CONVICTION OR CONVERSION?

 

Wake the Faith up Slayer… This is Garth Heckman with the David Alliance and you can reach me at

TDAgiantslayer@gmail.com 

 

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Conviction

 

In sales if someone objects to your price ask them this, would you trust me more if I lowered my price? The same can be true when preaching a hard sermon to your congregation. You can ask them would you like my message more and trust me if I made it easier and watered it down?

 

When we witness to those who need Jesus as their Lord and Savior we simply preach the gospel and let the Holy Spirit convict! 

 

i.e. we preach that people need Jesus, we don’t preach against their sin. Oh we can say all have sinned, but don’t waste your time telling them what they are doing is wrong. Simply point to Jesus and let him do the convicting. 

 

The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin (John 16:8). To help us understand what the conviction of sin is, we can look at what it is not. 

First, it is not simply a guilty conscience or even shame or feeling bad or even knowing what we did was wrong. Such feelings are naturally experienced by almost everyone. But this is not true conviction of sin.

 

Second, conviction of sin is not a sense of trepidation or a foreboding of divine punishment. “Im going to hell”…  These feelings, too, are commonly experienced in the hearts and minds of sinners. But, again, true conviction of sin is something different.

 

Third, conviction of sin is not merely knowledge of right and wrong; it is not an assent to Scripture’s teaching about sin. Many people read the Bible and are fully aware that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). They may have grown up in church, gone to Sunday school, baptized, confirmed you name it… Yet, for all their knowledge, they continue to live in sin. They understand the consequences, but they’re far from being convicted of their sins.

 

 

The word convict is a translation of the Greek word elencho, which means “to convince someone of the truth; to reprove; to accuse, refute, or cross-examine a witness.” The Holy Spirit acts as a prosecuting attorney who exposes evil, reproves evildoers, and convinces people that they need a Savior.

 

To be convicted is to experience an utter dreadfulness of sin. Our attitude toward sin becomes that of Joseph who fled temptation, crying out, “How could I do this great evil and sin against God?” Or when Paul said woe is me, I am the greatest of sinners.

or David who cries out to God regarding his sin

 

Titus 1:9 “Holding to the faithful word according to the teaching, that he may be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to convict those contradicting it.”

Notice this verse does not say we are to call out sinners and their sin, but rather preach and teach with encouraging sound scripture and to convict those who oppose it. How many times do we see people spend endless conversations telling people they are sinners and what they do is sin…

Just tell them about Jesus and let the Holy Spirit convict. 

 

Again John 16:8-9 the GS comes to convict, our job is to preach the gospel