3. Let us abhor the sin that brought such agony upon our beloved Lord.
What an accursed thing is sin that crucified the Lord Jesus! Do you laugh at it? Will you go and spend an evening to see a mimic performance of it? Do you roll sin under your tongue as a sweet morsel and then come to God's house on Sunday morning and think to worship Him? Worship Him! Worship Him, with sin indulged in your breast! Worship Him, with sin loved and pampered in your life! If I had a dear brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I valued the knife that had been crimsoned with His blood? If I had made a friend of the murderer and daily consorted with the assassin who drove the dagger into my brothers heart, what would you think of me? Surely I, too, must be an accomplice to the crime!
Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the incarnate God; can you love it? Oh, that there was an abyss as deep as Christs misery, that I might at once hurl this dagger of sin into its depths, whence it might never be brought to light again! Begone, O sin! You are banished from the heart where Jesus reigns! Begone, for you have crucified my Lord and made Him cry, "why hast though forsaken me?" If you did but know yourself and know the love of Christ, you would vow that you would harbor sin no longer. You would be indignant at sin, and cry:
The dearest idol I have known,
What e'er that idol be,
Lord, I will tear it from its throne,
And worship only Thee.
This passage helped show me the dangers of having a light-hearted disposition toward sin. Many times I let my sin deceive me into think that it is not serious. It is only a slight affront to God, besides, He has already poured out His wrath on His Son. There is none left for me, right?
These are the tricks that sin plays on our minds. It takes God's wonderful truth and twists it into a web of deception that leads us to places we thought that we would never go. Scripture teaches us that sin's only desire is to rule our lives. Genesis 4:7 "Sin is crouching at the door. its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."
We cannot allow our sin to have control over our redeemed bodies. Why did Christ die? So that we may continue on in our iniquity? Hardly. God has most recently opened my eyes to the close proximity that sin has to my heart. In fact, they are intertwined. My greatest blessings are tainted with deadly sin and my most honorable deeds soaked with pride. It would be foolish of me to think that temptation does not lurk at every corner. There is no sin that I am not capable of, no law unbreakable by a sinner like myself. The grace of God is all that inclines my heart to Himself and it is only by His desire to do so that I will be faithful. So that is all that I ask for.
Father in Heaven, I pray that you would impart upon me your grace and allow your Spirit to clothe me in power to turn from evil and defeat the sin that so desires to destroy me. Thank you for your Son, it is through His perfect obedience that all of this is possible.
-Kyle-
2 comments:
Very excellent stuff. This is actually my all-time favorite Spurgeon passage. I haven't thought upon it in a while. Specfically, the first and the last section that you have in bold are the most impacting lines from this passage to me. The Lord uses those words to pierce my heart and bring about much needed conviction and focus.
Thanks for bringing these words again to the forefront of my mind.
"If I had a dear brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I valued the knife that had been crimsoned with His blood?"
Wow. I don't think I've ever heard it put in such a powerful way before. What a motivation to pursue holiness! To think that I cherish the knife with which my Savior was murdered; the thought is unbearable!
Lord, deliver me from the wickedness of my heart!
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