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Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. (Psalm 90:8-9)
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All your secret sins, and even the actions that you consider to be good deeds, will be exposed in the light that shines from the face of Jesus Christ. Have you ever pictured yourself standing under God's wrath as the course of your whole life flashes before you? If you have, you will have discovered that man, because of his sin, is doomed to destruction when he stands before God. When your conscience is frankly exposed before God, you will discover that you have no grounds at all for putting your trust in yourself.
Nothing becomes new until the light of the truth shines upon it. We too can't become new, or be born again as a new creation, until the light of the truth has shone in our hearts. Dwight L. Moody, Charles G. Finney, John Wesley, John Bunyan, John Calvin, Martin Luther, and many other men of faith before us, all experienced this new birth. It's therefore difficult to understand why so many churches today seem to deny the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit and the born-again experience of the individual. There are those who acknowledge from a doctrinal point of view that a person must be born again, but they claim that the new birth is some kind of mystical experience or a matter of the refinement of a person's physical actions. Generally speaking, the true experience of spiritual birth seems to be little known, yet so many churches teach people that they are going to heaven, "saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace" (Jeremiah 6:14). The Bible doesn't deceive people.
In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 it says,
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...in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.
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The Bible also says,
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The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16),
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He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself... (1 John 5:10),
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and
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...when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, ...for the faith which was once (it didn't take place over a long period of time) delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3).
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If you have doubts and don't have true peace in your conscience, yours isn't true faith. The Bible is truth. The Bible describes salvation as the purification of the spirit, the perfection of the conscience, and the good conscience's quest for God. The Bible is the immutable word of God. In Matthew's Gospel it says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). The words of God need to be accomplished not only in the history of mankind, but also in your spirit, in your conscience. In Psalm 107 verses 19-20 it says,
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Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
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If the light of the word of God has never freed your conscience from the anguish and fear caused by your sin, you can't see God. In Revelation chapter 21 it says that nothing unclean shall ever enter the kingdom of heaven.
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