seeking for the help of the Lord. I direct your prayerful attention
to Romans chapter 7 and reading for our text verse 13. It is specifically the words
in the middle of this text, this verse, but sin that it might
appear sin, or sin that it might appear sin. The whole verse reads
Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but
sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which
is good, that sin, by the commandment, might become exceeding sinful. Romans 7 verse 13. is very evident from the word
of our text, that sin might appear in a different way to what it
really is. In fact, not so bad as what it
really is. In fact, might not even be identified
as being the cause of all of the sorrows and death and troubles
that are in this world. Sin, not appearing to be sin. Sin not being exceedingly sinful. But in our text, there is a way
made that sin might appear sin, exactly what it is. You know, we all live with the
effects of sin. From the time that we are born,
we all know what it is to have pain. We know what it is to have
illnesses, whether it be a cold or more severe illnesses. We know what it is to have troubles,
to have people rise against us. The children at school know the
cruelty of those to them. They know their troubles, their
fears. We grow up expecting that we
are in an imperfect world and, well, we've just got to get on
with it. And we try and deal with the things that are here,
really dealing with the symptoms, not the actual malady, not actually
realizing the cause, but just dealing with the effects of sin
and what it has brought into this world. It's like when we would have
a cold, we know that there is actually not a cure for a cold,
but we would take things to deal with the actual symptoms. We might take paracetamol or
something like that to take away the pain or to help us. if someone
had something more serious, if they had something like cancer,
and you realize, well, if you really know what that is, you
won't want to just deal with the symptoms. You realize there
is a cause. And so you use things like chemotherapy
to just shrink the tumor, to deal with that cancer, to use
even surgery to cut that out to deal with it. You're not content
in just dealing with symptoms. Of course, when in the case of
cancer or things like that, it becomes inoperable and there's
nothing you can do to deal with the cause, then it becomes palliative
care. The hospices, those that are
just dealing with keeping those dear afflicted ones free of pain
and with comfort but just waiting for the time that they are taken
by the hand of death. And so we do know, we do know
in our lives the difference between just dealing with the symptom
and actually going to the root of the cause and dealing with
that when it is in our power to actually do it. But when we look at the things
that are in the world, do we really realize that actually
the root cause is sin? You might say, well, there's
nothing we can do about that. But that is why our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, has come into this world. why he was given
the name of Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. But really, you know, by nature,
we don't see the evil of sin. We see its symptoms, we groan
under it, we speak about all of the whole creation, and if
you were to read on in the next chapter, Romans 8, we read that
the whole creation groaneth together until now, burdened, under the
curse, under sin. We don't see what the end will
be of sin. We don't see that we have an
eternal soul, we are not just created for this world and when
we die that is the end. We do not realize the nature
of sin at all. We don't realize that we stand
before a holy God and that we are accountable to him. That
one day we must stand before his judgment seat. We don't realize
these things. But in our text it speaks of
sin. The whole Bible speaks of sin,
its consequences, and the remedy, the way of escape from the sentence
against sin in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But whereas those
that are yet dead in trespasses and sins do not really know what
sin is, So it is as well with those of us who do know the Lord
that we can backslide and can get into a condition where sin
doesn't appear sin anymore. It's not as bad even as what
it once was with us when we were first called, when we were first
saved. And so it is with these thoughts
that I want to speak this morning, sin that it might appear sin. What God has done, what he does
do, that in his people sin does appear sin. And may the Lord
be pleased to bless it to us this morning that those of us
who have become hardened, those who sin is no longer what it
once was, that through the Holy Spirit we might again see what
we trust we once did see, and that we might see sin in all
its evilness, how terrible it is. So then I want to end with the
Lord's help at 3, points. Firstly, what sin is and how
it came into the world. Secondly, how sin does not appear,
sin, in our eyes. And then thirdly, what God does
in those that he will save, so that sin appears what it really
is. Yes, before we even look at these
points, may we remind ourselves on this that it is only those
that God will save that really see sin and feel sin as to be
what it is. Not just by hearing about it,
but by feeling and knowing it. in themselves. But firstly, what is sin? Sin is not just to be described
by the effects of it, by those things that we have
described in the world. Maitreya very clearly in the
epistle, General of John, what actually the definition of sin
is. In 1 John 3 and verse 4 we are
told, Now may we be very clear of this? The law that is transgressed
is not man's law, but is God's law. Man can make laws that are
contrary to God's laws. He could make a law and say that
we're not allowed to worship as we do this morning in the
house of God. And if we were to worship, we
would be breaking and transgressing the law of the land. But we wouldn't
be transgressing the law of God. We wouldn't be committing sin. Sin is the transgression of the
law of God. How did it come into the world?
God gave to our first parents, Adam and Eve, a law. He gave
them that they could eat of all the trees of the garden of Eden,
except the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of knowledge
of good and of evil. And God said that in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So he gave
them the commandment, the law, that they should not break, not
go against, and he gave them the sentence, what would happen
if they did break that law. We have in our land many laws
that, well, the actual sentence is a bit indeterminate, really. You could have a case where someone
goes to court and they're brought in guilty, and the judge then
decides what the sentence should be. Other laws, we have a very
prescribed sentence. If someone gets caught speeding
in their car on the roads, and it's within a certain speed limit,
then the law just prescribes and it says, three points off
your license and a hundred pounds fine. and that that will be the
consequence of you breaking the law. Well, God said that with
our first parents, if they broke the law of God, the law that
he'd given them, that they would die. That would be, it wouldn't
need to go to any court, it wouldn't need to be decided, it wouldn't
need to be looked into at all. If they broke that law, they
would die. What did he mean? They didn't
die immediately, did they? Adam lived for many hundreds
of years. The human race still continued. But in dying thou
shalt die. All of those listed in the early
chapters of Genesis that live many hundreds of years to 900
years, many of them, in the end we read, and he died. and he died, and he died. Emphasizing
the sentence being carried out. But there's another aspect. They
died spiritually. They still, man is still the
pinnacle of creation. He's still above a beast by the
spirit that God has given him. He has a soul, a beast does not. He has a reasonable Mind, that
he can reason things, he can learn, he can be taught, he can
be instructed, he can do many wonderful things, great inventions. But spiritually, the sentence
is that he has died. No longer can he of himself know
God. No longer can he have communion
with God. He was driven out from the Garden
of Eden from where he had communion with God. And in spiritual things, he is
dead. He is under that sentence of
death. Our first parents were, and Adam
was the covenant head. We, in him, we die also. We come forth from the womb,
speaking lies. We come forth from the womb sinning,
so that one sin began all the sins that are in the world. The
sentence that was wrought really was, you sin once and you are
condemned to sin again and again and again. You will break God's
law again and again. That will be the sentence. You are dead, dead, dead to God
to serve him aright we cannot. To know Him we cannot, to know
even what sin is we cannot do. It must be emphasised that sin is
a transgression of God's law. This King David emphasises in
Psalm 51, because He had sinned in adultery with
Bathsheba, his sin by having Uriah her husband slain by the
children of Rabba with whom they were fighting. But when he is
brought to realise what he has done in the sight of God, when
he is no longer covering up what he has done, when he sees in
the light that God gives him and that the Holy Spirit gives
him as to what he has really done. We have in Psalm 51, against
thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, be clear
when thou judgest. And I say, David, wait on. Didn't
you sin against Bathsheba when you took her and lay with her?
Didn't you sin against her when you killed her husband? Didn't
you sin against her husband when you murdered him? He did those evils against them. But sin against them he did not,
because it was not their law. It was God's law that he'd broken. And so he says, against thee,
thee only have I sinned. And so sin, if it is to be seen
as sin, it is to be seen that we have broken God's law. That we are under the condemnation
of death. that we have sinned against God,
that we have transgressed against Him, our Creator, our Maker, our Judge,
a good, a holy, a just, a good God, a God who, even though we
have sinned, gives us our food and our raiment and many, many
mercies. Sin is the reason for all that
is imperfect in this world. When God created this world,
it was perfect. There's nothing wrong with it
at all. It's perfect. But what is in it now is because
we are under the sentence of God, because of sin. Secondly, how does sin not appear
to be sin in our eyes? We've already alluded to it in
one way. When we are born into this world,
we are born dead in sins. Part of the sentence against
us is that we die, we die spiritually. And so the reason why sin does
not appear what it really is, is because we are sinners. Because we are dead in sin. Because we are under that sentence
of God. There's no fear of God before
our eyes. We can't see Him. We don't believe
in Him. We don't reverence Him. We don't
think he has any power, any ability. Remember when Moses came to Pharaoh
in Egypt, God was going to bring the children of Israel out of
Egypt to the promised land. And God said that he would harden
Pharaoh's heart or leave him just to be what the natural heart
is. And God brought many signs in
Egypt. He brought Egypt to be utterly
destroyed. But each time, Pharaoh, he says,
who is God that I should obey him? Who is God that I should
let the children of Israel go? And yet God proved again and
again he could bring these signs. He could bring the lice, the
hail, locusts, he could bring the thunder, the darkness, he
could bring all the frogs, he could bring the plagues upon
the land, he could take them away as well. But still, Pharaoh says, he won't
let the people go. He still raises his fist against
God. And we are just the same. We treat him as if he is without
power, without ability, that we are greater than him, that
we're not accountable to his laws in any way. We don't think that they're fair
or good anyway. They're not worthy of being kept. That is why sin doesn't appear
to be sin to those dead in sin because they are dead in sin.
And if you want an evidence of whether you truly are dead in
sin and under the condemnation and wrath of God, it is when
sin does not appear sin. If you, if I, cannot see any
evil in sin, then we must surely examine ourselves whether we
really are saved at all. whether we really know anything
of God at all. We despise his laws, we despise
his ways. Another reason that sin does
not appear sin, and that is because in the professed
Church of God, that are those who do not preach, that sin is
sin. They say that God loves everybody. They accept into membership and
into the role of the Church of God, those that are openly walking
in sin, walking in breach of the law of God, breaking the
law of God openly, without shame, And yet they're told that God
loves them, and that God will save them, and that they can
continue in those sins. And so through bad teaching,
you have those that even consider themselves to be saved, would
be highly offended to be told that they're not the people of
God, they do not bear the fruit of it. And it's through bad teaching If you have a church, if you
have a ministry, never touches upon sin, he never deals with
that matter, and that the congregation, the membership can do what they
like and have no regard to the law of God, then you can be sure
that is not the teaching of the Word of God. If the malady is
not known, if it is not taught, then the remedy will not be valued,
will not be taught either. One of our hymns says, nor are
men willing to have the truth told. The sight is too killing
for pride to behold. I wonder how many congregations
would empty if a preacher got up and started to preach about
the reality of sin, what sin was, and The need of repentance,
of turning from it, and of hating that sin. Need of forgiveness
of those sins. That is another reason why sin
does not appear sin, because there are those that are quite
willing to just smooth it over, say nothing, there's no problem
at all, it is not so bad, you can just continue on in it. Another reason is because those
that are called, we get hardened. Hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin. We look back to when the Lord
first called us and quickened us and we had a real tender conscience. Our conscience is not so tender.
You gradually let one thing slip, another thing slip, And slowly sin is not quite as
bad as what we originally thought it was. Even the doctrines of grace can
be misused. In the chapter before the one
where our text is in Romans 6, the apostle previous had shown
clearly that the way that we are saved is by grace, the free
favor of God, not through obedience to the law of God, because we
cannot fulfill that perfectly. But he then asked the question,
what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? And you know we can. We can fall
in that way and think, well, if we're God's people, we can't
really be lost. It doesn't matter if I indulge
that sin a little bit. There's no harm in that. And
then one sin leads to another. And really there's a secret leaning
upon thinking, well, God will just cover it. is not really
so bad in any way. We are saved by grace, aren't
we? What a perversion of the Word
of God. You and I have a wicked, evil,
deceitful heart that will make even God's grace a snare, turn
it into licentiousness, as if you can say, well, the world,
they're in danger of hellfire if they do those things, but
I can get away with it. because the Lord will just blot
out my sin. Shouldn't we live? Live as if,
live as if we depended upon keeping the law of God. Live as if we
really believed and really felt that sin was as evil as what
it is. But another reason why sin does
not appear sin is because the Holy Spirit is withdrawn. The only way that you and I will
know what sin is, is by the shining of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. He is the author of the new birth. He it is that gives spiritual
life. He it is that gives the knowledge
of sin. He it is that blesses the Word. and without the Holy Spirit.
When the Spirit is withdrawn, if as Christians we have grieved
the Holy Spirit, and He has withdrawn from us, and His sweet influence
and power is not felt, we read of it in Ezekiel, I'll return
unto my place until they acknowledge their transgression. So when the Spirit is withdrawn,
We then don't see sin in the way that we once did. In a way, it's an encouragement
for the people of God that they once did have the Spirit, they
need the Spirit, they see the difference between what they
are in themselves, how viewing the things of God and the law
of God and what it is to sin against that, Seeing that naturally,
they don't see sin as bad. But under the Spirit it is, and
we have known that. And that is encouragement, but
it should be encouragement that we need the Holy Spirit. Return,
thou holy messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made thee
mourn and drove thee from my breast. That is the lines of
the hymn writer, one that knew what it was to backslide, breathe
the Spirit, and then get into a place where we start not to
really feel what sin is. And really a soul that is crying
to the Holy Spirit in that way again, realises the condition. It already is breathing into
their soul with groanings which cannot be uttered, longing for
Him to return and to give that life again. And another reason is because
we drink into the spirit of the world. We live in a world that
we see day by day and is making light of sin. We see it on the
news, we hear it all around about us, all the time minimizing it. And what is more, they all seem
to get away with it too. So it can't be too bad, can it?
We judge by the sight of the eyes. We get a worldly view of
the breaking of the law of God. Is not that true with us? It
is with me, I know it is. Sin does not appear sin in our
eyes. How is it so? Well, I've just
suggested some of the reasons why that that is so. Well then thirdly, what God does
in those he will save so that sin appears what it really is. The first thing is that which
is set before us in this passage by the apostle here. And that
is applying the holy law of God by the Holy Spirit to us. He applies that law. It's a very
different thing just saying, well, we know the law, we've
got 10 commandments, and here they are, we can recite them. But what we need is the Holy
Spirit to apply that law. And the Apostle describes how
it was with himself. He says, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The commandment of God was brought
into his soul by the Holy Spirit with all its power and authority. He could see what the commandment
was. Really, if we have a small view
of sin, we have a small view of the commandment as well. Is
it not so in our land? If the government makes laws
and we say, that's a ridiculous law. Some have thought that in
the times with the pandemic. You've got to wear a mask. Well,
that's ridiculous. We're not doing that. And so
the law is treated with contempt and it is broken just easily
because, well, it's a ridiculous law. But when the law is seen
to be good and when it is seen to be right, then the breaking
of that seems to be a great thing. If the law of the land echoes,
thou shalt not kill. And one kills, and one commits
murder. We think it's a terrible thing,
why? Because it's a good law, it's
a right law, thou shalt not kill. As soon as we think small of
the law, we'll also think small of the breaking of it. But here,
the apostle had, and this is what happens to everyone that
is called by God, that is born again, that is converted, The
law of God is brought by the Holy Spirit into that person's
conscience and mind so that that law is a great law. And they see, they know that
they have broken it. They know that they have transgressed
the law of God. The effect with the apostle,
he says, sin revived and I died. In other words, when the law
was brought, he could see he'd broken it. And so then sin revived,
he could see he was a sinner. He couldn't escape that he was
a sinner. He fell under the conviction
of it. How many in their land, they
are brought in as guilty by the court of the land, but they don't
accept that verdict, they say we're not guilty. But when God
brings in, the law into a sinner's heart. He says, I am guilty. They are righteous. They are
just. The sentence is just. I have
sinned. That is what David said when
Nathan the prophet brought the parable and God used it to convince
him of the sin of murder and Adolfi. I have sinned. I have
broken the law of God. He didn't feel it. until God
brought it to him with power. He knew the law in the latter
of it, and so do the Apostle Paul, and so do many, many in
our land. Even if they don't attend the
house of God, they still have some semblance of the knowledge
of what the law is, but not in the power of it, not in the light
that the Holy Spirit gives. So if you want to know the work
of the Holy Spirit, one of the works of the Spirit, it is that
He shall convince of sin. He shall bring the law with power,
authority. So that is the first thing that
God does, to make us to see what sin really is. Our text says,
but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that
which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding
sinful. We need the Holy Spirit to bring
the commandment with authority and power into our souls, convince
us of our sin and lead to Jesus' blood. The second thing that
he does, and this is for his people, that are quickened, that
have been brought to know their sin and to know the remedy in
our Lord Jesus Christ. He chastens them, He corrects
them, just like a good parent will correct a child that is
doing wrong. God uses that method to make
them to know that sin is evil in His sight, He shows His displeasure. He makes us to feel His displeasure
by the rod, whether in affliction, or tribulation, or His frown,
or darkness on our minds, or withdrawing His Spirit, or withdrawing
the blessings of the feeding upon the Gospel. We know, of
course, with the children of Israel, the typical people Through
the wilderness he never withheld the manna from their mouths.
Now take that to mean the Lord will never withhold utterly his
word from the mouths of his people. We should not take license just
because we have some good hearing times as to think well we are
not walking in a way that grieves the Lord. The children of Israel,
the Lord dealt with them in many different ways in the wilderness
for their sin, but he still fed them with manna. They remember
that. When the Lord chastens us, it
is that we are to see sin, what it really is. Within a third way, he makes
By the very deadness that we feel, He makes us to see that
sin, it alienates us from God. Our very hardness, our very inability
to see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, In a way, it's like taking
one that is born again and the Lord saying, have you really
forgotten what you were when you were dead in sin? I'll tell
you back. I'll remind you what you were
like. I'll remind you how you could just sin. And you could
just indulge the flesh and just walk in the way that you, that's
how you were. And you say, I was. That is what
I was. And the Lord reminds us of it. ring that alarm bells into our
heart. Lord, I don't want to go back.
I don't want to be lost. I don't want to be returning
to those same old sins. And the Lord uses that very sense of our deadness to bring us into
alarm. to realise what we are without
the Holy Spirit of God, without the power of God. We need the
power of God. And as we said before, in one
way it is an encouragement to us. When the Lord shows us what
we are without the Spirit, we don't think much of sin. What
we are with the Spirit, sin is exceeding sinful. But then the
fourth way is this. He, and again it is by His Spirit,
He shows us what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered because of sin. The reason why the Lord came
was to save His people from their sins, that He should leave His
Father's side, that He should come to this world, endure the
contradiction of sinners against Himself. They called Him that
He was the by Beelzebub, he casted out devils, that he was an imposter,
that he is but a mere man. But our Lord endured all of that. And then, in obedience to his
Father, went to the cross, the accursed cross. His back scourged,
his feet and hands nailed, his head torn with the thorns. But more than that, The sins,
those sins, those transgressions of the law of God laid on him. He had laid on him the iniquity
of us all. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? The forsaking of his father because
of sin. You might feel forsaken by God. You say, why has God forsaken
me? Why am I so hard, so dark, so far off? so worthy, so carnal,
so lifeless. You see what sinned us? You see
with the Lord Jesus Christ what effect it was when sin was laid
on Him, made sin for us who did no sin, that we might know the
righteousness of God in Him? He is paying the penalty. He
is enduring the curse. When we see that by the Holy
Spirit, when He shines upon the Word, when that becomes a real
reality, they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, they
shall mourn for Him. It's not by our works, it's not
by our effort. It's the Holy Spirit that shall
convince us in, lead us to the Saviour, lead us to view His
precious blood, It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth
nothing. And the Holy Spirit then, He
leads us to see what Christ has done in dealing with sin. That
the condemnation is taken away, the sentence are taken away,
the wrath of God is taken away. And what does that leave a sinner? It leaves him like in this chapter
seven. His flesh is still the same.
He is still a sinner. He still sins, because he is
a sinner. But now it's different. He sees
the evil of sin. He doesn't want to sin. He wants
to do good. But because he is in a body of
death, because he is still here below, he can't do what he wants. Sin is mixed with everything
he says and does. And he can't escape from sin
working in his members. It just rises up. Blasphemous
thoughts, enmity, hatred to God. All those things, evil, lust,
they rise up. Doesn't have to call them forth,
they just spring out. But it causes them to mourn. and he hates it. He groans under
it. He says with the Apostle, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
His answer, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then
with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the
flesh the law of sin. in viewing the Lord Jesus Christ
in our place. We view him as the Holy Spirit
only can reveal him to us, as enduring the wrath of God for
us, enduring the penalty, purchasing for us eternal life, putting
away our sin, bringing in the blessing In chapter 8, there
is therefore now no condemnation. Who is that for? To them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. Those who walk, and as they walk,
sin is exceeding sinful. But as they walk, they see the
Lord has put away their sin, makes them love the Lord, I said,
love him for what he has done for them, what he is to them,
and that he has purchased heaven for them, and that when they
die, their spirit shall go to him. Lord, remember me, said
the dying thief, when thou comest into thy kingdom. Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
the blessing of eternal life, of forgiveness, of pardon. Those blessings will not make
us live carelessly, will not make us to think small things
of sin, will not make us to live as if, well, it doesn't matter.
No. How we need the Holy Spirit to
show us again the exceeding sinfulness of sin, through the Lord, through
His chasing, through the deadness that we feel without the Spirit,
and through the Spirit showing us the Lamb of God, suffering
in our place, to hear His cries, His groans, and to know that
this was done for us, to mourn over our sins, and after Him. The Lord Jesus Christ will save
us from the power and dominion of sin here, and from the condemnation
of it, bring us justly and righteously to heaven at last. He will give
us a righteousness that is not our own, not our good works,
but His. His perfect life and obedience
will be put to our account and we shall stand faultless before
God's throne. May the Lord make to us sin,
to appear sin, and not in any other way, but that it might
be by the commandment exceeding sinful. The Lord bless this word
to this end, to me, to you, granting his spirit to this end. Amen.