The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venningflight might not be on the Sabbath day (Matthew 24.20): for then the usualordinances of the day could not be enjoyed, nor the ordinary duties of the daypractised and performed.(c) Just as it should be an affliction to be in a necessity, so it is a sin to be willing toomit a duty. It is an affliction not to have a head or hand, but a sin not to have aheart for duty. It is a sin to will evil, and a sin not to will good. But to be willing notto do good is more than sin. Too many people are glad of diversions, as schoolboysare when they have no mind to their books; anything will serve to put off a duty.When the flesh was weak and the spirit willing, Christ himself excused his disciples(Matthew 26.41), but if the spirit is unwilling, it is no excuse, no matter how weakthe flesh is. Not to will, though we have no power, and much more not to will whenwe have power, is a sin. The reason why the wicked bade God depart from themwas because they had no mind or desire to be acquainted with his ways (Job21.14). They did not like to retain God in their knowledge (Romans 1.28), or to payacknowledgments to him. They had no mind nor will nor desire to do it. This is sin,as well as the other sins with which they are charged.(d) One omission makes way for another. He who, under pretence of unfitness forduty, puts it off, makes himself fit for nothing more than to omit again. Heprepares and fits himself to be unfit for duty, and so to omit duty. To fast too muchand for too long takes away and deadens the appetite. So he who omits one duty islikely to omit another and then another, until he omits all and gives up his veryprofession, and when that is gone, the man's religion dies and he becomes twicedead. Omissions make way for commissions, as in the case of our first parents.It will be worth our while to observe a few texts which speak of sluggards, for fromsuch an attitude sins of omission generally arise. 'By much slothfulness the buildingdecayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through'(Ecclesiastes 10.18). The house not only lies open to wind and weather, but at lastfalls down, when the repairs are neglected and omitted. Our bodies are called thetemples of God, of which our souls are, as I may say, the holy of holies, or as wecall it, the chancel; and it is through sloth that this glorious fabric decays so much.'He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster'(Proverbs 18.9). He who is a prodigal, a spendthrift, who spends more than he getsand more than was given him, is a man who will come to nothing and be worsethan nothing very soon. This is true, and it is as true that his brother, the slothfulman, will not hold out much longer than he. 'The sluggard will not plow by reasonof the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing' (Proverbs 20.4). Aprodigal comes to nothing, and so does the sluggard.Love is a laborious thing; we read of the labour of love (1 Thessalonians 1.3), andlove never grieves to be obedient (1 John 5.2-3). Now idleness argues a lack oflove, for when the angel of Ephesus left his first love, he left also his first works(Revelation 2.4,5). When love grows cold, practice becomes dead. 'The slothfulman saith, There is a lion in the way' (Proverbs 26.13). If you ask him, Why do younot rise up and walk with God? Why do you not go forth and serve God? O, hesays, there is a lion in the way; there is danger in it. But this is only his imagination(see verse 16). 'As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon hisbed' (verse 14). How is that? Why, first one way, then another; he cannot rest on139