Love Divine, All Loves Excelling - King’s Heralds I Need the Prayers of Those I Love - King’s Heralds

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling - King’s Heralds I Need the Prayers of Those I Love - King’s Heralds

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Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

The Sinner’s Prayer

Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven, to earth come down; fix in us thy humble dwelling; all thy faithful mercies crown! Jesus thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art; visit us with thy salvation; enter every trembling heart. Come, Almighty to deliver, let us all thy life receive; suddenly return and never, nevermore thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing, serve thee as thy hosts above, pray and praise thee without ceasing, glory in thy perfect love. We are happy to be with you for this worship service and our prayer is that the Holy Spirit of God will be in every heart and that hearts will be changed today. If there is some sin in your heart that must be forgiven, why don&rsquo;t you ask for forgiveness just now as we open God&rsquo;s holy word. My father is speaking on the subject - the sinner&rsquo;s prayer.
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Are you self-satisfied? Do you despise others whom you consider worse than yourself? &nbsp;Do you feel you&rsquo;re above others, in this way seek to justify yourself? Do you trust in yourself as you are? Listen now to the story or parable that Jesus told. &ldquo;Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.&rdquo; &ndash; Luke 18: 10 &ndash; 14.
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Listen to these two prayers. One&rsquo;s a prayer of self-praise. The other, of self surrender. The first man judged his own character, not by the righteous character of God but character of other men. The second man looked to God and realize his own insufficiency. The first has a righteousness of his own. He is satisfied with it. The other was dissatisfied with himself because he was a sinner. The Pharisee judged himself by other men and so he judged other men by himself. The worse they were, the more righteous he felt by contrast. This lead him to accuse others; the other man he condemned. The publican is looking at himself and not others; cried out, &ldquo;God, be merciful to me a sinner.&rdquo; &nbsp;No man can really pray this prayer until he comes to the moment of truth; until he sees himself as God sees him. It is the prayer of repentance. That's the prayer which this neurotic generation of ours needs.
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Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell tells of receiving a telephone call from an officer who just arrived in New York City on his way to the Pacific. Rather than spend his limited time with relatives or friends, he wanted an interview with the minister. This well-known and busy pastor put aside other plans for the day. He invited the officer to come and see him. There across his desk they talked. The officer opened up his heart and said he could not go into battle in his present state of mind. He&rsquo;d stop praying, lost his faith. He was upset by his doubts and fears. Dr. Bonnell told him that he was not interested in his doubts; that he wasn't going to waste the officer's time or own by talking about them. &ldquo;Tell me about your sins,&rdquo; he said. There was a full minute of silence. Then the pastor asked, &ldquo;have you any pictures of your family?&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the officer. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket. He opened it and laid it on the desk between them there where both could see it. Then with a burst of tears, the trust came out. Repentance is what this man needed. And only in it could he find the spiritual deliverance for which he longed.
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This prayer of the Publican reechoes the words of the prodigal when he came to himself and said, &ldquo;Father, I sinned against heaven and thy sight. I am no more worthy to be called thy son.&rdquo; When we're living and willing to blame ourselves and not others, when we are ready to come back to God, heart and soul, when we throw ourselves upon His mercy for His forgiveness, then we can claim His promise and trust Him.
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Remember this radio friends, true repentance is not a frightful cringing or fear as we look at the wages of sin. It&rsquo;s not a shrinking from our just rewards of waywardness. It&rsquo;s not a cowardly retreat from the road we wish to travel out of fear of consequences. Repentance is a reversal of life. It&rsquo;s a ceasing to travel our sinful way because it is the wrong way. It's a determination to right because it is right. It's a turning from ourselves and our weaknesses to God and His strength, irrespective of results, temporal or eternal.
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Real repentance never makes any allowance or plans for any continuing to sin whatsoever. It makes a clean breast of things of every wrong as far as known. It claims acceptance of the merits of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world as we read in John 1:29.
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True repentance holds back nothing in confession. No blames laid on others. We acknowledge our sins, our iniquity, definitely, to not general but facts. It was this evil that David referred to in his repentance of his sin in the matter of Uriah. He did not pass it off as a weakness or an inherited tendency; but he asked God to forgive his sin. And here is the promise: &ldquo;If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.&rdquo; Read those words in 1st John 1:9.
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A true confession goes further than a recital of our sins to God or others who may be involved whom we should make things right. We need to go to a neighbor, a friend, father, mother, brother, sister, even a child in unmeet our failure, ask forgiveness. And we are not to transfer the blame by saying, &ldquo;if you have not done this or that, I would have not done as I did.&rdquo;
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True repentance and acceptable confession makes no reference to the faults of others. In public confession, in general terms, it is neither advisable nor effective. Only when a wrong has been done to the public, to the community, to the church congregation, or to some other aggregation of individuals need a confession be made in public. It is to God or to the individual wronged that the penitent should go. But the confession of wrong so full and complete is not enough; true repentance always makes restitution for the wrongs done to others as far as is humanly possible. Any material loss inflicted should be restored. Restitution proves the genuineness of our repentance. As the apostle Paul puts it, all men need to repent and turn to God and do works meet [or appropriate] for repentance &ndash; Acts 26:20.
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True repentance means to be sorry for the sin. To turn from it. To turn to God. Then we are to live to act, to do, to work, to meet or appropriate with repentance.
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The message of John the Baptist as recorded in Scripture was that men should repent - Matthew 3. Repentance was a very key note of Jesus&rsquo; ministry - Matthew 4. Under His authority, His own disciples went out and preached that men should repent - Mark 6.
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Repentance is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. Preacher, do you preach repentance? Christian believer, do you practice repentance? Sinner, why don&rsquo;t you repent. If you full repent and turn to God and seek His forgiveness in the name of Christ, your pardon is absolutely certain. God draws no line to preclude the vilest or wickedest person on earth. It makes no difference how far you have to have wondered. If you will return honestly and truly, you will find forgiveness.
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Listen to Isaiah 1:18 &ndash; &ldquo;&hellip;Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.&rdquo; &nbsp;Do you believe it? God has a Father's love for you, even if you have wandered far from Him.
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Listen to Psalm 103:13, &ldquo;Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.&rdquo; &nbsp;It is not for us to argue whether God will or not forgive, He says &ldquo;turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die&hellip;&rdquo; - Ezekiel 33:7.
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We have God's promise that can never fail. Here&rsquo;s what He says, &ldquo;Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?... Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die&hellip;Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, &hellip; Ezekiel 18:23 and onward.
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And we repeat the question, why will you die? Why will you not repent for such a wonderful invitation as this? We read in the New Testament that Christ is able to [listen now] to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him - Hebrews 7:25. And remember that God&rsquo;s forgiveness does not upon your good works. It is not something which you have done or will do that makes you acceptable to Him for it is written in Ephesians 2:8, &ldquo;&hellip;by grace are ye saved through faith&hellip;&rdquo; It&rsquo;s the undeserved grace of God, His power to redeem us &ndash; that&rsquo;s what brings us hope and assures us of salvation. Jesus died for us. It&rsquo;s because of His atoning sacrifice upon the cross that our forgiveness is possible. And our deliverance from the condemnation of sin is based upon that wonderful act of divine love.
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Remember also friend, now is the time to repent not tomorrow. Second Corinthians 6:2 tells us &ldquo;behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.&rdquo;
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If you are sorry for the evil of your life. It is not too late for you to repent either. We have in the Bible a wonderful story of that poor thief dying on the cross. He found repentance and salvation at the very last moment. This may have been his first opportunity for salvation. It is possible for Christ to save to the uttermost even to the eleventh hour; but as someone has said, &ldquo;This example is given us in Holy Scripture that none might ever despair, but it is the only example given of a last-minute repentance that none might presume.&rdquo;
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A noted physician kept a record of over 300 persons who supposedly repented of their sins because they expected to die; but who later recovered. This doctor said that after their health was restored, only 10 of the 300 gave any evidence of being truly regenerated.
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A certain clergyman kept an account of the sick people he had visited over a period of 20 years. His parish was a thickly populated one and he had a record of over 2,000 people in fear of death who gave evidence of a change of heart who seem to have repented. Of these 2,000 who evidently were at the point of death when they professed their faith and later recovered, only two (2) proved that the repentance was sincere and their conversion genuine. Think of it - only two continued to live for God while 1,999 return to their former carelessness and sinful ways. Their apparent repentance sprang only from the rack of conscience and the fear of approaching death. Of the ten lepers healed by Jesus, only one cared enough to come back and thank Him for what He had done. &ldquo;Where are the 9?&rdquo; Jesus asked. Where were the 1,998 in the case we've just mentioned.
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Now as you listen, for just a moment I'm almost through, but these final words are exceedingly important. Are you sincere in our repentance? What do you want most of all? God's forgiveness and peace in your heart? Do you really want that? Then come with the sinner&rsquo;s prayer, &ldquo;God, be merciful to me a sinner.&rdquo;
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I need the prayers of those I love, While trav&rsquo;ling o&rsquo;er life&rsquo;s rugged way, That I may true and faithful be, And live for Jesus every day.
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Refrain
I want my friends to pray for me, To bear my tempted soul above, And intercede with God for me; I need the prayers of those I love.
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I need the prayers of those I love, To help me in each trying hour, To bear my tempted soul to Him, That He may keep me by His pow&rsquo;r.
Refrain
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I want my friends to pray for me, To hold me up on wings of faith, That I may walk the narrow way, Kept by our Father&rsquo;s glorious grace.
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Refrain

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The Sinner’s Prayer

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