The Law deals with the sins of the thoughts; the very imagination of evil is sin. The transit of sin across the heart and mind leaves the stain of impurity behind it. The Law extends to every act in private, business, home, and religion. The Law discovers the least bit of wandering from the strict path of integrity, it condemns us all. It is utterly beyond our power to keep the divine Law in its entirety. By the Law, we can never be saved, only made guilty. Consider the spirituality of the Law, the Atonement, Justification, Sanctification, and real union to Christ. Get a true view of the spiritual extent of the Law, the divine command. See Matthew 5:28. The very thought of evil is sin. You cannot keep the Law of God, you cannot do it, it is impossible. Wrong expressions, angry temper, fears, and doubts are all sins. Did you ever pass a day without sinning? Where are your past sins right now? Did you always honor your father and mother? Did your tongue always speak the truth? Remember all your youthful sins.
Your sin has put you over your head in debt to God's divine justice. You have broken the priceless vase of God's commands. In the sight of God, your filthy hands are soiled with your Sin. You can never satisfy God's divine justice. Only Christ's Blood Atonement can do that. Your nature is as evil as your thoughts, words and actions. Your bones are filled with lust, and your blood boils with a black stream of sin. A fountain of evil is within your soul, there is a sinful leprosy which lies deep within your being. You are an enemy of God, and your carnal mind cannot be reconciled to God by your human merit. Only the Holy Ghost by the New Birth from above can give you a new heart and a right spirit. Your old sin nature is so bad it cannot be fixed by you.
Men passionately strive to save themselves by keeping the Law, but they find out quickly that the spirituality of the Law is far too strict. You've attempted to give up outward acts of sin, but you are still condemned for allowing the thoughts of them in your heart. Even a look may be fornication or adultery, the lustful desire of the heart may be theft or covetousness - straining after another man's goods, and envying him for the enjoyment of them. You cannot control your evil passions or the propensities of your sinful nature. False doctrine, heresy, schisms, hypocrisy, formalism, fanaticism, pretenses of high spirituality, and worldliness all defile you.
You cannot shake off the slough and filthiness of your old nature. The Law condemns your unchaste looks and impure thoughts. Men read the Ten Commandments and only see the letter, but they never feel the spirit cutting them. Hatred is the seed to murder. Unrighteous anger is a violation of the Law. Do you do anything to destroy or shorten your life? The commandment touches the heart. A licentious look is adultery, the foul desire condemns and defiles the soul way before the outward act of uncleanness. Let the Law with all its blaze of light flame into your soul like a filthy dungeon. The Law condemns every sinner on earth. Recollect your individual secret sins, recall them one by one, set them in the light of God's countenance.
Consider your spiritual sins, sins against the Bible, prayer, taking God's name in vain, sins against the love and blood of God, the strivings and calling of the Spirit, sins of omission and commission, failures in duty at home, church, and work. Shortcomings in speech and thought and act. Cold heartedness and apathy toward the Savior. Our minds often hastily and wrongly judge others. The sins of your imagination, the sins of your desires and delights, sins in hopes and fears. Your whole head is sick, your whole heart is faint. You've sinned against light, knowledge, against conscience, divine love, the callings and warnings of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has warned you of your imminent, impending danger, and given cautionary advice. You ignored the Spirit's gentle reproofs, caution, and direction.
You have ignored the tender warnings from the Holy Spirit's gentle voice. One ounce of a Christian's sin has as much evil in it as a ton of a lost man's sin. The heinousness of all sin is that it is against a kind, good, forgiving, loving God. You've sinned against a perfect Law which was intended for our good. Remember your wanton sins, mischievous sins, the sins in which you hurt yourself, foolish sins, despicable sins, against holiness and purity. Fix your eye on Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. Be a constant confessor of sin, live as a repenter and believer in Him. The wounds of Jesus speak peace and preach penitence. The Atonement gives us rest and leads us to be meek and lowly under a sense of abiding faultiness. We sinned, Jesus suffered. Daily as long as you shall live, confess your sins, and find free cleansing in Christ's blood from all your unrighteousness.
The human heart is a den of evil. Be a quick and constant confessor of sins. Salvation and holiness, justification and sanctification, pardon and purity. Be a confessor of Christ, and a confessor of sin. The Law cries - condemned already, dead in trespasses and sins, guilty before God, the wrath of God abideth on you. Now is mercy's moment. Heavy laden, condemned sinner, listen closely to the Grace of God. Law-condemned sinners, hellish sinners, abandoned wretches, outcasts of society are welcome at the Cross. Acknowledge your sinfulness, here is mercy, broad, ample, free, immense, and infinite. If all the sins men had ever done in will, thought, word, and deed since the world and time began were laid on one poor sinner's head, the sprinkling of Jesus' precious blood would remove the entire dreadful load instantly. Jesus' blood contains many mercies and pardons. Forgivenesses that excel the stars, the sands of the sea, the drops of dew, the sprinkles of rain, one act of blood-bought pardon cancels all your debt and the mountain of iniquity shall be cast into the sea. Your black sin stains shall be washed out by the cleaning power of the Redeemer's blood. Satan's black train is racing to hell.
Sin has brutalized and hardened your life. Your natural feelings and conscience have been defiled and seared. You have yielded your life to the evil one entirely. Let go of your sin, lay hold on Jesus. Read over the Ten Commandments and think about your sins against each one of them. Lustful glances, fleshly desires, and carnal imaginations are all sins, the Law humbles you in the dust. We have broken all the commandments thousands of times over and over. Sins against your wife, your friends, your business associates. Sins of the eyes in idle glances, sins of the tongue in idle words. Sins of the ear - heard the gospel in vain, lent your ears to dirty jokes, gossip, slander, unholy words and wicked stories, against your neighbors. Only the Holy Spirit can melt your heart with His tender influences into contrition. In every sin, there is a world of iniquity in it, there is a mine of sin in every sin. In every sin, there is a host of sins. There are many kinds of evil in every transgression. Be humbled by every one of them. God, I submit to the capital sentence. Submit yourself to the punishment due to your offense, then make an appeal to the mercy of God alone and say, "For Christ's sake, for His blood's sake, have mercy on me." Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out. This is the right way of coming to Christ - confessing your sin and the end of it, and then turning to the Great Substitute for deliverance from sin. Say that you deserve hell, cast yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, trusting only in the Great Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Everyone was against Jesus Christ. The men of rank and position despised the carpenter's son. Superstition abhorred his simplicity and spirituality, ceremonies and rituals would have nothing to do with Him who said the temple was to be destroyed, skepticism could not endure Him, He gave no ground to its doubts and speculations, kings and governors derided Him, Jesus spoke of a kingdom not of this world. Human nature is hostile toward the pure and simple Gospel. The wisdom, power, eloquence, skill, and superstition of this world is arrayed against the simple Gospel of Christ. Religion uplifts their crucifix in the place of the doctrine of the Cross, sacraments in the place of the living Bread of Life and His Atoning Precious Blood. Religion preaches salvation by priests and wafers (works and worry) instead of the pure Gospel of salvation by the grace of God through Christ Jesus alone (trust and know). True faith is supernatural - divine power of God. Real progress of Christianity must be supernatural - the work of the Holy Spirit. Gospel teachings are radical, humbling, pure, spiritual, so much above our thoughts. Health, carnal ease, money, and time to enjoy them - the selfish American way. Human religions control people by fear, shame, and guilt.
