Truthfully Dealing With Sin - Part 1

My wife said several weeks back when I was thinking about what I should preach at the Denton Conference, she said preach on sin. Well, it's not going to make it to the Denton Conference. And so I thought that maybe I would bring two or three sermons here on the topic of sin. And so the Lord helping, we'll look at part one of that today. So, let's pray. Hey, Father, I know for me, as it was for Craig and probably many others here, for Chris, just the fragrance of Psalm 45. It's upon us. What a psalm is that! How it can be that any of the sons of Adam that Jeff talked about can get to the place of that queen on the right hand clothed in gold. That is the glory of the ages. May Your Word speak to us in this hour. I pray in Christ's name, Amen. Well, you can turn in your Bibles to Matthew 7. But just as we start here, Charles read from Romans 1. Now listen to this. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The first thing that the Apostle Paul... And you know, this is the most expensive, the extensive treatment of sin and the fallen character of mankind that we find in the New Testament. And the first thing the Apostle has to say about men and their unrighteousness is this. Now you catch this. Who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. You know what? When men and women love their sin, they've got to suppress the truth. You know why? You know why. Because what the truth really is is just too threatening for men to handle. You can't love sin and love the truth. Because what the truth tells you... Folks, as I deal with sin today, there is nothing more important than we deal with it in truth. And that is really important. Because there are some of you here that are still in that state. And no matter what I say to you, you know where all this battle happens? Right here. Right here. And as we talk about sin, I did not come here today to give you my opinions about sin. God has told us about sin. God has given us truth about sin. You know the most dangerous thing you can do right now is suppress the truth. Because what happens when you suppress the truth? See, if you suppress the truth about your real state, then all of a sudden what you do is you suppress the truth to the point where you don't need the remedy. So, we're going to dive in to the Word of God. I had you open to Matthew 7. I'm going to get there momentarily. Let me open to Matthew 7. So here's the text. Let me just read this. Verse 13, Matthew 7:13, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. Now here's the thing, I'm going to make some dogmatic statements about sin. And I recognize that that verse right there does not specifically speak... it doesn't use the word sin. There's a reason I want to go there to start. Sin. I'm going to make some dogmatic statements about sin. But I have the authority to do it. My authority comes from this book. And where's the authority? The authority lies in this, that holy men of God, they spoke from God as what? They were carried along. They were moved by the Holy Spirit. Folks, that's where the whole authority of this book comes. Don't you get that? People say, well, it was written by men. Yes, it was written by men. But it wasn't casually written by the guy across the street who just decided to take up his pen and write whatever thoughts came into his mind. Holy men of God are carried along by the Spirit of God. That's where we get this book from. God created this universe with a Word. Can He raise up a person, design that person, give them their exact personality, give them their exact abilities, and cause them to write exactly the words that He wants using their whole personality? Of course He can. That's exactly what He's done and that's what Scripture tells us. God is the primary author. These men were carried along by the Holy Spirit. These men would have never wrote what they wrote if God had not induced them to write what they wrote. The Spirit of God is a superintending influence in all of that. These men would have never written these words on their own. And so this is the authority. They wrote it absolutely true. Absolutely without error. And you know what's really remarkable? When Jesus came, you recognize this? When Jesus came, He did not correct the Greek Old Testament or the Hebrew Old Testament. He didn't tell us that one word of it was wrong. Have you ever noticed that? You know what Jesus said? Praying to His Father, what did He say? Praying to His Father there in John 17 about the Word. Your Word is truth. You know what He said somewhere else in John? Your Word, that Word, cannot be broken. That's what Jesus said. He's the authority. And the thing is, the Bible's assertions about sin, which is what we're going to be looking at, do you know they're as true as if God spoke from heaven right now audibly and told us the truth about sin? This is without error. This is the only reliable source that we have about sin. Where else are we going to go? Are you going to go to the media? Who's going to tell you the truth about sin? God alone tells us the truth about sin. We don't want religion to tell us about sin. We want God to tell us. And this is where He tells us. This is where He speaks. How do we know it's reliable? How do we know it's reliable? God cannot lie. And where does God tell us that He can't lie? In His Word. You see, some people say, well, that's circular reasoning. Everybody circularly reasons back to their primary authority. So don't ever let that... What's your authority? Your opinion? Because then you'll reason back to that all the time. What is it? Science? Then you'll reason back to that all the time. What do we reason back to? We reason back to the Word of God. It's self-attesting. Does the Word say it's without error? Does it say it's truth? Scripture says in Psalm 119, the sum of your word is truth. Proverbs 30, every word of God proves true. Isaiah 40, the grass where there's flower fades, the Word of our God will stand forever. You cannot prove this book by appealing to a higher authority. Because if there was a higher authority, then this wouldn't be our highest authority. This is the authority. Don't suppress the truth. Here we go. Now, have you ever noticed when it comes to sin, this book covers the age of sin? What do you mean? Have you ever noticed? This book is limited. God didn't tell us everything there is to know. The truth is, this book is occupied with basically one chapter. What? What is it? What's presented in this book? Not only is the Bible the final authority about sin, but it's basically God's revelation. It has to do primarily with the history of man as he is in sin and what the remedy of that sin is. You know, you come into this book and what do you have? Everything is created. Everything is created perfect. But how far do you get into the Bible before sin comes? How far? Two chapters. The age of sin goes all the way through. And you don't get the new heavens and the new earth and which righteousness dwells until what chapter? You're right, in Revelation at the end, 21. You know what you have? You know what you find in this book? You find that 99.7% of this book is taken up with that time frame in which man is in sin. That's what this book is about. Only four chapters involve sinless humanity. That's it. The Bible specifically has to do with this time of man's fallenness. So, my point in all of this is sin is not a side issue in this book. It is a primary reason that God has given us this book is to show man, to show us man falling into sin. To show us what sin is. To show us what the remedy of sin is. That is not a side issue in this book. So, look, I don't want a sugar coat. I want to deal with truth right now. And one of the most resounding facts about man and his sin according to the Bible is found right here in Matthew 7. Look at it. Enter by the narrow gate. Now listen, the word sin doesn't show up here. But this is Jesus speaking. And you know what He's saying here? There is a gate that is very narrow and it is through that way that a man gets to heaven or a woman gets to heaven. This is the gate where the remedy of sin is found. The gate, now watch this shift here. Enter by the narrow gate. That's what Jesus says. But there's two gates. You see, there's one, you kind of have to look for it. It's pretty narrow. There's another one that's broad and you just kind of float in there. He says the gate is wide. The way is easy that leads not to heaven. The way is easy that leads to destruction. That's how Jesus phrases it. Destruction. Ladies and gentlemen, we don't want to suppress the truth when it has to do with destruction. This is your destruction. This is men and women being destruction. What a word. So listen, those who enter this way that leads to destruction are many. For the gate is narrow, the way is hard that leads to life. Those who find it are what? Few. Now look, that's coming out of your Bible. That's coming from this Word, God. God wasn't just carrying a man along here. This is the Son of God speaking to us. His first sermon. And He lays this truth down. This is His proposition. Two possibilities for each one of us. Each one of us is going to experience one or the other here. Notice the two possibilities. You have destruction. You have life. And you notice the numbers. How many end up on the way of life? Oh, this is not the prevalent thinking. But look, don't suppress the truth. Don't suppress the truth. You know what happens when you suppress the truth? You say, I don't believe that. That's suppressing the truth. I don't believe what Jesus says. I don't believe what God says. Well, then what's the authority? Just because you want to believe what you want to believe? Or are you going to come back to this Word? This is a very sobering reality. Few find life. But that's the truth here. I mean, look, maybe you've come here today. Maybe you've come here, there's some emptiness. You feel it in your soul. Maybe you've come here looking for something. Something to make you happy. I mean, people come to church. People get divorced and there's an emptiness. So they go through a trial in life. And suddenly, they feel like they need to go to church. Why? They're looking for something. Something to fill it. Maybe you've come here today. You're looking for light. You're looking for help. You're looking for something to show you how to live. Something to show you how to die. Well, here it is. Here's some truth for you. Did you know this? This right here. Did you know most men meet death unprepared? Did you know that? Because that's what Jesus wants you to know. Most men, most women, if you go to funerals, what does the guy up front tell you? What does he tell you? They're in a better place. Have you ever gone to a funeral and the guy says they're in a worse place? You ever been there? But you know if Jesus was preaching the funeral, you know what He'd say? Most people miss heaven. Most miss heaven. That's His Word. And you see it there. Did you know this? Only a few. I mean, you think about it. It means that as you look around, all the people that you see, the people that you see at work, the people you see at school, out there playing, people walking up and down sidewalks, people that drive by in the cars. You know what that tells you? Most will eventually die. They will face God at death in judgment and most will go the way of destruction. That's what that means. Few escape. Now look, I know this is not a popular truth. And my aim today in being here is not to discourage any of you thinking, oh, everything's just hopeless. I'm telling you these words because I want to shake you and startle you as to the seriousness of this. Don't be stupid and suppress the truth. Don't do it. Jesus, the One who came from heaven to bring salvation and to save sinners, He's the One who said, few are going to receive what I came to bring mankind. Few. Why doesn't the world line up? Why doesn't the world line up at the narrow gate? Why don't they do it? Well, here's what Jesus said. Now hear this. This is why they don't. This is why most men will not go to heaven. You remember how Jesus said just two chapters later? Remember He had all these religious people? And you know what Jesus said to these religious guys basically? You know what He was implying? You guys, as religious as you are, the religious leaders among the Jews, He basically said you guys aren't going either. You guys have missed it. You remember what He said to them? Listen to these words. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. You know what the problem is? People do not believe they are as bad as God says they are. People do not believe God is as angry with them as God says He is. That's why people miss heaven. Did you catch those words? Look, this is the most basic truth. Who goes to a doctor unless they're sick? And you know what Jesus is saying? I am the physician and I've come to heal men. But He said nobody comes to the physician unless they come to realize they need the physician. Most men don't think they need a physician. See that? The problem is, folks, man's sickness is found where? What's our theme? In his sin. Man's sickness is his sin. When Jesus says that those who are well don't need a doctor, you see, the issue isn't is anybody really well? The issue is what my perception is of myself. And if I think I'm okay, I don't go to the doctor. If I think I'm sick, I go to the doctor. That's the issue here. You know what Jesus is saying? You connect these two passages. You know what He's saying? Most men are too good in their own estimation to even start looking for the narrow way that leads to life. And you know what? Here's the test. Just walk up to somebody and ask them, are you going to heaven or are you going to hell? And we could ask people here. And you say, well, heaven I hope. And then you ask them on what basis and what is the typical answer that you get from people? I've never done anything that bad. You see, that answer tells you they missed heaven. Because they don't think they're that bad. Oh, my sin was little. I didn't hurt anybody. God will understand. You know the problem with all those statements? You don't find them in the Word of God. Is that the truth? Is that real? You know what? The Gospel is not for good people. The issue becomes this. Are you bad enough to be saved? Because Jesus, you know what? Do you remember why Jesus even spoke these words? Because He came and He got all these religious guys over here and then He had the tax collectors, the prostitutes over here. And Jesus was getting among the riffraff of society and the religious guys were finding fault with Him and He points back at them and He said, you know what? These guys are going into the kingdom before you. Wow! Why? Because they realized they needed help. Some of those guys like Nicodemus, some of them recognized, but very few. Few there be that find it. Few. Well, you know, God's salvation is for sinners. Only sinners, really bad people need to repent. Most imagine that they are religious enough and they haven't done any terrible things bad enough to deserve hell. But you know what the Scripture says? The soul that sins shall die. And it's like our brother said, there are two deaths. When Scripture says the soul that sins shall die, that doesn't mean physical death, folks. The soul that sins shall die. Yet, men imagine that somehow... You know how men are? Because we were like it too. Most men imagine somehow I can wash the filth of my sin away if I can just prove to myself I'm better than you. And that's what men do. They compare themselves. Well, I'm not as bad as Hitler. I'm not as bad as that guy. I'm not as bad as that guy. I'm better than most. And it's almost like somehow I've canceled out my sin because I can, in my own mind, prove you're worse than me. But that's what men do. That's how they suppress the truth. They imagine their own sin is somehow insignificant before God and He just kind of overlooks it in the end. The soul who sins shall die. That's us, folks. That's our souls. This isn't just a guy down the street. This isn't some guy over in China. Well, it is, but it's not just them. It's us. This comes home. Listen, He who came into this world to save men from sins, He looks at all of us. He said, you know what? The path to life is like a very narrow gate and few there be that find it. Narrow! You know what happens when you find the true heavenly highway? Do you remember Pilgrim's Progress? You know what Bunyan had? He had some pilgrims scattered. You know what Jesus is saying? The highway to heaven? You have a few pilgrims here and there scattered along the way. It is a solitary path. That's what Jesus says. Few there be that find it. Ah! We have to come back to this. The way to destruction. On the other hand, it is broad, many, easy, little effort, little thought, little religion, and you end up in hell. I wasn't that bad. I didn't kill anybody. What's happened here? Listen, don't dismiss the reality of what Jesus says. And comfort yourself with the deception that somehow it just can't happen to you. It's like we are so self-absorbed. We're us. I'm me. You're you. In so many ways, our world revolves around us. Well, it has to because we're us. The center of our thinking, the center of our emotion, the center of our being is here. It's there. It's you. And it's almost like we just get to thinking, well, somehow it's not going to happen to me. Listen, the main reason that the Broadway is so popular is because those on it have never seen their need of Christ. And until a person sees the truth about himself, well, then what happens? A little religion will do. Men aren't aware of their true state and condition. This is why we don't want to suppress the truth. Men don't realize the truth about sin. Only a few do. And you know what? Better off to be a prostitute and come to realize your desperate need of a sinner than to be all whitewashed and nice and religious. And in the end, what happened? I was deceived. Well, you suppressed the truth. You thought because you weren't like the prostitute, everything was okay. But is that what Scripture teaches? Question. Here's the question. What does God have to say about sin? This is critical. Because if we refuse to see our sin as God sees it, then how are we going to escape eternal judgment? The reality is this. If you deny your guilt, you try to hide your own sinfulness, what's the result going to be? You're never really going to discover the cure until you start to understand how offensive your sin... Listen, a lie, self-righteousness, covetousness, hatred, anger, sexual immorality. Jesus said if you even look at somebody, not your spouse, and you lust. Listen, God's standard. He is so pure. He is so holy. He is so righteous. And until you start to understand how offensive even what we consider to be our smallest sins are, until you realize how offensive that is before God, then what's going to happen? You're never going to have an accurate assessment of reality. Brethren, you know what happens when you suppress the truth? You don't have an accurate assessment of reality. Why? Because you're suppressing the truth. The truth is how things really are. Brethren, the last thing we want to do is be like that proverbial ostrich that sticks his head in the sand and doesn't want to know. Well, that's really smart. You have death, and then after that, the Bible says judgment. And we're just going to stick our hand in the sand and we're going to go down there and fall off that cliff and keep our head back, turn the other way or put the blinders on, bury our head. Brethren, you don't want to do that. The best thing for any one of us is to confront the truth head on. That is the safest path. Spurgeon now, he said, you know what? Show me the worst of it. Just show me the truth. That's exactly right. You know what Scripture says? Scripture says there in Hebrews, it speaks about the deceitfulness of sin. The deceitfulness of sin. Let none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Oh, but it's a little sin. It's just a little one. And I didn't hurt anybody. And God's going to understand in the end. And my good outweighs the bad. You see the deceitfulness? Sin will come along. Oh, sin is deceitful. And remember what Moses said in the same book? There is pleasure in sin. Young people, we're not going to lie to you. If you go out and party and have sex with everybody under the sun outside of marriage, and live it up, live for the world, there is a season of pleasure. We're not going to lie to you. There is. But sin, oh, it'll come up to you and it'll put its arms around you. And it will seduce you. And it will lie to you. And it will tell you this is forever. And you can't live without this. And this is the greatest thing imaginable. It will pretend to be your friend. It will pretend to be your lover. It will bewitch you. It will beguile you. It will seduce you. It will draw you in. You know what it will tell you? That that which is evil is actually good. That which is good is evil. It will spin everything backwards on you. Beware. Oh, it tastes so good. But you know what? You find it soon vanishes away. The season of the pleasures of sin when they come to an end. And you know what they give way to after that? Everlasting shame. Everlasting sorrow. Everlasting misery. Everlasting horror. That's the truth. What's sin? Look, the most basic way that we could express it is God makes His will known. He tells us what to do or He tells us what not to do. And we say no. No. Bottom line, that's sin. God tells us. God's will is expressed. He expressed them in His Word by way of rules and commandments and statutes and laws. You know what John says? Sin is lawlessness. Or as the KJV says, sin is transgression of the law. To transgress means God lays down the line and you step over it. God says don't be dishonest. You tell a lie. God says I created sex within marriage. One man, one woman. Don't step over that line. God says don't steal. God says don't covet. God says don't use His name in vain. Don't ever use His name in a way that doesn't have respect and worship behind it. God doesn't want you having any love higher than for Him. What does God want us to do? We love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love our neighbor as ourself. And we don't do it. That's what sin is. Sin is a transgression of the law. And it's exactly how it all started. Jeff was telling us about it. He took us back. You know what? The Lord is there. He's walking in the garden in the midst of the cool of the day. And what's He doing? He's looking for Adam. Where's Adam? Adam! Where are you? Where was Adam? Where was he? Where was Eve? They were hiding. And why were they hiding? A sense of fear. A sense of shame. Why? What had they done? Well, you remember what God said. Remember the first commandment ever given to mankind. Here it is. 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 the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. And do you realize what man was confronted by every day he walked through that garden? He was confronted by all these trees. There was all a variety of trees. You can imagine the peach tree and the apple tree and the cherry tree. And all this fruit. All bananas and just everything. But there was that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Every day, he was confronted by, on the one hand, the might, the glory of God in creating all this, the bounty, the kindness of God. But you know what? There was that tree. That tree spoke. That tree said something. There in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, every day, you know what it said? It announced the authority of God. Every day, it said God is a lawgiver. God made them. God blessed them. God surrounded them with all the beauty and all the benefits that were there in the paradise of God. And they could go on living in that paradise forever and ever, enjoying it, enjoying everything that God had made, enjoying walking with God. It was all theirs on one condition. You notice God didn't give them a thousand commandments. He gave one. The condition was that they obey Him. People have thought, why would God put a tree in the garden? I mean, if you don't want Adam to fall, don't put the tree in the garden. Well, folks, that tree in the garden, don't think God's highest purpose was to keep Adam from falling. God's highest purpose was to declare something about Himself. That tree not only spoke to them, it speaks to you and me. You know what it says? I own you. I own the garden. I own your appetites. I own that tree. I own all the trees. I own it all. And here is My will. My will for you and My kindness and benevolence, you can eat of all these, but to show you I am a lawgiver, to show you I am the sovereign authority, there's a tree you cannot eat from. And it's not just that God is sovereign authority. He also has our good in mind. Don't eat of it because you'll die if you eat of it. You ever notice that God's commandments are actually safety barriers for us? To go outside of it isn't safe. It's always for our bad. That tree. That tree. You know what that tree says to us? He is God and I am not. He is God and you are not. He gets to make the rules. He is the sovereign. I am not. He sets the boundaries. He sets the barriers. I don't. I'm created. He's not. He has a right to do with His own what He chooses. This tree speaks to the fact that God is God. Brethren, what happened? Why is Adam now over there and he's hiding over there? What has he done? Here's the answer. It's singular. Man ceased to listen to God. We didn't even need to bring the devil in here because in the end, this was man. This was man and his God. God said to him and man broke it. Are there temptations? Yes, there's temptations. But that doesn't take away our responsibility. Nor did it take away Adam's. Man ceased to listen to God. And there's really not much more to say about sin than that. You want to define it? That's the truth. That's the severity of the matter. It wrecked the entire human race. We heard about it. This one man's sin. It wrecked the human race. There's only one explanation. Brethren, you look out there and you see the sin in the world, why do you think they're killing each other in Myanmar? And look, that didn't come along just today. People have been killing each other. People have been killing orphans. People have been taking advantage. That's no new thing. Wars and rumors of wars. Man is a murderer. Man sheds blood. Man has blood on his hands. Here's Adam and Eve. Crime of the ages. What did they do? They knew what God had explicitly told them not to do and they went and did it anyway. And you know what? That's what sin is. And the soul that sins shall die. And you know what? In the end, few find heaven. Why? Because few recognize how bad it is what they've done. What we call a white lie or we think is insignificant. It is such an insult upon the person of God. Brethren, listen to this. You remember what James says? Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point. One point! How many of that is described in here? You failed at one point? Two? Five? One point. One sin-wrecked man in the beginning. One point! But James says this, that if you sin in one point, you're guilty of the whole law. Why? How? Notice his argument. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. You see, some people have tried to say, well, you can connect all the sins somehow. Pride is in all of them and unbelief is... You know, it's like they're wanting to connect, well, if you break one, then you've broken... That's not his point. His point is this, no matter which commandment you've broke, you've insulted the commandment giver. Did you catch that? If you fail at one point, you become guilty of it all for he who said the one, also said the other. See the emphasis? No matter what commandment you break, it's the same commandment giver that you've dishonored. It's always a stroke of rebellion against the same person. That's the big issue behind sin, no matter what sin it is. Brethren, you know why we think so small of sin? Because we don't know God. And remember what Paul goes on to say in Romans 1. You see, the big issue, folks, in suppressing truth is not so much that we suppress the truth about our sin. He said we suppress the truth about who God is. Brethren, one sight of... Listen, one of the most holy men in the nation, Isaiah the prophet, he but sees the Lord high and lifted up, and he drops on His face, and he is a man of unclean lips, and he is confessing his sin and the nation's sins. If we had a sense of the holiness of God, I'll tell you what, one of the problems is men suppress the truth about God. They make Him into Santa Claus. They make Him harmless. That's what you don't want to do. If there's something from this book, it's not just you want to get from this book how bad sin is. You want to get it from this book who God is. There's the issue. Brethren, listen, it's not only the acts of rebellion, it's words. Jesus said you're going to be judged for every idle word. It goes beyond just acts and words. It goes to every thought. It goes to the desires of the heart. In the Ten Commandments, covetousness. Paul talks about anger. He talks about greed. He talks about jealousy and envy. Jesus said that if you even look, if there's lust, we're talking about what goes on in your mind, what goes on in your heart. Unforgiveness. So where does that leave us? Well, when you get to the end, as Paul develops in Romans 1 and 2 and 3, I hope that's further out. But brethren, as he develops it and he gets to the end, we know those all condemning, I mean, one of the most sweeping statements God makes in all of Scripture comes at the end of these three chapters. And you know what these three chapters are? It is Paul making this doctrinal dissertation on the fallenness of humanity, Jew and Gentile alike. He shows the Gentiles are bad, the Jews are bad, everyone's bad, and he says this, don't suppress the truth. That's not what he says in 3, but that's what he says at the beginning. Brethren, don't do it. Listen to it. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. Because they were religious. Christ came from their ranks. I mean, they had the oracles of God. They had so many benefits. But he said for all of it, we're no better off. We've already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, that would be Gentiles like us, are under sin. Have you ever thought about that? We're all under sin. That's how we're naturally. Under it. It's like sin is over us. We're under it. Imagine you live in the shadow. It's a weight. It's like we're under its authority. We're under its bondage. We're under sin. And as it is written, none is righteous. Not one. He says that. I didn't just add that. Not one. No, none is righteous. Isn't it interesting he has to go on and say no, not one. Because somebody's going to say, I'm the exception. No, you're not. You've sinned. The soul that sins shall die. He says no one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Now you have to recognize this is what God says. You know what this means? If you miss the narrow way, you don't recognize that you are sick and need a doctor, you think you're well, you will end up on the broad way. And when you come to stand before God, His own Word there, you're worthless. He will find nothing in you other than that which is destined only for destruction. You can't get away from it. Now look, I know this is not popular, but this is truth. Don't suppress it. This is what God's Word says. Men don't know the wrath of God. There is wrath. That's how this started out. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven. This is almost incomprehensible to men to think that natural man imagines himself to be the way he thinks he is. And he doesn't think he's under the wrath of God. And listen, you can go out there. Look at the sun shining out there. You go out there. I'm sure there's blue sky. There's nice clouds. It's for his warming up out there. You can go out. You can take a big deep breath. It's like you're not getting these forebodings and lightning flashes and everything. You can feel like, well, because I feel like it's okay, it must be okay. That's what happens. Man imagines his relationship with God is the way that he thinks it is. And largely, it's because he suppressed the truth and largely because he avoids this book like the plague. And then the way that you get around it is today men wrote it. It can't be relied upon. There's science. There's my opinion. There's this, that, and the other thing. My preacher, my priest, my whoever says this or that or the other thing. Brethren, like I told you, I did not come up here to share my opinions with you. This is what God says. And this is very serious. Life and death and heaven and hell and dealing with God, this is all the most serious thing imaginable. And you can go out there and you can bask in the sun and you can feel like God is smiling on me. You can have riches roll in and you can have all sorts of things and you can feel like you're being successful in business and you can feel like, well, I must be right with God because God spared me when I was sick and God gave me this, that, and the other thing. But you remember what Scripture says. God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, not to assure you that everything is okay. Because everything is not okay. By nature, it is not okay. The truth is that we are not how we imagine ourselves to be. We are how God says we are. Man is the way God sees him, not the way man imagines himself. I'm going to shock some of you even more. Ephesians 2. Now listen, Paul is here speaking to Christians at Ephesus, but he reminds them of how they were before they were Christians. And he says this, You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. Lost men don't believe that they're following the devil, but that's exactly what's happening. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Now recognize that. All of mankind is characterized as sons of disobedience. Why? Because all have disobeyed. Disobeyed who? Disobeyed God. Disobeyed what about God? The laws, the commandments that He's given. That makes you a son of disobedience. Even if you break the law on one point, you've broken the whole thing because you've disobeyed against that lawgiver among whom we all once lived. The Christian once lived with all these sons of disobedience in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. Now get this, and we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Men suppress this truth. The wrath of God. We imagine God smiling at us because we want that to be the case. But that doesn't make it the case. Listen, men don't know about the wrath of God. Because they don't, they don't realize how desperate their condition is. And because they don't realize how desperately they need the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving power. And because they don't, what the result is, Christ is insignificant to most men. And because He's insignificant in the estimation of most men, most men remain lost and they remain on the broad way that leads to destruction. Wrath. There's no hidden meaning in that. We're talking about men and women, boys and girls in this world that are sinners. The wrath of God. And listen, God is holy. God is perfect. God is good. God is just. When we talk wrath, we're talking about fierce anger of God. We're talking about that burning, intense upsurge of God's nature that is a reaction to somebody doing insult to His glory. And when God... Listen, you know this to be a fact. We take one of these prostitutes I was talking about. If you do dishonor to a prostitute, hardly anybody will care. But do dishonor to the King of England and you watch what happens. Even when Ian Paisley dishonored to the Pope, one of the Pope's henchmen came over and slugged him in the head. Think of the glory of a king. And if you dishonor a king, you think of the king of kings. Think of the Father of glory. Little men do dishonor to Him. The wrath of God. Wrath. This is indignation. And because of your hard... Paul says this in the Roman letter. Because of men's hard and impenitent hearts, they are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. God's wrath, it's severe, but it's never more severe than what justice demands. God is perfect. What we're talking about the wrath of God is God's perfectly measured response to man's sin. It's perfect. It's righteous vengeance. And see, we suppress the truth, so we don't account it to be near as bad as it really is, because we are professional. We come into this world suppressing the truth. Our sin isn't bad. We come in pointing the blame on others, just like Adam did in the beginning. The woman you gave me. And children, they'll point at somebody else. Somebody else did it. We're expert at this, just suppressing this. Did you know that the Bible teaches that by nature, every single human being has that title stamped on their head? Child of wrath. And most people don't believe it because they suppress that truth. All. You see people out there. They're working. They're playing. They're living their lives. They're mowing their lawns. Children of wrath. We don't like to believe it. We don't want to believe it's true. Because we're very humanistic in our thinking. We're very me-centered, man-centered. And I know we don't imagine the relationship with God to be like this, but that is exactly how it is. And brethren, what you need to remember is this. You only get one opportunity. You have to recognize this. Man is basically on death row awaiting his execution. This is our only opportunity to be reconciled to God. Our guilt is great. And God's wrath is greater. What glorious news it would be if we could find out that God gave us a way of escape. Wouldn't that be good news? I mean, what does God's wrath say to us? Just stuff like this. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And no murderer has eternal life. You see, somebody could say, well, I've never killed anybody. What about if you hated? God counts hatred the same. Jesus said if you even look at a woman, you don't have to have sex with her. You just look at her. Revelation says the cowardly. Just be cowardly enough to stand up for Christ in front of Him. Not wanting to own Christ. The faithless. The detestable. Murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, all liars. And it's like, how many lies do you have to tell to be a liar? How many murders? How many people do you have to kill to be a murderer? Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire. Paul says this, you may be sure of this, everyone who is sexually immoral, everyone who is impure, everyone who is covetous, they have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ in God. And he goes on to say this, let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. I didn't come up here to deceive you today. This is the truth. If you've got that book and you read that book, you'll know I didn't say anything to you today that was from my opinions. This is what God says. I want to be faithful to your souls. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. God's disposition towards a man can change. And you get that from Ephesians 2, the verse I read. Notice this, you were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of man. They were. Implying what? They no longer are. I point this out because this passage teaches us something that's really important about God. God's manifest reaction. God's manifest feelings. God's manifest disposition towards men and women and children can change. We were children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But, but, but, but, there's a but. Something has happened. Something's changed in all of this. There's sins. Oh, you remember what it was said of the Corinthians? You had the Corinthians. Paul says the same thing. Don't you know, unrighteousness will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Again, don't be deceived. Why? Because men are so deceived. He says don't be deceived. Sexually immoral people. They have no place in the kingdom. Idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, greedy, drunks, revilers, swindlers. None of these people are going to inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. God's wrath was against them. Heaven's gates were shut against them. Hell's mouth was wide open under their feet. But, something happened. Their sins were washed away. They're sanctified. They're set apart for God. They're justified. Oh, their record is justified in the court of God. Sinners can be justified. The ungodly can be justified. The ungodly can be declared righteous in the sight of God. That's what that means. Let me tell you what the king has done for you. He saw you. He knew you. He knew your guilt. He foresaw that you would ruin yourself. Despite whatever connection you had with Adam, he saw what you would do in your life, what you would think in your thoughts, what lust you would have. He saw that. He knew his father's justice would demand vengeance for your sins. Jesus knew that. The king knew that. This king that we heard about. Oh, this king in all of his glory, most handsome. He knew it. And in order to remedy the situation and to provide you a way of escape, Christ laid down His life in our place. Why did Christ have to die? Why did we take the Lord's Supper? Why does there have to be blood? What a bloody cross! Why does there have to be blood? Because there has to be death. Why the gore? Why His soul poured out like water on the cross? Why does all that have to happen? Why stricken, smitten, afflicted of God? Why, why, why? Here's the answer. The wrath of God answers it all. The death of Jesus Christ is necessary. Listen, it's necessary because this doctrine is true. And don't suppress this truth. When you look at that cross, you're looking at a demonstration of the wrath of God that was meant for sinners and it was poured out on Him. That is the reality. Brethren, how can God love a guilty people against whom His wrath burns? How can that happen? One answer. God in His mighty power. God in His wisdom. God, He had an answer for His own wrath. That's it. His very Son came into the world to enter that blast furnace of God's holy vengeance in our place. What shall we say to these things? It's like you said at the end, hallelujah. I mean, look, you took a very, for the preacher, that's a nice path to get to the hallelujah at the end. This is the dark path. But you get to the same place. I can be the Queen at His right hand where pleasures forevermore are. And I can be robed in the gold. I can be the Bride of Christ. What did Christ do? He loved us. And He laid down His life for us. That's what you find. Listen, folks. Christianity is based on facts. They're based on the facts of what this Person did. God sending His Son into the world 2,000 years ago. It's based on that. That Christ, He came and He was melted under the wrath of God on that cross. My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? But you realize He didn't stay dead. He's not on some crucifix on a wall. He came out of that grave. And that grave says God is satisfied and our sins are paid. God's broken law demanded. God's insulted glory demanded that the wrath of God fall on our heads. And here it was coming. And Christ stepped in our way. You know who will enter that narrow way? We sang about it. A hiding place. I can see some of you out there, you have no hiding place and the wrath of God is coming. You've tried to hide in your own goodness. You've tried to hide in religion. You've tried to hide in different things. But you have no hiding place and the wrath of God is coming. And God offered that hiding place. He offered one... I would just say this, He came for the sick. Take your disease to Him. Confess it. He knows it already. You haven't hidden anything from Him. Just lay it all out there. It doesn't matter, folks, it doesn't matter how many questions you have the answers to. The answer to the great question, to the most important question of all. Are you ready to die? Are you ready to face God? Your days are few. Come to the Savior. Run to Him! Right in your mind, call upon Him. I'm guilty! I'm guilty! I'm guilty! If those things are true, I've lied. My sins number up to the heavens. If I'm honest, I haven't been good. Cry out to Him. Catch yourself at His feet. You know what you'll find? You can find... Jesus could look at a woman and all of her adultery and all of her sin and say, I don't condemn you. What a kindness there is in God. He doesn't spare His own son. Oh, we heard about it. The robes of salvation. He comes. Do you recognize Jesus? Tell us what your Father's like. Okay, I'll tell you. It's like this guy who goes and he goes off with harlots, he goes off with prostitutes, he goes off and he lives wild and he just blows all his money and he gets to the place where he's eating husks. He wishes he could eat the husks that are being given to the pigs. Okay, tell us about the Father. He describes the Father this way. There's a Father who's out there standing and watching and looking. And as the sun comes down that road up over the hilltop and He sees Him, that Father takes off running. And He throws the best robe on Him and puts shoes on His feet and killed a fatted calf and He puts a ring on His finger. And the sun's trying to say, I've sinned against you and against Heaven. It's like He doesn't hardly let the words out of His mouth. God is looking for that repentant sinner and He will run to you. That's the picture that Jesus describes. What a picture! What a God we have after how we've offended Him. Brethren, we have some good news for the world. But you recognize this, before Paul ever gets to telling you about the good news, he takes us through three chapters of the bad news. Because until people recognize the bad news, they'll never recognize how really good the good news is. You can go to Psalm 45 now and in light of this black backdrop of our depravity, wretchedness, fallenness, and you just recognize, oh, He who is so handsome, He is so glorious, that He would actually give His own life to the shame of the cross. Oh, hell! I think about Randy Pizzino right now and he's beholding the face of the Lamb. Father, I pray this first message laying the foundation here with sin. You know, these are serious things. There's no light matter like blood. Emblematic in the Lord's Supper. That was a bloody, gory abandonment. Lord Jesus, think on us. Think on us as a church. I pray that this would be a place where there would be many rescued. I pray that this would be a place where many would find their way into that narrow gate, that constricted way that leads to life, that way of trusting in the righteousness that You can give and the forgiveness of sins that You've offered to us. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy. You are the merciful God. We didn't invent the idea of salvation of mankind. The devils don't have it. You pass them by. It would have been perfectly according to justice to pass us by as well. But You chose not to. And why? We don't know. Only may it just resound to Your eternal glory and honor as we are able to sing and praise and worship. We can imagine Randy now singing unhindered. No more sin. No more to hold him down. His soul has been set free and flown away. Never to experience any shortcoming, any failure, any fall ever again. Now to worship the Lamb unhindered forever and ever. Oh, we long for the day to be at His side. Amen. You're dismissed.