Art Katz emphasizes the gravity of sin as an offense against a holy God, drawing from Psalm 51:4 where David acknowledges his transgressions. He argues that until we recognize sin as evil and understand its true nature as rebellion against God, our repentance remains superficial. Katz highlights that every sin, regardless of its outward appearance, is a direct affront to God's holiness and authority, and he warns against the complacency that leads to despising God's commandments. The sermon calls for a deep, heartfelt acknowledgment of our sins and a return to a genuine fear of the Lord, recognizing the severe consequences of our actions against Him. Ultimately, Katz urges believers to confront their indifference and to seek true repentance that reflects an understanding of the holiness of God.

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