Posted on 12/13/2021 10:55:08 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones” (Proverbs 14:30).
This is a plain, simple message. A sound heart pumps the blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood, according to Leviticus 17. If you have a good, strong heart chances are you are a healthy individual. Chances are good that you are going to live to a ripe old age.
“. . . but envy,” notice he doesn’t say that a bad heart is the rottenness of the bones, but envy. In other words, sin affects your health.
“And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26).
Sin affects your health. And that is not only true in the Old Testament, but it affects folks under grace as well. Note what Paul says, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (I Corinthians 11:30). He said, “You haven’t judged your sins, and because of it, some of you have died an early death.”
You may have a strong, healthy heart. One fellow that was a Physical Education major did quite a bit of experimentation with the muscles, heart rate, and things like that to determine certain things about physiology. He would check pulse rates, and some athletes that were in tip-top shape had rates of 50-52 beats per minute. But if a man wants to destroy the soundness of his heart, sin will do it. Job wrote: “For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one” (Job 5:2). It’s just another way of saying, “The wages of sin is death.” Sin will not only destroy a man spiritually, but it will destroy him physically.
Nothing worse than a 40-year-old man that looks like he is 60 from all that smoking, and drinking, and carousing. It is a scary sight. You would think that others would learn from such a demonstration, but they all say, “Ah! I can’t happen to me!” Until it does.
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