confession of sin

Christ’s Authority

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

…and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations… – Luke 24:47

My brethren, you must proclaim the gospel according to your ability. It is not a thing which you may do or may not do at your own discretion. But you must do it if you have any respect for your Savior’s name. If you dare pray in that name, if you dare hope in that name, if you hear the music of joy in that name, then in the name of Jesus Christ preach the gospel in every land. But it means more than that. Not only preach it under His orders, but preach it on His authority. The true servant of Christ has His Master to back him up. The Lord Jesus will seal by threats or by grace, the word of His faithful messengers. If we threaten the ungodly, the threat shall be fulfilled. If we announce God’s promise to the penitent, that promise shall be surely kept. The Lord Jesus will not let the words of His own ambassadors, fall to the ground. “Lo, I am with you always,” He says, “even to the end of the world. Go you, therefore and teach all nations.” You have Christ with you; teach the nations by His authority.

Oh, sinner, there would be no acceptance of your repentance if it were not for that dear name! Oh, guilty conscience, there would be no ease for you through the remission of sin if it were not that the blessed name of Jesus is sweet to the Lord God of hosts! We dare preach pardon to you in His name. The blood has been shed and sprinkled on the burning throne. The Christ has gone in within the veil, and stands there, “able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, seeing He always lives to make intercession for them.” There is assuredly salvation in His name, and this is our glory, but, “there is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.” That name has a fullness of saving efficacy, and if you will but rest in it, you shall find salvation, and find it now. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Click to access chs1729.pdf

The Divine Warrant for Missions

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

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. – Luke 24:47

The text says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations. Here, then, we have the divine warrant for missions. They are no speculations, or enthusiastic dreams. They are matters of divine command. I daresay you have heard of what the Duke of Wellington said to a missionary in India who was questioning whether it was of any use to preach the gospel to the Hindus. “What are your marching orders?” said this man of discipline and obedience. “What are your marching orders?” That is the deciding question. Now the marching orders are, “Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” …We are to preach the gospel everywhere; missions are to be universal. All nations need the preaching of the word. The gospel is a remedy for every human ill among all the races that live upon the face of the earth. Some out of all nations shall receive it, for there shall be gathered before the eternal throne men out of every kindred, nation, and tongue. No nation will utterly refuse it. There will be found a remnant according to the election of grace even among the most perverse of the tribes of men.

Brethren, there was a Divine necessity that Christ should die, and an equally imperative must that He should arise again from the dead. But there is an equally absolute necessity that Jesus should be preached to every creature under heaven. It behooves to be so. Who, then, will linger? Let us each one, according to his ability and opportunity, tell to all around us the story of the forgiveness of sin through the Mediator’s sacrifice to as many as confess their sin and forsake it. We are bidden to preach repentance of sin and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, let us not be slow to do so. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Click to access chs1729.pdf

Finding Mercy

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

He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. – Proverbs 28:13

There is nothing in repentance deserving of the favor of God. But, the Lord Jesus Christ having come, we read, “He that confesses and forsakes his sin shall find mercy.” God accepts repentance for the sake of His dear Son. He smiles upon the penitent sinner, and puts away his iniquities. This we are to make known on all sides. Every thief is sorry when he has to go to prison, every murderer is sorry when the noose is about his neck, the sinner must repent, not because of the punishment of sin, but because his sin is sin against a pardoning God, sin against a bleeding Savior, sin against a holy law, sin against a tender gospel. The true penitent repents of sin against God and he would do so even if there were no punishment. When he is forgiven, he repents of sin more than ever, for he sees more clearly than ever the wickedness of offending so gracious a God.

Repentance is not a grace which is only to be exercised by us for a week or so at the beginning of our Christian career. It is to attend us all the way to heaven. Faith and repentance are to be inseparable companions throughout our pilgrimage to heaven. Repenting of our sin and trusting in the great Sin Bearer is to be the tenor of our lives, and we are to preach to men that it must be so. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins. Repentance is a plant that never grows on nature’s dunghill. The nature must be changed, and repentance must be implanted by the Holy Spirit or it will never flourish in our hearts. We preach repentance as a fruit of the Spirit or else we greatly err. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Gospel Repentance

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

“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” – Luke 24:47

You that would faithfully serve Christ note carefully how He taught His disciples what they were to preach. We find different descriptions of the subject of our preaching, but on this occasion it is comprised in two things—repentance and remission of sins. I am glad to find in this verse that old-fashioned virtue called repentance. It used to be preached, but is now out of fashion. Indeed, we are told that we always misunderstood the meaning of the word, “repentance,” and it simply means a “change of mind” and nothing more. I wish that those who are so wise in their Greek knew a little more of that language, for then they would not be so ready with their infallible statements. True, the word does signify a change of mind, but in its scriptural connection it indicates a change of mind of an unusual character. It is not such a fitful thing as men mean when they speak of changing their minds, as some people do fifty times a day, but it is a change of mind of a deeper kind. Gospel repentance is a change of mind of the most radical sort—such a change as never was worked in any man except by the Spirit of God.

Let every man understand that he will never have remission of sin while he is in love with sin, and that if he lives in sin he cannot obtain the pardon of sin. There must be a hatred of sin, a loathing of it, and a turning from it or it is not blotted out. We are to preach repentance as a duty. “The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now command all men everywhere to repent.” “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” He that has sinned is bound to repent of having sinned. It is the least that he can do. How can any man ask God for mercy while he lives in his sin? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Click to access chs1729.pdf

A Burnt Child Dreads the Fire

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

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. – Romans 6:14,15

There is no fear that the doctrine of the grace of God will lead men to sin, because its operations are connected with a special revelation of the evil of sin. Iniquity is made to be exceeding bitter before it is forgiven or when it is forgiven. When God begins to deal with a man with a view of blotting out his sins and making him His child, He usually causes him to see his evil ways in all their heinousness; He makes him look on sin with fixed eyes, till he cries with David, “My sin is ever before me.” In my own case, when under conviction of sin, no cheering object met my mental eye, my soul saw only darkness and a horrible tempest. It seemed as though a horrible spot were painted on my eyeballs. Guilt, like a grim chamberlain, drew the curtains of my bed, so that I rested not, but in my slumbers anticipated the wrath to come. I felt that I had offended God, and that this was the most awful thing a human being could do. I was out of order with my Creator, out of order with the universe; I had damned myself for ever, and I wondered that I did not immediately feel the gnawing of the undying worm. Even to this hour a sight of sin causes the most dreadful emotions in my heart. Any man or woman here who has passed through that experience, or anything like it, will henceforth feel a deep horror of sin. A burnt child dreads the fire. “No,” says the sinner to his tempter, “you once deceived me, and I so smarted in consequence, that I will not again be deluded. I have been delivered, like a brand from the burning, and I cannot go back to the fire.” By the operations of grace we are made weary of sin; we loathe both it and its imaginary pleasures. We would utterly exterminate it from the soil of our nature. It is a thing accursed, even as Amalek was to Israel. If you, my friend, do not detest every sinful thing, I fear you are still in the gall of bitterness; for one of the sure fruits of the Spirit is a love of holiness, and a loathing of every false way. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1735.cfm

Answering to the Righteous Judgment of God

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

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds. – Romans 2:5,6

When we offend a man, if we are right-minded, we not only note the fact with regret, but we sit down and weigh the matter and seek to rectify it; for we would not be unjust to any person, and if we felt that we had been acting unfairly it would press upon our minds until we could make amends. But are there not some of you who have never given half an hour’s consideration to your relation to your God? He has spared you all this while, and yet it has never occurred to you to enter into your chamber and sit down and consider your conduct towards Him. It would seem to be too much trouble even to think of your Creator. His longsuffering leads you to repentance, but you have not repented; in fact, you have not thought it worth your while to consider the question at all: you have thought it far more important to enquire, “What shall I eat and what shall I drink?” Bread and broadcloth have shut out the thought of God. Thou think that God is altogether such an one as thyself, and that He will wink at thy transgression and cover up thy sin; but thou shalt not find it so. That base thought proves that thou despisest His longsuffering. Ah me, you will stand at His judgment bar before long-and then? Perhaps ere this week is finished you may have to answer, not to me, but unto Him that sits upon the throne; therefore, I do implore you now, for the first time give this matter thought. Despise no longer the goodness and longsuffering of God…Will you not care about the saving of your own souls? Oh, strange infatuation-that men will not consent to be themselves saved; but foolishly, madly, hold out against the mercy of God which leads them to repentance. Oh, that hearts may be touched with pity for their slighted Saviour, that they may seek His face! Here is the way of salvation: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” ~ C. H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1714.cfm

Grieving the Sovereign God

Sherry Attributes of God, confession of sin, prayer, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering..? – Romans 2:4

“What the eye does not see the heart does not rue,” is a truthful proverb; but every transgression is committed in the very presence of God, so that penitent David cried, “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” Transgression is committed in the sight of God, from whose eyes nothing is hidden. Remember also, that the Lord never can forget; before His eyes all things stand out in clear light, not only the things of to-day, but all the transgressions of a life. Yet for all this He doth forbear. With evil reeking before His face, He is slow to anger, and waiteth that He may be gracious.

Some are patient because they are powerless: they bear and forbear because they cannot well help themselves; but it is not so with God. Had He but willed it, you had been swept into hell; only a word from Him and the impenitent had fallen in the wilderness, and their spirits would have passed into the realms of endless woe. In a moment the Lord could have eased Himself of His adversary; He could have stopped that flippant tongue and closed that lustful eye in an instant. That wicked heart would have failed to beat if God had withdrawn His power, and that rebellious breath would have ceased also. Had it not been for longsuffering you unbelievers would long since have known what it is to fall into the hands of an angry God. Will you continue to grieve the God who so patiently bears with you?

Here let us pause; and oh, that each one who is still unsaved would sing most sincerely the words of Watts:-

“Lord, we have long abused Thy love,
Too long indulged our sin,
Our aching hearts e’en bleed to see
What rebels we have been.

“No more, ye lusts, shall ye command,
No more will we obey;
Stretch out, O God, Thy conqu’ring hand,
And drive Thy foes away.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1714.cfm