Conversion

Q: What does the Bible say about conversion?

The Bible describes conversion as a profound transformation that occurs when an individual has a genuine encounter with God, often characterized by faith and understanding of the gospel. Conversion in the Bible is depicted as a significant event where an individual expresses interest in God and ultimately encounters the gospel. This transformation is not merely about a decision made at an altar but involves a heartfelt understanding of Jesus Christ's sacrifice and acknowledgment of one's need for salvation. Acts 8:26-39 illustrates this through the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, showcasing how God initiated the encounter and how the eunuch responded with faith after understanding the gospel presented by Philip. Conversion thus encompasses interest, understanding, revelation, confession, and a commitment to continue in faith.

Q: How do we know that true conversion is genuine?

True conversion is evidenced by a lasting change in the individual, marked by faith in Christ and a desire for spiritual growth and understanding. A genuine conversion leads to significant life changes, indicated by one’s understanding and acceptance of the grace of God as revealed in His Word. The example of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 demonstrates that true conversion involves both a divine interest in the things of God and a subsequent encounter with the gospel that transforms the individual. The eunuch’s immediate request for baptism after believing signifies a heart response that reflects sincere faith. Genuine conversion is characterized by ongoing faithfulness and a desire to confess Christ publicly and privately, indicating that the person is indeed one of God’s elect.

Q: Why is understanding the gospel important for Christians?

Understanding the gospel is vital for Christians as it lays the foundation for faith, guiding them in their relationship with God and influencing their daily conduct. The understanding of the gospel is crucial for every believer because it encompasses the core message of salvation through Jesus Christ. As illustrated in Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch struggled with understanding the Scriptures until Philip provided clarity on Isaiah 53, revealing the significance of Christ’s sacrifice. This understanding leads to true faith, enabling individuals to recognize their need for salvation and the grace extended to them. Moreover, the full comprehension of the gospel fosters spiritual growth, empowers believers to live out their faith, and equips them to share the truth with others. Without this understanding, Christians might fall prey to false teachings and lack the assurance that comes with knowing Christ.

We're going to look at the book
of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles again today. I'll be speaking
from the 8th chapter of the book of Acts. Now, there's a most
interesting story recorded here in the 8th chapter of the book
of Acts. It's the story of a man to whom
God revealed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the story
of a man whom God Almighty brought to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, we don't have any information
about this man prior to this time, and I don't believe there's
any information about him after this time. But right here, one
thing is quite certain. This man was one of God's elect. I'm certain of it. This man is
one of God's sheep. I'm certain of it. For his experience
is recorded for us in the Word of God. like the experience of
the Apostle Paul, and like the other apostles whom our Lord
called, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the others. And here
is a man whom God saved. Now, Philip was up in Samaria,
and God was blessing. People were hearing the gospel
and being saved, and the Spirit of God said to Philip, you go
down into the desert. in a place called Gaza between
Jerusalem and Ethiopia. So Philip went down there and
stood there in the desert, and here came a chariot, probably
several of them. And there was a man in one of
these chariots, an outstanding man, a wealthy man. He was a
servant of the queen of Ethiopia. He was her treasurer. He had
charge of all of her riches. And what was this man doing in
the desert? Well, he'd been to Jerusalem
to worship. He'd been to Jerusalem to attend
one of these feasts that I talked about last week, Feast of the
Pentecost or Feast of the Waving of the Sheaf, the first fruits,
but he'd been to a feast. And he was on his way home, sitting
in his chariot, reading the Word of God. We even know what part
of the Word of God he was reading. He was reading the prophet Isaiah.
And the angel of the Lord said to Philip, now you go join yourself
to this chariot. And Philip went and joined himself.
He started walking alongside the chariot and the man was sitting
there reading, probably reading aloud, I do not know. But Philip
looked at him in the chariot and he was reading. And Philip
said, do you understand what you're reading? And he leaned
out the window of the chariot and he said, no. How can I understand
unless someone shows me, unless someone teaches me? He'd been
to Jerusalem to hear the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes
and the priests, and they hadn't taught him anything. And he said
to Philip, I can't understand it if somebody doesn't teach
me. And he asked Philip to come up and sit beside him. So Philip
got up in the chariot and sat down. He looked at the place
where he was reading in Isaiah 53, and Philip began at that
scripture and preached Christ Jesus to him. And the story goes
on as they went their way that the man, seeing a body of water
outside the chariot somewhere on the road, he said, Hey, here's
water. What doth hinder me from being baptized? And Philip said,
Well, if thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And
he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And
Philip had them stop the chariot, and they both got out, and they
went down into the water, and Philip immersed him, baptized
him, and he came up straightway out of the water. And when they'd
come out of the lake, the Lord took Philip away. And the Scripture
says, the man went on his way rejoicing, rejoicing in the Lord. Now, I've preached from this
text many times, many, many times. And I'll preach from it many
more because it's so encouraging, it's so enlightening, and it's
edifying to all believers. There's something here for us
every time we read it, every time we preach from it. But I
saw something recently, and I preached it to our folks at home, 13th
Street, something that might be a special help to you today. I believe it might be in regard
to the matter of conversion. That's the title of this sermon.
Conversion. Conversion. When is a person
converted? When is a person truly saved?
What takes place in conversion? This man was converted. Not a
doubt about it. Not a doubt about it. God sent
one of His chief preachers to talk to this man. And this man
was converted. I'm sure of that. Well, what
took place? What took place? When was he
converted? How was he converted? What took place when he was converted?
Now, there's a lot of hand raising today, maybe both hands, and
there's a lot of aisle walking. There's a lot of people going
down the aisle. I see them in these huge campaigns, thousands,
just going down to the front of a football field or the front
of a stadium or the front of a church or the front of a tent,
just people going down, walking down aisles, making decisions,
and they're calling it conversion. But I know this, it doesn't last
long. It doesn't last long. I see these
same people getting converted over and over again in these
meetings. It doesn't last long and it doesn't bring peace, it
doesn't bring grace, it doesn't change their lives or their hearts. But here's an example of true
conversion recorded in God's Word by the Holy Spirit. It's
set forth clearly right here. And I'll show you five things
that God, I believe, has revealed to me in this. I believe I've
been taught concerning this thing called conversion. And I believe
there are five things here, five things that are seen, experienced
in every conversion, shown right here. There's a reason why this
story's in the Word of God. I mean minutely, in detail, it's
spelled out, everything that went on. And there's a reason
for that. Not that many volumes for God
to give so much space to this man's conversion. And here's
some reasons that it's something that happens in all true conversion. Now, first of all, watch this.
See if this is not true. There's an interest in the things
of God first. There's an interest. It says
in verse 27, look at it, Acts 8, 27. Behold, a man of Ethiopia
had come to Jerusalem. This man had taken a long, perilous,
tiresome journey all the way to Jerusalem. He had heard about
the God of Israel. He had heard about the people
of Israel. He had heard about the temple of Solomon. He had
heard about the sacrifices and ceremonies. He had heard about
the miracles of God. And he took a chariot and went
all the way to Jerusalem. And he was on his way back home
after the feast and after the ceremony. He was on his way back
home sitting in his chariot reading the scriptures. Reading the scriptures. So there was an interest. This
man had an interest. God had given to him or kindled
in him sometime an interest in God, in the things of God. in the Word of God. Somewhere
he had secured a copy of God's Word, and he was reading it.
I know that he had received nothing in Jerusalem. Those fellas didn't
know God. They didn't know Christ. The
Lord Jesus came to his own, and his own received him not. He
was in the world, and the world didn't know him. And the religious
leaders didn't know him, so they couldn't give this man anything.
They didn't have anything. He didn't get anything from them,
but that interest was there. That desire was there. I tell
you, when the Lord begins a work of grace in a person's heart,
man or woman, boy or girl, I don't know when He begins it. I can't
point you to the time or the day or the hour, but I do know
there's first an interest kindled in the heart, an interest, an
interest. It's like these people that came
to the disciples and said, sirs, we would see Jesus. We want to
see Jesus. We want to hear Him. Zacchaeus
went and climbed up in a tree. Wow, this publican Zacchaeus.
When did that interest become so compelling that he was willing,
a little short fellow called Zacchaeus, a collector of taxes,
a prominent man in town, a publican, would climb a tree, almost make
a fool out of himself, sit up there with the boys and girls,
wanting to hear or see Jesus Christ. And I tell you, when
the Lord came there, he looked up and called him down. Cornelius,
there's another example of a man who had an interest. He was a
devout man. He prayed to God, but he didn't
know the gospel. And God sent Peter down there
to preach the gospel to him. He didn't even know what Peter
was going to say, but he sent for him. What about Rahab the
harlot? Did you ever read that story
in the book of Joshua chapter 2? When the spies came to Rahab's
house, she said, now listen, this was when the Jews had been
in the wilderness 40 years, 40 years. And now they were going
to enter Canaan and conquer Jericho. And she said, we have heard about
you people for 40 years. We know about your crossing the
Red Sea. We know about your God. Your
God is God. And she expressed an interest
in knowing that God. I'll tell you, what about Lydia?
Paul came to Philippi to preach, and he went down by the riverside,
and he found a dozen women, one of them named Lydia, didn't know
the gospel, didn't know Christ, but they had gathered together
down there to pray, to pray, and God What about the man from
Macedonia that appeared to Paul in the vision and said, would
you come over and help us? Would you come over and help
us? I have a friend that's a missionary in Mexico, a place called the
Yucatan, a very poor, poor part of Mexico. I've been down there
a lot of times. The roads are so rough and rocky
and some of the places you can't even drive a car. You can ride
a bicycle or walk, but the roads are so terrible. You can't even
get to some of those villages and places. But one day this
missionary friend out preaching and giving out Bibles and teaching
people, he saw a road he'd never been up in his truck. It was
a terrible, terrible road. But he took that truck and went
over that road and pulled up in front of one of those little
stone houses with a grass roof. And three women came running
out. They came running out and they
said, come in, come in. Our grandmother dreamed. Listen to me now. This is a true
story. Our grandmother dreamed that
a North American would come in a machine and tell us about God. Are you going to tell us about
God? Interesting. I tell you this, when the sower
went forth to sow, He sowed the seed. Some of it fell on fallow
ground and stony ground and ground where the weeds ate it up. Some of it fell on what? Plowed
ground. Who plowed the ground? God did. Are you interested? A man will never hear the gospel
without an interest, not affectionately. God's got to give him an interest.
All right, secondly, this man had an interest. He got in his
chariot and went clear to Jerusalem. And miles won't make any difference
if you ever get an interest. I hear people say, well, I watch
you on television. I live about 50 miles from where
you preach. It's too far to go. You ever
get interested, miles mean nothing, an interest. Secondly, there
was an encounter, an encounter with someone who knew the gospel.
who preached the gospel. And the Spirit of the Lord, verse
29, said to Philip, You go near and join yourself to that chariot. And Philip went to the chariot
and heard him read and said, Do you understand what you read? I'm telling you this, this man
had an interest and God gave him that interest and God sent
him a true prophet to teach him the gospel and to preach to him
the gospel. That's right. God sent him a
prophet. He sent Peter to Cornelius. If you've got an interest in
the gospel, if God's given you an interest in really knowing
Him, I'm not talking about an interest in religion. Everybody's
interested in religion. Religion is as plentiful as sunshine,
but the gospel is a rarity. Gospel, the gospel preaching. It's a rarity. God sent Peter
to Cornelius. He sent Ananias to Paul. He sent Paul to Lydia. And He
sent Philip to the union. God Almighty, if you're one of
His own, He'll cross your path with the truth. That may be why
you turn this program on. I was in Australia preaching
two years ago. And I ran into a young man from
one of the Scandinavian countries. clear down in a little village
in Australia called Tumut, T-U-M-U-T. They didn't even have a church
building. We were meeting in the city hall, in the city building. I had a crowd of people there
to preach to. And this young man, an engineer, had come down
to Tumut for some reason in Australia, halfway around the world. And
we met. And I preached to him that night.
And he came up to me after the service and said, What in the
world? is a fellow from Kentucky doing clear down here in this
little village in the middle of the night in Australia. I
said, God sent me here to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ. You came all the way here to
hear about Him and I came here to tell you about Him, just like
Philip met the eunuch in the middle of the desert. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how
shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed? And how
shall they believe in Him of whom they've not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? Would you tell me? I tell you,
God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. When Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, he said,
I know, I know you're one of God's own. I know you're God's
elect. I know you are. Because, this is how I know it,
our gospel didn't come to you in word only. It came to you
in power, in the Holy Ghost and much assurance. That's how I
know you're one of God's sheep, because God sent you the gospel.
In whom you trusted, Paul said to the Ephesian church, in whom
you trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel. of your salvation. But we've
got to preach the Word in context, verse by verse. We've got to
preach the Word. I can't just stand up here and
bawl you out for not coming to church and not sending in a dollar
and all that other foolishness. I'm here to preach Christ, tell
you about the Lord, tell you what His Word says. And what
you do with it is between you and God. God sends a man a preacher. That preacher can't save him,
but he can tell him the truth. God can save him. The truth about
the one who can't. All right, thirdly, quickly.
This man had an interest. And then he ran into, not by
accident, on purpose, an encounter. He ran into a true preacher.
One of God's true preachers. And then thirdly, there was an
understanding. Understanding. Got to have understanding. Look at verse 30 and 31. Philip
asked him, Do you understand what you're reading? He was sitting
here reading the prophet Isaiah chapter 53. Philip said, do you
understand it? You know how that chapter goes?
Who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? He shall grow up before him as
a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form
nor comeliness. There's no beauty about him that
we should desire him. He's a man of sorrows acquainted
with greed. despised and rejected of men.
We hid, as it were, our faces from him. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. By his stripes
we're healed. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord
has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Peter Phillips said,
Do you understand what you're reading? He said, How can I?
How can I understand this? This is talking about things
that I know nothing about. Oh, I'm a treasurer, I know about
money, and I know about paying bills, and I know about borrowing,
and I know about finance, and I know about percentages, and
I know about interest, and I know about annuities, and I know about
this. But I don't know anything about these things. I don't know
anything about these things. I tell you the very fact that
the Scriptures are the Word of God makes them impossible for
a natural mind to understand. Can we, by nature, find God? Can we, by searching, find God?
It's higher than the heavens. Who can know it? Deeper than
hell, who can understand it? Broader than the sea, who can
encompass it? I Corinthians 2, verse 14 says,
A natural man receiveth not the things of God. They're foolishness
to him. Foolishness. Neither can he know
them. They're spiritually discerned.
The word mystery is used over and over and over and over again
regarding the Word of God, the mystery of godliness. God was
manifested in the flesh. The mystery of Christ. The mystery
of the gospel. These are scriptures. The mystery
of the church, Christ and the church. The mystery of the Gentiles. The mystery of the resurrection.
I show you a mystery, Paul said. Not to speak of the questions
raised by Job, how can man be just with God? Got an answer? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? How can God be just and justify
ungodly people? If a man dies, where is he? We
got his body right here, where is he? If a man dies, shall he
live again? Mysteries, all mysteries. How can the law be satisfied
and yet curse? How can the judgment of God,
justice of God punish and yet forgive? How can mercy and truth
meet together? They're far apart as the poles.
How can righteousness, strict righteousness and peace kiss
each other? Mysteries. How beautiful are
the feet of them that open those mysteries, who preach the gospel
and God's ordained prophets and apostles and missionaries and
pastors and teachers. that we might understand these
mysteries. I'm not a cheerleader. I'm not
up here leading chants and cheers and cantatas. I'm up here preaching,
proclaiming, teaching the word of God. How God can be just and
justify. How he can be clean that's born
of a woman. I'm up here talking seriously
and scripturally and straightforwardly to you about the things of God. What do you want me to do? Run
around this pulpit? Want me to get out here in front of a bunch
of flowers and wave my hands and make jokes? It's not the
time to joke. This man wasn't joking. He said,
how can I understand if somebody doesn't show me? I've got to
know. He said, listen, listen. Of whom
does this man speak? Himself or some other man? Of whom does he speak? Now, this
thing of conversion, there was an interest, an interest in God. There was an encounter with a
man of God. There was understanding. And
then came a revelation. Of whom? Of whom? He was reading Isaiah 53. He
was wounded for our transgression. was bruised for our iniquities.
He bore the chastisement of our peace. He shall grow up before
him as a tender plant. He shall see the travail of his
soul be satisfied." Of whom does he speak? Of whom does he speak? He's talking
about the man. Pilate said, Behold the man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, all the way through
the Old Testament from Genesis 3.15, a man is promised. All the way through it. That
seed of woman is a man. That's right, born of woman.
That seed of Abraham is a man. That son of David is a man. Redemptions
in a man. Salvations in a man. So Philip
began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus Christ,
the God-man. He's my message. He must be your
message. Not the Baptist church or the
Catholic church or the whatever church. The church can't save,
Christ does. The church is not our mediator.
There's one mediator between God and men, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And our Lord has come to fulfill for us all things. In him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Old Testament says
someone's coming. The four gospels says he has
come. Matthew, King of the Jews, Mark,
Servant, Luke, Son of Man, John, Son of God. That's who He is. And the epistles say that someone's
coming back, and His reward's with Him, and He's coming for
His own. The Father gave them to Him,
He came down and purchased them, and one day He'll come to receive
them. This man is none other than the Son of God. Jesus Christ
our Lord." Well, what's the next thing in conversion? Confession. Confession. This man sat there. God gave him an interest. God
gave him a preacher. God gave him an understanding.
God gave him a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
said to Philip, I want to confess Christ in baptism. Philip said, do you believe?
That's how you hedge baptism about. You don't hedge it about
with rules and regulations and church membership and all these
things. You hedge it about with one question. If you believe
with all your heart, you may. He said, I believe Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. What is it to confess Christ?
It's to believe it in my heart. It's to publicly confess Him
in baptism. Christ died, was buried, and
rose again. We're dead to the world. We're buried to walk,
risen to walk in newness of life. It's to identify with His people.
It's to identify with His people, not be ashamed of His people.
It's to confess Christ in my walk and in my talk, in my daily
behavior, in my daily conduct. That's how I confess Christ.
I confess Christ daily. When I talk to people and walk
before people, where I work and where I live, in my home, I confess
Christ. One time a fellow asked John
Newton, said, do you believe Mr. Shades is a converted man? John Newton replied, I don't
know. I've never lived with him. One way to know if a man's a
converted man is to live with him and you'll find it out. And then fourthly, to confess
Christ. Fifthly, is to continue to confess
him day by day until the end of the journey. All right, if
you want this message, it's entitled Conversion. Conversion. Write for it. Send $2. And there's
a message on the other side that I preached last week. And that
message is Lord and Christ. Both of these are on the same
tape. If you send $2, our tape director will prepare the tape
for you. Any back messages I preach, we have them all on tape. We
have a tape list, and we'll send you any tape you want. Any amount
of tapes you want. Two dollars. Here's the address.
Till next week. God bless you.

Conversion

What does the Bible say about conversion?

How do we know that true conversion is genuine?

Why is understanding the gospel important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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Conversion

What does the Bible say about conversion?

How do we know that true conversion is genuine?

Why is understanding the gospel important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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