WARNING PREACHY…
John 16:8-11
(ESV)
7 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 go, I will send him to you. 8 And when
he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and
judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they
do not believe in me; 10 concerning
righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;
11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of
this world is judged.
Jesus
told his disciples that the world is wrong about sin, righteousness, and
judgment, and that the coming of the Holy Spirit would convict the world of its
error.
Concerning
sin…
Jesus
here tells us that it is the Holy Spirit that will convict the world of its
sin. Of course Christians need to inform
the world of God’s word and what sin actually is, but too often the Christian
speaks to the sinner with disdain and a sneer seemingly to get the worldly one
to convert to faith right then and there.
And while I cannot claim that many have not had a genuine conversion to
faith in this manner, I still don’t think it’s my job to attempt to convict
people of sin—because frankly, the Holy Spirit is a much more compassionate
convector of sin that I am.
So
how is the world wrong about sin?
Simply, according to verse 9, anything that attempts to deal with sin
without Jesus is incorrect.
Our
world is full of the attempt to get to heaven without Jesus, it rejects the
words of our Lord from John 14:6 - Jesus
said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me – as too exclusive and not encompassing enough. But I have never done a funeral where the
loving family didn’t expect that their loved one was enjoying the fruits of God’s
Glory even though they knew well enough that the person was not a follower of
Jesus. The world is wrong about sin,
when it doesn’t consider itself as sinful and Jesus as sin’s only
solution.
It’s
often the case that we preachers feel like we are the ones who need to convict people
of sin by our many words rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to use our simple
proclamation of Christ to convict the sinner.
Remember, verse 8 informs us that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to convict
the world concerning sin; not the Christian.
Concerning
righteousness…
In
verse 10 Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning
righteousness because He goes to the Father and the world can no longer see
Him.
Too
often we look to what we can see and observe in order to determine our own
righteousness. We look to whether we are
obeying the laws, following the rules, or doing what is moral and right in
order to determine if we are righteous or not.
This however, is the wrong standard of righteousness. The correct standard of righteousness is not
observable by sight or sound or any other standard of physical measure. The correct standard is that of faith: faith
in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ upon the cross.
2 Corinthians 5
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who
knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The
Holy Spirit will have fully convicted us concerning righteousness when we
understand that the righteousness of God is not what we do (or don’t do) but what Jesus Christ has already done for us
when He died on the Cross; the righteousness of God is not determined from what
we can observe from our own actions, but must be believed by faith alone in Him
who is not seen.
Hebrews 11:16
6 And without faith it is impossible to
please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that
he rewards those who seek him.
Concerning
judgement…
Finally
the world will be convicted concerning judgment because the ruler of this world
is judged.
John 12:31
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now
will the ruler of this world be cast out.
The
world is obsessed with the future judgment of God upon the world. We talk of the Judgment Day, when Christ will
come and judge the living and the dead (1
Peter 4:5). But the good news is that satan has already been found guilty
and sin and death defeated when the Christ died on the Cross. Too many of us trudge along each day waiting
for The Day to come, when in fact no judgment need yet come.
Romans 8:1
There is
therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
When
the world is convinced that the judgment of the devil is a present reality,
then it will rejoice in the Victory of Jesus.
And
so it is that when the Holy Spirit came, He came to convict us concerning the
truth about sin, righteousness, and judgement.
Have we been convicted concerning these things? If you have not, please be sure to seek the
wisdom of Christ by asking the Holy Spirit to convict you of such things right
now.
