Jeremiah 31:30

DISCOURSE: 1073
THE SURE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN

Jeremiah 31:30. Every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

POPULAR sentiments, even when they become so general as to be reduced to a standing proverb, are not therefore to be received as true: they must be tried, exactly as if they were the suggestions of any solitary individual; since the direction given us by God himself is, “Prove all things, and hold fast that only which is good [Note: 1 Thessalonians 5:21.].” There was amongst the Jews an established proverb, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” The Prophet Ezekiel, as well as Jeremiah, mentions this [Note: ver. 29. with Ezekiel 18:2.]: and both of the prophets declare, that, whatever ground for it had existed in past times, God would in future visit with his judgments offenders themselves, and not deal with men in a way that should involve the innocent with the guilty. True it is, that, in the very Decalogue itself, he had said, that he would “visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him [Note: Exodus 20:5.]:” but his dispensations henceforth, and especially “in the latter days,” should bear rather the stamp of individuality, in accordance with men’s personal habits; responsibility attaching to those only whose conduct should merit his displeasure: “Every one should die for his own iniquity; and every man that should eat the sour grape, his teeth should be set on edge.”

In considering this solemn declaration, I shall notice it,

I. As an answer to the prevailing sentiment of that day—

It must be confessed that there was ground for this sentiment—
[God, in his conduct towards the whole human race, had given occasion for it. Our first parents sinned; and all their posterity became heirs of their guilt and misery. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, even over those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression [Note: Romans 5:12.]:” yes, “by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners; and by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation [Note: Romans 5:18.].” This alone, methinks, would justify the proverb, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

But besides this, God, in his dealings with his own peculiar people, had, on many occasions, caused the children to suffer for the iniquities of their parents. At the general deluge, and at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, the new-born infant suffered no less than the most abandoned parent; as was the case also when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with all their respective families, went down alive into the depths of the earth. There were instances, also, wherein the offenders themselves had either been removed from this world, and their survivors were left to suffer for their iniquities; or where the offender himself escaped, whilst others were punished on his account. It was in David’s days that a famine of three years was sent to punish Saul’s violation of the engagements which, many hundreds of years before, had been made with the Gibeonites [Note: 2 Samuel 21:1; 2 Samuel 21:6.]: and, for David’s numbering of the people, seventy thousand of his subjects were slain, whilst he himself was spared [Note: 2 Samuel 24:10; 2 Samuel 24:15.]. Manasseh, too, had been taken to his rest, when for “his iniquities, which the Lord would not pardon,” the whole nation of Judah was carried into captivity in Babylon [Note: 2 Kings 23:26; 2 Kings 24:3.]. And even in the dispersion of the Jewish nation by the Romans, and in all the calamities they have suffered to this time, “on them has come all the blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom they slew between the temple and the altar [Note: Matthew 23:35.].” The people, who murdered their Messiah, said, “His blood be on us and on our children;” and, verily, his blood has been on their children, even to the present hour.

In truth, constituted as the world is, there is a necessity that the happiness of children should, to a very great extent, depend on their parents. It is scarcely possible but that, both in our civil and social relations, evil should arise from this source; since the welfare of subjects must, of necessity, be affected by the conduct of their governors; and the welfare of children by the conduct of their parents.]

But though in some respects this proverb was true, yet, as uttered by them, it was false and impious—

[In this proverb the Jews intended to exculpate themselves, and to cast reflections upon their God. They wished it to be understood that they were not suffering for their own sins, but for the sins of others; and that God dealt hardly with them, in making them amenable for sins which they had not committed. But, not to mention that a man himself is in some respect punished in his children, where is there, on the face of the whole earth, a person who has not merited all that has ever come upon him? and who has not reason to acknowledge that “God has punished him far less than his iniquities have deserved [Note: Ezra 9:13.]?” Whatever may have been the primary occasion of our troubles, there is abundant ground for them within our-selves: “A living man can have no just reason to complain [Note: Lamentations 3:39.]:” for, if we had had our just desert, there is not one amongst us that would not have been in the very depths of hell, long, long ago. Those who have been partners in iniquity may, and will, reproach each other in that place of torment; but none shall be able to reproach their God: every one of those un-happy spirits shall be constrained to say, “True and righteous are thy judgments, Lord God Almighty [Note: Revelation 16:7.]:” and the day that is appointed for assigning to men their respective doom, is on this very account declared to be “the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God [Note: Romans 2:5.].” This proverb, therefore, when uttered with a view to justify man as innocent, or to reproach God as unjust, must be regarded as profane and impious in the extreme.]

The answer given to it in my text is singularly important,

II.

As a declaration of God’s established rule of procedure in all ages—

Sin, by whomsoever committed, shall not go unpunished. It shall be followed with evil,

1. In this world—

[“A sour grape,” whether eaten by one or many, “will set the teeth on edge:” and sin, whether of a more open or secret kind, will be followed with evil to the soul. Let the profligate and abandoned sinner, the drunkard, the whore-monger, the adulterer, say, whether what he has followed with such avidity, and regarded as such a source of exquisite delight, has not, in the issue, been productive of pain? Let the injury which he has sustained, in his name, his health, his property, be taken into the account, and he will be constrained to acknowledge that “the way of transgressors is hard [Note: Proverbs 13:15.].” We may appeal with confidence to every sinner in the universe; “What fruit had ye, even at the time, of those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” Verily, not an hour had elapsed after your sweetest gratifications, before they were embittered with shame, and fear, and self-reproach.

But, not to confine ourselves to the licentious profligate, let us ask of the man who, whilst externally moral, is yet under the influence of evil tempers, Who ever harboured envy in his bosom, and did not find it “as rottenness in his bones [Note: Proverbs 14:30.]”? Or, who ever gave way to anger, malice, revenge, and did not experience in his own soul a disquietude, that of itself was sufficient to shew the hateful character of the dispositions he indulged?

Let us, however, pass by the positive violations of God’s Law, and notice only those which, for distinction sake, I will call negative. Suppose a person to be “blameless” as Paul himself, in relation to outward sin, but only to be lukewarm in relation to the course of life prescribed by the Gospel: suppose him to be observant of all “the forms of godliness, but yet destitute of its power:” will that man be happy? No, in truth: he is wicked in God’s estimation: and “there is no peace to the wicked [Note: Isaiah 57:21.]” “Throughout his whole life,” he is, and must of necessity be, “in bondage to the fear of death [Note: Hebrews 2:15.]:” and to speak to him of death and judgment, is to rob him of all the false peace that he enjoys.

Then I say, that even in this world “no man can eat the sour grape without having his teeth set on edge;” so indissoluble is the connexion between sin and misery; and so irreversible is God’s decree, that “it shall be ill with the wicked [Note: Isaiah 3:11.].”]

2. In the world to come—

[Here there may be mitigations of the pain which sin brings with it: but hereafter the misery of sinners will be unmixed and unabated to all eternity. God cautions us not to deceive ourselves with any false hopes respecting this: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap: he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting [Note: Galatians 6:7.].” It matters not who he be: he may be the first monarch upon earth; yet shall not his earthly dignity protect him: for God has said, that “though hand join in hand, he shall not go unpunished [Note: Proverbs 11:21.]” Whatever be the inequalities of God’s dispensations now; some suffering in consequence of the sins of other men, whilst the perpetrators of those evils escape with impunity; in that world to which we are hastening, “every man shall bear his own burthen [Note: Galatians 6:5.],” and shall “receive from God according to his works: to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, God will give eternal life; but to those who are contentious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil [Note: Romans 2:6.].”]

To all of you then I say—
1.

Contemplate, not so much the immediate, as the more remote, consequences of sin—

[Sinful indulgences no doubt bring with them a present gratification; but it is the part of wisdom to inquire what the ultimate effects of them will be, A man with a cup of poison in his hand would not consider whether its contents were pleasant to his taste, but whether it would not soon be productive of agonies and death. Now we are told respecting the sinner, that “though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth; yet his meat in his bowels is turned; it is the gall of asps within him [Note: Job 20:12.].” To the truth of this every soul of man must tear witness: and most of all is the truth of it felt in that land from whence no traveller returns. Is it not madness, then, to purchase any momentary gratification at so vast an expense; knowing, as we do, that if we repent of it, our sorrows must be proportionably great; and that, if we repent not of it, they must be infinitely greater to all eternity? I pray you, Brethren, bear in mind the instruction in my text, and calculate well the evils that will ensue, ere you venture any more to taste forbidden fruit — — —]

2. Contemplate the provision which God has made for those who repent them of their sins—

[You have heard that men may suffer for the sins of others. But know, that they may also be benefited by the sufferings of another. Yes, my Brethren, if in Adam you died, in Christ you may be made alive; and through the sufferings of your adorable Lord you may be not only delivered from the sufferings which you yourselves have merited, but may be made partakers of a glory and felicity which you could never otherwise have obtained. If, then, you have been ready to apply to yourselves that proverb, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” now apply to yourselves the converse of it, which is contained in the Gospel; where you are told, that Christ died, the just for the unjust [Note: 1 Peter 3:18.]” and that “by his stripes you may be healed [Note: 1 Peter 2:24.].” Wonderful, indeed, is this truth, and well calculated to reconcile us to the loss which we sustained by the first Adam. Yes, know that the Son of the living God “has become a curse for us [Note: Galatians 3:13.];” and that “God has made him, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we, who had no righteousness, might be made the righteousness of God in him [Note: 2 Corinthians 5:21.].” O, bear in mind this stupendous mystery, which must for ever silence every murmur against those dispensations which appear to us so dark, and which have given rise to the proverb before us. Know, of a surety, that “if you die, it is for your own iniquity;” but if ever you be saved, it is for the righteousness of your incarnate God. Rely then on him. Look to him to remedy all that your own iniquities have brought upon you: and thus, where sin has abounded, grace shall much more abound; and as sin hath reigned unto death, so shall grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord [Note: Romans 5:20.]