The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venninghaving his will and then at having it. Sin does not please men whether they are fullor fasting.How sinners are tormented! Their desires are great and their enjoyments little,indeed, contradictions to what they had thought of. They expected pleasure andfind pain, they sought joy and met with grief. Hence sinners are so weary of time,and not only of business but of recreations. But that they change so often provesthat they have no satisfaction. Hence the Pythagoreans place the wicked on arolling pin to show they have no quiet or peace, but as the prophet says, they arelike the raging sea (Isaiah 48.22 and 57.20-2I). The soul, says Tacitus, is lashedwith guilt as the body is with stripes. Even Tiberius, impudent as he was, could notprotect himself from those inward scourges which are such horrid and hideousfuries and torments that hell has no worse.(v) Sinners must sin under a form of godliness. They paint it and seek to make itlook well, although it is so much the more ugly for being coloured andcomplexioned with a form of godliness, the thing itself and those who do it beingwitnesses. Though sinners are like devils yet they would be thought saints. Saul'ssin must needs concern sacrifice, and so God must be the patron of the sin thatwas committed against himself (I Samuel 11). Absalom covers his rebellion andtreason with the devotion of a vow (2 Samuel 11.7,8). Herod smooths over hismurderous intentions with the pretence of worship; he will murder John the Baptistlest he should be perjured, as if forsooth he dares not sin unless he does itconscientiously. This shall suffice to show that wicked men are ashamed of sin, thatis, ashamed to own it as such. They are ashamed of it before and when theycommit it.b. Sinners are ashamed of sin after they have committed it. Good men areashamed of what only looks like a sin, and of what may be interpreted to be meantfor a sin, although not so, as when David cut off the skirt of Saul's garment. Thisproves that they are loath to and averse from sin. We shall find also that wickedmen, when they have done evil, are ashamed that they have done it, which is awitness what an ugly because a sinful thing sin is.(i) Sinners dare not own their sin. This clearly shows that they are ashamed of itand are not satisfied with what they have done, although, as I shall soon show,they may excuse it. When the thief, bold and sturdy sinner as he may be, is taken,he is ashamed. So the house of Israel is ashamed (Jeremiah 2.26); they cannotplead sin's cause to justify it.(a) They cannot endure to be called by the name of the sin which they havecommitted and which they practise. No drunkard likes to be so called, but takes itfor a disgrace. No liar will receive the lie given him but as an affront. No adultererwill own that name. Now whoever follows a lawful and honest trade or calling is notashamed of its name though it is never so mean, as for example a shoemaker. Butsin is such an ugly base employment, that those who commit sin will not endurebeing called sin-makers, though that is their trade. Sinners charge God withslandering them when he complains of their sin (Malachi 1.6; 2.17; and 3.8,13).When God accuses them they put him to the proof and say, when and where? Soimpatient are sinners of being called sinners!70