Sunday Spurgeon

We have heard of men who have confessed their guilt and afterwards tried to extenuate their crime and show some reasons why they were not so guilty as apparently they would seem to be. But when the Christian confesses his guilt, you never hear a word of extenuation or apology from him. He says, “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight.” And in saying this, he makes God just when He condemns him and clear when He sentences him forever. Have you ever made such a confession? Have you ever thus bowed yourselves before God? Or have you tried to palliate your guilt and call your sins by little names and speak of your crimes as if they were but light offenses? If you have not, then you have not felt the sentence of death in yourselves. You are still waiting till the solemn death-knell shall toll the hour of your doom and you shall be dragged out, amidst the universal hiss of the execration of the world, to be condemned forever to flames which shall never know abatement. Again—after the Christian confesses his sin, he offers no promise that he will of himself behave better. Some, when they make confessions to God, say, “Lord, if you forgive me I will not sin again.” But God’s penitents never say that. When they come before Him they say, “Lord, once I promised, once I made resolves but I dare not make them now, for they would be so soon broken. They would but increase my guilt and my promises would be so soon violated that they would but sink my soul deeper in Hell. I can only say if you will create in me a clean heart, I will be thankful for it and will sing to Your praise forever. But I cannot promise that I will live without sin, or work out a righteousness of my own. I dare not promise, my Father, that I will never go astray again...