The Delilah in the bosom!

The Delilah in the bosom!

(Thomas Watson, “The Lord’s Prayer“)

If you would not come short of the kingdom of heaven, 
take heed of indulging any sin. One millstone will drown, 
as well as more. One sin lived in will damn, as well as more. 
If any one sin reigns—it will keep you from reigning in the 
kingdom of heaven. 

Especially keep from sins of your natural constitution; 
your darling sin. “I kept myself from my iniquity”—that 
sin which my heart would soonest decoy and flatter me 
into. As in the hive there is one master bee—so in the 
heart there is one master-sin. Oh, take heed of this!

How may this darling-sin be known?

1. That sin for which a man cannot endure the arrow of 
a reproof, is the bosom-sin. Men can be content to have 
other sins declaimed against; but if a minister puts his 
finger upon the sore, and touches upon that one special 
sin—then their eyes flash with fire, they are enraged, 
and spit the venom of malice!

2. That sin which a man’s heart runs out most to, and he 
is most easily captivated by—is the Delilah in the bosom! 
One man is overcome with wantonness, another by worldliness. 
It is a sad thing for a man to be so bewitched by a beloved sin
that he will part with the whole kingdom of heaven—to gratify 
that lust!

3. That sin which a man is least inclined to part with, is the 
endeared sin. Of all his sons, Jacob could most hardly part with 
Benjamin. “Will you take Benjamin away!” Gen 42:35. So says 
the sinner, “This and that sin I have left—but must Benjamin go 
too? Must I part with this delightful sin? That goes to my heart!”

Take heed especially of this master-sin. The strength of sin 
lies in the beloved sin, which, like a cancer striking at the 
heart, brings death. 

I have read of a monarch, who being pursued by the enemy, 
threw away the crown of gold on his head—that he might run 
the faster. Just so, the sin which you wore as a crown of gold 
must be thrown away—that you may run the faster to the 
kingdom of heaven. 

Oh, if you would not lose glory, mortify the beloved sin! Set it, 
as Uriah—in the forefront of the battle to be slain. By plucking 
out this right eye—you will see the better to go to heaven!