Music In a day full of conflicting opinions and ideas, the Word of God stands true, and the Bible is the source for absolute truth. In these days of confusion and questions, it is so important to know what the Bible says. In today's study, let's ask the Lord to open our heart and mind as Scott Pauley leads us into Scripture to help us discover God's absolute truth. Whatever happened to sin? You know, many years ago, people used to talk about sin. Preachers used to preach against sin. People used to fear sin. But now, there seems to be so little talk about it. And yet, while we're talking about it less, it seems sin in our world and in many of our lives is growing. It's getting bigger. left unchecked apart from God. Let me give you one verse today as we begin our study of what the Bible says about sin. Romans chapter 5 and verse number 12 says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." That's a powerful verse. There's a lot of doctrine, a lot of truth wrapped up in that one verse. This is what the Bible says about sin. Now, we most recently talked about what the Bible says about man, and there's a natural progression here, because man enters into the world, and soon on its heels, sin enters into the world. Wherefore, as by one man, who is that one man? That's Adam. By Adam, sin entered into the world. That means that the state of sin, fallen humanity, began in the garden. We trace it all the way back to the very beginning. Someone has said that woven through the Bible there are cords or threads that are consistent throughout. One of those is the gold thread of God's promises. It's woven throughout. God's faithful. One of them is the red thread or the crimson thread of the blood of Jesus and blood atonement, sacrifice for sin. Aren't you glad for the mercy of God that is faithful? But one of those cords that is woven throughout from beginning to end is the black cord of man's sin, of disobedience. And Romans 5.12 tells us not only where it came from, but where it led to. The Bible says, Wherefore is by one man's sin entered into the world and death by sin. James says it this way, that lust, when it is finished, brings sin, and sin, when it is finished, brings death. So where does sin lead to? It always leads to the same place. In every generation and in every nation, in every person and in every place, sin always produces the same thing. It produces death. Did you know sin is older than the world? It's certainly older than man because there was sin in the universe before there was sin on earth. You remember that sin began not first with Adam but with the tempter that came to Adam and Eve. It began with Lucifer. Sin began in the heart of one that was created but thought he knew better than his creator. And from the very beginning, sin always led to destruction, to death. The Bible passes this judicial statement on all of humanity in Romans 5 verse 12, and so death passed upon all men. The gavel fell. The judge says the sentence is death. Romans chapter 3 verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all missed the mark. We're all sinners. And because of that, the sentence of death is passed upon every one of us. Romans 6 23 says, the wages of sin is death. There's not a single person listening to me right now that's not a sinner, not one. Every last one of us is a sinner. Now, we don't like to think about it. You may not want to hear this today, and I really don't enjoy talking about it, but there's no fact so evident and no subject more important than the subject of sin because sin is the reason Christ died. You see, you can't appreciate the good news until you understand the bad news. Sin is the thing that keeps men from God. Sin is the thing that holds back heaven's blessing. In a sense, sin connects to every doctrinal thing we're talking about. It connects to our theology, what we believe about God, because God is holy and hates sin. It connects to what we believe about Jesus Christ because that's why Christ died. He's the sinless Son of God who died for sin. It connects to what we believe about the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit comes to reprove the world of sin. It certainly connects to what we believe about man because it's through our disobedience that through Adam's disobedience that many were made sinners. And it is through our daily disobedience and our own sin that fellowship is broken with God. I'm telling you, we must understand what the Bible says, not what people say. Some folks say, well, you know, it's not really sin, and they've started rebranding it and renaming it. Oh, but I say to you, we must call it what God calls it. We must say about it what God says about it. We must understand sin from the perspective of the mind of God, not the perspective of a so-called moral society. Why is that? Because society's mores, the standards, can change. Man's opinion changes with the wind. But God's attitude about sin never changes. And the only way to be free of sin is to know the truth. Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Now, here's the most difficult part of talking about sin. All right, you ready for it? Our heart is so sinful that oftentimes we don't even understand how sinful it is. Jeremiah chapter 17 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You see, I need to understand how sin works in me. If I'm going to hate it, if I'm going to despise it and deal with it in the right way, let God deal with it in my life, then I must hate it like God hates it. As sinners, it's very easy for us to spot sin in someone else's life. But what about the sin in my own life? I can spot your sin at a hundred yards and tell you all about it and what's wrong with it, but, oh, my own heart lies to me. And Satan is a liar. And so sin can captivate you. It can bring its delusion into your mind. And what does it lead to? It always leads Romans 7 and verse 13 says, Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. Would you meditate on those words? Exceeding sinful. Has your sin become exceeding sinful to you? It's exceeding sinful to God. God hates it. I wonder, I've even been meditating on this recently in my own life, do I hate my own sin? It's easy for me to hate everybody else's sin and want everybody else to get right with God. It's easy for me to fuss at the darkness around me and miss the darkness that is creeping into my own soul. Do you hate your sin? We can talk about the origin of sin. We all know the origin of sin in the universe was the devil. We've talked about that when we talked about the devil. And the origin of sin in the world, read Genesis chapter three, commonly called the fall of man. A man disobeyed God and immediately sin entered into the world. So we can talk about the origin of sin. We can talk about the effects of sin. But I want you to think today about the reality of sin in your own life. I want you to think about what sin costs you. I want you to think not only about the evil that sin brings into your life, I want you to think about the good that sin keeps you from. You see, perhaps the greatest judgment is not what we get, it's what we miss. Imagine getting to heaven someday and seeing all of the answers to prayer that you never received, all of the blessings God had reserved for you, all of the good things God wanted to do, all of the people God wanted you to reach except for one thing, and that was your sin stood between you and God. And if your sin stands between you and God, then your sin is standing between God and God's purpose in your life. And my friend, that's a fearful thing. You know, one of the things that's missing today is the fear of God in our world. Romans 1 says, describing sin in the world, there is no fear of God before their eyes. And I want you to pray today. I'm praying today, Lord, help me to see sin like you see it, hate it like you hate it, and help me to look beyond sin to a holy God and help me to fear God. Help me to love righteousness and hate iniquity in my own life. Help me to take what the Bible says about sin and apply it to my own heart. Repeating what other people have said about the Bible is not enough. We must know the biblical reason behind what we believe. We hope you will visit us at etj.bible to access our library of Bible teaching resources, including book-by-book studies of Scripture. You'll also find studies to watch, listen to, or read. We are so grateful for those who pray for us, who share the biblical content, and for those who invest to help us advance this ministry worldwide. Again, thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us next time on Enjoying the Journey.