Now, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. The title of this message,
Are You Converted? Conversion. Conversion. In Psalm 51, my text will be
found in verse 13. It says, Then. Then will I teach
transgressors Thy way, and sinners shall be converted unto thee."
Converted unto thee. We know that this psalm is a
very well-known psalm. David here in this psalm is confessing
his great sin. You remember after Nathan, the
prophet came to David and said, Thou art the man. David had committed
adultery. David had committed murder. It
had been almost a year and a half since these things were done.
David's conscience was clear. He had no guilt or remorse. He thought everything was well.
And God had something against him. And he sent Nathan, and
Nathan exposes David's sin. And what does David say? He says
this, Have mercy upon me, O God. Have mercy upon me according
to thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies." Listen, blot out my transgression. He cries later,
"...against thee, and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight." He committed such horrible sins. He said, I acknowledge
my transgression and my sin is ever before me, verse 3. See, he didn't hide it. He couldn't
hide it anymore. He acknowledged his sin. He confesses
the depravity of his birth. He says, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. And in verse 7, he seeks
to be washed by the blood of Christ. He says this, Purge me
with hyssop. Hyssop was the plant they used
in the sprinkling of the blood upon the mercy seat. pleading
for atonement. He was pleading the blood of
Christ, cleanse me. And what? I shall be clean if
I have the blood. I shall be clean, whiter than
snow. Now let me ask you this among
the saints, who among us cannot identify with David? Now listen,
if you cannot identify with David, you mark this down, you're not
a saint. You have no idea. what it is to be a believer in
Christ. Because believers understand our nature, we understand our
sin. We identify with His confession.
We believe and love Christ. Have we not failed often and
been overcome by our flesh? Man, if any of us just be honest.
with yourself. You don't have to even say it
out loud. You just be honest with yourself. Who has not been
overcome by their flesh? We have been. We, like Paul,
must confess, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's a continual
dwelling. My flesh, my nature, there is
nothing good in my nature. He said, the will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good? You know what?
I don't understand. I don't know how to do it. Oh, wretched man that
I am. It is this confessing of our
sin by which the Holy Ghost rings out an answer. What is the answer? The answer is Christ, isn't it?
The answer to our confession, the answer to the guilt of our
sin is the blood of Christ. It is always the same. I like
the Lord don't give us multiple answers. He gives us one answer.
We go to one person. We go to one work by which we
can be forgiven. It is the blood of Christ. John
says this in 1 John 1, he says, If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, what is it to walk in the light? It is to walk
by faith in Christ. Faith. We have knowledge. Light is knowledge. And we have knowledge of Christ.
We walk in the light of the glory of God in Christ. We walk by
faith. And what does he say? We have
fellowship. fellowship with Christ, fellowship
with God, and fellowship with one another, how? By the blood
of Christ that cleanseth us from all our sins. I like that word,
cleanseth, E-T-H. It's a present perfect tense.
It means that Christ's blood has cleansed us, Christ's blood
is right now cleansing us, and Christ's blood will always cleanse
us. It is a constant, perpetual cleansing. He cleanseth us from what? All
sin. All sin. Doesn't that make you
just love Him? Doesn't that instill love for
Christ? That His blood cleanseth us from all our sins. Doesn't
that make you appreciate Him? Does it not make you long to
fellowship more with Him? It should. That's what it does
in the believer's heart. And notice this, it cleanseth
us. But such cleansing, though eternal
and for the elect, is also experimental. That's why John says in verse
9 of that chapter, he said, if we confess our sins. Now, there's
the experience. It's what David's doing, isn't
it? He's experiencing the conviction
of sin. And when we experience conviction,
what comes next? Confession. Confession. I like this. Confession to God,
not to man. You don't have to confess your
sins to me. Why? I can't do anything for you. Only Christ can do something
for you. If we confess our sins, what?
He is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins. It's here then the burden is
lifted, isn't it? The burden of sin is lifted.
Here joy is restored. When sin is removed, joy is restored. David was weeping, have mercy
on me. But when Nathan said this, the
Lord hath put away thy sin already. David rejoiced. He was able to
rejoice. And notice how the heart of one
is restored, one who has experienced the grace of God, who has seen
the love of God, the mercy of God, the beauty of Christ. Notice what he says in our text.
This is the result of David experiencing the grace and mercy of God. What
does he say? Verse 13. Then what? When you
restore my joy, verse 12, the joy of my salvation, what am
I going to do? Am I going to go back to my sin? Is that what
he said? No, he says this, then will I
teach transgressors thy way. And what will be the result of
this? Sinners shall be converted unto thee. See, confession and repentance
of sin brings joy, and joy in Christ brings service. Service
to Christ. What are you going to do? I'm
going to preach the gospel. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to preach
the gospel. I'm going to declare, men, what happened to me. I sinned,
sought mercy, and through Christ I obtained mercy. And then what?
Sinners like me are going to be converted. They're going to
hear this message, and they're going to rejoice. They're going
to be converted. They speak to you as one who
is by nature a sinner, one who is incapable of saving myself. And God, by His grace, came to
me. He came to me. He quickened me. He gave me life and faith. I was made to see my sin, the
helpless, hopeless condition of my unrighteous nature. And
then God sent a man to preach the Word to me, and a man preached
to me not of what I can do for God. He didn't preach to me what he
could do for God. He preached to me what Christ
had already done. That's what the message is, what
Christ had already done. I'm going to teach transgressors
that way. What's that way? Salvation's done. Now be converted. Come to Him
who has accomplished salvation. He alone obtained the righteousness
of God. He alone satisfied God's justice
for sin. He alone is seated on the throne
of glory. He triumphed over death, over
sin, all that would keep us from God. He was victorious. But how is this good news for
me? Well, are you a sinner? Because this message is specifically
designed for sinners. David himself confessing himself
to be a sinner. Have mercy on me, O God. Why? Because I've sinned. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners. That's who He came
to save. came to save sinners. Those who
couldn't merit righteousness, those who couldn't make an offering,
He came to save rebels. Listen to this, He came to save
haters of God. Those who hated God, that's who
He came to save. And by grace and the power of
God, we believe on Christ. We received
Christ. We turned from self-righteousness,
from works, from vain religion, and we turned to Christ. What? We were converted. We were
turned. And that's what I was. I was converted. It was with
this same heart. Now I preach this same gospel
to you. that you who are lost, blind,
and dead should be converted. My desire and purpose of this
message is that you might know your standing before God tonight,
that you might be sure of your standing before God. Every time
I preach, it is my desire to preach clearly and plainly the
message so no one misunderstands what I'm saying. I want you to
know with no uncertain terms if you have been converted. We're
going to see in this in a minute. Our Lord says, except you be
converted and become as little children,
you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. You see that?
You must be converted. Are you converted? Are you converted? I desire to preach and praise
the praise of God to save you only through the work of Jesus
Christ. Now listen, what good are smooth
words that lull sinners into a false assurance? I don't want
to ever lull you into a false assurance. I want you to know. You know what John did so many
times, John said this in the epistle of John, he said, that
you may know. That you may know. I want you to know if you're
converted. I want you to know. I've got
five questions about conversion. Five questions. First of all,
what is it? That's important, isn't it? If you're converted, you've got
to know what it is. Second of all, why is it necessary? Is it necessary that I be converted? Thirdly, what are the marks of
conversion? How does one know and look and
see if we have the marks of conversion? And fourthly, I want to show
you the misery of the unconverted. There are unconverted people,
and I want you to see the misery of unconversion. And lastly,
what is the means by which men are converted? So let's look
at these together tonight and pray that God the Spirit will
give us What is conversion? I'm going to answer this by telling
you what it's not. John Gill does a good job of that a lot,
and I'm not saying I'm anything like that, but I want to tell
you what it's not to show you what it is. First of all, it
is not a mere profession. Being converted, if you say,
well, I'm converted, that doesn't mean you're converted. A lot
of people say, I'm converted, and they're not. It's not a mere
profession. That's not conversion. To be
a Christian is more than just confessing and taking the name
of a Christian. It's not making a decision to
accept Jesus, that's not conversion. Nor is it having some religious
experience, that's not conversion. To be converted is not by the
power of man's will, nor the work of the flesh, but it is
simply this, it is a work of God. It's the work of God. Our Lord
in preaching of the parable of the sower, you remember this,
there were four types of hearers. When the gospel seed is cast,
there are four types of hearers. One is easily determined. It's
the hard ground hearer, the one where the seed just bounces off. People come in, they hear it,
and they go away the same that they came in. No effect. There
are two others that are very deceptive, and these are the
stony ground hearers and the thorny ground hearers. You remember
the stony ground hearers, they receive the Word with joy, the
Scripture says. They make a profession to believe. And they spring up pretty quickly.
But the Scripture says, by and by, when the sun comes out, By
and by, when they are offended, Scripture says they wither, they
die. These are people who make a profession
of faith, and listen, that may mean a week, that may mean a
month, that may mean 10 years, it may mean 20 years. They may
have a profession for 20 years. Little by little, persecution
after persecution, trouble after trouble, what withers? Faith
begins to wither. You see, with the believer, persecution
increases faith. But those stony ground hearers,
by and by, they're offended at this, they're offended at that.
They want to do this, and God says no, and they're upset, and
they just, by and by, they're more and more offended, and pretty
soon they just throw off the whole thing. That's a stony ground
here. That's one that didn't have much
earth. Didn't have much depth. The second one is even worse.
It's the thorny ground here. The one that the world comes
in. They grow up and they're almost
a full plant. They have all the leaves on them.
You look at them and you look at a believer from a distance,
you can't tell the part. What's the difference? The things
of the world, the thorns of the world come in and choke the Word
out. They hear it, they hear it, but
they don't believe it. They don't trust it. They cling
to their sin. They cling to the world, and
the Word is choked. It's choked out. It has no place. And what's the result of that?
No fruit. No fruit. There's no love for Christ. There's
no love for the brethren. There's no love for the Word.
There's no faith in Christ. There's only false professions,
words, and slogans, and just, you know, you can hear it when
people just, they just say, you know, they make these quick little
sayings, you know, they just, there's no depth to them. They
don't really mean it. That's someone who's had the
world choke the Word. These men have a form of godliness,
but deny the power thereof, the Scripture says. In Titus chapter 1 it says, they
profess that they know God, but in works, what do they do? They
deny Him. See, their works and their their
profession do not match. But those who have been prepared
of the Holy Spirit, those who have been plowed by the Spirit
of God, those who have been broken by their sin, feel their need
of Christ, listen, constantly. Don't you always feel your need
of Christ? If you're a believer in Christ,
you constantly are plowed up, you don't have anything in yourself. You feel your need of Him. We
receive Him as freely as the open soil receives the seed.
That's how we receive Christ. And what? The Scripture says
that we have life. We have fruit. What is the fruit? Do you not love Him? Do you love Christ? Is that a question? Peter was hurt by that question,
wasn't he? Lovest thou me more than thee? You know. You put it there. You know I love you. Do you believe me? Yes. Yes, I believe. Trust. That's the fruit of conversion.
That's not a mere profession. Listen, true conversion is not
just baptism. Some people believe that baptism
is conversion. Well, I was baptized. Well, that doesn't mean you were
converted. Conversion does not have anything
to do with baptism. The waters of baptism cannot
by any means cleanse you of your sin. To be converted is to be regenerated,
to be quickened to life. It is to be born again of the
Spirit of God, which does not happened by baptism. We have
many people in Scripture who were baptized and lost. Isn't
that correct? Simon Magnus, he was baptized,
lost. Ananias, Sapphira, baptized,
but lost. Judas, baptized, but lost. Baptism is not conversion. You look yonder at a man, he's
been baptized in his youth, and what? Now he's a drunkard. Now he's a wicked man. Now he's
an adulterer. Now he's a fornicator. Now he's
a homosexual. Now he's gone away from the gospel.
What did his baptism do for him? Not a thing. It did nothing.
So baptism is not conversion. We don't believe anything like
that. Scripture says, No you not, that the unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Don't you know that? Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God." Now, anybody misinterpret that? You want to read into that anything?
That's plain language, isn't it? And listen, such were some
of you. What's the difference? But you
were washed. It didn't say you become a more
moral person. That's not what it said. What's
the difference? The difference is not you didn't become moral.
What was the difference? You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now, believers,
we still commit these sins. In our text, is that not why
David's confessing? Because he did commit murder?
Because he did commit adultery? Believers can and do do these
things. There's no doubt. But what's
our hope? My hope is this, I've been washed. My hope is this, that I've been
sanctified, that I've been justified by Christ. And so we know this,
that it's not baptism, and it's not morality. It's not morality. That's not conversion. That's
not proof of conversion. The Pharisee said, I thank God
that I'm not like this publican. I fast twice in the week. I pay
tithes of all I have. You see, nobody denied that he
did those things. Were those things good? Yeah.
There's nothing wrong with what he did. What was wrong with it
was he thought that was conversion. Conversion is not just morality.
And conversion is not outward obedience to the law of Moses.
That is not conversion. That is not conversion. Again,
these people like the Pharisees have a form of godliness, but
those who claim that obedience to the law has any measure of
their standing before God, they deny the power of the blood of
Christ. They're saying Christ's blood
is good, but it's not sufficient. So then what is conversion? What
is it? Conversion, friends, is simply
this, it is a work of the Holy Spirit. Conversion is the work of the
Holy Spirit. In 2 Thessalonians, it is called
sanctification of the Holy Spirit. In Titus, it is called the renewing
of the Holy Ghost. In John, it is called the new
birth, being born again of the Spirit of God. That is conversion. So if you're to ask, am I converted?
I'm not asking if you made a profession. I'm not asking if you've been
baptized. I'm not asking if you've turned your life over and been
a moral person. What I'm asking is this. Have
you been born again of the Spirit of God? That's conversion. That's
the beginning of conversion. Without this, there is no conversion.
You must be born again, Jesus said. That's not an option. You must be born again. We by nature cannot turn to Christ. Why? Because we are dead. Can
a dead man convert? Cannot. Conversion is with man
an impossibility. Jesus said this, no man can come to Me. Again, the simplicity
of those words are unmistakable. What does he mean by can? He
has no ability. No man has any ability to come
to Me except, what? The Father draw him. Except the Father raise him from
the dead, he cannot come. Except he has life. So conversion
is a work of the Spirit. And the cause of any conversion
of the sinner grace if you are ever converted it
is not because of what you've done this is this is the whole of
religion do this and be converted no it is the work of God that
he gives you life so that you may be converted and it is by
grace Titus 3 in verse 5 says not by works of righteousness
which we have done but according to his mercy You see, to have
mercy, you must have absence of merit. In order for somebody to have
mercy given to them, they must have absence of merit, otherwise
it's not mercy. Why did He save us? By mercy.
By mercy, He saved us. And what's the experience? By
the washing of regeneration. There's the experience. And renewing
of the Holy Ghost. So then, what is conversion? It's a work of God. It's a work
of God on the soul and it's by the grace of God. Why is it necessary? Because no man can come to Christ
without that. No man can come to Christ, no
man can be converted. Except God do it. Now, why is
it necessary? Here's the beginning of true
conversion, is that we must see, first of all, the necessity of
it. If you never see the necessity
of conversion, you'll never be converted. The first thing that
God gives a sinner when He converts him is knowledge of his need
of conversion, his need of turning. We must see the exceeding sinfulness
of our own nature. We must see the ruin of our nature. I'll tell you this. I know many
people who are convinced of total depravity. They're convinced
that they are totally depraved. And you know what? They're content
with just knowing they're depraved. Without coming, without any turning
to Christ. They believe that that's a sign
they're saved. Well, that's part of it. Because I'll tell you
this, when a man really sees his depravity, what does he do? He looks up. He looks and sees
that God is just. God is holy. God is righteous. This man must be exposed and
stripped of all self-righteousness to please God. Only then will
he turn to Christ. Only then. So conversion is necessarily
a work of God. And this conversion must, of
necessity, expose the sinner to be helpless, so that he should
turn and plead to God for mercy. And where is this mercy found?
Where is this grace found? When we are converted, when we
are turned, what do we turn to? If I'm going this way and I turn,
I've got to turn from this to somewhere else. Where does the
sinner turn? He's looking, he sees his sin
is not, his works are not enough. He sees he has nothing to please
God. Where does he turn to do that, to find that? One place,
one person, Jesus Christ. That's it. When we are converted,
we are converted from ourself to Christ. To Christ. Christ Jesus. I want you to know
this, that all the blessings of God are in Christ Jesus. All the blessings of God are
yea and amen in Christ. That's it. They're all in Him.
Everything is in Christ. It is only in the Son of God
that God... That's the only place God put
His elect, isn't it? In Christ. Now look, sinner, to the Son
of God. For God has sent him to be the
only representative, the only surety and high priest for his
elect. When Christ came into the world,
he said this, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. What
are you saying? All the Father gave me shall
be converted. They'll come to me. And when
they come to me, what am I going to do? I'm in no way going to
cast them out. Why? This is the will of him
that sent me. That I should lose nothing. but raised them up again at the
last day. This is the promise of Christ. And he will lose nothing because
he obtained righteousness for them. He obtained their redemption
for them. He suffered the wrath of God
for their sins. Peter says this, Christ also
hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God. That's what he did. He suffered
once. And because of his successful redemption, God has set him,
set him upon the throne of heaven. So now Jesus, having obtained
our salvation, having been seated on the throne
of God, what is he doing now? He is converting sinners. That's what he's doing. Remember
his high priestly prayer. He said this, Father, glorify Thy Son as Thy
Son has glorified Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all
flesh. What purpose? That He should give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given Him. And what's this eternal
life? That they may know Thee, the
only true God in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified
Thee on the earth. I have finished the work Thou
gave me to do. And so then I'll ask you right
now, do you need conversion? Do you need salvation, not of
works, but of grace? Not of man's power, but of God's? Not of your own righteousness,
but of the blood and righteousness of Christ? Then listen. Turn
to Christ. Turn to Christ. Look by faith to Christ. As Peter
preached to sinners, repent. And be what? Converted. You see, repentance and conversion
are together. You repent, you turn, and you
are what? Converted. You are convinced. You believe on Christ. Why? That your sins may be blotted
out. Repent. A lot of things about
repentance. People say, we'll repent from
this sin and that sin. No, repent from all sin. Wherever
you find it, turn from it. You find it anywhere in you,
turn from it. Where do you turn? Turn to Christ. Turn to Christ. Why? He's the
only one blotted out. He's the only one. Turn to Christ. See the conversion The new birth,
the regeneration of the Holy Ghost is by the grace of God. And listen, it's necessary. Jesus
says, except you be converted and become His little children,
you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, what
is the third thing? What are the marks of conversion?
What are the marks? See, the effect of God's conversion
is this, humility and faith. I just read it to you. Go over
there and look at it in Matthew chapter 18. Look at it with me.
See if this is not the mark our Lord sets on it. And look at
verse 3. He says, Verily, truly, I say
unto you, except you be converted, except you believe on Me, except
you repent from your sin and turn to Me, believe on Me, And
what's going to happen when someone is converted? They become as
little children. Little children. True conversion is nothing less
than absolute surrender. Total dependence upon the person
and work of Christ in every part of your life, physical and spiritual.
Surrender. Once a sinner is exposed, we
quickly find ourselves, our old refuges, not sufficient. Isn't that what you found? Your
refuge of religion, your refuge that you had, whatever it was,
when you were converted, you found out it was no good. And you went to the only sure
refuge, Jesus Christ. And you found Him what? That refuge is a sure foundation. It is then Our souls, we hear of the refuge
of Christ, the sure foundation for our souls, we flee to Christ
by faith, and what do we do? We constantly cling to Him, forsake
all our other refuges, we forsake the world for Him. We say, on
Christ the solid rock I stand, everything else is sinking sand. And what do we do? We, like a
child, trust Christ. You take a child who's clinging
to his mother's chest. He does not need any human wisdom
to do that. Is that right? Did anybody reason
with that child to get him to hold on to his mama? You don't have to reason with
it. He knows this. That's mama. That's safety. He knows it. You don't have to
reason with it. We don't need human reasoning to cling to Christ.
We know this, that's safety. That's safety. And he does so,
a child does this without fear or enticement. The child loves
his mother no matter the circumstance. And so it is with true converts.
We don't need to be tricked to believe. And that's what religion
does. They trick people into believing. They try to trick them. They
offer them rewards. You know what? I don't need your
rewards. Christ in Himself is the reward. I believe on Him. We love Him. We are drawn to Him. We are saved
by Him. We are redeemed by Him. We are
called by Him. We are made accepted by Him.
His Word is the source of our strength and our nourishment.
We love the brethren. Why? Because He loved us. That's why. And so we cling to Him how? As
little children. In humility and faith. As a child
is totally dependent upon his parent for everything, so is
the converted, totally dependent on Christ for everything. Are
you converted? Do you trust Christ in simple,
singular faith? And if you don't, why not? Why
not? Why will you not trust Him? Repent
now and be converted! Forsake all your past experiences. You know what's hard for religious
men to do? Why Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through
an eye of a needle than a rich man. Why? Because he's clinging
to those things. Somebody that's rich in religion,
it's impossible for them to go to it because they don't want
to let it go. You've got to forsake your
past experiences, past conversions, and do this. Cling now. I don't
know if I'm converted. Well, cling now. Convert now. Believe now. Why? Because now is all that matters. See your need. Behold your sin. There's no merit in your works.
Turn to Christ. There's no such thing as partial
conversion. You got that? There is no such
thing as partial conversion. You are either converted or you're
not. You are either completely sold
out to Christ or you're not. No partial conversion. No partial
salvation. There's no part you and part
him. It's either all him or all you. To be converted is what? All
him. All Him. Are you converted? Don't you see the necessity of
it? Now I'm going to show you something else. The misery of
unconversion. The unconverted believe it's
misery to be converted. They do. They believe you live
the most miserable life. Well, man, you can't do anything.
Oh, yes, I can. I can believe on Christ, can
you? I can love Christ, can you? No, I'm free and you're chained.
But the world seems to just, I'm free, I can do what I please. Let me read you something about
that. What God says about all the things of this world, He
said, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Education, vanity. Pleasure of sin. Vanity. Laughter. Labor. Drink. Success. Riches. Everyone chasing these things
are chasing the wind. You know what they never get?
They never catch it. They're always pursuing it and never
catching it. Pleasure is an elusive thing.
You think you got it, and you got to do it again. Why? Because
it doesn't stick around. Riches. Scripture says they take
wings and fly away. Education. It's good to have
an education. But you know what? What good
is education when you're dead? Come on. That's where we're all going.
The grave. This is why everything in the
world is vanity. What does it profit a man then
if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? Don't
you see the misery of the unconverted is that they never get what they
want, and in the end, they get nothing. The judgment of God, the wrath
of God, that's what they receive. Friends, this world is cruel.
Have you not found that out? This world is cruel. And all
that awaits us after this world is nothing but death and judgment,
the unconverted. Sin promises happiness but only
brings misery. Listen to what the psalmist said,
he said, the words of his mouth, the wicked, are iniquity and
deceit. He hath left off to be wise and
to do good. He diviseth mischief upon his
bed. He setteth himself in a way that
is not good. He abhorreth not evil. That's what a lost man does.
That's the condition of the unconverted. But I'll tell you something about
the converted. We learn to hate evil. I said
we learn to. I tell you what, I hate evil
more now than I did before. Evil in myself, evil in the world,
and evil in others. I hate evil. You know why? I see what it does. It destroys. It kills. Psalm 97 verse 10 says, You that
love the Lord, listen, hate evil. Are you converted? What do you
hate? I hate my sin. I hate my nature. But I love Him. I love Him. What then is the means of conversion?
David said this. Go back to your text. David said
this. Then, when you restore the joy of my salvation, what
am I going to do? I'm going to preach the gospel,
teach transgressors thy ways. Then sinners will be converted. So the conversion of sinners
is how? By teaching transgressors thy ways. What is that? That
is preaching the gospel. So I've shown you true conversion.
I've declared to you it's by grace and the power of God. It's
to turn from self to Christ. It is to believe on Christ alone.
I've testified of your need of it. You need to be converted.
I have shown you that conversion has marks, faith and love for
Christ. And now I tell you that God's
means of conversion is simply this, preaching the gospel. Telling
you what I've already told you. except you be converted and become
his little children, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven." The gospel preaching is the means that God has chosen
by which sinners are converted. Now I'll tell you what, the gospel
is simple, it's Christ. It's Christ. It's Jesus Christ
and Him crucified as the only hope for sinners. Are you convinced
of that? Paul said, I'm persuaded. Are
you persuaded of that? Being persuaded of that is conversion.
Being committed to that is conversion. Trusting Christ alone is conversion. I'll tell you this, conversion
has an effect. What do we do? We teach sinners
by way. That's what we do. We preach
the gospel to others. Why? We love the gospel. We love
Christ. We're converted. I'm so thankful
for conversion, aren't you? If he had not converted me, I
would have never been converted. If he hadn't saved me, I would
have never been saved. I'll tell you this, if he hadn't
kept me, I wouldn't keep myself. Thank God for his converting
grace and power. May God, by grace, convert sinners
through this message. Gracious Father. Gracious Father. Be merciful. Comfort those that you have converted. Convert those who have not yet
been converted. And may it all be for the glory
of Christ.