The Word of Truth is sponsored in part by Paul Rents. Visit paulrents.com for party and equipment rentals. Welcome to the Word of Truth, a ministry of Pastor Lars Larson and the First Baptist Church of Leominster, Massachusetts. It is our desire that our Lord use this broadcast to instruct, encourage, and strengthen both Christians and local churches in the New England region. Pastor Lars is always available to assist you. You may reach him at 978-660-8869. May today's message from our pastor be blessed by our Lord to instruct and encourage you through the Holy Scriptures, the Word of Truth. Greetings, and thank you for tuning in today. We are showing what the Holy Scriptures teach us regarding the fall of man, sin, and the need for salvation. Let us pray to ask God for His grace. Our Father, we ask that You would continue to help us to understand this important teaching of Your Holy Scripture, the sinfulness of sin. We read in your word that you loathe sin, that you oppose the sinner who is high-handed in his sin, and that you will punish all those in hell for their sin unless they come to repentance from sin and believe on your Son, the only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, may You help us to have the same regard for sin that You have, help us who know You to hate sin. Father, we thank You for sending Your Son into the world to save us from our sin. Had Jesus not died in the place of sinners, we would have no hope. But now that we have fled to Jesus as our only sure and certain haven from Your wrath, we rejoice in the free favor that You have bestowed upon us. Help us to live for you and help us further your kingdom in this fallen world as we seek to bring ourselves and others who will hear us to heed your word. the words of Scripture, the words of faith, leading to submission and obedience to our Lord and Savior, in whose name I do pray. Amen. The matter of sin is such a broad topic that there's really no way I feel that we can do it justice. I have whole books in my library that speak to this issue. In fact, I have one in my hand presently which graphically and fully sets forth the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It is a book that was written by an English Puritan, Ralph Venning, and the title is The Sinfulness of Sin. It was originally published in 1663 under the title The Plague of Plagues, which was completed about the time of a great plague that swept through England. and Venning sought to show forth that sin is a far greater plague than even the plague they had experienced. Sin is the plague of plagues. The book is now available today under the title, The Sinfulness of Sin, and is published by the Banner of Truth. trust. Let me just read a few comments from this book. Here is the opening page on the sinfulness of sin and it speaks about how sin is contrary to God, to God's nature. The sinfulness of sin not only appears from but consists in this, it is contrary to God. Indeed, it's contrariety and enmity itself. Carnal men or sinners are called by the name of enemies to God. Romans 5.8 with verse 10 and Colossians 1.21 But the carnal mind or sin is called enmity itself. Romans 8, 7. Accordingly, it and its acts are expressed by names of enmity and acts of hostility, such as walking contrary to God. Leviticus 26, 21. Rebelling against God. Isaiah 1, verse 2. Rising up against God as an enemy. Micah 2, verse 8. Striving and contending with God. Isaiah 45, 9. and despising God. Numbers 1120. Sin makes men haters of God. Romans 1.30. Resisters of God. Acts 7.51. Fighters against God. Acts 5.39 and Acts 23.9. Even blasphemers of God. And in short, sin makes men very atheists who say there is no God. Psalm 14, 1. It goes about to un-God-God and is, by some of the ancients, called a diacidium. In other words, sin is a God-murderer or a God-killer. And that's how Venning opens up his book on the sinfulness of sin. I want to dive in one other place and just read an excerpt. Sin has made the heart of man deceitful and desperately wicked, Jeremiah 17, 9, and it is hardened in impenitence through the deceitfulness of sin, Hebrews 3, 12 and 13. Although thereby man has nothing but undo himself and treasure up wrath against a day of wrath, Romans 2.5. It makes man obstinate that he will not be saved, but rather will be damned. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life. John 5.40. As for the word of the Lord, we will not hearken, but rather we will certainly do what everything goeth forth out of our own mouth. Jeremiah 44.16 and 17. It is out of the abundance of folly and madness that is in men's heart and bound up there that they thus speak. And not only vain thoughts and words, but villainous ones bubble up and break forth from this corrupt fountain, which sets the tongue on the fire of hell, so that the devil could not broach and belch out more horrid blasphemies against God than do the tongues and hearts of sinful men. It has defiled and spoiled man's memory and conscience also. How treacherous is his memory as to good, but alas, it is too tenacious as to what is evil. The conscience has become an evil conscience, and in many, a seared conscience. And so, Ralph Denny, in some 284 pages, sets forth just about every possible perspective on the sinfulness of sin. If we had time, we would present sin in that light. And so sin is a very broad subject. It has many facets. We have already pointed out the importance of this distinction, however, that man not only commits individual acts of sins, but man himself is a sinner, far short of a holy God, contrary to a righteous God. And so we have divided our subject into these two major headings. First, man's acts of sin, and secondly, man's nature to sin. And we began to consider last time first man's acts of sin, showing the evil of these from Scripture in a number of ways. First, how sin may be considered in specific words used in both the Old Testament and New Testament to describe sin, depict sin. And then secondly, as we concluded our last program, we spoke of the metaphors by which sin is described in Scripture that clearly enhances the evil nature of sinful acts. And we cited a number of metaphors listed in Arthur Pink's book on sin. And the title of that book is The Gleanings from the Scriptures, Arthur Pink being an early to mid-20th century writer. And so let me explain them a little bit more fully and cite the scripture references that Arthur Pink gave regarding these descriptions of sin or these metaphors for sin as set forth in the scripture. And some of these, frankly, are quite graphic and unseemly, but this is how the Word of God describes or sets forth sin. First of all, sin is set forth as the scum of a seething pot in which there is a detestable carcass, as Pink described it. And then he cites Ezekiel 24 to show forth this metaphor. Here God was pronouncing his intention to judge Judah and Jerusalem through his instrument of the Babylonians. And in order to show the people how disgusted God was with the sins of the people, God used this metaphor. And so let me read a portion of this from Ezekiel 24. Therefore thus says the Lord God, Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is in it, and whose scum is not gone from it. Bring it out piece by piece, on which no lot has fallen. For her blood is in her midst, she has set it upon the top of a rock. She did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust, that it may raise up fury and take vengeance. I have set her blood on top of a rock that it may not be covered. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Woe to the bloody city! I too will make the pyre great." In other words, the fire. Keep on the wood, kindle the fire, Cook the meat well, mix in the spices, And let the cuts be burned up. And then set the pot empty on the coals, That it may become hot, and its bronze may burn, That its filthiness may be melted in it, That its scum may be consumed. She is grown weary with lies, And her great scum is not gone from her. Let her scum be on the fire, In her filthiness is lewdness, because I have cleansed you and you are not cleansed. You will not be cleansed of your filthiness anymore until I have caused my fury to rest upon you. I, the Lord, have spoken it. It shall come to pass, and I will do it. I will not hold back, nor will I spare, nor will I relent. According to your ways, according to your deeds, they will judge you, says the Lord God." And that's how sin is described, and that sets forth God's view of sin, His detest of sin, utter disgust with sin, as set forth in Ezekiel 24. Secondly, Pink points out that sin in the scripture is likened to the blood and pollution of a newborn child before it is washed and clothed. And this is also found in Ezekiel's prophecy in Ezekiel 16. Here God purposed to reveal to Judah the extent of her sinfulness by showing the privilege that she had enjoyed through God's mercy and grace shed upon her when she was nothing but as a discarded child, newborn child cast out, no one to care for. Ezekiel 16 verse 1 and following. Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say, thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem, In your birth and your nativity, or from the land of Canaan, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. And as for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you. You were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. No eye pitied you. To do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you, but you were thrown out into the open field when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you, in your blood live. And yes, I said to you, in your blood live." Ezekiel 16, 1-6, God was showing Judah that Really, there was nothing about her that was appealing or attractive when God had come and made a nation out of that people, and He shows them that they had no ancestry, no one cared for them, they were discarded, they were sinful, they were loathed, and yet God had mercy and compassion on them. Thirdly, sin is likened to a dead and rotting body, as we read in Romans 7.24. Paul himself exclaimed, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And so sin is likened to a dead body. That's how Paul viewed himself as the sinner. Fourth, the Bible uses the metaphor for sin of the stench and the poisonous fumes that come forth from the mouth of an open grave. And that's what we have in Romans 3.13. Of all people everywhere it is said, their throat is an open tomb, with their tongues they have practiced deceit, and the poison of asps is under their lips. It's a commonly quoted verse or passage with regard to sin, but perhaps we forget the very nature of the metaphor because of its familiarity to us. Fifthly, there is the metaphor of the lust of the devil. John 8, 44. Hear your father the devil, Jesus said, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And so here the Lord Jesus likens sin to the lusts or the desires of the devil. That's how God regards sin. Sixth, sin is likened unto putrefying sores. This is from Isaiah 1 verses 5 through 6. Now here God is appealing to Israel to repent of its sin because God had been fighting against it as one soldier fighting against another soldier on the battlefield. So God had come against Israel and fought against him and knocked him to the ground and cut him all over with his sword. And the defeated soldier was about ready to perish in his wounds. And here he is lying with his wounds putrefied and the soldier very near death. And so sin is likened to this terrible condition of this man. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faints. And from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been clothed or bound up or soothed with ointment." And again, that's a description of the sinfulness of the nation. And God was rebuking and calling for that nation to repent. Seventh, the Scriptures set forth sin as likened unto a menstruous cloth. And this is, of course, a very vivid and graphic metaphor. It's found in Isaiah 64, but we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And so rather than being clothed in robes of righteousness, they're clothed in filthy rags. And this is how even our righteous deeds are viewed outside of Jesus Christ. Even the best that we can do as sinners is sin. Eighth, sin is like into a canker sore or gangrene. The Apostle Paul spoke of the heretical teaching, the sinful teaching of false teachers, and so he said their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus. Ninth, sin is like the dung of filthy creatures. Philippians 3 verse 8. Now in this text Paul was referring to his righteous deeds as but dung when compared with the excellency of Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung that I may gain Christ. And so all things are viewed in this filthy, defiled, dirty manner in comparison with Christ. And then tenth, lastly, sends her likened in the Bible to the vomit of a dog and the wallowing of a sow in the stinking mire. 2 Peter 2.22 Now here Peter was writing specifically of false teachers. Although they had cleaned up their lies somewhat, they were never actually converted, and so they returned to their former ways, like a dog does and like a sow does. And so we read, but it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire. You see, they were never truly converted. They were never truly born again. They always had the nature of sinners, like a dog's nature does not change and so eventually he returns to his own vomit. And a sow, although you can wash her up, clean her up, she will in time return to the mire where she's accustomed. I can remember years ago hearing J. Vernon McGee preach a message on this passage, and he called it the parable of the prodigal pig, and how the pig always returns to its home in the mire. In contrast, all prodigal sons come home to their father. Indeed, the Bible sets forth sin as a great evil through these metaphors. May the Lord help us to see the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Now we can also see the measure of sin's evil by the effects or results of sinful acts as recorded in the Scriptures. We already considered Adam and Eve's sin in some detail. What about Achan's sin in the book of Joshua? Here a man saw and then desired and then stole some goods out of Jericho after God had commanded the people to leave that stuff alone. And he brought, of course, his own death and the death of his family as a result of God's judgment upon him. and the entire nation had been adversely affected by Achan's sin. And there we see the measure of sin's evil. David's sin in numbering the people resulted in a plague that swept over Israel with many thousands of people dying. And then what about the man who touched the ark, steadying the ark as it was unsettled a bit on a cart, and he was immediately struck down? There we see what happens when sin comes into the presence of holiness. Or those who peered into the ark, they died. And what about in the New Testament as well? We read of Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Holy Spirit, who lied to God, and as a result they forfeited their life. Sin has terrible influence and effects upon others, and it has terrible results upon us and others as well. And by the way, we tend to see sin in only individualistic terms, and this should not be done, for our sin affects others. As we attempted to show when we covered Genesis 1 through 11, sin does not stand still. And one of the ways to see or understand the hideousness of sin is to see how it affects others when we fall into sin. I want to read a short passage from an Old Testament theology written about a generation ago in which he described the communal effects of sin. In this connection, another side of the matter very alien to modern ways of thinking has to be observed, as we commonly Understand it today, not only is the consequence of sin narrowed down to fall only on the individual in his spiritual life, but the evil that accompanies the sin is also confined to the evil act itself. The act, no doubt, sometimes has serious visible consequences for the man who does it, that is, when he gets himself entangled in some way or another in the evil he has wrought. But such consequences are to a greater or lesser degree fortuitous, and no one is surprised if such a punishment fails to come to pass. In contrast, for the people of antiquity, sin was something much wider in its effects. The evil deed was only one side of the matter, for through it an evil had been set in motion which sooner or later would inevitably turn against the sinner or the community to which he belonged. And so on this view the recompense which catches up with evil is certainly no subsequent forensic or legal event which the sin evokes in a completely different sphere, that is with God. It is the radiation of the evil which now continues on. And so here the writer Von Raad, an Old Testament theologian, was arguing or showing how in Old Testament times, sin was seen far wider than just as individual acts of rebellion or transgression against God, but rather the sin of an individual affected others. Again, as in the case of Achan when he sinned, it resulted in his whole family and even his children forfeiting their lives. the writer went on to say, this concept makes perfectly clear the reason why the community had such a strong interest in an individual sin. It was not just a matter of an imaginary moral taint which affected the community as well, and so just an internal disturbance of its relationship with God, but rather the evil which in action had brought into existence inevitably had effects which destroyed the individual and the community alike. unless the latter, the community, solemnly and clearly canceled its solidarity with the offender, and thus, in an utterly realistic and direct sense, an offender was a danger to the whole people." And that explains why you have many instances in the Scriptures where an individual sins, and yet the man, as well as his family, has to be dealt with, and the man has to be completely removed from the community of faith. Otherwise, his sin will have continual effects upon the community at large. Now, we've lost that in our American way of thinking. We're so individualistic. We think that as long as I sin, it only affects me and no one else, and so why should anyone be concerned or upset? But this is not the way the Bible sets forth sin. Sin is not just an individual problem when we do sinful acts, but it has influence and effects on others about us. And therefore, it's the responsibility of the community or the responsibility of the church congregation to deal with the sinner, to bring about repentance, and to remove the consequences that God in His justice will bring upon the community if it's not dealt with rightly. And thus we see the need in the New Testament for church discipline. there was problems in the church at Corinth because they had failed to deal with this matter properly when they had a sinning member committing sin in their midst and Paul greatly rebuked that church for their failure in that instance which is in 1st Corinthians chapter 5. Now of course the evil of sin can be seen most graphically when considering that only the death of God's Son could affect pardon for a sin And really it's here where the fullness of sin can be seen. When the blessed Son of God became equated with our sin, then death struck Him. He died the death of the cross. Generally speaking, one who thinks very clearly and soberly about his sin, he will be a godly man or woman. If God has forgiven him through faith in Jesus Christ, he will love God greatly. May the Lord help us see our sin as it is in truth. We trust that God has blessed you from listening to Dr. Lars Larsen. Today's program, as well as previously recorded messages, are available through our website. We invite you to visit the word of truth dot net. The First Baptist Church of Lemonster and Concerned Friends have sponsored this broadcast of the word of truth. If we may assist you by directing you to a sound, reformed church near you, please contact us. If Pastor Larson can assist you further or answer a question that you may have about today's subject, he would be pleased to speak with you. You may reach him at 978-660-8869. Until our next time together, may our God bless you richly through our Lord Jesus Christ. Today's The Word of Truth program was sponsored in part by Paul Rents. Visit paulrents.com for party and equipment rentals.