In this sermon, Pastor Dick Sipley explores the concept of finding freedom from sin and selfishness through death. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the biblical truth that those who are dead are freed from sin. He references Romans 6:7 and Galatians 2:20 to support this idea. Sipley also highlights the love of Christ as the driving force behind our transformation, stating that if one died for all, then we are all dead. He concludes by emphasizing the need to live not for ourselves, but for Christ who died and rose again.

The following recording is available from the Canadian Revival Fellowship, Box 584, Regina, Saskatchewan, in Canada. In this message entitled, The Inherited Factor, Pastor Dick Sipley explains the inherited tendency to selfishness and the way of victory through the cross. Out of the three messages on the subject, The Urge to Sin, probably tonight's message sounds to you like it will be the most familiar, and it will not. It will be the least familiar. Let us bow in prayer. Father, we would pray to you tonight, the words of the hymn we've been singing, lead us to Calvary. Lord, lead us deeper into Calvary than we have been led, or than we maybe have been knowledgeable enough to go, or have been willing to go. O Father, may your Holy Spirit teach us from your word tonight, in Jesus' name. Amen. All of us experience the urge to sin. The great question is, where does this urge come from, and how can we triumph over it? Last Sunday night we considered the first source of this urge, in a message entitled, The Imposed Factor, of which the meaning was basically that the thought was that the urge was imposed on us from outside of us by Satan. The whole gist of the message was that Satan, by the use of the world and the things in the world, entices us to fulfill our God-given desires in some way contrary to God's will. That enticement, that drawing upon our natural desires by Satan, creates within us the urge to sin. Principally, the way of victory is to resist the devil and to draw nigh unto God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you. And there is, in his grace, victory over that kind of urge to sin. Tonight we would like to consider the second source of the urge to sin, and this message is entitled, The Inherited Factor. To get at this particular urge to sin, let us ask ourselves a question. What is sin in its most basic essence? I am not thinking now of the inherited factor, but I am thinking of the actual committing of sin, the actions or the sinful actions of our lives. I think the most direct answer to that question will be found in 1 John 3. If you will turn with me, please, in your Bibles to the epistle of 1 John, almost at the back of your Bible, almost to the book of Revelation. 1 John 3 and verse 4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now that is a simple explanatory statement from the word of God to define the actions of our lives that we call sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. Well, you see, I think I understand that, but I still don't understand this urge to transgress the law. But then let's push back a little farther beyond that answer, and to help us further, let us see how Jesus deals with this concept of lawbreaking. Go with me to Matthew 22, the gospel of Matthew chapter 22 and verse 35 through 40. Matthew 22 verses 35 through 40. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Now we've already said that sin is the transgression of the law. And so now the question to Jesus is, well, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love, L-O-V-E, love. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now notice verse 40. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Sin is the transgression of the law. But what is the law? The law is to love God supremely and to love our fellow man as ourself. And on those two concepts hang all that is the law. And it's the breaking of those two concepts that is the breaking of the law. Therefore it is the breaking of those concepts that is basically the actions that we call sin. Now the word of God repeats this many times, but one other passage that is very strong along this line and very helpful is Romans 13. We're going to have a Bible study tonight. Turn Romans 13. Romans 13 and beginning with verse 8. Romans 13, 8. Oh no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Very interesting, that's just what Jesus just said. To love includes all the law. And now Paul is saying, by divine inspiration, that he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now notice verse 10, love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. We're asking ourselves tonight, what is sin? Now, if loving is fulfilling the law and not loving God supremely and my fellow man as myself is breaking the law or sinning, listen carefully, then sin is the opposite of loving. Then what is sin? Are you listening? Sin is selfishness at its very essence. The basic constitution of the acts of sin is selfishness. Can you think of any sin that is not selfishness? Try it. Lots of people have experimented with it. Get a piece of paper tonight and list all the sins that are not selfishness, and I will give you $5 apiece for each one you list. I'm not a bit worried. You may come up with a grand list, but watch it, I'm going to demolish it, because I don't intend to give you a penny. You say, well, you don't love me, and that's because I'm a sinner. No, if you need it, I'll give it to you. Sin is selfishness. If selfishness is the very essence of acting sinfully, or acting sinfully is always at its heart selfishness, then we're right back to our major question of these three Sunday nights. Where do we get this urge to be selfish? Where does this urge to selfishness really come from? And why is it that every person sitting in this congregation tonight has many times in his life committed selfish acts? And why is it that you find the same as I do within you an urge to be selfish? Do you find it? You don't. I feel very lonely and very sinful. How many here ever have the urge to be selfish? Thank you. You have defeated the temptation to lie, anyway. But where does this urge to selfishness come from? This urge to selfishness is part of the inherited factor that we're going to talk about tonight. Turn with me now to Psalm 51, and verse 5. You'll find Psalms in the middle of your Bible, approximately, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, right in there. Psalm 51, and verse 5, David is speaking. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Now does David mean that conception is sin? Does David mean that the sexual act between husband and wife that produces a child brings about conception that that is sin? Certainly not. The word of God says that marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but adulterers and warmongers God will judge. That is not sin, and when David said, In sin did my mother conceive me, he was not saying that either the sex act or the conception was in itself a sinful act. And he is saying, I was shapen in iniquity, he said, Actually, even as my body was formed within my mother's womb, my very body was being formed in that basic sin quality that would bring about the urge to sin. Now, many people have asked what this is, and we're going to talk about it in just a moment. But turn back with me from Psalms to Job 14, and verse 4, Job asking a question, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Now, the mother and father who produce the child are sinners, and there is something that takes place within that process of birth. That means that the child inherits what we call a sinful nature. Now, we're very vague about what we mean about that term, sinful nature. Look at chapter 15 and verse 14. What is man that he should be clean, and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Turn to Psalm 58, and verse 3. I'll read more than just verse 3, but verse 3 is what I want you to notice. Verse 1 says, Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation, and do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness, ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray, as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Quite a statement. Many of us here tonight are familiar with these scriptures, and we could add another one from the New Testament, Ephesians, we could add many from the New Testament, such as from Romans 3, where it says that none is righteous, no, not one, and there is none that doeth good, none that seeketh after God, which is a very general term, including all men. Ephesians 2, 3, which says we are by nature, by our very generation. The word nature there includes the meaning in the original text of that which is generated from the father and mother, so that we are by our very conception, as David had said, sinners. Now what is this inherited factor that makes us selfish, or that doesn't make us selfish so much as puts within us the urge to be selfish? I want to give a very simple answer to it, and then I want to take you to some scriptures tonight and let you see what I mean. The inherited factor within mankind that puts within him the urge to sin is basically the inherited factor of death. Every person that is born into the world is born dying. Is that right? Yes. Even before they are born. Let's go back to the very beginning, to Genesis chapter 1, and notice some interesting things. Right where sin began, as far as man is concerned, at least. Genesis chapter 1, I want chapter 2, and verse 17, God speaking. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Now Adam and Eve knew nothing about death. There was no death around them. All they knew was life. And God said, If you disobey me, you will die. Come with me to chapter 3, verses 2 and 3. But the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. There again is that threat of death. Look at Genesis chapter 3, verse 19. God is speaking now to Adam after the fact of sin. Adam and Eve have yielded, they have sinned, they have fled from the presence of God, they hid themselves in the garden, they tried to cover themselves, and now they are facing God. And God is speaking to Adam. Genesis 3, verse 19, And the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. In Genesis 2, verse 7, we have the words, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul. But God said, If you sin, you will die. Eve said, If we sin, we will die. God said to Adam, You have sinned, now you will die. Your body came from the dust of the ground, and back to the dust of the ground your body will go, and death will be your portion. Come with me, please, to the book of Romans, chapter 5, over to your New Testament. Romans, chapter 5, verses 12 through 14, talking about the coming of sin into the race of mankind and the death also that came with it. Romans 5, verses 12 through 14, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, speaking of Adam, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, or in whom all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, for that all are in whom all have sinned. Let me ask you a question. A little baby in its mother's womb, before it is born, does it commit sins? An interesting question. If it does, they are not imputed to it, for for that little one there is no law. In fact, that little one is not functioning on its own. It can hardly commit sin, in the sense we think of selfish acts. But death prevails there. Death prevails right in that womb. That child may be born dead, isn't that true? And even if it is born alive, it comes into the world with cells that are dying before it's ever born. So that the death process is already at work in that body, and cells are dying and being replaced. And as it comes into the world and continues to grow, there are more cells that are coming to life than there are dying. And that's why it keeps growing. And then after a while you get to my age, and there are more cells dying than there are growing. I think they call it being over the hill. Something like that. Quit shaking your head yes. The death process, at work right from the beginning, at work I think even in the point of conception. Never are those cells that come together and join and begin to form a new human being within the womb, that embryo, never are they without the process of life and death. So that the death process is part of man that he has inherited. Tell with me Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, a very fascinating passage of scripture. Hebrews chapter 2. Say, Pastor, where in the world are you going? Stay with me. You say, but it's been a long day and you're making me think. Good. Hebrews chapter 2 and verses 14 and 15. Speaking about Jesus becoming a man, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, that is Jesus Christ, also himself likewise took part of the same, that is he took on himself flesh and blood like we have. That through death he took on himself a human flesh and blood body, basically for one purpose. Now he also lived in this world and set us an example of the perfect manhood, without sin. But that was not the basic reason that God became man. That was not the basic reason that the eternal Christ came out of eternity and was born of a virgin and took upon himself human flesh and blood. The basic reason that God took upon himself human flesh and blood was so that he could die. That was very important, very necessary for you and me. He also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Now watch verse 15, very important, "...and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Christ died on the cross in my place and in yours to deliver us not only from our sins, but to deliver us from the fear of death, because the fear of death produces in you and me a bondage that brings about the urge to be selfish, the urge to sin. Let me show you one more passage of scripture before I explain that. Turn with me to Romans 8, verse 15, a passage very familiar to many of you that may be thought of in a different context. Romans 8, I think I'll begin with verse 13, "...for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die," talking about death now, "...but if ye through the Spirit do mortify or put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear," see, that's the spirit of bondage that's talked about in Hebrews, "...that fear of death that holds men in bondage." You haven't received that spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, "'Abba, Father.'" Let me give you the outline tonight of where this urge to selfishness comes from. When Adam sinned, we were all in the loins of Adam. You say, is that really true? It really is true, because when you go back into the book of Hebrews, and we're not going to it right now, you can look it up later, but when you go back into the book of Hebrews, chapter 7, verses 5 to 10, you will find God saying that when Abraham offered sacrifices and gave tithes to Melchizedek, that Levi gave those tithes to Melchizedek. He said Levi was in the loins of Abraham. He hadn't been born yet. But God says that he was already there when Abraham offered those sacrifices. When Adam sinned, all the future lives, all the future human bodies and human lives that were to ever come into existence in this world were in the loins of Abraham and should proceed And when the factor of death entered into Adam, not Abraham, but Adam, the factor of death became a permanent factor for all the human race. And do you know any person who has ever been born into the world that was not born facing the problem of death? None but Jesus. And Jesus could not die because he had not sinned and there was no sin in him. And he could not die until he took our sins upon him, and then he could die. What am I saying tonight? I am saying that death is inherited. I am saying that the fear of death is inherited. And the bondage that follows is the bondage of self-preservation. Every human being is gripped by the bondage of self-preservation. He wants to preserve his life. Not only does he want to preserve his life to keep himself from dying, but he has intuitively the knowledge that life is short. And don't tell my son I said this, but when he was very young as a very young teenager, he said, I know that I probably won't live to be more than 25, so I'm going to cram everything into life. I can get into it before I get to be 25. You say, what would make him say that the same thing that makes every human being selfish that makes him reach out and grasp and be greedy and clutch and pull all things to himself. It is the principle of self-ish-ness. It is that urge to self-preservation. You have reached the end of side one of this recording. Please turn to side two for the completion of this message. It is that urge to self-preservation. It makes us covet. It makes us lust. It makes us demand. And that urge to selfishness is that urge of self-preservation. And it is one of the most basic urges to sin in a human being. That's why I said at the beginning tonight that the essence of all our sinful acts are self-ish-ness. You say, well, what can I do about it? I can't get rid of death. I know someday I'm going to die. I want to cram everything into life I can. Probably that is why I'm so selfish. What can I do about it? What's the answer? The answer is very simple. It's one word. Die. The answer is death. Well, you say, what do you mean? Should I go out and jump off the ten-story building or take poison or put a revolver up to my temple? What should I do? No, no, no. Now I want you to look at one of the most interesting verses in the Bible. Go with me to Romans 6. The only way to be free from self-ish-ness. Romans 6, verse 7, a very short verse. Do you see it? Verse 7, Romans 6, verse 7, a very short verse. For he that is dead is freed from sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Paul said in Galatians 2.20, and many of you could quote it, listen carefully, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5. I told you it was going to be a Bible study. Stay with me. 2 Corinthians 5, and verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all. Who is that one that died for all? The Lord Jesus. Amen? Are you glad he died for you? All right, if one died for all, said Paul, then we're all dead. Ah, that's an interesting statement. What an ingenious plan! Only God could have thought it up. Here's man caught in the bondage of death and the fear of death and the clutch of his own selfishness, which he inherits right from the womb. And God says, I have a plan, a beautiful, perfect plan. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to take upon myself human flesh in man's world, and I'm going to the cross and I'm going to die in his place so that in my person, and by faith in me and by commitment to me and by surrender to me, he can die in me. And in dying, he will be set free from the fear and the bondage of death and be set free from his selfishness. For we thus judge that if one died, then we're all dead, and that he that died for all, look at verse 15, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. What is the way of victory? All down through the ages of the Church there have been recurring periods when men of God have been thrust to the forefront of the Church, anointed with the Holy Ghost, to proclaim a message. Interestingly, it has always been the same message. It did not matter whether they were Baptists or Methodists or Christian and Missionary Alliance or Pentecostal or Nazarene or whatever they were. That again and again, when the Church needed revitalizing and when Christians needed the deep message of God's word as to how to have victory over the self-like, selfishness, the urge to be selfish, the urge to sin, there have come to the forefront those who have been taught again from God's word that not only did Christ die on the cross for us, but that when he died there, we died in him, and that if we are willing to bring that self to Calvary's cross and yield it up to the sentence of death that God has pronounced upon it, Paul said we had the sentence of death in ourselves. If they are willing to yield up that selfish nature that clutches life and clutches its possessions and clutches its fame and its honor and tries to preserve life, if we are willing to bring that life and yield it up to the death of Calvary and say, Lord, it is your life, no longer mine. When that self is yielded up to the death of the cross and we day by day yield it up to the death of the cross, not once for all, once to begin, but day by day, we accept the principle of death in Christ and resurrection in Christ, and we turn ourselves over to him and are willing no longer to live unto ourselves, but unto him which died for us and rose again. What does God do? When you are dead, you are freed from the fear of death. You can no longer fear something that has happened. When it has happened, it is over. When you have yielded your life up to the death of the cross and it is no longer yours and it is his, the fear of death is gone and the bondage of selfishness is broken. And the self-life is defeated and there is deliverance and victory over the urge to sin. Not a removal of the urge, but victory over it through the cross and through the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. Do you want that kind of deliverance? It only comes when you give up your life completely to Christ. Let us bow in prayer. Lord Jesus, we thank you tonight for dying for us. We thank you for taking all of our sin, our whole lifetime of sin, upon yourself. We thank you for paying the full debt of our sin on Calvary. But we thank you also, Lord, that you saw us as being in Christ on that cross, and that we may be free from self, and that that selfishness may be broken and we may be delivered by the power of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord help us by surrender and by faith to enter into this life of victory. In Jesus' name, amen. Further copies of this message, as well as others, are available from the Canadian Revival Fellowship, Box 584, Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada, Postal Code S4P3A3.