I'll read a few verses here from
the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 24. Beginning there at verse 29. says immediately after the tribulation
of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. and then shall appear the sign
of the Son of Man in heaven. Then shall all the tribes of
the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds
and from one end of heaven to the other. And that's my hope in him, the Lord Jesus. Thank You, Father, for letting
us gather here this morning. Thank You for Your Word that's
truth and nothing but the truth. Everything that's said will come
to pass. We have confidence, Father, in
Thy Word. If You turn us, we shall be turned. We thank You, Father, for all
that is gathered, and may it be profitable and an encouragement
and a blessing to us. And in the meantime, Father,
glorify Thyself. If we're never glorified, Father,
we certainly want You to be glorified. In His blessed name we ask these
things. Amen. I'd like to deal with verses
7 to 13 this morning, and I'd like to speak on the subject
of how sinful is sin. How sinful is sin? You know, we get to a point where
we talk about and use scriptural words like sin. And because of the callousness
of our old nature. We just don't know. We don't perceive. It's not going
to be until that day. I'm talking about when this mortality shall put on immortality. Until that day when we are completely
relieved from the presence of sin, that we'll know what He's
done for us. I know that there's got to be
some, even in heaven, I'm talking about in the glorified state
of God's people, there's going to be some kind of understanding. of what the Lord has done, because
I read where the four and twenty elders fall before Him, cast
their crowns before Him and say, Thou hast redeemed us. There
is some understanding. Now, I am way over my head here. I don't know. I don't know. But I know this, while we are
in this life, we are plagued I'm talking about believers now.
I'm talking about God's elect that have been regenerated by
His grace. They're plagued with the presence
of sin. I want to make a statement here
before I go into these verses. Because after having gone through
them and read them and hopefully gleaned something of
what they mean. I want to give you just a statement
of a summary of what we are about to study. Paul is in a chapter,
and Lord willing, next week we get into that passage of Scripture
where he starts dealing with the O wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me? I see in me that is in myself
dwells no good." We read that passage a lot, but this is what
we will deal with today as leading up to that. And he is talking
about sin, the presence of sin that is in him and in all of
God's regenerated saints. But in my mind, in my thinking,
this is the way I think of what I am about to preach on. The
presence of sin, and this is the only way that I can maybe
set it forth where you can understand. Paul likens it to a dog, a mad
dog that is there. And you can't get rid of him
in every opportunity he's got. to bite you. He bites you. And you just can't get away from
Him. He takes every opportunity that He can to get you. And the thing that makes sin
so heinous is that what it uses against you is the law of God. Sin uses that which is holy,
just, and good. The strength of sin. I'm going
to look at that in a minute. The strength of sin is the law. That which was for our benefit. But that's what it bites with. And it's just like a foaming
mad dog that you can't get away from. Well, Paul set forth in
our last study last week, Romans 7, verses 1 to 6, how we had adulterated ourselves. Remember this. We were married
to Christ. I'm talking about God's elect.
God the Father chose a bride. for his son first. It is not
fit that the man should dwell alone. He chose him a bride and
chose her and he married her. He was married to her. He has
always been married to her. There has never been a time that
the bride of Christ chose him. You are maker. When you were
made, And I'm not talking about just
physically in Adam and then in time you were born, I was born. I'm talking about when Almighty
God knew you. At what time did God not know
His people? At what place, at what point
did God Almighty not know or make or see or behold His people? Your maker is your husband. Marry
to him first. And right in front of Almighty
God, just right out in plain view, you think God didn't see
Adam? He told him before he ever did
it, in the day that you eat. That wasn't an if. In the day
that you eat, you are going to die. And right in front of Almighty
God, the bride committed adultery and married
herself to sin and therefore the penalty of the law. If a
woman be married to a man and she marry another, she will be
called an adulteress. And here we are born in Adam's
spiritual adulterousness. What is the penalty for that?
Death. What happened? He was made sin, put away our
guilt, paid our debt. We died in Him. The penalty of
what we did, He paid. and has imputed his righteousness
to us, presenting us to himself a spotless, spotless bride, no
wrinkle, no spot, holy. The law of God, the only standard
of God Almighty's excellence, The only standard now became
that before which we were going to have to stand. Now, in 1 Corinthians
15, verse 56, that verse that I quoted a while ago, the strength
of sin is the law. What happened? God told Adam
in the day that you eat. There is the law right here.
In the day you eat, you're going to die. Sin. All the power that sin has to
sting and have dominion over men is from the law of God. What has the right to put a man
in hell? Or let me say it like this. Who
has the right? God. God's law. The day you eat, you're going
to die. So the strength that sin has is God's law. We broke it. The law reveals
what sin is. A lack of perfect conformity. And I'm talking about now, when
I say perfect conformity, I'm talking about that thought that
we all just had or just momentarily a while ago or something, that
deviation, that distraction, whatever it was, whatever you
thought about. The deviation from our affection
and heart, love for Almighty God without any wavering, whatever,
sin, sin in thought, sin in intent. The law of God demands absolute
perfection. God's standard, the law. Sin takes that standard and uses
that standard, uses the law against man. Now, there is the source
of our problem right there. Now, Paul asks a question. In
Romans 7, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Whenever you get on the road,
and whether you go through a stop sign or a traffic light, or you
are driving through a traffic light, and let's say that that
traffic light turns yellow. I think I can make that. So I'm
going to give it some gas. And I'm watching, and you are
too. You do it every time you do it. You're watching to see
if that light turned red before you got there. Now let me ask
you this. When you went through that traffic
light, was it the traffic light's fault? Or was it your fault? The law says when that light
turns red, you stop. When we went through it, it wasn't
the sign or the traffic light's fault. It was my fault. Is the law sin? No. The law is not sin. God forbid,
Paul says, I had not known sin. But by the law, the kind of understanding
that Paul is setting forth is a knowledge of conviction. I hadn't known sin. Man with
a regenerated heart, man knows right from wrong. Now, don't
tell me that men don't know right from wrong. Men know right from
wrong, even in an unregenerated state, They know what's right
and they know what's wrong. I mean, we know. We understand. But man in an
unregenerated state possesses no consciousness. He doesn't
care that the sin is against God. That's why he doesn't care.
He knows right from wrong and doesn't want to get caught. I
don't want to get caught. Whenever I go through a light
and I ram the red light, or if I didn't come to a complete stop.
Now, let me just get down to the nitty gritty here. If I don't
come to a complete stop when it says stop at a stop sign,
and I drive through it, and there was nothing coming, there wasn't
anybody coming. and no harm in it. That sin is
against Almighty God. Why? Because God established
the law in this land to keep order for the good of His people.
You say, I didn't think it was that serious. Transgression of the law is the
strength of sin. And any transgression of any
law, any order, All authority. Who put it there? God Almighty
put it there. Paul says, the law is not sin. I hadn't known sin. I wouldn't
have known that all rebellion against God is the breaking of
every law. I wouldn't have known that unless
the law told me that. He said, I had not known lust,
except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. Now, when I
first read that, I thought, Well, he's just giving an illustration.
I hadn't known sin, but by the law. I wouldn't have
known that unless the law told me that it was against God, I
wouldn't have known that. Then he gives that I hadn't known
lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. That's
more than just an illustration. It's not like he was saying,
I wouldn't have known, let's say, adultery was wrong, unless
the law would have said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Now,
it wasn't just an example. Paul is summing up the entirety
of what sin is right here. Except for the fact that the
law of God revealed that every thought, every word, every act
within me that does not conform to the law of Almighty God, This
is what it means. It means that I myself am lusting
after, coveting after God's honor and God's glory and God's place
and God's authority. Everything that I do in my being
that in any way breaks any law Any thought, any intent, anything
that I do is my attempt to have for myself God's honor. I'm breaking God's law. Paul
says the law is not sin. I would have never known that
every transgression of every law, every thought, every word,
every deed is my attempt through the power of sin to set myself
up above God. I'm above that. I am not answerable
for that. How sinful is sin? Every thought! You think, well, my goodness,
I didn't think it was that bad. I know. We never do. We never even remotely realize. that every transgression of God's
law, word, thought, or deed, is that flesh, that old nature
saying, I'm above God. I do not have to hear what God
has to say. I am not answerable. It just
gets a little higher, or a little lower, let me say it like that,
than what we say. Paul said, I would have never
known lust, concupiscence, except the law says, thou shalt not
covet God's honor, God's power, God's grace, God's mercy, God's
place. Covet. Sin. See what I'm saying? God Almighty told Adam, Don't
eat of the fruit. Adam said, I'll take that. Who do you think is more important?
Me or you? I'll have that fruit. That's
what he was saying. Every transgression is to elevate
your sin. Every, every, every. Man, I'm
telling you, I realize I can't do anything. I can't do anything
except in the actions of my members. Sin, taking occasion. What is
he talking about? Like a mad dog trying to bite. But sin, verse 8, taking occasion
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. You know, Paul had just said
that the law does not cause sin. The law doesn't cause sin. The
law reveals it. The law discovers it. The law
strips off the disguise and brings it to light. I didn't realize
it was that evil. It is. It is. It's that evil. Every word of disobedience, every
act, every thought, I don't even know how to say it any more clearly. I'm trying to talk to myself. Every action of disobedience
before God's law is me elevating or attempting to elevate myself
above God Almighty in saying, your word, your law is not worthy
to be heard. To be obeyed. You only do one
thing with that. You kill it. You kill it. You don't pardon it. You don't
appease it. The soul that sins is going to
die. It's going to die. Here, Paul
talks about sin taking an occasion. That sin, When it says taking
occasion, it says it finds a starting place, is what taking occasion
means. To find a place to begin to which
it can rush in to acts of rebellion, always looking for an excuse
to do what the old nature desires. Every opportunity. Every occasion, every moment,
whatever this old nature desires to do, whatever it desires, sin
finds a starting place to rush in. I'll act on that. I'll act
on that. Somebody says something to me,
I don't like it, and it kind of upsets me. I'll take that
opportunity right there. Whatever it takes, whatever it
is, a look, a thought, a remembrance, whatever, it takes occasion. He said, sin taking occasion
by the commandment. Sin finding a starting place
by taking what God Almighty had to say. The commandment, wrought
in me, worked fully, achieved, brought about, all manner, some
of all types. Boy, I tell you, there's no end
to the way in which we rebel. I mean, we look at each other
and on the outside, we don't look that bad. You know, you
look and we're all here, we all got dressed up and got us, you
know, got us a coat, tie, dress, shoes. We look good. And I'm
telling you, while we sit in this very place, sin, taking
occasion by whatever means it has, wrought in me all kinds
of concupiscence, desires of what is forbidden. You know,
there is nothing that looks as good to the flesh as what's forbidden. You know what I'm talking about? Nothing. Oh, I know that's not
mine, but when something is forbidden, don't touch that. You tell a
kid that. You know what? I've got some
cookies over there in that cookie jar, but now don't go over there. Don't touch them. Don't eat any
of that. I don't want you eating that
for supper. Don't do that. I've got a brand
new something, a brand new car sitting over there. Now don't
go and open the door and smell it. Don't do that. Are you kidding me? Man, I can
almost smell it now. That which is forbidden, concupiscence, with the new heart, and the realization
of my rebellion, Paul says, I now see what was really happening
in my flesh. Without the law, he said, sin
was dead to me. Without the spirituality of God's
law revealed to me, I will bet you $100. I can tell you this,
I would lose this bet. Before I began to look at these
Scriptures, I would talk about sin, and I'll admit right now,
I don't know. I have no idea. I mean, you talk
about seeing through a glass darkly, I see through a glass
darkly. You talk about knowing in part and seeing in part and
hearing in part, I hear and see and know in part. I don't know
anything. about what dwells in me. Paul
says, no good dwells in me. But I began to see just a little
bit of this ravening dog of sin, the heinousness of that nature. Before, he said, verse 8, without
the law, was dead to me. It had no effect
on me. Verse 9, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
Paul is saying, I proudly thought that I was alive. I thought that
before the strictness of God's law, the holiness of that law,
Before that was revealed to me, I was fine. I was good. I was doing fine. I was alive to God. I was saved. Why? Because I had done some
things. I had done a few spiritual things. I had my name printed on my Bible. I carried it. The reason that man thinks that
is because they're dead to the demands of God's law. They don't
realize that every transgression, word, thought, deed, they think
if they do the best they can that that's acceptable. Almighty
God absolutely demands holiness. Just God demands holiness. I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Men by nature, all men to a certain
extent I guess, know that they are sinners. Men will admit that. I had a guy that I knew in Franklin. And I'm telling you, I have never
in my life ever seen anybody that would take this statement
and use it as an excuse to rebel just openly. Well, I'm just a
sinner. I'm just a sinner. And I'm telling you, that phrase
to him, that was his catchphrase. That was his excuse for absolute
rebellion. They use that excuse to justify
everything that man does against Almighty God. But when the commandment
came, when the charge, the realization appeared by the Spirit of God,
I never knew that every act of rebellion, I didn't even know
what the standard was for the acts of rebellion. I thought
if I came over to your house and actually took something from
you, Gary, now that's sin. But now if I think about it,
that's not sin. If I mull over it, that's not sin. Yes, it is. Every act, every thought that
is not absolutely conformed to the perfection of Almighty God
is sin. Realize, Paul says, when the
commandment came in power, sin revived and I died. I saw myself,
Paul says, dead because of sin. Everything that I ever trusted
in, he said, was shown to me to be dung. Read all those things
that Paul trusted in. I mean, he just gave a long list
of them. He had a list of credentials
that would just, I mean, put ours to shame. He said, you think
you've got something to glory in? You don't have anything to
glory in. If someone would like to know
if Almighty God has done something for him in mercy and compassion,
let me just ask you this. Where lies your hope? Wherein lies your comfort? Verse
10, in the commandment which was ordained to life, Paul says,
I found to be unto death. That which was appointed by Almighty
God to give continuance of life to those who obeyed. Listen to
this scripture, Leviticus 18.5, Ye shall therefore keep my statutes
and my judgments. which if a man do, he shall live
in them, I am the Lord." Now listen to me. Absolute conformity
to God's law promised life. Absolute perfection to God's
law promised that Almighty God would give you life based on
your performance. If you could do it. But let me
tell you this, the Scripture says all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. If you think that you have, God
says you haven't. We don't know the lines. We don't
realize the depth. That which was ordained to life,
Paul says, I found to be death. It was on the precept of Paul
thinking that he had attained salvation, eternal life, because
of what he did. It was on that precept that he
is talking about when the law that was ordained to life, I
found it in regeneration to actually be death to me. Paul, as all believers do, by
a new heart, a new understanding, a new mind, a new will, a new
man, a new creation, that his ability to keep the law of God
is absolutely futile. You can't. Let me tell you something. There is nothing, for you that
believe, there is absolutely, as far as we are concerned, there
is not one thing that we have ever done. That is good. There is not one
thing. Every thought, every imagination,
every intent, every act, every step from the moment that we
were conceived. I started to say that we were
born. David said, I was conceived in sin. I came forth a liar. We have
manifested the absolute truth that sin in us, no good
thing, dwells. We have not done anything, nothing,
nothing. I am telling you, if we are not
saved by grace, we are not saved. We are not saved. If God Almighty
has not saved us by grace justly, dealing with Christ as our substitute,
we have no hope. Sin, verse 11, taking occasion
by the commandment. Deceive me. And by it, slew me. Boy, you know, there's no deception
like the deception of the carnal heart. Jeremiah 17, verse 9 says, The
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? I just don't realize. In myself, I am a walking mass of iniquity that has absolutely
no desire for God, no desire for God's honor, no desire for
God's glory, except I take it for myself. I am a thief by nature. I am an adulteress by nature.
I am a liar by nature. A stinking liar! You say, well,
you don't have a very high opinion of yourself. I've got a higher
opinion of myself than God says I really am. I think higher of
myself than Almighty God reveals me to be. Satan, by the means of the body
of sin that dwells in the flesh, that nature that is separated
from Almighty God. He blinds the mind of all to
the extent of the demands of the law. We just kind of justify. We just kind of overlook it.
We just kind of glaze over it. The problem is that by nature,
we don't know. We don't care and we don't know. Sin, just like Satan in the garden. It takes every opportunity to
deceive. I mean, it happens so quick.
It happens so fast. It's just continual. That's what
Paul is talking about. When we get into that next, he
says, I know in my flesh. I know there dwells no good thing.
I know that. That's what he's born. That's
what he struggles against. It promises honor. Independence. It promises everything. It promises
life. But actually what it does is
death. Death. Sin, taking occasion by
the commandment. Deceive me. This is the heinousness
of it. I said a while ago, it takes
that which is wholly just and good. It takes what is holy, just,
and good, and that is what it uses against God's people. Sin taken occasion by the commandment. Verse 12, wherein the law is
holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good, you know, because of the strictness
of God's law. There are times that we talk
about the law as if it is evil. The law. You know, the law. Not one thing wrong with the
law. I'll tell you what the problem is. Sin taking the law. Taking what God demands. Sin
taking occasion. Every opportunity. That's the
problem. The law is not evil. It's holy. It's blameless. Pure. It's just. It's right. And it's good. It's honorable.
It's honorable. That's the law of God. Was then,
verse 13, that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But saying that it might appear
sin, working death in me by that which is good, That sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful. How sinful is sin? Scripture says it is exceeding
sinful. That which is holy and just and
good. Has that which is holy, just
and good been made death to me? Paul says, no. The problem is
not the law of God. The problem is sin. Sin is the cause of death. Not the law. The law condemns. But remember, the strength of
sin is the law. The law is not the problem. The
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. Why? To fulfill the law
of God for us. The law is good. The true character
of sin is revealed by that sin taking God's law and using it
against God's people. That is the revelation of its
evil. Almighty God has so ordered that
the sinfulness of sin be manifest God has so ordained, God has
so decreed that the sinfulness of sin would be made manifest
by the operation of sin by the law. Does that make sense to
you? How sinful is sin? I'll tell you how sinful. It
takes that which is holy, just, and good and uses it against
us. That's evil. It doesn't take
what's evil and use it against us. It takes that which is good
and uses it against us. God Almighty has absolutely set
forth the evil that dwells. How would I know how bad it is? How would I know except God Almighty
set forth? How much greater Could sin be
shown to what it really is except it take occasion to take the
law of God? God's law! You just broke God's
law. You took what was good. And I did rebel. But thanks be
to Almighty God, that which was my hopeless condition. Well, you realize a man is in
that condition, that he is in a slew of despondency. He is in a pit of despair. I was conceived in it, came forth
from my mother's womb speaking it, loving it, wallowing in it,
and the Lord Jesus Christ took and was made that which had killed me. Made sin. And upon the tree as my federal
head, that which was death to me, sin. He was made that. and paid the penalty of it. He was made sin. That body, that
nature of rebellion against God. And he paid the debt of it. Now, let me tell you the awfulness
of this thing in closing. The debt Here is the debt. The debt before God's law because
of the sin that was in me. The debt of it has been paid.
The law of it has been satisfied. The law has been satisfied. No
condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. None. There is nothing owed to the
law of God for obedience. for righteousness. Christ is
the end of the law, the completion of the law for righteousness
to them that believe. We are free, free, free, free. He paid the debt. But this mad
dog that he died, that he died being made, this mad dog that
has no guilt over me. The presence of
it is still there. He was made sin and he put away
the guilt of it. I'm talking about he absolutely,
the debt that I owe before God's law is cast as far as the east
is from the west. But the presence of it is still
with me. Now, that's awful. It's awful. And it's still in my flesh, in
my own nature. It still takes occasion right
now and uses every occasion for me to work all manner of evil,
concupiscence against God. Right now, and I think to myself,
what I am actually doing right now in my flesh, Paul says, that
I see dwells no good thing, to will is present with me, but
I don't want to get ahead. Right now, what I'm actually
doing right now, and you too, He paid the debt of that, and
the presence of it is still there. The presence of it is still here.
But now I see something of it, Kevin. I see something of it. But I know this, this is all
my hope. What I see being wrought out
in me right now, He paid for that. He paid for
that. God pardons me right now. You know, I told you there's
two words, pardon and justification. Pardon. Justification sets forth
this truth. There's no record of any justifiable reason for
God Almighty to put me in hell justified from the law. No record. But there's another word that's
pardon. Justification sets forth no record
of sin. Pardon says forgiveness of. That's a pardon. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute. He won't charge him with
it. Not to say it's not there, because you know it's there.
Paul says, I am chief of sinners. Christ Jesus came to the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. So to say that there is
no sin there is not so. But to realize that right now
that Almighty God in the acts, the occasions of rebellion, that
I am acting out right now in my flesh, And that old nature
that's present with me, that body of death, when Paul cried
in the latter part of this seventh chapter, who shall deliver me
from the body of this death? God Almighty, before the foundation
of the world, said, I'm not going to charge you with them. Christ
paid the debt of them. They're still present with me.
And I see them acting out. the penalty of it. He's paid
the debt of it. And now I'm going through this
world right now with the presence of it still there. Still doing
exactly what I always wanted to do. Doing right now what I
always did before I was ever converted. That old flesh still
does that. But there's a new man that doesn't.
There's a new nature that does not sin. And now here is two
natures that are absolutely diametrically opposed to each other. They have
nothing in common. Paul says, I see. He said, with
my mind I serve the law of God, but my flesh, the law of sin. And I'm telling you, that old
nature has never changed. You think, well, it's gotten
better since I was converted. Oh, it has not either. You're
doing the same thing now that you always did before Almighty
God ever called. Before He called you out of darkness,
you were alive in your thoughts. I'm OK. But when that commandment
came, He said, I started to see. I started to see something out
of nature. That's when I realized that's what He's saying. How
sinful is sin? It's like a mad dog. That's what
I started off saying. It's a mad dog that's in the
recesses of my being. And I have no ability to escape
it. I have no ability to control
it. I have no ability. I'm telling
you somebody come up to you and say something to you that offends
you, and before you know it, you thought evil so fast, you
had no ability to control that. You cannot control the evil in
your flesh. You cannot. Is that an excuse,
though? Shall we sin that grace may abound?
God forbid. Sin doesn't rule. It is not on
the throne anymore. I'm telling you, but it's still
there. And you struggle with it. Some of you know what I'm
talking about. You struggle with it. How sinful
is sin? The Scripture says in that last
verse, it's exceedingly sinful. How much has the Lord done for
me? One of these days, I'm going to know. And in that day, I'll
see Him as He is. And I'll know Him and be like
Him. Until that day, I'm going to
walk through this earth Warring. This old nature is going to war
against my new, and this new is going to war against that.
And the older a man or a woman gets, the more God teaches them
of this nature right here, the more they hate it. The more they
despise it. You'd think it'd get easier.
I don't think it does. I think you're just more aware
of it. You're more aware of the battle that rages within. Okay,
Gary.