Corruption is rampant in our society.
Last night Lara and I saw "The Informant", which was filmed here in Central Illinois! The movie is about an executive from Archer Daniels Midland named Mark Whitacre, who blew the whistle on ADM for price-fixing. But while he secretly gathered evidence for the FBI, he himself embezzled over nine million dollars from ADM. For his crimes, he spentthree timesmore time in prison than the criminals he gathered evidence against!
There is a lot of controversy surrounding Mark Whitacre and ADM. But there isn’t a lot of controversy about this fact. In the last five years we’ve seen unprecedented corruption. It started with Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing. It’s continued with Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Bernie Madoff’sfifty billion dollar Ponzi scheme. It touches the highest political offices of our land— governors, representatives, and senators.
I think we develop a certain kind of cynicism, or distrust. We wonder if there is any hope for our society. What we know instinctively is that corruption doesn’t trickle from the top-down. It trickles from the bottom-up. It exists all around us in government, business, universities, not-for-profit agencies, and churches. Corruption even trickles into our homes and lives. It’s like rust. Once it starts, it’s virtually impossible to stop. And once it begins spreading, it consumes and destroys.
With repeated sin, our consciences become seared.
How does this happen? 1 Timothy 4:2 (NIV) speaks of,"hypocritical liars, whose conscienceshave beenseared as with a hot iron."There is something defective about our consciences— and none of usare exempt. When you burn your skin with a hot iron, every nerve ending beneath your skin screams, "HOT!" But something else happens when you sear your skin. Your nerve endings die and then your skin becomes less able to detect pain.
A few years ago I was drilling into a tiny piece of wood which I was holding in my hand. Before I knew it, the drill caught the piece of wood and spun it in my fingers at hundreds of RPMs. The friction burned my fingertips, and those fingertips are no longer as sensitive to pain as the others.
This is what happens in our consciences. The first timeyou violate your conscience, it’s overwhelming. Do you remember the first time you said a cuss word? Lied to your parents? Punched someone in the face?Stole something from the supermarket? Saw a dirty magazine? Smoked your first cigarette? Snuck your first beer?
The first time we sin, our conscience immediately convicts us! It’s like all of heaven shouting at us with a megaphone. But then each subsequent time we sin, we become hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Things that once bothered our conscience no longer even register on our conscience. We migrate from penny sins to nickel sins, to dime, to quarter, to dollar, to hundreds, to thousands, to millions, and to billions.
We spend our whole lives longing for the innocence and purity of conscience we once enjoyed. But the damage has been done, and experts will tell you that nerve damage is not reversible. But then Jesus comes along in John 16:7-11 and says the followingwords.
John 16:7-11 (NIV) says, "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned."
We can all use some conviction.
If there is one thing we could all use, it's conviction. In our culture we don’t feel shame or experience guilt. We sin without remorse. Our hearts are hardened and our consciences are seared. When I started preaching fifteen years ago, people would hide their sin from a pastor. Now they flaunt it! Now they want God to bless it! There is no godly sorrow, and so little repentance. We don’t want to change. Instead, we want God to change! People want to lower the bar of righteousness, not see it raised! There is no right/wrong, good/evil, or moral/immoral. There is acceptance.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to bring conviction on stubborn wills and to guide us into truth.
The first thing I want to say is that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to bring conviction on stubborn wills. This is one of the first and most visible workings of the Holy Spirit— conviction, guilt, shame, a sense of responsibility, remorse, repentance, and awareness of sin. Come Holy Spirit, come! Come into our church, our homes, our lives, our places of business, our schools, our government, and our society. If I were to say that there was one prayer God answers more readily than any other, it’s that his Holy Spirit would bring conviction to our lives.
But conviction is just the beginning of the Holy Spirit’s work. Jesus also tells us that the Holy Spirit has the power to direct our wills and provide specific guidance. In John 16:12-15 (NIV) Jesus continues, "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."
The Spirit of truth guides us into, "all truth". Notice that John 16:12 seems to suggest that we can’t handle the whole truth all at once. It's much more than we can bear. We are so utterly depraved and so utterly corrupt in our sinful nature that were God to show us the complete truth about our lives all at once, we would melt like hot wax, or we would slip into deep depression, or perhaps become suicidal. At the very least we would become discouraged and give up. But God’s desire is to gently guide us into all truth, like a shepherd leading sheep.
Let me share three ways that God’s Holy Spirit brings conviction and guides us into all truth.
We are guided into truth by reading God's word regularly.
The Holy Spirit directs us through regularly readingGod'sword, the Bible.Our consciences get re-sensitized through the word of God. Hebrews 4:12-13 (NIV) tells us, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
In a few weeks we are going to begin a study of the life of Nehemiah. A lot of people think that the critical turning point for Israel came when the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. That is not true. Revival came when Ezra stood up on a platform and read from the word of God day and night. The law of God made people weep for their sins, and repent, and renew their vows.
We don’t get well without scripture. Jesus is the vine, we are his branches, and his words are the life-sap that feeds and sustains us. His words impart life and bring us back from where we fell.
The Spirit directs us through heartfelt prayer.
The Holy Spirit directs us through heartfelt prayer, meditation, and fasting. Romans 8:26-27 (NIV) says, "…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will."James 1:5 tells us that God gives wisdom generously without finding fault.
In prayer, the Holy Spirit sifts thoughts and feelings. In prayer, the Holy Spirit aligns our wills to the will of God. In prayer, the Holy Spirit reveals things to us that we’d never see on our own.
The Holy Spirit directs us through the actions of Spirit-filled believers.
The Holy Spirit directs us through Spirit-filled believers. A prevalent attitude today is, "I don’t need other Christians. I don’t need the Church. I don’t need Sunday school. I don’t need Bible studies, Bible teachers, or Bible preachers. I don’t need to worship. You’re not just a Christian on Sunday."
But this is a terribly wrong attitude. In 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 we see how the Holy Spirit gives us different gifts. To some he gives the gift of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge, to still another faith, miraculous powers, healing, prophecy, discernment, tongues, or interpretation of tongues.
The Spirit ministers to us through fellow believers as we encourage one another, rebuke, admonish, teach, and love one another, pray, bear one-another's burdens, etc. We're a lifeline of sorts to one another. And without one another, we die spiritually.
I want you to think of the most Spirit-filled Christian you have ever met in your life. Someone who exudes the Spirit of Christ, reflects God’s holiness, and is fully alive with joy.
Now I want you to think about that believer who is struggling with discouragement, who lacks peace and patience, who is runningherself ragged, whose character is being dulled by the world, and who is a believer who haslostherjoy and is just going through the motions.
What is the difference? Spending time in the word. Time in prayer. Time in fellowship with Spirit-filled Christians. I can’t think of a single exception. In our fellowship I notice a stark difference between those who are regularly in the word, who pray deeply, and who fellowship in Life Groups and Sunday schools, compared tothat person who just strolls in here when it's convenient. One is experiencing the reality and power of God’s Holy Spirit. The other has the appearance of godliness while denying God’s power.
The Holy Spirit works in us so that we might bring glory to Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit convicts.He guides through the word, prayer, and fellowship with believers. Finally, the Holy Spirit brings glory to Jesus Christ. In John 16:14-15 (NIV) Jesus says, "He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."
The Holy Spirit’s main purpose in your life is thatyou might bring glory to Jesus Christ. In John 15:8 (NIV) Jesus says, "This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
Galatians 5:16-25 (NIV) says, "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
"The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factionsand envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."
Imagine if we found a way to not only stop the slow creep of sin,but to actually bring renewal. Imagine if we found a way to reverse the tide of corruption, to undo the rusting away of character evident in our lives and home. Imagine if God were to put something in us to convict us of sin, to direct us in paths of righteousness, and to cause us to reflect his holy character?
We don’t have to imagine or wish for such a thing. We only have to pray, "Come Holy Spirit.Come now. Convict us! Guide and direct Us! Bring glory to your holy name!"