Conversion of sinners

“ They can no longer help themselves. The time of prayer, confession, and good works is past for them; we alone are able to relieve them. It is true they have deserved these sufferings in punishment for their sins, but they now bewail and detest those sins. They are in the grace and friendship of God; whereas sinners are His enemies. Certainly we must pray for their conversion, but without prejudice to that which we owe to the suffering souls, so dear to the heart of Jesus. Let us compassionate sinners, but let us not forget that they have all the means of salvation at their disposal ”

“ The fathers of the Church see in the raising to life of the young man of Naim a type of the conversion of sinners. The raising up of a sinner from the death of mortal sin is a greater miracle of divine power and love than the raising to life of a dead body. ”

“ Chapter LXV. He imagines, however, that we utter these exhortations for the conversion of sinners, because we are able to gain over no one who is really good and righteous, and therefore open our gates to the most unholy and abandoned of men. But if any one will fairly observe our assemblies, we can present a greater number of those who have been converted from not a very wicked life, than of those who have committed the most abominable sins. ”

“ They will hear, that they may return every man from his evil way. Note, The conversion of sinners from their evil courses is that which ministers should aim at in preaching; and people hear the word in vain if that point be not gained with them. To what purpose do we hear of the evil God will bring upon us for sin if we continue, notwithstanding, to do evil against him? ”

“ All actual and known sins must be abandoned at conversion. Consecration is for a subsequent and a deeper work. None but a Christian believer can thus present his body unto the Lord. Sinners may repent, but Christians are enjoined to “yield themselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead; “not as those who are “dead in trespasses and sins.” Whatever surrender the sinner may and must make in order to be saved, the believer must make a deeper, fuller, more complete surrender, of a different character and for a different purpose. ”

“ Fourthly, Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners, because that is the way, if they receive it, most to weaken the kingdom of Satan, and to keep it lowest in every age of the world. The biggest sinners, they are Satan’s colonels and captains, the leaders of his people, and they that most stoutly make head against the Son of God. ”

“ Behold another common delusion by which the devil encourages sinners to persevere in a life of sin! A certain author has said, that more souls have been sent to hell by the mercy of God than by his justice. This is indeed the case; for men are induced by the deceits of the devil to persevere in sin, through confidence in Gods mercy ”

“ And yet who will deny that God’s prediction was fulfilled in their case, if at least he observes that God destroys sinners not only in anger but also in compassion? For sinners are destroyed in two ways,—either, like the Sodomites, the men themselves are punished for their sins, or, like the Ninevites, the men’s sins are destroyed by repentance. ”

“ That all their sins should be pardoned to them, and should not be mentioned against them. "Though they be as red as scarlet and crimson, though you lie under the guilt of blood, yet, upon your repentance, even that shall be forgiven you, and you shall appear in the sight of God as white as snow." Note, The greatest sinners, if they truly repent, shall have their sins forgiven them, and so have their consciences pacified and purified. ”

“ Note, The sin of sinners is never forgotten till it is forgiven. It is ever before God, till by repentance it comes to be ever before us. It is graven upon the table of their heart; their own consciences witness against them, and are instead of a thousand witnesses. What is graven on the heart, though it may be covered and closed up for a time, yet, being graven, it cannot be erased, but will be produced in evidence when the books shall be opened. Nay, we need not appeal to the tables of the heart, perhaps they will not own the convictions of their consciences. ”

“ As we are depraved and unholy, more disposed to love sin than to hate it, the Bible tells us that the dispositions and propensities of our mind must be changed by a supernatural power; and when this change takes place, we become new creatures—old things pass away, and all things become new. And as we are guilty sinners, we must repent of our sins, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners, even the chief. ”

“ He continues thus:
“No sinner ever did or ever will make a holy choice prior to an inclination, bias or tendency to holiness.
“On the whole their [i.e., the New Haven divines] views of depravity, of regeneration and of the mode of preaching to sinners can not fail, I think, of doing very great mischief. This exhibition [i.e., that regeneration consists in man's choice] overlooks the most alarming feature of human depravity and the very essence of experimental religion. It is directly calculated to prevent sinners from coming under conviction of sin....” ”

“ Thus it is that sinners see sin only where it is not—and shut their eyes to it when it comes upon them open-armed, bare-bosomed, and brazen-faced, and clutches them in a grasp more like the hug of a bear than the embrace of a woman. ”

“ To sinners, mercy is offered in him. Were we without sin, we should have no need of mercy. If we flee from Christ because we are sinners, we flee the mercy which alone can save us, and put offered salvation from us; for it is offered us only in him. To drive sinners away from the Savior by fear, when he can hold them no longer secure in sin, is an old device of the deceiver, which hath probably often succeeded.
On secure and awakened sinners, different delusive arts are practised. The former are persuaded that sin is a trivial evil, far from meriting eternal punishment ”

“ When sinners are under the judgments of God, they will more easily be brought to fly to their devotions, than to forsake their sins, and reform their lives. Their country was now desolate, and their cities burnt; (v. 7.) and this awakened them to bring their sacrifices and offerings to God more constantly than they had done, as if they would bribe God Almighty to remove the punishment, and give them leave to go on in the sin. ”

“ But the course they are taking leads them to corrupt themselves, the soil, the waters, and the mountains, and they defile everything around them.
Brethren and sisters, we want you to repent and forsake your sins. And you who have committed sins that cannot be forgiven through baptism, let your blood be shed, and let the smoke ascend, that the incense thereof may come up before God as an atonement for your sins, and that the sinners in Zion may be afraid. ”

“ I now saw clearly, that not only the thief and the drunkard, the murderer and the adulterer are sinners, for that I knew before! but I found out that the unbeliever, the selfish, the proud, the worldly-minded, all, in short, who live without God in the world, are sinners. ”

“ Now the Bible says, ‘The soul that sinneth it shall surely die.’ ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ It nowhere says if we are ever so great sinners, and die in our sins, our friends may buy the means by which we can escape the consequence of sin. It does, however, say that however great a sinner you are, if you turn to Jesus Christ, and trust to Him, you will be saved ”

“ He describes in the strongest terms, in the Commentary on the Psalms, the strength of concupiscence in habitual sinners who are not accustomed to turn to God’s grace: “the sinner who is oppressed by vice, and feels the devil and his body of sin forcing him to evil, allows the inner voice to speak constantly against sin, and severely blames himself in his conscience ... reason and the moral sense, remnants left over from the ruin of original sin, awaken in him and cry without ceasing to the Lord, even though the will sins, forced thereto by sin.” ”

“ But, my brethren I have not as yet described the full effects of mortal sin. It immediately makes us liable to the eternal punishment of hell. That is what hell is made for. It is the prison for mortal sin. Apostates from the faith, drunkards, murderers, adulterers, the impure, the dishonest, the profane, the impious, calumniators, and all sinners "shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." The sentence of damnation is in the next life, but damnation itself begins in this. ”

“ Everyone is ready to say, “Oh! yes, we are all great sinners, miserable sinners!” and then if you charge them with any particular sin, they bridle up and deny that sin fiercely enough, and all sins one by one, confessing themselves great sinners, and yet saying that they don’t know what sins they have committed. ”

“ And have we not done the work of repentance while we confessed ourselves sinners? Why then has all this befallen us?' But immediately a voice from one side said to them, 'Do you know any one sin that is in you? Have you ever examined yourselves? Have you in consequence shunned any evil as a sin against God? For he who does not shun sin, remains in it; and is not sin the Devil? Ye are therefore of the class of whom the Lord said, Then shall ye begin to say, "We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets;" ”

“ Both religions come from Satan, for they equally substitute the magical power of vile creatures for the blood of Christ to save the guilty children of Adam. They both ignore that the blood of the Lamb alone cleanseth us from all sin.
Yes! auricular confession is a public act of idolatry, it is asking from a man what God alone, through His Son Jesus, can grant: forgiveness of sins. Has the Saviour of the world ever said to sinners, "Go to this or that man for repentance, pardon, and peace"? ”

“ But let it be noted, that God only hears demons and certain sinners when their prayer is the echo of his own justice. Here is an emblem of the final impenitence and ruin into which the swinish sinners, the habitually unpure, more commonly fall than other sinners. Christ permits the demons to do that in the swine which he did not permit them to do in the possessed, on purpose to show us what rage they would exercise on us if left to their liberty and malice. Many are the Divine favors which we do not consider, or know only in general. ”

“ Like the Pharisee, they justified themselves, and were ready even to thank God that they were not like other men. But our Lord came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. And we should notice that by sinners he means such as feel and know themselves to be sinners. Jesus adapted himself to the felt wants of those he came to save. He had no sin-forgiving words for the self-righteous. ”

“ Christ the sinless became sin for man. He bore the guilt of transgression, and the hiding of His Father's face, until His heart was broken and His life crushed out. All this sacrifice was made that sinners might be redeemed. In no other way could man be freed from the penalty of sin. And every soul that refuses to become a partaker of the atonement provided at such a cost, must bear in his own person the guilt and punishment of transgression.
Let us consider what the Bible teaches further concerning the ungodly and unrepentant, whom the Universalist places in heaven as holy, happy angels. ”

“ If, beloved sinners, you have hitherto offended God, hope and tremble: if you desire to give up sin, and if you detest it, hope; because God promises pardon to all who repent of the evil they have done. But if you intend to continue in your sinful course, tremble lest God should wait no longer for you, but cast you into hell. Why does God wait for sinners? Is it that they may continue to insult him? No; he waits for them that they may renounce sin, and that thus he may have pity on them, and forgive them. "Therefore the Lord waiteth, that he may have mercy on you." ”

“ How many have gone to bed in good health, and have been found dead in the morning! How many, in the very act of sin, has the Lord struck dead and sent to hell! Should this happen to you, how will you repair your eternal ruin?”Commit this sin, and confess it afterwards." Behold the deceitful artifice by which the devil has brought so many thousands of Christians to hell. We scarcely ever find a Christian so sunk in despair as to intend to damn himself. ”

“ Sinners are under the power of Satan; idolaters were so in a special manner, they paid their homage to devils. All sinners are under the influence of his temptations, yield themselves captives to him, are at his beck; converting grace turns them from under the dominion of Satan, and brings them into subjection to God, to conform to the rules of his word and comply with the dictates and directions of his Spirit, translates them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. ”

“ The Lord sent out his apostles, and in their steps others to follow, whose great business it was, has been, and ever will be to tell people that they are sinners; that sin is the cause of all the misery, wretchedness, suffering and unhappiness in earth and hell, and that the only way for people to be rid of the multiform evils of existence is to be rid of sin. ”

“ He pleaded for his murderers when he hung upon the cross, and now he pleads in heaven for those who crucify him afresh. And what is the ground of his plea? Not the merit of our works, but the merit of his own sufferings. Not the infinitude of the Father’s mercy, but the sufficiency of his own sacrifice. This is the sure foundation of a sinner’s hope. If Satan suggests that his crimes are too great to be forgiven, he may reply: “The man Christ Jesus” is my advocate, the advocate of “the chief of sinners ”