The Overcoming Life, and Other SermonsMoody, Dwight Lyman
Religion
The Overcoming Life, and Other Sermons
Moody, Dwight Lyman
Evangelistic sermons; Evangelistic work; Sermons, American
He said that at a revival meeting, a little lad who was used to
Methodist ways, went home to his mother and said,
"Mother, John So-and-so is under conviction and seeking for peace, but
he will not find it to-night, mother."
"Why, William?" said she.
"Because he is only down on one knee, mother, and he will never get
peace until he is down on both knees."
Until conviction of sin brings us down on both knees, until we are
completely humbled, until we have no hope in ourselves left, we cannot
find the Savior.
There are three things that lead to conviction: (1) Conscience; (2)
the Word of God; (3) the Holy Spirit. All three are used by God.
Long before we had any Word, God dealt with men through the
conscience. That is what made Adam and Eve hide themselves from the
presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the Garden of Eden. That
is what convicted Joseph's brethren when they said: "We are verily
guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul
when he besought us and we would not hear. Therefore," said they (and
remember, over twenty years had passed away since they had sold him
into captivity), "therefore is this distress come upon us." That is
what we must use with our children before they are old enough to
understand about the Word and the Spirit of God. This is what accuses
or excuses the heathen.
Conscience is "a divinely implanted faculty in man, telling him that
he ought to do right." Someone has said that it was born when Adam and
Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, when their eyes were opened and they
"knew good and evil." It passes judgment, without being invited, upon
our thoughts, words, and actions, approving or condemning according as
it judges them to be right or wrong. A man cannot violate his
conscience without being self-condemned.
But conscience is not a safe guide, because very often it will not
tell you a thing is wrong until you have done it. It needs
illuminating by God because it partakes of our fallen nature. Many a
person does things that are wrong without being condemned by
conscience. Paul said: "I verily thought with myself that I ought to
do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." Conscience
itself needs to be educated.
Again, conscience is too often like an alarm clock, which awakens and
arouses at first, but after a time the man becomes used to it, and it
loses its effect. Conscience can be smothered. I think we make a
mistake in not preaching more to the conscience.
Hence, in due time, conscience was superseded by the law of God, which
in time was fulfilled in Christ.
In this Christian land, where men have Bibles, these are the agency by
which God produces conviction. The old Book tells you what is right
and wrong before you commit sin, and what you need is to learn and
appropriate its teachings, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Conscience compared with the Bible is as a rushlight compared with the
sun in the heavens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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