My Sin

Introduction

Appreciate so much the way Ed has led us in song, and thanks to Dan for providing a way for us to put this hymns, the hymns on the screen. He’s covered with a neat little program to do that. And we’ll be tweaking that, but it’s a very good job facilitating that since we lost our song board that had all the numbers on it. They were nice big numbers that we all could see. Good number of our folks are away on this particular holiday weekend. But it’s good to have visitors in our presence and welcome you to come back at any time tonight. We’ll meet at 5 o’clock. And we will sing praises to the Lord at that time. Within the past week, on Tuesday morning, after conducting a meeting for the University Church in Tampa, Florida that went through Monday night.

Marty Pickup passed from this life while playing tennis on Tuesday morning. And his passing was unexpected and immediate. In some ways, as Christians, we should envy him for our confidence of where he now is.

And just the kind of talent Marty was, my father-in-law remembers something that he said. Here he was, a young preacher, just learning the ropes from D. Bowman. And he said something that stuck with my father-in-law for 30 years. And that is, he was talking about our thoughts that we have, both good and bad, and he posed this thought to the audience. What if the thoughts that we have in our mind that are going on in a very regular moment-by-moment basis? What if all of them were posted on our foreheads for everyone else to read? When I found this graphic, I don’t know why I thought of Christina. But she’s not here. She’s not here. What if every thought that we had was posted? Right here. I bet we probably wouldn’t want that.

And of course, the fact is the Lord knows all of our thoughts. And so I want to tell you by way of introduction this morning that the thoughts or the things that are going on in the mind is the great arena of our spiritual battlefield. That’s really where it all takes place for us spiritually. It is the way we think. It defines what we are as people. And no wonder then, in Proverbs 4 and verse 23, that the wise writer said, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flows the springs of life. Heart maintenance is essential. It’s what Christianity reduced to its most elemental point. It is what Christianity is on a daily basis. Keeping our hearts with all diligence. I would take you to Mark chapter 7 in this vein.

This is really a lengthy context, but I want to pick up with you reading in just verse 20. When Jesus affirms that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts, fornications. Now he’s talking about outward acts, but he’s telling us where all of those things originate. He says, out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.

In fact, there are several passages we’re going to be looking at this morning, so if you have your Bibles, let’s go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 20, where Paul warns Timothy about the problem of sin. He says in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 20, you know, sin is a problem. Sin is a problem that the churches need to constantly be considering. In our religious world today, sin is on the back burner. Sin is not an issue in a lot of churches. It’s spoken of maybe casually, but the problem of sin is not addressed specifically. And he says, those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also may be fearful of sinning. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of his chosen angels to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in the spirit of partiality.

Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily, and thus share responsibility for the sins of others. Keep yourself free from sin. There’s a lot of different thoughts. Paul is expressing to Timothy in this little section, but everyone has to do with the concept or problem of sin. He says, you don’t want to participate in the sins of others. You need to keep yourself free from sin. And then this famous verse, because of Timothy’s physical or medical condition, no longer drink water exclusively. But use a little wine for the sake of your own stomach and your frequent ailments. I believe that verse is placed in this context in this spot for a reason. He goes on to say the sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment.

For others, their sins follow after. Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident. And those who are otherwise, those which are otherwise cannot be concealed. And so he talks in 1 Timothy chapter 5 about deeds that are quite evident or conspicuous. I mean, they’re easily recognizable, and he mentions sexual immorality in the context of 1 Timothy chapter 5. I think when we see drunkenness, we’re pretty sure what that is. That’s very conspicuous by nature, or when people use profanity. There’s a lot of different things that we could talk about, sins that are quite evident or conspicuous. But not all sins are so noted by others. Some are hidden. He says the sins of some men are quite evident going before them to judgment. For others, their sins follow after.

And so there are sometimes hidden and concealed things that no one else sees, and things that are kept private from other people. The fact is, God sees all of those. And that’s really the one we’re going to give answer to, not to everyone here. The fact where whether you may know my sins or not, is not the most important thing. But what God sees, there is no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are open and laid bare. Before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Again, emphasizing what Hebrews 4 and verse 13 is saying about what we might call hidden sins in 1 Corinthians 4, in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 5. Notice this text. Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time. In other words, we don’t have to be everybody’s judge, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness. And further, not only what is in the darkness, and other people don’t see the sins that people commit, it says he will disclose the motives of men’s hearts. And then each man’s praise will come to him from God. Jesus said something similar to this in his ministry in Luke 12. He said, There is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.

Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light. And whatever you have whispered in the inner rooms shall be proclaimed upon the house clubs. That’s the thing about sins. Whether they are conspicuous for all to see, or whether they are kept private and hidden. Ultimately, all sin will be exposed. There are a number of passages that we could refer to in this regard. But sin is a serious matter, whether it is evident or hidden. So I want to talk to you for a moment about sins that you alone may be aware of in your heart. Things perhaps in the darkness. Things that involve the thoughts and motives. Lusts, the desire for people and things beyond the scope of what is right.

Hate, thoughts of ill will and malice toward others, evidenced outwardly in the belittling of others. Words designed to lower them in the minds of others, and its cousin envy, wanting what others have to their detriment. Or thinking I’m entitled, and they are not in regard to the things that they possess, wishing ill will upon them. These kinds of sins oftentimes are not seen as bad as the conspicuous or quite evident ones. But what these passages are telling us is that these sins are just as real and just as condemning as the others. Simple worldliness reflected in a lack of spiritual meditation and a lack of prayer is sometimes a hidden sin. Murmuring and complaining. Philippians 2 and verse 14, failing to be patient and thankful as we need to be.

We need to work on those things as much as we avoid these big splash sins. So often people want to define Christianity in terms of just not doing the really awful things. Look, these are really awful. They’re not consistent with the Lord’s will.

1. The Disgusting Stench of My Sin

So I want to speak to you this morning about our sins. Sin all of its ugly forms. And there is no pretty one. Sin in all of its ugly forms. I could have had Ed lead this off. I’m the one. We’re familiar with that too. We ought always to keep that thought in our minds. And I want you to go to Romans chapter 5 in this regard. Romans chapter 5, verses 6 through 8, where it says that while we were helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. And that’s us. Jesus did not just die for the good people. He died for sinners. He died for us all. God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It wasn’t that there was something so lovely about us that God felt compelled to save us because of our wonderful qualities.

We’re sinners. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. That’s the problem of our sin. Because of my sin, Jesus died on the cross so that I might escape the wrath of God. And we so desperately need to escape his wrath against Saturn. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his wife. And not only this, we exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Now, here’s my question this morning. Do we have a sense of the horrific nature of sin? I think we live in a time when people don’t have a proper sense of the awful and horrible and ghastly nature of sin.

Do I appreciate the awful price that was paid for my sin? As I talk about our sin this morning, my sin. I want to describe it as the disgusting stench. I was looking for the right words to express it, and I came up with disgusting stench. Like a rotting corpse. Like a soured dish rack. So is the smell of our sin. If we can only get that firmly entrenched in our minds. In 2 Peter chapter 2, remember the person who had escaped the defilements of the world through the true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? In that context, we’re talking about someone who had once escaped the defilements of the world and yet has become entangled again in those defilements, in that sin that so easily entangles us, the Hebrew radicalized.

He has become entwined again in sin. And what is it compared to? It’s like a sow that has been cleansed who goes right back to the mud, or the worst picture of the two. The dog that returns to its own body. Yes, that passage in 2 Peter 2 talks to us about the disgusting, the disgusting nature of our sin. Now, I want you to go back now to Isaiah 59 as we talk about the problems of sinfulness, the problem of my sin. I want you to look with me at Isaiah 59, where the people are really asking about their predicament in the days of Isaiah. Things aren’t going as well as they did under the reign of David. Things are less than desirable. And they’re saying, you know, God just, God just doesn’t care about our problems.

He’s just not tending to us like he used to. He’s not being attentive. He’s promised to help. Where is he? And this is God’s response. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save, nor is his ear dull that it cannot hear. It’s not that God can’t remedy your problem. It’s not that he’s not listening to your prayers or he’s inattentive. The problem is not with God. The problem is your defiance.

He says, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. And your sins, your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken falsehood. Your tongue mutters wickedness, there’s an injustice that abounds in verse 4. You trust in confusion and speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. The flagrant rejection of God’s will has led to God’s abandonment of Israel and the troubles that they now experience. Well, later in the context, they are they are brought to confession. All of us growl like bears and moan sadly like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none for salvation, but it is far from us.

2. Jesus Handled the Problem of Our Sin

Why? They finally understand it’s because our transgressions are multiplied and our sins testify against us. We have to come to grips with the problem of our sin, and we know our iniquities, transgressing and denying the Lord and turning away from our God. These are the things to which they confess. We need to come to a realization of the problem of our sins, the disgusting stench of sin. And then, as we’ve read in Romans 5, be thankful that Jesus handled the problem of our sin. That our sins were nailed to the cross. Ed was right. It is well with my soul, verse 3 came to thought immediately.

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter 2 and verse 24, the whole. And he himself bore our sins. 1 Peter 2, 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross that we might not wallow in sin, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds, you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, like they were in Isaiah’s day. You were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your soul. Your thoughts still in Isaiah?

A few chapters earlier from chapter 59, the solution for our sin. Jesus’ cross, in high definition, 700 years before it ever happens. By his stripes, you are healed. He was crushed for our iniquities. Our well-being is made possible because of the chastening that falls upon him. And so, because of the work of Jesus at the cross, where there was once hostility and alienation and broken fellowship, now there is peace and union and hope. How can the work of Jesus at Calvary, our sins nailed to the cross? How can that come to be a benefit to us? Perhaps more on this in two weeks, but for now, Colossians 2 and verse 12. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

And then verse 13, and when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of death, consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and he’s taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Those things that were against us, those things that involved our sin. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The problem of our sin, Jesus took care of at Calvary. How do we appropriate those blessings in our life? How do we go from hostility and alienation and broken fellowship, as awful as that is, to peace and union and hope. We come into union with Christ and we’re buried with him in baptism.

Today is a day where the religious world has decided to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as Stephen pointed out in his prayer, as we point out at the Lord’s Supper, we do this each and every week. We remember the death and resurrection of our Lord. And when we were baptized into Christ, we died with him, and we rose to walk in newness of life. It’s not just about what Jesus did at Calvary. It’s not just about his resurrection from the dead. It’s about us being buried with him and rising to walk in newness of life. That’s when we’re made alive. We need to talk about the problem of sin, not just the resurrection, not just the part that involves hope and grace and mercy and all the things people want to talk about in the religious world today.

You see, the problem is sin. The problem is my sin, and I have to have a remedy for it. And unless I’m buried with him in baptism, we’re dead. Dead in our transgressions and sins. It’s not that Jesus died on the cross, he was crushed for our iniquities, thus everybody receives the benefit automatically. It’s not everybody saved from the first century on, regardless. You have to be buried with him in baptism. Because he said, when you were dead in your transgressions and sin, by this act you were made alive through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. And so once we come to union with God, realizing the disgusting stench of our sin and what Jesus did in taking care of the problem of sin at Calvary.

3. Sin Is Not to Define Me Any Longer

The third thing that we need to be emphasizing is that sin is not to define me any longer. I need to make a break from sin. Because we are a new creation. If any man is in Christ, behold, all things have become new. New creatures. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and he’s telling the Corinthians who are struggling with some sin at that time, their rejection of him as an apostle being the major part of it in 2 Corinthians. He admonishes them all, even though they have once escaped sin, as we talked about in 2 Peter chapter 2, the fact is that the serpent is beguiling them even now. They’re listening to false apostles and false workers in Corinth. And so he says early on in that book, which is at the heart of the message, be reconciled to God.

We entreat you on behalf of Christ. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. That we, he bore the curse of sin, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And so the challenge for us all who’ve received the benefits, who have been buried with him in baptism, is that we must still consider ourselves alive to God and dead to sin. We must not be defined by sin any longer. And so whatever remains of wickedness removed, James says, And receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. Have you dealt with the problem of sin? Is there sin on your account? Have you been cleansed by the blood of Christ?

If not, you need to be cleansed immediately. We know the verse, right? Saul of Tarsus, one who had been kicking against the gold, persecuting Christians, making havoc of the church, consenting to the death of Stephen. What shall I do, Lord? He said on the road to Damascus. Jesus, speaking to him from heaven, says, Go into Damascus, and it will be told you what you must do. I would like to know more about that long conversation, perhaps, that unfolded between Ananias and Saul of Tarsus, but very little is recorded. What is recorded. Paul tells in Acts 22 and verse 16 are the words of Ananias. Why do you delay? Arise and be baptized. And wash away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord. That’s Colossians 2 12.

Conclusion

In the life of Saul of Tarsus. You need to be buried with him in baptism and wash away your sins. We’ll take you back to Isaiah 59 and conclude this lesson there. Because in Isaiah 59, when he says, The problem, Israel, is your sin. And they confess that, yes, we are sinners. That’s the problem. The conclusion of this song in Isaiah 59 is now the Lord saw that there was no man, and he was astonished that there was no man to intercede. Then his own arm brought salvation to him. And his righteousness upheld him. And he put on righteousness like a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. That’s what it sounds like Ephesians 6, doesn’t it? And he put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself with zeal as a mantle.

According to their deeds he will repay, wrapped to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the east, from the rising of the sun. For he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. And a redeemer will come to Zion. And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob. Sin’s not a big problem. Jesus dealt with the problem of sin. Even anticipating salvation in the Redeemer, the Redeemer that will come forth from Zion, what’s involved? Turning from transgression. They will turn from transgression in Jacob, the spiritual Israel of God, Galatians 6 and verse 16. A redeemer will come to Zion. And then this, as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord.

My spirit which is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, and from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring, says the Lord, from now and forever. And that’s what this is about. Because we are the redeemed of God, let his words not escape our mouths, and let us teach them to our children. And may our children’s children know the salvation that has gone forth from Zion.

He wrapped himself with zeal as a mantle. Has the Lord been zealous in our salvation? Wow. It is amazing that he would do that for the likes of us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Would you underscore that? He wrapped himself with zeal as a mantle. The fear of the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. He will come like a rushing stream. Isn’t it interesting? That in after Pentecost, the first lesson that’s recorded in Acts chapter 3 and verse 19, the conclusion was repent. Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, just like they had said on the day of Pentecost, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.

He says, repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Where there was once hostility and alienation and broken fellowship, now there is peace and union and hope and times of refreshing flow from the presence of the Lord. That’s what comes to you when you deal with the problem of sin. So in conclusion, I want to affirm to you the great barrier that is involved with my sin. You see, my sin separates me from my need. And thus a sin is on your account.

If we don’t also talk to them about turning from their sins, so that resurrection can give them hope. If we don’t also tell them that they must be baptized and burying with Jesus in baptism, so that they can truly be made alive by that resurrection. And that’s what we’re willing to help you do this morning, if you need to respond while we stand and sing.