BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT

BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT

The strength or reliability of a chain depends on its weakest link. If there be one weak link, though all the rest be good and strong, yet when the pull comes, the weak one is the measure of its strength. In everyone there is some tendency or passion stronger than another, and in it the force or wilfulness of one’s nature is ^[p. 313] betrayed. Many do not know what it is, and in general, without intention it is systematically concealed. In the transparency of childhood it is seen, but few in mature years candidly admit their ruling passion; of course it is selfishness in some form or another; in it lies the most of one’s will, and the strength of nature. And hence, while it is at that point that it is most necessary there should be “suffering in the flesh”, yet it is there also that naturally every effort is used to preserve it. Hence, there is on the one hand the purpose of God through grace to mortify it, and on the other hand the energy of the flesh to save it. Nay, more, everything will often be attempted, or even suffered, in order to screen or excuse this idol; for idol it is, as is everything which commands the heart and energies more than God.

With everyone there is something that is as dear to him as his own life; it may be his reputation, his position, his money, some self-gratification, and he strains every nerve to secure it.

Now the discipline to which every saint walking with the Lord is subjected would best teach him what his ruling passion or idol is, for on that particular thing the Lord is always bringing death in one form or another. On the one side there is the energy of the flesh, striving to preserve as it were its sovereign; as on the other hand there is the Lord, dealing in one way after another, in order to check, weaken, and suppress this strong hold of the flesh. Many a one might suppose that he had no particular wilfulness, and possibly from his nature and habits you might never discover it. But, if we observe the nature and character of God’s dealings with us, we shall surely find it out; and if we were truly to submit to the correction and what it aims to effect, there would be a happy sense of deliverance, or at least a sure conviction of why it was sent, which saints often know nothing of; and there would therefore be a guarding against it. If there be a desire in the corner of my heart which I ^[p. 314] have not ventured even to acknowledge to myself, the nearer I am to the Lord, the sooner I shall find it out. But as we see with Paul on his return from the third heaven, he does not know the tendency or lurking desire in his own nature until he is awakened to inquiry because of the thorn in the flesh. The ruling passion, though often suppressed and almost mortified in one set of circumstances, is sure to spring up in a new set, which in some way favours its recurrence. So that in every set of circumstances there must be mortification in order to preserve one from loss and damage. It is where the flesh is most active that it is most necessary that death should first supervene; and to this God’s dealings with the soul are always directed. Now if His dealings be resisted, and though there be, for years even, a disguising of the taste and will, yet if it has not been mortified, and the chastening of the Lord not bowed to, it will find its opportunity; and that man’s sin finds him out. See Moses warning to the two and a half tribes in Numbers 32: 23.

There is not a sufficient sense in souls of the present righteousness of God, and that by Him actions are weighed. There is too much the feeling that if they escape at the time with impunity, there is an end of it. Now if we observe our own histories, and know that of others well, we shall find that now He judgeth according to man’s work. If I am screening my flesh, and despising the rebuking of the Lord, I shall suddenly be cast down, and that without remedy.

The first thing that a saint learns, though he may not always be able to define it, is that there is that in him which lusts against the Spirit. He may not be able to discern the peculiar form of the flesh as to desire; but the moment he is in any way sensible of a new nature, he is also made sensible that he has no power in himself to act according to its instincts. Good desires are not effectual, that is, they cannot subdue the flesh, nor can they make it yield to them. The ^[p. 315] Spirit of God is the only power to render good desires effectual. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The resistance or inability which the saint first finds in himself to act as the new nature desires, shows him the strength of the flesh — its idol or ruling passion. It necessarily fears to be dislodged, and when a new mind is implanted, it at once seeks to resist and to continue its own sway. The plague of one’s own heart is the hardest to subdue and to be relieved from, and therefore it is the first and foremost in asserting its claim. As I have said, I do not think a saint can say at first what it is, but he is painfully aware that there is something which resists, and if this covetousness or idolatry were mortified, there would be relief. I do not say that he at once comes to this conclusion, but I say that when he does, he finds relief. Seeing then that on my own side there is the consciousness of opposition, though I may not be able to state definitely what particular form of selfishness it is, I find that God in His dealings and discipline with me is ever and anon checking me in some way that I feel very much. Of course I feel most where I have most flesh. Now there are two things which indicate what the ruling passion is. One is the resistance in myself to the grace of God, and the other, the pain I suffer from the discipline to which I am subjected. Now the Spirit of God would always prove His power, and teach me how to walk under this twofold schooling. He first lusts against the flesh, that is, He would give it no tolerance, would act right in opposition to it, and would use the chastening to break down the flesh, so that His victory might be complete. A saint walking in the Spirit would set himself to resist that which was gratifying to his flesh. The fact of its being self-gratification would be enough to make him refuse it, for that is evidence enough of its danger and of its nature. He would not seek occasions of self-suffering; but when selfish considerations were presented to him, this would be enough to show that ^[p. 316] it was to be opposed, and that wherever any dealing of God was most felt, whether as to one’s feelings or in any other way, there one would lay it to heart, and see that the flesh was working there, and that the chastening was sent for this end. Now if the saint walks in the Spirit, he will be kept in this healthful exercise; but if, on the other hand, he refuses, like Peter, the counsel of the word, he will at length be exposed to circumstances for which he was unprepared; and then, on warming himself at the fire (Mark 14: 54, 67), his sin will find him out. Peter liked to lead, and was called on to lead, but he must be broken down in nature before he is fit to be Christ’s vessel.

It is only as we walk in the Spirit that we do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. The Spirit is the only power to save us from the inroads of the flesh. In every step and in every new circumstance — and every day there is quite a new set of circumstances — I shall be unprepared unless I am walking in the Spirit, and my sin will find me out if I do not depend on God in my weakness. Abram finds out that he has no faith to stay in the land when there is a famine there; but in his weakness he learns to depend, and when he is restored and returns there, he gives Lot his choice of the whole land. Now Lot, on the contrary, has not judged himself for his weakness, and therefore he seeks what gratifies himself, the green fields; and though he is chastened, and affliction comes upon him from the very place where he has settled — for he is taken captive and his goods carried away — yet he will not bow to the rebuke, but hardens his neck; and in the long run his sin finds him out.

We have little idea how we despise the chastening of the Lord, how we refuse to drop the idol that is set up in our hearts; and it is often years afterwards that the exposure comes, and always to the penitent heart with this conviction: ‘I was warned of this before, I have been rebuked and chastened with respect to this very thing long before’. The word, as at the first in Eden, is always surrendered for self-gratification; and if in an innocent state, how much more when there is a will and an evil spirit to support one in an evil path. Peter disregarded the word, not intentionally, but because he did not think of it. Lot was heedless of his calling; it was not before his heart and mind, but his present advantage.

There are three classes of saints. One class who never attempted or intended to give up the world — these really fall in the wilderness; another class, who, like Abram, have, though failing, persistently and faithfully pursued a path of separation and a heavenly walk; and a third, those who began well, but, like Lot, were drawn away by some present gain. With this latter class I am chiefly concerned in this paper. As to the first, their whole ways declare what they are. It is no excuse for a saint to say, I never gave up the world in its refinements, its dress, its arts, etc. Such a one’s sin has found him out; he has not faith to enter the land, to walk as a heavenly man. The second class are kept by the power of God, “faint, yet pursuing”; and as to the third, however fair or promising their start, like a hunted hare they return to the field from which they were driven; they get back to the worldliness, the dress, or whatever it be, which they had never truly condemned, and which had always a shrine in their hearts; and their sin finds them out. Thus we can account for ill-assorted marriages, unsuitable companions, and all such things. The tendency of our nature is ministered to and countenanced. The link is formed through that which gratifies us selfishly, and not with that which would really aid us. Thus people find themselves in associations and circumstances that at one time they had vehemently denounced. The fullest knowledge of our standing and the deepest exercise of soul as to it will not preserve us if the word of our calling be overlooked. Jacob has returned to the ^[p. 318] land; he is right as to his standing; he has passed through the night of wrestling and received the name Israel; and yet, because he has not judged his ruling passion, to think and provide for himself contrary to his calling he settles at Shalem, and sorrow and evil overtake him; Genesis 34.

The real measure of a man’s strength, that is of his dependence on God, comes out some day; and it often happens, sad though it be, that it is not brought to light till his death-bed, and then a controversy takes place before the unclouded light of the Lord’s presence fills and gladdens the soul.

The Lord teach us to watch unto prayer, quietly waiting on Him, assured in heart that His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men, and that in due season we shall reap if we faint not. But on the other hand, it will be manifested on every side, and with regard to every one, that “he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption”.