Sin

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. To each of you we wish the grace and the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like to turn to Romans the 8th chapter. I wasn't thinking about reading from here until just now. Well, I've been listening off and on to a tape by Brother George Brunk II, something he preached at the Weavertown Church, I don't know when. [00:00:40] But some things that he said drew my thoughts to this passage of scripture just now in relation to what I was considering to speak this morning. It seems there are two conflicting, contrasting thoughts about the subject of sin. Now here in this passage we read about different people, different parts of God's creation responding to this problem in this way. [00:01:14] It says in verse 21, the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Then he says in the next verse, verse 22, we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Then in verse 23, not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the wit, the redemption of our body. [00:01:51] Just a little further down in verse 26, it says, likewise the Spirit itself also maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. you see three groans the creature groans those that have hope in themselves groan and the Holy Spirit groans I'm not sure what all that is to tell us but it was given in relation to what it says in verse 21 [00:02:22] that there is a desire in God's creation to be delivered from the bondage of corruption Now on the one side, as what we're looking at this morning, we see a very dark picture called here the bondage of corruption. About us in this world, there are many things that are corrupt. We hear older people say how much worse things are than they used to be. [00:02:57] I'm not sure if that's actually true or not let me read from Genesis chapter 6 and then again in Romans but the reality of life is that something has happened to God's creation of which he said when he was all done it was very good and it related to him in a marvelous way something has happened to that creation Till now it is called the bondage of corruption. [00:03:31] Chapter 6, Genesis It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose and the Lord said my spirit shall not always strive with men for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years There were giants in the earth in those days And also after that when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men [00:04:03] And they bare children to them The same became mighty men which were of old men of renown And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth That every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth And it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth Both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air For it repenteth me that I have made them [00:04:33] But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord These are the generations of Noah Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation And Noah walked with God And Noah begat three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. [00:05:10] And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Now certainly, that was not a good condition. God had said about man, behold, it was very good. And he had said about his creation, it was good and it was very good. But now he says, the earth is filled with corruption and violence. And I repent that I have ever made it, made the people and the creation. [00:05:41] If we go to Isaiah, the first chapter, we get another picture of what God sees as He sees mankind. He said that, speaking about Israel especially, perhaps I should just read one verse or so there in Isaiah chapter 1. When God gave us a description of mankind, it wasn't a beautiful picture. I think it was in the Psalms or the Proverbs, He gives us another picture. He says that mankind is like someone that sits at a table and vomits. [00:06:15] That's not a very nice picture. As you think of what God sees when he looks on mankind. He says about his people from the sole of the foot, even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. You see, open, oozing, smelly sores. [00:06:47] It's what God sees as he sees fallen mankind, sinful mankind. Romans, pardon me, 2 Timothy, is where I want to go. In Romans we could find similar thoughts, but I'd like to read 2 Timothy, the third chapter. The first verse is there. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Now, I'm not sure when the last days began. Sometime after Christ's coming. [00:07:20] And there were perilous times, many times. Times of persecution, times of debauchery. The Roman Empire reveled in sin and all kinds of wickedness. Empires came and empires fell based on their response to a holy God. But he says here, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, [00:07:58] Truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof From such turn away It was not a lack of religion that he was talking about But it was a lack of reconciliation with the Holy God. [00:08:29] There's a sense in which we cannot really understand the nature and the quality of sin without seeing the holiness of God. When Isaiah had his vision, he saw the Lord high and lifted up in chapter 6 in Isaiah. And he saw the holy beings in heaven manifesting, saying, however they did it, These words, holy, holy, holy And when Isaiah saw the holiness of God [00:09:00] We see Isaiah prostrate on his face Woe is me, he said He got a picture of the reality of this thing called sin And as we look at life around us And maybe it's this that draws me to this message this morning As I look around in life And I see the pain, and I see the suffering. I see those children that are removed from their parents, that are abandoned by their parents, that are left to themselves, starving, lacking most of all that reassurance of being loved. [00:09:43] You see husbands and wives that are separated, the pain that they inflict on each other. You see those men in prison, and you see a little room off to the side where some of you go sometimes. And you see a mother and some children sitting in there talking with a daddy or a husband that they can't go home with. They have to go home again, and lives are torn. You look at all the corruption in the world. The way people mistreat each other. And even in the churches where people bicker and don't give themselves for each other. And you could go on and on and on. The pain, the suffering, the heartaches in life. There's one reason this morning. It's sin. Sin does all that and more. We could together enlarge this picture until maybe we would almost despair because sin is abounding. [00:10:52] The Bible says it is an abounding thing because iniquity abounds, the love of many shall wax cold. It says sin is a spreading thing that goes on and on and on. All the injustice, the way people mistreat each other, the way people don't do what's fair to each other, that grab for themselves, and that are selfish, and all the other bad things you could possibly name, have one source, sin. And let us be clear this morning that the source of sin is always Satan. [00:11:29] The source of injustice is Satan. The source of feuds is Satan. The source of hatred is Satan. Rejection. It is always God's archenemy that is behind every one of those things. If our eyes could be opened to the reality of what is happening in our world today, I don't know how it makes you feel, I would wish that the people of God would sometimes get angry. [00:12:01] Angry with this malady called sin. On the one hand, sin has been camouflaged. It has been reinterpreted. People have come to the place where we're rather tolerant of sin. And it's not really so bad. There are those kind of respectable sins. But let me say this morning, there is no such good, not such thing as a good sin or an acceptable sin. They always militate against God. [00:12:35] They always bring ruin. We can find in the scripture different things that happen. There is never anything right with sin. No matter how it is interpreted or considered. Sin is deceptive. Hebrews the third chapter. It speaks about the deceitfulness of sin. Sin makes people believe things that aren't true. It makes people think that they're on a course that they're going to get enjoyment and blessing out of life. But let me say this morning that sin always has a consequence. [00:13:08] And it is never good. It is deceptive. People can come to the place where they call good evil and evil good. The prophet Isaiah said they can call darkness light. Light, they can call light darkness, they can call bitter sweet, they can call sweet bitter. But that's only because sin deceives people into believing the untruth. That for the moment I am going to find pleasure and enjoyment, but there's always a consequence. [00:13:40] There is no such thing as any form of sin that is acceptable. If we go to Ephesians, the second chapter, we've heard it alluded to and referred to this morning, perhaps in our Sunday school class and here, that sin always separates between man and God. Your iniquities have separated you from me. This is what the scripture says. God's holiness is too high and holy to be in the presence of sin, to coexist with sin. [00:14:20] Now the question, the thing that has been impacting me is what we read in Romans the 9th chapter. How does this sin issue impact my life? And I'm not saying this morning, how does it impact my life if I indulge in it? But I'm saying, as a child of God, how do I handle this issue of sin? As a person gets older, we expect he gets weaker. I'm learning that as a person gets older, you not only get weaker in your muscles, [00:14:56] But you get weaker in your emotions and sometimes it is overwhelming when I consider the pain that people are so needlessly going through. It's not necessary because our Lord has made a way of escape, a deliverance from sin. On the one hand, we would paint the darkest picture possible of sin. On the other hand, we would paint the most glorious picture of deliverance from sin. [00:15:32] They stand in stark contrast to each other and they are both real. And thank God we do not have to live under the power of sin. But if we play with sin, if we tinker with sin, if we indulge in sin, sin is going to destroy our lives. for the wages of sin is death. A living death and an eternal death. Romans the 9th chapter. [00:16:03] As I consider how sin impacts the people of God, I read these words of Paul and can somewhat identify with him. I say the truth in Christ. I lie not. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart Paul was saying I have a great heaviness and a continual sorrow [00:16:33] Was that because of his own past? Was that because of his defeat? Was that because of his physical struggles? I don't think so He said, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. As Paul looked around him, he saw his relatives, first of all. He saw his chosen people, the people that God had claimed for his own. [00:17:05] The religious people, the church people, the professing people. When he saw them, he saw what sin was working in their lives. And he said, as I see that, I am in continual sorrow and I am in great heaviness. I could even wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law [00:17:35] and the service of God and the promises whose are the fathers of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed forever. Amen. As he looked about it he saw the blessings of God the people of God and their opportunities. He remembered the history of those men of faith we read about in Hebrews 11 their fathers the glorious things that they had experienced And then he saw what sin had done to his people. [00:18:09] And he said, even Christ the Redeemer came through my people, but here we are under the corruption of sin. All kinds, respectable and non-respectable, for lack of better words, of sin. Do you ever, what does sin do to you as a child of God? What kind of an emotion does it impact with you? What kind of a response does it elicit from us? [00:18:40] Paul acknowledged his heaviness. If we go back to the next chapter, the first verse he says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. It seems to me that for the child of God to behold the corruption in this world, To hear about some of the ridiculous things that happen is not funny, but it creates a heaviness. [00:19:11] It creates a continual sorrow. It is a weight on us, but it is a weight that takes us to God. My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Oh, that men would not have to suffer the consequences of sin. That people would not have to live under these pains and rejections and hatreds and strifes and quarrels and murders and stealings and immorality and all the other things that go on in life. [00:19:49] That they might be saved. That was the passion of Paul. And you find that he exercised that passion because he says how that he wept day and night. How he prayed all night. how he labored in the work of the church ceaselessly and he suffered the many deprivations of life the sufferings of travels and the sufferings of rejections and persecution because his heart's desire was [00:20:19] that people would be saved it was his driving passion when Jesus was here one time it says when he came near that was near to the city of Jerusalem He beheld the city and he wept. He wept over it. You see our Lord experiencing the same thing and probably to a greater degree. He said, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. [00:20:53] It was a pain to our Lord. Our Lord wept because of what He saw people were needlessly experiencing because of sin. How can we have a heaviness and not go under? Some years ago, I read, when I was going to school, in fact, as a young boy, there was a man, I think his name was Howard Hammer, if I remember correctly. Howard Hammer was a missionary. And one day the news came that Howard Hammer ended his own life. [00:21:30] A man of God, a man of prayer. And it was said of Howard Hammer that he so agonized for the souls of men that he despaired. When he saw that they rejected God's plan of salvation. We don't know. That's all in God's hands. But I appreciated what a brother told me not long ago that it seems to me enters into this very picture of how we look at this issue of corruption and sin in the world. [00:22:03] He said there's a difference between caring for someone and carrying someone's load. And there is. We cannot carry one another's guilt. We cannot carry the responsibility for all the sin that is in the world But we can care We can have compassion And I think that's what Paul and Jesus were experiencing They cared Behold how he loved him [00:22:36] He had compassion on them Different times the scriptures speak about this When we see the ugliness of sin the suffering that people go through I hope our hearts care not only but included when people are hungry and their body has no strength hardly to go on because they don't have food to eat and people have sickness and so on our hearts are stirred with feelings and sympathy but when you see the impact of sin [00:23:12] The pain that goes because of wrongdoing. Sin, the Bible says, is the transgression of God's law. But somewhere we don't go God's way. It is sin. Whatever is not of faith is sin. The thought of foolishness is sin. And other things of this nature the Bible tells us about to identify this thing. When we see those things, how does it grip our hearts with compassion? that we could even oh I haven't come to that place [00:23:44] where I could wish myself accursed that someone else might be saved. What all that means I'm not able to say but what I do know is the Apostle Paul said that he has a great heaviness and a continual sorrow because of sin. He had the right picture of sin. We see in the scriptures that the men of God had that vision. [00:24:15] The disciples had it. The first thing that they preached when they looked about on the people's condition was repent. Turn from this sin. There's a remedy for sin. Man does not need to live under it. The disciples preached it. Jesus preached it. Paul preached it. And many men of God since then have been preaching repent. A man told me just recently that someone in his church does counseling [00:24:45] and he kind of emphasized the point that this counselor has a master's degree in psychology. And I'm not going to speak about psychology this morning, but the real issue is sin needs to be repented of. God has a solution It is not a study of why I do what I do It's a study of going God's way First of all, there may be times when we need some or the other [00:25:19] But God has a remedy for this sin issue When we look at Calvary, we see God's true view of sin He saw sin so evil, so wicked Such a culprit in his creation that he said, I'm going to send my only son to die that man might be redeemed. How did God look at sin? It warranted the greatest that he had. He had heaviness because his creation was damaged. [00:25:59] And he sent his son. We see it there. 1 Peter 3 we read about the atonement John the third chapter the Bible tells us God so loved the world God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life he did something about this sin issue he was not willing to let sin have its course he robbed it of its power [00:26:31] And as we turn to God, we find compassion Ephesians the second chapter, let me read a few verses here, a number of verses You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world According to the prince of the power of the air The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience When you see children, and this is not talking necessarily about juveniles He's talking about people. When people live in disobedience, what's happening? [00:27:08] They walk according to the spirit that works in them. A wicked spirit produces disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, who were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. [00:27:41] By grace you are saved, and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them [00:28:12] wherefore remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands that at that time you were without Christ Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us. [00:28:48] In times past, without God, dead in trespasses and sins, but God, who is rich in mercy, has raised us up with Him. On the one hand, sin, the reality of sin, it is sin that is creating all this havoc in this world, this corruption, even the creaturely world experiences the effects of sin. And one could go on talking about the things that happen in nature that are the result of sin. [00:29:23] But that's not the point today. The world is awaiting something new. A place where we're away from sin. I think yet of the words of Jesus in Matthew when he says, how does he say? Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. [00:29:57] Sometimes we get things confused and we think the yoke of Jesus is heavy, but let me tell you this morning, the yoke of sin is much heavier and the yoke of Jesus in reality is light because it delivers us from sin. Let's kneel and pray. Our Father God, this morning again, one more time we thank you for redemption, for sending Jesus, your Son, to die for us, to make atonement that we can be back in peace with you, [00:30:29] and we cry out to you this morning for those who live under the bondage of sin. Father, if it's covered sin, if it's denied sin, or whatever kind of sin it is, We pray that you would make sin exceeding sinful in their hearts That they may see the truth, open the eyes of those in sin That they may know the truth and turn their eyes to Jesus the Redeemer Father, we pray that you would help us to have the right kind of heaviness in our hearts [00:31:00] We cannot carry these burdens, but we can love We pray that you would give us compassion in our hearts that you would help us to be intercessors that people might be redeemed from this bondage and its pain. In Jesus name, Amen.