The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph VenningSection Three: THE WITNESSES AGAINST SINIf sin is so exceeding sinful that it is extremely and notoriously guilty of contrarietyto God and man, I have a cloud of witnesses to produce. These include Godhimself, angels and men both good and bad, the law and the gospel, the wholecreation, sins' names and actions. Even sin's own confessions bear witness to thischarge that sin is an exceeding sinful thing. From heaven, from earth, even fromhell, will we bring witnesses against sin.I. GOD HIMSELF BEARS WITNESS AGAINST SINHe does not leave us without witness that he is good and neither does he leave uswithout witness that sin is sinful, that it is against him and that it is against thegood of man.(1) God has forbidden sin and made a law against itAll the laws and every command of God are his witnesses against sin. He who doesnot believe the testimony God bears of his Son makes God a liar, who is true andcannot lie, and so does he who does not believe God's testimony against sin. Thelaw written in man's own heart, the law written in tables of stone and the gospelalso (I John 2.1) which is the law of faith, are written as witnesses against sin.Now surely God would not have prohibited sin had it not been an abominable thing,abominated by him and to be abominated by us. God has given man room andscope enough, a very large allowance. Of all the trees of the garden man mighteat, only one being excepted. Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure,lovely; whatsoever is of good report, if there be any virtue, any praise, these thingsthink on and do (Philipplans 4.8). Now sin comes under none of these names but iscontrary to them all and therefore it is forbidden. God has not forbidden manhonours or riches, nor any pleasures except the pleasures of sin. Surely then,seeing God does not delight to grieve the children of men but rejoices over them todo them good with all his heart and all his soul, as he is pleased to express it(Jeremiah 32.41), he would never have forbidden anything to man but what wasprejudicial to him, as well as being displeasing to himself. But I shall speak more ofthis when I show how the Lord God witnesses against sin.(2) God will not allow us to do evil that good may comeThus God witnesses against sin. As pleasing a thing as good is to God, yet he willnot allow us to do the least evil for the greatest good. We see how angrily and withwhat indignation the apostle speaks against those who said the contrary (Romans3. 8). Indeed, it is a damnable doctrine to teach that we may do evil for a goodend, or that good may come of it. This doctrine was first broached by the Devil andushered in the first sin (Genesis 3:1-6).1. We may not do evil that good may come to ourselves. God allows man to lovehimself, and he has made self-love the rule and measure of our love to others:'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself'. God is not against man being rich, only48