Scripture

Against You, and You alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in Your sight. You will be proved right in what You say and Your judgment against me is just.

~Psalm 51:4, NLT

Quote

As long as you are clinging to any attempt at justifying yourself you have not truly repented.

~Martyn Lloyd Jones

When a person comes to a clear understanding of their sin and God’s holiness, they realize that they have no plea, excuse or alibi. As long as a person is making excuses for their sin or blaming someone else, they have not repented. Really, can you justify what you have done? I cannot, end of statement. Do you really think you can blame your sins on mitigating circumstance or even the sins of others? Do you understand that in your sins and outside of Christ, you have absolutely no hope? I am seventy-four years old and I have committed a lot of sins, much more than even I realize and not one of those sins seem intelligent to me now. My sins have been stupid. There is no such thing as intelligent sin. I hate sin and I hate my sin more than I hate yours. I was selfish and vain, and I made horrible choices: the bottom line is–I did it to myself. I can’t blame deacons or hard to please church members. Like David, I deserve death and hell. There is no way I deserve forgiveness. What I am saying is this: If David and I wake up in hell; we cannot rail at God for He has given us what we deserve. We would not be able to accuse Him of injustice because hell is what we deserve.

Do you feel that God would be dealing unfairly to you if you woke up in hell? Martyn Lloyd Jones says, “If you believe that God would be unjust in sentencing you to hell, you have never repented.” Jones says the test of repentance is this: “Having looked at our own self, my own heart, my own sin and depravity: I say, I deserve hell and God would be just in sending me there. I could not accuse Him of being unjust if this were to happen.” Although I have never articulated it the same way as Jones, I agree with him whole heartedly. I do believe there are people in our churches who think they are going to heaven but or not simply because they have never repented. Study the speech of the Elder Brother in Luke 15…

‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

Do you see what he is doing? He is accusing his father of being partial and his younger brother for being a whoremonger. He does not mention any personal sin like his rotten and unloving attitude; or his failure to honor his father’s request to come in and join the party. If these self-righteous elder brothers ever confess their sin, we will have REVIVAL. If they continue to blame others, they will end up in hell. We must repent or we will perish.

Extra

Another good LORD’s day. My energy level was down but I cannot complain; the LORD is gracious and forgiving. Looking forward to meeting at DBC with the pastor’s today. They are feeding the preachers. Let’s just call it a Christmas Party. I do love Christmas for a lot of reasons. Then we party again Wednesday night at the POINT.

I have some good news: we reached our LOTTIE MOON goal yesterday. We had a big offering of over $ 5,000.00 which gives us a total of $6,516.35 to date. We will continue with the offering throughout December. Maybe we can get enough to sponsor two teachers. What a wonderful privilege it is to be able to give.

I hope you have a great day and a great week and thanks for reading the blog.