ONE LITTLE SIN by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 9, 1881

ONE LITTLE SIN.

By Uriah Smith

“ONE leak will sink a ship; and one sin will bar us out of Heaven.” Such is the declaration that we often hear; and as often as we hear it, we tacitly, at least, give assent thereto. But do not many who thus assent, show by their course of life that there is, lurking in their hearts, a secret skepticism in reference to the sentiment thus expressed? Else why the persistent clinging to some sin, the constant pursuing of some course, which is perhaps the only obliquity in an otherwise consistent Christian life? Such may be yielding to the false logic of temptation, pleased and charmed with the sophistry which proposes to grant them the indulgence of some favorite sin, and yet bring them out all right at last. They perhaps reason boldly with their own hearts what they would not like to express openly, that it cannot be that the Lord will reject them for one little sin; that they have given up many wrongs, have ceased from many sins, deny themselves in a great many respects, bear many crosses, and do much for the Lord; and it is not possible that he will reject them at last, and doom them to perish in the lake of fire, for one little sin which they so desire to retain, one little indulgence which they find it so hard to discontinue.

Perhaps God will not reject you at last for that one sin especially; but do you suppose that you will come up to the Judgment with that one sin alone upon you? Do you suppose you can retain that one sin and keep yourself free from everything else to the last? Let us reason. The Lord wants the whole heart. The Holy Spirit requires an entire surrender. Yet you have some little idol in the heart, which bars the Saviour out. The Holy Spirit strives with you for the surrender of that sin; but you resist. It calls upon you to dethrone every idol from your heart; and you perhaps often sing,

“The dearest idol I have known, Whate’er that idol be, Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only thee.”

Yet you make a mental reservation in behalf of some little idol which you would fain persuade yourself is not of much consequence, and you can safely retain. The Holy Spirit continues to strive; yet you hold on to your sin. Will this state of things always continue? No. There comes a time when the Spirit will say, I can strive no longer. Then what position does this little sin assume? It becomes one of infinite magnitude. No one can charge blame upon the Spirit of God for finally ceasing to plead, when its pleas are persistently rejected. And you reject its pleas that you may retain that sin. You thereby declare that you set more value upon that little sin than you do upon all that the Holy Spirit proposes to do for you, and all the promises that are made to the overcomer.

The Holy Spirit being thus grieved away, what follows? You are exposed to the enemy on every side. You cannot stand. Seven spirits worse than the first are ready to crowd in and take possession of the house you had kept so thoroughly swept of every sin but one. Rapidly you descend in the ways of evil; and when the day of retribution comes, you stand condemned, not then for one little sin, but as an unpardonable apostate, a monster of iniquity. So much comes from one little sin. Thus one little sin bars us out of Heaven. It may have been a tiny seed at first; but you cherished it; and cherished, it would grow; and, growing, its nature was to choke, root out, and cover, all else with its deadly shade; for sin, when it is finished, no matter how small its beginning, bringeth forth death.

One little leak will sink the ship. Why? Because by that leak the ship is brought into identically the same condition at last it would have been in, had a whole plank been removed from its bottom from bow to stern. So through the avenue of one little sin, the sinner becomes as full of iniquity as though he had forever wallowed in its foulest depths.

One little sin cherished keeps open an avenue between yourself and the enemy. Kept open long enough, he is sure of full possession. There is no safety till this is closed. For this, the Lord entreats, the Spirit pleads. Reader, beware of the one little sin. It may look little and harmless now; but it will develop into the deadly Upas; and when it reaches such a state as to alarm you with undeniable tokens of danger, it will be beyond your power to eradicate the evil or check its growth. Put it away now. Let the last sin go. Dethrone the last idol. Be entirely the Lord’s. Serve him with a perfect heart, and follow him fully; or you may as well not follow him at all. U. S.