All right, if you would this
morning turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. I'll begin reading in verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless,
Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is a figure
of him that was to come. But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift, For if through the offense of one many be dead,
much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by
one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was
by one that sinned, so is the gift, For the judgment was by
one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses
unto justification. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus
Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, Even so,
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." It was said of the Emperor Nero that he sat in his palace and
fiddled as Rome burned. He was oblivious to the problems
of his kingdom, and he was oblivious to the dangers of his life. So he became known in this infamous
sense, the emperor who just fiddled while Rome burned. And he was
very foolish in doing so. He was undoubtedly blind in many
ways, and he wound up committing suicide, taking his own life
before the inevitable happened. But the trouble is, he would
be a very good example of every sinner in this world. without exception, in and of
ourselves, and left to ourselves, we would be just like Him spiritually
and die eternally. When we read that twelfth verse
here in Romans 5, the Apostle Paul is led by the Spirit of
God to remind us that sin entered into the world. And in light of that, my title
this morning, the title I've put to this message is this,
Whatever Happened to Sin? If sin entered into this world, whatever happened to sin. And we have need to consider
such an awesome and awful thing in this matter of sin by asking
this question. If he says that sin entered into
this world, how did that come to be? And he clearly tells us,
without any reservation or hesitation, that sin entered into this world
by one man. And he names that man because
he was that first man Adam. And in doing so, he tells us
and shows us exactly what sin really is. It is rebellion. It is defiance. It is disobedience against God. All sin is against God. And sin entered in when Adam,
who by the way was more than just a man, or even the first
man, in this text we find out that he was a representative
man. that when he took this course
of action, he was not only acting for himself, but he was acting
for all his race. And God gave to him all the glories
of that beautiful paradise and garden. He gave him dominion
over all the creation. and left only one reminder, one
symbol of divine authority in the midst of that garden, and
it was one tree. And he tells Adam and Eve that
they can dress the garden, live in the garden, survive through
the garden, do all these things, But there would be one reminder
of his right to be God. And he says to them, do not eat
of that one tree in the midst of the garden. And many have
made that an apple tree or whatever kind of tree, but it doesn't
really matter what kind of tree. The real poison was not in the
actual eating of the fruit, but it was defying and rebelling
against the command of God. And you might remember Joseph,
When he was tempted by Potiphar's wife, he responded by saying
virtually the same thing. He says, how can I do this wickedness
and sin against God? Sin entered in by this one man,
this one representative man, and it is sin that is always
against God. And Paul describes here this
disobedience as one act of disobedience. By the one man's act of disobedience. He says, sin entered in, and
when that happened, it brought universal consequences to this
world. Him being this representative
man, Paul goes on to say that when he sinned, all sinned in
him. Call it original sin. Call it by whatever name you
want to call it. It always boils down to this. By inspiration of the Spirit
of God, leading the apostles to say this, we know that when
He sinned, all sinned in Him. And even though there was not
a direct command from God to Adam and Eve concerning these
things until Moses was sent of God and gave the Law, which was
another command not to sin against, even though there was no act
of disobedience between those two times, it says, nevertheless. Death reigned from Adam to Moses. Adam died, Eve died, Cain died,
Abel died, people died, even though there was no active command
of God, but they all died. between Adam and Moses because
they all had become sinners. Everyone died and showed in their
deaths that they were sinners because they were born with a nature
of sin. In Adam, all died. And before we begin in our logical
and self-righteous minds to begin to follow His disobedience further
by saying, this cannot be, God cannot hold me responsible for
the act of another, before we throw completely out this truth
of God, We better find out what God was establishing at the same
time, and on the other hand, through another man. Through another man. And we are
all, because of that, born in this world, as the psalmist said,
born in sin and shapen in iniquity. We all come forth from our mother's
wounds, it says, speaking lies. As a matter of fact, Paul writes
also in Romans 3 and verse 23, he says, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That means you, every one
of you, And it certainly means me, and it means every other
person in Adam's race. We in ourselves did in him, and
we do individually and actively when we come in this world, sin
against God. Absolutely. And so now, our whole
world is engulfed in sin. In other words, the evidence
of this is all around us, and the reason why it's this way
is because it is populated with sinners. Were there no sinners,
there would be no sin. And yet we live day to day, we're
always griping and complaining and moaning and groaning about
all these consequences of sin, all the crime, all the murders,
all the wickedness, all the injustice, and all these things in the world,
all of which are sin, but it's all because we're all sinners. And so when men and women offer
all these remedies that are going to make us better, all these
political solutions that are going to bring peace and all
these things, they never work. Why? Because at the heart of
every problem is the sin that comes from sinners. And so since
that time, our world has not been evolving and getting better
and better. Just the opposite, it's been
devolving. And the evidence of sin is all
around us, and it is all around us because it is all in us. It has permeated our whole world
because it has permeated our whole beings. And I know what we like to imagine.
And I know what we say to each other. And I know what we like
to have said to us with our little pats on the back, that maybe
we're not all bad, or maybe we're getting a little better. But the truth is, we're all in
ourselves nothing but sin. And that's why the Apostle tells
us also in this same book, there is none righteous, no not one. And it is not only what we do,
but we do what we do because we are what we are. We don't
become sinners by doing. We're sinners because we are
sinners, and we sin because of what we do. But yet, even though
that is the truth as we find it in God's Word, though it is
the truth that stands out there before us like an undeniable
evidence and witness that this is the case not only in us, but
in our whole world. Men and women speak lightly of
it. They laugh and joke about it.
They imagine to excuse themselves because of the universality of
it. You say, I'm a sinner. Well,
we're all sinners and brush it all off. Well, everybody sins
against God. Everybody does wrong. And we
kind of try to make it in some way to be lesser sins and greater
sins. Well, I do little sins, This one or that one or the other
one, they all do greater sins. But the truth is, there are no
little sins, because there is no little God to sin against. If our sin is against God, and
it is, it is great sin. Everything we do is tainted and
polluted with sin, and because of the nature of sin, We're blinded to the biggest
problem of all. You say, well, we've got this
problem. We've got economic problems. We've got social problems. We've
got all these problems. Granted, we do. But we have these
problems because of the greatest problem. And that problem is
our sin. But not only does sin blind us
to us, it also makes us rebellion and causes us to despise God's
remedy for it. And for that reason, all the
race is left to ourselves. As we are proving by every passing
day that comes, we go closer and closer and closer to the
consequences of sin, which is death. Do you remember what God
said to Adam? He said to Adam, showing us that
it did not take God by surprise. He said to Adam, in the day that
you eat thereof, you will surely die." Now, if we take that into
our minds in our logic, we would have to say that evidently God
was mistaken. Because in the day that Adam
and Eve ate of that tree, they did not die physically. But my
friend, when God says to a man or a woman, in the day that you
do such and such, you'll die, you're going to die. And that's
exactly what happened. Because in that day, he died
spiritually. He died to God. He died to truth. He died to everything that is
right and just and good. He died to any faults as to the
one way that God would look upon him and save him even from his
sins. What did he do? He went out. And he and his wife gathered
together fig leaves, and they made themselves coverings and
garments, and they sought to hide the nakedness of their sin
from God. And when he spoke, they ran and
hid in the trees in the garden." Why was that? Because sin had
separated them from God. Sin had alienated them from God. Sin had brought in them that
response toward God that is natural to every sinner. Oh, we'll take
a God of our making. They'll gather today by the multitudes
and surround themselves in the rituals and ceremonies of religion
in our day and hide in those things and worship a God who
is not God and who, as described in this book, cannot save. What good is a God that cannot
save? What good is a God to a sinner
like me and to like you who cannot save us from our sins? And men talk about the so-called
free will of men and all that. All that will that we have is
in ourselves is a will to be what we are. Rebels. Defiant. But if God is not able
to save, will be left in our sinnerhood, will be left to face
his judgment in the matter of our sins, and we will not only
experience, as we have, this spiritual death, that we get
from our father Adam. We will, as we know, face physical
death. We will stand before God in what
is called legal death or condemnation, and we will go out into eternity
without Him, and that will be eternal death. Sin, when it is finished, brings
forth death. And when Paul writes to the Ephesians
and he talks about how God in His free and sovereign and almighty
grace has saved them, he reminds them, first of all, you were
dead in trespasses and sins. So sin is in us, sin is on us,
in ourselves, all around us, And yet men and women fiddle
around. And all these religions, they
play the little tune we like to hear. And all the time our
kingdoms, our souls, our lives all around us, they burn to the
ground and shall do so for all eternity. And so sin is still
on us. Sin is still among us. in ourselves,
and apart from God's grace, and apart from that One who is called
the last Adam. Sin is on us in its consequences. Sin is among us in its results. Sin is among us and on us individually
in its condemnation. That's what happened to sin.
If God ever gives us a heart that is in any way honest, If
He ever shines the bright light of His holy Word into our hearts,
if He ever raises us to spiritual life, we will find out that in
His light, we're nothing but sinners. I can hear somebody
saying, well, why in the world, preacher, would you go down that
rode this morning. Don't you know it's a holiday?
Don't you know it's a holy day? No, I don't. Because all the
man-made holidays, all the religious things that men take part of
that we do not find anywhere in the Bible, they still will
not suffice for sin. Sin deadens us. blinds us, paralyzes
us so that apart from God's grace, we will never know our state,
we will never realize our condition and our danger until it's too
late. Unless the Spirit of God convict
us and convince us of our sin. Imagine that there is one square
foot of land on this earth, and it is marked as sinner. And God has said that you could
travel the earth, that you could do this or that or the other,
But I'm not going to bless you, I'm not going to save you, I'm
not going to help you until you are standing in that one square
foot of ground. And here you are, you're traveling
off to Europe somewhere and it's not there. Or you're traveling
to another state and it's not there. And you'll never be blessed
of God until you're standing in that spot. And He's the only
one that can put you there. You say, well, I don't like that
ground. You say, well, I think I found a better place. That's
not even the issue. The issue is, just as it was
in the matter of Adam's fall, we must stand and be what God
says that we are if we're to be blessed by God. You say, I
don't think I'm such a bad person. Well, I don't think you are either,
but I don't count. And you will never know what
you really are, just like I never knew what I really am in myself
until God enables us to believe what He says about us. And He says we're sinners. And if He convinces us of that, You remember he said in that
psalm we read, Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquities, if
you should count sins, which he does, who could stand? We're just filling around this
earth, filling our days away, filling our time away, filling
our opportunities away, filling away the means of grace to hear
the gospel, while our whole kingdom We are just little near us. But
if he convicts us of our sins, That's what He said the Holy
Spirit would do to His people. If He convicts us of our sins,
it will be an act of grace and mercy to us. It will be so that
He might make known to us His salvation from sin in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is the only
Savior from sins. You can't save yourself. Man
at his best state is altogether vanity. And here we are, we're
reforming, we're imagining we're improving, we're getting better,
we're trying hard, but you'll never be able to save yourself
from your sins. You see, the good news of the
gospel I wouldn't dare leave you right now. I hope God will
give me breath to say just a little bit more. Because the good news
of the gospel is that God in Christ is mighty
to save. Mighty to save. And that is exactly
why The Son of God, who being quite satisfied in Himself as
God, did lay aside His glory as God and come in human flesh to be the Savior of His people.
How many times? Around Christmas time especially,
do people read in Matthew chapter 1 and places like that about
the birth of Jesus? How many times will they around
Easter time talk about the fact that someone named Jesus died
and rose again? But right in Matthew chapter
1 in verse 21 it says this, When that angel spoke to Mary and
Joseph concerning what the Christ Child was to be named, it says,
Thou shalt call His name Jesus. Do you know what that means? It means something like this,
Jehovah's Savior, Joshua. And it is a reflection, in a
sense, back to the man Joshua. If you remember, Moses was not
actually able to lead Israel into the land of promise. But Joshua, who is a type of
Christ, he led them across Jordan and into that land. literally means Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus
for, because He shall save His people from their sins. Now that's something right there
that most folks don't know. And that is that the Lord Jesus
Christ has a people. Just as Adam represented his
race, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the last Adam, He
has a people and He represents them. That's why I say you don't
want to get rid of this principle. The principle of substitution. The principle of representation. Because if God showed how He
could justly condemn me in a representative man, He shows in the gospel how
He can save me in a representative man. You say, well, I didn't
really have anything to do with me falling into my sin in Adam. And neither do you have anything
to do in the matter of your salvation. We fell in one outside of ourselves. We must be saved in one outside
of ourselves. You say, well, I really wish
a better man had been standing for me in the garden there. Well, there is a better man. The man Christ Jesus. And my
friend, if He's standing for you, it's alright. He said, say ye to the righteous,
It shall be well with him." It shall be well to those sinners
who look to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He has a people and they
are all sinners. And then Paul writes to Timothy
and says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's why He came. Don't believe
these people who are always telling about what Christ made possible,
what He makes available, what He'll do if you'll do something.
It says that he came into this world to save sinners. And when Paul said that, guess
who he pronounced the greatest of all? Himself. He said, of whom I am chief. I'll give that to him when he
lived, but when I came along, that must surely have ended his
title Because I think I'm the chief of sinners. I don't ever do anything that
isn't polluted by sin. I tried all the reforms, I tried
religion, and I tried all these things, but they would never
suffice for a real sinner. For a real sinner needs a real
Savior. And if you're not a sinner, if
you don't need a Savior, I don't really have anything for you.
I don't have any good news for you. There isn't any good news
for you." It's kind of like an old preacher said. He said, a
sinner, a real sinner, a confessed sinner. A sinner is a sacred
thing because the Lord has made him such. When I hear people
telling me about when they got baptized, or how they felt in
a revival service in the past, or all these things, and build
a hope on that. I know the Spirit's not been
working in their hearts. But when I find a sinner, boy, have I got good news for
you. Because Christ died for the sins
of His people who are all sinners, And really, if we ever see what
sin really is, it will be through looking to Christ as He hangs
on that cross and is dealt with by the Father in the strictest
of justice. If death is the wages of sin,
why did Jesus Christ die on that cross? When it tells us again
and again and again, He knew no sin, He thought no sin, He
was in no way defiled or corrupt. He didn't have an earthly father
to pass sin on to him. He's that holy thing. So you
tell me why He's dying on that cross. I'll tell you why. And Isaiah is led by the Spirit
of God to confess it, to rejoice in it, When he writes in Isaiah
53 about the Christ that was to come, the Savior before there
was ever a sinner, he says, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We've turned every one to his
own way. But the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. And nowadays, men and women think
it's a glorious thing to tell everybody that God loves you,
Christ died for you, and the Spirit of God is trying to save
you. That's not what the Bible says. You say, well, are you
saying Christ didn't die for me? I don't know. But I know
this, those He died for are sinners. And the only way that we ever
confess that we truly, really, genuinely know ourselves to be
sinners, needy sinners, is when we look to the Savior. Because
that's the only one that needs a Savior. Do you need a Savior? I need a Savior. I'm not talking
down to you or at you. I'm talking with you. I need
a Savior. I need One to save me from my
sins. And why He dies on that cross
is because God has accounted to Him all the sins of His people. He said, I lay down My life for
My sheep. You say, who are they? He said,
My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. So what did He say
with His voice? What's one of the last things
He says there on that cross? Here is God's Son, the perfect
God-man, and He's dying on that cross. Why? Because God has charged
Him, held Him accountable for all the sins of His people. He
lays down His life for His sheep. What does He say? Have you ever
heard it? It is finished. It is finished. In His coming, in His living,
and especially in His dying, He was made sin for His people,
that they might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's where His people are.
They're in Christ. He is their life. He is their
salvation. God has already dealt with their
sin in that substitute. You do understand the principle
of substitution, don't you? You might have watched these
final four basketball games. The coach, he stops everything
and he calls to a man, he brings him off the floor, he puts in
a substitute. He represents the whole team.
Christ represented His whole team. And He won the victory
over sin. He was made accountable for all
the sins of His people. And divine justice dealt with
Him in that way. He paid all that sin debt for
all those sins that were imputed to Him. So let me ask you again. Whatever happened to their sins?
Whatever happened to the sins of those who Christ died for? They are non-existent. They are
non-existent. You say, well, don't you sin,
preacher? Well, without a doubt, sin as
a nature is still in me, but there's no sin on me. No sin
to my account before God. That was all dealt with over
2,000 years ago, taken care of. That debt was paid in full by
the bloodshedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't exist. You pay a bill that you justly
owe, and you pay every penny of it, then justice requires
that that debt not be held against you. We read last week about that
everlasting righteousness in Daniel 4. But part of that is
what he says again, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people
and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make
an end of sins. For who? Thy people. Zion, that
holy city. You see, God's people are in
Christ. And John says, and in Him, there's
no sin. If we're in Christ, there's no
sin. You say, well, if you tell people
that, they'll just go out and sin all they want to. Well, they
already do that. And the only true motivation
of seeking to live godly in this world is the fact that the Christian
life does not have as its goal full salvation from sin. It has
as its starting point the full salvation of sin. Hebrews 9. For then must he often, had he
been like all the other priests with all their sacrifices, for
then he must often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself." If you owed a million
dollars in debt and somebody could assure you today that they
had gone and paid every penny of it, would that give you relief? Would that give you a special
regard for them? Would that put in you a desire
to please them and to be thankful to them? Well, sure. Christ put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. And that was what was always
pictured. Leviticus 16, where we have the account of the scapegoat. Where the offer was to come,
lay his hands on the victim, confess the sins as it was, as
he did so, and that sacrifice was taken and slain. But there
was another one. The scapegoat. And when those
sins were confessed on him, it says, he was taken by a fit man
and led out into the wilderness, never to be seen or known of
or heard again. Let me just read you a few verses,
such as are found in Micah. He will turn again, He will have
compassion upon us, He will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt
cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Psalm 103. As far as the east
is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions
from us. Can you tell me how far the east
is from the west? No. But he uses that illustration
to show us that he has put away the sins of his people. Let me
read you this in Isaiah. Behold, for peace I had great
bitterness, But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it
from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind
thy back." Where is the back of God? That's what Christ accomplished. Let me read you one more in Jeremiah. And in that time, saith the Lord,
the iniquity of Israel," and Israel as a nation was simply
a picture and a type of the true Israel of God, the true people
of God. He says, "...in those days and
in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for, and there shall be none." You say, well, I can
find your sins, preacher. You won't have to look hard.
As a matter of fact, you can probably just ask my wife. But
God can't. God won't. And especially His
justice won't. "...and the sins of Judah, and
they shall not be found, for I will pardon them who I reserve." Oh, you remember David? when
he sinned with Bathsheba. And Nathan was sent by God to
confront him. And when David hears from Nathan
those words that he is so naturally offensive of, the idea that someone
would steal the lamb of one person who only had one lamb, when he
had lots of lambs. David said, show me that man
and I'll see to it he hangs for it. And Nathan said, thou art
the man. You're that man. And that's what the Spirit of God
says to every sinner. He says, you're that person. And so David is brought to confess. David said unto Nathan, I have
sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The
Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die." Put away sin. That's a little too much grace
for some people. But it's not for a sinner. Our
sins never keep us from God, but all our imagined righteousnesses,
they do. I've tried to be a good person
all my life. I hope you have, and I'm sure
you've been better than me, but that's still not good enough
for the thrice holy God. Hebrews says, but this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God. Titus 2 says, "...he gave himself
for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Now,
how can we know? How can we rest and be sure that
our sins are gone? that Christ's death in our place
was really sufficient, how can we know that God's justice was
fully satisfied in the matter of the sins of all who Christ
represented? How can we know that? You see, we can know that in
the fact that God raised Him from the dead. In other words,
the hand of God's justice, which punished our sins in Him through
His death, that same justice, when thoroughly, completely satisfied
by the dying of Christ, required that He be raised from the dead.
And that same justice requires that everyone that He died for
goes free. free. We died in one, but we live in
one. And that's why when Paul writes
to the Corinthians, he said, I came preaching to you the same
message that I've stuck with and that I'm holding fast to
right now. And that is, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and how He was
buried and rose again according to the Scriptures in His death
as God. But as God in human flesh, He
endured and suffered and paid all that God required. So it's not about what you do,
it's about what He did. You ought
to do right. Grace will never be an excuse
for sin, but your not sinning will never be salvation, because
you can't keep from it. Paul said, he was delivered because
of our offenses and was raised again. because of our justification. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. When He goes to that cross, He
goes bearing the sins of all His people, accountable for all
the sins of those who believe, suffering in the place of all
God's elect. But when He comes back the next
time, It'll be without sin. Because
He made an end of them. They'll never be brought up against
the people of God ever again. Can you believe that? That's what it is to believe
on Him. It's not to believe in Him. It's to believe on Him. To have Christ and Him crucified
is all my hope. It's to trust and rely to lean
wholly on who He is and what He did in that work of righteousness
that He accomplished. And you lay down your head at
night and know that if you die in your sleep, to be absent from
the body will be to be present with the Lord because of Christ. The devil often comes even to
the people of God, reminding us of what we've done. But he'll never remind you of
what Christ did. That's what the gospel does.
That's what the gospel does. In Revelation it says, "...blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On
such, the second death hath no power." You see, the Scriptures
say that all of Christ's people were in union with Him went to
that cross with him, or in him, died that death, went to the
grave, rose from the grave, so Paul says they are now seated
in the heavenly in Christ. The head of that body is already
on the throne. Can you sing this hymn? My sin,
not in part, but the whole was nailed to His cross, and I bear
it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul." My sin. Not most of them, not in part,
but the whole mass of them were nailed to that cross when Christ
was nailed to that cross. He made peace. with God by the
blood of His cross for those He represented. For those who He brings to truly,
fully believe on Christ alone. Who confess He is the Lord, our
righteousness. Our only righteousness. To rest and lay our heads down
in the knowledge that He put away our sin. I see the marks
of sin in myself every day. But in that book of books, God
says, I blotted them all out. They are no more. Whatever happened
to sin in Adam? Still here. What happened to
those sins in Christ? They're gone. Now that is good
news. Our Father, this day we bow our
unworthy heads and give thanks to You as the God of all grace
and salvation, that You devise that way in Him who is the wisdom
of God, whereby You might be just and punish the sins of Your
people and yet the Savior in Christ Jesus saving them from
all their sins. Give us faith to look away from
ourselves and away from every other hope and to look upon and
rest in Christ Jesus and Him alone. For we pray and ask all
things in His name. Amen.