Consider 1: Who Hates Sin

Who they are that hate and cannot but have sin. The blessed God hates sin with an infinite and an eternal hatred (Psalm 5:4): You are not a God that has pleasure in wickedness. And from there it is, that He does punish every sin. There never was, [illegible] ever shall be a sin committed in the world that shall go unpunished. As for [illegible] that die in their sins, they shall be punished with everlasting [illegible] from the presence of the Lord, [illegible] from the glory of His power. The righteous Lord will make all angels and men see that sin is hateful to Him, in the day when thousands of millions of [illegible] shall be sent away into everlasting punishment. And as for the elect of God, all their [illegible] have been punished in Christ their surety: since He was pleased to substitute Himself in their room, and to undertake to answer for their crimes, God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for [illegible] (Romans 8:32). This was the highest demonstration of God's hatred of sin that possibly could be. When He spared not the angels that sinned, but cast down millions of them from Heaven into Hell for ever, and this for one sin. When He drowned all the men in the world at once excepting one small family. When He rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, casting them alive into eternal fire and vengeance, He let the world see that sin is abominable to the eyes of His glory. But His not sparing His own Son was the most astonishing evidence of His holy indignation and abhorrence of sin that can be. For Jesus Christ the Son of God had no sin of His own, nor was it possible that He should sin, only the reflection, the imputation of sin was upon Him, He became a surety for sinners, and then God spared him not, but his body and his soul too, was made an offering for sin. The sorrows of Hell took hold on Him. Shall sin be thus hateful to the blessed God, and shall we love it? And how does the Lord Jesus Christ hate sin? It was said of him, You love righteousness and hate wickedness (Psalm 45:7). Never man did hate sin as He did and does. He declares it from Heaven. He said to the church in Pergamus, You have them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate (Revelation 2:15). And in the days of his flesh, although he did converse with great sinners in order to their conversion and salvation, and did show such patience and meekness as the like never was: nevertheless, his zeal against sin did amaze the beholders of it (John 5:17). They then that do not hate sin, have not the Spirit of Christ in them, nor are they his true disciples. And the angels of Heaven hate [illegible]. The Scripture calls them holy angels, because they never sinned, but are much offended when they see men sinning against the Lord. Those Seraphims burn with a holy zeal for God and against the sins of men. They are active in executing the wrath of God upon sinners. Angels destroyed the Sodomites. Angels destroyed the firstborn throughout the land of Egypt. Angels destroyed the Assyrians. Angels will lay hold on wicked men at the day of judgment, and cast them into the ever burning lake. And every truly godly man is a hater of sin. The description and character of a wicked man is this, He sets himself in a way that is not good, he abhors not evil (Psalm 36:4). But a good man had rather suffer than sin, yes rather die any death than sin against his conscience: that is his spirit when he is himself and out of temptation. What horrible and tormenting deaths have some holy men chosen to endure, rather than to commit a seemingly little sin against the light of their consciences? It is said of the Hebrew martyrs, that they were tortured not accepting deliverance (Hebrews 11:35). Doubtless the Apostle in those words has respect to the story of the Maccabees. Antiochus told those [illegible] if they would but eat a mouthful of that flesh which the law of God had [illegible], he would not only save their lives, but give them rewards; now they would rather be tormented to death than be guilty of such a sin. A man that has grace and the true fear of God in his soul, hates sin more than death; no, more than Hell. It was the saying of one of the Ancients, that he had rather be thrown alive into the flames of Hell, than do that which he knew was sinful, and evil in the sight of God. Shall God? Shall Christ? Shall holy angels? Shall all good men hate sin, and will you love it?