ALL SIN MUST BE PUT AWAY by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 25, 1889

ALL SIN MUST BE PUT AWAY.

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

EVERY sin has to be slaughtered. Not a single sin is to be tolerated. Off with their heads! Drive the sword into their hearts! They are all to die. Not one of them may be spared. The whole race is to be exterminated, and so buried that not a bone of them can be found. Here is a labor worthy of all the valor of faith and the power of love.

They must all be driven out, for every sin is our enemy. I hope we have no enemies in this world among our fellow-men. It takes two to make a quarrel; and if we will not contend, there can be no contention. We are neither to give nor take offense; but if it be possible, as much as lieth in us, we are to live peaceably with all men. I trust that we have forgiven everybody who has ever harmed us, and would desire to be forgiven by all against whom we have done anything wrong. But every sin, every evil, of every shape, is our true enemy, against which we are to wrestle to the bitter end. One of the marks of a child of God is that, although he may sin, he does not love sin. He may fall into sin, but he is like a sheep which, if it tumbles into the mud, is quickly up again, for it hates the mire. The sow wallows where the sheep is distressed. Now, we are not the swine that love the slough, though we are as sheep that sometimes slip with their feet. Would to God that we never did slip! While you hate sin, sin hates you. It will do you all the hurt it can; it will never be satisfied with the mischief that it has wrought you. It will try to lead you farther and farther into danger, so as to bring you down to hell. Sin would utterly destroy you if it could, and it certainly could and would if the grace of God did not prevent. Proclaim, then, a ceaseless warfare against all sin. So long as there remains sin in our heart, or in our life, or in the world, it is to be fought against to death.

Again, we should contend against all these Canaanites, and drive them out, for sin is our Lord's most cruel enemy. Jesus abhors all evil, and evil in every shape persecuted him. All sorts of sins he bore in his own body on the tree. From our sins, all of which were laid upon him, came the lashings of his back. From our sins came the bloody-sweat that covered him from head to foot. From our sins came the crown of thorns, the nails, the spear, the vinegar and gall, and the dread death of agony. Sin—oh, how our Lord loathes it! In putting it away from us he drank of that cup from which, for a moment, he started, saying, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me!"

Remember, brethren, we cannot have Christ and have any one sin reigning in our hearts. Sins of all sorts must go when grace takes possession of the soul. One form of enmity to God is as obnoxious to his law as another. Sin in satin is as great a rebel as sin in rags. You may wash sin in eau-de-cologne, but it smells no sweeter.

Remember, also, dear friends, that a man cannot be free from sin if he is the servant of even one sin. If any one sin binds him, masters him, he is not the Lord's free man. He is still a slave in the worst form of slavery; he is under the dominion of evil. Hence, you see, I spoke not too largely when I said, "Down with all!"—C. H. Spurgeon.