Sin Is the Greatest Problem

Reflections: Now that I've written about being satisfied with life—living and dying with a clear conscience—it's time to name the greatest hindrance to accomplishing it. It is called SIN. It is time for some personal reflection.

If God had not kept me on a tight leash—and does not still keep me on His leash every moment of my life—I am fully capable of ruining my life. There is absolutely nothing good in me. I was conceived in sin, I was born in sin, and I will die in sin when God calls me home. Until that last moment, I need to cling to my Lord and Savior in every breath and let His mighty power alone keep me near Him with every breath I take. There is only one good thing in me: at the very core of my heart, mind, body, and soul, I believe one thing—God the Father sent Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to become sin on my behalf, that I might become the righteousness of God (1 Corinthians 5:21).

How grateful I am that God's Holy Spirit used Paul's hand and pen to write that absolute truth. I live every breath with that verse on my tongue, in my mind, and in my heart, and that verse will be on my headstone wherever God calls me home. That alone is my reason to live and die in peace. I have done nothing to receive this greatest gift—it is all God's grace and mercy, His foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification, set in place before I was conceived in my mother's womb. No matter how many twisted roads I have traveled, or may still travel, in my life, I am His and He is mine. Nothing can ever change that conclusion, which is my destiny: to be in the presence of the Lord for all eternity, with no more sin nature but absolutely perfected, to live in His presence forever.

Once I take my last breath and am carried away by angels into the presence of Jesus Christ, I will be completely sinless, with absolute perfection. As long as I am in this body, what Paul wrote makes perfect sense: "O what a wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord" (Romans 7:24). Absolute perfection can only happen when I am absent from the body but present with the Lord.

• "There but for the grace of God go I"—a condemned man being led to his execution.

• Eager to accept his sins and failures, and to follow the example of the disciple who only wanted to be known as "the disciple Jesus loved": "If you think you are without sin, you are deceiving yourself. The truth is not in you. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9-10).

"When we learn the power of Jehovah, then we know the littleness of man." —Charles Spurgeon

What Is Sin

All sin is disobedience and rebellion against our Maker. There is an owner's manual—it is called God's Living Word, the Bible, the oldest book in the world. "Even if it kills me, I will not repent. I will not apologize. I don't care what that Bible says, or what anyone says. I will do what I please, I will go where I please, I will have no control of my tongue. Whatever, whenever, and however my feelings strike me, that is what I do, and that is who I will be. I don't care about the consequences, or who I hurt with all my despicable behaviors. It's all about feeling—if it feels good, I do it." That is the mantra of a person who chooses to live a sinful life.

Sin is: "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. It is I who determine what my future will bring, by the way I see life and prepare myself to face its realities. I am in the driver's seat of my life." (William Ernest Henley, 1849-1903). That is pure sin and stupidity in its most extreme form. How many people actually believe they are in control of their destiny and in the driver's seat of their life? The very next breath you and I take comes from the mercy of God. Until each of us asks Jesus Christ to be in the driver's seat of our life, we are living an utterly foolish and sinful life.

Sin is: "I am god, I am the mover and shaker, I can make things happen—look what I have accomplished in my life, look at me. It is all about the trinity: I, me, and myself. Who needs this God, when I have all this power?"

Then one day, a drunk driver on the wrong side of the road comes straight at you. Or you get your annual physical and a doctor calls—it's serious, we need to talk. How many other disasters could we face in this fallen world in the very next breath? It can happen to any of us at any time. What do we say to ourselves when we must face our own mortality—or, God forbid, when we find ourselves in Pastor Joe Bayly's shoes, standing before the open graves of three of his boys, one sixteen days old, one five years old, one eighteen years old? What good is the great philosophy "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul" at a time like that? It is all lunatic talk. The very next breath we all take is God's amazing grace and mercy. Thinking or saying that we have no need for God is the greatest sin any of us can commit.

Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones said it all about the outcome of such a sinful life. Their song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" has been streamed 600 million times on Spotify and YouTube. In it, a man drives around, half-listening to the radio and TV telling him what to buy and how to look; he chases a girl who puts him off; and no matter what he does, he can't get any satisfaction. Here is the lyrics:

I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get no satisfaction
‘Cause I try and I try and I try, and I try
I can’t get no, I can’t get no satisfaction

When I’m driving my car, when a man comes on radio
He is telling me more and more, about some useless information
Supposed to fire up my imagination

When I’m watching my TV, and a man comes on and tell me
How white my shirt can be,
But he can’t be a man, ‘cause he doesn’t smoke, the same cigarette as me

When I am ricin’ ‘round the world
And I”m doin’ this and I’m singin’ that
And I’m tryin’ to make some girl, who tells me
Baby, better come back maybe next week
can’t you see I’m on a loosing steak?
I can’t get no, oh no, no, no, hey, hey, hey
That’s what I say, I can’t get no satisfaction, No satisfaction

There is a man being honest with himself. You may have oodles of money, a McMansion that people want to tour, a whole bunch of people bowing down to you because they think you are important—but deep down in your heart you know nothing about joy, peace, or contentment. You keep walking around in fear that someone will find out that, under the veneer of all the show business of life, there is a very insecure person. Others may find out who you really are. That man in the mirror knows nothing about a life of satisfaction.

Until you come face to face with the real Jesus Christ—not the Republican Jesus, the Democrat Jesus, the make-me-feel-good Jesus, the make-me-rich Jesus, the make-me-popular Jesus, especially the Santa Claus Jesus of the prosperity gospel—no, no, no, hey, hey, hey, the real Jesus—one day all this show business of life will be over, and you must stand before Him and give an account at the judgment seat. "It was his fault," "her fault," "my parents' fault"—nothing will work that day. Each of us alone will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account on the day of Jesus Christ.

So you have finally arrived. You have 1,000 people following you on social media, and they keep you fully informed. Then you read that Taylor Swift has 539 million followers, Ariana Grande has 509 million, and Cristiano Ronaldo has 905.3 million. Your 1,000 followers suddenly look puny—better get to work. It's all "look at me, I'm finally somebody, they all like me!" The truth is, you can't get no satisfaction.

Wilt Chamberlain, most likely the greatest basketball player ever to play the game, often boasted that while some people collect stamps, he collected women. In his second book, A View From Above, he claimed to have slept with 20,000 different women, keeping meticulous records in his day-timer, before he died at sixty-three years old. The truth of Mick Jagger's song holds: you will get no satisfaction.

Sin will cost you far more than you thought it would in this world, and at the end it will cost you eternity in hell, where there is no U-turn and no do-over. You may have heard about the man who goes around telling everyone how rich he is. He would walk through a department store where women were shopping for dresses, spot someone who looked good to him, grab a dress off the rack, and say, "You look just like my wife—would you please try this on? I just want to see how it looks on you." Such a simple request. His next victim fell for the shenanigans, went to the fitting room to change into the new dress—and he walked in and raped her.

It cost him 84 million dollars, plus interest adding up daily. How many women go home and never tell their husbands what happened to them at the department store? E. Jean Carroll was not one of them—she made him pay. She was not going to let him get away with his wretched behavior this time. Same story as Wilt Chamberlain sweet-talking 20,000 women, or this man thinking he could get away with it because he's rich: your sin will always find you out. The truth is, you will get no satisfaction.

Sin is living the life Frank Sinatra made famous: "I did it my way." Who are you to tell me how to live my life, or what book to read? I am liberated from the chains of religion and the philosophies of the world. I will do what I please, when I please, how I please, with whomever I please. Leave me alone—I will decide how to live my life. In the end, you will get no satisfaction.

Sin is leprosy in the sight of God. For a time, someone living and wallowing in sin can even put on a big show, as Wilt Chamberlain did in his life. Before God, it is all leprosy. Sin is wanting what somebody else has—money, fame, status. Leprosy is never learning that God made us for Himself, and we will be restless until we find our rest in God alone.

Sin is seeing someone who has what you want and don't have—even someone in whom you recognize admirable qualities. There is a story in the Book of Esther about a man named Haman, who clawed his way to become the king's right-hand man. Everyone bowed down to him except one man, Mordecai, and that drove Haman into an absolute fury. He built gallows to hang Mordecai; ultimately, Haman himself was hanged on those same gallows. Haman wanted to be "top dog." He had to be the most successful and powerful person next to the king himself, with everyone bowing down to him—and that desire drove him mad and ended with him dying on the very gallows he had built for his enemy.

Sin is gossip, with all its ugliness—the pretense, the disregard for consequences, the lives it ruins, the relationships it destroys, the homes it divides, the hatred it creates—all from gossip that some people manufacture and spread, and then act like the three wise monkeys: "I said nothing, I heard nothing, I know nothing." God's Word says, "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of it in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36). What awaits the wretched people who make up the stupid stories that ruin lives, homes, churches, and relationships?

Sin is never being satisfied—with money, education, job, marriage, good health, power, beauty, cars, houses, wardrobes, name it—no matter how much a person has, they never feel satisfied. The craving for more and more never seems to end. A rich young man once asked Jesus, "What must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus told him, "Go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." The rich man heard this and went away grieving, for his wealth was his god, and he was never going to give it up. Then Jesus said to His disciples, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19).

Listen to another man who made plenty of mistakes but knew something about remorse and repentance. His words in Psalm 51 are the greatest words of repentance anyone has ever penned. God said of him, "a man after my own heart." He knew how to cry out to God with remorse and repentance when he got caught up in sin. Here is what Scripture says of his end: "David died at a good old age [in his seventy-first year], having enjoyed long life, wealth, and honor" (1 Chronicles 29:28). What a legacy to leave behind—satisfied with life. How seldom we see that today, in a world craving more and more and more.

Sin is pride: the inability to admit one's own failure, deflecting and gaslighting every sin and failure onto someone else. God's Word says, in Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sin will find you out." We are prone to try to hide our sin. What will others think of me if they find out? We resist confessing our sins even to someone we trust, who we know would never betray us—maybe because we have been betrayed so many times before by someone we trusted, and later found out there are far too many Judases in this world who will betray us for pennies. We can go to God with the rawness of our sins, cry out to Him, and He will hold us in His arms the same way He held the prodigal son when the boy had finally had enough of the pigs' food. "Though our sins are as scarlet, God can make them white as snow." Yet most people who walk this earth, even if it means dying, will not confess their sins to God or to someone they have offended. That is called pride. A proud person will never enter the kingdom of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Sin will, sooner or later, destroy your life, home, joy, peace, and tranquility. It will not end well. Anderson Cooper, the CNN reporter, has told the story of his only brother, who at twenty-three years old jumped from the terrace of a 14th-floor apartment in front of their mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Anderson himself. Cooper recently said it's inconceivable to him that his brother died in 1988, and that he has now lived more of his life without him than he ever lived with him. Sin will destroy everything in our life sooner or later—an outstanding education, birth into affluence, stature, the envy of the world—sin will sooner or later destroy it all.

Saul was the very first king of Israel. Although unknown among the other Israelites, he had the pedigree that made for a king—taller than everyone else, head and shoulders above the rest, with a strong and pleasing look. He was king for twenty-two years, yet his kingdom was troubled by jealousy, infighting, and absolute misery. His jealousy over young David's killing of Goliath drove him into madness. At the end, near death in battle, he tried to get his armor-bearer to kill him, and when the man refused, Saul fell on his own sword. Saul is the perfect example of a man who said to himself, "I did it my way." No matter what the prophet Samuel told him to do, Saul did whatever, however, and whenever pleased him.

That is the essence of sin: I will do whatever, whenever, however, and with whomever my desire strikes me—that is what I will do. What God has written in His Word means nothing to me.

On the other hand, the person who has read and understood the manual for life, God's Living Word, will say to God: "O Lord, my God, You are my God, and I will do whatever, whenever, and however Your Word commands me to do—no question, no arguments, no 'why,' no 'that's unfair,' no excuses. You made me for Yourself. Thank You for redeeming my life. You paid my redemption price with the blood of Your Son and my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I will honor You with my every breath and every nanosecond of my life, so help me God." That is life, and life abundant.

Gloria Vanderbilt's son—just twenty-three years old, affluent, well-educated, with all the fame and fortune of the Vanderbilt family—found it counted for nothing when he jumped from the fourteenth floor as his mother and brother watched. Saul, the very first king of Israel—jealousy, pride, and disobedience to God eventually led him to fall on his own sword and take his life.

Righteousness Is the Other Side

I have written about sin, but there is another side, called righteousness. Jesus Christ said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Matthew 5:6). So what is it that you are really hungry for? Someone once asked John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in the world at the time, "How much money is enough for you?" He responded, "Just a little bit more." Isn't that what most people really hunger for? What a crazy way to live—following some politician you think will usher in a perfect world, or just wanting a little more. Each moment you live that life of "just a little more," you are digging a hole a little deeper, closer and closer to hell. Keep traveling that road, and at some point you will find there is no U-turn. The only truth for those who travel that road is, "God gave them up." Once God gives up on any of us, hell and hell alone is the final destination.

Jesus Christ tells this story in Luke 15:11-32. A father had two sons. The younger was fed up with his father's rules and how his father ran the home. He wanted to get as far away from his father and home as he could. He persuaded his father to split the estate and give him his share—a most despicable display of disloyalty in that time and culture—and went off to live it up as far from his father's control as possible. He was having the time of his life; this is how people should live, he thought—plenty of friends, parties with beautiful people lasting all night. Finally, it all came to an end. The money was gone, the friends were gone, and alone and penniless, he was hired to care for someone's pigs. The food he ate was the food the pigs ate, until he finally came to his senses and said to himself, "Even my father's servants live better than this." He made a decision: "I will get up from this pigsty and go to my father." He made up a little speech in his head and walked back home.

You will need to read that story yourself to get the full picture, and if your heart doesn't break when you read it, your heart is as hard as stone—you should consider seeing a cardiologist. Only God can break a stony heart and make it a heart of flesh again.

Telling someone addicted to alcohol, pornography, drugs, gossip, lies, hate, racism, or a namesake Christian life to simply stop is not so easy. The devil has that person exactly where he wants them and will not let them go easily. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is the one and only hope from every sin and wretchedness in our life. We all have to get up from the pigsty of life and the pigs' food we've been eating, and realize there is a Father waiting on the front porch, looking for each of us, ready to run toward us with a loving embrace and every privilege bestowed on a son—even though we have ruined His estate and His name. No lecture, no "how could you do this to me." Once he was lost and now he is found; once he was blind and now he can see. Let's celebrate.

However, for someone who has been in the grip of Satan for a long time, it will take a great deal of work to feel like he truly belongs to this loving Father. Finding a church and a pastor who cares, who knows God's Word, and who has the ability to teach it book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, even word by word, is a good place to start. You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The only absolute truth in this world is the manual for life: God's Living Word, the Bible. Open it and start to read. It is a big book, with sixty-six smaller books inside it. You can start with Genesis in the Old Testament, then go to the Gospel of John in the New Testament and read it at least three times, then go back to the Old Testament and read Exodus, then back to the New Testament to read Acts. Read those four books several times until you understand them—they are the foundation for knowing God and knowing His Word. Memorize four psalms: 1, 23, 91, and 139. Repeat those four psalms in your head as often as possible. Find a reading plan that takes you through the whole Bible in a year; trying to read straight through from Genesis to Revelation can be difficult, and some parts will be hard to get through. A good reading plan will take you through different books and help you understand the Bible more clearly.

Keep telling God that He is your Shepherd and you are His sheep. A sheep doesn't have much sense—it will follow the sheep in front of it, even if the road ahead leads to a ditch that could kill the whole flock. Start looking up to the Almighty, and keep reading the manual for life: the Bible. Understand that you are a baby in Christ, and you have a long way to go to understand this manual for your life. He is your Shepherd, and that Shepherd wrote a manual for you. A five-year-old does not start his education with trigonometry—he starts with the alphabet. Read, think, and pray, and ask God to help you understand His Living Word.

A stadium like Dallas Cowboys Stadium can hold up to 105,000 people, and Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones could easily fill it for one of their concerts. After 105,000 people screaming his name, and the band screaming back to them, they all go home, sit alone in their room, and all they can think is, "I can't get no satisfaction." They have more money than they could spend in many lifetimes, but the truth is: they can't get no satisfaction.

Jeremiah wrote this about the heart of humanity: "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who can really know how bad it is?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Sin is part of our nature. Sin grips us, controls us, and makes us slaves. Sin is more powerful than our reason, knowledge, will, memory, and fear of consequence. Sin leads to perpetual restlessness and dissatisfaction, because we have a vacant heart without God. The solution is a new nature and a new life, found only in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Why all these broken homes, children growing up in single-parent households? Mass shootings are everyday news. Why so much depression, mental illness, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, anger, hate, pride, jealousy, road rage—a six-year-old bringing a gun to school and shooting a teacher? A greed that has no satisfaction and is never enough—where does it all come from? Just one word: SIN.

All the trouble in this world, and in every life that is ruined, is caused by a wrong relationship, or no relationship, with God. God made us for Himself and gave us the Bible as our manual for life. We refuse to read it, to really study it, think about it, and apply it to our lives. That is the root cause of all the trouble in every life and in the world we inhabit today. People today no longer believe we are rotten through and through, that there is nothing good in us. The human heart is the most deceitful and desperately wicked thing there is. What kind of person picks up a dress, walks up to a woman, and says, "You look just like my wife, would you please put it on, I just want to see how it looks on you"—is there anything more deceitful and wicked than saying that and then walking into the dressing room to do what he did to her? How despicable and wicked can a human heart be? This man stalking women in a department store—those women are someone's wife, mother, sister, or daughter. He seems unfazed by any of it; he simply needs to satisfy his lust. The truth is, no matter how many women he gropes, he will never find satisfaction either.

The radical evil called SIN, in the depths of every heart, is something we all like to hide from others. The evil in the human heart, and complete regeneration, is the only hope for every person walking this earth. The Son of God coming to this earth as Jesus Christ—crucified, died, buried, resurrected, ascended, and now seated at the right hand of God the Father as High Priest—is the only hope for anyone with true remorse and true repentance.

Until each of us understands that we are wretched sinners, and can say with Paul, "What a wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?"—God's manual for life, the Living Word, the Bible, is the starting point. Pick it up and start to read. Visit a few churches and see if they are preaching God's Living Word, book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and see if anyone cares enough to look at your face, welcome you, and orient you to true believers in your area. Keep looking and praying that God will direct you to a group of believers who want to see you grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. No one can do that alone; everyone needs a pastor and a community of believers to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God.

Until one cries out to God with remorse and repentance for living a life to please self, with an "I did it my way" attitude, there is no hope for that person. The apostle Paul wrote to his co-worker Timothy, "This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them" (1 Timothy 1:15). When we no longer need approval from other human beings, or fear their disapproval, we too can say boldly, "Jesus Christ came to save a wretched sinner like me, and I am the worst of them." That is not an easy place to arrive; most of us are still in the grip of the enemy, Satan, who tightens his grip as we begin to think about right and wrong, life and death. Scripture says, "Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded" (James 4:7-8).

The manual for our life, the Bible, says, "No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account" (Hebrews 4:13).

"O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether." (Psalm 139:1-4)

The God who knows every thought we have ever had, every word that has ever come out of our mouth, and knows all of our life so completely—the greatest prayer we too can pray with David is: "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! See if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24)

Conclusion

I will conclude with David's life: David died at a good old age, in his seventy-first year, full of days, satisfied with life, with riches and honor (1 Chronicles 29:28). The Almighty God called him "a man after My own heart." David's honor came from God, not from people. Sooner or later, the bell will toll for every one of us. The only question is: from whom do you seek honor, as the bell tolls for you? You are only as good as the next fool starting another rumor about you—people don't care to find out the truth. A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. Take your eyes off the people of this world, and keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He alone is the answer to the sin nature that lies deep within you. He will make you a new person, a child of God without fault. He will finish what He started in your life. But for now, you are living in this fallen world, surrounded by crooked and mean people, among whom you will shine like stars in the dark world (Philippians 2:13, 15-16).

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Two thieves were crucified with Jesus. One said, "I deserve what I am getting—would You remember me when You come into Your kingdom?" Jesus told this thief, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise." The other thief said, "Are You not the Messiah? Save Yourself, and while You're at it, save us too."

Just as those two men made a decision, in a moment of time, that affected their eternity, you are also making a decision at this very moment that will affect your eternal destination. What will it be—sin or righteousness? It all starts with remorse and repentance. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Annie Sherwood Hawks (1836-1918) wrote this:

"I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord."
No tender voice like Thee, can peace afford
I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee, every hour I need Thee
Stay Thou near by, temptation lose it’s power, when Thou art near
In joy or pain, come quickly and abide, or life is vain.
Teach me Thy will and Thy rich promises, In me fulfill
I need Thee every hour, Most Holy One,
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

The real answer to our sin problem is Romans 6th chapter. We may have to read it 100 times and keep asking God to help us understand it and get God’s help in applying that chapter in our life.

“You must be in the business of killing sin or sin will kill you” John Owen

The reason many Christians fall into sin is that they treat temptation like strawberry shortcake rather than a rattlesnake. Evangelist Billy Sunday