Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. Much is often made of this
word convert, and many go to great lengths to try to define
it as some experience or happening which takes place once in a person's
life, never to be again repeated. It has become synonymous with
the word saved in the current religious vernacular. It is often
viewed as a possession which one can take charge of. Yet the
Lord told Peter that he was yet to be converted, even though
he had confessed thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. The Greek word, which is sometimes translated as converted,
appears in the scriptures 39 times and is also translated
turn, turn about, return, or turn again 29 times. Conversion
seems to be somewhat synonymous with repentance, which is a constant
work that is taking place in the children of God because of
the presence of the Spirit of God in them. Peter was evidently
quickened by the Spirit and told who Christ was, but was yet in
need of greater correction. The Lord chastens those whom
he loves, and never has the rod of his correction been felt any
keener than when Peter recalled the words of the Lord as the
cock crew, and he went bitterly. But Peter was not yet converted,
because repentance had not yet had its perfect work. Now no
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby. Later, the Lord began this work
when he told Peter, feed my sheep, and then brought forth the evidence
of its healing power on the day of Pentecost, when indeed Peter
strengthened the brethren as the Holy Ghost came upon him.
Who could declare that Peter was not converted? That man who
stood before that assembly was not the same man who boasted
of his willingness to die for the Lord, nor that one that cowered
in fear at a young maid's question, nor even that one who had shed
tears in the valley of Baca, yea, even the valley of the shadow
of death. Yet Peter's conversion was not yet complete. For Paul
says, but when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to
the face, because he was to be blamed. Peter needed to be turned
from the error of Judaism, which he had in a measure re-embraced.
Paul said, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.
But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. The work of Christ and the lives
of His people is not yet finished, but it is a constant operation
of the Spirit of God, whereby He is teaching them all things.
We are being changed by Him, but we all, with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Even then, there is yet one change that awaits the sons of God,
which we have heretofore never experienced. And so shall we
ever be with the Lord. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this moral must put on immortality. All
of this takes place because the Lord has prayed for us. He said,
I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because
they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray
not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou
shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. He specifically prayed here for
his disciples, but included all of his elect in the same prayer,
saying, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe on me through their word. Oh, the glory of it! Jesus
Christ has prayed for us. He who set the moon and stars
in place and stretches out the heavens like a curtain has interceded
in our behalf as a man taking upon himself our sin and guilt. Even more glorious is the fact
that he presently in the current hour ever lives to make intercession
for his own in the very court of heaven. But this intercession
is not carried out with groanings and the utterance of words, but
by the very fact that he is present at his father's right hand. As
Charles Wesley wrote, five bleeding wounds he bears, received on
Calvary. They pour effectual prayers.
They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry. Forgive him, O forgive, they cry. Nor let that ransomed
sinner die. Does Christ intercede for you?
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