Sin and Salvation
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The Word of God never belittles sin. Sin, to God, is heinous. It is black, without one ray of white. Sin to God is exceeding sinful. There is nothing in it but sorrow and shame and suffering.
There are some who try to excuse their sin, inasmuch as they were born in sin, and therefore inherited a sinful nature. This is wrong. We dare have no pity toward that which would wreck and ruin us.
Sin may be painted in the brightest of colors; it may be draped in the most marvelous of robes, but sin is always sin. Covering its ugliness does not lessen its power. Satan with artistic brush may paint sin with rosy hue until it shall appear full of glory, but it is like the colors of the asp; it does not lessen the venom of its sting.
When the serpent approached Eve, it was the most beautiful of creatures, but it led to the wreckage of the race.
Let all, young and old, be warned. Never compromise with sin. Never speak of a good sin, and a bad sin; for all are bad. Do not be willing to fellowship with those sins which appeal to your carnal nature. God has said, "Abstain from all appearance of evil."
We need to look beyond sin in its infancy and behold sin in its full growth. That which seems, at first, but a trifle, will prove itself ultimately to be deadly and damnable. He who plays with sin plays with dynamite.
Dr. Alexander MacLaren says, "I remember away up in the lonely Highland Valley, where, beneath a tall, black cliff, all weather worn and cracked and seamed, there lies at the foot, resting on the green sward that creeps around its base, a huge rock that is fallen from the face of the precipice." A shepherd had once passed beneath that rock as it first lay high up in the mountain side; then, suddenly, it rent itself from its bed and leaped down, pinning the man beneath it. So it is with sin. In a moment of unexpectant fury, it too will sweep its way against the artless man who was willing to trust in its shadow.
I. THE WHOLE WORLD GUILTY UNDER SIN (Romans 3:19)
It is folly for the sons of men to evade the issue all are sinners and, therefore, all stand guilty before God. To deny the fact of sin does not lessen the fact. To cover sin does not remove sin. Adam and Eve sought to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, however, their robing was rejected by God. What man covers, God uncovers.
There is no use to cavil. All the world stands guilty before God. No man can stand requited of his sin. The sentence of judgment must fall. Over the head of every son of Adam is written the verdict, "guilty." "He that believeth not is condemned already." He does not need to wait the sentence of the Great White Throne. That last great and final assize is not set to proclaim guilt, it is set that every sinner may receive judgment according to his deeds. The fact of guilt is already certain; the sentence of punishment, alone, awaits the full fruition of each sinner's sin. The wicked are like men shut up in the death row, awaiting the hour when their final lot shall be made known.
The judge on the bench of this world may pronounce "death" on the electric chair, further he cannot go; the Judge on the Great White Throne passes on beyond the powers of the earthly judge, and pronounces the punishment that lies in the great forevermore.
The sinner stands guilty before God. He stands with his mouth stopped, with no word to utter, no plea to make. He dare not come with an array of lawyers, or with an accumulation of excuses. He merely stands guilty, awaiting the hour when judgment shall be spoken and he shall receive according to the extent of his deeds.
II. THE SWEEP AND SWAY OF SIN (Romans 3:10-18)
When sin entered into the world, what wreckage it wrought! God said to Eve, "What is this that thou hast done?" Eve did not know the entail of her sin God knew. In our Scripture for today we have a view of the sweep and sway of sin. Sin may at times seem to lie dormant. The sinner may not appear so bad. The story of sin may be almost roseate in its view. The awful revelation of sin's fruitage, as set forth in this text, is not, therefore, always manifest.
Sin may be chained, hedged in; it may even be decked and draped with white raiment, but sin is still heinous sin.
Our Scripture describes sin unveiled, in its real character and harvest. The vine may be pruned, its limbs cut down, until only a small stock remains. Nevertheless when the sap begins to rise the vine will put forth its leaves, send forth its shoots, and bear its fruit. Sin may be pruned, lopped off, cut away, but so long as the heart is the covert in which it dwells it will ever seek to bud and bloom and grow.
Truly, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." From it comes forth all uncleanness. Who can know it?
It is the same with the Jew as with the Gentile; with the cultured as with the unlearned; with women as with men all alike are gone out of the way.
III. THE WAGES OF SIN (Romans 6:23)
Sin pays its wages not in coin, but in enduring miseries. We are living in a day of decreased wages, and many are the complaints that escape the lips of the employed. There is, however, one place where the present-day depression has not hit; one place where wages have not slumped the wages of sin are the same.
Sin pays its wages now. One criminal said, "I have been twice in State's prison, but my worst punishment is in being what I am." Sin pays off in death to every hope; it plays havoc with every holy dream. Sin takes the light out of the eye, the clearness out of the brain, the joy out of the life.
God does not always pay the sinner off in this life. Sometimes the wicked flourish like a green bay tree. They are not in trouble like other men. God, in patience, holds back the curse. Finally, however, the wicked will be cast into hell, and all nations which forget God. How will they be cast down as in a moment! How will they be utterly consumed with terrors!
Beware of sin, Did you ever watch a fly as it lighted upon the "fly paper," thinking to have its fill of sweets? When, however, it sought to fly, it found itself caught in the meshes of the sticky paper. The harder it tried to fly, the more and more was it held fast with leg and wing. So is sin. It is illusive. It, outwardly, carries an appeal to the flesh, but it soon encloses its victims in the unrelentless arms of its strength,
The wages of sin are certain,
Each one will, in full, be paid;
No "cut" in its wage awaits you,
Full pay will be surely made.
IV. THE SINNER'S ONLY HOPE (Romans 3:20-25)
1. The Law cannot save. The Law is holy and just and good, but the Law is made helpless, as a Saviour, because it is made broken and lame by man's sin. The Law affords safety to the righteous, and to the holy alone; it offers peace only to those who obey it. To those who transgress its precepts it brings nothing but wrath.
2. Faith can save. Faith proffers no self-merit; it clings to the merit of Christ. Faith admits, "I cannot," but it assents, "God can." Faith meets the demand of the Law, because it clothes the believer with the righteousness of Christ. Before God's righteousness the Law has no complaint to offer. Faith admits man's guilt, but it robes the guilty in God's linen, clean and white.
3. Grace provides the redemption. We are justified freely by God's Grace. Faith could not operate apart from God and Grace as faith would have had no channel in which to run, no foundation on which to build.
God, being rich in Grace, showed faith the way. Grace provides the meal, faith partakes of the food, Grace grows the fruit, faith plucks it. Grace opens the door, faith enters in.
4. The Blood of Christ provided for the remission of sins. The Blood became the propitiation, the mercy seat, where Grace and faith may meet. Neither the Grace of God, nor the faith of the sinner, could have availed apart from the Cross of Christ. Before we could be allowed by Grace through faith to wear the robe of God's righteousness, man's sin had to be satisfied in such a manner that God's justice would be sustained.
Not at the sacrifice of honor, and truth, and legal requirements, could God save the sinner. God could not forgive without there being a ground for forgiveness. God could not reckon the unholy as holy, or the unrighteous as righteous, until He had made atonement full and replete for our sins.
On the Cross of Calvary was grace sufficient
All our sins and guilt to satisfy:
Yet, the Cross of Christ becomes to us efficient
When by faith we do on Christ rely,
There it was, on Calvary, Christ died for sinners,
There He set the sin-bound captive free;
There He was made sin, that we might be made righteous;
Yet, we must believe if we would righteous be,
V. LET NOT SIN REIGN (Romans 6:12)
This study is upon regnant sin. It is not sin in, but sin reigning that is up for consideration. It would be a blessed state if we could be done forever with the carnal nature. An enemy, inside the city walls, is ever dangerous. For our part we will rejoice when we enter the New Jerusalem where nothing of sin can be found. The present world is dominated by Satan and by sin, it is a sorry world on that account.
It will be glory, when the last vestige of sin is gone from the heart and life of the saint. In this body we groan. The old man seems ever to hang around. The fact of sin's presence we cannot doubt. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Of one thing, however, we are assured we are commanded not to let sin reign in our mortal body. Sin cannot have power over us. If we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
Regnant sin, in a believer, contradicts every spiritual blessing which God has provided. In the unbeliever sin always reigns unto death. This cannot be true in the believer.
If sin is a welcomed "guest" in the heart, it will set the house afire; it will wreck its abode; it will work out death. Sin in the heart must be, to the believer, a person "non grata" not wanted, not recognized, not obeyed.
The believer should live as though sin were not there. He should reckon himself alive to his new man, and dead to every pulsing of the old man. He should give no heed, no quarter, to the promptings of the flesh.
The Cross of Christ has made us free from sin's penalty; the risen Christ has made us free from sin's power. Shall we who, potentially, died to sin in His death, and are made free from sin in His resurrection, continue to sin? God forbid! "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"
Dead to sin, to selfish pride
Dead with Christ I'm crucified;
Made alive in Christ to be
Sanctified, from sin set free.
VI. THE PLACE OF NO CONDEMNATION (Romans 8:1)
The seventh chapter of Romans closes with a most pitiable wail. That wail discloses the despair of a life that has met defeat. Listen to its cry: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Such is the cry of every soul who, unimpowered, seeks to meet the demands of God's righteous Law. The ethics of Christ are too high, too holy for the flesh. The requirements of the Law are far beyond the reach of the natural man.
Shall we, then, weep out our defeat forever? God forbid! There is a way out; it is a God-provided way. From the moans of defeat, we pass, in Romans seven, in one breath, to the shouts of victory. Here is the shout: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
The result is that the place of "no condemnation" is found. The "no condemnation" of our theme is not a "no condemnation" from God. The expression refers to the believer himself. He has passed from a sense of defeat, into a place of conscious victory. In Romans seven the cry is one of self despair; in Romans eight, the shout is one of self-freedom from despair.
How was the change wrought? One verse says, "Through Jesus Christ our Lord." The next phrase says, "Them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
The flesh could not attain victory over captivity to sin; the Lord gives the believer victory through the Spirit.
Victory is realized only when we walk in the Spirit. If we walk after the flesh, we shall be defeated; if we walk after the Spirit, we shall be victorious. If we walk after the flesh, we cannot fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law; if we walk in the Spirit, those requirements are fully met The flesh minds the things of the flesh, the Spirit minds the things of the Spirit. The flesh cannot be subject to the Law; the Spirit is always subject. The flesh cannot please God, the Spirit always pleases Him. The flesh only produces death, the Spirit produces life and peace.
There can be no life of victory apart from a Spirit-filled, Spirit-led life.
There is a place of victory
Made certain and complete
There is a place which knows no sin
And suffers no defeat;
That place is found in Christ, for those
Who do the Spirit own,
'Tis realized by all the saints
Who walk in Him, alone.
VII. THE CULMINATING PLEA (Romans 12:1-2)
After leaving the place of victory and of glorious peace in Romans eight, the Holy Spirit gives us words relative to Israel. Then, in chapter twelve, He presents His great plea to all saints. Here is the plea: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice * * unto God."
The "therefore" of this verse links us on to all that goes before. It is as though God had said, "Ye were sinners ;" "Ye are Blood-bought and Blood-washed"; "Ye are saved by Grace;" "Ye are given victory through the Lord Jesus Christ THEREFORE PRESENT YOUR BODIES." How can we do less?
Gratitude should cause every one of us to yield ourselves unto God, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. If He has given us life in Christ Jesus, we should gladly give that life in service unto Him. If we have been ministered unto, we should minister.
Jesus Christ, on the Cross, gave Himself a sacrifice, in death, unto us. Let us give ourselves, in life, a sacrifice unto Him. This is holy and acceptable unto God.
Consecration calls for concentration of all that we are and have. It should be complete, and not partial.
We cannot say to God, "I will go with Thee anywhere, but to China." Our yielding must be entire it must be "anywhere." We must cry unto the Lord, who is the Captain on our cruise of life "Full steam ahead into the complete will of God."
"Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way,
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will.
While I am waiting, yielded and still."
AN ILLUSTRATION
AUGUSTINE'S STORY
"Take heed of giving way to sin, The heart that was easily troubled before, when once it is inured to sin, loseth all its sensitiveness and tenderness, and what seemed intolerable at first grows into a delight. Alipius, St. Austin's friend, first abhorred the bloody spectacles of the gladiators, but gave himself leave, through the importunity of friends, to be present for once. He would not so much as open his eyes at first; but at length, when the people shouted, he gave himself liberty to see, and then not only beheld the spectacles with delight, but drew others to behold what himself once loathed." "The story has had its counterpart in thousands of instances. Men who shuddered at the sight of a dead bird have, by familiarity with cruelty, come to commit murder without compunction. Those who sipped half-a-glass of wine have come to drink by the gallon. * * There is no safety if we venture an inch over the boundary line; indeed, little allowances are more dangerous than greater compliances, since conscience does not receive a wound, and yet the man is undone, and falls by little and little.
"Come, my soul, leave sin altogether. Do not give Sodom so much as a look, nor take from it so much as a thread. Do not set a foot within her doors, for God abhors the abode of sin, and would have His people refrain their foot from it.