The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venning(5) It despises the riches of God's goodness (Romans 2.4).(6) It turns his grace into wantonness (Jude 4) It will make bold with God, and sinbecause grace abounds.In short, sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of hispatience, the slight of his power, the contempt of his love, as one writer prettilyexpresses this ugly thing. We may go on and say, it is the upbraiding of hisprovidence (Psalm 50), the scoff of his promise (2 Peter 3.3-4), the reproach of hiswisdom (Isaiah 29.16). And as is said of the Man of Sin (i.e. who is made up of sin)it opposes and exalts itself above all that is called God (and above all that God iscalled), so that it as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing itself as if it wereGod (2 Thessalonians 2.4)3. Sin is contrary to the works of God. It works contrary to God, and it is contraryto God's works, and is called the work of the devil (1 John 3.8). All God's workswere good exceedingly, beautiful even to admiration; but the works of sin aredeformed and monstrously ugly, for it works disorder, confusion, and everythingthat is abominable. Sin may be arraigned for all the mischiefs and villainies thathave been done in the world; it is the master of misrule, the author of sedition, thebuilder of Babel, the troubler of Israel and all mankind. So contrary is sin to theworks of God, that it sought and still seeks to undo all that God does, that theremight be no seed, nor name, nor root left him in the earth. Everything worksaccording to its nature; as the root is, so is the fruit; and thus every tree is known,whether it is a good tree or a bad (Matthew 7.17-I8). God is good, and does good(Psalm 119.68). Sin is evil and does evil, indeed, it does nothing else. So sin andits works are contrary to God and his works.4. Sin is contrary to the law and will of God, to all the rules and orders of hisappointment. There is not one of his laws which it has not broken, andendeavoured to make void and of none effect. It is not only a transgression of, butalso a contradiction to the will of God. When the Son of God came into the world todeclare and do his Father's will, he was encountered by, and underwent thecontradiction of sinners (Hebrews 12.3) who would have made men believe thatneither he nor his doctrine was of God.Sin is an anti-will to God's will; it sets itself to oppose preaching, prayer, and all theinstitutions of God. And it does this, not only out of envy to man, that he shouldnot be the better for them, but out of enmity to God, that he should not beworshipped in the world. Now to act contrary to the will and statutes of God is toact contrary to God himself, as may be seen by comparing Leviticus 26.14,15 withverses 21,23, and 27 of the same chapter, and many other places. David, infulfilling the will of God, was said to be a man after God's own heart (Acts 13.22);and they who obey the will of sin are said to walk after the heart of sin (Ezekiel11.21).5. Sin is contrary to the image of God, in which man was made. God made man inhis own likeness, viz. in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4.24). Now sinis clean contrary to this image, as much unlike it as deformity and ugliness is unlike10