The following is a message given at Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Worland, Wyoming. Let's begin today with a word of prayer. Father, we just sang Psalm 91, he who dwells in the secret places of the Most High shall rest under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my strength, my God and him I will trust. And Father, we pray this morning that as we come to your word, the same God who extends His wings over His people to provide for them, to care for them, to protect them. We pray that that mercy would be here today in Your Word. We pray that Your Spirit would be working through the reading and the preaching of Your Word to extend grace and mercy to sinful people like us, to cover us with the shadows of Your wings so that we might be safe in You. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have your Bible with us, I'm going to ask you to turn to two different places. So keep your finger in one and keep both of them available to you. The first one is 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5. And the other one is 2 Peter 1, verse 10. 2 Corinthians 13, 5. And 2 Peter 1, 10. We'll start with 2 Corinthians 13, 5. And then we'll turn over to 2 Peter 1, 10. 2 Corinthians 13, verse five. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified. And then we turn to 2 Peter 1, verse 10. 2 Peter 1, verse 10. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make your calling and your election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. In both 2 Peter 1.10, as well as 2 Corinthians 13.5, God is telling us that we should ask ourselves and we should be willing to ask ourselves if we are truly his people. God's telling us we should be testing ourselves, we should be examining ourselves, and we should be really willing to ask the question, am I a Christian? Are you a Christian? That's the most important question any of us will ever ask ourselves in life. We ask ourselves usually the most unimportant questions in life. So we ask ourselves, okay, who will I marry? How many kids will I have? Where will I live? Where will I work? Will I retire too early? Will I have enough health insurance? Will I have enough life insurance? Those are the kinds of questions we get consumed with. And the reality is, you can get a job that you hate. You can marry a troll. You can have too many children. Actually, you can't, but just for the sake of discussion, let's say you can. You can retire too early and run out of money. You can have catastrophic health problems and not have nearly enough insurance to deal with it. But if you answer the most important question in life, which is, am I truly a Christian, the rest really doesn't matter. Unfortunately, we spend our lives asking the wrong questions. But there's a lot of people who ask themselves if they're a Christian, but they don't really know how to discern that for themselves, and they're never willing to be vulnerable and ask someone to help them. And so they go on in life, back and forth, waffling in their assurance. Am I saved? Am I not saved? And so they're like a middle school girl with a flower in her hand, plucking petals off, saying, God loves me. God loves me not. There's other people who have asked themselves whether they're a Christian, and they've reached a hasty conclusion, yes, I'm a Christian. And they've never been willing to actually consider, is there fruit to back that up? And so they go on confident through all of life, when in reality, they could well be self-deceived. There's also many people who have tried to answer the question about whether they're a Christian, and they've asked it using all the wrong criteria to answer it. And so they say, yes, I'm a Christian because my parents are Christians. That's just how we grew up. I'm a Christian because I'm an American. I'm a Christian because I was baptized when I was seven days old. I'm a Christian because I go to a really good church. I'm a Christian because insert anything you want. If we use the wrong criteria to determine if we're a Christian, we will likely come to the wrong answer. And even in a church this size, I think it's likely that we have people from all of those categories and likely even more that I haven't even thought of. And so what I'm planning to do over the next several weeks is work through the issue with you of how do I know I'm a Christian? How do I know I'm truly saved? And so I've been praying about doing this for several weeks now. One of the things I've been praying is that if you're a Christian, God will use the next several weeks of preaching, the next several sermons to build your faith, to help you grow in your assurance and in your confidence that, yes, I truly bear the marks of one of God's people. For others of you who struggle with doubts and fears about your salvation, and you've been afraid to get someone to help you figure it out and work through it with you, I'm praying God uses the next several weeks of sermons to at least strengthen you enough to be willing to get some help, to work through it with one of your brothers and sisters in Christ. For others of you, I'm praying that the next several weeks of sermons are unsettling to you. I'm praying that God uses them to break your heart, to show you if you are deceived, that you're deceived. For others, I'm praying that God will use the next several weeks of sermons to increase and build your faith and your conviction in Him. And so this week, we're gonna begin by talking about sin. Because at the end of the day, the problem we have that requires salvation, the flaw in us that really makes salvation something we need is the problem of sin. And so if we're going to have a right understanding of what does it mean to be a Christian, we have to start by asking the question, do I have a right understanding of what it means for me to be a sinner? So we're going to look at the topic of sin this morning under two main points. First, we're going to ask, what is sin? And then we're going to ask, what are the consequences of sin? This is going to be a really uplifting, exciting church growth type sermon. What is sin? The Westminster Catechism defines sin by saying sin is any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. So the Westminster Catechism says sin is what happens when we either don't do what the law of God tells us to do or when we do things the law of God tells us not to do. We also have biblical definitions of sin. We could think of somewhere like 1 John 3, verse 4. 1 John 3, 4 says, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. The word sin in 1 John 3 comes from the Greek word amartia. It means to miss the mark. to error. And so you could think of it like, often it's illustrated by an archer shooting at a target and he actually misses. He doesn't just miss the bullseye and hit the nine ring, he misses the target completely, he whiffs it. Or you could think of it like a man walking on a journey and he goes off the path and he goes to the wrong destination. That's what sin is. Sin is missing the mark. Sin is missing the mark of what God has called us to be and to do in our lives. And so we have to ask, what's the path? What's the target? What's the goal of our life? Where should we be aiming and directing ourselves? Well, John tells us sin is lawlessness. And then he says, in other words, what he's saying is that sin and lawlessness are synonyms. Sin equals lawlessness. Lawlessness is equal to sin. In other words, the law of God is the target. Living our lives in obedience and conformity to the law of God is the direction that God has called us to live our lives. And sin misses that. Sin is failing to do that. But more than missing the mark, John says, sin is lawlessness. The word lawless is really important there. It comes from the Greek word anomia, which means an utter disregard of the law. Sin is what happens when we look at the law of God and we say, I will not have you rule over me. You will not tell me what to do. I'm the master of my own ship, the captain of my own fate, and I refuse to come underneath your commandments. And so you have to understand that as God's creation, God has placed you in a world that is governed by his laws. He's, as your creator, given you expectations of how you should live your lives. And the reality is that in our rebellious, sinful nature, we tell God, stuff it. We tell God, you won't tell me what to do. We tell God, you can have your nice little law because I refuse to come underneath it and submit to it. We might not actually be thinking that way intentionally when we sin, but understand that's what God says all sin is. That's what's going on in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter three, when Adam and Eve fall into sin. Listen to Genesis three, verses two through six. It says, the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the tree of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. So the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. In Genesis 3, Eve is clearly telling the serpent, I know the law of God. God has said we should not eat of this tree. And you get two verses later, And here's Eve with fruit juice dripping down her face and a big grin on her face as she looks up at the heavens and says, you will not rule over me. I refuse to submit to your laws. You will not govern me. And that same lawless heart that was present in Adam and Eve has gone to all of their descendants throughout all of history as every person in the world is born under sin. is born guilty of sin, is born with the same nature they have as sinners. We all refuse to submit to the law of God. One of the most concise places where God gives us a summary of his laws is in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. You can turn over there if you'd like. We're going to spend some time there. So, in the first two commandments, we read in Exodus 20, verses 3 and 4, where it says, you shall not have any other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the waters under the earth. I'm reading the first two commands God gives us together. And in the first two laws God gives us there, what he's doing is he's saying, you shall have no other gods before me. I am to be supreme. I am to be the object of your worship. I'm the one you should be devoted to. You shouldn't make any images either that represent me or that you would bow down to worship as an idol. I should have the unrivaled place of authority, affection, and worship in your life. And if we were honest with ourselves, we'd all have to say that as I look at my life, it's filled with more than one God. Or we might not set up tiki dolls in our living room and bow down to them. But understand anything that vies for your affections in the place of God, anything that consumes your thoughts, anywhere you turn for comfort when life is hard that is not from God, it's idolatry. It's sin. And at our very core of our nature, we are polytheistic idolaters who look at the first two commandments God gives us and we say, no, I won't obey those commands. Think of the third commandment. The third commandment is in Exodus 20, verse seven. It says, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The third law God gives us in Exodus 20 is that we should not take his name or use his name in vain. And you have to understand that the name of God is not just a word, it's actually a summary of who God is and what God does. And so God's name stands in the place of God's person. So what is God saying? He says we should not take his name lightly. We should not take oaths by his name. We should not swear by his name. We should not use God's name or speak of God in a jovial way. And what do we do? We say, I won't obey that one. This is my tongue. You won't tell me how to speak. My tongue is my own and your law has no sway over it. The fourth commandment in Exodus 20, verse eight, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Here's the fourth law God gives us. And he tells us that one in seven days is supposed to be special, supposed to be holy. It's supposed to be set aside for rest and worship. And what do we do? We say, yeah, that's my day off. This is my time. This is my schedule. You will not tell me what to do on Sundays. And that's what we do in our lawless, sinful hearts. We break God's laws, but we don't just break them. We actually, in breaking them, reveal we have hearts that refuse to submit to the laws of God. The fifth commandment in Exodus 20 verse 12 says, honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you. And so God's law now leaves our relationship to God and it actually comes to our relationship with other people. And what is God telling us in Exodus 20 verse 12? He tells us we should honor, we should respect, we should even obey our parents. And now our hearts are getting exposed, aren't they? If you're already an adult, think back on the ways you related to your parents when you were a child. I've only seen, actually watched a few of you grow up. And yet, because I know what a sinful heart looks like, I can tell you exactly what every one of your childhoods looks like. Every one of us in childhood looks like rebellious children who look at our parents as they tell us what to do as they rule and govern our house and we roll our eyes and we say no and we disobey and we wait till they turn their back so we can do what we want. For those of you who are still minors living in your parents' home, if you're honest with yourselves, you would say, in my sinful nature, I will not have my parents as my authority. I rebel against my parents because at the end of the day, I'm not rebelling against my parents. I have a lawless heart that actually rebels against my God. The sixth commandment in Exodus 20, verse 13, says you shall not murder. And we're like, whew, finally. Finally, I pass one test. Unfortunately, we don't. Because what God's law does is it doesn't just deal with external conformity. I don't think most of us have actually like shot someone or run someone over with a car, but God's law actually comes to the very thoughts and intents of our heart. And remember what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 21 and 22. He says, you've heard that it was said by those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be in danger of judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be in danger of judgment. Whoever says to his brother, Raqqa, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says you fool will be in danger of hellfire. See what Jesus is doing here? He's taking the sixth commandment and he's saying, okay, you guys would justify yourselves and be like, I've never killed anyone. I haven't broken this law. And he says, actually, if you've been angry with your brother without cause, you're guilty. Because all anger is is the seed of murder. It's murder in seed form. What is it when you look at someone and you say, I hate you? What is it when you flip someone off and you like cut them off on the road and you just get so mad at them because they pulled out in front of you? It's murder. In the eyes of God, it's the exact same thing and all of a sudden we realize I can't even justify myself here. Seventh commandment in Exodus 20 is in verse 14. It says, you shall not commit adultery. Look at your life and ask yourself, have I taken God's gift? of sexual intimacy and pleasure and taking it outside of the bounds and confines of a man and a woman marital relationship. And have I taken that gift and have I sought that outside of my marriage? Maybe you haven't physically gotten into bed with someone other than your spouse. But the same thing Jesus does with murder, he does with adultery. He takes it to the level of the heart. Matthew 5, 27 and 28. You've heard that it was said by those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And so don't justify yourself at this point and think, okay, I've never actually gotten in bed with someone that's not my husband or not my wife, and so I'm good here. What Jesus does is he says, let's go to your heart. Follow your eyes, look at the things you find yourself thinking about. Because if some gorgeous woman walks by and you check her out and have sexual thoughts in your mind, it's as if, in Jesus's mind, you got in bed with her. Jesus says if you've lusted after her, you've committed adultery in your heart. And what do we do in our sinful nature? We take this amazing thing that God gives us, our sexual desires, and we take them outside of the bounds of marriage. And as we do so, we also look up to God and we say, I'm not gonna have you tell me what to do with my body. You don't get to tell me what thoughts I entertain. You don't get to tell me where my eyes look. This is my body and I will express my desire for pleasure wherever I want because I'm lawless. We come to the eighth commandment in Exodus 20. It says, you shall not steal. Now in our legal system, we have a system that decides the gravity of theft based on the value of what is stolen. And so in Wyoming's legal system, if you steal something that's valued over $1,000, it's a felony. If it's under $1,000, it's a misdemeanor. If it's a felony, you could get up to 10 years in prison and pay up to a $10,000 fine. Notice in Exodus 20, 15, God doesn't say you shall not steal anything over $1,000. He says, you shall not steal and then what? Period. Which means the value of the thing stolen is totally irrelevant in the eyes of God. You may have stolen a cookie from your mom's plate. You may have stolen rims off of someone's car. You may have stolen time as you clocked in and adjusted the time of when you actually got there to make it look like you got there on time when you got there 15 minutes late. And at the end of the day, whether it's 15 minutes of time or whether it's a vehicle, it doesn't matter. The heart is the same and God says, you shall not steal. The ninth commandment in Exodus 20 is in verse 16. says you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. In the ninth commandment, God's forbidding deceit, he's forbidding lying, and therefore by implication he's telling us everything that we say should be the truth. Look back at the way you've used your words even this week. Each and every one of us are guilty of lying either overtly as we say things that are clearly not true or by intentionally misleading people by crafting our words in such a way as to divert without actually saying something dishonest. Have you ever asked yourself why you lie? We would probably answer that question and say, well, I lie because it's going to hurt this person less than if I say the truth. I lie because it makes me feel better about myself. I lie because I want to look better in other people's eyes, and lying helps me do that. God says you lie because what? Because you're lawless. Sin is lawlessness. God says you lie because you have rejected my law over your life. You've established your own set of morals and ethical norms that actually are not ethical or moral, and you've fallen short of my law. God gives us one more commandment in Exodus 20. In verse 17, he says, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. Coveting is the act of having a strong desire to possess something that God has not given you. It's the act of seeing what your neighbor or your friend has and having discontentment in your heart because he has it and you don't. Social media is a great place to check your heart here. Here's what happens on social media. We get on Instagram, we get on Facebook, we get on Twitter. If you're still allowed to get on those, if you haven't been banned yet, you can get on those. and you can put out there, this is what I want people to think my life is like. We hide 99% of our lives, but we put out there, look at my wife, she got up at four o'clock this morning and she made my breakfast. She packed my lunch so that I can go fishing at the lake all day. And by the way, speaking of the lake, check out my rocking boat. Check out my awesome truck that I pulled it with. And look at my cute little kids. Oh, look, my wife just texted me a picture of herself working out at 5.30 in the morning, because she's just an awesome wife. We put ourselves out there like this, and the reality is we then get on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or wherever you're at, and we look at those things, and we know in our life, I don't have those things. My wife sleeps till 9.30 in the morning. My wife doesn't make me breakfast at 5.30. But we look at the life we portray out there and we look at the life we actually have and in our hearts, what do we do as we scroll and we scroll and we scroll? We become discontent. We think, I wish I had all of those things and the reality is I don't. What do we do when we look in the driveway and we see a 1993 jalopy Nissan? We look at the neighbor's driveway and we see a 2021 Silverado with a 6.2 liter diesel V8 with a Durabed and power retractable seats and dual tip exhaust and a four inch suspension. It's $62,000 by the way. I built it on Chevy's website Wednesday. What's going on in our hearts as all of this happens? Sin is happening. We're looking at the law of God that says, be content with what I have given you, having food and raiment, be content. And we look at all the things God has not given us that he's given to other people. And in our hearts, we covet and we lust and we want what they have. But more than that, lawlessness is happening. The law of God is not reigning and ruling in our hearts. Rather, our hearts are like the lawless Wild West. God gives us a bunch of other laws that we all break, but the Ten Commandments are enough for us this morning to show us we are not good people who periodically make mistakes. The Ten Commandments are here to show us that 1 John 3, 4 is absolutely true of each and every one of us in our nature. We are lawless creatures. That's our condition. That's the condition of each and every one of us by nature. We are by nature unsubmissive to the laws of God, and that lawlessness permeates everything about us. It permeates our relationship to God as we break the first few commandments. It permeates our relationship to others as we break other commandments, and it even permeates our relationship within our own heart as we lust and we desire and we covet things that God has not given us. Every one of our lives is marked by a lawless rejection of God's right to reign and rule our hearts. Charles Spurgeon says, as the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic Ocean, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived. Of course, all of this raises a question. The question is, since that is true, since we are that sinful to our core, what should God do with us? What should be the consequences that lawless people receive from God? That brings us to our second question. What are the consequences of sin? So we think that we can live our lives the way we want because we are just animalistic creatures. We live our lives and we get our best life now. We pursue pleasure and we pursue our own desires. We maximize and increase everything we want and we die and that's the end. But if you know anything about God, you know God is not so flippant with sin. God doesn't look at sin the same way we do. God looks at sin from the perspective of someone who is perfectly and utterly holy. He views the law as a reflection of who he is, and so to break the law of God is actually to offend the heart of God. And so, what God does throughout Scripture is he warns us that if you sin, there are consequences coming to you. One of the places he does that is in Matthew 7. Matthew 7, 21 through 23. As I read those, notice the consequences that God promises to everyone who practices lawlessness. Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Another place God warns us about the consequences of sin is in Revelation 21, verse eight. Revelation 21, eight says the cowardly unbelieving, abominable, murderers, remember we are murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. 2 Corinthians 5.10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. so that each one will receive what is due for the things he has done in his body, whether good or evil." One more passage, Hebrews 9, 27. It's appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. Let's face it, this is uncomfortable, right? Like, no one is probably kicking back going like, this is such a feel-good sermon. This is uncomfortable and it's unpopular to talk about, but at the same time, the reality is that although it's uncomfortable, we have to reckon with what Scripture warns us about over and over and over and over again. Because in Scripture, God comes to us and he says, not only do I give you law, I also give you consequences for breaking my law, and I want you to know up front what that is. And so scripture tells us throughout every chapter, every book, it comes to us and it shows us in some way that if we break the law of God, there are consequences for that. The moment you breathe your last breath in this life, you will stand in the presence of God and you will be judged. You will be assigned to one of two eternal destinations. You will be received well in glory. if you're in Christ. If you continue to remain in your sin, you will not be received well in glory, but you will instantly be transported to that place of fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And you will be raised for a moment for the final judgment, where God will then come and call you to account, and he will give you your body back, and he will banish body and soul into an eternal hell of fire forever. That's what God is warning us about here. And so make no mistake about it. Because Scripture speaks to us in no uncertain terms that we will all stand before God as our judge. We will give an account for the things we've done in our body and he will without mercy. Throw people into hell who continue to remain in their sin. Remember, we're asking the question, are you a Christian? And it's vitally important we begin here. Because before a Christian is anything else, he's a person who reconciles all of these truths in his own heart. He's a person who's been brought to the place where he admits he is a sinner. He's a sinner. But he's not just a sinner, he's a sinner who deserves to be treated like a sinner. He's a sinner who apart from the mercy and grace of God, apart from that, is liable to all of the wrath and all of the judgment that God has. He's a person who admits that in spite of what his grandma told him, he's not a good little boy. In spite of what society has told him, he's not basically good every once in a while making mistakes. A Christian is a person who has come to see by the grace of God that in my nature, I am a guilty lawbreaker. And not only am I a guilty lawbreaker, but I am liable to all of the wrath and condemnation that every lawbreaker deserves. In other words, if thus far in your life, you've been unwilling to admit you're a sinner who needs a savior, you are not a Christian. Because a Christian is a person who admits, I'm a sinner. A Christian is a person who admits, I need a savior. Because unless someone else saves me, unless if God shows me mercy and grace in the person of his son Jesus, I will die and I will be banished from his presence for all eternity. A Christian is a person who doesn't think I can justify myself. A Christian is a person who doesn't think I can try a little harder and create some self-reform in my life and then God will be okay with me. A Christian is a person who squares with the reality that I am sinful to my very core. I am, as we say in reform theology, totally depraved. which means my body is sinful, my mind is sinful, my soul is sinful, every part of my nature is so tainted by sin that it would be right and just and good of God to destroy me. And so at the base level, a Christian is a person who has been so humbled by the reality of their guilt, who has been so shamed by their sin that they acknowledge their unworthiness before God and is willing to confess their sins to God and their need for a Savior. 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and He's just to forgive us. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why is it so important that we start by admitting we are sinners? If we're Christians, we have to start by admitting we're sinners. Why? Because 1 John 1 says, if, that's a condition statement, meaning if and only if we confess our sins will God be faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of unrighteousness. The clear implication is that if we do not confess our sins, if we do not admit we are sinners to God, he will not forgive us. Luke 13 verse 5, unless you repent, you will also perish. Acts 3.19, repent therefore and turn away so that your sins may be blotted out. And so the Bible knows nothing about a Christian who's unwilling to admit I'm a sinner. The Bible knows nothing about a Christian who goes on trying to numb his own conscience of his own guilt and is unwilling to come and bring his guilt and lay it at the feet of Christ by confessing it, by turning away from it, and by trusting in Christ to forgive it. And so I ask you this morning, are you a sinner? Of course, the point of affirming you're a sinner isn't just to affirm that you're a sinner, is it? The reason acknowledging and admitting and confessing that you're a sinner is so important because it's only those that see how sinful they really are that will then come to Christ and say, I need a Savior, and you're the Savior I need. Remember what Jesus says in Mark 2.17. He says, those that are well don't need a physician, but those that are sick, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. See what Christ is doing there? He's saying, I didn't come so that people that are already good could come to me and have like a little sweet upgrade. I'm not the leather interior on an already nice life. I'm here for sick people, for sinful people, for people who see that unless if I have Christ, I will die and be banished from his presence. So are you sick? Do you see your need for Christ? The reason sin needs to be acknowledged, confessed, and repented of is because Jesus came to save those and only those who will admit they need a Savior. So because they realize sin is an offense to God, because they realize that their sin leaves them liable to the judgment of God, Christians admit, they confess, they repent of their sins, and they put their faith in Christ who took all of their sins to the cross and stood in their place as the one who could absorb the wrath of God that was against them for their sins so that they could be forgiven. So as we close this morning, I want to ask you, are you a sinner? I don't mean do you give tacit admission to the fact that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I mean, have you ever had a sense of your own guilt, your own condemnation, your own wrath deservedness? Has your sin ever brought you to the place where you humbly confess it to God and cry out to him to save you? Has your sin ever brought you to the place of hopelessness where you see that unless if I trust in Christ and repent of my sins, I will die and go to hell? I guess we think through the answer to some of those questions. There's likely, there's more than two, but I think there's likely two main categories of people here. There's some of you that would say, this kind of hurts, but it's a good hurt. This is the kind of hurt that reminds me Christ has taken my sins. My faith is in Him. I'm willing to admit I'm a sinner. I can do that without shame. I can do that without fear because my sin has already brought me to the place where I can humbly confess it to God and I can put my faith and my confidence in Christ who took my sin and my sorrows and made them His very own. And if that's you, this is the mark of one of God's people. and the reality that you can openly and honestly deal with your sins at the foot of Christ's cross should be evidence to you that you bear this morning one of the marks of God's true people. Maybe there's a second group of people who would say, I've never really thought about my sins the way you're talking about them. Like, whoopsies, yeah, I think about them like that. Mistakes, sorry, not a big deal. I've never really thought about my sins as an offense against a holy God. I've never really thought about the fact that I am not a basically good person who periodically slips up. I am depraved and sinful in every part of my being. I've never really thought about the fact that in my natural state, I deserve to die and go to hell for all eternity. And if that's you, Maybe today would be the day that you realize just how sinful you are. Maybe today would be the day that God uses his word to expose your guilt to yourself. Not just so that you can be guilty, but that your guilt can then compel you and move you and draw you to the only place where your guilt can actually be forgiven. Because Christ came into the world to save who? He didn't come to call those that are well, He came for the sick. He didn't come for the righteous, He came for sinners. He came to take the wrath of God that was against sinners on His own back. While He died on a cross in the place of sinners, in my place, condemned He stood. And all we need to do to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life is simply trust in Him. Confess our sins to Him. Trust that what He has done is sufficient. And the promise of Scripture in 1 John 1, 9 is that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and He's just and He will, He will, not He might, not He can, He will forgive us and He will cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. Why would you leave here without that? Why would you leave here today with the wrath of God still hanging over your head, thinking about maybe I can go to judgment? When God himself has become a man and died on the cross to take the sins and the guilt of everyone, anyone who will simply confess that they need him and put their faith in him. Father, we pray that you will help us to square with our sin. Help us to square with our sin, not as people that are so overcome with it that it leads us to hopelessness, but as people who are humbled by it and drawn to the mercy that's available in Christ. Father, I pray that there would not be a single person here who would refuse to admit to you today that they are a sinner, who would still stand outside and say, I don't want to trust in Christ today. Father, I pray that the law that brings guilt and condemnation would also bring hope, would also draw us to the place where we can find mercy and grace in Christ. We pray this in his name. Amen. We hope you've been edified by the message you heard from Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Worland, Wyoming. For more information about Sovereign Grace Bible Church, or to support the ministry, contact them at sgbcwy.org. sgbcwy.org.