The Sinner's Heart Under Conviction — E.A. Johnston

The Holy Spirit's Work in Conviction and Conversion

I feel it is of great importance tonight to examine the subject of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin upon the sinner's heart. I fear that in our day of great spiritual declension, there are few who understand how the Spirit of God works in the divine operations of conversion.

This is a serious matter, and if we fail to properly grasp how God deals with sinners, we will fail miserably in our attempts to point the unsaved to Christ. I fear many today, in their eagerness to win souls, make false converts because of spiritual miscarriages, never telling an awakened sinner he is saved, he is merely an awakened sinner who still needs to find Christ, and he is not saved until Christ is found.

Never tell someone they are now a Christian, because that is not your job, it is the office of the Holy Spirit to bring assurance. The way most of us preach today hinders the divine operations of the Holy Spirit, rather than aid the Spirit in His workings on the human heart.

Preaching the Law Before the Gospel

We fail to preach the law before the gospel, we offer the pearl of great price before we even show a sinner why they need Christ, for it is the law that is the schoolmaster that brings men to Christ. Our preaching makes spiritual stillbirths because we hinder the work of the Holy Spirit by our lack of understanding how God works on the human heart in the process of conviction of sin and regeneration and conversion.

My message this evening is entitled, The Sinner's Heart Under Conviction. Our task as soul winners is to faithfully present the Word of God so the Holy Spirit can operate on a person's heart. Charles Finney, Pelagian as he was, knew how to preach the law to bring conviction of sin, and old Finney could preach a lot better than most of us today.

Finney's Gristmill Illustration of the Law and Conscience

Finney used an illustration I like. He spoke of the old gristmill that operated by the force of water upon two millstones. There was the top stone and the bottom stone, and these two millstones are laid one atop the other, and as they turn they grind the wheat into flour.

Finney said the bottom stone was the law of God written on the heart of man, which is his conscience, from Romans 2 .15. The top stone is the preached law of God thundered about the ears of the hearer.

When this occurs, then the Holy Spirit can operate by grinding upon the heart in conviction of sin. I like that. You see, friends, the main problem with much evangelism today is that we do not make room for the Holy Spirit to operate because of our meager preaching.

The Spirit's Office of Reproving the World

When Jesus was teaching His disciples about the office of the Holy Spirit, He said to them, and when He has come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they believe not on Me, of righteousness because I go to My Father and ye see Me no more, of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged.

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. And that's true, friends, for it is the Spirit of God that takes the gospel and applies it to our hearts.

It is the Spirit of God that sets home the word with power upon the conscience of the hearer. And there are two components to this action of the Holy Spirit, which I want to bring out tonight. And the first is this, when the word of God comes with power to the conscience in conviction of sin, it shows sinners their true character.

Conviction Reveals the Sinner's Guilt

It shows a lost person that they are lawbreakers, guilty rebels who have committed treason against a sovereign. When the Holy Spirit comes in conviction to a sinner's heart, it does a plowing work. It breaks up the fallow ground and the hardness of the sinner's heart.

Before conviction of sin, the sinner was oblivious to the evil of sin, unaware of the damning nature of sin, ignorant of his own sins as iniquity, and he went on in his course of sin without any fear of punishment from a Creator.

But when the Spirit of God descends upon a sinner's heart and places him under conviction of sin, then that person's conscience begins to grind under that conviction and they are shown their true character, which is that they are lawbreakers who have transgressed the holy law of God and they deserve punishment for the sentencing of the law must be carried out.

Thus, it shows a sinner his true character, that he is a guilty rebel who has broken the strict law of God, and the Spirit of God convinces him that he is under the wrath of God and the curse of the law, and that when the day of judgment comes, the law will be executed with the utmost severity upon all that know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the second aspect of the divine operation of the Holy Spirit is this. When the word of God comes with power to the conscience, it awakens sinners to their lost condition. For when the Spirit of God subdues the heart of rebels, he attends the preached word with power, majesty, and authority, and quite suddenly a sinner becomes alarmed to his great danger, which before he never saw.

He now sees himself standing in direct opposition to a holy God who must punish sin. He is now aware of his lost condition outside of Christ and his perilous position under the condemnation of the Almighty.

He is brought to tremble under the sense of divine wrath, for he knows his guilt and feels it. He feels the sentencing of the law being carried out against him and the punishment which awaits him, which is the prison of hell and its torments, where prior to this he never gave any thought to eternity.

Now he is consumed with the subject and quite alarmed to his great danger of dropping into a place of misery and torment called hell. He seeks relief. He becomes a seeker of God and his mercy. He is completely shut up to God to save him.

I know this sounds strange to us in our day of an apostate church, and few pastors would even agree with what I'm relating to you this evening, but when the gospel is preached in its purity and proper order, then the Holy Spirit can attend the preached word with power, which breaks the rock in pieces, for it is the Spirit of God that convicts a sin and reveals to a poor sinner his true character as a guilty rebel who has broken God's holy law, and it is the Spirit of God which shows a lost person the peril of being outside of Christ's blood and standing in their own merits and under the wrath of the Almighty, for divine justice must be carried out, and when a person is undone and under conviction and shown their great danger and future punishment, which is greatly deserved, then they are shut up to God and his grace alone to save them.

They are made to see their need of a Savior. But we live in a land and in a day, and when we experience what we're experiencing today, which is the remedial judgments from an offended God, one of those judgments is the withdrawn presence of God, and we have few true conversions occurring today because man is making himself a Christian by taking the name of a Christian as he would take the name of a college fraternity, and many are Christians in name only, like in Sardis and Laodicea.

Revival, the 1858 Prayer Revival, and Divine Conviction

But in times of revival, God is afoot in the land, and His Holy Spirit is actively at work in the conversion of sinners. I want to read you an account this evening taken from the revival of 1858, which occurred in this country.

It's also known as the prayer revival or the businessman's revival, and it shook America from coast to coast. It was the last spiritual awakening this nation has ever seen. In this brief account, we see how the Spirit of God is the one who works on the conscience to bring a person to Christ.

The following account is given from a witness to these events from 1858. Here now are his words. Impenitent men have been found ready to hear and ready to obey the gospel call. This very discovery has roused up the individual faithfulness of Christians, and they have felt the value of personal effort as they never felt it before.

Since the days of the first Christians, men have been surprised at the success of a little labor, and this has encouraged more labor. One man has gone prayerfully and affectionately to another and urged the importance of the hour, the space given him for repentance and the necessity of improving it to make his peace with God.

When he goes to him a second time, he finds him in great anxiety of mind. He asks now, What must I do? What can I do to be saved? He finds that sleep has departed from the man. His days are restless and night brings him no repose.

What is the matter with the man? Why, nothing, except that from his knees a man has gone and spoken to him at an unexpected moment, with unexpected earnestness and unwanted emotion, and with irresistible tenderness and love, has besought him to attend the gospel message.

As a sinner needing an interest in Christ, this is all, all that the Christian has done. But this is not all. It has pleased God to clothe that message with amazing power, the power of the Holy Spirit, and it will be so evident that the work is all of God, that the Christian is humbled while at the same time he is encouraged.

Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight. That, friends, is a good description of the sinner's heart under conviction. The best biblical example of this I can find is seen in the book of Acts in chapter two and verse thirty-seven, which states,.

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? For when Peter preached this sermon on the day of Pentecost, his hearers were pierced through the heart with conviction of sin.

The Sword of the Spirit and the Piercing Word

Why? Because the spirit of God set home the word with power upon the consciousness of the hearers. For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two edged sword. That, friends, is the sword of the spirit and a stab in the heart is fatal.

Paul said when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. These Jews were pierced through with the sword of God and they were gripped under the conviction of sin. The preached word from the lips of Peter was attended with power from on high and it struck their conscience, showed them their true character as rebels who sinned against God and it revealed to them their lost condition and it brought alarm to their conscience.

They were now awakened sinners under conviction of sin. And when that happens to a man, he's made aware that he is condemned by the law for he has broken God's strict law time and time again. He sees that he is guilty as a lawbreaker.

And through this, he is exposed to great danger because he sees for the first time that the punishment to which he is exposed is eternal and misery in an everlasting place of punishment called hell. He is convinced of sin and of judgment for he realizes God is just to send him to a burning hell for he has committed treason against a sovereign and the sentencing of the law must be carried out for the God is a just judge.

So the sinner's danger becomes very real to him. Before all this, he was a careless sinner who saw no danger in his behavior or his state. Now he is unable to rest at night. He is alarmed to his lost condition and his need of a remedy for sin.

Christ as the Remedy for the Convicted Sinner

Now that person is ready to hear about the Pearl of Great Price, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the remedy for sin. Now the remedy can be applied for the sinner has seen his need of that remedy. He is hungry for God.

He is weary of his sins. He is thirsty for Christ. The gospel, friends, is for the hungry, the weary and the thirsty. That man can do business with God when he gets in that condition. For when a person sees he is in danger of being lost forever, he becomes alarmed to his perilous position outside of Christ and he becomes a seeker for he cannot stand in his own merits against God's holy law for he will fail that test because God requires perfection to get it to his heaven.

And no man is perfect for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He needs to stand in the merits of another sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ. So that person who now has been awakened to his lost condition and convicted of sin is entirely shut up to God to save him.

He becomes a seeker, a beggar for mercy. The spirit of God is striving with him. This all may sound foreign to us in our day of sad spiritual declension where people make themselves Christians and join the church.

The Modern Gospel and False Security

People save themselves today. At least that is what they believe. We've taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men in your day. And my friends, there probably has never been in the history of mankind a time when more lost people or church members who think they are saved and on their way to heaven, when in reality they are quite lost and on their way to hell.

They've never been awakened to their lost condition, never convicted of sin by the spirit of God, and many rest upon a false foundation of carnal security. The reason for this is twofold. We have cheapened the gospel by diluting it to make it more palatable to sinful man.

And in the process, we have grieved the spirit of God away from our sanctuaries. Years ago, there was a God consciousness in our churches, but this is no longer the case in America today, for we escorted God to the back door of the church and pushed him out and opened the front door and let the world in.

The withdrawn presence of God should alarm us today, for it is only the Holy Spirit applying the gospel to a hard sinner's heart that convicts and saves them. Our modern gospel has no power to save. There's no need of repentance or regeneration today.

So it's never mentioned from the pulpit, man can save himself today for we have taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of man. And they join the church and live in sin and die in their sins and drop into a burning hell because a lawbreaker will be judged as a guilty rebel who deserves punishment from an offended creator.

And for the forgiveness of sin, God must have satisfaction. You are either under the blood of Christ and forgiven and have received pardon for sin or you stand in a great place of exposed danger outside of Christ's merits and will be sentenced to a place of eternal woe and misery in a world of damnation, torment and flames.

Prayer for Conviction, Mercy, and Salvation

Well, I hope we have learned a little bit tonight about the sinner's heart under conviction. I'm going to pray for us now and then leave you with a verse of scripture. And I hope you don't just hear this poor preacher's voice, but you hear his voice attending his word.

Let us pray. Great God, salvation is in your hands and you can give it or withhold it and still be a just God. I pray right now for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin to anyone within the sound of my voice who is outside of Christ Jesus and in great danger of being lost forever.

Reveal to them, great God, their crime against you by breaking your holy law through sin. Reveal to them the penalty for sin, which is hell itself and its torments. Bring conviction to them by your grace and by your mercy.

Bring them to a place of seeking pardon through the blood of your dear son, Jesus Christ, the bright and morning star, the rose of Sharon, the prince of peace, the pearl of great price who suffered and died because you, Lord, need satisfaction for sin.

Jesus, the sin bearer who took your wrath upon him so we would escape it under the shelter of his dear and precious blood poured out on our behalf. Have mercy, great God, and break up the false foundations that anyone is resting upon.

Break up the false foundations that sit in stubborn rebellion to your truth, for it is in the strong name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray, amen. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.