John Bunyan Speaks Concerning Sin and Sinners.
Sin has been delightfully admitted to an entertainment by all the powers of the soul. The soul hath chosen it rather than God; and also, at God's command, refuses to let it go.
If there be at any time, as indeed there is, a warrant issued out from the mouth of God to apprehend, to condemn and mortify sin, why then the souls of sinners do presently make these shifts for the saving of sin...:
1. They will, if possible, hide it, and not suffer it to be discovered.
2. As the soul will hide it, so it will excuse it, and plead that this and that piece of wickedness is no such evil thing, men need not be so nice [strict].
3. As the soul will do this, so to save sin it will cover it with names of virtue, either moral or civil.
4. If convictions and discovery of sin be so strong and so plain that the soul cannot deny but that it is sin, and that God is offended therewith, then it will give flattering promises to God that it will indeed put it away; but yet it will prefix a time that shall be long first, saying, Yet a little sleep, yet a little slumber, yet a little folding of sin in my arms, till I am older, till I am richer, till I have had more of the sweetness and the delights of sin.
5. If God yet pursues, and will see whether this promise of putting sin out of doors shall be fulfilled by the soul, why then it will be partial in God's law. It will put away some, and keep some; put away the grossest, and keep the finest; put away those that can best be spared, and keep the most profitable for a help at a pinch.
6. Yea, if all sin must be abandoned, or the soul shall have no rest, why then the soul and sin will part --- with such a parting as it is --- even as Phaltiel parted with David's wife, with an ill-will and a sorrowful mind; or as Orpah left her mother, with a kiss (II Sam. 3:16; Ruth 1:14).
7. And if at any time they can or shall meet with each other again, and nobody never the wiser, O what courting will be between sin and the soul.
By all these, and many more things that might be instanced, it is manifest that sin has a friendly entertainment by the soul, and that therefore the soul is guilty of damnation; for what do all these things argue, but that God, His Word, His ways and graces, are out of favor with the soul, and that sin and Satan are its only pleasant companions?
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What a thing is sin; what a devil and master of devils is it, that it should, where it takes hold, so hang that nothing can unclutch its hold, but the mercy of God and the heart-blood of His dear Son.
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No sin is little in itself; because it is a contradiction of the nature and majesty of God.
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Sins go not alone, but follow one another as do the links of a chain.
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There is a wicked man that goes blinded, and a wicked man that goes with his eyes open, to hell; there is a wicked man that cannot see, and a wicked man that will not see, the danger he is in; but hell-fire will open the eyes of both.
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Tis true there is no man more at ease in his mind --- with such ease as it is --- than the man that hath not closed with the Lord Jesus, but is shut up in unbelief. Oh, but that is the man that stands convicted before God, and that is bound over to the great assize! That is the man whose sins are still his own, and upon whom the wrath of God abideth; for the ease and peace of such, though it keep them far from fear, is but like to that of the secure thief that is ignorant that the constable standeth at the door. The first sight of an officer makes his peace to give up the ghost. Oh, how many thousands that can now glory that they were never troubled for sin against God --- I say, how many be there that God will trouble worse than He troubled cursed Achan, because their peace, though false and of the devil, was rather chosen by them than peace by Jesus Christ, than peace with God by the blood of His cross.
Awake, careless sinners, awake, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. Content not yourselves either with sin or righteousness, if you be destitute of Jesus Christ; but cry, cry, Oh cry to God for light to see your condition by. Light is in the Word of God, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed; cry therefore for light to see this righteousness by: it is a righteousness of Christ's finishing, of God's accepting, and that which alone can save the soul from the stroke of eternal justice.
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O, sin, what art thou! What hast thou done! And what still wilt thou further do, if mercy and blood and grace do not prevent thee!
Sin is the living worm, the lasting fire;
Hell soon would lose its heat, could sin expire.
Better sinless in hell, than to be where
Heaven is, and to be found a sinner there.
One sinless with infernals might do well,
But sin would make of heaven a very hell.
Look to thyself then, keep it out of door,
Lest it get in and never leave thee more.
No match has sin but God in all the world;
Men, angels, has it from their station hurled,
Holds them in chains as captives, in despite
Of all that here below is called might.
Release, help, freedom from it none can give,
But even He by whom we breathe and live.
Watch therefore, keep this giant out of door,
Lest, if once in, thou get him out no more.
Fools make a mock at sin, will not believe
It carries such a dagger in its sleeve.
How can it be, say they, that such a thing,
So full of sweetness, e 'er should wear a sting?
They know not that it is the very spell
Of sin, to make men laugh themselves to hell.
Look to thyself, then, deal with sin no more,
Lest He that saves, against thee shut the door.
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Wouldest thou know, sinner, what thou art? Look up to the cross, and behold a weeping, bleeding, dying Jesus; nothing could do but that, nothing could save thee but His blood: angels could not, saints could not, God could not, because He could not lie, because He could not deny Himself.
What a thing is sin, that it should sink all that bear its burden; yea, it sunk the Son of God Himself into death and the grave, and had also sunk Him into hell-fire for ever, had He not been the Son of God, had He not been able to take it on His back and bear it away.
O this Lamb of God! Sinners were going to hell; Christ was the delight of His Father, and had a whole heaven to Himself; but that did not content Him, heaven could not hold Him, He must come into the world to save sinners.
Aye, and had He not come thy sins had sunk thee, thy sins had provoked the wrath of God against thee to thy destruction for ever. There is no man but is a sinner; there is no sin but would damn an angel, should God lay it to his charge.
Sinner, the doctrine of Christ crucified cries therefore aloud unto thee, that sin has made thy condition dreadful. See yourselves, your sins, and consequently the condition that your souls are in by the death and blood of Christ. Christ's death gives us the most clear discovery of the dreadful nature of our sins.
I say again, if sin be so dreadful a thing as to break the heart of the Son of God, how shall a poor, wretched, impenitent, damned sinner wrestle with the wrath of God?
Awake, sinners; you are lost, you are undone, you perish, you are damned; hell-fire is your portion for ever, if you abide in your sins, and be found without a Savior in the dreadful day of judgment.
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The poor, carnal, ignorant world miss of heaven, even because they love their sins and cannot part with them (John 3:9, 20).
The poor ignorant world miss of heaven, because the god of this world hath blinded their eyes, that they can neither see the evil and damnable state they are in at present, nor the way to get out of it; neither do they see the beauty of Jesus Christ, nor how willing He is to save poor sinners (II Cor. 4:2, 3).
The poor ignorant world miss of heaven, because they defer coming to Christ until the time of God's patience and grace is over. Some indeed are resolved never to come; but some again say, "We will come hereafter;" and so it comes to pass, that because God called and they did not hear, so "they shall cry and I will hot hear," saith the Lord (Zech. 7:11-13).
The poor ignorant world miss of heaven, because they have false apprehensions of God's mercy. They say in their hearts, "We shall have peace, though we walk in the imagination of our heart" (Deut. 29:19-21).
The poor ignorant would miss of heaven, because they make light of the gospel that offers mercy to them freely, and because they lean upon their own good meanings and thinkings and doings (Matt. 22:1-5; Rom. 9:30, 31).
The poor carnal world miss of heaven, because by unbelief, which reigns in them, they are kept for ever from being clothed with Christ's righteousness, and from washing in His blood, without which there is no remission of sin nor justification.
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Sinner, awake; yea, I say unto thee, awake! Sin lieth at thy door, and God's axe lieth at thy root, and hell-fire is right underneath thee. I say again, awake. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Poor sinner, awake: Eternity is coming, and His Son; they are both coming to judge the world: awake; art [thou] yet asleep, poor sinner? Let me set the trumpet to thine ear once again. The heavens will be shortly on a burning flame; the earth and the works thereof shall be burned up, and then wicked men shall go into perdition: dost thou hear this, sinner?
Hark again: the sweet morsels of sin will then be fled and gone, and the bitter, burning fruits of them only left. What sayest thou now, sinner? Canst thou drink hell-fire? Will the wrath of God be a pleasant dish to thy taste? This must be thine every day's meat and drink in hell, sinner.
I will yet propound to thee God's ponderous question, and then for this time leave thee: "Can thine heart endure, or can thy hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee, saith the Lord?" What sayst thou? Wilt thou answer this question now; or wilt thou take time to do it; or wilt thou be desperate and venture all? And let me put this text in thine ear to keep it open, and so the Lord have mercy upon thee: "Upon the wicked shall the Lord rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup." Repent, sinners.
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But I am a great sinner, sayst thou.
"I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.
But I am an old sinner, sayst thou.
"I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.
But I am an hard hearted sinner, sayst thou.
"I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.
But I am a backsliding sinner, sayst thou.
"I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.
But I have served Satan all my days, sayst thou.
"But I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.
But I have sinned against light, sayst thou.
"But I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.
But I have sinned against mercy, sayst thou.
"But I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.
But I have no good thing to bring with me, sayst thou.
"But I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.
"All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
