What a blessing to be privileged
to see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you turn
to Luke 18? While you're turning there, a
few announcements this evening, we will observe the Lord's table
together. And also the church directories are ready, you can
get a copy of it back in the vestibule, one copy per family. And also I put in the bulletin
that Brother Mahan's commentaries have come out in a hardback version. And if at least 10 people from
the church get some copies of this, we can get these for $70
a piece. So if you want a copy of that,
let me know. Also, we're going to try to enlarge
this auditorium. We're going to knock these back
walls out, those back rooms out, and we're going to try to go
from 20 pews to 30 pews. There's a way we can do that
without knocking this wall out. And that's going to be expensive. And in the next month, as the
Lord enables you, give to this thing that we're going to try
to do. We obviously need to do it and I'm Thankful for that
problem and we're also going to enlarge the parking lot also. Luke Chapter 18, I've entitled
this message. Sinners and sin. Sinners and sin. Verse 13. and the public, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast. That's where his heart is. That's
where his problem was. He smote upon his breast, God
be merciful to me, a sinner. I'm not sure why the translators
translated this, a sinner, because the definite article is in the
original. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Just as if I'm the only one. God be merciful to me. The sinner. What is a sinner? I can answer that real simply.
It's someone who commits sin. You cannot have sin without first
having a sinner. The one who commits the sin.
You ever heard that saying God loves the sinner and he hates
his sin? You ever heard that saying? I even heard a preacher
say the Bible says God loves the sinner, but he hates his
sin. Where's that in the Bible? Give
me the book, the chapter and the verse. The fact of the matter
is that is not in the Bible and it's pure. Foolishness. There's
no truth to anything like that. Sin is not some abstract thing. It's something committed by sinners. We don't put crimes in jail,
do we? We put the people who committed
the crimes in jail. God doesn't put sins in hell. He puts sinners in hell. God loves the sinner and hates
the sin. What are you going to do with these scriptures? I mean,
I know that's a very popular statement, but would you turn
with me to Psalm chapter five? You know, really, before you
can understand what sin is, you first have to understand what
a sinner is. It begins with the sinner. It doesn't begin with
sin. It begins with the one who does it. It begins right there.
Look here in Psalm 5. I want you to see several scriptures
in Psalms. Psalm 5. Verse 4. For thou art not a God that hath
pleasure and wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. The
foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers
of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that
speak leasing or lies. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. Look at Psalm 7. Verse 11. God judgeth the righteous. And
God is angry. with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will wet his
sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. He hath also prepared
for him the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against
the persecutors. Psalm 11, verse 4. The Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked And him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. God hates that one. That's what the Bible says. Verse
6, Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone,
and an horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of
their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His
countenance doth behold the upright. Now, a sinner is the one who
commits the sin, and you cannot separate sin and the one who
committed the sin. So may God give us grace to strike
this from our way of thinking. God loves the sinner, but hates
his sin. You cannot separate the sin from
the sinner. It's got to begin with the sinner.
Well, what is We know it's something committed by a sinner, and we're
going to understand what a sinner is more as we consider this passage
of Scripture. But what is sin? Well, first,
the thing that comes to my mind when I ask what is sin, is there
such a thing as sin? Is there really such a thing
as sin, or is it something men have made up, trying to create
laws that will make an order in society and so on? Or is there
actually such a thing as sin? If there is no God, who's to
say? You got your opinion. I got my
opinion. But if there's no God, who's to say? As far as that
goes, hey, survival of the fittest. If there's no God. But deep down,
everybody in this room knows that God is. I don't have to prove that. I
don't have to argue that. We're born with that knowledge
innately. Everybody in this room knows
that God is and that he will reward the righteous. And he
will punish the wicked. Everybody knows that God is and
God is just and because God is there are moral absolutes. There is such a thing as sin. And how? evil sin is. Now you look at the pain and
the sorrow brought into this world because of sin. What wretchedness in human lives
it creates. You know, every problem, every
trouble has sin behind it. Do you believe that? If so, lying, murder, anger,
wrath, sexual sin, broken homes, war, poverty, death, disease,
sin is behind it all. Sin is so evil. And the person who commits sin
is an evil person. Do you commit sin? Where do you stand here? Where
do I stand here? Now, if you want to see how evil
sin is, I'm not asking you to look within your own heart and
see all the wicked thoughts and bad motives you have. You've
got plenty, no doubt. I do, too. But that's not where
I'm telling you to look. If you want to know how evil
sin is, look to the cross. Somebody said to me recently
who was caught in a scandalous scene, they said to me, the heavens
are brass to me. The heavens are brass. And I
said, no, you may feel that way. But let me tell you when the
heavens were brass. when the Holy Son of God cried out, My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now that's when the heavens
were brass. The Lord Jesus had no communication
from His Father. Truly, He cried and the heavens
were brass. God forsook him. Why? There's only one answer
to that question. Sin. Sin is the reason he was
forsaken. You see, on Calvary's tree, according
to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, he was made sin. Did Christ become a sinner on
the cross? No. Worse. He was made sin. He became guilty. The sins of his people became
his and God would show him no mercy. God killed. Now that's how bad sin is. Sin is so evil, it costs the
Son of God His life. Now if you want to know how evil
you are, look to the cross. That's the only place you're
going to get the truth about yourself. If you want to know how evil
sin is, look at the cross. Remember the words of the Lord,
if it were possible, if it is possible, Let this cup pass from
me. Was it possible for sin to be
forgiven and then this cup pass from him? Well, if it was, God
would have found some other way. But no, it was not possible. The only way sin can be put away
is by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are basically
three names given to sin in the Bible. Would you turn with me
to Psalm 32? Psalm 32. What is sin? Well, David says
in verses one and two of Psalm 32, Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered, blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity." Now, there are the three names
given to sin. Transgression, iniquity, and
sin. Transgression. What's transgression
mean? It means passing the boundary.
When you break one of God's holy commandments, when you break
the Ten Commandments, when you tell a lie, you're transgressing
the law. When you have an adulterous thought,
you're transgressing the law. When you covet, you're transgressing
the law, the moral absolutes of God. Sin is the transgression
of the law. The other word that David uses
in Psalm 32 is iniquity. Now, transgression is the bad
stuff we do, the stuff that's obviously evil, wicked. It was
going over the bounds. Iniquity is the next word. You
know what that word has to do with? Hold your finger there
and turn with me to Exodus chapter 28. Exodus 28. And this will give
us some understanding of what iniquity is. Verse 38. And it, the miter,
shall be upon Aaron's forehead. Exodus 28, 38. And it shall be
upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the
holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all
their holy gifts. the iniquity of the holy things. Do you know what iniquity is?
Iniquity is the good stuff that we do. Iniquity is the religious
stuff that we do. Iniquity is my self-righteousness. It's my prayers. It's my repentance. It's the stuff that my flesh
embodies. It's the good stuff, but it's
unjust. He shall bear the iniquity of
the holy things. My prayer. Isn't prayer a good
thing? If it's me, it's iniquity. Well, what about your Scripture
reading and your preaching and your praying and all the things
you do? If my flesh touches it, it's iniquity. Iniquity is the
good things you do. Transgression is the bad things. Iniquity is the good things.
And it's all called sin. Sin. Sin has to do with our nature. Transgression's the bad things.
Iniquity's the good things. Sin is the reason behind them.
A sinful nature. Why does a baby die? Now, deal
honestly with that question. Why will a baby die? There's
only one reason. A sinful nature. They don't die
because of sinful acts. They don't have any sinful acts
yet. A sinful nature. Sin is in nature. That's what
David was saying when he said, my sin is ever before me. He's talking about my sinful
nature. And even while I'm talking to you right now, my sin, my
sinful nature is before me right now. I'm keenly aware of it. Transgression, iniquity and sin. Now, let's think of the six definitions
the Bible gives of sin. And it will give us some understanding
of this. Remember, we're talking about
sinners and sin. Well, the first definition, and
this is this in some respects is my favorite definition. 1
John chapter 3 verse 4 says sin is the transgression of the law.
God's holy law. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. And you do. That is the transgression of
God's holy law. Sin is the transgression of the
law. But sin is not only seen in acts
of commission, transgressing God's holy law, but it's also
seen in acts of omission. Listen to this passage of scripture
from James chapter four, verse 17. To him that knoweth to do
good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. To know to do good and not do
it. Why didn't he do anything? I
know. That's sin. You see, sin comes from the heart.
Listen to this scripture from Matthew chapter 15, verse 19.
Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornication, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemy. These are the things
that defile the man. The things that come from your
heart. See, Proverbs 24, 9 says the
thought of foolishness is sin. Just the thought of foolishness
before God is sin. Sin is described in Romans chapter
3, verse 23 like this. It's described as coming short
of the glory of God. And then we read in Romans chapter
14, verse 23, whatsoever is not a faith is sin. Whatever is not generated from
faith in Christ, whatever is contrary to simply resting in
Christ is sin. I don't care what it is. If it's
contrary to faith in Christ, it's sin in God's sight. I don't care what name it comes
under. It's still sin. Here's a scripture. Proverbs
chapter 21, verse four, and I think this explains so much the plowing
of the wicked. You see. Now, I don't know of
anything that seems like a much more wholesome activity. Let's
say somebody else is going out and plowing up his yard or garden,
you know, to provide food for a family or provide food for
the poor or something like that. That seems like a good thing
to do, doesn't it? Plowing? But the Scripture says
the plowing of the wicked is sin. It becomes sin because he
did it. The reason behind all of these definitions is this,
Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, And God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that, listen to the words, every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. Now when God looks at my heart,
When God looks at your heart, this is what He sees. Every imagination
of the thoughts of His heart. He's not even talking about the
things you do yet. He's talking about what goes on in here. Remember, sin
comes from the heart. Every imagination of the thoughts
of His heart was only evil continually. You see, the plowing of the wicked
is sin. That means if a sinner does it,
it is sin no matter what it is. If he did it, That makes it sin,
because a sinner is the one who did this. Now, where did sin
come from? I mean, it's a depressing subject,
isn't it, to think of the wretchedness that sin has brought into the
human experience, the human existence. You think of the wretchedness
of broken homes and unfaithfulness and drugs and self-righteousness
and religion. And you think of the wretchedness
that sin creates. Where did sin come from? Well,
you know, the Bible does say, by one man, sin entered the world. And that's the only information
we're given. By Adam, sin entered the world. As far as the origin
of the evil goes, I don't know, nor does anybody else, nor do
we need to know. The fact of the matter is, God permitted
it. It's here. And that's enough for us to know.
How could God permit it? I don't know, but he does. And it's not because he's not
in control. Therefore, it's best. You know, how could a good God
allow sin to be in the world? Well, I feel no need to answer
for the Lord. I don't need to defend him. What
are you going to do about it? And as far as that goes, what does righteousness mean
without sin? What does holiness mean if there
is no sin? What is mercy if there's no sin? What is grace if there's no sin? And what about the forgiveness
of sin? The forgiveness of sin is divine. You know, there's nothing more
glorious that happens on earth when someone truly from their
heart forgives somebody else that sinned against them. And
what would we know of that if there were no sin? Now, the origin
of evil? I don't know. I know it wouldn't
be if God didn't permit it. But let me ask you this. We talk
about the origin of evil, and people twist their minds trying
to figure it out and so on. If I say, fire, do you think,
where's the origin of its igniting? No, you think, where's the exit?
How can I get out? That's what you think of. You don't think
of the origin. How to get here? No. How do I
get out of here? If somebody breaks in your house,
the first thing you think about is not, how did he get in, but
how do I get him out? That's what we concern ourselves
with. Sin's real. It's so sad. It's so wretched. It's the reason behind every
problem. It's the reason behind death.
Well, how can we be delivered from sin? That's the question
we need to concern ourselves with. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
15. We looked at this a couple of weeks ago, but it's a very
important verse of scripture. Verse 56. The sting of death is sin. The cause of death is sin. Why
do people die? There's only one reason. Sin.
That's why Christ died. Remember, He was made sin. And the reason anybody dies is
because of sin. And the strength of sin is what? The law. God's holy law demonstrates
to me the power of sin over me. That's what God's holy law does.
Right now, try to have a pure thought without sin. You can't. You can't. The strength of sin
is the law. The law condemns me. It's so strong. I can't keep
the law. I can't. I cannot. I cannot present
God a righteousness that honors His holy law. The strength of
sin is the law. Let me show you how Paul explains
this. Turn to Romans 7. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Now, Thou shalt not
Covet. Don't have one covetous thought. Don't covet anything. Don't covet
men's praise. Don't covet power. Don't covet
money. Don't covet material things.
Don't covet anything that's your neighbor's. Don't be jealous.
Don't be envious. Don't covet. You might not have
even been thinking about covetousness before I said that, but when
I say that, what do you start doing? You can't hold it down, can you?
You start coveting. Don't do it! Let's go on reading. Verse 8, But sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, using the law as a base of operations,
wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, or sinful desire, or covetousness. When the law said, Thou shalt
not coveted, I started coveting. The strength of sin is the law. For without the law, sin was
dead. Pride was alive without the law once. But when the commandment
came, sin revived. It came alive. And I died. I
saw I couldn't keep the law. The commandment which was ordained
to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandments, deceived me. And by it slew me, wherefore
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was
then that which is good the law, made death unto me? Is the law
the cause of my death? 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." What's those next two
words? Exceeding sin. Peter put it this way. When he
found out who Christ was in Luke chapter 5, and he saw that the
Lord was in control of everything, he said, Biscuit in the net.
They got in the net. And he saw who He was. You know what he
said? He said, Lord, depart from me. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. I am a sinful man. Got any of those creatures here?
Sinful. The strength of sin is the law. That is why, as Paul said in
Romans 3, we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world stand guilty before God. Therefore, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His
sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. What about the conviction of
sin? You know, I was seeing, I run into people all the time
because of the TV program that they know I'm a preacher. When
I'm out, this one guy said, boy, preacher, you really stepped
on my toes. You made me feel really bad. But, you know, he
listened to the message. He said, you know, that tells
me I'm one of the Lord's, you know, that I'm a believer because
I still respond. And so I'm thinking that doesn't
matter. You know, everybody's born with a conscience. If you're unfaithful to your
spouse, you're going to feel guilty. You're going to feel
horrible. You'll do it. Everybody's got
a conscience. The work of the law is written
in everybody's heart. And sometimes I think we almost
think that we need to feel bad. And the worse we feel, kind of
the better it makes it. If I can just feel bad, I need to feel
worse about my sin. I need to feel more sorrow. I
need to feel more repentance and so on. Here's the conviction of sin.
Turn to John chapter 6. Now, a lost man can have all
those feelings of remorse, particularly when he gets caught. Somebody
gets caught, they're real sorry. And I tell you what, if I'm exposed,
man, I'm sorry. I wish it hadn't happened. I
wish I didn't do it. I wish you didn't know about
it. I mean, that's basically what we're saying, you know.
But here's what true conviction is. John chapter 16, verse 8. And when He has come, God the
Holy Spirit, He will reprove, He will convince, He will convict
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Now look at
verse 9, "...of sin, because they believe not on Me." Now
here's when you're convicted of sin. Would you listen to me?
Here's when you're convicted of sin. When you see that you
don't believe, and that faith is out of your grasp. You don't even know what it means
to believe. You're convicted of unbelief. You know, nobody that's convicted
of sin believes in free will. I'm just so sure of that. If
you're ever convicted of your sin, you see the ridiculousness
of free will. I think I'm just going to decide
to believe. You know, it doesn't work that way, does it? When
you're convicted of sin, you're convicted of this thing of unbelief
that faith is out of your grasp. It's the gift of God. I can't
come up with the goods. I'm totally dependent upon Him
to give me the faith to believe because I don't even know what
it means. What does it mean? Give me faith. You know, when
you really come to Christ, you don't so much come to Christ
believing, though you do, but you come to Christ for the faith.
Give me faith. I can't even believe if you don't
give me the faith. I can't write any more repentance ends unless
you grant it to me. You come to Christ for all things.
That's what it is to be convicted of sin. You see that everything
is out of your reach. And when somebody is convicted
of sin, you know what they do next? When you're convicted of sin,
here's what you do next. You confess your sin. You confess. Turn to 1 John,
chapter 1. Verse 8. If we say we have no sin, we've deceived ourselves. We've lied to ourselves and we've
taken the bait and the truth is not even in us. We've lost
all credibility. We are deceitful liars. Now, the word sin here in this
verse is a noun, talking about a sinful nature, not even talking
about acts right now. At all times, my sin is, Paul
said, when I do good, He was present with me. You're the only
person that sees that as an honest person. Somebody said, well,
I have no sin. You're a liar. Nobody believes you. You've lost
all credibility. Verse 9, if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Now, if we say we've not sinned
and they're the words of Herb, If we say we've not sinned regarding
anything that I do, I don't care if it's my preaching, my praying,
if I did it. If we say we've not sinned, we
make him a liar because he says we are. You know, we always have
this sinful nature. But here, this thing of confessing
sin, what does it mean to confess sin? If we confess our sins,
he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. What does it
mean? Does it mean you've got to name every one of them? Beloved, if it does mean you're
in trouble. For two reasons. There's not enough time, for
one. There really isn't. There's not enough time. And
for another reason, most of the sins that you've committed, you
don't even know you've committed them. You really don't. I mean, we're so
ignorant? To confess my sin, the word means literally to speak
the same thing. If I confess my sin before God,
I take sides with God against myself. I get on His side. And I speak the same thing He
does regarding me. Guilty as charged. No excuses. No excuses. Well, I was born with an evil
nature. Therefore, it's ultimately God's
fault. That's no confession of sin. No, you confess your sin
when it's all your fault. You bear the responsibility of
your sin. I'm guilty as charged. And until we bear our own responsibility
for our own sin, we're just there with Adam. The woman that you
gave me, that's what Adam did. The woman you gave me, she gave
me the fruit, and I did eat. But it's ultimately not my charge.
You and your sovereignty gave me that woman, and that's what
happened. That's not confession of sin. Confession of sin is
pleading guilty before God. Do you know what? When you're
convicted of sin, and only a believer is convicted of sin. Somebody's
lost, they've never been convicted of sin. When you're convicted
of sin, when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, and you're
brought to confess your sin, to take side with God against
yourself, that's when you're ready to hear The Gospel. The Good News. And listen to
this verse of scripture from Matthew chapter 1 verse 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. Now that's what
I need to be saved from. my sins. Now, have you ever got
yourself into a bad predicament because of your sins, and you
ask the Lord to just do something about it? Don't let me be exposed. Don't let me bring reproach to
your name. And I understand that. I understand that. I do. But
you know, my problem is not the consequences of my sin, but the
being of my sin. The fact that I am a sinner. I am a sinner. And I thought
you were saved. I am. I'm a saint too. I'm a
saint. I'm Saint Todd. I am just as
much as every believer is a saint, a sanctified one. But I'm a sinner. And what I need is to be saved
from my sins. That's what calls the name Jesus,
for He should save His people from their sins. And that's what the
Lord did on the cross. He saved His people from their sins. My
sin became His. He bore the wrath of God. He
put my sin away. The Scripture says He was manifested
to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. That means if I'm in Him, I do
not have sin. And the only way that can be
believed is by faith. You're not going to see it by
sight. But you can believe it by faith. What Christ did on
Calvary's tree made me without sin. My sin became His. His perfect righteousness is
mine. I stand before God just, holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable, because in Him is no sin. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all
sin? And that if we confess our sins, He's faithful just to what?
Forgive us of our sins. And God's forgiveness, it's so
glorious, it's so unlike our forgiveness. Because I know if
you sin against me, I'm going to forgive you, but I'm not going
to forgive it. I wish I would. I'd love to. Wouldn't you love
to be able to forgive and to completely forget? I'd love to
be able to do that, but I can't. I remember, I'm watching out
for you. I'm watching out for you. You're watching out for
me. That's the way we are. But when God forgives, He says
their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. And there's only one way that
God can forget something. It's because there's nothing
there to remember. The sins of God's people have
been wiped away. There is no sin in Him. Now, that's God's forgiveness.
Isn't forgiveness a beautiful, wonderful thing? You know, I... I want to be, by the grace of God, a forgiving
person. Now, I hope the Lord doesn't
give me the opportunity to practice that. I hope you just treat me
in such a way that I don't ever have to forgive you. And you
hope the same thing. I mean, we want that. But don't you want
to be truly a forgiving person? If I'm not, I don't know anything
about His forgiveness, do I? The Lord said, if you forgive
not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive
you your trespasses. Let's go back to Luke chapter
18. Mr. Publican. Verse 13. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. He smote
upon his breast. You see, he knew what was in
his breast was his problem. I like what David said. He said,
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within
me. My heart is the problem. He smote upon his breast, crying,
God, be merciful to me, thee sinner. Now, let's look what
our Lord says. I tell you, this man went down
to his house. What? Justified. Not guilty. Cleared of all guilt. Rather, than the other. Now, how can that be? Well, let
me let me quote you a couple of scriptures to close this message
up with. First, Timothy 115 says. This is a faithful save. You can rely on this. If God
says it's faithful, it's faithful. This is a faithful saying and
is worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to embrace this
as the best thing they've ever heard. And here's what it is.
That Christ Jesus, here's this faithful saying and worthy of
all acceptation, is that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Are you one of those? A sinner
is somebody Who, in his experience, cannot not sin. He's sinful. Are you one of those
people? Then I guarantee you Christ came
to save you. There's no question about that,
because he came to save sinners. And if you fit that description,
bless God, he came to save you and he did it. He did it. It's already done. Here's another
scripture. Romans 5.20 says, Where sin abounded. Where it overflowed. Would that
be you? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Wherever sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. A sinner and sin. Well, it takes a sinner to commit
sin. And we see what sin is. But if there's any sinner, a
real, live, genuine, bona fide sinner, Christ came to save you. And He did.