Could My Tears Forever Flow

Sometimes we tend to forget that Satan is strong and smart.  Jesus called him the “strong man” who is the “prince of this world” (Matt. 12:29, John 12:31).  Peter compared him to a hungry lion on the prowl (1 Pet. 5.8).  Satan is a brilliant tactician (2 Cor. 11:3) who has had thousands of years to become an expert on deceiving and tempting God’s people.  He knows from experience how to look like an angel of light.

Thomas Watson knew that Satan was strong and intelligent.  In his exposition of the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer (Lead us not into temptation…) he wrote a brilliant explanation of the many ways Satan tries to trick and deceive God’s people.  In one section of this discussion, Watson noted that Satan tries to hinder us from our Christian duty, discourage us in our duty, or put us too far in duty in order to run us upon the rock of despair.

“If he cannot keep a Christian from duty, he will run him on too far in it.  Humiliation, or mourning for sin, is a duty, but Satan will push it too far; he will say, ‘You are not humbled enough;’ and, indeed, he never thinks a man is humbled enough till he despairs.  He would make a Christian wade so far in the waters of repentance, that he should get beyond his depth, and be drowned in the gulf of despair. 

“Satan comes thus to the soul and says, ‘Your sins have been great, and your sorrows should be proportionate to your sins.  But is it so?  Can you say you have been as great a mourner as you have been a sinner?  You did for many years practice no other trade but sin – and is a drop of sorrow enough for a sea of sin?  No, your soul must be more humbled and lie steeping longer in the brinish waters of repentance.’”

“Satan would have a Christian weep himself blind, and in a desperate mood throw away the anchor of hope.  Now, lest any be troubled with this temptation, let me say that this is a mere fallacy of Satan; for sorrow proportional to sin is not attainable in this life, nor does God expect it.  It is sufficient for you, Christian, if you have a gospel-sorrow; if you grieve so far as to see sin hateful and Christ precious, if you grieve so as to break off iniquity, if your remorse ends in divorcing sin.  This is to be humbled enough.”

“The gold has lain long enough in the fire when the dross is purged out; so a Christian has to be humbled enough for divine acceptance.  God, for Christ’s sake, will accept this sorrow for sin; therefore let not Satan’s temptations drive you to despair” (p. 276-7).

Well said.  Amen.  Jesus saves, not the intensity of our repentance.  Though we must repent to be saved, repentance isn’t a savior.  Repentance didn’t die on the cross to redeem us; Jesus did.  Repentance is not the object of our faith, Jesus is.  We might summarize with the words of the hymn:

Could my zeal no languor (weariness) know, could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone!

The above quotes are found in Thomas Watson’s exposition of the Lord’s Prayer.

rev shane lems

Holy Self-Despair

 The historic Christian Creed says, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”  What does that mean?  Obviously there is a whole chorus of biblical teaching on this topic.  In the following paragraphs Herman Witsius (d. 1708) gives us one helpful angle on the meaning of this phrase in the Creed.

“We confess that we are chargeable not merely with one sin, but with many and highly aggravated sins (1 John 1:9, James 3:2).  We confess also, that on account of our transgressions, God could justly cast us into the prison of hell, from where we would not be permitted to escape until we had paid the uttermost farthing (Matt. 28:34).  We acknowledge the righteousness of all those judgments which God inflicts upon us, to manifest his wrath and his hatred of sin (Ps. 51:4, Rom. 3:19).”

“We confess, in summary, that our salvation must not be sought in any merits or in any satisfaction of our own; but instead in the free remission of our debts – debts which we ourselves are equally unable to deny and to unable to clear (Rom. 4:6, 7).”

“Attentive consideration and sincere confession of these truths are highly useful and necessary to produce in us that humility and that holy self-despair.  For without humility and holy self-despair we can neither participate of the Divine favor, nor flee to Christ as our refuge, nor build a firm and solid hope on his grace.”

“Let this therefore be the prayer of the soul trembling before God at the sight of its offences: ‘Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you’ (Ps. 143:2).”  [This is repeated in the New Testament: ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner’ (Lk. 18:13).]

These slightly edited paragraphs can be found on pages 395-396 of Herman Witsius’ Sacred Dissertations on the Apostle’s Creed.

rev. shane lems

Prayers of Repentance and Confession

  In August of 1662 around 2,000 ministers left the national church of England for the sake of conscience (they were called the non-conformists).  You’ll have to read about this significant church history event elsewhere since I simply want to point out a few prayers of repentance that two pastors prayed the last Sunday of their parish ministry in the English state church.  The pastors were Edmund Calamy (d. 1666) and Thomas Watson (d. 1686).  Here are excerpts from their prayers.  Notice the depth of their repentance and confession of sin.

“We confess we have forfeited all our mercies; we have heard much of God, Christ, and heaven with our ears, but there is little of God, Christ, and heaven in our hearts.  We confess, many of us by hearing sermons, are sermon-proof; we know how to scoff and mock at sermons, but we know not how to live sermons” (Calamy).

“We have sinned presumptuously against the clearest light and dearest love; always have we sinned.  …Thou hast shown mercy to us, but the better thou hast been to us, the worse we have been to thee.  Thou hast loaded us with thy mercies, and we have wearied thee with our sins.  When we look into ourselves, oh, the poison of our natures!  …By our spiritual leprosy we infect our holy things.  Our prayers need pardon and our tears need the blood of sprinkling to wash them.  …We confess we are untuned and unstrung for every holy action; we are never out of tune to sin but always out of tune to pray.  We give the world our main affections and our strong desires…there is not that reverence, nor that devotion, nor that activeness of faith that there should be. …Oh, humble us for our unkindness, and for Christ’s sake blot out our transgressions; they are more than we can number, but not more than [thou canst] pardon” (Watson).

When these types of deep, heart-felt prayers of repentance and confession are spoken in private and in the pulpit, the Christian church is strengthened.  We shouldn’t balk at the intensity of confession here, we should likewise say and expound upon the words that arose from the beaten-breast of the tax collector: “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Lk. 18:13; cf. Neh. 9:1ff).

The above prayer excerpts are found in this new revised edition of the Sermons of the Great Ejection (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2012).

shane lems

A Contrite Heart (The Prayer of John Newton)

When John Newton was still young in years (25 or so) and young in Christ (only a year or two), he sometimes lamented his slow spiritual growth.  Here’s a prayer of his from January 1, 1754.  It is really a prayer all Christians can (should!?) pray.  This is exactly what it means to have a broken and contrite heart – sacrifices that the Lord will not despise (Ps. 51:17).

“Alas! Most gracious Lord, what shall I say?  I have nothing to offer for all thy goodness but new confessions of my guilt.  That thou art kind to the unthankful and the evil, I am one of the most remarkable instances.  Forgive me, I beseech thee, this year of misspent life, and charge me not with the long abuse of thy bounty.  I owe thee ten thousand talents, and have nothing to pay.  Yet I entreat thee to have patience with me – not that it will be ever in my power to make any amends by the best I can do, but because my Savior Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son, has done and suffered more than sufficient to atone for all my offenses, and to supply all my defects.  Let me plead his merits on behalf of myself….”

Amen!

This, along with other prayers and letters of John Newton, can be found on page 55 of Josiah Bull’s biography, The Life of John Newton (formerly titled But Now I See). 

shane lems

The Sweetness of Tears

 Sometimes Christians forget the sweetness that can exist along with the bitterness of tears.  Because we live in a culture that focuses on entertainment, instant amusement, glamor, fame, and popularity, it is easy for us to jump on the bandwagon by doing our best to avoid tears, pain, and sorrow.  Everyone is searching for happiness and trying to get rid of tears.  So we turn to pills, personal trainers, makeovers, religion, sex, drink, and drugs (the list goes on) to try to attain happiness.  Of course there is a longing in every human heart for happiness because sin (in us and “out there”) has left humans an unhappy bunch.  What about tears?  Should we avoid them at all costs?  Why did Jesus say, Blessed are those who mourn and Blessed are you who weep now?  Below are some points made by Thomas Watson in The Beatitudes, as he discussed Matthew 5.4.

“1) Sin must have tears.  While we carry the fire of sin about us, we must carry the water of tears to quench it (Ezek. 7.16).  We have in  our hearts the seed of the unpardonable sin.  And shall we not mourn?  He that does not mourn has surely lost the use of his reason.

2) Gospel-mourning [the weeping of repentance] is spontaneous and free (it is not forced).  It is spiritual, that is, we mourn for sin more than suffering. 

3) Gospel-mourning sends the soul to God.  Evangelical mourning is a spur to prayer.  Gospel tears must drop from the eye of faith.  Our disease must make us mourn, but when we look up to our Physician, who has made a plaister of his own blood, we must not mourn without hope.  Believing tears are precious.  When the clouds of sorrow have over-cast the soul, some sunshine of faith must break forth.  Though our tears drop to the earth, our faith must reach heaven.

4) Gospel-mourning is joined with self-loathing.  The sinner admires himself.  The penitent lathes himself (Ezek. 20:43).  Gospel-mourning must be purifying.  We must not only mourn but turn.  ‘Turn to Me with weeping’ (Joel 2.12).  We must not only abstain from sin and weep over it, we must also abhor it.

5) Tears cannot be put to a better use.  The brinish water of repenting tears will help to kil that worm of sin which should gnaw the conscience.  Gospel-mourning is an evidence of grace.  Weeping for sin is a sign of the new birth.

6) Repentant tears are precious.  Tears dropping from a mournful, penitent eye, are like water dropping from the roses, very sweet and precious to God.  That heart is most delightful to God which has a fountain of sorrow running in it.  ‘Mary stood at Christ’s feet weeping’ (Lk 7.38).  Her tears were more fragrant than her ointment.  God delights much in tears, else he would not keep a bottle and a book for them (Ps 56.8).  Tears, though they are silent, yet have a voice (Ps 6.8).  David who was the greatest mourner in Israel was the sweet swinger in Israel.  My tears were my food (Ps 42.3).  Ambrose gives this gloss: ‘No food so sweet as tears!’  Bernard says ‘The tears of the repentant are sweeter than all worldly joy.’

7) Tears line the road to the New Jerusalem.  Perhaps a man may think, ‘If I cannot mourn for sin, I will get to heaven some other way.  I will go to church, I will give alms, I will lead a civil life.’  No, but I tell you there is but one way to blessedness, and that is through the Valley of Tears.  ‘I tell you, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish’ (Lk 13.3).

8) Christian tears will eventually end.  It is only a while that we shall weep.  After a few showers fall from our eyes, we shall have perpetual sunshine.  God shall wipe away all tears (Rev. 7.17).  When sin shall cease, tears shall cease.  ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning’ (Ps. 30.5).”

There are other reasons why Christians weep, to be sure.  I appreciate Watson’s perspective here because he gives us a good biblical way to view tears of repentance.  They don’t save us nor do they wash away our sins, but they do have a place in our pilgrimage.  So Christian weeping truly is bittersweet: bitter because it has to do with sin and sweet because it has to do with faith in Jesus the Savior.

The above quotes are slightly edited and abbreviated.  You can find the full discussion in chapters 6-10 of Thomas Watson’s The Beatitudes.

shane lems