The Convictive Work Of Holy Ghost

I want you to take your Bible here with me this morning. I want you to turn to John chapter 16 and verse 8, and we're going to simply read one simple statement, not even the entire verse. We've been dealing over the past couple of days with the Holy Spirit, and we're going to continue throughout the rest of today, stick around this afternoon.

We're going to get to some of the most powerful messages I have ever heard on the baptism and the Holy Ghost. And I've heard a lot of preaching all through the years, and we're going to deal with that later this afternoon. But over these days, we're dealing with the real Holy Ghost.

We've had a full series called the Holy Spirit. We're moving on to a series called Pneumontology. That was just another way to get more messages in on the person of the Holy Spirit.

But since the so-called Spirit-filled church of this hour is a laughingstock, the charismatic movement through its compromise of life, through its neglect of sound doctrine, through its foolishness of imitation has brought a blemish on the testimony of the person of the Holy Spirit. It's become a laughingstock, and people who speak in tongues and prophesy, it's become a laughingstock. But one more time, the wind's going to blow, and we're going to get a real revival, and this is going to come back to reality.

If you're born again here, can I ask you, have you been baptized in the Holy Ghost? Have you received power from on high? If you have been baptized in the Holy Ghost, are you filled this morning? Not enough that you were once filled, are you filled this morning? My message here this morning is the convictive work of the Holy Ghost. Read in from John chapter 16 and verse 8, and when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin. Let's pray together.

Father, we bow our knee and hearts before you. Father, we are desperately conscious and aware individually in this room, Lord God, as families, as married couples in this room, we are desperately conscious that we need a moving of the Holy Spirit as a church and churches that are represented here this morning as preachers and as leaders. Oh God, I ask of you, Lord God, that one more time, Lord God, for that convictive work of the Holy Spirit.

Lord God, we need your conviction in this gathering this morning. We need that conviction that brings us into eternal life, that saves a wretched sinner. Lord God, that delivers the oppressed, and Lord God, we are asking for a new move of the Holy Spirit.

We want the real Holy Ghost, the one spoken about in this Bible, and Father, we're praying that again, that you'd move in the nations and do mighty deeds that are gonna bring glory and honor and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ, in Jesus' mighty name, amen. My message, the convictive work of the Holy Ghost. Let me read that scripture again.

It's short and brief, and you all know it, and we know it so well. John 16, verse 8, and when he, that is the Holy Ghost, is come, he will reprove the world of sin. I believe that when Christ made this statement, there was a tone of sorrow within his voice to say that when he, the Holy Spirit, has come, he will reprove the world of sin.

This he was speaking about the Spirit of truth, who will convict the world of sin, and this is the reason, because it believeth not on me, because it doesn't believe on me. See, when he comes, it is gonna be reproved and convicted of their sin. I believe Christ's heart was heartbroken, because out of a life and ministry of 33 short years, 3 1⁄2 years of ministry, of miracles, signs, wonders, multitudes being changed, the oppressed set free, and yet most could only see a man.

Our Lord knew that as viewed from a human point of view, his ministry was a failure. At the end of his entire life, his entire successful fiery ministry, all he had was 120 in an upper room in Jerusalem. They were the least, they were the most unlikely.

They were the bruised, they were the rejected, they were the despised, and from a human point of view, any man looking at the full human ministry of Christ would have said it was a failure, and Christ knew that. From a human point of view, Christ in his humanity, in a physical body, men looked at him and rejected him. They could see his humanity to be what he was, divine, and yet human proved to be a stumbling block to a vast multitude.

It was a rock of offense against which his enemies and contemporaries bruised themselves continually. And withdrawn from the world, Jesus said that his ministry would now be carried on by the person of the Holy Spirit. Listen to what he said, I will send another comforter, one like me, but he's another one.

And he said, it's absolutely necessary that I go away that you might receive this comforter. He will complete what I have begun. In human terms, what I've done was a failure, but what the Holy Spirit does will never be counted as a failure.

He is going to come to prove the integrity of that mighty ministry. The Holy Ghost was to operate upon the moral nature of mankind and to establish a perfect righteousness, an incorruptible judgment, and in so doing would show the absolute need of himself as a mediator and a savior. You cannot save yourself, and he was going to show that.

He was going to prove, men, they can't change themselves, they can't make themselves moral, they cannot be pure apart from a work of the living God, that they need Christ. It was going to be the entire ministry of the Holy Spirit to show our world their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men could laugh at Christ and his humanity.

They mocked him on the cross and say, if thou be the Son of God, then come down. They said, show us a miracle that we might believe in you. This seems to be the meaning of the words, because they believed not on me.

Christ is going to send the Holy Spirit personally, powerfully, intimately, and that Holy Spirit, when he comes, the mark of his ministry that's going to be unique, he will convict us in, because you don't believe in me. The outstanding mark of the presence of the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, is to convict, to reprove, to show men who do not believe in Christ. They don't believe Christ.

They don't believe his claims. They don't believe his need of them. They don't believe in his power.

They don't believe that they'll stand in judgment before him one day. Do you realize it's to them that the Holy Spirit has first been sent? To a lost world, a rebellious generation, an unbelieving people, the Holy Spirit is sent that they may begin to believe in Christ and go, he is the Messiah. He is the Savior.

He is a deliverer. He does forgive from sin. He is everything that I need.

But saints, if you're ever going to get to a place, and if you're here, and you don't know Jesus Christ, I want to tell you, the Holy Spirit is here, and he has come. Why is the Holy Spirit here? To convince men who do not believe in Christ. You could be here a skeptic.

Don't go and search YouTube for answers. Go to the Holy Spirit. There is one sent from God, supernatural, who knows all things, who can answer all questions, who sees the cry of the heart.

He can answer your questions. He can show you the reality of Christ. See, the Holy Spirit was sent to show Jesus is alive.

He's not in the grave. He didn't stay in the grave. He has risen triumphant with power.

The Holy Spirit is here to prove to you, to show you, to make you believe, to bring you to a place of utter conviction. I know Jesus is real. I know Jesus is my Savior.

I know he's forgiven me. But how is he going to do that? By convincing you, proving you, showing you your sin. Only one way you can come to faith.

By the Holy Spirit. And that's for the Holy Spirit to approve or to deal with your sin. The world has always refused to admit its need of the Son of Man.

Jesus has always been a stranger, viewed with great suspicion. As we were on the streets evangelizing yesterday and different ones testified and preached in the open street, various men, angry men, walked past. They began to pour out ridicule, cult, deceiver, liar, men on the streets.

How little they knew of the Lord Jesus Christ. How little they knew of the power of salvation to deliver and change a man or the real love of God. But do you know what? They knew nothing of this work of the Holy Spirit.

First, the Holy Spirit's going to have to convict those men. They think we're liars and cheats when we represent the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God says in John chapter 1 and 11, he came to his own and his own received him not.

He's the prophesied Messiah, the one that generations have sought. He's the one the Bible said would be pierced for their sin. But his very own received him not.

They crucified him. It says in Isaiah 53 and 3, he was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him.

See how he's a stranger. They would look upon him and see no beauty that he should be desired. He was but a man.

That's all they thought. But it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to show you who Jesus Christ is. And there's only one way.

He's going to penetrate your heart and show you you're a sinner and reveal the very depths of your heart. He's going to expose your sin, your rebellion, your unbelief, your lies. That is not a terrible thing, but it's a glorious thing to bring you to Christ.

The world has never known exactly what to do with this stranger called Jesus. It has approached him and then recoiled back. It has owned him and then thrown him away and discarded him.

One minute they hail him as a king, the next they crucify him and say, crucify him. Let his blood be upon our children. They crucified him as a thief in Jerusalem and yet he done them no harm.

Never stole from a man. He has been once exalted and then cast down by man. Never followed popular opinion.

You know, once many years ago, I got a phone call. I was cleaning the church and they called and said, please, quick, run in, come. We need you.

I thought there was a crisis. I ran in and this lady was in our house screaming, the place we ministered. She was screaming, weeping, yelling.

Her tears were flowing. It took us about 10, 15 minutes to console her, to get her settled, to find out what was going on. And once she settled, I said, what's wrong? I've only seen her once before.

Only once before, three months before. And someone said, my neighbor has met with God in the bathroom. It's a miracle.

Said, I want to meet this neighbor of yours. They brought her up for a cup of coffee. And as we talked, the more she talked, the more my heart got heavy.

No conviction of sin. She's happy. Says, I know God's real.

I believe in him. My lifestyle, I experienced God supernaturally in my bathroom. But the more she spoke, I got sad, I got grieved, I got downcast.

I couldn't open my mouth by the end of it. I went, there's no work of God here. No mention of sin.

No dealing with her sin. No consciousness of sin. No grieving over her sin.

Do you know how many people get into the church and their sin is never dealt with? The preachers and pastors of our day don't even know this is the mark of the Holy Spirit. You don't get faith without being convicted of your sin. If the Holy Spirit hasn't convicted you and dealt with your heart, you'll never come to forgiveness.

You can't claim a knowledge of God and your sin not be dealt with for you not to become aware of your sin. And hear this lady that night and says, I'm going to be at church on Sunday. I want to come to all your meetings.

Didn't see her for three months until that fateful day when she's crying and she's tearing the place apart. She consoled herself, said, what's wrong? Says, I'm a sinner. No, I'm happy.

Saints of God, I'm happy. Three months ago, I was sad because she was happy. Now she's brave.

I went, who told you you're a sinner? Oh, I'm happy. You know what I'm saying, the work of the Holy Spirit. Says, I left that meeting with you.

And said, I went out very proud going, I know God. I can lead a good moral life. And said, I couldn't leave my drugs.

I've got two kids. I couldn't leave my drugs. I couldn't leave my blasphemy.

I couldn't leave my lust. I was driven by sin. And said, I wanted to believe I knew God, but I couldn't leave my sin.

And I was too ashamed to come to the church gatherings. Man, I'm getting happy now. She is tearing her heart apart.

She is rending her heart. She is crying. Said, is there any hope for me? I say, there is.

I said, you're very close to the kingdom of God. And I said, God is going to save you and forgive you and break in on your life very shortly. It was just a week following that she walked across her living room floor praying.

God, the Holy Ghost, broke in, cleansed her heart, forgave her, lifted her burden of sin, and she'd become a new creature in Christ. She came up to the church saying, I'm saved. I'm born again.

It was the work of the Holy Spirit. But do you know what, in today's church, we know nothing about this whatsoever. Jesus said, you will not come unto me.

That's why I need to send the Holy Spirit. You're determined to go to the Father your own way. You reject the word of God.

You reject the preaching. You reject truth. You're creating a Christianity of your own making.

You say you can save yourself anyway without sin being dealt with. I cannot remain here in my body, Christ said, but I will send the spirit of truth. When he has come, he will convince you because you have not believed in me.

To convince the world of sin is much more than to convince the world of crime. To convince the world of sin is much more than what the modern church believes it is. I reject most of what goes on in the modern church because they've departed from the simplicity of the word of God.

The world was satisfied with rough definitions of what sin is. It has very sadly confused the word crime with sin. So if you commit a crime, it says that is sin against society.

If you break the law, sad to say the church has been affected by this. It's redefined the word sin, but we're gonna define it biblically here this morning. We're gonna look at what the Holy Spirit convicts of.

And when the Holy Spirit comes, how he convicts the heart. Because you know what? The church doesn't even know what sin is anymore. It doesn't even know what the Holy Spirit looks like anymore.

And where the Holy Spirit is, they don't even know what he deals with anymore. We have thrown grace over everything, a protective shield to the convictive work of the Holy Ghost. We dare the Holy Spirit to move in our midst.

We say we're under grace. We're under forgiveness. We're in the new covenant.

We can't be dealt with like that anymore. And we lose the genuine real ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is a fateful error and it's leading the church into deception.

There may be sin where there is no crime, but wherever there is crime, there is sin as the cause of it to account for it. Society is organized to defend itself against crime. So we have laws.

You can't murder, you can't steal. You can't do all of these things. I'm very good for the laws of the land, though they're greatly lacking.

We have guards on the high street, though infrequently. We have jails, we have prisons. We have all kinds of laws.

We have the court just down the road here, all because of crime. Our nation has defined crime. It calls this crime and this crime and this crime.

But I want to tell you, they've got a wrong definition of the word sin. And that's got on all of our minds now. Society condemns murder.

Therefore, in his reasoning with us, the Holy Ghost would have us begin with this admission that murder is wrong, but he goes much further. See, don't let that world define what murder is or sin is. We're gonna begin looking here at what the Holy Spirit, what he convicts of, how he convicts, how he defines sin.

The Holy Spirit begins with unholy anger. That world out there says murder is a crime, but they can kill a baby and much worse, much worse. I want to tell you, it's in our society that I wouldn't even want to put my lips right now, and it's happening in this city, but I wouldn't want to say it.

See, how man defines murder is not how the Holy Ghost defines murder. It begins with unholy anger. If you're angry with your brother without a cause, the Bible says, the Holy Spirit says, you're a murderer.

If you don't feel that, that's because you don't know the work of the real Holy Spirit who's come to reveal Christ. If you've got a low view of murder and of crime and of sin, that's why you cannot reach the real person of Christ, because you're not letting the Holy Ghost define sin and deal with sin in your life. You go, a lie is no big issue.

Anger is no big issue. Unforgiveness is no big issue. That's why you grieve the Holy Ghost.

That's why you don't allow the Holy Spirit to bring you to Christ, because you think lightly of sin. You think nothing of things. You go, but it's only anger.

It's only a little thought in the heart. It's not that bad. I'm going to tell you, it's grievous to the Holy Spirit of God.

It is dangerous to your spiritual health that anger may not be spoken anger. You may not put it on your lips, yet the fact that you have given place for it in the secret place of your heart, according to the Bible, makes you guilty of murder before God. You see, we have made murder one thing, but the Holy Ghost makes murder something else.

What grieves you and what grieves Him is a world apart. And when we talk about murder, we're talking about the actual act. The Holy Spirit is talking about an attitude of heart, a thought of the mind.

And when we have dismissed Him from our presence and made Him optional in our lives and in our church, then we've opened up the door for that murderer to become a part of our church. We've opened the door for that adulterer to be a Sunday school teacher or in leadership in our church, though he may never have went to bed with another woman. But we excuse sin.

We say lust isn't that big an issue. Looking upon a woman isn't that dangerous. It's little, it's light, it's insignificant.

Then you don't know the real work of the Holy Spirit. This begins to show you how open you are to the scripture and to the real work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. If you're minimizing sin, lessening sin, casual over sin or what He calls sin, you're dealing with a real person, not with a book, not with a preacher, not with a church.

You're literally dealing with the Holy Spirit of God. See, where the Holy Spirit is, He convicts of sin. He reproves it.

He exposes it. He heightens the awareness of it. Do you wanna be led into blessing today? He's gonna deal with sin.

He's gonna open up your conscience. The Holy Ghost is required to teach us that when I say, and when I say the Holy Ghost is required, I don't mean the word required as in obligated. He's not obligated.

I mean, you can't do this without Him. You cannot have a right view of sin. You can't deal with your sin.

You can't even perceive the sin of your heart. You need the real person of the Holy Ghost. Christ sent Him to the church, into the world for this very reason, to expose sin, to reveal that.

You can't do it of your own self. You don't measure the way He measures. You don't even hate the way He hates.

You don't even think about things the way He thinks about it. Unless the Holy Ghost is there, we won't know what sin is. So we go on trying to have revivals.

We pray for revivals. We say, Lord, why haven't you sent a revival yet? I wonder why. We say, Lord, we're praying.

We're asking you. We're here. We're going to church.

Why haven't you sent revival yet? You have stopped the work of the Holy Spirit. You disagree with them. You argue.

Maybe not obviously, not consciously, but you go, no, no, no, no. You redefine things. You lessen the severity.

You say, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. That's okay.

That's fine. God doesn't see that. I don't even need to repent of that.

You're in a sorry state and you need a mighty work of the Holy Spirit. It's not saying a revival out there or a revival in the city or seeing multitudes say, we need a revival in here because we've lost our definition of sin, the severity of God. We want the mercy of God.

We don't want the severity of God. And you know what you do when you know the real severity of God because it drives you to the blood and drives you to the Lord Jesus Christ. See, the convictive work of the Holy Ghost doesn't leave you in a pit of despair.

That's the devil. That's your flesh. The convictive work of the Holy Ghost drives you to the Lord.

Jesus Christ says, go to him and be cleansed. Don't believe the lies of the devil. The devil is a condemner.

The devil knows all your sins. He's the accuser of the brethren. He'll say, that's sin, that's sin, that's sin.

You're damned. No future, no hope, no way out. That's not the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit says, there's your sin, but I wanna help you. I wanna forgive you. If you allow me to show you your sin and reveal your sin, I'll take you to the greatest healer of your soul that you can possibly imagine.

I will set you free. So we go on trying to have revivals without the convictive work of the Holy Spirit. It can never happen.

See, every true revival in history began with the Holy Spirit convicting a few people about their sin. The church out there may not call it sin, but when the Holy Spirit is here, we know it as sin. Society can only go so far.

And to make some difference between murder and manslaughter, that's the difference they make. Murder is deliberate. Manslaughter is accidental.

And so they distinguish between intentional premeditated murder and accidental occasional manslaughter. But I wanna tell you, God goes much deeper to the very motive of the heart. It is here that the Holy Ghost begins His work, taking the crime to pieces, tracing it back to its origin, and having found that the Spirit of God says, this is murder in your heart.

You may never even lift your hand to hit someone, nevermind murder them. And yet when the Holy Spirit deals with you, you will realize that that is in your heart. And the only way to get free is repentance and a return to the blood of Jesus Christ.

The outward deed is treated by society terribly, but the Holy Spirit deals with the heart. This hatred in the heart, this unbridled passion is the real murder before God. Listen, it says in 1 John 315, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.

That's God's definition of murder. No one ever murdered anyone or abused them without that being in their heart. This is the cause.

This is the root, this is the sin. God is going right to the heart and saying, I never want you to be guilty of that outward act, but we are gonna deal with this at the root of it. It also says someone who's angry with their brother, you're not in eternal life, you're not saved.

You need to understand how to define what a Christian is. Someone who lives in anger towards their brothers, always like that in the church, there's something seriously wrong with you. The evidence is there.

Look at the symptoms. I was once preaching revival in Wales when I went and sat down, finished my message, and I turned around to say hello to the old well-dressed man behind me, a chubby man with red rosy cheeks. I'll never forget his face.

And he stood up and he stuck his hand out and shook my hand. See, I had dealt with unforgiveness in the heart as key to revival. And he grabbed my hand and he looked at my eye and he smiled, says, I will never, ever, ever forgive my son-in-law, never.

And you cannot tell me I'm not saved. I know I'm born again. I know I'm going to heaven and you won't tell me anything else.

I didn't even enter into conversation because I go, that man's on a highway to hell. He is worse than a heroin addict on the high street. Do you know how hard it is to reach a man like that? No, if the Holy Ghost doesn't do a miracle, no one will ever reach that man.

Never. Could be in his grave by now, most likely. But do you know what? You had him sitting in the house of God, singing, saying he prophesied, spoken tongues, clapped his hands, but he is a murderer.

He is angry. He is bitter. You can't even get free of that unless the Holy Spirit does a supernatural miracle I tremble when I see this.

And I haven't just seen it once. I haven't just seen it 10 times. I've seen it all through my Christian life.

I tremble at the things I see, little things in the heart. Sure, people said, that's nothing. That won't keep me out of heaven.

That doesn't mean anything. I love God. God loves me.

I know I'm saved. Bible says something very, very different, radically different. Thus the Spirit brings us a definition of murder that society would never give up.

Neither would the modern church. They think nothing of anger in the heart. They know the Bible.

They know what Jesus said. They know what John wrote. They know what the Holy Spirit has said, but they don't believe it.

They could even preach it, yet they do not actually believe it, or they would tremble. Those of us who have walked up and down in society as blameless men with good testimonies, suddenly find ourselves in the presence of God under His dealings, under a holy God with the Holy Spirit movement, and we tremble. We've got a good reputation out there, but just get along with God, and you will tremble and say, oh God, have mercy on me.

Isaiah the prophet for five chapters preaches to nations, people, cities. He is a holy prophet of God. He's got a, thus saith the Lord, one of the most holy men in the nation, and he's preaching the cities, and God gives him a word.

But chapter six, when he gets into the presence of God, and there's an open vision of the glory of God and the throne of God, he says, woe is me. I'm a man undone. He says, I'm a man of unclean lips.

I've just read five chapters of holy prophecies dealing with sin, dealing with transgression, but this holy prophet of God, when he gets alone in the presence of God, he says, I am undone. My tongue needs cleansed since we can think we're an awful lot further than we are, and don't fall into despair this morning. The devil condemns you.

The flesh condemns you. Hopelessness, well, there's no point then. That's not the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit comes to convict you because he wants to do our work. He wants to change. He wants to empower.

He doesn't want you under the guilt and condemnation of the devil. He compels us to admit that if murder is traceable to motive, then it is possible that we have murders in this room this morning. I'm in guilty before God.

When we leave the Holy Ghost outside the church, when we cease to preach the absolute vital need for the Holy Spirit filling us and functioning in the church and in control of the church and speaking in the sermons, we've opened our door for every kind of thing to come into this church. We don't need good sermons. We don't need more teaching.

We don't need someone standing there. We need the Holy Ghost to speak in the lies and change the lies. Society even treats falsehood as more spiritual than murder.

Saying murder's bad, being false, telling lies, it's not that bad. The Holy Ghost doesn't think like that. Here's where we come into a higher operation of the Holy Spirit.

We ourselves make further admissions in this case between lying and falsehood and murder. We don't think they're all the same. And we're gonna go further in this thought of what the Holy Spirit thinks.

The Holy Spirit says that the form of words could be true. You could be speaking the right thing and yet you may express a lie. You may be consciously, knowingly lying even though what you say is true.

A conversation may be repeated word for word and yet you change the tone and you change the whole meaning of it. Or you could leave a sentence off, a particular fact that you know, you deliberately leave it off. Why do you do that? It's the motive of the heart.

You do not wanna tell the full truth. So you just change it slightly, leave out facts, leave out information that the other person, if they had that information would think a certain way, but you change that. In our society, they don't call that sin.

They don't call it a crime. Though our law courts get close to it, if you swear on the Bible in a court of law and you don't tell the truth, at least they're attempting to be there. That's the remnants of biblical influence in our nation.

You ought to tell the truth. And yet our society, our politicians, our news media is built on lying. They pride themselves on lying.

It is a skill. Our politicians are expert in it. They never repent of it.

They never confess it. They boast in it. They revel in it.

It has to be exposed. And even then they're unashamed of lying. Lying is something to be acclaimed.

It is a special art. If you're a great liar, you could be a great politician. This is how our society has gone farther and deeper.

It's even possible to lie to yourself. Is it possible by habitually living in this state of lying Remember what it says in 1 Timothy? It says about telling lies in hypocrisy. You tell lies in hypocrisy.

Just play the game. It's an absolute show and you're lying. And you know that you're lying.

Where's that gonna lead to? Well, the word of God tells us. It's possible by habitually lying, living in that state to destroy the ability to know right from wrong. At the minute you know you're lying, you're deliberately lying.

Do you know where that leads? You no longer know the difference between truth and a lie. You can't even tell anymore. You're not even bothered by it.

It's not even a choice anymore. You actually become a lie. Your entire life is a lie.

And you know what it says in 1 Timothy 4 and 2? It says, then your conscience is seared with a hot iron. That's like, what it's talking about is the nerve that goes down to your hand. You take a hot iron and you sear those nerves.

You lose all feeling. You can prick that hand, stand on it, hit it with a hammer. You don't feel it.

You feel nothing. You can stick it in the fire, you won't feel it. Do you know why? Your conscience is being seared.

You don't feel it anymore. You know it's a lie. You know the Bible says that.

Maybe there's a remnant of it. You go, it doesn't bother me. I can sin, I can tell a lie, I can disobey the word of God.

I can keep going, and yet it doesn't bother me. You're really on dangerous ground because the Bible says when you live habitually in a lie and every time the Holy Spirit convicts you, you live in it, you lose the Holy Spirit. One's conscience can be, according to 2 Thessalonians 2 and 11, given over to believe a lie.

God says that those who reject the truth, he gives over to a delusion. And the Bible says that the days coming in our entire world, an hour in which an entire generation is gonna be given over to a great delusion. It's not the devil deceiving anymore.

It's because you rejected God's truth. You won't believe God's truth. You won't receive a love for the truth that he gives you over to a great delusion to believe a lie.

There's many sinners in our world. They know about the new world order. They know about the microchips.

They know about AI. They know about the takeover. They know where everything is going.

They say, we can see through it all. We know all the conspiracy theories. No one's gonna deceive us.

Our eyes are open. We're the awakened ones. God's gonna hand them over to believe a lie if they don't come to Jesus Christ.

See how men pride themselves. When a man is guilty of lying, there may be some hope for restoration, but when the man himself becomes a lie, his whole nature has changed in its condition, and it may leave you no opportunity to recover apart from a divine miracle of God, but you'll never come and repent. You've gone very far in this.

Under such a condition, who but the Holy Ghost could undertake a challenge of convincing you of the sin in your heart, but the church, for the most part, has dismissed the Holy Spirit from our gatherings. When you prophesy, only prophesy positively. Don't mention sin.

All over Germany, America, they teach you how to prophesy. Don't mention sin. Does that sound like the Holy Spirit? Preachers no longer are allowed to mention sin.

For an entire generation, we're not allowed to preach about sin. It's legalism. You'll make people feel guilty.

Maybe we'll get people saved. Why is it in this generation there's so few saved? Our churches are filled with tears. People can go to church 30 years, they're not born again.

Come in, go out, come in, go out, come in, go out. Why do you think that is? There's something really wrong. Saints, we need a revival.

We need the Holy Spirit to come. And if he comes, he's gonna convince of sin. That's gonna be the first word.

Before we see thousands saved, before we see miracles, we're gonna see a conviction of sin. It's gonna fall on our meetings. It's gonna fall on our gatherings.

You're gonna tremble under the word of God. To this man, I will look. To him that trembles at my word, why don't you tremble at the word of God? Why are you so safe, so separated? When's the last time you actually trembled at the word of God? Certainly one reason is we don't preach like the old prophets preached anymore.

The process becomes still more spiritual, serious. Murder and falsehood are acts condemned by every man who has any sense in society or any decency. But what of those sins which are praised by society? The Spirit of God sees not as a man sees, doesn't think the same way, doesn't act like you, doesn't deal with things.

That's why the church doesn't judge sin anymore. There's no church discipline anymore. We don't treat, there's rebels and we're treating them lovely.

We don't treat them like traitors. We don't treat them like rebels. We don't treat them like murderers or adulterers.

We actually believe that they can tell the truth and understand the truth. We need an awakening in the church of this hour. The Spirit of God sees clearly.

The form of godliness is to be distinguished from its power. An example from everyday life will help us. For example, take the act of alms giving, which is to give money to the poor.

If a gift is outwardly the greatest specimen of its class, if it is large, if it is visible, if it is noted in the church I'm talking about, then you'll get everyone saying, what a blessed person this is. He's spiritual, he's religious, he's Christ-like. Surely he is filled with the Spirit of God.

If the giver is a cheerful person, very happy, very freely giving it to the lost, what would we think of him? Surely this is a man of God. But man looks on the outward appearance. Some years ago, I encountered a situation.

A man gave $1 million to School of Christ as a free gift. And everyone thought that's great. Doors opened and he preached like Brother Clendenin.

He dressed very smart. He was spotless, one of the most disciplined men I met. In fact, some of his sermons are on sermon index under the name B.H. Clendenin.

They got confused and put his sermons on there thinking it's B.H. Clendenin. I had to interact with them. I got in very close with them.

But in his heart, God exposed and God revealed it. He gave that money to take over the entirety of School of Christ. He had an agenda and he started with me in Europe.

That's how I know this. I know all the details of it. He gives a million and everyone's praising him.

How could a man like that be wrong? He's got a Bible school. He's spiritual. He's on fire for God.

He preaches the truth. He's a deceiver. Do you see how the Holy Spirit can deal very differently? Where man ends all the searching of the Spirit begins his work.

He holds the candle over the secret places of the heart. He tries the motive behind the gift. It's not the gift.

God's not interested in what you do or your gift or even your preaching. Your preaching can be spotless. Why do you preach? What's in your heart? Who are you? What are you? It's not in your fellowship.

It's what's in your heart. And so he says in effect, your love did not go with your gift. It was a bribe.

By which you bought the reputation and good standing amongst men. You're trying to buy open doors, buy ministry, buy influence, buy power. The Holy Ghost alone can know that.

Only he can know the motive of the heart. Only he can protect the church from that because all of us would fall for that. A man who gave, and please, you're thinking of giving a million euro.

Please go ahead. But that's the work of the Holy Spirit to convict the heart. In Acts chapter five, Ananas and Sapphira, they watched Barnabas.

Barnabas got a name change. He was thought highly of amongst all the apostles. You know why? He sold a bit of land in Cyprus, brought the money, laid it at the apostles' feet.

He was highly commended. He was highly thought of. His reputation went up in Jerusalem.

Before long, he's gifted as a prophet. He's operating in the meetings. Ananas and Sapphira saw Barnabas sell his land and bring the money.

What did they do? They said, we want the position, the notoriety. We want the name change. We wanna be amongst the apostles.

We'll sell our bit of land, but it went tragically wrong. But who could have exposed it apart from the Holy Spirit? It looks the same outwardly. It seems the same.

It's in the same church. Barnabas gets raised up by the Holy Spirit and sent out as an apostle. But this couple who sat at their table and agreed together and discussed it and said, let's sell it for this amount.

Let's tell the church we're giving it, but let's keep back the money. No one knows, only us. That's wrong.

There's someone else who knows, the Holy Spirit. Thank God there was a man filled with the Holy Spirit called Peter. As they came in, did you lie to the Holy Ghost? Come on, Peter, lying ain't that bad.

Lying isn't that serious. It's my money. No, it was yours while you had it.

You've lied in the house of God, in the church. You've actually got a motive in your heart of what you want. Oh, but the Holy Ghost doesn't matter.

We all do it. We're all the same. No, we're not.

No, we're not. Oh, it's in everyone else's heart. Just because it's in your heart, don't put that in everyone else.

Oh, they all are the same. They all think that. No, they don't.

You've been lied to, you've been deceived. Now your sin is blind in your eyes and you're putting it on everyone else. You remember what Jesus taught about judgment.

Do you know there's an extreme in the church, don't judge. I've taught carefully, we're allowed to judge. We ought to judge.

But here, there's one person is not allowed to judge, never. And that's the person who doesn't deal with their own sin. If you've got something in your own eye, you don't have the ability to take anything out of someone else's eye.

If you're a hypocrite, you can't judge anyone in this room. If things are in your heart, do you know what? It's so blind to that you go, they're proud, they're wrong, they're this. Actually, it's your heart.

You can't even see clearly. You need to repent, you need to get your own sin right. Then you won't be critiquing people and damaging them.

You'll actually, when you see something wrong with your brother, you're gonna break in tears and weep and pray or you'll go to them and say, brother, I wanna help you. That's what you'll do. See, that's the work of the Holy Spirit.

What about Judas? That little lady with a bad past breaks that precious ointment of oil. She breaks it and she begins to wash Christ's feet. Judas is outraged.

Do you know this is waste? Do you know how much money you've wasted? Judas begins to speak and say, we could have sold this for so much money and we could have fed the poor. This could have been used for the poor. And all the other 11 disciples take Judas's side against Jesus Christ.

You know why? Because they don't see the motive for the heart. The argument's right. It's logical.

It's understandable. Yeah, of course. Let's not have this waste.

Let's give it to the poor. Who are you dealing with? A thief in the house of God who has the money bag and he kept dipping into it and stealing it. He's got a motive, an agenda.

He is in ministry for a reason, but you don't see that. You don't know that. You need the Holy Spirit working here.

You know how the Holy Spirit kept working? He says, one of you is a devil. One of you is gonna betray me. Don't do it.

You'll regret it for all eternity. You don't wanna go here. You don't have to do this.

I'm warning you. Oh no, my sin isn't being exposed. Oh, I don't get dealt with.

I'm just carrying on with every month. We're all the same. It won't carry on forever.

This is gonna come to a tragic end. One of these days, the like of which you can't even imagine, God looks at the heart. How near, for example, we are to the point which shows that prayer itself may be a lie.

You could pray for people over things that you don't even believe or think. Your prayers could become a lie. You don't believe it.

You're praying things you don't even agree with, that you don't even endeavor to live with. When the Holy Spirit is not present in that conversation, then you don't know whom you're sitting by in God's house. You could be sitting by an adulterer, by a murderer, by a criminal, by a liar.

Since we need the Holy Spirit of God, we don't even know our own hearts apart from his work. And don't go digging around in your own heart. None of us is righteous.

None of us is good. None of us are free from issues we're dealing with in our own flesh. That's why David wrote in the Psalms, said, search me, Lord, and see if there'd be any wicked way in my heart.

Don't go there digging, searching. Your flesh is a bottomless pit. And you know what? The flesh doesn't get sanctified or redeemed.

You can't spray it with perfume. You begin to try to search the flesh out, you're gonna be in seer's troubles. Your flesh is a criminal.

It is condemned to the cross. It must die on the cross. There is no other answer.

There's a part of your nature that is a lie, that is adulterer, that is a murderer, that is a criminal. Saints, we're to have no mercy. I hate this thing.

This body of sin, this old nature, this Adamic nature. It is my enemy. I am not just that.

That isn't in my heart. But that is an issue I have to face with all the days of my life until I see Jesus Christ. Saints, this is real.

If we would allow the work of the Holy Spirit, He would convict our hearts over things that are gonna trip you up and destroy you in the future. I don't wanna be a Judas. I don't wanna be an Ananas and Sapphira.

I wanna be a Barnabas. I wanna be a Peter. See, God could rescue Peter.

Yes, he denied, but he's not a betrayer. They're not the same. Peter said, master, is it I? Am I gonna betray you? No, you're gonna deny me three times.

And after you sort yourself out and get back right, feed the sheep. Didn't feel worthy for it. It's a merciful God, I wanna tell you.

Every man has two lives, the life of motive and the life of behavior. Into the one can enter. No one can enter except the Holy Spirit.

You don't know and I don't know. Who knows his heart? Do you really know your own heart? I wouldn't wanna be, I wanna come and say, Lord, search me. Lord, try me, sanctify me, purge me, deal with me, speak to me.

Don't let me choose my own decisions. Don't let me go in my own way. Don't let me have an attitude about the house of God.

Are you inventing your own Christian culture? I'll come when I want. I can conduct myself in the church the way I want. I can give the way I want.

You need to be very careful or you'll find yourself moving beyond the work of the Holy Spirit. There is a real visitation of the Holy Ghost. He may come during the preaching or the prayer meeting.

He may come in the fellowship or the worship time. The real Holy Spirit could fall on you and convict you of sin and deal with you. The Spirit of truth will convince the world of sin because they believe not on me.

We need to get preaching back to the new birth again. Do you want miracles of salvation? Then allow the Holy Spirit to deal with sin in the midst. The Holy Ghost will so vividly show the nature of sin that those who think themselves the best examples of human society out there will come under conviction and rend their heart and say, woe is me, I'm a vile sinner.

I've seen it since. Those are the best converts who've been dealt thoroughly with the power of the Holy Spirit, convinced of their own sin. I'm good, I'm fine, I'm okay.

Those people never get into the kingdom of God. Oh, but I prayed, he didn't do anything. Let him convict you of your sin.

Let him search you. Oh, I'm not that bad, I'm okay, I'm fine. I'm not doing anything wrong.

Really? Really? Do you know the Holy Spirit has held some people over hell to wake them up from the tragedy of their sin because they're so callous. It'll no longer be a comparison between one class of person and another or between one man and another, but the judgment will lie wholly between man and God. Don't judge yourself with other people.

Don't judge yourself with the church. You'll come out pretty good today. Judge yourself with the church, I'm shining.

Stand in the presence of God. Like Isaiah, I'm gonna be in my face. Oh God, help me have mercy.

We need a visitation of the power of the Holy Spirit. It isn't what you think, it's what God thinks about things. You need to be so careful because you ease yourself, you lighten it, you say that's okay.

God ignores that. No, he doesn't. Every man will see himself as he truly is in the presence of God, vividly, clearly when his light shines upon you.

You need a work of God. A man's moral sense of a man, a woman needs to be awakened. You know when Candace died, I told you she's here.

Not proudly, because I realized the weakness of man. Walk with God these years. Since 16 years old, I never touched alcohol.

Tempted not to even in a chocolate. Just never tempted once, and yet I was addicted to alcohol. It was ruining my life, driving me.

I had an insatiable desire for alcohol to get drunk at every opportunity. From 16 to 50, I never once get tempted. Not one single time.

But my wife dies, and I'm sitting there drunk, keen in my house. I am in the depths of despair. Lonely.

Darkness engulfing me. And here comes a voice. Go down to Palace Green, go in the off-license, get a bottle, go home.

No one will know. You won't affect anyone, because you don't want to do that. You don't want to hurt anyone else.

No one will see it. No one will know it. Just you.

Only you. It terrified the living daylights out of me. Because I went one drink, I know the seriousness of it.

We've got pastors all across our world. They're preaching proudly, you can socially drink. One glass of wine, your response, reaction, lessens by 15%.

Do you want your kids driving in the car with someone with one glass of wine? But we'll have pastors who promote social drinking and say, you can not only have one drink, you can have a few, as long as you don't go too far. How far is too far? Would you want to put your kids into the hands of a man who's instantly lost 15% and he doesn't know it? And yet we have pastors preaching who get happy with alcohol and yet they're preaching their own conviction. That is not the Holy Ghost.

Since I come in here and told people I am being tempted, I told Brother Rory, isn't that right? Sat down there, through there. He's a young believer, saved three years thereabouts, and I'm sitting because I was so scared of myself. I'm not immune.

I need the work of the Holy Spirit. If I ever come to think that thought's okay, I'm in serious trouble. Oh, it's only a thought, Brother Keith.

You don't need to worry. You've got a great testimony. You had never sinned.

You wouldn't do any harm. That thought scared me, that 11 daylights out of me. And you know what? I fought that for three months, four months.

It came and it came and it came when I'm alone. It's terrifying. That isn't just a thought.

I am dealing with the devil. I'm dealing with temptation. You know, all across the church of our day, I'm cutting across the field now and shutting.

I could keep you here. I've only got a third of the way through my message, but I'm closing because I believe we understand here the real convictive work of the Holy Spirit. Why no revival? Why aren't we seeing our city shaken? We need the Holy Ghost to come to the church again.

If you lessen the severity of sin, if you say that's nothing, that's not sin, don't worry about it. And yet the Bible says, run. Attitudes of heart towards your brother, your sister, words, gossip, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, jealousy.

Don't go there. Aren't you scared of that? What if it gets a grip of your heart? Paul warned about it. Lest a root of bitterness in one person, they'll spread in that church, that one person in this church, just one, have a root of bitterness deep in their heart, it's gonna spread.

You think I'm a bit extreme? No, no, I've read my Bible. I know my own heart. I've seen examples all through my church life from a little kid.

I'm alarmed at the old nature. I am scared of sin. Joseph, when he was tempted, remember that he's working in the house of Potiphar, he's going up, he is being respected, he's got position, Potiphar's wife comes in.

Hey you, you and me, while the husband's out can canoodle. You remember what he'd done? He ran so hard, so quickly, he left his garment behind and she used it to lie and said, he tried to rape me. I would rather be accused of rape falsely than to willingly, before the Holy Ghost, sleep with a woman and go away and it never come out.

Do you hear me? I love what Brother Clenden says. He said, Joseph was not running from Potiphar's wife, he was running from himself. Oh, I'm beyond temptation.

I knew a preacher once, a holiness preacher, he told me, he says, I can't be tempted by any sexual lust, by any sexual sin, by any woman. Brother Clenden spoke to me about him. He said, son, that worries me.

I said, it worries me as well. Because you know, I know what I am, apart from the grace of God. If he lifts his grace for one moment, we won't look so holy saints of God.

I know what I am, apart from the grace of God. I'd be as bad as the worst drunkard, the most immoral man in this city, the worst drug addict. That's why I never look down on a sinner.

I don't despise them, I don't mock them, I don't belittle them, I don't look from my high tower. My heart's broken going, you need the mercy of Jesus Christ. Apart from the grace of God, we are in seer's trouble.

We need the Holy Spirit. And yet all across the church at the minute, for two years, across the Western world, God is lifting the covers off the reformed pastors, Baptist pastors, Pentecostal, charismatic, and they're in sin, sexual sin, and they're preaching every week, preaching good messages, preaching about sin, and they have no conscience. Year after year, they're living in sin.

The most, the best preachers of this hour. I'm sorry to say this, saints, but don't pride, don't look upon those men and glory in them. We need real biblical Christianity.

And at the minute for two years, God has been taking off the covers and exposing them. It's not the devil exposing, it is God, the Holy Ghost. He's saying, I've had enough of it.

You know what happens within one year, they'll stick a man who's destroyed his marriage and his children's minds and his church and committed adultery, and he's been living in adultery. And one year later, we'll put him back into the pulpit and say, we need to restore this man to ministry. Not to God, not to God, not to forgiveness, not to a pure conscience.

Not to a brokenness. Saints, I'm broken over this issue. There is a plague in the church.

And if we don't get the Holy Ghost, I'm scared for you as a church here. Oh, we're fine. I told Brother Soph a few years ago, I said, we're one year away from apostasy, LCC.

I think he'd come back maybe a week later and said, were you serious? Because it's too hard to believe. I said, yes, I'm very serious. It scares me, but I'm not insecure.

See, I'm very secure. I have my roots in Christ. I'm not fearing about falling away or losing my salvation or not making it.

I have eternal life. I'm gonna be there on that day, saints. But I tremble at the thought of sin.

Remember what we said the other day in the school, Jeremiah? I will sue, this is my covenant with you. I will sue put my fear within you. You will not depart from me.

Don't tell me you're in the covenant and you don't fear God and you're not scared of sin. Don't tell me you're in the covenant. If you're in the covenant, he'll sue put his fear within you.

You go, oh God, I tremble. The very temptation to go and get drunk is enough to make me shake to my very feet. For Joseph, the very temptation makes him run at the speed of a thousand gazelles.

Listen, let me say that statement again. I've never said it in my life and I've never heard it, but I'm telling you this. I would rather get exposed falsely or let accused falsely for rape by an immoral woman and people think I'm guilty and suffer consequences than before a holy righteous God, sin and nobody ever find out.

I wanna be like Joseph. Saints of God, we need a revival. Just one more time.

We need to move into the Holy Spirit of God. And if the Christians aren't convicted of our sin, if the Holy Spirit can't convict you, if you have low views of sin, if you don't worry about how you conduct yourself in this church, if you go, no, it's okay, that's Keith. That's the church, that's them.

I can live my own life. If that doesn't make you tremble to the very depths of your being, God help the sinners in this setting. You know what Peter said? He said, if the righteous be scarcely saved, where does that leave the wicked? If you're scarcely saved in this room, if you're saved maybe like love as by fire, you don't wanna be saved by fire because you never know, your heart's condemned.

You'll always feel guilty. You're always wondering. I don't wanna be saved by fire, just in the door.

You won't know until that day. You need to be well inside that door, well away from sin to have security. Security in Christ is not a theological doctrine.

It is an experience of walking with Jesus Christ. All the Father gave me, I didn't lose any. Saints of God, I wanna stay close to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Will you stand with me? We once again need the convictive work of the Holy Spirit. Preachers have changed the word of God. The Bible condemns adultery, yet we laugh at it.

We say a preacher is gifted, he's anointed, he's got power. We can't afford to lose him. So he's committed adultery, but let's get him back in the pulpit.

It's an abomination. It's a lie. It's a twisting of the word of God.

Saints all across the church, and I'm almost harping on this over the last few years. You know why? Because it's become so popular, so normal, but woe unto us it won't be here by the grace of God. There's qualifications for ministry, 22 in number, and we make much of them.

Only one about teaching. Oh, but he's so anointed. I don't care.

But he's the best preacher in the nation. I could care less. But she sings so beautifully.

She plays the guitar. She's gifted. She's enabled to draw crowds.

His is a great testimony. I don't really care. I care about your walk with God, that you are gonna stand before Jesus Christ on that day.

The Holy Spirit isn't dealing with you, why not? Why aren't you convicted about your sin? If you're here and you're not born again, why not? You're under the preaching. You're in this church. You hear the preaching of the word of God.

You've got people praying for you. If you're not saved, why aren't you? Does that not concern you? Does that not disturb you? If you're walking far from God and you're just living in sin, a name that you live, doesn't it concern you? Don't you know the Holy Spirit first convicts of sin in order to bring you to a place of faith? You don't have faith. You don't have belief.

You don't have conviction. You don't have assurance for this one reason. You don't let the Holy Spirit deal with your sin.

But if you let Him deal with that and said, oh God, and even let Him hold you over hell, but for a moment, it would be to bring you to full assurance of faith. Let's pray. Father, we need you.

Lord God, we're not okay. We need a move of God in this church. I need it in my life.

We need it in our marriages. We need it in our families. We need it amongst our children.

We need it amongst our siblings, our extended families. We need it amongst our work colleagues. If we barely, if we hardly, if we scarcely be saved, where does that put the lost in this city of Limerick? If we can't experience the undiluted word of God, if we are less than in the severity of God, if we are changing the word of God, if we're not grieving over lying in the heart, over lust in the heart, over thievery and jealousy and gossip and all manners of covetousness in the heart.

Oh God, if your Holy Spirit can convict us and smite our heart, how will this city ever have a revival, a mighty move of God? Lord God, let judgment begin at the house of God. Let a revival begin here. Lord God, let us experience your terrible dealings.

My God, we pray right now for a move of God into every family. Lord God, we know the sweet Holy Spirit is a dove. He is a gracious spirit.

He is a spirit of truth. He's come to lead us to Christ, to lead us into all truth, to bring us into holiness, to conform us and make us like Jesus Christ. And Lord God, here this morning, my God, we're asking you, show us what sin is.

Give us a hatred for sin, even for temptation, even for the smell of this world. My God, that we would run to you for our refuge, that we would hide ourself in you, that we would soak our mind in the word of God. My God, I pray that you'd bring a holy conviction to every man, every woman here in Jesus' mighty name.