Understanding Sin: Deception, Perversion, and Transformation

i and in all men in their natural blindness there is an ignorance of what sin is it needs the power of the divine omnipotence the voice of that same majesty which said let there be light and there was light to illuminate the human mind or else it will remain in darkness as to much of its own actual sin and the deep and deadly evil which belongs to it [00:01:20]

man with wretched perverseness of misconception abides content in a wrong idea of it his deeds are evil and he will not come to the light lest he should know more concerning that evil than he wishes to know moreover such is the power of self-esteem that though sin abounds in the sinner he will not readily be brought to feel or confess its existence [00:02:08]

in many persons conscience is perverted in others only a fragment of it remains and in all it is fallible and subject to alterations conscience is in all men a thing of degrees dependent upon education example and previous character it is an eye of the soul but it is frequently per-blind and weak and always needs light from above or else it does but mock the soul [00:02:55]

in all probability there is not one even among renewed men who fully knows the evil of sin nor will there be until in heaven we shall be perfect and then when we shall see the perfection of divine holiness we shall understand how black a thing was sin men who have lived underground all their lives do not know how dark the mind is nor can they know it until they stand in the blaze of a summer's noon [00:03:52]

sin assumes the brightest forms even as satan attires himself as an angel of light such a thing as iniquity walking abroad in its own nakedness is seldom seen like jezebel it tires its head and paints its face and indeed the heart loves to have it so and is eager to be deceived we will if we can extenuate our faults [00:04:34]

the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked hence it invents a thousand falsehoods as the deceivableness of sin is very great so that it adorns itself with the colors of righteousness and makes men believe that they are pleasing god when they are offending him so is man himself an eager self-deceiver and like the fool in solomon's proverbs he readily follows the flatterer [00:05:26]

sin is a monster indeed when it turns a preventative law into an incentive to rebellion it discovers evil by the law and then turns to it in cries evil be thou my good this is far from being the only case in which good is turned to evil through our sin i might mention many others [00:31:25]

very briefly then how many there are who turn the abounding mercy of god as proclaimed in the gospel into a reason for further sin the preacher delights to tell you in god's name that the lord is a god ready to forgive and willing to have mercy upon sinners and that whosoever believes in jesus shall receive immediate pardon [00:31:48]

look again at thousands of prosperous sinners whose riches are their means of sinning they have all that heart can wish and instead of being doubly grateful to god they are proud and thoughtless and deny themselves none of the pleasures of sin the blessings entrusted to them become their curses because they minister to their arrogance and worldliness [00:33:46]

there is in us by nature a propensity to sin which we cannot conquer and yet conquered it must be or we can never enter heaven your resolutions to overcome sin are as feeble as though you should try to bind leviathan with a thread and lead him with a string as well as hope to bind the tempest and reign in the storm as to govern yourself by your own resolutions as to sin [00:45:02]

we must be new created we are too far gone for mending we must be made afresh and for cleansing there is no water beneath the skies nor any above them that can remove our stain but there is a fountain filled with the blood of god's own son he that is washed there shall be made white [00:45:59]

faith in jesus brings the holy spirit with his sacred weapons of invincible warfare into the field of the human heart and he overthrows the impregnable strongholds of sin makes lust a captive and slays the enemy of the heart sin being made to appear sin grace is made to appear grace god's holy spirit gets the victory and we are saved [00:47:03]