God -- Sermons; Jesus Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 20th century
A Christian woman who was very ill asked her daughter to read the 8th
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. When she had finished the mother
said, "That's mine, it's _all_ mine." How rich she was! Only think of it
and it is an _Eternal_ inheritance, for the chapter begins with "no
condemnation" and ends with "no separation."
If you will look at verses 7 and 8 of our Psalm, you will see four things
which the Word of God does. "It converts the soul, makes wise the simple,
rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes." Let us think of these four
things.
First: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." The law here
means the whole covenant of Jehovah.
You remember how, when God appeared to Abraham, that Abraham fell on his
face, feeling his utter weakness and nothingness, and then God talked with
him. When a man is laid low in the dust then God can talk to him. And God
said to Abraham, "I will make my covenant between Me and thee." [Footnote:
Gen. xvii. 2.] A covenant is a promise made under solemn conditions, and
it is God's covenant of grace which converts the soul. Such a promise as
we have in Ezekiel: "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit
will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh: And I will put my Spirit
within you." [Footnote: Ezek. xxxvi. 26.] God says "I will" five times in
those few lines, because He wants us to understand that in giving this
promise He undertakes to do in us and for us what we can never do for
ourselves.
This reminds me of a young woman who was troubled because, although she
was longing to be saved, yet she felt her heart was so hard. One Sunday
the minister took this verse as the text for his sermon. When he gave it
out it seemed to her as if a voice was speaking these words close to her,
right into her ear, "I will give you an heart of flesh." It came like a
message direct from God. She was so deeply touched she could not listen to
the sermon, and after it was over she went into the fields to find a quiet
place that she might look at the words again in her Bible. She is now a
very bright earnest Christian.
It is through the Word that God speaks to our hearts, and when the Holy
Spirit makes it a living Word and quickens us to receive it with faith,
then we are converted. If you are not saved, take your Bible and read it
prayerfully, and you will find in it just what you want. Remember the
letter of Scripture is of no use unless we experience its power and enjoy
its sweetness.
A young clergyman was converted through a very strange text. He was so
much depressed he thought of committing suicide, and then his eye fell on
that verse in Ecclesiastes, "A living dog is better than a dead lion."
[Footnote: Eccles. ix. 4.] The words brought fresh hope to him. He said to
himself, One thing is certain and that is, I am still a _living_ man, and
he was then led to seek Christ as the Way, the Truth and the _Life_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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