Hideous Discovery
(No. 1911)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 25, 1886,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And He said, That which comes out of the man, that defiles the man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all
these evil things come from within and defile the man." Mark 7:20-23.
How weary the Savior must have been of the idle prattle of the scribes
and Pharisees! They are forever talking about washing hands before
meals and washing pots and cups–and He is all the while occupied with
the great griefs and sins of men and how He can save them from the
wrath to come. He must have felt as some true physician feels who looks
upon a patient, marks the serious nature of the sickness and plans a
remedy–while some quack is boasting his nostrums or performing
ridiculous signs and passes over the dying man. To serious compassion,
imposture is provoking and sincere truthfulness is grieved by the
mockeries of pretense. The dear Savior, knowing the Truth about the
whole thing and solemnly concerned about it, is pained with the talk of
these pretenders of learning and religion who, knowing nothing at all
about the real mischief, professed to purge away defilement by the
washing of water and outward ceremonies! Truly, I think every spiritual
man must have a feeling of disgust, every now and then, as in these
days he reads dissertations upon the cut of a priestly garment or the
positioning of an altar!
Have you ever read what is to be done if a little wine is spilt upon
the cloth of the holy table, or how the cup used in the "mass" is to be
rinsed again and again, and carefully drained by the person
ministering? Have you ever heard of arguments concerning the fate of a
mouse which was so irreverent as to eat the holy wafer? What trifling
it all seems–this serious discussion of garments and vessels with
strange names, this exact directory as to when to bow and when to
kneel, when to put on a robe and when to take it off! What a waste of
time, of learning and of thought! What exaltation of trifles and
forgetfulness of serious realities! Men are diseased to the heart with
sin and ready to die and pass before the Judgment Seat to receive the
condemnation which must lie upon those who continue in sin–and
meantime, the teachers of the people are either busy with vain
ceremonies or dreaming over equally vain philosophies!
Behold, a pretender to profound thought informs us that Moses was in
error and Paul scarcely knew what he wrote about! These philosophic
amenders of the Gospel are as arrant triflers as the superstitious
posture makers at whom they sneer! The Savior makes short work of human
traditions and authorities! Your meats and your drinks, your fasting
thrice in the week, your paying of the tithe of mint, anise and cummin,
your broad phylacteries and fringes–He waves them all away with one
motion of His hand–and He comes straight to the real point. He deals
with the heart and with the sins which come out of it! He draws up a
diagnosis of the disease with fearless truthfulness and declares that
meats do not defile men! He states that true religion is not a matter
of observation or non-observation of washing and outward rites, but
that the whole matter is spiritual and has to do with man's inmost
self, with the understanding, the will, the emotions, the conscience
and all else which makes up the heart of man. He tells us that
defilement is caused by that which comes out of the man, not by that
which goes into him! Defilement is of the heart–not of the hands!
To this teaching our Savior calls particular attention. Observe that He
spoke it to the whole of the people and not to the scribes and
Pharisees, only. It is necessary for every man to know this Truth of
God and to lay it to heart. When He spoke, He added these
words–"Hearken unto Me, every one of you, and understand." And then He
said more–"If any man has ears to hear, let him hear." If a man fails
to understand more deep and mysterious Truths, yet let him understand
this–for an error here is an error upon a vital point and may lead to
most serious damage, if not to eternal ruin! We are,
all of us, called upon, therefore, to hear and to understand this day
what the Savior says in the words of the text! Let me read them again,
that they may sink into your minds. "And He said, That which comes out
of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of
men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetous-ness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye,
blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within,
and defile the man."
I. First, this morning, think, dear Brothers and Sisters, with deep
self-abasement, of THE SWARM OF SINS. I seem to have broken open a
wasp's nest and the stinging creatures fly out in number, numberless!
Here are 13 words, each one of them teeming with all manner of evils.
Matthew, when he condenses the Savior's utterances, mentions seven of
these horrible things, one of which is omitted here, but Mark is more
full in this instance and mentions 13 items of abomination. I am struck
with the legion of foul spirits which are here set free, as if the door
of the Bottomless Pit had been opened! As armies of locusts, or as
swarms of the flies of Egypt, so are sins! As the wilderness was full
of fiery serpents and scorpions, so is this world full of iniquities.
The very names of them are a pain to the ears! Let us bow our heads in
sorrow as we read the muster-roll of this legion of terror–"Evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covet-ousness,
wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness."
Now, notice first, that this awful catalog, this horrible list of the
unclean birds that find a cage within the human heart, begins with
things that are lightly regarded among men–"evil thoughts." "We shall
not be hanged for our thoughts," cries one! I wish that such idle
talkers would remember that they will be damned for their thoughts and
that instead of evil thoughts being less sinful than evil acts, it may
sometimes happen that in the thought, the man may be worse than in the
deed! He may not be able to carry out all the mischief that lurks
within his designs and yet, in forming the design, he may incur all the
guilt! Thoughts are the eggs of words and actions–and within the
thoughts lie compacted and condensed all the villainy of actual
transgressions. If men did but more carefully watch their thoughts,
they would not so readily fall into evil habits! Men first indulge the
thought of evil and then the imagination of evil–but the process does
not stop there. Picturing it before their mind's eye, they excite their
own desires after it–these grow into a thirst and kindle into a
passion. Then the deed is speedily forthcoming–it was long in the
hatching, but in a moment it comes forth to curse a whole lifetime!
Instead of fancying that evil thoughts are mere trifles, let us regard
them as the root of bitterness, the still in which the poisonous spirit
is manufactured. Our Savior here puts evil thoughts first in the
catalog of evil things and He knew well their true nature. If we would
be lost, we have only to indulge these–if we would be saved we must
conquer these! Let us be very aware of our thoughts. He that does not,
will not long be very aware of his words or deeds. Let us pray God to
purge us in the inward parts, lest haply, by entertaining vain thoughts
as lodgers within our hearts, they take up their residence, become
masters of our lives and drive us onward to the outward sins which
shall utterly pollute and defile us in the eyes of our fellow men.
Since this indictment begins with evil thoughts, who among us can plead
guiltless? Since evil thoughts are the first of sins, we had better
meet the charge with immediate repentance and an instant faith in the
only Savior. These thoughts come into our minds in the House of God!
They intrude into our prayers, they defile our Psalms! They disturb our
meditations. Is there a sacred hill so high, is there a quiet valley so
deep that in it we may be quite clear from these "evil thoughts"? Who
can deliver us from this plague but the Lord our God? We need to humble
ourselves at the first reading of this list and cry unto the Lord for
mercy!
Carefully notice the range which this catalog takes. It is a very
singular one, for it begins with thoughts and then it runs on until it
lands us in utter lack of thought, or foolishness. Matthew Henry says,
"Ill-thinking is put first and unthinking is put last." Sin begins with
"evil thoughts," but ends in foolishness. The word rendered, "evil
thoughts," may be translated evil disputes, evil dialog. Now, this is
thought, by some, to be almost a virtue, certainly a manly exercise! To
be able to dispute, to be a questioner, a quibbler, a perpetual and
professional doubter, that, I say, is highly esteemed among men! What
is modern thought but evil thought? David says, "I hate vain thoughts"
and all thoughts which run counter to the Revelation of God are vain.
In this instance I may quote the Psalmist–"The Lord knows the thoughts
of men, that they are vanity." Thoughts which are devout and reverent
towards the sacred oracles are to be cultivated, but the thoughts which
quibble at the revealed Truth of God and would improve upon the
Infallible declarations of Jehovah are evil and vain thoughts. All
manner of mischief may come out of thinking in opposition to God!
Therefore it is said,
"Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts."
Thinking contrary to God's mind and disputing with the clear statements
of God's own Word may be the first step in a descent which shall end in
everlasting destruction!
Rising in evil thought, sin flows through a black country full of
varying immoralities until it falls into the Dead Sea of "foolishness."
How often have I heard it said of a vicious life, when it has ripened
into horror–"The man must have been mad! He was not only wicked, but
what a fool he must have been! The devil himself seems to have forsaken
him. He acted craftily enough at one time, but afterwards he went
against his own interests and insured his own destruction!" Yes, men
begin with the thought that they know better than their Maker and, at
last, they reach utter thoughtlessness, stolidity of conscience and
stupidity of mind! In the end they refuse to think at all and nothing
can save them from reckless defiance of common prudence. They are given
over to judicial senselessness. Though God Himself should speak, they
have no ears for Him–their sin has brought on them the punishment of
utter hardness of heart! They have made themselves to be as the adder
which will not hear the voice of the charmer, charm he ever so wisely.
This is the way of sin–to begin with fancied wisdom and end with
foolishness! The man who thought himself more than a man, at last ends
as a brute beast devoid of reason! What a range, my Brothers and
Sisters, there is between these two points! Read the words, again, and
see what a terrible zigzag path lies between wrong thought and no
thought at all.
In this list you have an amazing variety of sins. The list is not
complete and was not intended to be. It would be very difficult in
words to compose a full roll, though it were written within and
without, which would comprise all kinds of evils. But you have here,
"deceit," which seems to dread the judgment of men and, therefore,
would delude it. And then you have, "pride," which defies all mortal
condemnation and lifts itself above its fellows. You have here
different forms of the lust which seeks after pleasure at any expense,
in the form of "fornications" and "adulteries." And then you have the
"covetousness" which clings to its gold and will consent to no outlay
which it can avoid. Sin is a contradictory thing which blows hot and
cold. It hurries men, like fitful winds, this way and that, yet never
in the right direction. "We have turned, everyone, to his own way," but
all to the wrong way. Virtue is one, as truth is one, and holiness is
one, but vice is abnormal and monstrous. Sin is 10,000 evils
conglomerated in dread confusion. God keep us from ever navigating the
dangerous sea of iniquity where currents run one way and undercurrents
another–and where, oftentimes, sensual desires develop into whirlpools
of abominable passions which suck men down into the depths of infamy
and perdition!
In this list you will notice certain sins which may be regarded as
somewhat singular. It is remarkable that, "evil thoughts" should be
placed so near to atrocious acts of crime. It is singular, also, to
find "an evil eye" mentioned just in this connection. What can it mean?
May the very use of the eye become a sin worthy to be ranked with theft
and murder? Yes, when that evil eye means envy, it proceeds to a high
degree of wickedness and borders upon the worst of wrongs! When we look
upon another man and regard him with malignity. When his prosperity
makes us grieve. When in his very sorrows we take an inhuman delight
and gloat over his misery, his sin, his degradation–we then sin most
heinously and are prepared for any horror. This sin of envy and that
other of blasphemy would appear to be a wanton superfluity of evil,
ministering no appearance of benefit to men. Some sins have a winning
witchery with them, but there are old hags of sins which ought to
attract no man in his senses–and yet they hold men enslaved. Among
these sins I rank envy, blasphemy and pride. This last I mention
because it reads like a grim sarcasm, that sinners should be proud!
What have such creatures to be proud of? What? Adulteries, murders,
thefts and yet pride? One would have said that such sins would have
forbidden pride. What a misalliance! A being infamous and yet puffed
up! Alas, the worse a man becomes, the more is he filled with a sort of
vainglory by the force of which he justifies his own iniquities and
refuses to see his own vileness! This enables men to set darkness for
light and light for darkness–bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
What an assemblage of banditti of every nationality range themselves
under the banner of evil! Lord, save us from them!
Note, also, that of sins there are many of each sort. Especially in the
original, it is observable that the first seven of these evil things
are all in the plural. It is not, "evil thought," but, "evil thoughts."
Not, "adultery," but, "adulteries," fornications, murders, thefts–the
translation should also be plural of covetousness and wickedness–these
are all in the plural for in any one sin there lurks a multitude of
sins! One crime is built up of many–in any one form of sin there is a
tangle and conglomerate of many evils. There are myriads of evil
thoughts. In the crime of uncleanness there are stages– the thought,
the word, the deed–all these are varieties of the same species, but
they are all sins and they are, each one, worthy of the generic name
though they do not take the same form.
If the varieties of each sin are so many and if all sins must be spoken
of as a plurality under each variety, how innumerable must be the sins
of men! O Lord, You alone know our iniquities! Who could set them in
order before us but Your own Omniscient Self? What must they appear to
Your perfect vision! Brothers and Sisters, if we were once to see sin
in its true colors and were then to see it in its innumerable hosts, we
would sink into despair if any sort of conscience remained in us. "Who
can understand his errors? Cleanse You me from secret faults." "All
these evil things," said our Lord, as He summed them up in that one
solemn phrase. As we read that word it sounds the knell of all human
glorying! I hear it yet again. "All these evil things." How like the
Old Testament declaration–"The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the
children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek
God. They are all gone aside; they are all together become filthy:
there is none that does good; no, not one!"
How evil, my Brethren, each one of these sins may be, it is not
possible for us to know, but there is, not one of them, that is
defensible. They are, each one of them, vile before God and some of
them are mischievous towards men. Evil thoughts mainly blacken the
man's own mind, but when he expresses them in disputations, they
destroy the love of the Truth of God in others. Adulteries, as
violations of the marriage vow, shake the very foundations of family
life. Fornications, which today are winked at as though they were
scarcely offenses, defile two persons at once in body and in soul!
Actual murders follow frequently upon unbridled passion, but forget not
that the command, "You shall not kill," may be broken by anger, hate,
malice and the desire for revenge. Many a murderer in heart may be
among us this day, being angry at his brother without a cause. He that
conceives and hides malice in his soul is a murderer before God! This
form of evil breeds all manner of harm to society.
Thefts in all their shapes are also injurious to the commonwealth. By
this we mean not only robberies, but all taking from others unjustly,
such as the oppression of the poor in their wages, the taking of undue
advantage in trading, the incurring of debts without hope of being able
to pay and the like–these are varied forms of dishonesty and are full
of injury to others. Covetousness–the greed to get and the greed to
keep; the adding field to field until the man seems eager to be left
alone on the earth; the grasping of excessive riches and the creation
of poverty in others by crushing their humbler enterprises–all this is
evil, though some applaud it as business sharpness.
Need I mention the evils which come of wickedness, deceit and
lasciviousness? These are poisons in the air deadly to all who breathe
them. I sicken as I think how man has plagued his fellow men by his
sins. But I will not go through the list, nor need I–the devil has
preached upon this text this week and few have been able to escape the
horrible exposition! A foul exhalation has entered into every house in
this great city, polluting the very atmosphere and spreading moral
infection. Oh for a hurricane to sweep away the pestilent vapor! Within
a narrow space, a multitude of iniquities have gathered like vultures
upon a mass of carrion! What a collection of sins may meet in a single
story! How soon does one transgression call to its fellows till, "a
little one has become a thousand and a small one a strong nation!"
Alas, alas for the multitudes of sins!
II. Now, secondly, I want to indicate THE NEST FROM WHICH THEY COME.
Now that we have seen these evil
beasts, we will go and look at their den. Let us make a journey there.
No, you need not feel for your money to pay your fare–I am not going
to take you very far. I do not ask you to quit your homes, or even your
pews. There is not even need for you to stretch out your hand to feel
for this foul nest of unclean birds–you can keep your hand upon your
bosom and it will not be far off from the lair wherein these evil
things are lurking, ready to leap forth whenever occasion offers. Our
Lord Jesus Christ says, "All these evil things come from within." "For
from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts." The
source from which these rivers of pollution proceed is the natural
heart of man! Sin is not a splash of mud upon man's exterior, it is a
filth generated within himself!
Now this is a very different story from that which we sometimes hear
from thoughtless people. "Oh, yes, he used to swear. He was unkind to
his wife and family–no doubt he took too much drink–but he was a
good-hearted fellow!" What an awful lie! His heart could have been no
better than that which came out of it. Yet how common it is to say,
when a man dies, "Well, poor man, he is gone! There was no fear of God
or man about him. He was a passionate, drunken man and so full of vice
that no one was safe near him, but he was good at bottom." A likely
story, is it not? The water which came up in the bucket was black and
putrid, but, no doubt, at the bottom of the well it is clear as
crystal! Do you believe it? If men bring to market baskets of fruit
which upon the top are rotten, they will not be believed if they say
that they are, "good at bottom." If the goods in the window are
worthless, the stock in the warehouse is not much better. You can
only judge of a tree by its fruits–and if I gather sour crabapples
from a tree, I shall not believe that it is a golden pippin! If grapes,
when fully ripe, are sour, we cannot believe that the vine which bears
them is a sweet one! Our Savior makes short work of the lie that the
life may be impure and yet the heart is good!
Another fine theory of modern times is disproved by our text. According
to this evolution doctrine, as applied to theology, the new birth is a
development of that which is naturally within the heart. I hope we may
be spared such births and evolutions! According to this theory we have
had some fine specimens of regenerate people of late, for we have heard
of evolutions or developments which have brought out from within evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications and wickednesses of more than
average proportions! God save us from all development of the sin which
dwells in man! Philosophically the dogma of evolution is a dream, a
theory without a vestige of proof! Within 50 years, children in school
will read of extraordinary popular delusions and this will be mentioned
as one of the most absurd of them! Many a merry jest will be uttered
bearing upon the follies of science in the 19th Century. In its bearing
upon religion, this vain notion is, however, no theme for mirth, for it
is not only deceptive, but it threatens to be mischievous in a high
degree. There is not a hair of truth upon this dog from its head to its
tail, but it rends and tears the simple ones. In all its bearings upon
Scriptural Truth, the evolution theory is in direct opposition to it!
If God's Word is true, evolution is a lie! I will not mince the
matter–this is not the time for soft speaking.
Regeneration is much more than reformation, or the development of
natural goodness. It is described in Scripture as a new creation and as
a resurrection from the dead. It is not the cleansing of the carnal
mind, but the implantation of a spiritual nature. It is not a shaping,
feeding, washing and purging of what is already in fallen man–it is a
putting into us a life which was never there before. It is a
supernatural work of God, the Holy Spirit–it is a miracle of Grace, a
work of God! Out of the heart, if the volcano is permitted to pour
forth its lava, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, and
such like. The Savior compels us to see how bad the natural heart must
be in itself, since that which comes out of it is so vile. Who could
bring such unclean things out of a clean heart? The source must be foul
if the streams are so filthy. These evils must be within, or else they
could not come from within.
Our Savior is not speaking of a single man, or a certain set of men,
but of man, generally, of man as a race! We are all very much alike by
nature. "As in water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to
man." Friend, you are of the same race as those whose sins you censure.
Though out of your heart there may never proceed actual fornications
and adulteries–God grant they may not!–yet the seeds of such evils
are there and you will be foolish if you think that they can never grow
into acts. If any man says that no such evil lurks in his heart, I lay
to his charge the two last sins in the list, namely, pride and
foolishness! No man should dare to think that he is incapable of a sin
into which another man has fallen! We may never have suffered from
fever, or cholera, or diphtheria–but we may not, therefore, conclude
that we are not liable to such diseases. Nor may an unregenerate man,
however excellent or moral he may be, conclude that he is invulnerable
to the arrows of moral disease. Put the man in certain circumstances,
tempt him in certain ways and there is a terrible possibility that he
will fall into those very actions which he now so righteously denounces
in others! I am a man and, therefore, liable to all the faults of human
nature. Self-righteousness may induce us to say with Hazael, "Is your
servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" But we shall be wise to
forego so proud a question, for we may rest assured that we are dog
enough for anything if the Grace of God is withdrawn from us! It is
certainly true that "the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked: who can know it?" "Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders" and so forth.
But what is meant here, do you think, by, "the heart?" Is it not
intended to indicate the man himself–the man's most real self? Sin is
sin, for the most part, because it is of the heart and the will. If the
man's heart had nothing to do with it, I do not see how it would be
sin. If a man had no will in the matter, where would his responsibility
be? It is because we willingly do evil that we sin. The essence of the
sin lies in the will to do it and the full consent of the heart in it.
The heart is the center of life, the core of being, the place where
manhood maintains its throne and what a terrible statement this is,
that out of the very center of life there proceed from man "evil
thoughts, wickedness, blasphemy" and the
like!
The heart is the spring of action–the heart suggests, resolves,
designs and sets the whole train of life in motion. The heart gives the
impulse and the force and yet, out of the heart, thus initiating and
working, proceeds all this mischief of sin. By the heart is meant
mainly the affections, but it often includes the understanding and the
will. It is, in fact, the
man's vital self. Sin is not a thing extra that comes to us and
afflicts us like robbers breaking into our house at night, but it is a
tenant of the soul, dwelling within us as in its own house. This evil
worm has penetrated into the kernel of our being and there it abides.
Sin has intertwisted itself with the warp and woof of our nature and
none can remove it but the Lord God Himself! As long as the heart
remains unchanged, out of it will proceed that which is sinful. "Every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually."
If it is so, that the nest in which sin is born and nurtured is the
heart, itself, we always carry about with us, by nature, that which
will surely be the cause of sin unless we look well to it and cry daily
for Grace to conquer it. This evil nature of ours is an always present
danger–it is a powder magazine which at any moment may explode. Oh for
Grace to keep our hearts with all diligence!
How clearly sin comes from within and not from outside! How truly it is
born in the heart! Oftentimes we see men commit sins against
conscience–they know they are doing wrong, for they will lie and even
swear hard in order to conceal their folly. A man must know that he
does wrong, for he labors to deny it when it is charged against him.
Now, if a man sins against light and conscience, it shows that his
heart must be radically bad.
Sin must be within us naturally since the best training does not
prevent it. Children secluded from the sight or hearing of evil–kept,
as it were, within a glass case–yet run to it when the restraint is
removed! As the young duck which has been reared in a dry place yet
takes to the water as soon as it sees a pond, so do many hasten to evil
at the first opportunity. How often it happens that those young persons
who have been most shut out from the world have become the readiest
victims of temptation when the time has come for them to quit the
parental roof! It must be in them, or it could not thus come out of
them. In many cases, evil cannot be the result of mistaken education
nor of ill example–and yet there it is–the seed is in the soil and
needs no sowing.
Again, we frequently find men falling into sins towards which they
would seem to have had no temptation. A man is rich and yet covetous.
He has enough to content him if his heart were not evil. Men who have
the enjoyment of almost every desirable pleasure too often crave after
indulgences altogether unnatural. Does not this show how evil the heart
is? Is not this specially striking when you see how men invent new
sins, of which ordinary people would never have dreamed?
Moreover, put a man where you may and seclude him as you please, sin
will still break out from him and, therefore, the sin must be somewhere
within, hidden away. Do we not know this? When we are in associations
of the best kind we find evil thoughts and imaginations springing up
within our minds. Shut yourself up in a narrow cell, but there will be
room in it for troops of sins! Hasten away and dwell alone as a hermit
where rumor of pollution and iniquity can never reach you from abroad
and still you will find the cauldron within boiling and bubbling up
with evil! A door must be well sealed if it is to shut out temptation.
No, shut the door and hermetically seal it and sin has already entered
with yourself, for it is within you! Until you are delivered from that
evil man, yourself, you are not delivered from tendencies to
wickedness. The heart of man is the seed plot of iniquity and the
nursery of transgression. As the multitudes streamed forth from the
hundred gates of Thebes, so do sins proceed from the heart! O Lord,
have mercy upon us and give us new hearts and right spirits!
III. Thirdly, and briefly, let us notice for a minute THE DEFILEMENT
WHICH IS CAUSED BY THE COMING
OUT OF THESE EVIL THINGS. While they lie asleep within us, they are bad
enough, but when at last they pour forth into our lives and buzz abroad
in our acts, then they cause grievous defilement and make us unclean.
In some cases they cause a defilement which our fellow men see and,
seeing, begin to cry out against us and even to banish us from their
society. Where that is not the case, sin always causes defilement to
the man himself. He goes from bad to worse, from worse to worst. Sin is
like a ladder. Few reach the height of iniquity at once–the most of
men climb from one evil to another– and then to a third and a fourth.
Sin hardens men to further sin. He who is a moral monster was not
always such. By sinning much, he learned to sin more. The door of his
heart was at first a little ajar, but outgoing sins opened it to its
full width. A man is not capable, at first, of the sins which
afterwards are habitual to him. Step by step, men descend into the
abyss of infamy if their feet are not hindered by restraint, or stopped
by Almighty Grace. Every sin produces a fresh degree of callousness in
the heart. Even if sin is speedily repented of, its damage is not
readily repaired–if its writing is erased, you can see where it used
to be. Even the passage of a momentary thought over the mind will leave
a stain. See, then, the defiling power of sin.
Here is the main point–the man out of whose heart these evil things
proceed is defiled before God. I know that many will not think much of
this, but that indifference only proves the hardening nature of sin.
Only think of it–the sinful man is common and unclean before God! He
is not fit to enter the sanctuary of God, nor to come into His Holy
Presence. Sinful man cannot commune with a holy God! You do not mind
that, you say. Ah me, how alienated from God are your hearts! If it
were not so, we would judge that the most horrible thing in the world
is for a man no longer to be able to speak with his Maker, nor his
Maker to look favorably upon him. A breach of communion between the
creature and the Creator is a kind of Hell, a blight, a curse, a death!
God cannot comfortably commune with us while our hearts are fountains
of defilement from which iniquity proceeds. By this defilement we
become incapable of doing God any service. A defiled priest of old
could not offer sacrifice. He that is defiled in heart and life can do
nothing for God. God does not accept him and, therefore, He cannot
accept anything at his hands.
All that a defiled person touches becomes defiled by that very
fact–his hymns are defiled–sing them as sweetly as he may. His
prayers are defiled, though he may offer them accurately as to their
words. His very thoughts are defiled! By-and-by it comes to this, that
God cannot bear this defiled one anywhere in His universe, among holy
beings, any more than men can bear lepers in common society. The just
God is driven to find a place where the willfully unclean may be placed
apart–"where their worm dies not, and their fire is not quenched." At
last the great High Priest will look upon the defiled one and, looking
at him and seeing his leprosy of sin still upon him, that Priest will
say, "Depart! Depart!" Oh the terror of that final word! I dare not
dwell upon this awful result of choosing sin and refusing mercy! I the
more readily cease from this theme because my last point is that upon
which I would dwell as long as possible.
IV. Hear me, then, while I speak of THE ONLY CURE FOR THIS EVIL. O
Sirs, your hearts must be cured of sin! Not merely the outcome of your
heart, but the heart, itself, must be purged from defilement, for as
long as sin comes forth from your heart, it shows that the heart is
still sinful. The heart must be changed, or you can never meet God with
acceptance, nor be found among the glorious throng who behold His face
and find a Heaven in the sight! You must be renewed in the spirit of
your minds, or you cannot dwell forever with God. How is this to be
done? I answer, it is impossible–impossible with man! All that we can
do towards it must fall short of the mark–
"Madness by nature reigns within, The passions burn and rage; Till
God's own Son, with skill Divine, The inward fire assuage."
You may take a thistle and water it carefully, but it will produce no
figs–and you may cultivate a thorn through life, but it will yield no
grapes. The leopard cub taken from its mother and tamed will still be a
leopard–and the young serpent will still go upon its belly, teach it
as you may. It is beyond and above all power of mortal man to change
his own heart!
How, then, can we be made fit to dwell with God? Must we despair? Must
we die utterly broken-hearted? Listen! For all the defilement that has
fallen upon anyone here, even though all the defilement of my text
should have met upon one single individual, there is cleansing! With
God there is plenteous redemption and measureless mercy. For adultery,
for murder, for blasphemy, for all manner of sin, there is forgiveness!
The Lord rejoices to blot out the transgressions of repenting sinners,
for He delights in mercy!
Last Sabbath morning it was my privilege to preach of Him who knew no
sin, but was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. [THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL, Sermon #1910, Volume 32.] The
glorious Doctrine of the atoning Sacrifice offered upon the Cross of
Calvary is most charming to those who feel that they are defiled with
sin. Upon that blessed Truth of God I could dilate without weariness by
the month together–and this terrible theme of this morning, which
sinks my heart into the dust–I have only brought forward that I may
say afterwards, that the Lord Jesus is able to deliver us from all
iniquity and cleanse us from all sin. Oh, you who are defiled, whoever
you may be, come and wash and be clean! He that believes in Jesus is
justified from all sin, whatever his transgressions may be! The Lord
delights in mercy through the great Sacrifice of Christ. He is able to
say, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." "All manner
of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." Oh, that men would
seek pardon through Jesus Christ who is exalted on high to give
repentance and remission!
"Yes," you say, "but pardon is not all we need." Most true, it is not
all we need. We need to have the inward source of sin taken away. This
is also provided. Do you not know that in the blessed Covenant of Grace
it is written, "A new heart, also, will I give you, and a right spirit
will I put within you. I will take away the heart of stone out of their
flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh"? Our Divine Savior turns
lions into lambs and ravens into doves! "With men it is impossible, but
with God all things are possible." There also lives among us One who
came down to earth when Jesus went up to Heaven, abiding among us
evermore. The Holy Spirit is here to set us free from the bondage of
sin! He comes into the heart where evil dwells as a strong armed man
and, being mightier than the evil, He drives out the foul spirit that
held possession and He dwells there, Himself, changing the nature and
creating faith and purity!
He makes us love the holiness which before we neglected and loathe the
sin in which we once indulged. It is possible for us to be born
again–Glory be to God for that! It is written, "Sin shall not have
dominion over you." I do not think we have ever praised God enough for
this possibility. To be washed in the blood is a precious thing. But,
oh, to be cleansed with the water which flowed with the blood from that
dear pierced side is an equal blessing! To be made holy is a heavenly
gift! To be sanctified is as great a favor as to be justified! Purity
of heart is to be had by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ–is not
this good news? Those who receive Jesus receive power to become sons of
God and this means holiness! Those who become children of God are made
like the First-Born and they grow up into Him in all things. Grace
reigns in them through righteousness unto eternal life!
Brothers and Sisters, it may be well to make laws to restrain
fornication, theft and blasphemy, but the only sure cure for all sin is
the Grace of God in the heart. Are they going to stop dogs from going
mad by muzzling them? Dogs will go mad with their muzzles on and so
will men sin despite the restraints of law! So long as hearts are evil,
evils will proceed from them. The only physician for sin is the Lord
Jesus and His heavenly surgery lies in the renewing of the heart by
Grace through the Holy Spirit who works by the Gospel. My Brothers,
keep to the old Gospel–keep to the one remedy which has healed so
many! No new theories for us! We accept the old and tried everlasting
Gospel of the blessed God! The Truth of God will live and flourish when
all the evil thoughts of men have proven their foolishness and are cast
to the moles and to the bats, as images of deception, without life or
power!
Pray for a blessing upon this burden of the Lord which, with a heavy
heart, I have delivered to you. Amen.