good morning it is great to be with you for those who don't know my name is Jason i get to serve as one of the pastors here at Friendship uh getting to open up God's word and jump into a new series with you this morning I was asked to wear this awesome shirt that says True North on it and already pointed out all of the decorations and all the things going on this is uh the theme for the VBS and we do ask you would pray for the week as it unfolds uh and there are hundreds of kids parents coming in and out uh and getting to have some fun and and learn from God's word and respond to the gospel and so would you continue to lift that up in prayer i was asked to wear the t-shirt i said yes earlier this morning the band asked me to get into the tent and come out of the tent to um Sorry band there's no great transition so let's talk about sin we're starting a new sermon series this morning called the plague of sin and um thinking about this imagine a family gets themselves a dog and they start to train this dog to sit to stay to go do their business outside and not inside but nothing seems to be working and so they spend hours on the internet hours on YouTube looking at different methods for how do I get this dog trained and how do I get it to respond to us but it never seems to work it's it's just like the dog's ignoring them until one day a family friend says "Maybe the dog's just deaf you try all the methods that you want with training that dog but if it's deaf it's not going to work it's it's not going to make any difference at all." So knowing the problem will impact how we solve the problem knowing the problem will impact the solution and so it is with sin maybe too often we treat it as if we need to try this method and we need to try this method and we need to try this method when when it's not going to work at all because we've got the wrong issue and so we're going to take sin and look at it from a lot of different angles and try to plum the depths of what sin actually is and what it means so that we can better appreciate what salvation is and what we are saved from salvation changes drastically based on what we are being saved from the more precise that we can be with identifying what sin is the more appreciative we can be about what Jesus has done to save us the greater degree of seriousness that we can attribute to our sin the greater the cross will be viewed in our lives so as we plumb the depths of our sin and we see just how sinful we we might be as a people or as individuals and at the same time as we behold the Lord's glory and his perfection and see more and more how how upright he is you see what happens to the cross it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger in our lives and so we're our goal is to start with sin in this series but we will also be looking at the Lord's glory and his perfection and as we do that those two arrows go separate directions and the cross gets bigger and bigger in our lives and so that's our goal in this series that's our goal this morning so stick with me it may not be super fun for a little bit but we will get to what Jesus has done uh to address our sin later on in the morning and throughout this series see if the problem of sin is that we hurt other people in some way then salvation simply means mending our relationships with them and figuring out how to stop hurting others if the problem with if the problem of sin is that we act contrary to our conscience and that makes us feel uncomfortable then and and this is a common one then salvation is hey give me a good pep talk so that I feel better about myself and that's a that's honestly a pretty common uh view of sin that we have in our culture that I I want to act a certain way and I find myself falling short of that standard that I want and I'm a moral person and so now I feel uncomfortable and and we don't like feeling uncomfortable and so salvation means Jesus you're going to help me feel better about this right and that waters down what salvation actually is because we've got the wrong understanding about what sin is sin is much larger much deeper than this and therefore salvation is much larger and much deeper than this and so in this series we will dare to plum the depths of of our depravity that we may gain greater clarity on our salvation that we may experience a greater level of grace operative in our lives and that we may experience a greater level of victory over sin so stick with us as we press into the the hard things now to start out the series here in Shakipi we're going to look at uh uh a word that is used in the Old Testament and its uh counterpart in the New Testament uh probably the most common word used for sin not probably it certainly is by a landslide the most common word used for sin in scripture and the most common concept for what sin is it's sin as missing the mark it's the the the picture for this is uh it's a verb of movement and it literally or metaphorically means just deviating from a prescribed target and that's what sin is uh from from the most broad point that's almost the umbrella term for sin pastor Matt's talking about uh the the word pak uh over in Prior Lake and he'll be doing that next week and we'll be looking at some other words but but the word we're looking at today is katah in in Hebrew it's the most common word used to talk about the general concept of sin and it's most often translated as sin uh it's used uh a little over 600 times in the Old Testament and so we're going to stand and read every single occurrence uh its Greek counterpart Hamaria appears uh 250 times in the New Testament so it's it's a very broad uh the most commonly used idea the most commonly used concept for sin maybe maybe you've heard it described before as an archery term that it's like shooting an arrow at a target and sin is whether you miss it by you know I'm looking at Jared he's like I don't miss and that's probably true um but I miss I I don't know i don't even know what target is um I I don't know where I'm shooting sin is missing it by a centimeter or missing the target completely either one is is sin and that's somewhat uh the idea of sin but I've got to be honest I've I've really read anything that indicates that katah was ever really used simply for archery and uh it's used again 600 times in the Old Testament it's never used that way in the Old Testament um we do see two occurrences of the word where it's not referring to sin against God or to a sin offering one of them is from Judges where it says "Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed everyone could sling a stone at a hair and not sin not miss." Um the only other occurrence is Proverbs 19:2 uh where somebody misses their way with their feet probably mean I don't know they tripped or something what's helpful from this physical sense from this picture this archery idea is that it paints the same picture that James 2:10 paints for us where James says for whoever keeps the whole law but fails just in one point you missed you miss the mark you become guilty of all of it and and that's that missing is missing that whether it's just barely or you you turned around and shot the other direction or somehow you broke the bow like it's missing is missing what's not helpful though from this idea from from archery is it makes it seem like apart from Jesus we might actually get close to hitting the target apart from Jesus we might actually uh be shooting at the right target apart from Jesus we may want to hit the right target because actually in the state that we live in apart from Christ we don't even want to hit the right target like we're not even picking up the bow and arrow we're not even shooting it we want to hit a different target or not shoot at all overwhelmingly the Bible uses the metaphorical picture of sin and it means this it's deviating from the standard that God has set for our relationship to him our relationship to his will to his creation and to one another it's it's missing God's mark it's it's shooting up and missing that which God has set before us and so let's talk about the mark what is the mark that we are missing well Paul helps us understand this in Romans 3:23 where he says "For all have sinned hamartano for all have sinned." And what does that generally mean fall short of the glory of God that's the mark that is missed that we we are shooting at it and we miss God's perfect glory it's back in the garden in Genesis 2 we're going to be doing a lot of scripture today so I decided to just throw them all up on the screen for you instead of having you flip back and forth old Testament New Testament Prophet where is this where is that we're just going to be looking at the scripture on the screen for the most part this morning um and there's a good amount of slides um you can take pictures of them but there's also if you have the Friendship app you can access the slides through that under resources for you and you can follow along there right now or or later on as well but there in Genesis 2 uh we read "And the Lord God commanded the man saying 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in that day you eat of it you shall surely die." And and what we what we recognize and what God's people have always taken away from this whole story in creation is that God's people have always recognized that the will of God is the supreme law which determines every creature and and so any deviation from that which God commands is sin any de any missing of that mark of that perfect glory that God has commanded is sin god's people have always just implicitly understood that we don't set the standard our culture doesn't set the standard but it's God god spoke creation into existence uh and so God also in doing so spoke the the rules for nature and creation and morality and ethics into creation as well and we take our cues from God not from our culture not from how we feel not from what we want to do it is God's design it is God's target it is God's glory and any deviation from it is sin at the core of who we are thinking back to Genesis chapters 1 and two we're told that we are made in the image of God which which is to say a lot of things but it it is also to say that we reflect God's glory and that we're called to reign under God's rule and so anytime that we have intentions motives thoughts or what we most commonly think about with sin actions anytime we have any of those that deviate from the standard of God's glory revealed in his will the Bible calls this sin that's what it means to fall short of God's glory not just to do something wrong but to even think something wrong or to have intentions that are wrong have motivations that are wrong jesus shows us that in the sermon on the mount that it's more than simply actions uh because what we think and and what our motivations are also determine who we are and who we're treating as Lord the Old Testament walks through many prescriptions for how God's people could hit the mark in reflecting his glory and there are hundreds of laws graciously given in the Old Testament to show here is how you hit the mark of God's glory as you read through all of the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament we see that God prescribed in detail the standard for how to worship him i mean there is there is detail in there about how do you come before a holy God and worship him in a way that pleases him uh there's detail for the standard of how to treat our neighbors how to treat our employers how to treat our enemies what principles we use for investing our time and our talent and our treasure and it's clear through all the scripture through the story of scripture it's clear that at best God's people were trying to hit that mark and failing and oftentimes at worst well they they didn't want to hit the mark at all they weren't playing archery they were going doing something else so let's look at a few major examples of what that meant for God's people to fall short of God's glory some some general concepts of of how sin then expresses itself uh and and one easy one is found in Exodus 32 verse 31 there's a story there where uh the Israelites had just received a a pretty important piece of God's revelation we we've come to call it the Ten Commandments i'd say people agree that's somewhat important relatively somewhat known they've just received it in this miraculous fashion you would think great let's start off on a on a good foot here we've we just saw God do this amazing thing and deliver us from Egypt and then we saw thunder and lightning up on the mountain we're like Moses you go and you go dog with him because we we got to stay away from that we don't want to mess with that and Moses goes up and the people of Israel are like all right where Okay Moses is gone so what Aaron can you uh Yeah let's make a calf that's our God and so they make this golden calf and say is behold Israel here's your God the one who just brought you out of Egypt let's worship him and in Exodus 32:31 uh God says "This people has done a great sin by sinning against me." They sinned a great sin sinning against me by making gods of gold right god's standard which is have no other gods before me i am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt i am the Lord god's standard worship me deviating from that standard by setting up an idol where they would find security they they set that idol up because they needed to be like the people around them the people around them had gods who could protect them well we don't have a god who can protect us so we need a god who can protect us and so they they set up this standard or they set up this God deviating from God's standard saying this is this is what we need this is where we find security and they deviate from God's standard of no other gods and now let's get uncomfortable that's us too we might not make gods out of gold but we too are tempted to deviate from God's standard particularly in this area of idolatry by making gods out of relationships out of money out of work by making gods out of our families sports entertainment fill in the blank so we're given the standard of reflecting God's glory to the world that we were created in his image and that we will find full satisfaction security in him and so we experience in our own lives failure to launch like we're we're not we're not even getting off the ground in reflecting God's glory if in our hearts we begin to deviate from that standard and say "Yeah uh God might be there but I need this more god might be there but I need satisfaction from this not from him." Right what we're saying in our hearts then is "Well yeah he's he's not really worth it." And so now we're not living up to the standard the responsibility the honor to be God's imagebearers by engaging in idolatry with our mouths we may not declare this but our actions often demonstrate that there are other gods that we serve for me when I look to relationships or entertainment for satisfaction when I look to working and money for security and not to God I these are real things that I can identify in my heart and say "Yep I will look to relationships yep I will look to entertainment yep I will look to money and work apart from God yep I will try to problem solve instead of pray." Those are all I'm Yeah i'm a sinner i miss the mark daily with these me I I do those things and when I do those things I miss the mark and I sin and that's real there's again if salvation is make me feel better about it well give me a pep talk you're not that bad it's okay no it's bad salvation saves me from that but it's bad it's real bad so we need to get it right so that we know how deep God's love is for us and how great his salvation is we have to be willing to say "What is it in my heart that I turn to apart from God?" And we're able to do that because God will come to us again and again we see it in the Old Testament the word hat yes it means sin it also means sin offering god even in the Old Testament had a way to say "Yeah you will deal." Moses says it Joshua says it king Solomon says it when he when when he uh establishes the temple he says "When the people sin when they go away it's it's we know it's going to happen there's grace already baked into it church you are free this morning because of the grace of God to uncover whatever sin is in your heart you are free to go one level deeper because you will find that God's grace is already there waiting for you so don't be afraid to go one level deeper to uncover the sin that might be lurking there that you may be saved from it that God's grace may be more operative in your life another big manifestation of this uh we can see by a little story from numbers 14 11 and 40 missing the mark uh so not just in idolatry but in disbelief of and disobedience to God the Israelites they sent some spies because they were told to go into the promised land yet they refused to believe God was leading them there and because they refused to believe that God was leading them there they refused to obey his command and this is identified as Moses identifies this as sin says you did not believe God and you refused to enter the land and that was sin and there is a consequence for that sin that no nobody from that generation other than the faithful spies were going to see the promised land there was a consequence for the missing of the mark but it it generally manifested itself in this disbelief of and disobedience to God god laid the standard before them and and they deviated from it and again that's often my own heart a disbelief of what God wants to do in my life or disobedience to what he may be calling me to do that I need saving from those are just two examples we can go on and on and on and on and on and on about examples about missing the mark but hopefully we start to see the picture of how what this means that we're missing God's glory i want to draw out some more truths about sin as missing the mark and then based off of those we get to see what Jesus has done so stay with me okay you guys there yeah okay we're going to get there it's It's going to be awesome right it's going to blow your socks right off if you're wearing socks today because it's like 90 degrees out there the truth about sin couple of things for us to think about sin can be either intentional or unintentional uh news alert missing the mark is missing the mark whether you tried really hard to hit the mark or you didn't try uh missing is is missing there's no you know participation trophy for uh missing the mark you you you missed uh and whether you were trying to or not whether you knew it or not like Leviticus 5 you we read painstakingly through the book of Leviticus in Leviticus 5 we see that unintentional sins and intentional sins are both treated the same way in the sacrificial system they both required they both were a deviation from God's standards no ignorance is not bliss when it comes to sin god has set the standard and a deviation from that standard is a deviation regardless of if we are aware that we have sinned or not but even in that do you see God's grace at work that that yep you didn't know and here is a way that you can make it right through the sacrificial system you did know well well you knew better but here is a way that you can receive God's grace and continue to remain in the covenant community and remain in the presence of God sin can be either intentional or unintentional we live in a culture that that basically focuses on our feelings and what we try to do and if you if you're trying hard enough you're doing great i don't want to really stomp all over that but I'm going to stomp all over that and say "Yeah no uh it's very clear intentional unintentional sin is sin." Every human being is infected with sin the plague of sin is the name of this series we see this in Romans 5:19 uh that we are sinners by birth paul says there "For as by one man's disobedience Adam the many were made sinners when Adam sinned we all became infected with sin." David says in Psalm 51 "I was conceived in iniquity we were born into sin." The human heart is deceitful above all else and desperately sick says Jeremiah this means that we will miss the target this means that we won't even shoot at the right target this means that we won't even desire to shoot at the right target unless God acts every single one of us is infected the same exact way every human being chooses to sin james 1 vers 14 and 15 James walks through what happens each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death we are sinners by birth and we are sinners by choice want some more motivational stuff for the morning we live in a state of missing the mark that namely we are we are sinners by by birth and we actively choose to miss the mark we we sin so So our our apart from Christ our state of being is that going going naturally sin comes natural we'll do it be because that's who we are apart from Christ infected by sin and at the same time we actively choose to sin that's just what we see in scripture we learn also that sin is always firstly against God and sometimes secondarily against others uh numbers 56 and 7 is a helpful one that speaks to this speak to the people of Israel when a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the Lord okay so we have a helpful definition there when someone commits any of the sins sin of any of the sins that people commit how do they do it by breaking faith with not somebody else but breaking faith with the Lord when that person realizes his guilt different word assa uh he shall confess his sin that he has committed and he shall make full restitution for his wrong Assad different word adding a fifth to it and giving it to him whom he did the wrong it's sin because it's done against God now secondarily it wrongs somebody else and so restitution has to be made but it's not described as sin against that person though that person was hurt it's sin against God sin is always firstly against God david goes even further in Psalm 51 and in a hyperbolic way says after he committed adultery with Ba Sheba he says against you and you only have I sinned Lord recognizing that sin is primarily against God and sometimes secondarily it ends up being against others and sin is not just actions god designed us to think to intend and to act with motivation and so we see in the sermon on the mount where Jesus says "Yeah you've heard it said," you shouldn't lust but if if in your if in your sight you are you shouldn't commit adultery but if you're lusting you've already and you shouldn't murder but if you hate your brother you've already in your thought and your intent your motive in your action and so I love this quote from GK Chesterton who sums up the the state of missing God's glory the glory that we were designed for and uh what we can uncover in ourselves he says this is from uh his book orthodoxy in so far as I am man the generally made like as I I am in the category of man made in the image of God in so far as I am man I am the chief of creatures i'm made in the image of God i reflect God's glory what a high calling what a great thing what a great gift that I have i am the chief of creatures in so far as I am amen I am the chief of sinners i think it's just the best approach to understanding what sin is missing the mark that God has set us up to be the chief of creatures and so far as I am man uh human I am chief of creatures and yet when I look at myself trying to live up to that standard that God has given me in so far as I am a man a human I recognize hey you know what i'm the chief of sinners i am as far away as I can possibly be from what I think the standard is that God wants for me in my life so we made it to the salvation that's on offer okay you guys ready you ready for it okay there's three problems that that kind of are summed up and they're all taken care of in Jesus our three problems are sin requires blood atonement to make us clean throughout the Old Testament we see uh that the root sin kat is the same root word for sin offering like I mentioned and this sin offering was a blood sacrifice paul tells us in Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death for the person who sinned their blood was required in order for God to be perfectly just yet in his mercy God provided a sacrifice the blood of an innocent animal could be spilled to atone for the sin that's problem one sin requires blood atonement to make us clean and and if if you're willing to plum the depths of your heart you might recognize why that's a problem for you because I recognize why that's a problem for me i don't want to die uh but I'm also the chief of sinners so that doesn't put me in a great spot perfect uh perfection requires righteousness that I I can't attain that we can't attain galatians 21:16 Paul says by works of the law nobody will be justified psalm 53:3 there is none who are righteous no not one we've seen that we are infected by sin that we're unable to hit the mark of God's perfect glory and that's problem two that it's not just that we become unclean through our sin but also even when we try we can't hit that perfection we can't get that righteousness and even like here's a non-starter that striving requires motivation that apart from Jesus we don't have we might we might be motivated to be good people based on what our culture says we might be motivated to be good people so that we feel better about ourselves but that's still the wrong motiv the motivation is to image God and to be his ser no one's motivated to be somebody's slave and servant no one's motivated to give themselves up for somebody else we don't have that motivation in us because of sin that motivation's gone and so we are uh in in a bit of a predicament where uh we can't stop sinning and sin leads to death when we can't attain that righteousness and we we can't even change our hearts to have the proper motivation to even try to attain that righteousness and stop sinning in walks Christ's solution sin requires blood atonement to make us clean christ's death takes care of the punishment jesus lived a perfect life and died his blood was spilled we're going to remember that at communion in a few minutes that his blood was spilled for the forgiveness of sins that that the the death that we earned in the wages of our sin God graciously as he did in the Old Testament put that onto uh sinless animals instead he put that onto his sinless son so again our sin is serious and it's real bad because it spilled the blood of the perfect son of God that's our sin but that's the depth of God's love for us that he was willing to say "Yep the sin is real it's not okay it's not and I'm going to sacrifice in a major way by giving up my son that you might be clean we're told if we put our faith in Jesus and trust in him and submit to him as Lord we receive that forgiveness of sins and we are cleansed from all unrighteousness but being cleansed doesn't make us righteous it makes us innocent brings us back to neutral and again we don't have it in ourselves to attain perfect righteousness Christ's life perfect perfection requires righteousness we can't attain Christ's perfect life is ready for a big word Christ's perfect life is imputed transferred to us we talk about being clothed in white being clothed in Christ's righteousness we are viewed by God if we put our faith in Jesus we receive forgiveness of sins because of his death but we also then CS Lewis calls it the great exchange we are now viewed by God as his the life that he lived his perfect righteousness is now applied to us and God looks at us and he sees not just clean but he sees righteous because of the perfect righteousness of Christ we are no longer seen uh as sinners but we are seen as hitting the mark with the righteousness of Christ we see in second Corinthians he made him who knew no sin to be sin so that in him when it's not that we've just become clean we might become that righteousness of God the glory that we've missed we become that in Christ not because of his death but we become that in Christ because of his perfect life in God's eyes we no longer fall short of his glory because Christ the true Adam the better Adam has lived it for us we also have uh striving requires motivation that we don't have and that's where Christ's resurrection and ascension comes into play and I wanted to tease this out a bit this morning because very often when we talk about sin we talk about death we talk about Christ's death christ's death saved us salvation is much bigger when we talk about sin we have to press in deep so that we can recognize no it's Christ's life it's his death and it's his resurrection and ascension that's why Paul says those are essential components of the gospel it doesn't end just at his death we have to recognize that we have a righteousness problem that Christ's perfect righteousness is applied to us we have to recognize that we have a motivation problem and so Christ is raised from the dead uh from the deadness of sin to new life with God by the Holy Spirit romans 6 he and the father then sent the holy spirit to indwell believers and empower us to live a life of righteousness so no longer are we simply viewed as having Christ's righteousness but the Holy Spirit alive in the believer begins to work into us a new motivation and we become sanctified we become living in the new right we are finally able to live righteously so far as we are being led by the Holy Spirit and that only happens because Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to the father and sent the spirit now we can genuinely desire to hit God's standards and he empowers us to actually hit it not just being viewed by God as wearing Christ's righteousness because of his life but genuinely we can pursue church we can pursue that righteousness today because Jesus was raised from the dead and the spirit is alive here in our midst we can genuinely pursue new life in Christ we need Christ's life to impute righteousness we need his death to atone for sin and we need his resurrection and ascension to grant us the spirit who will allow us to walk in the newness of life church praise God that Jesus has done all of that see when we plumb the depth of what sin is we get a better picture of what salvation is now Christ's death is sacrificial but it's even bigger than that his perfect life his resurrection and his ascension are all things that God has worked graciously lovingly to save us and to bring us into the newness of life and so as we consider how we respond this morning as we prepare for communion together to respond to what Christ has done I'm going to invite the worship team to uh not trip and make their way out through all the decorations we got going on and we've got four four ways that we'll respond uh together right now and you take these with you this week and respond to the Lord how he works in you in them we respond with confession and we're we're we're okay with confessing our sin here because God's grace is deeper yet repentance turning from that sin and turning towards God receiving Christ's perfect life of righteousness receiving his forgiveness and pursuing our new life in the spirit that is ours because of all that God has done to save us so in confession we say "Lord we've missed the mark of your glory we have failed to be your image bearers we have turned in on ourselves we have not believed your word and we have deviated from your good standard and we fill in the blank with where we've done that boldly because we have forgiveness in Jesus we turn from it lord we turn from our sin and we turn towards you and we receive the righteousness of Christ lord we receive your forgiveness and we're clothed with your righteousness may we delight in a righteousness that has come apart from the law and from our striving and we pursue new life in the spirit lord grant us new desires that seek to glorify you and hit your standard grant us the ability to glorify you in all that we do that's how we respond to God's salvation so when we approach the table this morning in communion if if if you're new here um all that we say about communion is you just need to have put your faith in Jesus and be a believer you're welcome at his table because we are celebrating all that Christ has done there we are celebrating his perfect life of righteousness that's ours we are celebrating his sacrificial death that makes us clean and takes care of our sin we are celebrating the fact that he was raised from the dead went to the father and sent the spirit who's alive in us right now we are celebrating all of that together the the worship team is going to play a song where we can respond to the Lord uh I would encourage you go before the Lord if there is sin that you need to confess hand that to him repent receive his righteousness and gladly go and commune with Christ Jesus because of what he has done and after the worship team is done uh after the song is over I'll come back out and lead us through taking those communion elements together