The principle text is in Psalm 51, verse
4, against thee, thee only have I sinned,
and done this evil in thy sight, that
thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and
be clear when thou judgest.
Verse 3, I acknowledge my transgressions, and my
sin is ever before me.
I acknowledge my transgression.
Maybe that acknowledge is too contemporary a word.
Acknowledge sounds like a faint condescension.
Like, how can I not acknowledge?
But it's a much deeper thing here.
This is something that Israel's great king is
feeling in his uttermost deeps.
I acknowledge my transgressions, my sin is ever
before me.
Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and
done this evil in thy sight.
So two words that need to be underlined
is first sin in verse 3, and evil
in verse 4.
Until sin is for you evil, it's not
yet likely sin.
It's just a boo-boo, or a missed
occasion, or some other way in which we
dismiss our sin in a way more likely
than it should be understood.
And every sin, whether it's adultery, or murder,
or less, is ever and always a sin
against God.
Until we know sin as sin against God,
we do not know sin.
That's my burden this morning.
I'll be reading from something that came into
my hands yesterday and occupied me last night.
That has inspired these thoughts in this direction.
An entire sermon predicated on that verse, against
thee and thee only have I sinned.
Until we know, until it registers upon our
deepest consciousness that however much others may be
affected by our misconduct, even violence, murder, rape,
it is still not touching the essence of
what we need to know as sin, if
we have to know sin as evil, and
that is that it is against God.
We're even given a little clue here where
he says, in thy sight, and done this
evil in thy sight.
Can you just let me let that sink
in?
So when David performed, from the very beginning,
the sinful contemplation of Bathsheba from the height
that he enjoyed from his kingly apartment, and
the thoughts that seeing her naked beauty stirred
in him, God was aware.
God knows our secret hearts.
He knows our thoughts, our inward considerations before
they become an act.
So instead of being aware that what we're
contemplating is already known by God, and ought
to embarrass us at the least, we go
on and begin to work out those thoughts
until the sin itself is consummated.
And once consummated, then it requires the murder
of the poor woman's husband.
And all of this in God's sight.
I don't have a word.
Somebody has to help me here.
I just don't have the language.
Maybe it's because I myself am too dull,
too dense in this way that it has
not yet touched my own deepest consciousness that
it's done in God's sight.
Now who is this God that we can
take the liberty of violating, contradicting his law
that says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt
not commit adultery, and we perform those things
in his sight.
Unless, of course, he may be sleeping that
day, or he had a speck in his
eye, or he was distracted by some other
consideration.
You see what I mean?
It raises questions about God that are themselves
sinful.
They are the unspoken thing is insulting.
You don't realize, though you don't think it
aloud or speak it, this is necessarily implied.
As if he's not present.
As if he doesn't see.
Or maybe he sees, but he's not really
affected.
It doesn't really bother him all that much
because, after all, he knows you've had a
hard day at the office and you need
a little something extra and you've got it
coming.
See how we presume upon God?
This is sin, dear saints.
So, the judgment that came for David's transgressions
were no small thing in 2 Samuel 12,
verse 10, Now therefore the sword shall never
depart from thine house because thou hast despised
me and hast taken the wife of Uriah
the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise
up evil against thee out of thine own
house.
And I will take thy wives before thine
eyes and give them unto thy neighbor and
he shall lie with thy wives in the
sight of the sun.
What you did, you did.
But what I'm going to do is open
and public to your mortification and to your
sin.
For you did it secretly, but I will
do this thing before all Israel and before
the sun.
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned
against the Lord.
And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also
hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not
die.
How be it?
Because by this deed thou hast given great
occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme.
The child also that is born unto thee
shall surely die.
So these are severe judgments that we know
from the subsequent history of David in his
own house, his own sins, that are the
compensation or the restitution or the requirement of
God for the offense of the sin against
him.
But the remarkable thing in verse 4 of
Psalm 51, after he says, I've done this
evil in your sight, that you mightest be
justified when you speak and be clear when
you judge.
There's not a whimper of complaint in David
for any of the judgments that have befallen
him because he has despised God.
That's God's own statement.
It's not Nathan's.
You have despised my commandments in verse 9
of 2 Samuel 12.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandments of the
Lord to do evil in his sight?
If only this much could sink in, I
would stop speaking and spare you from going
on.
If only this much could sink in, that
the word despise.
How would you like to be despised?
You wouldn't get over it with a month
of Sundays.
You would continue to pout, you'd be hurt,
you'd be wounded in the deeps if you're
despised.
It's one thing to be ignored or mistreated
or slighted, but to be despised?
That's a strong word.
It's the word that God chooses who never
chose a word wrongly.
He's saying that what you did is a
statement that you really despised my commandments.
It's not just that you ignored them, you
despised them.
And in despising my commandments, you despised me.
And you're the king of Israel.
What did he withhold from you?
What did he not give you?
He gave you a kingdom, he gave you
wives, he gave you authority.
You're the sweet singer of Israel, you're the
great psalmist.
After all that he had given you, you
despise his commandments in such a way as
to violate them even before his face and
in his sight?
David, you're a fraud.
We don't know how you got by with
those psalms.
Just the grace that is totally undeserved.
Certainly they couldn't be out of the truth
of your life unless it's possible to be
a psalmist and to celebrate God out of
one side of your mouth and to despise
him out of the other?
That such a contradiction is possible in a
man like David, whose name means beloved of
God?
And that that is a statement of the
measure of the depravity of man?
That he can go from exalting God to
despising him when the issue of his lust
is at hand and he desires to be
gratified no matter what the consequence to God?
Not only do we not know as we
ought to know about God, we do not
know as we ought to know about ourselves.
Because if there's anyone in this room who
thinks that they are superior to David and
faced with the same temptation or opportunity and
impulse, you would never have done that.
You are among all men most deceived.
So don't misconstrue what you're hearing from me
as being somehow a man speaking out of
personal pique or the way often preachers will
allow themselves to be relieved through their own
messages.
Nothing like that, so far as I know
it.
I even made it an explicit prayer before
the Lord as Pearl knows.
Keep me, Lord, from interjecting anything of myself.
Unless these people think, well that's just odd.
He's jaundiced, he's an old crock.
You know, when you get older they get
that way.
And that somehow you would lose the import
of what God himself is saying.
That it's possible to despise God, even by
a psalmist whose name means beloved and who
has given the kingdom.
And that violating against God in its essence
is to despise him.
And until we know that, we'll not know
sin and we'll not know its terror and
we'll not know the heart of its offense.
Against thee, here's a man who has committed
adultery, impregnated a woman, killed her husband, and
God does not finger those details but gets
to the real issue of the offense against
me, against thee and thee only have I
sinned.
And therefore the judgments that you have called
for and will perform are perfectly just.
Because to sin against you is utterly atrocious.
It's unspeakably vile.
It's one thing to err against men but
to violate God?
There's not a word for it.
And that's what every sin is.
Not just the fierce sins, not just adultery
and murder, but any sin in its essence
is against God.
Performed by taking a liberty against him as
if he doesn't see, as if he is
not concerned, as if it does not in
any way blaspheme him and give his enemies
opportunity to blaspheme him.
That's what Nathan said to David.
By your conduct, you have given his enemies
opportunity to blaspheme God.
You have actually disparaged him.
You've given a testimony of a kind that
he will suffer loss in the kind of
dignity and prestige and honoring that is appropriate
to himself as God.
That's what your conduct has done.
And that's what our conduct does.
So I'm reading from a little-known classic
given to me by Michael yesterday entitled The
Heinousness of Sin.
I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.
H-E-I-N-O-U-S-N
-A-S-S What is heinous?
When's the last time you've used that word?
When's the last time you've thought that word?
And even now do you understand that word?
It's as if the English language has to
reach deep to find a word sufficient to
reflect the magnitude of the offense.
And the word is heinous, like unspeakably vile.
Not just vile, unspeakably vile.
It's heinous because it's against thee and thee
alone have I sinned.
And the very first line of this sermon
reads, A sense of the great evil of
sin is essential to true repentance.
If you don't know the essential evil as
great your repentance is fraudulent and inadequate and
only a little religious condescension but not the
kind that occasions what true repentance alone brings.
And that's why the propensity for future sin
or further sin remains.
Repentance is a powerful phenomenon but it requires
a profound acknowledgement of sin as evil.
And until sin is seen as an offense
against God the evil has not yet been
seen.
So that's the sense of what we're about
this morning as I read certain of these
statements which we'll not hear in a million
Sundays in our generation.
This kind of preaching and insight is not
known in our time and we suffer for
the lack of it.
Where he writes, But if the great evil
of sin is against God of infinite glory
be not seen, they will not mourn for
sin on that account.
Yet if that which constitutes the great evil
of sin is not seen and sin is
not hated and mourned for because of its
chief and principal malignity our repentance is not
genuine.
What is the chief and principal malignity?
It's not who was affected by our sin
though no question that they are.
Our children are going to bear the crunch
of the divorces that we initiate because we
lust after someone else and don't want to
have to suffer through the tedium of working
out a difficult marriage.
There's no question of the slight, the offense,
the pain psychologically and even spiritually that except
for the grace of God will never be
remedied.
People are affected by our sin.
The world is affected by our sin.
But that still falls short of the great
malignity that occasions authentic repentance which is the
offense against God himself.
It's of importance therefore that we know where
in the great evil of sin really consists.
For which purpose let us attend to the
words of our text Against thee and thee
only have I sinned.
Then he goes on to develop that theme
that David had despised the Lord and the
commandment of the Lord the commandment thou shalt
not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
But David had said by what he did
I will commit adultery with Bathsheba and gratify
my lust.
Despite all that God says I will murder
her innocent husband Uriah that I may hide
my sin and shame by this wicked means
notwithstanding the divine prohibition.
You know what this is?
This is preaching.
This is incisive.
He's spelling out in so many words what
David maybe never articulated to himself but in
fact agreed.
And what we need to see also in
any act of sin.
Let me go over this.
What did David really say by his acts?
Not verbally but in his conduct that is
the offense against God.
That even though you commanded thou shalt not
kill or commit adultery I will gratify my
lust despite all that God says.
Remember the first temptation of the garden?
Has God said?
That's always the point of assault to depreciate
God and nullify God as God has God
said?
And even if he has did he really
mean it?
And even if he really meant it how
seriously ought we to take it?
There's always the question of God because what
God says is what God is.
His character is in the issue of his
speaking.
Isn't that true for you?
That your speaking reflects your character?
What you say is what you are?
And if you're not conscious of that you
ought to be because we're made in his
image and we have the privilege of speech
and speech out of the heart proceeds the
words.
So if that's true for us is it
not true for him?
That his speaking reveals his heart?
And though he has spoken we ignore that
because our lust has a greater priority the
fulfillment and the gratification of our lust is
more important than the integrity and the honor
of a God that is at stake by
honoring what he has said.
I'm apologizing while I'm speaking for the Lord.
Lord this is so beneath the quality of
address that this topic deserves.
Pity that you have to have no better
instrument than what's available to you now that
we could get the full measure of what
we ought to understand by this.
Of course this is and if we miss
this you guys where then do we connect?
Where do we make it?
Where do we succeed in anything?
If we miss this if we miss this
we miss the knowledge of God as God.
If we miss this we miss the knowledge
of ourselves as man.
If we miss this we miss the issue
of sin our justification of atonement we miss
the issue of Jesus his death is not
all that necessary.
Everything collapses if we miss it here against
thee and thee only.
Our problem is we don't know the thee.
We don't know thee as thee.
We have an inward image of a lesser
God who can be offended against or there's
not all that much concern that looks the
other way.
That's why David's sin is so much more
grievous because his knowledge of God was so
much deeper and yet even in that depth
as the sweet psalmist he still did not
refrain himself from despising God by despising his
commandments.
If David were here before us this morning
he'd be flat out of his face sobbing
like a baby because I don't think that
his sin ever left him.
He says my sin is ever before me.
He had a perpetual consciousness.
Once you fall into this deep once you
willfully negate God and despise him and his
commandments can you ever recover?
Yes, though you are forgiven.
Yes, though the child that was conceived in
that adultery must die can you ever forget
in your deeps the heinousness of your sin
that has got to haunt you that once
capable you're ever capable that lust should have
such priority isn't that remarkable?
Gratification.
So this was the language of David's conduct.
This is the language of every sin.
Thus he despised the commandments of God and
despised God himself.
And this was with good reason charged him
as the great evil of his sin for
which God would severely punish him.
Seeing this with broken heart he cries out
against thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight.
Wherefore thou art just when you speak and
clear when you judge.
Thus we see wherein the great evil of
David's sins did consist both in the sight
of God and his own sense after he
became a sincere penitent.
Because every sin is as really committed against
God as those were.
And as what was true in this case
will hold true in all other cases.
Therefore from these words we may make the
following observations.
And it goes on to a whole logical
unfolding of what is revealed in David's failing
that deserves to be read.
But time in the morning doesn't permit.
So I'm just touching a few highlights.
The sinner comes and descends from his whole
constitution.
A sin like David's against God is not
some superficial external moments lapse.
It's a statement out of a man's entire
constitution.
That's what sin is.
It's not a little boo boo that just
had a moment to be expressed.
It's issues out of how we are constituted
and made up inwardly and before God in
heart and in life.
Therefore keep your heart with all diligence.
Therefore see to your constitution.
Therefore walk before me blamelessly.
Therefore don't think that that moment of lapse
is just the thing in itself.
No.
What happened in that moment is a statement
of a much longer condition that you have
allowed to be nurtured and to constitute the
reality of your life that will surface in
a moment that will be given but is
much lighter than the moment.
And that you were responsible for allowing yourself
to fall into a condition that permitted that
moment to take place.
You have despised God far longer than you
know.
You have been indifferent to his commandments and
what he says much longer than you realize
that what takes place in the moment is
the sum of all the moments that have
preceded it and not just a momentary impulse
by which you lost it for the moment.
We like to think it like that so
that we're not convicted, we're not burdened with
how grievous a thing sin is as evil.
But if we see it as issuing out
of our constitution, out of failed attendance at
prayer meetings, out of indifference to the body
of Christ, out of taking our liberty to
stay home because, well, there's a nice video
on, or to choose to go to a
movie, or rather than, you know, it's the
sum of moments of a history of choice
in which we have indulged our satisfaction not
in some egregious word I dislike but I
can't think of another word like it not
some in-your-face ugly, vile murder adultery
thing but just a slight condescension to me
rather than to God in which I allow
other priorities to preempt him namely my flesh,
my family, my enjoyment, my satisfaction over as
against my obligation my responsibility to be in
the house of God, to be with the
saints of God in prayer to be faithful
in obedience sin has a history I haven't
even thought these things until I'm hearing myself
speak them now because the word constitution hit
home with a certain power.
This guy knows his subject.
Sin is not a momentary mishap sin in
a moment expresses a much longer condition of
what we have allowed ourselves inwardly in heart
and life to be even David did not
guard himself to seek to a walk in
a way that would in which he would
have honored God rather than despising him despising
is a strong word, you don't come to
it in a moment it requires a history
of neglect and indifference and that is our
great sin since I don't think there's an
adulterer in the house today certainly not a
murderer but I think that there's a house
full of indifference and neglect of God that
has allowed other priorities that have to do
with our satisfaction, our convenience our importance our
delight to preempt him we're laying the grounds
for sin and that indifference and neglect is
in fact sin the neglect of God is
an act of despising indifference to God is
a statement of an attitude that does not
esteem him his whole constitution both in heart
and life, as for his law I don't
like it, I will not obey it, as
for his authority I do not submit to
it, I will not regard it as for
his government and his glorious kingdom, it's not
to my liking I revolt, I will not
have him to reign over me, I can
prescribe better rules for his life, I will
not be dependent upon him nor be in
subjection to him thus the sinner revolts from
his government, casts off his authority breaks his
law, and in the language of scripture, rebels
against the Lord.
Every act of sin is considered an act
of rebellion in scripture against the Lord sinners
have the character of rebels to despise is
to rebel it's rebelling against God's law, against
his commandments against his authority, against his rule
against his kingdom all of that constitutes sin
we need to recognize what God is going
to give us is an anatomy of sin
it needs to be open to our consideration
that in the last analysis, what it is
and it's rightly identified in the scripture as
rebellion it refuses to obey God he said
thou shalt not, but I will thus God
in every point is disesteemed, disrespected despised, and
even treated with contempt in the common conduct
of the sinner this is sin if God
were not God, if he were not holy
then sin would not be sin it would
just be a malfaction some misdemeanor it's because
God is God as God, holy that everything
is compounded and made heinous it's a sin
against a holy God that's why when we
talk about the cross the man benefits by
the atonement which was obtained the first purpose
of the son was not man, but his
father his father's honor was at stake something
had to be rectified that was taking place
in the earth by man created in his
image by which God was continually being slighted
and his name and reputation and honor was
being debased and God had not acted as
if he didn't care so something had to
take place in history and in time in
which God showed his his wrath his righteous
wrath against sin the malignity the evil that
it is and it required a demonstration as
great as the terrible execution of his own
son and the son was willing to bear
that not only for our sake, that was
secondary but primarily for the father's sake for
the father's name for the father's honor, because
his judgment is his righteousness and he can't
allow sin to go unjudged it's a slight
against him any vile lust is preferred before
all the fullness of God these things and
ways which please the devil God's inveterate enemy
the most malicious and hateful being in the
universe are chosen before those things and ways
which please Jehovah when we condescend to lust
to flesh to self-gratification to ease, to
comfort to flesh and blood over and against
God whose wisdom and will and mind are
we not only reflecting but in fact obeying
what an insult to God that we who
purport to be believers are more responsive to
his enemy than to himself what a slight
his authority is trampled on at whose presence
the mountains melt and the earth trembles a
worm of the dust sets up himself above
the most high God, his will above God's
and his interest above God's glory if God
offers heaven sin despises it, if he threatens
hell sin disregards it if he pleads the
dying love of his son the riches of
his grace and beseeches sinners to be reconciled
sin slights it all if he commanded men
to do their duty one to another sin
regards it not and all this notwithstanding his
right to us as his creatures authority over
us as his subjects our obligation to him
as the Lord our God thus the most
high is by worms of the dust treated
with disrespect and contempt you worm Jacob you
worm whatever your name is we're worm saints
and you of a holy God how dare
we worms to contradict and offend the most
high by choices and decisions and acts and
speaks speaking and that is an offense to
him being worms that compounds the evil wouldn't
be as bad if we were in a
place of equality and were taking issue with
him but as worms how dare we even
so much as lift our heads raise our
voices let alone to wickedly perform that which
is offensive to him right in his face
and in his teeth you worm this preacher
is saying rightly why don't we hear talk
like that now because this is a humanistic
man honoring, man placating, man, man man, man
centered age that infects our churches man pleasing
you don't want to insult your congregation tell
them that they're a worm forget about their
coming back next Sunday or their tithes will
be gone with them you better speak in
such a way that you're not too offensive
and that's why we have very light regard
for sin and the holiness of God against
whom it is performed for sin is against
the honor of God and brings everlasting reproach
to his great name if we are but
really convinced that God is infinitely great and
glorious it will be to us self evident
that he is infinitely worthy of all our
love, honor and obedience and that consequently to
disesteem despise and disobey him is infinitely vile
what we're suffering from is an inadequate knowledge
of God as holy if we knew your
majesty if we knew your greatness and your
holiness we would not think as worms to
lift ourselves up before you we may ruin
ourselves by our own sin, we may plunge
ourselves headlong into destruction but what are we
compared to the great Jehovah the issue of
sin is not how we will be affected,
though it would be tragic both in this
life and eternally, but what is that compared
to the great Jehovah what is the effect
upon us compared to the effect upon him
that's where the evil is really evil we
may ruin ourselves by sin but that's nothing
it's less than nothing in vanity what is
a guilty rebel worth compared with the majesty
of heaven to rise up in rebellion against
the great God, to go contrary to him
to affront him, to treat him with contempt
is evidently the most wicked and heinous thing
that can possibly be done for here the
greatest and best of beings is insulted, a
being who is so infinitely better than all
other beings put together this therefore is the
greatest evil there is in sin by infinite
parts, against thee and thee only have I
sinned so they turned their backs upon the
heavenly caiman and lust after leeks and onions
of Egypt the pleasures of sin not with
any desire to affront God but from self
-love and to gratify the desires of their
hearts in pursuit of happiness but yet in
fact they really turned their backs upon the
almighty and despised his commands remarkable judgment that
came upon the evil witnesses, those that were
sent in to spy out Canaan and came
back with an evil report, we're grasshoppers in
their sight, these guys are giants and powerful
and there's no way that we could take
this land, though the Lord said I've already
given it to you, and I'll be with
you they brought back an evil report that
the nation believed and we're ready to go
back to Egypt, let's appoint captains and go
back because we're brought to an insurmountable impasse
here of a people who are already in
the land, who are infinitely larger and more
powerful than we so even though God said
I have given you this land and I
will be with you what we see with
our eyes and the threat to our flesh
is more formidable than what he has said
and therefore our report is evil, that whole
generation died in the wilderness God was ready
to blot out the entire nation just on
that basis, Moses had to plead and intercede
and in the end if you're over 20
you'll never make it into the land, you'll
perish, your cadaver will be in the wilderness
but there will be a remnant that the
Lord will allow a Caleb and a Joshua
Caleb means wholehearted because they did not believe
me they despised me they refused to consider
my word they allowed themselves to be judged
by what they saw although I had said
I will give you the land if God
is despised affronted and abused the sinner's heart
is a heart of stone he cannot feel
it for he does not care for God
but let it come to his own case
his heart is a heart of flesh, very
tender everything touches him to the quick for
he loves himself dearly if God is abused
and injured an apostate world cares little about
it but if they themselves are wronged it
is highly resented hence this is the doctrine
of ungodly selfish hearts the great evil of
sin consists in its being an injurious thing
to us we wince if we are offended
against but if God is offended against it
is only a small thing who then is
really God in such a case so are
you convinced of these truths this preacher asks
do you look upon sin in this light
are you sensible that all sin is thus
against God against his nature, law, authority and
honor do you know that this is God's
world that you are his creatures and subjects
that he is your lord and owner that
he has an entire right to you and
an absolute authority over you that you are
entirely dependent upon him infinitely indebted to him
and absolutely under his government do you know
that the lord your God is a great
God and a great king infinitely worthy of
all love, honor and obedience do you see
what a great evil it is to rise
in rebellion against the most high to slight
his authority, throw off his government break his
laws, go contrary to him and do the
abominable things which his soul hates do you
see what contempt is cast upon God and
how it tends to grieve his heart for
a worm to set up himself against the
almighty for a creature absolutely dependent to turn
his back upon his creator in whose hands
are his life and breath do you see
the grievous error of loving sin more than
an infinitely glorious God of delighting in earthly
pleasure more than in the supreme fountain of
all good of being more concerned to please
fellow rebels and secure their favor than to
please the sovereign lord of the universe and
to secure his favor do you see the
infinite malignity of such conduct do you see
it oh sinner if you never saw the
great evil of sin you are to this
day a stranger to God and blind to
the infinite beauty of his nature and are
to this day under the power of sin
and in an impenitent and unpardoned state maybe
why it is that we have not seen
God as God is not that he has
withheld the revelation but that our sin obscures
it it blinds us to his glory it
blinds us to his majesty we cannot see
we cannot appreciate our sin to the degree
that we condescend to it has this consequence
it blots out the reality of God as
holy and therefore because he is deluged we
are released more and more to act out
this despising never was a sinner pardoned while
impenitent never was a sinner truly penitent while
insensible of the great evil of sin never
did a sinner see the great evil of
sin before he was first acquainted with the
infinitely great and glorious God it is all
connected if he is no longer great and
glorious perhaps never was but is in our
image then the transgressions against him follow we
do not see sin as exceedingly sinful we
are not in any case able to become
penitent remorseful or repentant and therefore it is
a moot question of whether the relationship with
God has actually been established and if it
has can it be maintained if our attitude
sinks into something like this if you never
saw the great evil of sin as it
is against God who is infinitely glorious in
himself your repentance was never genuine and you
are yet unpardoned that's a hard word for
the many thousands who have made a decision
for Christ sign on the dotted line and
look at all the benefits that you'll receive
that's the tenor of our present evangelism that's
why a word like this is anarchic and
anachronistic out of tune because we have never
truly seen the great evil of sin for
men grow in the knowledge of God and
sense of his glory and of their obligation
to him so proportionately will they see more
and more of the infinite evil that there
is in sin as it is against him
a wonderful case for this is Paul who
saw himself as chief of sinners and he's
not talking about his pre-christian life he's
talking about his present life chief apostle, well
if David as king could be capable of
such grievous conduct, how about Paul, chief of
sinners, because as he grows in the knowledge
of God as holy, he grows in the
knowledge of the revelation of the truth of
his own condition what would modern psychology say
about such attitudes they're negative and you need
self-esteem if you're going to succeed in
life you certainly don't want to see yourself
as a base sinner a worm offending against
the holy God so what's the language of
your heart do you approve God's government or
are you an enemy to it, the law
said cursed is everyone that continues not an
orphan is written in the book of the
law to do them, do you heartily approve
as strictly just the law that threatens damnation
for the least sin does sin appear so
great and evil as to deserve severe punishment
but in your own case can you justify
God and his laws what's your heart, what's
your attitude has it become natural to you
to be afraid of sin do you fear
sin I read that one recently that the
greatest fear that this believer had was that
he would fear, that he would not adequately
fear sin that sin is to be feared
and if it's feared, you're not going to
let your eyes linger a moment longer on
that zebra than the accidental moment has provided
when you allow your eyes to linger and
thoughts to be conjured by dwelling upon what
is already evil you'll find yourself necessarily doing
it so your eyes will linger if you
don't think it's evil you indulge your senses
and finally act in a way to gratify
the lust that it generates because you're not
afraid of it you have a presumptuous self
-assurance that you're spiritual enough you can have
your ear pierced you can even enjoy a
tattoo and a little marijuana now and then,
not seriously or a little illicit affair that's
not terribly consistent, once in a rare while
or be absent from a place where you
ought to be present, or neglect a duty
or an obligation that you know you ought
to be assuming because you'll make up for
it another time and even if you haven't
prepared yourself, you know enough that when the
time comes you can get by and the
saints will be blessed and impressed you're allowed
to be slack slovenly, lazy indulgent, and indifferent
because you do not fear sin and you
do not hate it a little condescension a
little allowance but a little leaven leavens the
whole lump you won't fear sin until you
are persuaded that God is the victim of
your self-condescension against thee and thee only
have I sinned the church has suffered the
loss of my neglect but the heart of
the offence is against God himself I'm sitting
on the gifts that he gave me and
that I can turn it on and off
like a spigot at my will when it's
convenient but not when it costs something or
requires something or redounds to my inconvenience I'll
make those decisions how many guys have I
spoken to and I'm going to be seeing
my Jewish ophthalmologist Wednesday who's a nice guy
and he's read the Holocaust book and chosen
for what but it has not moved him
because I know his heart, I know his
mind he's utterly Jewish that is to say
he has never performed any conspicuous sin he
has never committed adultery he has never robbed
he thinks he has never lied and so
if there is a God art surely he's
satisfied with my performance what more could he
ask than what I am already rendering so
the issue of Jesus is just a secondary
thing it's not all that important because the
Lord sees that I'm a nice guy and
I've never done anything that's conspicuously evil except
to ignore and reject him and his son
whom he has sent that's my only minor
failing this is the spirit of the world
you guys the world that we're called to
confront is full of self-righteous assurance that
even if God be God he has got
to be impressed and pleased with the way
in which we deploy ourselves so I'm not
under obligation to consider you're Jesus I'm okay
that attitude itself stinks, it's a heinous attitude
it's contentious of God as if I could
establish the standard that he is obliged to
honor and to respect if it pleases me
then it has got to please him the
important thing is, it pleases me that's sin
man that attitude is itself sin, don't you
see it?
and if you don't see it, you'll see
it in the day of judgment, with a
shriek and a howl when there's no time
for remedy or change and you'll be plunged
into an eternity in the absence of a
God whom you're willing to be absent in
your life what you have sown you'll reap
and you'll reap it with an anguish of
soul and a shriek and a cry that
we can't even begin to estimate pray for
me Wednesday when I'll be with this dear
man again who's a nice guy so the
preacher is asking does a round of duties
in mere form of religion content you?
do you conscientiously love your neighbor as yourself
and do as you would be done by?
are you paying your debts?
is the time agreed upon showing mercy to
the poor?
do you bridle your tongue?
do you avoid tackling and acting as busybodies
in other men's manners?
do you make conscience of it not to
misspend your time in fruitless visits he says
here taverns but whatever it would be a
recreation frolic or in other vain an unprofitable
way but to devote your time and all
your talents to the service of God you
do not if you know not the great
evil of sin you know nothing yet that
you ought to know you're a stranger to
God ignorant of your own heart and the
deplorable condition you're in and to this day
you are unhumbled, impenitent and unpardoned wherefore consider
these things answer these questions and see what
is your state oh how doleful b-o
-l-e-f-u-l how mournful is
the state of secure Christless sinners who are
enmity against God and rebels against the majesty
of heaven their frame of heart and manner
of life is a continual despising of the
Lord a grief to the Holy One of
Israel and a constant provocation yet alas they
know it not nor does it once even
enter into their hearts they go on at
ease and are merry as though all were
well, little thinking what is just before them
and the judgment and pouring out of the
wrath of God, what is just before them
will be judged by Him oh stupid sinners
awake look around, see what you're doing where
you're going, consider what the end will be
can your hands be strong or your heart
endure oh guilty rebel, when God almighty shall
come forth to deal with you according to
your crimes behold now is the day of
grace, God is ready to be reconciled, a
door of mercy is open by the blood
of the Son of God pardon and peace
are proclaimed to a rebellious and guilty world
repent therefore and be converted that your sins
may be watered out but of all your
hardness and impenitent heart you will venture to
go on treasuring up wrath against the day
of wrath, you will know your everlasting sorrow
that is a fearful and horrible thing to
sin against God against thee and thee only
have I sinned Lord, smite our hearts, you
didn't trot this out for a little Sunday
morning fill in we evidently need a word
like this if not for ourselves, we need
it for a world that is everywhere about
us, utterly persuaded of its own rectitude utterly
indifferent to God they do not know Him
and they are continually assaulting His holiness and
we have not charged them with their sin,
we've not confronted them with their condition we're
letting them get away with it especially if
they're nice guys and have not done anything
conspicuously wicked so we ourselves are slack, we're
slack with regard to ourselves, permissive with ourselves,
and we're slack with regard to the world
we're not confronting them over the issue of
sin how then shall we bring up the
issue of salvation, Jesus is just an option
that you can take or leave but if
you're a nice guy you're not going to
suffer eternally over the forfeiture of Him because
God knows and you're not all that bad
you're better than most so my God we
do not know, the church itself does not
know and its likeness is conspicuous, where do
we go to find a congregation where the
fear of the Lord is a continual undergirding
and presence in that fellowship and it doesn't
depress them but it registers a reality that
makes their joy possible it's not a contradiction
so Lord mercy Lord mercy on me first
of all because I'm the mouthpiece today to
bring these things forth and I'm a worm
and so for me, like David, a man
in prominence to contradict you and your holiness
is yet a greater and more conspicuous evil
and subject to the greater judgment so Lord
grant for me a fear about my own
walk and the responsibility that I have being
charged to speak such things what manner of
man ought I to be and if David
could fail in the manner of man that
he ought to have been of what am
I capable and let the saints pray for
men who are in the place of prominence
for the enemy is going out of his
way to bring such men down because if
he can bring down a David he can
blaspheme God powerfully so he knows whom to
oppose and we need to cover these men
and be in prayer for them be with
them and help them in their own frailty
lest they fail and blaspheme God and bring
down his name to the detriment of the
entire church Lord precious God thank you we
thought we had finished with the subject we
had done sin and now we're doing something
else but evidently we have not done it
we have not been done in by it
and until we have been done in have
we done sin and so Lord come my
God don't let your word fall to the
ground thank you for the man who has
resuscitated a lost message given in the 1840's
or something like that in an environment in
an America that no longer is for we'll
not hear such preaching again in our time
so we bless you Lord that you have
preserved it and even this morning brought something
of it's benefit to our consideration let your
word my God strike us in our we're
worms how dare we take the liberty of
offending against the Holy God, against thee Lord
for thee only have we sinned and we
have not sinned let us see it Lord
that we might repent over it even past
sins be truly penitent my God and receive
the benefit that waits on that acknowledgement help
us Lord in your mercy we're thick, we're
dull we're insensitive help us Lord in Jesus
name