Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. Our text will be found in verse
19. Acts chapter 3 and verse 19. The Apostle Peter preaching by the
Holy Spirit says, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins
may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come
from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ,
which was before preached unto you." The title of the message
this evening is simply, Conversion. What is conversion? The Apostle says, Repent therefore
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. I want to speak to us tonight
of this very important subject of conversion. Without conversion,
there is no forgiveness of sins, except a man be converted. Except he repent and be converted. So, if a man is not converted,
his sins are not blotted out. He has no hope of his sins being
blotted out except he be converted. Now, this message occurred on
the occasion where Peter and John were in the temple, worshiping,
and they had come to that gate called Beautiful. They found
that lame man who had been there all of his life, and he was above
40 years old. He had been there for over 40
years, begging. And the Lord, by the Holy Spirit,
gave them the power to heal this man. And they did. And this man
came in walking and leaping and praising God. It was a notable
miracle. But this miracle... as all miracles
in Scripture, was given for the preaching of the Gospel, for
an entrance into the Gospel message, to show their authority, to show
that Christ had risen from the dead. He gave His apostles the
authority of powers of healing and so forth. But it was not
for any other reason but to preach the Gospel. And so they begin,
Peter preaches the gospel and testifies to them of the authority. And look at this in verse Verse 12, And when Peter saw
it, he answered the people, he said, You men of Israel, why
marvel you at this? Why look you so earnestly on
us, as though by our own power or holiness we made this man
to walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son
Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied Him in the presence
of Pilate, when He was determined to let him go. But you denied
the Holy One, the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto
you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from
the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And His name through faith in
His name hath made this man strong, whom you see and know, yea, faith
which is by Him hath given Him. this perfect soundness in the
presence of you all." And Peter says, this is why this is happening
so that you should see that Christ is the authority, that Christ
is risen from the dead and given us such authority as this man
you see. And so he preaches to them and
he starts to tell them, he says, you, now brethren, I want that
you through ignorance did it. as did your rulers." He's declaring
to them their own depravity of nature. He's declaring unto them
their ignorance and their deadness and trespasses and sins. That
this Messiah that they had longed for, that they had supposedly
been desiring, had suddenly come to His temple. And what did they
do? They crucified Him. They denied Him. And Peter says
in verse 18, he says, "...but those things which God before
hath showed by the mouth of His prophets that Christ should suffer,
He hath so fulfilled." He's telling them that this was always God's
purpose. This was always God's purpose
that from the beginning God declared it. The seed of the woman shall
crush the head of the serpent. How? By his bruising of his heel. And now Christ having suffered,
now that he was stricken, smitten, afflicted of God, now that God
has seen the travail of his soul and was satisfied. God raised
Him from the dead. God seated Christ on His throne
and given Him power. And Peter, in love for his brethren,
in love for the souls of men, declares this, repent you therefore. Because God had purposed the
death of Jesus Christ, because God had purposed salvation should
come by Him alone. Though you were ignorant, though
you were depraved, though you were dead in sins, repent ye,
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. Now, is there
any question to whom Peter was preaching? Is there any question? He was preaching to sinners.
Who else needs their sins blotted out but sinners? Who else needs
to repent and be converted but sinners? The gospel is always
to be preached to sinners. And if you that have already
repented, you that are converted, am I not preaching to sinners?
Yes, we readily confess it. We readily need to hear the Gospel
again. It is to sinners, to those in
need of sins being blotted out. These people were sinners. Matter
of fact, they had just crucified Christ. This had not taken place
fifty days hence. They had already, from this point,
yelled, crucify Him, crucify Him. They were with the crowd
and screaming out with all vengeance and hatred toward Christ. They
said, nail Him to the cross. We would have not this man to
rule over me. They were saying, crucify Him.
And I tell you, this is the same mindset of the natural man. The natural man has a mind that
is at enmity against God. For the natural mind, the carnal
mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. Nobody knows that any better
than the converted. We understand that clearly. That
this natural man is at enmity against God. And those who will not believe
on Christ, those who will not repent, do you not realize you
are guilty of the same mind as these people who yelled crucify
Him? Those who are in religion, those
who are trying to mix their works with Christ, are just as vile
as these people who shouted for His death. Oh, that sinners would repent
and be converted. This is the reason, and I'll
show this in a minute, for preaching. This is the purpose. that men
should repent and be converted. Why? That their sins may be blotted
out. Is there any other greater thing
that you need than your sins to be blotted out? There is no greater need for
man. And listen, I preach not to moral men, to good men, not
to religious men, but to sinners. Because this is to whom the gospel
is always directed. For this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save, who? Sinners! Of whom Paul the apostle said,
I am chief. Sinners. So this gospel of repentance
and conversion is directed to sinners. Repent and be converted. For except you repent, except
you turn from self and sin and turn to Christ by faith, you
will die in your sins. That is a fact. This is not debatable. It's just the way God made it,
it is. If you will not repent, you will die in your sins. And listen, tonight, you that
have repented, you that have turned and do believe, you who
are converted, I know this, you and I both still
have many doubts and fears concerning our conversion. And if you don't
now, just wait a minute, just wait, it'll come. Why? Because we still have this body
of death hanging on us. This body of sin that weighs
us down so heavy. And so often we fear that we
have not been converted. We who are converted are most
likely to fear we're not converted. And so then this message Though
for sinners who have not been converted, this message is also
for you who have been converted that you should know your conversion. That you should know it. I speak to the lost and I plead
with the lost, but I also preach this gospel that is not only
to the lost but to the saved for our comfort who are converted. And you, may the Holy Spirit,
I pray, speak to your spirit. Isn't that the way it works?
That's what the Apostle said. He said, if you don't have the
Spirit of Christ, you're none of His. And he said, the Spirit
of God testifies with our spirit that we are the sons of God. And if sons and heirs, join heirs
with Christ. And how does he testify? Except
by the gospel of faith in Christ. Gospel of Jesus Christ. So first
of all, I want to show us what conversion is not. What conversion is not. Then
I'm going to show you what conversion is. And then I'm going to show you
some aspects of conversion. So, first of all, what is conversion? What conversion is not? First of all, conversion is not
found in mere profession. Mere profession. It's not found in a mere decision
made or determination. of the flesh. That's not conversion. Anyone can make a conversion
of that sort. Many have. Matter of fact, the
Catholic Church for many years had went to other countries by
sword demanding conversion. And so they would say, okay,
well don't kill me, I'll convert to Christianity. That did not
make a person a Christian. And neither does walking down
an aisle making a profession of faith with tears and all sorts
of things. I've seen it a hundred times.
I've done it myself. That's not conversion. Jesus
said this, Not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, who will? But he that doeth
the will of my Father. What is the will of the Father?
The will of the Father is that Christ should come and redeem
His people, and He said, All that the Father giveth Me. This
is the will of Him that sent Me. All that He hath given Me
should come to Me. So what's the will of the Father?
That all His people should believe on Jesus Christ. That they should
repent and be converted. And I'll tell you, some of these
deceived souls in our day will appear before Christ expecting
to be accepted. And that day the Lord will divide
His sheep from the goats. He will divide them from His
sheep on His right hand and His goats on His left hand. And He'll
say to those that are not His, Depart from Me, you that work
iniquity. I never knew you. And they'll
say, Lord, didn't we do this? Didn't we do that? Didn't we
preach in Your name? Cast out devils? Didn't we do
a whole bunch? He said, You did nothing but
iniquity. What was the problem? They mixed
their works with His. That's not conversion. Conversion
is no mere decision. You remember in John 8, I preached
this on Sunday, John 8, the Lord Jesus, when many believed on
Him, John 8, chapter 8 and verse 30, He said, many believed on
Him. But by the end of the chapter, what were they doing? They were
about to kill Him. So they only made a profession,
that's not conversion. Second of all, conversion is
not in the ordinances of the church. Conversion is not by
baptism or the Lord's Supper. Now, I know that many of you
here, you've heard the gospel, and I know you believe the gospel.
You don't expect that people actually believe that, but they
do. Many do. Many believe that actually the
waters of baptism save people. They believe that's conversion.
That when a man is put under the water that he is miraculously
healed. But think about this. Circumcision,
sacrifices, all of the ordinances of the law before in the Old
Covenant, we know this, they had no power to save anyone. And listen, neither do the New
Testament ordinances. They are only pictures. Those
Old Testament were types and shadows and pictures of the coming
Christ. But now we have baptism in the
Lord's Supper and what are they but pictures. They're pictures
of how Christ saves sinners, that's all. Pictures of His death,
His burial and His resurrection. They're not conversion. So you
can be baptized a hundred times, it'll never do you any good.
Mere knowledge and education is not conversion. This is one
that confuses many. Some people come and they say,
well, I've come to the doctrines of grace. Well, you've come to
the wrong place. What is that? You've converted
from one doctrine to the other. No! Repent and be converted is
to come to Christ, to come to the person of Jesus Christ. It's not coming to a system of
theology. It's coming to a person. That's
what it is to be converted. It's not changing doctrine. Most people today who even believe
in Calvinism or believe the doctrines of grace, which are true. The
doctrines of grace are true. But listen, the doctrines were
never meant, they were meant to adorn the person of Christ. People preach the doctrines of
grace as though grace is something other than God's grace. Grace,
they say grace saves. No, it's God's grace that saves.
God's grace. So that's not conversion. It's not coming to a creed or
denomination. It's not doing a ceremony. In
other words, listen, conversion is not superficial. All of those
things are superficial. All of those things pertain only
to outward obediences, outward works. That's not conversion. It's not the change of habits
or making a profession or religious deeds. But rather, conversion
is a resurrection. Conversion is a resurrection.
It is being born of God. Go to John chapter 1. John chapter
1. See conversion here. See conversion is a new birth.
In John chapter 1 and verse 12, but as many as received him. Isn't that faith? Isn't that
repentance? What Peter is talking about.
Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Receive
Christ. What is this? Receive Him. They received Him and to them
gave He the power or the right or the privilege to become the
sons of God. Even to them that believe on
His name. Now what's the cause of this? which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man." How were they born? They were born of the will of
God. That's how they were able to receive. That's how they were
converted. By the supernatural work of God. So conversion, friend, is a supernatural
work. It is not a superficial thing. It is a supernatural thing. So then, we see now conversion
is not a mere outward profession, but rather something spiritual. Now I want us to see the nature
of conversion. The nature of conversion then is not carnal,
but spiritual. And you hath He quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. This comes to sinners. This new
birth comes to sinners by the free will of God. By the free
will of God. You want to talk about free will.
God is the only one who's got free will. Free! Free, absolute, sovereign will. That's who has free will is God. Not by man's will nor by the
will of other men, but by the will of God they are born again. In John chapter 3, our Lord Jesus
makes it plain that nobody can see the kingdom of God except
they be born again. And he's talking about faith.
No one should see. Remember, man by nature is blind,
and he cannot see Christ, he cannot know Christ, except he
be born again. And in verse 5, Jesus said, I
say, verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of
water, even of the Spirit, He cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit. Marvel not,
I said unto thee, you must be born again. The wind bloweth
where it listeth. You can hear the sound thereof,
but you can't tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit of God. Man, who's going to be born again?
That's God's business. I have no clue. The Spirit moves
where He wills and the Spirit gives life to whom He wills.
This is a sovereign will. And so then to be converted is
to be born again. Are you troubled about your sins? Do you need righteousness you
can't provide? Do you need an atonement you
can't make? Repent and be converted. Therefore I preach, and I pray
that the Holy Spirit would effectually and powerfully raise the dead. This is my heart every time I
preach. That God would raise the dead. That He would quicken His people. And listen, I know this. That
everyone the Spirit calls will come. Without a doubt. Everyone the Spirit of God quickens
to life, they will live. You remember when Lazarus was
in the tomb and Christ said, Lazarus, come forth. Do you suppose
there was any part that Lazarus could have, I don't feel like
coming out. No. Why? Because he's the Son
of God. And when God calls a man to life,
he lives. He lives. And everyone the Spirit calls
will repent and they will be converted. This is the assurance, promise
of God, promise of God. And everyone who's converted, we have Paul's experience. We
count everything done. that we may win Christ. That's
what it is to be converted. To count all your righteousnesses,
all your goodness as filthy rags and turn from it to Christ. He said, I desire not to be found
in my own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ.
That's repentance. That's conversion. And so then
we see that this nature of conversion is spiritual. It's something
God must do for the sinner. Now then, I want you to see that
this thing that God does, this salvation of God, that it is
both external and internal. This conversion. This conversion
of God is something done outside of the man. It is something done
by God outside of us. And then it is a work of God
done in us. So it's both. First of all, it's
external. The salvation of every sinner
is purposed of God. Purchased of Christ. That's external. You see, that's done outside
of us. Where were you when God purposed
salvation? Where were you when Christ lived
and provided righteousness and died as an atonement for sin? We were nowhere to be found.
This was done completely outside of us. And then, God does something
in those He purposes to save. He does something inside of us.
And this is the application of that work. The application. So
salvation then, listen, this is important. Salvation then
is completely, 100% the work of God. That's it. Salvation
is completely, 100% the work of God. I'm paraphrasing this, but John
Warburton, an old man, an old preacher of the gospel long ago,
he said in his old age, he said, the older I get, the more I feel
the burden of this old man, and I know more now that if salvation
depended one hair's breadth on me, I should be lost forever. And that's exactly how it is
with me. The older I get, the more I grow in the grace and
knowledge of Christ, the more I understand that if this depends
on me in one degree, I'm lost. I have no hope. Salvation depends
totally upon the work of God. Paul said in Titus, he said that
this salvation is not by works of righteousness which we have
done, But according to His mercy, He saved us. And this salvation is external
and internal. Paul mentions the internal first.
"...by the washing and regeneration of the Holy Ghost, which He shed
abroad in us abundantly." That's the work in us. Through, here's
the external work, Jesus Christ. Our Savior, that being justified
by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. Go over to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. Look at chapter 1 and verse 9. And I want you to notice the
order of this. This order is altogether important. Paul said,
who? He's talking about God. He said,
God hath saved us and called us. Which was first? He saved us and then He called
us. External and then internal work
of God in conversion. He saved us externally and then
He calls us internally. So what is this external? It
is first of all the election of the Father. Consider this,
you who are converted, you who believe on Christ, that your
salvation was purposed of God, decreed of God. whose will cannot
be thwarted, whose purposes shall stand, and who will do all His
pleasure, said, I will save you. I will choose this one and this
one according to My own sovereign will. And He did that. He purposed
to save some. And these He purposed to save,
He externally, outside of themselves, gave them to His Son. And His
Son, externally, outside of themselves, agreed to be their Savior. He
came and He obtained eternal righteousness and redemption
for us. It's altogether important that
Christ, as a representative man, came and honored the law of God. The law of God is good. There
is nothing wrong with the law of God. Matter of fact, if you
do not have perfect righteousness, you cannot enter the kingdom
of heaven. Therefore, Christ for us obtained
it. I like that word obtained. He
obtained it. He got it. He got it. I believe it's Daniel chapter 9. In verse 24, 70 weeks are determined
upon thy people, upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression,
make an end of sin, make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision of prophecy,
to anoint the Most Holy. This is the purpose of God, that
Christ obtained salvation for us. And Hebrews chapter 9, I
love this, He entered in not with the blood of bulls and goats,
but with His own blood into the presence of God for His people,
and He obtained eternal redemption. He got it. It's the same thing
John said when he saw the Lamb slain, and he took the book from
the hand of God. Why? He earned it. He earned
it. If there's anyone that merited
salvation, it was Christ. And He merited it on the behalf
of His people. Outside of us. Outside of us. So what do you got to do with
that? What do you have to do with righteousness? What do you have to do with it? What do you have to do for redemption? Anything? Not a thing. Done. It's been done. It's been done
for thousands of years. It's been done. This is something outside of
us. He saved us. And as he accomplished this,
God raised him from the dead, set him on the right hand, and
now He has sent His Holy Spirit to do what? To work this salvation
that He has obtained in you. In you. See then the importance of our
text. The importance of our text, which
proves the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to all types of men. To all men, not without exception,
but without distinction. Isn't that good news? You don't
have to be a certain race. You don't have to be a certain
people. Matter of fact, you don't have
to be good. And that's good because none
of us are good. Scripture said there's none good. So that's
good. So this is for all types of people. He sent His Spirit
to call them, to save them. God purposed to save Christ,
accomplish salvation, and now the Spirit calls His people to
salvation. And all He calls come. This is good. There's no questionability about
this gospel. It's not questionable. It's something
God will do. Something God will do. His purpose
to do. And when He calls a man, there's
nothing that a man can do but come. And so in conversion, the result
is what? Salvation. Salvation. And what instrument does God
use in calling? You're looking at it. He uses a man who is himself
been converted. And he calls other men to conversion. This is the means God's chosen.
Very personal. He doesn't take an epitaph of
gold, nail it to a wall, and tell men to go look at it. No,
that's cold, it's indifferent. God sends a man who has himself
been converted, who understands what it is to be a sinner and
need a Savior. And so I preach to other sinners
who themselves too need a Savior. And what do we preach? We preach
the gospel of Christ, and we only preach the gospel of Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the
apostle said that If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And listen, all things are of
God. So what is that all things become new? That's of God. All my salvation is of God. who hath reconciled us to Himself
by Jesus Christ, and," listen, "...hath given us the ministry
of reconciliation." Who? Those who have made new creatures
in Christ. Those who themselves have been
converted. He gives us the ministry of reconciliation. "...to which
God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing
their trespasses to them." And having committed unto us the
word of reconciliation, we now therefore are ambassadors for
Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's
stead, be you reconciled. Why? It's finished. Be reconciled! It's finished. Reconciliation's already been
made. Why would you not be reconciled? If you will not be reconciled,
it is because of your own rebellious heart, and you yourself are to
blame. If no one will be reconciled,
it is them to blame, because Christ, we preach Christ. Therefore we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus crucified and Christ glorified. Tonight I point
you to Christ. each and every one of you, and say, repent and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out. Now, who has need of such
a thing? Only those who come to Christ
have need of such a thing. And this reconciliation, or this
conversion, I want you to see this, that it encompasses the
whole man. When God comes in power, in demonstration
of His Spirit, in conversion, the whole man is changed. What I mean by whole man, the
Puritans used to say that a man, a whole man, consisted of the
mind, the will, and the heart. And when a man is converted,
all of these change. All of these change. First of
all, the mind. Before our conversion, our mind
is single. It only has one thing on it. Self. Self-passions, self-love, self-righteousness. That's all we have. The carnal
mind hates God. But when a man is converted,
he is given a new mind. A new mind. A change of mind. Do you have a change of mind?
What do you change? I have changed from anything
but loathing myself. Now I have a mindset that loathes
self. that sees all I do is sin. All I can do is sin. I cannot not sin. I sin in everything
I do. Therefore, by myself, in my own
righteousness, I cannot please God. Therefore, I set my mind
to Christ, seeing He's accomplished everything. I reject any self-righteousness
and turn only to Christ in my mind. Secondly, the will is changed. Scripture says, Jesus said, no
man can come to me except the Father which sent me to draw
him. Can you come? Well, come. If you can, come. And everyone
who comes, listen, you had a change of will. What happened? Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power." See, faith in Christ, willing to receive
Christ, is not a mere decision of the flesh. It is a rebirth. It is a new birth. It is a new
nature by which we now are willing to serve and believe and trust
only in Jesus Christ. And thirdly, the heart is changed. And listen, this is the core.
Because everything in the mind and the will come from the heart.
The heart. See, man doesn't have a will
problem or a mind problem. He's really got a heart problem.
And the mind and the will always follow what? They follow the
heart. Out of the heart proceed evil
what? Faults, adulteries, murders. All of the will to sin comes
from the heart. And what does God do in conversion?
He gives us a new heart. A new love. And we love Christ. Whereas once we only loved self.
Now we love Christ. You see, there's a change. There's
a change. We believe on Christ. Who? Those
who repent and are converted believe Christ alone. We trust
Him alone. Now then, when you're changed,
what happens? Is everything well with you? I thought it would be. I thought that when I repented
and turned and my sins had been blotted out, surely the paths
would open up for me and God would provide all things beautiful
in this world for me that I would not want for anything or need
anything in this world. No. Matter of fact, you began
to suffer. You began to suffer. And what
do we long for, believer? You who are converted, you who
have your sins blotted out, what do you long for? Peter says,
That we long for the time of refreshing to come. We long for
Christ to come again. And the longer we live and the
more we grow, the more we hate this world and this flesh. That's the mind, the will, and
the heart of the converted. We look to Christ. and have no
confidence in the flesh. Are you converted? Are you converted? And listen
to what God says, I, even I, nobody else. Now, if your pastor
brought it out, your sins, you got big problems. Don't you? But God says, I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy sins. And I will remember your iniquities
no more. Isn't conversion great? It is. What you can't forget,
God will not remember. And when you suffer, believer,
you hold on to this. God is not punishing you for
your sins. He already did that in Christ. He is a loving Father, chastening
His children, keeping you safe. That's conversion. I thank God that He has given
me such grace to repent and be converted. What did God, He would
give you the same? Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.