October 28

Faith enables the soul to recognize not only the nature of sin void of all true pleasure, but also the temporal quality of its frivolous elation. Faith persuades us not to give up God's sure mercies from Satan's transient thrills. This persuasion makes Moses run from the enchantments of the Egyptian court into the fire of "affliction" because he knows them for what they are-- "pleasures.... for a season" (Hebrews 11:25). If you saw a man jump from a ship into the sea, at first you might think him insane; but later if you saw him standing on the shore and the ship swallowed up by the waves, you would know he took the wise course.

Faith sees the world with all the stimulus of sin sinking; there is a leak in them which the wisdom of man cannot repair. Now is it not better to swim by faith through an ocean of trouble and get safely to heaven than to sit in the lap of sinful pleasures until we drown in hell's gulf?

Sin's enjoyment cannot last long because it is not natural. Whatever is not natural soon decays. The nature of sugar, for example, is to be sweet and therefore it holds its sweetness; but artificially sweetened wine loses its good taste in just a few days. The pleasure of sin is foreign to its nature and will corrupt the life it touches. None of the sweetness which now satisfies sinners will be tasted in hell; only bitterness will spice the sinner's cup there.

Another reason sin's exhilaration must be short-lived is that life itself does not last long, and they both end together. Many times the pleasure of sin dies before the man dies. Sinners live to bury their worldly joy. The worm breeds in their conscience before it breeds in their flesh by death. But be sure the advantages of sin never survive this world. The word has gone out of God's mouth: He "distributeth sorrows in his anger" (Job 21:17). Hell's climate is too hot for evil delights to survive.

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