Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin"? Sermons
A subject that stretches back and looks onward as far as the limits of human history. But Jesus Christ has introduced into the world a power for purity which is peculiar to his gospel. I. THE UTTER UGLINESS OF IMPURITY. To the eye of holy men there is an unspeakable offensiveness in any form of impurity - selfishness, worldliness, covetousness, sensuality, whatever it may be. And how much more hideous and intolerable must it be in the eyes of the Holy One himself (Habakkuk 1:13; Psalm 5:5)! This is one explanation of choosing leprosy as a type and picture of sin, viz, its fearful loathsomeness in the sight of God. II. ITS EXCLUSION FROM THE PRESENCE AND KINGDOM OF GOD. (See Psalm 50:16; Psalm 66:18; Proverbs 15:29; Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 1:10-17; Matthew 5:8; Hebrews 12:14) III. THE ONE WAY OF RETURN. When the heart sees, and is ashamed of, its corruption, and returns in simple penitence to God, then there is mercy and admission. But sincere repentance is the only gateway by which impurity can find its way to the favour and the kingdom of God. IV. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INWARD PURITY. When the heart, conscious of guilt, has sought and found mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and is "cleansed of its iniquity," so that there is "a clean heart and a right spirit" before God, all is not yet done that has to be accomplished. What Christian man can say, "I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin"? "If we [who are in Christ Jesus] say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). "In many things we offend all" (James 3:2). We are washed, but we "need to wash our feet" (John 13:10). There yet lingers within the heart of the humble and the pure that which needs purification before they will be "holy as he [the Lord] is holy." What are these cleansing forces which will best do this much needed and most desirable work? Are they not: 1. The avoidance of that which defiles; the deliberate turning away of the eyes of the soul (so far as duty to others will allow) from all that stains and soils? 2. Much fellowship with Jesus Christ the Holy One, and much intercourse with his true friends and followers? 3. The earnest, determined pursuit of that which is noblest in man, especially by the study of the worthiest lives? 4. Prayer lop the cleansing influences which come direct from the Holy Spirit of God (Psalm 51:10; Psalm 139:23, 24; 2 Thessalonians 2:17; Hebrews 13:20, 21)? - C. Who can say, I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin? I. WHO CAN SAY, I HAVE MADE MY HEART CLEAN? We read of some who have clean hands, which implies an abstinence from outward sins. A clean heart implies more than this; it relates to the inward temper and disposition, to the bias of the will, and the various operations of the affections, as being spiritual and acceptable in the sight of God. 1. Purity of heart is much to be desired. 2. It is the work of the Spirit alone to impart it. 3. There is so much self-righteous pride and vanity in man that many are apt to think they have made their hearts clean. II. WHO CAN SAY, I AM PURE FROM MY SIN? To be pure from sin is similar to our being in a state of sinless perfection. This no one ever enjoyed in the present life, except Him only who "knew no sin." 1. Who can say that they were never defiled with original sin, or that they are now free from that defilement? 2. Who can say that they are pure from inward sins, the evils of the heart? 3. Who can say that they are wholly free from practical evil in life and conversation? 4. Who can say they are free from every besetting sin, or that they are not defiled with any of those evils to which they are more especially exposed by constitutional habits, or by their occupation or immediate connections. As no one can say with truth that he is pure from his sin, what reason have the best of men to be abased before God! () The trial and examination of our hearts and ways in reference to God is a duty which, though hard and difficult, is exceedingly useful and beneficial to us. I. THE DUTY OF MORTIFICATION. The cleansing of our hearts, to be pure from sin. 1. The nature of the action. Cleansing. A word implying some change and alteration that is to be made in us. That which is purged was formerly impure. God is pure; the saints are purged and purified. This shows us the nature of sin: it is a matter of uncleanness. Uncleanness is a debasing quality; a loathsome quality; a thing odious in itself and for itself. Cleansing shows the sovereign virtue of grace and repentance. It is of a purging virtue. It hath a power of cleansing us from the pollutions of sin. It is compared to clean water, which washes away filth. To a wind, which, passing, cleanseth. To a fire, that consumes dross and corruption. 2. The property of the agent. The text makes us agents in this great work. Sin is cleansed in our justification, when it is pardoned and forgiven. The act of forgiveness is God's alone. Sin is cleansed by mortification, and regeneration, and conversion. The progress of these acts God works in us, and by us. His Spirit enables us to carry forward this work which He graciously begins, and to cleanse ourselves. 3. The circumstance of time. "I have cleansed." Mortification is a work of long continuance; it requires progress and perseverance. II. THE OBJECT THAT MUST BE WROUGHT UPON. "The heart." The whole man must be cleansed, but first and specially the heart. The heart is the fountain and original from whence all other uncleannesses do stream and flow. The heart is the lurking-hole, to which sin betakes itself. The heart is the proper seat and residence of sin. III. THE MEASURE OR DEGREE OF MORTIFICATION. "I am pure from my sin." This is the high aim that a Christian must set to himself, to press forward to perfection. The text lays our sin at our own doors, and so it concerns us to rid ourselves of it. Sin is the offspring of our will. There is the sin of inbred and natural inclination; the sin to which our particular age disposes us: childhood is idle, youth wanton, age covetous; the sins of our calling and vocation: every calling has its special temptations. IV. THE DIFFICULTY OF MORTIFICATION. This question, "Who?" is not meant for all sorts of sinners. It is not propounded to the profane man, to the grossly ignorant man, or to the negligent and careless man. The question reaches to the best sort of men, those that have made good progress in this work of cleansing and mortification, who, nevertheless, are condemned by their own consciences; who have still leaven to purge out; find some sins of surreption will steal in upon them. As to the question itself. It runs thus: "Who can say?" Not "Who doth say?" or "Who will say?" or "Who dare say?" We may safely resolve the question into a peremptory assertion, and conclude that no man is clear or free from sin. The earnest Christian can say, "Through grace I have broken the strength and dominion of sin." () People Ephah, SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Able, Clean, Cleansed, Free, Heart, Pure, Purified, SinOutline 1. Proper Living
Dictionary of Bible Themes Proverbs 20:9 5016 heart, fallen and redeemed
5082 Adam, significance
6023 sin, universality
6200 imperfection, influence
7340 clean and unclean
8326 purity, moral and spiritual
8824 self-righteousness, nature of Library Bread and Gravel
'"Bread of deceit" is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.'--PROVERBS xx. 17. 'Bread of deceit' is a somewhat ambiguous phrase, which may mean either of two things, and perhaps means both. It may either mean any good obtained by deceit, or good which deceives in its possession. In the former signification it would appear to have reference primarily to unjustly gotten gain, while in the latter it has a wider meaning and applies to all the worthless treasures and lying …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThe Sluggard in Harvest
'The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.'--PROVERBS xx. 4. Like all the sayings of this book, this is simply a piece of plain, practical common sense, intended to inculcate the lesson that men should diligently seize the opportunity whilst it is theirs. The sluggard is one of the pet aversions of the Book of Proverbs, which, unlike most other manuals of Eastern wisdom, has a profound reverence for honest work. He is a great drone, for …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture A String of Pearls
'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. 2. The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. 3. It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling. 4. The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. 5. Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out. 6. Most men will …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Sluggard's Reproof
A Sermon (No. 2766) intended for reading on Lord's Day, February 16, 1902 delivered by C.H. Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark on a Thursday Evening, during the Winter of 1859. "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing." {cold: or, winter}-- Proverbs 20:4. Laziness is the crying sin of Eastern nations. I believe that the peculiar genius of the Anglo-Saxon character prevents our being, as a nation, guilty of that sin. Perhaps …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs Friendship.
BONDS OF ATTACHMENT. Each person is connected with every other person by some bond of attachment. It may be by the steel bond of brotherhood, by the silvern chain of religious fellowship, by the golden band of conjugal affection, by the flaxen cord of parental or filial love, or by the silken tie of friendship. One or more of these bonds of attachment may encircle each person, and each bond has its varying strength, and is capable of endless lengthening and contracting. Brotherhood is a general …
J. M. Judy—Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes Regeneration the Work of God.
"The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath even made both of them."--Prov. xx. 12. "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath even made both of them." This testimony of the Holy Spirit contains the whole mystery of regeneration. An unregenerate person is deaf and blind; not only as a stock or block, but worse. For neither stock nor block is corrupt or ruined, but an unregenerate person is wholly dead and a prey to the most fearful dissolution. This rigid, uncompromising, and absolute …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit Ploughing in Canaan.
In Scripture frequent mention is made of the husbandman and his work. Ploughing the land, sowing the seed, reaping the harvest, and winnowing the grain are often referred to. Our picture shows an Eastern husbandman ploughing. How different it is to ploughing in our own land! There is no coulter; and instead of the broad steel plough-share we see a pointed piece of wood. And the long handles with which our labourers guide their ploughs--where are they? The strong horses, too, harnessed one behind …
Anonymous—Mother Stories from the Old Testament What Now Shall I Say Concerning the Very Carefulness and Watchfulness against Sin? "Who...
48. What now shall I say concerning the very carefulness and watchfulness against sin? "Who shall boast that he hath a chaste heart? or who shall boast that he is clean from sin?" [2200] Holy virginity is indeed inviolate from the mother's womb; but "no one," saith he, "is clean in Thy sight, not even the infant whose life is of one day upon the earth." [2201] There is kept also in faith inviolate a certain virginal chastity, whereby the Church is joined as a chaste virgin unto One Husband: but That …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity. The Third Exile, 356-362.
The third exile of Athanasius marks the summit of his achievement. Its commencement is the triumph, its conclusion the collapse of Arianism. It is true that after the death of Constantius the battle went on with variations of fortune for twenty years, mostly under the reign of an ardently Arian Emperor (364-378). But by 362 the utter lack of inner coherence in the Arian ranks was manifest to all; the issue of the fight might be postponed by circumstances but could not be in doubt. The break-up of …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius Benjamin Whichcote, the First of the "Latitude-Men"
The type of Christianity which I have been calling "spiritual religion," that is, religion grounded in the nature of Reason, finds, at least in England, its noblest expression in the group of men, sometimes called "Cambridge Platonists," and sometimes "Latitude-Men," or simply "Latitudinarians." These labels were all given them by their critics and opponents, and were used to give the impression that the members of this group or school were introducing and advancing a type of Christianity too broad …
Rufus M. Jones—Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries "Now the End of the Commandment," &C.
1 Tim. i. 5.--"Now the end of the commandment," &c. Fourthly, Faith purging the conscience purifies the heart (Acts xv. 9.), and hope also purifies the heart (1 John iii. 3.), which is nothing else but faith in the perfection and vigour of it. This includes, I. That the heart was unclean before faith. II. That faith cleanses it, and makes it pure. But "who can say, I have made my heart pure (Prov. xx. 9.), I am clean from my sin?" Is there any man's heart on this side of time, which lodges not many …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Tears of the Penitent.
Adversity had taught David self-restraint, had braced his soul, had driven him to grasp firmly the hand of God. And prosperity had seemed for nearly twenty years but to perfect the lessons. Gratitude had followed deliverance, and the sunshine after the rain had brought out the fragrance of devotion and the blossoms of glad songs. A good man, and still more a man of David's age at the date of his great crime, seldom falls so low, unless there has been previous, perhaps unconscious, relaxation of the …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David How the Slothful and the Hasty are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 16.) Differently to be admonished are the slothful and the hasty. For the former are to be persuaded not to lose, by putting it off, the good they have to do; but the latter are to be admonished lest, while they forestall the time of good deeds by inconsiderate haste, they change their meritorious character. To the slothful therefore it is to be intimated, that often, when we will not do at the right time what we can, before long, when we will, we cannot. For the very indolence of …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great "If we Say that we have no Sin, we Deceive Ourselves, and the Truth is not in Us. "
1 John i. 8.--"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." "The night is far spent, the day is at hand," Rom. xiii. 12. This life is but as night, even to the godly. There is some light in it,--some star light, but it is mixed with much darkness of ignorance and sin, and so it will be, till the sun arise, and the morning of their translation to heaven come. But though it be called night in one sense, in regard of that perfect glorious perpetual day in heaven, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Concerning Worship.
Concerning Worship. [780] All true and acceptable worship to God is offered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own Spirit which is neither limited to places times, nor persons. For though we are to worship him always, and continually to fear before him; [781] yet as to the outward signification thereof, in prayers, praises, or preachings, we ought not to do it in our own will, where and when we will; but where and when we are moved thereunto by the stirring and secret inspiration …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity "Boast not Thyself of to Morrow, for Thou Knowest not what a Day May Bring Forth. "
Prov. xxvii. 1.--"Boast not thyself of to morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." As man is naturally given to boasting and gloriation in something (for the heart cannot want some object to rest upon and take complacency in, it is framed with such a capacity of employing other things), so there is a strong inclination in man towards the time to come, he hath an immortal appetite, and an appetite of immortality; and therefore his desires usually stretch farther than the present …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Manner of Covenanting.
Previous to an examination of the manner of engaging in the exercise of Covenanting, the consideration of God's procedure towards his people while performing the service seems to claim regard. Of the manner in which the great Supreme as God acts, as well as of Himself, our knowledge is limited. Yet though even of the effects on creatures of His doings we know little, we have reason to rejoice that, in His word He has informed us, and in His providence illustrated by that word, he has given us to …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting How the Whole and the Sick are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 13.) Differently to be admonished are the whole and the sick. For the whole are to be admonished that they employ the health of the body to the health of the soul: lest, if they turn the grace of granted soundness to the use of iniquity, they be made worse by the gift, and afterwards merit the severer punishments, in that they fear not now to use amiss the more bountiful gifts of God. The whole are to be admonished that they despise not the opportunity of winning health for ever. …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great How to be Admonished are those who Give Away what is their Own, and those who Seize what Belongs to Others.
(Admonition 21.) Differently to be admonished are those who already give compassionately of their own, and those who still would fain seize even what belongs to others. For those who already give compassionately of their own are to be admonished not to lift themselves up in swelling thought above those to whom they impart earthly things; not to esteem themselves better than others because they see others to be supported by them. For the Lord of an earthly household, in distributing the ranks and …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great We Shall not be Curious in the Ranking of the Duties in which Christian Love...
We shall not be curious in the ranking of the duties in which Christian love should exercise itself. All the commandments of the second table are but branches of it: they might be reduced all to the works of righteousness and of mercy. But truly these are interwoven through other. Though mercy uses to be restricted to the showing of compassion upon men in misery, yet there is a righteousness in that mercy, and there is mercy in the most part of the acts of righteousness, as in not judging rashly, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning "And Watch unto Prayer. "
1 Pet. iv. 7.--"And watch unto prayer." "Watch." A Christian should watch. A Christian is a watchman by office. This duty of watchfulness is frequently commanded and commended in scripture, Matt. xxiv. 42, Mark xiii. 33, 1 Cor. xvi. 13, Eph. vi. 18, 1 Pet. v. 8, Col. iv. 2; Luke xii. 37. David did wait as they that did watch for the morning light. The ministers of the gospel are styled watchmen in scripture and every Christian should be to himself as a minister is to his flock, he should watch over …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Eighth Commandment
Thou shalt not steal.' Exod 20: 15. AS the holiness of God sets him against uncleanness, in the command Thou shalt not commit adultery;' so the justice of God sets him against rapine and robbery, in the command, Thou shalt not steal.' The thing forbidden in this commandment, is meddling with another man's property. The civil lawyers define furtum, stealth or theft to be the laying hands unjustly on that which is another's;' the invading another's right. I. The causes of theft. [1] The internal causes …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments Proverbs
Many specimens of the so-called Wisdom Literature are preserved for us in the book of Proverbs, for its contents are by no means confined to what we call proverbs. The first nine chapters constitute a continuous discourse, almost in the manner of a sermon; and of the last two chapters, ch. xxx. is largely made up of enigmas, and xxxi. is in part a description of the good housewife. All, however, are rightly subsumed under the idea of wisdom, which to the Hebrew had always moral relations. The Hebrew …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Proverbs 20:9 NIV
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