1. I read a disturbing article the other day. The author referred to that fiend from Ohio, Ariel Castro, the convicted kidnapper, rapist, and baby killer. Mr. Castro said, “These people (police, prosecutors, etc.) are trying to paint me as a monster. I’m not a monster. I’m sick.”
2. Next, the author of the article referred to the mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner, who recently admitted to what he calls his “problem,” and how he has promised to undergo “two weeks of intense therapy” so that he will never again harass and molest women.
3. Of course, an article about depraved sociopaths and sleazy degenerates would not be up-to-date without some mention of our notorious NYC politicians, Elliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner.
4. The gist of the article is that today, sin is no longer called sin. Today sin is simply a sickness. Drunkards are no longer responsible for their behaviour because they have been told that they have a sickness.
5. Dopeheads are told they have a chemical dependency.
6. When Bill Clinton was entangled in numerous sex scandals, his defenders said we must not condemn him, for after all he was a sick man with a "sex addiction" and we should have compassion on him.
7. Many years ago, Wilbur M. Smith wrote these words, "We must acknowledge today that there is practically no consciousness of sin in our present world."
8. Dr. Smith quoted from a book entitled The Development of English Theology in the Later Nineteenth Century. The author, Elliott Binns, said, "We have thus the beginnings of that spirit of indifference which has reached such terrible proportions in our own day, when sport and the cinema have almost completely displaced more serious matters in the minds of the average man and woman. People will not be bothered by such matters as their sins and short-comings . . . A grave consequence of the loss of authority of Christianity and the Church was a progressive decline in morals. There were those who found in the uncertainty of our Christian truth a welcome excuse for throwing off this moral restraint which they had resented."
9. Dr. Smith went on to say, "The situation is far more grave today than it was then." I am not sure when exactly Dr. Smith wrote those words, but it was quite a few years ago because he went to heaven in 1976.
10. My message this morning: "The Bible Exposes Sin."

I. THE BAD NEWS -- MAN IS A SINNER (ROM. 3:23; 5:12; 6:23)

1. We cannot preach the Good News of the Gospel without first mentioning the bad news; i.e. God hates sin, and God deals with sin, and God judges sin.
2. W. Graham Scroggie said, "News which is good implies a state which is bad; supply presupposes want; salvation implies sinfulness."
3. We have in our world around us an increase of lawlessness, as our Lord Himself foretold in His Olivet Discourse. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matthew 24:12).
4. Wilbur Smith said, "When we are in an environment of rebellion against God, and of lawlessness, we breathe its atmosphere, we read its books; we absorb its concepts; we are living in this world, and the spirit of this world seeps into our own inner life...Unconsciously it may, be, we lean towards the world in which we live, and even we as believers are affected by this diabolic, sin-denying spirit in which we are living...This is an age in which man is exalted...The ideal in our modern philosophical thinking reaches no higher than the head of a man! We are not bringing God into our thoughts, and man becomes the measure of all man thinks."
5. Dr. Smith mentions that in our Declaration of Independence we say that God created man, but in the new Declaration of Human Rights, by the United Nations, God is never mentioned.
6. Psalm 10:4 says, "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." "God is not in all his thoughts." If God is out of man's thinking, sin is denied, sin is excused, and sin is glorified, as we are seeing today with society's approval of adultery, homosexuality, pornography, and other filthy sins.
7. The opportunities for sin are much greater today than they ever were before -- the Internet, television, easy travel, hotels -- all of this creates opportunities for sin and temptations to sin.
8. In the Oxford History of England, the writer says that the reason why the world in the nineteenth century acknowledged that the British merchant was the most honourable merchant in the world, was because he had a sense of heaven and hell and judgment to come.
9. In other words, he was honest because he knew there was a hell and a heaven. Unfortunately that day is gone -- in England and in the USA.
10. In the 19th century, the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville said, "America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

II. THE BIBLE CLEARLY IDENTIFIES SIN

1. First John 3:4 says, "sin is the transgression of the law."
2. The law says, "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain" (Ex. 20:7).
3. The law says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour" (Ex. 20:16). The Bible says, "all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8).
4. Today people avoid the Bible, and they avoid Biblical names for sin. For example, promiscuous men and women are called "sexually active." The Bible does not use that term. The Bible calls them whoremongers, and lewd women and harlots, and adulterers and fornicators.
5. The Bible says whoremongers shall be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8).
6. Homosexuality is now called an "alternate lifestyle" or "marriage equality" The Bible says it is an abomination.
7. Abortion is called a woman’s right to choose, or reproductive freedom. What double-talk! God says, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13).
8. The word "sin" has been eliminated from most people's vocabulary. Today people describe the vilest sins merely as "mistakes." For example, recently Mrs. Weiner said, "Anthony's made some horrible mistakes."
9. In the Bible, there are many different names for sin -- evil, iniquity, wickedness, unrighteousness, lawlessness, transgression, and so on.
10. In the Bible, there are many different names for sin, but "mistake" isn't one of them.
11. Ephesians 2:1 and 5 says lost men are "dead in trespasses and sins."
12. One hundred years ago, a renowned scholar came to Chicago to give a lecture and he said there is "the divine spark in every man."
13. The president of the Moody Bible Institute, Dr. James Gray, was at that meeting, and when the meeting concluded Dr. Gray rose and said, "I am sure our learned guest would not wish that anyone should leave this room tonight under any misapprehension or error. There is no divine spark in every man; we are all dead in trespasses and sins until the life of Christ comes into our hearts."
14. In the Bible, God names specific sins. The apostle Paul lists various sins in Romans 1:28-32; I Corinthians 5:9-13; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 4:25 and 5:12; Colossians 3:5-9; and II Timothy 3:1-13.
15. Furthermore, the Bible makes clear the consequence of sin. God sent a flood in Noah's day. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
16. No one gets away with sin, and the Bible makes this abundantly clear.
17. Pharaoh and his chosen captains and his chariots and his host were all drowned in the Red Sea.
18. The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up Korah and all his followers, and their houses, and all their goods.
19. King Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD.
20. Absalom's long hair got caught hold in the branches of an oak tree, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.
21. Then Joab and ten of his men compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him. There are many unusual stories like this in the Bible.
22. The eunuchs threw Jezebel out the window, and her body was splattered everywhere. Tough old Jehu came in and sat down and ate his dinner, and he said, "Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king's daughter."
23. "And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands" (II Kings 9:35).
24. They hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
25. We read that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.
26. The angel of the Lord smote Herod, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
27. There are many examples in Scripture of how God deals with sin.
28. I will again quote Dr. Smith -- "It has been said that the greatest sin of modern fiction is that it records the lives of wicked men and women as though there was some final pleasure, satisfaction and success in a life of sin, whereas sin only leads to tragedy, disillusionment and disappointment. There is an immediate consequence, and our prisons and insane institutions reveal them. There is, moreover, the ultimate consequence - 'For because of these things cometh the wrath of God' (Eph. 5:6)."
29. Today sin abounds because there is no fear of God. Moses said unto the people of Israel, "God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not" (Ex. 20:20).
30. "That his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not" (Ex. 20:20).
31. Proverbs 16:6 says, "By the fear of the LORD men depart from evil."
32. There are sins of omission as well as sins of commission. James 4:17 says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
33. Some Christians know they ought to tell others about Jesus; they know they ought to give more to the Lord's work, etc.
34. Some know they ought to pray more. Prayerless is sin. Samuel told the Israelites, "Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you" (I Sam. 12:23).

III. THE REMEDY FOR SIN

1. Romans 5:8 says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
2. There never would have been a cross, had it not been for the awfulness of sin. Our Lord died because sin was so awful that man could never be reconciled to a holy God unless He died for their sins.
3. If we want to know what God thinks of sin, just look at the cross. Look at our blessed Lord nailed to the cross for our sins.
4. When we preach the cross, we should be careful to point out that Jesus died to deliver us from the penalty of sin (eternal damnation), and the power of sin.
5. Romans 6:14 says, "For sin shall not have dominion (power) over you." Romans 6:18 says, "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."
6. Second Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
7. "Reproof" refers to conviction of sin.
8. This is the same word that our Lord used in John 8:46 - "which of you convinceth me of sin?"
9. The Word of God convinces of sin, and convicts of sin, so that the person comes under a sense of having done wrong. No other book in the world can do this -- only the Holy Bible.
10. D.L. Moody wrote in the flyleaf of his son's Bible: "This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book."
11. James 1:22-24 says the Word of God is like a mirror ("a glass"). If we are dirty, the mirror will let us know.
12. The Bible is the mirror of God, and as we look into it we see what we would never see otherwise. This is a mirror which reveals our sins.
13. When we look at the mirror of God, we see some shortcomings; we see some ugly blemishes in our lives.
14. I heard about a hillbilly that lived in a little shack in the mountains who allowed a group of strangers to set up their tents on his property while they were doing some hunting and fishing.
15. After a few days, the strangers packed up and left, but one man forgot to pack a small mirror that he used when he shaved. Later on, the hillbilly found that mirror and when he looked at it he said, "What a beautiful picture of my daddy! I wonder how it got left out here."
16. He went and put the mirror on top of his dresser. Later on his wife saw it, and when she looked at it she said, "Now who is this? I hope my husband is running around with this old floozy."
17. So different people see different things when they look at a mirror (James 1:22-24).
18. Another word used in Scripture is "sword" (Hebrews 4:12, 13). The word of God is like a sharp sword cutting out the cancerous disease of sin.
19. Some closing verses for Christians: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23, 24).
20. Some closing verses for sinners: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa. 1:18).

CONCLUSION:

1. Sin has destroyed many lives, many homes, many marriages, and many people who have left this world ravaged by sin and blinded by Satan. But God has graciously rescued many sinners from Satan.
2. George Whitefield once said that there would be some people in heaven who were "the devil's castaways." These were poor wretched sinners who were so wicked that the devil thought were too bad even for him, and yet whom Christ would save.
3. A refined lady named Lady Huntingdon once told George Whitefield that she did not like that term, "the devil's castaways." She thought such language was not quite proper. But, just as they were talking, there happened to be heard a ring at the bell, and Whitefield went downstairs to answer the door.
4. Afterwards he came up and said, "Your ladyship, what do you think a poor woman had to say to me just now? She was a sad profligate, and she said, 'O, Mr. Whitefield, when you were preaching, you told us that Christ would take in the devil's castaways, and I am one of them,'" and those words led to her salvation.