Do you know anything about Holy Spirit conviction? When was the last time, if ever, you heard a preacher declare the necessity of the convicting work of God the Holy Spirit, before a sinner can be saved? It is a subject about which we should know much, both by experience and by instruction; but I am afraid that most religious people today do not even know that it is taught in the Bible. Our Lord Jesus Christ told us that when he had suffered, died, and ascended to the throne of heaven, he would send his Spirit into the world. "And when he is come, he will reprove (that is convince and convict) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of Judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged"(John 16: 8-11).
The work of God the Holy Spirit in a person's heart is just as essential to salvation as the work of Christ upon the cross. "Christ crucified is of no practical value to us without the work of the Holy Spirit; and the atonement which Jesus wrought can never save a single soul unless the blessed Spirit of God shall apply it to the heart and conscience. Jesus is never seen until the Holy Spirit opens the eye." (C. H. Spurgeon) The Lord Jesus cannot be known in saving faith, until God the Holy Spirit reveals him in our hearts, applies his blood to our consciences, and draws us to him.
I know that the gospel of Christ lays down only one condition for salvation; and that condition is very simple - "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Any sinner in all the world who believes on Christ the Lord, any sinner who acknowledges and trusts Christ as his Lord and Savior, any sinner who truly trusts Christ in his heart shall be saved by Christ. There is no question about that. But I also know that no sinner can, or will, truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, until he first experiences in his heart the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. Christ himself declares, "No man can come unto me", (that is to say he has no ability to do so), except the Father which hath sent me draw him." And if God, by the power and grace of his Spirit, draws a sinner to Christ, that drawing will be irresistible. The sinner who is drawn by the Holy Spirit in real conviction will come to Christ. Our Lord declares that all who are thus drawn shall be saved, "and I will raise him up at the last day". True Holy Spirit conviction always produces true conversion. But where there is no conviction, there is no conversion. You may walk the aisles of every church in America, kneel at every altar, say "the sinner's prayer" with every slick "soul-winner", be baptized by every preacher, and thoroughly reform your outward life; but until your heart has been thoroughly convicted by God the Holy Spirit, so that you are made to see the hideousness of your sin, the perfection of Christ's righteousness, and God's judgment of sin in Christ, the sinner's Substitute, you will never be saved, you will never truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only God the Holy Spirit can truly convict the heart and grant faith in Christ the Lord. Do you know anything about Holy Spirit conviction?
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