Self-Acquaintance<\/b><\/p>\n
Dear Lord! accept a sinful heart, Which of itself complains, And mourns, with much and frequent smart, The evil it contains.<\/p>\n
There fiery seeds of anger lurk, Which often hurt my frame; And wait but for the tempter\u2019s work, To fan them to a flame.<\/p>\n
Legality holds out a bribe To purchase life from Thee; And Discontent would fain prescribe How Thou shalt deal with me.<\/p>\n
While Unbelief withstands Thy grace, And puts the mercy by; Presumption, with a brow of brass, Says, \u201cGive me, or I die!\u201d<\/p>\n
How eager are my thoughts to roam, In quest of what they love! But ah! when duty calls them home, How heavily they move!<\/p>\n
Oh, cleanse me in a Saviour\u2019s blood, Transform my by Thy power, And make me Thy beloved abode, And let me roam no more.<\/p>\n
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper\u2019s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York<\/p>\n
Public Confession<\/b><\/p>\n
During WWI one of my predecessors at Tenth Presbyterian Church, Donald Grey Barnhouse, led the son of a prominent American family to the Lord. He was in the service, but he showed the reality of his conversion by immediately professing Christ before the soldiers of his military company. The war ended. The day came when he was to return to his pre-war life in the wealthy suburb of a large American city. He talked to Barnhouse about life with his family and expressed fear that he might soon slip back into his old habits. He was afraid that love for parents, brothers, sisters, and friends might turn him from following after Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Barnhouse told him that if he was careful to make public confession of his faith in Christ, he would not have to worry. He would not have to give improper friends up. They would give him up. As a result of this conversation the young man agreed to tell the first ten people of his old set whom he encountered that he had become a Christian.<\/p>\n
The soldier went home. Almost immediately\u2014in fact, while he was still on the platform of the suburban station at the end of his return trip\u2014he met a girl whom he had known socially. She was delighted to see him and asked how he was doing. He told her, \u201cThe greatest thing that could possibly happen to me has happened.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re engaged to be married,\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cNo,\u201d he told her. \u201cIt\u2019s even better than that. I\u2019ve taken the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.\u201d The girls\u2019 expression froze. She mumbled a few polite words and went on her way.<\/p>\n
A short time later the new Christian met a young man whom he had known before going into the service. \u201cIt\u2019s good to see you back,\u201d he declared. \u201cWe\u2019ll have some great parties now that you\u2019ve returned.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve just become a Christian,\u201d the soldier said. He was thinking, That\u2019s two! Again it was a case of a frozen smile and a quick change of conversation.<\/p>\n
After this the same circumstances were repeated with a young couple and with two more old friends. By this time word had got around, and soon some of his friends stopped seeing him. He had become peculiar, religious, and\u2014who knows!\u2014they may even have called him crazy! What had he done? Nothing but confess Christ. The same confession that had aligned him with Christ had separated him from those who did not want Jesus Christ as Savior and who, in fact, did not even want to hear about Him.<\/p>\n
Christ\u2019s Call To Discipleship, J. M. Boice, Moody, 1986, pp. 122\u201323<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Self-Acquaintance Dear Lord! accept a sinful heart, Which of itself complains, And mourns, with much and frequent smart, The evil it contains. There fiery seeds of anger lurk, Which often hurt my frame; And wait but for the tempter\u2019s work, To fan them to a flame. Legality holds out a bribe To purchase life from … Continue reading “Backsliding”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}