The concept of sin is often downplayed or outright mocked and rejected in our modern culture. However, one cannot read the Bible without being confronted by the staggering claims made about human sin. Neither can we look at the world around us and not be struck by the simple fact that something is wrong, terribly wrong. Sin is the great problem at root in the world and the human heart. It is an inescapable reality, the enormity of which should grip our hearts. And into this sin-wrecked world, God sent his Son to seek and save sinners and free to serve the living and true God in holiness.

I bring you greetings from the churches of the East Caribbean Baptist Mission in Antigua and Barbuda. And I'm very honored to be in your church. I have been looking you up, studying your work, the work of your pastor, and your family ministry. And I am very impressed with what God is doing among you. And I was talking to your pastor about hopefully doing some collaboration with the Caribbean area.

Tonight, I am pleased to bring you a sermon along your theme from the Gospel according to John chapter 1 verses 11, 10 through 14. And I've entitled the message, The frightening reality of sin. The frightening reality of sin. If you will indulge me, please stand with me for the reading of the infallible and inerrant and unadulterated word of Almighty God. I am reading from the New King James.

He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, no of the will of man, but of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. The word of the lord.

Let us pray. Father, open up our understanding. Illuminate us by the power of your spirit. Change us. Conform us to the image of your dear son, Jesus.

Be glorified tonight. We pray in your son's name, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. You may be seated. The frightening reality of sin.

Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, the wisdom of the world in our generation will tell us that a sermon topic like this is generally not wise if one desires to create interest and foster warm feelings of goodwill and cheer. The frightening reality of sin. Gloomy and threatening. As a matter of fact, the largest religious gatherings in the world generally make it a matter of policy to avoid topics like this. They have correctly concluded that most people in our generation will not stand for such so-called depressing themes.

So this begs the question about why I would still announce such a subject. Please note that I have carefully labeled them largest religious gatherings for I cannot bring myself to calling them biblical churches, for they are very far from what is described in the New Testament as a church. If my goal is to build the largest following that I possibly can, then I'm clearly shooting myself in the leg with such a subject. I am failing miserably to introduce such a theme. However, if my goal is to simply tell the truth concerning the text of Holy Scripture, I must announce this subject without apology.

You see, it is very important that we understand clearly the true meaning of the biblical doctrine of sin. Confusion on this matter will be to our peril. We have to understand what sin is. Just like hospitals and doctors have to understand what sickness is. Or fire stations have to understand what fire is.

You can't solve a problem without understanding the problem. And the problem of the world is sin. Now, sin is obviously a controversial and problematic word. On the popular level, For many people all over the world, most of what is called fun is considered to be sinful by some form of religion. So any discussion of Sin is seen by many people as an attempt at killing people's pleasures and their source of enjoyment.

You are a killjoy. Preaching about sin seems to be a sure way to destroy any dream of being popular. Man, look at the churches where the people are flocking in. They're not talking about sin. They're talking about the champion that's in you.

Or how to get rich. How to get stuff. However, I must reject all suggestions that biblical Christianity seeks to kill the fun in life. I've read my Bible. In fact, in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 8, it is written concerning our Lord Jesus, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

You know, others have been a bit more cerebral in their rejection of the concept of sin. You know, at the beginning of the last century, the 1900s, there was somewhat of a growing consensus in academia that we are going to be able to get the rid of this idea of sin. This started with the notion that when people do evil things, it's really not their fault. It either has to do with their evolutionary biology, they say, their genetic makeup, or else it has to do with bad social systems or poor education and so on. These ideas gained traction for a while, but they were seriously eroded by the atrocities of the 20th century.

Things like the Holocaust, other genocidal events, and many other horrors in which mankind demonstrated the depravity and wickedness of his heart. All of a sudden, the intelligent you began to say, well, just maybe, maybe there is such a thing called sin and evil. Look at what has happened to the world, the inhumanity of humanity. Today many intellectuals are convinced that we really cannot do without the concept of sin and evil. Wow.

Why? You see, if they say that the people who did these atrocities are not responsible because of genetics or because of socialization, we will end up trivializing the suffering of people who are their victims. We would also be trivializing the very notion of injustice. It would become meaningless. Why then is the average secular intellectual who acknowledges the reality of sin and evil still uncomfortable with some Christians who could call others sinners.

I submit to you that they are uncomfortable because they sense that these professing Christians are up to something that is dehumanizing of others. They suspect that this is a form of labeling to excuse abusive and bigoted and discriminatory behavior toward others. They suspect that it is an effort to strip others of the dignity, respect and equality that they think they deserve. However, we must affirm that any effort to dehumanize anyone, whether or not it's done deliberately or carelessly, is not promoted by the biblical doctrine of sin. Dehumanizing others is not biblical Christianity, but a perversion from the very pit of hell.

So where does that leave us? Where does that leave us? We have the secular anti-religious intelligentsia acknowledging the reality of sin and evil in the world. They affirm the concept of sin because it does not allow for the trivialization of the suffering of those who are victimized. Neither does it permit the trivialization of injustice.

However, they reject the labeling of anyone as a sinner, especially if it appears to be a veiled effort at dehumanization. Look, we shall carefully examine this text of Holy Scripture and demonstrate from it that the biblical doctrine of sin is counterintuitive to all human categories. Listen folks, the average person doesn't have a clue as to what sin is. They don't know what it means, even though most are very sure that they do. It is a radical concept that does not dehumanize anyone.

It actually guards the idea of justice at the same time. So what is it? What is it? Well this passage tells us at least three things about sin that will facilitate our understanding of the sin because we're not going to be holy until we get what sin is. I've outlined them for you.

Number One, detecting sin. Number two, defining sin. And number three, divorcing sin. I'm going to make it a little bit more substantive. Number one, detecting sin.

And I'm calling that global self-righteousness. And I base this on verses 10 and 11. Number two, defining sin, and I'm calling that rebellious role reversal. And thirdly, divorce and sin, And I'm going to call that divine vicarious intervention. Alright, one at a time.

Number one, detecting sin. And I've called that what? Global self-righteousness. I base this on verses 10 and 11 of the text. Detecting sin.

Let me ask you a question. Have you noticed that we are all experts at detecting the sins of others? Come on, be honest with me. However, we really have a serious problem with accepting that we are just as bad as all who we find reprehensible. We're not going to agree with that easily.

Our default mode is to believe that We're actually better than certain people. Just reflect on how you've been outraged in the past about things that others have done. I can't believe she did that. He did what? We're so shocked.

We're outraged. Such profession. And when we really, really take the time to reflect and meditate and talk to ourselves, these are things that we know are prominently a part of our own experience at some point. But we pretend. We are all notorious hypocrites.

I really don't expect anybody to say Amen. I really don't. Admitting such things are really, really difficult. We are all notorious hypocrites. We spend a lot of time in pretentious behavior.

The self-righteousness is global. You're going to find it in Antigua, you're going to find it in Wake Forest. Folks, these two verses appear to be unnecessary repetition, don't they? But they're not. Verse 10 tells us that the Lord Jesus' first appearance in this world was met with indifference.

Do you see that? Do you see it? Verse 11 tells us that he came to his own and his own did not receive him. Seem to be saying the same thing. But if we look carefully, we'll see that there are two groups of people here.

There are two groups of people here. In verse 10, we see the Gentiles, the world of false religion, those who bow to idols, the whole world. Verse 11 is about the Jews. He came to his own. This is the world of biblical religion, those who are bowing to the true and living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And they rejected him too. What's the point? What's the point of bringing these two groups of people up? The Apostle John was demonstrating that there was and there is a global and universal self-righteousness. Literally everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, missed the whole point of Jesus.

Everybody. The Gentiles missed it, but so did the Jews. Everybody missed the point of the person and work of Christ. Everybody. There is actually no difference in the status of all men before the God of the Bible.

Whether or not they're exposed to true religion or false religion. It's all the same. The self-righteousness is ubiquitous. Sin has swallowed up everyone. Everyone missed it.

You know the apostle Paul puts the same idea very succinctly in Romans chapter 3 verses 21 to 23. He wrote, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. That's the last phrase in verse 22. For there is no difference.

Verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The apostle Paul was preaching what the apostle John had already preached. There is no difference. There is no difference. Hmm.

In other words, the respectable people and the vagabonds are the same in God's eyes. There is no difference. The people who bow to idols, even those who's idolatry is atheism. They, they just don't think they're idol worshipers. But we know better.

They have idolized the whole notion that there is nothing out there. Even the people who bow to the true and living God are the same. There is no difference. All are polluted. All are contaminated.

All are corrupted. All are totally enveloped in sin. There is no difference. They're all at the same moral and spiritual place. Their status morally and spiritually before God is the same.

No one is better than anyone in God's eyes, period. If we actually jump to the third chapter of the Gospel according to John, if you go over to chapter three, The Apostle chronicles a powerful illustration of this point. He introduced to us Nicodemus, one of the most admirable people in the whole Bible. Nicodemus! Of course, the Apostle John also chronicled the stories of a lot of broken people, like the fraudulent tax collectors and the prostitutes.

He spoke of them too, but this Nicodemus is not numbered among them. He was a winner in society. He was a leader. He was a public intellectual and definitely not numbered among the poor. He was a scholar of the scripture.

He was scrupulous in his morality. He wanted to grow in his knowledge of God so much so that he risked the rebuke of the religious establishment and try to open up a dialogue with our Lord Jesus in secret by night. So let me get this straight, okay? Here is a man who is Tremendously successful, able, wonderfully decent. He was widely seen as good, moral, and open-minded, especially in his effort to engage the Lord Jesus.

He was the best of the best. Now, the best of the best approached the Lord Jesus and what did Jesus have to say to him? John 3, 7, you must be born again. What? He was talking to the best of the best.

The one who had crossed all the T's and dotted all the I's. The best of the best. He looked at the best of the best and said, See you, you need to be born again. Now, what about people like us? If the best of the best needs to be born again, we're in some big trouble.

What was our Lord saying to Nicodemus? He was telling this man who was considered to be among the best of men that there was no difference between him and the worst of men. Wow. Well, now what the Lord said to him, you must be born again. He was advising Nicodemus that his apparently good life was all fake.

The Lord was telling him that he was a phony. Our Lord was instructing Nicodemus that if He will see the kingdom of God. Nothing can be done but completely starting over. You must be born again. We got to start from ground zero.

In other words, Nicodemus, there is absolutely nothing to recommend you to God. There is nothing that can mitigate your standing before a holy God. You must be born again. We have to start all over from ground zero. What?

What? The best of the best? There was literally nothing that merits the favor of God in his life. Jesus' assessment, our Lord's assessment, was that this man who was celebrated in his society was a phony and a fake. You know that's really revolutionary stuff, you know.

That could get you in a whole lot of trouble. Listen folks, if you get this, there is hope for you. For a bad diagnosis only delays or evades the cure. You gotta get it right. The gospel of Jesus Christ does not allow you to divide up the world into good people and bad people.

I think I need to say that again. I said the gospel of our Lord Jesus does not allow you to divide up the world into good people and bad people. For There are no good people. Oh my. It's all smoke and mirrors.

Everyone has skeletons in their closet. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has something that they are ashamed of, whether in thought, word, or deed. Don't let anyone fool you. There is no difference.

All are totally depraved. It's global self-righteousness. Everybody's looking down on everybody. When the Lord Jesus calls sinners to salvation, and I want you to hear me, when the Lord Jesus calls sinners to salvation, when he tells them that they must be born again, he is not telling them to try to be good and moral. He is not telling them to clean up their lives?

Neither is he telling them to become disciplined and religious? Listen, outwardly Nicodemus was all of the above and yet he was wanting in the eyes of Christ. Nicodemus could check all those boxes. Jesus looked upon him and said, you must be born again. Our Lord calls sinners to something far more revolutionary.

Well, what is it? Well, listen, here's an illustration. Before the apostle Paul became a Christian on the road to Damascus, remember he was a Pharisee, a member of the religious elite. Okay? You remember that?

Okay? He was disciplined. He was moral. He was upright in life. Clearly he saw himself as a cut above most people.

Now Today, looking back, we know he was a terrorist. Come on. He was trying to find Christians everywhere to blow them up. He was on the road to Damascus to do just that, with papers from the high priests. He was a terrorist.

But let me tell you something. He was doing it for God, and the religious elite applauded. He thought he was a cut above everyone. He was so self-righteous. He was looking down on others.

He was proud of what he thought was a massive difference between his life and that of the common man. He was sure there was a difference. I am up here, there, down there. He looked down on them. That's the self-righteousness.

I hope you're not doing that to anyone. Sometimes we don't talk to people because we think we are above them. Listen to his description of his standing before he got saved. Okay? Let's just use his own words.

Let him tell you what he thought of himself before Christ. Hmm? Philippians 3 verses 4 through 6, he says, If anyone else thinks that he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law a Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the church. I'm proud of that.

Concerning righteousness which is of the law, blameless. You heard him? However, he completely changed his tune when he got saved. He changed his tune completely. He was talking a different language because he was now thinking in a different paradigm.

Listen to his own words. These are now his description of what happened after he was saved. Verses seven and eight of the same Philippians three. He says, but what things were gain to me back then? These I counted loss for Christ, yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them as rubbish.

I prefer King James dung that I may win Christ. Come into Christ, cause the Apostle Paul to write in Romans 3 and verse 22, there is no difference. He got saved and he saw that there is no difference. The doctrine of sin, the doctrine of sin did not lead the apostle Paul to dehumanize others, to imagine that he was better than them. It led him to sympathize with people, not look down on them.

He was not above them anymore. Once Jesus opened his eyes, he was a filthy sinner just like everybody else. Christianity made him stop pretending. If you're still pretending, maybe you don't know Jesus. If you think there's a difference between you and other people, maybe you don't know Jesus.

There is no difference. Christianity opens up your eyes to the fact that we are all filthy sinners. We will never face the reality of our sin while we are totally immersed in self-righteousness. When we truly meet Christ, we will stop saying things like, I can't believe she did that. Instead, we will mourn when we see others fail even as we say, there go I.

But for the grace of god, that's me. If If God wasn't pleased to rescue me and save me even from myself, I know I could do the same thing. Oh God, help this person and continue to help me. Oh, that's a different perspective. If we have a view of sin that makes us feel that we are better than other people, we have a non-biblical view of sin.

Sin will be right in front of us and we will not be able to detect it. I'm talking about detecting sin. It will be right, we can't see it because we're so busy looking down on somebody else. And we can't see that there is no difference. The self-righteousness is literally found in every group of people.

I hope you know that. Every group. Every ethnic group can make a strong case about the wickedness and perversion found in another ethnic group. Some of the biggest racists that I've run into are black people. And some of the biggest racists that I've come running to are white people.

Everybody can look down on the other people because there is no difference. Oh yeah. I could just walk through a litany of them because all noses are up in the air. I said all of them. All of them.

You say all of them? Of course. Politically, you have the Republicans looking down on the Democrats and the Democrats looking down on the Republicans. Economically, you have the rich looking down on the poor, why don't they get a job? And the poor looking down on the rich.

Just imagine that. They didn't even work for that. That was handed down to them, and they're snobbing us. See? Everybody can look down on everybody, socially, academically.

Oh, why doesn't he learn to read? Oh, he thinks degrees have made him better than me. There's no difference. Sports? Well, let's not even go there.

I don't care what area of life, Everybody finds a reason to look down on the other person. Hmm? Thinking that we're better. But when you meet Jesus, you see there is no difference. There is equal opportunity hatred.

Christ alone makes a difference and enables us to see that there is no difference. One of the first things that the gospel of Jesus Christ does in our lives is that it causes us to see others in a different light. It causes us to love everyone. All kinds of people, even the notorious perverts and failures. It calls us to love them.

Not endorse their perversion, but love them enough to help them out of it. For while we have all traveled through life in different ships, biblical Christianity helps us to see that we're all in the same boat. There's no difference. The biblical doctrine of sin is a radically humbling thing, but holiness will be elusive wherever there is self-righteousness, wherever there is pride. Thanks be to God!

He's not impressed with mere religion, but only with righteousness, for there is no difference. Thanks be to god. He's not impressed with status but only with sanctification that he creates in us for there is no difference. Thanks be to god. He's not impressed with the mighty but only with meekness that he creates in us, for there is no difference.

That's number one, detecting sin, global self-righteousness. Number two, defining sin, rebellious role reversal. Defining sin, rebellious role reversal. I'm still in verses ten and eleven. You know, many believers think of 1 John 3, 4 when they attempt to define sin.

You know what that says? It's clearly understandable when you read it. It says, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. Or the King James, whoever comitteth sin transgresseth the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. So, It's perfectly understandable for people to go there to define sin.

It accurately defines the act of sin. However, if we get a little deeper, our definition must address the essence of sin, not just the act of sin. The question of the essence of sin gets into what precedes the act. The condition of the heart that produces the act. Our definition of sin has to be more than about breaking the rules.

We got to dig deep into why we break the rules. We've just studied verses 10 and 11 of this text, and there is nothing there about breaking rules. These verses clearly address sin without listing or identifying any transcendent moral absolutes that have been violated. All that we see in these verses is that Christ was rejected and not recognized. That's what we see there.

Why? The truth of the matter is that we can be deep in sin and corrupt to the core even while we are outwardly obeying all the rules. I need you to stay with me. I said we can be deep in sin and corrupt to the core even when we are outwardly obeying all the rules. Thus, our definition of sin needs to be expanded, for the essence of sin is rebellious role reversal.

It is more than breaking the rules. It's a switched relationship. I think I'm gonna have to do some more work on this, right? It's not very difficult to understand when we go back to when sin came upon the earth for the first time. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, make the case for us.

Please remember that in the Garden of Eden, there was only one rule. Life was wonderfully simple. Just one rule. Just think about all the rules that you have to observe to get from point A to point B in the society. Drive on this side.

Stop at this light. Come on. Drive at this speed. Rules even in here. You know, don't shout fire.

Look, oh we have a lot of rules and we have legislatures that just keep making more. Okay. It was wonderfully simple back then. One rule. One rule.

Just one. What's that rule? Genesis 2 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. That's it.

You see that tree? Don't eat. Don't even touch it. That's it. Life is simple.

Please notice that the Lord God did not list any of the 10 principles of the Decalogue, the 10 commandments. He just said, don't eat that fruit. The issues raised in the Decalogue are what we will call transcendent moral absolutes. Most people on earth, whether or not they are religious or irreligious, will agree that most of the principles there should not be violated, especially the ones that deal with our relationships with other human beings. Everyone instinctively agrees that certain things are just wrong, things like adultery and murder and stealing and lying.

Most people will agree with that. If God had chosen one of the principles of the Decalogue as the one rule in the Garden of Eden, then it would be abundantly clear that the essence of sin is to break a rule. For instance, if murder was that one rule, those who have not committed murder would be morally better than those who have. There would be a clear difference between people. There would be a basis for some to boast and for others to mourn.

However, that is not what happened. That's not what happened. Even though they were created without sin with their mutable wills, they chose sin. They chose sin. The Lord God simply demanded that they do not eat of a particular tree.

That was the rule And it's not even formally listed in the Decalogue. What was our Lord saying? What was He saying? He wanted them to respect an ontological line in the sand. I said he wanted him to respect an ontological line in the sand.

He was god and they were not. They were to honor him by not crossing the line. They were to know their place and not pass their place. They were not to rebeliously reverse the roles. They were to be content to be godly and should not attempt to become God.

When our first parents decided that they could decide, did you hear that? When they decided that they could decide on this create a creature relationship, they committed cosmic treason. You know why? You know why they committed cosmic treason? Because they appointed themselves as judges.

But what happens when you appoint yourself as a judge in the court of a judge. You're going to be held in contempt. Hey, there's no vacancy in the position. Listen, nowhere in the world in any jurisdiction Does anyone in power tolerate anyone claiming power that they think they legitimately hold? You want to find out?

Go into the next court and ask the judge to step aside. He'll hold you in contempt of court, or she will hold you in contempt of court, or she will hold you in contempt of court, and you will spend some time in the county jail. Okay? There was no vacancy on the throne. You see, what happened was Satan had made a proposal and they needed for God to make his so that they could decide, well, wait a minute, that makes you the judge.

We already have a judge, the Lord God Almighty. That is why when they decided that they could decide, it was cosmic treason. There was already an occupant on the bench and he was judge of all the earth. The act was inevitable for role reversal had already happened when they decided that they could decide. They had passed their place not because they had a corrupted will but because they had a mutable will that they used to corrupt it.

They made the wrong choice. They were supposed to bask in the beauty of the one who is altogether lovely and never attempt to seal that glory. But they did the opposite. They should have done what David spoke of in Psalm 100 and verse 3. Know that the Lord, He is God, It is he who has made us and not we ourselves.

We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. They forgot about all of that. Instead, they did the opposite. Our first appearance went the wrong way and we've done the same thing in them and in person. Come on, forgetting that no vacancy has been announced in the position of judge.

The Lord God Almighty alone is judge of all the earth, Alright? Instead of straightening out the deceiver, our first parents decided that they would decide on their status. They would be the judge of the matter. Cosmic treason. Even before they had behaviorally transgressed, Their hearts had already left the Lord.

They had taken the place of God. They had put themselves on the throne. In verse 10 of our text, we see that the world that God created would not acknowledge him as creator. That's it. Role reversal.

In verse eleven, those who are owned by God did not acknowledge their owner. He came unto his own. And they didn't acknowledge their owner. Role reversal. Thus our definition of sin must include its essence which is to take or usurp the place of God.

Please remember that this can be done even while we are obviously not breaking the rules outwardly. Hello? You can't be that shallow to think, oh my goodness, you know, I haven't done this, I haven't done that, I haven't done this. I must be okay. Really?

If there is role reversal, it's cosmic treason. Have you been staging a coup d'etat? Are you really a traitor in plain sight? No one has all the evidence about you, but you know that your allegiance is not with the Lord. Listen, you're fooling, you're not fooling God.

You're not fooling God. You are still a rebel. If you are giving but doing it grudgingly, hello? You're still a rebel if you're offering apologies but without a broken and a contrite heart. You're still a rebel if you're preaching the doctrines of grace without practicing the grace of the doctrines.

Okay, I've dealt with two things. Firstly, I've dealt with what? Number one, defining sin. What do we call that? Global self-righteousness.

I'm detecting sin, sorry. We call that what? Global self-righteousness. Number two is what? Defining sin.

And we call it what? Rebellious role reversal. Number three, divorcing sin. And I base this on verses 12 through 14. And we'll call this divine vicarious intervention.

Divorce in sin. Okay. So up to this point we've spent all of our time detecting sin and defining sin. The whole point of all of that is to get us to this point. How can a person get out of the mess?

How do we divorce sin? How do we have the victory over this menacing, formidable, and intimidating foe? The answer is that salvation is only through divine, vicarious intervention. God must act on our behalf if sin is to be conquered. It is only false and pretentious religion that encourages you to seek to solve this problem with rituals or solve this problem with pilgrimages or solve this problem with altruism or with philanthropy, or whatever you consider to be good works.

The verdict of Isaiah chapter 64 and verse six is thundering and emphatic. It says, but we are all like what? An unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. This matter of divorcing sin requires that we embrace at least two axioms of biblical Christianity.

A and B. I'll go through this and sit down. Okay? A, atonement, not achievement. What is A?

Atonement, not achievement. I actually expected you to answer me a while ago, but I understand. What we are addressing here is how it is actually accomplished. How is it accomplished? Please pay attention to what is written in verse 12.

It says, but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. This is the first hurdle of divorcing sin. What is meant by the phrase, believe in his name? This is how we confirm that God, the Holy Spirit, has regenerated us. This is how we know that we're saved.

To believe in his name or to believe in the name of a person in the ancient world is to embrace that person's person and work. It is to claim and identify with everything that that person represents. In this case, It is to put one's trust in who the Lord Jesus is and what He has done. It is to embrace Jesus as God incarnate and to trust His active and passive obedience for salvation. This means that we must trust the imputed righteousness of Christ when he lived the perfect life in our place.

The life that we should have lived but did not live. He lived that perfect life in our place. Then he turned around and died the death in our place on Calvary, the death that we should have died in an eternity in hell. He died that death. He went to hell for us.

We've got to embrace all of that. His active obedience when he kept the law and gave us the credit. His passive obedience when he died on the cross and canceled our debt. Wow. It is all about trusting the work of Christ alone.

It's not about merely following his teachings. There are people in hell who have tried to follow his teachings. It's about believing in his name. The essence of such a convert's prayer is, my Lord and my God, please accept me. Not because of what I have done or because of what I'm doing or because of what I plan to do, please accept me because of what Christ alone has done on my behalf.

I embrace Christ without reservation or hesitation. His atonement is my only hope. If anyone is given the grace to pray, such a prayer in faith, I can assure them objectively that they have been given the right to become a child of God. They are officially adopted. They are fully accepted.

This means that not only are their sins pardoned, a permanent relationship of love and acceptance has been established if they could do this by faith, sincerely, proving the grace of God has visited them. Subjectively there is an, there's also an inner transformation. There is the objective part I just mentioned, but subjectively there's an inner transformation. A love for God and the things of God appears and takes over your life. That's the subjective part.

You are surprised by the love that you find in you for god and the things of god. One day you hate it. You wish that preacher will just hurry up. Got things to do, places to go. But now, is he wrapping up already?

What happened? The Holy Ghost invaded your life and gave you a new love and it's a love that will not let you go. Assurance of the same comes. Romans 8 16, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that We are children of God. I said there was A and B.

What was A again? Atonement not achievement. B is adoration, not activism. Be is what? Adoration, not activism.

Now, what we're addressing here is how this salvation is actually sustained. Now why is that a question? Why is that even a problem? Because many believers are troubled that there is still so much evidence of the characteristics of the old man, the pre-regenerate life in their experience long after they had supposedly gotten saved and were transformed. You have been saved for so long and you're looking at your life and saying, whoa, I'm a mess.

How do we stay focused on Christ and mature in this relationship with God? I'm a mess. I still struggle with things like pride. I've been saved a long time. I'm still struggling with things like pride and fear and anger and lust.

What's wrong with me? So many are worried about whether their apparent transformation is sustainable or even real. Am I saved? They wonder if their profession of faith was credible. They're concerned that their profession might be proven to be false.

Now this is a very serious and important line of inquiry. No one should take lightly the presence of habitual and chronic moral failure in their life even after their profession of faith. I mean this is a problem. This has to be addressed. So what is the answer?

This text gives us the answer. There is a way to walk and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is a way to have the victory. What is it? Tell me, pastor.

It's adoration, not activism. I think I better go to the text. Verse 14. Look at it. And the Word became flesh and what?

And what? Dwelled among us. And we what? We beheld his glory. We beheld his glory.

Sounds like adoration, huh? We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We beheld his glory. You know, another helpful translation of the word beheld is gazed on. We gazed on his glory.

Now, we should learn here that the word of our Lord Jesus, the God incarnate, the word, because it was the word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. The word, the Lord Jesus, God incarnate, tabernacle with humanity, He dwelt among us. Correct? Did I get that right? So, what was happening was that the creator had become vulnerable.

I'll just think about that. That's too wonderful for me. Man, That hurts my head. The Creator became vulnerable. He became vulnerable so that He could be both Grace and truth.

Are we reading this correctly? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The infinite God became finite so that he would manifest, he could be both grace and truth. So let's work this, let's work this out. Grace and truth.

Let's deal with the truth part first. How important is truth to God? How important is it to God to honor the truth, especially of his justice? Listen, the truth of God's justice was so important to him that he could not look the other way in handling our sin. Okay, we can be compromised easily.

We can have conflicts of interest, right? We're the judge and the defendant is our daughter. Lord have mercy. I should accuse myself, shouldn't I? But I don't want to.

I want to go easy on her, don't I? That's not an option with a holy God. He could not look the other way. Even though before the foundation of the world, he had purpose to rescue us. He could not just look the other way.

He's a just God. He already said the wages of sin is death. Somebody's going to have to die for this. He can't look the other way. But truth was important to him.

It was so important to him, he couldn't look the other way. Someone had to pay. Someone had to experience hell. Since every sinner is completely broke and destitute cannot pay, not possessing the infinite currency required to pay. We don't have any deep pockets.

We can't pay, but someone must pay and he is just. He believes in truth. He can't look the other way. What did he do? He decided to pay himself even at the cost of his only begotten son.

He was full of truth. That's how important truth was to him. He stayed with the truth to get us saved. But he was full of what? Grace and truth.

Let's deal with the grace part. How important is grace to God? Well listen, God's grace is so infinite, it's so matchless, it's so magnanimous, it's so extravagant that he could not abandon those upon whom his heart was set even before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world. He saw our filth, didn't he?

But his heart was set on us and he couldn't abandon us because he's full of grace. He just couldn't do it. This is why the Apostle Paul had to testify, Philippians 1.6, being confident of this very thing. He who did what? Begun a good work in you, will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

In other words, once he started with you, he has got to finish the job. Even though you are messed up, he is full of grace. His gracious love would not let his people go, even if it would cost him the death of his only begotten son. Hallelujah. All of this means that apart from the cross of Calvary, we will never see the glory of God in full splendor radiating both grace and truth.

The truth of God's justice is supposed to destroy us, for we are guilty of cosmic treason. The grace of God is supposed to elude us, for we are all unworthy of such magnanimity and extravagant mercy. But in Jesus Christ, on the cross, our God found a way to manifest his glory in the radiant display of both grace and truth in Jesus. Hallelujah. So now, He is truly the just and the justifier of those who believe.

Now he is truly the author and finisher of our faith. Now he's truly the righteous and the recompense of the redeemed. Now he's truly the holiness and the healing of God's people. Now he is truly the strong one who has become weak on behalf of electioners. Hallelujah.

Now, it is only because, it is only when we gaze upon the beauty of Christ's atoning work, behold, we beheld his glory, it's only when we gaze on the beauty of his atoning work, It is only when we are completely basking in the convergence of grace and truth on Calvary that we will be truly changed. We're not going to change until we gaze on that. That is what it takes to change us, to sanctify us. It's adoration, not activism. When we gaze on God's truth and face the reality of his justice, it kills our pride.

For we know that we deserve hell and that shuts our mouth. When we gaze on God's grace and face the depths of his humiliation. Now, that kills our fear. So, our pride is killed and now our fear is killed for we know that even after we rejected him he has accepted us. When we gaze upon the glory of our Lord's, our God incarnate in his active and passive obedience, when we gaze upon his grace and truth, it grabs us, it releases a sanctifying power that edifies and transforms.

To the degree that it grabs us, we experience an ever increasing liberation from any yoke of bondage, any habitual sin that besets us. Let us gaze upon him. Let's adore him. Join me in looking at the Psalmist David who did just that. Where is that?

In Psalm number twenty-seven, the first five verses. What did David say? He said, the Lord is my light and my salvation. What whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came up against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies, and my faults. They stumbled and fell. Though an army man camp against me, my heart will not fear. Though war may rise against me.

In this, I will be confident. In what? In what? Verse four, one thing have I desired of the lord. That will I seek that I may dwell.

Wow. We're back there, aren't we? That I may what? Dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to do what? To behold, oh, we beheld, huh?

To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret place of his tabernacle, he shall hide me. He shall set me high upon a rock. Wow.

We beheld his glory. If you can't see his glory, you will not be changed. Let me wrap this up for you. I'm satisfied with Jesus. Is there another witness here?

Anybody else? I'm satisfied with Jesus. I heard he's enough, but I know he's more than enough. Do I have a witness? Because of Him, sin shall not have dominion over me.

Because of Him, my sin has been cast as far as the east is from the west. Because of Him, my sin has been swallowed in the depths of the sea. Because of Him, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. Because of Him, my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross. And I bear it no more.

Praise the lord. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. Amen. Let us pray.

Heavenly father. Help us tonight to love what you love and to hate what you hate. Help us to praise hearing you say well done above all the accolades of this world. We have listened to your inspired and infallible word expounded. Use it to conform us to the image of your dear son.

Father, what we know not teach us, what we have not give us, what we are not, make us. We pray in the name of your dear son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.