The message tonight is sin, its essence, and its cure. What is sin? And we need to know it. We need to recognize it. And I think oftentimes we fall into sin without recognizing what we've done to God. But sin is an offense to God, and there's a reason that it's offensive to God. It's very personally offensive to God. And we need to recognize that. God is not just an arbitrator setting rules and laws for us. There is a relationship that man has in that he is a created being and that he, in that, in his life, in that creation of man, there is an obligation that we have to God. And we have violated that often in our lives. and we have come to the place where we have done things over and over, and so much of our life falls into this matter of sin. God is very greatly offended and rightly so, and we want to see it. We want to understand it. Why is it that sin offends God? Why is there such a judgment against And I hope tonight that we will see that. Now, the serpent, verse 1, and what chapter are we in? Three. Three. Did somebody say two? Okay, three. All right. I didn't know there was going to be a quiz, but I'm going to prepare you from now on, all right? All right. Chapter 3. Now, the serpent was more subtle. than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together. and made themselves aprons." Now, I'm going to ask you to turn to the book of Matthew, the fourth chapter of Matthew, and we're going to see there's three temptations of Christ. They're very parallel temptations that were given also to Eve. And these are more distinct, that is, we can see them in a separated way fuller, and we will relate these two together, these two chapters. By the way, what chapter of Matthew? Four, all right, doing good. And verse one, by the way, we'll go one through 11. We went one through seven in the other chapter. Oh boy, I feel like I'm a school teacher or something. All right, then verse 1 of chapter 4 of Matthew. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the temple, holy city, I'm sorry, and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh them up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. And he saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan. For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Our Heavenly Father, we ask Your blessing upon us now tonight as You give us Your Word, help us to understand and accept, receive it, believe it, help us to see ourselves as we really are. We oftentimes pretend to be something we're not, or we are maybe deceived in thinking we're something that we're not. We pray You might be clear to us, help us to see our sin, what it really is. And then, dear God, we pray for victory, that you would help us not just to know what our sin is, but also, Lord, to have victory over it, that we might be a testimony for you. We need, Lord, to have your strength for all of that, your wisdom, your power, your word, your spirit, and I pray that we might receive that tonight. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Now both were tempted, Eve and Christ, and they were tempted by the devil in the form of a serpent in the garden. But the devil is speaking to Eve, and he gives her three temptations just as the same is with Christ. One failed in that situation and sinned. The other was victorious over sin. Christ was tempted in all points, as we are, yet without sin. And it's interesting, I think we need to see, understand that. There is all points He was tempted in. And He was, in all what really sin is, He was tempted, like as we, yet without sin. Now there may be some circumstances in your life that are unique in the sense that not everybody has them. But any sin that you and I have committed, we have committed this sin, the essence of it, that's shown in these verses. And we want to see it. The serpent beguiled Eve and said, and he's just asking questions here at first. Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman answers, not completely accurately, but she answers, and she says, We're not to eat of that tree in the midst of the garden. She gives a little bit more, but nonetheless she understands the Word of God. And then the temptation. Ye shall not surely die. Now God had said that if you ate of that tree, you would die, but Satan is very blatant and says very bluntly, you're not going to die if you eat of that tree. You know, I think there's many people today that really do not take God seriously and what God has said, and even what He said to their own conscience or heart, and the conscience of man is not always accurate. But even in that that God has written or spoken to in our lives, and we have understanding of right and wrong, yet even in that we oftentimes do not think that that's true, that it really will get us in trouble, or that we really will die. And so Eve is tempted not to believe the Word of God. Christ, if you're the Son of God, command these stones. that they be made bread. I used to wonder when I was a boy, why was that wrong to turn the stones into bread? I think now that I know. Jesus answered it and gave us the reason. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And what Jesus emphasizes is what God says. You and I have the idea sometimes, and we're like children, well, Dad didn't really say I couldn't do this. You ever say that? Well, he didn't spell it out, and yet we know what the Word of our Father is, really, and we violate it because of some technicality. But Jesus said we're not only to not violate His Word, we're to keep it, we're to live it, we're to believe it, And in that believing it, we would live it. We really would if we really believed it. So I'm going to give you three D's, and again some of you I've given this to you before. The three D's are this. Doubting, first of all, the first D is doubting the Word of God. That's the essence of sin. Sin brings in a doubt of the Word of God, and you know Jesus, or God said to Adam, that if you eat of that tree, you will surely die. It is the doubt of that word that brought them to the place where they would eat it. They are not suicidal, but they are doubting that it would happen. They are eating of the fruit, and in that they come to say God's Word we will not regard or believe. Now you can call me a liar, but I'm going to tell you something that will offend me even though it's true. I'm not lying to you right now, but when you live in this world, I do not know any person that is not told a lie. But to say that God has lied to me, that God is not truthful. To violate His holiness in that way is a very terrible sin, and especially when we consider all that God has done for us. We're created, and we do not, and there's no reason for God to lie, and there's no reason for us to believe that He would lie as we see Him. as He is. Nonetheless, all of us have disbelieved God's Word. You know, I can look back in my life and I have some regrets. Do you? And oftentimes those regrets come from a disregard for what God has plainly spoken. We would be very wise to be very careful when God speaks and consider it very carefully. I think that's one of the weaknesses of Christians. I made a decision some years ago, and just the other day it dawned on me. I was reading some Scripture, and I thought to myself, I knew that Scripture, but I did not consider it. I did not think about it or reach out to it. when I made that major decision, and there's been great consequences. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Let me tell you something. You are responsible to know what God says. We cannot excuse ourselves We need to know, and if we don't know, we need to find out. We need to study God's Word. I'll preach on that a little bit more in a minute. Second temptation. God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God's. Two things in that phrase. God doth know is a very subtle way of saying God knows something. And he's withholding something good. You know, God doth know that if you ate of that tree, then your eyes would be opened, you'd be as God's. There's something wonderful that you will have from eating that tree. And God knows it. That's the statement of Satan. God knows. And the idea is you would be benefited from that eating of the tree. And God knows it. And so the second thing is this, and let's go to Christ. Jesus is taken up to the top of the temple and quoted a verse. He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. They shall bear thee up, he shall bear the angels. And Jesus says, you are not to tempt the Lord thy God. There is a test of God's goodness involved in that temptation. And we are to accept and understand and so fully grasp and believe and accept that God is good, that we're not to even test that goodness. And so the second D is, the first one is class. The first one is doubting the Word of God. The second one is denying the goodness of God. Is God good? I ask men at the mission and now in the prison, has anybody ever done wrong to you? And they would say, yes. Really hard and terrible things to you? Yes, I say, God, did God know about it? And they say, yes. I ask them the question, why did not God stop it? And I ask that question because most of the time, man in his natural state, when something bad happens, there's something of a bitterness that results in it. whether it be a disease or whether it be somebody's mistreatment of us, whether it be a death of a loved one, there's oftentimes this sense that somehow this did not go well for me or that this is not fair. Why should that person treat me like that? And so there is this questioning of the circumstances. I was very fortunate to grow up in a home. When I turned 13, my dad was 60. And I must tell you that at 60, you begin to think about dying. And sometimes soon before that even. My father had come close to death before I was born. and then after I was born, twice after I was born. I know he thought about death. There was something in him though and circumstances of his life that were very hard and difficult. When my dad's mind got bad and he had dementia to the point that When I came into the house one time, he thought I'd broken in and he socked me in the jaw. Even in that kind of condition, there was a verse that he would always quote. All things work together for good. Now Romans 828 became, it was his life verse. And I say to you that when we deny the goodness of God, in our life, whether we do it with words or just by thoughts and feelings, bringing in the question of God's goodness, we are sinning against God. And we'll see why more so in a moment. But may I tell you there's no reason for us not to have a spirit of love and praise unto our Lord. A woman, when we started our church years ago, she came to the first service. She had recently moved to our area and the church that she was in and about 60 miles away where I had preached and so she knew me. When we started, she came to the first service. About a month later, she came to know Christ as her Savior. Years passed, but she told me something of her life, some great failings. I probably should not tell you. But she came to Christ because those things that she had done wrong. were so pressing upon her, the guilt of that brought her to a place where she saw she needed a Savior. Years passed. She was a married lady but with no children at that time. She had two sons and a daughter. The daughter drowned at two years of age. She came into the hospital after all the rest of the family, and there was aunts and uncles and cousins, and she was on a job, and she was not able to be reached. She was the last to come. And when she came, we went immediately into the emergency area where that little girl lay on a gurney. and she was dead. The dear lady, when she saw the body, she went over. Walking toward it, she said, I'm going to take, and she called her by name, I'm going to take her home. And I said to her, she's already home. And I can see it. She looked at me. and understanding came to her. There was an aunt that was supposed to be watching the little girl and had failed. Immediately this young mother left that emergency room and went out where the family was in a room congregated and consoling each other and she went in that room and immediately went to the aunt. and comfort her. And from then on to the time of the funeral, through the funeral, and after the funeral, she was comforting others. She had not fallen into the trap of denying the goodness of God. How do you think the apostles suffered martyrdom? How did Paul suffer the beatings and the shipwrecks? All because he was serving the Lord. How could he not think, where are you God? Why do you not help? Why do you not deliver me? You can see, can't you, what this portion of the essence of sin can do to us. Questioning the goodness of God will destroy your spiritual activity. And many fall into that trap. I had a man ask me that had been molested when he was a boy, why did God allow that to happen to me? over and over and over again. And I tell you, he had to get past that. He had to recognize that. I had a policeman say to me, I don't believe in God. I said, why? He said, I picked up too many babies that were killed by some drunk driver. And I said to him, do you drink? And he kind of looked down and said, yes. I said, have you ever gotten behind a will after drinking a little bit? He said, yes, I have. I said, God kept you. I said, God would have to kill all of us, wouldn't he, to keep us from harming others. Isn't it the goodness of God that you're still alive? You see what we say to God, what we think of God when we sin? When she ate that fruit, she was accepting an idea that God had withheld something good for her. Cast yourself down and let's see if God is really good. That's the essence of sin. Many murders have been committed. Many lives have been eaten up by bitterness. Many people have done many wicked things in revenge because of questioning the goodness of God. And then third, and I must hurry, The third, God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods. Now this is the big one, and I told you this. Some of you are going to remember this sermon by illustrations I use. When I was a boy, I picked up a cigarette and smoked it. What do you think happened to me? I got sicker than a dog. But did I smoke another one? Not the same day. But did I? How'd you know? You know why? I was going to be my own authority. That's what it is. A guy came to school on Monday. He said, I'll never do that again. I said, did what? What did you do? He said, I got drunk on Friday night. I'll never do that again. He said, I got so sick. What do you think he did the next Friday night? You know what it is? I'm my own boss. Are you the boss of your life? No. God is. He's the authority, not you. You say, I don't want the Christian life. Let me tell you something. You are defying Almighty God. Who do you think you are? I'll tell you what you think you are. You think you have the right to determine your own life when you didn't create yourself and you don't sustain your life for one second. You fathers know what it is to have a child defy you, don't you? And God's given you something, fathers. Do not let that happen. And that's good for your children not to let that happen so that they might learn that there's a God in heaven also that is the authority. But all of us in our childhood and in our teen life and later and still some today, right, even those Christians, we defy the authority of God. The three Ds, you see them? Defying the authority of God is the third one. First one? Doubting the Word of God. The second one, denying the goodness of God. The third one, defying the authority of God. If you will fall down and worship me, Satan said to Christ, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. You'll be the king. Fall down and worship me. You may think you're running your own life, but let me tell you something, either Satan is going to have you or God's going to have you. That's the essence of sin. Did you notice I didn't commit murder? I didn't talk about murder. We're not talking about adultery. Those are the evidences, outward expressions of this inner sin. This is what our heart is like. We do not naturally believe what God says. We do not naturally accept the goodness of God, but we do naturally defy the authority of God. And that's what our sin is. Now, I'm going to tell you something. This is the God of the universe. This is the Creator. He is the highest of the high. There is no one like Him. You are sinning greatly to defy Him. And it's not just his position of power, but God is love. What a sin against him to deny his goodness. God is love. You got two eyes, did you go to the store and buy them? How'd you get them? God's goodness. You have life, you have a heart beating. How'd you get it? By the goodness of God. You have youth and vitality. How'd you get it? You have a home. How'd you get it? The goodness of God. And are you so smart? Are you smarter than God? Yeah, the preacher's coming out in me, isn't he? Shame on us. Shame on us. I often wonder why doesn't God just say, okay, I'm through. Well, that's the essence of sin, and I must hurry. What is the cure? And there's three things that I'm going to give you. There's three threes that we'll talk about. All right, the cure, and it's wonderful. And your pastor mentioned it in his, you know, when you don't get to preach in your own pulpit, you preach in the announcements. That was always my practice. And sometime I went five and ten minutes even, maybe fifteen, but anyway. The Lord Jesus Christ is the cure for sin, and He is the only cure for sin. And I know that many would say, yes, I understand that, He died on the cross. Well, there's more to it than you think. the cure, the Lord Jesus Christ, he was in the Bible given three titles or three offices. He is not just a prophet, he is the prophet. He is the priest. And he is the king. That's his three offices. He has a full humanity as well as full deity. And in his humanity, he is the prophet. He is the priest and he is the king. Some of you are ahead of me. He is the prophet. The mark of a prophet would be the one that told the truth, that spoke right. The true prophet would always speak right. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth. and the life. It is a personal thing to sin against God. You are sinning against the truth, the prophet, the one that was right in every way. He is the word of God. He is the declaration of God. And to not believe is not to believe Him. To doubt His Word is doubting Christ. But He is the prophet to tell you the truth. He came into this world. No one was like Him, were they? No one stood like He did. Nobody always was right. He was. He was true. Every message was completely accurate and full. He is the prophet, and when he saves us, the truth makes us free. There is that wonderful position also as priest, and when I see him as priest, I see him as the offerer of a sacrifice. And he also is not just the author of the sacrifice, he is the sacrifice. It is all wrapped up in him. Wonderful book, Hebrews. He is our go-between. He is the sacrifice for our sins, the pain, the judgment for our sins that we might have his life. He is the priest. He brings us unto God by taking care of our sins. and atoning for our sin. He is our Redeemer. He is the priest. And He is the King. What manner of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him. I'll tell you what manner of man He is. He created the world. I know that's His deity, but you understand that's that oneness of Him. He is the King. When I see Him as He really is, And I trust what He really is. When I believe Him, when I trust His payment for my sin, when I submit unto Him and turn away from myself and submit myself unto His rule, there is salvation, isn't there? When you came to know Christ, many of you here in this room, when you came to know Christ, you didn't know all the details, but you knew He was right. You knew He was good, and you knew He was able, and that's what you trusted. You trusted the Lord Jesus in all His fullness. And there are three gifts. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, a chapter we think of singularly, usually, of just being a love chapter. But it's really a chapter continuing and in the middle of and preceding another chapter on gifts. There's three chapters on gifts, 12, 13, and 14. 13 is a chapter that deals with the realization of what love is, but it ends with this, and now abideth these three. Three what? Three gifts. Faith, hope, charity, love. Those are gifts. And they are simultaneously given at salvation, aren't they? I went to Sunday school all my life, but I never learned to love God until He saved me. And He gave me the gift of loving Him. Nobody had to teach me. It was a gift. And these are wonderful gifts. Let's look at them. Faith, what is it? Faith is believing what The truth is the Word of God. That's the opposite, isn't it, of sin? The essence of sin is to doubt God. The gift of God is faith, to believe God. We're given that wonderful gift, and I think your pastor or priest on it some time ago For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of works, lest any man should boast. I misquoted that, didn't I? For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God. Aren't you glad God opened your eyes? You know, the miracles of Christ, he opened people's ears so they could hear the truth. He opened their eyes so they could understand the truth. It's just an illustration in it. He really did open their eyes. He really did loosen their ears. But he's saying, you're blind spiritually, and I have to open your eyes before you can believe. It's a gift of God. and love. You know, God's people, they were certainly far from what we ought to do. But you know Peter really did love the Lord, didn't he? I don't know him, but he really did love him. God gave him that. Now you think that might help with sin? What do you think? You know what we do? We get in a boxing match with sin. I'm not going to do you anymore. What do you end up doing? Same thing. But when God gives us these gifts, they are to combat the essence of sin in our life. We are not only forgiven, justified, but the work of sanctification is in us by the gifts of God. We find that sin, in many cases of our lives, is maybe gradually, it seems like we just have a hard time, and yet as we look and see what God is doing, we find victory over sin. There's three exercises, all right? There's three offices, there's three gifts, and there's three exercises. Your pastor tells you this needs to be done. You got the gift of faith, but you need to exercise it. How do you exercise it? Read your Bible. Memorize your scripture. Meditate on it. Appreciate it. Oh, how I love thy law. And you do love it. You sometimes neglect it. Now, I know there's no husband in this room that neglects his wife. We do neglect, don't we? and you neglect your Bible reading and study. But what a life it is when you don't neglect it. My wife and I have been married 53 years. I've learned a little bit not to neglect her. And what a blessing it is. And by the way, it's better, isn't it? It's better and better and better. because you learn not to neglect. So that helps you, strengthens that wonderful gift of faith. What strengthens? Did I mention hope? I didn't, did I? Let's look at hope for a moment. What's the gift of hope? You know when I got saved, I didn't know to say anything to my father. I just went downstairs and went to bed. I went downstairs hoping my brothers would still be up and I could tell them what happened to me, but I didn't think about telling Dad. I thought he already knew, you know. But as I look back, I think maybe he didn't know. But you understand something. When a person is saved, God gives them assurance. It is the Spirit of God that assures us. And that's a gift. And what is this assurance of? It's assurance of the goodness of God. And it has to do with the future. Your future is no longer bleak, not because of your goodness, but because of the goodness of salvation, of the goodness of Christ. I will not leave you nor forsake you. and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And if a soul winner has to tell somebody that, we're in trouble. Because it's a gift of God. Hope is. You're not talked into it. You are assured by the Spirit of God. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the child of God. We are the children of God. That's hope. How do you exercise hope? You exercise faith by reading scripture, meditating and so on. How do you exercise hope? The exercise of hope is prayer. You're not praying about the past. You don't pray for somebody that's already dead. Prayer is about the future. Save that soul, that's a future event. You're praying about something ahead. There are things that God will put on your heart that are future. What is this church to be? That's future. who is to be saved here, that's future. And all the things that we do in prayer is something that is ahead. And prayer is coming to God and asking him for that which we need in the future. And oftentimes we don't know what we need in the future, but God knows. And as we learn to pray, we're exercised in a hope and assurance that God knows best. And it changes our perspective. We grow in it. There is no pessimistic. The more you pray, the more optimistic you are about life. Brother George and I were talking. He's optimistic. Don't you think old people like me and Brother George ought to be pessimistic? What do we have to look forward to? You see, but how do you learn that? You pray. It grows. What seems to be something dreaded becomes something, as you pray, look forward to. Hope. Are you with me? Now then, scripture, we're talking about the cure, aren't we? Scripture, God talks to us. Prayer, we talk to God. What's this matter of love? Here's this. We talk to others about God. That's our great commission, isn't it? You ever in a battle? Some of you have been. Physical battle, I've not been in. If you're in a battle with somebody, you grow close to them. And when you're in a battle, when you're telling people of Christ, when you're preaching the gospel, and that's all of our jobs, when you're preaching the gospel, you get closer and closer to the Lord Jesus. He is with you. Have you ever noticed, sometimes in a sermon, it's like I'm beside myself. Sometimes when you're talking to somebody about the Lord, it's like the Lord is giving you thoughts and words that you never thought of. He's in it with you in persecution for testimony for Christ. He's there with you. And you exercise that and you love him more and more because you experience him more and more. Alright, what happened to your sin if you're meditating and dwelling on the Word of God and you're praying and true, not just going through motions and you're really seeking the lost and wanting to tell them of the wonderful Savior? What's happened to your sin? You find you're not even thinking about it, right? And if the devil comes along with the temptation, there's the joy that you have in the Lord, and it's your strength. The essence of sin. What happens to us? Well, I can tell you that a pastor, and I'm not talking about anybody else, but we can get confident in ourselves. What happens? We don't read like we should, we don't dwell upon the Word, we don't pray like we ought to, and we're certainly not as enthusiastic of telling people of Christ. I can handle this. I've preached thousands of sermons. I can get up and preach again. You're in trouble. Church members, you're in trouble. We've done this for 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 60 years. We can handle this. You're in trouble. You can't handle it. Parents, you can't handle it, can you? And when we get self-confident, that's when we're going to sin. In fact, self-confidence is sin itself. you know, it'd be good for us to confess our sin. Now get this. I want you to understand it. This is for the church. Philip's in a great revival, and God says, leave here and go down to talk to that Ethiopian eunuch. You know what the average church member would say? You're crazy, Philip. You understand what I just said? Trust and hope in God, in Christ, and love Him. to the point that you can say, I will sacrifice my son. Is that reasonable? It's not to me to sacrifice my son, but God said to do it, and Abraham said, this has never been done before, but he told me to do it, I'm going to do it. Now that's pretty radical, isn't Individuals and churches have to learn that God is the authority, not our experience. Are you with me? Now how can we tell if we're doing right or wrong? It's pretty hard sometimes, isn't it? But individuals and churches have got to let God be their authority. And as we're sincere in it, God won't harm your family. Are you with me? God isn't going to harm your family. But God is going to say, am I first or your family? But God is not going to harm your family. Why? He's good. Now that's pretty deep water we got into just then. So how do we get through that dark, cold water? Church body, you better be in the Word of God. You better be fellowshipping around the Word. You better be praying, and you better be willing to deny your own authority and follow Christ in the hardest matter, and that is in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. All right. Do churches sin? And we all do, don't we? churches must pray much, churches must preach much, and churches must study much, so that churches do not sin. And that is an individual matter and will work as individuals also practice that.