Spiritual Conviction by Matthew
Mead When he comes, he will convict the world of sin. John 16, verse
8. Spiritual conviction reaches
to all sins, to sins of heart, as well as sins of life, to the
sin of our nature, as well as the sins of practice, to the
sin which is born in us, as well as the sin which is done by us.
where the Spirit of the Lord comes to work effectually in
any soul. He holds the looking-glass of
the Word before the sinner's eyes, and then opens his eyes
to look into the looking-glass, to see all that deformity and
filthiness which is in his heart and nature. How blind was Paul
to his sinfulness, until the Spirit of the Lord revealed it
to him by the Word. The Spirit alone can make the
sinner see all the deformity and filthiness which is within.
It is He alone who pulls off the sinner's rags and makes him
see his naked and wretched condition. It is He alone who shows us the
blindness of the mind, the stubbornness of the will, the disorderedness
of the affections, the searedness of the conscience, the plague
of our hearts, the sin of our natures, the desperateness of
our state, Natural conviction carries the soul out to look
more on the evil which comes as a result of sin than on the
evil which is in sin. The soul which is under natural
conviction is more troubled at the dread of hell and wrath and
damnation than at the vileness and heinous nature of sin. But
spiritual convictions work the soul into a greater sensibleness
of the evil which is in sin, than of the evil which comes
as a result of sin. The dishonor done to God by walking
contrary to His will, the wounds which are made in the heart of
Christ, the grief which the Holy Spirit is put to, this wounds
the soul more than a thousand hells. Natural convictions are
not durable. They quickly die out. They are
like a slight cut in the skin, which bleeds a little and is
sore for the moment. but is soon healed again, and
in a few days, not so much as a scar is seen. But spiritual
convictions are durable. They cannot be worn out. They
abide in the soul until they have reached their end, which
is the change of the sinner. The convictions of the spirit
are like a deep wound which goes to the vital organs, and seems
to endanger the life of the patient, and is only healed by the great
skill of the heavenly physician. And when it is healed there are
the tokens of it remaining in the soul which can never be worn
out. Spiritual conviction is an essential
part of sound conversion. True conversion begins in convictions,
and true convictions end in conversion. Until the sinner is convinced
of sin, he can never be converted from sin. Christ's coming was
as a Savior to die for sinners. The Spirit's coming is to convince
us of sin that we may close with Christ as our Savior. So long
as sin is unseen, Christ will be unsought. Those who are whole
need not the physician, but those who are sick. Slight convictions,
when they are but skin deep, are the cause of much hypocrisy. Slight convictions have filled
the church with hypocrites. Nay, this is not only the spring
of hypocrisy, but it is also the spring of apostasy. What
was the cause that the seed was said to wither away? It was because
it had no depth of soil, just so. Where convictions of sin
are slight, there the seed of the Word withers, for lack of
depth. But where the seed is thorough
conviction, there is depth of soil in the heart, and there
the seed of the Word grows.