See faith’s convicting power to illuminate remaining sin in believers. The Holy Spirit brings conviction, repentance and godly change as we seek to grow in holiness.
Welcome to the Two Journeys podcast. This is Sanctification Monday, and my name is Andy Davis. In this podcast, we seek to answer the question, what is spiritual maturity? We believe that spiritual maturity can be broken into four main sections: knowledge, faith, character, and action. Now today we’re talking about faith, the development of faith, and we’re going to look at another aspect of faith. We’ve already looked at two aspects, certainty of invisible spiritual realities, past, present, future. And then last week we looked at assurance of things hoped for. So that’s a confidence that the future is bright based on the promise of God. And today we’re going to look at conviction of things not seen. And what we’re going to talk about today is more negative, much more negative than what we talked about last week, but it’s essential to our sanctification. We believe that faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we see invisible spiritual realities.
And in those invisible spiritual realities, we’re going to see the beauties of our salvation. We’re going to see the beauties of Christ, the beauties of holiness, the beauties of the future world to which we’re going, but we’re also going to see ourselves clearly. And the more we go on in sanctification, the more we’re going to see ourselves and our sinfulness more clearly. And so, we should expect as we make progress in sanctification, to have a clearer and clearer sense of our indwelling sin, of our past history of sin. That we are aware of how much sin is in us, how God hates those sins, how Christ suffered under the wrath of God for those sins, and how we are still in this world in danger because of indwelling sin. And so, we must hate our sins and fight against them, and we’re going to see this with more and more clarity.
So we should expect as we go ahead in our Christian lives to both have a stronger assurance of things hoped for, more and more buoyant, joyful confidence that the future is bright, plus a negative sense of how evil sin is, how much sin is still in us, and how we need to have those specific patterns of sin mortified, put to death by the power of the Spirit. Both of these are going to be essential to our sanctification. So, faith really is a two-sided coin, very sweetly positive side, the hope-filled side and then the negative side, conviction. Now where do I get this concept? Again, we’re going to go to the definition of Hebrews 11:1, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. That’s what we talked about last week. But faith is also the conviction of things not seen. Now I want to do a little bit of exegesis or interpretation of that verse because I’m going to take a little bit of a different angle than some do.
For example, the NIV 1984 translation says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” So that basically is saying the same thing twice. The KJV, the King James version has a different translation, something like this. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” But the New American standard and the RSV, which became eventually the ESV has just the language of faith is assurance of things hoped for conviction of things not seen. Zeroes in on the word conviction. I think that’s actually a good translation. So, what do we mean by conviction? Well, let’s just think about the way we use the word in English. Let’s talk first about general culture. We think about somebody convicted in a court of law, they become a convict. So, the idea is you’ve been through a court trial, and you’ve been finally adjudicated to be guilty by the court of law.You have been convicted; you are a convict.
We then use that type of analogy or that language when we are in a church service and someone preaches a sermon and we say, that was a very convicting sermon. What we mean by that is basically the same thing spiritually as what the legal term meant. We found that we were guilty of specific sins, we were convicted by it. I think that’s the sense of it. Is that what the word actually means? Well, as it turns out, the verse, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Looking at the second half, conviction, that word there is only used once in the entire New Testament. However, with a slight spelling change, the noun is also used in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training and righteousness.”
So that would be basically the synonym, reproof. But then the verb form, which is just slightly different grammatical construction, but it’s the exact same root word, is used many times in the New Testament. And so that word, if you look at how that word is used, we have examples of it, Matthew 18:15, “If your brother sins against you, go show him his fault just between the two of you.” Same Greek root word, the verb. So, in other words, spread out the evidence before your brother that he’s sinned. Basically, bring him to court and show him what he did. You can’t just say vaguely, you’ve sinned against me. You have to say when the sin happened, what they did, why you thought it was sinful, maybe some scripture, you’re basically pressing a case. We need to in the Christian church do this. We can’t just let sin go.
So, Jesus commanded it. When your brother sins against you, show him his fault. Same Greek word effectively. Or again, Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded or rebuked by John the Baptist for taking his brother’s wife sinfully. It was wrong for him. It was the same Greek word. He was reprimanded for his sin. Or again, John 3:20, “Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” Same Greek word. In other words, it’s an exposure of evil. It’s a proof, let’s say that you have sinned. Again, Jesus said of himself negatively, “Which of you convicts me of sin? Can any of you prove me guilty of sin” (John 8:46)? He’s never done any sin. So, they couldn’t actually convict him because he’d never sinned.
Or again, John 16:8 speaks of the ministry of the counselor, the Holy Spirit, “When the counselor, the Spirit comes, he will convict the world of guilt.” So, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to conviction. And then finally, Revelation 3:19, same root word, “Those whom I love I rebuke, and discipline so be earnest and repent.” So again, Jesus is coming to us through the Holy Spirit and rebuking us. All of those words have the same use. It is conviction for sin. In some way you violated the law of God, and there is evidence spread out before you that you have convicted, evidence that you have sinned. And you are being convicted of it. Now here’s the thing. As we’re growing in grace, in the knowledge of Christ, as we’re making this journey of sanctification, this negative side is essential. It’s essential. Basically, the journey ahead of us is the ways in which we come short of perfection in Christ. We have to see what they are. And there are so many hidden pockets of sin that we didn’t even know were in our lives, we weren’t aware of.
if you are aware of any sin in your life, if you have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, you must deal with it.
And that’s by the grace of God because if the Holy Spirit at the moment you’re converted, showed you the whole journey, showed you the whole pile of corruption inside yourself, you’d be crushed. It would be impossible for you to catch your breath. You wouldn’t even want to stand up or take another step. So, what the Holy Spirit in his grace and his wisdom does is pays out a little at a time conviction of sin. What I would say therefore is if you are aware of any sin in your life, if you have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, you must deal with it. You can’t say it’s too much. He’s shown me 12 areas of my life I need to, but I’m only going to focus on one. You can’t do that because he’s not showing you everything anyway. So, if you’re aware of sin, you’re aware of something in your life, something has come up in your Bible reading, something’s come up in a book, something’s come up in a sermon, you need to work on it, you need to address it.
The Holy Spirit’s made you aware of it. That is a healthy Christian life. And it’s interesting the more you mature, if you genuinely are maturing, the more used to being convicted you are. You’ve been through it again and again. You realize that the whole Christian life is one of repentance as Martin Luther said in the first of the 95 Theses, you’ve been repenting day after day. Day after day, you’re repenting of sin. Because the Holy Spirit’s showing you pockets of wickedness, pockets of indwelling sin. And they’re there because Romans 7, Paul the Apostle said plainly that its sin living in me that does it. We still have this nasty sin living in us. We have these habits of sin, and we have to be very, very aware of what those sins are. Now to finish the thought on Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
What does that mean, things not seen? Well, it’s interesting. In the actual Hebrews 11 context, within a few verses, it says, concerning Noah. “By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” Oh, that’s powerful. In that context then the thing not seen was the flood. And the flood was coming because of human sin. And the clear implication of God to Noah and his family is if you don’t build the ark, you’ll be swept away like everyone else. You, Noah, are also a sinner. And you also like all the rest of the sinners deserve to die but I’m showing you grace. And I’m giving you a command by which you and your family can be kept safe. So then in that case, the thing not seen was the coming flood, which represented God’s judgment. It was God’s judgment.
So, for us, it’s a far greater thing. It’s not a temporary physical water flood. What we’re looking at is judgment day and the second death, the lake of fire beyond. And so, we are warned of the holiness of God. We are warned by the thing not seen, judgment day. We’re warned by the thing not seen, hell. And we in holy fear, like it says- in reverent fear like it says of Noah, we deal with the sin in our lives. So, Jesus talked about sanctification matters like anger and lust. “You have heard that it was said that you shall not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that if anyone is even angry with his brother, he’s in danger of the fire of hell. And you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that if you even look at a woman lustfully, you’ve committed adultery with her in your heart” (Matthew 5:21-22).
And then he said this, “If your right eye caused you to sin then gouge it out and throw it away, it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand caused you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:28-29). So, we Christians therefore should read the Sermon of the Mount, should look at the issue of heart sin, of anger and lust and say, I hate those sins. I see them in me. I’ve never murdered anyone. I’ve never actually slept with my neighbor’s wife, but I see the anger that leads to murder, I see the lust that leads actually to physical adultery. I fear those things. I don’t want to live that kind of life that leads to hell.
I need to put these sins to death. And so, there’s a holy fear based on things not seen, which is a judgment that’s coming. So, we should in that sense fear the things that are to come. And we fear the consequences of our sin. That the Lord, even if we don’t go to hell, the Lord may have to discipline us for a sin pattern. And so therefore is vital for us as Christians to be involved in what we’ll call negative sanctification, mortification of sin. The Holy Spirit’s going to shed light on a certain area, might be procrastination, it might be pride, it might be lying or filthy language. It might be the way you treat your spouse. It might be the way you’re treating your children. It might be how you do your job, might be patterns of laziness, pride, who knows what’s going on. Something the way you use your mouth.
So specific patterns of sin, the Holy Spirit elucidates that, he illuminates that, and he brings you to conviction on it. You feel a sting of shame over it, you feel a sting of sorrow over it. You turn from it, that’s repentance. And you say by the power of the Spirit, oh Lord, work holiness in me in this area. And that’s the journey that’s ahead. That’s progress that we have to make in sanctification. If that negative progress is not being made, if you are not actually mortifying the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, you’re not a Christian. Actually, that clearly, we can say that because it says in Romans 8:13, “If you by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh you will live because those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.” These and only these.
the life of holiness, the life of growth is a life of mortification of sin. It’s a life of sanctification by the Spirit.
So, the life of holiness, the life of growth is a life of mortification of sin. It’s a life of sanctification by the Spirit. And so, as we go on in the Christian life, we should expect to become more and more humble. We actually are not prideful as somebody points out sin in our lives. We’re used to it. We actually are thankful for it. We want people, we want them to do it rightly. We don’t want them to be like Job’s friends beating us up, but we want people to come and help us. We want to be in accountability relationships. We want to be in a good church which is preaching the word where we’re regularly coming face to face with our sins. And we want to see those things. And you see how this same process is going on in the apostle Paul’s life. He said concerning himself that he was the greatest or the chief of all sinners.
He didn’t say I was the chief of all sinners. I am. It’s incredible. He said, “Here’s a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief (or the foremost),” 1 Timothy 1:15. Now, how do we understand that except that he was so used to being convicted by a vision of the holiness of God. That he must have reasoned, like I must be the worst person on earth. I must be the worst sinner on earth in that I myself have been caught up to paradise and seen God and I still live like this. I still have sin in my life. I have been given the Book of Romans, which I wrote, and I still don’t live up to it like I should. I’m just not as holy as I should be. I must be the chief of all sinners.
I see the sin in other people’s lives, but I feel the sin deeply in my own life. And so, he’s not just speaking hyperbole. He really believed he was the chief of sinners, and we would believe he was the holiest man on earth at that point. So therefore, we should expect as we go on in our sanctification to be more and more aware of the sin in our lives and more and more convicted by it and more and more eager to turn from it. We are going to be those that hunger and thirst for righteousness. We’re going to be those that are grieving and mourning over sin, and we’re going to see victories over those sins. So, as we conclude today, you should go into your week knowing that God has gone ahead of you, and he will be using everything you experience this week to sanctify you and bring you more and more into conformity to Christ.
Welcome to the Two Journeys podcast. This is Sanctification Monday, and my name is Andy Davis. In this podcast, we seek to answer the question, what is spiritual maturity? We believe that spiritual maturity can be broken into four main sections: knowledge, faith, character, and action. Now today we’re talking about faith, the development of faith, and we’re going to look at another aspect of faith. We’ve already looked at two aspects, certainty of invisible spiritual realities, past, present, future. And then last week we looked at assurance of things hoped for. So that’s a confidence that the future is bright based on the promise of God. And today we’re going to look at conviction of things not seen. And what we’re going to talk about today is more negative, much more negative than what we talked about last week, but it’s essential to our sanctification. We believe that faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we see invisible spiritual realities.
And in those invisible spiritual realities, we’re going to see the beauties of our salvation. We’re going to see the beauties of Christ, the beauties of holiness, the beauties of the future world to which we’re going, but we’re also going to see ourselves clearly. And the more we go on in sanctification, the more we’re going to see ourselves and our sinfulness more clearly. And so, we should expect as we make progress in sanctification, to have a clearer and clearer sense of our indwelling sin, of our past history of sin. That we are aware of how much sin is in us, how God hates those sins, how Christ suffered under the wrath of God for those sins, and how we are still in this world in danger because of indwelling sin. And so, we must hate our sins and fight against them, and we’re going to see this with more and more clarity.
So we should expect as we go ahead in our Christian lives to both have a stronger assurance of things hoped for, more and more buoyant, joyful confidence that the future is bright, plus a negative sense of how evil sin is, how much sin is still in us, and how we need to have those specific patterns of sin mortified, put to death by the power of the Spirit. Both of these are going to be essential to our sanctification. So, faith really is a two-sided coin, very sweetly positive side, the hope-filled side and then the negative side, conviction. Now where do I get this concept? Again, we’re going to go to the definition of Hebrews 11:1, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. That’s what we talked about last week. But faith is also the conviction of things not seen. Now I want to do a little bit of exegesis or interpretation of that verse because I’m going to take a little bit of a different angle than some do.
For example, the NIV 1984 translation says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” So that basically is saying the same thing twice. The KJV, the King James version has a different translation, something like this. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” But the New American standard and the RSV, which became eventually the ESV has just the language of faith is assurance of things hoped for conviction of things not seen. Zeroes in on the word conviction. I think that’s actually a good translation. So, what do we mean by conviction? Well, let’s just think about the way we use the word in English. Let’s talk first about general culture. We think about somebody convicted in a court of law, they become a convict. So, the idea is you’ve been through a court trial, and you’ve been finally adjudicated to be guilty by the court of law.You have been convicted; you are a convict.
We then use that type of analogy or that language when we are in a church service and someone preaches a sermon and we say, that was a very convicting sermon. What we mean by that is basically the same thing spiritually as what the legal term meant. We found that we were guilty of specific sins, we were convicted by it. I think that’s the sense of it. Is that what the word actually means? Well, as it turns out, the verse, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Looking at the second half, conviction, that word there is only used once in the entire New Testament. However, with a slight spelling change, the noun is also used in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training and righteousness.”
So that would be basically the synonym, reproof. But then the verb form, which is just slightly different grammatical construction, but it’s the exact same root word, is used many times in the New Testament. And so that word, if you look at how that word is used, we have examples of it, Matthew 18:15, “If your brother sins against you, go show him his fault just between the two of you.” Same Greek root word, the verb. So, in other words, spread out the evidence before your brother that he’s sinned. Basically, bring him to court and show him what he did. You can’t just say vaguely, you’ve sinned against me. You have to say when the sin happened, what they did, why you thought it was sinful, maybe some scripture, you’re basically pressing a case. We need to in the Christian church do this. We can’t just let sin go.
So, Jesus commanded it. When your brother sins against you, show him his fault. Same Greek word effectively. Or again, Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded or rebuked by John the Baptist for taking his brother’s wife sinfully. It was wrong for him. It was the same Greek word. He was reprimanded for his sin. Or again, John 3:20, “Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” Same Greek word. In other words, it’s an exposure of evil. It’s a proof, let’s say that you have sinned. Again, Jesus said of himself negatively, “Which of you convicts me of sin? Can any of you prove me guilty of sin” (John 8:46)? He’s never done any sin. So, they couldn’t actually convict him because he’d never sinned.
Or again, John 16:8 speaks of the ministry of the counselor, the Holy Spirit, “When the counselor, the Spirit comes, he will convict the world of guilt.” So, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to conviction. And then finally, Revelation 3:19, same root word, “Those whom I love I rebuke, and discipline so be earnest and repent.” So again, Jesus is coming to us through the Holy Spirit and rebuking us. All of those words have the same use. It is conviction for sin. In some way you violated the law of God, and there is evidence spread out before you that you have convicted, evidence that you have sinned. And you are being convicted of it. Now here’s the thing. As we’re growing in grace, in the knowledge of Christ, as we’re making this journey of sanctification, this negative side is essential. It’s essential. Basically, the journey ahead of us is the ways in which we come short of perfection in Christ. We have to see what they are. And there are so many hidden pockets of sin that we didn’t even know were in our lives, we weren’t aware of.
if you are aware of any sin in your life, if you have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, you must deal with it.
And that’s by the grace of God because if the Holy Spirit at the moment you’re converted, showed you the whole journey, showed you the whole pile of corruption inside yourself, you’d be crushed. It would be impossible for you to catch your breath. You wouldn’t even want to stand up or take another step. So, what the Holy Spirit in his grace and his wisdom does is pays out a little at a time conviction of sin. What I would say therefore is if you are aware of any sin in your life, if you have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, you must deal with it. You can’t say it’s too much. He’s shown me 12 areas of my life I need to, but I’m only going to focus on one. You can’t do that because he’s not showing you everything anyway. So, if you’re aware of sin, you’re aware of something in your life, something has come up in your Bible reading, something’s come up in a book, something’s come up in a sermon, you need to work on it, you need to address it.
The Holy Spirit’s made you aware of it. That is a healthy Christian life. And it’s interesting the more you mature, if you genuinely are maturing, the more used to being convicted you are. You’ve been through it again and again. You realize that the whole Christian life is one of repentance as Martin Luther said in the first of the 95 Theses, you’ve been repenting day after day. Day after day, you’re repenting of sin. Because the Holy Spirit’s showing you pockets of wickedness, pockets of indwelling sin. And they’re there because Romans 7, Paul the Apostle said plainly that its sin living in me that does it. We still have this nasty sin living in us. We have these habits of sin, and we have to be very, very aware of what those sins are. Now to finish the thought on Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
What does that mean, things not seen? Well, it’s interesting. In the actual Hebrews 11 context, within a few verses, it says, concerning Noah. “By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” Oh, that’s powerful. In that context then the thing not seen was the flood. And the flood was coming because of human sin. And the clear implication of God to Noah and his family is if you don’t build the ark, you’ll be swept away like everyone else. You, Noah, are also a sinner. And you also like all the rest of the sinners deserve to die but I’m showing you grace. And I’m giving you a command by which you and your family can be kept safe. So then in that case, the thing not seen was the coming flood, which represented God’s judgment. It was God’s judgment.
So, for us, it’s a far greater thing. It’s not a temporary physical water flood. What we’re looking at is judgment day and the second death, the lake of fire beyond. And so, we are warned of the holiness of God. We are warned by the thing not seen, judgment day. We’re warned by the thing not seen, hell. And we in holy fear, like it says- in reverent fear like it says of Noah, we deal with the sin in our lives. So, Jesus talked about sanctification matters like anger and lust. “You have heard that it was said that you shall not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that if anyone is even angry with his brother, he’s in danger of the fire of hell. And you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that if you even look at a woman lustfully, you’ve committed adultery with her in your heart” (Matthew 5:21-22).
And then he said this, “If your right eye caused you to sin then gouge it out and throw it away, it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand caused you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:28-29). So, we Christians therefore should read the Sermon of the Mount, should look at the issue of heart sin, of anger and lust and say, I hate those sins. I see them in me. I’ve never murdered anyone. I’ve never actually slept with my neighbor’s wife, but I see the anger that leads to murder, I see the lust that leads actually to physical adultery. I fear those things. I don’t want to live that kind of life that leads to hell.
I need to put these sins to death. And so, there’s a holy fear based on things not seen, which is a judgment that’s coming. So, we should in that sense fear the things that are to come. And we fear the consequences of our sin. That the Lord, even if we don’t go to hell, the Lord may have to discipline us for a sin pattern. And so therefore is vital for us as Christians to be involved in what we’ll call negative sanctification, mortification of sin. The Holy Spirit’s going to shed light on a certain area, might be procrastination, it might be pride, it might be lying or filthy language. It might be the way you treat your spouse. It might be the way you’re treating your children. It might be how you do your job, might be patterns of laziness, pride, who knows what’s going on. Something the way you use your mouth.
So specific patterns of sin, the Holy Spirit elucidates that, he illuminates that, and he brings you to conviction on it. You feel a sting of shame over it, you feel a sting of sorrow over it. You turn from it, that’s repentance. And you say by the power of the Spirit, oh Lord, work holiness in me in this area. And that’s the journey that’s ahead. That’s progress that we have to make in sanctification. If that negative progress is not being made, if you are not actually mortifying the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, you’re not a Christian. Actually, that clearly, we can say that because it says in Romans 8:13, “If you by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh you will live because those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.” These and only these.
the life of holiness, the life of growth is a life of mortification of sin. It’s a life of sanctification by the Spirit.
So, the life of holiness, the life of growth is a life of mortification of sin. It’s a life of sanctification by the Spirit. And so, as we go on in the Christian life, we should expect to become more and more humble. We actually are not prideful as somebody points out sin in our lives. We’re used to it. We actually are thankful for it. We want people, we want them to do it rightly. We don’t want them to be like Job’s friends beating us up, but we want people to come and help us. We want to be in accountability relationships. We want to be in a good church which is preaching the word where we’re regularly coming face to face with our sins. And we want to see those things. And you see how this same process is going on in the apostle Paul’s life. He said concerning himself that he was the greatest or the chief of all sinners.
He didn’t say I was the chief of all sinners. I am. It’s incredible. He said, “Here’s a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief (or the foremost),” 1 Timothy 1:15. Now, how do we understand that except that he was so used to being convicted by a vision of the holiness of God. That he must have reasoned, like I must be the worst person on earth. I must be the worst sinner on earth in that I myself have been caught up to paradise and seen God and I still live like this. I still have sin in my life. I have been given the Book of Romans, which I wrote, and I still don’t live up to it like I should. I’m just not as holy as I should be. I must be the chief of all sinners.
I see the sin in other people’s lives, but I feel the sin deeply in my own life. And so, he’s not just speaking hyperbole. He really believed he was the chief of sinners, and we would believe he was the holiest man on earth at that point. So therefore, we should expect as we go on in our sanctification to be more and more aware of the sin in our lives and more and more convicted by it and more and more eager to turn from it. We are going to be those that hunger and thirst for righteousness. We’re going to be those that are grieving and mourning over sin, and we’re going to see victories over those sins. So, as we conclude today, you should go into your week knowing that God has gone ahead of you, and he will be using everything you experience this week to sanctify you and bring you more and more into conformity to Christ.
