Man's Biggest Problem

What do we do about sin? You come to Jesus Christ and He forgives it. Then as a believer, when it raises itself in our lives, when the temptations come, we stand on the confidence that it's already forgiven. And then we move to the strength provided for us and the power of the Spirit of God.

And the key to that, beloved, is to be so saturated with the Word of God that it dominates your thinking. What is it that God hates more than anything? The answer, simply, is sin. Any sin, large or small, is rebellion against God, as John MacArthur has been showing you the last couple of weeks here on Grace To You in his series called The Sinfulness Of Sin.

And yet, maybe you still find yourself with questions. For example, if you fail to forgive someone, or if you have a bad attitude, is that just as serious? Is it the same kind of rebellion against God as stealing or murder? How concerned is God about your sinful thoughts compared with your sinful actions? Well, as John digs into Matthew chapter 5 again today, you'll see just how seriously God judges your motives. And with that, follow along now, as John MacArthur helps you come to grips with the sinfulness of sin. I want us to see the answer to five questions. Question number one, what is sin?

What is it? Anything this severe needs a definition. We must understand it in order to avoid it.

The definition is simple. First John 3, 4. Listen, sin is the transgression of the law. That is sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. Literally, the Greek is everyone doing sin is doing lawlessness. Sin is disobeying, ignoring God's law. In fact, the Greek construction of 1 John 3, 4 makes sin and lawlessness identical. We might say sin is living as if there was no God and no law. Sin is godlessness, lawlessness. It is not being bound by the standards of God. It is living on your own definition and by your own terms and according to your own whims.

There's a second question. What is sin like? What is it like? Here we go past the definition and I want to have you look for a minute at the nature of sin. What is sin like? We saw what it was, rebellion against God.

What is it like? It is defiling, rebellion, ingratitude and an incurable disease. That brings us to a fifth aspect of sin. It is hated by God.

This is part of its nature. It is the very antithesis of what God is. Now I know this is obvious, but let me just add some thoughts for your thinking. Sin is the only thing God hates. It is the only thing God hates.

It is the only thing He has antagonism against. God doesn't resist a man because he's poor. He especially loves the poor. God doesn't resist a man because he's ignorant.

He cares for those. God does not resist a person because he's crippled. He has made the blind and the deaf and the halt. God does not resist a man because he's ill. God does not resist a person because they're despised by the world. God is antagonistic only to sin and Habakkuk had it right when he said, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity.

In Jeremiah 44 for God called out to the prophet Jeremiah with tears and a breaking heart, Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate. God hates sin because sin separates man from God. Sin breaks the very thing for which God made man fellowship. So sin is defiling, rebellion, ingratitude, incurable and hated by God.

A sixth. Sin is hard work. Sin is hard work.

All it causes is pain, yet it amazes me how busy people are doing it. All it does is bring them grief and death and hell, but they work at it. Jeremiah 9 5 says, They weary themselves committing iniquity. They weary themselves committing iniquity.

It's amazing. In Psalm 7 14 the Bible says, Behold he travails with iniquity. And travail is the word used for birth pains, the most severe kind of human pain known to them in that day. They will literally go through birth pains without an anesthetic or anything, the most severe human pain. They would go through that to do their evil. And probably add reference that Psalm does to David's enemy Cush who was chasing David and literally was in pain but wouldn't stop with his evil deed. Ezekiel 24, She is weary to herself telling lies. You know it's amazing, but people go to hell sweating.

They really do. They work hard at being sinners. What is sin like?

It is defiling, rebellion, ingratitude, incurable, hated by God and it's hard work. That's why the Bible says when you come to Jesus Christ, you rest. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you what? Rest.

Rest from what? For one thing, from the work that sin is. What a wretched thing. The evil of sin is wretched. So wretched is it that millions of people are damned by its power. So wretched is it that it took the very death of God Himself in Christ to remove it from the life of man. The third question, not only what is sin and what is sin like, but how many people does sin affect? People always ask this, how many people does sin affect?

And the answer is very simple. The answer is all through the Bible. But let me just give you one verse that will help. Romans 5, 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, even so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. All have sinned. Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans chapter 3 and verse 19 says that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world guilty before God. Now sin entered the world through one man. Gentiles don't understand that too well, but the Jewish mind understands it. The Jewish mind understands it because Jewish people see themselves not as an individual but always as a part of a tribe or a family or a nation and apart from that identity they have no individual existence. For example, in Joshua 7 when Achan sinned, he sinned.

You know what happened? His whole family died and the whole nation of Israel failed in their next battle. In other words, he was acting in a sense for a family and even for a nation. In Hebrews chapter 7 verses 9 and 10 it says that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek in the loins of Abraham. Levi wasn't even alive or even near being alive at the time that Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek.

But the Jews always see themselves bound up in their ancestry. And so it is as Paul writes in this argument. He is saying when Adam sinned, everybody bound in the loins of Adam that ever issued out of human life became sinful. So Adam's sin is our sin by propagation. Job 14 4 then says who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, not one. You start out with an evil father and an evil mother, you're going to get an evil kid.

It's that simple and it will go on like that. Psalm 58 3 says the wicked are estranged from the womb. That's the way they're born. And so not only is the guilt of Adam's sin imputed to us, but the depravity and the corruption of his nature is transmitted to us.

The poison goes from the spring to the well to the people that drink. Now that's what theologians call original sin. You don't come into this world any other way than as a sinner. Now there used to be a big argument about this and there was a theologian who said, no, you come into the world with a neutral situation and you can choose to be a sinner or not.

Pelagious. And Augustine had one answer to him. He said, find me one who didn't choose sin and I might believe it. Never did find one.

Never did. You come into this world as a sinner. We've all sinned in Adam.

We've all come short of the glory of God. We've all been born in corruption. We are all Adam's progeny. And as the progeny of Adam, we bear the corruption that he bore. That's why Paul says in Romans 7 25, no matter what I want to do, no matter how strong my will is, with my flesh I serve the principle of sin because it's in my nature. It's woven into the warp and the wolf of my life, my existence. Adam's sin, I like to think of it this way, clings to every man just like Naaman's leprosy clung to Gehazi. And if the roots are this deep, beloved, then it's a real problem. You know, even when you become a Christian, the roots of sin are still there. Did you know that?

Still there. And we still struggle, don't we? Paul says in Romans 7, the things I want to do, I don't do.

The things I don't want to do, I do. I find this law warring in my member's sin against righteousness. We find in Hebrews chapter 12 that he calls to us and he says, oh, run with patience the race that is set before you. Lay aside every weight and the sin which does so what? Easily beset us. Why is it so easy for sin to beset us? It's so deep in our nature. We're sinners.

No one escapes. That is what sin is, that is what sin is like, and that is who is affected by it. A fourth question. What is the result of sin? What is the result of sin?

The real result. What does it bring to bear in our lives? First, sin causes evil to overpower us. Sin causes evil to overpower us. This is its effect. Just to start at the very beginning, the heart of men is deceitful above all things and desperately what?

Wicked. Jeremiah 17, 9. Sin dominates the mind. It dominates the mind.

That's what Jeremiah is saying. Sin overpowers the mind. Ephesians 4, 17 says that the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind because their understanding is darkened. They are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. They are past feeling and they give themselves over to lasciviousness.

In other words, they are dominated in their minds. Their whole mind is dominated by evil. That's why it says the natural man understandeth not the things of God. To him they are foolishness because they are spiritually discerned and he is spiritually dead.

1 Corinthians 2, 14. Evil dominates the mind. Secondly, evil dominates the will. Jeremiah 44, I read to you earlier, we will certainly do that which is in our hearts to do.

We will do whatever comes out of our mouths. Sin dominates not only how we think, but it dominates what triggers what we do. Sin even dominates our affections.

Oh yes it does. Sin dominates the things we love. That's why John had to say, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world because it's so easy for us to be dominated by sin.

And the Bible says in John 3, 19, the light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. So sin dominates the affection. Sin dominates the will. Sin dominates the mind.

And ultimately if your mind and your will and your affections are dominated by evil, your behavior will be evil. That's original sin. It's like the tree in Daniel chapter 4 verse 23.

Though the branches were cut down and the main trunk was cut, the stump and the root remains. And even though you became a Christian and a lot of that was whacked off, the stump is still there until Jesus comes. And according to John 15, I think the Father's busy pruning off the shoots that keep coming up in our lives as Christians. The Christian must realize as well as the non-Christian that sin is so deep in our nature it's like a sleeping lion and the least thing will awaken its rage. Our sin nature smolders like a flaming fire ready to be ignited and the slightest wind of temptation fans it into flame.

And so if you're an unbeliever you need to run to Jesus Christ to have it covered and if you're a Christian you need to be sure you don't do anything to induce it to wake from its sleep. So the first result of sin is that it overpowers us in a power that can only be broken by Christ. The second result of sin in our lives is it brings us under the control of Satan. Who wants to be dominated by Satan?

Who would ever choose to be dominated by that evil being? And yet the Bible says in Ephesians 2, 2 that those who don't know Jesus Christ walk according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. You don't know Jesus Christ, Satan is at work in your life. Jesus said to those religious people gathered around him in John 8, you are of your father the devil. In 1 John 5, 19 he says the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one.

In Romans 6, 16 he says in effect you are servants to sin and Satan. And so what is the effect of sin in our lives? What does it do to us? First of all it overpowers us so that our thinking and our feelings and our will and our behavior is dominated by it.

Secondly, it brings us under the dominion of the evil adversary Satan. There's no freedom. There's only slavery. There's no liberty.

There's only bondage. Only Satan makes you think you're free. When somebody comes to Jesus Christ, Jesus says if the son shall make you free, he shall be free for real.

Why does he say that? Because Satan sells a phony freedom. How many movements can you think of today that are called liberation movements? Is man free? Has he been liberated?

Not on your life. He is in bondage to sin. It is only the Lord Jesus Christ who can free us. That's why Acts 26 verse 18 says Paul was called to preach Christ and to open their eyes, that is the Gentiles, and to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sin and inheritance. In other words, the preaching of the gospel opens eyes, turns people from darkness, delivers them out of the power of Satan unto God. Sin dominates and puts us under the power of Satan. Third result of sin, it makes us objects of God's wrath. Ephesians 2, 3, as I quoted earlier, we are the objects of God's wrath. He calls us children of wrath, bulls-eyes for guns of judgment.

This is serious. Psalm 90 verse 11, the psalmist said, And who knows the power of God's wrath? Who can measure it?

Who knows it? God's wrath is infinite. And by the way, it's not just a passion. God's wrath is an act of his pure and holy will against sin which defiled his universe. You have to ask yourself, when you read the Bible and you read about God's wrath, how sinners can go blindly on in their sin. In Galatians 3, 10, it says, Cursed is everyone that continues not in the things written in the book of the law. Then it says in the next verse, The just shall live by faith. And if you don't come to God through faith, you will be cursed. Jesus is the object of our love. And God says in 1 Corinthians 16, If any man love not the Lord, let him be accursed.

God is very serious. Sin overpowers us, controls us, makes us objects of God's wrath. I don't know how a sinner can eat, drink, and be merry when he knows that's a fact.

That's like Damocles Banquet, who while he sat eating with a sword hanging over his head by a small thread, still had the stomach to eat. So the sword of God's wrath hangs over the head of the sinner and yet he goes on eating, drinking, and making merry. Listen, only Christ can save us from that wrath. 1 Thessalonians 1 tells us that we wait for His Son who delivers us from the wrath to come. Aren't you glad you're a Christian?

You've been delivered from the wrath to come? Sin causes evil to empower us. Sin causes Satan to control us. Sin causes us to be objects of God's wrath. And a fourth, sin subjects us to the miseries of life. You know, just follow the path of sin and you'll just go from one misery to another. Job 5-7, Man is born to trouble.

Man is born to trouble. Romans 8-20, Paul says that the creature is subjected to vanity. In other words, to uselessness, emptiness, something missing, a heart that's never satisfied, a thirst that's never quenched, a hunger that's never filled. And with Solomon, man says vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

I looked over everything and I said it all means nothing. Solomon tried it all and it all came out emptiness, bitterness, sorrow, meaninglessness, and uselessness. Sin degrades man of his honor. Reuben, because of incest, lost his dignity in Genesis 49. And so has man lost his dignity. Man has been robbed of peace and there's no peace to the wicked, says the Bible. But they're like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters churn up mire and dirt. Judas was so vile and evil that he followed the path of trouble until finally, an absolute horror and desperation with a conscience that was shouting so loud he couldn't stand to hear it.

He took a rope, tied it around his neck hanging from a tree, hanged himself, his rope broke and his body was crushed on the rocks below. He was trying to escape his conscience and all he did was wind up in hell where his conscience was louder than he ever heard it before and will be forever. Listen, that's the result of sin.

But there's one other result. Sin finally damns the soul to hell. People think they can sin and get away with it, but you can't. All you have to do is read Revelation chapter 20.

Read about the great white throne and how people are cast into the lake of fire. Realize that 50 million people die every year. Do you know that? 136,986 die every day. 5,707 every hour.

95 people die every minute. Spurgeon said many people are hanging over the mouth of hell by a solitary plank and they don't know it, but the plank is rotten. So we see the deadly evil of sin. We've answered some questions about sin. What is it? What is it like? How does it affect us?

But there's really a final fifth and most helpful question. What do you do about it? What do you do about it? Well, can I simply say this? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is what? Eternal life.

That's the key, isn't it? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty for your sin and he offers you forgiveness. In Romans 4, 7, the Bible says, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Happy is the man who knows it's all forgiven. Happy is the man who knows God covered it with righteousness. Happy is the man who knows that God will never charge it to his account. Happy is the man who knows the debt is canceled. Happy is the man who knows the price is paid. Happy is the man who comes to Jesus Christ and takes the free gift.

That's happiness. That's what Jesus is trying to say in the sermon on the mat, you see. He's trying to say sin is such a tremendous problem that I want you to see the reality of it and I want it to drive you to myself and my sacrifice on your behalf. You say, well, I'm a Christian. I've heard this message, yeah, but if there's a little less taint of indifference, then you've lost some of the sense of gratitude that you ought to have in your heart for what God has done for you. I hope by seeing sin again, you're grateful for your forgiveness.

What do you do about it? You come to Jesus Christ. You say, but as a Christian, I know that the branches are chopped down and the trunk has been laid away, but there's still the root there and the shoots keep coming out and how do I deal with sin in my life? Well, we've studied that a lot. We've studied it a lot.

The answer is simple, twofold. Recognize it's been forgiven. It's been forgiven. He's forgiven you all your trespasses for his name's sake.

It's been forgiven. Secondly, recognize you have the power to say no. You have the power to say no. Colossians 3, 5 says, mortify the deeds of the body. Kill it. You say, John, how do you say no to sin? Say yes to God. Sin will fight against that which you know is righteous and depending upon the dominance of your life by the Spirit of God, you'll say yes to one or the other. But first of all, what do we do about sin?

That's the last question. You come to Jesus Christ and he forgives it. Even as a believer, when it raises itself in our lives and when the temptations come, we stand on the confidence that it's already forgiven so we don't get into some emotional guilt trip, some distrust of God. And then we move to the strength provided for us and the power of the Spirit of God. And the key to that, beloved, believe me now, the key to that is to be so saturated with the Word of God that it dominates your thinking so that when the temptation comes, you react with the Word of God. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John teaches here daily on Grace to You. He's also chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. His current study is titled The Sinfulness of Sin. At the end there, John, you said that the way to fight sin is to dig deep into the Word of God, to let it saturate all of our thinking.

So talk about how that specifically works. How does a deeper knowledge of the Bible translate practically into less sin? Well, the Bible puts it this way. As a man thinks in his heart, so he is. So whatever is controlling your thoughts is going to end up in your words and it's going to end up in your conduct, your behavior. Everything starts back at the thought point, and that is, again, Philippians 4.8. Whatever is pure and true and honest and good, think on these things. Or, Romans 12. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know what is the good and perfect will of God. Set your affections on things above and not on things in the earth. These are the kinds of thoughts that are at work in the believer who is filled with the Spirit.

When the flesh is unleashed, you have the work of the flesh, which is all disastrous and sinful. So it's really a battle for the mind. It's a battle for how you think. And that battle goes on all the time, and it needs to be fought all the time. You don't say, well, because I graduated from seminary and I know theology, I now know the truth, I have it locked down for the rest of my life.

It's amazing how that can slip. It has to be an ongoing sort of saturation of your mind. I've said this many, many times, but the greatest benefit to me being an expositor in the Word of God for over half a century is being exposed to the Bible every week of my life so that my thoughts can never go very far away from the text of Scripture. That kind of saturation of the Word of God in my mind, I really believe, and people will ask me sometimes, how did you survive so long in the ministry without some scandal or whatever? It's not that I have some superior powers. I don't.

I'm like everybody else. But the Word of God will do what it says it will do. It will purify the heart. It will awaken the mind and the conscience. Now, you need the Word of God, but you need to know what's in it. So get a MacArthur study Bible. It's got 25,000 notes explaining the Bible. I was in a police station yesterday talking to some guys that we were having lunch with, the local police, and one of the guys came up to me and said, Wow, I just got one of those study Bibles. I've never read the Bible in my life and understood it like this.

That's from a guy who's just discovered it, so I was really thrilled. If you don't have a MacArthur study Bible, you can get one. So check the website or give us a call.

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