true conversion

Daniel Patz, Lead Pastor

Grace Church, Sunday Worship

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10

March 15th, 2009

ARE YOU TRULY CONVERTED?

This morning I feel lead to blow a trumpet – according to Ezekiel 33.

That trumpet call is this – “Are you truly converted?”

 1. Why Should I Care?

•  God is an angry and loving God. Exodus 34:6-7

       Hell is real.

Heaven is real.

God is real.

Your soul is eternal but your life is short.

2 Cor. 5:11 – “knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men”

There is a wrath to come…

There is a glory to know, see and enjoy…

We were made for something so much bigger.

• There are many false conversions.

Judas – walked with Jesus – but he ended up in hell.

Matt 7:22-23 – “Many will say Lord, I did this and that in your name…he will say – Depart from me I never knew you.”

The divorce rate is as high as it is for Christians as it is for non-Christians

MacArthur says – our greatest need is for the church to get saved (truly converted)

Spurgeon:

…was walking down the street one day when a man who was drunken and leaning on the lamppost yelled out to him, "Hey, Mr. Spurgeon, do you remember me?" And Spurgeon replied, "No, why should I?" The man said, "Because I'm one of your converts." To which Spurgeon responded, "Well, you must be one of mine; you're certainly not one of the Lord's."

Paul to the sinful church in Corinth – 2 Cor 13:5

2 Corinthians 13:5  Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

2. What is True Conversion?

 Not Merely Mental Acceptance of the Truth.

My background – making a decision accept Jesus as your savior

Decisions for Christ

Asking Jesus into your heart.

The “sinner’s prayer” – Paul Washer

Walking the aisle.

 Many go on with a false assurance of their salvation because they made a decision, they think they were sincere and they rely on that for the rest of their life. This is not true conversion.

Talk with a guy this week who said to me – I believe the truth about Jesus Christ, I approve of it but I am not there yet – I am not ready to trust my entire life to Jesus.

Nicodemus approved of Jesus but had not yet been converted in John 3.

James 2 says that even the devils believe: James 2:19  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder!

If you are really on a past experience to give you assurance of true conversion – listen careful and do not be content to go away resting in that time.

Not Moral Improvement

I talk to many people who say things like this – “I am trying really hard to be a Christian.”

They think they are on the road to conversion because they have sought to do better in life by going to church, and being nicer to people.

The Bible clear says that it is not by works of righteousness that we do.

Our greatest works are like bloody menstrual rages.

 Sincere Repentance and Trust in Jesus Christ Alone for Salvation

Mark 1:14-15  Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,  (15)  and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

REPENTANCE  - Turning from our sinful way; grief over sin for God’s sake; despising of sinful way.

Knowing, Hating and Turning from our sins.

True repentance is a radical work done upon us.

We are walking one way away from Jesus and He is walking the other way and says follow me – we turn (forsaking our old way) and follow Him.

Acts 2:37-38  Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"  (38)  And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 3:18-20  But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.  (19)  Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,  (20)  that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,

Acts 17:30-31  The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,  (31)  because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

Acts 20:20-21  how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,  (21)  testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke 24:45-47  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,  (46)  and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  (47)  and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Our sin is wicked and vile. Our direction that is contrary to Christ will either damn us to hell or already damned Jesus with the full fury and wrath of the justice of God on our behalf.

One sin condemned the human race.

How many sins do you think it takes for you to be justly condemned to hell?

TRUST  - deciding to trust in or depend on Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and to be the Lord of our lives.

 John 3:16

 John 1:12  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Acts 16:30-31  Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"  (31)  And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

Ephesians 2:8-9  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  (9)  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

IN THE GOSPEL

• God is glorious and holy and we are accountable to him

• All of us has sinned – Rom 3:23

• The just and right payment of our sins is death – Rom 6:23

• Jesus paid it all by dying on the cross for our sins – Rom 5:8

Conversion is our response to this gospel by trusting completely in Jesus and repenting of our sin.

3. How Does True Conversion happen?

REGENERATION

Sincere repentance and faith is not a humanly produced thing.

To truly repent and to truly rely or have faith requires a supernatural work.

I went on a police call this week and saw a dead body. I could tell that body to see, but it won’t see. I could tell that body to listen but it won’t listen. I can nod the persons head and it still is not agreeing to anything.

The Bible on many occasions compares our spiritual condition to a corpse – we are dead spiritually.

Dead people spiritually can trust the Gospel with all their heart.

Dead people can not hate their sin, grieve over their sins and turn to follow Jesus with their life.

That is where the NEW BIRTH comes in – it is called REGENERATION.

Both Dan and Randy (baptized today) have demonstrated signs of regeneration in their life.

In John 3:1-8, Jesus said that unless we are born again we will never SEE the Kingdom of heaven.

Ephesians 2:1-7 says that we were dead in our sins…but God made us alive.

1 Peter 1:3-4  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  (4)  to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

It is an absolute miracle when one person is born again – greater than healing cancer or creating the universe.

Lydia:

Acts 16:13-14  And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.  (14)  One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

How can a person reject the clear message of the Gospel 100 times (like Randy) and on the 101st (or 39^th)  time he says – I see and I believe.

Sovereign grace in the work of the Holy Spirit.

When, for the first time, I received the gospel to my soul's salvation, I thought that I had never really heard it before, and I began to think that the preachers to whom I had listened had not truly preached it. But, on looking back, I am inclined to believe that I had heard the gospel fully preached many hundreds of times before, and that this was the difference, - that I then heard it as though I heard it not; and when I did hear it, the message may not have been any more clear in itself than it had been at former times, but the power of the Holy Spirit was present to open my ear, and to guide the message to my heart. (Spurgeon on His conversion)

THROUGH THE GOSPEL DECLARED

1 Peter 1:23-25  since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;  (24)  for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,  (25)  but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

James 1:18  Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

In just a minute we will see this in 1 Thessalonians 1.

4. Can We Know if We Have been Truly Converted?

I want you to see what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians to this church. I hope you are better able now to see some categories in the testimony of the believers.

In verse 4 he says – I am assured that you are chosen by God (saved, truly converted).

Why?

1 Thessalonians 1:5-10  because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.  (6)  And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,  (7)  so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.  (8)  For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.  (9)  For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,  (10)  and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

• Word came with Power and brought a lively faith.

• It brought fruit.

• It brought repentance and new worship…

But don’t look primarily to the past but look to His work now in your life. If it is weak and fading – look to Him. If it was never real – turn to Him and be saved.

You are a member of the church; you have been baptized; you take the Lord’s supper; perhaps you are a deacon, or an elder; you pass the sacramental cup round, you are just all that a Christian can be, except that you are without a Christian heart. You are whitewashed sepulchres, still full of rottenness within, though garnished fairly on the outside. Well, take heed, take heed! It is an astonishing thing, how near the painter can go to the expression of life, and yet the canvas is dead and motionless; and it is equally astonishing how near a man may go to a Christian, and yet, through not being born again… (Spurgeon on Regeneration  from the Park Street Pulpit)