This sermon delves into the diminishing acknowledgment of sin in today's society, emphasizing the critical impact of having a correct understanding of sin on our identity and perception of God's grace. It contrasts the world's trivialization of sin with the Bible's depiction of human nature as spiritually dead without Christ, highlighting the need for a proper diagnosis of sin to receive God's deliverance and grace.

Well, perhaps you have noticed that the word sin has basically dropped from our vocabulary. Oh, I know, eating chocolate is still sin, but lying isn't. Many years ago, a psychiatrist wrote a book entitled, Whatever Happened to Sin? And I read it many years ago, and it's just as relevant today, perhaps more relevant than it was when it was written some time ago. Whatever happened to sin? Let me tell you today that your view of sin, if you have a wrong view of sin, let me put it that way, if you have a wrong view of sin, you will be wrong about everything in the world that really matters. Your understanding of sin determines who you are as a person and your understanding of God's grace. The doctrine of sin, the sin we rationalize. Think of what happens if you have a naive view of sin, like Karl Marx, for example, who believed in a utopia, that people, if given a chance, are going to live together, be happy to work for the state, and to be really content with the equality of all people. What naivete, and he almost ruined the world, proving how foolish that was. And if you have a wrong view of sin, you'll think to yourself, you know, my sins aren't really that big a deal. God is something like I am, except a little bigger and a little higher, and I can maybe get him to accept me. And if he doesn't accept me, a woman said on a plane to a friend of mine, who is witnessing to her, if he doesn't accept me, then I'm going to tell him to lighten up. In other words, my sins aren't that great. Furthermore, I can manage them. I can live with the consequences. They are within my control. If you don't understand sin, you might be rationalizing it that way. If you don't understand sin, you might not get the help that God is able to give you. Today, nobody has sins and addictions. Addictions have become sicknesses. And the reason for that is because we want people to come for help. Nobody should be embarrassed because of a sickness, but we're embarrassed because of our sins, so we call sins sicknesses. The problem with that is God has not promised to heal all of our sicknesses, but he has promised to deliver us from our sins if we meet the conditions. So you see, if you have a wrong diagnosis, you might end up with a wrong cure of what is really needed. There was a time when the word sin was a strong word. And when somebody said sin, we knew what they meant. Not today. Nobody sins. Everybody makes unwise choices. I was reminded of that and somewhat amused by this. I was walking three blocks from here, walking to the church from the Loop for the purpose of exercise along Clark Street. And I was met by a whole host of little school children, all dressed in uniforms, looked very, very beautiful. And they were maybe, what shall I say, seven, eight years old. And one of the kids, bless him, he was walking with one foot on the sidewalk and the other foot on the street. And the teacher said to him, now, Matt, you're making an unwise safety decision. All right. I'm not saying that Matt was sinning, but I do know this, that when I was that old in school, our teachers would have spoken to us much more plainly, much more plainly than making an unwise safety decision. And so there are people today who use language to tone down what they've done. Someone who has bilked retirees from all of their money, he hasn't really sinned or committed a crime. It was just a lapse in judgment. Jay Leno calls it no-fault sin tax. Nobody's guilty of anything anymore. Now, the Bible has a different picture of us as human beings, and it's not a pretty picture. Some of you are going to sit through this message and say, wow, all of this on a Sunday morning, we came to be happy, happy, happy. Well, the happiness is going to come because you cannot really understand who we are and what grace is unless you understand sin, and today we're going to look at it, and as I mentioned, it's not very beautiful. Somebody asked, what's the difference between a psychiatrist and a coal miner? And the answer is that the psychiatrist goes down deeper, stays down longer, and comes up dirtier. That's what it's like to look into the human heart, and today we're going to begin only a little bit of that picture. Not everything, because the Bible says we can't comprehend everything, but we are going to take a look at it, and the text is Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, remember the purpose of this series of messages on Bible doctrine is that you might understand Bible doctrine, that you might know it and be able to defend it. That's why this is one in a series of messages on what we believe and the difference it should make. Ephesians chapter 2 is a very familiar passage to us. It begins by saying you were dead. Now, if I can just find it, I thought I had it here, but evidently I didn't, but I know that it's in the New Testament. I know where it is. Ephesians chapter 2, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. I'm going to stop there. The Bible is talking about us before we received Christ, before Jesus connected us to God. We were dead in trespasses and sins, not physically dead. Look at Adam. After he and his wife sinned, they woke up and the sky was blue and the grass was green, and later on they discovered that the weeds were powerful. And he went along and lived, and they bore children and everything, spiritually dead. Now, God made provision to connect them back then, knowing that Jesus would eventually come, but left to themselves dead in trespasses and sins. That's who you are without Jesus Christ. Now, think about it. Obviously, you may be listening to this message. You may enjoy opera. You've got your friends. You may be attending university. You're going to school. But if you don't know Christ and have never trusted him, you are dead in trespasses and sins. Now, for a few moments, let's think of deadness. Let's think of a corpse. One of the things that we learn is that dead is dead. There's not degrees of deadness. There's only degrees of decay. We go down to Skid Row and we meet a derelict there who's wandering along, hasn't showered for two weeks, is asking people for money for another drink. And we can see him there, and the decay is quite evident. And then we look at someone else who is involved in social work and raising funds for the poor, but they don't know Christ as Savior either. Both are dead, but both are not equal in the decay. That's the only difference. But both are dead in trespasses and sins.