The Fruits of Sin and the Fruits of Holiness 2
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1. The man who lives in open sin. One of the first things this man begins to feel is a sense of shame. As his eyes begin to get gradually opened and something comes over his mind that he never knew or felt before, a kind of softness and tenderness never before experienced, he begins to look about him and feel for the first time some measure of shame. The ungodly know no shame– as the prophet says, they have a whore's forehead and refuse to be ashamed. When, then, there comes some feeling of inward shame before God, it looks something like the beginning of a change which may issue, and often does issue, in a manifestation of divine life. While sin is at work in us, there is no shame. When a man is drinking his glass, or when he is practicing some secret lust, or when engaged in some covetous bargain, or entangled in some light and gay company, the sense of shame is drowned in the excitement of the moment. The lust is so strong, or the pleasure so great, or the excitement so attractive, that all sense of shame is drowned.
But by-and-by, the man begins to awake. His lust is over; the excitement is gone; his drunkenness, like Nabal's, is out of him; and now the man begins to feel a sense of shame. And as he is ashamed of himself, assuming that the life of God is in his soul, he begins to feel shame before God. Ashamed of himself, he looks up as he never looked up before, and sees there is a God above, and that this holy God has been viewing him in all his accursed practices, taking notice of all his doings. And he looks up and sees the holiness of God, what majesty there is in him, and what a pure God he has had to deal with; he sees how this God is looking into his heart and searching out all his ways, and has been watching him in his mad fits, in his drunkenness, in his whoredom, in his oaths and curses, in his "jolly life," as he called it; that the eye of God has been all the time marking this. And he looks up and sees that he has a just God now to deal with; he is in hands from which he cannot escape; and there is an arrow of conviction planted in his conscience. He begins to bleed, inwardly bleed, and his conscience begins to be very sore; and overwhelming feelings of shame and confusion cover him, and he does not know what to do with himself. His sin is so great he thinks he never can be forgiven, and he cannot help crying for mercy.
Now this man has passed over the border of death into the line of life. And he begins to confess his sins with real shame of face; and not only so, but to forsake them, because if ever he is tempted to do the like again, shame comes over him so much more than before, conviction speaks so loud and clear, and the arrows seem shot in so much more closely, and conscience testifies so much more emphatically, that he is compelled to give up these things which bring him into such straits and trouble.
2. Now I shall take the other character. Here is a man who has been living a very consistent life, with a smooth outside profession, but a victim to secret lusts– a sly drinker, unclean though maintaining a decent exterior, and doing things that conscience when asleep never testified against. But now, conscience being awakened, and the arrows of God in him raising up conviction, his sins begin to be manifested in their true light. "Well," he says, "it is true I have not been an open sinner, but O I have been worse– I have been a secret sinner. I have not gone to those outward lengths others have gone to; but O if men could see my secret sins and practices in the dark, and know what wicked thoughts I have been continually harboring, and what books I read, and how I fed my imagination with every vile, adulterous, and obscene thought, and how, if not moved to sin outwardly, I feasted upon these vile things inwardly, they would think me worse than those who have sinned openly."
And the man feels ashamed of himself, and wonders how he could have been such a beast, such a black, vile, filthy creature; how he could give way to such evil in his heart and yet maintain such a decent outside. And with this begins to work death. "The end of these things is death." Perhaps he is laid upon a bed of affliction and the gaunt spectre draws near. "O," he says, "there is only a step between me and death; and suppose this slender thread were cut, and God said, 'This night your soul shall be required of you,' where could I stand before this holy God? O my sins! my sins! my crimes! my crimes! They are more in number than the hairs of my head. How can I stand before this holy God? O how I blush with shame, knowing what I have been, and that I have done the things, thought the things, imagined the things I have done! O what will become of my soul?"
Here is a man with death in his conscience, and with spiritual death in feeling alienation from God. And here he is in that sense spiritually dead; and he looks forward and says, "What is it to die? That is but little. But O to be swallowed up forever in eternal torment, and to be cast into the lake of fire, and there to lie forever under the wrath of God; how can I endure all that?" Now as these thoughts roll over his mind and agitate his soul, he begins to see "The end of these things is death." "All my secret lusts," he says; "all my vile imaginations– what is the end? Death! death! death! Death temporal, death spiritual, death eternal. The end of these things is death."
3. Now I will take the man steeped in pharisaism, full of his own righteousness, with no knowledge of salvation by the blood of the Lamb, but resting wholly upon the work of the creature. Now when the law begins to enter that man's conscience with any divine power, laying bare its spirituality and what the law really is, O he finds he has been only looking to the shadow of the law, and did not know the substance; looking to the letter, and not knowing the curse, and power, and authority of it; and he begins to see and feel, "O, if I stand upon this foundation, I must be for ever lost." And as the man already described was weaned out of his secret sins and hid his face in shame before God; so this Pharisee, when driven out of his Pharisaism, begins to see and feel such shame as a person would feel turned naked into the street. He blushes before God on account of what he feels he has been, and his Pharisaic self-righteousness appears to have been one of the greatest of his sins.
4. And now I take the man– for I cannot go through all as clearly as I could wish– now I take the man built up in doctrine, in vain-confidence, in arrogant, presumptuous profession; knowing nothing of the fear of God in a tender conscience, nor of any work or teaching of the Spirit in his soul; and having brought him up to the line of life, I shall take him over the line and show how God works upon his conscience. Now this man, after a time it may be, comes under the sound of experimental truth, or is cast into the company of God's people who speak a little about the secret dealings of God upon their soul. At first he begins to rise up in rebellion against it all, and tries to stave off any working of conscience, by appealing to this man's authority and the other man's authority, and trying to beat down all this by pouring contempt upon it.
But, somehow or other, the word begins to find an entrance into his conscience; it is too powerful to be resisted when the servant of God speaks with authority. It comes, according to God's determination, with secret power into his heart; and when he hears the people of God talk, and sees the grace of God in them, and finds they have something which he has not, and feels he is destitute of the main thing, he begins to look at his religion, weigh it in the balance, and it seems very lacking of that which satisfies God, and can satisfy a conscience, made tender in God's fear.
Well, now he is brought over the line, and he begins to look at his arrogant presumption and vain-confidence as one of the worst of all his sins; that he, without any, or with little experience of the things of God in his soul, should take so high a stand, that he could lay hold of doctrines with a presumptuous hand, the power of which he never felt in his soul, and build himself up in the letter of the word without knowing anything of the teaching of the Holy Spirit in his heart. O he will view himself as a presumptuous sinner, and fear lest the lot of the presumptuous sinner should be his– taken from God's altar to die. And how he is ashamed of his boasting profession; what death he sees to be in a profession without any experimental knowledge of the truth of God; and what death in the letter of God's word, even in the most sublime truths of God's everlasting Gospel, unless they are brought into the heart by divine power– he sees there is death in them. And he has been presumptuous, as described, in laying hold of God's truth with his own hand; God never having brought it with divine power into his soul. Now he is thoroughly ashamed of himself, and does not know where to hide his head; and when brought into the family of God, will get into some corner pew, as having been such a presumptuous sinner. "No," he says, "I deserve to be doubly damned– damned for my sins, and damned for my presumption." This man is brought over the line of life.
Now, having brought these into the line of life, God will deal very tenderly with them. He won't deal with them after their sins, nor reward them after their iniquities. God's way is to bring them down into the dust, and when he has brought them there, he won't take them out of the dust and cast them into hell. He abases the proud, but he exalts the humble. You get your mouth in the dust; you confess your sins before God; you lament them, bewail them, and forsake them– God will never take those sins and tie them like a millstone round your neck and hurl you and them into the depths of an unfathomable sea.
He who confesses and forsakes his sins shall find mercy. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." But if we go on sinning and repenting, sinning and repenting, this is not the character spoken of in the word, whose sins God pardoned. But if, with all your sins, temptations, and all that conscience testifies against, you can only put your mouth in the dust, confess your sins, mourn over them (which is God's own gracious gift), and forsake them, God will not impute those sins to you, but put them away, cast them behind his back, and give you, sooner or later, sweet testimony that he has pardoned you for Christ's sake.
Then here comes in the profane wretch– his ungodly life and what he has done in the days of his ignorance will not be imputed to him. He was brought out of sin that he might be a monument of eternal mercy, a trophy to the Lamb; and he will never be put to shame. He is ashamed of himself, but God is not ashamed of him. He is ashamed of his sins, but they are cast behind God's back.
So with the man who has been living in the secret practice of sin. That man may take a very low place; he will never forgive himself; whenever he thinks of his sins, it will be with shame and confusion; he will loathe himself in his own eyes and abhor himself in his own sight; and the more God forgives him, the less will he forgive himself; the more God's mercy shines into his soul, the more will it lead him to repentance; the more he views the sufferings of Christ, the more ashamed he will be of his iniquities, and the more he will mourn to see and know what he has been and is what he is.
And take the man who is brought out of Pharisaic profession into some knowledge of the way of salvation. Though that man always feels ashamed of himself as a Pharisee, and looks back at the time and says, "O what a fool I was to be such a blind Pharisee, so obstinately determined against God's way of salvation; I can never forgive myself for my Pharisaic pride;"– yet God will not impute that to him, but freely forgive him, because he has cast all his sins behind his back, and drowned them in the depths of the sea.
And so even with that last of the characters I have described, the mere doctrinal man, because the rarest to be called by the grace of God– even that man's arrogance and presumption will not be imputed to him, if he is brought to renounce, to confess, and to forsake it, to feel really ashamed of himself and his ways, and loathe himself on account of his arrogance and daring presumption, God will not impute that sin to him; with all his others, it is cast behind God's back.
Now is there a man or woman here present who has ever known anything of the movements of divine life in his or her bosom, who does not look back with shame to the things he or she has said and done? "What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?" Why, you had little enjoyment even at the time; it was all poison, and all they did was, when you awoke out of your sleep, to fill you with shame and confusion. The end of those things carried nothing but death.
So we find to this day. Whatever be the allurements of sin, or the temptations in which we are entangled, when we are brought out of the excitement of them, when awakened out of them, there is nothing but shame for us, and with shame, a sense of death; that all we have done has been to deaden our souls, cause God to hide his face, withdraw the light of his countenance, and bring a sentence of condemnation into our own heart.
III. The fruits and effects of the communication of this eternal life. Now it is by these various ways that God appears to make us free from sin, and to make us servants of himself, that we may bear fruit unto holiness; and the end be everlasting life. When we are sick of sin, then there is a measure of freedom from it. There is a being made free from the guilt of sin by the application of atoning blood; a being made free from the filth of sin by the washing of regeneration; and a being made free from the power of sin by the dominion of grace; free from the love of sin by the love of God shed abroad; and from the practice of sin by the possession of godly fear. And thus we are made free from sin so far as we are made partakers of the life of God, so as no longer to walk in sinful ways and practices, because we are made free from it by being brought into the practice of grace.
God's people are made free from sin, liberated from it by blood and regeneration, and the word of God upon the soul, and his fear planted in the heart, and the teaching and testimony of the Holy Spirit within, and by the power God puts forth in subduing it. They are led to do the things pleasing in his sight, to seek to know his will and do it, to keep his precepts as well as to believe his promises; to be given to him body, soul, and spirit; to be unreservedly his, that he may dispose of them according to his sovereign good pleasure.
God has not sent his dear Son that we might serve sin and Satan and the world; but that we might have the blessed privilege and holy freedom of serving God, attending to God's word, listening to God's voice, seeking God's glory, doing the things that God has bidden, abstaining from the things that God has forbidden; that we might live a life of faith and prayer; might walk in sweet communion with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and that we might fight against sin and Satan, resisting even unto blood; and not being entangled in things that bring guilt upon the conscience, reproach upon the cause, and trouble to the family of God with whom we are connected.
How careful we should be in our walk and conduct, in our life and conversation, in all our movements in the Church and in the world, to live as becomes the Gospel, in all holy obedience to God's revealed will; and to make it manifest we have a work that God has wrought in our heart, that gives God the glory, and does not put shame and disgrace upon the doctrine we profess.
This is having fruit unto holiness. The very word "holiness" is lost out of the churches. Our godly Puritan ancestors contended for "holiness;" but from how many preachers do you hear the word "holiness" drop? Why, is it not legal in our day to talk about holiness? "O," says one, "you talk about holiness– you are one of the legal tribe– away with all your fleshly godliness!" But God's word is not to be talked down thus by clamor, and its head cut off by the stroke of a preacher, be he an able man or a weak man. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" and that word will stand, let man call it legal or not. Some of these men who have been cutting at holiness may find they have been cutting at God's truth, and they may find it a barrier they will never pass. It is a grief to God's people that they cannot be holy– they love holiness because they have a holy principle in them; and if they could, they would be as holy as God is holy, and never sin again– holy in thought, word, and deed, and live a holy, godly, and unspotted life! It is their grief and burden they cannot do so. When men begin to talk against holiness, they are Satan's servants and not God's. The Seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth." It is our grief and trouble and burden that we cannot be holy. As Deer says, "But I would be holy."
Now God sends his word, his chastising strokes, his afflictions, to make us partakers of his holiness. If we have not our fruit unto holiness, how can we believe the end will be everlasting life? Are we to live in sin and die in sin? Are we to live unholy and then go to God who is holy? Are we to believe the end, the blessed end will be everlasting life, and have no fruit unto holiness? God has put them together– dare you rend them asunder and say, "O we want everlasting life; but as for fruits of holiness, we don't care about them?" Is not the word of God plain and positive here?– "Now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."
Take it as God has revealed it; rend it asunder if you dare. Will you take God's book to tear leaves out of it? Take God's word as God has revealed it; take God's precepts because God has revealed them; take God's promises because God has given them; take God's truth because it is in the word of God; and take what God gives because God has given it. This is the feeling of a reverent mind; this is the feeling of a believing heart; what God has given, that I must take. And those who thus walk will find the end everlasting life. They will find they have not believed in vain, nor walked in vain, nor fought in vain, nor struggled on in vain; but the end, everlasting life, will crown all.
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