Genuine Repentance Requires Self-Examination

Do with your hearts as men do with their wheat; they will not suffer their corn to lie long in the chaff lest the chaff hurt it, but they commit it to the fan so that the wind may separate them. So, the graces of God in our hearts are but corn, our sins and corruptions are chaff. Look well, and you shall find in yourself much chaff, and but little corn. Let not then the chaff lie too long mingled with the corn, lest it corrupt the corn. Let not your sins lie mingled with the grace of God in you. If you do, they will choke it in the end, and so deprive you of all grace. Therefore, rip up your heart, and look into your life, and when you have sinned, enter into yourself, ask your conscience what you have done, and be not quiet till you have found out your sin and the foulness of it. And never think that you know anything in religion till you know what is in your own heart and what are in your special and priviest corruptions. And look into your own faults, not with a partial eye, but with a censorious and strait judgment. Spare sin in no man, but especially condemn it in yourself.… Read More Genuine Repentance Requires Self-Examination

A Godly Man is an Evangelical Weeper

A godly man weeps for indwelling sin, the law in his members (Romans 7:23), the outbursts and first risings of sin [cf. WCF 6:5]. He weeps for clinging corruption. A child of God weeps that he is sometimes overcome by the prevalence of corruption. A godly heart grieves that he can be no more holy. A godly man sometimes weeps out of the sense of God’s love. A godly person weeps because the sins he commits are in some sense worse than the sins of other men. How far from being godly are those who scarcely ever shed a tear for sin! Let us strive for this divine characteristic. Be weepers!… Read More A Godly Man is an Evangelical Weeper

The Difference Between True and Counterfeit Repentance

John Colquhoun, Repentance, ch. 4. It is a truth clearly revealed and often inculcated in Scripture that without repentance a man cannot attain eternal life in heaven. The most of men, therefore, who read and hear the Gospel admit that repentance is necessary to their future safety and felicity. But while they believe that it… Read More The Difference Between True and Counterfeit Repentance