The Ugliness of Sin (2)

Do you wonder why God hates sin so much and that men regard it so little? This is done not only by the lewd sort of the world, but by common dead-hearted persons, who regard not spiritual sins at all, especially hatred, malice, and pride. Certainly, you would not wonder that God hates sin, if you did but consider how sin hates God? What is sin but a setting of itself on God's throne, a setting the devil in God's place? For when we sin, we leave God, and set up the thing, and by consequence Satan, who brings the temptation to us; setting it in our hearts before God. Beloved, God is very jealous, and cannot endure that filthy thing sin, to be in his place. Sin is such a thing as desires to take away God himself. Ask a sinner when he is about to sin, 'Could you not wish that there were no God at all, that there was no eye of heaven to take vengeance on you?' 'Oh yes, with all my heart,' would be the reply. Can you then wonder that God hates sin so, when it hates him so, as to wish that there was no God? Oh marvel not at it, but have such thoughts of sin as God had when he gave his Son to die for it, and such as Christ had, when in the sense of his Father's anger cried, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mark 15:34).
The deeper our thoughts are of the odiousness of sin, the deeper our comfort and joy in Christ will be afterward. Therefore, I beseech you to work your hearts to a serious consideration of what sin you cherish and will not repent of, and for which you leave God and heaven to embrace. Think of it as God does, who as a judge will one day call us to a strict account for the same.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Christ's Sufferings for Man's Sin, Works, vol. 1, p. 359
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