The Scriptures and
SIN
Arthur Pink, 1932
There is grave reason to believe that much Bible reading and Bible study of the last few years has been of no spiritual profit to those who engaged in it. Yes, we go further; we greatly fear that in many instances it has proved a curse rather than a blessing. This is strong language, we are well aware, yet no stronger than the case calls for. Divine gifts may be misused, and Divine mercies abused. That this has been so in the present instance, is evident by the fruits produced. Even the natural man may (and often does) take up the study of the Scriptures with the same enthusiasm and pleasure as he might of the sciences. Where this is the case, his store of knowledge is increased, and so also is his pride. Like a scientist engaged in making interesting experiments, the intellectual searcher of the Word is quite elated when he makes some discovery in it; but the joy of the latter is no more spiritual than would be that of the former. Again, just as the successes of the scientist generally increase his sense of self-importance and cause him to look with disdain upon others less knowledgeable than himself—so alas, is it often the case with those who have investigated Bible numerics, typology, prophecy and other such subjects.The Word of God may be taken up from various motives. Some read it to satisfy their literary pride. In certain circles it has become both the respectable and popular thing to obtain a general acquaintance with the contents of the Bible, simply because it is regarded as an educational defect to be ignorant of them. Some read it to satisfy their sense of curiosity, as they might any other book of note. Others read it to satisfy their sectarian pride. They consider it a duty to be well versed in the particular tenets of their own denomination and so search eagerly for proof-texts in support of "our doctrines." Yet others read it for the purpose of being able to argue successfully with those who differ from them. But in all this, there is no thought of God, no yearning for spiritual edification—and therefore no real benefit to the soul.
Of what, then, does a true profiting from the Word consist? Does not 2 Timothy 3:16,17 furnish a clear answer to our question? There we read, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Observe what is here omitted: the Holy Scriptures are given us not for intellectual gratification or carnal speculation, but to furnish unto "every good work," and that by teaching, reproving and correcting us. Let us endeavor to amplify this by the help of other passages.
1. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word convicts him of sin. This is its first office: to reveal our depravity, to expose our vileness, to make known our wickedness. A man's moral life may be irreproachable, and his dealings with his fellows may be faultless; but when the Holy Spirit applies the Word to his heart and conscience, opening his sin-blinded eyes to see his relation and attitude to God, he cries, "Woe is me, for I am undone!" It is in this way that each truly saved soul is brought to realize his need of Christ. "Those who are whole need not a physician, but those who are sick" (Luke 5:31). Yet it is not until the Spirit applies the Word in divine power, that any individual is made to feel that he is sin-sick, sick unto death.
Such conviction that brings home to the heart that the awful ravages which sin has wrought in each person, is not to be restricted to the initial experience which immediately precedes conversion. Each time that God blesses His Word to my heart, I am made to feel how far, far short I come from the standard which He has set before me, namely, "But just as He who called you is holy—so be holy in all you do" (1 Peter 1:15).
Here, then, is the first test to apply: As I read of the woeful failures of different ones in Scripture, does it make me realize how sadly like unto them I am? As I read of the blessed and perfect life of Christ, does it make me recognize how terribly unlike Him I am?
2. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word makes him sorrow over sin. Of the stony-ground hearer it is said that he "hears the Word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, he quickly falls away. (Matthew 13:20-21). But of those who were convicted under the preaching of Peter, it is recorded that they were cut to the heart (Acts 2:37).
The same contrast exists today. Many will listen to a flowery sermon, or an address on "prophecy" that displays oratorical powers or exhibits the intellectual skill of the speaker—but which, usually, contains no searching application to the conscience. It is received with approbation, but no one is humbled before God or brought into a closer walk with Him through it.
But let a faithful servant of the Lord (who by grace is not seeking to acquire a reputation for his "brilliance") bring the teaching of Scripture to bear upon character and conduct, exposing the sad failures of even the best of God's people—and though the crowd will despise the messenger, the truly regenerate will be thankful for the message which causes them to mourn before God and cry, "Oh, what a wretched man that I am!"
So it is in the private reading of the Word. It is when the Holy Spirit applies it in such a way that I am made to see and feel my inward corruptions, that I am really blessed.
What a word is that in Jeremiah 31:19: "After I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even confounded." Do you, my reader, know anything of such an experience? Does your study of the Word produce a broken heart and lead to a humbling of yourself before God? Does it convict you of your sins in such a way that you are brought to daily repentance before Him? The paschal lamb had to be eaten with "bitter herbs" (Exodus 12:8); so as we really feed on the Word, the Holy Spirit makes it "bitter" to us before it becomes sweet to our taste.
Note the order in Revelation 10:9, "So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will be bitter in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey." This is ever the experimental order: there must be mourning, before comfort (Matthew 5:4); humbling, before exalting (1 Peter 5:6).
3. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word leads to confession of sin. The Scriptures are profitable for "reproof" (2 Timothy 3:16), and an honest soul will acknowledge its faults. Of the lost it is said, "For everyone who loves evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3:20). "God be merciful to me a sinner!" is the cry of a renewed heart, and every time we are quickened by the Word (Psalm 119) there is a fresh revealing to us and a fresh owning by us of our transgressions before God. "He who covers his sins shall not prosper; but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). There can be no spiritual prosperity or fruitfulness (Psalm 1:3) while we conceal within our bosoms our guilty secrets; only as they are freely owned before God, and that in detail, shall we enjoy His mercy.
There is no real peace for the conscience and no rest for the heart, while we cherish unconfessed sin. Relief comes when it is fully unbosomed to God. Mark well the experience of David, "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." (Psalm 32:3-4). Is this figurative but forcible language unintelligible unto you? Or does your own spiritual history explain it? There is many a verse of Scripture which no commentary but that of personal experience can satisfactorily interpret. Blessed indeed is the immediate sequel here: "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"—and You forgave the guilt of my sin." (Psalm 32:5).
4. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word produces in him a deeper hatred of sin. "You who love the Lord, hate evil" (Psalm 97: 10). "We cannot love God without hating that which He hates. We are not only to avoid evil, and refuse to continue in it—but we must be up in arms against it, and bear towards it a hearty indignation" (Spurgeon). One of the surest tests to apply to the professed conversion, is the heart's attitude towards sin. Where the principle of holiness has been implanted, there will necessarily be a loathing of all that is unholy. If our hatred of evil is genuine, we are thankful when the Word reproves even the evil which we suspected not.
This was the experience of David: "Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:104). Observe well, it is not merely "I abstain from," but "I hate". Not only "some" or "many," but "every false way". And not only "every evil," but "every false way." "Therefore I esteem all your precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:128).
But it is the very opposite with the wicked: "Seeing you hate instruction, and cast my Words behind you" (Psalm 50:17). In Proverbs 8:13, we read, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil," and this godly fear comes through reading the Word; see Deuteronomy 17:18, 19. Rightly has it been said, "Until sin is hated—it cannot be mortified. You will never cry against it, as the Jews did against Christ, Crucify it, Crucify it!—until sin is really as abhorred as He was" (Edward Reyner, 1635).
5. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word causes a forsaking of sin. "Let every one who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19). The more the Word is read with the definite object of discovering what is pleasing and what is displeasing to the Lord, the more will His will become known; and if our hearts are right with Him the more will our ways be conformed thereto. There will be a "walking in the truth" (3 John 4).
At the close of 2 Corinthians 6 some precious promises are given to those who separate themselves from unbelievers. Observe, there, the application which the Holy Spirit makes of them. He does not say, "Since we have these promises—be comforted and become complacent thereby"—but "Since we have these promises—let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." (2 Corinthians 7:1).
"Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you" (John 15:3). Here is another important rule by which we should frequently test ourselves: Is the reading and studying of God's Word producing a purging of my ways? Of old the question was asked, "How shall a young man cleanse his way?" and the Divine answer is "by taking heed thereto according to your Word." Yes, not simply by reading, believing, or memorizing it, but by the personal application of the Word to our "way." It is by taking heed to such exhortations as:
"Flee sexual immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18),
"Flee from idolatry" (1 Corinthians 10:14),
"Flee these things"—a covetous love for money (1 Timothy 6:11),
"Flee also youthful lusts" (2 Timothy 2:22)—
that the Christian is brought into practical separation from evil; for sin has not only to be confessed, but forsaken. (Proverbs 28:13).
6. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word fortifies against sin. The Holy Scriptures are given to us not only for the purpose of revealing our innate sinfulness, and the many, many ways in which we "come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)—but also to teach us how to obtain deliverance from sin, and how to be kept from displeasing God. "Your Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You" (Psalm 119:11).
This is what each of us is required to do: "Accept instruction from His mouth and lay up His Words in your heart." (Job 22:22). It is particularly the commandments, the warnings, the exhortations—which we need to make our own and to treasure. We need to memorize them, meditate upon them, pray over them, and put them into practice. The only effective way of keeping a plot of ground from being overgrown by weeds, is to sow good seed therein: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21). So the more Christ's Word dwells in us "richly" (Colossians 3:16), the less room will there be for the exercise of sin in our hearts and lives.
It is not sufficient merely to assent to the veracity of the Scriptures—they require to be received into the affections. It is unspeakably solemn to note that the Holy Spirit specifies as the ground of apostasy, "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thessalonians 2:10). "If truth lies only in the tongue or in the mind, only to make it a matter of talk and speculation—it will soon be gone. The seed which lies on the surface, the birds in the air will pick up. Therefore hide it deeply; let it get from the ear into the mind, from the mind into the heart; let it soak in further and further. It is only when Scripture has a prevailing sovereignty in the heart, that we receive truth in the love of it—when it is dearer than our dearest lust, then it will stick to us" (Thomas Manton).
Nothing else will . . .
preserve from the infections of this world,
deliver from the temptations of Satan, and
be so effective a preservative against sin—
as the Word of God received into the affections, "The law of his God is in his heart—none of his steps shall slide" (Psalm 37:31). As long as the truth is active within us, stirring the conscience, and is really loved by us—we shall be kept from falling.When Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife, he said, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9). The Word was in his heart, and therefore had prevailing power over his lusts. Joseph loved the ineffable holiness, and the mighty power of God, who is able both to save and to destroy.
None of us knows when he may be tempted, therefore it is necessary to be prepared against it. Yes, we are to anticipate the future and be fortified against it, by storing up the Word in our hearts for coming emergencies. "I have hidden Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:11)
7. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word causes him to practice the opposite of sin. "Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4).
God says "You shall."
Sin says "I will not!"God says "You shall not."
Sin says "I will!"Thus, sin is rebellion against God, the determination to have my own way (Isaiah 53:6). Therefore sin is a species of anarchy in the spiritual realm, and may be likened unto the waving of the war flag in the face of God. Now the opposite of sinning against God, is submission to Him; as the opposite of lawlessness, is subjection to the law. Thus, to practice the opposition of sin, is to walk in the path of obedience.
This is another chief reason why the Scriptures were given—to make known the path which is pleasing to God for us. They are profitable not only for reproof and correction, but also for "instruction in righteousness."
Here, then, is another important rule by which we should frequently test ourselves. Are my thoughts being formed, my heart controlled, and my ways and works regulated by God's Word? This is what the Lord requires: "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!" (James 1:22). This is how gratitude to and affection for Christ are to be expressed: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15).
For this, Divine assistance is needed. David prayed, "Make me to walk in the path of Your commandments" (Psalm 119:35). "We need not only light to know our way, but a heart to walk in it. Direction is necessary because of the blindness of our minds; and grace is necessary because of the weakness of our hearts. It will not answer our duty to have a mere notion of truths, unless we embrace and pursue them" (Manton). Note it is "the path of Your commandments." Not a self-chosen course, but a definitely marked-out one. Not a public "road," but a private "path."
Let both reader honestly and diligently measure himself, as in the presence of God, by the seven things here enumerated:
Has your study of the Bible made you more humble, or more proud—proud of the knowledge you have acquired?
Has it raised you in the esteem of your fellow men, or has it led you to take a lower place before God?
Has it produced in you a deeper abhorrence and loathing of self, or has it made you more complacent?
Has it caused those you mingle with, or perhaps teach, to say, I wish I had your knowledge of the Bible; or does it cause you to pray, Lord give me the faith, the grace, the holiness You have granted my friend, or teacher?
"Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all." (1 Timothy 4:15).