Sinners
by JC Ryle

Where Are Your Sins?

Make me to know my transgression and my sin.??Job 13:22

?Cleanse me from my sin.??Psalm 51:2

?The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.??1 John 1:7

?Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood.??Romans 3:25

The question which forms the title of this tract ought to stir up many thoughts in your heart. It concerns every man and woman born into the world. You ought never to rest till you can give it a satisfactory answer.??WHERE ARE YOUR SINS??

I ask you this day to look this question in the face. I ask you to give me your attention for a few minutes, while I try to enforce it on your conscience. A time draws nigh when the question must be answered. The hour cometh when all other questions shall seem like a drop of water in comparison with this. We shall not say, ?Where is my money???or, ?Where are my lands???or, ?Where is my property?? Our only thought will be, ?My sins! my sins!?Where are my sins??

Reader, I am going to offer you a few remarks, which may help to throw light on the mighty question which is before your eyes. My heart?s desire and prayer to God is this, that this tract may be greatly useful to your soul. I entreat you to give it fair reading. Do not put it in the fire; do not tear it in pieces. Read it: read it! Read it to the end! Who can tell but the Holy Ghost may employ this tract for the saving of your soul

I. My first remark is this. You have many sins. I say this boldly, and without the least hesitation.

I know not who you are, or how the time past of your life has been spent. But I know, from the Word of God, that every son and daughter of Adam is a great sinner in the sight of God. There is no exception: it is the common disease of the whole family of Adam, in every quarter of the globe. From the king on his throne, to the beggar by the roadside,?from the landlord in his hall, to the labourer in his cottage,?from the fine lady in her drawing-room, to the humblest maid-servant in the kitchen,?from the clergyman in the pulpit, to the little child in the Sunday-school,?we are all by nature guilty, guilty: guilty in the sight of God. ?In many things we offend all.???There is none righteous: no, not one.???All have sinned,? ?If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.? (James iii. 2; Rom.10; v. 12; 1 John i. 8.) It is useless to deny it. We have all sinned many sins!

Reader, do you doubt the truth of these words? Then go and examine the law of God, as expounded by the Son of God Himself. Read with attention the fifth chapter of St. Matthew?s Gospel. See how the commandments of God apply to our words as well as to our actions, and to our thoughts and motives, as well as to our words. Know that ?the Lord seeth not as man seeth: man looketh at the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh at the heart.? In His sight the very ?thought of foolishness is sin.? (1 Sam. xvi. 7; Prov. xxiv. 9.)

And now turn to the history of your own life, and try it by the standard of? this holy law. Think of the days of your childhood, and all your waywardness, and selfishness, and evil tempers, and perversity, and backwardness to that which is good.?Remember the days of your youth,?your self-will, your pride, your worldly inclinations, your impatience of control, your longing after forbidden things.?Call to mind your conduct since you came to man's estate, and the many departures from the right way, of which you have been guilty every year.?Surely, in the face of your life?s history, you will not stand up and say, ?I have not sinned!?

And then turn to the history of your own heart. Consider how many evil things have gone through it, of which the world knows nothing at all.?Remember the thousands of sinful imaginations, and corrupt ideas, which your heart has entertained, even while your outward conduct has been correct, moral, and respectable.?Think of the vile thoughts, and deceitful intentions, and false motives, and malicious, envious, spiteful feelings, which have walked up and down in your inward man, while those nearest to you never dreamed or guessed what was going on.?Surely, in the face of your heart?s history, you will not stand up and say, ?I have not sinned!?

Reader, once more I ask you, Do you doubt what I am saying? Do you doubt whether you have sinned many sins??Then go and examine the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew?s Gospel. Read the concluding portion of that chapter, which describes the proceedings of the judgment day. Note carefully the grounds on which the wicked, at the left hand, are condemned to everlasting fire. No mention is made of great open acts of wickedness which they have committed. They are not charged with having murdered, or stolen, or borne false witness, or committed adultery. They are condemned for sins of omission! The mere fact that they have left undone things which they ought to have done, is sufficient to ruin their souls for ever. In short, a man?s sins of emission alone are enough to sink him into hell!

And now look at yourself by the light of this wonderful passage of Scripture. Try to remember the countless things you have left undone, which you might have done, and have left unsaid, that you might have said. The acts of self-denying kindness, which you might have performed, but have neglected,?how many they are! The good you might have done, and the happiness you might have caused, at very little trouble to yourself,?how vast is the amount of it! Surely, in the face of our Lord?s teaching about sins of omission, you will not stand up and say, ?I have not sinned!?

Reader, once more I ask, Do you doubt the truth of what I am saying? I think it quite possible that you do. I know something of man?s exceeding blindness to his own natural state. Listen to me once more, whilst I ply your conscience with another argument. Oh, that God may open your eyes, and show you what you are!

Sit down, and take pen and paper, and count up the sins that you have probably sinned since you first knew good from evil. Sit down, I say, and make a sum. Grant for a moment that there have been, on an average, fifteen hours in every twenty-four during which you have been awake, and an active and accountable being.?Grant for a moment that in each one of these fifteen hours you have sinned only two sins. Surely you will not say that this is an unfair supposition. Remember, we may sin against God in thought, word, or deed. I repeat, it cannot be thought an extreme thing to suppose that in each waking hour you have, in thought, or word, or deed, sinned two sins. And now add up the sins of your life, and see to what sum they will amount.

At the rate of fifteen waking hours in a day, you have sinned every day thirty sins!?At the rate of seven days in a week, you have sinned two hundred and ten sins every week!?At the rate of four weeks in every month, you have sinned eight hundred and forty sins every month!?At the rate of twelve months in every year, you have sinned ten thousand and eighty sins every year!?And, in short, not to go further with the calculation, every ten years of your life you have sinned, at the lowest computation, more than ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND SINS!

Reader, I do beseech you to look calmly at this sum. I defy you to disprove its correctness. I ask you, on the contrary, whether I have not entirely understated your case? I appeal to you, as an honest person, whether it be not true, that many an hour, and many a day in your life, you have sinned incessantly? I ask you confidently, whether the sum would not be far more correct if the total number of your sins was multiplied ten-fold??Oh, cease from your self-righteousness! Lay aside this proud affectation of ?not being so very bad,? in which you are trying to wrap yourself up. Be bold enough to confess the truth. Listen not to that old liar, the devil. Surely in the face of that damning sum which I have just cast up, you will not dare to deny that ?you have many sins.?

I leave this part of my subject here, and pass on. I sadly fear that many a reader will run his eye over what I have been saying, and remain unconvinced and unmoved. I have learned by mournful experience that the last thing a man finds out and understands, is his own state in the sight of God. Well saith the Holy Ghost, that we are all by nature ?blind,? and ?deaf,? and ?dumb,? and ?asleep,? and ?beside ourselves,? and ?dead!? Nothing, nothing, nothing will ever convince man of sin but the power of the Holy Ghost. Show him hell, and he will not flee from it; show him heaven, and he will not seek it; silence him with warnings, and yet he will not stir; prick his conscience, and yet he will remain hard. Power from on high must come down and do the work. To show man what he really is, needs the Holy Spirit of God.

Reader, if you have any feeling of your own sinfulness, you ought to thank God for it. That very sense of weakness, wickedness, and corruption, which perhaps makes you uncomfortable, is in reality a token for good, and a cause for praise. The first step towards being really good, is to feel bad. The first preparation for heaven, is to know that we deserve nothing but hell. Before we can be counted righteous we must know ourselves to be miserable sinners. Before we can have inward happiness and peace with God, we must learn to be ashamed and confounded because of our manifold transgressions. Before we can rejoice in a well-grounded hope, we must be taught to say, ?Unclean! unclean! God, be merciful to me a sinner!?

Reader, if you love your soul, beware of checking and stifling this inward feeling of your own sinfulness. I beseech you, by the mercies of God, do not trample on it, do not crush it, do not take it by the throat and refuse to give it your attention. Beware of taking the advice of worldly men about it. Treat it not as a case of low-spirits, disordered health, or anything of the kind. Beware of listening to the devil?s counsel about it. Do not try to drown it in drink and revelling; do not try to drive over it with horses, and dogs, and carriages, and field-sports; do not try to purge it away by a course of card-parties, and balls, and concerts. Oh, reader, if you love your soul, do not, do not treat the first sense of sin in this miserable fashion. Do not commit spiritual suicide,?do not murder your soul!

Go rather and pray God to show you what this feeling of sin means. Ask Him to send the Holy Spirit to teach you what you are, and what He would have you to do. Go and read your Bible, and see whether there is not just cause for your being uncomfortable, and whether this sense of being ?wicked and bad? is not just what you have a right to expect. Who can tell but it is a seed from heaven which is one day to bear fruit in Paradise in your complete salvation? Who can tell but it is a spark from heaven which God means to blow up into a steady and shining light? Who can tell but it is a stone from above before which the devil?s kingdom in your heart is to go down, and a stone which shall prove the first foundation of a glorious temple of the Holy Ghost??Happy indeed is that man or woman who can go along with my first remark, and say, ?IT IS TRUE: I HAVE MANY SINS.?