The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venning(2) The judgments of God are justThough God is so patient, beyond what we could ask or think, yet sometimes hedoes, and will for ever, punish sinners who do not repent. Thus this is a secondinference from the sinfulness of sin. God often punishes less than iniquity deserves,but never more. The greatest sufferings are neither more nor less than sindeserves. The worst on this side of Hell is mercy, and the worst of and in Hell is butjustice.1. Consider the nature of God. He is and cannot but be just. Shall not the God andJudge of all the earth do right? Can he or will he do wrong? No! 'For he will not layupon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God' (Job34.23). Cain could say that his punishment was intolerable, but he could not saythat it was unjust; though greater than he could bear, yet it was not greater thanhe deserved. God will not argue the case with men merely as a Sovereign, but as aJudge, who proceeds not by will only, but by rule. Repeatedly, when the judgmentsof God are spoken of in Revelation, they are said always to be just and true andrighteous (Rev. 15.3; 16.7). Though his ways are unsearchable, yet they are trueand just and righteous. He makes war in righteousness. Death is only the duewages of sin (Romans 6.23). Therefore it is said, Their damnation is just (Romans3.8); and every sin has a just recompense of reward (Hebrews 2.2). Guilt stopsmen's mouths when they suffer the judgment of God (Lamentations 3.39; Romans3.19; Psalm 51.4; Romans 3.4). If God judges man, God is found true; but if manjudges God, man is found a liar.Would we complain of the Devil, as Eve did? It is true that he is to blame, but he isnot so much the cause of man's sin as man himself is. The Devil, certainly, couldtempt, but he could not compel. So it is man who sins although he is tempted tosin; though man could not prevent himself being tempted, he could have refrainedfrom sinning.Would we complain of God? What would we charge him with? Did not God makeman in the best state in which a creature could be? Did not God tell him what wasevil and the danger of sinning? God might say as he did of Israel, What could Ihave done more that I have not done? So man must say that he has rewarded evilto himself by doing evil and that his perdition is of himself (Hosea 13.9). Sinnershave their option and choice; why then do they complain?2. Consider the nature of sin. It is Deicide, God-murder. Thus it is just for God todo with sinners what they would unjustly do with him, that is, take away from themall good and glory, displease and destroy them, because they would do so to him.If we consider the person who is sinned against, and that the aim of sin is to ungodGod, what punishment can be thought bad enough? The Schools rightly tell us thatobjectively sin is infinite. What punishment then can be too great for so great anevil? If its deed had answered its intention and will--horror of horrors!--God wouldhave been no more. As none but infinite power can pardon it, so none but infinitepower can punish it sufficiently. Just as its aim is infinite, so is its desert.Therefore, though its punishment is also infinite, it is but just. Seeing sin containsall evil, it is not strange that its punishment should be answerable and107