just a few pages to John 14, verse 16, and Jesus says this, And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever. Verse 18, I will not leave you comfortless.

I will come to you. And so here the Lord is. He's going to leave them, go back to his Father, and they are sorrowful because he is leaving them.

Time of departure. You ever experience that? You know, maybe you go and visit your family and you haven't seen them for months and you spend two weeks there and it's time for you to leave and go back home and maybe your mom and dad are there and there's this kind of sorrow. I've got to leave and go back to my home.

I won't be able to be with them and have sorrow. I experienced that. You know, when my wife, she lived in Tennessee and we'd go down and visit her parents and her father passed away a number of years ago, but just recently her mother passed away.

And you know, the experience that you have there, my wife and of course myself and the grandchildren, we get in the car, we say our goodbyes in the house, we walk out to the car, we get in the car and Grandma, who's still living, she comes out to the car and I'm trying to back out to go and she's there at the window and I don't want to be rude and start moving the car. So they just don't want to say goodbye to each other and so finally I say, you know, after 10 or 15 minutes of this, I start moving the car just a little bit, you know, and Grandma walks with me as I'm moving the car. She's talking to Eva there and finally I say, honey, we're going to have to go.

Just the unwillingness to say goodbye. Well, here the disciples have been with Jesus for three years. And He has been their comfort.

He has been the one that they could go to and find comfort in and now He is saying He is going to be leaving, but He will send to them another comforter. And that's here in verse number 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away.

For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And so here the Lord promises them that they're going to get another comforter to come to them.

He is going to leave them. He was their comfort. Now He is going to send them.

When He goes back to the Father, He will send them another comforter. And you know who that is? We've been learning that's the Holy Spirit of God. Actually, that's Christ in you.

Instead of Jesus walking with them, now He will come and live in them. Some of you probably say, oh, it would be wonderful. It would be wonderful for Jesus to walk with me every day.

I've got good news for you. It's more wonderful for Him to walk in you every day. If you don't believe me, well, look what it says in the first part of verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

Now if He who is the truth, I am the way, the truth, and life, says I'm telling you the truth, then this is definitely the truth. And the truth is it's expedient. You know what the word expedient means? It means it's better for you.

It's more advantageous for you that I go and come back and live in you than if I stay here bodily in your presence. Now you can probably think of some reasons why it's more advantageous. I thought about some.

There's probably a thousand. But let me just give you the ones that come to mind. In my mind, why is it more expedient and better for Jesus to leave and send the Comforter as opposed to being there with them in His physical form? Number one, Jesus was limited to time and space as any man was.

He was limited. That's why when He, in Matthew 9, He looks out over the multitudes and says He was moved with compassion because He saw this great multitude of people and He realized He could not reach everybody. And that's when He turned to His disciples and said pray for laborer because I cannot reach this multitude.

And so the Lord was limited in time and space to meet the needs of everyone. But when He went inside of men, praise God, He went inside of the eleven and a little bit more than that, they turned the world upside down from inside of man. The Lord Jesus was able to go into all the world.

And by the way, this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world. One man could never do that. One man could not go to every human being in all the corners of the world, but the Lord thought if I could come in and live in you in My people, My people could go to the ends of the earth.

And we could win. We could win the lost. So the Great Commission to go and preach to every creature is not possible for one man, but it is possible if the Lord lives in us.

Number two, Jesus was not always with the disciples. Sometimes He would go up on a mountain. Remember the time He was up on the mountain and the disciples were in the sea alone? There were times when they were alone and Jesus was off somewhere else.

Jesus would send them out to preach and He was in other cities. And they were alone. They didn't have their Comforter with them.

But now that Jesus is living in us, we can always have our Comforter. As a matter of fact, when you sleep at night, He is in you. When you wake, He is in you.

When you go to your job, He is in you. In the evening, He is in you. And He has promised to never leave you nor forsake you.

And so you have an advantage that the disciples didn't have. There's another one I thought of. How Jesus taught from the outside when He was in His physical form.

And maybe when Jesus taught, you couldn't hear Him as well as you wanted to or maybe He was a little too far off. Maybe you didn't understand. But now He's teaching from the inside.

And we've seen this even in John 16. Look down to verse 13. How be it when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.

Every one of us who are truly connected to the Vine have an internal teacher that as was shared this morning can teach you even at night when you're sleeping. Wake you up. Say, I want to teach you some things.

Because He lives inside of you. Now here's one I think is a good one. Jesus, when He was bodily here with His disciples, it produced some boldness, but these guys were oftentimes fearful even when Jesus was in their presence.

Do you remember when Jesus came to get Him and to betray Him? The disciples forsook Him and fled. Where is their boldness? They forsook Him. Even Peter in the presence of Jesus there at the judgment hall.

Peter's standing outside the judgment hall and he knows Jesus is right there. He denies Jesus three times. So yes, the fact that Jesus was among them probably gave them more courage.

But I'll tell you what, when Jesus got in them, you talk about boldness and courage. I mean, you read the book of Acts. They didn't deny Him.

They didn't run away. You know, when Jesus is in you, the Bible encourages us to have great boldness. And so to have Christ in you is better than having Christ with you.

You know, I feel like we as a church and many Christians, when asked the question, like Paul asked the disciples, is Jesus Christ in you? How many of you, don't have to raise your hand, how many of you know today that Jesus Christ is in you? And if we're connected to the vine, we ought to know that. Clear evidence that He is in you. Well, it's more beneficial for Him to be in you.

John Knox said this, the universal presence of the Holy Ghost in the church is better than the visible bodily presence of Christ with the church. You know, some people say, if Jesus were with me right here, maybe He's bodily right here. If He was right here, and He would walk with me to downtown Columbus on the street corner, I could have the boldness to stand up and speak for Him.

Well, if you did that, you certainly have the boldness to go out there on your own because He's in you and speak for Him. Amen? Well, let's keep reading here. In verse 8, it says, when He has come, when the Holy Spirit comes, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

Here's what He's going to do. He'll do many things. He'll be your teacher.

He'll be your comforter. He'll be your guide. One of the things He'll do is He'll reprove.

He's going to reprove the world of three things, of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And so when the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost, that rushing mighty wind when He comes to indwell you when you're converted, He wants to do three things laid out here in the Scripture. He wants to reprove.

The word reprove means to convince or convict, to tell a fault, to warn, to reprove. Ephesians 5, I quoted this last week. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather what? Reprove them.

I believe in separation from the world, but true separation from the world not only withdraws from fellowship with them, but turns around then and reproves them. That's really the missing element right there. I know a lot of you have come from backgrounds where you withdraw from the world.

But the element of reproving that world is a missing element. And so when He has come, when He comes, He will reprove. And here's something important.

He will reprove who? The world. Right? He'll reprove the world. And that's the lost.

He will reprove the world. He will have a burden for the world out there and He will desire to reprove the world. And we learned this last week that the lost world needs a reproof.

It needs to be unclothed. And this is just my personal opinion. I can't find this anywhere in the Bible.

But I believe one of the reasons why we pick at each other so much is we're supposed to use that energy to be reproving the world out there. And all we end up doing is just reproving each other. Yes, I know we have issues in the church.

But how many of us are actually dealing with the sin that's out there in the world? I mean, there's enough sin out there in the world you can reprove and reprove. Who knows where to start? To reprove the world of sin, that's what we reprove them of. You think of homosexuality.

You think of abortion. You think of lying and fornicating and all the sin that is in the world to reprove the world of sin. And I'm not going to go back to Ezekiel, but Ezekiel talks about, listen, if you fail to warn the wicked, if you fail to reprove the wicked of his wicked way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.

You say that's in the Old Testament. I agree with you. But you know, Paul brought that whole concept into the New Testament.

A number of times he said, listen, I'm free from the blood of all men. I have ceased not to warn you day and night for the period of three years with tears. I am free from the blood of all men.

And so this concept of the blood of the community, the blood of our state, the blood of our nation rests upon our hands if we live life and do not reprove and warn this present age that we live in. It's a good place for an amen there. And we could talk about that a lot, but we won't.

Reprove the world of sin. He goes on to say to reprove the world of righteousness. That means how to be made right.

So we've talked to them about their sin. Now we show them righteousness. How you can be made right in the sight of God through the cross of Jesus, the resurrection and the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's how you can be made righteous. And then of judgment. Those three things.

Sin, righteousness, and judgment. That's basically what you ought to be preaching out there to the world. World, your sin is going to send you to hell.

World, Jesus Christ offers you a righteousness. World, if you reject that offer, you're going to be judged. That's the message right there in a nutshell.

Sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. You say, what do I preach while I go out there? Let the Spirit of God preach to you sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. Very simple.

Sin, showing where they violate God's Word. Righteousness, by the way, people when they hear you say that think, oh, you're just going out to be mean. No, go out and love.

Paul said he warned them with tears. Tears. Love.

And you know that's love. We all know that. I mean, if a blind man is walking toward a cliff, how many of you would warn him? We would, wouldn't we? How many of you would say, if I said, sir, stop! You're going to die if you keep walking that way! Even if I scream it out! How many of you would say, oh, Jerry, you're not a very loving person.

So people are heading to hell. They're heading to hell. How many of you would say it's loving just to let the blind man just kind of go and just be quiet? That'd be hate, wouldn't it? How many people hate the people in this world? Just let them go to hell.

Let them go to hell. I got too much to do over here. Let them go to hell.

That's hate. I try to convince these college kids what love and hate is. So reproving the word of sin, righteousness, showing them that the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus and judgment.

Judgment is coming for those who reject the Lord Jesus. Now, here's something beautiful. When He has come, He'll do this.

Now let's just go and look. Let's look when He comes, the Day of Pentecost, and see what He did. See what the Holy Spirit actually did when He came.

Look over to Acts 2. Not too many pages you have to turn. And let's look at the sermon that Peter preaches. He is filled with that comforter.

And Peter is going to preach it right down the line. In verse 12, it says, and they were all amazed. They heard them speak in tongues.

You know the story. They were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, what means this? Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. Peter stands up and he answers the question, what means this? He talks about the prophecy of Joel, how God is going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh.

And he gets down to verse number 22, and the Spirit of God is going to speak to him, number one, about sin. Here we go. You men of Israel, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you. As you yourselves also know, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Wow.

You don't tell a Jew he's a wicked person. Well, Peter did. You've taken and with wicked hands have crucified and slain.

There's your sin right there. Amen? That's your sin. That's the nation's sin.

And then starting in verse 24, he talks about the resurrection. All the way down here, he's talking about the resurrection. Let's go down here to verse number 31.

He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did seek corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He has shed forth this which you now see and hear.

Here's the way of righteousness. Jesus, who you crucified, has been raised. He is ascended up.

He is seated at the right hand of God. He is making intercession for you. You can be righteous.

Now, you know who's doing this preaching? Is Peter doing it? No, the Lord is doing it in him. So we've got sin. Now he's going to bring out the way of righteousness.

And then finally, judgment. And he mentions it here in the end of his sermon, verse 34, for David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith unto himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. In other words, I'm going to come and I'm going to judge and put people under my feet.

So you have the sin, the righteousness, and it closes with judgment. What happens when they hear this? Verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. You know who pricked their heart? The Spirit of God did.

Through the preaching of Peter, preaching sin, righteousness, judgment to come. So that's what the Holy Spirit's wanting to do. Now you say, Well, I wasn't at the day of Pentecost.

I wasn't there. But the Holy Spirit wants to do the same thing in you that he did through the Apostle Peter. So let's go back here to look at John again, John 16, and we'll try to finish up John 16.

Verse number 8 says, And when He has come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. That's what He's going to do. Of sin, because they believe not on Me.

Of righteousness, He repeats these three, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. There's three becauses.

Because, because, and because. Because. Because is a why.

Of sin, why? Why does the Holy Ghost come and reprove the sin? Because they believe not on Me. Number one. Of sin, because they believe not on Me.

What was the sin that Peter pointed out on the day of Pentecost? God sent His Son, Jesus, and you crucified Him. You crucified the Son of God with wicked hands. You didn't believe God who sent His Son.

You crucified Him. You know, I don't believe there's any greater sin that you can commit than not to believe in Jesus. Someone says, what about the unpardonable sin? Well, the unpardonable sin is not believing in Jesus.

The unpardonable sin is calling Jesus Beelzebub. Well, you talk about unbelief. Not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 John 5, the same writer John said this, if you don't believe the record God gave of His Son, you make Him a what? Liar. You make God a liar. All sin is rooted in unbelief.

Now this is for extra credit. I'll let you get two scoops of dessert this afternoon if you can answer this question. First one to answer.

It's two scoops. What is the first three words the devil said that opened up sin to humanity in the garden? First three words. That's one.

Hath God said. Right there it is. The devil knew.

Hath God said. That's the first thing Eve heard from the serpent. Hath God said.

In other words, don't believe what God says. God says you're going to surely die. I don't believe it.

You shall not surely die. Listen, you're going to be wise. You're going to be like God.

You can eat of this tree. You know, the root of every sin is unbelief in God's Word. You know, they rejected Jesus.

By the way, Jesus is called the Word of God. Unbelief. So, Brother Mike, you get two scoops of righteousness.

The next one, verse 10, because I go to my Father and you see me no more. You see the ascension, the resurrection, the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ showed humanity righteousness. You know, if Jesus would have been left in the grave, if He had not overcome the grave, you and I would have no hope of salvation.

But because He was raised up from the dead and He ascended up and is seated at the right hand of God, you and I can have righteousness. And that's what Peter says in Acts 2. And then of judgment. Because the Prince of this world is a judge.

Judgment always starts at the top. And the Lord judged the Prince of this world. Already we've talked about this, but I'll read to you what it says in John 12.

Listen to what Jesus says. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.

The cross is the judgment of the Prince of this world. You know, the devil was judged on the cross. The Prince of this world was destroyed on the cross.

So when the Lord talks about judgment, He starts first of all with the head man. I remember seeing the pictures when Japan surrendered to the United States there and the Allies in World War II on that boat. I believe it was MacArthur there.

Maybe even Eisenhower. And who did they have? Did they have all the citizens of Japan come and surrender? No, they just had the leader come. What was his name? Some of you historians.

The leader came, sat down, and he wrote and signed, I surrender. We are defeated. And he spoke for his whole kingdom.

And on the cross, the Prince of this world was judged. The judgment is sure because the leader of his kingdom has already been judged. I've told you this story before, but I'll tell it again.

Some of you are new here. I had kind of an eye-opening experience. We had a young man named Santos in our basement.

This had been about 15 years ago. And we were trying to minister to him. He had some demons that were coming up in him and talking, and he'd spit at me and curse and throw chairs around in the basement.

And in the process of this, I was taught to read the Scriptures and to bring the Word of God. It's like a sword to the demonic world. So I'm reading in Colossians or Ephesians about how the cross has spoiled principalities and powers and how the devil was destroyed at the cross.

And this demon was just going all over the place. And finally, after I read about this destruction of the devil and how the devil was destroyed, this demon, and I don't believe what demons say to us. I don't put a lot of stock in it.

But this demon looked at me and said, I know! I was there! I thought it was an interesting comment. Here's a demon who knows that the prince has been judged and destroyed. His leader, the devil, because he was at the cross himself.

So what was amazing to me is here I'm sitting talking to some demon that actually was at the cross. And at the cross, he saw his leader, the devil, defeated at the cross. I know.

I was there. Oh, okay. I just read about it in a book and you were there.

And he experienced it. And so when you destroy the leader, you destroy the nation. Let me just say this.

If you're still a part of Satan's kingdom, you better get out of it pretty soon because the citizens of that kingdom are going to be judged very soon also. I've got a better kingdom for you. Someone was raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God and He's offered you another kingdom.

It's the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. You better become a citizen of that kingdom. Of judgment.

Well, let's look at the last verse and I'll finish. Verse 12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.

Oh, there's so many things, Jesus, I'd like to tell you guys. You can't bear them. And I think all of eternity will have time to listen and learn and gain the wisdom of God.

Many things to say. Now I want you to look at one more verse and I'm going to close here. Go back to the end of the book of John.

John 21. There is no chapter 22. John 21, verse 24.

This is the disciple which testifieth of these things and wrote these things and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose, that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. And then it's amen.

So be it. Now you stop and think about that for a minute. If this whole world were a library, now John says I suppose.

This is the Word of God. If the whole world were a library and all there were were shelves with books, John says that these books that are written about what Jesus did and the magnificence of His character and His person, even the whole world could not contain the books that should be written. I didn't say that.

John said that. You probably heard this story. We sing this song, but there was a man that was in an insane asylum and he died.

They went in to get his body and he wrote something on the wall of his cell. Obviously, he met Jesus there. Here's what he wrote.

Could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies a parchment made? Were every stalk on earth a quill? And every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky. There's your if the whole world were a library.

Now here's something to think about and I'm going to close with this. This is an invitation. If, and He is, if the Lord is this magnificent and the world could not contain all the books that should be written about Him.

And if, as the songwriters said, the ocean were filled with ink and the skies were made of parchment or paper or something to write on and every stalk, look at all those corn stalks out there, every one of them were a pen and every human seven and a half billion were scribes by trade, to write the love of God on that paper in the heavens would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky. You say that's just poetic language. I guarantee you this, when you stand on the Day of Judgment and you see the exceeding sinfulness of your sin, and you see the hell that you should have gone to, and then you see the heaven that you're given by the grace of God, you're going to say, the love of God, I mean, you could have filled the world with books.

Now I close with this. If God is this magnificent, and He is, and His love is this great, as He is, can you imagine the judgment that comes to a person who lives his life and never acknowledges Him? Never acknowledges Him, then stands before this incredible Creator and has to give an account of a life with this incredible God that was reaching out to Him and trying to love Him and He never gave Him a thought. He lived His life for Himself.

Boy, you talk about judgment. That's why, friends, you ought to live your life and acknowledge Him. You ought to get on your knees every morning and say, oh God, You're a great, magnificent, mighty God.

Oh, You're worthy of praise. Oh God, I have needs. Lord, have mercy on me.

And just acknowledge Him. Just acknowledge Him. Just praise Him.

Because according to the Scriptures, if the world were a library, it couldn't contain the books that should be written. And I guarantee, if that's how big God is and how wonderful He is, your thoughts ought to be filled with Him too. Your heart ought to be filled with Him.

Would you agree with me on that? So don't go and live 60, 70 years and die and wake up before God and you realize, oh my, He is magnificent. And I lived 70 years and never even gave Him any acknowledgement. I didn't even believe His Son.

I scoffed at it all. Don't go that direction. Why don't you humble yourself and acknowledge your littleness in His presence and receive the greatest gift God can give you and that is the gift of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's close with a word of prayer.