CHARLES SPURGEON THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the
first commandment.” — Mark 12:30.
OUR Savior said, “This is the first and great commandment.” It is “the
first“ commandment — the first for antiquity, for this is older than even
the ten commandments of the written law. Before God said, “Thou shalt
not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,” this law was one of the
commands of his universe; for this was binding upon the angels when man
was not created. It was not necessary for God to say to the angels, “thou
shalt do no murder, thou shalt not steal;” for such things to them were very
probably impossible; but he did doubtless say to them, “Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart;” and when first Gabriel sprang out of his
native nothingness at the fiat of God, this command was binding on him.
This is “the first commandment,” then, for antiquity. It was binding upon
Adam in the garden; even before the creation of Eve, his wife, God had
commanded this; before there was a necessity for any other command this
was written upon the very tablets of his heart — “Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God.”
It is “the first commandment,” again, not only for antiquity, but for dignity.
This command, which deals with God the Almighty must ever take
precedence of every other. Other commandments deal with man and man,
but this with man and his Creator. Other commands of a ceremonial kind
when disobeyed, may involve but slight consequences upon the person who
may happen to offend; but this disobeyed provokes the wrath of God, and
brings his ire at once upon the sinner’s head. He that stealeth committeth a
gross offense, inasmuch as he hath also violated this command; but if it
were possible for us to separate the two, and to suppose an offense of one
command without an offense of this, then we must put the violation of this
commandment in the first rank of offenses. This is the king of
commandments; this is the emperor of the law; it must take precedence of
all those princely commands that God afterwards gave to men.
Again, it is “the first commandment,” for its justice. If men cannot see the
justice of that law which says, “Love thy neighbor,” if there be some
difficulty to understand how I can be bound to love the man that hurts and
injures me, there can be no difficulty here. “Thou shalt love thy God”
comes to us with so much divine authority, and is so ratified by the dictates
of nature and our own conscience, that, verily, this command must take the
first place for the justice of its demand. It is “the first” of commandments.
Whichever law thou dost break, take care to keep this. If thou breakest the
commandments of the ceremonial law, if thou dost violate the ritual of thy
church, thine offense might be propitiated by the priest, but who can
escape when this is his offense? This mandate standeth fast. Man’s law
thou mayest break, and bear the penalty; but if thou breakest this the
penalty is too heavy for thy soul to endure, it will sink thee, man, it will
sink thee like a mill-stone lower than the lowest hell. Take heed of this
command above every other, to tremble at it and obey it, for it is “the first
commandment.”
But the Savior said it was a “great commandment,” and so also it is. It is
“great,” for it containeth in its bowels every other. When God said,
“Remember to keep holy the Sabbath-day,” when he said, “Thou shalt not
bow down unto the idols nor worship them,” — when he said, “Thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” he did but instance
particulars which are all contained in this general mandate. This is the sum
and substance of the law; and indeed even the second commandment lies
within the folds of the first. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor,” is actually to
be found within the center of this command, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God;” for the loving of God would necessarily produce the loving of our
neighbor.
It is a great command, then, for its comprehensiveness, and it is a great
command for the immense demand which it makes upon US. It demands all
our mind, all our soul, all our heart, and all our strength. Who is he that
can keep it, when there is no power of manhood which is exempt from its
sway? And to him that violateth this law it shall be proven that it is a great
command in the greatness of its condemning power, for it shall be like a
great sword having two edges, wherewith God shall slay him. It shall be
like a great thunder-bolt from God, wherewith He shall cast down and
utterly destroy the man that goeth on in his wilful breaking thereof. Hear
ye, then, O Gentiles, and O house of Israel, hear ye, then, this day, this first
and great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength.”
I shall divide my discourse thus — first, What saith this commandment
unto us? secondly, What say we unto it?
I. And in discussing the first point, WHAT SAITH THIS COMMANDMENT
UNTO us? we shall divide it thus. Here is, first, the duty — ”Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God,” here is, secondly, the measure of She duty —
“Thou shalt love him with all thy heart, mind, soul, strength;” here is,
thirdly, the ground of the claim, enforcing the duty — because he is “thy
God.” God demandeth us to obey, simply upon the ground that he is our
God.
1. To begin, then. This command demands a duty. That duty is, that we
should love God. How many men do break this? One class of men do break
it wilfully and grievously; for they hate God. There is the infidel, who
gnashes his teeth against the Almighty; the atheist, who spits the venom of
his blasphemy against the person of his Maker. You will find those who rail
at the very being of a God, though in their consciences they know there is a
God, yet with their lips will blasphemously deny his existence. These men
say there is no God, because they wish there were none. The wish is father
to the thought; and the thought demands great grossness of heart, and
grievous hardness of spirit before they dare to express it in words; and
even when they express it in words, it needeth much practice ere they can
do it with a bold, unblushing countenance. Now, this command beareth
hard on all them that hate, that despise, that blaspheme, that malign God,
or that deny his being, or impugn his character. O sinner! God says thou
shalt love him with all thy heart; and inasmuch as thou hatest him, thou
standest this day condemned to the sentence of the law.
Another class of men know there is a God, but they neglect him, they go
through the world with indifference, “caring for none of these things.”
“Well,” they say “it does not signify to me whether there is a God or not.”
They have no particular care about him; they do not pay one half so much
respect to his commands as they would to the proclamation of the Queen.
They are very willing to reverence all powers that be, but he who ordained
them is to be passed by and to be forgotten. They would not be bold
enough and honest enough to come straight out, and despise God, and join
the ranks of his open enemies, but they forget God; he is not in all their
thoughts. They rise in the morning without a prayer, they rest at night
without bending the knee, they go through the week’s business, and they
never acknowledge a God. Sometimes they talk about good luck and
chance, strange deities of their own brain, but God, the over-ruling God of
Providence, they never talk of, though sometimes they may mention his
name in flippancy, and so increase their transgressions against him. O ye
despisers and neglecters of God! this command speaks to you — ”Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.”
But I hear one of these gentlemen reply, “Well, sir, I make no pretensions
to religion, but still I believe I am quite as good as those that do; I am quite
as upright, quite as moral and benevolent. True, I do not often darken the
door of a church or chapel, I do not think it necessary, but I am a right
good sort, there are many, many hypocrites in the church, and therefore I
shall not think of being religious.” Now, my dear friend, allow me just to
say one word — what business is that of yours? Religion is a personal
matter between you and your Maker. Your Maker says — “Thou shalt
love me with all thine heart:” it is of no use for you to point your finger
across the street, and point at a minister whose life is inconsistent, or at a
deacon who is unholy, or to a member of the church who does not live up
to his profession. You have just nothing to do with that. When your Maker
speaks to you, he appeals to you personally; and if you should tell him,
“My Lord, I will not love thee, because there are hypocrites,” would not
your own conscience convince you of the absurdity of your reasoning?
Ought not your better judgment to whisper “Inasmuch, then, as so many
are hypocrites, take heed that thou art not; and if there be so many
pretenders who injure the Lord’s cause by their lying pretensions, so much
the more reason why thou shouldst have the real thing, and help to make
the church sound and honest.” But no; the merchants of our cities, the
tradesmen of our streets, our artizans and our workmen, the great mass of
them, live in total forgetfulness of God. I do not believe that the heart of
England is infidel. I do not believe that there is any vast extent of deism or
atheism throughout England: the great fault of our time is the fault of
indifference; people do not care whether the thing is right or not. What is it
to them? They never take the trouble to search between the different
professors of religion to see where the truth lies; they do not think to pay
their reverence to God with all their hearts. Oh, no, they forget what God
demands, and so rob him of his due. To you, to you, great masses of the
population, this law doth speak with iron tongue — “Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind.”
There are a class of men who are a great deal nobler than the herd of
simpletons who allow the sublimities of the Godhead to be concealed by
their Barking care for mere sensual good. There are some who do not
forget that there is a God, no they are astronomers, and they turn their eyes
to heaven, and they view the stars and they marvel at the majesty of the
Creator. Or they dig into the bowels of the earth, and they are astonished
at the magnificence of God’s works of yore. Or they examine the animal,
and marvel at the wisdom of God in the construction of its anatomy. They,
whenever they think of God, think of him with the deepest awe, with the
profoundest reverence. You never hear them curse or swear: you will find
that their souls are possessed of a deep awe of the great Creator. But ah!
my friends, this is not enough: this is not obedience to the command. God
does not say thou shalt wonder at him, thou shalt have awe of him. He asks
more than that; he says “Thou shalt love me!” Oh! thou that seest the orbs
of heaven floating in the far expanse, it is something to lift thine eye to
heaven, and say —
“These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty, thine this universal frame.
Thus wond’rous fair; thyself how wond’rous then!
Unspeakable, who sit’st above these Heavens
To us invisible, or dimly seen
In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and pow’r divine.”
‘Tis something thus to adore the great Creator, but ‘tis not all he asks. Oh,
if thou couldst add to this — “He that made these orbs, that leadeth them
out by their hosts, is my Father, and my heart beats with affection towards
him.” Then wouldst thou be obedient, but not till then. God asks not thine
admiration, but thine affection. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart.”
There are others, too, who delight to spend time in contemplation. They
believe in Jesus in the Father, in the Spirit, they believe that there is but one
God, and that these three are one. It is their delight to turn over the pages
of revelation, as well as the pages of history. The contemplate God; he is to
them a matter of curious study; they like to meditate upon him; the
doctrines of his Word they could hear all day long. And they are very
sound in the faith, extremely orthodox and very knowing, they can fight
about doctrines, they can dispute about the things of God with all their
hearts; but alas! their religion is like a dead fish, cold and stiff, and when
you take it into your hand you say there is no life in it; their souls were
never stirred with it; their hearts were never through into it. They can
contemplate, but they cannot love; they can meditate, but they cannot
commune; they can think of God, but they can never throw up their souls
to him, and clasp him in the arms of their affections. Ah, to you, coldblooded
thinkers — to you, this text speaks. Oh! thou that canst
contemplete, but cannot love, — ”Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart.”
Another man starts up, and he says, “Well this command does not bear on
me; I attend my place of worship twice every Sunday, I have family prayer.
I am very careful not to get up of a morning without saying a form of
prayer; I sometimes read my Bible; I subscribe to many charities.” Ah! My
friend, and you may do all that, without loving God. Why, some of you go
to your churches and chapels as if you were going to be horsewhipped. It is
a dull and dreary thing to you. You dare not break the sabbath, but you
would if you could. You know very well that if it were not for a mere
matter of fashion and custom you would sooner by half be anywhere else
than in God’s house. And as for prayer, why it is no delight to you; you do
it because you think you ought to do it. Some indefinable sense of duty
rests upon you; but you have no delight in it. You talk of God with great
propriety, but you never talk of him with love. Your heart never bounds at
the mention of his name; you eyes never glisten at the thought of his
attributes; our soul never leapeth when you meditate on his works, for your
heart is all untouched and while you are honoring God with your lips, your
heart is far from him, and you are still disobedient to this commandment,
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.”
And now , my hearers, do you understand this commandment? Do I not
see many of you seeking to look for loop-holes through which to escape?
Do I not think I see some of you striving to make a break in this divine
wall which girds us all. You say, “I never do anything against God.” Nay,
my friend, that is not it: it is not what thou dost not do — it is this, “Dost
thou love him?” “Well, sir, but I never violate any of the proprieties of
religion.” No, that is not it; the command is, “Thou shalt love him.” “Well,
sir, but I do a great deal for God; I teach in a Sunday school and so on.”
Ah! I know,; but dost thou love him? It is the heart he wants, and he will
not be content without it. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” That is the
law, and though no man can keep it since Adam’s fall, yet the law is as
much binding upon every son of Adam this day, as when God first of all
pronounced it. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.”
2. That brings us to the second point — the measure of this law. How
much am I to love God?? Where shall I fix the point? I am to love my
neighbor as I love myself. Am I to love my God more than that? Yes,
certainly. The measure is even greater. We are not bound to love ourselves
with all our mind, and soul, and strength, and therefore we are not bound
to love our neighbor so. The measure is a greater one. We are bound to
love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And we deduce from that, first that we are to love God supremely. Thou
art to love thy wife, O husband. Thou canst not love her too much except
in one case, if thou sholdst love her before God, and prefer her pleasure to
the pleasure of the Most High. Then wouldst thou be an idolater. Child!
thou art to love thy parents; thou canst not love him too much who begat
thee, nor her too much who brought thee forth; but rmember, there is one
law that doth over-ride that. Thou art to love thy God more than thy father
or thy mother. He demands thy first and thy highest affection: thou art to
love him with all thy heart.” We are allowed to love our relatives: we are
taught to do so. He that doth not love his own family is worse than a
heathen man and a publican. But we are not to love the dearest object of
our hearts so much as we love God. Ye may erect little thrones for those
whom ye rightly love; but God’s throne must be a glorious high throne;
you may set them upon the steps, but God must sit on the very seat itself.
He is to be enthroned, the royal One within your heart, the king of your
affections. Say, say hearer, hast thou kept this commandment? I know I
have not; I must plead guilty before God; I must cast myself before him,
and acknowledge my transgression. But nevertheless, there standeth the
commandment — “Thou shalt love God with all thy heart “ — that is, thou
shalt love him supremely.
Note, again, that from the text we may deduce that a man is bound to love
God heartily: that is plain enough, for it says, “Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart.” Yes, there is to be in our love to God a
heartiness. We are to throw our whole selves into the love that we give to
him. Not the kind of love that some people give to their fellows, when they
say, “Be ye warmed and filled,” and nothing more. No: our heart is to have
its whole being absorbed into God, so that God is the hearty object of its
pursuit and its most mighty love. See how the word “all” is repeated again
and again. The whole going forth of the being, the whole stirring up of the
soul, is to be for God, and for God only. “With all thy heart.”
Again: as we are to love God heartily, we are to love him with all our
souls. Then we are to love him with all our life; for that is the meaning of
it. If we are called to die for God, we are to prefer God before our own
life. We shall never reach the fullness of this commandment, till we get as
far as the martyrs, who rather than disobey God would be cast into the
furnace, or devoured by wild beasts. We must be ready to give up house,
home, liberty, friends, comfort, joy, and life, at the command of God, or
else we have not carried out this commandment, “Thou shalt love him with
all thy heart and with all thy life.”
And, next we are to love God with all our mind. That is, the intellect is to
love God. Now, many men believe in the existence of a God, but they do
not love that belief. They know there is a God, but they greatly wish there
were none. Some of you to day would be very pleased, ye would set the
bells a-ringing, if ye believed there were no God. Why, if there were no
God, then you might live just as you liked; if there were no God, then you
might run riot and have no fear of future consequences. It would be to you
the greatest joy that could be, if you heard that the eternal God had ceased
to be. But the Christian never wishes any such a thing as that. The thought
that there is a God is the sunshine of his existence. His intellect bows
before the Most High; not like a slave who bends his body because he
must, but like the angel who prostrates himself because he loves to adore
his Maker. His intellect is as fond of God as his imagination. “Oh!” he
saith, “My God, I bless thee that thou art, for thou art my highest treasure,
my richest and my rarest delight. I love thee with all my intellect; I have
neither thought, nor judgment, nor conviction, nor reason, which I do not
lay at thy feet, and consecrate to thine honor.
And once again, this love to God is to be characterised by activity; for we
are to love Him with all our heart, heartily — with all our soul, that is, to
the laying down of our life — with all our mind, that is mentally; and we
are to love him with all our strength, that is, actively. I am to throw my
whole soul into the worship and adoration of God. I am not to keep back a
single hour, or a single farthing of my wealth, or a single talent that I have,
or a single atom of strength, bodily or mental from the worship of God. I
am to love him with all my strength.
Now what man ever kept this commandment? Surely, none; and no man
ever can keep it. Hence, then, the necessity of a Savior. Oh! that we might
by this commandment be smitten to the earth, that our self-righteousness
may be broken in pieces by this great hammer of “the first and great
commandment!” But oh! my brethren, how may we wish that we could
keep it! for, could we keep this command intact, unbroken, it would be a
heaven below. The happiest of creatures are those that are the most holy,
and that unreservedly love God.
3. And now, very briefly, I have just to state God’s claim upon which he
bases this commandment. “Thou shalt love him with all thy heart, soul,
mind, strength.” Why? First, because he is the Lord — that is, Jehovah;
and secondly because he is thy God.
Man, the Creature of a day, thou oughtest to love Jehovah for what he is.
Behold, him whom thou canst not behold! Lift up thine eyes to the seventh
heaven; see where in dreadful majesty, the brightness of his skirts makes
the angels veil their faces, lest the light, too strong for even them, should
smite them with eternal blindness. See ye him, who stretched the heavens
like a tent to dwell in, and then did weave into their tapestry, with golden
needle, stars that glitter in the darkness. Mark ye him who spread the earth,
and created man upon it. And hear ye what he is. He is all-sufficient,
eternal, self-existent, unchangeable, omnipotent, omniscient! Wilt thou not
reverence him? He is good, he is loving, he is kind, he is gracious. See the
bounties of his providence; behold the plenitude of his grace! Wilt thou not
love Jehovah, because he is Jehovah?
But thou art most of all bound to love him because he is thy God. He is thy
God by creation. He made thee; thou didst not make thyself. God, the
Almighty, though he might use instruments, was nevertheless the sole
creator of man. Though he is pleased to bring us into the world by the
agency of our progenitors, yet is he as much our Creator as he was the
Creator of Adam, when he formed him of clay and made him man. Look at
this marvellous body of thine, see how God hath put the bones together, so
as to be of the greatest service and use to thee, See how he hath arranged
thy nerves and blood vessels; mark the marvellous machinery which he has
employed to keep thee in life! O thing of an hour! wilt thou not love him
that made thee? Is it possible that thou canst think of him who formed thee
in his hand, and moulded thee by his will, and yet wilt thou not love him
who hath fashioned thee?
Again, consider, he is thy God, for he preserves thee. Thy table is spread,
but he spread it for thee. The air that thou dost breathe is a gift of his
charity; the clothes that thou hast on thy back are gifts of his love; thy life
depends on him. One wish of his infinite will would have brought thee to
the grave, and given thy body to the worms; and at this moment, though
thou art strong and hearty, thy life is absolutely dependent upon him. Thou
mayest die where thou art, instanter: thou art out of hell only as the result
of his goodness. Thou wouldst be at this hour sweltering in flames
unquenchable, had not his sovereign love preserved thee. Traitor though
thou mayest be to him, an enemy to his cross and cause, yet he is thy God,
so far as this, for he made thee and he keeps thee afire. Surely, thou mayest
wonder that he should keep thee alive, when thou refusest to love him.
Man! thou wouldst not keep a horse that did not work for thee. Would you
keep a servant in your house who insulted you? Would you spread bread
upon his table, and find livery for his back, if instead of doing your will and
good pleasure he would be his own master, and would run counter to you?
Certainly you would not. And yet here is God feeding you, and you are
rebelling against him. Swearer! the lip with which you cursed your Maker
is sustained by him; the very lungs that you employ in blasphemy are
inspired by him with the breath of life, else you had ceased to be. Oh!
strange that you should eat God’s bread, and then lift up your heel against
him; Oh! marvellous that ye should sit at the table of his providence and be
clothed in the livery of his bounty, and yet that you should turn round and
spit against high heaven, and lift the puny hand of your rebellion against the
God that made you, and that preserves you in being. Oh, if instead of our
God we had one like unto ourselves to deal with, my brethren, we should
not have patience with our fellow-creatures for an hour. I marvel at God’s
longsuffering towards men. I see the foul-mouthed blasphemer curse his
God. O God! how canst thou endure it? Why dost thou not smite him to
the ground? If a gnat should torment me, should I not in one moment crush
it? And what is man compared with his Maker? Not one half so great as an
emmet compared with man. Oh! my brethren, we may well be astonished
that God hath mercy upon us, after all our violations of this high command.
But I stand here to-day his servant, and from myself and from you I claim
for God, because he is God, because he is our God and our Creator — I
claim the love of all hearts, I claim the obedience of all souls and of all
minds, and the consecration of all our strength.
O people of God, I need not speak to you. Ye know that God is your God
in a special sense; therefore you ought to love him with a special love.
II. This is what the commandment says to us. I shall be very short indeed
upon the second head, which is, WHAT HAVE WE TO SAY TO IT?
What hast thou to say to this command, O man? Have I one here so
profoundly brainless as to reply, “I intend to keep it and I believe I can
perfectly obey it, and I think I can get to heaven by obedience to it?” Man,
thou art either a fool, or else wilfully ignorant; for sure, if thou dost
understand this commandment, thou wilt at once hang down thine hands,
and say, “Obedience to that is quite impossible; thorough and perfect
obedience to that no man can hope to reach to! Some of you think you will
go to heaven by your good works, do you? This is the first stone that you
are to step upon — I am sure it is too high for your reach. You might as
well try to climb to heaven by the mountains of earth, and take the
Himalayas to be your first step; for surely when you had stepped from the
ground to the summit of Chimborazo you might even then despair of ever
stepping to the height of this great commandment; for to obey this must
ever be an impossibility. But remember, you cannot be saved by your
works, if you cannot obey this entirely, perfectly, constantly, for ever.
“Well,” says one, “I dare say if I try and obey it as well as I can, that will
do.” No, sir, it will not. God demands that you perfectly obey this, and if
you do not perfectly obey it he will condemn you. “Oh!” cries one, “who
then can be saved!” Ah! that is the point to which I wish to bring you. Who
then can be saved by this law? Why, no one in the world. Salvation by the
works of the law is proved to be a clean impossibility. None of you,
therefore will say you will try to obey it, and so hope to be saved. I hear
the best Christian in the world groan out his thoughts — “O God,” saith
he, “I am guilty; and shouldst thou cast me into hell I dare not say
otherwise. I have broken this command from my youth up, even since my
conversion; I have violated it every day; I know that if thou shouldst lay
justice to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, I must be swept away
for ever. Lord, I renounce my trust in the law; for by it I know I can never
see thy face and be accepted.” But hark! I hear the Christian say another
thing. “Oh!” saith he to the commandment, “Commandment I cannot keep
thee, but my Savior kept thee, and what my Savior did, he did for all them
that believe; and now, O law, what Jesus did is mine. Hast thou any
question to bring against me? Thou demandest that I should keep this
commandment wholly: lo, my Savior kept it wholly for me, and he is my
substitute; what I cannot do myself my Savior has done for me; thou canst
not reject the work of the substitute, for God accepted it in the day when
he raised him from the dead. O law! shut thy mouth for ever; thou canst
never condemn me; though I break thee a thousand times, I put my simple
trust in Jesus, and in Jesus only; his righteousness is mine, and with it I pay
the debt and satisfy thy hungry mouth.”
“ Oh!” cries one, “I wish I could say that I could thus escape the wrath of
the law! Oh that I knew that Christ did keep the law for me!” Stop, then,
and I will tell you. Do you feel to-day that you are guilty, lost, and ruined?
Do you with tears in your eyes confess that none but Jesus can do you
good? Are you willing to give up all trusts, and cast yourself alone on him
who died upon the cross? Can you look to Calvary, and see the bleeding
sufferer, all crimson with streams of gore? Can you say
“A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
Into thine arms I fall;
Jesus be thou my righteousness,
My Savior and my all!”
Canst say that? Then he kept the law for you, and the law cannot condemn
whom Christ has absolved. If Law comes to you and says, “I will damn you
because you did not keep the law,” tell him that he dares not touch a hair
of your head, for though you did not keep it, Christ kept it for you, and
Christ’s righteousness is yours; tell him there is the money, and though you
did not coin it Christ did; and tell him, when you have paid him all he asks
for, he dares not touch you; you must be free, for Christ has satisfied the
law.
And after that — and here I conclude — O child of God I know what thou
wilt say; after thou hast seen the law satisfied by Jesus thou wilt fall on thy
knees and say, “Lord, I thank thee that this law cannot condemn me, for I
believe in Jesus. But now, Lord, help me from this time forth for ever to
keep it. Lord, give me a new heart, for this old heart never will love thee!
Lord, give me a new life, for this old life is too vile. Lord, give me a new
understanding: wash my mind with the clean water of the Spirit; come and
dwell in my judgment, my memory, my thought; and then give me the new
strength of thy Spirit, and then will I love thee with all my new heart, with
all my new life, with all my renewed mind, and with all my spiritual
strength, from this time forth, even for evermore.”
May the Lord convince you of sin, by the energy of his divine Spirit, and
bless this simple sermon; for Jesus’ sake! Amen.