SERMON TITLE: “Sin & Misery-Focusing on Sin” Westminster Shorter Catechism: Questions 17 & 18
SCRIPTURE: Various
SPEAKER: Matt Heft
DATE: 08-31-2025
Westminster Shorter Catechism
Sermon Discussion Guide
Take notes here
Good morning, my name’s Matt Heft. I’m an elder here at Gateway Church. I’m so glad you’ve joined us for this last day of February. Pastor Josh says it every week, but you need to know that God loves you, I love you, and all of the elders love you too.
Today, we’re continuing our series from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. I enjoy this series because just about the time I think that I’ve heard it all before, I hear a new explanation of an old truth and realize that I’m not the first to wrestle with some of these topics. We have many that have gone before us who have not only wrestled with these topics, but they’ve put answers down in writing, so we can learn from their wisdom. Remember though, anything we read in the Westminster Confession of Faith or in the catechisms, or any other book or resource for that matter, must be subject to the word of God. If someone ever discovers that the Westminster Confession conflicts with scripture, the truth of Scripture wins. And in your daily life, no matter what else you may be reading or listening to, if something doesn’t align with Scripture, the truth of Scripture wins.
Now some of you think I made a mistake by welcoming you here for this last day of February. Let me explain. In the early Roman empire, they renamed what was their fifth month (it’s our seventh month) to July, after Julius Caesar. Well, when Caesar Augustus came along, you see where this is headed, he wanted a month named after himself, so the next month became August.
But there was a problem. At that time, July had thirty-one days, but August only had 30. Not to be outdone, Caesar Augustus stole a day from February and stuck it at the end of August. So here we are, what used to be the last day of February, is now August 31.
I heard this story about Augustus stealing a day from February in one audiobook. I looked it up in a couple of other resources, but I didn’t like their answers, so I stopped looking for the truth and I stuck with the story. I really wanted to wish you a happy last day of February.
In the same way, aren’t there times when we see the truth of Scripture and we just want to set it aside and stop searching, because we really don’t like the answers that we’re getting. It’s one thing to do that with a story about the calendar, but it’s something totally different when we’re dealing with the truth of God’s word.
Before we look at the Westminster Shorter Catechism, here’s the main point of my sermon this morning.
Adam’s sin made us sinners; our sins prove it; but in Christ, sin loses its hold—unless we hold onto it.
Let’s jump into our Westminster Shorter Catechism questions for this week. The question and answer will be on the screen or in the sermon manuscript for you to read too.
First, question 17.
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 17
Question: What happened to man in the fall?
Answer: Man fell into a condition of sin and misery
Let’s look at a few verses that support what this means. That the fall put all of us into a condition of sin and misery.
Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned
Sin came through one man. Where’s the misery? Death. Death came to us through our sin and death is misery.
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
For all have sinned and where’s the misery? We’ve fallen short of God’s glory. We don’t measure up. That’s misery.
Galatians 3:10
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
The sin? Not continuing to do everything written in the book of the law. And the misery? Being cursed. Being cursed carries with it several misery-filled meanings. It means we’re under divine judgment, it means we’re cut off from blessing, and it means we’re destined for trouble. I’d have to agree, that sounds like misery.
We’ve seen in just these few verses that sin and misery go together.
I really wanted to do an object lesson this morning. I was going to set up mousetraps all over the stage and I was going to have Pastor Josh give me explicit instructions to only use the front stairway. And then my sin was going to be taking any other route to get to the podium and my misery would be getting ambushed by a stage full of mousetraps.
I didn’t do that, but only because I thought the worship band would hate me for the rest of my life, so there are no mousetraps on stage this morning.
As we look to Question 18 in the shorter catechism, we’re going to be narrowing our focus in on sin, but as we saw in these verses and in the mousetrap example, when sin is with us misery is following close behind.
Coming up in November, I’ll be continuing this series and our topic will be misery. Mark your calendars for that day. It will probably be so crowded that we’ll have to sell tickets to get in the doors.
Let’s take a look at Question 18 as we focus in on sin.
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 18
Question: What is sinful about man’s fallen condition?
Answer: The sinfulness of that fallen condition is twofold. First, in what is commonly called original sin, there is the guilt of Adam’s first sin with its lack of original righteousness and the corruption of his whole nature. Second are all the specific acts of disobedience that come from original sin.
Joe Sherrieb did a great job of introducing us to the first part of this answer back at the beginning of August. All of us, every single one of us, have what we would call original sin, because of what we have inherited from Adam.
When I call you a sinner, I’m not picking on you. All of us were born into sin…because of what we inherited from Adam.
Just one verse to highlight that fact:
Romans 5:19a (NLT)
Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners.
Because one person (Adam) disobeyed God, many (or all) became sinners.
But what about the second part of the answer to what is sinful about our fallen condition? “All the specific acts of disobedience that come from original sin.”
Wait a second. I think I may have been more comfortable talking about Adam’s sin and how that automatically made me a sinner. You see, not only do we have to carry the weight and punishment of Adam’s sin, we have our own sin too.
And we all know that. We know we’re not perfect, but depending on the day, sometimes we think we’re pretty close.
Remember, here’s the big idea that I want us to remember from today:
Adam’s sin made us sinners; our sins prove it; but in Christ, our sins are washed away, they are forgiven, and the requirement to keep sinning in the future loses its hold on us, but we still can choose to hold onto sin.
Let’s remind ourselves of what sin is. Sin is disobeying or not conforming to God’s law in any way. You may recall that Ed preached on that back in May. And I heard this definition of sin recently, “sin is placing our trust in our own resources instead of God”. (Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools by Tyler Staton)
We need to be honest with ourselves, if it were not for God’s grace, we would run down the path towards sin wholeheartedly. We might start with a light jog, but soon we’d be in a full out sprint. That’s a good reminder that because of God’s grace we’re not as bad as we could possibly be, but we are still sinners. Both the kind that inherited sin from Adam and the kind that has committed plenty of sins of our own.
If you’re not a Christian or you’re just not sure about all this talk about sin, please know that I’m not putting you down. I’m not condemning you. That’s not even within my authority to do. When I say that you’re a sinner and that we’re all sinners, it’s a diagnosis. It’s like going to the doctor and finally understanding what’s wrong. We have to know what’s causing our pain before we’ll ever be willing to accept the cure.
And here’s the cure in its simplest form. John 3:16.
John 3:16 (NIV84)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
If we believe in God and place our trust in Jesus Christ to forgive our sins, we will not perish, but we will receive eternal life.
The disease all of us have is sin. The cure is the blood of Jesus.
Remember my big idea? Adam’s sin made us sinners; our sins prove it; but in Christ, sin loses its hold—unless we hold onto it. I want to focus on this last part for the remainder of the sermon: even though we’ve been forgiven and sin has lost its grip on us, we cling so tightly to our sin. Why, as a Christian, do I still sin?
I’ve given some broad definitions of sin, but sometimes I feel like I narrow down sin to just a few neat categories and don’t really think about other ways that I may sin or be tempted to sin. Maybe you’re guilty of that too. But I’d like to do something to expand our thinking on sin. I have a list of over 100 different sins that I’m going to rattle off, just so we’re broadening our thinking.
I was going to set these to that old McDonald’s jingle…you know, two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese…but I have at least a couple friends that may not appreciate me setting a list of sins to a McDonald’s jingle.
Let’s start with some sins that are internal
James warns us about the power of the tongue, here are some sins related to our speech.
And how about some sins that are related to outward actions.
And finally, those sins when we don’t do something that we should be doing.
Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I’d say this list gives us proof that we are all sinners.
As Christians, we still sin. We don’t want to or shouldn’t want to and we may not mean to, but we still do.
But how, how is it possible that these sins seem just as possible for me as they do for the rest of the world that doesn’t claim the name of Christ? I started asking myself this question and I was led to James chapter 1.
Let’s read verses 13 through 15.
James 1:13-15 13 NIV84
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
What starts out as a desire, grows and grows until it is full grown and gives birth to sin.
Let’s step through this progression in a little finer detail.
(These concepts were taken from Gospel Treason by Brad Bigney and his related sermons.)
I’m going to start by just reading a chain of events that happens when we first have a desire.
Desire→Demand→Need→Expectation→Disappointment→Punishment
The chain of events that leads us into sin starts with desire. Just simple desire. The verses we read in James call out evil desires, but we can have good desires that can push us into sin as well. Wanting to hurt someone – yes, that’s an evil desire. Wanting a great marriage – that seems like a pretty good desire. But both can lead us into sin, if we’re not careful.
But what do we do with that desire? Once some desires are in my head, I will often find myself thinking about them over and over and over again. If we’re not on guard, these desires and these thoughts, they start to morph on us and they turn into a demand. When it was a desire, we might say, “I wish” and then we would name our desire, but when it becomes a demand, then we say, “I will” have this thing that I desire.
So I have this desire, something I wish I could get. It becomes a demand, something that I will get. And then, it becomes a need. I must get it. I have to get it. When we see things starting to be labeled “needs” that aren’t really needs, watch out. It makes me think that I now have the right to do absolutely anything I want to fulfill that desire, because I’ve now labeled it a need.
And once I’ve labeled something a need, then that gives me the right to have an expectation of God and possibly you, that you should help me get that desire.
But then what often happens. You don’t meet my expectation or God doesn’t meet my expectation and so I’m disappointed. And because I’m disappointed that you or God didn’t meet my expectation, now I feel justified to punish you and to punish God.
Desire→Demand→Need→Expectation→Disappointment→Punishment
Now somewhere in that chain of events, your desire went from being just a desire to being sin. I still haven’t figured out quite where that happens, but I think we can agree that somewhere along here, your desire has become sin.
If we want to fight this sin in our lives, we must start with the heart. We must start with the heart.
Let’s read Matthew 15:19.
Matthew 15:19 NIV84
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
When we read lists like this, I have such a tendency to see the really bad stuff and somehow think that nullifies the whole list from applying to me. Murder and adultery? I’m good there, so I can ignore the rest. How about evil thoughts, and theft, and slander? When’s the last time you had evil thoughts about someone? When’s the last time you slandered someone, but passed it off as, I was just speaking the truth, and if they were speaking about you in the same way, you’d be good with that?
Again, back to our big list of sins, I want us to be sure that we don’t just read a few sins, think that we’re in the clear, and so we don’t have anything that God needs to change in us. My sin starts in the heart, your sin starts in the heart. If we want to get serious about getting sin out of our lives, we must start with the heart.
When we talk about the heart, we’re not just talking about the organ that sits in our chest, we’re talking about that central part of us where our thinking and emotions are always churning.
If it all starts in the heart, how do I change my heart? Let me correct my own question. Our hearts are already changing. With every passing day, they’re being changed, conformed, and adjusted. Whether that’s because of the latest headlines or social media or conversation with friends, whatever.
We start to see what everyone else has or how they live or how perfect some aspect of their lives is. It grabs hold of our hearts and we start thinking, “ooh, that’d be nice to have” or “I wish I had that relationship, or that body, or that…” Do you see what I’m saying? All of this is already constantly changing and forming our hearts.
What do we need to do instead? The answer is found in Romans 12:2.
Romans 12:2a NIV84
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
We can’t keep going back to the world and thinking that it’s going to change our hearts to be more God focused. We must get into God’s Word, we must spend time in worship, and in prayer, we need frequent connection with other believers, building them up and encouraging each other to finish the race strong.
Let’s get real practical, because I think we talk a lot about reading the Bible and prayer, but I really question how well we’re really doing. Do you have a set aside time every day that you open up God’s Word and read it and meditate on it? Do you have a set aside time that you pray? Do you attend and are you active in a Life Group, and do you connect with those in your Life Group even outside of regular meeting days?
If it starts with the heart, we’ve got to be taking these seemingly small steps to allow God to change and renew our hearts.
Now it does start with the heart, but that’s not the final step. We need to be willing to have our hearts changed, but we also must be willing to take action. And when it’s time to take action, we have to decide if we’re going to please God or please self.
I’m borrowing this next phrase from another pastor from one of our previous churches when we didn’t live in Findlay.
“There are only two options on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self.”
When we seek to do the things that we think will make us happy with no regard for what God wants, we are simply pleasing ourselves. That choice is usually feelings oriented. If it feels good, do it. Follow your heart. Be you. No.
Is following your feelings easy or hard? Generally, that’s an easy choice. But what happens down the road? It gets harder and harder and harder.
Let me read a couple verses that remind us of this fact.
Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
Or how about Proverbs 13:15? Good understanding giveth favor, but the way of transgressors is hard.
When we choose to follow feelings, the path will just get harder and harder.
There are only two options on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self. What does the path to pleasing God look like? First, it’s hard now. That initial choice, it takes effort. Luke 9:23 tells us, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
If we want to follow God’s path, we must deny ourselves. And I know this is going to be hard. But when we choose this path, what happens down the road?
Matthew 11:28-30 tells us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
It won’t feel like it at first, but what Jesus is offering is a light burden. It’s easy. It’s the way to find rest for our souls.
Of the two options on the shelf, which one are you going to choose?
As I was preparing for this sermon, I felt a special burden for a couple groups of people.
The first group is those who are victims. It’s my understanding that those who are victims will often feel guilty over the things done to them, even when there was nothing they could have done to stop what was done to them.
The second group that I felt a burden for is those that have confessed their sin. To the best of their knowledge, they have confessed all of it. They have asked for forgiveness. They have done all they know to do, but they still feel guilty. What you did may have been bad. It may have been really bad. But the blood of Jesus is powerful enough to cover all of our sins.
If either situation is true for you, let me encourage you to come up and pray with one of our prayer teams or contact the church office and let us connect you with someone who can talk with you more about either of those situations.
I said early on that the big idea of this sermon was, Adam’s sin made us sinners; our sins prove it; but in Christ, sin loses its hold—unless we hold onto it.
Those first three phrases are facts: Adam’s sin made us sinners. That’s a fact.
Our sins prove that we are sinners. That’s a fact. When we accept Christ, sin loses its power over us. That’s a fact. Unless we hold onto that sin. That’s a choice.
As we’ve wrapped up this sermon, I hope that you’ve seen that even though you had no choice in being born a sinner, after Christ, you now have the option to set aside the sin in your life and follow God’s commands for us.
A book I was listening to recently said this. “This is the good news of the gospel. Even when you make mistakes, don’t perform, and can’t get your act together, Jesus comes to you and says, ‘I want you, I’m calling you, and I’m sending you.’” (The Deeply Formed Life by Rich Villodas)
God hasn’t given up on you because of your sin. He still wants to use you and he still wants you to fight sin in your life.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we inherited sin from Adam, but we are so good at committing many, many sins of our own. We corporately come to you this morning and ask for your forgiveness. And I pray that everyone here would confess and repent of their own sins.
I pray that we would allow you to change our hearts and I pray that we would turn away from the world and how it wants to form us to look more like it. Help us to make the daily decision to allow your Word to wash over us and to spend time in prayer with you, so that we would look more and more like you.
I pray that we would turn away from the easy decisions and turn towards those decisions that may seem hard at first, but we know will please you.
And I pray especially for those who may be carrying guilt that is not theirs, whether that is because of something done to them or because of past sin that you have already forgiven. Help them to rest in knowing how much you love them.
We pray all of this in the name of Jesus and we ask for power from the Holy Spirit to accomplish all you’ve called us to. Amen.
As you go this week, As you go this week, remember: Adam’s sin made you a sinner, your sins prove it, but in Christ you are forgiven—so don’t hold onto sin that has lost its hold on you. You are sent.
Stories, news, and resources for things happening at Gateway Church.
