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I believe that one of the chief wants of the Church in the nineteenth century has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin. I fear there is much mental confusion and haziness on the definition of \u201csin\u201d and \u201csinners\u201d Sin, in short, is that vast moral disease which affects the whole human race, of every rank, and class, and name, and nation, and people, and tongue. I say, furthermore, that \u201c a sin,\u201d to speak more particularly, consists in doing, saying, thinking; or imagining, anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God. \u201cOf course, I need not tell any one who reads the Bible with attention, that a man may break God\u2019s law in heart and thought, when there is no overt and visible act of wickedness. There are sins of omission as well as commission, that we sin. (\u201cleaving undone the things we ought to do,\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>\u201c doing the things we ought not to do.\u201d ) We may live like we don\u2019t understand this but I fail to see any Scriptural warrant for the modern assertion that \u201c Sin is not sin to us until we discern it and are conscious of it\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>Every single person born carries in its heart the seeds of every kind of wickedness! You will see in it the buds and germs of deceit, evil temper, selfishness, self-will, obstinacy, greediness, envy, jealousy, passion,\u2014 which, if indulged and let alone, will shoot up with painful rapidity.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The first cause of all sin lies in the natural corruption of our own heart. We may join others in their outward expression of sin but true enough though the thought did not originate within ourself we eagerly and passionately join in as if it were. Sin is a disease which pervades and runs through every part of our moral constitution and every faculty of our minds. The understanding, the affections, the reasoning powers, the will, are all more or less infected. Even the conscience is so blinded that it \u2022cannot be depended on as a sure guide, and is as likely to lead men wrong as right, unless it is enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Sin may be veiled under a thin covering of \u2022courtesy, politeness, good manners, and outward decorum; but it lies deep down in our soul. I am convinced that the greatest proof of the extent and power of sin is the pertinacity with which it cleaves to man, even after he is converted and has become the subject of the Holy Spirit\u2019s indwelling. Happy is that believer who understands it, and while he rejoices in Christ Jesus has no confidence in the flesh.<\/span><\/p>\n Concerning the quilt, vileness, and offensiveness of sin in the sight of God, my words shall be few. I say \u201c few \u201d advisedly. I do not think, in the nature of things, that mortal man can at all realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin in the sight of that holy and perfect One with whom we have to do. On the one hand, God is that eternal Being who \u201c chargeth His angels with folly,\u201d and in whose sight the very \u201cheavens are not clean.\u201d He is One who reads thoughts and motives as well as actions, and requires \u201c truth in the inward parts.\u201d We, on the other hand,\u2014poor blind creatures, here today and gone tomorrow, born in sin, surrounded by sinners, living in a constant atmosphere of weakness, infirmity, and imperfection,\u2014can form none but the most inadequate conceptions of the hideousness of evil. We have no line to fathom it, and no measure by which to gauge it. The blind man can see no difference between a masterpiece of Titian or Raphael, and the Queen\u2019s Head on a village signboard. The deaf man cannot distinguish between a penny whistle and a cathedral organ. The very animals whose smell is most offensive to us have no idea that they are offensive, and are not offensive to one another. And man, fallen man, I believe, can have no just idea what a vile thing sin is in the sight of God. But let us nevertheless settle it firmly in our minds that sin is \u201c the abominable thing that God hateth; \u201d\u2014that God \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n No proof of the fullness of sin, after all, is so overwhelming and unanswerable as the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole doctrine of His substitution and atonement. Terribly black must that guilt be for which nothing but the blood of the Son of God could make satisfaction. Heavy must that weight of human sin be which made Jesus groan and sweat drops of blood in agony at Gethsemane, and cry at Golgotha. Nothing, I am convinced, will astonish us so much, when we awake in the resurrection day, as the view we shall have of sin, and the retrospect we shall take of our own countless shortcomings and defects. Never till the hour when Christ comes the second time shall we fully realize the ” sinfulness of sin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One point only remains to be considered on the subject of sin, which I dare not pass over. That point is its deceitfulness. It is a point of most serious importance, and I venture to think it does not receive the attention which it deserves. You may see this deceitfulness in the wonderful proneness of men to regard sin as less sinful and dangerous than it is in the sight of God; and in their readiness to extenuate it, make excuses for it, and minimize its guilt.\u2014\u201c It is but a little one! God is merciful! God is not extreme to mark what is done amiss! We mean well! One cannot be so particular! Where is the mighty harm? We only do as others!\u201d Who is not familiar with this kind of’ language ?\u2014You may see it in the long string of smooth words and phrases which men have coined in order to designate things which God calls downright wicked and ruinous to the soul.\u00a0 <\/span>They show that men try to cheat themselves into the belief that sin is not quite so sinful as God says it is, and that they are not so bad as they really are.\u2014You may see it in the tendency even of believers to indulge their children in questionable practices, and to blind their own eyes to the inevitable result of the love of money, of tampering with temptation, and sanctioning a low standard of family religion.\u2014I fear we do not sufficiently realize the extreme subtlety of our soul\u2019s disease.<\/span><\/p>\n I fear we do not sufficiently realize the extreme subtlety of our soul\u2019s disease. We are too apt to forget that temptation to sin will rarely present itself to us in -its true colors, saying, \u201c I am your deadly enemy, and I want to ruin you forever in hell.\u201d Oh, no! sin comes to us, like Judas, with a kiss; and like Joab, with an outstretched hand and flattering words. The forbidden fruit seemed good and desirable to Eve; yet it cast her out of Eden. The walking idly on his palace roof seemed harmless enough to David; yet it ended in adultery and murder. Sin rarely seems sin at its first beginnings. Let us then watch and pray, lest we fall into temptation. We may give wickedness smooth names, but we cannot alter its nature and character in the sight of God. Let us remember St. Paul\u2019s words: \u201cExhort one another daily, lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I believe that one of the chief wants of the Church in the nineteenth century has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin. I fear there is much mental confusion and haziness on the definition of \u201csin\u201d and \u201csinners\u201d Sin, in short, is that vast moral disease which affects the whole human … Continue reading “41.b. I started reading a book by J.C. Ryles written in the mid to late 1800’S. Here are a few excerpts from it on the Holiness of God and “Sin””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160388"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160454,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160388\/revisions\/160454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}