 This is perhaps one of the greatest works that the Holy Spirit will ever do in your life. When you feel like a hypocrite, he reminds you you belong to him. When you feel like an orphan, he reminds you you're a child of God. When you feel like you're a sinner who's gone too far and that you'll never be able to make it and you'll always be stuck in these cycles of habitual sin, he reminds you that he's accepted you, he's forgiven you, he's given you a clean slate. He reminds you of the mercies of God that are new every morning and he says, come on, let's try again. You're my child, I'm not abandoning you. I'm with you, my spirit is in you. He joins as one with your spirit to affirm that you're a child of God. That's what the Holy Ghost does. He brings conviction. John chapter 16 verses seven through eight say this, but in fact, it is best for you that I go away because if I don't, the advocate won't come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. Now, what is conviction? Conviction is either a strong belief or opinion or conviction is the process of convincing. Now I know in the context of court, conviction means like a sentence being handed down, but as far as what it means here in the context of biblical text, the scripture is describing the process of convincing or that deep belief coming upon a person through the process of the Holy Spirit's convincing. So the Holy Spirit doesn't just convict of sin. Watch this now. The Holy Spirit also convicts of God's righteousness. So he gives us these deeply held beliefs concerning sin, concerning righteousness and concerning the judgment of God. That's three things that he causes you to believe that he convinces you of. He convinces you, A, that sin is bad. B, that righteousness is the standard. And C, that judgment is coming. That conviction, that deeply held belief when it gets into the core of who you are causes you to pause and to consider before placing yourself in moments of temptation or before giving into temptation itself. Second Corinthians chapter seven, verse 10 says, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repentant of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Now, godly sorrow works repentance. It's not unbiblical to feel bad for sin. I think there's this unbiblical idea, this strange notion that no one should ever feel bad for their sin, that if you preach a message that makes people feel bad for their sin, that you're turning them off to the gospel. Now, this isn't true. People aren't turned off from the gospel because you preach on sin. People are turned off from the gospel because of their love for sin, period. So it's not that the feeling bad for sin is a bad thing. It's that people love their sin. And that's why they reject the gospel. It's nothing to do with preaching righteousness. But the Holy Spirit gives us this conviction, this sorrow over the wrong that we do. And that is necessary because that sorrow produces repentance. Now, feeling bad for your sin is not repentance. And this is why some people get caught in this cycle. They'll sin, they say, Lord, I feel bad. But in the back of their mind, they have every intention of doing it again, whether they're aware that they have intention of doing it again or not. See, they lie to themselves and say, I'm never gonna do that again. What they really mean is I'm not tempted because I just did it. So now I'm not gonna do it again until I do it again. That's really what the flesh is saying. That's how deceptive the flesh is. It convinces you that you somehow have this intention of never doing it again. No, repentance is when that godly sorrow is so intense in me that I make the commitment, I'm not going to allow this tomorrow. I'm not going to allow this a week from now. I'm not going to allow this a year from now. I'm cutting it off. This sin is not allowed in my life, not to any degree, not in any amount, not under any circumstance. And I have every intention of setting up boundaries and doing what it takes to make sure that this sin gains no influence in my life and that is produced by the sorrow over sin. So it's not just feeling bad, but it's the sorrow that produces a turning from the evil doing. Now, repentance means to change your mind in the biblical context, repentance means that I have a change of mind that results in the turning from sin. And so when you repent as a result of this godly sorrow, it produces that fruit in your life. And so godly sorrow is necessary. The Holy Spirit convicts you or convinces you of the fact that sin is bad, righteousness is God's standard, and that judgment is coming. What many fail to realize is the fact that when you know you're forgiven, that produces this enthusiasm to live holy. It's like you have a clean slate and you're thinking, wow, God wiped my record clean, God forgave me of all those sins, God is giving me a fresh start, and that lifting of the burden, that sense of liberty and freedom, that sense of newness sets you free and it motivates you to walk in holiness. Why? Because when you sin and you feel like you have this list that's piled up, it looks like just some insurmountable mountain that you're never gonna be able to overcome. So you say, well, I'm gonna have to make good and I'm gonna have to make penance and I'm gonna have to make up for this sin and that sin and this sin and that sin and then I might sin again in the future. Well, forget it, I'm just gonna go on living in sin. That's how many people become discouraged because of the religious mindset. But God's way is better. God says, I will forgive you of your sins. I'm gonna wipe that record clean. I will not deal with you according to your sins is what the scripture says. And so he wipes your record clean. He gives you a brand new start. He gives you a new beginning and then from there you're motivated with that fresh start to say, okay, now that that is all dealt with and I don't even have to address it anymore because God's dealt with it. I can move forward and that motivates you to walk in holiness. So the Holy Spirit frees you from condemnation by doing something very, very important. And this job is found in Romans chapter eight verses 15 through 17, three powerful verses here. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, Abba father for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children and since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory but if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Here the scripture talks about the fact that the Holy Spirit convinces you that you belong to God. This is perhaps one of the greatest works that the Holy Spirit will ever do in your life. When you feel like a hypocrite, he reminds you you belong to him. When you feel like an orphan, he reminds you you're a child of God. When you feel like you're a sinner who's gone too far and that you'll never be able to make it and you'll always be stuck in these cycles of habitual sin, he reminds you that he's accepted you, he's forgiven you, he's given you a clean slate. He reminds you of the mercies of God that are new every morning. And he says, come on, let's try again. You're my child, I'm not abandoning you. I'm with you, my spirit is in you. He joins as one with your spirit to affirm that you're a child of God. That's what the Holy Ghost does. And once you know that, once you realize, oh my goodness, I am free, I'm forgiven, I'm a new creation, my past is no more. My sins have been washed away, the blood of Jesus has cleansed me. Once you know this, you are liberated. And you say, you know what? I don't have to cling to the guilt of the past because let me tell you, guilt and shame will keep you in sin. Guilt and shame is not the same as conviction and godly sorrow. Guilt and shame will keep you in sin. You see, conviction says you made a mistake. Condemnation says you are a mistake. Conviction drives you toward God in repentance. Condemnation drives you away from God in shame. Conviction says get it right. Condemnation says you'll never get it right. Conviction is a gift from God. Conviction is not a punishment. Conviction is a gift. It's an opportunity to be made right. And so when the Holy Spirit helps you to overcome condemnation and guilt and shame, he lifts the burdens that make the journey of holiness difficult. You see, guilt and condemnation are weights. Holiness is that mountain to climb. If you have guilt and shame on you, it's very difficult to climb that mountain. But God wants to lift those burdens of guilt and shame, not conviction. He'll convict you. He'll give you godly sorrow that works repentance, but he'll never condemn you. There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. If you're in Christ, you're a new creation. If you're in Christ, there's no condemnation. Conviction, yes. Godly sorrow that works repentance, yes. But condemnation, no. And so once shame and condemnation have been lifted from off of you, those burdens taken, then the Holy Spirit has given you the power to walk in freedom. Because when you know you're forgiven, it motivates you to continue in holiness. If you think there's some long list of things that you have to make up for, if you feel like God is a million miles away because of your wrongdoing, then it's discouraging because you feel like you have all this work ahead of you, all of these things to overcome. This long list of religious tasks and obligations that you had to fulfill in order to be loved by God again. Forget that. Do it the Holy Spirit's way. He says, I'm gonna give you a fresh start right here, right now. And this is your fresh start today. Right here, right now, this is your new beginning. His mercies are new every morning. I dare say his mercies are not just new every morning, they're new every moment. People say, well, God, forgive me of my past sins. I say, well, every sin that you've committed is in your past, otherwise it wouldn't have been done. So yes, God will forgive your past sins. And yes, you can move forward. And yes, you can stop looking over your shoulder, thinking that your past is gonna come back to haunt you. Yes, you can enjoy the forgiveness of God. I love this portion of scriptures. All what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. That means God doesn't even look at it anymore. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared. Listen to the language the Bible uses here. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. When I refuse to confess my sin, my body wasted away and I groaned all day long. Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me. That's godly sorrow. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Verse five, this is the victory. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord and you forgave me, all my guilt is gone. You forgave me, all my guilt is gone. Your hand weighed heavily upon me. Lord, let me rejoice now. Restore unto me the joy of salvation and he's gonna restore that joy. Even as you hear the truth today, that joy is being sparked again. That those embers that you thought were dying of hope are becoming a raging inferno of holiness ready to consume all the filth and sin in your life. Thank you for watching Encounter TV. Don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell. Also, help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.