Sermons 'What is Sin' and 'Justification by Faith'

Extract

Sermons ‘What is Sin?’ and ‘Justification by Faith’
John Kennedy

What is Sin?

“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight” Psalm 51:4.

There are two lights exhibited on shore for the guidance of those “that go down to the sea in ships” — the beacon light, to warn them away from the dangerous reef or headland, and the harbour light, to direct them to a place of safety. I have seen a shipwreck take place owing to one of these lights being mistaken for the other. The account of David’s sin, in the inspired history of his life, and the record of his repentance in this psalm, are like these two lights — the former warning us away from unwatchfulness, the latter guiding us back to God with confession of our sin. To take encouragement in sin from the former, instead of being warned away “from all appearance of evil,” is to run the awful risk — or rather to encounter the certain danger — of soulwreck; and not to follow David, in his return, “with weeping and supplication,” to God on His mercy-seat, is to keep our souls away from the only true rest and blessedness, and still to expose them to the storm of His wrath.

In David’s penitence, of which this psalm is a record, there are the following elements: 1. A view of his sin as it is “against” and in the “sight” of “God,” such as causes him to justify God, in condemning him to death, according to the curse of the law, which he had broken, and as quite shut him up to the rich sovereign mercy of God, as the only fountain whence pardon could come to him, and to an atoning sacrifice such as would satisfy the justice of God, as the only meet channel for the outflow of His grace. 2. A confession of original sin — of his total depravity — as the result of his fellowship in “the guilt of Adam’s first sin,” which alone accounted for his being “shapen in iniquity” and conceived “in sin.” 3. An earnest desire for an intimation of pardon from God. 4. Panting of heart for renewing grace. 5. Longings for the joy of God’s salvation. 6. A sense of his need of being kept from sinning in the future, as one who could not trust in himself, and who sought to be upheld by the “free Spirit” of the Lord. And 7. In the measure in which hope was restored to his heart, he desired employment in the Lord ’s service, as …