Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth a lie.—Ps. 7:14.
This sermon appears in several different collections of Sibbes' works. Once again, Sibbes is using a psalm of David as his starting point. The subject this time is "the saint's safety in evil times."
In this sermon he speaks of good and evil, right and wrong, heaven and hell. These subjects aren't particularly popular--even within church circles--but these subjects are always relevant. They remain relevant because they feature largely and prominently in the word of God, in the Bible.
Spurgeon said of Sibbes, "Sibbes never wastes the student's time. He scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands." I wholeheartedly agree.
Here are some of the pearls and diamonds within this sermon.
Not only wicked men, but their devices, are the seed of the serpent.
The more liberty we have not to sin, makes our sin the greater.
The more deliberation any man takes in sinning, the more his soul is pleased with wickedness. A heart long exercised in sin will admit of no impression of grace; for the spirits are so absorbed with other designs that they are dry and dead to better things.
Delight carries the whole strength and marrow of the soul with it; much of the soul is where delight is.
The spirit is either the best or the worst part in a man.
A good Christian thinks it not enough to see good done by others, but labours to have a hand in it himself.
God hath but two things in the world that he much regardeth; his truth, and his church, begotten by his truth; and shall we think that he will suffer long, wretched men who turn that wit and power which they have from him against his truth and church? No, assuredly; but he will give them up by that very wit of theirs, to work their own destruction;
Only wretched man seeks happiness in the way to misery, and heaven in the way to hell.
Whatever we get by sin for the present, it will prove the worst bargain that ever we made.
Many are not content to go to hell alone, but they will draw as many others as they can into their fellowship here, and torment hereafter.
That which we should especially labour for is, 1, to be good in ourselves; and 2, to do all the good we can to others, even as God our Father is good, and doth good; and the further our good extends, the more we resemble our Father. Such as we are, such are our thoughts, such are our devices.
What are all our temporal deliverances, if we live still in sin, go on in sin, die in our sins, and so perish eternally?
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
