The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venningthoughts are like filthy vapours and smells in the nostrils of God. Sin is a filthiness,and sinful thoughts have their filthiness as well as sinful actions. Therefore it issaid, 'O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?' (Jeremiah 4.14). The veryremedy tells of the disease; if they must be washed then surely they were filthy,for sweeping will not serve the turn. And what was the wickedness of their heart? Itfollows in the text, the vain thoughts which were there, and these must be washedor they could not be saved. So abominable in the sight of God is the villainy andvanity of thoughts.(iii) Thought-sins are root-sins and the roots of all other sins.They are the mother-sins, actions being their issue (Proverbs 4.23). Evil deeds arethe offspring and children of evil thoughts, the branches and fruit which grow out ofthis root. Thoughts are the first-born of the soul; words and actions are onlyyounger brothers. They are the oil that feeds and maintains the wick, which wouldotherwise go out; life-sins receive their juice and nourishment from thought-sins.St. James speaks as if our thoughts were the belly and womb where sin isconceived (James 1.15). Now when men would curse grievously, as Job did, theycurse the day and place of their birth, the womb that bore them; so should youcurse sin even in the very womb that bore it, laying the axe to the root of the tree.The wickedness of men's lives is charged upon their thoughts, that it has its rootand rise there: murders, adulteries, etc., all come out of the heart, as out of thebelly of a Trojan horse (Genesis 6.5; Matthew 12.35; 15.19). One would wonder(as we do at some birds, where they nest all winter) to see so many flocks andherds of wickedness. One would wonder from what corner of the world they come.Why, they all come out of the heart, the rendezvous of wickedness, the inn wherelodge all the thieves and travelling lusts that are in the world and that do so muchmischief in it. All the unclean streams flow from this unclean fountain, this oceanand sea of sin. Holy David says, I hate vain thoughts (Psalm 119.113); that is, anythoughts that are against thy law which I love. We all hate that which is againstwhat we love. But why does David hate the thought of sin? Because evil thoughtsbeget evil words, and evil words corrupt good, and beget bad behaviour. Vainimaginations beget vain conversations. It is hard for those who think well to do ill,and harder still for those who think ill to do well, for as the root is, so is the fruit,and by that the tree is known (Matthew 7.17).(iv) If we had no other sins to be pardoned, yet we must beg pardon for sinfulthoughts.A man may think himself to Hell, if the sinfulness of his thoughts is not forgivenhim. St. Peter said to Simon Magus, Repent of thy thought-wickedness, and pray ifperhaps the thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven thee (Acts 8.22). If God wereto pardon all our word-sins and evil deeds, and leave only our thought-sinsunpardoned, we would be undone for ever. Indeed, blessed David was so afraid ofsin that he begs God to cleanse him from his secret sins which lay lurking in hisheart and were undiscernible there (Psalm 19.12). Even if such thoughts do notincrease to more ungodliness, which they will attempt and too easily effect, yetthere is impiety and ungodliness enough in them to ruin us everlastingly! I wish127