SIN, EFFECTS OF

A famous preacher of many years ago had a clock in his church that was well known for its inability to keep the time accurately. Sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow, it resisted all attempts to solve the problem. Finally, after its dubious fame became widespread, the preacher put a sign over the clock, reading, “Don’t blame the hands—the trouble lies deeper.”

The same is true of people: the real trouble lies deeper than what shows on the surface.1246

There is an old saying that goes like this: “It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out, it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.” Many a man, worried for fear he would not be able to cross a mountain, has had to stop some miles before he crossed the foothills because he had not taken time to clean out his shoes.

That has been the source of failure in many Christian lives. Eager to avoid the big sins, your life may outwardly be one of extreme piety, but if there are hidden imperfections—little pebbles in your shoe—these will cause failure in your Christian life.1247

One tiny piece of dirt in the carburetor can keep the most powerful truck from climbing a mountain road. A rather small impurity—but all-important in making the ascent.1248

In St. Louis there is a railroad switchyard. One particular switch begins with just the thinnest piece of steel to direct a train away from one main track to another. If you were to follow those two tracks, however, you would find that one ends in San Francisco, the other in New York.

Sin is like that. Just a small deviation from God’s standards can place us far afield from our intended destination.1249

The St. Petersburg Times once carried a news item about a hungry thief who grabbed some sausages in a meat market, only to find they were part of a string fifteen feet long. Tripping over them, he was hindered in his getaway and the police found him collapsed in a tangle of fresh sausages.

So it is with sin: we always come away with more of it than we expected, and it tends to entangle us until it brings us down.1250

A Jewish father took his little boy to the ritual bath for the first time. When they jumped into the pool the little boy began to shiver with cold and cried, “Oy, papa, oy!” His father led him out of the pool, rubbed him down with a towel and dressed him. “Ahh, papa, ahh!” purred the little fellow, tingling with pleasant warmth.

“Isaac,” said the father thoughtfully, “Do you want to know the difference between a cold bath and a sin? When you jump into a cold pool you first yell ‘oy!” and then you say ‘ahh!’ But when you commit a sin you first say ‘ahh!’ and then you yell ‘oy!’ ”1251

Like a piece of wood in a pond, a Christian can “float” on the surface of sin and not get too wet. But, just as wood that is in the water for too long gets waterlogged and sinks to the bottom, so also does the Christian who spends too much time in sin.1252

A workman on a road construction crew told this story of a time when he was working on a project deep in the mountain area of Pennsylvania. Every morning as he drove to work in his pickup, he would see a young boy at a fishing hole near the road. He would wave and speak to the boy each day. One day, however, as he drove slowly past the fishing spot and asked how the boy was doing, he got a strange reply: “The fish aren’t bitin’ today, but the worms sure are.”

When he pulled into the local gas station down the road a few minutes later, he jokingly related the boy’s comment to the attendant. For a moment the man laughed, but then a look of horror crossed his face, and without another word he ran to his truck, jumped in, and drove hurriedly away.

Later that day, the man on the construction crew found out what had happened. The gas station attendant had arrived on the scene too late to save the boy, who had somehow mistaken a nest of baby rattlesnakes for earthworms and had been bitten to death.

Baby rattlesnakes, you see, are born with their full venom. And so it is with many of the sins that tempt us. They may appear harmless, even colorful, yet they contain the full venom of Satan’s poison and will destroy us if we handle them.1253

Anyone who has witnessed the felling of a giant redwood tree is left with a feeling of sadness. As the saw moves through the heart of the giant, it begins to sag down on the side where the wound is gaping. Presently, it is apparent that the tree is beginning to lean away from the cutters. They continue their work a moment longer; then is heard the cracking of wood fibers in front of the saw’s teeth. Another swish of the saw, and the noises increase. The sounds, getting even more rapid, presently become a continuous roar. Then, if you are standing nearby, and the tree is large, you will get the impression that everything above is coming to earth. The great mass starts slowly to topple, crackling and exploding even louder at the base, until it comes sprawling down with a fearful momentum.

Sometimes we see a man come down like that. He had stood out, apparently so strong and forceful before all the world, carrying his head high. Young men had envied him, but the sappers were at his heart. The deadly saw of appetite or lust or passion steadily cut away the supports under him until he came crashing down to earth.1254

Lord Byron, a brilliant poet, spent his life in a mad search for pleasure. Moderns would say, “He tried to live it up.” Then in despair he wrote:

The thorns I have reaped are of the tree I planted.

They have torn me and I bleed.

I should have known what fruit would spring

from such a tree.1255

One of the hardest things for the Christian of our day is to recognize the presence of sin in his own life and all around him. In fact, we often try to minimize the presence of sin and to make light of its effects on us.

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman told of a distinguished Methodist minister in Australia who preached on sin. One of his church officers came afterward to talk with him in his study. He said to the pastor, “Dr. Howard, we don’t want you to talk so plainly as you do about sin, because if our boys and girls hear you talking so much about sin, they will more easily become sinners. Call it a mistake if you will, but do not speak so plainly about sin.”

The minister went to a utility closet and brought back a small bottle of strychnine that was clearly marked “Rat Poison.” He said, “I see what you want me to do. You wanted me to change the label. Suppose I take off this label of ‘Poison’ and put on some milder label, such as ‘Essence of Peppermint.’ Don’t you see what might happen? The milder you make the label; the more dangerous you make the poison.”1256

The sins of our youth will catch up to us—usually in middle age! There is no escape. As Kipling once said, “The sins ye do by two and two, ye must pay for one by one.”1257

When we are in a state of sin, it is like riding a bicycle into the wind—God appears to be against us. Yet, like the bicyclist who turns around and finds that the wind is helping him, if we repent and change the direction of our lives, we will find God working with us. God didn’t change—we did.1258

In an upholstering shop, if a piece of material is cut too short, there is no way it can be stretched to fit the part for which it was intended. However, while the material is too small for its original purpose, it can probably be used elsewhere on the chair, so it needn’t be discarded.

Some sins have consequences that disqualify us for certain forms of ministry, but Christ can still use you if you will serve where he puts you.1259