Sin Revived and I Died

If you will take your Bibles
and open them to Romans 7, Romans 7, that may seem incredible to you, it may seem unbelievable to you,
but the Apostle Paul before he met Christ on the road to Damascus,
did not know what sin was. He said in verse 7, I had not
known sin. He said I had not known lust. The Apostle Paul was a full-grown
adult, possibly in his forties. The Apostle Paul Before he came
to know the Savior, before he had revealed to his heart what
sin really was, he was quite familiar with the Ten Commandments.
He knew that it was wrong to worship idols. He knew it was
wrong to take God's name in vain. He knew it was wrong to dishonor
one's parents. He knew it was wrong to kill,
to steal, to commit adultery, to lie, to bear false witness.
And he was quite proud of the fact that he didn't do those
things. In fact, he said, concerning the law, I was blameless in the
eyes of men before my equals. I exceeded those my equals. Full
of zeal, blameless. The only reason he could claim
to be blameless before the law of God is because he didn't know
what sin was. But he didn't have the foggiest
notion of what it was. He was deeply religious. He went
to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He paid tithes. He fasted. He worshiped God. He boasted of his Bible knowledge.
But this religious, moral, boastful, blameless adult in his forties
did not understand the true nature of sin. He says that himself.
I had not known sin. I had not known lust. He could
not say with David, my sins are ever before me. He didn't know
what sins were. Consequently, he didn't think
he had any. He could not say at that time, O wretched man
that I am, because he wasn't a wretched man. He could not
say with the Apostle Peter, Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful
man. And most preachers today and most church members, and
there are people sitting right here in this congregation who
don't know what seeing is. They wouldn't recognize it. And
this is something that has to be revealed. I've never felt
more helpless than I feel right now. I've never seen more vividly
the truth of this scripture in 1 Corinthians 2, the natural
man will see that not the things of God, but they're revealed
unto us by the Holy Spirit. Blessed are your eyes, they see,
and your ears, they hear. Peter, my father revealed that
to you, flesh and blood didn't reveal it to you. This is something
I can't teach you. This is something you can't teach
yourself. The flesh won't let you, because
it's death to the flesh, and the flesh won't kill itself.
It has to be a spiritual victory. But Paul, with all of his religion,
with all of his morality, with all of his Bible knowledge, with
all of his zeal, with all of his self-righteousness, did not
know what sin was. Listen to him, verse 7. I had
not known sin, but by the law. I had not known lust, except
the law said, Thou shalt not covet. Now, what was his problem?
Here was his problem. Paul, to this point, had confined
sin to outward deeds. He saw how the law reached these
outward actions, murder, drunkenness, adultery, stealing, lying, He
understood those outward actions. He understood they were wrong.
He understood they were to be avoided. He understood they were
violations of God's law. But what he didn't understand
was this. He didn't understand the spirituality of the law.
He didn't understand the inward motions of sin. He had a guard
on his walk. He had a guard on his works.
He had a guard on his ways, and he thought this was sufficient.
But he didn't know that even the thought of sin, even the
involuntary thought of sin, thought of foolishness as sin, he thought
that he was without sin. He thought that he was blameless
because his outward actions and his outward walk and his outward
works were clean and good. But even this was a sin, the
sin of pride, self-righteousness, haughtiness before God. This
is what our Lord is saying in Mark chapter 7. Will you turn
over there a moment? In the 7th chapter of Mark, this
is what offended the Pharisees. Our Lord spoke, and when he gave
this illustration, the Pharisees were offended. Paul was a Pharisee. They didn't know what sin was.
He offended the religious people. And you'll offend religious people
today with this message. You'll offend them today because
they don't know what sin is. They've confined sin to an outward
deed. They do not know anything about
the inward motions of sin. They do not know anything about
the imaginations of sin. They do not know about an attitude
of sin. They do not know about a being,
a condition, a body of sin. Look at Mark 7, verse 18. And he said unto his disciples,
So without understanding also, do ye not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him?
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into his belly.
It goeth out into the draft, purging all meats. And he said,
That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For
from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from
within. That's where they start. Before
the deed is done, the deed is Before it's planned, it's thought.
Before it's thought, it's imagined. Before it's imagined, it's desired.
And that's where the sin begins. Here is where sin lies, he said,
in the heart. Keep thy heart with all diligence,
out of it are the issues of life. Here is where we are condemned
before God. God looks on the heart. Man looks
on the outward countenance. God looks on the heart. Turn back to Romans 7. Listen
to Paul here. I had not known sin. I didn't
know the true nature of sin. I didn't know the inward motions
of sin. I didn't know the root of sin.
I didn't know the spring and source of sin. I didn't know
the cause of sin. I didn't know the true essence
of sin. Until God's law came in the hands
of God's Holy Spirit, and I saw that his law demanded not only
that I not steal, but that I not covet. Not only that I not covet,
but I be satisfied with what I have." And then he said, I had not known
lust. I regret that we're living in
such a society that is so taken up with
sex that everything is connected therewith. The word lust here,
the minute you look at it, that's the first thing you think of.
that it has to do with some thought of sex. It's not that at all. It's not that at all. The word
lust here means the inward motions of sin in the heart and every
desire of the mind that is not holy, whether it's a thought
of pride or sex, whether it's a thought of envy or sex, whether
it's a thought of covetousness or sex. It's not only that. But
we're so sidetracked with those thoughts, we're missing a million
other sins. John Gill says, by the word lust,
in Romans 7, verse 7, is meant the inward motions of sin in
the heart and any desire or thought of the mind that's not holy.
It has to do with envy, anger, jealousy, ingratitude, complaining,
pride. This inward lust may be even
involuntary. Let me show you that. Turn over
to Romans 7, verse 15. Now, Paul says in Romans 7, these
are involuntary thoughts. These are imaginations that come
upon him over which he has no power, no control. He says in
verse 15, that which I do, I know not. What I would do, that do
I not. What I hate, that do I not. He's
not just talking about doing deeds, he's talking about inward
thoughts. You know the reason people are
going to such a great extent to try to say that Paul wasn't
a saved man when he wrote this, is because they're connecting
these things with deeds without And that's not what Paul is dealing
with at all. He's dealing with the inward
man. He's dealing with what goes on where folks don't see him,
where no one but God sees him and he sees himself. That's what
he's talking about in Romans 7. Any thought or desire that
is not motivated by perfect love for God is sin. Any thought or
desire that's not motivated by perfect love for man is sin. And the Apostle Paul, before
he met the Savior, he was moral, he was religious, he was clean,
he was righteous, he was blameless. He didn't do any of those things
that were forbidden in the commandment. But when the Holy Spirit opened
his heart and dealt with his conscience, and showed him that
sin was even a bad attitude. Sin was even an ungrateful spirit. Sin was even a thought of foolishness. Sin could be an act of commission
or omission to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not
to him that sin. The thought of foolishness is
sin. Any want of perfect conformity in soul, in affection, in will,
in desire, in gratitude, any want of perfect conformity to
God is sin. S-I-N, sin. And when he saw the
inward motions of sin, the inward attitude of sin, like a ray of
sunlight comes through the window, and you see just millions of
tiny specks of dust. Before the sunlight came in,
you didn't see them. They were there, but you didn't
see them. But when it came in, there were millions of them.
And he saw just swarms of sin in his soul, in his heart, in
his imagination, in his mind, just conflicts. If you can't, if I can't actually
pray for my worst enemy, that's sin. If I cannot desire the very
best for the person of which I think the least, that's sin.
Impatience is sin. We get impatient driving our
automobile. I said to somebody the other
day, I said, a man's true character is revealed more in two places
than any place I know. One's on the golf course and
one's behind the wheel of an automobile. We get so impatient,
we get so upset, and our true character reveals itself. That's sin! But Paul said, I didn't know what
it was all about. I didn't know what sin was. So
God showed me what was going on inside of me, what was going
on in my thoughts, what was going on, and get it out of this one
realm where people think all the time, and look at yourself
in every realm. Get a whole panoramic view of
your whole nature in your dealings with God, in your dealings with
one another, in your dealings with your church, in your dealings
with your community, with your job. I think sometimes when we get
to complaining, God ought to just take everything
we've got away from us and put us in a wheelchair and make us
totally dependent on somebody to roll us around. What great
sinners we are! And I think this Church, one
of the greatest offenses of this congregation, we are blessed
above all people, we have more than anybody spiritually, materially,
and this complaining is nauseating. And it's nothing in the world
but ungodliness, that's what it is now, isn't it? But we don't
look at it that way because we don't know what sin is. We think
we don't shoot anybody and we don't get drunk and we don't
gamble and we don't do this, then we're just so moral and
good, but we Oh, God looks on our hearts and we are so ungrateful
and we are so unthankful, we are so unholy. Look at verse 8. He says, But
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Now, look at this line here.
Without the law, sin was dead. We're talking about Paul before
he met the Lord. Sin was dead. Was sin really
dead? Because this religious Pharisee
confined sin to outward deeds, did his heart sins not count?
Was it really dead? Because he had no true knowledge
of the nature of inward sin, did his sins not exist? Because
he called these failures of thought and failures of attitude and
failures of flesh, he called them mistakes. I wonder if God
called them mistakes. Because he failed to know and
own the enmity of his mind and the evil of his heart, do you
suppose God overlooked it? Was sin really dead? No, sin
wasn't dead. It was dead to him, but not to God. And do you know
this, that real sin, I'm not talking about this outward, you
bring your law, you bring your Ten Commandments and read them
to me, I'll say I'm all right. I'm all right. But I know I'm
not all right. I don't worship idols. I don't
take God's name in vain. Talk like the Apostle Paul now,
he said, if any man had confidence in the flesh, I more. and bring
it to most of you. Does that mean that sin is dead? To most religious people, because
they don't know what sin is, sin to them is dead. That's the
reason they can't cry, O wretched man that I am. Sin is dead to them. It's not
the ugly, horrible, dreaded, Christ dishonoring thing that
it ought to be, because sin is dead. Without the law, without
a true knowledge of the law, without a true consciousness
of the law, without a true understanding of the law, sin is dead. And look at verse 9, it leads
to this. I was alive without the law. Oh, boy. Oh, the pride
of religious carnal security. Paul fancied himself free from
sin. He looked at the law and he thought,
I'm in pretty good shape. Oh, Lord, I thank you I'm not
like other men. I thank you, Lord, that I'm a
Bible scholar. I thank you, Lord, that I fast
and I tithe and I pray. I thank you, Lord, that I'm not
an adulterer, I'm not an extortioner, I'm not this, I'm not that, I'm
not even like this publican. Of course, I've ignored the true
nature of sin. I've made out like sin was dead,
I've made out like it doesn't exist, I've called it mistakes,
I've called it frailties, I've called it failures, I've called
it everything but sin. O Lord, I thank you by my standards
that I'm not like other men. Oh, the pride of religious carnality. I was alive, Paul said. I, Paul,
big I, I was alive. But now watch this, but when
the commandment came, oh, horrible experience. I don't
envy you, but oh, what a blessed day, what
a revelation when the commandment came. when the law came as something
more than just a set of rules, when the law of God came as something
more than just a church standard. I see a church here in town advertise
itself, the church with a standard. When the law becomes something
else other than a standard, than a set of rules, than a religious
creed, when it becomes a living holiness, When it comes in the
person of Christ, in his perfect love and perfect holiness and
perfect immaculate purity and perfect submission, when it comes
in the person of Christ, Paul said, oh, when it came that way,
I died. That's what happened to Isaiah. He said, when I saw the Lord,
holy, holy, holy, when I saw the Lord, I cried, woe is me. Woe is me. That's Job's experience. He said, Lord, I've heard of
you by the hearing of the ear. And that's about as close as
most religious people have ever come to God. They've heard of
him. They've never seen him. And I'm not talking about with
natural eyes or vision in the night. I'm talking about seeing
him with eyes of faith, seeing him in his sovereignty, seeing
him in his glory, seeing him in his holiness, seeing him in
all of his majesty. Mine eyes have seen thee, wherefore
I hate myself. Paul said, I didn't know what
sin was. I didn't know what lust was. I know what the world thinks
it is, but I didn't know what it was. But oh, and I was alive. I was somebody, boastful, braggadocious,
conceited, ill-tempered, ungrateful, proud, religious, Pharisee. I was alive. I, I, I. But when the commandment came,
When it came not in word but in spirit, when it came not just
to my mind, but it came to my heart, that's what people want
to do. They want to get a book on doctrine
and figure it all out. They want to get a systematic
theology and say, Now, what do you believe about this and what
do you believe about that and what do you believe about the
other? Well, just tell them, it won't make any difference. They won't understand
it anyway. It's got to come not to the mind
but to the heart. It's got to come not in just
precept but in person. It's got to come to the conscience.
It's got to expose every imagination, every motive, every attitude.
It's got to come like a powerful x-ray when God takes the word,
the law, and x-rays my soul and lets me see every spot. God ever x-rayed your soul? as
the powerful searchlight of God's holy law in all of its infinite
wattage, ever come down in the darkness of your soul and made
you cry, Lord, stop it, I can't stand another revelation. Look at it. I was alive, Paul
said, I was somebody, proud of myself, without the law, without
an understanding of God's law. But oh, when the commandment
came, what happened? Sin revived. I thought they was
dead. It said back there in verse 7,
without the law, sin was dead. Oh, Paul had an elaborate funeral
for sin, the old man. He had a religious experience.
He had a dedication. He gave his heart to Jesus. I
hear people talk about that all the time. I gave my heart to
Jesus. I consecrated all on the altar,
all on the altar. I'm his and he's mine, and sin's
dead. I please the Lord, I live for
God, I'm dedicated to his glory, everything's all right, me and
Jesus got a good thing going. But, oh, he said, when God's
holy law came to my soul, to my heart, to my conscience, When
God's holy law came in the hands of the Holy Spirit, that sin
that I thought was dead, that sin that I thought was nonexistent,
that old evil nature that I thought I had went out somewhere and
buried, he said it revived. It revived. It raised up its
ugly head. It wasn't dead at all. I just
make it out like it's dead. That monstrous head was lifted
up, and I saw myself. I saw the self I had refused
to see. I saw the sin that I had denied. I saw myself before God and not
before men. And I found out that sin had
deceived me." Look down here at verse 11. It says, "...sin,
taken occasion by the commandment, deceived me." Sin deceived me. Satan deceived me. My preacher
deceived me. My own heart deceived me. I've
been deceived. I've been running around here
feeling good when I ought to have been weeping. I've been running
around here bragging when I ought to have been mourning. I've been
running around here feeling like that everything was all right
when I ought to have been on my face before God at the morner's
being. I've been deceived. That's what
he said. That's Paul's experience. I didn't
know what sin was. I didn't know what lust was. I didn't have a true knowledge
of the law nor the nature of sin, and I thought sin was dead. I thought I was consecrated and
separated and dedicated and holy, and it was all right between
me and God. And then the commandment came.
And God stripped me, and God broke my heart, and God knocked
my foundations out from under me. God Almighty hung me out
to dry, and sin revived. sin revived. I saw myself in
the light of his perfect holiness. I weighed my best righteousness
and found it was wanting." I took out my finest wedding garment,
and I found that it was nothing but a bunch of moth-eaten rags. I had it all reserved for the
marriage supper of the Lamb. I was going to come into the
presence of God wearing all of my beautiful garments of tithing
and fasting and prayer and witnesses and souls I had won for Jesus
and all these things, and I had it all tucked away there. He
said, and I brought it out and I found that it was nothing but
a bunch of rags. Dirty rags! I'll show you something, if I
won't offend you, you turn to Philippians 3 again with me,
Philippians chapter 3. I want you to look at this. I
looked at my best covering and I found out it was rags. I died,
Paul said, I died! Now, sin didn't die, I did. He talked in verse 5, circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, brethren, I want you to
watch him building up here. To be of the stock of Israel
meant to these Jews, these Pharisees, these religious people, it meant
to be one of God's people. Secondly, of the tribe of Benjamin.
You know who Benjamin was. He was the pet son. The pet son. And then the Hebrew of Hebrews. And touching the law, a Pharisee. One of the top ecclesiastical
powers. The teacher of the scripture.
The disciples said, well, if the Pharisees aren't saved, who
is? concerning zeal, I persecuted
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were lost, what
were gained to me, all these things that I'd done, I counted
them lost. And then he said in the latter
part of verse 8, And I do count them, but dumb. You talk about
offending that bunch of religious He said, you wrap up, and I'll
bring it down this present day, you wrap up your decision and
your baptism and your Church membership and your experiences,
and every soul you have a so-called witness to and one for Jesus,
and all these little good deeds you've done, these little prayers
you've prayed, and all this Sunday School glory and praise that
you've had, wrap it all up together, and I'll tell you what it is,
it's barnyard manure, that's what Paul says. That's all it
is. That's all it is. I saw myself. I saw myself. Look at Romans 7 again. Sin revived
and I died. If you died yet, can you do that?
Can you take everything you are, everything you've done, everything
you have, all of your so-called Bible knowledge, and wrap it
up and say, Lord, it's done? Can you do that? Well, I'll preach
it, I'll tell you. You offend me, you ain't died
yet. No, you haven't died yet. You can't offend a dead man.
Try it sometime. You can offend us living people.
You can offend me. I get through preaching nights,
you tell me what a sorry sermon that was, and that will offend
me. Try it. But I'll tell you, if I drop
dead while I'm preaching, and you come up here and say, Boy,
you preached to Saul before you died, I won't say a word. You
can't offend me, I'm dead. I'm dead. You see what I'm saying?
And I'll tell you this, when a man realizes, when he sees
himself dead in Adam, a member of a race of rebels who cried
out, Crucify him! We'll not have this man reign
over us. who cried out in the Garden of Eden, we'll be God
ourselves. When a man finds out he died
in Adam, when he finds out he's dead before the law, Romans 3
says, let every mouth be what? Stopped! And all the world becomes guilty.
You can't offend a dead man. His mouth's been stopped. You
tell him he's sorry, he's low down, he's good for nothing,
he's evil, he's less than the least of all the saints, he won't
even reply. His mouth's stopped. Dead in sin, dead in corruption,
when a man quits justifying himself, he's dead! And as long as he
justifies himself, he's not yet dead. When he comes from the
sole of his feet to the top of his head, nothing but open running
sores, that's scripture Isaiah 1, he's dead. I told you it's a tough experience.
horrible experience. Paul said, I was alive. I was
getting along all right. I was getting along all right. I thought I was fine. I said,
good. I just, the law was no problem
to me then. I didn't cry on my bed at night.
I didn't mourn over my sins. I didn't weep over my evil attitude. I didn't cry out to God for mercy.
I was all right. And then the commandment came.
And then it came in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and then
God slew me, and God stripped me, and God broke me, and God
humbled me, God killed me, and I died. But I'll tell you this,
that's the way to life. Turn to John 12, verse 23. You
don't, I tell you, you don't want this experience If you don't
want it, you'll never have life, because this is the way to life.
Listen to our Lord. He said in John 12.23, Jesus
answered, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should
be glorified. John 12.24, I say unto you, verily
I say unto you, Except the corn of wheat fall in the ground and
die, it will abide alone. But if it die, it will bring
forth much fruit. And he that loveth his life will lose it,
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto
life eternal." It's not something a man can
do for himself. It's a painful experience. His
flesh won't let him do it. He's not going to have any help.
It's the work of the Lord. We're called the slain of the
Lord. with Mephibosheth. When David
came to the throne, David said, Any of the house of Saul still
alive? Ziba, one of his servants, said,
Yes, Jonathan's got a boy, but he's a pitiful, pitiful sight.
He's crippled, crippled on both his legs. He can't walk. He's
poor and he's a beggar. He's down in the house of Lotabar,
no pasture, no bread. David said, you go fetch him.
They went down and got that pitiful-looking person, crippled, lame on both
his feet, and brought him up to the great palace of David,
David on his throne. They sat him down in front of
David, last one of the house of Saul, the house of David's He was scared to death, too.
He was sure that he was going to be killed. He was sure of
it. Every time David looked at him, he would know that there
is the rightful heir by human lineage to this throne. His granddaddy
was the king, and he was supposed to be the king, but God put David
in. So David said, Mephibosheth? told him to put a crown on his
head, clean him up, put a robe on his back, and sit him up here
at my table. He's going to be my son. And
Mephibosheth looked up and said, King David, who am I that you
should show mercy like this to such a dead dog? Such a dead
dog. That's the slain of the Lord.
Our Lord, turn to Matthew 21, our Lord Jesus Christ met these
Pharisees, these Sadducees and scribes and lawyers, religious
leaders, separationists, and he shocked them one day. In Matthew
21, verse 31, listen to him. He'd been given a story, then
he said, Which of them, Twain, did the will of the Father? They
said, The first. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, The publicans and the harlots go unto the kingdom of God before
you. the publicans and the harlots. Has God ever revealed to us the
true nature of sin? Have we ever got a real look
at it? I believe if we do, and if we
have, if we ever do, if God ever lets us see it, we're going to
have the same experience that Paul had right here in Romans
7. He said, when the commandment
came, that ugly monster, Dima of sin, that I had ignored, kept
under, refused to admit, reared up its ugly head, and I died
in shame, in humiliation, I died at the feet of Christ. Well, we won't leave it on that
note. Look at verse 23, 24. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of sin, this body of death? Well,
there is a deliverance, there is a victory. But it's not in
human works, nor in human decisions, nor in human promises. I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's where it is. Our Father in Heaven, we do pray tonight that we might
have a revelation of ourselves, to destroy our critical spirits, that we might judge ourselves
that we be not judged, that we become not judges of others,
that we might see the true nature of sin, not just in outward deed,
but in thought and imagination. That we may not become wrapped
up in the robes of outward respectability and become like whited sepulchres
that appear beautiful unto men, even to our deceived hearts,
while within we are full of extortion and excess and dead men's bones. O Lord, reveal to us, if it never
has been revealed before, and if it has, reveal it more explicitly,
that the Lord looks not on the outward countenance, but upon
the heart. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth. And while we may appear beautiful
unto others, The only way we can appear beautiful in the eyes
of the living God is to be robed in the righteousness of Christ,
to be washed in the blood of the Son of God, to be redeemed
by his precious sacrifice, revealed to us ourselves and revealed
to us the gospel, the good news, the glad tidings of redemption
by the blood of the Lamb. Make us more like Christ. Now,
Father, we cannot deal with our sins if we do not recognize our
sins. We cannot confess them if we
do not own them. We cannot pray about them if
we don't understand them. Deal with this congregation,
this pastor, that we might be revived that we might be an instrument
in the hands of the Holy Spirit to bless others, to help and
strengthen others, that we might become intercessors, that our
love shall be increased into a deep affection, that our service
might be with enthusiasm, that our faith might develop
into full assurance, that our desire into expectation and our worship and our praise
sincere. Use this message tonight to accomplish
our purpose for each of us. We pray in Christ's name and
for his glory. Amen.

Sin Revived and I Died

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Sin Revived and I Died

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