Works (Vol 4) - Bates - III - Sermon II (Sin the most formidable evil)

Required reading
The Works (Vol 4) by William Bates (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Sermon II (Sin the most formidable evil).

My summary
This week we read the first of two sermons on Joseph and Potiphar's wife.

Firstly Bates teaches us about the circumstances of the temptation of Joseph.

Secondly Bates begins to show us that temptations to sin, how alluring soever, or terrifying, are to be rejected with abhorrence.  This is because sin in itself is the greatest evil.  Sin:
(i) is rebellion against the sovereign majesty of God;
(ii) vilifies the ruling wisdom of God;
(iii) is contrariety to the unspotted holiness of God;
(iv) is the contempt and abuse of his excellent goodness;
(v) disparages the impartial justice of God;
(vi) denies God's omniscience;
(vii) slights the power of God.

What grabbed me
Excellent material here.

I appreciated the last point the most: 'The sinner slights the power of God. This attribute renders God a dreadful Judge. He has a right to punish, and power to revenge every transgression of his law. His judicial power is supreme, his executive is irresistible. He can with one stroke dispatch the body to the grave, and the soul to hell, and make men as miserable as they are sinful. Yet sinners as boldly provoke him, as if there were no danger. We read of the infatuated Syrians, that they thought that God, the protector of Israel, had only power on the hills, and not in the vallies, and renewed the war to their destruction. Thus sinners enter into the lists with God, and range an army of lusts against the armies of heaven, and blindly bold, run upon their own destruction. They neither believe his all-seeing eye, nor all-mighty hand. They change the glory of the living God into a dead idol, that has eyes and sees not, and hands and handles not ; and accordingly his threatenings make no impression upon them.'

When I sin, it says quite a lot about what I think of God's power.

Next week's reading
Read Sermon III 'Sin the most formidable evil'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.