In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the seriousness of sin and the need for believers to recognize its gravity. He uses the example of Adam and Eve, who were given only one commandment but still disobeyed, resulting in their expulsion from God's presence. The speaker also highlights the significance of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, stating that even if only one person had committed one sin, Jesus would still have come to die for that sin. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of taking sin seriously and having faith in the Word of God.

We want to continue looking at the reasons why we keep falling into sin and do not grow spiritually. Perhaps this could solve the problem you are facing right now. A study we were considering the fact that under grace there is no need for any of us to be mastered by sin. Grace is God's power that enables us to overcome. In fact, Romans 6.14 is such a clear promise. Sin shall not be mastered over you for you are not under law but under grace. And if we do fall, if we are not growing spiritually in the sense of overcoming sins that we have been constantly defeated by in the past, we considered in our last study that one of the primary reasons could be and often is the fact that we do not fear God. You know, God has given all of us a private area in our life. It's our thought life. Nobody can enter in there, not even your wife or your husband. The thoughts that go on in your mind are a private area. And it is in that totally private area of your life that God tests you to see whether you fear him or not. And that is how God is testing the entire human race. Consider for a moment. Supposing your thoughts sounded out loud like your words. I'm sure God could have made man in such a way that our thoughts sound out loud just like our words do. Would you then be more careful with your thoughts? Then why are you not careful when your thoughts are silent and other people cannot hear it? Does it mean that you're not bothered whether God hears it? You're only concerned that men should not hear it? That's an indication that we fear men more than we fear God. I'm convinced that one of the most important things that you and I need to develop in our life is the fear of God. David said in one of the Psalms, Come, my children, I will teach you the fear of God. We have to learn it. We have to learn through developing our senses to fear the presence of God who is always with us wherever we are. Who hears every thought that passes through our mind as loudly as other people can hear our words. And it's not just that we need to fear God as much as we fear men. That itself would bring a terrific deliverance. But certainly we are to fear him more. In fact, one of the sins mentioned in Romans 1 and verse 25 is that people worship the creature more than the creator. They worship a man's opinion more than God's opinion. And we're all basically like that. You know, from childhood we grow up being afraid of people's opinions. We want to impress people. But we're not so concerned about impressing the Lord. And the result of that is that we keep falling into sin. Because if we're going to be careless in our thought life, in our inner attitudes and motives, which nobody can see but God, there's never going to be any purity in our life. We're just going to be defeated constantly. So here is the number one reason why many people never make progress in overcoming sin. Because they have never sought to develop the fear of God in their life. Now, let me give you a second reason. The Bible says in Romans 1 verse 17 that the righteous man will live by faith. All progress in the Christian life is by faith. And if you don't believe this promise, for example, in the letter of Jude verse 24, where it says Jesus can keep you from falling. If you don't believe that, it's never going to take place in your life. If you don't believe that God is intensely interested in your living in victory over sin, you're never going to experience it in your life. If you don't believe that sin is a serious matter, you're not going to overcome sin in your life. We need to have faith in the word of God. Let me give you one or two examples which would prove to you why sin is so serious. In the beginning of the history of the human race, when God created Adam and Eve, He gave them only one commandment. Not ten commandments. One commandment. And He told them not to eat of a particular tree. That was all. They lived with one commandment. And one would think they could have enjoyed life so much because that was a beautiful garden with everything available. And all they had to do was keep one commandment, don't eat of that tree. That was not at all difficult. But they disobeyed that one commandment, probably on the very first day. And what was the result? Did God give them a second chance? No. He didn't say, OK, let's overlook this failure. You probably didn't realize how serious it was. I'll give you one more chance. There was no second chance. Now, if our children make a mistake, we'd give them a second chance. God never gave Adam and Eve a second chance. He turned them out of the garden immediately. Is it because God is not compassionate? Do you think you are more compassionate than God as a father when you give your child a second chance or a third chance or a tenth chance? Certainly not. There's no one in the universe more compassionate and more merciful than God. If you have a little compassion in your heart, you got that from God. It's a little drop in the ocean of God's compassion. God loved Adam and Eve intensely. Why didn't He give them a second chance then? Because sin is so serious. It's not a light thing. And so right at the beginning of the Bible, you see the seriousness of sin in this one act of God in not giving Adam and Eve a second chance. You know, many children take some of the commandments or the commands or the orders of their parents very lightly saying, Ya, daddy and mommy won't mind even if I do it. And very often they are right. They disobey their parents and their parents don't take it seriously and they let them go. And it's possible that Adam and Eve felt in the same way. Well, God is a loving God and after all, He won't take it seriously if you just slip up a little bit. But they discovered that sin was serious. They discovered that one sin was enough to shut them out from God's presence forever. Sometimes people say, oh, that was only one sin. Well, how many sins did Adam commit before he was shut out of God's presence forever? 20? 30? 100? No, not even two. One. Why am I stressing this? I have found in my life very, very few believers who believe that even one sin is serious. It says in Romans 6.1, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? It says in Romans 6.15 and the literal translation of Romans 6.15 is What shall we say then? Shall we sin even once that grace may abound? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Shall I sin even once? I wish we could see how serious sin was in Adam's time and in our time. That is the first proof that God takes sin very seriously. That a compassionate, merciful God could not give Adam and Eve a second chance. One sin shut them out of His presence permanently. And even if they never committed another sin in their whole life, they would have still gone to hell. One sin was enough. Now I want to show you a second example. This one was from the Old Testament. Now I'll show you an example from the New Testament. And it's not something you don't know. Why did Jesus die on Calvary's cross? What was the reason? Sin. Supposing only one man had committed only one sin in the history of the human race. Tell me, do you think Jesus would have come down from heaven to die for that one man's one sin? I believe He would have. You see, it's not just that He took the sins of the whole world, millions of sins. If one man only had committed only one sin, Jesus would still have to come and die to save that one man from that one sin, the consequences of that one sin. And when Jesus died, just before He died, for three hours, we read, the sun was darkened and at twelve noon it became like midnight on the earth. Why did it become like midnight? Why did it become pitch dark at twelve noon? Because God turned away His face from His own Son. In all eternity, that had never happened. God, the Father and Son were in perfect fellowship for years. But for three hours, the Father turned away His face from His Son, broke fellowship with His Son. And what Jesus endured during those three hours was the agony of being forsaken by God, what we would call hell, on the cross. What is that proof? That sin is extremely serious, that Jesus Christ has to suffer so much. When we believe the word of God, we will take sin seriously. I am absolutely convinced, dear friends, that many of us have not overcome sin because we have not seen the seriousness of sin. If you got a leprous patch in your hand, what would you do? Would you ignore it? Or would you rush to a doctor? If you felt a pain in your stomach which you thought might be cancer, what would you do? Would you delay in going and getting an x-ray or a scan and getting a doctor's opinion? Why do we rush? Why do we take leave from our work the very next day and go to the doctor? Because we know these things are serious. Supposing your blood test shows that you got AIDS, what would you do? Just ignore it? How many of us believe that sin is more serious than all these things? Do you believe the word of God? Here is the reason, the number two reason why many people fall. They do not believe. They do not believe that sin is serious. They do not believe God's word that with grace you can overcome sin. Take God's word seriously from today onwards. Every word of God and see if it doesn't make a difference in your life.