How condemned are we because of sin? Are we 95%, or even 99% condemned because of sin?

No, you know the answer, Jn. 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

What is it that condemns the sinner … but the sin. And he/she is not just 99% or 99.9% condemned for God says, all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

I don’t need to prolong this thought because I don’t think there is anyone here foolish enough to argue and disagree with the Bible when it so clearly teaches us that the sinner is absolutely and completely condemned because of sin.

I don’t think there will be any argument here either. I sin because I’m a sinner.

I didn’t grow into being a sinner when I became a certain age.

I didn’t become being a sinner when I knowingly committed my first sin. I was a sinner, - the Bible says, - from the moment I was born.

The reason I caused a tantrum as a little baby was simply because of my sin. Yes, you may say but it’s natural for a little baby to throw a tantrum … and so it is, and that proves my point and the Bible’s point when it says Ps. 51:5 in sin did my mother conceive me.

Our conduct is because of our sin. It’s why the unsaved is interested in everything and anything but the things of God.

The child in the classroom will listen to you telling them a story but when you bring in the Christian aspect they ‘turn off’ and begin to ‘fistle’ and move about.

You say, “I couldn’t drink, I couldn’t take drugs, I couldn’t sleep around, I couldn’t murder anyone”.

How often have you heard someone say they would never do a certain thing … and that is the very thing you some day find them doing.

The bride and the groom stand in front of the congregation making their vows and they take those promises to each other so seriously. A little way down the track come the arguments and the beatings and the adultery … and who would have thought on that day they would end up heartbroken and divorced! … The very thing they promised not to do … they did.

Our conduct is because of sin, and our conduct proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that sin is our master.

Sin keeps us dead to God. It keeps us powerless and under its dominance. Sin binds us and we can’t break the fetters.

Sin injects its evil poison and the Bible says because of it we are dead.

How often we have heard of gamblers and drunkards and drug addicts talking about how they can’t get away from their addictions. It’s because sin wraps itself round you like a strong chain and it never gets any slacker, - its grip keeps getting tighter and tighter until it squeezes the life out of you and it has you defeated.             How can you break free of it?

Many drug addicts try to break free from drugs … the alcoholics from alcohol … but their efforts are in vain.

Religion doesn’t break you free, nor philosophy nor different lifestyles nor anything that humanity can conjure up.

They inject you with a panacea that fools you for a while making you think things are better. Sometimes too it tries to explain away or excuse your sin.

But the Bible is clear that it does not make any excuses for sin. God doesn’t lower the standards so that man of himself can sort out his sin problem.

Here is what God does ... and what He alone is able to do.

He uses the illustration of the shepherd going out and looking for his sheep.

The shepherd is not just looking for any sheep.

	Yes, I would daresay that if the shepherd sees another sheep that is not his own caught in the bushes he would free that sheep so that it could run off into the hills again.
	Yes, I would daresay too that if the shepherd sees another sheep not his own dangerously close to the edge of the cliff he would make every effort to entice that sheep back to safety.

But the shepherd, - the Bible tells us, - has His own particular sheep and He knows everyone of them by name … for they are His own sheep.

He’ll go out and not return home until he finds His sheep. No matter how many other sheep He sees … He will only bring his own sheep home!

This is known as the Sovereign work of Divine Election. Jesus said, Jn. 10:3 he calleth his own sheep by name … 14  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

What makes one sheep any different from, - any more special, - than the other? What makes one sheep His and another sheep not? I don’t know. I’m not able to work it out, - I’m just telling you what the Bible says.

The Old Testament  in (for example) Ps. 74:1 talks about the sheep of thy pasture. Who were these sheep? These sheep were not all the nations and peoples of the world; these sheep had a particular identity as the elect of God, Ps.78:52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 53  And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54  And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. 55  He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. … Ps. 79: 13  So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations. … Ps. 95: 7  For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

These sheep were God’s own chosen people, His Elect. This is the word the Bible uses in both the Old Testament  and the New. I know it is offensive to some … but I can’t help that. Here is an example of how God uses it in the Old Testament , Is. 45:4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

Isn’t that fantastic and so beautiful?! God has surnamed me! Do you know why He has surnamed me? … Because He has adopted me into His Family through grace.

He talks about His Elect (those who have His ‘surname’) in the Old Testament, - they are the children of Israel upon whom God set His unconditional and eternal love. No other nation had the surname of God.

Why would He give them His surname? Why would He call them His Elect? … “Ah, but He looked down the corridor of time and He could see what kind of people they were going to be and He elected them! He saw they were going to choose for Him.” Not at all!!

If you could have looked down the corridor of time and saw how Israel was going to turn out, would you have chosen them? Definitely not!

He didn’t see them and think they would turn out good and then He elected them, - that is the way the person unfamiliar with the Bible would argue away the Sovereignty of God in salvation and take unto themselves some of the glory.

You look and you’ll see that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke about His own Elect according to the new Covenant, - that is you and me. Paul wrote about them, Rom. 8: 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? … Col. 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering … Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect … I Peter 1: 2  Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

You see, when I come to understand that my salvation is all of God’s grace there is absolutely nothing that I would even want to dare to boast of.

Our sin had us lost. Our sin had us spiritually dead to God. Our sin had us enemies of God. Our sin had our faces looking towards hell and eternal damnation. Every last one of us was facing everlasting punishment in the burning fires of torment until God stepped in.

In His eternal plan God determined to save a people unto Himself, … a people that the Bible calls His Elect.

This is what the Sovereign God planned in salvation … and you are saved because He planned it that way. Rom. 11: 5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6  And if by grace, then is it no more of works.

Before you were put together in your mother’s womb God had already elected to save you.

Someone like me who was brought up with the Gospel … and someone like Barbara brought up in ‘churchianity’ and someone like Caspar who was brought up on the western islands of Scotland without any knowledge or anywhere he could go to in order to hear the true message of the Gospel.

God chooses to save the person whose life has been wrecked by sin and who everyone has given up on, - God saves them … because that is what He planned to do! Rom. 9: 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

God the Holy Spirit comes to the sinner He will save, - He comes to find the sheep who belongs to His flock. He will make that sinner conscious of his sin and his ‘lostness’ and He shows the sinner the terrible depths of his sin.

The sinner will not be able to avoid the voice of God speaking to him, - it cannot be shut out or silenced.

God’s call is different to the appeals of the preacher. The preacher you can ignore if you so desire … but God’s call is altogether irresistible.

The Holy Spirit of God is far more powerful than any sin or any sinner and the person to whom He sets His attention will surrender and fall at the feet of Jesus.

Don’t give up one your loved one who is not yet saved. God can still save them.

They might never darken a church door but that doesn’t hinder the power of God to save when and where He chooses … for God can convict them of their sin anywhere He pleases.

Remember again the picture of the shepherd going out and looking for his sheep …

The sheep begins to know he is lost and when he hears the voice of the shepherd calling he knows that the One who loves him has been searching for him and has at last found him.

You see, conviction of sin is the work that God irresistibly carries out … unhindered, and when God does it it always leads to salvation.

It’s God that saves you and it’s God, - because of Sovereign Grace, - that gives you the privilege of …

We are condemned because of sin, therefore we have the certain conduct because of sin, but God in His mercy convicts us of our sin.

Here on earth He gives us a little taste of what we shall enjoy forever in Heaven. When we trust in Him, - and learn more and more to trust in Him, - He helps us to overcome the sin.

Once again, it is all of Him because I know for certain I struggled and struggled to defeat that sin … but now it is defeated because of Him.

He conquered sin at Calvary and He shares with me today the victory He won on that day.

The Puritans had a beautiful way of explaining the Sovereignty of God in Salvation, - they called it “preterition”.

i.e. God saw me on my road to hell and He reached down and lifted my feet from the broad road and placed them firmly on the narrow way.

Read the chapter in A.W. Pink’s book again and marvel at how God put into action His plan to save you. Read Martin Lloyd-Jones and Spurgeon. Read Alexander MacLaren and George Whitefield. Read John Bunyan and the Puritans. Read the writings of the Bonars and MacCheyne. Read the Reformers and the historic Baptist writers and you will find them glorying in the subject we have been studying this evening … and they will tell you too, along with Paul, Eph. 2:8 by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.