What is sin Sermons Author:Joseph McCormick Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: fast and give tithes of all that he acquired; in the discharge of sacred duties he was punctilious about such trifling things as the washing of hands, and the cl... more »eaning of cups and platters; he ostentatiously made many and long prayers; and he considered it of supreme importance to observe the traditions of the elders. His ecclesiastical and national relationships, coupled with his external observances, secured him, in his own opinion, Heaven's favour and his personal salvation. Nothing was further from the truth. He was like a whited sepulchre, outwardly clean, but within full of rottenness. The weightiest and most essential matters of the law were either ignored or skilfully evaded by clever traditional devices. Casuistry widely prevailed, and obligations both to God and man were, on one plea or another, carefully set aside. The Pharisee in the parable acknowledged no sin, and asked for no forgiveness. God was his debtor—not he God's. Pride dominated his narrow, carnal, self-righteous mind. Imagine the effect of our Lord's teaching upon those who primarily gloried in external privileges and in an external religion! In the Sermon on the Mount He gave an exposition of the Law in its spiritual aspect, showing that it reached the thoughts and intents of the heart. While He did not ignore, but recognised Jewish privileges and the performanceof religious duties, He gave prominence and preeminence to holy dispositions and their manifestation in the life. His kingdom, on the one hand, came with observation—it was visible; on the other hand, His kingdom came not with observation, but was within the soul—it was invisible. He found the Jews as they were in the days when God said by Isaiah, " To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me ? saith the Lord: I am full of the bu...« less