Proverbs 20:9 - Homiletics

Universal sinfulness

We must distinguish between the idea of universal sinfulness and that of total depravity. We may hold that there is some gleam of goodness in a human heart without maintaining its immaculate purity. It is possible to believe that there are great varieties of character, many different degrees of sin, and yet to see that the highest saint has his faults.

I. NO ONE CAN CLEAR HIMSELF FROM THE CHARGE OF SINFULNESS . Who can say, "I have made my heart clean from all imputations of guilt"?

1 . The best confess that they are sinful. Canonized by their admiring brethren, they cast themselves down in humility and shame before the holiness of God. No men have so deep a sense of the sinfulness of their own hearts as those who live most near to God.

2 . The most skilful cannot excuse themselves. It is possible to formulate specious pleas that will deceive unwary men; but we have to do with the great Searcher of hearts, before whose piercing gaze all sophistries and pretences melt as the mists before the sun.

3 . The deceitfulness of the heart blinds many to their own guilt. Men naturally desire to defend themselves; they are excellent advocates of themselves to themselves. The familiar sin is softened by habit. The conventional sin is condoned by custom.

4 . False standards of holiness confuse men ' s estimate of their own sinfulness. Some people seem to take a feeling of placidity as an assurance of inward perfection, as though not to be conscious of strife were to be assured of peace with God. But it is possible to slumber under the influence of spiritual narcotics. A keener conscience might rouse a new, unlooked for sense of sin and shame. It is thought that there is no shortcoming simply because the surrounding mists hide the far off goal. Or it may be that negative correctness is mistaken for a satisfactory condition, while many positive active duties are left undone. Perhaps the soul that thinks its aspiration after purity satisfied is wanting in charity, or in the very act of claiming sinlessness it may be puffed up with pride. The most dangerous delusion is that which denies the ownership of guilt because sin is supposed to be relegated to bodily infirmity, while the true self is spotless. This is a most deadly snare of the devil.

II. NO ONE CAN CLEAR HIMSELF FROM THE SINS WHICH HE HAS COMMITTED . Who can say, "I have purged my own conscience, cleansed my own heart, cleared off my record of guilt?"

1 . It is impossible to undo sins. Deeds are irrevocable. What has been committed is stereotyped in the awful book of the changeless past. What I have written, spoken, done—I have written, spoken, done.

2 . It is impossible to compensate for past sins by future service. The future service is all owing; at our best we are "unprofitable servants"—there is no margin of profit—for "we have only done that which it was our duty to do."

3 . It is impossible to atone for our sins by any sacrifice. The hardest penance can be of no value with God. Its only use could be in self-discipline. For God is not pleased with the sufferings of his children. We can offer him nothing; for "the cattle on a thousand hills" are his.

4 . It is impossible to change our own inner sinfulness by ourselves. We cannot create clean hearts in our own breasts. We cannot kill our own love of sin.

5 . It is only possible for sin to be cleansed in the blood of Christ. "There is a fountain opened for all uncleanness" The admission of guilt, the repentance that turns from the old sin and seeks forgiveness, the renunciation of all claims but that of the grace of God in Christ,—these things open the door to the true way of making the heart clean, both in pardon and m purification.