The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venningleisure to sin, but they who are idle are at leisure to do nothing but to sin. Adam ininnocence, that better than golden age, had his calling and employment: he was agardener, a cultivator of the ground or a husbandman (Genesis 2.15). The angelsof heaven are not without their calling; when they are abroad (here on earth), theyare ministering spirits (Hebrews 1.14), and when at home in heaven, they ceasenot day or night from praising God. As one of the Greek Fathers expresses it, theirservice and calling is to sing songs and psalms of praise. I may therefore say, takeheed of the sin of being without a calling, or of having no calling, especially youwho are young and strong to labour.(ii) No man's calling necessitates him to sin. There is many a trade of which I wouldnot scruple to say that it is no calling; many make a livelihood out of trades whichare no calling. Harlotry and thieving are no callings; for we are called not touncleanness but to holiness. As to lawful callings, to sin is but accidental, andsprings more from our inclination than from the callings themselves. Necessitiesare things that few men are competent judges of; many things are called so whichare far from being so; and nothing should be called so that is a sin. He who cannotfollow a calling without sinning had better lay aside his trade than live by sinning.That there is sin in callings is not from our vocation but from our corruption; it isnot our calling, but our evil heart that makes us sin. There is no need to tell a lie orto steal or to cheat. There are many other better ways to live, and if we were notdistrustful of God, and indulgent to the baseness of our own hearts, we might findthem out.(iii) Yet there are snares in our callings. The Devil lays his nets and baitseverywhere; he lays his snares to entangle us, not only in our general, butparticular callings, to turn all our duties into sins. Many men sin, and most men areliable, being tempted, to sin in their callings. There are many temptations thatattend and wait on every calling. Were I to speak to men of any calling, I wouldfollow the example of John the Baptist, who spoke to everyone according to the sinhe was guilty of, or to which he was tempted in his place (Luke 3:10). Thepublicans were very great oppressors, and therefore he calls upon them to exact nomore than their due, their stated and appointed allowance. The soldiers wereboisterous and unruly, and therefore he speaks to them to do violence to no manor, as it is in the margin, to put no man in fear; do not decoy men and falselyaccuse them; do not plunder and steal, but be content with your pay. But since Icannot speak to every condition, I will lay before you some things in general, whichmay be applied to each and every one.(a) Take heed of lying and equivocating. This is a thing grown so common inbuying and selling, that it passes as a matter of course: --It cost me more, and yetI will sell it for less; I cannot afford it, yet take the money; I will get nothing byyou--as if men could buy and sell, and live by the loss! Do you think that menbelieve this, or do you yourselves believe it without one or another equivocaldistinction? I will not undertake to tell you the words which you should use, but Itell you from the Lord that you should use but few, and speak in truth. In amultitude of words there wants not sin. For the seller to extol a commodity with avariety of words, and tell men that it is the best in town, and that there cannot bea better bought for gold is many times only a courtesy of trade. So for the buyer to145