Sin Problem in the Christian Life, Part 3

The point: Ensure your repentance is flavoured with gospel perspectives - seeing sin in the light of the shrouded heavens of Golgotha, not just the lightning of Sinai.

Judas confessed his sin ('I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood'), made restitution (throwing down thirty pieces of silver), and felt deep grief. Yet his repentance was purely legal - so heavy it led him to hang himself. The example of what worldly sorrow produces.

He went right back into the temple and said, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. He made restitution. He threw down his thirty pieces of silver right in the midst of the temple. He had deep grief.

10:54 - 11:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Learn to acknowledge sin in a manner consistent with the gospel, or you will either harden into indifference or despair into legal bondage.

A person who knows that every time he eats raw carrots he gets a bellyache eventually refuses to even see them. So believers who acknowledge sin in legal bondage get so weary of the misery that they begin to push sin under the surface - the high road to hardness of heart.

It's like the person who knows. Every time he eats raw carrots, he gets a bellyache. Every time he sees a raw carrot, bellyache, he wants nothing to do with it.

25:25 - 25:32 Read in full sermon

In Peter's hour of denial, the Lord turned and looked upon him. Just a look - but from the One who had called him by the Galilean shore, who had been nothing but good to him - and Peter went out and wept bitterly. The broken heart of evangelical grief, not legal terror.

and he looks and just a look from that Savior thinking of all that the Savior had done from the moment he had called Peter there by the Galilean shore and all through those years together the kindness, the patience, the long suffering and when the Lord looks at him the mind reflects on that awesome fact Have I treated so gracious a Lord so foully? Can I have ringing in my ears my curses and my oaths for one who has done nothing but good to me? And it breaks his heart. And my friend, if you're a Christian, there is no power to break your heart like the power of a look from the Son of God.

33:27 - 34:22 Read in full sermon

Martin pictures two extremes: the child who trips lightly into his father's presence and says 'By the way, Pop, I broke one of your rules, sorry about that' - and the child who huddles in the garage shivering for hours afraid to come near his gracious father. Neither honours the father; both dishonour the relationship.

Now what would you think of the child who after he had willfully and deliberately violated one of his father's precepts, one of his father's directives, the child just came tripping lightly into the presence of his father and said, Hey dad, hey pop, you know what I just did? What did you do son, daughter? What did you do? Oh, I just broke one of your rules.

37:22 - 37:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The grief is real, and the pain is real. But there is no sin that is greater than the grace of God.

A husband has spoken sharp words to his wife, come and said 'Honey, I'm sorry.' At that moment he genuinely purposes never to say such things again. Ask him three seconds later if it may happen again before the 50th anniversary - he must admit it will. Real resolve coexists with realistic humility.

Now, let me ask you, husband, something. The last time you said some nasty things to your wife and you agreed, and you came to her and put your arm around her and said, Honey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I said those things. I shouldn't have.

44:05 - 44:19 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The grief is real, and the pain is real. But there is no sin that is greater than the grace of God.

Martin recalls his teenage growth spurt when his hands and feet were half a size too big for the rest of him. At the family table he would repeatedly knock over his glass of milk onto his siblings, grieve over it, promise never to do it again - and then knock another one over the next week. His genuine grief and purpose did not preclude falling again.

And this is very vivid to me because it takes me back to my teenage years when I had a growth spurt. My hands and my feet were about half a size too big for the rest of me. And it seems I hid everything, stumbled over everything, until my father used to say again and again, Albert, you've got a gift. And he wasn't speaking about preaching or teaching.

45:58 - 46:17 Read in full sermon