confession of sin

Go to the Beloved Physician

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; When His candle shined upon my head, and when by His light I walked through darkness; As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle… – Job 29:2-4

It is unprofitable to read these words of Job, and say, “Just so, that is how I feel,” and then continue in the same way. If a man has neglected his business, and so has lost his trade, it may mark a turn in his affairs when he says, “I wish I had been more industrious;” but if he abides in the same sloth as before, of what use is his regret? If he shall fold his arms and say, “Oh that I had dug that plot of land; oh that I had sown that field;” no harvest will come because of his lamentations. Up, man, up and labor, or you will have the sluggard’s reward, rags and poverty will still be your portion. If a man be in declining health, if drunkenness and riot have broken down his constitution, it may mark a salutary reform in his history if he confesses his former folly; but if his regrets end in mere expressions, will these heal him? I trow not. So neither will a man, affected by spiritual decline, be restored by the mere fact of his knowing himself to be so. Let him go to the beloved Physician, drink of the waters of life again, and receive the leaves of the tree which are for the healing of the nations. Inactive regrets are insincere. If a man really did lament that he had lost communion with God, he would seek to regain it. If he doth not seek to be restored he is adding to all his former sins this of lying before God, in uttering regrets that he does not feel in his soul.

Remember, many have been on Job’s dunghill, who knew nothing of Job’s God; many have imitated David in his sins, who never followed him, in his repentance. They have gone from their sin into hell by the way of presumption, whereas David went from it to heaven by the road of repentance and forgiveness. Never let us; merely because we feel some uneasiness within, conclude that this suffices…Up, men, and with all the strength that God’s Holy Spirit can give you, strive to drive out these traitors from your bosom, for they are robbing your soul of her best treasures. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1011.cfm

The Enemy Most to be Dreaded

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, Sovereignty of God, The Father 1 Comment

Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me… – Job 29:2

Are there not many among us who once walked humbly with God, and near to Him, who have fallen into carnal security? Have we not taken it for granted that all is well with us, and are we not settled upon our lees like Moab of old? How little of heart-searching and self-examination are practiced now-a-days! How little enquiry as to whether the root of the matter is really in us! Woe unto those who take their safety for granted, and sit down in God’s house and say, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we.” Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion. Of all enemies, one of the most to be dreaded is presumption. To be secure in a Christ is a blessing, to be secure in ourselves is a curse. Where carnal security reigns, the Spirit of God withdraws. He is with the humble and contrite, but He is not with the proud and self-sufficient. My brethren, are we all clear in this respect? Do not many of God’s people also need to bemoan their worldliness? Once Christ was all with you, brethren; is it so now? Once you despised the world, and contemned alike its pleasures and its frowns; but now, my brethren, are not the chains of worldly custom upon you? Are not many of you enslaved by fashion, and eaten up with frivolity? Do you not, some of you, run as greedily as worldlings after the questionable enjoyments of this present life? Ought these things to be so? Can they remain so, and your souls enjoy the Lord’s smile? “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” “If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” You cannot be Christ’s disciples and be in fellowship with the ungodly. Come ye out from among them; be ye separate; touch not the unclean thing; then shall ye know right joyfully that the Lord is Father to you, and that you are His sons and daughters. But, brethren, have ye gone unto Jesus without the camp, and do ye abide there with Him? Is the line of your separation visible-ay, is it existing? Is there any separation at all? Is it not often the case that the professed people of God are mixed up with the sons of men so that you cannot discern the one from the other? If it be so with any one of us, let him humble himself, and let him cry in bitterness, “Oh that I were as in months past.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1011.cfm

Come Now to Your Divine Help

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

Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple. – Psalm 65:3,4

Dear brethren and sisters, there may be difficulties in your way; iniquities may hinder you, or infirmities; but there is the promise, “Thou shalt purge them away.” Infirmities may check you, but note the word of divine help, “Blessed is the man whom Thou causest to approach unto Thee.” He will come to your aid and lead you to Himself. Infirmities, therefore, are overcome by divine grace. Perhaps your emptiness hinders you: “he shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house.” It is not your goodness that is to satisfy either God or you, but God’s goodness is to satisfy. Come, then, with thine iniquity, come with thine infirmity; come with thy emptiness. Come, dear brethren, if you have never come to God before. Come and confess your sin to God and ask for mercy; you can do no less than ask. Come and trust His mercy, which endures for ever; it has no limit. Think not hardly of Him but come and lay yourself down at His feet. If you perish, perish there. Come and tell your grief; pour out your hearts before Him. Bottom upwards turn the vessel of your nature, and drain out the last dreg, and pray to be filled with the fullness of His grace. Come unto Jesus; He invites you; He enables you. “(I) have not prayed before,” you say. Everything must have a beginning. Oh, that that beginning might come now. It is not because you pray well that you are to come, but because the Lord hears prayer graciously, therefore, all flesh shall come. You are welcome; none can say you nay. Come! ’tis mercy’s welcome hour. May the Lord’s bands of love be cast about you; may you be drawn now to Him. Come by way of the cross; come resting in the precious atoning sacrifice, believing in Jesus; and He has said, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.” The grace of our Lord be with you. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1023.cfm

Our Sorrow, His Cleansing, Our Peace

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

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? – Heb 9:13-14

Beloved, you and I know what it is, at times, to have defilement upon the conscience and to go mourning because we have erred from the Lord’s commands. The ungodly do not thus sorrow—their conscience, by fits and starts, accuses them, but they never listen to its accusations so as to feel their inability to draw near to God. No, they will even go with a guilty conscience to their knees and pretend to offer to God the sacrifice of prayer and praise while they are unforgiven, alienated and rebellious! You and I, if we are, indeed, the Lord’s people, cannot do this! Guilt on our conscience is to us a horrible thing. There are no pains of body—there are no tortures inflicted by the Inquisition which are at all comparable to the whips of burning wire which lash the guilty conscience! It is an awful thing to feel yourself guilty. And the better a man you are, the more will it grieve you to be consciously in a wrong state. We can come to God as sinners to seek pardon, but we cannot come before the Lord as dear children while there is any quarrel between us and our great Father. No, we must be clean, or we cannot approach our God! See how the priests washed their feet at the laver before they offered incense unto the Lord. We cannot have fellowship with God while there is a sense of unconfessed and unforgiven sin upon us…Sin on the conscience is a natural wall between God and the soul. You cannot get into loving communion until the conscience is at ease! Therefore, I charge you, fly at once to Jesus for peace! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm

Get to Living Things!

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. – Numbers 19:16

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption [for us]. – Hebrews 9:12

In the passage in Numbers which is now before us, the one source of defilement dealt with is death. “Whoever touches one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.” Now, death is peculiarly the symbol of sin as well as the fruit of sin. Sin, like death, defaces the image of God in man. As soon as death grasps the body of a man, it destroys the bloom of beauty, the dignity of strength and drives forth from the human form that mysterious something which is the token of life within. However comely a corpse may appear for a time, yet it is defaced—the excellence of life has departed and, alas, in a few hours, or at longest in a few days, the image of God begins utterly to pass away—corruption and the worm commence their desolating work and horror follows in their train. What death does for the “human face,” sin does for the spiritual image of God upon us. It utterly defaces it…Like a dog at one’s heels, sin is always with us! Like our shadow, it follows us, go where we may. Yes, and when the sun shines not and shadows are gone, sin is still there. Where shall we flee from its presence and where shall we hide from its power? When we would do good, evil is present with us. How humbled we ought to be at the recollection of this!

Sin is death. Labor to keep from it! Inasmuch as you are delivered from the yoke of sin, go forth and serve God! Since He is the living God and evidently hates death and makes it to be an uncleanness to Him, get to living things! Offer to God living prayers and living tears! Love Him with living love! Trust Him with living faith! Serve Him with living obedience! Be all alive with His life—not only have life—but have it more abundantly! He has purged you from the defilement of death, now live in the beauty and glory and excellency of the Divine Life and pray the Holy Spirit to quicken you that you may abide in full fellowship with God! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm

The Grandest of All Truths

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation Leave a comment

By His stripes we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5

For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Leviticus 17:11

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit… – 1 Peter 3:18

Remember that the sufferings of Christ were vicarious. He stood in our place that we might stand in His place. He took our sin upon Himself and, being found with that sin upon Him, He was made to bear the penalty that was due to it. And He did bear it—and this is the way whereby we are healed—by Jesus Christ, Himself, taking our infirmities and bearing our sicknesses. This Doctrine of Substitution is the grandest of all Truths of God and though all these years I have continued to preach nothing else but this, what better news can I tell a poor sinner than that the Savior has taken his sins and borne his sorrows for him? Take away the Doctrine of the Substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ and you have torn out the very heart of the Gospel! “The blood is the life thereof” and you have no living Gospel to preach if Atonement by blood is once put into the background! But, O poor Soul, if you believe that Jesus is the Christ and that Christ took your sins and bore them in His own body on the tree where He died, “the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God,” you are saved, and saved forever!

Does someone enquire, “How am I to get this Atonement applied to my soul?” …If you believe on Jesus Christ—if you will accept the testimony of God concerning His Son whom He has set forth to be the Propitiation for sin—and rely upon Him, alone, for salvation, you shall be saved! …Trust yourself with Him who died for you, and you are saved! And, continuing to trust Him, you shall daily feel the power of His expiation, the marvelous healing that comes by His stripes! Repentance is the first symptom of that healing. When the proud flesh begins to yield; when the wretched gathering commences to break and the soul that was formerly swollen through trying to conceal its sin bursts with confession and acknowledgment of its transgression— then is it being healed by the stripes of Jesus! This is God’s wondrous remedy for the soul-sickness of sin! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2499.cfm

The Matchless Sufferings of Incarnate Love

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

“With His stripes we are healed.”—Isaiah 53:5

BROTHERS AND SISTERS, whenever we come to talk about the passion of our Lord—and that subject is clearly brought before us, here, by the two words, “His stripes”—our feelings should be deeply solemn and our attention intensely earnest. Take off your shoes when you draw near to this burning bush, for God is in it! If ever the spirit should be deeply penitential and yet humbly confident, it ought to be when we hear the lash falling upon the Divine and human Person of our blessed Master and see Him wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.

Stand still, then, and see your Lord and Master fastened to the Roman column and cruelly scourged! Hear the terrible strokes. Mark the bleeding wounds and see how He becomes a mass of pain even as to His blessed body! Then note how His soul, also, is flagellated. Hark how the whips fall upon His spirit till His inmost heart is wounded with the tortures, all but unbearable, which He endures for us! I charge my own heart to meditate upon this solemn theme without a single wandering thought—and I pray that you and I may be able to think together upon the matchless sufferings of Incarnate Love until our hearts melt within us in grateful love to Him.

Remember, Brothers and Sisters, that we were practically there when Jesus suffered those terrible stripes—

“‘Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were!
Each of my crimes became a nail,
And unbelief the spear.”

We certainly had a share in His sorrows. Oh, that we were equally certain that “with His stripes we are healed.” You smote Him, dear Friend, and you wounded Him—therefore do not rest until you can say, “with His stripes I am healed.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2499.cfm