A Sermon by John Duncan
Psalms 51:13. Sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
The conversion of sinners is a matter in which the gracious God takes the deepest interest. Sinners are not concerned about conversion ordinarily. Sinners are lost, but it does not much matter to them that they are lost. They do not fully know it. They are not altogether ignorant of it – conscience speaks in every man more or less, but they are not fully aware of it, and they are not willing to be so. The voice of conscience is very feeble in fallen man; the voice of depravity very loud and imperious, and it silences conscience. But while sinners are not objects of compassion to themselves, they are objects of compassion to God.
Fools, hating wisdom – Christ, the wisdom of God – love death. Not by design, but really they love death. They love what death is indissolubly connected with, and so they love death. Looking at death, they do not love it, but looking at sin – what death is the wages of – they do love sin; and they love sin so much that they will take it with death, rather than be without it. In short, they dislike death much, but they love sin so well that they will take it even with death. That is the sinner’s mind, and what is God’s mind? It is hardly credible, so He swears to it: “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?”
Sinners are lost. Who has lost us? God has lost us. And so, though sinners are under the curse of God, they are of interest to Him still, considering sinners as His lost ones. God’s lost ones – not so lost as to be out of His mind and concern. He has sent His Son, and the Son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost. O sinner, lay it to heart. Your conversion, perhaps, concerns you little; your conversion concerns your God much. You love death – that is, you love sin so well as to take it, death and all, and keep it, death and all – and you little care about returning to God, from whom you have gone away. But God cares. Mark this: if you are not converted, or turned, you die; God will pay you the wages of sin – death.
But He says He has no pleasure in it, that He prefers conversion to death. Lay this to heart, sinner, that you must be converted or damned, and that God calls you to turn rather than be damned. You will observe that David in this Psalm, when praying for the restoration of the joy of God’s salvation,
1The last sermon on this text; it was preached in Edinburgh in 1857 and is taken, with editing, from Duncan’s Pulpit and Communion Table. The previous sermon in this series appeared in the August 2023 issue of this Magazine.
urges this as a motive: “Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee”. And let believers in their penitence make use of it too. David therefore knew that God was interested in the conversion of sinners; how otherwise would he make such a vow?
Again, the conversion of a sinner unto God is a possible thing. It is a very difficult thing, yet a possible thing. Of sinners, all away from God, there are degrees of sinfulness. Even while the latent depravity of mankind is complete, the growth of this root of bitterness is in some more, in some less. Yet the conversion of the least sinner is very difficult, and the conversion of the greatest sinner is possible. Of the least sinner it is so difficult that it is only by omnipotent grace that it is possible.
Therefore, from the very consideration that it is omnipotent grace which makes the conversion of the chief of sinners possible, do not say then, O sinner, My conversion is impossible. Instead say, My conversion is the alternative of my damnation; my damnation is inevitable if I am not converted; but my conversion, through God’s grace, is something possible. “Sinners shall be converted unto Thee.”
And if there is anyone here whose heart is so far turned that he prefers conversion to damnation, then it is very likely that he will be struck with the difficulty of conversion. For he who truly prefers conversion to damnation is beginning to attempt to turn, and he who attempts it finds its difficulty. No man knows this as a mere theory, as a mere doctrine; but when a man tries conversion – when he attempts obedience to the command of God, “Make you a new heart” – he finds that he cannot change his own heart. But in that position, there is encouragement from this, that whatever God may do with the sinner, “sinners shall be converted“.
Mark, the difficulty you feel is this, that you cannot make yourself a new heart; and that difficulty lies not mainly in the uniqueness of your sinfulness. I say, not mainly; for “can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.” This speaks of custom in wickedness as an additional difficulty. But the main difficulty lies in the depravity of nature, and that is common to you with all sinners. Well, there are some things of which Christ says that they are impossible with men, but possible with God, and your conversion, O sinner, is one among them.
Again, God has appointed means for the conversion of sinners. The conversion of sinners is not accomplished by mere moral persuasion; it is by divine power. Yet it is not so entirely by divine power that there is no use of moral persuasion – of counsels, motives and means, such as may operate on rational creatures. Therefore, sinner, if you desire conversion, be very attentive
to God’s appointed means of grace. “I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.”
Therefore, sinner desiring conversion, see that you are very attentive to those who teach God’s ways – to God Himself in His Word teaching us, to the ministry of the Word, and to all admonitions from Christian men, from all such as teach the knowledge of God’s ways. For it appears that, in order to a sinner’s being converted, the knowledge of God’s ways is needed. Sinners, fools, “know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgement of their God”. Therefore, sinner intending conversion, surely you will be asking, Who is this God? What is He? What are the ways of this God? What is the character, the way, the method of procedure of this God, from whom I have gone away and who is calling me to return?
Again, conversion is unto God. “Sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” Now, I suppose there is nothing about conversion that sinners, even if they are in some seriousness about complying with God’s call to turn, are more apt to go astray upon than this – conversion is unto God. Sinners convinced of sin find their need of conversion; and they endeavour to turn from sin to righteousness, from sin to duty, from their evil ways to good ways. That is very common, because it comes more home to the natural conscience. The knowledge of sin is by the law; therefore, when the conscience is enlightened concerning sin, the sinner turns to the law. Nor do I speak of this with thorough disapprobation – far from it.
Yet those who attempt it, if God has begun a work of grace in their souls, will find disappointment in the very attempt. In seeking to turn from sin unto duty, they will find this out: that “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good;” but they are “carnal, sold under sin”. So they will be brought at last to this, Unless God will interpose I am lost. True, I am welcome back again; true, if I come to God by Christ I shall be received – but I cannot come. The sinner first of all finds that he is insufficient for duty, then says, I will come to Christ, but he finds that he is as insufficient for that duty as for the other. He is so far brought off from seeking to turn from sin unto duty, and then seeks to turn from sin unto Christ when he finds himself just as unable to do that.
But, blessed be God, He is Triune – Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And so the sinner is brought to realise the need of a salvation altogether of God – of the Father, in His eternal purpose and love; of the Son, in His redeeming work; and of the Spirit, as the Applier of the redemption purchased by Christ. He is shut up to Jehovah, God. “Sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth,
with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God.” It is not said, doth turn from sin unto duty, from sin unto holiness, but “doth . . . turn from it unto God“.
When we turned from God, what was it to? To sin. And there is a sinner turning, and what is he to turn from? From sin. And what is he to turn unto? Unto God. That is a very solemn thing. But it was by turning from God that we turned to sin; and turn as we like, till we turn to God we are godless. If we turn from unconcern to concern, very good; if we turn from thoughtlessness to careful thought, so far exceedingly good. But observe, we are in a godless state in the midst of that, and we continue in a godless state till we turn to God. When a sinner turns from neglect of the means of grace to hearing the Word and to prayer, it is good – they are God’s ordinances, and He may bless them to him. But the written Word, glorious as it is, is not God; and prayer is not God. Prayer without turning to God is meaningless; yet to the meaningless thing the sinner will turn. But to turn unto God: ah, he shrinks from that; objections start up in multitudes, but mainly these two things: the love of sin and distrust of God’s grace.
Observe, the sinner turning to God is in a certain sense undoing what Adam did. There is a sense in which he cannot: he cannot atone for sin, and he cannot regenerate himself. But the sinner turning to God undoes it in this sense, that Adam went away, and he in conversion turns and comes back. Now, what made man go from God makes him keep from God. And that is chiefly the love of sin. In turning to God through Christ, the sinner will be saved from sin, as well as from its effects. Now, when the principle of depravity – of indwelling sin – finds that turning to God is to be its death, it informs the soul of this. Indwelling sin knows that whatever else the man may attempt he cannot stop it; but it says, If this man goes to the gracious Lord God, it will be the death of me; I shall get my death-wound in conversion; I shall be wasted away in sanctification and at last annihilated.
And the depravity of nature will not lie down like a lamb to be killed; that is one reason why the sinner will not turn to God. But his sin will not stand in the way of superabounding grace; the mercy of God flowing through Christ will stand out against all the greatest sin. And the Holy Ghost can implant in the soul a holy principle to contend with sin, and can also maintain the conflict till at last this holy principle is victorious. God can well do that, but the sinner does not want it done.
Another reason is distrust of God’s grace. The sinner loves sin, and so does not want to be converted; then also he distrusts grace; he does not credit that God will find it in His heart to do such a thing. The love of sin says, I must not return to this holy Lord God, for it will be the death of this beloved sin.
Unbelief says, A holy, just God will not receive me; if I go back to Him it will be presumption. But God says, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Sinner, will you be converted? Do you wish that God would convert you? Or are you set on being unconverted, on living unconverted and dying unconverted? Sinner, God is condescending to swear to you that He has no pleasure in your death; and yet He tells you that, if unconverted, you must die. We speak it reverently: God will be compelled to damn you. What is it you prefer to God? What is it? Is it better than He? One thing follows if you prefer anything to God: you must say, Adam and Eve did very right in forsaking Him; for it is better to stay where they brought us than to go to Christ, and through Him return to God; they did very right to go away, and I will stay away.
Then you must think that Jesus Christ came on a very bad errand, to separate sinners from their sins. He calls it salvation, but you must think it the worst thing He could do for them; for you still choose to retain yours. You must disapprove of God in creation and in the covenant of works – in His making man in His own image, for the end of glorifying and enjoying Him – for you say, Sin is better. You must approve of Satan, and of the act of Adam and Eve, whereby they brought you into that position in which you are well pleased to remain. You must disapprove of Jesus Christ and His mission, and must disapprove of the Holy Ghost convincing of sin and misery, testifying of Christ, and bringing sinners to Him. In short, you approve of the devil, the world and the flesh; and you disapprove of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. What kind of creature are you who does this? What kind of creatures are we all who, if left to ourselves, would do this?
But God has devised a way for bringing back His banished, and He has set His heart on the conversion of sinners. And, be they who they may, “sinners shall be converted”. God says, “Yet will I gather others . . . beside those that are gathered”. “Turn Thou us, and we shall be turned; for Thou art Jehovah our God.”
The believer being persuaded that he is guilty of more sins than he had got a clear sight of, as he would bewail his condition before God because of these, and sorrow for them after a godly manner, so he would take them together in a heap, or as a closed bagful, and by faith nail them to the cross of Christ, as if they were all distinctly seen and known.”Who can understand his errors?” said David (Ps 19:12), yet says he moreover, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.”
John Brown (of Wamphray)