We give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love, and
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and the sight of
God and our Father, knowing, brethren, beloved, your election
of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among
you for your sake. And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were ensembles to all that
believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also
in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so
that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you. and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait
for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even
Jesus Christ." These verses that I read to you, Paul talks about
these people turning and the effects of this turning. He said
there in verse 9, and how you turned to God from idols to serve
the living and true God. turned from stones, turned from
statues, turned from emblems, turned from altars, turned from
all these false idols to serve the true and living God. And
what we have here is this turning means a conversion. And I want
to talk about conversion tonight. We've been looking at how the
Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit's work in applying the redemption
of our Lord to us, to His elect. You know, he was the one who'd
done the work in regeneration. We're completely passive in that.
Completely passive in it. Sometimes, in fact, we're unconscious
of it until it takes place. Until it takes place. And then
when our union with Christ, being joined to Christ, being united
to Him, we're passive in that. We don't unite ourselves to Christ.
The Holy Ghost unites us to Christ. He puts us in the body of Christ.
But then there's the effectual calling. And you know this, God's
work in our hearts and in our minds, and what it does, it brings
life from the dead. From the dead. And now we're
going to look at our response. Our response to this calling.
Our response to regeneration. Our response to the action, what
I'm going to talk about is the action of a soul that's been
regenerated. His turning to God. His conversion. And I don't know
God's chronological order in saving sinners. I really don't.
I don't, but I do know the first thing that happens in this world,
as far as we're concerned, is regeneration. I know that. But
there has to be a life-giving power. But I know there must
be life, life, before there'll ever be hearing. There must be
life before there'll ever be seeing. There must be life before
there'll ever be feeling. And then where there's life,
there's movement, there's action, wherever there's a life. And
that's what I want to talk about when God gives us this life,
through this effectual calling, through this regeneration. There's
a turning, there's a conversion, there's a response that we have,
an action because of that life in us that we do. And it's a
turning, it's the new nature turning from its old manner of
life. to a new manner of life. Paul
called it a new creation. And our Lord Jesus said, except
you be converted and become as little children, you can't enter
the kingdom of God. Now look with me over here in
Ephesians 4, and I'll show you what I'm talking about. Ephesians
4, verse 7, verse 20. It's a turning from something.
It's a turning from our old life to a new life. It's turning from
ourself, turning from idols, turning from our own righteousness. It's an absolute, it's a conversion,
and it's a response, it's a turning to. We're passive in regeneration.
We're passive in our union, but when that life is given to us,
and when God effectually calls us, then there's a response to
us, there's a turning, us turning to, us going towards. Oh, and look what he said here
in verse 20. But she hath not so learned Christ,
talking about walking in the vanity of her mind. If so be
that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth
is in Jesus, now listen, that ye put off the former manner
of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful
lust, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that's the
new birth, be renewed. And that you put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Two distinct persons here, an old man and a new man. Walking
according to the corrupt, deceitful lust of your flesh, and now you're
walking in righteousness and true holiness. And you're renewed.
And these are things that we do with the turning of this old
life toward this new life. And just as a new birth is necessary,
so is conversion. You know, David said, I was shapen
in iniquity and I was conceived in sin, and the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them.
They're spiritually disheartened. You see, none of us were born
Christian. I know a lot of people say, born
in a Christian nation. There's no such animal as a Christian
nation. There's no such thing as a Christian
nation. We all, because we're not born
Christian, because we're born lost, we're born shaven in the
nick of death, we all must be converted. Converted. And the
Holy Spirit works this conversion in us by the effectual calling.
Let me give you an illustration of the effectual calling. When
God called Zacchaeus down out of that tree, called him by name,
said, come down out of that tree. Today I must abide at your house.
God's patience come to you. The first thing Zacchaeus said,
if I have Taking anything from man by false accusation, I will
restore it fourfold. You see, he's regenerated when
God called him, the effects of God. But because of that new
birth, he automatically said, I'm going to restore. What I've
done wrong, I'm going to turn from that man alive. I'm going
to restore it fourfold. And I'm turning to God. Christ
is coming to my house, and I don't want him to come in there with
a thief. And that's what he's talking about. And when we are
effectually called, Conversion is our response. In conversion
we act, we move, we call, and we respond. Now let me give you
some characteristics of conversion. And we need to know these characteristics.
And that's why I think that we need to be very clear, very definite
about the things we talk about about this. Because here's the
first thing I want you to know about the characteristics of
conversion. There's temporary conversions. The Bible's full
of temporary conversions. And you know, our Lord told and
warned against them. You know, there was a publican
or a scribe come to Him one day and says, Lord, I'm going to
follow you everywhere you go. I'm going to follow you everywhere
you go. He said, the foxes have holes, the birds of air have
nests, the Son of Man, have my word, lays eggs. He said, well,
I don't know if I'm going to follow you or not. Every time
somebody talked about following Christ, it was if Christ said,
no, no, no, if you're going to follow me, you can't do it that
way. Now, if you want to have a place where you can't lay your
head, you really want to follow me, that's what it's going to
take. And another fellow said, I'm going to follow you everywhere
you go. Our Lord said, but he said, first let me go bury my
father. He said, well, you let the dead
bury the dead. You let the world take care of
the world. You let people of the flesh take care of the things
of the flesh. You follow me. And so our Lord talked about
these various conversions. He warned against them. He talked
about a man building a house without counting the cost. He
talked about a man going to war without first setting down to
see if he's got enough people to fight a war. And let me show
you something over here in John 6 with me just a moment. You
know, everybody says that Christ says, you know, that He wants
to save everybody. But there's places here, you
look in the Scriptures, and it's as if He's saying, done his death-level
best to keep people from coming to him. Because when they come
to him, they come to him because they can't do anything else.
And if they can turn from him, and if he can put the power on
them, and tell them, and stress on them, their inability and
guilt right down to their flesh, then they'll turn and walk away
with him. But he knew that those that the Father gave him, they'd
follow him, and they must be drawn, and they would be drawn.
Now, this is after a multitude followed him because they were
eating the bread that he gave. He said this in verse 60. He
talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, just
like the fathers ate manna. And then, therefore, many of
his disciples, when they heard this, they said, this is a hard
saying. Who can hear it? Who can understand it? Who can
grasp it? And when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples
murmured, he said unto them, Does this offend you? Does this
cause you to stumble? What, and if it shall I see the
Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit
that quickens. Your flesh profits nothing. And
all of the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are, but there are some of you that believe not. For
Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not
who should betray. And what's this? And he said,
therefore said I unto you that no man, you could say, I'm going
to follow you. I'm going to give my life to
Jesus. I've decided I'm going to be committed. I'm going to
let Jesus in my life and I'm going to really make a change.
And that's why he said, I said unto you, no man can come unto
me except it were given unto him of my father. From that time,
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then they said, well, you're going to go away too? Well, we're
going to go. See, there are some that have
no place else to go. And that's when you'll come to
Christ. That's this conversion. If you can turn and keep from
coming to Christ, Christ will. That's why it says, count the
cost, count the cost. And oh, beloved, there's a story
around here talking about these temporary conversions. Oh, how
many have we seen over the years? That stony ground here. He heard
the word and all he received of that was with joy. Man, that's
the most wonderful thing. The doctrines of grace are the
most blessed thing I've ever heard. Never heard nothing like
it. Trouble comes up, a little persecution comes up, and next
thing you know, you don't see him anymore. Huh? Oh, beloved. Simon the sorcerer. He's another
teller. He sold all of his books. He
said, I'm going to sell all my sorcery books. I'm going to sell
my magicians books. And I'm going to follow these.
And he said, oh, but you're in the gall of bitterness. Lord,
you thought that the power and the gifts of God could be bought
with money. And so, you see, beloved, there's
many. The Scripture says about you,
no, they made shipwreck of the faith. Made shipwreck of it. And Paul told Timothy. He said,
shun them, shun them, shun them. Let me show you over here in
2 Timothy 2.17, just a moment. All these, there's temporary
conversion. See it all the time. Demas, Demas. He forsook us. Why did he forsake
you, Paul? One place you find him, he says,
when Demas comes and you come, you bring the books with you,
bring my coat with you, and especially the parchment. Next time you
hear Dema's name mentioned, Paul says, Dema hath forsaken us,
having loved this present world. And look what he said here in
2 Timothy 2.17. Verse 16, The shun for vain and
vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness,
and their word will eat as does a canker or a gangrene. of whom
is Arminius and Paulinus, who concerning the truth have erred,
saying that the resurrection is past already. And when that
happened, that overthrew the faith of a lot of people. They
got up, stirred up, they got scared, they got frightened,
and they overthrew their faith. Well, you say, my boy, that shakes
me up. That bothers me. You reckon that? No. Look what Paul said. Nevertheless, Her faith is overthrown by that.
Nevertheless, the foundation of God's standard is pure. Having
this seal, the Lord knows them that are His. And Paul said in Hebrews 6, he
said, It is impossible for those who were washed in life and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, if they shall fall away, to renew
them again to repentance. A fellow walk away from Christ,
walk away from the gospel, walk away from the truth, you cannot
renew him again to repentance, if he ever knew it. So that's
another, that's why we want the characteristics. We need to define
these things. And then there's the counterfeit
conversion. Now there's a difference between a temporary conversion
and a counterfeit conversion, and let me tell you the difference. The temporary conversion was
based upon things they heard. Every single one of them was
based on things they heard. You know, I'm going to follow you.
They followed Christ around, the man who built the house,
the stony ground here, Simon the Sorcerer, Hymenes and Paulides,
Demas, all these people, their conversion is based on something
they heard. But a counterfeit conversion has nothing to do
with the Word of God, nothing to do with Him. It's always spot
on. You see, they're not concerned for the truth. What they're mostly
concerned about is feelings. emotions, experience, and they
have a dramatic change in their life. Something happens in their
life and they have a great dramatic change in themselves. They quit
sins and start doing good, what the world considers doing good.
But you ask them about their conversion, what it is, they
can't give you a reason for it. All they'll say is, I know I'm
saved. Well, how do you know? Well, I have this meaning. I
have this experience. I saw this light. A deacon in
a Baptist church told me that he got converted one day
when he was in Ohio working, and he saw this great light that
come down on him. And so he went and joined a Baptist
church. I said, did you trust in that
light, that experience? He says, yes, I am. Plus Christ. Now that's what I'm talking about.
He could not give me a scriptural answer. They're based on feelings,
on experience. I know the time, I know the place.
They go to an old school building, an old stump somewhere. They go to an old chimney somewhere
and say, right here's where I got converted. I was in my living
room and I'll tell you what, this great change come over me
and I ain't never been the same. And they cannot give you a scriptural
reason. Their salvation and their conversion
is not based on an objective truth, but an experience. They
can tell you about an experience, but they can't tell you about
Christ. They can tell you what happened to them, but it's never,
never about Christ. Never about God. Never about
the scriptures. Never about the truth. And I'll
tell you, the world is full. Full. of people that kind of
conversion. I ain't living for Jesus now,
but I know I saved. They have some goose bumps, and
they call them holy ghost bumps. You know, people call them holy
ghost bumps. Ain't that the most blasphemous thing you ever heard?
And that's why definitions in words must be clear. Must be
clear. Let me ask you three questions
about conversion. And then I think these have a
lot to do with, now, there's three things that people always
wonder about. What about the time? Time, when
you get converted. You know, must your conversion
be sudden? Or is it gradual? As you learn
some things, hear some things, and gradually begin to turn?
Or is your conversion sudden? You just turn. The Scriptures don't tell us.
Some people, there was a man, the Lord gave him sight, and
then he said, I see men walking in the streets. There's a man that the Lord opened
his eyes, and he didn't know who Christ was. All he knew was
if Jesus opened my eyes, I was blind. And then when the Lord
came to him and talked to him, you know, but the main thing
is, not the time, but did it happen? That's the main thing. Did it happen? Not the time,
but is it happening? Huh? And secondly, must it have
histrionics or trauma or be dramatic? You know, I know one particular
group of people that they really into this here real flamboyant,
deep experience things, you know, about conversion. Like the Philippian
Now, that was pretty dramatic, you know. The earthquake came. Paul and Silas were sent out
of jail. And that Philippian jailer had
his life out fixing to kill himself. Paul said, don't do your mess.
I'm in Utah. You couldn't get no more. An
eventful thing to happen. And then Paul went to the master's
room. Man, a light above the brightness of the sun put me
down in the dust and stayed blind for three decades. That's pretty
dramatic. Huh? But then the other side
of that's this. Lydia, just sitting down on a
riverbank, listening to Paul. God opened her heart. Just quietly,
calmly opened her heart. But none of these things None
of these things, all these great experiences, none of them are
essential. The essential thing is the conversion
itself. And what about the place of feelings
in our conversion? Will there be feelings? Of course
there will be feelings. You can't know God not having
feelings. You know, the kingdom of God's
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. But of course
there are feelings. They may be intense, and they
may not be intense. And feelings differ in people.
There's some people, you know, you think, man, you know, it's
not the person who makes the most noise all the time that
has the deepest feelings. It's not the person who's weeping
all the time that shan't tell you what the other person's doing.
But the feelings differ in people because of our temperament, because
of our nature. Some people's temperament's way,
way up there, real high all the time. Some people's temperament
and nature's real diffident, real quiet, real calm acting.
Huh? And in feelings, we may all differ,
and we do. And you can't tell a person's
feelings by how they act. You can't tell that at all. You
can't tell that at all. And I know this, and Doug helped
me through, you know, Doug caught my attention, this I had never
thought about before. But our emotions are based upon
information that we receive. And just like he used this illustration
yesterday afternoon, that he said, the day before yesterday,
he says, if you're sitting out on your porch, you're having
iced tea, relaxing, reading a book or something, and you're very
happy, you're very content, you're very calm, the phone rings, Somebody
really, really close to you, father, mother, brother, they
tell you that they died. You're just as calm as you could
be in your life, and then all of a sudden, your emotions change
just that quick. Your heart breaks, tears come
to the eyes. And this, emotions are based
on information. And that's how you can tell whether
your emotions, and I think we, And I'm like this, I'm like him
in that sense. I think that if our emotions control us, then
we're in trouble. We must control our emotions.
Can't let them get the best of us. And I'll tell you something
else about people. And some people insist every
conversion must be like mine. There's a lot of folks like that,
you know. L.R. Shelton, years and years and
years ago, Rothbard used to go down there and preach Friday
regular. He'd go down there and get All kinds of people get converted. He'd go back next year and go,
Brother Sheldon had them all unconverted again, you know,
examining their experience. He just wouldn't let anybody
have a shirt. And I know a preacher in particular. He really enjoyed
life. He enjoyed preaching. So he got
to listening to Brother Sheldon. He got so miserable, he didn't
know whether he was up or down. But when I said that, it was
because you had to meet his criteria as a conversion. or else you
wasn't converted. You had to have this experience,
feel that feeling, have this many tears, have that deep a
conviction, feel your sins this heavy, be in this much darkness
before you ever brought into the light. And there are some
people that they insist every conversion must be like mine
or else it's not true. And a danger that we have when
we hear or read of someone else's conversion A lot of people try
to imitate it. Don't try to imitate it, and
don't make anybody's conversion a bitch. You look at our Lord
Jesus Christ and His ministry. He went to one woman at the well. And look what He done to her.
Pointed out to her. Then the blind man, He went by
him and gave him sight. Everybody out. One man gave him
sight that quick. Another fellow walked away. They
spit on his eyes and nothing. He just spoke. So our Lord dealt
with everybody different. But there's two essentials, and
I'll show you this in closing. But you remember over here in
1 Thessalonians, look what happened about these people when they
were converted, when they turned to God from idols to serve the
living God. Paul says they had a work of
faith, a labor of love, patience, in hope of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel came to them in word and in power and in the Holy
Ghost. You became followers of us, and
you became followers of the Lord. You received the Word in much
affliction, much soul affliction. Then you became examples. Then
you began to try to get the gospel out and tell others about Christ
and the gospel. You sounded out the Word. Your
faith is spread abroad. And you're waiting, waiting for
the Lord Jesus Christ to come from heaven. Now, turn to Acts
chapter 20 with me, just a moment. That's chapter 20. Let me show
you. Two essentials in conversion,
in conversion. In conversion, the new birth
comes to us, and we're passive in that. But conversion is this,
we turn, we begin to turn from ourselves and turn to God. We
begin to turn from our old manner of life and turn to God. And
it's not an instant thing as we learn and as we grow. But
look here in Acts 2.21. Paul talking to the Ephesian
elders when he's fixing to leave, fixing to go after you've been
there with them for about three years, and he says this. He said,
Oh my. He said, I went from house to
house, taught you publicly, testifying both to the Jews and also to
the Greeks, repentance toward God. Acts 2.21. repentance toward
God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Those are two essentials
in a soul's conversion, and they're emphasized throughout the scriptures.
Acts 20, 21. Did I say 2, 21? Are you all
in 2, 21? Or are you in 20, 21? Somebody's got to keep track
of me. I've got to keep track of myself.
But here he says, testifying both to the Jews and also to
the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith. Repentance
toward God. He makes two distinct things
here. Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance and faith. They have to be there in a conversion. You know, if you don't have faith,
you won't turn to Christ. And if you don't have repentance,
you won't turn. And you cannot do one without
the other. In what order do they come? Does
repentance come first? Does faith come first? Does faith
come first? For without it, you won't repent.
But Paul makes a distinction here. He said it's faith in Christ,
faith in an object, faith in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, O beloved, we believe in a person. But we repent because
of truth we hear about God, and that's why we turn to Christ.
And I'll tell you in the Scriptures, talking about which comes first.
Scripturally, repentance always comes first. Repentance. You keep this and look over in
Mark chapter 1. I'm going to show you two things
here about repentance. Mark chapter 1. Repentance always
comes first. I ask whether which comes first,
repentance or faith? But I think that the same sheet
of paper on different printers on one side and faith on the
other, the same sheet of paper. But look here in Acts 2, I mean
Mark chapter 1 and verse 4. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Look
down verse 15. Our Lord came into Galilee preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye, and believe the gospel. Repent ye, and believe the gospel.
You know, when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, he got
through preaching, and they said, Men and brethren, what must we
do? The first thing he says, Repent, and be baptized, every
one of you. calling on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so you see, beloved, repentance
is a change of mind, an incredible change of mind. And when that
mind is changed, and that heart, mind and heart, the person, take
it what you want to, but that person is changed. that new hearts
put in them. And the law was our schoolmaster
that brought repentance, that brought us to faith in Christ.
And when repentance, we turn in repentance, we turn in faith
to Jesus Christ, because Christ is the one who brings us to God.
Christ is the one who reconciled us to God. And yet God was in
Christ, reconciling us unto Himself. And we come to the Lord Jesus
Christ in repentance and faith. turning. We don't come to Him
as a helper. We don't come to Him as a healer.
We don't come to Him as a friend to comfort us in the night. We
don't come to Him as an insurance policy, but we come to Him as
the Savior, our Lord, our Master, the only one who makes us acceptable
to God. And I know this, and this is
another thing that you can tell about conversion. A man has turned
from his idols to serve God, the living God. And I mean, beloved,
we got idols. I had idols when I was a Baptist
preacher years ago. I had idols when I was a fundamentalist. I had idols by myself. I made
myself an idol in my life that I lived. But if a man isn't concerned
about a right relationship with God, And that right relationship is
based only through what the Lord Jesus Christ did to make him
acceptable to God. That man hasn't been converted.
And that's what we're interested in, our relationship to God.
And we understand that our relationship with God is through the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why Paul said, I've taught
you. I've taught you day and night. Every place I went, whether
I was in your home, whether I was in the church, whether I was
in the synagogue, I preached repentance toward God. Turn from
your eyes. Faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe on Him. Look to Him. Trust Him. Who He
is, why He did it. Most folks ain't even interested
in what He did, much less interested in who He is. But conversion,
that's our response. to this regeneration. And I'll
tell you something. When God told Simon Peter, He
says, when you're converted, strengthen the bread. What did
He mean by that? Simon Peter was already a believer.
Simon Peter was a disciple, an apostle. He had just confessed,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You've got the words of life.
So what did He mean by that? When you go back to your former
way, you go back fishing. I mean, what our Lord said, when
you get converted from your going back fishing, and your carnal
reasoning, and you've tried to make it on your own, He said,
when you're converted, then you strengthen the branch. Because
you're going to go back to that old way for a while. And I don't
know how long. It wasn't long. It wasn't long.
It wasn't long. And that's conversion, in my
opinion. We have been converted. That's
a one-time thing. But we are constantly, constantly
being converted from so many things, wrong things, errors,
fallings, failings, always turning from ourselves. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Your Son, the Lord Jesus, thank You for meeting with us
tonight. Thank You for Your precious Word. Thank You for the dear
saints and their attention. Keep them as they go home. Preserve
them. That we can meet together to
worship you again. Look into your word. We ask these
things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.