The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venninghis name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work, and toil ofour hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.' Sin, curse and toilkeep company.b. Sin is against man's comfort and joy. In sorrow shalt thou eat all the days of thylife (Genesis 3.17). Not one whole merry day! It would be some comfort to a man,after he had toiled and moiled all day, if he could eat his bread with joy, and drinkhis wine with a merry heart. But sin will not allow him to do so; if he laughs, sinturns it to madness (Ecclesiastes 2.2), or else it is no better music than thecrackling of thorns (Ecclesiastes 7.6). In Paradise, the blessing of God on Adam'sdiligent hand made him rich, and there was no sorrow with it (to allude to Proverbs10.22); but now man's sweetmeats have sour sauces--'in sorrow shalt thou eat'--and his bread is the bread of affliction.The female, the woman, has a peculiar sort and share of sorrow, for the time ofconception, breeding, bearing and birth are tedious. Yet, alas! many who feel thepain which sin brought are not sensible of the sin which brought the pain, thoughtheir sorrow and pain also is greatly multiplied, as we find it expressed in Genesis3.16, and the more so for the want of faith and sobriety (I Timothy 2.15).c. Sin is against man' s health. From it come all diseases and sicknesses; till sinthere were no such things. For this cause, in general, many are weak and sicklyamong you. Let man take the best air he can, and eat the best food he can, let himeat and drink by rule, let him take ever so many antidotes, preservatives andcordials, still man is but a shaky, sickly thing for all this. Verily every man in hisbest estate is a frail and brittle thing yea altogether vanity (Psalm 39.5); this textis spoken with reference to diseases and sickness. Take him while his blood dancesin his veins, and his marrow fills his bones; even then he is a brittle piece ofmortality.d. Sin is against the quiet of a man's natural conscience. It wounds the spirit andmakes it intolerable: 'A wounded spirit who can bear? (Proverbs 18.14). While thatis sound and whole, all infirmities are more easily borne, but when that is broken,the supports fail, which has a great influence on the body: 'A merry heart doethgood like a medicine (there is no cordial like it) but a broken spirit drieth the bones'(Proverbs 17.22); it sucks away the marrow and radical moisture. 'Heaviness in theheart of man maketh it stoop' (Proverbs 12.25). A good conscience is a continualfeast, but sin mars all the mirth. When Cain had killed his brother, and hisconscience felt the stroke of the curse, he was like a distracted man, and mad.When Judas had betrayed his Master, he was weary of his life.e. Sin is against the beauty of man. It takes away the loveliness of men's verycomplexions; it alters the very air of their countenance. 'When thou with rebukesdost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty (or, as it is in the margin,that which is to be desired in him) to consume (or melt) away like a moth: surelyevery man is vanity (his beauty vain)' (Psalm 39.11). There was no such thing asvanity or deformity till sin entered; everything was lovely before, and man aboveanything in the inferior world.16