And I hope this really sinks in.
Verse 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 when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin.
So what's interesting here is that we see that the Holy Spirit has a ministry to the
saved, that's what we've been talking about all evening, but he also has a ministry to
the unsaved.
The Holy Spirit actually has a ministry to the unsaved.
Now it's not the same ministry that he has to the saved, because to the saved he opens
our understanding of the scripture.
Well guess what, unsaved people, that's not happening.
They don't read the Bible and understand it, we just talked about that.
But he does yet have a ministry to the unsaved, and it's a ministry of reproof.
He reproves them, right?
Because it says, when he is come, verse 8, he will reprove the world.
Now what does it mean to reprove someone?
It means to tell them that they are wrong.
He tells you that you're wrong.
If you're unsaved, he tells you that you're wrong.
He reproves the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
There are two words in the Bible, reprove and rebuke, and they pretty much mean the
same thing.
Rebuke is probably sterner than reprove, just because it's got that like, buke syllable.
Just the ottomatopoeia just sounds harsh, rebuke.
Reproof is a little softer, but it's the same thing.
It's telling somebody that they're wrong.
As a preacher, I'm told to preach the word and to reprove and rebuke and exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine.
The Holy Spirit testifies under this world that they are wrong.
He doesn't open up the Scriptures to them the way he does to a saved person.
That's why they need us to open the Scriptures to them.
That's why we go out and knock on people's doors and actually show them the Gospel, preach
them the Gospel.
God has chosen to manifest his word through preaching.
The Bible says, when the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe.
God uses preaching, the preaching of the Gospel, in order to get people saved.
Why?
Because that's a saved person who's got the Holy Spirit expounding it to them so they're
benefiting from the Holy Spirit in you.
They don't have the Holy Spirit indwelling them, opening the Scriptures to them.
So your Holy Spirit anointing is there to expound it to them and they get saved, hopefully.
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
You know, it depends on whether or not they believe.
But what we see here is that the Holy Spirit does have a ministry to tell the world that
they're wrong.
Now look, it's possible to know the problem without knowing the exact solution, right?
A lot of preachers preach a lot of things that show that they understand the problem
but then they give the wrong solution.
A lot of people know the problem of, you know, we're sinners and we're doomed to hell without
Christ, but then they have the wrong solution.
They have workspace salvation or the sacraments or whatever.
It's a wrong salvation instead of salvation by faith.
A lot of people know that there's something wrong with our country.
They know that there's something wrong politically.
They know there's something wrong with our government.
They know there's something wrong with the Democrats and that there's something wrong
with the Republicans.
But if you ask them, okay, how do we fix it?
They might just say, well, I don't know.
Or they might give you a goofed up answer of how to fix it.
So knowing the problem is one thing, knowing the solution is another thing.
Mankind knows there's a problem.
You know, that's a universal feeling or knowledge.
You know, how often do you run into somebody who claims that they never sin?
I'm perfect.
I never sin.
I've never sinned.
Now it happens.
It's out there.
But is it just constantly happening to you out soul winning or is it kind of rare?
I mean, for me, is it different in Uganda?
Good night.
These bunch of Rwandans on their high horse.
They think they're perfect.
They think they walk on water.
You know, that's crazy.
They're crazy.
Good night.
But, well, not in America, though, thank God.
We at least have that level of sanity.
You know, when we ask people, do you think anybody is without sin, they're like, no way,
you know.
Hey, have you ever sinned?
Oh, all the time.
You know, they recognize that right away.
And you know, whenever people scoff at that, I'm always just blown away like thinking like,
are you that stupid?
Like, are you crazy?
Because I'm thinking about myself.
You're thinking about yourself.
Do you ever just find yourself thinking, man, I'm pretty good, I don't even know what you
said.
You know, we're constantly like, oh, man, I messed up or, look, the thought of foolishness
is sin.
How many times do you just think something's stupid?
You know, I don't know about you, but when I have dreams at night, I almost always remember
my dreams when I first wake up.
And they're always stupid.
I mean, how, you know, you always dream something stupid.
It doesn't make any sense.
And I'm thinking to myself, I have all these stupid thoughts.
We are constantly coming short of the glory of God.
We're constantly not doing things we should do, doing things that we shouldn't do, thinking
stupid things that we shouldn't think, and I'm thinking to myself, you'd have to be literally
insane to think that you don't sin.
Because it's so obvious that we sin all the time.
It's just so obvious and clear.
And that's why, you know, I mean, the Holy Spirit's got some work to do in Rwanda, okay?
He needs to start reproving those people of sin.
Because I'm telling you, you know, the average Joe in this world, I mean, they must have
been brainwashed to think that way by some kind of false religion or something.
I just can't get over this, I'm sorry.
But you know, if you think about when you go out soul winning, 99% of the time, people
easily know that they're a sinner.
So they've got the problem, but does that mean they have the solution?
No, you're there to give them the solution, and you explain the solution to them, and
oftentimes it's totally new to them, and they've never even heard the Gospel.
They've never even heard about salvation.
But even beyond going out soul winning in the United States and asking people if they
know they're a sinner, I think just even in the deepest, darkest jungle, even in some
tribe out there, I think deep down, man knows that there's something missing, something's
wrong, I need something, I need salvation, I need redemption.
Why?
Because otherwise explain a billion Hindus.
You know what I mean?
Why are there a billion Hindus?
Because they know they need something.
They know that there's some kind of a God or some kind of an after, you know, they know
there's something out there, but they've got all the wrong answers.
They've got idolatry and false religion and so forth.
So you know, the Holy Spirit's out there basically reproving the world of sin, so that's why
no matter how backward someone is, they pretty much know that murder's wrong.
We could pretty much go anywhere in this world, do they at least know that in Rwanda?
They pretty much know that murder's wrong.
They know that stealing's wrong.
They know that adultery's wrong.
These things are universally known.
They know that the Sodomites are wrong.
These things are just common sense universally known because the Holy Spirit does reprove
the world of sin.
He reproves the world of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my Father and you see me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world
is judged.
So verse 8 says when he's come he'll reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment.
So unsaved people, they do benefit from the ministry of the Holy Spirit in some sense
because he's reproving them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
But that's not enough for them to get saved on their own without someone bringing them
the gospel.
It's not enough to just be out in the jungle reproved of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
It's like okay, what do I do?
Where do I go?
And so that's where the missionary comes in.
That's where the soul winner comes in.
That's where you and I come in, to bring the gospel to the lost.
And if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost.
The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.
We need to shine the light of the glorious gospel.
But the Holy Spirit does have a ministry to the unsaved that's just reproof.
The ministry to the saved is different.
To us he's the comforter, he's opening our understanding, he's teaching us, he's testifying
unto us.
Amen.