Now for our message this evening,
we're turning back to the book of Psalms, chapter 19, Psalm
19. The text is our topic, part of
verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul. Now when the psalmist David speaks
here of the law of the Lord, he's not talking about only the
Ten Commandments. He is speaking of the whole revelation
of God as far as it had been given in his day. He is saying
that the Word of God, the doctrine of God, is perfect, converting
the soul. Now that's what Paul is saying
in Romans 1.16 when he declared, I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God unto salvation. It is the gospel that
converts the soul. That's what Paul is saying in
Romans 10.17 when he wrote, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. And this is what James is saying
over in James chapter 1, verse 18, when he writes, Of his own
will beget he us. It was the will of God that gave
us spiritual life. It was the will of God that brought
us forth from the dead. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Not apart from the gospel, with
the word of truth. That we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures. The Holy Spirit is the agent
in the new birth. The word of God is the instrument
or the seed or the means of the birth. And then Peter is saying
this same thing in 1 Peter 1, verse 23, being born again. Now that which is born of flesh
is flesh. That's the way we were born the
first time. We were born of natural parrots who gave us natural life.
But being born again, not of corruptible seed, human seed,
fleshly seed, but we were born of incorruptible seed. which
is the word of God, or by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever." Now I've divided this message up into three parts. From Psalm 19, verse 7, the word
of God, the law of God, is perfect, converting the soul. I'm going
to speak first of all of the work of God's Word in conversion. There's a definite work of the
Word of God in conversion, in salvation. And then secondly,
I'm going to speak on this point, the Word of God does what only
the Word of God can do. Now that's very important. The
Word of God does what only the Word of God can do. And then
we may get to the third point, but these are the most important. The work of God's Word. I'm talking
about His revealed Word now. The Word of God is perfect converting
the soul. Now, the Word of God in the hands
of the Holy Spirit, whether you read the Word or whether you
hear it read, whether you hear it preached from the pulpit or
whether you hear it read in a Sunday school class or prayer meeting
or Bible study, the Word of God in the hands of the Holy Spirit
does more than just reach the mind and the reason of the individual. in converting the soul. The word
of God in the hands of the Holy Spirit reaches the heart. It
reaches the soul in a life-giving power. Now let me show you that
in 2 Corinthians 4. Now many people have heard the
word of God with these ears. Many people have heard the word
of God read, they've heard sermons preached, but they've only heard
with these ears. They've never heard with the soul. They've
never heard with the heart. And consequently to them it's
only arguments. It's only doctrine. It is only
creed. It is only religious beliefs
or denominational differences. When we hear the word of God
as it comes in the hands of the Holy Spirit to our hearts, that's
when we're converted. And not until with the heart,
man believe it, they were pricked in their heart That's when conviction
is real, when we're pricked in the heart. That's when conversion
takes place, when we believe with the heart. When the Word
of God goes past these natural minds and human reason and wisdom
and gets to the heart. Now listen to this. In 2 Corinthians
4, verse 3. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost. Now it doesn't mean that they
don't have a copy of the Bible. They have it. But the mysteries
of the gospel are not understood by them. It doesn't mean that
they can't read the Bible. They can read it, just like they
can read the newspaper or anything else. But the gospel, even though
they read it, they cannot understand it. In verse 4, In whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
that's not our message, but Christ Jesus the Lord, He's our message,
and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. Now watch this verse.
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that
in the first creation, when darkness was upon the face of the deep,
and God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And the
same God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness had
shined in our hearts." That's the light. Look at verse 4 again,
"...in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe, not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
should shine unto them. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, he hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus." So the word of God in converting the soul.
It has to go further than these ears. It has to go a little bit
further than the natural mind and logic and reasoning and hair-splitting
arguments. It's got to reach the heart.
It's got to shine like the light of God into the soul, into the
heart, where the real work, this business of conversion, goes
on. Here are several things. First of all, when this happens,
when the Word of God ceases to be a doctrine and becomes life,
when it ceases to be an argument, when it ceases to be a sermon
and becomes a message, it first of all convinces us of sin. In the Word of God, I see what
perfection really is. In the Word of God, I see what
holiness really is. In the Word of God, I see what
righteousness really is. And I see that I don't have it.
That's what happened to Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a religious
man. He said, concerning the law,
and I think he meant by that the Ten Commandments, I was blameless. I was blameless. Saul was a proud,
moral, legalistic, religious individual. But he said, when
the law came, I died. When the law of God, the word
of God, came in the hands of the Holy Spirit to my heart,
it convinced me of my sin. It showed me my guilt. Now, what
we learn is the Ten Commandments are more than the negative commandments
which we read in Exodus 20. I turned back over there a while
ago and read them again. All of them are negative, except
honor thy father and thy mother. That's positive. Or remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But thou shalt have no other
God before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet." Well,
really, when that word, when that law comes to a legalistic,
religious individual like Saul, it has no convicting power. It
has no power to make him tremble and cry, O wretched man that
I am, because it's all negative. And as far as those laws were
concerned, Paul felt that he was keeping them. And when it
comes right down to it, many of you may feel that you're keeping
those commandments, but the Word of God commands me, not only
in a negative fashion, but in a positive fashion, to love God
with all my heart. It not only commands me not to
have any other God before Him, but it commands me to love Him
with all my heart, my mind, my soul, and my strength. It commands
me not only not to take God's name in vain, but the Word of
God commands me to praise Him. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Now, this is where I have received
some criticism. Because I keep insisting that
the Ten Commandments are not my rule of life. And I will stand
by that until my hair turns white. And that ain't long, but I'm
going to stand by it. Because the Ten Commandments
don't go far enough to be my rule of life. They don't go far
enough. I'm not being critical of God's
commandments, far be it from me to make a statement like that.
I'm not being sacrilegious. I'm simply saying that the Ten
Commandments are negative. And I'm saying that the Ten Commandments
in the hands of the Holy Spirit mean more than this negative
thing of thou shalt not. The Word of God commands me not
only not to have any other God before Him, but it commands me
to love Him with all my heart. And that's where I get shook
up. I don't bow before any idols. I don't believe I have any God
before the Lord God Jehovah. I believe He is my portion and
my strength. But what bothers me is I don't
love him like I ought to. And I don't take God's name in
vain. I make an effort not to, and I know that's difficult.
I know that's tremendously difficult, because any time you use God's
name, and let me warn some of you, this thing, I swear to God,
that's taking God's name in vain. And this thing of the Lord knows,
you know, that's taking God's name in vain. The Lord knows
I did my best. That's taking God's name in vain.
Don't you ever use the name of God Almighty unless you use it
in a note of praise and glory. You just leave His name alone.
It's too holy. It's too precious. It's too wonderful.
And it's not supposed to in any way be a byword. I hear people
say, well, praise the Lord all the time. They say it as a byword.
They don't mean it. It's just a byword. Praise the
Lord, we'll praise the Lord, we'll praise the Lord. You say
it too many times, I question whether or not you're praising
the Lord. And then the law of God commands me not only not
to steal from my neighbor, but it commands that I love him as
I love myself. It commands me to love my enemies.
It commands me to bless those that curse me and pray for those
which despitefully use me. You see what I'm saying? The
law of God commands me not only not to covet, it commands that
I be content with what I have, and that I be content with where
I am, and that I be content with who I am. Now that's a whole
lot more than just saying, thou shalt not covet. The law of God
commands me to turn the other cheek. When I'm smitten on one
cheek, it commands me not only not to kill my neighbor, He commands
me not to even feel harshly toward him, but to love him. The Word
of God commands me to think on those things. It commands me
not only not to commit adultery and not to lust after someone,
but it commands that I think on that which is pure and that
which is holy and that which is lovely and that which is of
good report. Now do you understand a little
better what I'm saying about this rule of life? Christ is
our rule of life. And that's the reason when those
Pharisees came to Christ and they said, which is the greatest
law? He said, the whole law is based on these two. Thou shalt,
not thou shalt not, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. and Thou neighbor'st
Thyself." That's what the whole thing's built on. It's positive. It's spiritual energy. It's not
only standing back and closing the door. That's the reason these
old monks went up in their monasteries and shut the door, fulfilling
the negative law, Thou shalt not. They didn't have to minister
to the poor. They didn't have to to let a
light shine. They didn't have to be a light
and a salt of the earth. They didn't have to turn the
other cheek. They didn't have to do these things. They were
cooked off up yonder somewhere as a hermit, doing thou shalt
not, instead of being one who showed forth by attitude
and conversation the glory of Jesus Christ. So that's what
the Word of God does. It The law of God is perfect. It converts the soul by first
revealing our sins. And then secondly, the word of
God in conversion will drive men from false methods of seeking
salvation. That's the reason the word is
so important. Paul said, you who would be under the law. Haven't
you read the law? Don't you know what it says?
I just told you a little bit of what it says. Oh, that relentless,
that stern, that pitiless law of Almighty God, when it's revealed
in the hands of the Holy Spirit, it'll drive any thinking person
from seeking salvation in that law. And then in the Word of
God, my works, my religious works, my works of righteousness, are
cast in their true light. And that is filthy rags. And
to rely on them is to try to hide behind Adam's fig leaf.
And it's just as flimsy, and just as useless, and just as
temporary. There's sin in all that I do,
even in my religious works. And in religious professions
without Christ, they're made to appear in this book in the
worst light, as the religious leaders cried for the death of
the Son of God. as the religious leaders cried
for the death of Stephen, as the religious leaders cried for
the death of Paul the Apostle. Religious professions without
Christ are made to appear in the Word of God in the worst
kind of light. And any man who wants to trust
his profession, his religious beliefs for the salvation of
his soul is certainly seeking salvation in a false way. And then the third thing that
the Word of God does, the Word of God, in converting the soul,
not only convinces us of sin, and not only turns us away from
these false methods of salvation, but the Word of God reveals the
true way of salvation, through Christ our Lord, by the grace
of God. It's only because men are willfully
blind that they miss the way of salvation in the Word of God.
Turn to John chapter 3. Let me just read a few verses
of Scripture. John the third chapter. It's
only because men are willfully blind. Somebody says, well I
just can't see all these different denominations and different preachers
and all. What is the way of salvation? If you really wanted to know,
if you really wanted to know, I believe you would know. In John chapter 3, if words can
mean anything, listen. Verse 16, For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. How could
that be mistranslated? How could it be misunderstood?
How could you read church in that? How could you read sacraments
in there? How could you read baptism in
there? How could you read church membership
in there? How could you read Catholic or Baptist or Presbyterian
in there? For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but the world, that the world
through him might be saved. He that believeth on him, on
the Son, is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
15. The Word of God not only turns
us away from false methods of salvation, but it reveals the
true way of salvation. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said,
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I
preached unto you, and which also you have received, and wherein
you stand, by which also you are saved. If you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, for
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried, and he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures." There's the gospel. Turn to 2 Corinthians
5, over just a few pages, verse 21. Listen to this. In 1 Corinthians
5, verse 19, let's read this, namely, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not charging their trespasses
unto them, and he had committed to us this word, this message,
this gospel of reconciliation. Now, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God,
for He, God, hath made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no
sin. He had no sin. That we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's so clear. Turn to 1 John 11. I beg your
pardon, 1 John 5. 1 John 5, verse 11. And this
is the record. And this is the record that God
has given to us eternal life, and that life is in His Son.
That's not in the handshake of the minister, not that. And a
man's utterly disregarding the Word of God when he puts salvation
in a bench down at the front of the church where people pray
through and mourn. I've got no objections. If that's
Barnard used to say, the mourner's bench is in the heart. All sinners
mourn before God in the heart. A man who says that this water
is essential to salvation is just disregarding the Word of
God. A person who says you have to
be a Baptist to be saved, you have to be a Catholic to be saved,
you have to be something else, he's disregarding the Word of
God. This is the record God has given to us, eternal life. This
life's in His Son. And he that hath the Son of God
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And these things have I written
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that
you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe
on the name of the Son of God." The Word of God converts the
soul. It's the Word of God that shuts
my mouth, breaks my heart, humbles me in the dust, it's the Word
of God that turns me away from the law as a means of salvation,
it's the Word of God that turns me away from my religious works,
it's the Word of God that turns me away from all these so-called
recipes and plans of salvation, it's the Word of God that turns
me to Christ. As it sets forth, Christ is our
righteousness, Christ is our sacrifice, Christ is our Redeemer,
Christ is our substitute. Christ is our hope. Christ is
our life. Christ in you. That's the hope
of life. That is life. And then the Word
of God, in converting the soul, enables me to embrace Christ
by faith. What right do I have to embrace
Him? All right, I see I'm a sinner. And I see there's no salvation
in the law. Not for me, because I can't keep
it. I see that I'm a sinner, sinned
against God. There's no salvation for me in
the rituals and ceremonies of religion, nor in the doctrines,
nor in a profession. That salvation's in a person,
in Christ. But what right have I to lay
hold on Christ? Well, the Word of God gives me
that right. Every invitation and every promise
has my name on it. It says, come let us reason together,
though your sins be a scarlet. Come. God says come. I've got
an invitation from the Lord here, in his own handwriting. God wrote
this book. He said in this book, what right
have I got to come? He says, look unto me and be
your save all the ends of the earth, Jew, Gentile, black, white,
red, yellow. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come to the water. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest." The Spirit and the
bride say, Come, and let him that hear it say, Come, and let
him that's thirsty. Are you thirsty? Well, God gives
you a personal special invitation to come to Him. Now, if you're
not thirsty, you don't get an invitation. It's not written
to you, because it says, Oh, everyone that's thirsty. Now,
if a sinner refuses, and stays away, well, the blame certainly
is on his own head. Don't be blaming God's covenant
and God's elective grace and God's sovereign mercy. That's
not why you're not saved. You're not saved because you
don't want to be. That's why you're not. If you are, it's
because he willed it, and if you're not, it's because you
willed it. That's right. You think that through a little
bit. But that's so. If a man's saved, it's because
God willed it. And if a man goes to hell, because
that's what that man willed, he didn't will to be saved. All
right, in the next place, the Word of God draws the believer
nearer and nearer and nearer to the Lord. Now, some of us
are neglecting this book, and we're suffering because of that
neglect. We're suffering, and we're causing
others to suffer. Scripture says, desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow, that you may grow. And to neglect the word of God
as a believer is to stunt your growth. Thy word is a lamp unto
my feet, a light unto my path, I've got to have it. I'll hide
thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee. These graces
of God, these gifts of the Spirit, these fruits of the Holy Spirit
are excited and sustained and perfected in the heart by the
Word of God. You wonder why you don't have
assurance? You don't study the Word. You wonder why you don't
grow in emotions of love toward God and toward other people?
You're neglecting the Word. You wonder why you don't grow
in a desire for holiness and a desire for righteousness? You're
neglecting the Word. You wonder why you don't grow
in humility and patience and long-suffering and faith? You're
neglecting the Word of God. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word that you may grow thereby. You wouldn't expect your children
to grow on seaweed, would you? You give
them the best food in order that they might grow. Well, you're
not going to grow on some of the trash and junk that you spend
your time reading. You'll grow on this Word here.
Grow in faith and love and humility and patience, and I will too.
Now, the Word of God in the next place will restore the wandering
heart. I've never known anybody to be
able to stay mad at somebody when they prayed for them. It
just can't be. And I've never known anybody
to stay out of fellowship who spent much time in the Word of
God. You can't do it. The believer who is in Christ,
if he is in Christ, is corrected by the Word of God. He's convicted
by the Word of God. He's challenged by the Word of
God. And he can't spend much time, unless he's reading it
for the wrong thing. I know sometimes we read God's
Word to prove our point, and that's dangerous. Sometimes we
read God's Word to buoy up our prejudice, you know, to find
what we're looking for. Don't go to the Word of God to
find what you're looking for. Go to the Word of God to find
what God wrote, what God wants you to find. Approach that Word,
Lord, I'm a child. teach me, I'm wrong, show me.
You approach the Word of God, not to prove your doctrine, but
find His will, His will. And I'll tell you, when we do,
when we can read that Word with an open heart, with a sincere
heart, with a broken heart, I'll tell you, it'll do its work,
and it'll bring the wanderer home. It'll bring him back to
God. Now the second point, and I'm
going to quit on this, but the Word of God, and I want you to
listen to this, and I want you, if you will, if you don't jot
it down on a piece of paper, at least jot it down in your
mind, in your heart, the Word of God does only what the Word
of God can do. Now, I know there are some preachers
who who keep back certain doctrines and certain scriptures in order
not to offend. And when we do this, we dull
the soul of the spirit. Just let the naked Word have
its way. Don't hold back anything. If
it's in the Word of God, preach it. The naked Word of God. And then there are others who
don't even use the Word of God. They keep it in the scabbard,
you know. And they use human wisdom and logic and stories
and illustrations instead of using the naked Word of God.
And then there are those who wrap the sword of God's Word
in human wisdom and it becomes no sword at all. Paul said, I
didn't preach to you in words of wisdom, lest the cross of
Christ be made of none effect. And you wrap up God's word in
your personality and wrap it up in your words of wisdom and
wrap it up in your carnal reasoning and it will lose its effect.
The word of God needs no extraordinary gifts and talents of men, it
just needs to be preached, that's all. Prayerfully and forcefully
and compassionately. We don't need a new sword, we
need the old sword because it does what human wisdom can't
do. The Word of God does what only
the Word of God can do. Now let me show you. 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6. And now I'll let you go. First of all, if the Word
of God is preached in its naked power, it will remove guilt and
despair and yet not quench repentance. Now I can't do that with my natural
wisdom. I either have a fellow in despair,
or if I bring him out of despair and guilt, I put him in a place
of boasting and pride. But the Word of God can bring
me out of a pit of despair and remove me from guilt, and yet
at the same time keep me in repentance. I'll give you an example of that.
The Apostle could cry, The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all
sin. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who in Christ Jesus. Christ will present us faultless,
without blame, before he is present in his sight. And yet turn right
around and cry, O wretched man that I am. Now only the Word
of God can do that. Only the Word of God can show
a man his emptiness and his fullness at the same time. Only the Word
of God can show a man he's poor but he's rich, he's naked but
he's clothed, he's dead but he's alive. Only the Word of God can
make a man miserable and hacked at the same time. Only the Word
of God can remove guilt and at the same time not quench repentance. And then only the Word of God
can do this. Only the Word of God can give
a sinner pardon, total, complete, absolute pardon, and yet not
create presumption. Only the Word of God can do that.
The Apostle says this, there is therefore now no judgment
to them who are in Christ, not afraid of the judgment. And yet
he turns right around and says, I keep my body and bring it under
subjection, lest while preaching to others I become a castaway.
Same man. Now you can't do that. There's
no way that a preacher, and they're trying it, I know, but there's
no way a preacher can use his wisdom and his logic and get
a congregation of people together who have a sense of total pardon
and yet not a presumptuous one in the lot. that every one of
them say there's no condemnation, there's no judgment. But I want
to walk softly lest I fall, and lest I fail of the grace of God. And then only the Word of God
can give a man rest, total, complete rest in Christ, and at the same
time excite him to seek in the Lord. The same man wrote this. The
Lord is my shepherd. This is the quiet devotion. This is rest, this complete rest.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
water. He restoreth my soul. And yet the same man wrote, O
God, my God, early will I seek Thee. Yet the same man wrote,
as the heart panteth for the water book, so panteth my soul
after thee. O Lord, leave me not, neither
forsake me, the God of my fathers." Huh? The Word of God can give
rest, and yet at the same time excite that believer to seeking
the Lord. Only the Word of God can do it.
The Word of God can give security. I know whom I have believed,
Paul said, and yet promote watchfulness. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be found in you an evil heart of unbelief. The word of God gives security.
I am persuaded neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities
nor powers nor anything can separate me from the love of God. And yet that same man throughout
the whole book of Hebrews, warning after warning after warning of
apostasy. And then the Word of God gives
strength, and yet does not beget boasting. The Apostle says, I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me. And then turns right around
and says, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. I am what I am by
the grace of God. The Word of God can do what only
the Word of God can do. And we can give out our catechisms
and our creeds and we can give out what Baptists believe or
what somebody else believes and we can get our little Bible study
groups and we can tell everybody where they can go and who they
can go with and what they can see and when they can come back
and how late things stay out and all these things, but only
the Word of God can do what the Word of God can do. And the word
of God can bring a man to live for God, to walk with God, to
live before God, to know that his citizenship is in heaven,
and that he is a sojourner, a tent dweller, a temporary resident,
and yet at the same time make him more fitted and better prepared
for the daily duties of life. He is a citizen of heaven And
yet he's the best carpenter you got. He's a citizen of heaven. This world is not his home. The
king of kings is his master. He's temporarily living here,
yet he does what he does so thoroughly and so honestly and with such
integrity that you'd think he was built to stay. Only the Word of God can do that.
God says, My word will not return unto me void, it shall accomplish
that whereunto I sent it, and that which pleases me. And, O
my soul, when this word comes in the Holy Spirit's power and
does what only the word of God can do, Just stand back and see
the salvation of God. See it work. I get discouraged.
You preach it and preach it and preach it and preach it. It doesn't
seem like it's doing much good, but I just know that God's on
the throne and it will bring forth fruit for His glory. Somebody, somewhere, sometime
is going to hear it. He's going to hear it. He's going
to hear him. You say, but everybody's hearing
you. No, they're not. No, they're not. Somebody's going
to hear him. Our Father, use the word preached tonight to
accomplish thy divine purpose and thy eternal glory. Through
Christ Jesus, our Lord, we pray. Amen. We'll sing number 268. 268. Let's stand, please. How firm a foundation
His saints of the Lord for your faith in his excellent
word. What more can he say than to
you he hath said, to When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow. with thee thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.