but I'm thankful for this opportunity
to be able to do this. I'm going to read a passage from
Acts chapter 12. I want to read the first 11 verses. I've entitled this message, The
Components of Conversion. Beginning in verse 1 of Acts
chapter 12, Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth
his hand to vex certain of the church. And he killed James,
the brother of John, with the sword. James was the first of
the 12 apostles to be martyred. And because he saw it pleased
the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were
the days of unleavened bread, the time of the Passover, when
all the people would be at Jerusalem, the great crowds. And when he
had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to
four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, four groups of four,
intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter,
therefore, was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing
of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept
the prison. And behold, the angel of the
Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison. And he
smote Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly.
And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said
unto him, gird thyself, and bind all my sandals. And so he did.
And he saith unto him, cast thy garment about thee, and follow
me. And he went out, and followed him, and wist not that it was
true which was done by the angel. But he thought he saw a vision.
He didn't even know whether this was physically taking place.
When they were past the first and the second ward, they came
unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city, which opened to
them of his own accord. And this iron gate, miraculously,
by the hand and power of God, opened itself to let Peter out. And they went out and passed
on through one street, and forthwith the angel departed from him.
And when Peter was come to himself, he said, now I know of a surety
that the Lord has sent his angel and hath delivered me out of
the hand of Herod. and from all the expectation
of the people of the Jews. I'd like for us to pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come into your presence in Christ's name, and we're so very
grateful for the salvation that's in him. And we ask in his name
that you would cause your gospel to be preached in the power of
your spirit, and that you'd bless this message to our hearts for
your glory and our good. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness and cleansing. And Lord, we're so thankful that
you're God, that you're in control of everything. And we ask for
your mercy on this world, that your will would be done for the
advancement of your gospel as we know it will. We thank you
for all your glorious attributes. We thank you for the salvation
that's in your son. Now bless us for Christ's sake.
In his name we pray, amen. The components of conversion. By conversion, I mean what takes
place in our experience when we go from being dead in sins
to life in Christ, seeing his glory, trusting him only, loving
his person. Now this is the story of every
believer. I know it's a miraculous historical
event that took place and these things literally took place but
in what took place we're given the biography of the experience
of every believer. Now if you're a believer you're
going to see this is your experience and if you're an unbeliever you
can see what you are and what the Lord needs to do for you. And if you see that you will
ask him to do it for you without question. Now verse one now about
that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain
of the church. Now there are three Herod's in
the New Testament and all of them are related. And this is
the Herod at this time. He was going to vex certain of
the church. And the scripture says he killed
James, the brother of John, with the sword. John was the first
of the disciples to lose his life for the cause of Christ.
And because he saw it pleased the Jews, Herod saw that it pleased
the Jews. The Jews were very happy that
he killed James. He proceeded further to take
Peter also. You see, he saw that it was politically
advantageous to him, and so he was going to get Peter and kill
him, thinking he could please the Jews even more. Then were
the days of unleavened bread. It was the time of the Passover
when all of Jerusalem was so crowded. And when he had apprehended
him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions
of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth
unto the people. Now, sometime before this, Peter
had been miraculously delivered from prison. You can read about
it in Acts chapter 5. And I'm sure Herod had heard
about this and he wanted to do everything he could to make sure
that didn't take place. So he had four groups of soldiers,
four each. Two would be chained to him and
the other two keeping the door. I suppose a six-hour shift for
each group of four, but he had 16 soldiers watching over Peter
to make sure this did not take place. And he wanted to bring
him forth to the people at the Passover, right after the Passover,
when many people would be there and many people would be happy
about this. Peter, therefore, was kept in
prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God. for him. Now, whatever the Lord
does, he moves his people to pray for it. And here the church
is praying for Peter at this time. Verse six, and when Herod
would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping
between two soldiers bound with two chains and the keepers before
the door kept the prison. Now, I love this side of Peter. Peter knows the next day he's
going to be executed. And there he is in prison, both
hands chained to a different guard, sleeping soundly, knowing
he was in the Lord's hand. I will both lay me down to peace
and sleep, for thou, Lord, only maketh me to dwell in safety.
I'm sure Peter thought that as he slept soundly on the night
of his execution. knowing that he was in the Lord's
hands and whatever the Lord willed to be done would be done and
Peter was just fine with that. There he lays sleeping and behold,
verse 7, the angel of the Lord came upon him and a light shined
in the prison And he smote Peter on the side. He didn't just gently
tap him. He smote him on the side and
raised him up, saying, arise up quickly. And his chains fell
off from his hands. Can you imagine what that must
have felt like? Now, what were the guards doing
this time? I don't know. Maybe they were so terrified
they couldn't move. But Peter's shackles fell from his hands.
And the angel said unto him, gird thyself and bind on my sandals. And so he did. And he saith,
cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out,
and followed him, and wist not that it was true which was done
by the angel. He didn't know if I'm experiencing
a vision or if this is actually happening to me physically. He
wasn't sure. He thought he saw a vision. And when they were
past the first and the second ward, they came into the iron
gate that leadeth unto the city, this big iron gate between the
city walls. And the scripture says, of his
own accord, he opened to them. This gate opened of its own accord. Made open by the power of God,
an unseen hand opened this gate. And how do you think Peter felt
as he watched that gate open for him to go out? Which opened to them of his own
accord and they went out and passed on through one street
and forthwith the angel departed from him. And when Peter was
come to himself, he now knew this literally took place. He
said, now I know of a surety that the Lord has sent his angel
and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all
the expectation of the people of the Jews. Now, I've given
the narrative of this event. It literally took place. But in this story, we're given
a beautiful time of what happens to a sinner when God saves him,
what his state is before he is saved, and what the Lord does
that brings him out of this state of death to this state of life,
the components of conversion. Now, the first thing that I would
notice is Peter is asleep, in prison, bound with two Now, this
represents the sleep of death that every natural man is in,
in prison, unable to get out, bound with two chains. And every man that is dead in
sins in the prison, unable to get out, is bound with two chains. Those two chains are the law
of God and his own sinful nature. He cannot escape those two chains. Now, what happened in the Garden
of Eden when Adam ate of the fruit? Well, God said, in the
day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Now we know he did
not die physically that day, nor did he experience eternal
death, the pains of hell that day, but he did die spiritually. He experienced spiritual death. And that spiritual death that
he experienced, he no longer had a spirit. He no longer had
spiritual understanding. That his spirit died and his
sinful nature is what is passed on to all of his descendants.
You and I are born into this world spiritually dead. Now let me tell you something
about that. That completely blows out of
the water the idea of free will. You have a will. No doubt. I
have a will. And when we act, we do what we
want to do. We're not forced. We do what
we want to do. We have a will. But that will
is controlled by an evil nature. That's the state of all men by
nature. The very idea of free will is
ludicrous. We're born into this world. dead
in sins, the will that we have. True, we do what we want to do.
A tiger does what it wants to do. If a tiger wanted to eat
grass, it could, but it's against its nature. And that is our state,
dead in trespasses and sins. Now spiritual death speaks of
two things, spiritual depravity, total depravity, and total inability. Now this is the way you and I
are born into this world, totally depraved and totally unable. Totally depraved. Jeremiah chapter
17 verse 9 says, the heart is desperately wicked, deceitful
above all things. Who can know it? Now the heart. That represents the whole man.
That represents the understanding. That represents the affection.
That represents the will. The heart of man is desperately
wicked, deceitful above all things. Somebody says trust your heart.
If you do, you're a fool because the scripture says he trusts
his own heart as a fool. Deceitful above all things. Who
can know it? Total depravity. Now what that
means is the way you and I are born into this world, We cannot
not sin. Did you hear that? We cannot
not sin. And all we do is sin. Our mind is depraved, our affections
are depraved, and our will is depraved. You and I are born
into this world evil. deserving hell. Now that's what
it means when someone is dead in trespasses and sins. Here
Peter lays asleep representing being dead in trespasses and
sins, sinners by nature, sinners by choice, and sinners by practice. And if I can't see that about
myself, I'm spiritually blind. Because if you have any spiritual
light at all, you'll know that this is so concerning you. Now,
not only does being dead in sins represent spiritual depravity,
total depravity, it also speaks of total inability. The Lord said in John chapter
6 verse 44, no man can come to me except the Father which has
sent me. Now, did you hear that? It doesn't
say no man may come. It says no man can come. Every
man lacks the ability to come, and that's his crime. You will
not. The reason we cannot is because
we will not. The reason we will not is we
cannot. This is evil, the fact that we cannot come to Christ. Listen to this scripture. Romans
8, 7 and 8 says the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. 1 Corinthians 2.14 says,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him. Neither indeed can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. You have to have a
spirit. Adam spiritually died. The natural man doesn't have
the spirit to discern, to grasp, to understand the things of the
spirit of God. By nature, we cannot come to
Christ. By nature, we cannot believe.
We cannot repent. We cannot love. We cannot do
anything that is required of somebody to come to Christ. By
nature, we're totally unable. And do not think, old man, that
inability suspends responsibility. This inability doesn't let us
off the hook. Like Peter, we're bound with
two chains. Asleep, dead in sins, bound with
two chains. The first chain is God's holy
law. God's holy law commands the death
of the sinner. Now, the law is holy. The law
is glorious. It's a reflection of the glorious,
holy character of God. And every believer will say,
I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But all the law
does with us is expose sin. It doesn't give any power to
obey. It exposes sin and demands the death of the sinner, and
there's not one thing you or I can do to get out from under
the demands of God's holy law. Now, let me give you a hint.
If you think you've kept one commandment one time, you're
completely ignorant of God's holy law. You have no understanding
of God's holy law. The law demands the death of
the sinner. And somebody says, God's too
strict. No, he's not. The problem's not with God. The
problem's with the sinner. And God's law is holy, and he
will not bend his law. God said, I will by no means
clear the guilty. Now, that's the first shackle
that is on the man dead in sin. God's holy law. law. I love the way the scripture
says the strength of sin is the law and then Paul said moreover
the law entered that sin might abound not restrain sin but it
abounds it shows that there's nothing there but sin. Now that's
the first shackle on a man dead in sins and the second shackle
is he's I'm bound by my own sinful nature. I can't change my nature. Jeremiah 13, 23 says, can the
Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? How then
can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil? You see, the scripture
says, because of our nature, there's none righteous. No, not
one. If I did it because of my nature,
it's sin. It's bad. God saw, Genesis 6,
5, God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. Now this is the picture we have
of Peter and this is the natural man, dead in sins, imprisoned,
shackled by two chains, the holy law of God and his own sinful
nature and he cannot get out. Now Should he be held responsible
if he's in that kind of condition? Can God hold him responsible?
A thousand times yes. But let's go on reading verse
seven. Now here Peter is, dead, shackled by two chains in a prison
that he can't get out of. Verse seven, and behold, the
angel of the Lord came upon him. Now, if I'm brought out of this
state, it's because the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
by his spirit, God the Holy Spirit, will come upon me. Now, here's the key to conversion,
the Lord coming upon you. And what that makes me do is
say, Lord, come upon me. Don't leave me to myself, come
upon me. Verse seven, the angel of the
Lord came upon him and a light shined in the prison. Now the first thing that took
place when the angel of the Lord that came upon him was light. What was the first thing that
took place in the physical creation? What is the first thing that
came? God said, let there be light. That's how the first creation
begins. And that's how the second creation
begins, light. Light as to the true character
of God, light to the true character of man, and light to how God
saves sinners by Christ Jesus the Lord. There's no salvation,
there's no spiritual life apart from light. Now, all the light
we have is the light of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
here's our light. You want to know the character
of God? Look to that one hanging on the cross. There I see every
attribute of God manifest. I see the holiness of God. I
see his hatred of sin. I see the fairness of God. He
treats all men the same. He's not a respecter of persons,
even when sin is found on his son. He kills him. What respect
we have for God. I see the justice of God. He's
not going to let sin go unpunished. But I see the love of God, that
God would give his son for sinners such as we. I see the grace and
the mercy of God. I see the wisdom of God in Him
making a way to be just and honor His holy law and yet justify
someone as sinful as me. I see the power of God to put
away sins and to make a sinful man just like the Lord Jesus
Christ. Every attribute of God is displayed
in the cross of Christ. Oh, in the cross of Christ. That's
why I have lied about myself. There I see what I really am. I don't see what I am by the
bad things I do, and I do bad things, and I wish I didn't do
them, and I pray for forgiveness and cleansing, and I don't want
to sin against God, but I don't get a real look at what I am
by the bad things I do. I get a look at what I am by
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There man, when left to himself,
there Todd, when left to himself would put to death the Son of
God to take his place. The cry of every natural man
is we will not have this man reign over us. We see the truth
about ourself in the cross, but oh, how clearly we see in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is light, how God can be
just and yet justify somebody that's guilty like me. through
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. You see, my sin,
God took my sin and placed it in his son who his own self bear
our sins in his own body on the tree. And what did he do with
that sin? He put it away. He made it not to be and he takes
the very righteousness of his son and gives it to me. And now the holy law of God looks
me over and says, there's no fault, there's no sin, he is
perfect. And I'm given a nature, a new
nature that believes the gospel, a heart that was not there before. Now notice when the angel comes,
he smoked Peter on the side. He didn't gently nudge him, wake
up Peter. He smote him on the side. And
in this same chapter, chapter 12, verse 23, let's look at how
this word is used. And immediately the angel of
the Lord smote him. Speaking of Herod, the angel
of the Lord killed him because he didn't give God the glory.
And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him because he
gave not the glory. He was eaten of worms. The process
of decay was sped up. He was eaten with worms and gave
up the ghost. So this thing of smiting is not
just gently nudging, and here's what happens. When you're given
life, you see that you are dead. When the commandment came, Paul
said, he said, I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. I died to all hope. of self-salvation. I find out
by the light that I am dead in trespasses and sins. I find that
I personally am totally depraved and unable. It's not just a doctrine
I subscribe to, it becomes my reality. I find out this is the
truth regarding me. Not just something I believe
or something I see in others, but something that I see I am. Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 5,
Five times said, woe unto them, woe unto them, woe unto them,
woe unto them, woe unto them. I can join in with him. Woe to
such people who do such things. And then after he saw the Lord
in Isaiah chapter six, he said, woe is unto me. I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of uncleanliness. I'm undone. Woe is unto me. I'm
done. I'm cut off. Mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. Now, when you're given this light,
you leave the position of the Pharisee, thanking God for how
good you are, and you take the position of the publican. God
be merciful to me, the sinner. And behold, the angel of the
Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison. He smote
Peter on the side, and he raised him up. This is the same word
that's used with regard to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He raised him up, saying, rise
up quickly, and his chains fell off from his hands. Now, when Christ was raised,
I was raised up. And then he told me to raise
up. Two resurrections here. The resurrection of Christ. Now
here is all my salvation. This is the only thing that satisfies
me. That when Christ was raised from the dead, that signified
that God was completely satisfied with everything he did. He wouldn't have raised him up
if he hadn't have made a complete payment of sin. And now God's
law says there's nothing to condemn him for. He raised Christ up,
and then he told me to be raised. Raised from the dead, this is
spiritual resurrection. This is what the new birth is,
a spiritual resurrection. Look at the way he says this.
He says, in verse 8, and he, the angel said unto him, Gerd,
thy son. Now I'm back in verse 7. And he raised him up, saying,
arise up quickly. I love this, quickly. and his
chains fell off. Now, when you hear the gospel,
you respond quickly. You don't wait for something
to happen. This is so important. You don't wait for something
to happen. You rise up quickly. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ right now. Now, as long as you're dead in sins, you're
going to be thinking about what all you need to do before you
can come to Christ. You're going to need to give
up this sin. You're going to need to start doing this good
thing. You're going to need to get your life straightened out.
There's all kinds of things you need to get taken care of before
you can come to Christ. And when you're given life, you
come to Christ right now, quickly. Rise up quickly. You don't wait
for something to happen. You don't wait for an experience.
You know your experience is no good. You don't wait for yourself
to get better because you know enough about yourself that there's
nothing you can do to be better. rise up because he told you to
rise up and you believe the gospel. And his chains fell off from
his hands. Both these chains that held him
no longer held him. You see the law is now satisfied. Christ kept the law perfectly
for me and I have a perfect righteousness before God. The righteousness
of Jesus Christ the Lord. And the law looks me over right
now and says, I find no fault in him. You know, people talk
about trying to keep the law. I don't try to keep the law.
I've kept it. Because when Jesus Christ kept the law, I kept the
law. I have a perfect righteousness
before God's law, a perfect obedience, not simply an obedience counted
to my charge, but it's me. He is my righteousness before
God. That chain has fallen off, and
the chain of my sinful nature has fallen off, not in the sense
that I no longer have a sinful nature, but I've been given a
new nature, created in Christ Jesus, a holy nature that now
does what it could not do before. I now believe the gospel. I now
love the Lord Jesus Christ. I now stay in a state of repentance. I now look to Christ only as
everything in my salvation. I find myself believing. I find
myself repenting. How come? Because if any man's
in Christ, he is a new creation, a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. The songwriter put it this way,
long my imprisoned spirit lay. Fast bound by sin and nature's
night, Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed
with light. My chains fell off, my heart
set free. I rose, went forth, and followed
thee. Verse 8, and the angel said unto
him, gird thyself. What is the believer called upon
to do? to gird himself with truth, the truth of the gospel. And girding yourself has to do
with being his servant. You are now his servant. Your
one and only purpose in life is to serve him. Gird yourself. That's what the master says to
his servants. Gird yourself and serve me. And
bind on my sandals. Now, he had to have his shoes,
and we know what the shoes of the believer is. Paul tells us
in Ephesians chapter 6, the shoes of let your feet be shod with
the preparation, with the readiness is what that means, or the preparedness
of the gospel of peace. Now, the only way I can walk
through this world, the only way I can be ready is the gospel
of peace. That's the only way I can walk,
to know that my peace has been accomplished by Christ and that
all God requires of me, he looks to his son for, as you receive
Christ Jesus the Lord, and that's how you received him, so walk
ye in him. And what a comfortable pair of
shoes this is. He says, Gird yourself, bind
on your sandals, and so he did. And he saith unto him, cast thy
garment about thee. Be completely covered with this
garment. Now, that represents the robe
of righteousness. The fine linen, clean and white. The wedding garment. the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ covering me so that's all you can see. That's all every believer wants. Oh that I may win Christ and
be found in him when God comes looking for me. This is the only
way I want him to see me in his son having nothing but his righteousness
not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that
which is through the faithfulness of Christ the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Cast thy garment about and follow
me. Now here is the life of the believer,
following the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know this about following.
There's only one way you can follow someone is if you keep
your eyes on them. You don't look at your feet.
You don't look at the side to others. You keep your eyes on
him looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.
That is the life of the believer. That's all I want to do is follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he went out, verse 9, and
followed him. And he was not what it was true,
which was done by the angel, but he thought he saw a vision.
He said, am I going to experience this? I don't know. And when
they were past the first and the second ward, these groups
of soldiers, they just walked by him. They didn't have anything
to say. Could they not see him? I don't
know. But they just walked by these two wards of soldiers.
And they came under the iron gate that leadeth unto the city,
which opened to them of his own accord. Now, what must that have
been like? They walked past two guards of
soldiers, and they stand before the iron gate. And all of a sudden,
it opens all by itself with no human help, no human hand. gate open and they know who's
opening it, this is the Lord doing this. No human help, no
human hand, this is the Lord doing this. And they went out
and passed on through one street and forthwith the angel departed
from him and when Peter was come to himself, he now knows this
is real, this is not just a vision, this is real. When Peter was
come to himself he said, now I know of assurance, I know for
sure. I know of assurity that the Lord
has sent his angel and has delivered me out of the hand of Herod and
from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. Now I know
of assurity. And let me tell you when you'll
have assurance. You will have assurance of your
personal salvation when you believe the Lord did it all, and it didn't
have anything to do with your works. He brought you from this
state of death to this state of life, and he opened the gate. He did it all. Now, when the Lord said, it is
finished, you know what that means? There's nothing left for
me to do. The only thing that gives me
assurance is that he did it all. You leave me with one thing that
I need to do, I have no assurance. I'm afraid I'm not saved. I'm
afraid I don't have what it takes. But you tell me that he did it
all, that he opened that gate with no help from me, and I'm
brought into glory by what he did. Only! I have assurance. Now I know of assurity that the
Lord is the one who did this. Now here we have in this passage
of scripture, yes, a historical event that's quite miraculous
and impressive, but even more so, we have a biography of what
every believer experienced. Here we have the components of
conversion. Let's close in prayer. Lord, we ask in Christ's name,
the name that's above every name, that you would give us life,
unshackle our arms held by thy law and by our sinful nature,
cause us to be raised with Christ, and cause us to be raised spiritually
by your spirit. Enable us to put on, gird on
the belt of truth and put on our sandals the gospel of peace
and be completely covered with the covering of thy righteousness.
Lord, enable us to behold you opening the gate and us coming
in by your grace. Lord, enable us to do this for
Christ's sake. Bless us for Christ's sake. We
give thanks for him. In his name we pray. Amen.