In verse 3 of Matthew chapter
18, the Lord says to his disciples, except you be converted, except you be converted and become
as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
I've entitled this message, What is conversion? What is conversion? Abraham was an idolater in the
land of Ere of the Chaldees, and God made himself known to
him, and he left that place, going out into a land of which
he didn't know where he was going in obedience to God. And he became
the father of the faithful. He was converted. He was turned. Mary Magdalene was possessed
with seven demons. And she was converted. She was
turned. And she became a faithful follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, The Lord
appeared unto her first, and I believe it's because she was
the one who loved him the most. She was converted. She was turned. Zacchaeus was a dishonest publican,
a man who ripped other people off. That's how he made his living.
And he was converted. He was turned to where he said,
Lord, and he was only speaking to the Lord. He wasn't saying
this to impress anyone. He said, Lord, the half of my
goods I give to the poor. And if I've taken anything from
any man by false accusation, I restore unto him fourfold. He was converted. He was turned. Peter. was in an awful state
of pride. He said, regarding all the other
disciples, they may forsake you, but I'll never do it. And the
Lord said unto him, Peter, Peter, Satan hath desired to have you
that he may sit you as wheat. But I pray for you that your
faith fail not. And when thou art converted. When thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren. Paul was on the road to Damascus
as Saul of Tarsus, and his intention was to kill anyone who believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was intercepted. with a blinding light, and he
was converted. He was turned, and he became
Paul the Apostle. Nicodemus came to Christ by night,
ashamed to be identified in any way with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he came in such darkness. A couple of years later, after
our Lord has died, he goes and the scripture says he boldly
craves the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, publicly confessing him. Nicodemus was converted. He was
turned. The Ethiopian eunuch returning
from Jerusalem empty and ignorant. The Lord sends him a preacher,
and he believes the gospel. And he goes on his way rejoicing,
believing. He was converted. He was turned. The Philippian jailer, a hard,
harsh man working in a prison Something happens, and he's made
to fall in trembling before Paul and Silas and saying, Sir, what
must I do to be saved? He was converted. He was turned. The disciples are having an argument. Who's going to be the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven? And there they are looking at
the Lord Jesus Christ, infinitely the great one in the kingdom
of heaven, and they're arguing really over which one of them
will be the greatest. And the Lord says, except you be converted
and turned from this ridiculous way of thinking, you won't even
enter the kingdom of heaven. Conversion. What is conversion? Conversion is not regeneration. Now let me repeat that. Conversion
is not regeneration. I've heard people talk about
their quote, salvation in spirits. And they said, when I was converted,
this took place and that took place. Conversion is not regeneration. Regeneration is when God births
you into the kingdom of heaven. It's when he gives life, when
he gives a new heart that was not there before. Conversion
is not regeneration. But conversion is the motion
of regeneration. Conversion is the movement of
regeneration. When I am converted, I'm turned. I was going in one direction,
and I'm turned to go in another direction. And conversion is
not a one-time act. We are continually in the process
of conversion, aren't we? We're continually in the process
of being turned. We're continually in the process
of turning. And how often we need to turn,
how often we need to be turned. Now, what is the evidence that
God has turned us? We turn. We turn. Turn with me for a moment to
Jeremiah, chapter 31. I love this verse of scripture.
This tells us that conversion is essentially and primarily
God's work. Jeremiah chapter 31, beginning
in verse 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus. Thou hast chastised me, and I
was chastised as a bullock, unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou and I shall be turned." Well, there's a prayer. Turn
thou me, and I shall be turned. For thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned,
I repented. And after that I was instructed
I smote upon my thigh, I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Turn thou me, and
I will be turned." Now we can have three responses to that.
Turn thou me. Here's the first response. I can turn myself. I don't believe
that. I don't need to be turned. I've
got a free will. I can, of my own will, turn around
whenever I will to do that. That's the response of unbelief.
That's all that is. The response of unbelief. And
then there is the response of fatalism. When we hear this scripture,
turn thou me and I will be turned, fatalism says I can't turn unless
he turns me. I won't worry about it. I will
wait for him to turn me. Fatalism, in reality, is a half
of truth that ends up being a whole lie, and it is a denial of my
responsibility, and in reality, it's an excuse for me to remain
in my sin. That's it. And then the third
response to this, the first response is that of unbelief. I don't
believe that. I can turn myself. The second
response is that of fatalism. I'll just wait. I don't need
to worry about it. I'm just going to go on. When He turns me, I'll
be turned, and I'm not going to worry about it until then.
I'll just go on in my sin. And the third response is, Lord,
turn me. Lord, turn me, and I will be
turned. Turn me to You. Turn me to Your
Son. Turn away my eyes from beholding
Turn me away from this sin that I will commit unless you turn
me. Turn again our captivity. Turn us again. Turn me, Lord. Now, here is a prayer that I
ought to be praying a whole lot of times a day, isn't it? Turn me. Turn me. And it's a scriptural prayer.
Somebody says, well, that's just an excuse to not turn yourself.
Well, whatever it is, Jeremiah said, turn me. Turn me, as a
matter of fact, this is throughout the scriptures, this thing of
us asking the Lord to turn us. You reckon if I ask him to turn
me, he'll turn me? Of course he will. If I ask him
to turn me, he'll turn me. Ask and you shall receive. And like I said, this thing is
not a one time thing. We need to be turned all the
time. We need him to turn himself to
us. And we need him to turn us. And
we need to turn. Look in Psalm 60. I want to look
at several scriptures. Psalm 60. The psalmist says in verse 1,
O God, thou hast cast us off. Thou hast scattered us. Thou
hast been displeased. O, turn thyself to us again. Now, here's where I need to begin.
Lord, turn yourself to me. Look in Psalm 80. Verse 3, Turn us again, O God, and cause
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. I was turned once,
but I've gone backwards. I've gone astray. Turn me again. Look in verse 7 of the same psalm.
Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine,
and we shall be saved. Look in verse 18. So will not
we go back from thee, quicken us, and we'll call upon thy name?
Do you hear that? Quicken us, and we'll call upon
thy name. Give me life to call upon your
name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Cause thy face to shine,
and we shall be saved. It's in Psalm 85, verse 4. Turn us. O God of our salvation, cause
thine anger toward us to cease. Psalm 86, verse 16. Oh, turn unto me. You know, I'm not going to turn
to you unless you turn to me. Oh, turn unto me and have mercy
upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant
and save the son of thy handmaid. Now here are three things that
I need, and that I need desperately. I need Him to turn to me. And I need Him to turn me. I need Him to turn to me. And
I need Him to turn me. And I need to turn. I need to
turn. That's what conversion means.
It means to turn. Now, when he turns us, we turn. Turn me, Jeremiah said, and I'll
be turned. The evidence of him turning us
is that we ourselves turn. We ourselves convert. Turn with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Verse 9, For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you. Here is how God
blessed the gospel we preached when we came into your presence.
It's seen in that how you turn to God from idols to serve the
living and the true God. Now, here's how the success of
our preaching is seen. You turn to God from idols to
serve the living and true God. Now, notice the order. He doesn't
say you turn from your idols to God, does he? He doesn't say,
well, you saw the ridiculousness of your idols, and when you saw
that, then you turned to God. No, you turn to God And then
you saw if the idols for what they were, you wouldn't see was
idolatry until you turn to God. But when you turn to God, you
see that all your former religion was idolatry and nothing more.
Now, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever seen that your
religion was idolatry? And nothing more than that. Now,
if you've ever turned to God, you see that. And if you don't
see it, it's because you have never in reality turned to God. Because if you turn to God, you
will see the idolatry of your formal religion. Now, when he
turns us, we turn. And we turn, you turn to God
from idols to serve the living and true God. And when you turn,
understand this, when you turn, we turn with our whole heart. Deuteronomy chapter 30. Verse
10, we're commanded to turn to the Lord with all of our heart
and with all of our soul. I don't know of anything more
disgusting than half-hearted religion. Now, I want you to think about
that. It's what the Lord called lukewarmness. He said, because
you're lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I'll spew you out of
my mouth. When I'm half-hearted in my religion,
I say, this is not all to me. And I've said this before so
many times, but let me say it again. The gospel, the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, if true, it's of infinite importance. If false, it's of no importance. But the one thing it cannot be
is moderately important. Something you're half-hearted
about. Worship, my dear friends, is
not to be squeezed into life's busy schedule. God doesn't want
our spare time. Life is centered around worship. If I turn, I turn with my whole
heart and my whole soul, or I do not turn at all. Now, there are
two wheels this turning turns on. And I want you to listen
to me real carefully, because this thing of turning, it can
almost seem kind of nebulous and vague. What do you do when
you turn? What's involved in turning? What does it mean to
turn? Well, first of all, God's got to turn you. We realize that.
And secondly, you've got to turn. If God turns you, you will turn.
But there are two wheels that we turn on. The wheels of repentance
and faith. I'm going to show you that from
the Scripture. But there are two wheels we turn
on when we turn. There are two wheels we turn on. We turn to
someone. We turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we turn from something. We turn from the world. And in
turning to the Lord Jesus Christ, there are two wheels we turn
on. Faith and repentance. Now would you turn with me to
Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11. Verse 19. Now, they which were
scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled
as far as Thinasi and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word
to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of
Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake
unto the Grecians. preaching the Lord Jesus, and
the hand of the Lord was within, and a great number believed and
turned to the Lord. When there is a turning to the
Lord, it happens because there is a believing, a believing the
gospel. of believing the report of the
gospel, believing the truth. You know, when you believe the
truth, when I believe the truth, you know what we're doing? We're
turning. The act of faith is the act of turning. You believe
the gospel. Now, what is the report? Turn
with me for a moment to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. What is it I'm to
believe? I hear believe. Believe what? Verse 1, Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, the
same gospel I have always preached, which also you have received,
and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep
in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain.
4. I delivered unto you. First of all, this is what is
of primary importance that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that he was
buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures. Now here's the delivery of the
message. Christ, the Son of God, Why did he die? For our sins. My sins became his, and he died. He died under the wrath of God. He died as the sin-bearing substitute. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, according to the Old Testament
Scriptures. Just like that high priest laid his hands on that
scapegoat, and that scapegoat was driven into the wilderness,
signifying the putting away of sin, the slaying of the Lamb,
the putting away of sin. It's how that he died according
to the Old Testament Scriptures. And he was buried. And he rose
again the third day, according to the Scriptures. Now, the Bible
says, if I confess with thy mouth, my mouth, the Lord Jesus, and
believe in my heart, believe in my heart, that God raised
him from the dead, I'll be saved. That's what the Word of God says. If I believe in my heart that
God raised him from the dead. Now, that is not simply referring
to the fact of the resurrection. I imagine if you talk to most
folks in Lexington, Kentucky, they say they believe that Jesus
Christ's body was raised from the dead. They believe that.
It's not only believing in the fact of his resurrection. It's
knowing why he was raised. Knowing the results of his resurrection. and relying on his resurrection. I know why he was raised. He
was raised because he offered infinite satisfaction to God. God was pleased with what he
did. God was satisfied with what he
did. He put away sins. God raised
him from the dead because he said, I can ask no more. I'm
satisfied. He was raised from the dead.
And when he was raised from the dead, he was raised for our justification. When he was raised from the dead,
all of God's elect were justified. They were not guilty because
of what he did. Do you believe that? Now, come
on, you can answer that. You believe that? then you're saved. Is it really that simple? Yes. It is that simple. We believe the gospel. And if I believe the gospel,
I will turn to the Lord Himself. And another way of saying the
same thing is I'll come to Christ. Believing the Gospel is coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is. What is it
to believe on the Gospel? It's to come to Christ. What
is it to come to Christ? It's to believe the Gospel. Now,
coming is a move. It's a move, isn't it? If you
come somewhere, you leave a place, and you come somewhere else.
It's out of self into Christ. It's out of works into resting
completely in Him. If you believe on Christ, you've turned to the Lord. Believing
is turning. Only in turning the Lord to the
Lord with a veil be taking away now this first wheel is faith
and the second wheel is repentance and you remember what Jeremiah
said that passage of Scripture in Jeremiah chapter 31 verse
18. He said when I was turned. I repented. Turn me, and I'll
be turned." When I was turned, when I was turned, I repented. Turn to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. Now, Peter is preaching and he
says in verse 13, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, have 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
and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. Now,
remember who Peter is speaking to at this time. He's talking
to the people who were calling for the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's talking to the people who
said, let him be crucified. He's talking to the people of
which it said Pilate delivered Jesus to their will. He's talking
to the soldiers who actually drug the nails in his hands and
in his feet. He's talking to the murderers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 14, but you
denied the Holy One and the just and desire to murder Barabbas
to be granted unto you and kill the Prince of life, whom God
has raised from the dead. Well, we're witnesses and his
name through faith in his name hath made this man strong whom
you see and know, yea, the faith which is by him. has given him
this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now,
brethren, I walketh through ignorance, you did it, as did also your
rulers. But those things which God before had showed by the
mouth of his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he has so fulfilled. 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. Our
sins will not be blotted out apart from us repenting and being
converted. Now, there are a lot of things, the
gospel is one, but there are a lot of things involved in the
saving of a sinner. First, God's got to elect that
sinner. He's got to choose that sinner. That sinner won't choose
him. That's absolutely necessary. And Christ has got to represent
that sinner and work out a perfect righteousness for him and die
for that sinner and be raised for that sinner. And God, the
Holy Spirit's got to give that sinner new birth, new life. And that sinner must believe. Now, God causes him to believe,
but he believes. God, the Holy Spirit, is not
going to believe for you. You yourself must believe, and you
yourself must repent. He said, repent. Repent and be
converted, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, repentance, what is repentance? Well, it's so simple. It's a
change of mind. Change of mind. A change of mind
regarding what you thought about God. You see that everything
you thought was wrong. It's a change of mind concerning
what you think about yourself. You see now that you're nothing
but sin. It's a change of mind concerning
Christ, who He is and what He did and what He accomplished.
It's a change. But somebody says, oh, what a
change. It's a change of mind that comes
from a change of masters, and it results in a change of
motives and a change of manners. Yes, it's a change of mind, but
this isn't just something intellectual. It comes from a change of masters. And it results in a change of
motives and a change of manners, conduct, conversation. Now, I
realize the old man never changes, but it's still true. Now, you
listen to me real carefully. The old man, I realize, never
changes, but it's still true that if a man is no different
after his conversion, than he was before his conversion, we
may genuinely ask, converted from what? Converted to what? Yes, it's a change of mind, but
there's a change of masters. There's a change of motives.
And there's a change of manners. Now, what a blessing conversion
is. It's God converting us. And we
convert, don't we? Look in Acts chapter 3, look
in verse 26. Unto you first, God, having raised
up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you In turning, every one
of you from his iniquities, is there any greater blessing than
that? Oh, Lord, turn me. Turn me, and I'll be turned. Now, conversion, turning, is
like faith in this sense. Faith is the gift of God. It's not the product of man's
will. It's not in the natural man's
heart. It's the gift of God. You know,
Christ himself is said to be the author and the finisher of
our faith. Faith is the gift of God. It's not of works lest any man
should boast. Faith is the gift of God. And
it's just as true that you must believe. God doesn't believe
for you. God the Holy Spirit doesn't believe
for you. You yourself must believe. Do you remember what the Ethiopian,
I mean, the Philippian jailer said? Sirs, what must I do to
be saved? Now, I've heard people say, well,
he was coming on legal grounds. That was he didn't understand
the gospel. If there isn't anything you can do to be saved. But that's
not the way Paul dealt with him, is it? Paul didn't say you shouldn't
be asking a question like that. He gave him the answer when he
said, what must I do to be saved? He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Faith is the gift of God. It's not a works. It's not the
product of man's free will. And you must believe. Now, listen
to me, everybody in this room. God commands you to believe.
And your right comes with his command. Now, conversion is the
same thing. Being turned, it's the gift of
God. It's Him turning you. And if
you have any understanding of yourself, you know that you won't
turn unless He turns you. Now, if you think you can turn
yourself, you haven't been taught of God. You haven't learned a
thing. But if God has taught you, you know enough about yourself
to know that you will not turn unless He turns you. And that's
why you cry out, Lord, turn me, turn me, and I'll be turned.
Turning is the work of God, and I myself must turn. I don't say, well, if it's the
work of God, I'll just wait and see, you know, when God turns
me, then I'll turn. No, I'm called upon to turn. Believe and turn
to the Lord. Repent and turn to the Lord.
Those are the wheels of turning. Now, this is kind of a side note. When you're talking about Job,
In Job, I think it's in Job chapter 42, there's a scripture. I can't
remember exactly which verse it is, but I was thinking about this
because I was thinking about this thing of turning. What I did,
I looked up all the scriptures where turning and conversion
is used. And it says this about Job. The
Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Well, does that mean you won't
be turned unless you pray for your friends? Well, I know I'm going to get
this out, and I want to pray for my friends. I want to pray. No, my praying doesn't turn anything. But Scripture still says the
Lord turned. Don't you want the Lord to turn
you? The Lord turned the captivity of Job. when he prayed for his
friends. Lord, turn to me. Lord, turn me. It's a good prayer, isn't it?
May God give us that prayer. And may God turn to us. And may
God, in His mercy, enable us to turn in repentance and in
faith. Let's pray.