What the World Needs Now Is... to Know Sin!

Music Chair with me is Romans chapter 7, the importance of knowing sin. This past week I watched a special on Rwanda PBS and I peaked my interest. I went on their website and began to read more. And all of you are aware of the slaughter that took place in Rwanda back in the middle mid-90s, 800,000 people were slaughtered. And some of the after effects of that, those that have gone to Uganda and the ministries there as they continue to train people. The effects of that kind of thing is so devastating and I was reading the statement by this general Romeo Dalier who was a Canadian officer. I don't know what his rank was in the Canadian army but he became the general commander of the UN forces in Rwanda before this broke out and they were trying to keep it from exploding.

And he had a small force, he had only about between 250 and 500 soldiers at any given time and they were not allowed to engage in any kind of combat but simply there is peacekeepers. And as this thing began to heat up, he was feeling the way that so heavily he wanted to try to stop what obviously was beginning to take place. And so he says that he finally decided that he would himself meet with the extremists who did all of this butchering, great majority of it, before it broke out in its worst case. And so he was, he tells about this encounter, he says, so Bagassara established a couple of these meetings but the first one was in the diplomat hotel that had been partially bombed out that was used as the extremist headquarters in Cagali.

Bagassara brought me there and also with these three guys, three Rwandans, one tall, one medium, one smaller who stood up when I entered. Bagassara introduced them and as I was looking at them and shaking their hands, I noticed some blood spots still on them. And all of a sudden they disappeared from being human, all of a sudden something happened that turned them into non-human beings. I was not talking with humans, I literally was talking with evil personified, maybe in those bodies and in those eyes, but they weren't human. And what was coming out of their mouths wasn't human. They were so proud of now being into discussions with the general of the UN and that gave them their great personal prestige and they were elated at the situation that they found themselves in.

But everything that was coming out was not words of human negotiating or discussing, it was evil blurting out their positions and their arguments. I didn't see humans anymore, I was totally overcome by evil. These three guys just brought it into reality, brought evil into reality and by my religious background the only way I could qualify that was being the devil. That and then he uses an expletive that I won't read here in church and had come on earth in that paradise and literally taken over in these guys, these three guys were the right hand people of Lucifer himself and I couldn't shake it. After all this happened and when he went back home he felt like such a failure because he couldn't stop the slaughter that he actually attempted suicide on several occasions.

As I listened to him describe this encounter and what opened before his eyes what he saw he was facing was evil. Later on he talks about the evil of the Western world who would not step in and try to stop the slaughter. They used all kinds of excuses when President Clinton went to Rwanda and apologized it was pretty pathetic because he said we didn't really understand what was going on and the fact is they understood perfectly what was going on. Evil in the world is a shocking thing isn't it? And you know one of the most dangerous things in all the world is for us not to be aware of our own sin. To not know sin. Sin is an unpopular word today. There are people we have spiritual practitioners in the New Age movement that get all upset with you for even using the word sin.

What is sin? And there are even preachers today who tell you shouldn't use the word sin because it's offensive to people we should use some term like doing wrong. That doesn't have the impact of sin because the whole idea of sin is our rebellion against the living God and his law. One of the things about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that the basic assumption that we have in preaching the gospel is there is law. There is law. There is a law that God has given that is a reflection of his character and his person the creator of the universe is revealed his will and his will is law. It's why the gospel deals with issues of the law we use all kinds of forensic or legal terms in explaining the gospel we talk about one judge and law giver we talk about a court scene about justice.

About law breaking and guilt and condemnation and justification and expiation and all those terms are biblical concepts that describe the work of redemption because God has given law. And we are accountable. When we proclaim that people are lawbreakers and that there is guilt and that there's a judgment day coming and there is a judge who's going to sit on a great white throne and judge the nations. We say all that because we have this one grand assumption that there is law. God has given his law. If there was no law there would be no law breaking and if there was no law breaking there would be no guilt there would be no court there would be no condemnation there would be no justification there would be no need for the incarnation.

The reason Jesus Christ came into the world the heart of the incarnation is the fact that there is a law that has been broken. Now in this text that we're in today in Romans chapter 7 listen to these words beginning in verse 7 down through verse 13 listen to what Paul says. What then shall we say in other words base of one on what I've already told you what should we say then is the law sin. May it never be on the contrary I would not have come to no sin except through the law or I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said you shall not covet. But sin taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind for apart from the law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the law but when the commandment came sin became alive and I died and this commandment which was to result in life proved to result in death for me.

For sin taking an opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me so then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me may it never be rather it was sin in order that it might be shown to be sined by affecting my death through that which is good. So that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. The word utterly there who pair ballet you can almost hear in that word we get our word super bowl from that of all thing. Who pair ballet to throw beyond beyond all measure that sin might become as sinful as it really is and we can see it for what it is. And that general stood face to face with those men in whom he saw evil he was seeing a manifestation of what is in all of us sin.

Now the reason this question is asked you may wonder why does Paul ask this question is the law sin why would anyone even think that well they think that they would think that because what Paul has said about the law to this point in the book of Roman let me remind you. In Romans 3 he said by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in God's sight no one is going to be made right before God through the law for through the law comes the knowledge of sin but now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Romans 3 28 for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of law. Romans chapter 4 for the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the law but through the righteousness of faith for the law brings about wrath but where there is no law there is also no violation.

Romans chapter 5 the law came in so that the transgression would increase but where sin increased grace about it all the more. Chapter 6 for sin shall not be master over you for you are not under the law but under grace and then the passage we've been looking at in chapter 7 therefore my brother you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another to him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. But why we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the law where work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death but now since the coming of Christ since we have come to Christ we have been released from the law.

We have been released from the law having died to that by which we were bound so that we serve in the newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Now the people that he has been saying this to in this letter these Roman Christians the church at Rome were made up of both Gentiles and Jews and all of them Gentiles included knew the testimony of the Old Testament scriptures and they knew that the Old Testament said things like this the man the godly man the good man his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates day and night or someone 19 from which we read today oh how I love your law David says it is my meditation all the day. And yet Paul has said you have been released from the law and so the question nationally arises Paul are you claiming that the law is sin you say we're released from the law like we were released from sin so are you implying that the law is sin?

And Paul's answer of course is by no means in fact what he's going to say is we've read in chapter verses 7 through 13 is the law is holy righteous and good. The law is holy righteous and good the only other place righteousness and holy and goodness are together is in chapter 5 verse 7. And notice what it says for one will hardly die for a righteous man though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die but God demonstrates his own love towards us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Now what Paul is saying is you know we wouldn't even die for a righteous man. Now we may die for a good man we would be more prone to die for a good man than a man that was simply righteous or what does he mean by this?

When he talks about a good man he's talking about a man who is so endeared himself to you that you are ready to lay down your life for him why? Well righteousness focuses on the fact that the that the person does what is legal does what is right to do. But the idea of being a good man is a man who does what is helpful and caring what is beneficial at the heart of this word good is the idea of being beneficial. God one of the attributes of God is his goodness along with his righteousness and love and truth is his goodness. The fact that God is good means one theologian that I know defines it this way God maintains his own happiness and the happiness of others and the reason he defines it that way is because the idea of goodness is that it does what is beneficial.

A person who is good to you is somebody who makes you happy. Now Paul says not only is the law righteous and holy but the law is good not amazing not only is it a religious standard of what is right and just but it's also beneficial it's helpful he says. Now this same writer the apostle Paul in first Timothy says that it's important that we use the law lawfully that we don't use it in an unlawful manner an unlawful use of the law would be to use the law as a basis of righteousness as a basis of justification. That's one of the ways you miss use the law if you look to the laws to be the means by which you're going to be right with God you're going to be greatly disappointed that's Paul's point throughout these first chapters of Romans.

The only way we can be made right with God is through the grace of God manifested in Jesus Christ who is obey God perfectly in our place and died for our sins but if we look to the law as the basis of our righteousness then we're going to be slain by the law but Paul says the law is good now here's why it's good the law is good because we need to know sin. We need to know sin that's the implication when he says the law is holy the commandment is holy and righteous and good it is beneficial to us and what does it do he tells us in this text that what the law does it reveals sin. Let me explain something to you from the testimony of scripture that the danger of not knowing our sin is a great danger not only before we come to Christ but even after we come to Christ it is very important that we know sin that we really understand our sin the greatest sadness that you can experience comes from not being saddened by knowing your own sin.

That's why Jesus said blessed are those who mourn blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who get it blessed are those whose eyes are open to the truth about their own sin and their need of a savior the greatest pain that comes to your own person or your family or the church or the world is a pain that comes to us because we don't taste the pain of knowing our own sin. One of the greatest dangers in growing up in the church is not knowing your own sin because we give you a formula so early in life of how you can be right with God and it's so easy to misunderstand it and not come to grips with your own sinfulness and the reality of your sin. I was reading this week in fact I put a few copies of this back they will propaganda it's actually it's a column by John Roseman you've ever read his stuff he writes on on that raising children he's one of those guys that believes the biggest problem we have in America with child raising is having so many experts you tell us how to do it and so he has a self deprecating approach but in this article and this is a great I think this is a great illustration of the of the of the reality of this need of knowing our sin of knowing the truth about our sin.

The title of the article is self respect should be the gold of child rearing and in it what he does is talk about something he's talked about a lot and that is this total confusion about self worth. The self worth is not the solution it's the problem every study that's ever done is the worst criminals in our culture are full of self esteem. They think everybody should serve their needs and that's why they don't mind ripping you off listen to this he says which brings us to the difference between self respect and self esteem the former self respect is acquired now get this parents self. Respect is acquired as a consequence of giving respect away of doing things for others the more respect for others that goes around the more self respect comes around self esteem on the other hand is acquired as a consequence of people doing things for you praising you indiscriminately creating artificial success experiences for you.

And that's the heart of educational philosophy in the world today create artificial success so they can experience success giving you material things and generally treating you like the potentate we all deep inside want to be. People with high self respect feel a sense of obligation to others people with high esteem on the other hand feel that others are obligated to them they feel entitled. And the feeling that one is entitled leads directly to all manner of rude ill mannered anti social behavior lying bullying temper tantrums and worse. Sounds like some children you know maybe some adults right because the high self esteem child is father not to a caring compassionate charitable man or woman but to an overgrown high self esteem perpetual child whose personal motto is what I want I deserve to have and no one has a right to stand in my way.

The law brings a knowledge of sin and you need it you need to know the truth about your sin you need to know the truth and notice he doesn't say sins but sin well it's been a second but notice this. By the way here's a testimony the second Corinthians chapter 7 Paul writes to the Corinthians and telling them about their sin and he has heard that they have come under conviction about this sin and they have repented and he now praises God that they experienced the pain of knowing their sin. He writes I now rejoice not that you were made sorrowful rather I rejoice that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance that you felt the pain of your sin to the point that you repented towards God for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us leading the salvation.

You will never come to Christ until you know the reality of your sin you will never grow in the Christian life until you come to grips with the reality of your own sin. And Paul says that's why God gave the law notice this principle the law reveals the true nature of sin that's what it does and this text Paul says this is the function of the law it reveals the true nature of sin and this is the other part of it that we have to be careful about we need to understand sin. It uses the law to deceive the two-edged sword the law reveals the true nature of sin but sin tries to use the law the commandments as they come to us as opportunities to slay us. Now I want you to pay attention to something it's important here is over and over what he repeats is that the law reveals not sins but sin.

If you as you read through this text you will see that Paul and this is the implication of the text that there is something beneath the sin of coveting that he mentions which is producing the coveting. I get amazed at some people that you can they know a person who is are is sending so outrageously in some way and they'll say but you know I know he has a good heart. No he doesn't have a good heart that's why he's sending. Our sins reveal our heart. I mean my biggest problem is I don't have a good heart yet completely. My heart is still in that stage of transformation that I can still embrace sin and rebellion and insurrection against God. And he's talking about this sin lies behind the coveting calls it sin and he treats it like a power almost like a person like a king that rules.

That attempts to rule and it will it will it looks for opportunities it's like this power within you that looks for opportunities to take advantage of you and it will even use God's law his holy law as an opportunity to produce sins like coveting. And covetousness in your law in your life to cause him to expand and grow and multiply this sin is what we need to get to know we need to understand it. And we get to know it by knowing what it produces and how the law defines what it produces the law exposes the reality of this. So we get to know sin our deep sinful condition by getting to know the sins that are indwelling sin produces and the law shows us what those things really are. And we get to know those sins and that connection between our sins and the indwelling sin through the law through God's commandments to us.

How does the law show us our sinful condition and show us what it really is? Well, the example that he gives us here notice is in verse 7 I would not have come to know sin except through the law for I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said thou shalt not covet. What is he use this one? You know which commandment this is? There's a test. Anybody know which commandment this is? Nobody's they're probably some people know it and they're too timid to say it. It's the 10th commandment the last commandment. Why does he use this one? Why doesn't he use the greatest commandment at least in order the first one that we should have no other gods before this God? Why does he use this command?

Because this commandment goes right for the heart. Now every commandment every one of the commandments it's understood that there is a desire behind the commandment in other words the commandment not to steal there's an understanding that there is a desire for something that's not yours. That's why you steal or the commandment against adultery you desire to have someone else other than your spouse. Jesus goes after those desires in the sermon on the mount but man looks on a woman to last after he's already committed adultery in his heart. The desire is there it's just the fulfilling of it. So the desire is always in in view but here when he speaks about covetousness he goes straight to the desire itself.

You shall not covet. Clearist command relating to the desires of the heart. Now the word covet is the Greek word epithumea which is a very well it's from that it's the verb form of that now but it's a very common word in the New Testament and it's normally translated you run into it all the time it's usually translated lust. Now lust is a deep craving. The Bible says there can be good lusts and there can be bad lusts. The spirit lusts against the flesh there are good lusts good desires that we have good cravings that we have to please God because we value God so much we desire to lay down our lyster and we desire to use everything we have for his glory we desire to be engaged in his work we desire to use all of our resources for the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ those are good desires and they are a manifestation that our heart has been impacted by the gospel.

But there are also bad desires some desire show that we have lost our satisfaction in God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. Some desires that you have revealed the fact that you have lost your satisfaction in God and what he is for us in Christ and we are yearning for other things to make up for the fact that God is not the treasure that he ought to be in our life. Every time a man looks at pornography on the internet every time a Christian man does that he is saying God is no longer my treasure at this moment. He is not enough. I need something outside of God and apart from God and his will in order to satisfy my deep gravy. Coveteousness. Paul says I would not have known coveting.

What in the world does he mean by that? What does he mean by the fact that I would not have known? Does he mean I would have never coveted unless the law says thou shall not covet? Is it kind of like you know we paint the wall and you put a sign do not touch with paint do not touch and we are so attracted to touch the paint. Is that all he is saying that it incites me to do what it tells me not to do? No that is not what he is saying because earlier in chapter 5 he says there was sin in the world before the law but what the law did is it brought the knowledge of sin. Paul coveted before the commandment came to him thou shall not covet but he did not know that it was sin. There is a whole lot of things that happens to us all the time.

I had some friends early on when they first came to Christ and they believe that the best way to do Bible study was to get a little bit high. And one way or another maybe drink a bunch of wine and get a little bit lit up and then man you had insight into the Bible just amazing the kind of illumination that brought into their life. And they had no clue the Bible said don't get drunk with wine. But when the commandment came you think it squirts the desire. Paul says it incited it. What he means is that sin is imperceptible as sin before the law calls it sin by prohibiting it. What is wrong with that? Because God said thou shall not. That is what is wrong with that. It is because of the law of God.

This sin is working in us but we don't see it as sin until the commandment comes. And when the commandment comes we see it for what it is. It is sin. So how does the law help us know our covetousness, our sinful condition? It does something very profound. This is really important. The law does something very profound in the heart. It does it when you first are exposed to the work of the spirit and bringing the gospel to your heart and it works throughout the Christian life. It tells us this is so important. It tells us that our own desires are not the measure of what is right and wrong. Flash. Our desires are not the measure of what is right and wrong good and bad, true and false. Did you know that?

What do you say to a person who says the old gray mare ain't what she used to be? I'm going to leave her and get me another wife because I want to be happy and I know it's God's will for me to be happy. So I'm going to divorce my wife and get me another woman. I know it's right because I feel so strongly about it. I know it's right because it's such a deep desire in my heart. I say, fool, your desires are not the measure of what is right and wrong. God's law, God's character is the measure of what is right and wrong good and evil, true and false. So the law says there is a standard outside of us and above us. God and His revealed will. God has revealed His will. That's what the law is. God is the measure of what's right and wrong good and bad, true and false.

Do you know what's right and wrong? Go to the Word of God. This is why David said, the king of Israel said, I don't listen to princes. I don't listen to people in authority. I come to the scriptures because they are my counselors because it's the Word of God that tells us the truth about right and wrong good and evil, true and false. God is the measure of what's right and wrong. This law, as it comes to us, the commandment contradicts the sovereignty and deity of my desires. I am amazed at how many people I know that don't believe in the sovereignty of God, but boy, they're close to believing in the sovereignty of their own desires. And what the law does, it comes to me and it contradicts the sovereignty and deity of my desires.

Until the law comes, my desires are my law. This is what's right because it's what I want to do. We come into the world assuming that we ought to get what we want to have, right? Isn't that what all those little babies are doing right now in your homes? They believe that they ought to get what they want right now. Until the law comes, want to equals ought to. You say that all the time. You see something somebody has and you go, man, I got to have that. I got to get me one of those. You ought to. It's very obvious in children. And of course, that's one of the tasks of parenthood that you have to teach children that there's another law besides the law of their own desire. Isn't that right? It's a hard, hard assignment, but that's exactly what you have to do.

Now, it's not as hard when you start early, but it's much harder when you start late, when it sets in. Because you know what? You have the same propensity yourself. And sometimes the problems we have in parenting and raising our children is because we're trying to get them to do what we don't do. Because we're living as though our own desires are law instead of God's law. God's law exposes the sinful condition beneath all of our desires for what they really are. You know what sin is? Sin is insurrection. That's why people don't like to use the word. Sin is insurrection. It is independence from God. It's rebellion against God. It's not just breaking the law that exists for us all. It is insurrection against the living God.

At root, our sinful condition is a commitment to be our own God. It's our commitment to be our own God. You know, the only God I'm going to have is a God that never vetoes my decisions. That's why a lot of people, it's the struggle of the Christian life as you go along and boy, you know, you first get in the Christian life and it seems so great. There's so many benefits and you think, wow, this is so wonderful and so easy and in all of a sudden you had a roadblock and the roadblock is this. You discover that God wants you to do what you don't want to do. That one of God's commands violates your desires. And then you come face to face with the reality of how important God is to you and what you really think of this God.

I want to be the final authority in my life, don't you? I've got an independent streak you wouldn't believe that only the spirit of God can conquer. I'll decide what's right and wrong for me, what's good and bad, what's true and false. My desires will express my sovereignty, my autonomy, my deity in my little world. This is what it means to be following human beings. This is the human condition since the fall. We all want to be gods. Don't be surprised your children want to be their own gods. So do you, apart from the work of the spirit of God. This is what we're dealing with in ourselves and in the world and in the church. You mean this is in the church? Absolutely, you're in the church, are you?

I'm in the church, that's what we have to deal with. Our only hope is that the spirit of God would humble us so that we can see the folly of trying to be the God of our universe. If I want it, I ought to have it. My mom, as she's getting older, she's repeating all these things. And she tells us, you know how that is, as your parents get older and they keep telling stories about you and you've heard this thing 56 times and you don't want to hear it again. And there's some little things she heard me say when I was five years older. So I want it and I want it right now. And that became, you know, like the title on my forehead. I want it and I want it right now. Well, I could say, I'm sure all of you feel that way too, don't you?

That's why you got four credit cards in your pocket. I want it and I want it right now. That's why ministries now don't have to wait for you to give them a check. You can use your credit card. Instant gratification on behalf of the ministry. I want it and I want it right now. But the Spirit of God can come and humble us. And it's what we must be delivered from our own deity in quotes. That's why Jesus died in our place and rose again and sends the Holy Spirit to the world. He offers us forgiveness for rebellion and he justifies us through faith in Jesus Christ because we are this kind of sinners. We are a bunch of little gods. We want to have independence from God. And the law was like a mirror that's held up to you and you see it all of a sudden.

Don't you hate, not all of you, but you folks my age, don't you hate mirrors? Don't you hate it when you see those photographs? Every time I see a recent photograph, I crank, man, do I look like that? We hate mirrors. The law is a mirror. And it's held up. It shows us the truth. And what the law does, it makes sin, Paul says, utterly sinful. Because you know, we play little games with each other. I'll put up with your sin if you'll put up with mine. You know, I'm riding along with you down the freeway and you get mad at somebody who pulls in front of you and you throw a little hissy fit and maybe use a little foul language. And I just act like nothing happened. We just keep riding along. And then when I do something like that, you pretend you didn't see it too.

Husbands and wives do that. The law won't do that. You know, you have three major mirrors in your life. You have your spouse, if you're married. You have the people of God and you have the Word of God, the law. You know what the best mirror is? It's the Word of God. It's God's law. Because it'll always tell you the truth. Sometimes your spouse just can't bring himself or herself to tell you the truth. What does this look like? You already do that? Do I look fat in this? My wife never says, you're not near as fat as you think, she says. We hate mirrors because they reveal the truth. The law is a mirror and it shows the fact that sin is utterly sinful. Now, the other thing about this, I said, is that sin misuses the law.

Sin misuses the law. This is horrendous thing. I think of this. Sin takes a righteous, holy, good thing and it uses it as an occasion to sin in your life. You know, there's a command in the Old Testament that's mystifying. It's found two places in Exodus 34 that's found in Deuteronomy. That'll show not boil a kid in its mother's milk. It's not talking about human beings there. It's talking about goats. You don't take a baby goat and boil it in its mother's milk. Why? It's mystifying and just appears there, no explanation before or after and there it is. Let me tell you what I think it means. You don't take something that God designed to give life and use it as an implement of death. That's exactly what sin does with the law.

Sin takes the law which was designed for life. It is good. It shows you the truth about yourself and sin that dwells in you. Takes it, grabs it and uses it to slay you. That's what Paul says. The commandment came and I died. It killed me. My mom's going under the knife on Wednesday morning under a surgeon's scalpel. That scalpel is designed for life, right? It's designed to give life and healing. Can you imagine someone taking a scalpel that is designed for life and healing and taking it and slitting your throat? That's what sin does. Sin takes the law of God and it uses it against you. There's a line in one of Michael card songs and it's a word that said to Judas and it said the line says that's not what a kiss is for.

Judas kissed Jesus. It was to bring death but a kiss is to be an expression of love and affection and life. Judas took a kiss and used it as an instrument of death. The commandment he says is holy and righteous and good. It was to be life to me and it became death for me because of sin that dwells in me. Sin picks up the scalpel out of the surgeon's hands and it slashes my throat and kills me dead before God. Why would God allow this? That's the question. Why would God allow sin to do this? Well notice in verse 13, here is the reason. The reason in verse 13 notice. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be. Rather it was sin in order that. Why would God allow it?

In order that it might be shown to be sined by affecting my death through that which is good so that through the commandment sin became utterly sinful. Exceedingly and measurably. It's amazing how we can dress up sin. It's amazing how we can hide sin. It's amazing how we can take sin in our life and dress it up so it doesn't look like sin. I can be as deceptive as all get out doing spiritual things. The other day I was talking to somebody about and in the conversation it came up about giving and supporting a local church. You mean you're supposed to support a local church? And I quoted 1 Corinthians 15. I said of course 1 Corinthians 15 says each one of you should lay aside on the first day of the week.

You should bring your offering and give it. Well that verse isn't talking about supporting the local church and I knew it. But I did what 90% of other preachers do. I took a verse that then tore it out of its context and distorted it in order to prove my point. Because I felt he needed to understand he needed to support the local church. Now there are other places that clearly teach that. 1 Timothy chapter 6 teaches that chapter 5. But it's amazing how we can be deceptive and we can be sinning and yet we dress it up so it doesn't even look like sin. But what the law does is the commandment comes to me and it's so brutally honest. Don't you hate people like that? Don't you hate brutally honest people?

And the law is brutally honest. And the law comes to me and it confronts me with the truth. And it slays me. Why? So that my sinfulness, my indwelling sin, can be seen for what it really is. And he wants us to keep this straight in our thinking. The reason we need to die the law is not because the law is sin, but because the law is weak and vulnerable and we are utterly sinful. And it will never produce righteousness in it. It will unveil our own sinfulness. The only way we can get righteousness is through Christ. The only way righteousness will be produced through us is our union with Christ and the power of the Spirit. Not our taking the law up and say, I'm going to do this. Or rather the Spirit of God working in us to produce victory over this indwelling sin.

So sin uses the law to deceive. It's fundamentally a liar. It is a liar. A deceiver at its core. And it deceives us. It deceives us with superficial logic, for example. You're under a lot of stress. You need some rest. You need a little R and R. Why not just go into a little fantasy world, a little sinful fantasy world and get some rest and relaxation? You deserve it. You need it. And what do you experience there? Spiritual death. Paul says, we are under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to flesh, because if you live according to flesh, you're about to die. But if by the Spirit you put the death of these in the body, you shall live. But sin deceives you. You have in trouble sleeping.

Sin would be like this. Sin would say, well, here's some sleeping pills. The bottle says, take one and you'll sleep all night. But here, take the whole bottle and you'll really sleep. And you'll never wake up. Sin is a deceiver. If you're perishing under the guilt and power of sin, it's because you are being deceived. You're being deceived. Sin is lying to you and you're believing the lie. Sin is telling you that there's something more valuable in life than the glory of God. That there's a greater treasure in life than treasuring this living Christ who laid down his life for you and loved you so much that he took you out of the pit. He took you off the ash heap and caused you to sit with princes.

He brought you into the family of God. He brought you into union and communion with the living God. God calls you my child. And sin says to you, there's something more valuable than that. There's something you want to treasure more than that. It lies to us. And it lies to us in two basic ways. I know I'm late, but let me give you these two quick. So the relativist, hedonist, I could have used the word, uh, publican. This is the person who says, and sin says this to this person, we are all accepted by God if there is a God, which we don't know if there's a God, and we have to decide what is true for ourselves. That's what sin says to the relativist. That's grace without truth. Jesus was full of grace and truth.

The gospel is grace and truth. To the moralist, legalist, that is to the Pharisee, sin says we must and can keep the law to be saved. I can do it. I can be right with God. I can be more righteous than all the people around me. That's truth without grace. Sin takes the law and kills us with one of two kinds of deception about our future. It is either the hopelessness of the relativist who's relieved, is relieved through self-indulgence look. This stuff is baloney. You can't live like that. You only go around once in life, get all the gusto you can. Go to every party you can, get as drunk as you can, indulge yourself in every kind of wandering desire you can. That's really living, and that's hopelessness.

It also lies in another way to the moralist. The hopefulness of the moralist is supported by self-righteousness. Self-indulgence on the one hand, by the relativist, self-righteousness on the other, are both lies and deceptions of sin, indwelling sin. You know what? They're not that far apart. Basically, both of them are simply avoiding Jesus as Savior and Lord and saying, I'm going to be my own God. The moralist says, I'm going to be my own God by keeping the law myself. The relativist says, I don't even think there is a God. I'm going to get every desire I have. I'm not accountable to anybody. What's the remedy? The remedy is the gospel. To the self-indulgent, the gospel says, though your sins be a scarlet, the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from all sin.

You can be honest about your sinfulness, because the blood of Christ will cleanse you from real sin when you turn to Him. To the self-righteous, the gospel says, though your self-righteousness be as filthy rags, which is what the Bible says about self-righteousness, the perfect obedience of Jesus will be credited to your account with your trust in Him. See, the gospel speaks to both. Those who are great sinners in the eyes of the world and those who are moralist and righteous people in their own righteousness. Because the gospel is full of grace and truth, the believer can now confess, first of all, I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared to believe. Sure up, you're worse than you think.

You really are. You're a real honest, a goodness, genuine sinner and revel. Antinomianism tries to throw off the law and says it doesn't really matter. That's all baloney. That's just contrived by men to try to control you. The gospel says, no, the law is true. God's commandments are righteous and good and holy. And I'm a breaker of those laws. Far greater than I ever imagined I could be. But it also allows you to confess, I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope. So the Pharisee doesn't have to practice his legalism. He can be honest and truthful about his sin and his self-righteousness and his pride and his arrogance. You know, I think a lot of people are very proud and self-righteous.

Know it. It is, can't stand dealing with it. And the good news is, there's a solution and a solution is the humility of the gospel. God is a forgiving God. And he saves real sinners. This is the good news. Whether you're hopeless, self-indulgent, your lifestyle, or whether you're hopeful and self-righteous, Jesus lived and died for both kinds of sinners. You know what? I don't like either one anymore. I'd rather have maybe a self-righteous person. I don't know about that. I started to see, I don't have a neighbor with self-righteous, but I've had a couple of those and they're just as bad as the self-indulgent. You know what God wants to do in our hearts as a family of God is He wants us to be humbled by the truth that the law brings and then embrace the gospel with all of our hearts.

You're not a pretend sinner. You're not a paper sinner. It's reality. When you come face to face with the reality of sin and others and it's shocking to you, one of the things that it does to you is shock you to your core and you realize, I'm just like that. Unrestrained, I'd be just like that. Every time I hear, I heard a story, I heard a report a couple of years ago about a man that I highly revered. He was probably the most celebrated evangelical pastor in England, brilliant man. He was a scholar and he was a pastor and he fell into gross sin. And only that, he set up an internet web page in which he defended his particular brand of sin, which was a gross violation of the word of God. It shocked me.

I remember sitting at the table, I was having lunch with a couple of pastors when the sky told me about it. I literally got sick. I had to get up and leave the table. It's so sick in me and the reason it's sick in me wasn't my hatred for him for what he had done. It was my incredible fear. That him who thinks he stand, take heed, let's default. It's an amazing thing as I look at overuse a little congregation that the incredible potential for righteousness and the incredible potential for sin. And it's the gospel that transformed us. It's the spirit of God that will empower us to live righteously for his kingdom. The righteousness of God can be fulfilled in us, Paul says in chapter 8 through the power of the spirit who dwells.

Let's stand and pray. It's an amazing thing that God wants us to, the seriousness of sin to sink into our hearts, but he doesn't want us to live with a heavy heart over our sin. He wants us to live with overflowing joy at the deliverance that has come to us in Christ Jesus and that comes to us every day in the power of the spirit as we live with Him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the good news of salvation from real sin. Sometimes I think it's not even possible to come to a reality in our lives of just how sinful we are until we reach middle age, but I know that's not true. It's an amazing thing to live this life and to face the reality of our own sinfulness and our waywardness apart from the intervention of the gospel and the spirit of God.

There's so much evil in the world. There are people being slaughtered all over this globe. There are Christians being persecuted. There's a pastor in China right now that is in prison and being tortured because he will not recant the gospel. There's evil in the world. And that evil is in us as well because we have sin dwelling in us. But, oh God, we thank you for the deliverance, the good news of the gospel that you save real sinners through the blood of Christ. I pray that you'd help us to come to our senses, as Paul says, to be restored to sobriety and to embrace the gospel of fresh every day. Help us to preach the gospel to ourselves and to embrace Christ of fresh as we live for you in this fallen world.

Help us to really be lights, not painted Christians, not a facade, but the reality of the spirit of God at work in our hearts. We pray that you would work in us and work through us. Oh God, I pray that we would come to the law with a fresh appreciation of why you've given it and what role it's still to play in our lives as we come to it to open our eyes to the truth about ourselves and about our need the blood of Christ to cleanse us from all sin. We pray that you would take this word, your word and impress it upon our hearts. Let it sink deep in our prayer Father. We would respond in faith and obedience. Enjoy in Christ. Amen.