My subject this evening is conversion. Conversion is the turning of
God's elect Christ by the power of His grace. I have a very good
friend who married a Roman Catholic girl and she said to him, I want
to convert. He said, it doesn't work that
way, you have to be converted. And that's exactly the case,
you must be converted, you must be turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. Shelby's been witnessing to a
man, an older man, he said to her yesterday, he said, I I thought
I had just about turned the corner, and then I read that paper. And
that paper, that preacher said, there's nothing I can do, and
I'm just in utter despair. She said, that's a good place
to be, there's nothing you can do. You cannot, of yourself,
turn yourself to God. You must be turned to God by
his grace. And yet, it is a willing turn
of rebels to Jesus Christ as their king. Willingly surrendering
to his dominion Turning that is caused by God's free grace
and yet turning that arises from a willing heart Now turn with
me to Jeremiah 31. Let me show you two or three
scriptures as we move toward the text I want to expand this
evening Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 18. This is exactly what we read
in this passage where the Lord tells us of Ephraim be boning
himself and Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 18. I have surely
heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus the Lord God is speaking
Thou has chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed
to the yoke Ephraim bemoaning himself before God you you've
whipped me and whipped me and whipped me like a book a bull
Unaccustomed to wearing the yoke and I've I've been chastised
Turn thou me, and I shall be turned. What a prayer. Turn thou
me, and I shall be turned. For thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned.
You see that? Not before, not in order to,
but after that I was turned, I repented. And after that I
was instructed. When I learned the things of
God, when God taught me, Smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed
gay even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth
Then God speaks for himself as Ephraim my dear son Is he a pleasant
child? For since I spoke against him.
I do earnestly remember him still Therefore my bowels are troubled
for him I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. Now look in Psalm 80. Here we
have a prayer, a prayer of Aesop or perhaps a prayer of David
written for Aesop and his sons to sing. But it is a prayer of
believing hearts and yet equally a prayer suitable to unbelievers.
It is a prayer that is repeated three times each time with greater
earnestness in this one Psalm. Psalm 80 verse three. us, O God,
and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved." Oh, children
of God, pray just like that in this dark, dark generation. Turn
us, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Look in Verse 7, Turn us, O God
of hosts, Notice the addition of those two words of host. Turn
us, Lord God of Sabaoth. Turn us, O God of host, God in
charge of everything and everybody, and cause thy face to shine,
and we shall be saved. Now then, look at verse 19. Turn
us again, O Lord God of host, and cause thy face to shine,
and we shall be saved. Now this is conversion. Unlike
regeneration and effectual calling, conversion is not something in
which we are totally passive. Conversion is both God Almighty
turning us and us willingly turning under the influence of his grace
to him. Stephen Charnock, the Puritan, expressed it this way.
Regeneration is the motion of God's towards and upon the heart
of a sinner. Conversion is the motion of a
center towards God Conversion then is the willing response
of the newborn soul to the call the effectual Irresistible call
of God's grace when God the Holy Spirit calls us by his grace
those who are called willingly Turn to him being turned by his
grace As John Gill expressed it, conversion lies in a man
turning to the Lord actively under the influence of divine
grace, being thoroughly convinced that there is salvation in no
other but in Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, at your leisure, read
Luke chapter 15, the entire chapter. In that chapter, our Lord gives
us one parable in three sections. The parable is of the lost sheep,
the lost coin, and the lost son. In the parable where he speaks
of the lost sheep, the good shepherd goes after the sheep who would
never come after the shepherd. The good shepherd finds the sheep,
lays him on his shoulder and carries him all the way home.
In the parable of the lost coin, the woman loses a piece of silver
and she sweeps the house and cleans the house searching for
that one piece of silver just as God the Holy Spirit comes
after the soul valued of God more precious than gold or silver
itself and seeks and finds the soul that is lost. In the parable
though of the lost son, that son being awakened in providence
by God's grace comes to himself. Recognizes the folly of his ways
and says I will arise and go to my father's house and arising
and coming to his father his father Sees him while he's yet
a great way off and runs and falls on his neck and kisses
him and receives him as a son Into his house. That's a picture
of conversion. We are sort of God sort of God
sort of God and before we seek him he sought us and called us
to seek him and now we run after him and Now then if you will
look in Acts chapter 11 If you read the scriptures carefully
you will find that repentance faith and conversion Always go
hand in hand. They are inseparable gifts of
God's grace. I Here in Acts chapter 11 and
verse 18, the Holy Spirit gives us a description of exactly what
happened when Peter went down to the house of Cornelius and
preached the gospel to them. And also what happened when the
disciples who were scattered because of persecution went everywhere
preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. Look here as we begin in verse
18. And when they heard these things, they held their peace
and glorified God saying, then hath God also Then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted, you see it, repentance unto life. It's a gift of God. And now they
which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about
Stephen traveled as far as Phinehas and Cyprus and Antioch preaching
the word. There it is again, preaching
the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were
men of Cyprus and Cyrene which when they came to Antioch spoke
unto the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus. That's what it is
to preach the word. And the hand of the Lord was
with them. And a great number believed and turned unto the
Lord. Notice once more, what a great
emphasis is placed upon the instrumentality of gospel preaching and the gracious
operations of God toward and upon his elect. As in regeneration
and in effectual calling, so also in conversion, it pleased
God to save his elect through the foolishness of preaching.
You don't need to turn there, but listen carefully to James
chapter five, verse 19. Brethren if any of you do err
from the truth and one convert him Let him know that he which
converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a
soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins I can't give
you an exposition of James Epistle, but I do want you to understand
that This is as plain as the nose on your face that God the
Holy Spirit is here telling us that God uses human Instrumentality
to accomplish his purpose of grace toward chosen centers Now
there's a beautiful picture of this in John chapter 11 and verse
39. Our Lord is at the tomb of Lazarus
He's come there specifically to Bethany to raise this dead
man who has been dead for four days out of that tomb And the
first thing He does is He said, take ye away the stone. Now it
looks to me like if He can speak and cause the dead to come forth,
He wouldn't have any trouble moving that rock. But those who
stood by were incapable of raising the dead. They were perfectly
capable of moving the rock. And that which they were capable
of doing, He gave them the honorable privilege of doing. away the
stone and watch me work. Take ye away the stone. And that
which we are capable of doing, the preaching of the Gospel,
the bearing faithful witness of Jesus Christ, the Lord God
gives us the honorable privilege of doing. God is pleased in his
infinite inscrutable wisdom to work conversion in his elect
by the instrumentality of converted sinners telling others about
Jesus Christ the Lord and his salvation. Now the use of human
instruments is in no way a matter of necessity with God. Please
don't ever imagine that God had to do things this way. It's his
pleasure. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe The employment of human
instruments in the work of saving his people Is as honoring to
God as it could possibly be both as an act of his amazing condescending
grace and as an act of his infinite wisdom and sovereignty Somehow
people get the idea that when we preach the necessity of gospel
preaching we tell men that God saves sinners in this way Then
somehow we're taking something away from God's honor Would you
please tell me please tell me how on this earth? It takes away
from a man's honor as he builds a house to use a saw and a hammer.
I How does it take away from his honor? How does it take away
from a man's honor as he draws plans for the building of a city
to use the computer or to use his pen and his drafting instruments? It doesn't take away from his
honor. It only contributes to his honor. The man takes use,
takes that which is totally unusable or unusable in itself and makes
it an instrument by which he does much good. And God Almighty
and using your puny lips and mine, and using us as his witnesses,
takes that which is totally insignificant and useless in itself and uses
us for the building of his kingdom. Oh, what wisdom, what honor.
God takes that which is in itself destructive and makes it an instrument
of building up his church and his kingdom. Now with those things
in mind, turn with me to Psalm 110. Just hold your Bibles open
as I try to explain to you some things taught plainly in the
scriptures about this matter of conversion I'm fully aware
that when I get done preaching there'll be a whole lot more
left unsaid than is said But I I want to talk to you this
evening for just a few minutes about what is taught here concerning
conversion This is a coronation psalm. It describes the coronation
of our Lord Jesus Christ as our king. Having accomplished our
redemption by the sacrifice of himself, having fulfilled his
father's will in every detail, having fully done that which
he came here to do, the Lord Jesus ascended up into heaven. And as he did, the Lord said
unto my Lord, you see it? Set thou on my right hand. How
long? Till everything's under your
feet. Set on my right hand till thine enemies become thy footstool
either by grace or by judgment either in mercy or in wrath Every
enemy of King Jesus shall become his footstool and bow before
him Once our Lord Jesus was crowned with glory and honor as the omnipotent
prince and king of the universe The scepter of righteousness
was put in his hands He was given power, dominion, and authority
over all flesh for the saving of his people with this blessed
promise. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. What is that? It's the gospel
of his grace. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. He will send the rod of thy strength
out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. And that's what he's doing right
now. He rules in the midst of his enemies. The Lord God is
having his way. Oh, God, help me to understand
that and believe that. He's having his way everywhere
with everybody at all times. There are no mistakes happening.
There are no accidents going on. God Almighty, my Savior,
is ruling right now in the midst of his enemies, just as much
in the White House as in your house. just as much in Washington
as in heaven itself, just as much in hell as upon this earth.
He rules in the midst of his enemies. But now, where are his
people? He's a king. But a king with
no subjects is no king. A king with no living kingdom
has a title that's just a mockery. It's just a play thing. It's
less significant than the crown that's sitting on the head of
Queen Elizabeth in England. It's utterly insignificant if
he has no people. Where then shall the Lord Jesus
have people to fill his kingdom to be the fullness of him that
filleth all in all? Sometimes we preach and we witness
and we We get a little despondent and despairing and we labor and
you think, well, nobody's paying any attention, nobody's listening.
We try to count noses and nickels and figure out what God's doing.
We look and try to see for ourselves what God's doing and we get upset
if we don't see what God's doing. Listen carefully and listen well. Thy people shall be with him. day of thy power. All fears ought to be laid to
rest. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the
beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, thou hast
the due of thy youth." Now, in that sentence, we have five promises
and made by God the Father to God the Son, when he said to
him, sit thou on my right hand until thy foes become thy footstool.
Let me give them to you one at a time. First, here is a promised
people. You will notice in this promise
from the Father to the Son, it really just concerns one group
of people. It's a reference to a specific
people. very definite people they are
named many ways in the scriptures sometimes they're called as here
thy people sometimes they're referred to as his sheep sometimes
they're referred to as the hundred and forty four thousand sometimes
they're referred to as the twelve tribes of Israel sometimes they're
referred to as a multitude which no man can number but all when
all said and done they are I people he shall be called Jesus for
he shall save his people from their sin Now, I want you to
understand that everything God does, everything, everything,
everything God Almighty is concerned about, everything that is of
any interest to the living God, everything that God brings to
pass, everything God allows to come to pass, whatever language
you want to use, is specifically for thy people, the people of
Jesus Christ. Who are they? Why, they're the
people of His choice. the people of his covenant, the
people for whom he stood as a surety before the world began and said,
I will be their God and they shall be my people. He is, these
people are those for whom the son of God said, I will go and
give my life a ransom permitted. They are his called people, called
by his spirit in the time of his love. They are the people
preserved by his power, kept in his grace. They are the people
who at last shall be with him in glory. Thy people, shall be
willing in the day of thy power, because they are loved by him
with an everlasting love." Secondly, here is a promised persuasion.
Thy people shall be willing. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians
5 said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men. Now, the meaning of that text,
2 Corinthians 5, 11, is that as we witness to men and preach
the gospel to men, we strip them, we do everything we can to lay
them low and put pressure on them, Ron, so that they are squeezed
and pressured into the arms of Jesus Christ the Lord. But what
Paul is really saying is this, we do the best we can. We push
them, all we can push them. But persuading the hearts of
men is another thing. We can't make anybody willing. We can
scare folks into religion. We can buttonhole folks to get
them to make a profession of faith. We can get folks to walk
aisles and say, I believe in Jesus, and repeat the sinner's
prayer, and get baptized, and teach Sunday school, and be deacons,
and preachers, and missionaries all over the world. But we can't
make folks willing to come to Christ. But here, the Lord God
makes this promise. He says, thy people shall not
be, not ought to be, but thy people shall be willing." Several years ago, actually,
about 200 years ago now, there was an infamous Arminian by the
name of Adam Clark. In his commentary, this is what
he said, that this verse has been woefully perverted. It has
been supposed to point out the irresistible operation of the
grace of God on the souls of his elect, thereby making them
willing to receive Christ as their Savior. Well, I wonder
what else it possibly could mean. If anybody understands English
grammar, even in its simplest form, when the scripture says,
thy people shall be willing, it doesn't mean thy people won't
be willing. shall be willing because of the
gracious operation of God Almighty. No sinner, our Savior said, can
or will come to me except he is made willing by God's omnipotent
grace. And now he tells us here that
all who are thus made willing come to him in conversion. Grace
makes chosen, redeemed, called sinners willing. what they would
never otherwise do. Grace makes sinners take their
place in the dung heap among the fallen ruins of humanity
as sinners and confess their sin to God. You'll never do that
apart from being made to do that. never happen. Grace, grace makes
proud, self-righteous sinners cling to the rags of their filthy
self-righteousness. But grace takes those same sinners
and strips away the rags of self-righteousness and causes them to flee to Jesus
Christ alone for righteousness. Grace causes sinners who would
never trust a substitute to to bow to Christ as their Lord and
King. Surrender all to Him and trust
Him as their substitute, crying out to Him, the Lord, our righteousness. Jehovah's Zidkenu is His name.
Grace makes proud, self-serving sinners, willing, willing servants
to the Son of God. In this day and age when Men
and women everywhere live by law. Most lawless age in the
world, but in the religious circles around us, they pretend to live
by law. And people, preachers everywhere put people under the
law. Now, if you don't, if you don't tell folks they have to
keep a Sabbath day, they'll never worship God. If you don't tell
folks they have to tithe, they'll never give. If you don't, if
you don't tell folks they, if they commit adultery, God's gonna
kill their kids, they'll be, they'll be vile, propagant. Immoral people. God's people
are made willing servants to Him. Willing servants. Why don't you chase folks down
because they don't come to church? Because if grace gets hold of
you, you'll be willing to be here. Why don't you coerce folks
to give? If grace gets hold of you, He'll
make you a willing giver. Why don't you coerce folks to
behave right? If grace gets hold of you, you'll
behave right. Thy people shall be willing,
willing, willing, willing to serve Him, willing to deny all
and follow Him, willing to give up their lives to the rule and
dominion of Him who sits on the throne because He redeemed them,
willing to do so because they consider it just their reasonable
service. Now then, here's a promised power. Thy people shall be willing,
the day of thy power the Lord God here promises his darling
son a specific day when his power will be made manifest revealed
known and experienced in the saving experience of each of
his people there's a day appointed the day appointed not when thy
people shall be willing in the day of their power if somehow
everything resides in the power of their will or their decision
or their choice. Oh, no. Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power, the Lord God says. What is that talking about? It's
talking about the day when His power comes upon the Gospel preacher
as he speaks the Word, and the Word goes forth and He's talking
about the day when power, the power of God falls upon his people
and he causes the blind to see and the deaf to hear. He causes
the dead to live and he causes his people to call upon him in
faith. Both Calvin and Gill suggest that this text might be properly
translated at the time of the assembling of their army. Thy people shall be willing at
the time of the assembling of their army. And that is a proper
translation of the text, I understand. But what on earth does that mean?
Some of you fellas can remember when the Vietnam War was going
on, especially at the early stages of the war, men were being drafted,
but there were some fellas who were willing. And they went and
signed up because they were willing. willing to serve a cause they
believed in, willing to die for freedom, willing to die for liberty.
When the assembling of the army came in the name of the USA,
they went to sign up and lay their lives on the line because
the army was needed. Now listen to what he says. As
the Lord God has a cause to accomplish in this world, and the gates
of hell cannot stand against his church and kingdom. assembles
His army. They're no one drafted, but they're
all volunteers, all volunteers. No conscription here. These are
willing servants of the Son of God in the name and cause of
Christ's glory, willing to lay down their lives for His sake.
Now then, look at the next words. Remember, this is a continuous
sentence. He speaks of a promised purity
as well. LORD GOD SWORE TO HIS DARLING
SON A PROMISED PEOPLE, A PROMISED PERSUASION, A PROMISED POWER,
AND HERE HE SAYS, THY PEOPLE SHALL BE WILLING IN THE DAY OF
THY POWER IN THE BEAUTIES OF HOLINESS. THESE WHO COME TO GOD, YOU WHO
HAVE COME TO HIM AND YOU WHO NOW ARE COMING TO HIM, COME TO
HIM on the grounds of perfect holiness in God's sight. Perfect holiness. That perfect
holiness that comes only by the imputed righteousness of Jesus
Christ. We come to him pleading for mercy
and grace, not on the grounds of our promised repentance, not
on the grounds of our promise to do better, not on the grounds
of our of our sorrow for all that we've done in the past.
Oh, no. We plead for mercy and grace on the grounds of justice,
satisfied and righteousness established in Jesus Christ, God's darling
son. We're willing to cling to him
alone. Coming to him trusting his son. The Lord God has imputed
to us his righteousness and imparted to us his righteous nature Now
take one more look at the text Again I remind you it is a continuous
sentence at the end of that word holiness is a semicolon Says
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power and in the
beauties of holiness, I'm sorry, from the womb of the morning
and then a semicolon, thou hast the dew of thy youth. And I looked
at that, looked at that, looked at that. What on earth does that
have to do with what's gone before? How's the connection made? Well,
this is a promise of praise. Those who are converted by the
grace of God are born again by His power and grace from the
womb morning. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the womb of God's everlasting purpose from which
all things have sprung, born mysteriously, miraculously from
the womb of the morning. And then he has this semicolon
here, thou hast the dew of thy youth. In other words, this is
the explanation of what I'm talking about. thou hast the due of thy
youth refers to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ in the
saving of his people in the possession of his redeemed ones shall have
the due of his youth an old man sets and looks over his family
in our case is going to be kind of small we just got one child
no sons but a Rex look over his family one of these days and
look at it Oh, look at my sons, my daughters, my grandsons, my
granddaughter, great-grandchildren, look at them. And smile with
beaming happiness and satisfaction, I hope. But concerning the Son of God,
He has the dew of His youth, a multitude, like the sparkling
drops of dew in the morning, no man can number. And in His
eternality, complete happiness and satisfaction with the dew
of his youth, converted by God's almighty grace for the glory
of his name. Amen.