[Sin] says to an absolutely holy and righteous God that His moral laws, which are a reflection of His own nature, are not worthy of our wholehearted obedience.
Transforming Grace, NavPress, 1991, p. 30. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved. Get this book!
To determine the effects of a life-dominating sin, you must examine the way it is demonstrated in all areas of life. If you practice a life-dominating sin, it will eventually affect all relationships and responsibilities. Other life-dominating sins are often developed and practiced to “cover up” (practice deceit) for primary life-dominating sin.
Self-Confrontation Manual, Lesson 20, Page 8, Used by Permission of the Biblical Counseling Foundation.
As sinful commissions will stab the soul; so sinful omissions will starve the soul.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 265.
Subconsciously perhaps, we tend to think of certain sins as “mostly harmless” – especially if we’ve played with them for years and never been seriously bitten… What makes sin so heinous and grievous is that it is against God…for it violates His holy law and character.
Holiness, The Heart God Purifies, Moody Publishers, p. 70-71. Get this book!
When we sin, our union with Christ is not in jeopardy. But our communion is. It is possible for believers to have more or less of God’s favor. It is possible for us to have sweet fellowship with God, and it’s possible to experience His frown – not a frown of judgment, but a “for-us” frown that should spur us on to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24).
The Pleasure of God and the Possibility of Godliness by Kevin DeYoung taken from The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung, copyright 2012, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 74.
We should observe that God does not send anyone to hell. He desires that none should perish (2 Pet. 3:9). God created humans to have fellowship with Him and provided the means by which they can have that fellowship. It is a human’s choice to experience to agony of hell. His or her own sin sends the person there, and his or her rejection of the benefits of Christ’s death prevents escape. As C.S. Lewis has put it, sin is the human being saying to God throughout life, “Go away and leave me alone.” Hell is God’s finally saying to the human, “You may have your wish.”
Christian Theology, Baker, 1998. Get this book!
Sin destroys everything it touches. It destroys the glory of God. It distorts individual happiness. It corrupts families. It divides churches. It is like rat poison. It smells and looks good, but it ultimately kills its victim. Although sin often brings short-term pleasure, if not atoned for, it terminates in infinite pain.
Gospel-Powered Parenting, 2009, P&R Publishing, p. 79, Used by Permission. Get this book!
Without the black backdrop of our sinful nature and its consequences (God’s wrath), the gospel is a big yawn.
Gospel-Powered Parenting, 2009, P&R Publishing, p. 49, Used by Permission. Get this book!
If we recognize degrees of heinousness between a crime against one human being and another, we can see that the difference between a crime against a human and against the divine Being as infinite, and requires an infinitely more severe punishment.
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria, 2002, p. 14.
There is no comparison at all between God and any of His creatures. In fact, all our sins against our fellowman are ultimately sins only because God has forbidden these deeds. “Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned,” cried David, after committing adultery and murder.
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria, 2002, p. 14.
We live in the climate of postmodernism. Western society encourages sin in an enormous extent and resists definition of, or clarity about, sin. Postmodernist philosophy is fiercely antinomian, that is, opposed to law. Right and wrong are judged on the basis of subjective human feelings. The result is a slide into an abyss of lawlessness. The consequences of lawlessness are seen in the alarming increase in family break-up, divorce, crime and overcrowded prisons.
Who Are the Puritans Evangelical Press, p. 172.
This is what sin is all about. Sin is all about promising us satisfaction, but it never keeps its promises. It can’t, because we weren’t made to satisfy ourselves. No, all sin does is blind us to the truth… We were made to find our satisfaction in a loving relationship with God, but sin convinces us to spend our lives in a self-loving relationship with ourselves. The tragedy is that in the end it doesn’t even work. Sin leaves us bitter, empty, and filled with regret. Worst of all, it leaves us outside the love of God, the one thing that could have satisfied us. It leaves us exposed to His righteous anger that was provoked by our decision to love anything and everything except Him, the one and only who was worthy of our love.
Better Than One Man Die by Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence taken from It Is Well, by Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence, copyright 2010, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, page 105-106.
The pleasure of sin is brief while the sorrow it produces lasts; the sorrow of repentance is brief, while the joy it produces lasts.
2 Corinthians, Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 266.
[Worldly] pleasure…is a goal never reached; it is always somewhere in the distance, urging one on to new and usually more sinful practices, never quite satisfying.
2 Peter and Jude, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com 1996, p. 135.
When a True Christian sins, what happens?
1. His Fellowship with God is severed. David, when backslidden, mourned, “Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer” (Psalm 32:4). As clouds hide the sun for days, so sin comes between the soul and God.
2. The Joy of salvation is lost. One loses all relish for spiritual things: the heart is empty. David, in this condition, confessed, “My sin is ever before me” and “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit” (Psalm 51:3, 12).
3. Power for service is lost. The Holy Spirit’s power is essential for any real witness for Christ. It cannot be faked. David prayed, “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts” and “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:6, 10).
4. The Christian invites divine chastisement. Hebrews 12:6-7 – “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth…What son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” Psalm 89:32-33 – “I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.”
5. There is loss of reward. (Read 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.) Out of Fellowship means out of Service – out of service means that one is failing to lay up treasures in heaven. He is building of “wood, hay, and stubble” which cannot endure the test of the rewarding day (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). Many will be chagrined in that day by suffering Loss of Reward. Take the Way Back Now. Psalm 32:5; 1 John 1:9 (Keith Brooks).
Essential Themes, Moody Press, 1974, p. 48-49.
Sin is best defined in relation to God’s perfect character; at root it is an attack against His holiness. It must therefore be punished. Although three kinds of punishment are spoken of in Scripture – preventative, remedial, and retributive – only the first and last pertain to hell. Warnings of hell are preventative for all who heed them, but those who reject God’s warnings will endure His retributive punishment forever.
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p. 220. Used by permission.
We never see sin aright until we see it as against God… All sin is against God in this sense: that it is His law that is broken, His authority that is despised, His government that is set at naught… Pharaoh and Balaam, Saul and Judas each said, “I have sinned”; but the returning prodigal said, “I have sinned against heaven and before Thee”; and David said, “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.”
Christianity insists that everyone is a sinner through and through. Our minds, hearts, wills, and emotions are in rebellion against God. When it comes right down to it, the problem is not that there is only one way to God (through Christ). The real problem is that human beings will not follow God at all.
Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 41.
Sin must indeed be exceeding sinful, when the Father must need to give His only Son to be the sinner’s Friend!
Sin’s first-born is death – and its last-born is hell.
The Consistent Christian, 1660.
When have you most recently felt the crushing pain of a burdened heart, darkened soul or guilty conscience solely because of your sin against God? Does sin hurt you as much as it hurts God? Does it make you sick, grieved or disappointed? Does it weigh on you prompting repentance and calling to God for restoration? Do you ever feel that your sin has divided you from a rich relationship with God and the feeling is one of emptiness, despair and regret?
Sermon, When God Seems Distant, Psalm 6:1-10, August 28, 2016.
Even our own testimony reveals that nothing good has ever been achieved through our sin. Sin like a deadly serpent, if you play with it, you will get stung. Sin is the number one culprit to destroy marriages and churches. Often, not always, those with the most interpersonal problems have the most sin. Sin sears our conscience. It hardens our heart. It steals our joy. And leaves in its deceptive wake a lifetime of regret and consequences.
Sermon, 14 Reasons to Repent, Luke 13:3, 5, Sunday, October 13, 2019.
When men talk of a little hell, it is because they think they have only a little sin, and believe in a little Saviour; it is all little together. But when you get a great sense of sin, you want a great Saviour, and fell that, if you do not have Him, you will fall into a great destruction, and suffer a great punishment at the hands of the great God.
Joy Hindering Faith, 38.512.
Sin plays havoc with our spiritual vision. Although we are able to see the sin of others with specificity and clarity, we tend to be blind to our own. And the most dangerous aspect of this already dangerous condition is that spiritually blind people tend to be blind to their blindness.
Again and Again by Paul David Tripp taken from Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp copyright 2012, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 34.
The DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin inserts me into the middle of my universe; the one place reserved for God and God alone. Sin reduces my field of concern down to my wants, my needs, and my feelings. Sin really does make it all about me.
War Zones by Paul David Tripp taken from Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp, copyright 2012, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 98.
The sins of the wicked pierced Christ’s side; but the sins of the righteous pierce His heart.
Let them fear death who do not fear sin.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 71.
Sin has the devil for its father, shame for its companion and death for its wages.
If I am content to go on in sin, I am an enemy, an adversary of God. Hell, not heaven, follows at the end of my life. I must not comfort myself in this state. I must repent!
Christian: Take Heart! By Permission of the Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. 1987, p. 90.