Man the Sinner
What is the Gospel? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What is your current understanding of sin? How does your understanding of sin affect the way you view others?
How does sin connect to God being the Creator, Righteous, and Holy?
What does repentance of sin teach us about God and ourselves?
What is the gospel? What does it mean? (there’s really two answers we can give here based on last week’s lesson) 1) gospel — εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) or good news 2) God. Man. Christ. Response.
We walked through the first part of the gospel last week which focused on God. I gave two points from Scripture concerning God. Does anyone remember them?
First, God created us. We are accountable to the God who created us.
Second, God is righteous and holy. Our perfectly holy and righteous God cannot tolerate sin.
And so, if the gospel is truly good news, there has to be some bad news first. That’s our lesson for tonight. The title for our lesson tonight is Man the Sinner.
Remember, when we look at Scripture or doctrine, we are informing ourselves on what we believe. And what we believe transforms our living. And so, the goal for tonight is to show that you are indeed sinners at the very core, not just that you have sinned. And we’ll see the difference here in a moment.
Turn with me to Genesis 3. This passage of Scripture tells the story of what went wrong.
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
*explain God’s intent for Adam and Eve.
By disobeying God’s commands…
Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority over them and declared their independence from him.
Adam and Eve made a conscious decision to reject God as their King.
The Bible calls this disobedience of God’s commands — whether in word, thought, or deed — “sin.” Literally, the word means, “missing the mark,” but the biblical meaning of sin is much deeper.
Basketball illustration. It’s not as if they had just missed a shot. But they were shooting for the other team.
The Bible tells us that it is not just Adam and Eve who are guilty of sin.
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Paul even quotes from the Old Testament earlier in chapter 3.
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, There is none that doeth good. 2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: There is none that doeth good, no, not one.
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
And this goes against what we tell ourselves and what culture tells us. You are not basically good. You are not fundamentally alright.
*Scientology illustration. Tells us we are fundamentally good and we just need to root out the bad in us. Like taking a shower.
This is how individuals get to universalism. The fact that ultimately all people whether or not they believe in God will go to heaven. Why? It’s because they believe man is fundamentally good. This is completely opposite of how Scripture talks about human nature.
This view waters down the good news of Jesus Christ. If we are fundamentally good, we don’t need a Savior. If we are fundamentally vile, we desperately need a Savior.
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Now there’s a slight nuance that I want to clarify before going on, and I believe we may be guilty of presenting sin this way sometimes, even myself.
There’s a difference between committing a sin(s) and being fundamentally sinful. We don’t just happen to mess up every once and a while. We don’t just happen to make the wrong choice every once in a while. No, Scripture tells us that every action, decision, and choice is laced with sin. We don’t just happen to sin, we are born as sinners.
It’s like this. My last name is Campbell. I will always, fundamentally be a Campbell. I was born a Campbell and will forever stay a Campbell. When I played on a sports team in high school, I became an Eagle. I represented the Eagles. I am no longer an Eagle.
Sometimes we look at sin this way. We may think that we weren’t born as sinners. That the first time we sinned, we became a sinner. Scripture talks about humanity as ultimately and desperately sinful. At your very root and core, you are a sinner.
You could do this in many ways…
Comparing Themselves to “Worse” People. “I’m not perfect, but I’m way better than most kids at my school.” They measure goodness by comparison instead of God’s standard (Luke 18:11–12).
Minimizing Sin as “Mistakes”. Lying becomes “I just didn’t want to hurt their feelings.” Gossip becomes “I was just venting.” Treats sin as accidental rather than rebellion (Psalm 51:4).
Believing Their Intentions Make Them Good. “I didn’t mean to be rude.” “My heart was in the right place.” Assumes intentions cancel sin (Jeremiah 17:9).
Thinking Good Deeds Outweigh Bad Ones. “I mess up sometimes, but I serve at church and help people.” Views righteousness like a scale instead of a need for rescue (Isaiah 64:6).
Only Confessing “Safe” Sins. Comfortable admitting small things (impatience, procrastination) Hiding deeper sins (lust, bitterness, pride) Suggests they believe the core of who they are is still good (1 John 1:8).
Feeling Entitled to Forgiveness. “God has to forgive me—He knows I’m trying.” Treats grace as owed, not mercy (Luke 15:18–19).
Being Shocked by Consequences. “Why is God letting this happen? I didn’t do anything that bad.” Reveals a belief that they deserve better treatment (Lamentations 3:22).
Trusting Their Feelings as Moral Authority. “I don’t feel convicted, so it must be okay.” Assumes their heart is reliable (Proverbs 14:12).
Resisting the Idea of Needing Saving. “I believe in Jesus, but I don’t need to be ‘rescued.’” Sees Jesus as a helper, not a Savior (Matthew 1:21).
Seeing Sin as External, Not Internal. “I only mess up when I’m around bad influences.” Blames environment instead of acknowledging the heart (Mark 7:20–23).
Believing you’re fundamentally good makes Jesus optional.
Believing you’re fundamentally sinful makes Jesus essential.
We (You) have disobeyed God’s word. We (You) have ignored his commands. We (You) have sinned against him. And this is the predicament we are all in.
So there is a huge difference between understanding yourself to be guilty of sins, and knowing yourself to be guilty of sin. Sins don’t shock us as much. We know they are there, we see them in ourselves and others every day, and we’ve gotten pretty used to them. What should be shocking to us is when God shows us the sin that runs to the very depths of our hearts.
The Bible talks about our sin as in us and of us, not just on us.
The sinful words you speak and sinful actions you do are not just isolated incidents. They rise out of the evil of your own heart.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Every part of our human existence is corrupted by sin and under its power.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So thorough is sin’s rule over us — our minds, understanding, and will — that we see God’s glory and goodness, and we inevitably turn away from it in disgust.
So it’s not not enough to say that Jesus came to save us from our sins, if what we mean by that is that he came to save us from our isolated mistakes. It’s only when we realize that our very nature is sinful that we see just how good the news is that there is a way to be saved.
This is where last week’s lesson connects to this week’s lesson.
19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Can you even begin to imagine what that will mean? To stand before God and to have no explanation, no plea, no excuse, no case?
The Bible is very clear that God is righteous and holy, and therefore he will not excuse sin. But what will it mean for God to deal with our sin, to judge it, and punish it?
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The payment we earn for our sins is to die. It is a spiritual death, a forceful separating of our sinful, wretched selves from the presence of the righteous and holy God.
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Here’s what this looks like:
1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
This should scare and frighten us. This is the bad news of sin. This is what we are destined for apart from Christ. This is what awaits all of humanity. Again, if we believe this, it should change the way we see others.
Those on your sports team, your neighbor friends, your classmates, your relatives, anyone you come in contact with, this is their destiny apart from Christ. We must care. We must tell.
As we close I want to give two application points for us to consider:
First, spend time this week repenting of your sins. If you’ve never repented of your sins and confessed your need for a Savior, do that today. If you’d like to talk to someone about what this means you can find me or the other teen leaders. But for already professing believers, recognizing our sin and repenting of it is not something that only happens at salvation, this should be an ever present reality.
Second, change how you view others in your life. Do you see those around you as fundamentally good? Once you recognize what the Bible says about humanity, it should change how you view those around you. Every person stands under the judgment of God because of their sin. They stand with immense need. Do you care?
GROUP PRAYER PROMPTS
GROUP PRAYER PROMPTS
Pray for God to show us sin in our hearts that we’ve ignored, excused, or explained away. Pray that we would be honest in recognizing our sin for what it is and faithful in repentance.
Thank God for sending us Jesus to save those who could never save themselves.
Pray that we would see people for what they truly are — sinners in need of a Savior. Pray that we would be bold in proclaiming the gospel to those around us.
