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UNPROFITABLENESS AND FOLLY OF SIN
AS an appeal to the judgment of men is, when just, the most powerful mode of silencing the contentious, so an appeal to their conscience is the strongest possible method of convincing the ignorant, and of humbling the proud. With such kinds of argumentation the Scripture abounds. God himself appeals to his apostate people: “What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and become vain?” “Have I been a wilderness to Israel [Note: Jer_2:5; Jer_2:31.]?” Thus, in the passage before us, St. Paul, labouring to impress the Christians at Rome with a sense of the indispensable necessity of renouncing all their former ways, and devoting themselves wholly to the Lord, puts to them this pungent question; “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” To answer this question, no strength of intellect, no extent of information, is required: nothing is wanting but an honest and upright heart. The poor, as well as the rich, can tell whether they have been happy in the ways of sin: to the one therefore as well as to the other, we would address the language of our text; entreating every one to consult the records of his own conscience, and to answer to himself the question, as in the presence of his God.
The points respecting which we would make our appeal to all, are,
I. The unprofitableness of sin, as learned by experience—
Whether men have drunk deep of the cup of pleasure, or have followed their earthly inclinations with more measured steps, we would ask, in reference to all their former ways,
1. What fruit of them had ye at the time?
[Sin, previous to the commission of it, promises much: but what solid satisfaction has it ever afforded us? Suppose a man to have had all the means of gratification that ever Solomon possessed, and, like him, to have withheld his heart from no joy; still, we would ask him, Was your pleasure of any long duration? Was it without alloy? Is not that true which Solomon has said, “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness [Note: Pro_14:13.]?” I doubt not but that every man who will faithfully relate his own experience, will “say of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doeth it [Note: Ecc_2:2.]?”
A similar testimony must be given by those who have been the most sober and discreet. They have not, it is true, the same measure of guilt upon their consciences, as they would have had, if, like the others, they had “run into every excess of riot ∙ ” but if, as must he confessed by all, they have lived to themselves, and not unto the Lord, we must put the same question to them, Have you found real happiness in your ways? Have you not, in the midst of all your self-complacency, had a secret consciousness that you were not prepared for death and judgment? and did not that consciousness embitter your lives, so far at least, that you could not bear to think of the state of your souls, and the realities of the eternal world? — — — God had said, that “the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, which casteth up mire and dirt.” Whatever peace therefore you have felt has been a false peace, which in reality rendered you more miserable, in proportion as it hid your misery from your view. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked [Note: Isa_57:20-21.].”]
2. What fruit have ye in the retrospect?
[Supposing sin to have made us ever so happy at the time, how does it appear when we look back upon it? Is not that which was “rolled as a sweet morsel under the tongue become as gall in the stomach?” Would not the voluptuary be well pleased on the whole, that the criminal excesses of his former life had never been committed? Would he not be well satisfied to have lost the gratifications, if he could expunge from his conscience, and from the book of God’s remembrance, the guilt which they have entailed upon him? — — — And if the man who has sought his happiness in less criminal enjoyments, but has wasted in mere earthly pursuits the time that was given him to prepare for eternity, could recall his mispent hours, would he not rather that they should have been spent in seeking the things belonging to his peace? Though he may not look with complacency on a pious character who has given up himself unreservedly to God, does he not secretly reverence that man, and wish that his latter end might be like his? — — —]
3. What fruit have ye in the prospect of your great account?
[If ever we look forward to death and judgment, what do we think of a sensual or worldly life in reference to those seasons? Will it afford us any pleasure in a dying hour, to reflect, that we have, on such and such occasions, gratified our criminal desires, or indulged in revelling and excess? Or will a life of mere external decency afford us comfort, when we consider how we have neglected God and our own souls? Shall we not then wish that we had paid more attention to the Saviour, and lived under the influence of his blessed Spirit? Still more, when standing at the judgment-seat of Christ, will it be any joy to us, that, whilst in this world, we took so little pains to obtain mercy of the Lord, and to secure his favour? — — — Alas! alas! How will a carnal or worldly life then appear? Would to God, that we would view things now, as we shall surely view them in that day!]
Instructed by these lessons of experience, let us proceed to contemplate,
II. The folly of sin, as taught us by grace—
The very first effect of grace is to humble us before God. The more enlarged our views are of our past transgressions, the more shall we blush and be confounded in the remembrance of them. Of every true Christian it may with certainty be affirmed, that, like Job, he “abhors himself, and repents in dust and ashes.” He is “ashamed,”
1. That he has so requited the goodness of his God—
[In an unconverted state, men can receive innumerable blessings at the Lord’s hand, and never consider from whence they flow. Even the great work of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ is not regarded as any sufficient incentive to love and serve him. But no sooner does grace enter into the soul, than all the wonders of God’s love and mercy are seen in their proper colours; and the man is amazed at his more than brutish ingratitude. How wonderful does it appear, that God should so love him as to give his only dear Son to die for him; and yet that he should live all his days in an utter contempt of that stupendous mystery, trampling on that precious blood that was shed to cleanse him from sin, and doing despite to that blessed Spirit, who strove to bring him to repentance! Verily, that expression of Agur is adopted by him, not as an hyperbole, but as a just representation of his case; “I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man [Note: Pro_30:2.].” The circumstance of his being forgiven is so far from obliterating this sense of his baseness, that it renders the feeling of it incomparably more poignant; according as the Prophet Ezekiel hath said, “Then shall ye lothe yourselves for all your iniquities, and for all your abominations, after that I am pacified towards you, saith the Lord.”]
2. That he has bartered for such trifles an immortal soul—
[The loss of the soul is scarcely thought of, when the fascinations of sin are strongly felt: but after a man is awakened to see, that “the end of these things is death,” what folly and madness does a life of sin appear! Even if the whole world could have been gained, it would be regarded as of no value in comparison of the soul: how empty then and vain do such trifles as he has obtained appear, when for the enjoyment of them his eternal interests have been sacrificed, and the everlasting wrath of God incurred! The folly of Esau in selling his birthright for a mess of pottage may be considered as wisdom in comparison of his, in selling heaven and his immortal soul for the transient pleasures of sin: and, if an irrevocable sentence of exclusion from the heavenly inheritance be passed upon him, he is ready to acknowledge the justice of it, or, like the man without the wedding garment, to confess by silence the equity of God’s judgments.]
Address—
1. Those who are yet seeking their happiness in the creature—
[We need not here discriminate between different degrees of guilt. It is sufficient for our condemnation that we have lived to ourselves rather than to God. Whatever we may have had recourse to for consolation, it has proved only like the husks with which the Prodigal sought to satisfy the cravings of nature: nothing but the bread that is in our Father’s house can ever satisfy an immortal soul. O let us think, What must be the consequence of living at a distance from God [Note: See Jer_6:15-16.]? Speak not peace to yourselves in such a state! Well does St. Peter say, “What must the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?” Only let the end of our course be kept in view, and we shall see the folly and madness of every pursuit that has not an immediate tendency to secure the blessedness of heaven.]
2. Those who are seeking their happiness in God—
[You have no reason to be ashamed of the fruit which you have gathered. At the time that you have been serving God, you have found “the work of righteousnees to be peace,” and, that “in keeping God’s commandments there is great reward.” In the retrospect of a life devoted to God there is the purest joy. “Our rejoicing,” says St. Paul, “is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world. And O! what comfort is there in the prospect of our great account! We know that “if we have our fruit unto holiness, our end will be everlasting life:” and if in our last hours we can say with Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,” we may add with him, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me.” Go on then, brethren, “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” We congratulate you that you have learned to blush and to be ashamed of all your former ways: and we would, as we are specially instructed by God himself, urge you to a most careful observance of all the commandments of your God [Note: See Eze_43:10 th verse to the first clause of the 12th.]. This is the way to preserve a good conscience before him; and so acting, “you will not be ashamed before him at his coming [Note: 1Jn_2:28.].”]