The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph VenningSin costs dear, but profits nothing; they make a bad purchase who buy theirdamnation. What did Cain get by killing Christ in Abel, his type, or Judas by sellingChrist? Surely he bought damnation dearly though he sold his Saviour cheaply.Take your money, he said, I have sinned. The knowledge that he had committedthat sin made him weary of his gain and of his life. He got Hell, or, as it is said,Devil and All. What profit does anyone have by that of which they are ashamed(Romans 6.21). All the works of darkness are unfruitful as to any good (Ephesians5.11), but good works are profitable (Titus :1.8). Sin is a very expensive thing; itcannot be maintained without great cost. Men might build hospitals at a cheaperrate than they can maintain their lusts. Some men's sins cost them more in a daythan their families do in a week, perhaps in a year. Some starve their families tofeed their lusts, which have turned many out of house and home, and reducedgreat estates to a crust of bread, quite apart from what will happen hereafter. Lustsconsume health and wealth (Proverbs 5). Gluttony, drunkenness and uncleannessare costly and expensive sins.Objection. It may be said, It is true that these are costly sins indeed, but whathave you to say about covetousness, that frugal and thrifty, saving and getting sin?Answer. Covetousness and all it gets or saves is unprofitable. For consider:(i) All that is gotten is not gain. I will tell you what a wise man saw and said: 'Thereis a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the ownersthereof to their hurt' (Ecclesiastes 5.I3). Here are riches, and riches kept, but it isto the hurt and detriment of the owner. Better for him not to have had them or notto have kept them. Did they profit him? Yes! if hurt can be profit! but nototherwise. 'Those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there isnothing in his hand' (verse 14). He can leave his son nothing, for it is not in hishand. While he had his riches, he could not sleep for them (verse 12), and hisabundance made him poor. Perhaps it was his crime that he was rich, and someonemore powerful than he, like Vespasian, finding him like a sponge swollen and full,must needs squeeze him and leave him hollow and empty. The histories tell us oftimes when the acquiring of estates has been the greatest crime people have beenguilty of, even though they have been charged with sedition or treason.(ii) Covetousness itself may be a thief, and rob men of the use and comfort of theirown possessions. The covetous man always needs more and is in truth the poorestman in the world; 'There is one alone, and there is not a second; (he is a singleman, unmarried, without a second-self) yet is there no end of all his labour . . .neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good?'(Ecclesiastes 4.8). Is this profitable? No! It is a sore travail, for he has not thepower to eat thereof (Ecclesiastes 6.2). To fill his purse he starves his belly andbegrudges himself food.(iii) No matter how much you have, and how much you use it, it will never satisfy,and therefore must vex you. No satisfaction, no profit! A man's aim is satisfaction(Luke 12.19), but the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing(Ecclesiastes 1.8). Now if these things cannot satisfy the senses (Ecclesiastes 6.7),much less can they satisfy the souls of men. What adds to the vexation is that thelove of money increases faster than the money, so that 'he that loveth silver shall112