========================================================================
  ONE DEAD FLY
  by Thomas Brooks
========================================================================

Summary: The sermon emphasizes the importance of dealing with sin in our
lives, as one sin can have eternal consequences and damn a person
forever.

Topics: "Hypocrisy", "Sin"
Scripture References: Leviticus 14:44, Ecclesiastes 10:1

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thomas Brooks emphasizes the danger of harboring even a single sin,
likening it to a dead fly that spoils a box of precious ointment. He
warns that no hypocrite is completely free from the love of sin, as they
often cling to secret lusts that can lead to spiritual death. Brooks
illustrates that just as one disease can be fatal, one sin can condemn a
soul, making it essential to address any sin in our lives to avoid
spiritual leprosy. He urges listeners to recognize that allowing even
one sin can lead to eternal damnation, just as one hole in a ship can
sink it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

No hypocrite is totally divorced from the love and liking

of every known sin. There is still some secret lust, which

as a sweet morsel he rolls under his tongue, and will not

spit it out. Every hypocrite lives under the dominion and

reign of one base lust or another--and will do what he

can to save the life of his sin--though it be with the loss

of his soul. A hypocrite always reserves one nest-egg or

another in his heart or life, for Satan to sit and brood on.

O sirs! Satan can hold a man fast enough by one sin,

as the fowler can hold the bird fast enough by one claw.

Satan knows, that one sin lived in and allowed, will as

certainly damn a man as many sins; just as one disease,

one ulcerous part, may as certainly kill a man as many.

One dead fly will mar the whole box of precious ointment.

One jarring string will bring the sweetest music out of tune.

If the leper in the law had the spot of leprosy in any one

part of his body, he was accounted a leper; although all

the rest of his body was sound and whole, Lev. 14. Just

so, he who has the spot of the leprosy of sin allowed in

any one part of his soul, he is a spiritual leper in the eye

of God; he is unclean, though in other parts he may not

be unclean.

If a swine does but wallow in one miry or dirty hole--it

is filthy; and certainly, that soul which does but wallow

in any one sin--he is filthy in the eye of God.

O sirs! remember that . . .

as one hole in a ship will sink it, and

as one stab at the heart will kill a man, and

as one glass of poison will poison a man, and

as one act of treason will make a man a traitor,

so one sin lived in and allowed, will damn a man forever!

One millstone will sink a man to the bottom of the sea as

well as a hundred. Just so, one sin lived in and indulged,

will sink a man to the bottom of hell as well as a hundred.

========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/thomas-brooks/one-dead-fly/
========================================================================