The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venninginfants are born, which is loathsome (Ezekiel 16.5,6). It is likened to mire anddung, to the very excrements that lie in ditches and sewers in which sows andswine wallow, and even to the vomit of dogs (2 Peter 2.22). It is compared to theputrefaction of graves and sepulchres (Matthew 23.27, 28), which stink, as Marthasaid of Lazarus when he had been some days dead (John 11.39). It is also likenedto poison (Romans 3.13). All these things, and others which I shall not name, areloathsome things at which men stop their noses and from which they hide theireyes. Yet sin is more loathsome than all of them if we consider that nothing but thefountain open for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in, nothing but the blood of Jesuscan cleanse from this filthiness. All the nitre and soap in the world cannot get itout. Besides, it is not only filthy but filthiness, not only corrupt but corruption, inthe very abstract. All the things to which sin is likened fall far short of sin; they areonly shadows which are very imperfect representations of the reality.Now all the former examples reach only to the body and do not defile the man. Butsin reaches to and seizes on soul and spirit, and defiles the man (Matthew15.19,20). This is the canker, the rottenness, the plague, the poison of the soul,and sin is not only worse than any, but than all of these. What is more, if ourrighteousness is but as a menstruous rag (Isaiah 64.6) how filthy must our sin be!The Apostle Paul counted his righteousness which was of the law to be but dung(Philippians 3.8); what then did he reckon his injuriousness, persecution andblasphemy to be--surely as bad as death and hell. If not only our righteousness,but our righteousnesses, indeed all our righteousnesses, are as filthy rags (Isaiah64.6), what is our sin, our sins, and all our sins? Truly filthy beyond expression orimagination.b. Sin is a polluting and infectious thing. Since sin is of a pestilential and poisonousnature, it has caused not only corruption, but pollution and defilement (2 Peter2.20). Many things may make a man foul and loathsome, such as leprosy andulcerous tumours, and yet the soul of a man may be still pure and fair, as Job'swas when his body was all over a scab or sore, and he sat on the dunghill. But aswe suggested before, sin defiles the man, and soaks into his very spirit and infectsthat. We will attempt to take a clearer and fuller view of sin's pestilential andinfectious nature and operation, and so consider it in various ways:(i) In its universality. See how it has extended and spread itself over all the world;there is no land or nation, tribe, language, kindred or people where it has not beenknown from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. All climates, hot andcold, all quarters of the world, American, African, Asian and European, have allbeen infected. Not only Sodom and Samaria, but Jerusalem and Sion were infectedand ruined by it. It is here, there and everywhere, except Heaven!Besides this, it has infected all ages; it is almost as old as the world. It has run inthe blood from Adam to Moses, and so on to this day. It is the plague which haslasted almost six thousand years. Indeed, what is more, not one man has escapedit; all kinds of men, all ranks, high and low, rich and poor, kings and beggars havebeen infected by it (Romans 3.9,10); the wise and learned as well as the foolishand illiterate. Who is there that has lived and sinned not, our Saviour excepted? Ifany man says he has not sinned, he sins in saying so. By one man sin came intothe world, but since, not one man but every man has sinned. All have sinned and89