confession of sin

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

Click to access chs1729.pdf

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

There is Life in a Look at Jesus Crucified

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

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:14,15

I believe there are some who really believe themselves to be out of the region of hope. My dear Friends, if God gathers together the outcasts, why should He not gather you? And if it is true that Jesus Christ does not look for goodness, but that He only considers our sin and misery, why should He not look upon you? May I urge you to try my Master? If you go to Him confessing your unworthiness and trusting yourself with Him, if He does not save you, I would like to know about it, because you will be the first person I have ever heard of that trusted himself with Jesus and was rejected! It will not be the case, whatever your condition may be, however desperate your state!

You think your condition to be worse than I have pictured it to be, and you fancy that I cannot know anything about how bad you are. Well, I do not know your special form of rebellion, but you are the very person I mean, for all that. I say, if you are as black as Hell, if you are as foul as the Stygian bog, if you have sinned till your sins cannot be counted and if your actions are so heinous that infinite wrath is their just desert—yet come and look to those five wounds and to that sacred head once wounded, and to that heart pierced with the spear! There is life in a look at Jesus crucified! Will you try it? As surely as God’s word is true, if you do but glance your eyes at Him who “died the just for the unjust,” you shall be brought to God and reconciled! For whoever believes in Him shall be saved! “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

Outcasts, Jesus Christ Can Lift You Up!

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

The LORD upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down. – Psalm 145:14

He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. The LORD lifteth up the meek… – Psalm 147:2,6

It is a great joy to me to know that our Lord Jesus Christ can save the most wicked of the wicked, the most fallen of the fallen, the most depraved of the depraved! If you have sunk so low that there is not much to choose between you and a devil—and some men and women do get as low as that—yet Jesus Christ can lift you up! If your life story is such that it would be a pity it should ever be told and most grievous that it should ever have been enacted, yet Jesus can wash all the stains of your life away and save you, even you!..Is there no helper on earth? Yet is there One in Heaven! Is there no friend below? Yet is there One above! Is there nothing that can save you? Do you contemplate suicide? Stop, stop your hand, for Jesus is “able to save to the uttermost”—to the uttermost— “them that come unto God by Him.” Let the prayer go up, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and go your way with hope in your soul, for “He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.” Come, then, Outcast! Come to your Redeemer and find pardon! “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as snow! Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool!” Jesus is able to wash away every transgression from those who are steeped in guilt. Countless iniquities dissolve and disappear before the presence of His mighty love, for He, even Jesus, gathers together the outcasts of Israel! You who have shut yourself out as an outcast, you shall be gathered! For whereas they call you an outcast, whom no man seeks after, you shall be called Hephzibah, for the Lord’s delight is in you! Only believe in Jesus Christ and cast yourself upon Him! Outcasts of this sort are the people who most gladly welcome Christ. People who have nowhere else to go but to Him—people so cast down, so full of sin, so everything but what they ought to be—these are the people to whom Christ is very precious! O outcast Soul, trust in Jesus and He will save you! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm