Tonight, we continue our consideration of our confession of faith from the Belgic Confession, Article 15, found on page 76 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. Page 76, Article 15, at the bottom, dealing with original sin. In connection with Article 14, the creation, fall, and corruption of man, we read together from Romans 5, verses 12 through 21, And we're going to read that portion again tonight as well, adding to that Romans 3, verses 10 through 18. Romans 3, verses 10 through 18, and then chapter 5, verses 12 through 21. Hear now the Word of God. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways in the way of peace. They do not know there is no fear of God before their eyes. In verse 23, then Paul says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Then chapter 5, beginning of verse 12. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. For before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many? Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ? Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings the life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more. So that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness, to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And to add verse 1 of chapter 6, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase by no means? We die to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Beloved in Christ, one of the most wonderful experiences of life, as I trust most, if not all of us who are parents would agree, is the birth of a newborn baby. Boys and girls, when each of you were born, you were so precious. You still are, but you were so precious. When you were born, your moms were relieved. Your dads, no doubt, could not have been more proud. And no doubt, somewhere along the line, there was someone who looked at you for the very first time and said, Oh, isn't he or she so cute and innocent? Isn't he or she so innocent? and they probably meant that you were so cute and precious and harmless, after all, as a newborn, you could not yet talk back, you could not yet say no, you could not yet get into trouble. But the truth is, when we think of innocent in terms of a court of law, and as the opposite of guilty, and in terms of either doing or not doing bad and wrong things, and when we think of innocent in terms of sin, Newborn babies are not innocent, but very, very guilty. David said in Psalm 51, verse 5, Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Now this is not to take away from the joy of the birth of a newborn baby and praise God that by His grace for believers, this truth does not take away from that joy. Of course, yet there are many who would say, What do you mean? How can a newborn be sinful? He or she hasn't done anything wrong yet. He hasn't committed any sins yet. But here in Article 15 of the Belgic Confession, we confess to believe this truth of Scripture that the result of our first father's sin is that all people are now born sinful. Born sinners. Follow along if you have it open, page 76, article 15, original sin. We believe that through the disobedience of Adam, original sin is extended to all mankind, which is a corruption of the whole nature and a hereditary disease, wherewith even infants in their mother's womb are infected, and which produces in man all sorts of sin. Being in him as a root thereof, and therefore is so vile and abominable in the sight of God, that it is sufficient to condemn all mankind. Nor is it altogether abolished or wholly eradicated even by baptism, since sin always issues forth from this woeful source as water from a fountain. Notwithstanding, it is not imputed to the children of God unto condemnation, but by His grace and mercy is forgiven them. Not that they should rest securely in sin, but that a sense of this corruption should make believers often to sigh, desiring to be delivered from this body of death. Wherefore, we reject the error of the Pelagians, who assert that sin proceeds only from imitation. Now again, Article 14, dealing with the creation, fall, and corruption of man, and Article 15, go together. And therefore, I consider with you tonight God's revelation of the truth of man. That sounds familiar. We used it last week. This time, part two, considering original sin. And obviously, no doubt, we would all like to move on and get away from all of this negative truth about ourselves and get to the good stuff. Let's get to the good news. But as we said last week, the good news won't be good. It won't be worth hearing unless we understand the truth that hurts. And since we like to look at ourselves through rose-colored glasses, which often obscures the truth. We cannot look at ourselves that way through our own eyes, but we must look to God's revelation, which alone gives the proper diagnosis. Original sin is not a biblical term. It's a term we might say coined by some of the early church fathers to describe the origin of sin in general and the source or the cause of sin in every single human being, including you and me. Article 15 says that original sin is a corruption of the whole nature and a hereditary disease. Now, of course, when we think of hereditary, we think of something that is passed on in the family line from parents to children. Boys and girls, for example, blue eyes. My wife and I both have blue eyes and therefore all of our six children have blue eyes. Or we can talk about medical problems like heart disease or cancer or high blood pressure. Some of those things that we know run in the family. And that means that if your parents or grandparents have heart disease or high blood pressure, then you yourself are at a greater risk of having one of those things as well. And last week we said in connection with the fall of man that Adam became what we call totally depraved. He became sinful through and through. There was not one part of him that was free from sin. Not his thoughts, words, actions, motives, desires, you name it. It was filled with sin. It saturated His whole being like a sponge that is completely saturated with water or again, that glass of water in which you put a drop of poison, stir it up, and all the water is poisonous. You don't want to drink it. Sin is a disease, we might say. Think of it in a sense that it runs through every single vein in man. Now boys and girls, when I was being given chemotherapy because of cancer, I remember that I could feel the effects of that medicine from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, the very bottoms of my feet. I know that they've made great advances in the effects of chemotherapy since that time, but I felt bad all over. Up here, if I touched my head, if I touched the soles of my feet, I just felt bad. But my doctor told me that the chemo medicine, which they put directly into my veins, that traveled throughout my whole body, again, from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. throughout my entire body. And if there were any cancer cells floating around through my bloodstream, the medicine would find it and kill it. In a sense, that describes you and me in sin. From the top of the head to the soles of the feet. Running all the way through. And we're not talking about sin as a sickness as some do today. They try to soften the truth of sin. They try to say that it's nothing more than a mistake or a sickness that comes from outside of us that really can't be helped and therefore, I'm not really responsible for it, you see? But the truth is that sin is a disease that I am fully responsible for that has fully affected our whole being and it is fatal. It is deadly. Death is its wages. And again, even as we confess with the Nicene Creed, Remember, according to the Scriptures, that phrase was in there. Again, only God's revealed Word gives us the proper diagnosis. And God's Word teaches that Adam's original sin, his very first sin, had results both for Adam, for his human nature, and for every human being to come after him. His very first sin is the actual origin of sin in that it introduced sin into the human race and plunged every single person into sin. His original sin has been passed down to us. It has consequences in us and for us. And those consequences include, first of all, that all of mankind shares in the guilt of Adam's first sin. In other words, each one of us, along with every person who has lived or will ever live, each and every one is guilty of that first sin, even though we didn't actually eat the forbidden fruit. We share in the guilt. And we suffer from the pollution of sin, which is an inward makeup that is evil and is then the root or the source which produces all sorts of sin in man. Those two things, guilt and pollution. Now, when we talk about guilt, we're talking about how one stands in relation to the law. Do you stand as guilty in relation to the law, Or do you stand as not guilty? Scott Peterson has been found guilty of breaking the law. He's not righteous when it comes to our civil law. In Adam's fall, as the saying goes, we sinned all. In Adam, we are guilty in relation to God's law. We are not righteous and we need justification. We need to be made righteous. But again, we might be tempted to scream out, but wait a minute, that's not fair. Adam sinned, not me. He ate the forbidden fruit, not me. Why am I guilty for what he did? In Romans 5, 12-21, Paul reminds us again of the comparison between Adam and Christ. Again, Adam being a pattern of the one to come, it says, Both serve as representatives of others. Both are covenant heads. Heads of covenants that God established. God established the covenant of works with Adam in which God basically said, do this and live. Obey and live. And as the covenant head who represented the entire human race, Adam acted on behalf of you and on behalf of me. And what Adam would do or would not do would result in either consequences of blessing or tragic consequences for all those he represented. And of course, we know the outcome. Adam failed. But had he passed the test, that would have resulted in the human race being born into eternal glory. And that we wouldn't complain about, would we? But he failed. And when he sinned, He sinned as our representative. He sinned on our behalf and therefore we were all involved in that sin. His guilt is our guilt and that guilt is enough to condemn each one of us in the sight of God so that we deserve eternal punishment. Adam's guilt is imputed to us. There's that $24,000 theological term, imputation. And we like that word when it comes to Christ's righteousness being imputed to us. We don't complain about that being not fair. But this we don't think is fair. Boys and girls, to impute something to another means to credit something to their account. We think of charging something with a credit card. If you want to purchase a new bike for $100, your dad might swipe his card at the store and through the little machine and the credit card company credits or imputes to your dad's account $100 to pay for the bike. He can pay for it right there at the store. Your dad didn't have the $100 before, but now it's been imputed to him, credited to his account. Or I was thinking of this in terms of back when I was in high school and a sports team would go to state competition, for example, and if your basketball team played in the championship game and lost, You see, that loss was imputed, really, to the whole school. Oh, what school do you go to? I go to Western Christian High School in Hull, Iowa. Oh, you lost. But I wasn't playing. Yeah, but you lost. See, the loss is imputed. The whole school lost. Adam was the head. The representative of the whole human race and therefore as human beings, the guilt of his sin is also our guilt. but we also get something else from him, that pollution that we talked about. That sin that filled Adam's heart and is the source of our actual sin, the sin that we actually commit, that total depravity is hereditary. It became a natural part of the human race, of the human family. It runs into the family line. Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. And Jesus in Mark 7, verses 21 and 23, after saying what comes out of man is what is deadly, says, for from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean. And in the Canons of Doroth, the third and fourth head of doctrine, article 2, it says, Man, after the fall, begat children in his own likeness. A corrupt stock produced a corrupt offspring. Hence, all the posterity of Adam, Christ only accepted, have derived corruption from their original parent, not by imitation, as the Pelagians of old asserted, but by the propagation of a vicious nature in consequence of the just judgment of God. Pelagius taught that no other than Adam was guilty for Adam's sin. He taught that we are not born sinful, we are not born corrupt and totally depraved, but we're born much like Adam was made in essence. We're neutral. We're neutral when it comes to good and bad. We are born not having done any good and bad. We're born with a free will that is able to choose for good or to choose against good. And therefore he said that children are not born sinners, but they sin because they follow bad examples. They sin because they imitate others. And there are many, even in the evangelical scene today, who continue to hold on to that kind of thinking. But that's not the teaching of Scripture. Article 15 is true to Scripture when it says that the terrible results of Adam's disobedience are a corruption of the whole nature and a hereditary disease wherewith even infants in their mother's womb are infected and which produces in man all sorts of sin being in him as a root thereof and therefore so vile and abominable in the sight of God that it is sufficient to condemn all mankind. Now Romans 3 verses 10 through 18 is a vivid description of that vileness. Verses 11 and 18 point to separation from God and a lack of understanding and a lack of wanting to understand God. Original sin comes from Adam's desire to break with God, to rebel against God, to turn away from Him, to disobey Him. And therefore, we are born with a natural desire to be at enmity with God. Now, verses 12 through 17 of that passage describe the true state of man before God contrary to man's high view of himself. Most people think, I'm pretty good, you know. Certainly, God must find something about me that is okay. That's not at all what Romans chapter 3 teaches us. If we were to examine these verses in detail, which we don't have the time for tonight, we would see that man's speech is dealt with in verses 13 and 14. Their throats are open graves. Open wide to swallow anybody in their path. Or as some commentators point out, just like in Palestine, because of the dry, the hot weather, the arid temperatures, if you open a grave, be ready for the stench, for the smell. That's the throat of a sinner. Of one who's totally depraved. Just the stench and the vileness. Their tongues practice deceit. Not the truth. The poison of vipers is on their lips. deadliness and their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness and then in the next few verses we see that man's conduct is dealt with their feet are swift to shed blood ruin and misery mark their ways and the way of peace they do not know and then paul teaches here that man is the opposite of what god calls for him to be in the two great commandments to love god above all and our neighbor as ourselves instead he doesn't seek after god he doesn't want to understand the things of god He'd rather live without peace, you see. And instead of love, man is truly out to steal, kill, and destroy when it comes to his neighbor. Beloved, why do we sin? Jesus said a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. And as the confession says again, if the root is bad, the fruit will be bad. You see, we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. And that's our nature from the moment of conception. We are born with sinful hearts, which means it's only a matter of time before that newborn baby commits actual sin. Before that newborn baby grows up a little bit and looks at mom or dad and says, No. Every newborn baby is born with a vicious nature, no matter how sweet and innocent and cute he or she may seem. A vicious nature that deserves the vengeance and wrath of God. See, the doctrine of original sin is not some boring, outdated teaching of the church. It's God's revelation of the truth of man. And original sin, beloved, has everything to do with us and our daily life. The sin that we commit each and every day, whether in thought or word or action, whether by doing what we're not supposed to do or not doing what we are supposed to do, it all grows from the root of original sin. And it all began with one man, Adam, our representative, and his sin. And Paul makes that clear, very clear in Romans 5. Sin entered the world through one man, verse 12. Many died by the trespass of the one man, verse 15. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, verse 16. By the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, verse 17. The result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, verse 18. And through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, verse 19. Now indeed, all of us may still be a mystery to us, but it's the truth of God's revelation and it is the proper diagnosis. And as hopeless as it sounds and may seem, yet by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we know that it's not hopeless. And that's because of God's mercy and grace. Article 15 says, Original sin is not altogether abolished or wholly eradicated, even by baptism, since sin always issues forth from this woeful source as water from a fountain. Notwithstanding, it is not imputed to the children of God unto condemnation but by His grace and mercy is forgiven them. That's great news, isn't it? That's great news for those as we were reminded this morning who are blessed but who are not yet glorified. Whether we think we need it or not it's great news that we all most definitely need. We deserve death. Eternal death. Because that's the wages of sin as Paul says but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You want to talk about a contrast. It doesn't get as opposite as that. Deserving eternal death. Being given eternal life through Jesus Christ. He is the only prescription and remedy for the deadly corruption and hereditary disease of sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ is also a covenant head. And our representative with regard to God's covenant of grace. He did what Adam failed to do. As our Lord perfectly fulfilled the covenant of works for us on our behalf. Adam was told, do this and live. Christ says, I've done this for you. Now live. He perfectly fulfilled the law of God. And he did this clothed with our human nature. He lived that perfectly righteous life. and as the sinless God-man He was able and in fact did take the place of all those given to Him by His Heavenly Father. He took upon Himself the wrath and punishment of God that was against us, not only because of our actual sin, but also because of the root. The original sin that completely corrupted us. Think about that. He died for that description of you and me that we find in Romans 3. That vile, vulgar us. You see, beloved, it's not the water of baptism itself that cleanses us from our sinful corruption and hereditary disease of sin, but that to which the water of baptism points. The blood of Jesus Christ. Through His precious blood, all of our sins are forgiven and His righteousness is imputed to us. Now again, that imputation we love to hear about, don't we? His righteousness, which we did not earn, which we did not deserve, which we did not even want. His righteousness, which belonged to Him alone, is freely credited to our account. And that's how God sees His people, sees His believers, as righteous in Christ, not as those described in Romans 3, 10-18. That death which was ours because of the one man Adam is removed and replaced with life because of the one man Jesus. Again, that's what Paul clearly teaches in Romans 5. How much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, verse 15. The gift followed many trespasses and brought justification, verse 16. How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ, verse 17. So also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men, verse 18. And then so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous, verse 19. Beloved, that's the hallmark of Paul's inspired teaching. The consequences of original sin include that we are guilty and unrighteous before God, and that we need to be justified by another. An alien righteousness, we call it. A righteousness that comes from outside of ourselves. And that's what Paul teaches in verse 21 and 22 of chapter 3. But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. In the beginning of chapter 5, Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. You see, Christ's righteousness is so real and it is so true for those who look to Him in faith that ours is the joy, as Paul says, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Oh, I hope that does something to you. that there is therefore now no condemnation. There was condemnation. You and I condemned to eternal death, but now it's gone, taken away. But not only is sin's guilt removed, but sin's pollution is being removed by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. And our confidence is, as Paul says in Philippians 1, He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. But until that day, until that day when the Spirit's work of sanctification and cleansing is complete in us in the glory of heaven, until that day we still sin. Until that day, believers, though, are at the same time sinners, sinners saved by grace, and therefore at the same time saints, sinners and saints. Article 15 gives a fact, which also serves as an admonition in regard to God's forgiveness. When it says, not that they, believers, should rest securely in sin, but that a sense of this corruption should make believers often to sigh, desiring to be delivered from this body of death. You see, God's people, born again to a living hope in Jesus Christ, do not desire, do not desire to go on sinning so that grace may abound or increase. They do not. Instead, their daily sin troubles them greatly because they know the sin they continue to commit offends God. And they understand the blood Jesus shed to pay for their sin. And therefore they cry with Paul, what a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death? Their sin bothers them. Does your daily sin bother you? I ask myself the same question. Does it bother me? At the end of the day, when I look back over the day and I realize, boom, maybe not at the time that I sinned, But at the end of the day, when I recall, does it bother me? You see, also with Paul, believers can confidently sing, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, beloved, we deal with the truth of original sin every day. We demonstrate its fruit every day in some way, shape, or form. Indeed, as believers, by the grace of God, we rest secure in the solid rock, Jesus Christ. And we sing, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. But at the same time, we must take our sin seriously. Many of us pray at the beginning of the day that God would deliver us from evil so that we will not fall into temptation, but it is to go beyond our morning prayers, you see. God calls each one of us to be responsible. That is, to responsibly and actively and thoughtfully in the power of the Spirit to strive to fight against and keep from sin. That means that we are to be aware of our surroundings and situations of life at all times. As boys and girls, as young people, as adults, as those coming to the end of our life, possibly. We are to actively keep our thoughts and words and actions in check every moment of every day. We can never let our guard down because as someone just said to me the other day, Satan knows the price with which we can be bought. But praise God for His preserving hand. Praise God for His preserving hand because we cannot stand a moment on our own. Praise God for the only prescription for our greatest need. Jesus Christ. He alone breaks the power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner free. But then what grace? He doesn't leave us to fend for ourselves. He has given to us His Holy Spirit to comfort, to help, to guide, to protect, to preserve, to sanctify us. Eternal death. That's what our wages earned. That's what we wanted. That's what we deserved. Praise God that He does not give us what we earned. praise God that He does not give us what we wanted praise God that He gives us that which we didn't even realize we needed that which He earned for us through His Son, our Savior that eternal life as I was reflecting on the chemotherapy illustration I thought, you know chemotherapy might be used for example in my case to cure the cancer physically speaking but you know what? cancer could come back it could come back and it could take the life of any one of us but that only prescription Jesus Christ the only prescription for sin he has removed that death eternal death never ever to return praise God amen shall we pray father indeed may we sing praises to your most holy name because of your work for us and in us and on our behalf through your son jesus christ forever and ever father may we trust your word your revelation that which you teach to us even sometimes when it's hard for us to swallow difficult for us to accept may we be brought to see by the power of your spirit the beauty of your truth even when it's talking about a truth that hurts us then oh lord lift our eyes to see the beauty of your grace your mercy and your peace your glory and the fact that you do all things for your glory and honor on behalf of your people. In Jesus name we pray these things. Amen.