Caterers for their lusts!

(Thomas Watson, "The Beatitudes" 1660)

"If I regard iniquity in my heart" Psalm 66:18

What is it to regard iniquity in the heart?

When we INDULGE in sin. When sin not only lives
in us—but when we live in sin. Some will leave all
their sins, but one. Jacob would let all his sons go,
but Benjamin. The fowler holds the bird fast enough
by one claw. Just so, Satan can hold a man by one sin.

Others HIDE their sins. Many deal with their sins
as Moses' mother dealt with her son. She hid him
in the basket, as if she had left him—but her eye
was still upon him—and in the end, she became his
nurse (Exodus 2:9). Just so, many seem to leave
their sins—but they only hide them from the eye
of others. Their heart still goes after them, and at
last they nurse and give breast to their sins.

To regard iniquity is to DELIGHT in iniquity. Though
a child of God sins—yet he does not take a delight in
sin. "I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). But
the wicked make a recreation of sin. They "delight in
wickedness" (2 Thessalonians 2:12). Never did one
feed with more delight on a meal he loves—than a
wicked man does upon the forbidden fruit!

To regard iniquity is to make PROVISION for sin. "Make
no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof."
(Rom. 13:14). The wicked are caterers for their lusts.
This is to make provision for the flesh—when one studies
to satisfy the flesh and provide fuel for lust. Thus Amnon
made provision for the flesh (2 Samuel 13:5). He pretends
to be sick, and his sister Tamar, must be his nurse. She
must serve his food to him—by which means he defiled
her virginity. It is sad when men's concern is not to be
holy—but to satisfy lust!