Our ‘Appeal’ Against Sin - Psalm 26:9-10

Text: “Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men; in whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.”

Psalm 26:9-10.

Good morning, sin-fearing Christian!  If there is any real fear in your life or in mine it is the fear that we will sin grossly against our Holy Lord God Who has bought us with the sinless Price of His own dear Son’s precious Blood.  And sinning as we all do, due to the infirmities of our sin-prone flesh, we fear that we might be found gathered with unredeemed sinners, the ‘goats’ of the world and not Christ’s ‘sheep’.  This a most fearful dread indeed.  When the Great ‘Gathering In’ of Eternal souls finally comes - you and I fearfully dread being gathered together with the Eternally damned.

Verse 9.  “Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men; in whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.  Oh, do not gather my soul with sinners, for the wine-press of Thine Eternal anger!  Marcion, the heretic, seeing Polycarp, wondered that he would not own him.  ‘Do you not know me, Polycarp?’  ‘Yea,’, said Polycarp, ‘I know thee to be the firstborn of the Devil,’ and so despised him.”  (George Swinnock1627-1673)

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?  And what communion hath light with darkness?  And what concord hath Christ with Belial?  Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel (unbeliever)?…Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”      (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

Bishop John Taylor Smith (1860-1937) on Sin:

1. A Startling Alternative:  “There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.”  (Joshua 7:13)  “Either we must destroy it, or it will destroy us (any known wilful sin).”

2. Spare It Not!:  “And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.”  (1 Samuel 15:33)  “Spare not the king of our besetting sin, but hew it in pieces before God.  So let Thine enemies perish in me, O Lord.”

3.  Grace, the Only Security:  “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods.”  (1 Kings 11:4)  “Nothing forms in itself a security against the deceitfulness and depravity of the human heart.  Nor will old age cure the heart of any propensity.  God’s grace alone can overcome sinful passions.  We are pilgrims in an enemy’s country, therefore we need to watch and pray.”

The Rebuke of the World:  “But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God; is not that He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away?”  (2 Kings 18:22)  “How powerful the rebuke when the world seizes hold of our inconsistencies and sins.”

Besetting Sin - the Antidote: “Having prayed against your besetting sin, do you work and watch?

The Nets of Sin:  “Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me.”  (Psalm 31:4)  “How many and strong are the nets of sin.”

Whiter Than Snow:  “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”  (Psalm 51:7)  “Sin like leprosy may make us white as snow - only Christ can make us whiter.”

How To Conquer an Old Habit:  “He (Peter) began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.”  (Mark 14:71)  “Had Peter been watchful and prayerful his old sailor habit could not have returned.”

Sin Cast Out and Kept Out:  “And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein and them that bought.”  (Luke 19:45)  “He cast out, but did not destroy - so with sin.  Whilst Christ abides within, sin is cast out and kept out.”

A Christian Cannot Live in Sin:  “For sin shall not have dominion over you.”  (Romans 6:14)  “It is possible for a Christian to be drawn into any sin - but impossible for him to stay in it.”

The Progress of An Evil Word:  “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.”  (James 3:6)  “Master the tongue and you can master all else.  The sin of the tongue is not the sin of a moment; it goes on.  A beast is tamed, a fire burns out, but progress of an evil word cannot be stopped.  On, on!  A battlefield is dis-proportionate to a country lost or won on it - so with the tongue.  The great Fire of London began with a little shop but destroyed from Tower to Temple.”

(All quotations taken from Gems from Bishop Taylor Smith’s Bible, by Ambassador Classics, pages 104-106)

Thought:  Sin, being the only thing that can separate true Christians from our daily fellowship with the Lord, is a most deadly enemy to be feared indeed.  Let us seek to see it for what it is and flee fast from it day by day.  (1 John 1:7-10)