A Sermon
Preached On Sunday
Morning, December 8, 1850
BY THE REV. C. G. FINNEY,
AT THE TABERNACLE, MOORFIELDS
“I will wash my hands in
innocence; so I will go about Your altar, O Lord.”
(Psalms 26:6)
In
discussing these words, I propose to inquire--
I. WHAT IS IMPLIED
IN THE RESOLUTION OF THE PSALMIST?
II. WHAT IS
IMPLIED IN KEEPING THAT RESOLUTION?
III. I WILL SHOW,
THAT BOTH THE RESOLUTION AND THE KEEPING OF IT ARE INDISPENSABLE CONDITIONS OF
ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD.
I. WHAT IS IMPLIED
IN THE RESOLUTION OF THE PSALMIST?
We find the
Psalmist forming and expressing this resolution to God in the midst of many
other striking sayings. I will read the
passages in connection with this resolution.
“Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity.” (Psalms 26:1) Here you see, he invites God Himself to sit in judgment of his
integrity. “I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my
mind and my heart.” How the Psalmist
opens himself up! How he bares his soul
before God! “For Your loving kindness
is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth. I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, nor will I go in with
hypocrites.” (v.3-4) He did not sit
down with vain people, neither would he associate himself with those who were
hypocrites before God. “I have hated
the congregation of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked.” (v.5) The word ‘sit’, used here, means
‘associate with’, or ‘to be on familiar terms’, which implies fellowship with
them. Then follows the words of our
passage. “I will wash my hands in
innocence; so I will go about Your altar, O Lord.” (v.6)
It is very clear,
from the context of this passage, that this resolution, first of all, implies
an apprehension of the holiness of God and the absolute purity of His
character. The Psalmist, undoubtedly, clearly
saw this; because to make this kind of resolution, implies that his mind
perceived the holiness and purity of God’s character, and understood it. Why should he form a resolution to wash his
hands in innocence, unless he saw that this was needed to approach God?
It
also implies perceiving the condition on which we may approach God, on which
God will allow us to come into His presence.
No doubt, the Psalmist not only had an idea of God’s holiness, but he
also knew that God requires him to be holy, pure, sincere, and upright in
approaching Him: to have “clean hands”, as the Psalmist here expresses it. He must have this if he expects to have any
fellowship with God. It is worthy to
note that the Psalmist says that he has no fellowship with wickedness; that he
does not sit with vain people; that he doesn’t associate with hypocrites; and
that he has nothing to do with mockers.
It would be very interesting if he said this about himself, and yet believed
that God would associate with hypocrites, pretenders, and mockers! The Psalmist felt that these things were required
of him, and that they became him; that if he wanted to approach God, he must be
able to say the things that he said.
Now if he refuses to sit with the wicked, and have fellowship with hypocrites;
could he expect that God accepts wicked people, and allows them to have fellowship
with Him? No doubt, the Psalmist had a
very clear concept of the holiness of God’s character, for his resolution shows
that he had been seriously thinking aobut it; and also mentions, very clearly,
the real condition by which he can approach God, find access to Him, and
acceptance with Him. Contemplating the
holiness and purity of God, he mentions these several things as he seems to
come nearer and nearer to God. One
after the other these things seem to loom up before his mind, as he sees
clearly that such things must be the conditions for an infinitely holy God to
accept him. God will not accept the
wicked. Will God, then, accept him if
he joined in with the wicked, and associated with hypocrites? He saw clearly that God would not accept him
if he came with vile hands!
This resolution implies, not only that the Psalmist perceives the holiness of God, and the condition on which he might have communion with Him and be accepted by Him, but this resolution also implies that he fervently desires communion with God’s purity, with God’s holiness; with God Himself. It shows that he himself wants to draw near to God; he views God’s purity in such a way that, instead of driving him away from the throne of grace, it has the effect of drawing him towards it. His most anxious desire is to come very near to God, and crowd right up to His throne of grace, or why would he say that he wants to approach the altar of God, and declare his intention to wash his hands in innocence, that he might be accepted by God.
It implies also
that he is perfectly willing to give up everything that is inconsistent with
approaching God this way. He resolves
to cleanse his hands, to wash them in innocence, and this is how he approaches
God’s altar. Now observe, he sees the
conditions, and is willing to fulfill them.
He sees what God must, from His own nature, naturally require of those
that want to come near to Him. He sees
that they must come with clean hands, that God cannot receive hypocrites. If they can’t leave their sins behind them,
they can’t approach God’s altar; but if they could leave their sins behind,
they can approach and find forgiveness.
If they bring their sins, they can’t come in. Every soul can come into God’s presence, and approach Him, but
they must not bring their sins with them; if they do, they can’t be
received. The Psalmist saw this, and he
resolved to wash his hands in innocence.
It also implies a
renunciation of all sin. He planned to
approach God with clean hands. But
notice, people can’t approach God with clean hands, in the sense that they have
never sinned, but in the sense that they are resolved to renounce all iniquity for
the time to come.
This
resolution implies a solemn pledge of universal obedience to God. “I will wash my hands in innocence” suggests
the idea of universal obedience to God.
II. Next, I ask,
WHAT IS IMPLIED IN KEEPING SUCH A RESOLUTION AS THIS?
If this resolution
was only a feeling, it would not be a proper resolution at all. It must be more than just a wish or a simple
desire, it must be a purpose of the mind, and a determination of the
heart. But let me ask you, what is implied
in keeping this resolution? The
resolution is, “I will wash my hands in innocence”. As is common in Scripture, an inward state of mind is expressed
by an outward act, in this case it is the ‘washing or cleansing of the
hands’. “I will wash my hands in
innocence.” Now, he certainly didn’t
mean to say that he literally could simply wash his hands. He was talking about
washing his heart. Washing the hands,
in this case, means, “I will put iniquity away from my heart. I will renounce the spirit of self-seeking
altogether. I will renounce from my
deepest heart, every form of sin and iniquity.
I will renounce sin as sin, and iniquity as iniquity.”
Please
remember that it is not enough for an individual to renounce just one sin or
one form of sin, but all sin and every form of sin; at least for the time
being. Everybody can see that the mind
cannot reject one sin, because it is sin; the mind cannot put it away because
of the fact that it is sin; and yet cherish some other form of sin. No man can put away one sin, as sin, without
at the same time putting away all sin of every form and degree. Keeping this resolution implies that no iniquity
shall be left, but that all sin shall be put away. Do you suppose that the Psalmist confined his idea to outward
acts, and meant to say that he would simply reform his outward life in certain
respects? Would that be to wash his
hands in innocence? What do you say if
he had put away great frauds, and kept little ones? If he had put away forgery, but kept little petty thefts in his
business transactions? Would that have
been to wash his hands in innocence?
Judge for yourself!
If
a man pays his debts to save his reputation, and yet takes a penny out of every
person’s hand who came into his shop, would that be to wash his hands in
innocence? Suppose that a man kept his
word in important matters that would reach the public, but should, in little
things, mislead the public? Perhaps he
puts an article in his store window, marked such a price, but when people came
in, he won’t sell that, but a similar looking inferior article at the same
price? Would that be to wash his hands
in innocence? Now, suppose I had time
to go over all these little tricks that the business world is full of,
shouldn’t we see a lot to condemn?
Shouldn’t we see very little washing of the hands in innocence? We look into business transactions and we
see cheating, overreaching, pulling and grasping on all sides. The resolution
then to wash your hands in innocence, implies that there shall be no stain, no
sin left, none of your tricks, none of your management, none of your little
petty actions in palming off goods for what they are not; no sin whether in
heart or life.
Keeping
the resolution to wash one’s hands in innocence undoubtedly implies that there
is repentance for past sin, because unless people repent of past sin, they will
not cease from present sin. That is
certain. Now suppose that a man stops
doing something he used to practice, but he doesn’t repent of it, what does he
do? Why, he still clings to his
iniquity! He doesn’t show, by his
outward actions, that he has repented of it.
It festers in his heart; like a smoldering fire, there it is, like hot
coals still burning just below the surface, although they are not visible. If there is no repentance, there is no
washing of the hands in innocence.
Keeping
the resolution to cleanse the heart implies even more. It also implies self-examination in the
light of the rule, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to
them”. (Matt 7:12) God has laid down this ruse: “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.” You shall
regard his interests as your own; you shall regard his feelings as your own;
you shall regard his reputation as your own.
Now observe, keeping this resolution to cleanse your hands, implies that
your mind looks at the rule in view the fact that your hands are to be washed,
your life and heart purified. Here is
the standard! No other standard than
this is God’s standard! Notice, unless
the mind sees that, it will never renounce sin.
A
man therefore, who approaches God with his hands cleansed, must ask himself, is
everything I’ve done, or am doing, what I would want others to do to me? A certain man requested a favor from
me! Did I grant it, like I would have
wanted him to grant it if I had asked him?
Did I grant it, like I would have reasonably expected him to grant it to
me? I dealt with someone. Did I deal with him just like I would want
him to deal with me? A certain man needed
money, I had some, did I let him have it just as I could have expected or
wanted him to let me have some, if I had been placed in his circumstances? Someone’s character was attacked in my
presence. Did I seek to vindicate his
character, just as I would have wanted him to vindicate my character? I heard a rumor about him that I didn’t
believe was true; did I deny it and resent it, as I would if it been told about
myself? Did I feel for his character
like I would have felt for my own? Such
a man is in trouble; do I sympathize with him, like I would want him to
sympathize with me if I was in his condition?
Ah,
I wish I had time to discuss many of these things in sight of this rule, “Love
your neighbor as yourself”. If we were
to take this rule and set it before us, and then go into our various business affairs
of life, we should see many things that need changing. Let me urge each one of you to take this
rule, and see where you have transgressed it, and say, “I must repent of all
these things, which are not merely transgressions of human laws, but
transgressions of the perfect law of God.
I must repent of these things, and what is more, I must, as far as
possible, set about making restitution.
There is no honest repentance without this. Suppose a man were to rob you of a thousand pounds, and then say,
“I’m very sorry”, but keeps the money, what would you think of his
repentance? Is that what it means to
wash one’s hands in innocence? Suppose
someone has slandered you, spoken evil of you, or spreads false rumors behind
your back, and when he has learned the truth, he refuses to confess it to those
whom he has misled. Is that what it
means to wash one’s hands in innocence? Is that what an honest man is supposed
to do? You know very well that there is
no more honesty in him than there is in the devil! Who does not see that this must be true?
But
you may say, isn’t this person honest concerning other things? I answer, no! What does Jesus Christ say?
“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he
who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” (Luke 16:10) Anyone who is unjust in the least, is universally unjust; he is
not truly honest in anything. Let me
illustrate this. Suppose a man
regularly makes his loan payments, but behind his counter, he will take
advantage of his customers over a few pennies.
He will cheat everyone who comes into his shop, as long as he can to it
without being caught, without damaging his reputation. He is constantly putting out his feelers,
like a snail, to see how far he can go without endangering his reputation among
men. Is that man an honest man? No!
There is not one particle of honesty about him: he is selfish and sinful
from beginning to end! He makes his
loan payments to the bank! Why? His credit rating would be ruined if he
didn’t, and it would damage his business and his reputation. But go into his store to buy something, and
he will cheat you if he can. Is he an
honest man simply because he makes loan payments and never overdraws his checking
account? No! There is not one particle of honesty in him. Now let me say; these are very practical
ideas, and it is very important to consider them in a city like this.
Therefore,
we see that keeping this resolution implies confession and restitution. What is the rule by which confession and
restitution should be made? It is the
golden rule.
“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do
also to them”. (Matt 7:12). “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 19:19) Now observe, it should be universally known that confession must
be made to the injured party for the wrongs inflicted. Here let me make a difference that seems
necessary to make, between this confession and the confession insisted on by
Roman Catholics. They make a priest the
recipient of all confessions, but right now, I am talking about confessing to
the person who has been injured. Suppose
you have slandered another, you should confess that to him, or to the person
whom you have misled, by your statements concerning him. Justice and our duty towards our neighbors
demand this confession. God also
demands such a confession. “He who
covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will
have mercy”. (Prov 28:13) Again, “Confess your trespasses to one
another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)
Keeping of this
resolution implies picking up those stumbling blocks, and making everything
right as if you’re preparing for your judgment. Suppose that we knew, that one week from today, the judgment was
to take place and all the preparation we are allowed to make must be made
within the next seven days! Would you not immediately be upright and
honest? Well you must be as honest now
as you would be then! I’m not saying
that you must take the same course now as you would then, in everything you do,
for if you knew that the affairs of the world were to come to an end so soon,
you would probably quit your business or job; and do many other things that
would not be a good idea to do now.
But, keeping this resolution implies that you are as thoroughly upright
and honest now as you would be then, in making confession, and as far as
possible, restitution.
We
must remove all stumbling blocks out of the way. Suppose we look around us and see various things that offend and
hinder the salvation of our fellow men, what must we do? What does Christ say? “Therefore if you bring your gift to the
altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave
your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your
brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
(Matt 5:23-24) Do not offer it,
for if you do, it will not be accepted.
Go first and remove the stumbling block, and then come and offer your
gift. Here is the very principle that
we are contending for, laid down by Christ.
Some men believe that the gospel dispensation is a very lenient one,
compared with the Old Testament dispensation.
The exact opposite of this is true.
The New Testament dispensation is the same as the Old; but while the one
related chiefly to our outward life, the other comes right home and deals with
our heart. Take Christ’s Sermon on the
Mount, where He tells you that unless there is obedience to the law of God in
your heart, there is no obedience at all.
He teaches us also to exercise a forgiving spirit, or else when we pray,
God will not hear us. Unless we are
honest and upright when we pray, and make our peace with those whom we have
offended, we cannot approach God.
Concern for the
rights of others in all respects is implied in washing our hands in innocence,
including paying our debts and honesty in all our business transactions; not in
the sense of complying with human laws, but in view of the great principle of
loving our neighbor as our self.
Washing our hands in innocence implies that all your business
transactions are based on this principle.
We cannot truly be honest except when we love our neighbor as our self,
and regard our neighbor’s interests our own interests, and seek his good as we
would seek our own good. Suppose
someone comes into your shop to buy a particular item, and you know that you
don’t have what he wants; but you show him something, and say, “this is not the
exact item you wanted, but it is better than the one you want”, while, at the
same time, you know that you are deceiving him. You know it is an inferior item, but you say, “although this is
not exactly what you wanted, I think it is better and you will like it just as
much.” And so, you will sell it to him
if you can, even if you have to deceive him.
Now let me ask, is this being honest with God? Is this washing your hands in innocence? Is it?
Indeed! Oh, the endless tricks of
selfishness, and the endless deceptions with which men excuse themselves; and
yet display so much piety in the midst of it all. Selfish all week long, but very pious on Sunday!
Some
people would never even think about staying away from church on Sunday, but
they will cheat you in their store on Monday if they get an opportunity to do
so. Suppose a man comes into your store
and asks if you have a certain item, and if you are not sure that you have,
will you let him know? Will you say “I
don’t know if I have: I will look, but I don’t think I have anything that will
exactly meet your need. But here is something
like it, you can look at it and see if it will suit you”. Now, will you tell him all that you know
about it, and be completely honest with him?
Or do you try to deceive him and sell him something that it is either
inferior or will not really suit his purposes.
You customer is ignorant of the quality of an item: will you be honest
with him, or will you take advantage of his ignorance, and charge him more than
it is worth? Perhaps he will barely get
home before he finds out that neither the article nor the price were what they
should have been. Suppose you say,
“well, I am trying to get a little extra money so I can give it to the
Missionary cause”! Let me tell you that
a man might as well fit out a pirate ship for the same purpose! You take advantage, lie and cheat, to get
money for God! Fine! Then as soon as you’ve received the money
for God; just go into your closet, lay the money down before Him, and say,
“Lord, You know how I got this money today.
There was a man who came into my shop and wanted a certain article, and
I didn’t have what he wanted. But I had
one that wasn’t as good, but I managed to get him to buy it, and I charged him
a little more than it was worth because I wanted to give something to Your
Missionary cause!” Now would that be
washing your hands in innocence? Can
you serve God like that? Would an
infinitely holy God accept stolen money?
You judge!
III. We will now
show that BOTH THE RESOLUTION, AND THE KEEPING OF IT, ARE INDISPENSABLE
CONDITIONS OF ACCEPTANCE BY GOD.
Now let me here
explain what I mean by the conditions of acceptance. I do not mean that the things I have mentioned are grounds
whereby God will accept us. God will
not accept us for these things, because after all, there is no satisfaction
made for past sin; none at all.
Therefore, God can’t accept us and treat us as if we had not
sinned. Although this resolution, or
the keeping of it, is not the ground of acceptance, I will say it is a
condition in the sense that we cannot be accepted without it. Because, if God were to accept us without
this, He would do the very thing that the Psalmist himself would not do. The Psalmist declared that he would have no
fellowship with iniquity, and he would not join in with hypocrites, and shall
you have fellowship with iniquity?
No! Then I say this is an
indispensable condition of acceptance with God.
Please understand
then, that when we talk about people being justified by faith, we always mean
that faith implies repentance, making restitution, and obedience and holiness
of heart. The faith that grabs a hold
of Christ implies all this. We are
justified by faith; but it is the faith of obedience to God; the faith that
leads to sanctification; the faith that works by love and purifies the heart;
the faith that overcomes the world. Ah,
the faith that overcomes the world; that’s the faith to mark an honest
man! The Bible describes the faith that
justifies as the faith that overcomes the world. Look at that man. He says
he has faith. Does his faith enable him
to overcome the world? Why, it has not
made him an honest man in his worldly business! It does not keep him from cheating! Is that the faith of the gospel?
No, indeed! It is the faith that
voids the law; and “do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly
not! On the contrary, we establish the
law.” (Romans 3:31) True faith produces the very spirit of the
law in our mind, and as a result, there will be obedience in our outward
life. Don’t misunderstand me; I am not
advocating a system of self-righteousness.
I am not saying that our own works may save us. I am not denying that we are justified by
faith; I believe that! But, I maintain
that the faith that justifies is the faith that overcomes the world. Faith implies honesty with God and man. Faith implies an honest heart; and faith
implies a cleansing of the hands.
Beloved, no man has the faith that justifies him who does not have the
faith that makes him honest. If you are
not honest, you don’t have faith; and in God's sense of the term, you don’t
have the faith of the gospel.
Faith
must be a condition of acceptance. God
would disgrace Himself if it weren’t.
We could not have any true respect for God if He did not make this a
condition of our acceptance. God does
not require that our own works should save us, for that is impossible. He does not require us to undo the actions
of our past lives, for that is impossible; but He requires us to become honest
right now, and God requires all that is implied in that state of mind; which is
sincerity, simplicity of heart, and confidence in Him.
Furthermore,
let me say that if we could approach God and be accepted by Him without
becoming honest men, it wouldn’t do us any good. If God were such a being that He could have fellowship with our
sins, we would still be wretched beings.
The fact is, beloved; there is no way in which the soul can be at peace
with God, without it becoming like God.
There must be written on the heart of a man ‘holiness to the Lord’,
before he can be at peace with God.
There is a natural attraction between the mind of God and a good man,
just like there is between the sun and the planets; instead of the earth flying
off in a straight line away from the sun, it is drawn around and around and
around by the attraction of the sun.
The same is true between a good man and God. There is such a natural attraction between the good and holy
soul, and the God of infinite purity, that the good and holy soul is continually
drawn towards Him. The sun attracts the
earth, and the earth attracts the sun, and thus the earth is carried around the
sun in its orbit. In a similar way, God
attracts the soul of the good man, and the soul of a good man attracts
God. The soul knows nothing about
gravity in respect to the earth. The
mind is not material, and if the body did not hold it down, it would ascend to
its author. Why, Christian, have there
been times in your life when there was such an attraction between your and God,
that it was as if your soul would almost leap from its body, or draw your body
up with it to heaven. An eminent
Christian lady once said, that at one time the attraction of God was so great,
that it seemed to her as if she would go to heaven body and soul together.
I
mention these things to show you, that when we speak of being drawn towards
God, we are not merely using a figure of speech.
Some
people think that they must be saved by some kind of imputed righteousness, while
they have no personal righteousness.
Suppose you had imputed righteousness, then what? Suppose you were to get to heaven? That would be no place for you. Heaven would be hell to you. But let me assure you that you must have an
imparted righteousness, and become pure in heart and life, before God will
accept you.
Let me close with a few remarks. The first remark I make is this: you are not accepted by God if you don’t have communion with Him; if you don’t find God in His house, in your closet, and do not enter into an affectionate communion with Him.
You can see from this subject why there is so little real communion with God in the church. The best reason is that there is so little of the washing of the hands in innocence.
Let me say again: many people do not seem to understand that this is a condition of acceptance; they somehow think that the gospel was designed to make men pure, but they don’t understand what is implied in washing the hands in innocence, in casting themselves on God for present grace and for future grace.
You have seen from this subject how abominable it must be to God for people to pretend to love and serve Him while they indulge in a worldly spirit and live a worldly life. You don’t need to make any great and wonderful preparations; spending months or years before you give your heart to God. Suppose that every person in this house were, right now, willing to do what the Psalmist did, and were to come right out and say, “I will wash my hands in innocence”, what is there to hinder your salvation?
We are soon going to unite in prayer. Let the whole congregation, then, make one move toward the throne of grace! Let everyone make a move with his heart, and say, “Lord, I give up all sin, and I do it now, and as soon as possible I will set about making everything right outwardly. In my heart, I now renounce sin. All sin! I will now consecrate my heart, and wash my hands in innocence.” Are you all willing to do this? Come along then! Come along! Everyone! The veil has been rent, and the door has been thrown wide open, and no man can shut it against you but yourself. Will you then shut it against yourself? Will you refuse to enter? Don’t be so foolish; come now, come with earnestness and sincerity and God will accept you.