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 G.o.d; (3) the Holy Spirit. All three are used by G.o.d.
Long before we had any Word, G.o.d dealt with men through the conscience. That is what made Adam and Eve hide themselves from the presence of the Lord G.o.d 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 pa.s.sed 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 G.o.d. 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 pa.s.ses 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, which in time was fulfilled in Christ.
In this Christian land, where men have Bibles, these are the agency by which G.o.d 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.
See how the truth convicted those Jews on the day of Pentecost. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, preached that "G.o.d hath made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." "Now when they heard this, they were _p.r.i.c.ked in their heart_, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
Then, thirdly, the Holy Ghost convicts. I once heard the late Dr. A.
J. Gordon expound that pa.s.sage--"And when He (the Comforter) is come, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin because they believe not on Me,"--as follows:--
"Some commentators say there was no real conviction of sin in the world until the Holy Ghost came. I think that foreign missionaries will say that that is not true, that a heathen who never heard of Christ may have a tremendous conviction of sin. For notice that G.o.d gave conscience first, and gave the Comforter afterward. Conscience bears witness to the law, the Comforter bears witness to Christ.
Conscience brings legal conviction, the Comforter brings evangelical conviction. Conscience brings conviction unto condemnation, and the Comforter brings conviction unto justification. "He shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not on Me." That is the sin about which He convinces. It does not say that He convinces men of sin, because they have stolen or lied or committed adultery; but the Holy Ghost is to convince men of sin because they have not believed on Jesus Christ. The coming of Jesus Christ into the world made a sin possible that was not possible before. Light reveals darkness; it takes whiteness to bring conviction concerning blackness. There are negroes in Central Africa who never dreamed that they were black until they saw the face of a white man; and there are a great many people in this world that never knew they were sinful until they saw the face of Jesus Christ in all its purity.
Jesus Christ now stands between us and the law. He has fulfilled the law for us. He has settled all claims of the law, and now whatever claim it had upon us has been transferred to Him, so that it is no longer the _sin_ question, but the _Son_ question, that confronts us.
And, therefore, you notice that the first thing Peter does when he begins to preach after the Holy Ghost has been sent down is about Christ: "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel of G.o.d, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." It doesn"t say a word about any other kind of sin. That is the sin that runs all through Peter"s teaching, and as he preached, the Holy Ghost came down and convicted them, and they cried out, "What shall we do to be saved?"
Well, but we had no part in crucifying Christ; therefore, what is our sin? It is the same sin in another form. They were convicted of crucifying Christ; we are convicted because we have not believed on Christ crucified. They were convicted because they had despised and rejected G.o.d"s Son. The Holy Ghost convicts us because we have not believed in the Despised and Rejected One. It is really the same sin in both cases--the sin of unbelief in Christ."
Some of the most powerful meetings I have ever been in were those in which there came a sort of hush over the people, and it seemed as if an unseen power gripped their consciences. I remember a man coming to one meeting, and the moment he entered, he felt that G.o.d was there.
There came an awe upon him, and that very hour he was convicted and converted.
2. Contrition.
The next thing is contrition, deep G.o.dly sorrow and humiliation of heart because of sin. If there is not true contrition, a man will turn right back into the old sin. That is the trouble with many Christians.
A man may get angry, and if there is not much contrition, the next day he will get angry again. A daughter may say mean, cutting things to her mother, and then her conscience troubles her, and she says:
"Mother, I am sorry: forgive me."
But soon there is another outburst of temper, because the contrition is not deep and real. A husband speaks sharp words to his wife, and then to ease his conscience, he goes and buys her a bouquet of flowers. He will not go like a man and say he has done wrong.
What G.o.d wants is contrition, and if there is not contrition, there is not full repentance. "The Lord is nigh to the broken of heart, and saveth such as be contrite of spirit." "A broken and a contrite heart, O G.o.d, Thou wilt not despise." Many sinners are sorry for their sins, sorry that they cannot continue in sin; but they repent only with hearts that are not broken. I don"t think we know how to repent now-a-days. We need some John the Baptist, wandering through the land, crying: "Repent! repent!"
3. Confession of Sin.
If we have true contrition, that will lead us to confess our sins. I believe that nine-tenths of the trouble in our Christian life comes from failing to do this. We try to hide and cover up our sins; there is very little confession of them. Someone has said: "Unconfessed sin in the soul is like a bullet in the body."
If you have no power, it may be there is some sin that needs to be confessed, something in your life that needs straightening out. There is no amount of psalm-singing, no amount of attending religious meetings, no amount of praying or reading your Bible that is going to cover up anything of that kind. It must be confessed, and if I am too proud to confess, I need expect no mercy from G.o.d and no answers to my prayers. The Bible says: "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper." He may be a man in the pulpit, a priest behind the altar, a king on the throne; I don"t care who he is. Man has been trying it for six thousand years. Adam tried it, and failed. Moses tried it when he buried the Egyptian whom he killed, but he failed. "Be sure your sin will find you out." You cannot bury your sin so deep but it will have a resurrection by and by, if it has not been blotted out by the Son of G.o.d. What man has failed to do for six thousand years, you and I had better give up trying to do.
There are three ways of confessing sin. All sin is against G.o.d, and must be confessed to Him. There are some sins I need never confess to anyone on earth. If the sin has been between myself and G.o.d, I may confess it alone in my closet: I need not whisper it in the ear of any mortal. "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee."
"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight."
But if I have done some man a wrong, and he knows that I have wronged him, I must confess that sin not only to G.o.d but also to that man. If I have too much pride to confess it to him, I need not come to G.o.d. I may pray, and I may weep, but it will do no good. First confess to that man, and then go to G.o.d and see how quickly He will hear you, and send peace. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy ways. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." That is the Scripture way.
Then there is another cla.s.s of sins that must be confessed publicly.
Suppose I have been known as a blasphemer, a drunkard, or a reprobate.
If I repent of my sins, I owe the public a confession. The confession should be as public as the transgression. Many a person will say some mean thing about another in the presence of others, and then try to patch it up by going to that person alone. The confession should be made so that all who heard the transgression can hear it.
We are good at confessing other people"s sins, but if it is true repentance, we shall have as much as we can do to look after our own.
When a man or woman gets a good look into G.o.d"s looking gla.s.s, he is not finding fault with other people: he has as much as he can do at home.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Thank G.o.d for the Gospel! Church member, if there is any sin in your life, make up your mind that you will confess it, and be forgiven. Do not have any cloud between you and G.o.d. Be able to read your t.i.tle clear to the mansion Christ has gone to prepare for you.
4. Conversion.
Confession leads to true conversion, and there is no conversion at all until these three steps have been taken.
Now the word "conversion" means two things. We say a man is "converted" when he is born again. But it also has a different meaning in the Bible. Peter said: "Repent, and be converted." The Revised Version reads: "Repent, and _turn_." Paul said that he was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but began to preach to Jews and Gentiles that they should repent and _turn_ to G.o.d. Some old divine has said: "Every man is born with his back to G.o.d. Repentance is a change of one"s course. It is right about face."
Sin is a turning away from G.o.d. As someone has said, it is _aversion_ from G.o.d and _conversion_ to the world: and true repentance means conversion to G.o.d and aversion from the world. When there is true contrition, the heart is broken _for_ sin; when there is true conversion, the heart is broken _from_ sin. We leave the old life, we are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Wonderful, isn"t it?
Unless our repentance includes this conversion, it is not worth much.
If a man continues in sin, it is proof of an idle profession. It is like pumping away continually at the ship"s pumps, without stopping the leaks. Solomon said:--"If they pray, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin . . ." Prayer and confession would be of no avail while they continued in sin. Let us heed G.o.d"s call; let us forsake the old wicked way; let us return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon us; and to our G.o.d, for He will abundantly pardon.
If you have never turned to G.o.d, turn now. I have no sympathy with the idea that it takes six months, or six weeks, or six hours to be converted. It doesn"t take you very long to turn around, does it? If you know you are wrong, then turn right about.
5. Confession of Christ.
If you are converted, the next step is confess it openly. Listen: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that G.o.d hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Confession of Christ is the culmination of the work of true repentance. We owe it to the world, to our fellow-Christians, to ourselves. He died to redeem us, and shall we be ashamed or afraid to confess Him? Religion as an abstraction, as a doctrine, has little interest for the world, but what people can say from personal experience always has weight.
I remember some meetings being held in a locality where the tide did not rise very quickly, and bitter and reproachful things were being said about the work. But one day, one of the most prominent men in the place rose and said:
"I want it to be known that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ; and if there is any odium to be cast on His cause, I am prepared to take my share of it."
It went through the meeting like an electric current, and a blessing came at once to his own soul and to the souls of others.
Men come to me and say: "Do you mean to affirm, Mr. Moody, that I"ve got to make a public confession when I accept Christ; do you mean to say I"ve got to confess Him in my place of business, and in my family?
Am I to let the whole world know that I am on His side?"