Posted on 06/13/2022 11:41:28 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour” (Proverbs 14:9).
“Fools make a mock at sin,” here again is your scorner. He mocks hard preaching. He laughs at sin, hell, the Devil. He boasts that he and the Devil will enjoy drinking beer in hell. Well, he ought probably to consult with the rich man. If he couldn’t find a drop of water to cool his tongue, I doubt anyone is going to find a cool, frosty glass of beer—though perhaps some will spend an eternity seeing one in his mind.
They say, “Oh, a little of this or that isn’t going to hurt anybody,” but the Bible says “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9). What started out as a little at the beginning becomes a whole lot more than they bargained for at the end. A person that has no wisdom and no understanding are deceived into thinking that they can handle the situation. They know when to quit—until they don’t—and then it is usually too late. Every wino in the streets have said that a time or two. Looking back after they have lost everything, are those words they wish they could have all over to rethink? They know when to quit, nut not how to quit.
“Fools make a mock at sin,” is a great preaching text. Fools joke about it. They make fun of it. How many times have we heard men say that they are looking forward to going to hell because “all their buddies are there.” They joke about heaven, and ol’ Saint Peter at the gate. You know why they do all that stuff? They do it to somehow reassure themselves. Way deep down they have a gnawing idea that they are going to go to hell, and they are trying to ease their troubled conscience through levity. They are not interested in changing their lives, so they try to deceive themselves into thinking that it just isn’t going to be as bad as what their hearts and conscience tells them that it is.
“. . . but among the righteous there is favour,” favor with God and favor with men.
How a man treats sin is how God treats that man. If a man sees the awfulness of sin, and the terribleness of sin—and does something about it—God favors that man. He will give him favor and be favorable toward Him and give him grace and forgiveness. In, on the other hand, a man jeers at sin and refuses to acknowledge how bad sin is, God will one day laugh at his distress. Sin was awful enough to send God’s Son to the Cross.
No one is fooled when you try to make him think that you have more than you have, know more than you know or are more than you are. This is one of the most pitiful gestures a young person can make. Avoid it. Be yourself. Someone is sure to like you for what you really are, and everyone will respect your lack of pretense.
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