Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

sinner."answer."people."yet?"cold."wrong."world."sin."sins."forth fruit and grain grew noxious, foul-smellingweeds, and men had to close their windows againstthe odor and protect themselves and their cattle fromthe poison of these weeds. More than that, the weedscould not be destroyed. The man who is supposed tobe telling the story took his tractor and disc andwent against the weeds, taking satisfaction in thinking he was destroying them, only to look back andfind them closing over the track he had disked. Inhis extremity he cried, "God be merciful to me, asinner,"and the weeds receded for a space of aboutten yards, and the grass began to grow. (I told youthis was a fantastic story!) People came for miles tosee the miracle. And they asked him what he hadsaid, but he had forgotten what prayer he prayed.Magazine religion likes to add a touch of the magicalso he is pictured as trying in vain to recapture themagic formula he had used. Men came from Washington and analyzed the soil, the grass, and evensamples of the gasoline used in the tractor. Theychecked the kind of tractor and disc he had used, andthey said, "Science will find the After thedeath of his own child he finally remembered theprayer he had used, and he told his father and theirminister and the three of them went to this littlepatch of grass and good soil and there confessed theirown sins and the sins of the nation, and the grassreturned to the earth again. Fantastic? Certainly,but it does bring out this one point, We are afraid tosay, we are ashamed to say, "God be merciful to mea We see the sins of others and we say, "Yeswe are sinners, everybody sins, it is human nature,but after all we are not as bad as other Isn'tthat like the Pharisee and the publican ? Glad we arenot like other people ! God be merciful to me.Now let us look at the Covenant, at the Confession of Sin in the Brief Covenant. "We humblyconfess that we have transgressed the Law of God,and have come short of performing our duty." Amember of the Covenant Committee reminded theCommittee that the definition of sin in our Catechism is that "sin is any want of conformity unto ortransgression of the law of God." That definition iswhat is behind this first statement in the Confessionof Sin. "We confess that we have not measured upto our Covenants." There is the same thought ofmeasuring up. We may not at the moment be conscious of an outward act of sin, but have we "measured up"? A young man said, "What lack IAnd Jesus said, "One thing thou lackest, go,thou hast." We come short of performing our duty.sell allWe come short of measuring up to the Covenantof Grace. I selected only one of the Psalms we sangin this service, but did you notice in every one ofthem there was the thought of sin and of trouble,and then of God's grace, God's goodness? That is ourhope. The Covenant of Grace by which we are forgiven, by which we are saved, under which we live,are we measuring up to it? Are we walkingworthilyof that calling wherewith we are called?Then the Covenant of Church Membership, arewe living up to that ? We promise to be faithful aboutthe prayer meeting. How many churches do not evenhave a prayer meeting in the middle of the week towhich we can be faithful ! Read the Confession of Sinin the Covenant of 1871. It is a longconfession andit has many good things in it, things to which wehave not measured up.December 15, 1954In the next part of the Confession of Sin wehave four things: faith, works, loyalty, and love."We confess that too often our faith has been weak,and ourour works ineffectual, our loyalty wavering,love too Our works ineffectual. We startedout a few years ago each one to win one, and we triedand did not do it. Our works ineffectual. "We confess that, knowing the right, we have too oftendone "To him that knoweth to do good,anddoeth it not, to him it is We have known andhave not done. We have also been like the ApostlePaul when he said, "The good that I would I do not:but the evil which I would not, that I do."We have looked at the Scripture, we have lookedat the Confession of Sin in the Covenant, now letus examine ourselves in the light of Scripture. AChinese evangelist tells about a woman coming to doher washing. In many parts of the world womenwash their clothes at a stream or river. They find asmooth stone and lay their clothing on it piece bypiece, soap it well, and then by pounding and rubbingthey loosen the dirt and rinse each piece in the cleanwater. Here comes a woman with a bundle of clothes.She sees all the other women, and she says, "Whatshall I do? I have some very dirty clothing in thisbundle. I don't want those other women to see it." Sowithout even opening the bundle she moves it up anddown in the water a few times and goes away. Shehas done her washing! The evangelist said, 'Toooften that is the way we confess our How didyou sin your sins ? One by one. How should you confess? One by one as the Holy Spirit brings them toyour remembrance. If the Holy Spirit is now bringinga sin before you that is the sin you should confess.Then there will be others, for it is just like climbinga mountain and thinking that the ridge just ahead isthe last, only to find that there is another, and another, and another. The Bible says, "For all havesinned, and come short of the glory of God." And,"There is none righteous, no, notone.""If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess oursins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If wesay that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, andhis word is not in us. My little children, these thingswrite I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any mansin, we have an advocate with the Father, JesusChrist the righteous: and he is the propitiation forour sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sinsof the whole "If thou, Lord, shouldest markiniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." Ourway out is not to cover up our sins. It is not to denyour sins. It is to confess our sins.(Prayer: Our Father in heaven as we look back wethank Thee for the times when Thou hast filled oureyes with tears because of sin ; when Thou hast filledour hearts with contrition, and we know that abroken and contrite heart Thou wilt not despise;and then by Thy grace thou hast given us the graceto confess, Thou hast filled our lips with confession.We are asking now that what preparation we needThou wilt give for the signing of this Covenant. Andto Thy name be the honor and glory, for we ask it,with forgiveness of our sins, in Christ's name.Amen.)373