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Repentance is never out of season; it is of as frequent use as the artificer's tool or the soldier's weapon.
How happy it would be if we were more deeply affected with sin,
Worldly tears fall to the earth, but godly tears are kept in a bottle (Ps. 56.8).
Either sin must drown or the soul burn.
It is better to go with difficulty to heaven, than with ease to hell.
What would the damned give that they might have a herald sent to them from God to proclaim mercy upon their repentance? What vollies of sighs and groans would they send up to heaven? What floods of tears would their eyes pour forth? But it is now too late.
Tomorrow may be our dying day; let this be our repenting day.
How we should imitate the saints of old who embittered their souls and sacrificed their lusts, and put on sackcloth in the hope of white robes.
Christ has purchased in his blood that repenting sinners shall be saved. The law required personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience. It cursed all who could not come up to this: 'Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them' (Gal. 3.10). It does not say, he that obeys not all things, let him repent, but, let him be cursed. Thus repentance is a doctrine that has been brought to light only by the gospel.
It is one thing to be a terrified sinner and another to be a repenting sinner.
Sense of guilt is enough to breed terror. Infusion of grace breeds repentance.
What will not a sinner do, what vows will he not make, when he knows he must die and stand before the judgment-seat? Self-love raises a sickbed vow,
Trust not to a passionate resolution; it is raised in a storm and will die in a calm.
Repentance is a grace of God's Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.
For a further amplification, know that repentance is a spiritual medicine made up of six special ingredients: 1. Sight of sin 2. Sorrow for sin 3. Confession of sin 4. Shame for sin 5. Hatred for sin 6. Turning from sin
Sin must first be seen before it can be wept for.
A woman may as well expect to have a child without pangs as one can have repentance without sorrow.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy' (Ps. 126.5).
It is sorrow for the offence rather than for the punishment.
Godly sorrow, however, is chiefly for the trespass against God, so that even if there were no conscience to smite, no devil to accuse, no hell to punish, yet the soul would still be grieved because of the prejudice done to God.
'My sin is ever before me' (Ps. 51.3); David does not say, The sword threatened is ever before me, but 'my sin'. O that I should offend so good a God, that I should grieve my Comforter! This breaks my heart!
We must grieve more for offending God than for the loss of dear relations.
The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ.
And the truth is that by this self-accusing we prevent Satan's accusing.
But true confession leaves heart-wounding impressions on a man.
David's soul was burdened in the confession of his sins: 'as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me' (Ps. 38.4). It is one thing to confess sin and another thing to feel sin. 3.
'Lord, I have sinned', but does not know what the sin is; at least he does not remember, whereas a true convert acknowledges his particular sins.
Confession of sin endears Christ to the soul. If I say I am a sinner, how precious will Christ's blood be to me!
Confession of sin makes way for pardon. No sooner did the prodigal come with a confession in his mouth, ‘have sinned against heaven', than his father's heart did melt towards him, and he kissed him (Luke 15.20). When David said, ‘have sinned', the prophet brought him a box with a pardon, The Lord hath put away thy sin' (2 Sam. 12.13).
if we do but confess the debt, Christ will be our surety.
Our sins are worse than the sins of the devils: the lapsed angels never sinned against Christ's blood.
Christ died not for them.
It is a great shame not to be ashamed.
Christ is never loved till sin be loathed. Heaven is never longed for till sin be loathed.
Affliction is but corrective; sin is destructive.
Affliction can but take away the life; sin takes away the soul (Luke 12.20).
God will have the whole heart turned from sin. True repentance must have no reserves or inmates.
Even if sin did not bear such bitter fruit, if death did not grow on this tree, a gracious
soul would forsake it out of love to God.
This is in the text, 'that they should repent and turn to God' (Acts 26.20).
In true repentance the heart points directly to God as the needle to the North Pole.
To return to sin gives the devil more power over a man that ever. When a man turns from sin, the devil seems to be cast out of him, but when he returns to sin^ the devil enters into his house again and takes possession, and 'the last state of that man is worse than the first' (Matt. 12.45).
When a prisoner has broken prison, and the jailer gets him again, he will lay stronger irons upon him.
People are not turned from their sins; they are still the same as they were.
Our repentance is of no benefit to God, but to ourselves.
If a man drinks of a fountain he benefits himself, not the fountain.
Till the sinner repents, God and he cannot be friends: 'Wash you, make you clean' (Isa. 1.16); go, steep yourselves in the brinish waters of repentance. Then, says God, I will parley with you: 'Come now, and let us reason together' (Isa. 1.18); but otherwise, come not near me: 'What communion hath light with darkness?' (2 Cor. 6.14).
I am sure that those who have no grief for sin are spiritually bewitched by Satan.
It is not falling into sin that damns, but lying in it without repentance: 'having their conscience seared with a hot iron' (1 Tim. 4.2).
Oh that our tears may run in the right channel and our hearts burst with sorrow for sin!
