Message Notes

GOALS

1. To have a correct and accurate understanding of Sin and its effects on Mankind

a) The unregenerate person

b) The regenerated believer

2. The Nature of Sin

a) Significant Texts

i) Romans

ii) Galatians

iii) The Gospels

b) The Effects of Sin on life

3. The battle against Sin and Satan

a) Individual

b) Biblical knowledge

c) Personal

d) Practical

4. Victory is possible

a) It would take everything we have to teach well

b) It is going to take time

c) It is gong to take the work of the Holy Spirit above all

THE HUMAN HEART DESCRIBED I

9 “The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?

10 I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.

Jeremiah 17:9-10

1. Deceitful above all things

2. Desperately wicked

THE HUMAN HEART DESCRIBED II

7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honour Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.

9 And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Matthew 15:7-9

1. The problem of hypocrisy

2. The heart can be very far from God

3. Though the lips may seem to honour God in worship

THE HUMAN HEART DESCRIBED III

19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Matthew 15:19-20

1. From the heart comes many evil things

2. These things defile the individual

3. The human heart cannot be changed by religion

4. The problem of sin must be dealt with thoroughly

THE LAW OF SIN

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Romans 7:7-25

1. Sin will use the Scriptures to seize the individual

2. It will produce death through that which is good

3. We are carnal (flesh)

4. Sin dwells within us

5. This is called “the law of sin”

6. It will bring us into captivity

7. Only the Lord Jesus can deliver us from the law of sin!

THE POWER OF GOD AND HIS WORD MUST WORK WITHIN US

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:11-24

1. The Unregenerate state Ephesians 4:17-19

a) Futility of the mind

b) Darkened understanding

c) Alienated from the life of God

d) Ignorance

e) Blindness of the heart

f) Past feeling

g) The old man

2. The regenerate state

a) The believer must be equipped

b) It must be well-taught

c) It must keep growing

d) It must seek to do its part in the Body of Christ

3. The Teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ

a) Heard Him

b) Taught by Him

c) Be renewed in the spirit of the mind

d) Putting on the new man

e) Created in righteousness and holiness