======================================================================== A SOUL GIVEN UP TO SIN by Thomas Brooks ======================================================================== Summary: The sermon emphasizes the dangers of being left to sin and the importance of humbly begging God not to give us up to our own desires. Topics: "Divine Judgment", "Sin" Scripture References: Psalm 81:12, Proverbs 14:12, Jeremiah 17:9, Ezekiel 18:30, Hosea 4:17, Matthew 7:13-14, Romans 1:24, Galatians 6:7, James 1:14-15, 1 Peter 5:8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thomas Brooks emphasizes the grave danger of being left to sin, portraying it as the greatest judgment one can face. He warns that when God allows a person to follow their sinful inclinations without resistance, it signifies His rejection and a path leading to destruction. Brooks reflects on the dire state of those who are unteachable and incorrigible, highlighting the need for divine intervention to avoid the ways of one's own heart. He expresses a deep desire for God to afflict or tempt him rather than abandon him to his own sinful desires, echoing Augustine's plea for deliverance from oneself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is the greatest judgment in the world to be left to sin. O unhappy man--when God leaves you to yourself, and does not resist you in your sins! Woe, woe to him at whose sins God winks at. When God lets the way to hell be a smooth and pleasant way--that is hell on this side hell, and a dreadful sign of God's indignation against a man; a token of his rejection, and that God does not intend good unto him. That is a sad word, "Ephraim is joined to idols--let him alone!" (Hosea 4:17) Ephraim will be unteachable and incorrigible; he has made a match with sin--and he shall have his bellyful of it! And that is a terrible saying, "So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels." (Psalm 81:12). A soul given up to sin is a soul ripe for hell--a soul hastening to destruction! Ah Lord! this mercy I humbly beg--that whatever You give me up to, You will not give me up to the ways of my own heart! If You will give me up to be afflicted, or tempted, or reproached--I will patiently sit down, and say, It is the Lord, let Him do with me what seems good in His own eyes. Do anything with me, lay what burden You will upon me--but do not give me up to the ways of my own heart! Augustine says, "Deliver me, O Lord, from that evil man--myself!" ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/thomas-brooks/a-soul-given-up-to-sin/ ========================================================================