prayer

Confession of Sin

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, repentance, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1John 1:9

We must say, “Lord, I own with shame that as my nature is corrupt such has my life been; I am a sinner both by nature and by practice.” Make the confession of the two things, of the cause and the effect, of the original depravity—the foul source, and then of the actual sin which is the polluted stream. And if you say, “How am I to confess it?” I would say this—To confess sin does not mean merely on some one occasion to repeat a catalogue of sins before God in private, nor at certain set seasons to rehearse a list of our faults, but it means a life-long acknowledgment of our sin. We must take our places as men who have sinned, and never attempt to occupy the position of innocent beings. We are to look towards God as a man ought to look who has transgressed. Do you understand me? The Pharisee took up the posture and spirit of a man who had no sin in him and said, “God, I thank thee.” He was not confessing sin, but claiming righteousness, and he was not accepted because he was out of the light, that is to say, he was not speaking and feeling according to truth. But the publican, though he said little, and made no confession of sin in detail, yet by his posture, by his smiting on his breast, by his not daring to look up, by the sigh which he heaved, was virtually confessing sin. When a man prayerfully begs that he may feel the power of the blood of Jesus, he is confessing sin, for is not the blood of Jesus needful because of our sin? The daily exercise of faith in Jesus Christ is a confession of sin, for nobody would need to believe in a Savior unless he had sin. Baptism is a confession of sin,—who needs to be buried with Christ if he be alive by a righteousness of his own? To come to the communion table, and remember there the atoning sacrifice, is a confession of sin; for we should need no remembrance of our blessed Substitute if we were not sinners. Confession of sin is best carried out when we deal with God as those who have offended Him, not as those who feel that they are innocent. We are to act before the Lord as those who know that sin is in them. And how ought such to behave? They will walk with God very humbly, and watchfully, jealous lest inbred corruption should get the mastery of them.

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon

God Sees Sin in Us

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. – 1John 1:8

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived… – 1Corinthians 6:9

Be not deceived; God is not mocked… – Galatians 6:7

While the man who has deceived himself says, “I have no sin,” he has not deceived the Lord. God sees sin in us if we do not. The ostrich is reported to bury her head in the sand, and then to suppose herself safe, but she is the more speedily taken; and we may shut our eyes and say, “I have no sin,” but in so doing instead of securing eternal salvation we shall as practically give ourselves up to the destroyer as the bird of the desert is fabled to do. Let a man say, “I have no sin,” and he has condemned himself out of his own mouth, for the text says of such a man the truth is not in him, and he who hath not truth in him is not saved. The absence of confession of present sin means the absence of the light of truth, and sincerity. All sorts of people God saves, however black their sins, but the man of a false spirit, the Pharisaic washer of the outside of the cup, while the inside is foul, is the last person who is likely to be saved. A main point in conversion consists in a man’s being honest, for it is the honest and good ground which receives the seed. If you preach the gospel among the roughest and most profane of men, there is more hope of success among them than among hypocritical professors. Open enmity and opposition are better than that pretended friendship which begins and ends with the shallow compliments of empty formalism. Outward religiousness, unattended by heart piety, does a man serious injury, by rendering him superficial and unreal in all that he does in reference to God, and as God desires truth in the inward parts He will not parley with dishonest men. Pretend and profess and boast what ye will, but this know, that the living God abhors everything which is not according to the strictest truth.

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon

Sin Daily Confessed and Pardoned

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

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. – 1John 1:8-10

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. – 1 John 1:7

Our only safe course—and may the Spirit of God grant us grace to follow it—is to come to God as we actually are, and ask Him to deal with us, in Christ Jesus, according to our actual condition. If we are to walk with God at all it must be in the light, and if we once walk in the light with Him our condition will tally with the description of verse seven; we shall see sin in ourselves and daily feel the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing us therefrom. Only on the footing of sin daily confessed and pardoned can there be any fellowship between us and the eternal God this side heaven, for that footing is the only one consistent with the facts of the case. Let us daily ask the Lord to keep us in a truthful spirit, admitting the truth, both concerning ourselves and our Lord, feeling its power, and desiring to be taught still more of it. Let us pray Him to deal with us not according to our suppositions but according to the fact and let us entreat Him never to allow us to rejoice in fancied blessings, such as might satisfy our proud, half-stupified conscience, but to give to us the real blessings of genuine forgiveness, and effectual cleansing from all unrighteousness.

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon

God is Light

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. – 1 John 1:8-10.

God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all:” and consequently He cannot have fellowship with darkness. God is light, that is purity: and as the thrice Holy One He can hold no communion with iniquity. God is light, that is knowledge, for all things are known unto the Lord, and with ignorance He has no affinity. God is light, that is truth, for He can neither err, nor break His word, and therefore He cannot smile on anything that is false. We are constantly erring, first on this side and then on that, for there is darkness in us; God is light essentially, and it is not possible for His nature to be affected by either impurity or error. Out of this attribute of His nature arises the fact that the Lord always deals with things as they are. Man invents fictions, but God creates facts. We conceive of things as they appear, but God sees them as they exist. “Man looketh at the outward appearance, but God looketh at the heart.” The dress of things impresses us, but all things are naked and open before Him. The Lord never misrepresents, nor has fellowship with misrepresentation. We are for ever hurrying about with our paint and varnish and tinsel, laboring to make the meaner thing appear equal to the more precious, and spending our skill in making the sham seem as brilliant as the reality, but all this is contrary to the way of the Lord. Everything is true in God, and everything is seen in its reality by His all-discerning eye. Because He is light, He deals with things in the light, treating them as they are. If God is to deal graciously with us, we must each one stand in the light and present ourselves before Him as we are. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon

Your Most Important Concern

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved… – Acts 16:31

Procrastination often comes in to cause the solemnities of the Gospel to seem less serious. “There is plenty of time,” we say. “We are quite young as yet and we have many years in which to think of these things.” Where the sere and yellow leaf is beginning to fall, there is something else to put away thoughts of eternity. There is another daughter to be married, so a few more hundreds of pounds must be saved up for her. And then when you have retired to your country house, you will think about “making your peace with God”—as if it were nothing to you that you are “condemned already” because you have “not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,” and as if it were a matter of no importance to be an enemy of God and to be unsaved for 50 or 60 years of sin—as if it were a small thing to have the leprosy of sin still eating into your immortal spirits!

We live in vain if we do not live unto God and if we do not live by faith in Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior. “Live in vain,” did I say? It were better for you, dear Hearers, and for me, that we had never been born if we should live and die without faith in Jesus Christ! You may neglect your business, you may neglect what you will—but do not neglect your souls. First, first, FIRST—beyond and before everything else—must be the matter of your own personal salvation! On board a vessel that is going down, a man may forget his luggage and many precious treasures that he has with him. It is for his life that he is concerned. Even Satan spoke the truth for once when he said, “Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will he give for his life.” Let it be so with you in the highest sense. Make your soul your first care, for what shall it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? So the first thing for you to do is to follow Christ for life, for salvation—looking to Him by faith, in obedience to the Apostolic command, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.”

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

All True Faith is Opposed

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden Him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. – Luke 7:39

And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace… – Luke 18:39

The woman’s faith, and the blind man’s faith, was alike in defying and conquering opposition. Little do we know the inward struggles of the penitent as she crossed the threshold of Simon’s house. “He will repel thee,” the stern, cold Pharisee will say, “Get thee gone, thou strumpet; how darest thou defile the doors of honest men.” But whatever may happen she passes through the door, she comes to where the feet of the Saviour are stretched out towards the entrance as He is reclining at the table, and there she stands. Simon glanced at her: he thought the glance would wither her, but her love to Christ was too well rooted to be withered by him…Her Lord was there, and she felt safe. Timid as a dove, she trembled not while He was near; but she returned no defiant glances for Simon’s haughty looks; her eyes were occupied with weeping…Her Lord, her Lord, was all to her. She overcame through faith in Him, and held her ground, and did not leave the house till He dismissed her with “Go in peace.”

It was the same with the blind man. He said, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” They cried, “Hush! Why these clamours, blind beggar? His eloquence is music; do not interrupt Him. Never man spake as He is speaking. Every tone rings like the harps of the angels. Hush! How darest thou spoil His discourse?” But over and above them all went up the importunate prayer, “Son of David, have mercy upon me,” and he prevailed. All true faith is opposed…faith must wage war for its existence.

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon

Retaining His Presence

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. – Psalm 2:11

When God does come to us, we should seek by all means to retain His presence. How can this boon be secured?

First, by humbly walking with God. If we grow proud because we are honoured by our King’s company, and begin to think that there must be, after all, something in us to attract God to us, and cause His face to shine upon us, we shall not long have the Lord among us. Seek, then, to be lowly in His presence.

Next, let much grateful praise be given to Him from loyal hearts. If God is saving sinners, let us give Him the glory of it. If He is at work among us, let us not go and talk about what we have been doing; but let us tell men and angels, too, what HE has done. Let us never dare to handle God’s jewels as if they were our own.

Moreover, there must be perpetual watchfulness. If God be with us, He may give us a great victory, and yet tomorrow we may be defeated because Achan has hidden the goodly Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold. Unless we are sober and vigilant, we may sadly have to mourn that the Lord has withdrawn His presence from us. There is a fierce light that beats around His throne. “Our God is a consuming fire.” Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? The Scriptural answer is, “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly.” May God make us men of such calibre as can endure that heat!

And lastly, there must be an individual fellowship with God on the part of each one of us. It is hard work for the whole church to walk with God every day and all the day; but if each member will see to it that his own personal life is right, the church, as a whole, need fear nothing.

Is God in the Camp? by C. H. Spurgeon