Sin~Part 4

Ryle next considers the deceitfulness of sin. I'll sum up this section by offering several highlights from the chapter.

~"You may see this deceitfulness in the wonderful proneness of men to regard sin as less sinful and dangerous than it is in the sight of God; and in their readiness to extenuate it, make excuses for it, and minimize its guilt."

~Believing parents often "indulge their children in questionable practices," and then "blind their own eyes to the inevitable result of the love of money, of tampering with temptation, and sanctitioning a low standard of family religion."

~Sin comes to destroy us, but it rarely presents itself as such. "We may give wickedness smooth names, but we cannot alter its nature and character in the sight of God."

~We should remember Hebrews 3:13 to "exhort one another daily, lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." And we should pray that we would be daily delivered "from the deceits of the world" as well as our flesh and the devil.

~Ryle encourages us to 1) humbly consider our sinfulness and 2) be thankful for the gospel of the grace of God. "What a mass of infirmity and imperfection cleaves to the very best of us at our very best."

~"For my part I am persuaded the more light we have, the more we see our own sinfulness; the nearer we get to heaven, the more we are clothed with humility."

~There is a remedy for our sin. We need not fear looking honestly at sin, "if we only look at the same time at the almighty medicine provided for us in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ." "Sin has abounded, but grace has much more abounded."

The last post on "Sin" will address the profitability of the doctrine of sin.

So thankful for His saving grace,
Queen Mom