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March 15 - March 19, 2019
The church is the body of Christ and introducing unconverted persons into the church weakens and degrades it.
Instead of searching their hearts and aiming at their real conversion, the pastor never gave them any time to think about their spiritual condition. Instead, he pestered until he persuaded them (not the Spirit) to make a profession.
Don’t aim for sensationalism and “effect.” Flowing tears and streaming eyes, sobs and outcries, crowded after-meetings and all kinds of confusion may occur, and might be accepted as attributes of genuine feeling, but please don’t plan their fabrication.
often when converts are born in excitement, they die when the excitement is over.
The greatest zeal for Christ is consistent with common-sense and reason, while raving, ranting, and fanaticism are products of another zeal which is not according to knowledge (Romans 10:2).
Instruction in the gospel is the beginning of all real work upon men’s minds.
Teaching begins the work and crowns it too.
You must preach Christ, His wounds, and the clear doctrine of atonement by sacrifice.
Teach gospel doctrines clearly, affectionately, simply, and plainly. Especially, teach those truths which have a current and practical bearing upon man’s condition and God’s grace.
The withholding of the doctrine of the total depravity of man has brought about serious harm to many who have listened to such preaching. These people don’t experience a true healing, because they don’t recognize the disease under which they suffer.
Many ministries don’t probe the heart enough or arouse the conscience by revealing man’s alienation from God and proclaiming the selfishness and wickedness of such a state. Men need to be told that only divine grace can bring them out of their enmity to God.
if they choose not to accept His grace, the consequence is that they must eternally perish,
They must be reminded of the sovereignty of God. He isn’t obliged to bring them out of this state. In fact, He would be right and just if He left them in such a condition, for they have no goodness or excellence which entitles them the honor to plead before Him and no claims upon Him,
The preacher’s work is to bring sinners low to see their utter helplessness, so they may be compelled to look up to Him who alone can help them.
The gospel has the same magnitude in every emergency – an arrow which can pierce the hardest heart, and a balm which will heal the deadliest wound. Preach it, and preach nothing else.
Rely implicitly upon the old, old gospel. You need no other nets when you fish for men. Those your Master has given you are strong enough for the great fish and have mesh fine enough to hold the little ones.
Secondly, to win a soul it is necessary, not only to instruct our hearer and make him know the truth, but to impress him so that he may feel it.
A sinner has a heart as well as a head – emotions and thoughts. And we must appeal to both. A sinner will never be converted until his emotions are stirred. Unless he feels sorrow for sin, and unless he has some measure of joy in the reception of the Word, you can’t have much hope for him.
But, still, we must think about how these emotions are caused. Don’t toy with the mind by exciting feelings which are not spiritual.
I saw a girl on board a steamboat reading a book. She cried as if her heart would break. But when I glanced at the title, I saw it was only one of those silly cheap novels which load our railway bookstalls. Her tears were an absolute waste of moisture, and so are those produced by mere pulpit tale-telling and death bed images.
You and I must continue to drive at men’s hearts till they are broken. Then we must keep on preaching Christ crucified till their hearts are committed. When this is accomplished, we must continue to proclaim the gospel till their whole nature is brought into subjection to the gospel of Christ.
The Holy Spirit creates in us a new, heavenly, and immortal nature, which is known in Scripture as the spirit, as a means of distinction from the soul.
For an example of this, look at that memorable chapter dealing with the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, this distinction is brought out in the original manuscripts
The 1 Corinthians 15 passage rendered, It is sown a natural body… might better read, It is sown a soulish body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a soulish body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving Spirit. Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is soulish; and afterward that which is spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:44-46, author’s paraphrase).
we draw attention to the miracles of the Holy Spirit, which are as divine and real as those of our Lord Himself. These miracles are the creation of a new life within the human heart, at the center of their passions, bringing about a total change of the whole being of any upon whom the Spirit descends.
Publisher’s Note: Today we may have been given more insight, as scripture seems to indicate that men consist of spirit, soul, and body: Therefore, I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul (Job 7:11); And the very God of peace sanctify you completely, that your spirit, soul, and body be preserved whole without reprehension for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23). It’s likely not an addition of a spirit, but a regeneration of our spirit, which is then able to commune with the Holy Spirit. For more
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One of the first effects of the new life as it enters the heart is intense inward pain in regards to sin. However, nowadays, we hear of people being healed before they have been wounded, and being brought into a certainty of justification without ever having lamented their condemnation.
We are very skeptical as to the value of such healings and views of justification, because this style or methodology is not practiced according to the truth. God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He make them alive through the gospel until they first are slain by the law.
When you meet with people in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure they haven’t been gui...
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there must be true and deep conviction of sin. This is what the preacher must labor to produce, because when this isn’t felt, the new birth has not taken place.
It is equally true that conversion may be recognized by the exhibition of a simple faith in Jesus Christ.
Great care must be taken that this faith is exercised upon Christ for a complete salvation, and not for a part of it.
He either saves us once for all or not at all. His death can never be repeated, and so it must have made atonement for both the past and future sin of a believer.
Then his moral salvation is complete, for self is no longer the lord of his being. Don’t rest or feel content that the job is done until you see clear evidence in your converts of a simple, sincere, and decided faith in the Lord Jesus.
Along with undivided faith in Jesus Christ, there must also be real repentance of sin.
True repentance is a change of mind with regard to everything.
You won’t find a better definition of it than the one given in the children’s hymn: Repentance is to leave The sins we loved before And show that we in earnest grieve, By doing so no more.
This sense of sin is also accompanied by a sorrow for sin, or holy grief for having committed it, and a hatred of sin, which proves its dominion is ended.
Therefore, aim at heart-breaking, at bringing home condemnation to the conscience and weaning the mind from sin. Don’t be content until the whole mind is deeply and vitally changed in regard to sin.
Another proof of winning a soul for Christ is in a real change of life.
“But, I have an awful temper, and all of a sudden it overcomes me. My fit of anger is soon over, and I feel a great sorrow of heart. Though I can’t control myself, I’m quite sure I am a Christian.”
The whole man must be renewed, or conversion will be questionable.
Remaining under the power of any known sin is a mark of our being the servants of sin, for his slaves ye are to whom ye obey (Romans 6:16).
The boasts of a man who harbors the love of any transgression are ineffectual. He may feel what he likes and believe what he likes, but malignant bitterness is still in him. He is still in the bonds of iniquity while a single sin rules his heart and life.
True regeneration implants a hatred of all evil. Where even a single sin is delighted in, the witness of the evidence ...
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A Christian professes to renounce sin. If he doesn’t do so, his very name is a deception.
In converts, we must also see true prayer, which is the vital breath of godliness. If there is no prayer, you may be quite sure the soul is dead.
When a man professes faith in the Lord Jesus and doesn’t cry to the Lord daily, we dare not believe in his faith or conversion.
Holy Spirit’s evidence by which He convinced Ananias of Paul’s conversion was not, “Behold, he talks loudly of his joys and feelings,” but, Behold, he prays (Acts 9:11).
There must also be a willingness to obey the Lord in all His commandments.
