Beloved friends, we greet you in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who came into the world to save sinners, and we welcome you to the meditation of God's Word, and perhaps a very unpopular subject, but a very necessary one, which we have begun, the problem of sin. From the Word of God in our preceding message, we emphasize that it is a universal problem. We also emphasize that sin is an individual problem. I dare you to find man, woman, boy, or girl, who has never experienced this problem. Whether they have been concerned about it may not be so, but they do face the problem of sin. My listening friend, did you ever face it yourself, in your own soul? in relation to God, and if you never have, I beg of you to wait no longer, but seek to realize that your sin as well as mine condemns each one of us. Let me point out to you that through Adam's sin, which was the first in the human race, the condemnation of God entered into the whole world. The words of Romans chapter five and twelve They are all embracing concerning sins, except, handed down through the whole human race from the very beginning. Here are the words that God by the Spirit has written through its servant Paul. By one man, and that one man is Adam. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Again we repeat the fact. That one man is Adam, the one from whom you and I have descended. We have it the same natural features as Adam. But unfortunately, by that one act of sin, he also transmitted to us a constitutional change of sinfulness, unholiness within the human heart. As he became a sinner that moment, it was only possible for him to produce a race of sinners. Through Adam's sin came the unfailing fruit of it, death by sin. And though primarily it was physical death, yet it was deeper than that. It was the sign of a deeper death, the death of the soul being separated spiritually, separated from God. a spiritual state of death. But let me illustrate from the result of sin, this one man's sin, Adam, by a Sunday school experience I had long ago, when seeking to teach the children of the Sunday school concerning sin and being in all of us and trying to bring before them the truth of it. We're all sinners. I raised the question. If I had an apple tree, what kind of fruit would I get? Well, the answer came very readily, as they shouted, apples. What if I had an orange tree was the next question. Again the answer came rightly. Oranges! They had common sense to know that. Then I said, how about if I had a pear tree? Once again the simple truth came back in answer. Pairs, of course, and so on we went. Then the closing question I asked of them was this. What kind of fruit will I get from a sinner tree? Well, even the children saw the point. And they could, and they did answer. Sinners. Now, my beloved friend, go ahead and trace your ancestry back as far as you can. And if it were possible to Adam, acknowledging your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, and so on. But I guarantee you'll find the same fact that you and I came from a sinner tree. And when we came into this world, we were born sinners. For are not the words of David very true of all of us? When he confessed long ago, behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm fifty-one and verse five. Now what David was saying bluntly, plainly, I was born a sinner. I was born a sinner. It wasn't a sin to be born, but when he was born, I was born a sinner, David says. Now, my beloved friend, listen carefully. It is not your sins that make you a sinner or make me a sinner. But you and I sin because we are and we were born sinners. The poison of sin through Adam has been transmitted into the whole human race. I hope you understand it. I hope you will see the seriousness of it. coming as it did, and affecting every man, woman, boy and girl in the whole human family. Now let us ask the question, an important one. If thus I am a sinner, do my sins condemn me? Now let me enlarge upon that question. Do not the sins of the whole world condemn us? Every one of us, absolutely. Oh, I want you to think with me and see with me from the Word of God, the scope of the guilt of the whole human race. Listen very carefully to Romans three and verse nineteen, where even in that scripture Paul includes the Jews who had the law of Moses. We Gentiles did not have that, but he declares in his summary, Now we know that what things the law saith, it saith to them who were under the law, that every mount may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Now my beloved friend, as we have stated, and let me repeat the statement, if sin is universal, so is the guilt. So is the divine condemnation. All the world guilty before God. Now note very carefully, There are no exceptions. All are guilty. Let me read the words of God from Romans chapter three, verse nine and ten. Well, it is written, I quote them in part, but covering the fact, they are all under sin. There is none righteous. No, not one. Let me quote part of verse twelve, which declares they are all gone out of the way. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now, my beloved, let me please state again, I defy you to find man, woman, boy, and girl that is not a guilty sinner. God universally has condemned every one of us to be guilty. Guilty before God. All the world guilty before God. Now, the important problem of this is to face it as my personal guilt. What about my own guilt? I'm not guilty of what others have done. God will never hold me accountable for what others have done in their sinning. God will never hold me responsible for their sins. But what about my own? Long ago the prophet Isaiah said, But your iniquities are separated between you and your God. and your sins have hid his face from you, Isaiah fifty-nine too. But listen to the solemn words that the psalmist wrote. Psalm fifty-three, verse two and three. Know very carefully. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them, he declares, is gone back. They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. My beloved, let me raise the question from the context of this verse. Let me ask you, as God looks down from heaven today upon the children of men, what does he see? My beloved friend, think for just a moment seriously. Think seriously. Think clearly. As God looks down upon the conduct of men and women, boys and girls in the world today, what does he see? Do you not believe that he looks down to see the awful filth of sin and smelly stench from one end of the earth to the other, from the east to the west, from the north to the south? Now, beloved, My beloved friend, listen, is it not then true that we, the whole world, deserve His condemnation? We deserve the just penalty for a penalty. We deserve to pay for our sins, for the wages of sin is death. And my beloved, there's only one fact that we can conclude with, and we should conclude with it. As we come near the end of our thoughts, God condemns sin. But let's be a little more personal. God condemns my sin. And He is absolutely righteous in telling me, John, your sins are worthy of my condemnation and my judgment. Please, my beloved listener, let me ask you the question, is God right or is He wrong? Is this Holy God correct to condemn me for what I'm unlike to Him and particularly my sins that He hates? And do I not deserve his judgment? Oh, my beloved friend, have you ever agreed with God about this? You cannot know what it means to be saved. You will never know what it means to be delivered from your guilt and pardon from your sins and your condemnation removed until you know and confess and see the need for it. Remember the conversion of that publican in Luke eighteen, which we mentioned in our preceding message. Do you recall that in the temple, as he came in that hour of prayer, penitent? He smote his breast, and in repentance, humbly, contrite? He said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. For may I save my beloved friend. If you and I received justice, we'd all go to hell. And I say very frankly, every man, woman, boy, and girl deserves to go there. Myself included, I know it. And what I needed, and thank God what I did find, from him was mercy. Will you not say the sinner's prayer? God be merciful to me, the sinner, and save me for Jesus' sake. Father, bless thy precious word in the name of the Lord, for his glory on end.