Necessity of Being Slain by the Law, Continued
“For L was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Rom. 7:9.
Doctrine 2. There is a mighty efficacy im the law of God to kill vain confidence and quench carnal marth wn the hearts of men when G’od sets it home wpon their consciences.
The weapons of the word “are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Cor. 10: 4,5. In illustrating this point, I shall demonstrate the efficacy of the word or law of God; show wherein its efficacy lies; and inquire whence it has this mighty power and efficacy.
I. THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF THE WORD OR LAW OF
God. This will appear,
1. From the various subjects upon whom it works. The hearts and consciences of men of all orders and qualities have been reached and wounded to the quick by the two-edged sword of God’s law. Some among the great and honorable of the earth have been made to stoop and tremble under the word. Acts 17:12; Mark 6:20; 1 Samuel 15:24. The wise and learned of the world have felt its power and been brought to embrace the humbling and self-denying ways of Christ. Acts 17:34. Thus Origen, Jerome, Tertullian, Bradwardine, and many more came into Canaan laden with the Egyptian gold, as one speaks; that is, they came into the church of God furnished with the learned arts and sciences, devoting them all to the service of Christ. Yea, which is as strange, the most simple, weak, and literate have been wonderfully changed and wrought upon by the power of the word. The testimonies of the Lord make wise the simple. Men of weak understandings in other matters have been made wise to salvation by the power of the word. Matt. 11:25 3 1-Gor. 1:27. Nay, the most malicious enemies of Christ have been converted by the word. 1 Tim. 1:13; Acts 16: 25. Those that have been under the prejudice of the most idolatrous education have been the subjects of its mighty power, Acts 19:26, and men of the most profligate lives have been wonderfully changed by the power of tho word. 1 Cor. 6:10, 11.
2. The efficacy of the law of God appears in the manner of its operation. It works suddenly; it strikes like a dart through the hearts and consciences of men. Acts 2:37. A wonderful change is made in a short time, and as it works quickly and suddenly, so it works with an uncontrolled power upon the spirits of men. 1 Thess. 1:5; Rom. 1:16. Let the soul be armed against conviction with the thickest ignorance, strongest prejudice, or most obstinate resolution, the word of God will wound the breast even of such a man when God sends it forth in his authority and power.
3. The power of the law or word of God is seen in the strange effects produced by it in the hearts and lives of men. It changes the frame and temper of the mind; it moulds a man into a quite contrary temper: ‘‘He which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.” Gal. 1:23. Thus a tiger is transformed into a lamb by the power of the word of God. It makes the soul forego the dearest interests it has in this world for Jesus Christ. Phil. 3: T-9. Riches, honors, self-righteousness, relations are forsaken. Reproach, poverty, and death itself are embraced for Christ’s sake, when once the efficacy of the word has wrought on the hearts of men. 1 Thess. 1:6. Companions in sin are renounced and cast off with abhorrence. 1 Pet. 4:3. 4.
TI. WHEREIN THE EFFICACY OF THE WORD UPON THE SOULS oF MEN consists. We find in Scripture it exerts its power in five distinct acts upon the soul; by all which it strikes at the life and kills the very heart of vain hopes.
1. It has an awakening efficacy upon secure and slumbering sinners. It rouses the conscience, and brings a man to a sense and apprehension. Eph. 5:13, 14. The first effectual touch of the word startles the drowsy conscience. A poor sinner lies in his sins, as Peter did in his chains, fast asleep, though a warrant was signed for his execution the next day. But the Spirit b7 the word awakens him, as the angel did Peter. And this awakening power of the word is in the order both of time and nature before all its other operations and effects.
2. The law of God has an enlightening efficacy upon the minds of men. It is eye-salve to the blind, Rev. 3:18; a light shining in a dark place, 2 Pet. 1:19; a light shining into the very heart of man, 2 Cor. 4:6. When the word comes in power, all things appear with another face; the sins that were hid from our eyes, and the danger which was concealed by Satan from our souls, now lie clear and open before us. Eph. 5:8.
3. The word of God has a convincing efficacy. It sets sin in order before the soul. Psalm 50:21. As an army is drawn up in exact order, so are the sins of nature and practice, the sins of youth and age, even a great and terrible army drawn up before the eye of the conscience. The convictions of the word are clear and full. 1 Cor. 14:24. The very secrets of a sinner’s heart are made manifest; his mouth is stopped; his conscience yields to the charge of guilt and to the equity of the sentence of the law, so that the soul stands self-condemned at the bar of conscience: it has nothing to say why the wrath of
God should not come upon it to the uttermost. Romans S19.
4. The law of God has a souwl-wounding efficacy; it pierces into the very soul and spirit of man. “When they - heard this they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37. A dreadful sound is in the sinner’s ears; his soul is in deep distress; he knows not which way to turn for ease; no remedy but the blood of Christ can heal these wounds. No outward affliction, disgrace, or loss ever touched the quick as the word of God does.:
5. The word hath a heart-turning, soul-converting efficacy in it: it is a regenerating as well as a convincing word. 1 Pet. 1:23; 1 Thess. 1:9. The law wounds, the gospel cures; the law discovers the evil there is in sin and the misery that follows it; and the Spirit of God, working in fellowship with the word, effectually turns the heart from sin. Thus we see in what glorious acts the efficacy of the word discovers itself upon the hearts of men; and all these acts lie in order to each other. Until the soul be awakened it cannot be enlightened. Eph. 5:14. Till it be enlightened it cannot be convinced, Eph. 5: 138, conviction being nothing else but the application of the light that shines in the mind to the conscience of a sinner. Until it be convinced it cannot be wounded for sin. Acts 2:87. And until it be wounded for sin it will never be converted from sin and brought effectually to Jesus Christ.
III. WuHeENcE HAS THE WORD OF GOD ALL THIS POWER? = It is most certain that it is not a power inherent in itself, nor derived from the instrument by which it is managed, but from the Spirit of the Lord, who communicates to it all the power and €fficacy it has upon our souls.
1. Its power is not inherent in itself. It works not in a physical way as natural agents do, for then the effect would always follow, except it were miraculously hindered. But this spiritual efficacy is in the word as the healing virtue was in the waters of Bethesda: “An angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water; whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” John 5:4. It is not a power naturally inherent in it at all times, but communicated to it at special seasons. How often is the word preached and no man awakened or convinced by it.
2. The power of the word is not communicated to ut by the instrument that manageth ut. ‘‘ Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth.” 1Cor.3:7. Ministers are nothing to such an effect as this, The apostle does not mean that they are useless and unnecessary, but insufficient of themselves to produce such mighty effects. The word works not as it is the word of man. 2 Thess. 2:13. Ministers may say of the ordinary, as Peter said of the extraordinary effects of the Spirit, ““Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?” Acts 3:12. If the effects of the word were in the command of him that preacheth it, the blood of all the souls that perish under our ministry must lie at our door.
3. If you say, Whence then hath the word all this power? our answer is, J¢ derives it all from the Spirit of God. ‘For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” 1 Thess. 2:13. It is a successful instrument only in the hand of the Spirit, without whose influence it never did, nor can convince, convert, or save any soul.:
The Spirit has a glorious sovereignty over the word, whose instrument it is, to make it successful or not, as it pleaseth him. ‘For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth,” Isaiah 55:10, 11; as the clouds, so the word is carried and directed by divine pleasure. The Lord makes them both give down their blessings, or pass away fruitless and empty: yea, it is from the Spirit that this part of the word works, and not another. Discourses upon which ministers bestow greatest labor in their preparation, and from which they have the greatest expectation, do nothing; when something that dropped occasionally from them, like a chosen shaft, strikes the mark and does the work.
The Spirit of the Lord has a glorious sovereignty over the souls wrought wpon. It is his peculiar work to take away the stony heart out of our flesh and give us a heart of flesh. Ezek. 36:26. We may reason and reprove, but nothing will succeed till the Lord sets it home. The Lord opened the heard of Lydia under Paul’s ministry; he opens every heart that is effectually opened to receive Christ in the word. If the word can get no entrance, if your hearts remain dead under it, we may say as Martha concerning her brother Lazarus, ‘Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died;” so, Lord, if thou hadst been in this sermon, in this prayer, or in that counsel, these souls had not remained dead under them.
The Spirit has dominion over the times of conviction and conversion. Therefore the day in which souls are wrought upon is called, “the day of his power.” Psalm 110: 3. That shall work at one time which had no efficacy at all at another, because this was the time appointed.
This word of God, when it is thus set home by the Spirit, is mighty to humble and break the hearts of sinners. The Spirit when it cometh shall convince the world of sin. John 16:9. The word signifies conviction by such demonstration as compels assent: it not only con- ’ yinces men that they are sinners, but particularly of their own sins and their aggravations. So in the text, “sin revived,” that is, the Lord revived his sins and the circumstances and aggravations with which they were committed; and so it will be with us when the commandment comes: sins that we had forgotten, committed in our youth or childhood — sins that lay slighted in our consciences, shall be roused up as so many lions to terrify us, for now the soul hears the voice of God in the word, as Adam heard it in the cool of the day and was afraid. The Lord is come in the word; sin is held up before the conscience in its aggravations and fearful consequences as committed against the holy law, clear light, warnings of conscience, manifold mercies, God’s long-suffering, Christ’s precious blood, many warnings of judgment, the wages whereof by the verdict of a man’s own conscience is death, eternal death. Rom. 6:23; 1:32; 2:9. Thus the commandment comes, sin revives, and vain hope gives up the ghost. Inrerence 1. Is there such a power in the word? then certainly the word is of divine authority. There cannot be a more satisfying proof that it is no human invention, than the common sense that all believers have of the almighty power in which it works upon their hearts. So speaks the apostle, ‘When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” 1 Thess. 2:18. Can the power of any creature so convince the conscience, terrify the heart, and discover the secret thoughts of the soul, as to put a man into such tremblings? No, a greater than man must be here; none but God can so open the eyes of the blind, so quicken the conscience that was seared, so bind over the soul of a sinner to the judgment to come, so change the temper of a man’s spirit, or so powerfully refresh and comfort a drooping soul; certainly the power of God is in all this: and this alone were sufficient to make full proof of the divine authority of the Scriptures.
2. Judge from hence what an invaluable mercy the preaching of the word is to the world. It is a blessing far above our estimation of it; little do we know what a treasure God commits to us in the ordinances. “To you is the word of this salvation sent.” Acts 13:25. It is the very power of God to salvation, Rom. 1:16; and salvation is ordinarily denied where the preaching of the word is withheld. Rom.10:14. It is called ‘‘the word of life,” Phil. 2:16, and deserves to be valued by every one of us as our life. The eternal decree of God’s love is executed by it upon our souls; as many as he ordained to eternal life ’ shall believe by the preaching of it. Great is the ingratitude of this generation which so undervalues this treasure; a sad presage of the most terrible judgment, even the removing of our candlestick out of its place, except we repent. ‘
3. How terrible a qudgment les upon the, souls of the men to whom no word of God 1s made powerful enough to convince thm! Yet so stands the case with thousands who constantly sit under the preaching of the word: many arrows are shot at their consciences, but all fall short of the end; the commandment has come to them many times by way of promulgation and ministerial inculcation, but never came home to their souls by the Spirit’s effectual application. O, friends, you have often heard the voice of man, but you never yet heard the voice of God; your understandings have been instructed, but your consciences to this day were never thoroughly convinced. ‘We have mourned unto you, but ye have not lamented.” Matt. 11:17. ‘Who hath believed our report? and unto whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Alas, we have labored in vain, we have-spent our strength for naught; our word returns unto us empty; but O, what a stupendous judgment is here! “The earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God; but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.” Heb. 6:7, 8. What a sign of God’s displeasure would you account it, if your fields were cursed; if you should plough and sow them, but never reap the fruit of your labor, the increase being blasted. And yet this were nothing compared with the word, which should be a savor of life unto life unto you, becoming the savor of death unto death. 2 Cor. 2: 16.
4. I shall conclude this point with a few words of ezhortation to three classes of men.
(1.) Those that never felt any power in the word. J beg you in the name of him who made you, and by all the regard and value you have for those precious souls within you, that such considerations as these may find place in your souls, and that you will bethink yourselves,
Whose wordt 1s that cannot gain entrance into your hearts. Is it not the word of God which you despise and slight? Thou castest my word behind thy back. Psalm 50:17. O, what an affront and provocation to God is this! You despise not man, but the great and terrible God in whose hand your breath and soul are. This contempt runs higher than you imagine.
Consider again, that however the word hath no power upon you, yet it comes home with power to the hearts of others. While you are hardened, others are melted under it; while you sleep, others tremble; while your hearts are locked up, others are opened. How can you but reflect with fear and trembling upon these contrary effects of the word?
Consider also, that no judgment of God on this side hell is greater than a hard heart under the word. It were better that the providence of God should blast thy estate, take away thy children, or destroy thy health, than harden thy heart and sear thy conscience under the word. So much as thy soul is better than thy body, so much as eternity is more valuable than time, so much is this spiritual judgment more dreadful than all temporal ones.
O then as you love your own souls attend upon every opportunity that God affords you. Lay aside your prejudices against the word, or the infirmities of them that preach it; for the word works not as it is the word of man, but as it is the word of God. Pray for the blessing of God upon the word; for except his blessing go with it, it can never come home to your soul. Meditate upon what you hear, for without meditation it is not likely to have any effectual operation upon you. Search your souls by it, and consider whether that be not your state which it describes, your danger whereof it gives warning. Take heed lest, after you have heard it, the cares of the world — choke what you have heard, and cause those budding convictions which begin to put forth to wither.
(2.) Let those seriously consider who have only felt some transient and ineffectual operations of the gospel wpon their souls. The Lord has come nigh to some of our souls; we have felt a power in the ordinances, sometimes terrifying and sometimes transporting our hearts: but, alas, it proves but a morning cloud, or the early dew. Hos. 6:4. We rejoice in the word, but it is only for a season. John 5:85; Gal. 4:14, 15. Where the new creature is perfectly formed in one soul, there are many miscarriages in others; for which three reasons may be assigned.
One is the subtlety and deep policy of Satan, who never more effectually deceives and destroys the souls of men than by such an artifice as this; for when men have once felt their consciences terrified under the word, and their hearts at other times affected with the blessings of it, they seem to have attained all that is necessary to conversion. These things look so like the regenerating effects of the Spirit, that many are deceived by them. It is frequently seen that unrenewed hearts have their meltings and transports as well as spiritual hearts. Heaven and hell are affecting, and an unrenewed heart is apt to melt in view ° of them. Now here is the cheat of Satan, to persuade a man that these must be spiritual affections, because the objects about which they are conversant are spiritual; whereas it is certain the objects of the affections may be heavenly, and the workings of man’s affections about them may be in a mere natural way.
The dampening influence of the world is also a cause of these miscarriages under the word. Luke 8:12-14. There are hopeful beginnings of affection in some persons, especially in their youth; but when they come to be engaged in the world, how soon are they quenched. As the cares of a family grow on, so does the care of salvation wear off. It is not as it was wont to be, What shall I do to be saved? How shall I get an interest in Christ? But what shall I eat and drink, and wherewith shall I and mine be maintained? The present drowns all thoughts of the future. Good had it been for many men had they never been engaged so deep in the world; their life is but a constant hurry of business, and a diversion from Christ and things that are eternal.
And again, the deceitfulness and treachery of the heart, which too easily gives way to the designs of Satan and suffers itself to be imposed upon by him, is not the least cause why so many hopeful beginnings come to nothing, and the effects of the word vanish. Oh, that such men would consider that the dying away of their convictions threatens the life of their souls for ever; now is the bud withered, and what expectation is there of fruit after this, except the Lord revive them again. The Lord open men’s eyes to discern such dangers as these. Jude 12; Heb. 10:38. There are many pauses in the work of conviction: it seems to die away, and then revives again; and revive it must, or we are lost. But how many are there who never recover it more! This is a sore judgment to the souls of men.
(3.) Let me speak a word of counsel to them on whom the word works effectwally — to whose hearts the commandment is come home to revive sin and kill vain hopes; and these are of two classes.
Some are wnder the first Dike of the Spirit in the word. 0 let it not seem a misery or unhappiness to you that the commandment comes, and sin revives, and your former hopes are overthrown. Had you gone on in your security, you had certainly been lost for ever: God has stopt you in the path that leads down to hell, and none that go in there ever return again, or take hold of the paths of life. O, it is better to weep, tremble, and be distressed now, than to mourn without hope for ever. Let it not trouble you that sin has found you out; you could never have found out the remedy in Christ, if you had not found out the disease and danger by the coming of the commandment. And I beseech you carefully to observe whether the operations of the word upon your hearts be deeper and more powerful than they are found to be in such souls as miscarry under it. Does it come to you and show you not only this or that particular sin, but all the evils of your heart and life; the corruption of your nature as well as the transgression of your life? If so, it promises well and looks hopefully for you. The commandment comes to others and startles them with the fears of damnation; but does it come to thee and discover the anfinite evil of thy sin as rt is committed against the great, holy, and righteous God, and so melt thy heart into tears for the wrong thou hast done him, as well as in view of the danger into which thou hast brought thyself? If it so revive sin as to kill all vain hopes in thee, and send thee to Christ alone as thy only door of hope, these troubles will prove the greatest mercy upon thy soul.
Others there are wpon whom the word has had us full effect in conversion. O bless God for ever for this mercy; you cannot sufficiently value it. God has not only made it a convincing, but a converting word to your souls. How many have sat under the same word, but never felt such effects of it! As Christ said in another case, There were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, but unto none of them was the prophet sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, to a certain widow there, Luke 4:25, 26; so I may say, there were many souls in the same congregation, but unto none of them was the word sent with a commission to convince and save, but thyself; one as improbable to be wrought upon as any soul there. O let this excite thankfulness in your soul; and let it make you love the word as long as you live. “I will never forget thy precepts, for with them thou hast quickened me.” Psalm 119: 93.
But above all, I beseech you make it appear that the commandment has come home to your hearts with power to convince you of the evil of sin, by your care to shun it as long as you live. If you have seen sin in the glass of the law of God; if your heart has been broken for it in the days of your trouble, you will choose the worst affliction rather than sin. It would be the greatest folly to return again to iniquity. Psalm 85:8. You that have seen so much of the evil of sin, and the danger that follows it; you that have had such inward terrors and fears of spirit about it, will be loath to feel those stings of conscience again for the best enjoyment in this world.
Blessed be God if any word has been browght home to owr hearts to bring us to Christ.