Calvary Road Baptist Church
“SIN IS”
Jeremiah 31.19 & Ezekiel 36.31
John 3:
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
The Lord Jesus asking Nicodemus if he was a master of Israel, a teacher of Israel, shows us that this matter of being born again is a subject that is found in the Old Testament. A master of Israel is a man who teaches things from the Hebrew Bible. So, it’s to the Old Testament that we go. Ezekiel 36:
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
This passage corresponds to the Lord Jesus Christ’s reference to being born of water and the Spirit. But there’s another verse I want you to look at, verse 31:
“Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.”
Closely associated with being born again is remembering your evil ways, your doings that are not good, and loathing yourself (hating yourself) in your own sight because of your iniquities and abominations. Jeremiah 31:
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
This passage, too, deals with being born again and emphasizes that when a person is born again, he knows the LORD, and the LORD forgives his iniquity and remembers his sin no more. This is reflected in Hebrews 8.12 and 10.17:
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
As an aside, why do so many misinterpret First John 1.9 as a call for Christians to pray, asking God for forgiveness they already have in Christ?
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I see no such directive in this verse, with the word “confess,” ὁmolegέw, in no way asking for anything, but acknowledging and agreeing with God’s pronouncement of our sins.[1]
Not only does God not remember the sins and iniquities of His children, Jeremiah 31.34, Hebrews 8.12, and Hebrews 10.17, but First John 1.7 indicates the blood of Christ has the ongoing effect of continually cleansing away sins, kaqarίzw.[2]
But there’s another verse I want you to see in connection with this Old Testament passage. Look up to Jeremiah 31.19:
“Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.”
So, here, too, closely associated with being born again is being ashamed of your sin, so much so that you slap your thigh in disgust with yourself. And bearing the reproach of your youth refers to being disgraced and shamed by your youthful sins.
Please close your Bible and set it aside so I can have your undivided attention. In John chapter 3 the Lord Jesus Christ talked to a Bible scholar about the need to be born again. The Bible scholar’s name was Nicodemus. Though he was a master of Israel, and the number one teacher of the Bible to the Jewish people, if the Greek use of the definite article is understood, he was entirely in the dark about being born again. And this is not so unusual. We find the same situation existing in our modern world. Men who study the Bible for hours on end, some who pastor huge Churches, yet many of the most fundamental truths taught in the Bible they do not grasp.
I recall a time I was sitting at a table with six preachers, one of them the pastor of a large Pacific Rim congregation with a large Bible college, who brought up a subject dealt with in two books co-authored by the man sitting next to him.[3] The co-author asked the well-known and successful pastor, “How would you succinctly answer a sinner who asked you how to obtain the forgiveness of sins?” The pastor hum hawed and stammered for over five minutes without answering the question.
He could not concisely answer the question, though he was a towering figure among Gospel ministers in the Far East. Had he but remembered Acts 16.30-31, he could have answered the question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Sadly, he could not.
One of the things Nicodemus did not grasp was the need to be born again. Yet, so important is the new birth that without being born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God, much less enter in. And though some people talk about being born again these days, they do not understand that associated with being born again, as we saw in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31, is a heart that is broken over sin.
All across America and around the world, you will find folks urging people to trust Christ and be born again, but not one of them in a hundred, I will venture to say, will mention anything about the need for a heart that is broken for sin. But an individual’s heart must be broken for sin if he wants to be born again. We see it in Acts 2.37, on the Day of Pentecost under Peter’s preaching, when his audience had their hearts pricked by God. And we’ve seen it in both Jeremiah and Ezekiel today.
I fear that your heart will not be broken unless you get a true sight of sin. Unless you see sin the way God sees sin, your heart will not be broken, and you won’t be converted.
Let Me First Show You WHAT A TRUE SIGHT OF SIN IS
To get a true sight of sin, you have to see sin more clearly than you do now, and you have to see sin in such a way that you are convicted by what you see. Just looking at sin and thinking to yourself, “Oh, so that’s what sin is,” isn’t nearly enough.
Do you see sin clearly? In Psalm 119.59, David wrote,
“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.”
In Hebrew, this refers to David turning his sins upside down.[4] David carefully and thoroughly examined his sins like a jeweler looking at a flawed diamond with his magnifying glass. Do you do that? In another psalm, he wrote, “My sin is ever before me.”[5] Do you look at your sins that way? Do you keep them ever before you? Or do you quickly glance at them, only when you are forced to, and then quickly look away? For you to be converted you have to see your sins clearly. And to see your sins clearly you have to look at them with your eyes wide open. And to look at them with your eyes wide open you can’t always be looking at everything else.
Do you see what your sins have done? David saw that his sins were committed against God:
“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.”[6]
Do you see that when you sin you sin against God? And do you see what your sins have done? Zechariah 12.10 shows what your sins have done:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.”
Your sins placed the crown of thorns upon Christ’s head. Your sins ripped His clothes from Him and flogged His back. Your sins hammered the nails into His hands and feet. Your sins thrust the spear into His side. Have you, by God’s grace, yet seen what your sins have done? Some of you cling to your sins, holding them as comfortable and familiar friends. But what good will your sins do you when you die? If you had a peephole into Hell and could see the torment and suffering there, you’d see where your sins will take you and think more seriously about your sins.
But as bad as Hell is going to be for you when you die, I want you to understand that sin is far worse for you now than Hell will ever be. Think about this. That which deprives you of the greatest good is the greatest evil. And sin deprives you of heaven. Sin deprives you of fellowship with God and communion with Christ. So sin, which separates you from your God, is the greatest evil, Isaiah 59.2.
Second, there is nothing so opposed or contrary to God than sin. This is why God is the One who inflicts upon the unconverted all the torments of Hell. He is holy, sin is unholy. He is righteous, sin is unrighteous. He is good, sin is evil. He is true, sin is a lie. So sin must be punished as that which is most against God, and God in His goodness and righteousness and justice will punish sin, beginning in Hell, forever. So sin, which earns for you the punishment of Hell and the lake of fire, is the greatest evil.
Third, no one suffers except because of sin. Sin is the cause of all pain, the cause of all suffering, the cause of all plagues, the cause of all that is evil, and is the source from which all that ails mankind flows. Everything unpleasant to your condition and hurtful to your destiny is caused by sin. If you would blame anything for your pain, suffering, and discomfort in life, then blame your sin, because that’s the root of it.
You may ask yourself, “If sin is so bad, why doesn’t it seem so bad to me?” There are two reasons why sin, so bad as God’s Word says that it is, is not seen as bad by you: First, because you do not judge sin according to the Word of God. You judge the rightness or wrongness of something according to how you feel about it right now, its pleasure to you. But sin is a lie that makes a person feel good about it, all the while poisoning your soul and killing you. “The wages of sin is death,” the Bible declares. If you depended upon God’s truthful Word, God Who cannot lie, then you would judge sin correctly. You do not see the second reason sin as being as bad as it is because you misunderstand God’s attitude toward sin. God has not lashed out against your sin with wrathful fury, so you don’t think He is angry at your sin, and you don’t think your sin is so bad.
But we read in Ecclesiastes 8.11,
“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Just because God doesn’t punish your sin right now, you think it’s all right to sin. But what you misunderstand is that God is long-suffering toward you. He gives you space to repent before He unleashes His fury and pours out His wrath on you.
As well as looking at sin clearly, does your look at sin convict you? Of course, if your sins convict you, when you look at them, consider them, and carefully examine them for what they really are, the Holy Spirit will always be at work. And His convicting ministry is defined as exposing, convicting, and cross-examining to convict or refute an opponent.[7] Are you, then, persuaded of sin’s danger? Are you persuaded of sin’s damage? There are many who see sin to be a danger to others, who see sin to be damaging and hurtful to others. But do you see the sins you commit to be dangerous and damaging to you? Proverbs 2.19:
“None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.”
Do you understand that sin takes you farther than you want to go and keeps you longer than you want to stay? And some sins so affect you that you never recover from them.
It’s common for sinners to become quite upset at the sins of others. You look at what damage another person’s sins have caused and what danger another’s sins have placed him in. But you tend to ignore your own sins. Consider King David, when told by the prophet Nathan of a rich man who stole the one lamb owned by a poor man, that was like a pet to him. As Nathan proceeded with the story, David became more and more angry. He thought about that poor lamb. He sympathized with that poor shepherd. He became enraged toward that wicked rich man who had done such a despicable thing. And he pronounced a severe penalty upon the rich man for his crimes.
Then the prophet Nathan said, “Thou art the man!”[8] Little did David realize at the time that the man of God had been describing to David his own sins. My friends, it’s when your own sins crush you, when your own sins burden down your soul when you see your own sins to be deserving of God’s harshest punishments, that you have a true sight of your sins.
Next, Let Me Show You WHY THERE MUST BE A TRUE SIGHT OF SIN
The first reason there must be a true sight of sin is because you wrongly believe that you are not guilty of what you are ignorant of. But you’re wrong.
Years ago on television, there was a program called “Hogan’s Heroes,” a silly comedy about a World War Two German prisoner of war camp with a German sergeant named Shultz, who would see or hear something against the rules and say, “I know nothing. I know nothing.” What he didn’t see or hear he wasn’t responsible for, he thought. And that’s how you might feel about your sin.
If you don’t see sin clearly for what it is, if you remain ignorant of its offense, of its criminality, of its ugliness, of its wretchedness, of its defilement, of its danger, then your corrupt heart convinces itself that it’s not fair for you to be held responsible. So you think you’re getting away with something by playing dumb about spiritual things. But no sinner gets away with such nonsense with God. Ignorance is no excuse with God. Isaiah 27.11:
“It is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.”
Do you not understand because you are ignorant? Do you not quite understand because you are young? Do you not understand because you’ve never read the Bible before? Do you not understand because you’ve never paid much attention? Listen to what God says about those who for whatever reason do not understand:
“Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.”
Do you not understand? You do not understand that God will cut you no slack because you do not understand. No mercy and no favor for those who don’t get it, for those who’ve never heard it, for those who think they are too young to be responsible, or who think the issues are too complicated. No mercy and no favor. No mercy and no favor. So, you’d better start paying attention because there is no advantage in playing dumb or being ignorant.
The second reason there must be a true sight of sin is that you cannot be set free from sin until you first see your bondage. In Romans 8.15, we see that the Holy Spirit must first be the Spirit of bondage before He can be the Spirit of adoption. So, until you see that you are bound, hand and foot, by sin you cannot be saved from sin. And this is a terrible shortcoming of decisionism, easy believism, contemporary Christianity.[9] Everywhere you go these days they will preach, “Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus.” And if a sinner comes to Jesus, he will be saved by Jesus. But until a person is cut off from hope, until a person has a true sight of his sin, until the Spirit of God has done His heart work to show the individual his bondage to sin, he won’t come to Christ. And until you truly see your own sins you won’t come to Christ. Your own sinfulness and wickedness of heart is the reason you won’t come to Christ.
Finally, Let Me Show You SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SIN
It is characteristic of sin that what your mind does not understand your heart will never be sorry for. In Acts 3.17, Peter declared that the men of Israel and their rulers had killed the Prince of life, had denied the Holy One and the Just, because of their ignorance. That doesn’t in any way excuse their terrible sin, but it is Peter’s explanation of it. Sinners commit sins because of ignorance.
Because a man doesn’t clearly see his sin, and therefore isn’t sorry for his sin, is why he commits the sin. So, if you will get a true sight of sin, come to understand its nature, figure out its essence, then perhaps God will break your heart over it.
And why is it that the heart must be broken over sin? Because with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.[10] If you will believe in Jesus you will believe in Him with your heart. But your heart will never believe in Jesus until God breaks it over sin. And your heart will never be broken over sin until you see sin for what it really is. Sadly, all around the world, do-gooder and ignorant Christians dealing with children will rush a child into praying some sinner’s prayer whose heart is just being affected by the Spirit of God, provoking the child into a premature prayer that does not result in conversion, followed by the giving to the child of a false assurance of salvation. The result? For the rest of his life, the child may continue in the persistent but erroneous persuasion that he is a Christian who ought to have assurance. But the reality is that he is lost.
Do you want to be converted to Christ? You can be converted, you know. Anyone whose heart can be broken can be converted, and God can break the most stubborn sinner’s heart. We see that.
But to see a sinner’s heartbroken, that sinner has to see sin clearly and convictingly. Will you look at your own sin? Will you examine it like King David did, like a jeweler looks at a diamond with a magnifying eye piece?
And when you look at your sins, don’t think of them like everyone else. Think of them the way God thinks of them, the way they are described in the Bible. So that when the preacher lays into sins you will not think of the sins of other people, but your own sins.
Sometimes Church kids can be so foolish that they spend their time hoping and wishing visitors will be converted, while they themselves wallow in their unbelief.
But understand, kids. This preaching isn’t for them. It’s for you. “Take heed unto thyself,” Paul told the Ephesians. It’s not selfish to take the preaching to your own heart first. It’s God’s will.
And why should you? Because you are responsible to God even if you don’t understand what’s going on. And until you do understand what’s going on and see yourself in bondage, you will not be converted.
See your sins clearly. See sin as something a bit more than “I do these things because I’m depraved.” So shallow. So ignorant.
See your sins, and your mind will understand. Then, perhaps, God will break your heart, and you will come to Christ. Jesus died on the cross to save sinners, and then He rose from the dead and is someday returning to this wicked world.
Consider your sins, and then look to the One who saves from sins.
__________
[1] Rogers, Jr., Cleon L. and Rogers III, Cleon L., The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998), page 592.
[2] Rogers, page 592.
[3] R. L. Hymers, Jr. and Christopher Cagan, Preaching To A Dying Nation, (Los Angeles, CA: Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles, 1999) and R. L. Hymers, Jr. and Christopher Cagan, Today’s Apostasy: How Decisionism Is Destroying Our Churches, (Oklahoma City, OK: Hearthstone Publishing, Ltd., 1999).
[4]Thomas Hooker, The Soul’s Preparation For Christ, (Ames, IA: International Outreach, Inc., 1994), page 10.
[5]Psalm 51.3
[6]Psalm 51.4
[7]Fritz Reinecker & Cleon Rogers, Linguistic Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1980), page 254.
[8]Second Samuel 12.7
[9] Decisionism is the belief that a person is saved by coming forward, raising the hand, saying a prayer, believing a doctrine, making a Lordship commitment, or some other external, human act, which is taken as the equivalent to, and proof of, the miracle of inward conversion; it is the belief that a person is saved through the agency of a merely external decision; the belief that performing one of these human actions shows that a person is saved.
Conversion is the result of that work of the Holy Spirit which draws a lost sinner to Jesus Christ for justification and regeneration, and changes the sinner’s standing before God from lost to saved, imparting divine life to the depraved soul, thus producing a new direction in the life of the convert. The objective side of salvation is justification. The subjective side of salvation is regeneration. The result is conversion.
[10] Romans 10.10
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