Good morning, let's turn to Psalm
119. Psalm 119 for our scripture reading
and our call to worship. Psalm 119 and starting at verse
nine. All wrath for me is over, we
just sang. Verse nine, wherewithal shall
a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according
to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought
thee, O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have
I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed
art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I
declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in
the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will
meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy
statutes. I will not forget thy word. Lord
God, our Father, you are gracious and merciful and you are the
high and lofty one that inhabits eternity. And you've promised
also that you dwell with those that are lowly and who you've
put in their heart, Lord, to want to know you. And thank you
for your precious promises, Lord, that you will write your word
in our hearts, God, and that you won't let us depart from
you. Lord God, please don't let any sin have dominion over us. Don't let the enemy prevail in
our lives, Lord. We thank you for this place to
worship, God, and we thank you for the simplicity of your gospel
preached that you send your Holy Spirit to teach us. And please
do that today, Lord. You've promised to be with us,
Lord, and we believe that nothing is hard for you and that you're
a God of truth. Please come and dwell with us
today and make this time yours, Lord, to show us your son. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 44 in the Spiral hymn book, number 44. Precious Savior, friend of sinners,
we as such to Thee draw near. Let Thy Spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Matchless Savior, let us
know Thee, as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now thy precious
treasure. Let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure. Tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Please be seated. We're going to begin this message
in 1 John. If you would like to open your
Bibles with me to 1 John chapter 1. And I say begin because we
have a few other places we're going to look. I had to find out from Google
at what age or what grade in school we learned parts of speech. found out that it was started
in the third grade. So I asked Gabriel this morning,
between the services, I asked Gabriel, I said, Gabriel, do
you know, Gabriel's in the third grade, I said, Gabriel, do you
know what a noun is? And he's learned well, he said,
person, place, or thing. I've titled this message, Sin. is a noun and a verb. It's also used as an adjective. The word sin is used to describe
a thing. The word sin is used to describe
what a thing does and the word sin is used to describe what
a thing is. Understanding what God says in
his word about the nature of sin, is crucial to understanding
the gospel. For sinners who live with their
own sin every day, this is a troubling subject that they would avoid
if they could, but they can't. The only comfort they have in
being able to live with their own sin is to know what God says
about their sin. And that's my hope this morning,
that the Lord will comfort his children's hearts with what he
says in his word about sin. Sin as a noun. Sin as a noun. Describing what
we are by nature. Sin as a verb. Describing what we do when our
nature breaks out in our behavior. And sin as an adjective. When Peter said, depart from
me for I am a sinful man, he was using sin as an adjective,
describing what kind of person he is. You have your Bibles open to
1 John chapter 1 and we'll begin in verse 7. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, we have fellowship As believers
in Christ, we have fellowship with God. That's the primary
meaning here. We have fellowship with God.
What is it that disrupts our fellowship with God? Is it not
sin? And the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanses us from all sin. Now the word sin there is
a noun. If we confess our sins, same
word. And in God's word, it does take
a different form. When it's used as a verb, it's
clear in the original language and clear too from the text that
he's talking about it as an action. So, Verse eight, or verse, yes, verse
eight, verse seven. I'm sorry, verse eight. If we
say that we have no sin, a noun. If we say that we're not sinners.
We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, still
a noun. Still describing what we are
by nature. If we agree with God that we're
sinners, that's what that word confess means. If we take sides
with God against ourselves and speak the same word to him that
he has said about us, that we are sinful people, that everything
about us by nature is sin. Then he is faithful and just.
This confession can only be made if the Lord gives us his spirit
and shows us what we are outside of Christ. and enables us to
confess, to agree with God that we're sinners. And so the confession of sin
is not something we do in order for God to be able to forgive
us. The confession of sin is a work of grace that God has
done in the heart, bringing about our forgiveness. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful, and just to forgive us our sins,
a noun. Every one of these words sin
so far is in its noun form. Forgive us our sins and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. What is sin? It's unrighteousness.
So here's God's work of grace. We come before the Lord. Lord,
you're right, I'm wrong. Everything about me falls short
of your glory. I've never been able to produce
anything that would be considered righteous in your sight. My righteousnesses are as filthy
rags before thee. The best thing that I can produce
is altogether vanity. Verse 10, if we say that we have
not sinned, now this is the first time the word sin is used as
a verb. If we say that we haven't committed
acts of sin, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Now one of the interesting things
about the word sin when it's used as a verb, it's always in
its active tense. That means that the subject is
performing the action. So if we say that we have not
performed acts of sin, then we make God to be a liar and the
truth is not in us. My little children, These things
write I unto you that you sin not. Verb. Verb. Very important. I've written these things unto
you in order to keep you from acting out Your sin. And if any man sin, verb. The hope, the restraining grace
of sin as a verb is what Christ has done in satisfying the demands of
God's justice concerning our sinful nature as a noun. If we look to ourselves, all
we can see is our sin. If we look to the law to restrain
our sin, we find that the strength of
our sin is the law. The more we try to use the law
to restrain this sinful nature, the more we find this noun becoming
a verb. The only way to keep the noun
from becoming a verb is not to look at ourselves or
to look to the law, it's to look to Christ. Now, child of God,
you hate your sin. You hate when it's manifested
in your actions, in your words, in your behavior. You loathe your sin. If you could, you would never
have that sinful nature manifest itself ever again. What, how does God restrain my
sin? How does he keep this noun from
becoming a verb? If any man sin, verse two, chapter
two, verse one, Both of those words sin in verse
one are verbs. We have an advocate with the
father, Jesus Christ, our righteous one. So when our sinful nature
manifests itself in action, what do we do? The old man serves the new man. The sinful nature, when it makes
itself known, it causes us, oh Lord, I need an advocate. I need
a savior. I need one who's able to put
away that sin and one who's able to restrain my sin. And He, the Lord Jesus, is the
propitiation for our sins. Now there the word is a noun. There the word is a very important
distinction between the nouns and verbs here. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
propitiation. He is the one who appeases the
wrath of God for all our sins. You see, here's our problem,
brethren. We too often concern ourselves more with sin as a
verb than we do with sin as a noun. And only as we're able to see
what God has done with our sin as a noun, Does it have any effect on what
we hate and that is our sin becoming a verb? He is the propitiation for our
sins noun and not for ours only but for The whole world. Now you see the sins of is in
italics. In other words, if anyone is
going to be reconciled to God, if anyone is going to have their
sin put away, if anyone's going to be able to stand in the presence
of a holy God with any boldness and confidence before God, there's
only one propitiation. The Lord's not telling us here
that the Lord Jesus put away all the sins of the whole world.
He's saying that anyone in the whole world who has any hope
of standing before God is going to have to come before God in
Christ. Only way. This word sin as a noun is describing
what we are as a result of the fall. Turn with me to Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5. Look at verse 12. But not, I'm sorry, yes, verse
12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. First two sins there are nouns,
the third one's a verb. He's talking about Adam. Sometimes you'll read that Adam
is the federal head of the human race. Meaning that he represents
us before God and that his fall and his sinful nature was imputed
to us. and there's some truth to that
but it goes a lot farther than that. Adam is not just our federal
head, Adam is our seminal head. We were in the loins of Adam
when Adam sinned. We were there. Every person that's
ever breathed God's air in this world is a descendant of Adam
other than the Lord Jesus. We were We were in his seed. Now that's
very important because the Lord Jesus Christ is not just our
federal head, he's our seminal head too. We were in him when he went to
the cross so that Paul was able to say, I am crucified with Christ. I was there when Christ died,
I died. When Adam sinned, I sinned. I
was born into this world with a fallen sinful nature because
sin corrupted me before I was ever conceived in the seed of
my father Adam. It's what David was talking about
his conception when he said, when he talked in Psalm 51 about
in sin was I. was I conceived. That's how we
come. As a result of what our father
Adam did and what we did in Adam, we come into this world as sinners. Noun. It's what we are. A noun is a person, place, or
thing. It describes what our nature
is. Sinful. Dead in our trespasses and sins. Spiritually separated from God. Unable to believe God. Unable to worship God. Unable
to see God. Sin has killed me. All men are the same. This sinful nature is true of every single one of
us. And that sinful nature can't
be improved on. Can't be improved on. Sin is
sin. It's all short of God's glory.
And here's another testimony of how we think about sin so
erroneously. We consider the shameful, heinous
acts of sin as something that deserve punishment but we overlook
the things that we don't consider so bad when in fact The least
of our sins are worthy of eternal judgment. The old man is sinful and he
can never be anything other than sin. Now, Judas, when he went back to the Jewish Sanhedrin, to the
Pharisees and cast the money back, he said, I have sinned
in that I have betrayed innocent blood. That's what Judas said. What's the difference between
what Judas did and what Peter did that night? Any difference? And we know what Judas ended
up doing. You suppose that Peter may have
contemplated doing the same thing Judas did? I think probably he did. He wept
bitterly. He said, I've lost all hope. No way I can be saved. I'm just
gonna go back to fishing. What made the difference? Restraining grace. The Lord Jesus prayed for Peter,
didn't pray for Judas. The Lord Jesus sent word to Peter
after the resurrection till Peter and the disciples. And we told
Mary, Simon, lovest thou me? Oh Lord, feed my sheep. The only difference was restraining
grace of God. The only difference between one
sinner and another sinner is the restraining grace of God. You see, the nature is the same.
The nature is the same. Now some of that restraining
grace, God uses lots of means to restrain sin. I'm so thankful for our young
parents raising their children in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, having them under the gospel, teaching them the
difference between right and wrong, punishing bad behavior
and rewarding good behavior. And I'm very confident that God's
going to, why do the parents do all that? In hopes that it
will restrain their sin. Bound up in the heart of a child
is foolishness. But the rod of correction will
drive it far from them. And oh, how hopeful I am that
our children are gonna grow up being restrained Does that change
their sinful nature? What about the child who grows
up without any of those benefits? What about the child that grows
up, but the gang is their family, teaching them just the opposite,
that evil is good and good is evil. Is that not restraining grace?
What am I trying to say? Who made you to differ? What do you have that you didn't
receive? And if you received it freely
of God, if God through the circumstances of your life and through your
environment and by His restraining grace has kept you from certain
things, That's to his glory. That's all to his glory. It's
not to your merit. The only difference between me
and Adolf Hitler is a restraining grace of God because we were
both born into this world with the same sinful nature. The only thing that keeps the
noun from becoming a verb is God's restraints. so that none
of us can ever take glory or pride or look down our self-righteous
nose at someone else and say, I would never do that. We say,
but for the grace of God, there go I. But for the grace of God,
I could do anything. God, you're gonna have to restrain
this noun from becoming a verb. because the potential in the
noun is there. Let me illustrate it. If you take a seed from an orange
and plant it, it will grow an orange tree and it will bear
fruit. And it will be what we call here
in Central Florida, a sour orange. It'll be a wild orange. If you've
ever tried to taste one of those things, you'll know that sour
is really not an appropriate word for that. A sour orange
is so acidic that you can take the juice of it and cook chicken
to where you can eat the chicken. It's just that acidic. Now, the trees that produce sweet
oranges Every single one of them have a sour orange rootstock
to them. They take a sour orange tree and develop the roots and then
graft into that rootstock a hybrid that we enjoy as a sweet orange. I have some small orange trees
in my yard and I noticed just the other day, you can tell on
the trunk of the orange tree where it was grafted. And I noticed
the other day that there was a sprout coming out of the trunk
below the graft and I immediately broke it off. That sprout would have grown
and produced oranges and they would have been sour oranges.
It had to come from the grafted part. If there's any fruits of righteousness in your life and in my life it's because God has grafted
in a work of grace because We're just like that
sour orange tree. Why do they use the rootstock
of a sour orange tree? I'll tell you why. It is accustomed
to living underground. It's hardy. It's part of this
world. It's used to this world. Now that rootstock is my old
man. And the only way, the only way
that I can live in this world is because there's an old man
that's accustomed to the things of this world. He's used to this
world. He's used to living underground.
He gets his nourishment from the things of this world. And as soon as that man dies, the new man cannot stay. He's
got no more attachment to this world. That's why the Bible says
to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. The new man can't live in this
world without that sour orange rootstock. That's the only way
he can survive in this world. You and I have two natures. We've
got an old man that's accustomed to this world. And the only way
your new man is able to live in this world is because he's
attached to your old man. As soon as that old man dies,
your new man's got to get out of here. He's got to go. He's got no more connection to
this world. When the prodigal said, I will
arise and go to my father and say, I have sinned against heaven
and against you. The word sinned is a verb. I have acted out my rebellious
nature. When the woman caught in adultery,
brought before the Lord, and the Lord told those men, they that were
without sin cast the first stone, and they all left. And the Lord
looked up and saw the woman standing there alone and said, are there
none to accuse thee? None, O Lord. Neither do I accuse
thee. Go and sin. Burp. No more. Was he saying that you can live
without sin? No. I'll show you what he's saying
in just a moment. Let me give you one more example. In John chapter 9, when the disciples
asked the Lord in looking at the blind man, Lord, did he sin? Verb. Or was it the sin of his
parents? Verb. What action did he perform
or his parents do that brought about this punishment? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
two. Ephesians chapter two. Verse one, and you hath he quickened
or made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, noun. By virtue of our birth into this
world as the seed of Adam, we were spiritually dead and had
to be quickened or made alive. wherein in times 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, among whom also we had our conversation
in times past in the lust of the flesh, the fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others, we were acting out our natural
our natural sin nature in our behavior when we were dead in
our sin. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, noun, has quickened us together with Christ for by
grace are you saved and has raised us up together and made us to
sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Only, only hope that this sin nature,
this sour rootstock can keep from producing sour fruit is
what Christ has done. And to see ourselves in him,
you know, go back to children, the illustration about children.
Do not children become what their parents tell them they are. I
mean, is that not a... I mean, you tell a child from
the time they're little that they're stupid and ugly, they're
going to grow up believing that about themselves. And you affirm them and encourage
them and build them up and they'll... The truth is that we all see
ourselves in the same light that the most significant people in
our lives tell us that we are. What is the Lord saying to me
and you as children of God? Before that, let me ask you this
question. Who's the most significant person in your life? Who do you believe? in how they see you. Here's what the Lord's saying. If you're my child, I want you
to know that you are in the heavens right now, seated in Christ before
the throne of grace. You without sin, you're perfect
in Christ. The only thing that's going to
restrain the noun of sin from becoming a verb is grace. Grace. Let me show you that. Romans chapter six. Free, sovereign grace. The Lord did not tell us to control
our sin. He did not tell us to fight against
our sin. Here's what he told us. Reckon
yourselves to be indeed dead unto sin. Reckon it to be so because it
is so. Look at verse 11. Let's begin
in verse one. And all the sins in this chapter
are nouns until you get to verse 15. That's important. Let's read Romans chapter six
together. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Shall we continue just Indulging
in the nature of our sin? In order that we might, because
where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. So that we
can get more grace, should we just continue to excuse our sinful
nature? And what we see? God forbid. How should we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? He's talking about that sin nature.
When the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, he bore our sins
now. Our whole package of sinful nature. You see, the manifestation of
sin is just the symptom. It's just the symptom. He bore
our disease. You have a disease and it manifests
itself in symptoms. You can go to a doctor and have
that symptom treated. And is that not what religion
does? Men try to treat the symptom of their sin. And you can take pain medicine
and you can put bandages on it and you can try to hide it. But
as long as the disease is there, the symptoms are going to persist. We always, you know, we get so
concerned about our symptoms and we put all of our attention
on our symptoms. Those are symptoms. The Lord attacked this disease
at its source and he bore our sin nature in his body upon that
tree. Verse three, know you not that
so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death? This is the baptism. Not, we
have to do this, I'm sorry. Turn with me to 1 Peter 3. 1
Peter 3. Verse 21. the like figure where unto even
baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He's not talking about
controlling or fighting our sin nature in order to keep it from
becoming a verb. He's saying having a good conscience
toward God. How are you gonna have a good
conscience toward God? There's only one way to have
a clear conscience before God Almighty. And that is that you
have nothing to be guilty of. You have no sin. You've not sinned
in the presence of God. You see, here's what the Lord's
telling us in Romans chapter 6. This is what he's telling
us in Ephesians chapter 2. I put that sin away. You've been
baptized. He's not talking about water
baptism. He's talking about the baptism of the Lord's death. We were
baptized in Christ and we have a clear conscience before God
Almighty by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And his resurrection
is proof that our sins have been put away. You see, it's the consciousness and the
fighting against and the attempt of controlling the verb of sin
that only aggravates more sin. The only way that the verb of
sin is going to be restrained is to get back to the source
of the disease. And that was put away in Christ.
To see yourself as God sees you, without sin before God. This
is the only way to restrain this sin nature, which is the same
in every one of us and every person. Lost or saved, they've
got the same sinful nature, the same potential to do anything
that anybody can do. And the only way that that's
going to be restrained is grace. The finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and having put away our sin. We've got to look not
to our sin, not to ourselves, not to the law. We've got to
look to Christ and believe what he did. What he did was sufficient
to have a good conscience towards God. It's the only thing that's
going to... Child of God, I know you don't
want your nature of sin to break out in a verb and you see it
enough. What is the restraining grace
of God? It's the work of Christ. Therefore, verse four, we are
buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should
walk in newness of life. He's talking about our behavior,
he's talking about our actions, he's talking about the verb of
sin, the only thing that's going to restrain this nature of sin. is to look to Christ. It's the
only answer. The only answer. There's no other
way. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness
of His resurrection. Look to the death of Christ.
Look to what Christ accomplished. Look to how He defeated sin.
He put it away. He destroyed it. He died to it. Knowing this, that our old man
was crucified with Christ. It's dead. That the body of sin, that's
still a noun. The body of sin is our old man
nature, might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve
that man. And the word sin there is still
a noun. As I said, all the word sins in this passage are nouns
till we get to verse 15. What is the Lord encouraging
us to do? He's encouraging us. He's admonishing us. He's loving
us to do what we already want to do. We want to honor him. We want to walk obediently. We don't want to live in the
verb tense of our sin. We don't want that. And the Lord's
telling us what the remedy to that is. It's not fighting sin
or controlling sin or using the law or trying to figure out a
way to be sorry enough. It's looking outside of all of
that and seeing what Christ did. It's seeing ourselves as our
Heavenly Father sees us. Oh, child, if you could see yourself
perfect in Christ, sin would lose its power as a verb. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. If you're dead to it, you're
free from it. Stand fast in the liberty where
Christ has made you free. Be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Don't go back to the law. Don't
try to fix this thing. Well, I can just discipline myself.
I can be more religious. I can be more spiritual. I can
be more sorry. I can be, no. That's the law. The strength of your sin is the
law. The more you try to control sin,
the more power it has over you. The Lord's telling us, if we be dead with Christ, we
believe that we should also live with him. Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise,
reckon, And this word reckon, you know,
doesn't mean, well, you know, it could be this or it could
be that. It means consider it. This word means consider it to
be so, because it is so. It is so. What the Lord is doing,
he's telling us who we are in Christ. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body, that you
should obey it in the lust thereof. He's talking about the verb of
sin. The only way to keep sin from
reigning in my mortal body, the members of my body, is to look to and believe in
what the Lord Jesus did in putting away my sin. That's the only solution. There
is no other answer. Neither yield your members as
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Oh, how we've all done
that. We do it. We yield our members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. And that word sin there
is a noun. We're yielding ourselves to that
dead man. He's been put to death. But yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead. We've been raised with
Christ. We're alive. We're spiritually
alive. Here's our hope. Here's our joy.
That Christ is my propitiation before God. He's put away my
sin. And you are members as instruments
of righteousness unto God for sin shall not have dominion over
you. That's sin nature. That sour orange rootstock, yeah, that's your attachment
to the world but God's done a work of grace. For you're not under the law,
you're under grace. The only thing that's, I've said
this, I don't know how many times, I'll say it again. The only thing
that's going to restrain the noun of sin from becoming a verb
is the grace of God. And that's only found in the
accomplished work and glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ
who's seated at the right hand of God and we in him. What then? Here it is, verse
15, here's the verb. What then? Shall we sin? Verb. Shall we just go ahead and practice
our sins? We're not under the law, we're
under grace, so what difference does it make? That's just pure antinomianism,
isn't it? And that spirit does not... does
not live in the hearts of God's people. That might be the unbeliever
said, well, if I believe what you believe about my sin being
put away and about being sinless and perfect inside, I'd live
like I want. Only thing restraining my sin
is the law. Well, it's not restraining, it's
just covering it up. It's just a Just masking the symptoms, that's
all it's doing. All right, Colossians chapter
one. I know, brethren, I know, because
this is my experience. You're a believer, you're a child
of God. You hate it when the sinful nature that you cannot
escape manifest itself in sinful acts. And your heart's desire is that that be restrained. The
Lord just said, it doesn't make me any more holy. It doesn't
make me any more righteous. But it restrains this evil. Colossians chapter one, verse 21. And you who were sometime
in times past alienated, you were alienated from God because
of your sin and enemies in your mind by wicked works. You were
trying to work your way to heaven. God says that's a wicked work. It's a dead work. You religious, you outwardly
moral, spent your whole life trying to keep the nature of
your sin from manifesting itself in your behavior by wicked works. And God says, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. You irreligious
who were alienated from God by your wicked works, you're just
indulging yourself and not what? You're now reconciled. Whatever
your past was before Christ, you're now reconciled to God
and you weren't reconciled by anything you did. In the body of his flesh, you've
been reconciled to God. To present you holy, holy. Here's what the Lord is telling
us, brethren. Yeah, we look to ourselves, all
we see is our sin. Believe what God sees. Believe
what God says. Believe what Christ has done.
Because in Christ, you're holy. He's presented you before God
without sin. Sanctified. Set apart. Unblameable. Now I looked up
that word unblameable and it comes from the word blemish and
it means literally without blemish. without blemish. And Peter tells
us in 1 Peter 1 verse 19, we've been redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ who was as a lamb without spot and without blemish. He's without sin, without sin. Morally faultless. All the way
I'm gonna have a good conscience toward God is if I'm holy, unblameable
and unreprovable. No charge can be made against
me. The law can't find a foothold. There's no condemnation. The law can't accuse me. You
see, it's the accusations of the law. Satan is called the accuser of
the brethren. What benefit does he have in
accusing us? The more he accuses us and we
listen to those accusations the more we try to prove ourselves
to be above those accusations. Say he's not accusing you so
you can feel guilty and then somehow stop doing what you're
doing. Those accusations only aggravate your sin. That's the
strength of sin. There's only one remedy. I stand before God holy. I stand before God unblameable,
without blemish. I stand before God unreprovable. I stand before God with a good conscience because my sin has never manifest itself
as a verb. Oh, it does every day, every
day. The only restraint to this man
It's not shame, it's not guilt, it's not sorrow, it's not the
law. It's not any of those things
that we do to try to control and fight against our sin. The only thing that's going to
restrain our sin now from becoming a verb. is the glorious person and accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to him alone. All right, Tom. Number 12 in the spiral
hymn book, let's stand together.