Ezekiel 36:31

DISCOURSE: 1118
THE DUTY OF SELF-LOTHING

Ezekiel 36:31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

IT should seem, that the more excellent any man became, the higher thoughts he would have of his own excellence: and the more he was conformed to the will of God, the more he would be filled with self-complacency. But the very reverse of this is the truth. Men’s humiliation will always increase in proportion as they know the extent of their duty, and are made sensible of their defects; and consequently, the more they advance in holiness, the more they will lament their past, and remaining, iniquities. The words of our text confirm this. They are addressed, not to persons living in wilful and deliberate sin, but to persons “cleansed from their filthiness,” and possessed of “a new spirit, whereby they are enabled to walk in God’s statutes:” even to them is the injunction given, to “lothe themselves for their abominations.”
We shall consider,

I. The duty enjoined—

Repentance, though an universally acknowledged duty, is but little understood. It implies,

1. A calling of our evil ways to remembrance—

[However tenacious our memory may be of evils committed by others against us, we are very forgetful of the evils which we ourselves commit against God. But we should go back to the earliest periods of our life, and review the transactions which then took place: we should then prosecute our inquiries through each successive year, till our reason was expanded, and our judgment informed with respect to the nature and consequences of sin: we should advance in this way through the different stages of our existence, till we arrive at the present time. Much evil will doubtless have passed away, and left no trace behind: but much may be recalled to our minds, sufficient to shew, that the whole bias of our souls has been towards wickedness, and that, in proportion as our faculties of body and mind have been enlarged, we have devoted them to the service of sin and Satan.
Having brought our examination down to the present time, we should enter more deeply into the qualities even of our best actions: we should search into the motives from which they sprang; the manner in which they were performed; and the end at which we aimed in the performance of them: we should do this, not with a view to find our good deeds, but “our doings that were not good:” not to furnish ourselves with grounds of self-approbation and self-complacency, but rather of humiliation and contrition.]

2. A lothing of ourselves on account of them—

[The calling of our ways to remembrance is only preparatory to that more essential part of true penitence, “the lothing of ourselves on account of them.” To this it must lead: if it stop short of this, it is of no avail. It is in vain that we are alarmed and terrified with a sense of our guilt; for Pharaoh [Note: Exodus 10:16.], and Judas [Note: Matthew 27:3.], confessed their sins under a sudden impression of fear and remorse: nor will it suffice to express a considerable degree of sorrow on account of our state; for even in Ahab’s humiliation this was found [Note: 1 Kings 21:27.]: we must be brought to self-lothing and self-abhorrence.

The Scriptures illustrate sin by “a dog returning to his own vomit,” “and a sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire [Note: 2 Peter 2:22.]. “It must be confessed that the former of these metaphors is most disgusting: but the more disgusting it is, the more suited is it to the occasion; since the conduct of the sinner, like that of the dog, argues an unspeakably filthy and depraved appetite. Let us apply this metaphor, not to gross sins only, but to sin in general; and then consider, that sin has been, not merely a morsel swallowed under some violent temptation, but our daily food, yea, the only thing towards which he had any real appetite: and what filthy creatures shall we then appear! What disgusting objects must we be in the sight of God; and how ought we to lothe and abhor ourselves! The latter metaphor also is a just representation of our conduct; and shews, that no terms are too degrading, no images too disgusting, to represent the filthiness of our habits, and the depravity of our hearts.

Nor let it be thought that this representation is too strong; for it accords, not only with the text, which is frequently repeated [Note: Ezekiel 6:9; Ezekiel 20:43.], but with the confessions of the most eminent saint [Note: Genesis 18:27; Isaiah 6:5.], and justifies fully that declaration of Job, “Behold, I am vile! I repent, therefore, and abhor myself in dust and ashes [Note: Job 40:4; Job 42:6.].”]

That this is the duty of all, without exception, will appear by considering,

II.

When it is to be performed—

We must not limit this repentance to the time of conversion merely; we must, as the context shews us [Note: “Then.” See ver. 25–27.], continue it after our conversion: indeed the period subsequent to our conversion is that wherein this duty is more particularly required. For,

1. Conversion qualifies us for it—

[Till we are converted, we see but very few of our sins; because we have very defective views of the law of God. Being ignorant of the demands of the law, we must of necessity be ignorant of the multitude of our transgressions against it. Moreover we see but little of the malignity of sin; because we are unacquainted with the immense obligations which we owe to God, against whom our sins are committed. An act of unkindness in a fellow-creature, though trifling in itself, may be an exceedingly heinous offence, if done in return for many and great favours. What then must sin be, when committed against God, who has not only loaded us with temporal blessings, but has given his only dear Son to die for us, and his Holy Spirit to instruct us; yea, and has followed us all our days with intreaties, expostulations, promises, seeking nothing so much as our eternal welfare! This is the view of sin which conversion gives us; and it is this alone which can ever dispose and induce us to lothe ourselves.]

2. We need it as much after conversion as before—

[A converted person will certainly not indulge sin: but he still carries about him a sinful nature, that is bent to backslide from God, and that still operates to the wounding of his conscience, and the offending of his Maker. Now every sin committed in this state is incomparably more heinous than it would have been in his unrenewed state, because it is committed against more light and knowledge, more mercies and obligations, more vows and professions. Even smaller sins involve him now in deeper guilt than his more heinous trespasses before; and therefore they demand a suitable humiliation and contrition. Hence then it is evident, that, while we carry about with us a body of sin and death, we ought incessantly to lothe ourselves, and to be crying with St. Paul, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me [Note: Romans 7:24.]?” Indeed this is the very frame to which God’s pardoning mercy is designed to bring us. And the more we abase ourselves before him, the more evidence we have of our acceptance with him [Note: Psalms 51:17.]

Infer—
1.

How opposite to a Christian state is self-righteousness!

[If contrition be a state pleasing to God, and self-lothing be a necessary constituent of it, then self-righteousness must be most hateful to God, and most injurious to our souls; because it necessarily leads to self-approbation and self-complacency, which are as opposite to self-lothing as darkness is to light. Would to God that this were duly considered! Men profess to repent, and yet make a righteousness of their repentance! a manifest proof that they know not what repentance is! Know, my Brethren, that “all our own righteousnesses are as filthy rags [Note: Isaiah 64:6.]:” that our very tears need to be washed, and our repentances to be repented of; and, that we must disclaim our best deeds in point of dependence, as much as the vilest sins we ever committed. We may indeed “rejoice in the testimony of a good conscience:” but we shall find cause for self-abhorrence, even in our best frames, and our holiest actions.]

2. How dear must Christ be to every true penitent!

[A certain kind and degree of repentance may arise from fear: but that which is spiritual and saving, partakes richly of love. Nothing advances it so much as a sight of the love of Christ in dying for us [Note: Zechariah 12:10.]. Now exactly as a sense of the Saviour’s love causes us to lothe ourselves, so does a sense of our own vileness cause us to admire him. Let not any imagine that self-lothing will lead us to despondency: the viler we see ourselves to be, the more will Christ be exalted and magnified in our eyes. Our vileness, as well as our weakness, will only illustrate the riches of his grace, and render him unspeakably precious to our souls.]