Sin

My dear young friends,

The subject of this letter is the evilest, the gloomiest, the most terrible subject in the whole of God’s universe— Sin. Very little is said about it today. Where it is not denied, it is ignored. One would not imagine it existed if one follows the religious press of today. Man is always improving, according to it. By false so- called science, by learning, by guessing about things of which they can have no knowledge, by asserting as the assured result of scientific investigations, that the Bible is not fully inspired, men have gone, and are ever going, astray from the religion of their forefathers. Perhaps nothing is more manifest concerning the deep revolt from God than the denial of the Fall of man, and therefore, of sin, for the most part are silent about it. They speak of love, without definition of its nature or making clear the difference between natural and spiritual love and the proper objects of each; of union, with little discrimination of either doctrines or persons.

The ruin of human nature by the Fall of Adam and the just imputation of the first sin of Adam to all his family is set forth in the Word of God. The corruption of each person born in sin, I want to bring before you. Sin is related to law. Where no law is there is no transgression; sin is the transgression of the law (Romans 4:15; 1 John 3:4). Law means a lawgiver. The Lawgiver with whom we have to do is Jehovah, who will by no means clear the guilty. Sin is born in the heart and takes form in every imagination and thought. The earliest descriptions of it is as an inward act. “Every imagination of the thought was only evil continually”(Genesis 6:5). Thus, thought is an action, “Thou shalt not covet.” “Whose hateth his brother is a murderer” (Exodus 20:17; 1 John 3:15). To wish for something God has not seen fit to give us is sin. To hate a person is murder. To love the world is to be an enemy of God (1 John 2:16). Such conduct is punishable, it is guilt, and divine law makes escape impossible. God will by no means (known to the law) clear the guilty (Exodus 34:7). “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.”

Surely this makes our position before God exceedingly solemn! We are born in sin, living in sin because our imagination and thoughts are sinful as proceeding from a sinful nature, a bitter fountain that cannot send forth sweet water. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, and all evils. Now this sinful nature cannot change itself. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23). See, then, the condition of fallen man. Grievous though the very mention of it is, it is not improved by the ignorance of it or by opposition to the truth of it or by denial of its existence. Is a boy not guilty of dishonoring his father and mother because, after the fashion of the day, he laughs at his disobedience and says it is nothing or that many others do the same? Is the youth who steals not guilty because he escapes detection and punishment? Is it quite innocent to go to cinemas because others go and everybody is exited and laughs? Is Sabbath breaking right because the vast majority of people do it? Is novel reading proper because some professors indulge in it? Oh sin, how hast thou blinded us so that we do not know where we are going nor what will be the end! For when thou art finished with us in this life, then death, the awful wages of it, will be paid us.

I say, in the next place, that a sacred conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost, a sight of it in His light, a belief that no man can deliver his soul from the law and its just curse, is a great mercy. Sighs, cries, trying to forsake sin and please God, now become the life of the sinner. Conscience condemns him, the Word of God wounds and distresses him, the thought of God and the day of judgment is all but intolerable to him. The devil will do his utmost to stifle the conviction and to belittle sin, but more or less distinctly the Spirit’s wound is kept open and runs in the night and reasons not till mercy through the blood of Christ, heals it. If such a wound be given any of you, you will be thankful for it later. Sin is a bitter thing, but better to know, feel, and taste its bitterness here than to endure the punishment of it throughout eternity. Better to be a “Mr. Fearing” all your days here, than “Talkative” whose end was destruction. Where sin becomes bitter and is confessed, pardon flows from the Lord Jesus Christ. He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

God bless you, dear young friends, with a thorough conviction of sin.

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