6 Sermon Illustrations on Sin in Believers

"Man's corrupt nature has been compared to a wild fig tree, or to ivy growing upon a wall, of which you may cut off the body, boughs, sprigs, and branches, yet still there will be something that will be sprouting out again until the wall be digged down." When we think that we have fairly done with sin it suddenly sprouts again and seems as vigorous as ever. As it is said of a tree, "at the scent of water it will bud," so is it true of our corrupt nature; at the first opportunity it will shoot forth. Vainglorious professors have talked of their being free from all likelihood of sinning, but experienced believers in the depth of their

hearts are made to feel the evil of their nature and therefore they walk humbly with God and cry to him to keep them from evil. Often does it happen that the boaster is tripped up by the enemy whom he thought to be dead and buried, while the watchful, careful Christian is preserved in the midst of the fiercest temptations and enabled to maintain his integrity. We may well believe in the vitality of evil when we see how it survives the efforts of grace; and yet the Lord Jesus can and will destroy it, root and branch, and we shall for ever adore him when this marvellous work is accomplished. Divine Master, uproot in me the root of bitterness, and tear away the follies which twine about my soul.

"It is true that natural corruption doth not break out in all with a like violence; but a benumbed snake is a snake; a sow washed is not changed. As when the liver groweth, other parts languish, so great lust intercepteth the nourishment of other corruptions." It seems, then, that there may be a winter to our corruptions as well as to animal and vegetable life, and then the sin which dwelleth in us may be quiet, as though frozen into a rigid powerlessness: but what of that? The weather will change, and then the nest of vipers will be all astir again, each one with venomed tooth aiming to destroy. Experience has also taught the wise observer that sin may be bound by sin, and one ruling passion may hold the rest in check. One man is kept from licentiousness by covetousness: he would be glad to revel in vice if it were not so expensive; another would be a rake and a spendthrift, but then it would not be respectable, and thus his pride checks his passions. This restraint of sin by sin is no proof that the nature is one jot the better, but that it puts on a fairer appearance, and is more likely to deceive. When Satan casts out Satan it is a deep game; but we must not be deceived by the diabolical trick. When the devil's work seems good it is at its worst.

Nothing will answer with inbred sin but the killing of it. When Joshua had the five kings in the cave at Makkedah, he was not content to shut them in with great stones. No, he took special pains to fetch them out, and hang them up. The condemned race must die, and then Israel can breathe freely. Sin will be our death if we do not put it to death. Checks and restraints are of small value; what is needed is the root-and-branch cure—crucifixion with Christ. To cure sin by sin is a mere piece of stage-playing, which will never answer before God. We need to be purged of the cause of sin, yea, of all sin, or we can never enter heaven. O thou destroyer of the serpent and his seed, break the head of sin within me, so that it may never lift up its usurped power within my soul. Let the sword of the Spirit do a thorough work within my nature, till not a single rebel lust shall remain alive in the wide domains of my being. Furbish thy sword, O Captain of the Host, and do thine office within me, for I cannot rest till sin is slain.

If you can drive a man from outward vice, how far have you improved him if he lives in inward sin? You have benefited him so far as the sight of man is concerned, but not before God. There was a man killed on Holborn Hill not long since, and I have heard that there was little or no external appearance of injury upon his body. He had been crushed between an omnibus and a cart; and all the wounds were internal: but he died just as surely as if he had been beaten black and blue, or cut in a thousand gashes. So a man may die of internal sin: it does not appear outwardly for certain reasons; but he will die of it just the same if it be within. Many a man has died from internal bleeding, and yet there has been no wound whatever to be seen by the eye.

— Spurgeon