What is Man - Sin Is a Serious Problem

Welcome to the roots where it's all about Jesus. We

love God, we love people. We reached the lost, and

we make disciples. Really good news. I have really good

news for you, Greg, Jordan and I are alive. Praise God.

We made it to Chicago and back this last week.

If you didn't know, we're out of town, prayers still count.

I don't know it works. We're grateful for the prayers.

We got to go to a pastor's kind of preaching

conference in Chicago.

It was a really, really wonderful time.

We got to meet a lot of different pastors from

all over the country, all over the world, and it

was just it was a refreshing time in an enjoyable experience. Now,

I do have to say that on Friday we came

home or that was yeah, we did. We did make

it home by God's grace. But we for a minute there,

we're not sure about it.

Because on Friday.

We hop in an uber and as were hopping into

this uber or whatever it was, the driver tells us, yeah,

like Chicago traffic is crazy, and the reason it's crazy

is because the drivers are crazy. So as we got

in the car, we realized that he was one of them's.

We're still in town and he starts speeding.

I'm like, I get, I haven't been in a car

for a couple of days, but this feels fast. He's

just cutting across lines, no blinker, it's just a smooth

He was in a flow state, transition of weaving in

and out of traffic. And then we got on the freeway,

which was full of cars. So he did the same

exact thing, but which with more cars, which in one

sense is very impressive and another sense terrifying because if

anything had happened, if any if he didn't anything perfectly,

we would have at the same time been re rendered

and hit the car in front of us as he

was weaving in and out. Not only that, but for

several miles he created his own lane on the freeway

on the right shoulder, and just he.

Saved us twenty minutes.

We'll give him that he saved this twenty minutes, but

the entire time we're like, can you do this right?

It was wild? It was really crazy. And what makes

it even better. As we're getting we're really close to

the airport and I look over out my window there's

a man driving one hand on the steering wheel and

his phone like this right, and I kind of look

look forward, and the driver in our car says, did

you see that guy? Did you see that guy? He's

like kid, some people they're just crazy, like some of

them just should some people need to have their license

taken away.

And I'm like, this.

Guy's saying that this guy's the one calling out all

of these other terrible drivers, but he couldn't see that

he was one of the worst among them. Unfortunately, as

funny as the story was and is, praise God, we

made it back alive. We're really grateful. We were concerned

about the plane, but it was really the cars is

we're going to be looking at for unfortunately.

Funny story, but this is all of us too.

This is every single one of us when it comes

to our own sin. Whose sin do we see the

most those around us or our own?

Our driver was not responsible for any other drivers.

He was responsible for himself, and he was supposed to

be responsible for all the other things inside the car,

which was us. Most of us spend our time worrying

about the sin in others, and we rarely spend enough

time focusing on the sin that is running rampant in

our own heart, in our own life. And this is dangerous,

This is extremely dangerous. And this is let me tell

you why. Because our driver thought he was justified in

breaking all of these traffic laws because everyone else was

a bad driver. Yeah, but had he been caught by

the police, had he been caught by law enforcement, he

would have for sure paid dearly for it. Brothers and sisters,

No one's sin justifies our sin. And there is a judge,

there is a law enforcer who is sure to catch

each and every one of us. None of us can

hide from him, none of us can trick him. We

all have that tactic where we slow down when we

see the flashing lights. He knows everything, and he has

told us the penalty for our law violations. If you

would please turn with me to the Book of Romans

for me looking at Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six.

We have one verse we're gonna read.

We'll pray and get into God's word for us today.

Romans six twenty three says, for the wages of sin

is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.

In Christ, Jesus Lord, let's pray, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We ask and call upon you to be with us.

As we read your word. We ask that you would

convict us of our sin. Open our eyes, tell us

the truth, give us grace, give us faith.

To respond, Turn and surrender all to you. We give

you glory. We give you this time in Jees's name.

Everyone said, Amen, if you don't have a Bible, Gabe

would love to bring you one. We have some cool bibles,

and you should. We love the Bible here, we regularly

go through it. So if you don't have a Bible,

just raise your hand.

Gabe will run you one.

But I've titled today's message pretty simply. Sin is a

serious problem. Sin is a serious problem. So my question

today is do you agree? Do you agree is did

you know that how you view your sin impacts a

great deal in how you view God and how you

view his grace. Well, recently, my wife and I have

been watching a lot of documentaries on Netflix. I realized

I missed like a whole swath of really like good

early US history, and so that's kind of been my

late and I think I don't know how she enjoys

it too much, she falls asleep.

But I'm watching it.

I'm enjoying it, and I usually fill around on what

happened the next day, But one of the ones that

we most recently watched was about the war General and

eventual President Ulysses S. Graham and during his time as

the leader of the Union Army during the Civil War.

As his fame began to spread, people started making posters

of him, and one man in particular had created a

poster that was of Grant on horseback smoking a cigar. Well,

supporters of the war saw this poster, and so to

show their support and appreciation, they ended up sending Grant

over five thousand cigars, which is crazy, to which he

smoked about twenty a day, which has also been ass

I didn't realize there's that much time in a day.

Well decades later after the war, after his presidency, the

story goes that one day he bit into a peach

and experienced the most excruciating, excruciating pain in his throat.

So he went to the doctor and the doctor brought

news that he had a late stage of throat cancer.

And at that time there was they just didn't have

any options. They didn't have anything that they could do

about it. The verdict was in he was going to die. Now,

had he gone to the doctor, and it turned out

to be nothing. Maybe just a sore throat or a

bad peach. There wouldn't be any real significance about this event,

but Grant encountered news that changed his life. He had been,

so to speak, sentenced to death. And this is exactly

what our text tells us. Sin leads to our sin

leads to death. The wages of our sin is death.

And this isn't a new thing. This isn't new news.

God had told mankind from the beginning what the cost

of sinning was. But before we get into that first,

I would like to establish exactly what sin is. My

family and I a couple of weeks ago, we were

in South Dakota, and all over the place, depending on

where you went, you'd have these signs that said, beware

of rattlesnakes because there's rattle snakes there, apparently, And as

we're walking around, that's a good thing to know that

there's rattlesnakes. But if I didn't know what a rattlesnake was,

I wouldn't really know why to beware. At the very least,

I would go like, there is some kind of reason

why I should beware of this rattlesnake. But the fact is,

I do know why you should watch out for rattlesnakes.

So me seeing that sign with all of the family

like walking together trying to not go in any tall grass.

Every time we hear a cricket, we're all like jumping

together because we know the danger of a rattlesnank. So

we're not just beware, oh oh, hey, be on the

lookout for this thing.

We don't know why.

We actually know very well why we're in the middle

of nowhere, and the last thing we want to do is.

Get bit by this thing and be stuck.

So just like it's helpful not to just be aware

or beware, but to also be aware of the why

to watch up for ratlesnanks. I believe it'll be helpful

for us to answer first a question, just what is sin?

This might seem really elementary, and it is to some degree.

This is an important question, and I'll get into win

in a minute, but let's make this really simple. Sin

is breaking God's law and rebelling against God's designs. Sin

is raking God's law and rebelling against God's designs. And

this is super relevant because we've actually been in a series.

We don't just we're not just talking about sin today

just for funzies. We kind of are, but it's actually

for seriousies. So what is man Gods whatever, guys, I'm sorry,

what is man? God's design for mankind? We've seen that

God has created us in specific ways for specific purposes.

But sin, put simply is our rejection of his initial designs.

It's our rejection of the commands that He has given us.

It's very important that we understand that this is what

sin is, because as soon as we try to make

sin anything but this, we are, even if we don't

realize it, just trying to move the standard in such

a way that makes sin not that big of a deal.

While back, I was in fred Meyer with my oldest son,

and there's these two gentlemen who had those like evangelizing eyes,

you know what I mean. They're kind of on the hunt.

They're on the prowl, and I made eye contact for

too long, so they went in for the kill, which

I was happy to talk to him about. I was

there to get a couple things from my wife and

then go back to the house. It doesn't matter. So

I'm there and they walk up to me and we

start talking, and I actually had met men from their

church before. I had gone to a service at their

church before, so I was telling him. I was like, hey, actually,

I've met some of your like friends years ago.

I've been to your church a long time ago.

We got some disagreements and they start pressing me on

what those were, and so as we're talking, one of

the subjects comes up about sin. Why it was interesting

is because one of the disagreements that I had with

them is that they believe that Christians can go a

day without sinning, that actually Christians for the most part,

can be sinless for the rest of their life.

And I was like, I don't buy that.

I know my own heart, and I have a lot

of friends, I have a lot of family members, and

I know other Christians as well. Which as we get

into we're gonna actually get into it next week. The

Bible does tell us that we are set free and

can be set free from the power of sin, that

we can resist temptation, but the sin makes it clear

that we will not be perfect or sinless until we

die and go to be with Christ or until He

comes again. So as we were arguing, he asked me

me point blank, well, what is sin? Which is great

because that's what we're talking about today. My response was

breaking God's commands? And he said no, And then he

realized what he said. He stopped himself and he said no.

Well yeah, So I turned the question on him and

I was like, well, what do you think it is?

You'd say, no, it's not breaking God's commands. I realized

he was using some other kind of standard to call

sin sin. And he told me that sin was knowing

the good you were supposed to do and not doing it,

which I understood. I understood scripturely where he was getting

that idea from. But I also understood why he thought

he could be sinless. You think back on the day, Well,

all the good that I thought I should do, I

made sure to do it, and I did it. Though

he had moved the bar. That's not a complete standard

of what sin is, what the Bible calls sin. He

had lowered the standard. If he went by the standard,

I said, it'd be impossible. Oh, make sure I don't

break any of God's commandments all day long. If he

went by his own standard of just trying to do

the good that he knew he should, well, actually I

think if he was honest, I don't even think he

could keep that which I was trying to press him

on a little bit. I'm like, you do all of

the good that you ought to do in a single day.

Our conversation didn't last much longer after that. Who does

all the good that they ought to do in a day?

No one except Jesus. The problem with these guys are

crazy driver and that we have is that our tendency

is to diminish our sin. Our tendency is to change

the standard so that maybe we like.

That gap that we have is just a little.

Bit closer, we don't fall quite as short. But the

Bible doesn't let us get away with it. And I'm afraid,

unfortunately that sin can just be treated as an empty

word nowadays, even in Christian circles, even in churches. I

wentz went to get coffee with a friend downtown, and

while we were ordering, it was probably wrong in reflection

to joke about someone being a sinner, because it's a

serious topic. So as I was even thinking about it,

I was like, I'm feeling convicted about this too, But

I jokingly called my friend a sinner, and we were

at a like a coffee shop downtown Olympia, and the

barista or baristo, I don't know.

The dude behind the.

Cash register when he heard let me say, he said,

nice archaic burn bro.

Like he thought he thought me calling my friend a

sinner was.

Like, oh, I'm like using like old and old dig

you know, using the word like sin. There is an

outdated term. Some think sin is a joke. Some think

sin isn't that big of a deal, or it's an

outdated idea. But sin is a serious problem. So I

want to prove it. I want to look at, primarily

two big passages of scripture, and I'm not kidding.

They're kind of big. There's a lot of reading. But

we're gonna look at two big passages.

We're gonna start with Romans one, so you should already

be right there. Flip back a couple of pages Romans one.

We're gonna after that, we're gonna jump to Genesis three, so,

which is right at the beginning of your Bible. And

to keep it easy, we're gonna jump right back into

Romans two. So in Rome we're gonna see the judgment

pronounced upon all mankind about the wrath to come because

of sin and get a picture into just what the

sin is. And then in Genesis we're gonna go all

the way back to the beginning when to look at

the very first sin, where we see when mankind first

rebelled against God's commands and designs, and how we've been

at odds with God ever since. And we're going to

come back to Romans to see how he can apply

all of this stuff. So Romans one through two holds

a special place in my own heart for two reasons.

One i'll share now, I'll share another one later.

But when I worked construction, I worked with a dude

who was a Jewish atheist, pig farmer.

I was like, he's got some stuff he's working through

and he can't.

He liked to have debates, which was in one sense

really fruitful, but he liked to do it in front

of the entire office. Jerry knows and we work together

and he was our co worker. Any he comes in

one morning and in front of the office he says,

where does the Bible say homosexuality is a sin?

I was like, should read Romans one? So he actually does.

He pulls it up on his phone and he sits

there and I'm watching him and his face gets red

and he starts giggling to himself as he's reading it,

and then he closes it and says, well.

That's pretty clear. And that was the end of that

for the day.

So as we read this, I'm actually I want us

to read this somewhat slow because I want us to

hear every single one of these words.

They're very weighty the language it uses.

Understanding that these are God's words talking about the wrath

coming upon humanity's sin.

Let's read it together.

Romans one, starting in verse eighteen, says, for the wrath

of God is from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness

of men, who, by their unrighteousness suppressed the truth. For

what can be known about God is plain to them

because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely,

his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived

ever since the creation of the world in the things

that have been made. So they are without excuse. For

although they knew God, they did not honor him as

God or give thanks to him. But they became futile

in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming

to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory

of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, and

birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God God gave

them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,

to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they

exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped

and served the creature rather than the Creator, who was

blessed forever Amen. For this reason, God gave them up

to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for

those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise

gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with

passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men

and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,

God gave them up to a debased mind to do

what ought not to be done. They were filled with

all manner of unrighteousness, evil, coveteousness, malice. They are full

of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers,

haters of God, insolent haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient

to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. And though they know

God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve

to die, they not only do them, but give approval

to those who practice them. Heavy Mankind has rejected their

creator and suppresses the truth about God by their unrighteousness.

Mankind trades the truth for a lie. Mankind gives the

glory and worship meant to be given to God, and

they take that glory and worship and they give it

to animals, They give it to other created things. We

saw a huge list there. Mankind literally just does a

bunch of bad stuff and God gives them over to

what they say they really want. Mankind knows what they

ought to do, but instead of turning to God, they

don't care about the consequence of death, and instead they're

creating new evils and approving of others who do the

same evil things. Now, what's interesting about this text is

it kind of just feels like Paul had Instagram or

something that Paul drove through downtown Olympia. But the thing is,

there's a reason that this is timeless. It's because since

mankind rebents rebelled against God. These have always been present.

These have always been a problem ever since mankind first

turned from God. And so we're actually gonna go look

at that flipping over to the beginning of your Bible,

Genesis chapter three, and we're gonna look at two spots

in Genesis two to kind of set up our the context,

which I'll read those, but we'll primarily actually we'll literally

be reading all of Genesis three. So, but Genesis two

has a couple of things to say. It says, then

the Lord God formed the man of dust from the

ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,

and the man became a living creature. And the Lord

God planted a garden in East, or in Eden, in

the east, and there he put the man.

Whom he had formed.

And out of the ground the Lord God made to

spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight

and good for food. The tree of life was in

the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge.

Of good and evil.

A couple verses down says, the Lord God took the

man and put him in the garden of Eden to

work it and keep it, and the Lord God commanded

the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree

of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil you shall not eat, for in

the day that you eat, and from the day that

you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Well, let's look at chapter three.

It says now the serpent was more crafty than any

other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, did God actually say you

shall not eat of any tree in the garden. And

the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of

the fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said,

you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that.

Is in the midst of the garden.

Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the

serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die,

for God knows that when you eat of it, your

eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil. So when the women saw a

woman saw that the tree was good for food, and

that it was a delight to the eyes, and that

the tree was to be desired to make one wise,

she took of its fruit and ate, and she also

gave some of to her husband, who was with her,

and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened,

and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed

fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard

the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden

in the cool of the day. And the man and

his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord

God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord

God called to the man and said to him, where

are you? And he said, I heard the sound of

you in the garden, and I was afraid because I

was naked, and I hid myself. He said, who told

you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the

tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The

man said, the woman whom you gave me, you gave

to be with me. She gave me the fruit of

the tree, and I ate. And the Lord said to

the woman, what is this that you've done? And the

woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. The

Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this,

cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts

of the field. On your belly you shall go and

dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and

between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman, he said,

I will surely multiply your pain and child bearing. In pain,

you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for

your husband, and he shall rule over you. And to Adam,

he said, because you've listened, because you've listened to the

voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you in pain, You

shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and

you shall eat the plants of the field. By the

sweat of your face. You shall eat bread till you

return to the ground, for out of it you were taken,

for you were dust, And to dust you shall return.

The man called his wife's name, because she was the

mother of all living. And the Lord God made for

Adam and for his wife garments of skin their skins,

and clothed them. And the Lord God said, behold, the man

has become like one of us, in knowing good and evil.

Now lest he reach out his hand and take also

the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore

the Lord God sent him out of the garden of

Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

He drove out the man, and at the east of

the garden of Eden he placed the Cherubim and a

flaming sword that turned every way to guard.

The way to the Tree of life. So we're gonna

do a lot of summarizing.

What we see in this text is that mankind believes

Satan's lie rather than God's word. Mankind breaks God's commandments

according to their own wisdom. Mankind brings judgment upon himself,

just like God had said that when Adam ate of

the fruit, that he would die, and we see God

brings this judgment upon him and says, you will return

to dust. It is interesting that we see Adam here

alive and that God doesn't strike him down immediately. There's

a sense in which Adam did die. We're going to

look at that a little bit next week. But there's

another sense in which the penalty of death had been postponed.

Adam was going to die because of his sin in

the nature of Adam's relationship, and thus mankind's relationship with

God was now broken inheriting a fallen in dead and

sin nature.

But here we see God showing some grace.

That God didn't just wipe out mankind, even though he

would have been totally well within his rights to do so.

But in the same pronouncement of judgment that God deals

out here, he also makes a promise and a provision

for mankind. We see that there's a promise of an

offspring who would come and crush the serpent. And we

see God himself making a covering for Adam and Eve

out of animal skins, which some theologians believe may have

been the first sacrifice, that an animal was sacrifice, and

that God covered Adam and Eve with sufficient coverings. That

many of us, like Adam and Eve, have had our

eyes open to our sin. And so what we try

to do through our own works and means, we try

to cover ourselves with fig leaves. But we need the

promise of God's victory over the work of Satan and death,

and we need the sufficient and sacrifice sacrificial covering given

to us by God, which is Jesus Christ. The promised

one who came and threw his death on a tree,

defeated the power of sin and death that he bore

the sins of all those who would believe in him.

He takes the wrath to our sin by hanging on

a tree, and instead clothes us with his righteousness. And

Jesus's victory wasn't just a payment for our sin, but

it was the defeat of death. And this is really

good news. It was a little unfortunate because while I

was away, I get a text the night before I

came home that my oldest son, he's like four, was

struggling to go to bed because he had had a

realization come to him, and that was that one day

he was going to become an old man and die.

And in one sense, we laugh, right, we're like, Bud,

like it's all right, but that's real. He's actually like,

we laugh, but that's real. All of us will die.

That's heavy, and that's real. It's serious. It's terrifying. It's

scary when you're a kid, but especially if you don't

have Christ.

It's terrifying the older you get.

Yeah, there's a reason for that. This isn't how it's

supposed to be. This isn't We weren't meant to die.

We were meant to live forever with and for God.

Romani told us the wage of sin is death. God

told Adam the day that he disobeyed that he'd bring

upon himself death. In our Romans One text, it tells

us that those who practice evil know that they and

those things deserve death. Death isn't just an inconvenience. Death

is what we deserve. It's not just like, oh, it's

just a part of life. It is now, but it

actually isn't a part of life. It's what ends our life.

Death is God's justice on our sinful, wicked, hostile, rebellious

ways towards Him. And that's exactly why Jesus died. That's

why Jesus died. He didn't deserve death. He was perfect,

but that's why he died for the enemies of God.

Jesus took our place, and more than that, he rose again,

showing that for all who believe in Him, that for

them death won't be the end either, but instead they

will receive grace and the wonderful gift of eternal life.

That we will one day be raised to eternal life

with him again Romans six twenty three. For the wages

of sin is death, but the free gift of God

is eternal life. In Christ Jesus our Lord. We need

God to tell us the truth about our condition, because

God also gives us the cure. We need to understand

the gravity of this situation, because once again, if you

went into the doctor and you had just a cough

and they didn't take you seriously, and they're I gotta

go home, rest it off, You'll be fine. You're not

gonna take that seriously. You're not gonna think about that again.

He's like, all right, I just kinda wait for it

to be over. You go to the doctor and they

tell you're going to die, which is already like a

fear of mind every time I go to the doctor.

But like when if you went into the doctor and

they say, like, you see that they've changed, and they're

not about to tell you good news. Most of the time,

the best thing that they can do is try and

delay what's gonna happen. They can try and mitigate some

of the symptoms or the unpleasantness of it. They can't

cure you of death. The doctor cures you're small cough.

It is not a big deal.

But if your doctor could come cure your cancer, everyone

would know, everyone would know. This wouldn't be something you'd

be able to keep to yourself. We need to understand

that the deeper we understand the depths of our sin,

the greater we understand the riches of God's grace. If

I think I'm just like not that bad, well yeah,

you know God, you know, he kind of gave me

a coupon and I'll get into heaven and we'll be Okay.

Look at the cross. You see what it costs. Jesus,

that's what you deserved.

Maybe I need to take a second look at how

I view my sin, the gravity, the weight, the offense,

the debt.

As Jesus says, he who is forgiven much loves much.

I need the band to come up, but I am

not done. As I said that, there's one more thing

I want to share with you. So there's something actually

very deeply personal to me, because since this happened, I

really haven't been the same. I grew up in church.

I put my faith in Jesus at a young age.

I believe I had the Gospel planted in my heart.

I knew of God's presence with me. I knew of

God's grace, but I didn't really know I was a sinner.

Now I knew I was a sinner like everyone else does. Yeah,

I'm a sinner. That's what we say. Jesus died for

my sins. That's the thing I say. But I didn't

know to the degree that God was about to show

me through his word. And I remember going to a

worship rehearsal many years ago at the Roots, and one

of the things that we would do, we'd open up

our Bibles before we did our Sunday rehearsal or our

new song or wherever it was and talk about maybe

what we're reading that week. And I remember the pastor

Greg was just going on and on about how terrible

he was. And he wasn't doing it to like brag,

but it's just like he had had this reality hit him.

And I'm sitting there listening to him, like what is

wrong with this guy? Like what's this guy's deal? Like

why is he so hard on himself? Like lighting up,

Like it's like, like, you seem like a pretty decent guy.

I've gotten to know you.

The way you're talking about yourself does not seem accurate.

And it wouldn't be until sometime later that I understood

the reality the pastor Greg was talking about. It wasn't

something that he just came up with himself that he's like, hey,

I should just really dog on myself, but it's something

that is revealed by God's word. Turning back to Romans one,

is this chapter that changed my life, not because of

the first chapter, but because of the second. When I

read chapter one, I was like, yeah, those people are bad.

Look at how insane people are. Yikes, sin is bad.

I was saying, look at all those bad drivers. But

then I got to chapter two and it was like

getting hit by a freight train. You remember getting trouble

as a kid, Maybe getting in trouble now. I don't

know who you get in trouble with, but like imagine

getting maybe you get pulled over. I don't know what

it feels like to get in trouble. Your face gets hot,

you get the pit in your stomach. You're looking for

a way to get rid of that guilt, that conviction.

I've been caught where they know because as I read

chapter two, God was saying, you don't have any excuses either.

You are the worst driver.

Your sin is a much bigger problem than anyone else's sin.

Your sin should be of much bigger concern to you

than anyone else's sin. Your sin is a serious problem.

Look at this Romans two, verses one through five. Therefore,

you have no excuse, oh man, every one of you

who judges, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself,

because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We

know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those

who practice such things. Do you suppose, oh man, you

who judge those who practice such things and yet do

them yourself, that.

You will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness

and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is

meant to lead you to what.

Repentance?

Because of your heart and impenitent heart, you are storing

up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when

God's righteous judgment will be revealed. God says, you sit

there and judging people, but you do the same exact things.

You're just as guilty as the whole lot of them.

You're not any better just because you agree with God

on what sin is because though you agree with God

that it's sin and you judge those who are committing it,

you're perfectly blind to the sin problem in your own life.

They're like the driver saying, these people do to have

their license taken away, but you're the one who needs

have your license revoked. He says, you judge, but you're

just as guilty. And he points to something that all

of us are prone to do, and that's abuse God's goodness,

abuse God's grace, abuse God's kindness, abuse God's patience toward us.

But God doesn't show us those things so that we

can be content with our sinful self. God shows us

those things to lead us to repentance.

He gives us time to repent.

We all want to mess up and just say nobody's

perfect and then don't change anything. We're actually like, we

settle with the fact, like it's an okay thing that

nobody's perfect.

That's an issue, that's a problem.

Brothers and sisters, have you ever actually looked at your life,

looked at your sin.

And been grieved by it? Not the sin that made

you sin.

Your own sin, your own shortcomings, your own failures.

Have you ever been grieved by it, come to hate.

It, and they're not just grieved by it, but moved to confess.

Move to confess and actually repent of your wickedness. Most

of us try so hard not to admit what the

Bible tells us, to confess.

We are sinners.

We can't do it. We're wrong, We're helpless and so

much worse than we can know. And that's the thing.

It's not that we aren't as good as we think

we are. It's that we are much worse than we think.

It's a realization that brings us to our knees and

humility to confess. Amazing grace, How sweet the sound that

saved a decently okay guy like me?

That's not how the song goes. The man who wrote

that song.

Came to a realization of just how amazing that grace is?

Is what does he say? Amazing grace? How sweet the

sound that saved a wretch like me?

When's the last time you heard that word wretch? And

he's not like a wretch like them, a wretch like me?

It's personal.

Definitionly a wretch, a miserable person, one who's profoundly unhappier

and great misfortune a base despicable or vile person.

Most of us don't want to admit that we're any

of those things.

But this amazing grace, says the grace is amazing because

I'm just so bad and he still gives it to me.

That's amazing.

That he bled and died on the cross in my place,

because that's what my sin deserved. Go read the crucifixion account.

That's what you deserved. And Jesus took that on your behalf.

And he did it because he loves you. He loves us.

He calls you to confess your sinfulness, repent of.

Your sin, and turn to him and you will give

it to you. He will give you that grace.

You don't have to do nothing but look to him

and trust in his finished work. It's a free gift.

That's amazing. It's amazing. But for anyone who doesn't, there's

judgment coming. The wages of sin is death. God is

going to execute justice on his enemies. He will not

let any of us get away with it. But this

is the good news. For all of put their trust

in Christ. Their judgment day has already come. It happened

at the cross where Jesus declared it is finished taking

our sin and clothing us with his perfection. My hope

and prayer is that the Lord would convict you of

your sin. That the Lord would convict us as a

church of our sin. That we would stop pointing our

fingers at one another and start pointing the finger at

our self and repenting to the Lord. That we would

grow in our humility and our love because of it

towards one another. That we would grow in gratefulness towards

our great God, who gives us the great gift of

his grace. You'd come to see the sin in yourself,

that you would come to hate it, that you would

come to repent of it, and cause you to turn

to Christ. In nonsense, this is just the simple Gospel message.

And my hope for all of you is that you'd

come to see the depths of your own sin and

just take it seriously. You wouldn't treat it as a

joke or something outdated or not to.

Be worried about anymore.

Is you wouldn't do that with any diagnose of any

other terminal disease. And God says the wages of sin

are death. The free gift is eternal life. And this

is a heavy heavy and yet beautiful reality. I pray

that as we bite into the fruit of our sin

that we once thought was sweet and pleasing.

That as we eat the fruit.

Of our sinful ways, that God would open our eyes

to our sin, that we would be caused pain instead

of pleasure from our sin.

That as we judge others outside our windows, that.

We would instead look in the mirror and see that

we're the ones who need to repent. We're the ones

who need to turn to Christ. Sin is a serious problem,

but only Christ is the one who can save us

from it.

Look to Christ. He is sweeter than your sin. And

all God's people said, hey, man, would you please stand

to your feet