> 2009 European Bible Conference   October 22, 2009      Of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  John 16:9-12   The Prophet who Pointed Out David’s Evil ThoughtsWe have already examined the process by which David united the twelve tribes of Israel, and the monarchy passed from the tribe of Benjamin, where it began, to the tribe of Judah, as described at the end of First Samuel and the beginning of Second Samuel. The books of First and Second Samuel followed by First and Second Kings cover and depict the history of Israel on a very large scale. Then, the books of First and Second Chronicles, along with Ezra, and Nehemiah, focus on the tribe of Judah. Therefore many matters of import in Second Samuel are not found recorded in First Chronicles, and accounts of the preparations for the building of the temple and the numbers of the Levites to be found towards the end of First Chronicles are not recorded in Second Samuel. The content of Second Samuel chapters 11 to 21 in particular is not to be found in First Chronicles despite its great importance. We have already taken a look at David’s heart as it is revealed in the first part of Second Samuel. We have also examined David’s attitude and how he acted in regard to the house of Saul. It was a fact that the monarchy would be given to the descendants of Judah (See Genesis 49:10), but David did not defy the first king, Saul, who arose from the tribe of Benjamin, but accepted him and protected him to the end. Then, as a result of David’s attitude in accepting the tribe of Benjamin, the people of Israel became united and appeared before the world as one nation.The content of Second Samuel chapters 11 to 21 (which does not appear in First Chronicles) shows how David, having accepted the tribe of Benjamin and rallied together the other ten tribes, then had to face a crisis which offered no path of escape. Treachery arose within the tribe of Judah. When we find that an incident is recorded by one person but not another, we may think, “He must have left this out because he was too ashamed,” or “He forgot to record this part,” but there will definitely have been a reason for the Bible to have been recorded in this way. The accounts recorded in First and Second Samuel and First and Second Kings are very close to the historical facts as we know them, and they are recorded in chronological order. In First and Second Kings, the reigns of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah are recorded in detail. We are told which king was on the throne in one kingdom when a new king came to reign in the other, and how long the ruler of one kingdom had been on the throne when the ruler of the other kingdom died. All these different accounts are to be found within the same Bible, but they show us matters from a different perspective. Luke’s Gospel begins with the words, “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us” (1:1-2). In this Gospel, the events are set out very systematically. John’s Gospel, on the other hand, contains no record of where or how Jesus was born or where He came from; the account of His ministry just begins with John the Baptist seeing Him one day and saying of Him, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29). John’s Gospel puts a great deal of emphasis on the work that Jesus carried out before He was crucified. So we find that various books of the Bible may have similar content but they deal with the case in point from different perspectives. Each book has its own character and they are such that we are able to see and understand God’s will precisely when they are all combined,. We are all well familiar with the content of Second Samuel chapter 11. It tells how David lost his heart to a beautiful woman by the name of Bathsheba. This incident is related to the rebellion of David’s son, Absalom, which appears later in the book and it was the only mistake David made in front of God. In order to hide his transgression, David plotted to kill Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, by sending him to die in battle. At that time, Nathan the prophet came to David. Let’s read Second Samuel chapter 12, from verse 1.   Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’” So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” Then Nathan departed to his house.  verses 1-15   David brought about Uriah’s death and then took Uriah’s wife for himself. Nathan the prophet said to David, “I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.” This incident, which is difficult even to speak about, occurred through none other than David’s son Absalom. The prophets did not only prophesy about what was to come in the future; they also spoke of things that are invisible to the physical eye. Nathan said this to point out precisely the evil thoughts that David had in his heart, that is, his scheme to bring about the death of Uriah. When Nathan referred to this thing that David did “secretly,” it can mean the thing he did when no one was looking, but it also refers to the evil plan that was lurking in David’s heart even before he did anything. Let’s think about the work of the prophets. The Bible refers to the prophets “who prophesied of the grace that would come to you” (1 Peter 1:10). Of course, the prophets had prophecied of this grace that was to come to the people who received and read these words from the apostle Peter. If we look at this on a slightly larger scale, however, God put the words on the lips of the prophets and revealed what He was seeing. It was the role of the prophets to proclaim these words of God with absolute precision. In other words, they were spokespeople for God. They did not make anything up themselves when they spoke these prophesies; they passed on precisely what God had said. I have a reason for talking about all this. When we say we are evangelizing, what do we tell people about? It is not just a case of talking about the good things in the Bible: God is love and He has forgiven all your sins. First we let people know what kind of sinners they are. When they hear this, they may be offended at first, but after listening for a while they may acknowledge that it is true and their consciences will begin to trouble them. When they have struggled in this way, they may realize the true love of God through the Bible and become born again. We all have this kind of testimony.   Of Sin, Of Righteousness, Of JudgmentWhen the prophet Nathan came to David, he first spoke to him of his sin and told him that God had forgiven him, but a price would have to be paid for it. That price was the death of his son. When Jesus was talking to His disciples, there was one time when He spoke about matters in this same order. In John chapter 13, we read that just before Jesus was crucified and died, He gathered His disciples together, washed their feet and then broke bread with them. After Judas Iscariot had left intending to betray Him, Jesus told the remaining eleven disciples to “love one another.” (verse 34) Let’s take a look now at what He said after this. It is in John chapter 16 from verse 5.   But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.  verses 5-8   Jesus told His disciples that He was about to die and return to the place He had originally come from to be with God the Father. Then He said He would send the Helper to them. This Helper sent from the Father is the Holy Spirit who came down upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost. After Jesus departed, the Helper would come and He would “convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement.”   Of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  verses 9-11   If you know the Bible and have often read these verses, you might not think they are particularly difficult to understand, but actually this is not an easy passage at all. Generally when people consider the matter “of sin”, they simply think it is a case of living an upright life from a moral point of view. Others who have read the Bible a little more may think that it is necessary to keep the Law. When it says here “of sin”, however, it means that we need to look at ourselves through the eyes of God who sees the sins that are committed in secret just as the prophet Nathan explained to David.This verse says, “of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” That is, it speaks first of the sin of not believing. Then it says, “of righteousness.” This is similar to the prophet Nathan telling David that God had already forgiven the king for his sin. The Bible explains precisely what Jesus did in order that my sins, which are seen through God’s eyes, might be forgiven. In regard to this incident, Jesus said, “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.” He was referring here to His resurrection. Through Jesus death on the cross and His resurrection, His righteousness is accomplished in me and I am born again. It is as the Bible says, “He has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). This is the order and yet many religious people in the world are not aware of this very simple content. There are so many people in the world who say they are saved, they are born again, or they are born-again Christians, but if they are asked precisely when and how this change came about in their hearts, their answers become very vague. Once as I was returning home from a missionary trip with a group of people, I happened to be sitting beside a foreign woman. She said she was a born-again Christian, but, from what she said, there did not seem to be any  basis for this claim. On another occasion while I was talking with someone I knew very well, he said that he was born again so I said to him, “In Colossians chapter 1 verse 6 it says, ‘The gospel which has come to you … as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.’ When were you born again through the word of God?” He replied that he had never had such an experience.When the Bible says that “of sin,” most people do not consider this “sin” according to the standard that God has determined for us through the Bible; they consider it according to their own standards or they adopt the standards set by the Jews in the Old Testament who made every effort to keep the Law and they do not progress from here. This is because they are lazy when it comes to reading the Bible. Next it says, “of righteousness.” He will convict the world first of sin, but then of righteousness. This is not only the work of the Old Testament prophets; Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit came to this earth in order to build up the Church, He would transform the hearts of people in this way. Yet, people of this world say things like, “I am a sinner so I do my best to keep the Law,” and, “I try to become righteous through my efforts and through making donations of money.” God has let us know what kind of righteousness He wants through the Bible, and yet people do not understand this even when they read His word. Then this verse says “of judgment.” An individual needs to know and be able to speak up frankly about the consequences of sin, the judgment that awaits them, how Jesus has received that judgment in their place and how that judgment will become a reality for them if they turn their backs on His word. Nevertheless, in Old Testament times when the Israelites were suffering, many prophets did not want to make them concerned, so they gave them a false sense of peace, telling them, “You will not be destroyed. This kind destruction definitely will not happen” (See Jeremiah 6:14). The religions of this world make this same grave mistake in regard to the spirits of people in their sorry state. Why has this come about? It is because people do not have the eyes to see what the Old Testament is saying. They say that they know Jesus through the New Testament, but if, as we have fellowship together, we are not granted the eyes to be able to see the Old Testament as it is, we may become the most unfortunate of people. Yet, in this age in which the Israelites have reestablished their country and continue to fight endless battles in order to protect it, we have the power to see why they were able to return to their land after being scattered across the world for about 1,900 years and, through the Old Testament, we see that this history is alive and God is managing everything in it. Of course, the gospel is everywhere and a person can find salvation wherever he may be. Salvation comes about as a person is reading the Bible and from it he first realizes and is concerned about his sin and then realizes that Jesus has forgiven his sins. Anyone who says that it is not possible to be saved anywhere else but amongst us is disregarding God. God, who fills the world, does not only love me but also all those people who do not know the Bible. Nevertheless, Jesus said that when the Helper came, He would “convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Through the words and actions of the prophets in the Old Testament, we know that the God who existed long ago was the God who existed in Jesus Christ and the God who speaks to us now in the form of the Helper through the words of the Bible. We know that this is the same God past, present and future. We know that He exists eternally and by His power we continue to spread the gospel. This power is so strong that even the people who take the fore in the work of evange

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