Ghost came. I think that foreign missionaries
will say that that is not true, that a heathen who never heard of
Christ may have a tremendous conviction of sin. For notice that God
gave conscience first, and gave the Comforter afterward. Conscience
bears witness to the law, the Comforter bears witness to Christ.
Conscience brings legal conviction, the Comforter brings evangelical
conviction. Conscience brings conviction unto condemnation, and the
Comforter brings conviction unto justification. 'He shall convince the
world of sin, because they believe not on Me.' That is the sin about
which He convinces. It does not say that He convinces men of sin,
because they have stolen or lied or committed adultery; but the Holy
Ghost is to convince men of sin because they have not believed on
Jesus Christ. The coming of Jesus Christ into the world made a sin
possible that was not possible before. Light reveals darkness; it
takes whiteness to bring conviction concerning blackness. There are
negroes in Central Africa who never dreamed that they were black until
they saw the face of a white man; and there are a great many people in
this world that never knew they were sinful until they saw the face of
Jesus Christ in all its purity.

Jesus Christ now stands between us and the law. He has fulfilled the
law for us. He has settled all claims of the law, and now whatever
claim it had upon us has been transferred to Him, so that it is no
longer the _sin_ question, but the _Son_ question, that confronts us.
And, therefore, you notice that the first thing Peter does when he
begins to preach after the Holy Ghost has been sent down is about
Christ: 'Him being delivered by the determinate counsel of God, ye
have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.' It doesn't
say a word about any other kind of sin. That is the sin that runs all
through Peter's teaching, and as he preached, the Holy Ghost came down
and convicted them, and they cried out, 'What shall we do to be
saved?'

Well, but we had no part in crucifying Christ; therefore, what is our
sin? It is the same sin in another form. They were convicted of
crucifying Christ; we are convicted because we have not believed on
Christ crucified. They were convicted because they had despised and
rejected God's Son. The Holy Ghost convicts us because we have not
believed in the Despised and Rejected One. It is really the same sin
in both cases--the sin of unbelief in Christ."

Some of the