Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Hating Sin

This past Sunday my fellow pastor, Lee Tankersley, preached on Psalm 78 emphasizing the terribleness of sin and then the greatness of God's mercy. As the Psalm seeks to remind us of just how bad sin is, I was remnded of an exhortation I wrote several years ago for myself onthis topic. It has been helpful to me alongthe way to re-read this, in the vein of thePuritan idea of preachign to oneself. So I thought it might be beneficial to post it here. Here it is:

Do you hate sin already this morning? I mean do you seethe with hatred and disgust against it, loathing it in its every manifestation in your own soul and character? If not you had best pause for a moment to look sin in the face long enough for its mirage of beauty to pass away so that you may be shocked and horrified anew at what you see. Do not flirt with sin today! Sin is a whore, and she seeks to seduce you and to destroy you. Think for a moment how quickly sin can wreck your life, your family, your ministry, even the reputation of your LORD. You dare not risk this. Do not walk even close lest you fall in.There is no room for toleration, no place for compromise. Every sin weakens your character and paves the way for larger sin. Sin is not passive; it is an aggressive cancer eating away at your soul.
Take up your weapons then and resist today. Do not let up. Do not give in. Spare not! Though you are weary do not surrender. You will have rest in the peace of purity, in the calm of a clean conscience.

5 comments:

Gordon said...

Powerful words. God help us to heed them.

Perry McCall said...

I hope you had a wonderful vacation. I am glad you are back because I have missed your posts. Keeping up with current issues in Baptist life has become spiritually draining lately. I am thankful for these words.

Ray Van Neste said...

Thanks Perry. Denominational life can be draining indeed. That is one reason that, while we engage our broader denomination, we must keep our focus on local, specific church labor.

Freddy T. Wyatt said...

Thank you thank you for this Brother Van Neste. I am grateful for your insights on this blog. I played baseball with your brother at UT Martin and am a great friend of William Marshall. Thanks for this post and for your blog.

Anonymous said...

I am reading Jerry Bridges' The Pursuit of Hoiness and John Piper's When I Don't Desire God, both of which have much to say on hatred of sin. This issue seems to be a central theme of my summer! Thanks for the very encouraging post!