The Nature of Sin

Before we get started tonight, I want you to flip over on the back of your sheet and I want to kind of run through what we're going to be doing over the next eight weeks. We are starting a new unit tonight, Unit 5. And it's a big word and it's Hamartiology. So think of Ha as in you're laughing. Think of your buddy Marty and thenology, Hamartiology. Okay, I used to work with a gentleman named Marty and that's the easiest way to remember it. That's a strange word because it's a Greek word. Hamartia is one of the most common words in the New Testament for sin. And it's an archery term. It means to miss the mark, to fall short of the glory of God. And so what we're going to be studying over the next eight weeks is how we have missed the mark. What sin does to the human condition. So the last eight weeks, we looked at God making man in his own image, right? And viewing man with both a personality and also with a heart that was set on God's holiness. And man had great personal powers and he was a pinnacle of creation. We looked at all the positive things about humanity. Well, sin of course brings corruption and depravity to the human condition. So tonight we're going to be looking lesson one, the nature of sin. Next week, we're going to be looking at the universality of sin, meaning that everyone is a sinner. There is no person without sin. It's common to everyone. Week three, we're going to be looking at the fall of man, what actually happened in the garden with Adam and Eve. Week four, we're going to look at a term that you may be familiar with called original sin. And what that means to us and every human being. Lesson six, we're going to be looking at guilt. Guilt is what happens because of sin, right? It's something that we all incur. Penalty is week seven. That's something that we all have to pay for our sins. And then week eight, we're going to be looking at the salvation of infants. That's a really important lesson. We've all probably known someone who has lost a loved one untimely, a young child perhaps, or a miscarriage. And we're going to be talking about the salvation of infants in week eight. It's very pastoral and a very good source of comfort for believers. So tonight we'll be starting with lesson number one, the nature of sin.

When we say the nature of sin, what we actually mean is the essence of sin. We're not going to learn everything there is to know about sin tonight, but we're going to learn about what sin is at its core, what it is in its essence. So let's begin with Bible point number one. Sin is the lack. That's the first blank. Lack means deficiency or the missing altogether. Sin is the lack of conformity to the moral law of God. We talked just last week how man was made in God's image and how God's character is inscribed on man's heart. That's the work of the law we read is inscribed on every man's heart and her conscience is informed by that, whether it commends us or whether it condemns us based upon that law. Well, sin is the lack of conformity to the moral law of God. As God's law is a transcript of his holy character. So the second blank is holy. Sin is falling short. That's the third blank short of God's holy perfection. So when we sin, we are falling short of God's perfect standard of his perfect holiness of his perfection. When we transgress the law of God, we fail to conform. That's the fourth blank. Conform to his nature. When we break the law, when we go where we shouldn't go, when we cross that line, we are not conforming to his holiness, right? Sin is described as lawlessness, transgression, and missing the mark. So let me reread that. When we are conforming to the moral law of God, as God's law is a transcript of his holy character, sin is falling short of God's holy perfection. When we transgress the law of God, we fail to conform to his nature. Sin is described as lawlessness, transgressions, and missing the mark.

When I was in grade school, we had an art teacher at our school who was really exceptional. She was very passionate about teaching. And each semester, she would take the students that would come to her during the day, and she would choose a different medium. So one semester, you'd be working with maybe watercolors. My favorite was the semester where we worked with clay. It was that pink clay. I don't know what it's called, but what she would do, she would begin the class, in front of the class, with a block of clay, and she'd begin to sculpt it. She would show us, by her example, of how to actually take this block and to make it into an animal or to a likeness of something. She had to cut her to be able to cut it into blocks, to be able to mold it together, little stylus tools to make indentions on it. And when she was done, it was beautiful. She was very talented. Over the course of the semester, she made a horse. She made an elephant. She also made a rabbit, and she made a turtle and something else. And she baked them after she was done, so they would harden. And then towards the end of the semester, she put all of them in the middle, and she says, "Pick one of those," and she gave us all a block of clay. And she said, "I want you to make a copy or a facsimile of whatever animal there." So if you wanted to choose a duck or if you wanted to choose a turtle, you would try your best to do that, right? And of course, we were kids, and we weren't always listening to her instructions, and we were more interested in having fun. And in the end, my rabbit did not look much like a rabbit. It looked more like an armadillo. You know, the kids made ducks. It looked more like the Loch Ness Monster. It wasn't a very good conformity to her model, right? Well, the law of God is God's character revealed to us, right? And he expects us to conform to it perfectly, right? But so oftentimes, we don't listen. So oftentimes, we don't follow that instruction. So oftentimes, we miss the mark altogether. We fall short of a beautiful representation of God. And that's what sin is. It's lack of conformity to God's holy character. Look at 1 John 3:4. "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness."

If the law is simply God's character revealed to man, sin is antagonism towards that character, antagonism to that law. So it's lawlessness, right? It's the opposite of law.

Flip over on the back. 4

Matthew 7:22–23] Jesus says, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name, then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice what? Lawlessness." That's antipathy to the character of God. Look at 2 Chronicles 26:16.

This is speaking of Uzziah, the great king of Israel, one of the most prosperous kings that Israel ever had. He rose with room when I think he was only 14, if I recall right. Reigned for over 40 years. God blessed him militarily, blessed him politically, blessed him financially. He was a great builder of Israel, great civic projects that he built. But there towards the end of his reign, he let all that success go to his head. And he decided he wanted to go into the temple. And the temple was only reserved for what class of people in Israel? The priests, the Levites, right? And he wanted to offer incense there, and that was against God's commands. But when he was strong and his heart was lifted up to his destruction, he transgressed against the Lord, his God, by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. He rationalized, "Well, I'm doing a good thing. I'm offering incense to the Lord, right? This is an act of worship."

But he transgressed the law of God. And we talked last week that the English word "law" comes from the old Norse language, which means to set down a marker, a stone, or a log such as a guidepost or a marking stone. And you're not supposed to trespass that, right? It was there for a reason. So sin is referred to as lawlessness. It's referred to as transgressing. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." That's another word for sin is simply sin. And as I mentioned earlier, it's an archery term. It means to fall short. You don't have the power to hit the target. You don't have the focus to hit the target. You don't have the spiritual ability to hit the target because you have a fallen nature. Okay.

Let's flip back on the front.

The application for number one is this. Why is I'm only human, that's the first blank human, no excuse, the second blank excuse for sin? Why is I'm only human, no excuse for sin?

Yes. Whose image are humans made in? God's image, right? So God made humanity in his image. He put his law onto the heart of man and he created man as we studied last week upright, right? He made him to be holy. So we can't say I'm only human. It's not my fault, right? That's no excuse for sin. We are required to conform to the image of God, every man, every woman, every boy and every girl.

Bible point number two, sin is more than just an external action.

We think of sin as being a list of do's and don'ts, right? Don't lie. Honor your father and mother, right? Those are external actions. Sin is also an inward disposition of opposition to God. It's an attitude of opposing God. All sin is explicit or implicit hostility. That's the second blank, hostility against God. Remember last week we talked about the law of God and that because the law is a transcript of his character, when we break the law, it's like we're stabbing at the very heart of God, right? So all sin is hostility toward God. Sin desires to obliterate God. Not just to erase who he is, but to erase all of his works as well, right? Is there a reason why some people hate humanity? Why Satan hates humanity? Whose image is humanity made in? God. So if Satan can abort as many babies as possible and wipe off as many people off the face of the earth as possible, good riddance in his opinion, just reminds him of the holiness of God, right?

Sin is thus described as unbelief. That's the third blank. Rebellion. That's the fourth blank. Treachery and separation. So sin is more than just an external action. Sin is also an inward disposition of opposition to God. All sin is explicit or implicit hostility against God. Sin desires to obliterate God.

Sin is thus described as unbelief, rebellion, treachery, and separation.

My son right now is in Norway. He is working there for the next several months with Conoco. And I think next week he goes out into the North Sea on a platform out there. They've done training for him where it's crash, helicopter crash simulation and water and it's a boom arm that swishes them around. He's had to do cold water training, all this stuff. And when you get to some parts of the world, you see icebergs, don't you? Big blocks of ice floating in the water. Some icebergs are as tall as eight to 900 feet tall. It's pretty amazing, right?

But you know an iceberg, what you see, the visible part is only 10% of its mass. The other 90% of it lies below the water, right? So if something is nearly a thousand feet tall above the water, that goes down below 10,000 feet. It's crazy, right?

That is what sin is. Sin is not just an external action, but what lies below the surface is scary because it's hostility against God. It's hatred for God. It's desire to obliterate all that's good, all that's right, to be in opposition against the Lord.

Look at Romans 8:7. "For the mind that is set on the flesh," and when it says the flesh, that means apart from the spirit and man's own power against God. "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God." What does hostile mean? Open rebellion? Not friendly, exactly right. Open rebellion, not friendly, it's hostile to God. "For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot." So we see this hostility that is in man towards God.

Flip over on the back.

Let's look at some of these words for sin that speak of this inner state of man.

John 16:8–9. "And when he has come," this is Christ speaking of the Holy Spirit, "when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." Of sin because they do not what? Believe in me. Part of that internal disposition against God manifests itself in unbelief, right? I don't believe in God because I have inner hostility towards Him. I don't want to submit to His yoke. I don't want to bow the knee, so I will say, as the fool does, that there is no God.

Look at John 3:18. This comes after one of the most famous verses in the Bible, of course, John 3, 16. But we don't always read this far. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Those who do not believe are dead men walking. They're condemned already. Isaiah 1:2. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have," what? "Rebelled against me." These were His people, Israel, right? He had nourished them. He had brought them up out of bondage, out of slavery, and into the Promised Land, but they have rebelled against them again.

Look at Jeremiah 3:20. "Surely, as a wife treacherously," treacherously means to betrayal, "treacherously departs from her husband. So you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the Lord."

Then look at Romans 8:8. "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." So let's flip back on the front.

We can see unbelief, rebellion, treachery, and separation. Those who cannot please God, don't desire to please God. They want to be separate from Him. Think about the prodigal son, right? He asked for his inheritance, and what did he do? He got out of dodge, got as far away from his father as he could.

The application is this. Why is God greatly offended? That's the blank. Offended by our sin. Because He's holy, right? And as a holy God, every sin is a stab at Him. It is rebellion. It is against the God who has given us life and breath and all things. It's treachery against us or against God, the God who has always been faithful to us, and yet we're unfaithful to Him. And we want to live separately from Him and away from Him in His grace and His goodness.

David, can I ask a question? Yes. Go back to that page from the (Inaudible) He's contrasting here between those who are in the flesh versus those who are in the Spirit. And those who are in the Spirit are those who are in Christ Jesus. Those who have been, their hearts been renewed. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. But all mankind is naturally in the flesh, right? Apart from God's redeeming work, we would be in the flesh too, right? But He has saved us. He's translated us out from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. I think there's a scripture I don't remember, forgive me for not knowing the address, but because those scriptures tell us to walk in the Spirit, that we will fulfill the blessing of life. Galatians, yes. As Christians, we still have the pollution or what we call the effects of sin depravity. Caleb is going to be teaching on that in a few weeks. And even as Christians, that's still there. Our guilt is gone. But depravity is still there, and we have to daily battle it, right? We have to daily submit ourselves to the Lord, to the Holy Spirit.

Let's flip back on the front.

Bible point number three, sin is more than just an external action of disobedience to God, or an inward disposition of rebellion and hate towards God. So it's not just an external act. It's not just an internal attitude.

Sin is also a state of unlikeness to God. A state, that's the first blank. Sin is a depravity of the affections. That's the second blank, affections, A, F, F, E, C, T, I, O, and S affections. And a perversion of the will, that's the third blank, will, which constitutes man's very character. This corruption steers and masters the soul. Sin is as described as ungodliness, evil, wickedness, and iniquity.

Sin is not just an act. It's not just an attitude, but it's a state. We don't call ourselves sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. That's the state of every person born into this world. We've inherited from Adam and Eve a fallen condition.

So the Bible describes this as ungodliness, as evil, of wickedness, and iniquity. It's both the affections, the things that you love, are not of God.

Before you're regenerated, do you have any desire to love God? Do you have any desire to love your neighbor as yourself? No, those things are foreign to you. You just want to serve yourself. You don't care about anybody else, you don't care about the Lord the way that he's commanded you to love him, to love others. So it's our affections, and it's also our will.

It is a constant sinning. You can't stop sinning as a sinner. That's part of it. When we discuss the nature and attributes of God, if you remember the last lesson we did was a holiness of God. And we said that the holiness was God's perfect purity, but it's not just his perfect purity, it's his perfect purity willing. God everywhere commands men to be holy as he is holy. In fact, the whole momentum of God's being is behind his holiness. His arm is always enforcing it. That's why his throne is called or said to be established in both righteousness and justice. Righteousness is God's expression of love for all that's right. He must uphold that and reward righteousness and confirm righteousness, or he wouldn't be a holy God. And at the same time, his justice is an expression of what he hates, right? His hatred of sin. And if he doesn't visit nonconformity to his holiness with justice, with penalty, then he's not a holy God, right? Well, in the same way, sin is not just a lack of conformity to God, but it's a willingness. It's a wanting to see that spread, not just in our lives, but in others. We want to see others fall too. That's part of the condition of sin, the iniquity. Iniquity means this inner corruption or spoiledness of our soul. Flip it on the back.

Isaiah 32:6 says, "For the foolish person will speak foolishness, and his heart will work iniquity." So he speaks foolishness, his heart works iniquity, "to practice some godliness, to utter error against the Lord, to keep the hungry unsatisfied." The wicked not only hate God, but they want to make sure that no one else loves God. No one else gets satisfaction. No one else gets right with God. To keep the hungry unsatisfied, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. He wants to keep people from living water. That's the wicked state of every human soul apart from Christ.

John 3:19–20 says, "And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world. Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." If someone comes to the light, it makes you look bad, right? It throws light on your dirty deeds, so you don't want anyone else to come to the light either. So sin is not only a state, but it's a willing state, where you want to see not only sin abound in your own heart, but you want to see others join you in it too.

Flip back over on the front.

Luke 5:8 is the story of Peter. When he's called by Jesus to be his disciple. If you remember, he's out in a boat, and they haven't caught fish. He's been fishing all night, and the master says, "Cast your nets on the other side of the boat." And he says, "I've been fishing all night. I'm a fisherman. I know what I'm doing." But he says, "Okay, I'll do it just to humor you." And he throws his nets on the other side of the boat, and what does he catch? A huge net load of fish to where the net almost breaks. Peter's been a fisherman all of his life. So he gets out of his boat. He knows this is a supernatural work for God. And he comes before Christ, and he falls upon his knees. And look what he says, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

He's not talking about an outward act. He's not talking about an inward desire. What is he talking about here? A state, right? His condition. He is a sinful man.

Application is this. Is an act or state confessed in Luke 18:13? Let me tell you what that is so you don't have to turn there. Luke 18 is a story of a Pharisee who is praying in the temple with his hands out raised. And he says, "Thank you, God, that you haven't made me like this tax collector." Right? And the tax collector stands off to the side. He beats his breast. He doesn't even look up. And he says, "Have mercy on me, sinner." Right? Is he confessing an act? Is he confessing a disposition or is he confessing his state? Yeah, it's both a state and his condition or his disposition. And it's going to manifest itself in an act, right? So... Yes, they were often known to overcharge and to steal, and they were collecting for the enemy, the Roman government, taxation on the house of Israel.

Bible point number four. Sin's essence is always selfishness. Sin chooses self, that's the first blank, instead of God as the object of affection and the supreme end of being.

We should choose God as the object of our heart, the object of our affection, and as the one thing that we live for should be God. But sin chooses self instead.

Man ought to make God the center, that's the second blank, the center of his life, surrendering himself unconditionally to God and possessing himself only in subordination to God's will, that's the third blank, God's will.

Instead, man makes himself the center of his life. Man's own interest, that's the fourth blank, interest is his motive, and his own will is his rule.

So the essence of sin is always self. He wants to put his self on the throne of that's rightly God's, and his whole life should be focused on God and hurtling towards God. He makes his motive himself and his end himself, right? Deuteronomy 6:5 in the Old Testament, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart," it's all your affections and not just your affections, but the seed of your will, that's what the heart means in the Old Testament, "and with all your soul and with all your strength." See, you should love God with everything you are and everything you have, everything you got, you should love the Lord. But sin takes that commandment, says you should love yourself with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Flip over on the back.

Jesus in the New Testament, Matthew 22 says, Jesus said to him, someone asked him what was the greatest commandment. He says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." And this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets." If you love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself, you're going to fulfill the law, right?

But the opposite of that is the love of self, and that's what sin always chooses.

Applications is this, what is the center and goal of your life? Center is the first blank of the application and goal is the second blank. What's the center of your life? What does your life revolve around? Does your life revolve around alcohol and drugs? The addict says yes, right? The wino is just looking for their next drink, right? The junkie is looking for his next fix, right? What about the womanizer? What is he looking for? His next fix as well, exactly right. His life is revolving around that and it alienates him from God. It alienates you from your family. It alienates you from your friends. So the question we have to ask ourselves is what is the center of our life? Sometimes it may not be so bleak as being a junkie, but it may be money, right? Maybe we serve mammon. Maybe that's the center of our life. Or maybe we're looking for prestige. We want accolades, attaboys, and that's what we're living for is that recognition, right? What is the center of our life? And what is the goal of your life? If the center of your life is money, is the goal just to die with most toys, right? But if Christ is the center of your life, guess what your goal is going to be? Christ as well. And you're going to grow in conformity to that goal. Whatever you set your center on, your life is going to aim towards, right? And it's going to grow in that likeness. Let it be Christ that is the center and the goal of our lives. David, I was just thinking, you were saying I had to laugh at myself because I was thinking, you said that I thought I'm going to wake up in the morning. I want to ask myself, okay, you're sitting on the throne today. Amen. Get off that throne of them. It's a problem in some ways. Exactly.

Bible point number five. Sinners often blame everything and everyone but themselves for sin.

Man being condemned by his own conscience attempts to justify, that's a third blank, justify himself before God. Man's self-vindication becomes God-accusing.

Man tries to justify himself. He blames everything and everyone for his failure to hit the mark, right? For his sinful condition. And before you know it, his self vindication, his self justification begins to blame God, becomes God accusing.

We saw that the very beginning, did we not in Genesis? Look in Genesis three, 12 through 13. "

Then the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." That's right. And ultimately, even though he's blaming Eve, who's he blaming? God, whom you gave me, right? This is the woman you gave me. "

And the Lord told the woman, "What is this that you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." We tend to blame anything and everything but not ourselves for our actions.

Flip over on the back. Romans two one says, therefore you are inexcusable, oh man, whoever you are, who judge, for whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things, we're all sinners is what he's saying, right? And you're inexcusable. Flip over on the front.

The application for number five is, who do we blame for our own sins? Blame is the first blank, own is the second blank. Who do we blame for our own sins?

Do we ever blame the devil? The devil made me do it? That's kind of what he said, right? The serpent deceived me, right?

Do we ever blame our parents? If I had only a better upbringing, right, my parents would have taken me to church. If I'd have been gone to a better school, if I'd have had more money, a better upbringing, then I wouldn't be here before you, Judge Epperson. You know what that would be, something that someone would say, right?

Who else do we blame? Do we ever blame our spouses, right? Or our brother or our sister or our neighbor? You made me do that. You made me lose my cool. You just got underneath my skin and it's your fault, right? Exactly. We blame everyone and everybody but ourselves. And in the end, it is our own sin, our own affections, our own will that leads us away from God.

Bible point number six, sinners often rationalize their sin. Sin is always committed for a reason. That's the first blank. That seems good. "Good" is the second blank, good to man.

Sin always has its reasons. You never do anything without a reason. You always have a motive for what you do. And we sin for a good reason, at least in our mind, it's a good reason. Sin deceives sinners with empty and vain promises. Empty is the third blank and vain is the fourth blank. Vain means futile promises, right? Sin promises you a good time. But what happens? Find out that it's not so good, right? It promises you satisfaction. This is going to satisfy your thirst, right? But then you find out it's a broken cistern, right? And you're drinking dust that cannot satisfy, right? It offers you one thing and it gives you another.

And as a result, the reason that we sin to begin with turns out to be a mirage, right? There is no good reason to sin.

Look at Genesis 3:6 back to Eve. Didn't she have good reason to sin? Look, it says so. "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food." What's wrong with eating some good food, right? "That it was pleasant to the eyes." That's pretty. "And a tree desirable to make one wise, after all the serpent had told her that, you shall be like God." Be wise. "She took of the fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate."

Flip over on the back.

Now, Paul talks about this before he came to know Christ. Acts 26:9, he says, "I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth." He stood at the feet of the men who stoned Stephen, right? He threw Christians in jail, separated families. Some of these Christians were torn apart by wild animals, right? And he thought he's doing a good thing, right?

Flip back over on the front.

The application for number six is, how do thieves, liars, and adulterers rationalize? That's the blank. Rationalize. Justify their actions. How do they reason it to be good? First of all, think about a thief. How does a person who is a thief rationalize their actions?

Some of them say I'm entitled to this. Yeah, they're saying, "That rich people have all they need. They're not going to miss a little bit here. I'm entitled to this, right? Food should be a basic right. A car should be a basic right. I need some wheels, so I'm going to hotwire this car."

Or they rob the bank and what do they say? Well, it's insured. Businesses have insurance for this thing. It's really no one's being harmed by my action, right? And doesn't God want me to have money so I can feed my kids and take care of things around? So it's okay for me to go to the bank and knock over an ATM machine or something of that effect. It's how thieves rationalize their action. How about liars? We're all liars. If you say you're not a liar, you're lying.

How do we rationalize our lies? Don't want to hurt your feelings. Don't want to hurt their feelings, right? Or it's just a little lie, right? A white lie. Yeah, that's not as bad as a dark, dirty lie. This is just a white lie, an innocent lie. It's a misnomer if there ever was one, right? So we justify, we rationalize.

How do adulterers rationalize? Maybe they say, "My spouse isn't there for me anymore." Or, "My spouse, I've outgrown my spouse. We've grown apart." Or, "My spouse doesn't wine and dine me like they used to." Or, "My wife, my spouse doesn't give me the affection or the esteem that that person used to." I deserve happiness, don't I? So it's not going to hurt anybody. My spouse will never know, right? Isn't that what people rationalize? Have you heard such things before, right? We've seen it play out in real time recently with professed godly men.

Liars, adulterers, these all types of sin can be rationalized. We all think we have a good reason, but in the end, that reason is not good. There's never a good reason to sin.

Bible point number seven, sinners often fail to recognize their sins. "Recognize" is the blank. Although man can see sin in others, he is blind, that's the second blank, to his own. We fail to recognize their sin, and we often are blind to our own, though we're really good at detecting sin in others, right?

Psalm 19:12 says, "Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults." It's a good prayer, right? To come before the Lord and say, "Show me my sin and be prepared, he will."

Flip over on the back.

Matthew 7, Jesus talks about our propensity to see sin clearly in others, but not our own. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye? It's a tiny little piece of dirt, but do not consider the plank in your own eye. A plank is a big board, right? Think of a two by four sticking out of someone's eye. How ridiculous is that? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye and look, a plank is in your own eye." Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

We often don't recognize a sin in our lives, right? But we sure can spot it in others because we're hypocrites, right? I'm not going to ask you to turn there, but I want to read to you from 2 Samuel 12:1–15. "Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him, "There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor, "the rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds, "but the poor man had nothing except one little eulam, "which he had brought and nourished, "and it grew up together with him and with his children. "It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup, "and lay in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. "And a traveler came to the rich man, "who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd "to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him. "But he," that being the rich man, "took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. "So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, "and said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die, "and he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, "because he did this thing and because he had no pity. "Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man. "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, "I anointed you king over Israel. "I delivered you from the hand of Saul. "I gave you my master's house and your master's wives "into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. "And if that had been too little, "what would have given you much more? "Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight? "You have killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword, "and you have taken his wife to be your wife, "and you have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, "because you have despised me, "and you have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife." We're often very poor at recognizing our own sin, right?

Flip back over on the front.

The application for number seven is this. How can you detect sin in your own life?

If we're poor at recognizing our own sin, how can we detect sin in our life? What are some of the ways that we can detect sin in our life? The accountability of someone else. Accountability. Exactly right. We come to church because we have a community here of brothers and sisters in Christ who love us. And hopefully they love us enough to point out when we're in error, right? If they see a fault in our lives, if they see us walking toward the deep end without our floaties on, hopefully they're going to stop us and they're going to say, "Danger, you are in trouble," right? "Return to the Lord and quit going astray." Yes?

Abigail said that, "Read the Bible every day and what you read can convict you of your sin." Very good job. Ellie? (Inaudible)

Yes, exactly right. Our parents can be a great way of pointing out our flaws. You're very blessed to have Christian parents. Hannah?

Amen. We read that in Psalm 19, right? We pray and ask God to show us our secret hidden faults, right? Those are all excellent ways. Coming to church, listening to sermons, right? Praying. That's how we can find our faults and we can then confess them to the Lord.

Bible point number eight. Sinners often attempt to cover up their sins. That's the first blank. They do this in a vain attempt to escape. Second blank, escape accountability. This cover up leads to more sin and great harm.

When you try to cover up your sin, you are digging a hole that you'll never be able to fill back up, right?

It leads to more sin and great harm. One lie leads to another, right? And before you know it, you're leading a double life. You've hurt those that you've loved the most. And it's not just that you did one sin, it's that you've sinned repeatedly. And you've lied and lied and lied. And now you've broken all trust. If there had been just one sin and you've gone and confessed to that loved one, they would likely forgive you, right? But now you have a whole pattern of untrustworthiness and you've hurt those who love you the most.

Psalm 32:3–4, David talks about what it is to keep unconfessed sin hidden within his heart. This likely was written when he, before he was confronted by Nathan and he was holding this sin in his heart of committing adultery of Bathsheba and murdering her husband. "When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. As if all the fluids in his body had dried up." Slaw, think about that. That's what sin does if you try to hide it. If you try to hold it in and not confess it.

Application is this, how is confession freeing and cleansing?

When you sin and you've done wrong, how is confession, the Bible says to confess your sins to one another. The Bible also says to confess your sins to God. How is confession both freeing and cleansing? Abigail? At first, when somebody is mine or just like anything, that person would be painful, but like one of them. But then after he went to Peter, I got there and all that. Amen.

Flip over on the back and look at Psalm 32:5. This is after David, we just read verses 3 and 4 of Psalm 32. He says in verse 5, "I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin." Slaw, you must confess your sins, right? To receive forgiveness. You must repent, turn from your sins and turn towards God. And you find forgiveness. You find pardon. You find mercy. You find grace greater than your sins, right? And confessing your sins to others expresses your hurt and your sorrow for hurting them, right? And it allows you to reconcile your relationship with those that you love and those whom you've hurt.

Bible point number 9, pardon for sin. Pardon is the first blank. Pardon for sin. Reconciliation with God. Reconciliation is the second blank. Pardon for sin. Reconciliation with God.

A new heart, that's the third blank, heart, that loves God in true holiness.

So pardon for sin. Reconciliation with God.

A new heart that loves God in true holiness can be given to sinners only in Christ Jesus. Jesus loves sinners.

Jesus is the friend of sinners. Sinners cannot achieve peace with God on their own terms. Man must turn from sin. That's the fourth blank. Turn from sin and turn to Christ. Or the fifth blank. Turn from sin and turn to Christ. Psalm 32:1–2 says, "Forgiven is what? Forgiven. Whose sin is what? Covered. Blessed is a man whom the Lord does not, what? Impute iniquity or count iniquity. And in whose spirit there is no deceit." What a blessing it is to be forgiven, to be pardoned, to be reconciled with God, to have a new heart and to have true holiness.

Flip over on the back.

Jesus says in Luke 7, "For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he has a demon." He's speaking to the Pharisees, those who are opposing John and also who were opposing Christ. Verse 34, "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners."

They thought that was a pejorative against Christ, to call him a friend of tax collectors and sinners, right?

But did Jesus take it that way? Should we take it that way? We should rejoice that Jesus is a friend of tax collectors and the friend of sinners. Why would they call him the friend of tax collectors and the friend of sinners?

They had a treaty. Yeah. He didn't shut them and didn't do anything. He ate with them? He fellowshiped with them, right? They rebuked a Pharisee in front of a tax collector. Yeah. Who went away the last time. Many of the Pharisees were righteous in their own eyes. They didn't need a savior. But these tax collectors, the prostitutes, the lowliest, they needed a savior. They knew they were sinners. They didn't have to be convinced of their sin or knocked off their high horse of pride. They knew they were sinners and they needed a savior and Christ offered mercy and forgiveness. He is the friend of sinners.

Look at Mark 10:21. If you remember the rich young ruler came to Jesus. He says, "What must I do to have eternal life?"

And Jesus, we know the commandments and he rattled off some of the commandments. And he says, "All these I've kept from my youth."

Look what Jesus said. 21, "Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him." Now this was not a man who was converted yet, right? We don't know if he was converted. Eventually, we hope he was. "But he looking at him, he loved him and said to him, "One thing you lack, go your way. Sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven take up the cross and follow me." In verse 22, of course, you know that the young man left very sorrowfully because he didn't want to love God with his all, right? But the point is Jesus looked at this man who was holding back and who was actually in a state of rebellion against God and a state of disposition that was antagonistic towards God, someone who's a sinner. And he looked at him and he loved him.

Jesus is the friend of sinners.

Whoever comes to him, he will in no way cast out.

Flip back over on the front. The application is simply this. It's from John 1:36, "Behold the Lamb of God." Remember John the Baptist? He says this twice in verse 29. He says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." And then a second time, verse 36, "Behold the Lamb." That is who Christ is. He is the friend of sinners and only he can take away our sins.