How Do We Get Tricked into Sinning?
Chapters
0:00:58 Nobody Sins out of Duty
4:2 The Wages of Sin Is Death
11:53 When Do I Know if God Is Correcting Me
00:00:00.000 | Well, how do we get tricked into sinning?
00:00:08.080 | Tricked into sinning?
00:00:09.080 | Yes, that's the question on the table today, and the answer is found in Romans chapter
00:00:12.840 | 6, verses 22 to 23, as we will hear in a sermon clip from Pastor John two decades ago.
00:00:19.520 | This clip was sent in to us by Gabriela, a listener to the podcast who lives in Sweden.
00:00:24.560 | She writes this, that quote, "The following sermon clip has been very helpful for me in
00:00:28.640 | understanding the nature of sin and the true freedom we have in Christ.
00:00:32.320 | Living as a Christian in probably the most secular country in the world, the concept
00:00:37.380 | of being a slave in a culture that seems free and independent is very controversial.
00:00:43.420 | This sermon gave me the tools I needed to reach some unbelievers in my life."
00:00:48.240 | End quote.
00:00:49.600 | Incredible.
00:00:50.600 | Well, here's a clip from Pastor John's sermon back in the year 2000, sent to us by Gabriela
00:00:55.880 | in Sweden.
00:00:56.880 | Here's the clip.
00:00:59.640 | Nobody sins out of duty.
00:01:03.280 | You only sin because the master makes it look so appealing, so pleasant to do his bidding
00:01:14.880 | and to keep his will and do his commands.
00:01:21.400 | So when we obey sin, it feels free.
00:01:26.960 | It doesn't feel like earning wages.
00:01:30.240 | My guess is if you're here in this room right now and you're outside Christ, you're not
00:01:34.980 | a believer and you're hearing me say that belonging to the slave master's sin is like
00:01:44.220 | earning wages.
00:01:46.800 | You're saying to yourself, "It doesn't feel like that to me.
00:01:51.400 | Feels free.
00:01:52.720 | I'm doing what I want to do and it feels good when I do it.
00:01:57.120 | That doesn't feel like going to work."
00:02:01.000 | So why does Paul call it wages?
00:02:05.480 | If sin rules over his slaves like that, why does he call it wages?
00:02:16.160 | Two reasons.
00:02:18.240 | One, wages deplete life.
00:02:25.960 | They do for you.
00:02:27.440 | That's why you want to get paid, right?
00:02:31.040 | You don't put in 40, 50, 60 hours a week and say, "No cost to me.
00:02:36.040 | I didn't lose anything."
00:02:38.320 | You want your money and you ought to get your money because you were depleted.
00:02:43.760 | Time was taken away from you.
00:02:45.320 | Energy was taken away from you.
00:02:46.760 | Thought was taken away from you.
00:02:48.200 | Life was taken away from what might have been doing other things and you invested it in
00:02:52.680 | that employer's cause and now you want some restoration of the depletion called wages
00:03:02.680 | and that's the way sin is.
00:03:07.480 | And he's got it all concealed.
00:03:11.520 | He's got it all concealed.
00:03:16.120 | It's like a Dracula who develops a magic potion which he gives to his victims so that every
00:03:27.960 | time they give a pint of blood, they get a high.
00:03:34.120 | And so he comes and says, "Let me have your blood.
00:03:40.320 | You'll get a high."
00:03:42.240 | And they will.
00:03:44.160 | And when they get the high, they say, "See, it feels good.
00:03:50.120 | I'm not earning wages here.
00:03:52.120 | I'm not being depleted here.
00:03:55.040 | I'm receiving a high."
00:03:58.720 | And all the while, your life is being drained away.
00:04:03.200 | The wages of sin is death.
00:04:07.880 | You get depleted.
00:04:10.000 | It's death now, little by little.
00:04:12.640 | Can't feel it.
00:04:14.160 | If he keeps you deceived and in the end, all you get is the end of your life from sin.
00:04:25.640 | He never pays anything like restoration.
00:04:31.880 | He's a deceiver.
00:04:34.080 | So the first reason why he calls it wages is that it's like wages.
00:04:39.920 | Sin - every time you sin, you lose.
00:04:43.160 | Every time you sin, you are depleted.
00:04:45.600 | You're drawn out.
00:04:46.600 | And it goes and it goes.
00:04:48.080 | And in the end, it will all go.
00:04:50.600 | And there will be left one drop of blood in you.
00:04:54.640 | And your high will end and never come again.
00:05:02.000 | The other reason is because when you obey sin, you get exactly what you deserve, like
00:05:13.360 | wages.
00:05:15.720 | Death will be like wages.
00:05:17.600 | It's a strange way to describe death.
00:05:22.400 | Wages, benefits, benefits, insurance and retirement and whatever else, major medical.
00:05:32.880 | The benefits, what are they?
00:05:35.360 | Death.
00:05:36.760 | That's your benefits in relationship with this master.
00:05:42.080 | They're all summed up in one word, death.
00:05:44.160 | And you deserve them.
00:05:47.360 | He's a cruel master and a deceiver.
00:05:51.320 | And oh, how we should hate him.
00:05:54.280 | Do you hate him?
00:05:57.000 | Or do you love him?
00:05:58.720 | Has he tricked you into loving him?
00:06:02.520 | Loving him.
00:06:04.920 | Jesus came into the world and says, "And men love darkness rather than light."
00:06:11.640 | They loved him.
00:06:14.280 | Do you love your master?
00:06:16.760 | Your liar, your deceiver, your depleter, your non-pay-upper who's got you enslaved?
00:06:27.640 | Do you love him?
00:06:31.320 | Or do you love God and hate him and fight him like this chapter says you're supposed
00:06:37.560 | to do?
00:06:40.440 | Let's go to the last third contrasting pair.
00:06:45.280 | Death versus eternal life.
00:06:46.840 | The wages of sin is death.
00:06:48.800 | The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
00:06:53.120 | So the ultimate summary of the wage here of sin that he pays is death.
00:06:59.160 | And the ultimate summary of the gift here that God gives and doesn't pay is eternal
00:07:05.760 | life.
00:07:06.760 | And if the life is eternal in contrast with death, the death must be conceived of as eternal
00:07:12.240 | as well.
00:07:13.240 | And we could go to numerous texts in Paul to show that that is in fact the case.
00:07:19.520 | And right here, oh how the parallel breaks down between slave master sin and slave master
00:07:26.760 | God.
00:07:28.440 | Because sin, slave master sin has absolutely no say and no hand in the giving of the gift
00:07:42.760 | of life by master God.
00:07:47.160 | But God has total say and a sovereign hand in the paying of the wages of death from master
00:07:58.720 | sin.
00:08:01.520 | There's no parallel here.
00:08:03.760 | What you find when you think it through is, "Ah, he's a pretender.
00:08:11.040 | He's not a slave master after all.
00:08:13.800 | There's only one slave master in the universe and that's God.
00:08:17.720 | There's only one owner and that's God.
00:08:19.920 | There's only one sovereign and that's God.
00:08:21.960 | There's only one giver and that's God.
00:08:24.560 | And this rascal has been pretending to the throne of my life ever since the beginning
00:08:30.800 | and tricked and tricked and drained and drained.
00:08:35.800 | And he can't even pay at the end the wages of death.
00:08:43.280 | Sin doesn't pay the wages of death.
00:08:45.400 | It's a trick.
00:08:47.960 | He doesn't pay them.
00:08:49.600 | God pays them.
00:08:52.560 | It's like a pimp and a prostitute.
00:09:00.440 | Hell is the wage of sin the way venereal disease and prison time is the wage from a
00:09:22.560 | pimp in the prostitute.
00:09:25.880 | He didn't pay it.
00:09:29.520 | He's gone.
00:09:31.480 | He's just gone.
00:09:34.160 | He tricks.
00:09:35.480 | He lures.
00:09:36.680 | He cheats.
00:09:38.120 | He devises.
00:09:39.200 | He distorts.
00:09:42.280 | And when he's done, the prostitute's got the disease.
00:09:47.600 | The prostitute comes before the court and goes to jail.
00:09:51.440 | He's gone.
00:09:53.440 | He's gone.
00:09:54.440 | Sin is a liar.
00:09:57.160 | He even lies about his lies.
00:10:01.160 | He even lies about his wages.
00:10:05.240 | He can't even produce the bads, let alone the goods.
00:10:12.720 | Oh how we should hate him.
00:10:15.440 | Oh how free you should want to be right now from this slave master's clutches on your
00:10:23.720 | life so that you're not a dupe and a lackey day in and day out like most people seem to
00:10:30.040 | be.
00:10:31.040 | Hate him.
00:10:32.040 | Hate him.
00:10:33.040 | Hate sin with all your might as the master of your life.
00:10:40.200 | When he tempts you and lures you and promises you and makes all his demands look pleasant
00:10:45.360 | to you, throw it back in his face with the Word of God.
00:10:49.640 | Get free with the mirror of the Word.
00:10:51.840 | Show yourself and what you were created for and what he's trying to make you think you're
00:10:58.480 | for.
00:10:59.480 | Hmm, powerful.
00:11:00.480 | That clip was shared with us by Gabriela, a listener from Sweden.
00:11:04.160 | Thank you, Gabriela.
00:11:05.160 | And the clip is from John Piper's sermon on December 17th, 2000, titled "The Free Gift
00:11:09.920 | of God is Eternal Life."
00:11:12.560 | You can find it right now at DesiringGod.org.
00:11:15.880 | Well we asked a few years back and just recently restarted to ask you for your favorite sermon
00:11:20.760 | clips and you have responded really well.
00:11:23.840 | So thank you.
00:11:24.840 | Keep them coming.
00:11:26.000 | Give me the title of the sermon and the timestamps of when the audio of the clip that you like
00:11:29.880 | begins and ends.
00:11:32.160 | And if you wish, tell me why it's impacted you.
00:11:34.360 | Give me your name and the closest city to you.
00:11:36.040 | Anything that I can share online with our community and email me at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:11:42.840 | That's our email address, AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:11:46.360 | Put the word "clip" in the subject line, please.
00:11:48.200 | I'd appreciate it.
00:11:49.560 | And maybe we can share it here on the podcast.
00:11:52.920 | Well next up on the docket, when do I know if God is correcting me?
00:11:57.960 | Sometimes God disciplines us to confront our sin and to get us to repent and change course.
00:12:03.480 | That's certainly true.
00:12:04.720 | But according to Scripture, at other times God sends suffering into our lives not for
00:12:08.200 | correction but simply to teach us how to endure patiently.
00:12:13.120 | So how do we know when he's correcting us and when he's building endurance in us?
00:12:18.360 | It's a great question and what would you expect from the APJ audience really?
00:12:22.480 | But just great questions like this one.
00:12:25.200 | It's up next time.
00:12:26.200 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:12:27.560 | We'll see you back here on Friday.
00:12:29.960 | God bless.
00:12:30.960 | Bye.
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