Proverbs 14:9

Proverbs 14:9

I. The various ways in which men make a mock at sin may be summed up under two heads: by their words, and by their actions. We show our scorn and contempt of a thing in our words, when we speak carelessly of it, or laugh at it, or turn it into ridicule. We show it in our actions, when we live in such a manner as proves that we have no value or regard for it. Even of the first kind of mockery, the mockery of words, few are wholly innocent; of the last kind of mockery, the mockery of deeds, all have been more or less guilty.

II. The guilt of such mockery is too plain; the folly is the folly of playing with death. It is the folly of provoking God to cut us off in the midst of our calculating wickedness. Above all is such conduct folly, because we are disabling our hearts and souls more and more for the work of repentance, without which we know and believe we can have no part in the promises of the Gospel. For nothing is more certain than that the longer a man persists in sin the harder it is to leave it off. His heart is deadened; his conscience is blunted; his soul closes itself by little and little against the impulses of the Holy Spirit.

III. If the end of the foolish mockers is so certain and terrible, let us seek wisdom, that true wisdom which cometh from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, full of mercy and gentleness, and of all good works. All who lack wisdom must ask it of God; no one had ever enough of it; no one has enough of it to learn its value without wishing for more.

A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,p. 215.

I. It is requisite that we learn of God what is the evil of sin making His testimony in this, as in all other matters, the subject of faith. (1) The circumstance of our being an interested party incapacitates us for forming a correct judgment of the evil. (2) We are incapacitated for giving judgment in consequence of our moral sense being blunted by the continual presentation of sin before our eyes, in the conduct of others. (3) We are incompetent to form a sufficient judgment on the evil of sin, in consequence of our inability to see all its mischievous effects.

II. Consider the judgment of God on sin. (1) In His word He expresses moral disapprobation of it. (2) He threatens to avenge sin with death, spiritual and eternal. (3) He has avenged, and continues to avenge, the transgression of His law, as an earnest of His executing to the full its penalty in the world to come. (4) The death of Christ was necessary for the pardon of sin. (5) He visits with afflictions the sins even of those who have been judicially reconciled to His government and adopted into His family, through the mediation of His Son.

III. The magnitude of sin may be argued from a consideration of the dignity of Him against whom it is committed. Sin offers insult and injury to all the attributes and perfections of the Deity. (1) It denies and violates the rights of His sovereignty as the Creator. (2) It insults His goodness. (3) It insults His power. (4) It insults His wisdom, His truth, and His holiness.

W. Anderson, Discourses,p. 223.

There are different ways in which men make a mock at sin. They may mock at sin in others, or they may mock at sin in themselves.

I. A man sees another doing what he knows to be wrong, and he makes a jest of it. He is finding amusement in that which might make angels weep, and which cost the Son of God His life. No one can thus make a mock at sin without thinking very lightly of the evil of sin. The heart grows hard and callous. And the next thing is to commit the sin which we have laughed at in others.

II. Another way of "mocking at sin" consists in making light of it in ourselves. It is very fearful to think how soon we come to this pass, notwithstanding all our better purposes, and all warnings to the contrary. How many men can look back upon a time when sins that they have since committed greedily seemed almost impossible to them. They forgot the guide of their youth, they kept not the covenant of their God. They shut their ears to God's word, and their eyes to His judgments; they walked greedily in the way of ungodliness, they were "fools who made a mock at sin."

III. Observe what a verdict Solomon pronounces on persons who make a mock at sin; he calls them "fools." None but fools could be guilty of such amazing stupidity. Consider: (1) what sin is in its nature. It is the will of the creature set against the will of the Creator. (2) Consider the consequences of sin. See what an abomination sin is in God's sight by the visible punishment which He has attached to it. (3) Look at the eternal consequences of sin. Shall we make a mock at that against which the wrath of Almighty God is so fearfully declared? (4) If we would truly see what sin is, we must see it in the light of redemption. Who can measure the guilt and the power of that sin from which we could only be redeemed by the sacrifice of the Son of God? See your folly in the light of your Redeemer's tears, your Redeemer's anguish, your Redeemer's Cross; and confess as you look on His marvellous sacrifice that "fools" only can "make a mock at sin."

J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons,p. 31.

References: Proverbs 14:9. C. Wordsworth, Old Testament Outlines,p. 157. Proverbs 14:10. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 375.