Spurgeon: October PM
* 10/27/PM
"We are all as an unclean thing."
--Isaiah 64:6
The believer is a new creature, he belongs to a holy
generation and a peculiar people--the Spirit of God is in him,
and in all respects he is far removed from the natural man; but
for all that the Christian is a sinner still. He is so from the
imperfection of his nature, and will continue so to the end of
his earthly life. The black fingers of sin leave smuts upon our
fairest robes. Sin mars our repentance, ere the great Potter has
finished it, upon the wheel. Selfishness defiles our tears, and
unbelief tampers with our faith. The best thing we ever did
apart from the merit of Jesus only swelled the number of our
sins; for when we have been most pure in our own sight, yet,
like the heavens, we are not pure in God's sight; and as He
charged His angels with folly, much more must He charge us with
it, even in our most angelic frames of mind. The song which
thrills to heaven, and seeks to emulate seraphic strains, hath
human discords in it. The prayer which moves the arm of God is
still a bruised and battered prayer, and only moves that arm
because the sinless One, the great Mediator, has stepped in to
take away the sin of our supplication. The most golden faith or
the purest degree of sanctification to which a Christian ever
attained on earth, has still so much alloy in it as to be only
worthy of the flames, in itself considered. Every night we look
in the glass we see a sinner, and had need confess, "We are all
as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags." Oh, how precious the blood of Christ to such hearts as
ours! How priceless a gift is His perfect righteousness! And
how bright the hope of perfect holiness hereafter! Even now,
though sin dwells in us, its power is broken . It has no
dominion; it is a broken-backed snake; we are in bitter conflict
with it, but it is with a vanquished foe that we have to deal.
Yet a little while and we shall enter victoriously into the city
where nothing defileth.