Psalm 36:1-4

“An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not abhor evil!”

The standard of morals in the Christian world is far below that which is established in the Sacred Records; and hence arises that self-justifying spirit which prevails in every place. Gross iniquities, which affect the welfare of society, are condemned; but less flagrant offences are regarded as trivial, and justified as unavoidable in this state of human existence.

The person immediately referred to in my text was Saul, who, amidst all his professions of penitence, still entertained murderous designs against the life of David. But we need not limit the words to Saul. They are, like many similar passages cited by Paul in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, Romans 3:10-19, expressive of the state of our fallen nature, and universally applicable to every man. To elucidate them, I will show,

I. How great an evil sin is.

There is scarcely anything which is vile and loathsome to which sin is not compared. Let us instance this in leprosy; which may be considered as the most spreading, the most defiling, the most incurable of all disorders. In reference to this does the Prophet Isaiah speak of himself and all around him as utterly undone, “Woe is me! I am undone; I am a man of impure lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of impure lips! Isaiah 6:5.” But, not to lay an undue stress on figures like these:

1. We must consider sin as a violation of God’s holy Law.

The Law of God is said to be “holy, and just, and good, Romans 7:12.”

The Law of God is holy, as being a perfect transcript of God’s mind and will.

It is just, as requiring nothing which does not necessarily arise out of our relation to God and to each other.

And it is good, as tending, in every instance, to the happiness of the creature, and to the honor of our Creator.

Now “sin is a transgression of this Law, 1 John 3:4;” and that very circumstance is that which renders it “so exceeding sinful! Romans 7:13.” Were the Law itself less excellent, a departure from it would be less odious; but to rebel against it, is to prefer the mind of Satan to the mind of God, and the service of the devil to the service of our God!

If we would see in what light God views it, let us go back to the time of Adam, on whose heart this Law was completely written, and see what one single transgression of it brought on him; and not on him only, but on the whole creation; and then we shall say indeed, that the evil of sin far exceeds all that language can express, or that any finite intelligence can conceive!

2. We must consider sin as a contradiction to God’s blessed Gospel.

To obviate the effects of sin, God sent his only dear Son into the world; that he might “put away the guilt of sin by the sacrifice of himself, Hebrews 9:26;” and that by the operations of his Holy Spirit he might repress sin’s power, and “destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3:8.” But sin contravenes all his merciful intentions and defeats all his gracious purposes.

Now, let us suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ were now at this time to come into this assembly; and that, instead of receiving him with all that admiring and adoring gratitude that would befit us—we were to rise up against him, and beat him down, and trample him under foot; and that, on his exhibiting the wounds once made for us on Calvary, and yet bleeding for us—we were to regard his blood as an accursed thing, and seize him, and nail him to a cross, and load him with our execrations until we saw him dead before our eyes!

What would be thought of us? Yes, in a moment of reflection, what would we think of ourselves? Yet that is what sin does, and what all of us do whenever we commit sin; for so has the Apostle said, that “we tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing, and do despite to the Spirit of his grace! Hebrews 10:29.” Yes, “we crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame! Hebrews 6:6.”

It is no wonder, then, that God, when dissuading us from the commission of sin, addresses us in those pungent terms, “O, do not that abominable thing which I hate! Jeremiah 44:4.”

But instead of our regarding sin with the abhorrence it deserves, I am constrained to show you,

II. What great indulgence sin meets with at our hands.

View the generality of men.

So far from abhorring sin, they love it, they delight in it, and, to use the strong expression of Scripture, “they wallow in sin, even as a sow wallows in the mire! 2 Peter 2:22.”

In fact, sin is the very element in which men live. Look all around you—I speak not of those who “run into every excess of riot;” though they, alas! are very numerous, and, for the most part, “glory in their shame;” but I speak of the great mass of the community, the rich, the poor, the old, the young. Whom among them do you find regulating themselves according to God’s holy Law? Who has not a standard of his own, such as custom and fashion have prescribed? And who is not satisfied with conforming to that, without ever once thinking of God’s Law, or so much as desiring to approve himself to God? Truly, “the world lies in wickedness,” and under the dominion of the Wicked one! 1 John 5:19. Ephesians 2:2.

But, passing by these, behold the more decent part of the community.

Doubtless there are many who are more decorous in their conduct, and more observant of a form of godliness. But I ask, even in reference to them, How many of them do really view sin as God views it? That some enormous evils are abhorred, I readily acknowledge; but they are such only as, by a kind of common consent, are stamped with general reprobation.

As for sin, as sin, and as a departure from God’s holy Law—do not the many:

hear it, without offence;

and see it, without disgust;

and harbor it, without remorse?

Let these questions sink down into your ears. Carry them home with you, as tests of your real state before God. Bring them home to your conscience, and give an answer to them as before God. You well know, that if anyone loaded our parents with deep and unmerited disgrace, he would soon excite our indignation.

You know, also, that the sight and smell of a putrid carcass would create in us a loathing which we could scarcely endure. Nor need you be told, what feelings of remorse would follow the commission of murder.

But sin, whether heard or seen or felt—begets in us no such painful emotions.

To abhor sin, and “abhor ourselves” for the hidden workings of it in our souls, as holy Job did, Job 40:4; Job 42:6—we know nothing of this response to sin.

To “loath ourselves” as hateful and abominable on account of it, Ezekiel 36:31, so as to “blush and be confounded before God,” and scarcely to “dare to lift up our eyes to Heaven” on account of our conscious vileness, Luke 18:13—is a state of mind to which we are utter strangers; unless on account of some great iniquity, which, if known, would expose us to indelible disgrace.

To abhor sin merely on account of its intrinsic hatefulness, and its offensiveness to God—is an attainment very rare, and even in the best of men very weak and imperfect. I think, then, that every one of us may consider himself as condemned in my text, and may take shame to himself as bearing that humiliating character, “he does not abhor evil!”

See, then:

1. How little there is of true holiness among us.

Of the saints of old it was said, “They could not bear those who were evil, Revelation 2:2;” whereas we can “find pleasure in their society, Romans 1:32,” and, provided they wrap up their jests in elegant allusions and witty turns, we can join with them in laughing at thoughts, which, if delivered in coarser language, we would condemn; we even “set ourselves in an evil way,” showing no aversion to “have fellowship in the works of darkness, which we ought rather with decided boldness to reprove, Ephesians 5:11.” How unlike we are to David, who says, “Rivers of waters run down my eyes, because men keep not your Law, Psalm 119:136.” Indeed, brethren, we should see and mourn over our great defects; and, instead of indulging self-complacent thoughts on account of our not being so bad as others, should rather smite on our bosoms with conscious guilt, and humble ourselves before God as “the very chief of sinners!”

2. How greatly we need the provisions of the Gospel.

I have before said, that, to remedy the evils which sin has brought into the world, God has sent his only dear Son to make atonement for us, and his Holy Spirit to renew us after the divine image. And now I ask you: Whether anything less than this would have sufficed? What could you have done to expiate your own guilt? Or how could you ever, with such polluted hearts as yours, have attained a fitness for Heaven? You might as easily have built a world out of nothing, as have effected either of these things.

Nor is there any difference between one man and another in these respects. One may differ from another in respect of outward sin; but in respect of alienation of heart from the holy Law of God, and an utter incapacity to restore ourselves to his favor—all are on a perfect level. I entreat you, then, all of you without exception, to “wash in the Fountain opened for sin and for impurity, Zechariah 13:1,” and to cry mightily to God for the renewing influences of his Holy Spirit, so that you may have your past iniquities forgiven, and be “created anew after the divine image in righteousness and true holiness! Ephesians 4:24.” Then will you be brought to that state which every true Christian must attain, “abhorring that which is evil, and cleaving to that which is good, Romans 12:9;” and then will God be glorified in you, both in this world and in the world to come! 2 Thessalonians 1:10.

Charles Simeon