Confession and Pardon
S. P. Jones. Psalm 32:3-4 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.… — "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven;" not, Blessed is that man who lives in a four-storey house; not, Blessed is that man who has a hundred thousand dollars to his credit in bank; not, Blessed is the man that owns the most railroad stock and government bonds. If you want to be happy, you must obtain the favour of God. And the way to obtain it is to seek God's pardon. David declares that happy is the man who is pardoned, and "unto whom the Lord umputeth not iniquity." My relations to God are determined by my loyalty to Him. In the sight of God you are a transparent man. He can see through you. I have a contempt for a man who has anything in him to hide. I believe in having no wrong side and no right side to a character. It should be all right. I like that. But poor old human nature is so made up that no man knows everything. Some will say in their hearts, "If our pastor knew these things about me, what would he say?" Oh, listen; God hath already found it out. Be what you are through and through. Some pieces of humanity are put up like some bales of cotton down South. They put The nice, white cotton outside, and in the centre they put the dog-tail cotton — the worst cotton there is. And some humanity is put up on the same principle exactly. Dealers have got a method of finding out what a bale of cotton is right through. And some of these days God will show you what you are through and through. David tells us that he sinned against God, and kept silence, and would not confess; and that by reason of his refusal to confess his sins, "day and night the hand of God was heavy upon him, and his moisture was turned into the drought of summer." Oh, what striking figures he uses here! Listen to me now, you who have not had peace of mind for months. Days seem years when your mind is on yourself, because you are miserable. David told what his trouble was, what your trouble is; and he said because of it, "My moisture was turned into the drought of summer." I have learned how a person feels by seeing how the fields are in a droughty season. Our garden is dried up, and every green thing droops, and the best land produces only about ten per cent. of a crop. A drought of this kind may only last for weeks, but a drought in the human heart may be one that will last for ever. "My moisture is turned into the drought of summer." Oh, to see the drought of summer upon the hearts and lives of professing Christians, and upon those out of the Church, and to see their spiritual nature droop, and wither, and die under a drought that is brought upon them by their own voluntary conduct and action! Where is there a man that won't confess? We come to him to-night asking him to seek the Lord, and he says, "I don't want to come up." What he means is, "I don't want to confess"; that is the trouble. When a fellow gets willing to confess he will go and do it before anything else. The Lord says, "He that confesseth shall find mercy." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Sin is a debt: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Now, as sin is a debt, the best thing to do in the world is — don't sin at all. That is best, and thank God it is possible. "Yes," you say, "but I can't help sinning." You can help it just as well as you can keep from getting into debt? Am I obliged to get into debt to-day or to-morrow? Which sin am I obliged to commit to-day or to-morrow? "You are not like me," you hear people say; "I cannot live without sin." Whenever you hear a person say that, you may know he is falling into sin more deeply, and that he has made provision for it. Well, I say, the best thing in the world is, don't do wrong. But if you do happen to slip and do wrong the best thing is to fall down and repent. Don't let it get cold before you have repented of it. A man ought to be able to repent and to pray anywhere that he can afford to sin. Sin is a debt you have to meet at the mercy-seat of God with an honest, open confession, or you will have to meet it in the judgment with eternal bankruptcy of your soul. Now, which will you do? If you have sinned, the best time for you to repent is now. You cannot afford to put it off any longer. (S. P. Jones.) Parallel Verses KJV: When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. WEB: When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.