Words of Grace – Aug. 18, 2016

The Lord Jesus told his disciples that, after his death and resurrection, he would be going away. He was going to go back to where he had come from, back to his Father in heaven.

Right then he promised to send down from heaven “the Comforter,” the Holy Spirit. And when he came, he would “reprove the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8).

The spirit of God is in the world today, doing his convicting work. He convicts us that we might repent of our sin and turn to the Savior for forgiveness.

Evangelist John R. Rice was having a conversation with a Christian woman at the conclusion of a church service. A certain sin was mentioned by the preacher in his sermon, and the woman responded:

“If I were convicted in my heart that the thing you spoke of is a sin, I would not do it.”

When Rice called her attention to a plain statement in the Word of God that this certain thing was wrong, she replied, “Yes, I know that the bible says that, but the Holy Spirit does not impress me that it is wrong.”

To this Rice pointed out “that the Holy Spirit always leads in conformity to the written Word of God. The holy Spirit himself is the divine author of the Bible.”