About This Product
By conversion is meant the turning of a soul to God, brought about by the work of the Spirit. With this there is a sense of God's goodness that attracts; a sense of our sinfulness that convicts. The words of the prodigal, "I will arise and go to my father," proved the attraction; " Father, I have sinned," the conviction.
Naturally We Turn From God, As the Prodigal From His Father, and to Idols of Our Own Choice, As the Thessalonians. so That, to Be Turned to God Involves a Great Change (1 Thess. 1:10). Such a Change the Spirit Only Can Produce. in Scripture It Is the Result of, and Co-Incident With, New Birth; and This Stands at the Beginning of Every Christian-History. Many and Various Exercises Follow, and in These Perhaps Nothing Has a Greater Place Than Expectation. It Is, Therefore, of Deep Importance to Remember That There Are Two Kinds of Expectation: One Which Has the Warrant of Scripture, and One Which Has Not. Let Us First Briefly Consider the Former, Namely, Expectation, With Divine Authority.
We have no authority for expecting that new birth, in itself, gives any power for walk....Yet the marvellous fact remains, that when we are converted, God has no lower thought for us than that we should "live Christ" "Walk as He walked".
We may suffer much spiritual loss from the world's smile, but we need fear none from its frown. His love, His presence, His approval, will be abundant compensation. What matter who frowns if He bids us. "Be of good cheer"? Peter had His smile and was loosed from prison when Herod frowned. John had it at Patmos. Though the world pronounced his banishment, the Lord laid his right hand upon him. Paul had it in the prison at Philippi, and it made him and his companion sing at midnight. He heard, "Be of good cheer" from his Master's own lips, in the castle at Jerusalem; and in the prison at Rome he could say, "Rejoice, rejoice." Samuel Rutherford had it in the dungeon at St. Andrews, when he wrote, "I boast a God who can feed me with hunger, and make me fat through wants and desertions!" Waiting in prison for the stake and the fiery fagots, many of the English martyrs had it, and counted themselves amongst the merriest in the land in consequence.
But the same voice which cheered all these, and thousands more, speaks to our hearts today. "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." With the comfort of His love in our hearts, we may well "be of good cheer." "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6).
How did this "good work" begin? With such a sense of sinful unworthiness, that we desired Christ and dreaded missing Him. How will it end? In an eternal weight of glory!