From belly to cards or dice – Thomas Brooks

“Those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces.” Luke 7:25

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.” Luke 16:19

“The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment,” Luke 16:22-23

Luxury is one of the great darling sins of our age and day!It is a very God dishonoring sin, and a God-provoking sin, and a soul-damning sin! It shuts them out from all the glory of heaven and tumbles them down to the lowest hell!

Look! no luxurious person shall enter into heaven. Of all sorts of sinners the luxurious sinner is most rarely reformed. The adulterer may become chaste, the thief may become an honest man, the swearer may obtain a sanctified tongue; but how rare is it to see a luxurious person repent, break off his sins, close with Christ, and walk to heaven!

Of such professors who live and wallow in luxury and intemperance, if we compare Christ’s laws and their lives together, I think we may confidently conclude, that they are not Christians. Panormitan, a heathen, having read the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of Matthew, and comparing those rules of Christ with the loose and luxurious lives of professing Christians; concluded that those people were not Christians.

Chrysostom preferred brute beasts before luxurious people; for the beast goes from belly to labor; when the luxurious person goes from belly to bed, or from belly to cards or dice, if not to something worse!

You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.” James 5:5