The Principles of Conversion

Q: What does the Bible say about true conversion?

The Bible teaches that true conversion involves a heart change initiated by God, resulting in a genuine relationship with Christ. According to Ezekiel 36:26, true conversion involves a radical transformation where God promises to give us a new heart and a new spirit. This change is not merely external adherence to religious practices, but an inward transformation whereby we no longer just believe in certain doctrines but truly experience God in a personal way. This inner change is defined as being from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, meaning that individuals will feel, respond, and be sensitive to God’s love and truth.

Q: How do we know conversion is a divine work?

Conversion is a divine work as it is God who changes the heart and spirit, making the believer a new creation. Throughout the sermon, the preacher emphasizes that conversion is entirely a work of God's grace, asserting that it begins with Him. Ezekiel 36:26 captures this promise that God will take away our stony hearts and give us hearts of flesh, suggesting that no mere human effort can achieve this transformation. Instead, it is God’s sovereign power that brings about regeneration and spiritual rebirth, ensuring that spiritual conversion is wholly divine and not attributable to our actions or decisions.

Q: Why is having a new heart important for Christians?

Having a new heart is crucial for Christians because it signifies a transformation that allows for genuine love, faith, and obedience to God. The importance of receiving a new heart cannot be overstated. As mentioned in Ezekiel 36:26, God promises to replace our hard hearts with hearts that are alive and responsive. This heart change is essential because it enables believers to feel God’s love, respond to His Word, and live in obedience to His commands. A heart transformed by God is one that is tender and compassionate, able to reflect Christ’s love to the world, and marked by a relationship rather than mere religious obligation.

Q: What does it mean to be spiritually born again?

To be spiritually born again means to be made new through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, enabling faith and connection to Christ. Being spiritually born again signifies a profound inward change that comes from the Holy Spirit's work in a believer’s life. Like the proclamation in Ezekiel 36:26, this process involves the transformation of one’s heart, moving from a stony state to one of flesh—soft and attuned to God. John 3:3 further highlights the necessity of this rebirth, emphasizing that no one can see the kingdom of God without it. This rebirth is essential for true faith, resulting in an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.

Q: How does God glorify His name through conversion?

God glorifies His name through conversion by transforming hearts and lives to reflect His grace and mercy. God's primary purpose in conversion is to exalt His glory. As expressed in Ezekiel 36:23, God states He will sanctify His name among the nations. This sanctification occurs as God draws individuals out of darkness into His marvelous light, thereby displaying His character and attributes through their transformed lives. As believers live out the effects of their conversion—demonstrating love, grace, and mercy—they reflect God's glory to the world and proclaim the good news of His redemption.

Now you can turn in your Bibles
with me to the book of Ezekiel. I'm going to read for a text
Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36, 25 through 28. Now
here's my message today. The principles. the principles of true conversion,
the principles of true conversion. And they're principles of true
conversion. This is what I'm preaching about,
the principles of true conversion. They are a reality. They're known
by some, not by all, but by some, and they're undeniable. They're
the experience, the genuine experience of some people. It's not a head
knowledge of doctrine. It's not even going through the
form of religion. It's not giving mental assent
to a few facts about Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus Christ died and
was buried and rose again. I've believed that ever since
I was a foot and a half out. In my head, I've given mental
assent to that. I've given mental agreement.
Somebody says, well, believe in the blood and the book and
the blessed hope. I've believed that ever since I could talk.
I'd given mental agreement to those things. I was raised in
the church and raised in a so-called Christian home and raised in
the principles and truths of the Bible. I believed them. Somebody
told me this Bible was a word of God, and I believed it. But
one day I experienced these things. One day, by the grace of God,
something happened besides a mental agreement and a mental assent
to some facts. One day Jesus Christ became more
than a historical character. One day he became more than the
father of our church, like George Washington is the father of this
country. One day something happened that caused me to have more than
just allegiance to a flag and allegiance to a Christian flag.
I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, you know. One day God came
to dwell in my heart. One day God in the person of
His Son came to make Himself manifest and known and revealed,
and I found out He's my Lord and my God. And I no longer believe
in the doctrine of the resurrection. I now walk with the living Lord.
He's not dead. Why seek the living among the
dead? He's not dead. Like David said, the Lord is
my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. That's
not a doctrine he's reciting, that's an experience. The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not walk. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. He doesn't make me walk a church
aisle, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leaves me
beside still waters. I know, Job said, my Redeemer
liveth. I know he liveth and the worms
destroy this body. I'm going to see the Lord. That's
what he said. I myself, not another, these
eyes are going to look upon him who is my Lord. I know that.
I know whom I have believed, Paul said. I'm persuaded that
he's able to keep that which I have committed to him. Peter said, Lord, you know all
things. You know I love you. This is a relationship that may
be doubted by many. But you know all things, and
I'm not afraid to unveil my soul to you, my heart to you, because
you know I love you." And the eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch,
when Phillips said, he said, here's water, what does hinder
me from being baptized? And Phillips said, well, if you
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you may. And
that man influential, powerful, prestigious man, that keeper
of all the treasury of Ethiopia. Can you imagine what that man's
responsibility was? Can you imagine who he was? Right-hand
man to the Queen of Ethiopia, the keeper of all her treasures.
That man stood out there in the middle of that forsaken, forlorn
desert that day with a simple preacher of the gospel, and he
said, you listen to me, I believe that Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus
born of Mary, Jesus who walked this earth, I believe he is not
only a man, but he is the Son of the living God. I believe
by his death, burial, and resurrection I have hope of eternal life,
and I wish to go down beneath that water and testify to this
whole world and my friends round about that I'm identified with
Jesus Christ in his hated death, in his disputed resurrection,
and in his reigning power. I'm identified with Christ. I
want that known. I want to show you here from
Ezekiel 36 these principles of true conversion that occur by
experience. Not just by some little silly
thing, give Jesus your heart or turn your talents and tithe
and time over to the Lord and he'll bless you financially and
physically and take you to heaven when you die. That's just a bunch
of sing-song tommyrot, that's all that is. I want to show you
from the Word of God the principles, the inward experience principles
of a real conversion. The principles. Now what this
is in Ezekiel 36 is a review of the covenant of grace. Revealed
to Abraham, spoken by the Lord to Abraham. He said to Abraham,
I'm going to make of you a great nation. As the stars of the sky,
as the sands of the seashore, I'm going to bless them forever.
I'm going to give them a land and they'll inherit it. He said
that to Abraham. And it was confirmed by Jeremiah. I talked about it last Sunday.
And here it is reviewed by Ezekiel. Now what this world and the King
is Coming broadcast and the premillennialists and all these different fellows,
what they have missed is this. God wasn't talking about a little
nation by the name of Israel operating under the star of David.
That's not who he's talking about. In verse 22, look at verse 22,
now get this, if you don't get anything else, get this and work
from this. Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do
not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my own holy
name's sake, of whom was God speaking? when he told Abraham,
I'll make you as your nation, your people, as the stars of
the sky and the sands of the seashore. Of whom was God speaking? Bagan's tribe? Certainly not. Those people don't know the Lord
Jesus Christ. They don't confess the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're not even sons of Abraham.
They're not children of Abraham. Ishmael is a son of Abraham.
You want to talk about the natural seed of Abraham, Ishmael is just
as much of the seed of Abraham as Isaac is, naturally speaking. Now isn't that right, Joe? Just
as much. He had a different mama, but he was the seed of Abraham.
Children are born the seed of men, not the seed of woman. Christ is the seed of woman because
he's virgin born. But we are the seed of men, and
Ishmael and every Ishmaelite and Moslem is a son of Abraham,
right down to Ishmael, just as much as Isaac ever was, fleshly
speaking, naturally speaking. But when God spoke, and I'll
show you this in the scripture, when God spoke to Abraham and
promised him a people like the stars of the sky and the sands
of the seashore, he was talking about a spiritual people, spiritual
Israel, spiritual Jews. People that came through Isaac
because Christ came through Isaac. And a people born like Isaac
was born. Now listen to me. Ishmael was
born of the flesh. He was Abraham's idea, not God's
idea. He was Abraham's idea. He was born of a council between
Abraham and Sarah and Hagar. That's where that kid was conceived,
in that council right there. Sarah said to Abraham, said,
well, God promised you a son, and I'm too old to bear a son.
I'm 90 years old. I'll never have another child.
thing for you to do is go into Hagar and have a son." And that's
what he did. And that's what we're doing.
We're sitting around saying, well, it looks like the Gospels
fail. People aren't being converted by the droves and the masses,
and it looks like the Holy Spirit's not working. It looks like nobody's
going to be supernaturally born. So we're going to organize our
soul winners, and we're going to go into the home with these
little ABC Gospels and this Roman road, and we're going to get
us some Ishmael. We're going to barn us some people.
We're going to say, you believe this? Yes. You believe that?
Yes. Well, you're saved. Am I? Yeah, you're saved. You're
going to heaven. Now come to church and be baptized. Send
your tithe. If you can't come, send your
money, because we've got to keep on the air telling people this
awful story, you know. And we get our Ishmaels, and
they're tearing the church up just like Ishmael tore up Abraham's
house, and just like they're having trouble with him right
now. They're flesh-born, flesh-born. They're our children. They're
our converts. They're our sheep. And that's the reason most churches
have a thousand members, and the preacher will preach to fifteen
tonight, maybe fifty or a hundred. They don't care anything about
God, the church, the Bible, the gospel, or anything else, but
they're going to heaven when they die, you know. They mistreat
one another, they steal from one another, they cuss and gossip
on one another, they slander one another. That's just, that's
old Ishmaelite nature. But God said, I'm going to give
you a son called Isaac and he'll be supernaturally born and Contrary
to nature, contrary to the flesh, by the power of God, by an act
of God, that son was conceived in the womb of Sarah. And that's
the way every one of God's children are born. They're born supernaturally.
They're born by the power of God. They're born in a womb that
has no life and no ability and no power. We're supernaturally
conceived by the Holy Spirit. And that's Isaac, and he said
this, and I'll bless you, I'll bless this nation, and this nation
will be a seed, and that seed is Christ. Let me show you that
in the scripture. Now turn to Galatians 3.16. Galatians 3.16. Now watch this,
Galatians 3.16. And I'll tell you this, in due
time God will bring forth his children. We'll wait on it. if
we'll just preach the gospel to people and pray for people
and witness to them and let God save them. He will in due time. In Galatians 3, look at this,
verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, Ishmael is the seed of Abraham, but as of one, unto
thy seed which is Christ. What are you saying, preacher?
that Abraham's sons, Abraham's seed, Abraham's people, of whom
he's the father, those people are spiritually born again, redeemed
people in Jesus Christ, not only of the tribe of Judah and Dan
and Benjamin and the rest of them, but of every nation, tribe,
kindred and tongue and people unto him. I am a Jew. I am an
Israelite. That's exactly what Let me show
you that in Romans, if you will, chapter 2. Romans chapter 2,
and that's who God's talking about. And this little country,
this little people called Israel, they're just pictures and types.
Just like the ark is a picture of Christ. Just like the priest
in the Old Testament's pictures of Christ. Just like the blazing
serpent is a picture of Christ. Israel is a picture of spiritual
Israel. Now look at Romans 2, verse 28.
He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. That's what we're
trying to say. He's a Jew that's migrated back to the Holy Land.
He's a Jew that wears a black hat and little goatee and runs
around with his book of prayers and denies the New Testament
and denies Christ and denies the covenant of grace and denies
the crucified Redeemer and denies the only mediator. He ain't no
Jew. He's reprobate, that's what he
is. He's not a Jew. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, neither is circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
Every boy and baby born on the eighth day is circumcised, that
makes him a Jew. I beg your pardon. But he is
a Jew, Paul said, which is one where? Inwardly, who's been circumcised
in the heart, who's been born of God, who is a child of faith. Abraham's faith was in whom?
In a redeeming God. Abraham believed God, he believed
a redeeming God, Charlie. The Lord Jesus, they said, well,
Abraham's our father. Christ said, Abraham's not your
father. Now listen, Christ said this to those Jews. Just what
I'd say to those over there in Palestine. They say, Abraham's
our father. Christ said, Abraham is not your
father. You know what he said? He said,
if Abraham were your father, you would do the works of Abraham. You'd be like Abraham, you'd
bear the image of Abraham, you'd bear the likeness of Abraham,
you'd do the works of Abraham, and you'd believe on him whom
God had sent. Abraham saw my day and rejoiced
to see my day and believed in my day. Christ speaking of himself. Abraham believed Christ. He believed
in a redeeming God. He said, God himself will provide
a lamb. He'll provide himself a lamb.
Abraham's faith was not just directed to Elohim, to the law-giving
God, to the justice-keeping God, to the holy God. His faith was
directed to the redeeming Lord through a good sacrifice in his
son. And everybody is a son of Abraham
and a child of Abraham who believes that, and everybody who doesn't
believe it is not a child of Abraham. He's not a Jew. That's
exactly right. Read that verse 29. He is a Jew
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. And if you'll get that through your head, it'll relieve you
of all this teaching. of trying to interpret the land
of Israel and Abraham's seed inhabiting the land forever and
make you stretch the word of God to make that so and get that
temple built back over there where it's supposed to be and
the sacrifices back in it and the Jews living in that little
old piece of land with a wall around it. If you ever get the
idea and see that God's people are spiritual Israel, and redeem
people from every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven every
generation, it will relieve you of all the strain of trying to
put us every one in that wall over there. And Christ sitting
on a literal throne reigning over that silly land over there.
Now that will relieve you. You couldn't get all Israel in
there anyhow. They number the stars of the
sky and the sands of the seashore. How are they going to sit on
that little old block of land over there? It's not much bigger
than Rhode Island. You see what I'm talking about? It's spiritual
Israel. Turn to Philippians 3, verse
3, and I'll show you this. When he talks about inheriting
the land, he's talking about that new land. When he talks
about it being their land forever, he means the spiritual Israel's
land forever. And natural Israel is a type
of that. It's a type of that and a picture
of that. Philippians 3, verse 3. We are the circumcision. We are the Jews, we are Israel,
who worship God in the Spirit, not in forms, not over there
leaning against that poor wailing wall with my head against it,
you know, wailing these mournful things. The scripture says, Rejoice
in the Lord! We worship God in Spirit, we
rejoice in Christ Jesus! Somebody said, well, you ought
not be so hard on this religious form and ceremony. Our Lord was
hard on it. You read Isaiah 1. He said, I'm
sick of your ceremonies. I'm sick of your sacrifices.
Don't lift your hands in prayer to me. I won't listen to the
entirety of your Sabbath days and all of these other things.
That's what he said to them. We worship God in the Spirit,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in this flesh,
in our descendancy, in our ancestry, in our heritage, in any flesh,
our confidence is in Christ. We'd better get a hold of this.
Another thing he's saying here. He says in verse 23, I'll sanctify
my great name. We better get a hold of this.
God has a covenant. He's going to bless spiritual
Israel, sons of Abraham, children of faith, believers of every
tribe, kindred, nation, tongue, and hair. That's his Israel.
That's the Jew. That's his nation. That's his
people. And he says, I'm going to sanctify my name. I'm going
to glorify my name, which was profaned among the heathen, which
you have profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be
sanctified in you before their eyes and before your eyes." Get
this straight, this is so. We may buck it and rebel against
it, it may chafe against our flesh, it may cross the grain
of our will, but everything God does, he does for his glory.
That's exactly right. If you can partake of and magnify
and exalt his glory. You too shall be glorified, but
his glory is the primary objective. Is that clear what I'm saying?
Let me show you some scripture. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. His
glory is the primary objective. I know preachers today talk about
what they're going to do in heaven and how they're going to be glorified
and wear crowns and There's a sevenfold crown and all these different
rewards and all this sort of thing. God's going to brag on
them. They're going to assemble their little group of souls they've
won to Christ over there, and God's going to give them a reward.
But that's not what Scripture says. Christ is our reward. And we're all going to be like
him. First shall be last, and the last shall be first. We're
not going to glory over one another. We're going to glory in the Lord.
Verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 1 says, You see your calling, brethren?
Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things
which are despised hath God chosen ye, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are that no flesh should glory
in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness,
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
He that gloweth, let him glow in the Lord. Our tendency is
to glory in other things. We glory in our preachers, we
glory in our great buildings, we glory in our denominations,
we glory in our doctrines, we glory in our righteousness, we
glory in our goodness, we glory in everything but God. And that's
the very thing that Satan is delighted with. God does everything
for his glory. Turn to Ephesians, Ephesians
chapter 2. Let me ask you to look at this
a minute. Quickening us with Christ and
raising us with Christ, he says in verse 7 of Ephesians 2, that
in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Brethren,
whatever I know, God taught me. Whatever I do, God enabled me. Whatever I am, God made me. Who
maketh thee to differ? Let not the wise man glow in
his wisdom. Let not the rich man glow in
his riches. Let not the strong man glow in
his strength. Let not the beautiful person
glow in his beauty. Let him that gloweth, gloweth
in this, that I am the Lord, and he knows me. The Lord God will take a thief
on the cross and save him in his own time for his own glory.
And he'll take a Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of Pharisees, and
save him when he's about 40 years of age. and make him a preacher
of the gospel and a writer of scripture and make him a founder
of churches and an ordainer of elders and let him preach for
11, 12 or 13 years, take him to glory and in the sight of
God, that thief is just as honored as Saul of Tarsus ever was. Just
as loved, he's there by the same grace, he's there by the same
mercy, he's there for the same purpose to glorify God. And Paul's
not going to walk around with a bunch of crowns balanced on
his head and a fancy purple robe on his back and the thief on
the cross over here living in a two-by-four shack in the corner
of glory. And Paul lauded and praised.
If you think that so, you've missed the grace of God and the
gospel. That thief is going to be there
by the grace of God like Paul is. And that thief is going to
be loved and honored and going to have the same position. He's
going to be on the right hand of God. He's going to sing in
the same choir with Paul, walk the same streets and enjoy the
same glory. Not one iota of difference. I'm
telling you the truth. And if you don't want it that
way, you've missed God's grace. One fellow said one time when
he heard that priest, he said, you mean I'm going to be like
everybody else in heaven? Well, yeah. Well, why have I
done all I've done? Why am I teaching Sunday school
and giving my time? My friend, I hate to tell you
this, but you ain't even going to be in heaven. That's just
so. It's just so. Those who are there
are there by the grace of God and for the glory of God. That's
so. And that's just so. God said,
I'm going to glorify my own self. I'm going to glorify my name.
I'll be glorified. Now look at verse 24. I'm going
to take you from among the heathen," not just talking to Abraham's
natural son, I'm going to take you from among the heathen. I'm
going to gather you out of all countries. I'm going to bring
you into your own land. That's into my own kingdom. And I'm
going to sprinkle clean water on you. Now, the only thing this
can be is speaking of the blood of Christ. You see, water in
the Old Testament typified the Holy Spirit, the blood, the blood
of Christ, and all of it, the redemptive work of Christ in
his justification and sanctifying work. And he says, I'm going
to take you from among the heathen, I'm going to bring you into my
kingdom, and I'm going to sprinkle clean water on you, and you'll
be clean. Just think of it. Can you grab
a hold of that word, clean? Clean. Oh, boy. David said, Cleanse
me, O God, and I shall be clean. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Create within me a right spirit
and a clean heart. John said in Revelation 7.14,
I just quote it, These are they that have washed their robes
and made them white. White. That's what he says. I'm
going to get you out of the heathen dunghill and idolatry and and
the worship of your will, and adoration at the throne of your
own success, and the pride about yourself, and all this rottenness
of human nature, and I'm going to wash you in the blood of Christ
and make you clean from all your filthiness and from your idols,
from your idols. We think so often of filthiness
and idols. We keep it in our Keep it categorized
into a material, fleshly thing. Filthiness is the drunk out there
wallowing in the gutter. Filthiness is the harlot in the
red light district and the dope addict. And idolatry is that
native down there bowing before the idol of some snake. But let
me tell you something. Filthiness dwells in your heart
and my heart, and that's the filthiness of envy and lust and
jealousy and pride and hate and bigotry. That's filthiness, filthiness
of thought and blasphemy. And then our idols, we bow before
idols. We worship at the shrine of our
success, don't we? We're a little smarter than somebody
else, a little prettier than somebody else, a little taller
than somebody else, a little stronger than somebody else.
We're so full of pride. If pride was electricity, we'd
be a dynamo. And that pride is an idol. It's
an idol. That's what it is. And God said,
I'm going to cleanse you. I'm going to purify you from
your filthiness and from your idolatry. I'm going to clean
you up in the blood of Christ. Oh, I tell you, that's great.
Isn't that wonderful? But, he said, here's a fourth
old principle. Now watch this, verse 26. And
I'm going to do something for you that nobody else can do.
I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to give you a new heart. Now listen carefully. He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. I've gone too long, but I want
you to hear these four things. The peculiar crowning feature
of the grace of God. is that all of God's work begins
within. It begins within. And it affects
the outside. That's the crowning feature of
God's work. Notice this. He said, I will take you from
among the heathen. I'm going to take you out of
the land. I'm going to bring you to my
kingdom. And I'm going to sprinkle clean water on you, and you'll
be clean from all your filthiness. Otherwise, I couldn't even look
on you. I couldn't fellowship with you. I've done that as far
as my justice and law and righteousness and holiness is concerned. But
I'm going to do something for you. I'm going to put within
you a new heart. Now, this other religion, fleshly
religion, denominational religion, all this other religion, it all
begins with an outward form and hopes it results in something
inwardly. Do you know that? You go to somebody
and talk to them about getting religion or getting saved and
they'll start telling you what to do. Every time. Every time. Carnal religion gives you a day
to keep. Keep this day and it'll mean
something. That's right. You have people
right here in this town that close up on Saturday. They keep
Saturday. They keep that day. That's their
peculiar, particular religion. It's a day to keep. They've been
given a day to keep. Secondly, current religion will
give you a tithe to pay. Now you make $1,000, $900 is
yours, $100 is God's. That's got to be done. That's
something for you to do. That's a particular thing on
the outside for you to do. They give you some rules to obey.
Now you're supposed to do this, that, and the other. You're not
supposed to do this, that, and the other. They give you some ceremonies to observe.
They give you Easter and Christmas. And they give you all these different
religious holidays and feast days. You're supposed to observe
those. You're supposed to go to church. They give you, when the
child is 12 years old, he's supposed to dress up in white, you know,
and come do this. When the baby's born, he's supposed
to be put on a satin pillow and have a godmother and a godfather.
And the preacher dresses up in some silly-looking outfit and
gets some water and sprinkles it in the face of that screaming
child. These are rules, these are things you do. Carnal religion
gives you these things to do. It gives you some ceremonies
to observe. It gives you a five-star Christian come to Sunday school,
morning service, BTU, evening service, and Wednesday night.
All these different things. That's common religion. And they
hope by that it will keep you straight inside. That's what
they hope. They hope it will keep you in
line. But it won't work. It won't work. You can put a
tiger in jail. And he's still a tiger on the
inside. You can keep him in there and feed him at certain times
and do all these things for him, but he's still a tiger. Now,
what God does is make a limb out of the tiger on the inside,
and then he doesn't need the bars. See what I'm saying? You can take a tiger from the
wilds and put him in here and put some bars around him, all
these different bars. And let people come and observe
him. See, we've tamed the tiger. No, you ain't tamed the tiger.
You just got him in jail. But I'll tell you this, if you
could give that tiger a lamb's heart, if you could give that
tiger a lamb's thinking, then you could move all your bars.
Just move them all and let him walk among the children. And
that's where God starts. God says, I'll give you a new
heart. Not a new garment. Not a new environment, not a
new speech, not new habits, a new heart! A new heart! A believing heart, a loving heart,
a trusting heart, a broken heart, an obedient heart, a submissive
heart, a heart that loves God! And then, brother, you can take
your whip and put it back in the closet. You can take your
rules and regulations and dump them into garbage. You can take
your bars and all these things and just do away with them, because
he's not a tiger, he's a new creature in Christ. See what
I'm saying? That's just so. That's the first
principle of grace. God starts on the inside. Modern
religion starts on the outside. You have to write them for a
little book, How to Live the Christian Life. And they'll tell
you, if you teach a man to think Christ, he'll live Christ. See
what I'm saying? If he gets a new heart. He doesn't need your recipes
and all your rules and regular... He has Christ. He has a new heart. He doesn't hate his neighbor
anymore. He loves him. You don't have to make him witness. He'll
witness. He loves Christ. He must... It's like I love that
little granddaughter there. I'll tell you about it if you
give me five minutes. And you'll tell me about yours. You demand
equal time, don't you? You don't have to make me tell
these things I love. I'll tell them. They'll pop out.
And what was the second thing? He said, I'll give you a new
spirit. See that verse 26? I'll give you a new heart. I'll
give you a new spirit. Now, it may be, listen to me
a moment, it may be that the new heart and the new spirit
are intended to represent the same thing. I don't know, but
they're dealt with separately here. He said, I'll give you
a new heart and a new spirit. And I believe he means just that.
I'll give you a new heart and I'll give you a new attitude.
I'll give you a new principle. I'll give you a new spirit. Now,
men have argued for years about trichotomy and dichotomy, whether
or not a man is, listen to me, whether a man is body, soul,
and spirit, or whether a man is just body and soul. Well,
now, God created Adam out of the dust of the earth. He breathed
into his nostrils a breath of life. He became a living soul.
Well, Adam's sin, that body was the same, that soul was still
a living soul. But Adam's attitude changed.
His spirit changed. Something happened to his spirit.
He died spiritually. See what I'm saying? And this
is what I'm saying now. I'm saying the unsaved man has
a body and life, but he has a spirit, an attitude of antichrist. He
has a spirit of rebellion. He has a spirit of greed. He
has a spirit of hate. He has a spirit of fear. He has
a spirit of bigotry. That's the spirit of an unsaved
man. And God says, I'll give you a
new spirit. A new spirit. I've still got
physical life. I've still got a body. But God's
going to give me a new spirit. That is, he's going to give me
a new attitude. That's right. And I do believe
this. I know there are a lot of preachers who say, well, they're
carnal Christians and spiritual Christians. I don't believe that.
I believe they're nothing but spiritual Christians. There are
different age groups, say there are babes in Christ and young
men in Christ and elders in Christ, but they're all spiritual. And
sometimes they act like carnal men, but they're not carnal,
they're spiritual. And they have a new attitude,
they have a new spirit. If Christ comes in to dwell,
it makes them a new creature. Now, let me tell you this. There
are a lot of religionists. who are so strict about their
honesty. In other words, if they borrowed
$500 from you, they'll pay you back on that date, because that's
their honesty, and they have defended it. That's their righteousness.
And if they tell you, they'll say, I'll be at your house Saturday,
brother, they'll be there. They're proud of their punctuality.
They're proud of the fact that their word is their bond. And
they believe the Bible. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt
not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. They believe all these
things and they're clean as a hen's tooth. They give their tithe,
they have their Bible studies, they have their prayer time,
all these things. But they're mean as the devil. People don't like them. Nobody
can get along with them. They can't work with people.
They have no tender, generous, compassionate, kind, merciful
spirit. If their children don't walk
the line like they think they do, they'll cut them off. Cut
them off. Won't speak to them. Don't come in my home. My home's
a religious home. Anybody's welcome in my home.
Aren't they in yours? Especially my children. I don't
care if they're Catholics, they're welcome in my home. That's right. I tell you this, a lot of religious
people, they're not hated for Christ's sake, they're hated
for their rotten personalities. They're just stinking personalities.
They're mean. And that ain't salvation. You
just write that down. That's not salvation. And you
think because they walk around with a rigorous, prestigious,
pious, righteous, outward shell, but God's never given them a
tender spirit and a tender heart and a broken heart, and they've
missed Christ. I don't care what their names
are, how long they've been in church, how much they've preached
or taught, they've missed Christ. You write it down. Grow in grace. Be ye kind. The fruit of the
Spirit is love. Not right doctrine, love. The
fruit of the Spirit is joy. faith, meekness, temperance,
gentleness, kindness, huh? God said, I'll give you a new
heart, I'll put a new spirit in you, a new attitude. A mean
husband's a lost husband. A rebellious wife is a lost wife. A child that is rebellious and
hard to live with and can't take directions and can't be in submission,
can't respect their parents, is a lost child. A businessman,
no matter how self-righteous he is, how religious he is, how
punctual he is, how honest he is, if he doesn't have a tender
heart and a kind spirit, he's a lost man. That's just so. These are principles of conversion. Notice the third thing. He said,
I'll take away the stony heart. I'll take away your stony heart. Why do you call our hearts hearts
of stone? Stone. Let me tell you why. Number
one, a stone is hard. Go out there and pick up that
old stone. It's hard. It's hard. And you can strike that stone,
it'll repel the blow. Take a hammer, the hammer of
the gospel, and hit that stone. Bounce right back in your face.
It wounds you. If you hit a heart of flesh, it'll absorb the blow. That's right. That stone will
throw it right back at you. I have people, I preach the truth
and the gospel to them, they fly right back in my face. Right
back. It'll wound you. Take the sword
of the Spirit and try to pierce that stone. Can't penetrate it. The gospel bounces off. It doesn't
penetrate. It rolls off. You can't soften
it. Soak it in water for now or eternity, and it'll be just
as hard as it was. And it's to harden you. You're
a hard man because you got a hard heart. That's the reason you're
a hard man. Take that old stony. It's stony because it's called
stony because it's dead. Speak to the stone, it won't
hear. Cut it, and it won't bleed. Squeeze it, and it won't turn
blue. Scratch it, and you'll never reach the inside. All right. Unbending, unyielding. It's cold. Oh, how cold is a stony heart. You ever walk across a stone
floor barefooted in the wintertime? Whew! Oh, it's cold. Cold. That's the reason we put carpet
on these stone floors, because it's cold. You can build a fire
on it and heat it for a while. In fact, you can just put bricks
in bed on your feet, you know, get those old coal sheets at
night years ago and put a brick down at your feet and it'd be
warm. But when the fire goes out, it's
cold again. And that's the reason you have
to have so many revival meetings for these churches nowadays.
You've got to warm up those old stony, cold hearts, you know. You've got to warm them up, but
then the preacher leaves town, they go back to work, and they're
cold again. It's unfeeling. It cannot feel. What's to be
done? What's to be done? Somebody said
one time, give Jesus your heart. He doesn't want that old, hard,
dead, cold, unfeeling heart. He says, I'm going to take it
away. That's all you can do with it.
Take it away. You won't change it. Take it
away. Take it away. And then he said,
listen, I'll give you a heart of flesh. Now, this is not flesh
in the sense that flesh is used so often in the word meaning
sinful human nature. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing, in the flesh no man can please God. That was one of the
fleshiest flesh. But he says, I'm going to take
away your heart of stone, that old hard, cold, dead, unfeeling,
unresponding heart. I'm going to take it away and
I'm going to give you a heart of flesh that is a heart that
can feel. Now, flesh can feel. You prick
me with a pen and I feel it. If I put it near the fire, I
feel it. If I hold ice in my hands, I feel it. My flesh is
tender and responsive. And therefore, he said, I'm going
to give you a heart that's responsive. I'm going to give you a heart
with feeling. I'm going to give you a heart that can be touched.
I'm going to give you a heart that can think. I'm going to
give you a heart that can love. I'm going to give you a heart
that has life. It's not dead, it's cold. And this heart of
flesh feels my sin and mourns over it, and it feels your sins
and mourns over them. This heart of flesh is sensitive.
It's sensitive to divine love and human love, and it loves
in return. And this heart of flesh is a
heart of faith. It responds to the Word of God.
It delights in the law of God and in the Word of God. And this
heart of flesh is filled with gratitude. If you do something
for my flesh, it responds to you. It is sensitive, it feels,
and it responds, and the heart responds. And this heart of flesh
is tender toward others and responsive to others. This is what he said.
God says, I'll do this. It's not something you'll go
down to the revival meeting and get. This is not something the
soul winner can do. God says, I will. I'll take you
from among the heathen. I'll bring you to my kingdom.
I'll sprinkle clean water on you. I'll cleanse you. And I'm
going to perform an operation that doctrine can't do and law
can't do and preachers can't do. I'm going to give you a new
heart. I'm going to give you a new attitude
and a new spirit. I'm going to take out of you
by divine operation that hard, cold, dead, unfeeling, stony
heart. And I'm going to give you a heart
of flesh that's alive, responsive, sensitive, warm, and that life
will last always. That's his covenant of grace.
Now, my friends, I might have offended some of you a while
ago that I was talking about Israel and the Jews. That covenant can't
be talking about a natural people. It can't be with prime ministers
and walls and temples and sacrifices. That's a spiritual operation,
Robert, and it's got to be so. Got to be so. And if we'll get
out of our tradition and custom and our oldâ€”this is the way I've
always heard. Well, that's what Hezekiah did. He found the Word of God, he
ran his clothes, and he said, our fathers have deceived us.
They've taken us off into playing games. There's no peace and joy
there. This is it. by God's grace. Our Father, thankful for your
Word, we read about this divine operation of grace, and every
one of us are covetous Lord, cleanse me, and I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I'll be the whiter than the snow. I can't do it.
Nobody here can do it for me. Nothing on this earth can avail.
I washed my hands ever so clean. They're still polluted. My own
heart will condemn me. And Lord, give me a new heart. Give me a right spirit. Take
away that unresponsive, dead, cold, unfeeling, lifeless heart
and give me a heart of flesh that feels, that lives, that
responds, that's tender, that's sensitive to you and your word,
your kingdom, your truth. For Christ's sake I pray, amen.

The Principles of Conversion

What does the Bible say about true conversion?

How do we know conversion is a divine work?

Why is having a new heart important for Christians?

What does it mean to be spiritually born again?

How does God glorify His name through conversion?

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The Principles of Conversion

What does the Bible say about true conversion?

How do we know conversion is a divine work?

Why is having a new heart important for Christians?

What does it mean to be spiritually born again?

How does God glorify His name through conversion?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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