Psalms 51:4

Psalms 51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

For, in sin, this is the essence of it-that it is sin against God. You cannot get the worldly man to feel that. "I have done no hurt to my neighbour. I have not injured society." But how different it is with the child of God. It is against God that he has sinned. What if he has never left his chamber-if he has never done an action or said a word? Yet that proud heart of his that rebelled when he was full of pain-that murmuring spirit that would not brook the Lord’s will-that is enough to lay him in the dust; and he mourns it and confesses it. "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned."