St. John 16:5-15

[Jesus said,] “Now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Our text is all about the importance of knowing the difference between what’s really true and what isn’t. That’s a timely topic, isn’t it?

Jesus will be gone from His disciples soon—in terms of their ability to interact this way with Him. But it’s a good thing, He says here. It’s good because in His place, another will come to them (they won’t be able to interact with Him like this either, but…it’s still a good thing). It’s good because the Helper, or the one Jesus goes on to call the Spirit of truth, Who’s coming, has a specific duty toward them that is to their advantage. The timing works such that He gets sent by Jesus once Jesus has accomplished His work (the dying for people’s sins, the rising from death, the ascending into heaven and so forth).

We confess in the meaning to the Third Article of the Creed, why this person is so important to them.

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

The gifts of the Father that we talk about this morning (you might have seen those words on the cover of the bulletin) are the Spirit of truth (Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, the third person of the Triune God), and the Word of God that He uses to bring us to faith, and to keep that faith alive unto eternal life (also the Sacraments that are powered by that Spirit and Word).

Sin, righteousness, and judgment are the things Jesus says will be the Spirit’s points of focus as He guides people into all the truth—Sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Sin

We don’t like very much to hear about sin. When we confess in the Third Article’s Meaning, that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe, we’re referring to our fallen nature. We’re referring to our having inherited sinfulness from our first parents.

• We don’t want to be told what to do and not do.

• We don’t want to be made to feel guilty for having done anything wrong.

• We don’t want there to be a certain way that we have to be according to God.

• We don’t want to be held accountable for keeping God’s laws as presented in the Bible.

• Certainly, when we see the world getting more and more okay with things that go against God’s laws (things we might secretly like), then we don’t want to be pulled back and told, yes, but God’s laws still apply like they always did.

What a drag!—our sinful nature thinks. We don’t like very much to hear about sin.

The Spirit of truth is the one God has sent to stand on that Word, and say to the world what Jesus said, …until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished (Matthew 5:18). When people are in a burning building, it doesn’t matter if the people inside say, Yeah, but I don’t want the building to be burning; it doesn’t matter if they say, Yeah, but I don’t believe the building is burning. They need to get out if they want to survive. The Spirit of truth, on the one hand, convicts us of sin. He confronts us with God’s Law that exposes us, exposes our guilt. He convinces us that our guilt needs to have a solution; we can’t just decide we don’t mind having guilt. That won’t end well for us; hell is the end for that.

If the Spirit’s work bears the desired fruit in us, we have come to recognize our guilt, and to want nothing more than to have a solution that will remove it from us, remove the just punishment for that guilt. The Spirit of truth convicts us in regard to sin.

Righteousness

Righteousness is the next point of focus for the Spirit of truth. How do sinners become righteous, become what they need to be in order to escape guilt’s penalty?  The first thing the Spirit has to address is something that comes along with our sinful nature; that is, the thought that we can save ourselves.

Fewer and fewer today believe there even is a God to whom they are accountable. They see themselves as perfectly good people, and don’t give a thought to any sort of punishment waiting in their future. The Spirit is busy convicting them of sin, like we were talking about earlier. He works to rid them of this delusion before it’s too late.

For you, who believe there’s a God to whom you’re accountable, the Spirit’s work is aimed more at your tendency to compare yourself to other people, and think God certainly isn’t going to bother me about anything when others around are so much worse. The Spirit’s convicting of you is teaching you how you’re wrong about righteousness when your fallen nature is thinking in this way, and about what it really means to be that—to be righteous. He might point you to the words of the Psalmist: Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you (143:2). Or Isaiah: We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment (64:6). Jesus addressed this when someone asked what good he must do to have eternal life. He said, There is only one who is good (Matthew 19:17). Of course, that one is God Himself. Only a person who has God’s righteousness as his own escapes the just punishment for sins, attains eternal life.

God’s righteousness is available for you to have as your own through faith in the Christ. Believing that God has made you righteous in Him gives you ownership of that righteousness. Believing that His sacrifice on the cross was for you—so that you can be righteous before God makes the righteousness your own. Jesus doesn’t have any false notion of saving Himself like you have; He doesn’t need any saving. He has taken the guilt of your sin of self-righteousness on Himself, being punished for it so that you are given His true righteousness in exchange. That means you’re forgiven of that and every other sin. You are made fit for God’s eternal kingdom because of what Christ has done for you. The Spirit of truth convicts us in regard to righteousness.

Judgment

The Spirit of truth has one more topic to address: judgment. That can be a word that makes us uneasy. We envision charges being read, a guilty suspect waiting for the judge’s verdict, the judge preparing to hand the verdict down. Do you ever worry about this? Do you think about the sins of your youth (or of more recent days)? There are things I would imagine that all of us think about (unless I’m different from all of you, because I certainly have things).

And the devil likes that we have those things. He likes that we revisit them in our minds, regretting them anew from time to time. His hope is that you think, God is certainly very good; but He can’t be so good that He would let that slide. And the devil wants you to think, these are good Christian people who are gathered here this morning. I don’t belong here. I don’t measure up to this.

The Spirit’s work is in a very tender area now. He puts Christ before your eyes. Look what He has done for you! He stood waiting for the judge’s verdict (this innocent One did!). What was given as the list of sins for which He must die are those sins of yours—the ones you revisit, the ones you regret anew over and over again. They’re already taken care of. He wanted to do it. He died for them. He rose again to life, defeating death and sin. You won’t have them read as your sins again in the Judgment; they’ve already been read and done away with. Read as your verdict will be the word innocent. You are that through faith in Christ. Let that be the end of your uneasiness. God’s mercy is yours in Christ. You know the difference between what’s really true and what isn’t; the Spirit of truth has told you. You are a sinner. Christ is your righteousness. You are thereby innocent in the judgment. God be praised. Amen.

Isaiah 12:1-6

You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

James 1:16-21

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every
person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.