Sin Its Character & Universality
Hal Molloy · Jan 12, 2003
Major Bible Themes (2002-03), No. 28
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262251517368

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Today we're going to do another top 10 list. And the reason why you don't have handouts on your chairs is because I don't want you to see the answers. So I want you to help me. In fact, I'm going to ask 10 questions and I'm not going to answer them. And we're not going to press on until I get an answer from the class. Okay.

You're witnessing to someone, someone who's an unbeliever. And when you witness to someone, the first thing you point out is their need for the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason why you point that out is because of the sin problem. And now the question comes to you, and it's come to me just recently in talking to some fellows.

What is sin? So there's the question. So how do you answer that? How do you answer the question when they say, well, what is sin? Because the fellows I'm working with say, you know, we don't go around committing murder and adultery, and we take care of our families, and we're responsible citizens. So what do you mean, sin? So how would you describe to someone sin? That they are sinners. Why are they sinners?

Press on. Doug? Disobedience. Okay. Disobedience. Disobedience to God. All right. Discommandment. Okay. Discommandment. All right. Disobedience. All right. What else? Disobedience whenever God is not. OK, so somebody read the lesson. OK, so sin is anything that doesn't conform to his essence. All right. Anything else? I drew a picture. And this is, in terms of describing, if someone asks you what sin is, you sit down and you draw them this picture. In fact, that's what I've done with these guys. But here's sin.

I think the best definition of sin is in Romans 3.23. It says, sinned and come short of the glory of God." It's the most concise definition of sin.

And so when you think, when you think, for all have sinned and come short, come short, what do you think of? Don't you think of a mark or a target coming short of something or some kind of a goal? So I like to draw it with Here's the target, and the target is who God is, as Vani says, His essence. And that's God's glory.

For all have sinned, and the word sin, harmatia, or it's the verb form, simply means to miss the mark. That's what sin is. Sin is missing the mark. So when you're talking to somebody about the fact that they're sinners, you can just simply tell them, you know, Charlie, you've missed the mark. And the mark is the glory of God or the essence of God, who and what he is.

You've missed his absolute righteousness. You are not as righteous as God is. For you to be in the presence of God, for you to have fellowship with him, you have to be just as righteous as he is. Really? And so any deviation any minute deviation from his essence, from his righteousness, you're out. That's the righteousness that a person has to have.

And so every one of us has, if you will, missed the mark. Not only missed the mark, we all have sinned, missed the mark, and come short. And the word come short means failing to reach. And this is in the heirs tense, which says this is a fact tense and indicative mood, which is a reality in every every unbeliever's life. OK. And the coming short is a is a present tense. And you're continually coming short or failing to reach the mark. And the reason why you've missed the mark, and failing to ever reach it, is because of this. We turn our backs to God.

Like in Romans 1, where it says, when they knew God, when they knew His glory, it's talking about His glory in Romans 1, when they knew God and His glory, What did they do. What was their response. OK. And what does it say specific. They glorified him not as God. So that's what that's what man does. OK.

So however there is one there is one that has hit the mark. and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And a person who is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, his person and his worth, remember we talked about identification, that we're identified with Christ, we're in this living union with Christ, and so the believer is in this living union with Christ. So, if Christ hits the mark, guess what? Who else hits the mark? We do. Because we're in Christ. First question. We've got ten questions on our top ten list. First one, what is sin? It's simply missing the mark. Any deviation from the essence of God. Next question.

As you're reading scripture, wherever you are, you're looking at passages of scripture and sometimes it's talking about sins and sometimes it's talking about sin singular. So if you're reading through chapter 6, you'll see sin singular. Throughout all of chapter 6, it's singular. If you're reading over in Galatians Chapter 5, like 19 and 20, is talking about the sins, people's sins, in terms of fortification, murder, adultery, blah, blah, blah. It goes and lists the sins. What's the distinction? When you're looking at Scripture, the distinction between sins... Oh, whoa! Sin singular and sin plural. How's that? Whoa. Okay. Remind me to give you a correction page next week. What's the difference between sin plural and sin singular? Okay.

And usually, especially in Romans 6, when you see sin singular, there's a definite article I think almost in every case, maybe there's one, in one case in Romans 6, there's not the definite article. But normally there's a definite article, and it's talking about the sin. And it's talking about the sin nature. Because in Romans 6, like in verse 2, Paul says, what shall we say then? that we who are dead to sin, and there's a definite article, we are dead to the sin, and it's the sin nature. Death means what? Separation. So that we are dead, we have been separated from the sin nature, the sin, singular. So that's a very important distinction.

Plural are personal sins, thoughts or deeds of either omission or commission. And oftentimes, like in, especially when I talk to guys, and talk to them about sins, and they say, you know, I don't commit murder, I don't commit adultery, And my question to them is this. Let's take adultery.

Do you ever look upon, in fact, this week, one of the guys says, hey, do you remember that gal who we worked with who was like this and just a very pretty gal? And we were talking about sin. And I said, do you ever have a lustful thought towards her? Everybody did. And I said, do you know that that's adultery? No. No way. Yeah, that's adultery. The Lord said, you know, just thinking about that is adultery.

So that's why when we put the definition here, sins are personal sins. Sins, they could be just thoughts. They don't have to be deeds. Sin, singular, often with a definite article, the sin, normally refers to man's sin nature. And so, several weeks back, Roger had a distinction between sins and sin, and he showed you a tree, showed you that the The root of the tree is the sin nature, and the fruit are the sins.

Now, I've expanded this somewhat. Expanded it in terms of, we think of the two trees that are in the garden. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, and we think of the tree of life. Often when we think of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we automatically think of good and evil from whose perspective? I knew that. No, I mean, when you think of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, don't you think of the tree in the garden from God's perspective, of God's perspective of what's good and what's evil, right?

But the thing is this, once Adam fell, The only thing that man can think of when he thinks of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is good from his perspective and evil from his perspective. Because he doesn't have God's perspective. So the tree of knowledge of good and evil, post-fall, the root is the sin nature, the fruit are sins, and whether they be human good, and or or human evil. It's it's still it's still thin.

So that. Let's see. Hate to use examples or personal examples because this tape might go somewhere and somebody be listening to it. So let me just do it very generally and say this. Let's say a person is wanting to please God and just helping people, understanding what people's needs are, and on a weekly basis is helping a person, whether or not taking them to the grocery store to get their grocery shopping done, helping in the church, etc., etc. and just doing all of these, quote, good things from his perspective, thinking that, he or she thinking that, if I do this, then I'm going to please God. You see this?

Verses, as opposed to walking in the Spirit and saying, Lord, here am I. And I'm available, Lord. I'm yours, whatever you would have me to do. And doing good works from the perspective of that it's God's good work, that He has the plan. We don't have a clue what God's plan of good works is. He has a plan and it's been predetermined, by the way.

Ephesians 2.10 says that good works have been predetermined by Him. He knows what the plan is.

We don't. But just being sensitive to Him and to needs of people because Christ himself is concerned, say, about the body, and having the same concern that Christ has for the body, and doing works from that perspective as opposed to, you know, I think I'll do is thus, thus, and thus to please God. You see this distinction that I'm trying to make? I'm not sure if I'm making it very clear. Because I don't want to discourage anybody from doing good works, because we're created to do just that. We're created to do good works.

So, anyhow, this is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and so if we're walking in the flesh, this is where we are. We're hopping around this tree. But all of the fruit is just going to be human good or human evil. It's still going to be sins, if you will, from God's perspective. But if we're walking in the Spirit, then we're in this tree, in the tree of life. And what God is doing He is producing the fruit, or the Holy Spirit is producing the fruit through us.

The fruit of the Spirit is in Galatians chapter 5, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc. That's the distinction in terms of our walk. Next question. Do men become sinners because they sin? Okay. And the answer is no. And most people shook their head no. And the reason is we're born with a sin nature. Okay. Right.

So the point is, man is a sinner from the time of birth. So all of you who have little children, right? And you know better than us who, it's been a while since we've raised kids, right? You know, as you look at your children, that they've got a sin nature, right? They were born that way. You never had to teach them how to sin, did you?

Sure. Sure. At conception. Thank you. Okay. So the point is men sin because they have a sin nature, and that's at conception. And at birth it manifests itself. Right at birth it manifests itself. So Romans 5.12 says this, For by one man sin came into the world, and death by sin. And death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.

The interesting thing about it is this. Think with me for a moment. For by one man, who's that one man? Sin came into the world. Adam. For by one man, Adam, sin came into the world. Now if I told you that there's a definite article in front of the word sin, what would you say that sin is? The sin nature. For by one man, the sin, the sin nature came into the world, and death by the sin nature. Notice that death comes by the sin nature, which comes at conception. So when the baby is born, it's born dead. Do you agree? How? spiritually, born dead spiritually.

So, as Roger pointed out last week, let me just go back to Romans 5, 12. For by one man the sin, the sin nature, came into the world, and death, and there's a definite article in front of the word death, and the death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. and the death is referring to the death of Adam. It goes back to the one man. And so what Roger went through last week is in Genesis where God gave a commandment to Adam and said, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. But of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, you can't eat.

And the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And Roger pointed out last week in the Hebrew, thou shalt surely die. It's better translated, dying thou shalt die. Dying thou shalt die. And the first dying is what? Spiritual. So Adam, the day you eat thereof, dying you shall surely die. Dying, you will die spiritually. you shall surely die yet in the future physically. So 900 and some odd years later, he died physically.

OK, so that is the death that's talking about in Romans 5.12 that is passed upon all men, spiritual death and physical death.

And Roger went through, yeah, it's interesting. We were talking about this. Well, we talk about this all the time, Roger and myself, the overlap there is between many of these chapters. But it's OK, because I think what it does is at least reinforces the truths that are throughout the study.

But everyone is born in the image of Adam, because in Genesis 5.3, take a look at it for a moment.

Let's turn back to Genesis 5.3. And this is a critical point. I'm going to start reading at verse 1.

This is the book of the generations of Adam and the day that God created him. How did he create Adam? It says in verse 1, in the likeness of God made he him. Verse 2, male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. Verse 3, and Adam lived 130 years and beget a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth." Notice that this is after the Fall. So Adam begets a son in his own image, in his own likeness, which is a fallen image and a fallen likeness of God.

Marilyn, you got a question? There's somebody else that read the chapter. That's wonderful. Marilyn's question is that as she was reading the book, it talked about imputed sin. And she had a question about that. What does that mean? Roger and I were talking about that earlier. And the reason why I'm not going through that is as follows. Let me tell you what Dr. Schaffer is saying.

He's saying that the very sin of disobedience, because someone said Sid was disobedient, the very sin of disobedience that Adam did, committed, in terms of eating the fruit, that that very sin is imputed to every one of us. That sin. Even though we didn't commit that very sin, that sin is imputed to us.

So when you get to Romans 5.12, for by one man, the sin entered into the world and death by sin, the sin, Dr. Chafer is saying, that the sin is The imputed sin, the very sin that Adam committed, is imputed to you, plus the very nature that he has is also yours.

So this sin he defines in Romans 5.12 as twofold. Now, that is not very clear to me.

What is very clear to me, in Romans 5.12, that the sin is the very nature, because I go back to Genesis 5.3, that we're in the likeness and image of Adam, and he has a fallen nature, a sin nature. So that is very clear. I can see that very clearly in Scripture. It's hard for me to see the imputed sin clearly in Scripture.

So that's why I haven't taught it. Is that okay? By the way, how do you like this thing? Isn't this wonderful? Now that I've fouled it up. I didn't see any concrete reference. You know, he makes the statement, but I didn't see any concrete reference that I could hang my hat on. If I can't hang my hat on it scripturally, then it's hard for me to teach it. I'm sorry. You know, I didn't look in his Systematic Theology, this EPA reference there.

And I'm not saying he's wrong, you know, it's just that I'm kind of unclear on it. Yes. And based upon Scripture and just going back and forth in Scripture, I, you know, I... So, anyhow. There's a homework assignment for somebody who wants to look at that. OK. We finished this question. Men became sinners because they sinned. Men sinned because they have a sin nature. They are born in the image of Adam, which we just looked at in 5.3. Adam fell and possessed the sin nature. And there's the principle. And the principle holds true all the time. Like begets like. That's a principle that you've got to forge into your mind.

It's like my daughter used to raise horses. And she used to go out and sleep in the barn when the horse was ready to deliver. And she slept in the barn night after night and never could see the foal being born. And then when she'd go back in the house and sleep in the house, And the mayor knew exactly if someone was there, and the mayor wanted to have that done in private. But every time we'd go out in the morning, there was a horse.

And there wasn't a cow. There wasn't a dog. There was a horse, because like begets like. Cats don't deliver dogs. They deliver cats. So humans, like begets like. Adam begets like kind. We were, past tense, we were just like Adam. And now we were born again, like begets like. What are we like now? What's our image now? What's our likeness now? Say it all at once. Thank you.

Christ's very image and likeness. Remember John chapter 17, verse 22, where Christ says, Father, He's praying to the Father. Father, the glory that you have given me, I have given them." Perfect tense. The moment that we believe, time passed, that Christ has given us his very glory, his very essence. And it's perfect tense with abiding results, and it buys right into the present and into the future. So, positionally, we are in the very image and likeness of Christ. Like begets like. We were born from above. Like begets like. How come Dave always finishes his top ten? That's Letterman. Question.

What has Christ done with man's sins, plural? Wonderful. So he died, paid the penalty for them, and well, I don't want to show you those answers. So he has paid the penalty for everyone's sins. Let me ask you a question. Unbelievers, are their sins paid for? So that as you're talking to an unbeliever, you can say, Charlie, do you know that you're not going to go to hell for your sins, plural, right? Because Christ paid the penalty for them. You're not going to be judged because of your sins. Is that right? Could we tell them? Can we tell somebody that? Isn't that a wonderful message to tell someone?

That your sins are forgiven, past, present, future, because people get hung up on their sins. How could God ever accept me because of what I've done? And when you can tell a person that it's not an issue with God anymore, they're paid for. And the only issue with God is his son. Do you believe that Christ paid that penalty for them? That's the issue. No longer your sins. Because you can point out that God is satisfied with Christ's sacrifice.

Because Christ, it says in 1 John 2.2, that he is the propitiation or the satisfaction for our sins, and not for our sins only, who are believers, but what? For the sins of the whole world.

Okay. God satisfied. Question. Number six. Will unbelievers go to hell because of their sins? No? Okay. So now tell me why. Why no? Why won't they go to hell because of their sins? They're paid for. Will unbelievers go to hell? Okay. So why are they going to hell? Okay. Do you believe that Christ died for those sins? Okay.

Rejection of Christ. still have the old nature. And what did Christ do to the old nature? He condemned it. And so an unbeliever is united with his or her sin nature. The sin nature is condemned So guess what happens to the unbeliever? They go along with their sin nature. The sin nature is condemned. They're in that living union with the sin nature. So they are condemned.

Is there any way that they could be separated from that sin nature? Have you been separated from the sin nature? How? Okay, so we've put our trust and faith in the person and the work of Christ, and when we did, we were now identified with Christ, and we were separated from that sin nature.

Christ died unto the sin nature, we died with him, and death means separation, so that when he died, we died, We were separated from our sin nature, then put in a living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. So no longer are we in this living union with our sin nature. We're in a living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. But we can still fellowship or abide over there in that sin nature.

But we take Christ with us when we do that. Right? Because we're in that living union with Christ. Okay. So the point is, with unbelievers, their sins are forgiven, but their sin nature is condemned. So they are condemned because of their union with the sin nature.

It's only in Christ, in Romans 8.1, there is therefore now No condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. So believers are not condemned.

Here's a question. Are you a sinner? You're talking to somebody, you're talking to this unbeliever, and this unbeliever says, well, if I'm a sinner, let me ask you a question. Are you a sinner? What's your answer? You don't know? Well, hold it. Okay. Okay. See, this is a trick question because you have to ask me a question. You have to ask me a question. Hey, Hal, are you talking about positionally or conditionally? Right? I got some trick questions in here. So let's take positionally. Are you a sinner positionally? What are you?

A saint, right? Paul writes to the Corinthians who were steeped in sin. And what does he call them? To the saints at Corinth, right? Steeped in sin. To the saints in Corinth. You're a saint. Don't ever forget that. You're not a sinner positionally. But do you sin? Yes, you sin and I sin. OK. Oh, I didn't show you the answers. Oh, yeah. In position, believers are saints, never sinners. In condition or practice, believers do sin and the Lord wants us to confess those sins.

I always call myself a saint. I think we should make that distinction. I think we need to make the distinction clear to people when we say that we're saints Because most people think of a saint as being anointed, like they're trying to make, what's her name down in India? Mother Teresa, a saint. She probably is a saint.

You see this because people have in their minds that there's only a select few, only a very, very select few that can ever be a saint. But we have to understand what a saint is, one who's set apart unto God. forever and ever that only God makes people saints. Men don't commission people to be saints. I mean, they do, but that's not their job. I would say, positionally, God sees me as a saint.

But in my practice, I do sin. Do you as a believer have a sin nature? I think in our discussion this morning, everyone believes, yeah, we have a sin nature. And I think the key is to understand, because There's a lot of teaching today that says, for example, John MacArthur, who I respect highly, says that our sin nature has been annihilated, it's been eradicated. So there's a lot of teaching today that you'll come across that says, no, you don't have a sin nature.

But you do. I mean, you know you do. I know I do. Because from whence comes the sin that comes out from me, right? Where does it come from? And it's not just bad habits. It's that nature that's within me. And as I say there, it's our greatest enemy within. That's our greatest enemy right there.

What has God done with your sin nature? What has He done? Sue answered it before. He's what? Condemned it. Nailed it to the cross. So Paul could say, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I. But Christ lives in me. In the life that I now live, in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am crucified with Christ. Christ was crucified. He became that sin, the very sin nature that we have. He became that sin. And here are the things, here's what happened.

He became that sin, what the sin nature is, 2 Corinthians 5.21.

He rendered it inoperative in Romans 6.6.

Somebody turn to Romans 6.6 and read it, please. While we were still helpless at the right time, Okay. Six, six. Okay. So, and somebody have a King James. Okay. So in King James it says that the body of sin might be destroyed, and that's where a lot of teachers get the doctrine that our sin nature has been eradicated.

But notice in 6.6, he's rendered it inoperative. So if we're walking in the Spirit, it's inoperative, it's idle. We're cut loose from it. made powerless. And then in Romans 6.10, he died unto it.

In Romans 8.3, he condemned it, as we talked about before. Number two, what is your relationship to the sin nature? Okay? Christ died unto it. Therefore, you died unto it. Why? Because you're in Christ, you're in this living union with Christ, and you were put on the cross with Him. He died unto it. You died unto it. You're separated unto that sin nature.

So, again, here's a position. See, here's another trick question, because you should have asked me, are you talking about positionally or conditionally? Because in our position, we're dead, we're separated, cut loose. Now, I should have answered Sue by saying, well, what do you mean we're dead to it? I sin all the time. So, I have to say positionally. But in practice, we can fulfill its lusts and desires.

And in Romans 6.12, which we don't have enough time to go through, but you can read that. Question number one of the top ten.

How should you respond to the desires of your sin nature? So the sin nature comes at you with all kinds of desires. It comes at you with desires of selfishness, of being selfish. It comes at you with a desire to be angry. It comes at you with a desire to be resentful, to strike back at someone. It comes at you with all kinds of desires.

And I made a list. It's a three-page list of these desires of the sin nature. which since I could only type about 10 words a minute, I couldn't get it done for for this class. But there's all of these desires that come at us, and they are very, very subtle. And the thing that I find is this, is the more I come to know Christ, the more I come to see the subtleness, the subtleness of sin within me.

And I say, wow, Lord, that's wrong. I've been doing that all my life. That is totally wrong. That's not consistent with who Christ is. So now, how do I respond? As the Holy Spirit points out, convicts me of these desires, what do I do? Do you have these desires like I do? Maybe you don't. Okay. All right. Look at the promises of God's Word. And Sue says Romans 6 11.

And why don't you read that? Well, what does that mean? It says, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, the sin, that's an article there, the sin nature, and alive unto God. So here comes the desire, and it says, hey, Hal, you reckon yourself to be dead. You consider yourself, you count it as true, that you're dead, that you're separated, you're cut loose from the sin nature that's producing that desire. Ray, you don't buy that.

No, I think after that, then I've got to back out to Scripture. Because in the practical standpoint, spiritually, yes, the practical thing is going to go deeper. Okay, so I think the bottom line here is that we do, just like Sue said, we reckon ourselves, consider ourselves dead or separated from the sin nature, that we don't need to be a slave to it. It doesn't need to drive us. We don't need to be a slave to it.

And we're to take God's side and stand against the sin nature. God's against it. We lock arms with God. We stand with Him against the sin nature. And the only way we can reckon ourselves dead unto the sin nature is as we're walking in the Spirit, not the flesh. Because if we're walking in the flesh, there's no way that we can reckon ourselves dead, because we are dead. So we have to reckon ourselves from the position of life. As we're walking and abiding with Christ, that's when sin nature comes at us with these desires. And we're then to reckon ourselves dead to it and to keep on beholding Him.

The answer is beholding Him. Roger is going to hand these out. Yeah, let's close in prayer. Father, again, we are just thankful for your Word and thankful, Father, for revealing to us as to who we are in Christ and what Christ has done for us. And Father, we thank You that we can behold Him, behold His very glory. We thank You for the wonderful process that goes on as we behold Him through Your Word, that the Spirit of God conforms us to that very image. We pray, Father, that others may see him through us, that we may have the opportunity to provide a witness to those who are outside of Christ, and we give you thanks now in Christ's name.