On April 1st of 2001, Pastor John preached a sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church on Romans 7. The message was titled "The Importance of Knowing Our Sin." If Paul argues that we need to know the power of sin, logically we ask the follow-up question, "Does that mean that we need to experience sinning in order to become familiar with the power of sin?" In that sermon in 2001, Pastor John answered the question in the negative, and he did so with a parable of resisting temptation.

Here's what he said. Do not experiment with sin to get to know sin. There's a better way. Let me use a parable to say it. What I'm doing here is answering the question, "Well, don't you have to be a sinner? I mean, do some sins and get to know sin like you ought to know it?" I say, "Well, that's not a problem." Once there were three men standing before a pit.

The pit is the pit of lust. I'm going to talk about men. Tied around their waist is a cord, 100-pound test cord. The cord goes into the pit. The pit looks very attractive, and it's deadly. Snakes at the bottom of the pit. It's the pit of lust, the pit of pornography, the pit of internet nudity.

It's a click away. The first man begins to feel the rope, the cord, pulling him toward the pit, and he resists. 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20 pounds, digs in his heels, 30 pounds. He says, "No!" 35 pounds, tightens up. He gives up resisting, jumps into the pit. Click. The second man begins to feel the cord pulling on him, on his waist.

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Digs in his heels, resists. "No!" he says. 40, 45, 50 pounds. "No!" Leans back, starts to tighten, makes his breathing more difficult. 50, 55 pounds. "No!" 60, quits resisting, jumps in. Click. The third man begins to be pulled. 5, 10, 15, 25, 30 pounds.

Digs in his heels, resists. "No!" he says out loud. "No!" 40, 45, 50. Starts to tighten, his breath is being cut off. "No!" He leans back and cries out for help. "Help!" He sees a branch, grabs the branch, shaped like a cross. The branch is shaped like a cross.

65, 70. And off across the field, in his mind's eye, as through a haze, he sees his wife going about her work, trusting him. Over on that side, he sees his children playing happily, and in their hearts, admiring him. And then he lifts up his eyes to the horizon, and he sees Jesus with a big gash in his side.

And his hands are lifted, and his fists are formed, and there's a big smile on his face. 85, 90. And the cord starts cutting into his side. "No!" And he looks up. 95, 100. Snap! No click. Now here's my question. Which of these three men knows the power of sin?

If this were a sermon on lust, I would, at this point, lift up my voice and scan this congregation and shout, "Are there any soldiers here? Anybody got blood on his shirt? Show me some scars before you talk about the power of sin. Don't show me your broken ankles at the bottom of the pit.

I want to see blood!" But it isn't a sermon on lust, so I'll skip that and go back to the point. All I'm doing with that little parable is answering the question, "Don't you need to sin more to know how sinful you really are?" And the answer is, "No, you don't." In fact, the wimps who give in at 30 and 60, they don't know.

They think they know. Call it bondage. They'll even use words like "fall." You'll notice I did not use the word "fall." I said "jump." You didn't fall. You jumped. And you jumped at 25 pounds, and you don't have a scar on your body. So good. That was Pastor John in April of 2001 in his sermon, "The Importance of Knowing Our Sin." You can find the entire sermon and over a thousand other sermons from John Piper all free of charge at DesiringGod.org.

And tomorrow is the 32nd anniversary of the death of American novelist Ayn Rand, an atheist and the author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Pastor John will talk about what drew him to her works, what he learned, and how he reached out to her. That's tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

Until then, I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening. you you you you you you you you