confession of sin

Confession, Then Peace

Sherry Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities: – Isaiah 59:12

In many cases persons violating the law of God have hoped to cover their transgression by secrecy. They have done the deed in darkness. They hope that no ear of man heard their footfall, or listened to their speech… So was it with Achan. I dare say he took the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment, mid the confusion of the battle, and hid it when his comrades seemed too much engaged to notice so trivial an affair. While they were rushing over the fallen walls of Jericho, amidst the debris and the dust, he might be unmolested; and then, in the dead of night, while they slept, he turned the sod of his tent, dug into the earth, and buried there his coveted treasure. All looks right, to his heart’s content. He has smoothed it down, and spread his carpet over the grave of his lust. Little did he reckon of the Omniscient eye. Little did he count on the unerring lot that would come home to the tribe of Judah, to the family of the Zarhites, to the house of Zabdir, and, at last, to the son of Carmi, so that Achan himself would have to stand out confessed as a traitor-a robber of his God. Men little know the ways in which the Almighty can find them out, and bring the evidence that convicts, out of the devices that were intended to cover their sin.

There are those who have got a sin, if not a lie in their right hand, yea, a lie in their heart, and it is eating into their very life. They dare not confess it. If they would confess it to their God, and make restitution to those whom they have offended, they would soon come to peace; but they vainly hope that they can cover the sin, and hide it from the eyes of God and man. He that covereth his sin in this fashion shall not prosper. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3500.cfm

Man’s Useless Covering

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. – Proverbs 28:13

There are many ways in which men try to cover their sin. Some do so by denying that they have sinned, or, admitting the fact, they deny the guilt; or else, candidly acknowledging both the sin and the guilt, they excuse and exonerate themselves on the plea of certain circumstances which rendered it, according to their showing, almost inevitable that they should act as they have done. By pretext and presence, apology and self-vindication, they acquit themselves of all criminality, and put a fine gloss upon every foul delinquency. Excuse-making is the commonest trade under heaven…But, in truth, you are now committing a fresh sin; for you are abasing God, you are inculpating the Almighty. You are impugning the law to vindicate yourself for breaking it. There is no small degree of criminality about such an unrighteous defence. The law is holy, just, and good. You are throwing the onus of your sins upon God. You are trying to make out that, after all, you are not to blame, but the fault lies with Him who gave the commandment. Do you think that this will be tolerated?…What, I say, is this but a high impertinence, ay, veritable treason, against the Majesty of that thrice holy God, before whom even perfect angels veil their faces, while they cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts”? I pray thee resort not to such a covering as this, because, while it is utterly useless, it adds sin to sin, and exposes thee to fresh shame.

“Here’s pardon for transgressions past,
It matters not how black they’re cast
And O, my soul, with wonder view
For sins to come here’s pardon too.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3500.cfm

 

The Great Heart-Searcher

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, Sovereignty of God 2 Comments

“Know well the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds.” Proverbs 27:23

Every wise merchant will occasionally hold a stock-taking, when he will cast up his accounts, examine what he has on hand, and ascertain decisively whether his trade is prosperous or declining. Every man who is wise in the kingdom of heaven, will cry, “Search me, O God, and try me;” and he will frequently set apart special seasons for self-examination, to discover whether things are right between God and his soul. The God whom we worship is a great heart-searcher; and of old His servants knew Him as “the Lord who searches the heart and tries the reins of the children of men.” Let me stir you up in His name to make diligent search and solemn trial of your state, lest you come short of the promised rest. That which every wise man does, that which God Himself does with us all, I exhort you to do with yourself this evening. Let the oldest saint look well to the fundamentals of his piety, for grey heads may cover black hearts: and don’t let the young professor despise the word of warning, for the greenness of youth may be joined to the rottenness of hypocrisy. Every now and then a cedar falls into our midst. The enemy still continues to sow tares among the wheat. It is not my aim to introduce doubts and fears into your mind; no, but I shall rather hope that the rough wind of self-examination may help to drive them away. It is not security, but carnal security, which we would kill; not confidence, but fleshly confidence, which we would overthrow; not peace, but false peace, which we would destroy. By the precious blood of Christ, which was not shed to make you a hypocrite, but that sincere souls might show forth His praise, I beseech you, search and look, lest at the last it be said of you, “Mene, Mene, Tekel: you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.”~Charles Spurgeon

The Comforting Remedy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name -John 1:12

Sinners distressed on account of sin, and bowed down with terror, there is a way of salvation for thee, a way open and accessible -accessible now. Thou mayest now have all thy griefs assuaged, and all thy sorrows may flee away. Hear thou then the remedy, and hear it as from the lips of God, and take care that thou availest thyself of it now, for the longer thou tarriest, the harder will it be to avail thyself of it. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Do you understand me? Trust Christ and you are saved; trust Him now and all your sins are gone; there is not one left. Past, present, and to come, all gone. “Am I to feel nothing?” No, not as a preparation for Christ; trust Jesus and thou art saved. “Are there no good works required of me?” None, none; good works shall follow afterwards. The remedy is a simple one; not a compound mixture of thy things and Christ; it is just this-the blood of Jesus Christ. There is Jesus on His cross. His hands are bleeding; His heart is bursting; His limbs are tortured; the powers of His soul are full of agony. Those sufferings were offered to God in the place of our sufferings, and “Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” Believe on Him now. “But I may not,” says one. Thou mayest, nay, not only thou mayest, but thou art condemned if thou dost not believe Him now. “I cannot,” saith one. Canst not believe thy Lord? Is He a liar? Canst thou not believe His power to save? The Son of God in agony, and yet no power to save?! “I cannot think He shed His blood for me,” saith such an one. Thou art commanded to trust Him. Come just as thou art; naked, lost, ruined, helpless, poor. If thou art so bad that I cannot describe thee, and thou canst not describe thyself, yet come. Mercy’s free, mercy’s free….There is the remedy, by the power of the Holy Spirit; avail thyself of it. Now God help thee and thou art fully saved. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0313.cfm

Convicted

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day, and night Thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. -Psalm 32:3-4

 David here describes a very common experience amongst convinced sinners. He was subjected to extreme terrors and pangs of conscience. These terrors were continual; they scared him at night with visions, they terrified him all day with dark and gloomy forebodings….His pain was so extreme, that when he resorted to prayer he could scarcely utter an articulate word. There were groanings that could not be uttered within his spirit; and hence he calls his prayer a “roaring all the day long.” Wherever he was, his spirit seemed to be always sighing, sending a full torrent of melancholy groans upwards towards God.  So far did this groaning proceed, that at last his bodily frame began to show evidences of it. He grew old, and that not merely in the lines of the countenance and the falling in of the cheeks, but his very bones seemed as if they partook of the suffering…here was a man who did not show merely externally, but even internally, the heavy pressure of grief, on account of sin…So intimate is the connection between the body and the soul, that when the soul suffers extremely, the body must be called to endure its part of grief…We gather from what David says in this Psalm, and indeed in all these seven penitential Psalms, that his convictions on account of his sin with Bathsheba, and his subsequent murder of Uriah, were of the deepest and most poignant character, and that the terrors he experienced were indescribable, filling his soul with horror and dismay.

…Remember, sinner, it is God that is dealing with you; when you lay dead in your sins He looked on you, and now He has begun not only to look, but to smite; He is now wounding you with the design of afterwards making you whole; He is killing you that He may afterwards make you spiritually alive. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0313.cfm

 

Are You a Stranger to Holiness?

Sherry Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, repentance Leave a comment

He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy. -Proverbs 28:13

(T)hat man is destitute of true holiness who can look back upon his own past sin without sorrow. Oh, to think of our past lives! There were some of us who knew the Lord at fifteen years of age, but those fifteen years of unregeneracy – we can never forget them! Others may say, “We did not know Him till we were fifty or sixty.” Ah, my dear brethren! you have much to weep over, but so have those of us who knew the Lord in early life. I can look back upon God’s mercy with delight, but I hope I shall never be able to look back upon my sins with complacency. Whenever a man looks to any of his past faults and shortcomings, it ought to be through his tears. Some men recall their past lives, and talk of their old sins, and seem to roll them under their tongues as a sweet morsel. They live their sins over again. As it was said of Alexander –

“He fought his battles o’er again,
And twice he slew the slain.”

There are those who revel in the memory of their iniquities. They live their life in imagination over again. They recollect some deed of lewdness, or some act of infamy; and, as they think it over, they dare not repeat it, for their profession would be spoiled; but they love the thought, and cultivate it with a vicious zest. Thou are no friend to true holiness, but an utter stranger to it unless the past causes thee profound sorrow, and sends thee to thy knees to weep and hope that God, for Christ’s sake, has blotted it out. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2902.cfm

Deceits, Impostures, and Hypocrisies

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, repentance, salvation Leave a comment

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. -Matthew 5:13

There are legitimate reasons why the world, the church, and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, may expect more from Christians than from the rest of mankind. And the first is, because they profess more. Professions should always be supported by facts, or else they are deceits, impostures, and hypocrisies. A Christian professes himself to be a renewed man; he has learned the evil of sin, repented of it, and fled from it to Christ Jesus; he professes to have been pardoned, and to have received a new heart and a right spirit; he professes, also, to be a child of God, and an heir of heaven. Other men do not profess this…Now, Christian, if you profess this, your life must prove it, or else, if your life gives the lie to your religious pretensions, you stand convicted of a flagrant falsehood, a fraud on men and a felony against God. It is a high crime and misdemeanor for a man to assume the name of a son of God, when he is utterly devoid of the divine nature, and lives in unholiness. In proportion as the privilege and the honor of a child of God is great, the sin of false pretensions to grace is increased. If you say you are regenerated, renewed, and sanctified, then be all that this means, or else cease your boasting…The world, in these times, will be sure to ask for proofs; the age for mere assertion is over. Men will say to you, you claim to have experienced this, and to be that; now, just act accordingly and we will believe you; and, if you do not give them a fair and honest reply, they will not mutter it in secret places, but they will make it plain to your face that they believe you to be a mere pretender; and, what is worse, they will blame the Christian religion of which you are so unworthy a professor…God save us from making a profession if we have not grace to live up to it.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm