Read the newspapers and you'll see it. Listen to the TV or the radio and you'll hear about it. Talk to friends and they'll tell you stories all about it. There's sin and wickedness on every hand. Can you believe that somebody would go into one of our local churches and just paint it up? I can't believe that that would happen in our community. It used to be we'd only read about that in Baltimore. But we were sheltered. We were sheltered, it seems, from all of those kinds of things, and now we've lost our innocence and it's come here. Wickedness is everywhere. Although we consider ourselves a civilized society, we have all the outward manifestations of wickedness within our society. We have murder, and we have war, and deceit, and bad, terrible habits, and lust, and selfishness and hatred and unforgiveness and on and on it goes. But when we look in our own hearts, we see much of the same things to a varying degree. Same things. There's something wrong with every one of us. Never mind the Asian flu or the danger of the WMDs. We all already have a dreaded plague. What is it? What is this three-letter word that spells the difference? The difference between misery and happiness. Three letters spell the difference between bondage and freedom. Three letters spell the difference between going to heaven and going to hell. What is this three-letter word? The plague that we all have. The three-letter word. The difference is sin. And in the word sin, you have the hiss of the serpent. This morning, scoot up to a microscope with me and let's examine sin close up. And then we'll consider what we can do about sin at the end of the message. Number one, what is sin? Scoot up to your microscope. The microscope is in the Word of God. And you'll see in that verse that number one, sin is the transgression of God's law. Transgress means to go across, to go cross-grain to. You see a traffic light, it's shining a bright red, and yet you walk across the street anyway. You have transgressed the law. You went across it. You have gone across or broken the law. Maybe the last time you do it. Now, God's law, the Bible, is our standard for living. God shows us what is right and wrong, and what we should do and what we shouldn't do. And listen to me, the Bible is straight. It's very clear. It's right from God. And He's the Creator, and He's the Judge, and He knows what we ought to be about. And so He tells us how to do it, how to live. And when we go across the Bible, we have sinned, we have transgressed God's law. You see, the law that God established is an expression of the nature and the attributes of God. It tells us a little bit of what God is like. And so when you fail to live up to His law, you are committing an act of hostility against the Almighty Himself. The Bible is God's direction. It's God's will for us. And so sin is the failure to conform to God's will, God's law. Sin is the transgression of the law. Number two, what is sin? Sin is a deviation from the way. This is the literal definition of sin in the Old Testament, if you would look it up. In the New Testament, the term sin means to miss the mark, Or it's as though you were shooting at an arrow at a board or a target, or you were taking a dart and throwing a dart and trying to hit a target, and you missed the whole thing. You missed the mark. It means to go aside from. It means to veer off the design path. All of these definitions reveal that there is a norm, there is a standard against which our acts may be measured. And that standard was established by God, and it's called the Word of God, the Bible. The Bible defines for us what we are and what we are not to do. And man has deviated from it, and insofar as he has deviated from the blessed Book, he has sinned. That's the definition of the word sin. What is sin? It's the transgression of the law. Secondly, it's a deviation from the way, the Word. Thirdly, sin is rebellion against God. The prodigal, you recall, the prodigal left home, left his father, took his inheritance, went into a far country, and when he got out there and things fell apart, he said, and he cried, and the Scripture says, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. He said that. David wrote, "...against thee and thee only have I sinned." Our sin is rebellion against God. When we sin, we certainly hurt others. A father that sins hurts his son. A son that sins hurts his father and the rest of the family. But our sin doesn't just hurt others. It also hurts God. Because it's breaking God's law. It's like taking the dart and hitting God's heart. Every sin is a sin against God. Sin is the rebellion against God. Fourthly, James 4.17, if you'll turn there please. James 4.17, Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is what? Sin. It's sin. Sin is the omission of good. When you know what you can do that's right to do, and you don't do it, that's sin. Now, our New Evangelical crowd today doesn't want to hear about that. They don't want to hear about what you should do and what you shouldn't do. Y'all just come to church. We were sitting in Five Guys yesterday and having our off-day hamburger. I accidentally ordered the wrong one and ended up with this unbelievable hamburger, double-decked. I couldn't even get it in my mouth. I thought I ordered the other one, but anyway. And so we're sitting there, and all of a sudden, this guy behind us starts talking. And he starts, well, I've gone to a lot of church. I kind of gave up on church until I went to this late one, this latest one. The ladies were sitting there, and they said, oh? He said, yeah. He said, this latest one, you can go just wear anything you want to wear, do anything you want to do. The preacher just preaches a nice little message, and it's just a nice church. That's not what church is all about. Church is where we learn about God's Word and learn what God wants us to do, what He doesn't want us to do so that we can please Him, so we can walk uprightly before Him. That's what church is all about. And when we don't do that, it's a dart against God and it's rebellion against God. And when we don't do what we know we should do, that's omission of good and that's sin also. when a little child is sick and his mother goes about her normal social duties and neglects the child. That, we call, is neglect or omission of good. If the child dies, then we say that she killed him by neglect. And that's a law, and that will be punished. Well, it's no different with God. A sin in our lives can be a neglect to do what we ought to do. And so, some here know that they ought to confess Jesus Christ as Savior, but they haven't done it yet, and that is sin, and that will take you to hell. Some know that they should be baptized by immersion. And that's disobedience to God. If you don't do it, follow through and be baptized by immersion. Some know that they should be active church members and get involved in the church. If they don't do it, it's sin in their lives. Some know that they need to start thinking about others more and about their own problems less. If they don't do it, it's sin in their lives. Too often we refuse to do the good things that we know we ought to do. And that's what he's saying here. If you know to do good, it's within your power, it's in your hand, God's put it in your mind, you can do it. Do it! And insofar as we don't do it, it's sin. There's a fifth thing that's a sin. In Romans 14, verse 23, doubtful practices are sin. Romans 14.23 says at the end of the verse, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Or in other words, you're doing it, and you're not sure if you ought to do it. Then you better not do it. Line it up with the Word of God. Pray it before God. Find out what you ought to do. And then, by all means, do it. But if you're not sure, you better wait. If you're not sure you ought to do something or say something or go somewhere, don't do it. It's doubtful practices. So what is sin according to the Bible? Now, under the microscope, as we're looking at sin, sin is the transgression of God's law. It's the deviation from God's standard. It's the rebellion against God. It's an omission of good. Or it's doing something with a doubtful heart or doubtful practices. Not sure if we should do them. Number two, where did sin come from? Well, sin came from the devil. Satan used to live in heaven. How many of you knew that? He used to live in heaven. Let me see your hand. Sure. He lived in heaven with God, and he rebelled against God. He said, I'll be like the Most High. And he lifted up himself in pride against God and tried to unseat God, and God had no part of it. And God kicked him out. See, the devil is a created being. Our God is infinite. God is all-powerful. The devil has a little bit of power. And God wasn't going to put up with that. God kicked him out of heaven. Now, enter the serpent in the garden. Here comes Satan and he brought sin into the garden and posed it before Eve and then Adam that they might eat of the fruit that they were forbidden to eat from. And one writer that I read after put it this way. Once man was made, one time man was made in the sinless image of God. Now, he is made in the sinful likeness of man. Why? Because Adam in the garden sinned. He took of the fruit. God told him, you have no business taking from that one tree. But he took of that tree and he sinned. And that's where sin came from. Now, where did it come from? Matthew 15 and verse 18. Sin came from this sinful nature of man that was passed down from Adam to all of us. Passed down from Adam to all of us. I know you don't like to think of yourself as having a sinful heart. Or a sinful nature. But, we all have this problem. Sin comes from a sinful heart. But those things, 1518, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. The heart of a man is deceitfully wicked, desperately wicked. Who can know it? We don't even know our own heart. Adam's sinful nature has been passed down from generation to generation. And if the heart's wrong, the whole life will be wrong. The speaking will be wrong. Just as leprosy or AIDS is deep within a man and will come out one day, so sin is ingrained deeply into our nature. So sin came from Satan in the garden, And today, it comes from our sinful nature within us. Alright? What is sin? We've defined sin. Where did sin come from? We've seen from the Scripture. Number three, who commits sin? Look in your Bible at Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 20. Ecclesiaster. Pastor, I know the answer of who commits sin. Really bad people commit sin. I mean, they're really bad. Not me. I mean, they're really bad. I know it's the down-and-outers who commit sin. It's those in the inner city who commit sin. It's the prostitutes and the drunks and the cussers and the gamblers. All of them people, they're sinners. Well, they're not the only ones. The Bible is clear on this. Romans 3.23 says, All, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And not just them, but you and me. All of us. In Ecclesiastes 7.20, there are no just people on the earth, for there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Now, there are some that do good and sin, But there are none that do good, and sinneth not. For all have sinned." Isaiah 53.6 says it another way. The writer of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah said, All we like sheep have what? Gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him, Christ, the iniquity of us all. Galatians 3.22 says all are under sin, but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. In fact, not only did all sin, but the greatest characters in the Bible sinned. As much as you look at the characters in the Bible and you admire them, you see sin in their lives. Moses sinned. Oh, he was a great leader. Oh, my! He led the Israelites out of bondage of Egypt. They had no concept of freedom, but he led them. They didn't want to follow him, but he led them and he got them out of there, crossed over the Red Sea, had miracle after miracle. God gave him the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. He marched them for 39 years, got them up to the precipice, but Moses sinned. What did he do? He smote the rock. The greatest characters in the Bible sinned. David sinned with Bathsheba. And then he had Uriah killed. And then he numbered Israel. He had numbers of sins in his life. Paul sinned. There was only one man who never sinned. And as others have said, they crucified him. Can you picture the fairgrounds or maybe Hershey Park or Knoebels or something where they have a merry-go-round? And on it, the rich man. rides on, let's say, a red horse. And you have a poor girl that rides on a small white horse. It's insignificant what the colors are, but they're each riding horses on the merry-go-round. They're getting on. It's getting ready to fire up. And a little child rides in the chariot or the bench that's there. And they start up. And the merry-go-round starts to go around. All of them are going around. Guess what? All of them are going around in the same direction. They are all being controlled by the same central electric power. The same switch. And the application is that life is a lot like that. A sinful millionaire and a sinful poor girl and a sinful little child are all going in the same direction. They're all controlled by the same central power, and that central power is sin. You can't find one man who hasn't committed sin or who doesn't commit sin. Sin may seem outward and other times inward. It may be seen, it may be unseen, and sin is of varying degrees, but we have all sin, we are all sinners. Even the Apostle Paul confessed, for the good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do. In Romans chapter 7 and verse 19. And so all of us have a sin problem. Who commits sin? All of us. What is sin? We've defined it. Where does it come from? We've seen that. Who commits it? All of us do. Fourthly, what is the penalty of sin? The penalty of sin. Sin has consequences. Nobody sins and gets away with it. Did you hear me? Nobody sins and gets away with it. One penalty after man sinned in the garden was physical death. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 5. Adam had the tree of life. That tree was the source of eternal life there in the garden. He could go and eat of it and he would keep on living and his physical life would just keep on going. But when sin came and he allowed himself to sin, sin entered in, he was evicted from the garden and he lost access to the tree of life. And in Genesis 5 and verse 5, And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and then three very important words. And he died. He died. If original sin had not come into the world, you wouldn't be forced to go through the suffering and pain which brings death. You wouldn't have to go through that. Physical death was part of the penalty for sin. The other penalty that man received for sin was spiritual death. and eternal suffering in hell. Turn over to Revelation chapter 20. There are a couple of verses that I'll read for you before we get there. Spiritual death is the one that's spoken of in Romans 6.23 that we memorized. For the wages of sin is death. Not physical death. It's talking about the spiritual death. The soul that sinneth It shall die, or it shall surely die. Ezekiel 18, verse 4 and verse 20. When a man sends his life away, there's nothing left except to spend an eternity in hell. The person who will not acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior, come to Christ, and repent, receive forgiveness of sins, that person is headed to an eternity in hell. You say, well, I don't like that. I don't like coming to a church where they tell you all that kind of stuff. You don't like somebody telling you the truth. That's my job. Psalm 9 and verse 17. Wouldn't you rather find it out now than after death? Better find it out and do something about it now. Psalm 9, 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God. Daniel 12, 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. everlasting content. Now look at Revelation 20 and verse 10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Honor to God. Oh, you say, well, the devil deserves it. Yes, he does. And he's there with the beast and the false prophet. That's the Antichrist and his right-hand man. And shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. They deserve it, you say. But look at who else is there in verse 15. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. You say, well, the devil deserves it. Well, according to God's justice, everybody that doesn't know Christ deserves it because we have all sinned. And that means that if you haven't received Christ as Savior, your name's not in the book. It's not there because of your good works. It's there because you know Christ. And your name's not there. And if your name's not there on Judgment Day, or at the point at which you die, you don't have Christ as Savior, you're in that verse. You go ahead and claim that verse right now, because that's your verse. You're going to the lake of fire. I don't like that. Look, I'm telling you a positive message today. You've got to know the full story so you can make a wise choice. We are headed to hell. The positive part is we don't have to go to hell. The positive part is that Jesus has already paid our hell for us if we just receive Him. In verse 8 of the next chapter, But the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone," which is the second death. The physical death, when we die and go six feet under, that's the first death, physical death. And then spending eternity in the lake of fire is the second death or the spiritual death. That's the danger. Those truths ought to make every lost person in this room. want to receive Jesus as Savior. What is sin? We've defined it. Microscope now. We've defined it. Where did sin come from? Who commits sin? What is the penalty of sin? We've seen the answers to all those questions now. What is the remedy for sin? With sin so rampant, because all have sinned, and the penalty so devastating, a burning hell forever and ever, what can we do about sin? What can we do about sin? When I see a problem, I'm the kind of guy who wants to get it fixed. I mean, we had a meeting on Wednesday night, what to do about all these paintings of the churches, and we're going to have the stewards do it, and I've got everything all outlined for the stewards to start to trigger their thinking to solve the problem. I want it solved. And so, I'm a problem solver. If it's my problem, I really try to solve it. If it's my personal problem, if the car breaks down, I'm going to get that car fixed. I'm not going to let that car sit there broken down. If we have something broken down in the house, I'm to it. If Shirley lets me know it, it goes on my list and it's going to get fixed. It's just the way it is. It's got to be fixed. I'm not a procrastinator. But what is the remedy for sin? How do we fix sin in our lives? It's obvious from the scripture we all got the problem. So what can you and I do about the problem? Education is not the remedy, although I'm for the right kind of education. Some say, well, sin comes from because of ignorance, and if we educate the masses, they won't sin. That doesn't work. All we'll have is an educated sinner. The Bible says men are ever learning and ever able to come to the knowledge of truth in 2 Timothy 3.7. Education is of the head. It doesn't get down to the heart. And so, education is not our Messiah. Education won't save. Better environment, that's it. Better environment. But no, better environment is not the remedy of sin. You can go green all you want. I'm not against that. But you will not gain salvation by it. Some say, change this man's environment. Transplant him into a new place and he'll live right. But remember that sin is in the nature. It's in the heart. And when that man goes over here and goes over into a nicer setting, he took his heart with him. He's still got the sin nature. Environment won't cure sin. Good works. That's it, preacher. No, good works are not the remedy for sin. Some believe that if they're good, outweighs their bad. Surely God will wink at them and say, hey, you did a good job. Pat them on the back and let them into heaven. But that's not what the Bible says. He'd do that if He said it, but He didn't say that. Ephesians 2, verse 8, the truth is He made it clear He absolutely didn't accept good works to cover us. Save us. He says in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by grace are ye saved. Now this is all talking about salvation. We're saved by grace. Grace just means we don't deserve it. It's God's unmerited favor to us. We didn't earn it. He just gives it to us. Grace through faith. We receive it. Salvation by faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, He gives it to us, not of works, lest any man should boast." Now we are saved, it goes right on in the next verse to say we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We're supposed to do good works after we get saved. But doing good works will not save our eternal soul. Okay, alright, alright. Then what is the remedy for our sin? There's only one remedy for the sin in our lives, and that remedy is Jesus Christ. John quoted Jesus as saying, ye must be born again. Get your heart right and your life will follow your heart. Get your heart right with God. How many of you have seen these books that are advertised on cleaning? How to Clean Anything and Cleaning Secrets. How many of you have seen those books advertised somewhere or other? Yeah, I have too. But none of them, if you'll check through them, address how to clean the heart. What's the cleaning agent for the heart? We need a heart scrubber to cleanse our heart because it's our heart that has sin that's become dirty. What do we do to clean our heart? 1 John 1. And verse 7, 1 John 1.7 says at the end of the verse, The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. The blood of Jesus Christ is the cleansing apparatus. It's what cleanses our heart. I want you to think about it, and we'll end with these three points. Think about what Christ will save you from. Number one, Jesus will save you from the guilt of sin. You see, Jesus paid the price of our sin in His blood. He justifies us by faith and makes us as if we had never sinned. That's an unbelievable thought to me. But He makes us as if we've never sinned whenever we receive Christ as Savior. He forgives us and forgets our sin, casts it in the sea of His forgetfulness. If you know Christ, then you don't have to dwell on past failures or the guilt of past failures and sins. Honor to God. He's washed you. Accept it. I say accept it. You have been forgiven. It has been forgotten by God. You turn it over to Him and trust Him with it and go forward. He'll cleanse you from the guilt of sin. Jesus will save us from the power of sin. Not just the guilt, but the power. He gives us victory that overcomes sin. Man is born with this sin nature, its standard feature on us. If man trusts Christ as Savior, then God gives us... we already have a sin nature. He gives us a spiritual nature. The nature of Christ. And now we have two natures. Every one of you who have received Christ have a dual nature. You have a sin nature, the old man in you, and you have a spiritual nature, the new man in you. Two natures. And they hate each other. And they vie for control of your life and what you're going to do. The spiritual nature wants to please God, while the sinful nature wants to please the flesh and self. And there's war declared. And there are skirmishes that ensue. and battles. And sometimes the spiritual nature wins. Hopefully, most of the time the spiritual nature wins. But sometimes the sinful nature wins and overpowers. And one day, the spiritual nature will be forever victorious. But even here and now, as believers feed the spiritual nature Do the things that will build up and strengthen the spiritual nature. Give it what it needs to be strong. The spiritual nature can override the sinful nature. And to that extent, we can be victorious in our lives. All of this is impossible until you come to Christ and receive a spiritual nature. And so, He gives us, saves us from the power of sin by giving us a spiritual nature if we'll feed it. And thirdly, Jesus saves us not only from the guilt of sin, the past, all the guilt of that, the power of sin in the present, but He also saves us from the penalty of sin in the future. God delivers us from the hell that we deserve. What a package deal that Christ offers us. And He's offering it to you today. What can you do about sin? You can be saved. Wonderful truth. The doctrine of sin. Would you bow your heads with me? You can be saved. Musicians are coming. Every head bowed and every eye closed now for this moment. No looking around, please. What is sin? It's the transgression of the law. It's rebellion toward God. Deviation from His standard. Omission of the good. and doing doubtful things. Where did sin come from? It came from Satan, brought it into the garden, and then Adam fell, and now it's passed on through our nature, through the bloodline, right into our hearts. Who has sinned? Clearly the Bible says all have sinned, everybody, no exceptions. What is the penalty of sin? Not only physical death, but now spiritual death, which is the lake of fire forever and ever. What is the remedy for sin? The remedy for sin is to come to Christ for cleansing and forgiveness. Let Him save you from the guilt and power and penalty of sin. If you died right now, I mean, you fell over dead, and that could happen to any of us. Are you 100% sure, without a doubt, that you would go to heaven? If you are not, you could be. Before you leave this building, you could be certain because of what the Bible says. And that's what we can do about sin. The truth is, we can't do anything about sin. It's only Christ who could do anything about sin, and He did it. And it's done. All we can do about it is accept what He did. We can accept Jesus Christ. And this is your opportunity this morning to do that. After we pray, you come. Come and repent of your sins and receive Jesus Christ, and have eternal life, you'll be forever delivered from the penalty of sin. Shall we pray?