May I speak of a fact too common, alas, to escape observation? We are living in times of superficial conviction. Souls are not plowed up by the Spirit of God, as He would and as they should be. Men say, "Peace, peace," too easily. The sinner is not made to realize the awfulness of his position-a guilty, lost and helpless soul on the brink of eternity. I know this is not considered popular preaching, and that it is hardly thought proper or wise to speak of the hell of eternity that awaits Christ-rejectors. As a result, the work of conviction is very superficial, and, even when real, of but shallow depth. But souls must be convicted of sin if they are to receive the gospel. That gospel is not a mere piece of logic to be reasoned about as:"All men are sinners; Christ died for sinners; therefore He died for me." Cold, lifeless acquiescence like this is not faith, nor salvation. It is the awakened soul that realizes what it is to be "lost" that can appreciate, as cold water to a thirsty man, the gospel of the grace of God. Men trim down the solemn fact of man's sin, and thus the Spirit's work of conviction is hindered. What wonder that the professing church is full of unsaved souls!
Let us take an example of this convicting work of the Spirit. I think you will find without forcing, the three features, conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is the first gospel sermon preached, after the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, by Peter. We might use his own language as to it, "preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven."
First, as to conviction of sin, he brings home to them the fact of their rejection of Christ:"Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain"( Acts 2:23). Here the Holy Spirit brings home the fact of their sin. It was not now a question of this and that transgression, but they had refused to believe on Christ-had rejected Him.
Next, he convicts them of righteousness, because Jesus had gone to the Father:"Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it … Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear" (Acts 2:24,33). Clearly, God had manifested His righteousness, and vindicated His beloved Son in thus raising and exalting Him to the right hand of power.
Not so prominently, but still clearly there, the Spirit of God brings home to them the reality of impending judgment:"I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come" (Acts 2:19, 20). All nature would quake in the presence of its Judge, and this judgment was imminent.
Thus we have a threefold conviction of sin; and what was the result? "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?" Blessed work! Is there not joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth? and here were three thousand souls crying under conviction by the, mighty work of the Spirit of God. Blessed and easy work now for Peter to set Christ before them, and to assure them of free forgiveness in His name.
S. Ridout, in "Lectures on the Holy Spirit."