Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 250, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1915 — Instruction for the Sinner [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Instruction for the Sinner

By REV. B. B. SUTCLIFFE

TEXT—We have trespassed against our Qod ... yet now there is hope . . • concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God.—Kara 10:2, X. This text Is full of instruction for the sinner who would find peace for

the conscience. It tells of the proper confession, the gracious comfort and the wise conduct for every sinner. I. The proper confession for ever sinner—“we have trespassed against our God.” The Bible proclaims the fact that “aH we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way,”

and “all have sinned and corns short of the glory of God." Our history and our conscience bear witness to the truth of it The present writer and reader must make the same humiliating confession: . *T have trespassed against my God.” The evil thing is already done and the record is already made. The temptation to think that we can do enough good to blot out the evil is a subtle one. We cannot go back over the road and live It over in such a manner as to hide the record we have left. We sometimes say, "I wish I could go back and do it differently,” but time refuses to turn back for us. The record is there and all we can say of It is, In the word* of Pontius Pilate, “What I have written I have written.” The words spoken that should have remained unuttered may be forgotten but they are all record'ed. The deeds of evil we cannot undo. The sins are already committed and the sinner should not be so much exercised about what will happen in the future as about what has happened in the past.

There may be a difference in the number and character of sins committed, but trespass there is against each one. To trespass means to get "over the fence" or “out of bounds." 1 God has set bounds for man to walk in and as far as the fatal results are concerned one might as well be a mile out of those bounds as merely a foot. God says that "he that keepeth the whole law and yet offendeth in one point is guilty of all.” If a man’s life depended on the strength of a chain, nine strong links would not avert the catastrophe resulting from a weak link that breaks. One sin is enough to put one “out of bounds." Therefore this is a proper confession for everyone to make, "I have trespassed against my God.” 11. The gracious comfort for the sinner —“yet now there is hope concerning this thing." In spite of the trespass whether large or small, every sinner has this hope. God says to all, "Come now and let us reason together: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as show." The natural thing for a sinner to do is to hide from the One who has been offended. This Adam did when God came into Eden after the fall. But not in Judgment, but in grace does God come. Not to condemn but to save. In the future he will come to judge and to condemn, but today, there is hope for all. The message from God’s Word is, “Now is the accepted time, behold today is the day of salvation.” Many say, "I will think about the matter," but the Lord says “today" at once, now, not tomorrow. Many have gone to a hopeless eternity just because they persisted in thinking about Instead of accepting God’s gracious offer of a present salvation. And this text proclaims a universal hope, including all} who have trespassed. It if extended to everyone. Over and over God’s Word declares that “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” “Whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely.’’ “Whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” 111. The wise conduct for the sinner. “Therefore let us make a cove nant with our God.” This is not merely a covenant to turn over a new leaf or to mend our ways or any of the many expedients resorted to to give peace and rest to the troubled conscience, but It is turning to God, coming out from behind the tree to him who alone can blot out the recprd of the trespasses and give us a clean record. The words of the prophet are as true today as they were when uttered, “Let thp wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he win have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.” There is abundant pardon with the Lord for every trespass and for every sin and the blood of Jesus Christ God’« Sea can blot out every mark and stain from the sinner's record. ~ ■--■y • *“ •^TBSKwBhIBI Frugality is founded on the principle that all riches have limits.— Burke. '.A .. -