LUTHER ON ORIGINAL SIN AND ITS CURE | sermonsfortheworld.com

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The Pharisees found fault with Jesus because His Disciples did not wash their hands before they ate. When they saw the Disciples eat without ceremonially washing their hands, they said they were defiled. But Jesus said what we eat cannot defile us. He said that people are defiled by what is in their hearts. “These evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:23). “Out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts” (Mark 7:21).

From one end to the other the Bible teaches that our hearts are evil. The Bible says, “The heart is...desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The Bible says, “We will every one do the imagination of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:12). The Bible says, “Their heart was not right” (Psalm 78:37). “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1). Dr. Watts, in one of his hymns said this about your heart.

deep within your evil heart. The Bible speaks of “an evil heart of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:12).

“No outward forms [no outward ceremonies – like saying a sinner’s prayer] can make [you] clean; The leprosy lies deep within” –

Doesn’t it? Doesn’t it? You know it does! No decisions or prayers can make you clean. Nothing you learn or feel can make you clean! And you know it. “The leprosy (of sin) lies deep within” your evil heart of unbelief! And you know it – don’t you?

If you are honest you know it’s true. You knew it before you ever committed an outward sin. You did it deliberately. You knew exactly what you were doing. Why did you do it if you knew it was wrong? In your unconverted state you loved the darkness. You enjoyed the sin. You were happy sinning. You loved its taste. You loved it even though you knew it was wrong! That’s why you hate me for telling you the truth about your sinful heart! You hate the truth about your sinful heart. It condemns you and makes you miserable to hear the truth! “The leprosy lies deep within”! Your heart is twisted and perverted! You enjoy sin rather than what is good and right. The leprosy lies deep within your evil heart of unbelief! I didn’t make that up. I was paraphrasing Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a medical doctor who knew all about a sinful heart like yours!

Yes, you heard that before. I paraphrased Dr. Lloyd-Jones in my sermon on the cleansing of Naaman’s leprosy. One young man who has said he wants to be saved rushed away after he heard that sermon. He did not come to speak with Dr. Cagan about being saved. Instead he ran off and read some of Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ sermons to see if the Doctor really said that!

Yes, of course Dr. Lloyd-Jones said that, in his sermon “Man’s Fundamental Trouble.” The Doctor said, “We did it deliberately, knowing exactly what we were doing. Why did we do it if we knew it was wrong?...Let us be honest and face ourselves. Such are our natures. They love darkness, they hate the light. They are twisted and perverted, they prefer the wrong to the right and enjoy evil rather than good...We know what is right and good but we fail to do it because our natures are such that we do not love it...it is your nature that is wrong, your heart, your essential personality and being... our sins are positive, deliberate and wilful!” These were his exact words – that I paraphrased! (see Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Evangelistic Sermons at Aberavon, Banner of Truth, 2010, pp. 65-77).

Saved people here at church agreed with my paraphrase of Dr. Lloyd-Jones. But the young man who pretends that he wants to be saved ran out of this auditorium. And the next week he tried to find out if Dr. Lloyd-Jones really said those things about his own evil heart. Why did he do that? Because he, himself, has an evil heart of unbelief! That’s why! Young man,

My son, you can’t run away from it. Dr. Lloyd-Jones believed exactly what I said about your sinful and rebellious heart! And I say to you this evening, You will never be saved until you admit to yourself and to God that your heart is truthfully “twisted and perverted” just as Dr. Lloyd-Jones said. For it was Jesus Himself who said, “From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts... these evil things come from within” your evil heart of unbelief! (Mark 7:21, 23). Your “heart is desperately wicked” according to Jeremiah 17:9.

You can’t blame your parents. No matter how bad they were they weren’t as bad as my parents. No, you can’t blame your parents, no matter how bad they are! You can only blame yourself. You heard me explain your evil heart from the Doctor. You heard the Doctor say it was your fault, and yours alone, that you have such an evil, twisted and perverted heart of unbelief. You and you alone chose to reject Jesus Christ. You and you alone chose the sinful things that you have done. No one made you do them. You did them because you loved the darkness. You enjoyed sinning. You were happy sinning. You loved the taste of it! You loved it even though you knew very well that it was wrong. The leprosy of soul-damning sin lies deep within your evil heart of unbelief! That’s why you hate me for telling you the truth about your sinful heart – don’t you?

You can’t blame your environment either. After the Great Flood the evil environment of the pre-flood world was gone. God said to Noah, “I will destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:13). All the evil people of the pre-flood world were gone. And yet, right after the Flood, God said, “the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Luther said, “No other persons were preserved from the Flood than those that were in the ark. Yet God says of them that man’s imagination is evil” (Luther’s commentary on Genesis 8:21). You do not have an evil heart because you learned to have one from other people. Your heart has been evil since the very moment you were conceived in the womb. Luther said that a heart of sin “exists and is alive in those who are young in years, in infants, nay, in the fetus still living in the womb, as Psalm 51:5 shows... [The sin of the heart] is not acquired [not learned]; it is dormant in the very embryo.” It is ready to come forth with a vengeance when the time is right!

An evil heart has been transmitted to you from the first sinner, Adam. We are all his offspring. Luther said, “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, that is to say man’s reason... [your] reason. [The thoughts of your heart] is always opposed to [God’s] law, always under sin, always under [God’s] wrath, and unable to free itself from this great misery by its own powers.” The Bible says,

– You are all “children of wrath by nature” (Ephesians 2:3).

– You are all “under sin” (Romans 3:9).

– You are all “dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:5).

– “by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world” (Romans 5:12).

– That is why “There is none righteous, no, not one... There is none that
doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10, 12).

– “The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth”
(Genesis 8:21).

“No outward forms can make you clean;
The leprosy [of sin] lies deep within [you].”

We are celebrating the anniversary of Martin Luther, who fought against the false teaching of the Catholic Church, beginning when he nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of his church in Wittenberg, Germany, 500 years ago this Tuesday. The “original sin” of your heart is at the very center of the Protestant and Baptist Reformation. The Bible teaches that you have an evil heart – and you cannot change it!

“Imagination” comes from a Hebrew word that means your mind, your evil heart of unbelief.

“For the imagination [the thoughts] of man's heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21).

This is the true teaching of original sin in the heart of every human being in this church – who remains unregenerated tonight! Every one of you! Luther said, “We hold that mankind, without the Holy Spirit and God’s grace, can do nothing but sin, and sin endlessly, adding one transgression to another...[and] he is an enemy of God, while he obeys the imaginations of his evil heart... even when you pretend to be righteous.”

Haven’t we seen enough of this in our church to know that Luther was right? Haven’t we seen one person after another come and pretend to trust Christ – and then turn away from the church and plunge into a life of sin? Haven’t we seen many people pretend to be Christians for a while, and then become bitter enemies of God? Isn’t that what Olivas and his people did? When they tried to destroy our church, didn’t we see that Luther was right,

Wasn’t that why our church turned away from Finney and turned back to Luther, the Reformers, and the old Baptists? Finney’s most famous sermon was called, “Sinners Bound to Change Their Own Hearts.” How can you do that? How? How? How can you change your own heart? You can’t! Finney was a complete Pelagian heretic. Finney fought against everything Luther and the Reformers taught about man’s evil heart, and original sin.

You cannot change your own heart! I am convinced that Finney was a demon-possessed heretic. Do not believe him! Instead look at your own heart; you will see nothing there but sin and rebellion against God!

Only the Lord Jesus Christ can cleanse your heart and change it. Jesus died on the Cross to pay the penalty for your sin. Jesus shed His Blood on the Cross to cleanse you from all sin. Jesus rose from the dead to give you a new heart! When you trust Jesus He will give you “a new heart... and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26).

Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat,
   I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy crucified feet.
By faith, for my cleansing, I see Thy Blood flow,
   Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow;
   Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Lord Jesus, Thou seest I patiently wait,
   Come now, and within me a new heart create;
To those who have sought Thee, Thou never saidst “No,”
   Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow;
   Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
(“Whiter Than Snow” by James Nicholson, 1828-1876).

I have spoken on Luther’s profound theology of original sin in the heart of man. Even if you don’t understand it all, I urge you to trust Jesus now, tonight. He will forgive your sin. He will cleanse your sin. He will give you a new heart and a new spirit. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“Whiter Than Snow” (by James Nicholson, 1828-1876).