Sermon Bible Commentary
Psalms 51:13
I.
It is the characteristic of the people of God that they desire the conversion of sinners unto God; they are not at least in a healthy state when this desire is not active. So far as there is backsliding, this principle may be crushed and weakened; but let there be renewed repentance, forgiveness, cleansing, the joy of God's salvation, and this principle reappears. "Sinners shall be converted unto Thee." That implies (1) that sinners are away from God; (2) that the conversion of a sinner is possible. Our distance from God is the distance of a different, a contrarious nature; it is the distance of alienation from the original constitution of man's moral nature. And as like draws to like, so do differences shrink from differences, specially contrarieties from contrarieties. So, save in the new and living way, God keeps back from sinners, and sinners shrink back from God.
II.
Sinners are away from God. And what they need is to come back. They cannot return to God by the old way; but God has opened up a new way for the sinner's return. And now all that God wants of the sinner is simply that he come back again. Conversion as wrought by the Spirit of God is God's act; conversion as wrought within a sinner denotes His acting also. The Spirit of God is a moral agent. The work of the Spirit is set forth in this prayer: "Turn Thou us;" and the duty on the sinner's part is set forth in such commands as these: "Be converted;" "Turn ye at My reproof." There is ordinarily in conversion the following method: (1) Conviction. As a rational creature, you cannot turn till you have been convinced that you are all in the wrong and God all in the right. (2) There is compunction. "They were pricked to the heart." The effect of compunction is that the sinner cannot endure sin; compunction makes sin intolerable. (3) There is humiliation. I do not mean here the Christian grace of humility, but the soul's case when the sinner finds that he cannot save himself, and is forced to submit that another should do this great work for him, when, finding he can do nothing to deliver himself, he looks around for a friend. And that friend must be a saviour.
III.
Sinners are away from God, and being so, can neither be holy nor happy. But sinners may be converted. For sinners of mankind there is a covenant of grace, so their conversion is a possibility. The sinner is willing to be saved, but by whom? He has heard of Christ. Yes, and he had heard of the Law before he was convinced by means of it; but now it has taken its real, effectual hold upon him. And now the Gospel is to him very much what the Law was to him. He has found the Law, and he has heard by the hearing of the ear, from his fellow-men, from Apostles and prophets, of a Saviour. But the same Spirit who has taught him his sin and misery instructs him in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these three things he is called to attend to: the God of the covenant, the provisions of the covenant, and the Mediator of the covenant.
IV.
"Sinners shall be converted unto Thee."It is therefore not sufficient that a conversion be really a conversion; it must be a conversion unto God. The covenant of grace is made with covenant-breakers. (1) It contains this: "I will write My law in their hearts." It is implied that the law is not there, that it needs to be there, and that neither you nor any creature for you can write it there. (2) This is a covenant with ignorant creatures who have not the knowledge of God. (3) The covenant contains this: "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." God's purpose to forgive is a definite purpose. His forgivingness belongs to His nature, and is infinite. Refusal to take hold of this covenant takes either of these two forms: unwillingness to be saved by Christ or disbelief that He will save you.
V.
The conversion of a sinner is a matter in which the gracious God takes the deepest interest. The voice of conscience is very feeble in fallen man, and the voice of depravity very loud and imperious, and it silences it. But while sinners are not objects of compassion to themselves, they are objects of compassion to God. The conversion of sinners is not accomplished by mere moral suasion; it is of Divine power, yet not so of Divine power as that there is not the use of moral suasion of counsels, motives, and means such as may operate upon rational creatures. Therefore sinners who desire conversion should be very attentive to God's appointed means of grace.
J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table,p. 310 (five sermons).
References: Psalms 51:13. R. S. Candlish, Gospel of Forgiveness,p. 408. Psalms 51:14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xii., No. 713; Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 98; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 94.