Leon Fontaine - Righteousness vs. Judgement
Hey, everybody. It is so good to have you with me. We're on a second part today about Holy Spirit waking up your ear to hear from Him. And so let's dive right in and do a fast review. Now last time we talked about Isaiah 50:4, where it talks about the Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary. And I talked about in every area of your life you can have a tongue that speaks love and truth and wisdom beyond your years or information that you could never know on your own but He guide you in the right directions. And we talked about business and marriage and your career and you're raising your kids and your teenagers.
I know moms who have such brilliant words that they speak to their kids. That those kids are just so strong in how they feel about themselves or identity. And I know other moms who say such brutal things in their anger and they can't seem to get their kids discipline enough and the words that they say are not bringing encourage and sustaining other children. It's literally hurting them, their self-worth, etcetera. So it's a crucial issue to allow Holy Spirit to speak through us.
Now, I want to go on today and I want to continue to talk about the things that Holy Spirit does for us. Now in John 16:7, it starts talking about three areas that Holy Spirit will work on you. Now it starts with you, before you're born again did you know that Holy Spirit's job is to teach you or to convince you. The word is convict, convince you that you need Jesus. He's going to convince you that you are a sinner. He's going to convince you that you can't do this on your own, that you need Christ. It says here that when He comes, Holy Spirit, He will convict you and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness and about judgment.
Now verse 9 says, "About sin, because they do not believe in Me, trust in Me, rely on Me". Now, many people think that, "Hey, Leon, if I sin, am I going to go to hell"? Um, that's not what the Bible says. What it's talking about is this sin that you can't get into heaven with and that it is going to have eternity in hell is to not believe on Jesus. That's what it says. And Holy Spirit's job is to lead people across those who don't know Christ. And the words that they speak, Holy Spirit anoints those words. And you, whatever you say to somebody in witnessing to them and sharing your story with them. Did you know that it causes faith to rise up on the inside, not the words that you're trying to convince their head like apologetics. I think it's important.
And I love the men and women who knew science and all philosophy and all these other areas to convince people that there's a God. The Bible's real. Did you know that to actually have somebody born again. Holy Spirit has to convince them that they're in sin. Now the word sin means you've missed the mark for God's best. That you cannot get to heaven without Jesus. And that one sin. That's the huge. That's the biggie to not believe on Jesus, to refuse to believe on Jesus, to accept Him as your Lord and Saviour. That is what Holy Spirit is doing in a person's life who does not know Jesus. He is going to work. And that's why when you pray for a son or a daughter that doesn't know Jesus.
You know, a husband. Pray for the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of Him like in the prayer of Ephesians 1:14 and on, because Holy Spirit has to take the words that someone speaks to them. And if nobody witnesses to him, he has nothing to use as worth. The Bible says that in Romans there needs to be people preaching or sharing, proclaiming the good news. You don't have to explain everything just tell your story. But when you begin to in a Spirit Contemporary way, just share your faith with the friends around you. Holy Spirit goes to work with your words and He begins to convict that person, convince them. I need Jesus. That person talked to me on the plane or at the coffee-shop. I need to make that decision. Because there's an emptiness in every person who doesn't know Christ. And they know they're missing something. It doesn't matter how rich, poor, wealthy, popular. It doesn't matter.
Holy Spirit's job is to convince them that they are a sinner. That you don't have what it takes. You can't do this on your own. You've got to humble yourself and receive this beautiful gift that Jesus died on the cross for, for your sins. They're forgiven and that He'll come in to your life and make you a brand new creation. This message of Jesus, it begins to cause faith. The very words that you speak to an unsaved person, Holy Spirit uses that and those words cause faith to rise up. And then just say, "Let me lead you in a prayer of giving your life to Christ. You're ready to believe on Him". And don't keep asking and preach. Just say, "Let me lead you in a prayer". And be very assertive. Because so many people they just need to be encouraged to make a decision for Christ. Where they're going with their life isn't working, or even if it is and everything is succeeding. It's not satisfying at all this emptiness inside.
Holy Spirit's job isn't for you to know the Bible frontwards and backwards to convince their head. It's just tell your story about what Jesus means to you and what you know about serving Him. And here it says Holy Spirit is the one who convinces them. Now, they can still say no. God's never going to can make somebody serve Him. But as people cross their path, as you maybe invite them out to a really cool church, and they hear words spoken about how much Jesus means to you. Often when I talk to people, I'll just tell them about what Jesus means to me. The peace that I have. The confidence that I have as a man. You know, as a CEO, as a pastor. The strength that I find to help me with every day issues, marriage and home, etcetera, and my health. I just talk about what Jesus means to me and those words go deep.
I've talked to people years later. I'll never forget one lady talking to me. It was 11 years later that I just talked to her for a little bit on the plane about hope. The hope that I have in Jesus. And she got a hold of me through watching the television program and sent me a letter or it's an email that came to our office and just said that she'd made a decision for Christ. That over 10 years later she's going through a rough spot and she remembered literally verbatim the things that I had said to her about what Jesus means to me and she'd given her life to Jesus Christ. So you don't know what Holy Spirit's going to do. You just need to know that He's on you. Witnessing needs to be done. Sharing your faith, sharing your story because that is when Holy Spirit, I mean, ramp up the faith in that person to believe on Jesus.
Now, once a person believes on Jesus and gives her life to Him. Holy Spirit has to do the second work in their life. And here's what it says, verse 9 says about sin because they do not believe in Me. But then it says about righteousness because I go to my Father. What does that mean? Well, Jesus died on the cross. He took your sin. Every sin in your past and your future. And so once you give your life to Jesus Christ, who are you? Well, because Jesus rose again with new life and we are now in Him. We are a new creation. Now Jesus went to heaven to the right hand of the Father and there is where He stands as our intercessor. Our lawyer with the holes in His hands from the nails. The spear hole in His side and forever to be standing there and showing the Father and the hordes of hell and anyone else who tries that... No, I died for this person.
And the Bible says for you to be in right standing with God, to be righteous. It's a gift. And now His job is to convince you to convict you in the fact that you are now righteous before God. That doesn't mean that you don't do wrong things. You might, you know, be angry. You might think bad things. You might have a fall into sin. But that's what you're doing isn't deciding who you are because righteousness comes as a gift from Jesus. It's like my kids. I sometimes say to them, "Okay, you know what, you're a Fontaine. We don't do that. We don't tell lies. We know, we don't steal toys. You know, when my kids were small. We're Fontaine". And I'm trying to get them to have a sense of pride in who we are. Well, just because they weren't acting like a Fontaine doesn't mean they weren't a Fontaine.
And that's what some people need to understand. That when you give your life to Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit's job now isn't to convince you you're a sinner. That was the job. You invited Christ in and you are now a saint because of Jesus. You are righteous because of Jesus. But some preachers and people, they get this all mixed up. They think Holy Spirit is still trying to convince you, you're a sinner. And so they'll say things like, "Oh, I'm just a sinner, saved by grace". No, you were a sinner. You are now because of the grace of God, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He arose again and you received Him. That beautiful gift. You are now righteous. The Bible calls you a saint.
The apostle Paul would write to the saints at Corinth, to the saints in Galatia. He didn't write to the sinners at Corinth. We need to understand that your identity now is that you are washed in the blood of the lamb. You are clean and that a gift was given to you. You are in God's family as a gift. And you are righteous, in right standing with Him. Even though each today you're still dealing with issues that you're working on. And by the way, His power helps you to beat addictions and not give in to sins. Sin loses its power in your life. But Holy Spirit's job one person said to me, "Well, every time I, you know, I tried to go to church. Holy Spirit just convicts me of all the sin in my life". I'm going, "No, that's your own heart condemning you". And that's good. I'm not condemning but that's your own heart saying, "We need to change this. We need to change that". But Holy Spirit's job is to show you who you are. So you begin to live and act like the person you now are. You are righteous. You are a child of God.
And I just want you to understand because as a young man I would often try to find times of prayer and I want to get to know God. But every time I'd go to pray, all of a sudden every bad word, every bad thought, everything I didn't do right would just rise up and I would feel so guilty trying to pray. And then as I dove into God's Word and I found out that the Bible says come boldly into the throne room of God to ask for mercy. And I began to realize that, that I wasn't bold. I felt I was so condemned and I felt so guilty for the things I wasn't doing right. And I needed to go back into God's Word and look at this truth. That Holy Spirit convinces me now that I'm righteous as a gift from Jesus. And then I can boldly talk to God. Pray. I can boldly get up and believe for miracles, not because I'm perfect. But because the perfect one, Jesus, is in me, and He's given me this gift of righteousness. That's so powerful.
Now, a lot of Christians, okay, never get past this second thing that Holy Spirit does. They've given their life to Jesus Christ but they've never gotten past. They still don't believe they are righteous. They would be mortified if, that I told them. You are righteous. You are right with God as Jesus is on this planet, so are you. Woo! Don't say that. I'm just a sinner barely saved by grace. No, you were a sinner. That was your identity. But when you believed on Jesus and invited Him in. You became and you are adopted into God's family. You are now a child of God and you've been given a gift of righteousness.
And until you get that, you will struggle your entire life, until you understand His grace. That this unearned favour that God has given you. Which is entrance into His family, all your sins forgiven, and you are in right standing with God. We call that righteous. And until you believe you are righteous. You're always going to struggle with low self-worth, guilt, condemnation for the sins of your past and the things that have happened. You're not doing enough. I just watch Christians struggle. And I say, "Get into the Word and begin to find out who you are in Christ". Holy Spirit will take you on a journey and convince you and convict you you're righteous. You're a child of God. He's in love with you. He's pleased by you ang get up and be who you are.
The third thing the Bible says that Holy Spirit convicts us of is about judgement, because the ruler of this world is judged. Condemned the Amplified says, and sentence is already passed on him. What does that mean? That means that there's no salvation for Satan like some of the crazy doctrines that some people have. But then he has already been judged condemned and he will be locked up. He will be chained up and casted into the lake of fire. The problem is that everything he owns is going with him and he has all these wonderful people on this planet who don't know Jesus. And so because the ruler is judged, and because the enemy is judged. If people don't know Jesus Christ, then they can't make it into heaven. They won't even be able to exist even if God wanted to bring them there because sin cannot exist in the presence of God.
And so when you recognize that, then you realize they must be born again. That the blood of Jesus washed us clean from all of our sin. And that we are righteous because of Jesus. But then you've got to remind yourself that there's a judgment coming for every person. You know, today I forget the number. I think it's around a hundred thousand people are going to go into eternity today. They're going to die. And where they go is determined by did they accept or reject Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. And so when you recognize that there is a judgment for everyone. That if you have not accepted Christ as your Saviour, then your name is not in the book of life. It's impossible to get into heaven.
And so then when we recognize that there's judgment, Holy Spirit begins to convince us that this is crucial. This is more important than the CIA, the KGB, the CC's. It's more important than countries on this earth. It's more important than economies and political parties. The most important thing on the planet is to recognize that every person has got to stand before God. And if they've not given their life to Christ, eternity without Jesus is at stake. And then having a revelation of judgment will cause you with whatever career you've got, whatever you do as an electrician, a doctor, a lawyer, a pastor, a mom, a dad, a grandpa, a grandma, retired. It doesn't matter. That share the beauty of Jesus and the power of the Gospel.
The Bible says in Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation". If somebody will share with people this message of Jesus, Holy Spirit will cause faith to rise up inside of them. They will begin to be convinced that they need Jesus. And you can lead them in that simple prayer or statement of asking Jesus in, believing on Him, choosing Him. So Holy Spirit is going to convince you that you need to spend your life advancing the kingdom of heaven. You know, as you begin to recognize because the Bible says as a pastor, one of the things that I need to do is to win the lost but my job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So that people who come to our churches or who watch our television programs. I believe that I should be equipping them to know who they are.
If someone's watching who's not born again, I want them to have Holy Spirit convince them they need Jesus. Then I want to help show the Word of God to people and teach the Word of God to convince them you're righteous. And because that's the biggest hurdle for most of the saints on the planet and get them to realize who they are in Christ. And once they realized that, then don't just go play and enjoy your life and go, "Wahoo! I get to have all the blessing of God, all the promises of God. I can be prosperous and healthy and whole and happy, and I'm going to enjoy my life". Yes! But the Bible says seek first the kingdom of God. Meaning you enjoy, yes, and Jesus came to give you a great life. But you can't do it by ignoring the fact judgment is coming for every individual. And so we need to get out there and everywhere you go whether you're pumping gas or you're talking to your neighbor think of a classy, contemporary, relevant way. And it's different for each person to share what Jesus has done in your life and to share that with them.
When you share your story, you know, people will often talk to me and I don't talk like a pastor. I just talk like a man and I'll just tell them. You know, when I made the decision and I chose Jesus and I heard the news about Him, something inside of me, I knew I needed Him. And I asked Him to take over my life, to come into my heart. And when I did that, and then I'll just start explaining to people why my life is so changed. And what I was like before and what I'm like now, and how that every storm that blows, there's such a confidence in me that He's with me. He's with me against the storm. God's not in the storm trying to teach me something. Crazy doctrines some people have. No, Jesus is with me. He never leaves me. He never forsakes me. He is with me through every storm that life ever brings. And even when it's time to die, He is with me. There's no fear. He takes the sting out of death.
My eyes close in this life and they open to the sounds, the smells, and the beauty of heaven. There's no fear in death. Continually walk, confess, and believe. You are righteous. It's a gift that's been given to you and judgment comes to those who don't know Christ. So we must, Jesus taught us go to the highways and the byways and compel people to come to Him, to come to His banquet. It's a very symbolic thing. So everywhere we go, my dad was a real evangelist. He was a pastor evangelist. And every day he would get at least get one person born again. I would watch him sometimes do four in one hospital room and he would talk about Jesus. And this people would just listen and you can see the convincing power of the Holy Spirit at work on the inside of them. And then he'd say, "Let me lead you in that prayer right now. And you need to give your life to Jesus Christ. All right? Let's do it right now". And they go, "Okay". And he would lead them in that prayer because he could sense that as he shared Jesus with them, faith was rising on the inside of them to be born again.
I learned so much. I remember walking into one hospital room with him. And it was four beds in that room separated by curtains and they were kind of open. There was four men in that room. He'd been invited to speak to the one in the corner. So we go in there and I'm just letting him share with him. He prayed with him about sickness and the things he was dealing with in the hospital. And then he talked to him about his Jesus and what Jesus means to him. That He's a healer, that He brings peace, that He helps you in every stage of your life. And as he's talking to that man, he's talking kind of loud. Nurses were walking by and kind of looking at him a bit of a frown. What's the noise? And I said, "Dad, you shouldn't talk too loud". He go, "Oh". And he just kept talking. And then he led that guy in a prayer, out loud, and the guy gave his life to Christ.
As he straighten up to say goodbye, the guy across the room goes, he goes, "Ah, pastor. Pastor, could I talk to you, too"? Then the other guy said, "Yeah, me too". And so then he went, he led the second guy to the Lord. The third guy to the Lord. And the fourth guy that wasn't saying anything invited him to come talk with him before he left as well. And I watched four men gave their lives to Jesus Christ in that hospital room that day because he was just brave and bold enough to tell them about the Jesus that changed his life, his story, his testimony of what Jesus meant to him. I want to just say to everybody watching. You cannot live this life and not share your story. That is wrong. You must look for opportunities to bring encouragement and peace.
Just do good deeds for people and it will open up a door to share the Jesus you love with them in a way that will change their life. And then just lead them to faith in Jesus. Guide them in that prayer that says, "Jesus, I trust You. I want You. Come into my heart. I'm following You with my life". And watch that born again experience just happen on the inside of them. Then take them with you to church say, "Listen, I'll pick you up. We'll go for lunch after". And if they say no, just continue to try to get them for coffee. Teach them the Word. Invite them over to your house. Take them up for coffee again. Teach them the primary principles of knowing Jesus and what He means. Don't just leave them then because once they get born again, they're baby Christians. They need to have someone befriend them.
It's now your responsibility to equip them. Get them out to your church. Continue to meet with them and teach them the Bible. Buy them a Bible. Buy them a great books that shows them the principles of God's Word. And when you do, you'll help grow them strong. So they don't slide away because the enemy will bring persecution against them. Friends will say, "Why did you do that for? Or yeah, is it that church"? The enemy will rise up and try to compromise the decision they made. You must stay with them and befriend them and hang out with them. Every few days give them a call, hang out. Take them with you to church, etcetera. If you don't' know this Jesus I'm talking about and you're watching this show. Then you need to say:
Jesus, come into my heart. I give you my life. I want to follow You.
Congratulations. You're now born again. Keep watching this program and we'll guide you in this amazing new life.