The Necessity of Conversion

Introduction to the Sermon and Trinity Baptist Church's 25th Anniversary Manifesto

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, May 24th, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your Bibles to a portion of the Word of God that we will have occasion to look at in greater detail. About halfway through the message this morning, it is found in the 26th chapter of the Book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 26, and I shall read in your hearing verses 16 through 23.

0:47 These verses are found in the midst of Paul's account of his conversion and his commission by a heavenly visitation of the exalted and risen Christ and conveying what the Lord said to him. The Apostle tells us in verse 16, that the Lord Jesus said, Arise, stand upon thy feet, for to this end have I appeared unto thee to appoint thee a minister and a witness, both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee,

1:28 delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but declared both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles,

2:10 that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

2:18 Because the Jews seized me in the temple and assayed to kill me, having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day, testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come, how that the Christ must suffer, and how that he first, by the resurrection of the dead, should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles.

2:54 Please know this present calendar year of 1992 marks the 25th year since God was pleased to bring to birth this assembly of his people designated as Trinity Baptist Church. And in seeking to take full advantage of this fact to the end of mutual edification, we have, for the past, last year been engaged in a series of studies entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. Rather than celebrate our 25 years of life together by focusing our attention upon people and events

3:38 connected with the birth and subsequent growth and development of our congregation, we have been focusing our attention upon those fundamental biblical convictions which have been given to us by God, which have shaped and molded our life and our ministry. Thus far, we have considered eight major categories of biblical revelation which constitute the heart and soul of life together. The affirmation that we are determined and have been from the beginning that Jesus Christ shall have his rightful place of unrivaled preeminence in every facet of our life and ministry

4:22 have gone on to consider vital affirmations of truth related to the place of scripture in our life, centeredness as the climate of our life, the centrality of the church in the purpose of God, the necessity of maintaining a regenerate church membership, the necessity of striving for a biblical standard for church officers, the essential commitment we must have to the life out of the church, to the death principle, our determination to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit.

Defining Conversion and a Balanced New Testament Perspective

5:05 This morning we take up the 9th of the 10 affirmations which God willing will complete this series on our Manifesto. And that ninth affirmation I have worded as follows. We are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective, our teaching and expectation, concerning conversion, the Christian, and the mission are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective

5:46 and the mission who have been present for the previous studies will no doubt be aware that some of the notes sounded in this ninth affirmation have already been sounded as secondary issues as we have developed some of the previous affirmations. However, these issues are of such a critical importance and they have been so foundational to our life together

6:28 that they aren't a separate, highly, faint, a bang and expect concerning conversion. As we address this vital subject, let me take a few minutes by way of introduction to define briefly the key words in that statement.

7:09 First, the central subject is to turn around. Again, or to turn or to be converted in the Old Testament. The word found in such a familiar text such as Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, O house of Israel? There is one major word in the New Testament with a very similar meaning, the word epistrepho, and there is one very critical use,

7:53 that word with just the heart of it, the word strepho,

8:04 rather, the concept of conversion. And so the central subject upon which we will focus our attention this morning and for the subsequent two Lord's Days, God willing, is this matter of conversion. The word epistrepho, as we find it in this or that text, conversion has come to be used in our Christian literature

8:42 as describing the entire process of deserving sinners, turned away from the path of righteousness.

9:04 Conversion is the process by which one gets off the broad road that leads to the narrowing to life. New Testament conversion means what Peter describes in 1 Peter 2.25 when he says, You were as sheep going astray, but you are now returned to the shepherd and bishop.

9:45 19, where in the Council, at Jerusalem, they describe God's work of grace among the Gentiles as His work in which those from among the Gentiles turn, are converted unto God. We are concerned then with this central subject, take up this affirmation with the doctrine of conversion, the entire process by which hell-deserving sinners are turned from the path of righteousness. Secondly, by way of introduction and definition,

10:27 the central concern has to do with a balanced testament.

10:38 The central subject is conversion, but the central concern is a new test process. What do I mean by those words? While the Old Testament provides examples of conversion, such as the transformation of Manasseh, king of Judah, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 33, or the example of a whole converted under the ministry of Jonah, the prophet, as recorded in the book of Jonah and chapter 3, I am concerned to address the subject in connection

11:21 with the accomplishment of redemption to the person and work of the Lord Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit-inspired interpretation of those events as found in the completed documents to do with a new testament. Sinners are turned out of sin and death and righteousness and of life. But I am concerned that we have a balanced

12:05 New Testament perspective of the New Testament teaching. Now you know what an artist does who engages in caricature. They are essential or all of his essential features, but they usually, take the most prominent feature and they make it even more prominent by way of underscoring that that is a of that individual. If I may say the name without being thought unclean,

12:48 those of you who can remember way back when Mr. Nixon was president, you will remember that those who did caricature loved to do a job on his nose. And unlike the plastic surgeon's nose job that usually shrinks a person's nose, and unlike the plastic surgeon's nose job that usually shrinks a person's nose, they took that ski-jump nose of Mr. Nixon's and they elongated it and after Watergate they made it but you distort him.

13:20 and I am concerned that we address that we address a balanced perspective on , that you can take one outraging process and underscores one aspect, we take that and we draw it beyond portions in relationship

14:01 to other aspects. We have a caricature, caricature in the mind of Christian doctrine. If I may change my illustration, it's like a wheel out of balance. And sometimes when that happens, you drive along, and if you stay under 35 miles an hour, everything's fine. But between

14:25 35 and 55, that wheel out of balance begins to bounce and shake, and the steering wheel goes like this until the vibration can literally tear apart the front end of the car and cause the car to have a serious accident. Well, this is what will happen if we have, we may do well with it for a while, but the more we move, the more the result is. So I am concerned that we address the subject of conversion, that it be the New Testament.

15:10 Perspective on this process presented in a balanced way. Then the third thing I would say by way of introduction and definition, the scope of my concern focuses on the words for teaching and expectations. Determined to maintain a balanced New Testament persuading

15:47 to our formal and informal and inferred teaching, which comes in public preaching, public teaching, the balanced New Testament perspective on the issue of conversion, and that our expect

16:20 New Testament and balanced. I'd like to look for whom CERN is to grasp a balanced New Testament

17:15 perspective on this process. CERN is expectations of what you're looking for with respect to this crucial issue of conversion. Your children, that they must be converted, bringing them up with a de facto assumption. That in their catechism and say their prayers, and are nice boys and girls, they're automatically

17:57 converted. God have mercy on them. So this has relevance. The time that remains take up the first of four lines of truth, which I hope to open up this subject. That

The Absolute Necessity of Conversion: Witness from Acts 26

18:15 is this morning, absolute necessity, accompaniments, and the fruits of necessity. Two or three witnesses, let every word be. And I want us to look at three pivotal news

18:50 of the New Testament text conversion. Chosen them from three different segments of the New Testament, one from the book of Acts, one from the Gospels, one from the epistles. Well then, our text from the book of Acts, the text read in your hearing, 26, as the risen Christ speaks to the Apostle Paul, tells him that he has appeared unto him and appointed

19:30 him a minister and a witness, both of the things he's already seen, and of the further revelation that God has given to him. That's what I want you to look at. I want you to read the first page. Poor Joseph Emmanuel was raised from Goliath. He sees him throwing away his Jewish

19:48 business. He goes to Jesus Christ. He sees all kinds of Acts talking about Jesus and other topics spoken out in the spoilings in the book of Acts. He sees him saying things about the steppes. He speaks through the disciples. He hears them telling humanity about the ages.

20:09 cinema. Soup. the power of the Spirit, where I want you to focus your attention with me. Verse 18, their eyes, that they may turn, there's our word, epistrepho, that they may turn from the remission of sin and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith.

20:53 Now, according to this verse, do you see that if anyone is to receive the remission of his sins and have a part among the true people of God, that they must be radically and soundly converted? Do you see that in the text? Could you take that verse and sit down with someone and demonstrate in simple language the absolute necessity of conversion? For here the risen Lord says to Paul, If through your ministry, the ministry, the ministry entrusted to you by me,

21:36 in the fulfillment of which I will protect you,

21:42 receive the forgiveness among my true people, those who are set apart unto God by faith in me, in blessings of forgiveness of sins, and a part with God and from the power.

22:29 Do you see that in the text?

22:33 Should every remission, having his eyes opened, version, men must be opened. Must be internal. Men may see themselves as they truly are.

23:14 That they may come to see that the only way of life and salvation is to be found in the Lord Jesus. And then they must turn from the realm of darkness.

23:28 By nature, John tells us, this is the condemnation. Light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light. And neither will they come. And yet, unless they turn from darkness, to light, there can be no remission.

23:46 They must be converted from lovers of darkness to lovers of light. They must turn from the authority of Satan's dominion. According to Ephesians 2, they walk according to the prince of the works in the sons of disobedience. And they must be turned from the bridge to and allegiance.

24:14 They must be turned unto the forgiveness.

24:36 That while God is forming, the Apostle Paul into the great expositor of salvation by grace. The man who will eventually write the book of Romans with its unqualified assertions of justification by faith alone on the grounds of the work of Christ alone. God is preparing this man who will do lifetime battle with those who would seek to mix with the pure water of God's grace. The polluted oil of human ethics and human ceremonies.

25:16 Yet, yet, the great expregnation of faith alone is a shield to magnify the grace of God that either willfully or unwittingly, maliciously or ignorantly

25:58 emphasize the grace of God in such a way that multitudes think they can come to the possession of its benefits while they are yet strangers to a thorough conversion, unto God. According to this passage, it is impossible. God makes it plain to the Apostle in his initial commission grace that will multitude while hell deserving sinners. Grace that in its fullness flows out from the Lord Jesus.

26:42 Grace that is derived from the perfection of his own life and his death for sinners. An operation of God upon you that can be called nothing short. But the rest, the restoration of spiritual eyes to the blind. Deliverance from the devil.

The Absolute Necessity of Conversion: Witness from Matthew 18

27:45 Matthew 18. Attempting in this first study to establish the absoluteness of conversion. Matthew 18 verses 1.

28:00 In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus saying, Who then is greatest or greater in the kingdom of heaven? He called to him a little child and set him in the midst of them and said, Early I say, Unto you except ye turn and become as little children ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom. What are the disciples concerned about? Well, according to verse 1, they are concerned about relative rank in the kingdom of heaven.

28:42 Do you see that in the text? In that hour came the disciples saying, Who then is greater in the kingdom of heaven? Though it's translated in many verses, in the superlative, it's the comparative. Who is greater?

28:55 They have a question concerning rank in the kingdom of heaven. The assumption is we're all in the kingdom. The question is, What is the basis on which relative rank will be established, manifested, and any benefits attendant upon that rank conferred? That's their concern.

29:21 Relative rank in the kingdom of heaven. Who is, greater in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus responds to their concern by setting a little child in their midst and making an astounding declaration. His first declaration focuses not on relative rank, but on entrance into or inclusion within the kingdom of heaven.

29:48 And then in verse 4, he then talks about relative rank. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven. But our concern, you see, is with Jesus' shocking response. They want the question answered, What is the basis of relative rank in the kingdom?

30:13 Jesus said there's a more fundamental issue. What is the basis of entrance into the kingdom itself? And note his words. He said, Called unto him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and said, And now we have, what the commentators call, one of the magisterial sayings of the Lord Jesus.

30:33 He didn't throw these out like Rockefeller threw out his dimes. It was when the Lord Jesus wanted a peculiar solemnity to be attached to his words, that in John's gospel you have the double amen, amen, amen, verily, verily. In the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you have the single verily. Here is one of those magisterial sayings, it comes with magisterial solemnity and weight.

31:02 Amen, verily. I say unto you, I, God's final prophet, I who am not only the way, but the truth, I who speak not my own words, but the words of him that sent me, I who can say, though heaven and earth pass away, my words shall never pass away. Listen, you disciples, I, the embodiment of truth and speak,

31:32 I, the embodiment of truth and speak, I, the embodiment of truth and speak, I, the embodiment of truth and speak, I, the embodiment of truth and speak, He wants us to feel the weight of that. Verily, I say unto you, and what does he say?

31:45 He says, there's a more fundamental concern that you ought to be having, not the concern of relative rank in the kingdom, but the basis of getting into the kingdom in the first place. Verily, I say unto you, except ye turn, except you be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, without going into the precise point that the Lord is underscoring when he says, become as little children. What aspect of little children is Jesus highlighting?

32:28 And that matter is debated and discussed by the commentators, and I'm going to totally bypass it. Because our concern this morning is not that issue. The issue is, in these words, except you, O wise, enter the kingdom of heaven. And he's emphasizing in these words, become as little children, one facet involved in true conversion.

33:01 But our concern is not to look at the facets involved, but the absolute necessity itself. And therefore, I'm not mishandling the word of God by saying, I need not give a judicious opinion as to what I believe he was emphasizing, because this much is clear. Without conversion, there is no entrance into the kingdom of heaven. That by nature, these men and we with them, young or old alike, are of such a disposition that unless there is a radical turning, that does something so radical in our inner disposition

33:44 as to make us inwardly something that we are obviously not outwardly. We shall never enter into the kingdom.

33:59 If we don't enter into the kingdom of heaven, what alternative is there? Well, I remind you that according to Matthew 8, there's only one other alternative. And I want you to turn there for a moment. If we fail to enter, if we fail to enter the kingdom of heaven, then there's only one other alternative for us.

34:20 Verse 11 of Matthew 8. I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness. There shall be the wheat.

34:46 The weeping and the gnashing.

34:51 It's either entrance into the kingdom of heaven with its consummate glory in the new heavens and the new earth, in the immediate presence of the Lord Jesus and all of the redeemed of all ages.

35:07 Or it's being cast into outer darkness where there is the weeping, the wailing and the gnashing.

35:18 The truth you heard about last Lord's Day evening where the smoke of their toilings, the torment shall ascend up forever and ever. And they have no rest day nor night. The absolute necessity of conversion. Don't treat this as mere preacher's talk.

35:39 It is truth who says, Verily say unto you, Except ye turn,

35:50 shall in no way, under no conditions whatsoever, in any circumstances whatsoever, in any age or place or time whatsoever, shall not enter, shall not enter the kingdom. Is conversion a necessity? If you're serious about heaven, it is. Now if you want to treat your never-dying soul like a piece of junk, I don't care if it ends up in hell, in the company of the damned, in the devil and demons.

36:30 I pray God there's no man, woman, boy or girl in this place who would treat his never-dying soul so cheaply. And if you're concerned about that precious commodity called your never-dying soul, then hear the words of Jesus. You must be converted or you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Then we turn to our third witness.

The Absolute Necessity of Conversion: Witness from 1 Thessalonians 1

36:54 That's found in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. We've seen the witness from Paul's commission, the witness of our Lord.

37:09 Now, in this first chapter of Paul's first letter to this infant church at Thessalonica, he begins as he so often does by recording the thanks that he has in his heart towards God for the people of God. And he says in verse 2, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering. He says as we give thanks, we remember. And what he remembered, were those graces that had been produced in their hearts and lives by the power of God's grace coming to the Thessalonians.

37:53 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus before our God and Father. Then, it's as though he pauses and says, lest you mistake me when I give thanks to God for these graces that are manifested in your life. I'm not stroking you Thessalonians. No, I'm giving thanks to God because these things have their ultimate source not in you Thessalonians, but in God.

38:24 Therefore, verse 4, he traces them to their source. Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election.

38:33 I give thanks, we give thanks that these graces are manifested in you, for they are the evidence that you were loved of God with distinguishing, redemptive love. You were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And the way in which your election, which is the ultimate cause of these graces being manifested in you, the way your election came to light was not by God taking me up into heaven and showing me the role of his elect, but by God bringing me and my companions to Thessalonica to preach the gospel. And when it came to you, he says, verse 5, that our gospel came not unto you, in word only.

39:15 It came to many others in word only. They opposed him. They despised him. He had to leave after a short time.

39:22 But those who now form the church, he said, the gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know what manner of men we showed ourselves towards you for your sake. And how did he know that the gospel had come in power? He gives the evidences. You became imitators of us.

39:43 Verse 7, you became an example to all that believe. Verse 8, from you hath sounded forth the word of the Lord. Verse 9, for they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you. Now he comes to the climactic description.

40:01 You see the progression of thought? We give thanks to God for the graces manifested in you. But we're not stroking you. We're magnifying the God of electing love, whose election, came to light when we preached the gospel.

40:15 It came to you in power. And the reason we know it came in power is not that your ears lit up like light bulbs or halos appeared over your head, but we saw the moral and ethical transformation of the gospel in your lives so that when we went on to other places and we started to tell people what God did and opened our mouths, they said, Paul, you don't need to tell us. We've already heard. We've already heard.

40:39 And what had they heard? They had heard that a deep, radical, sound work of conversion had occurred among the Thessalonians. That's the climactic statement. Look at it.

40:52 We need not speak anything for they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we have unto you. Here's our word. How you turned. You converted unto God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come.

41:20 So the bottom line in his description of his thanksgiving to God for these Thessalonians is that when he went to other places and would open his mouth to declare the mighty words of God, the news had already spread and its spread couched in this language a deep, radical, thorough work of conversion occurred in the Thessalonians. They turned unto God from their idols and they turned with a disposition to serve this God with all their hearts and then in loving attachment to His Son whom they had not beheld with their physical eyes

42:05 but with the eyes of faith. They set their hope perfectly upon the Lord Jesus and eagerly, awaited His coming out of the heavens. That is, they longed for His return with the yearning of a love born of the Holy Spirit in the heart of those who are truly converted. Isn't this language so rich and vigorous compared to the insipid language of accepting Jesus and the insipid language if we had 27 decisions for Christ?

42:44 Acceptance! Acceptance! Acceptance! Acceptance!

42:45 Acceptance! And decisions in which men are still wedded to their idols. This just becomes one more idol on the shelf. Along with the idol of sports and sex and fame and popularity and Sabbath-breaking, they now incorporate Jesus.

43:06 And so the football players gather underneath the stadium on Sunday before they go out to cuss and bump heads and encourage millions to profane the Sabbath and have their little 20-minute chapel service and that makes them Christians. God have mercy on us.

43:24 And the Kathy Lee Giffords can claim to be Christians and Mr. Graham can sport her there at Central Park in his big rally as a Christian and sit on a program with another man's husband with a chemistry of attraction that is unwholesome. I'm not accusing her of having an immoral relationship. And when double innuendo talk is made, though she may not laugh, she'd never, never open her mouth and say, Riege, that's dirty.

43:58 Stop it. The Bible says, Helloship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather, reprove them.

44:09 Kathy Lee's Christianity will never have her reproving her ungodly friend. She'd lose her job.

44:17 99% of the so-called Christian athletes, they won't reprove the immoral lifestyle of their buddies. They wouldn't get the ball passed to them when they were clear under the basket.

44:32 The Hulk who's supposed to open the hole wouldn't block down on that linebacker. They want to make him look bad.

44:41 Look at the language of our text.

44:45 You turn to God who was your idol before. Whatever was the thing you lived for. Whatever was the thing to which you gave your energy and your devotion and your time and your money. It was all repudiated.

45:02 You turned away from your idols. You turned unto the living God. The God worthy to be loved and served with all your heart. Mind, soul, and story.

45:16 And you became a heavenly minded people. You sat loose to this world's goods. To this world's standards. You eagerly awaited his son out of the heavens whom he raised from the dead.

45:31 Even Jesus who delivers us from the coming wrath. You see this passage clearly indicates that the Thessalonians were what they were because they had undergone a right to life. A right to life. A right to life.

45:45 A right to life. A right to life. A right to life. A right to life.

45:46 A radical, thorough work of conversion.

45:51 Without which Paul never would have written saying we give thanks to God for you. He never would have said remembering your work of faith, your labor of love, your patience of hope. He never would have said we know that our gospel came to you not in word only but in power. You became imitators of us and of the Lord.

46:12 You became examples. None of that would have been said if they had not been thoroughly converted. The absolute necessity of conversion is taught in this passage by the fact that Paul indicates that the taproot of everything for which he thanks God was this taproot of a sound, thorough, radical conversion unto God. In summary then, do you see why we are taking up this ninth affirmation in our manifesto?

Summary of the Necessity and Personal Reflections

46:48 That we are determined. We have to have been by God's grace over twenty-five years and I don't believe that determination has lessened as we opened up our pre-membership class. You remember the first thing emphasized in the first three weeks was what? Our doctrine of conversion.

47:13 We are determined. Determined by the grace of God that we shall maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion. And after giving an explanation of what I mean by those words, we've looked at three texts which prove to any fair-minded person the absolute necessity of conversion. Acts 26, 18-20, the emphasis is without it no forgiveness and no inheritance among the people of God.

47:54 The emphasis of Matthew 18, 1-3, without it no entrance into the kingdom of God. The emphasis of 1 Thessalonians 1, 9-10, without conversion, no indication the word of God has come to us in power.

48:12 And as I was preparing for this message, you know my mind went back many, many years ago when having been deeply vexed traveling around the country in an itinerant ministry from the years of 1956 to 1961, preaching in middle America, mainline evangelical churches, little country churches or suburban churches, not big churches, churches sometimes with 50 people, some with 100, 200 members. And my soul being vexed as I saw all these people that claimed to be saved. And yet there was so little evidence of a thorough, radical conversion unto God.

48:56 So many of them saying, yes, I decided for Christ, in the dim, murky past, and that was the beginning, middle, and end of their experience of grace, to sit at their tables as guests in their homes. I wasn't put up in the fancy hotels. I could write a chronicle that would be both humorous and tragic on the beds in the places I've had to sleep and try to study and try to prepare to sit at the table and find it impossible to talk about my Lord. With deacons and pastors who talk about the Lord, the latest fish they caught, and talk about the sports, and talk about everything, but no spontaneous talk about my Savior.

49:41 And I'd sit there vexed in my soul, and then I'd hear how in business meetings there was nothing but the cacophony of willful, stubborn, headstrong people giving their opinions on this thing and that thing and the other thing. And when I would say to these preachers, should it be that way, if Christ rules in the hearts of people, will it not be manifest? When they gather in His name to do His business and they'd say, ah, you're young and naive, you'll learn.

50:13 And when I would see preachers who didn't pray and didn't study and I couldn't even get them to pray with me, I'd say, look, I have no kids to care for, I have no flock to care for, I'm your guest. You name the time and I'll be there daily to pray together that God will bless the preaching and use His Word. And time after time I couldn't get a preacher in his own church to pray. And as I was wrestling oh God, what's wrong?

50:41 And I was coming increasingly to the conviction that something was radically wrong. That something was wrong at the foundation. And I began to question could it be that the vast majority of these people have never truly been converted? It was at that time that a man who lived 300 years ago who had written a book that greatly influenced Whitefield and Spurgeon, that book was reprinted in a green cloth bound book.

51:09 It's now printed by the Banner of Truth, Joseph Alleyne's Alarm to the Unconverted. And when that book came into my hands I'll never forget it. And I began to read and devour it and realized as he took up mistakes about conversion, the nature of conversion, the necessity of conversion, the marks of the unconverted, the miseries of the unconverted, directions to the unconverted, motives to conversion. I said, Lord, I'm not crazy.

51:41 It puts me in the stream. It puts me in the stream. Of your servants who have read this same Bible down through the years and though I was taught to respect Whitefield and Spurgeon, no one ever told me what they believed and what they preached. This is the doctrine of conversion they believed and preached.

Joseph Alleyne's Underscoring of Conversion's Necessity

51:59 And as I close, I want to take just two minutes to read his headings under this very topic I've dealt with this morning. The necessity of conversion. He begins by saying, if you're ready to say, what does this stir mean? Some of you may be sitting there this morning saying, what's this preacher all worked up about this?

52:20 Hollering and shouting and waving. What in the world is behind all this business? You're apt to wonder why I follow you with such earnestness. Still ringing the same lesson in your ears that you should repent and be converted.

52:34 Were it a matter of indifference, might you be saved as you are. I'd gladly let you alone. And would you not have me concerned for you when I see that you are ready to perish as the Lord lives, before whom I am. I have not the least hope of seeing your face in heaven, except you be converted.

52:55 That's what I, Liam, said to his people. I utterly despair of your salvation, except you be prevailed with thoroughly to turn and give up yourself to God in holiness and newness of life. And then he gives five things that underscore the necessity of conversion. Without conversion, your very being is vain.

53:20 Secondly, without conversion, the visible creation is in vain with respect to your use of it. Thirdly, without conversion, your religion is vain. Fourthly, without true conversion, your hopes are vain. Fifthly, without conversion, all that Christ has done and suffered will be, as far as you are concerned, in vain.

53:44 Not in itself, but as far as you are concerned, in vain.

Final Exhortation and Prayer

53:52 My friends, we are determined, as unpopular as it is, that until God comes and rewrites His Word, we are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament doctrine of conversion. What it is, how it is ordinarily affected in the life of a sinner, what are its accompaniments and its fruits, and as we enter upon that subject, I trust I've persuaded you from the Scriptures the absolute necessity of this conversion. And if you are a stranger to it, cry to God that He'd have mercy upon you.

54:36 Cry to God that He'd open your eyes. Cry to God that He'd break your chains. Give yourself no rest or peace until you know that your eyes have been opened, that you have turned from darkness to light, and that you have been opened to the truth. And the power of Satan unto God, and that you have forgiveness and an inheritance.

54:58 Give yourself no rest until you know that you have turned and become as a little child and entered the kingdom of heaven. Give yourself no rest until it can be said of you that you too turned unto God from your idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son out of the heavens. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful for Your Holy Word.

55:34 We thank You that You have set out this clear map of the way of life and salvation. We are grieved that the biblical doctrine of conversion has been so watered down and eroded and even ignored and overlooked in our day by those many of whom claim to love You and Your Word. And oh, how we pray that it may take its rightful place among us, not only in our lives, not only in our thinking, but oh, God above all else, in our experience. May the Holy Spirit take the word preached today and accompany it that those who are unconverted, leaving this place today,

56:15 will find themselves unable to shake off Your Word. May its holy talons be so fixed in the flesh of their own souls that the more they struggle to rid themselves of it, the more deeply it will fall upon them, the more deeply it will fall upon them, will embed itself in their souls. We ask, O God, that in your grace and mercy you would turn many to yourself. And those of us who by your grace have been converted, what can we say but blessed be your holy name, O God, forever causing the word to come to us, not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit,

56:59 for enabling us to turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto yourself. And, O God, we acknowledge it is all of your grace that we stand among the forgiven with an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in your Son. Seal your word to our hearts and may it bear fruit unto everlasting life. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.