SIN
Includes: Self
Related Topics: Devil, Little Things, Temptation, Trials & Triumphs, Humility/Pride
1. The Devil is an artist--he paints sin in very attractive colors.
2. When Leonardo da Vinci was painting his masterpiece, "The Last Supper," he sought long for a model for his Christ. At last he located a chorister in one of the churches of Rome who was lovely in life & features, a young man named Pietro Bandinelli.
Years passed, & the painting was still unfinished. All the disciples had been portrayed save one--Judas Iscariot. Now he started to find a man whose face was hardened & distorted by sin--& at last he found a beggar on the streets of Rome with a face so villainous he shuddered when he looked at him. He hired the man to sit for him as he painted the face of Judas on his canvas. When he was about to dismiss the man, he said, "I have not yet found out your name."
"I am Pietro Bandinelli," he replied. "I also sat for you as your model of Christ."
The sinful life of years so disfigured the once fair face of the young man that it now looked as though it were the most villainous face in all Rome! Sin degrades! Sin debases!
3. At the foot of the Kaylass Mountains there is a district which is full of sweet-scented flowers. Once I had to walk through an area which contained a garden of these flowers several miles long. The beauty & fragrance of the flowers gave me great pleasure. Just then a man came out of the jungle & said in great haste, "You must not stand here; this is a place of danger; many have died here."
I was taken by surprise & asked him, "Is this place poisonous, or are poisonous creatures to be found here?"
The answer he gave me was full of meaning. "I don't know anything about that," he said, "but if you take in the scent of these flowers for a little while, sleep will overpower you. And once asleep there is no waking you out of this sleep. Some have been known to sleep in this way for ten to twelve days, & this ends in death. Since I live in the forest nearby, I endeavour to let people who are ignorant of this danger know all about it."
When I heard this I thought as follows. This flower cannot hurt of itself. But when its aroma is inhaled, there is no longer any desire for food or aught else. God wishes us to use the world & the blessings around us for our good but if we allow these things to draw us aside & to allure & stupefy us we will suffer great spiritual loss. Not only so, we will be robbed of the desire for spiritual sustenance & the lust for money & other things will in the end result in death.
4. Those who eat too much are just as guilty of sin as those who drink too much.
5. We cannot think lighting of sin if we think honestly of its results.
6. There is no such thing as a little sin because there is no such person as a little God to sin against.
7. Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power & the contempt of His Love.
8. The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them.
9. Sin is essentially departure from God.--Martin Luther
10. Sin, like a bee, into the hive may bring
A little honey, but expect the sting.
11. Sin is man's declaration of independence from God.
12. If sin is man's contradiction of God & His expressed will, God cannot be complacent about sin & still be God.--Saphir P. Athyal
13. At every door where sin sets its foot, there the wrath of God meets us.--William Gurnall
14. Making a sin legal does not make it harmless.
15. Sin deceives, then defiles, then deadens.
16. No power on Earth can make a man sin without his consent.
17. Once a sin was called a sin; now it's called some kind of complex.
18. Sin would have very few takers if its consequences occurred immediately.
19. The wagers of sin are apt to include a lot of overtime.
20. I see no fault that I might not have committed myself.--Johaness Wolfgant von Goethe
21. To lay up treasure on Earth is as plainly forbidden by our Master as adultery & murder.
22. To refuse to evangelise is as sinful as to commit adultery or murder.
23. As God's mercies are new every morning towards His people, so His anger is new every morning against the wicked.
24. Wrath ... is the expression of God's holy, loving displeasure with sin.
25. Never think to find honey in the pot when God writes poison on its cover.
26. Sin is a clenched fist & a blow in the face of God.
27. All sin is a lie. By it we attempt to cheat God; by it we actually cheat our souls.
28. If sin had its way it would both dethrone & annihilate God.
29. Sin is God's one intolerance.
30. Sin is self-coronation.
31. Sin is a little word with only three letters, but the biggest is "I."
32. Sin has two great powers; it reigns & it ruins.
33. A man may die as well by a fly choking him as by a lion devouring him ... so likewise, little sins will sink a man as soon as will great sins.
34. All sin hardens the heart, stupefies the conscience & shuts out the light of the Truth.
35. Sins begin like cobwebs, but become iron clamps.
36. The least sin is damnable. ... A pistol will kill as dead as a cannon.
37. As a very little dust will disorder a clock, & the least grain of sand will obscure our sight, so the least grain of sin which is upon the heart will hinder its right notion toward God.
38. I have never heard of a sin being committed without knowing full well that I had the seed of it within myself.--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
39. The seeds of all sin are in my heart, & perhaps all the more dangerously that I do not see them.
40. Believers sin less but they are not sinless.
41. It is a great sin to love a small sin.
42. It is not falling into the water, but lying in the water that drowns.
43. It is one thing for sin to live in us; it is another for us to live in sin.
44. God's wounds cure; sin's kisses kill.
45. The whole life of man until he is converted to Christ is a ruinous labyrinth of wanderings.
46. The Bible does not teach that there is no good in man; the doctrine of total depravity does not mean that. The Bible teaches, rather, that there is no good in man that can satisfy God.
47. Unconverted men would kill God if they could get at Him.--Jonathan Edwards
48. Men sometimes try to deny the depravity of our race; but it is as clearly taught in the lawyers' office & in courts of justice, as in the Bible itself. Every prison & fetter & scaffold & bolt, bar & chain is evidence that man believes in the depravity of man.--Tryon Edwards
49. I never say that civilisation is going to the dogs. I still have some respect for dogs! Mankind without the grace of God is doing things beneath the dignity of the beasts of the field.--Vance Havner
50. The rejection of the Gospel is as clear proof of moral depravity as inability to see the sun at noon is proof of blindness.
51. Man is totally lacking of that love for God which constitutes the very essence of holiness, & in its place he is possessed of a dislike of God which, though sometimes it lies sleeping, it becomes actively hostile as soon as God's will comes into conflict with his own.
52. Vain thoughts defile the heart as well as vile thoughts.
53. Sinners, like water, if simply let alone, will run downhill to ruin.
54. The trouble with a little sin is that it won't stay little.
55. Pride is one of the worst of sins & it opens the door for jealousy & a great number of others! And if you're full of all these sins, God only knows what else you may get in the bargain, because when you let sin in the door, you let the Devil in!
56. The devils don't like the Holy Spirit, they don't like the power of Jesus! Demons love people who are out of the victory & who are full of sinful vices like pride, worst of all, & jealousy & things like that! That's their happy home, that's the kind of people they like!
57. Take the Devil & cut off his head, remove the capital "D," & you've STILL got EVIL! Chop off another head & he's still VILE, & another & you've still got ill, & the last one & there's nothing left but "L"--HELL! So there's very little good about the Devil, if any!
58. A little boy threw a rock at another little boy & then spit on him. His father came out to talk to him & asked him, "Don't you realise the Devil inspired you to do this?"
The little boy responded, "Well, Dad, the Devil may have inspired me to throw the rock, but spitting in his eye was my own idea!"
--Dad
59. Worst of all my foes, I fear the enemy within.--John Wesley
60. I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.--Martin Luther
61. I know that in my flesh dwells no good thing.--St. Paul
62. The unforgivable sin is the sin of rejecting forgiveness.