Post by Shepherd on Dec 4, 2008 9:14:13 GMT -6
88 CONVERTING SINNERS A CHRISTIAN DUTY
JAMES 5:20.” HE WHICH CONVERTETH THE SINNER.”
I. INQUIRE INTO THE TRUE IDEA OF A SINNER.
A sinner is essentially, a moral agent. He must be the responsible author of his own acts, in such a sense that he is not compelled irresistibly to act one way or another, otherwise than according to his own free choice. He must also have intellect, so that he can understand his own relations and apprehend his moral responsibilities. He must also have sensibility, so that he can be moved to action–so that there can be inducement to voluntary activity, and also a capacity to appropriate the motives for right of wrong actions.
He is a selfish moral agent devoted to his own interests, making himself his own supreme end of action.
We have here the true idea of sin. It is, in important sense, error. It is not a mere mistake, for mistakes are made through ignorance or incapacity. Nor is it a mere defeat of constitution, attributable to its author. But it is an error in his ways. It is a voluntary divergence from the line of duty.
II. WHAT IS CONVERSION.
What is it to CONVERT THE SINNER FORM ERROR OF HIS WAYS. It is changing the great moral end of action. It supplants selfishness and substitutes benevolence in its stead.
III. IN WHAT SENSE DOES MAN CONVERT A SINNER?
Our text reads IF ANY OF YOU DO ERR FROM THE TRUTH AND ONE CONVERT HIM–implying that man may convert a sinner.
In what sense can this be said and done—the change must of necessity be a voluntary one–not a change in the essence of the soul, nor in the essence of the body–not any change in the created constitutional faculties; but a change which the mind itself, acting under various influences, makes as to its own voluntary end of action. It an intelligent change–the mind, acting intelligently and freely, changes its moral course, and does it for perceived reason. Even God cannot convert a sinner without his own consent. God converts men, therefore, only as He persuades them to turn from the error of their selfish ways to the rightness of benevolent ways. Men cannot convert a sinner in the same senses. Men are laborers together with God.
IV. WE MUST NEXT INQUIRE INTO THE KIND OF DEATH OF WHICH THE TEXT SPEAKS...... SHALL SAVE A SOUL FROM DEATH.
By the death of the soul is sometimes meant spiritual death–a state in which the mind is not influenced by truth as it should be. The man is under the dominion of sin and repels the influence of truth.
Or the death of the soul may be eternal death–the utter loss of the soul and its final ruin. To be always a sinner is awful enough–is a death of fearful horror; but how terribly augmented is even this when you conceive of it a heightened by everlasting punishment, for away FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND FROM THE GLORY OF HIS POWER.
V. WE CAN NOW CONSIDER THE IMPORTANCE OF SAVING A SOUL FROM DEATH.
Our text says, he who converts a sinner saves a soul from death. Consequently he saves him from all the misery he else must have endued.
He who converts a sinner not only save more misery, but confers more happiness than all the world has yet enjoyed, or even all the created universe.
If these things be true, then. Converting sinners is the work of the Christian life. it is the great work to which we, as Christians, are especially appointed. It is the great work of life because its importance demands that it should be. It can be made the great work of life, because Jesus Christ has made provision for it. The promise of the Holy Ghost to aid each Christian in this work is equally broad, and was designed to open the way for each one to become a labour together with God in this work of saving souls. Benevolence can never stop short of it. So our best for saving souls.
Living to save others is the condition of saving ourselves. No man is truly converted who does not live to save others. The self-deceived are always to be distinguished by this peculiarity–they live to save themselves. This is the chief end of all their religion. All their religious efforts and activities tend toward this soul object.
Some persons take no pains to convert sinners, but act as if this were a matter of no consequence whatever. They do not labour to persuade men to be reconciled to God.
Have a great day
Shepherd.
JAMES 5:20.” HE WHICH CONVERTETH THE SINNER.”
I. INQUIRE INTO THE TRUE IDEA OF A SINNER.
A sinner is essentially, a moral agent. He must be the responsible author of his own acts, in such a sense that he is not compelled irresistibly to act one way or another, otherwise than according to his own free choice. He must also have intellect, so that he can understand his own relations and apprehend his moral responsibilities. He must also have sensibility, so that he can be moved to action–so that there can be inducement to voluntary activity, and also a capacity to appropriate the motives for right of wrong actions.
He is a selfish moral agent devoted to his own interests, making himself his own supreme end of action.
We have here the true idea of sin. It is, in important sense, error. It is not a mere mistake, for mistakes are made through ignorance or incapacity. Nor is it a mere defeat of constitution, attributable to its author. But it is an error in his ways. It is a voluntary divergence from the line of duty.
II. WHAT IS CONVERSION.
What is it to CONVERT THE SINNER FORM ERROR OF HIS WAYS. It is changing the great moral end of action. It supplants selfishness and substitutes benevolence in its stead.
III. IN WHAT SENSE DOES MAN CONVERT A SINNER?
Our text reads IF ANY OF YOU DO ERR FROM THE TRUTH AND ONE CONVERT HIM–implying that man may convert a sinner.
In what sense can this be said and done—the change must of necessity be a voluntary one–not a change in the essence of the soul, nor in the essence of the body–not any change in the created constitutional faculties; but a change which the mind itself, acting under various influences, makes as to its own voluntary end of action. It an intelligent change–the mind, acting intelligently and freely, changes its moral course, and does it for perceived reason. Even God cannot convert a sinner without his own consent. God converts men, therefore, only as He persuades them to turn from the error of their selfish ways to the rightness of benevolent ways. Men cannot convert a sinner in the same senses. Men are laborers together with God.
IV. WE MUST NEXT INQUIRE INTO THE KIND OF DEATH OF WHICH THE TEXT SPEAKS...... SHALL SAVE A SOUL FROM DEATH.
By the death of the soul is sometimes meant spiritual death–a state in which the mind is not influenced by truth as it should be. The man is under the dominion of sin and repels the influence of truth.
Or the death of the soul may be eternal death–the utter loss of the soul and its final ruin. To be always a sinner is awful enough–is a death of fearful horror; but how terribly augmented is even this when you conceive of it a heightened by everlasting punishment, for away FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND FROM THE GLORY OF HIS POWER.
V. WE CAN NOW CONSIDER THE IMPORTANCE OF SAVING A SOUL FROM DEATH.
Our text says, he who converts a sinner saves a soul from death. Consequently he saves him from all the misery he else must have endued.
He who converts a sinner not only save more misery, but confers more happiness than all the world has yet enjoyed, or even all the created universe.
If these things be true, then. Converting sinners is the work of the Christian life. it is the great work to which we, as Christians, are especially appointed. It is the great work of life because its importance demands that it should be. It can be made the great work of life, because Jesus Christ has made provision for it. The promise of the Holy Ghost to aid each Christian in this work is equally broad, and was designed to open the way for each one to become a labour together with God in this work of saving souls. Benevolence can never stop short of it. So our best for saving souls.
Living to save others is the condition of saving ourselves. No man is truly converted who does not live to save others. The self-deceived are always to be distinguished by this peculiarity–they live to save themselves. This is the chief end of all their religion. All their religious efforts and activities tend toward this soul object.
Some persons take no pains to convert sinners, but act as if this were a matter of no consequence whatever. They do not labour to persuade men to be reconciled to God.
Have a great day
Shepherd.
