Heart and Life-Transforming Conversion Unto God

Introduction: The Conference Theme and Series Overview

0:06 Now, I believe that most of you men are aware that the theme of this men's conference is captured in the words, Walking in the Old Paths. And it's my purpose to develop that theme with you tonight, and God willing, in the two sessions tomorrow. But then I plan to carry on that theme in the morning and evening worship services here on the Lord's Day. So for those of you who've come from other assemblies, I only state that to urge you to either listen to or download the sermons that will be available in audio,

0:48 and also for those of you that want to see them, they're being videoed as well. And I say that because the theme is a vital one, and altogether there will be five segments of that theme, and I say that because the theme is a vital one, and I trust that you will do whatever you must do to expose yourself to all five of those messages. Now, that theme, Walking in the Old Paths, is taken directly from the language of Jeremiah 6 and verse 16. And I read that verse in your hearing.

1:25 Thus says the Lord, Stand in the ways and see, or look, and ask for the understanding, old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. So here in the text, God gives a command to His people that has reference to this matter of walking in the old paths. Now, if I'm going to persuade your conscience that I have a right to take the words out of Jeremiah 6.6, and make them the framework for five messages,

The Prophet Jeremiah: Setting and Calling

2:09 you need to think with me for about the next 20 minutes while I try to sketch in the broader background of those words so that when we park on them, you are persuaded with me that we have a right to park on them, that when God spoke those words through the prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years ago, they are words that speak, directly to you, to you, to you, to me here in this setting today. So we're going to spend a few minutes considering the prophet, the people, and the burden of his message. Who was this man Jeremiah?

2:53 Well, according to the first chapter, which was read in your hearing, he was a priest by identification and profession. The priests in Israel were, taken, as you remember, from the tribe of Levi, and they would begin to function as priests at age 20. So Jeremiah most likely was a man in his very early 20s when the word of the Lord came to him indicating that he was to be a prophet. And he felt the awkwardness of this so that in verse 6 of chapter 1 he said, Oh Lord, I don't know how to speak.

3:34 I'm just a... I'm just a child.

3:36 I'm just a young man. Why would you lay this burden upon me? So this man, Jeremiah, is called to the prophetic office as a very young man, and there in Israel you have the northern tribes often called Israel and the two southern tribes called Judah. Well, the spiritual behavior of the northern tribes had become so wicked that God had allowed them to be taken into captivity, to Assyria, and the two southern tribes, Judah, they were still in a relative position of freedom and God set apart Jeremiah to preach not exclusively

4:17 but primarily to those two southern tribes, to Judah, who had not yet been taken into captivity. And so as you read the entire book of Jeremiah, you find his great burden is directed to Judah, but not to Judah. But not exclusively. He has words for the northern kingdoms who've already gone into captivity and for some of the other nations.

4:43 In other words, Almighty God, who made the nations, has a right to speak to any of the nations where and when he decides to speak. And he speaks that way through Jeremiah. So just those few words about this prophet, who then served for at least 50 years, as a faithful deliverer of the message of God. And it wasn't easy.

5:10 He wasn't living in a manse or a parsonage or some church subsidized building living the easy life. This man was thrown into dungeons, into prison. He was persecuted. He was opposed by the people, by the leaders.

5:25 It cost him to be a faithful mouthpiece of the living God. But for over 50 years, he was judged. He was just such a faithful mouthpiece of the Lord God of Israel. So that much about the prophet.

The Condition of the People: Apostasy, Self-Deception, and False Peace

5:41 Now, what about the people? What was the condition of the people to whom he was preaching? Well, if you look with me at chapter 2, verses 11 through 13, this gives us in a nutshell the spiritual condition of the people. As a nation changed its gods, which are no gods, but my people, have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

6:09 Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, and be very desolate, says the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Here was a people that God had redeemed by his mighty power out of Egypt, brought them into the land of promise, given them his word, given them his worship, given them his servants, the prophets.

6:46 And yet, what had they done? They had apostatized, that is, they had turned away all of this wonderful teaching and privilege God had given them, and they exchanged the knowledge of the one true and living God for false gods. And they were worshipping gods that were made with the hands of men, and so God says they've committed two evils. They have not only forsaken me, but they have turned to worship false gods.

7:18 So they were in this horrible condition of religious apostasy. They have turned away from the special light of God's truth and God's revelation. But the most amazing thing that we find in these early chapters, in spite of all this, they were justifying themselves. Look at chapter 2 and verse 23.

7:44 How can you say, I am not defiled? I've not gone after the Baaleen, that is, the foreign gods. And then God goes on to say, even though you justify yourself, in reality, you're like a wild animal, an animal in heat. You're going after your gods with a passion, and yet you justify yourself and say, well, how can you say, I am not defiled?

8:15 They were deceiving themselves. Furthermore, they had undergone a surface change that didn't touch the real basis of their problem. Notice what it says in chapter 2 and verse 10. No, not chapter 2 and verse 10, chapter 2 and verse 35.

8:37 Yet you say, I am innocent. Surely his anger is turned away from me. I'm innocent. God's anger is turned away from me.

8:47 Oh yes, I'm still worshipping my false gods, but God's attitude to me is one of indifference to my sin. And then they had allowed the false prophets to lull them to sleep in their self-deception. Chapter 6 and verse 14. God says, These false prophets have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

9:18 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. The false prophets came along and said, Hey, this guy Jeremiah, he's an old crank, a young crank. He's telling you things are bad.

9:34 God is angry with you. Don't believe him. You're God's people. You have peace.

9:40 You have the promises of God. You have the presence of God. You have the temple. You have the priesthood.

9:46 You have all these religious privileges. You're all right. This was their condition. They've turned away from God.

9:53 They've immersed themselves in idolatry and all of the sins that follow from idolatry, and yet they've undergone some kind of surface change. They have healed slightly the hurt of the daughter of my people, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. That's the condition of the people. But now what was the burden of Jeremiah's message?

The Burden of Jeremiah's Message: Judgment and Mercy Together

10:18 Well, the burden of Jeremiah's message was fundamentally this. Judgment is coming. God revealed that to him right in chapter 1. He said in that chapter that Pastor Hughes read in your hearing, verse 15, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, and they shall come and shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem.

10:47 I'm going to come in judgment. I'm going to take the armies of the north. That's going to be Babylon, and they're going to come down, and they're going to set up shop outside your city gates, and you too will be brought under subjugation to this foreign power. But not only is Jeremiah given a message of judgment, but like so many of the prophets, and this is a truth some of you men sitting here need to understand, whenever God announced judgment, He almost invariably used that announcement as the basis to demonstrate that if men would repent, He would gladly show mercy to them.

11:30 Even though their sins were so aggravated as to provoke God to say, I'm going to judge you, when the prophet came and said, God's going to judge you, he often also came saying, but if you'll turn from your sin, if you'll amend your ways, if you'll return to me, I will confer my grace, my pardon, and my mercy upon you. And we see that, notice, in chapter 3, where God speaks through Jeremiah, even to the northern kingdoms who've gone into captivity. The Lord said unto me, verse 11, Backsliding Israel has showed herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

12:15 Go and proclaim these words to the north, and say, return, O backsliding Israel, I will not look in and wrangle upon you, for I am merciful, says the Lord. And all the way through the book, we find this constant double motif. Judgment is coming, but repent and amend your ways, and mercy will be shown. And you see, when we come to our text in chapter 6 and verse 16, this is exactly what we have in this verse.

12:52 It is one of these incidents where though God has been pronouncing judgment, He's been indicting them, saying the prophets have healed slightly, the false prophets have healed slightly, your true spiritual hurt, yet in the midst of all of that, God speaks the words of our text. And now we turn to chapter 6 and verse 16, Thus says the Lord, Stand in the ways and look, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, you shall find rest for your souls. Here is a call to mercy

13:36 in the midst of a context that deserves judgment. So let's park on the text itself. Now we've looked at the larger background, the prophet, the people, the burden of his message. Now let's look at this text itself.

Exegesis of Jeremiah 6:16: The Majestic Speaker and Three Commands

13:51 And notice the first thing in our text is God points to who the majestic speaker of these words really is. Notice the prophet's language. Thus says, not Jeremiah, but thus says the Lord. And the word used for Lord here is Jehovah, or as the modern scholars say, Yahweh.

14:17 The God who revealed Himself to His ancient people. When Moses said, you're sending me down there to Egypt to say to Pharaoh, let my people go. When the people say, who is this God? You're to say, I am that I am.

14:36 The name Jehovah comes into prominence in God's revealing of Himself as the great I am, the self-existent God who needs nothing outside of Himself, to sustain Him, to support Him, who is totally independent from anything that He made. There's only two kinds of things in the world, God and everything else that God has made and that God controls and that God sustains. And so the verse begins with those words. Thus says Yahweh, Jehovah, the great living true God,

15:17 self-existent, independent, self-sustaining, and yet the God of covenant grace and covenant mercy. And men, as we sit here tonight, we're not here to just look at some words in the Bible and analyze them and apply them. We're here to have dealings with this God. The God who gave you being.

15:43 You did not create yourself. Oh, my father and mother, created me. No, they were simply instruments in the hands of the God who is the creator of all men and all things. It is He that has made us and not we ourselves, the psalmist says.

16:04 This is the God who's addressing you in this place tonight and tomorrow and every time the Scriptures are opened and responsibly expounded and applied, the living God who made you is saying something to you. That's the majestic speaker. But now notice, secondly, the arresting commands. There are three fundamental commands in our text.

16:30 Thus says the Lord, the majestic speaker, stand in the ways and see or look. There's the first imperative. Stand in the way and look. Secondly, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way?

16:51 Third imperative, and walk therein. And then a promise, you shall find rest for your souls. And the passage is beautiful in that it's taking a picture of a man who's been on a journey and he's reached a point in his journey where he's lost his way. And he's not sure, shall I go left?

17:17 Shall I go right? I'm at a fork in the road. What shall I do? A certain influence has been upon me to bring me where I am.

17:25 Should I just keep going? Should I go left? Go right? God says, wait a minute.

17:29 First of all, you stand still. God says through the prophet, stand in the ways. Stop. Reflect.

17:43 Think. Look about you. Be pensive. Don't be driven by what others may think.

17:50 What others may be doing. The choices others may be making. But you are responsible to recognize that I, the living God who made you, sustained you and uphold you, I'm calling you to serious reflection about where you are and where you ought to be going. So the first imperative is stand and see or look.

18:16 Don't rush forward unthinkingly. Don't rush forward by the pressure of others. Stop. Stand.

18:25 Look. Think. But then secondly, he says, you are to ask. Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way.

18:42 What are they to ask for? They are to ask for the old paths, literally in the Hebrew, for the ancient paths. And then God says two things about those ancient paths. Look at the text.

18:58 Number one, they are indeed old or ancient paths. They are not paths that are ancient and are worthy to be considered simply because they're old. Sometimes the best thing you can do with old things is get rid of them. For many of us, that's a hard thing to do.

19:17 You go to clean out a closet, and it's torturous to get rid of an old thing. It's torturous to get rid of an old pair of sneakers that are worn out. You don't wear them anymore, but it's so hard to just chuck them out. So God is not sanctifying something simply because it's old.

19:30 What were the old paths? Well, if we look in the context, the old paths, the ancient paths, were the paths marked out for life by God's Word, revealed by God Himself to His people. For later on in this very chapter, look at verse 19, Hear, O earth, behold, I'll bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto My words. And as for My law, they have rejected it.

20:08 They have left the old paths. And what were the old paths? They were the old paths constructed of God's love and the law, God's words, the paths marked out by God's revelation of Himself in words conveyed through the prophets and through Moses and the servants of God who have given them the stuff that constructed the old paths. And then the second thing about them, they are called the good way.

20:46 Ask for the old paths because where is the good way? That is the way that is pleasing to God, the way that enables us to know God, to walk with God, to have communion with God, to live in a manner that pleases God. That is the good way. And that's the thing they are to ask for.

21:13 They are like a traveler who doesn't know quite where he is and where he should go. And he ponders that and recognizes it. And then he cries out, Does anyone know the right way to go? Shall I go left?

21:29 Shall I go right? Shall I go forward? Stand, look, ask for these, the old ways, the old paths wherein is the good way. And then he says the third imperative, and walk therein.

21:49 Once you've received an answer to the question, What is the good way? What are the old paths? Once you know, don't just say, Oh, that's lovely to know. Now begin to plant your feet in those paths.

22:08 In other words, let your life be ordered and regulated and determined by your understanding of what that old path is, wherein is the good way. Old Matthew Henry has a wonderful comment on this text that captures this. As for the old paths, the paths prescribed by the law of God, the written word, that is the true standard of antiquity. Ask for the paths that the patriarchs traveled before you.

22:45 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And as you hope to inherit the promises made to them, tread in their steps. Ask for that which is the good way, not the old way which wicked men have trodden. But when we ask for the old paths, it is only in order to find out the good way, the highway of the upright.

23:12 And having found it out, let's determine that we shall walk in it. So then we come to our subject. We're going to look at this text and we're going to consider in these sermons together what are some of those old paths that constitute the good way. The good way that the apostles and our Lord Jesus Christ mark out in their writings.

23:42 The good way that the martyrs and the reformers and the great servants of God in the past have found to be the good way wherein they have found rest to their souls. The path in which the promise has been fulfilled. You shall find rest to your souls. Those words sound familiar to you?

24:09 They're the exact words found in the lips of Jesus in Psalm 128. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall what? Find rest for your souls.

24:31 So when we look at our text in the light of the revelation of God in Christ, it is in coming to Christ and learning from Christ and embracing the yoke of Christ, committing ourselves to walk in these old paths, then we find rest to our souls. And only will we find rest to our souls walking in those paths. So, I hope in those 20 minutes or so I've persuaded you that it is right for us to take this text and make it the basis and framework of our consideration. What's the first

The First Old Path Identified: Heart and Life-Transforming Conversion

25:14 of the five old paths that I want to address during this weekend? Well, the first one is most fundamental and foundational to all of the others and this is how I want to describe it. I want us to consider the old path of a heart and life transforming conversion to God. We're going to look at this old path of a heart and life transforming conversion to God.

25:52 When we open our Bibles, Old or New Testament, but particularly in the New Testament, and we ask the question, what does it mean to have true and saving religion? Not just to be a religious person or to have a religion and engage in some religious practices, but what does it really mean to be right with God? What does it really mean to be properly related to God through Jesus Christ? What does it really mean in the most fundamental language to be a real sure enough bona fide Christian?

26:28 What's that mean? Well, when we open the New Testament, we find language like this. It's to experience a new birth. Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

26:43 It's described as a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is past, the new has come. It's described as becoming a new man.

26:56 You have put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. It's called a spiritual resurrection from the dead. You have been made alive who were born dead in your trespasses and in your sins. It's described as turning from darkness to light.

27:21 It's described as being delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. And we could take more pictures and descriptions given that this matter of experiencing true and saving religion is not just some little bit of shuffling the furniture of our minds and having a few new thoughts. Thoughts about God and Jesus and church and Bible. My brothers, this matter is a heart and life transformation of a true conversion unto God.

27:57 And for us to be satisfied with anything less is to do so at the peril of our souls. And we live in a day when the currency of the biblical description of a true Christian has been horribly debased and devalued. And so tonight I want to call you to stand and look and ask and walk in the old path of a heart life transforming conversion to God. And I know of no other single passage that more succinctly and clearly

Introducing 1 Thessalonians 1: The Clearest Summary of True Conversion

28:42 describes that heart and life transforming conversion to God than the passage we are going to park on for the rest of our time together. It is found in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. The letter as Paul often does he begins with thanksgiving to God.

29:13 Look at verse 2. We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers remembering without ceasing your work of faith labor of love patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father knowing brethren beloved of God your election. Paul says when we give thanks to God for you we give thanks doing two other things in the midst of our giving thanks. Knowing and remembering.

29:46 We give thanks remembering. What do they remember for which they give God thanks? They remember that among these Thessalonians these three prominent graces of true Christian experience were in them and were flourishing faith hope and love. So he says we remember this and we say look those three beautiful plants they don't grow and he has implanted these three graces.

30:23 He has implanted faith and love and patience and he says because those things are planted in you we also not only remember them but we remember knowing brethren beloved of God your election. Paul says we know you have been chosen by God to be redeemed by him. Well how did Paul know their election? Did God summon him up to the throne of God and say Paul come on I'm going to let you look into the role of God's

31:08 elect look down the names of all those see there's the name of so and so and all that God said your election is a transformational power of Jesus the Spirit the Holy Spirit and in much assurance we know your election because the Gospel came with

31:47 Power into your life. Well, then you ask the question, how did he know the gospel came with power? Well, read on with me. Look at the text. Verse 6. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, and you became an example.

32:11 Two times he says, you became, you became. How did he know the gospel came in power? Because of what the gospel did. The gospel came in power and they became, they became. In other words, there was a life and heart transforming efficacy of the word of God.

32:33 And when you come to the end of this chapter, and I've gone through very hurriedly, he describes in the most... simple and beautiful language, what it was that made them become what they had become. And now we're at verses 9 and 10.

32:51 For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you. Here we are now. How that you turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised...

First Mark of True Conversion: A Decisive Turning

33:11 from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. And here in this text, I want us to consider three very simple declarations of what is it that makes up a heart and life transforming conversion to God. Number one, it involves a decisive turning. Look at the language of...

33:41 the end of verse 9, how that you turned unto God from your idols. You turned when the gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power. And you became and you became. Here was the heart of what you had become.

34:03 You had become a people who turned decisively and radically from something and to something. You had become a people who turned decisively and radically from something and to something. You turned, this is a favorite word of Luke in the Gospel of... in the book of Acts.

34:20 You turned, this is a favorite word of Luke in the Gospel of... in the book of Acts.

34:21 Eight times Luke uses this verb to describe what happens when someone gets true saving religion. It's described as a fundamental, radical turning. Now look at the positive. It says you turned unto...

34:41 It's described as a fundamental, radical turning. Now look at the positive. It says you turned unto God. Now, if I were to say I am turning unto the place where Pastor Hughes is sitting, it means prior to that I was turned away from.

34:57 If I'm going to turn unto, it means I'm in the opposite direction when I do the turning. So when the apostle says these Thessalonians turned unto God, So when the apostle says these Thessalonians turned unto God, meaning them and us, that by nature every one of us has his back turned against God. If you want to know the Bible's description of every one of us in the condition with which we come out of our mother's wounds, we are born and we live as the turned-backed creatures. We've got our backs turned to God.

35:39 We don't want the knowledge of God. We don't want the claims of God. We don't want the communion and fellowship of God. The Bible says our sin has made us those with the backs turned to God.

35:55 And in that condition, with our backs turned away from God, God in His mercy has sent forth His only begotten Son to bear the punishment of the sins we commit with our sins. God in His mercy has sent forth His only begotten Son to bear the punishment of the sins we commit with our sins. With our backs turned against Him. But He does this to this end.

36:18 He came to take people with the backs turned to God and radically change them that they become those with faces towards God. Jesus died to effect this turning in all of His people. That's why Peter could say in 1 Peter 3.18, That's why Peter could say in 1 Peter 3.18,

36:43 Christ died for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. By nature we're not with God, we're against God. By nature the Scripture says there's none that seeks after God. So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character.

37:12 So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character. So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character. So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character. So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character.

37:16 So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character. So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character. So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character. So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character.

37:20 So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character. So when Christ died, His purpose in dying was to remove all the impediments in God's character. and returning love to sinners, Christ dies that He might bring us back to God. The essence of our sin is forsaking God, like those Israelites.

37:35 God says, They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, in new-known cisterns that can hold no water. That's us. And now, God in the Gospel comes and calls us back to Himself. And whenever there is a heart and life-transforming influence of the Gospel, here's the first clear indication.

37:59 There will be a decisive turning of turning unto God. That's why the Gospel appeal includes this very understanding. The prophet Isaiah said, Isaiah 55, verses 7 and 8, Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.

38:23 Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, for He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. The promise of pardon, the appeal that God gives to men is, return to Me, and I will pardon, He's not going to give a pardon to rebels whose backs are turned against Him, that they can just reach back over their shoulder and take a pardon in their hand and a pledge of forgiveness while they go on living with their backs against God.

39:05 That's turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. That's making grace harden men in their determination to live with their backs turned to God. No, the Gospel comes in power, and it does for us what it did for the Thessalonians. They turned with a decisive turning, positive, they turned unto God.

39:28 But then look at the negative. He says you turned unto God from idols. From idols. When you read how the Gospel was preached at Thessalonica in the book of Acts, most of the record that Luke gives describes how the Gospel came to the Jewish community.

39:49 Most of the record that Luke gives describes how the Gospel came to the Jewish community. Most of the record that Luke gives describes how the Gospel came to the Jewish community. Most of the record that Luke gives describes how the Gospel came to the Jewish community. Through the synagogue ministry.

39:52 And the Jews were not external idolaters. Later on the Gospel went out, as Paul says in this very chapter, from the Thessalonians into that whole area. That city was a great crossroads of commerce. And the Gospel spread very quickly, and it spread into pagan Roman society where idolatry was rife.

40:15 But though the church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles, But though the church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles, He says of all of them, both Jew and Gentile, they not only turned unto God, but they turned from their idols. Now the pagan Gentiles were external idol worshipers as well as internal. The Jews were not external idolaters, but internally they were. You know what an idol is?

40:42 An idol is any person or anything that occupies a place in your heart that belongs only to God. Any person, anything that occupies a place in your heart that belongs only to God, that's your idol. Whatever it is, that's your idol. God demands that we love Him with what?

41:15 All the heart, all the mind, all the soul, all the strength. Jesus said, if anyone comes to Me and does not hate, father, mother, brother, sister, yea, and his own life also, it's a figure of speech, an absolute for the relative. But He's saying, I will not brook any rival for your heart. I don't want just religious forms, religious rituals.

41:41 I don't want you to learn a few prayers and say some prayers and go to some services and undertake some religious rituals. I want your heart. And if I don't have your heart, and supreme place in your heart, you have no real dealings with Me. You have no real relationship to Me.

41:59 And so in the case of these Thessalonians, their decisive turning was not only a turning to God, but it was a turning from their idols. And the great idol that all of us have has our name on it. The idol is you. The idol is me.

42:21 Because the scripture says, all we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned every one to what? To his own way. I want to live my life the way I want to live it, to the ends and purposes for which I want to live it. I answer to no one but to myself.

42:40 That's your God, yourself. You look at your God in the mirror every morning when you shave, or trim your beard, or wipe a rag over your bald head. Whatever you do in front of the mirror, whatever you do in front of the mirror in the morning, that's your God. That's your God.

42:55 By nature. That's why Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 5.15, Christ died for all, that they who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again. So in this decisive turning, there is a turning to God, positive, a turning from God, to idols.

43:23 But alas, there are many people that get lots of religion, but they're still idolaters. That's why Paul had to describe them in 2 Timothy and said, the last days will be marked by people who are lovers of self more than lovers of God. They've never smashed the idol that has their name on it, the idol they look at in the mirror every morning. I ask you men sitting here tonight, could Paul write about you that you have turned to God from your idols?

44:02 Could he say, watching you live from Monday to Saturday night, there's no explanation for that man's life, how he lives, how he spends his time, how he talks, how he relates to people, how he reacts to circumstances. There's no explanation, but that man is living unto God. That man has turned from the idol of self and everything and everybody that would occupy a place in his heart that belongs only to God. God is his God, the object of his supreme love and his devotion.

Second Mark of True Conversion: A Decisive Submitting

44:43 That's the old path of a heart and life transformation, a heart and life conversion to God that is the essence of what it means to be a true Christian. But then notice, secondly, not only the decisive turning, but a decisive submitting. Look at the text. You turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God.

45:17 You turned to God from idols, and what was the disposition of your heart when you turned to God? Did you turn to God just to take something from him? Forgiveness? Pardon?

45:32 The gift of the Holy Spirit? All the blessings of being a Christian? Well, that's true. But this text says you turn to God from your idols with a disposition of decisively submitting submitting yourself to be a bond slave of this God.

45:53 Now, Paul had several words he could have used to convey the idea of service. He chooses the one that means service as a slave, a willing, cheerful slave. That's the word he chooses. You turn to God with a disposition that said, O God, in the light of your kindness and mercy to me in Jesus Christ, in the light of the fact that you offer forgiveness of all my sins and acceptance in your presence as a son in your heavenly family, all because of mercy and grace and kindness, O God,

46:37 what can I do but gladly submit to you as a slave to his master, knowing that your ways and your will and your word are true and right and have every single reason to embrace you and your word as that which is going to govern me. In other words, whenever someone's truly converted, they cease to become a rebel and they become a willing slave. That's what the text says. You turn to serve and he describes this God as the living God.

47:18 Anything else, anyone else that's called God is dead. It is non-existent. He is the living and the true, the real God. We're not just dealing with ideas.

47:30 As surely as this pulpit is something real and tangible, you hear me tapping my fingers upon it. As surely as my nose and the cochlear implant are real objects that I can feel and touch, there is a real, living, true God. We cannot see him. We cannot touch him.

47:49 But there's nothing more real in all of God's universe than the God whose universe it is. And when you turn to serve, it's not a combination of ideas and notions to whom and to what and to which you turn. You turn to this living and this true God with an attitude that says in the language of the hymn, Here, Lord, I give myself to you. Tis all that I can do.

48:21 That's the very essence of what it means to be truly converted, to experience the decisive turning and then the decisive submitting which has all kinds of concrete outworking in the practical life so that in the use of my time, in what I think about, in what I desire, what I do with my hands, my feet, my eyes, what the Bible calls, what I do with the members of my body. Romans 6, 15 to the end of the chapter make it abundantly clear that everybody is somebody's slave. You're either God's slave and the slave of righteousness

49:04 or you're the slave of sin. There's no middle allegiance. God is your master or sin is your master. And blessed be God when the gospel comes in power.

49:19 This is what we become. We become the willing bond slaves of the living and the true God. So we have the decisive turning, the decisive submitting. But thirdly and finally, look at the text.

Third Mark of True Conversion: A Decisive Refocusing

49:35 You turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his salvation. For his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. What is this? This is a decisive refocusing of life.

50:04 A decisive turning, a decisive submitting, and a decisive refocusing. He says when you turned to God, from your idols, to serve this living and true God, you were brought into the realm of a totally new focus of your life. Up until then, you were focused on the now, on the present, on what you could see with your physical eyes, in touch with your physical hands. But when you were truly converted, he says, you had this decisive refocusing of the entirety of your life

50:48 so that you now became someone whose heart and affections and longings were focused upon a person and upon an event. He says you turned in order to do what? To wait for his Son from heaven who delivers us from the wrath to come. This gospel that came, promising forgiveness, acceptance with God, the gift of the Spirit, all of these blessings based upon what Jesus Christ has done and is doing for sinners, one of the results was your heart became so attached to that person

51:33 that you yearned to see him and to be with him. You see, that's the glory of the gospel. It attaches us to the God revealed, in Christ, in such a way that truly loving him, we long to see him. When we are absent from those whom we love, if we truly love them, don't we yearn to see them?

52:00 Those times when I have to be away from my wife and I keep in touch by phone, do you think she'd believe me if I called home from wherever I was and I said, Dear, I'm thinking about you. I really miss you. But by the way, I'm really not anxious to see you. She'd say, What?

52:24 I'd say, Maybe I wasn't talking clear enough, dear. I really miss you. I think about you a lot. But frankly, I really don't care if I see you.

52:36 I could not persuade her that I was talking sense. If I truly love her and I'm separated from her, what's one of the inevitable accompaniments of love? A yearning to be with the object of our affection, face to face, hand to hand, arms to arm. And that's what happens when people are truly, soundly, biblically converted.

53:06 Christ has become the object not only of their trust, but of their affection. That's why Peter could say, Whom having not seen, you love. In whom believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. He said, All who are believing in Him, love Him.

53:28 And they love Him because they believe in Him. But there's no such thing as a believing in Him that doesn't give birth with a loving for Him. And if we love Him, we want to be with Him. We want to see Him.

53:46 And because the Scripture says, we're not going to see Him until through the door of death, absent from the body, at home with the Lord, or more gloriously, at His return in glory and power, which is what Paul is referring to here. John says, We shall be like Him when He is manifested, for we shall see Him as He is. And the Jesus whom we've come to know and love in the Scriptures, as we've read the Gospel records and we read the epistles of what He's done for us, we've come to love an unseen Christ, whom having not seen, Peter says, yet you love Him.

54:30 We love Him as the Holy Spirit reveals Him through the Scriptures. And loving Him, we say, I can't wait to see Him, to look upon His face, to look upon His pierced hands and His pierced feet, to hear His voice, to behold His countenance, to be in His presence. So Paul says, This is what happened to you Thessalonians. You turned to God from your idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, even the One whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

55:14 Now notice, who is being delivered from the wrath to come by Jesus? Those that are waiting for Jesus. What God has joined together, don't you separate. This text says, He delivers us from the wrath to come.

55:32 Who is the us? Those who've come to love Him and loving Him, they have a disposition of waiting for Him. You see, the second coming is an event. Paul didn't say, and to wait for the second coming.

55:47 He said to wait for His Son. That's a person. To wait for His Son from the heavens. Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

The Historical Pedigree of This Doctrine and Warning Against Counterfeits

56:00 I submit to you brethren, that what is here in these two verses is indeed a wonderful summary, a very succinct, distilled statement of what is the old path of true heart and love. A heart and life transformation of real conversion to God. Not cheap religion. Not sham religion.

56:26 Not mere lip religion. For the Scripture says that many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, and He will say to them, I never knew you. Paul said they professed an old God, but in works they deny Him. Dear men, don't treat this lightly.

56:46 This is of utmost importance. Ask yourself the question, is what Paul said of the Thessalonians true of me? Could anyone report about me what people were reporting about the Thessalonians? Have I, by God's grace, turned unto God with all my remaining sin, with all of my struggles, with the past patterns of my life that grieve me and pain me?

57:18 Is it true that I'm a facing God-man? Or am I still a back-turned-to-God man? One or the other. No middle ground.

57:29 You either turned to God or you're still turned away from God. Let the question sink in. I want you to answer. Answer as honestly sitting there now as you'll be forced to answer in the day of judgment.

57:45 Have I turned to God? Have I turned to Him from my idols? Have I repented of my commitment to serve myself? Have I repented of the determination to live my own life by my own standards, to my own ends and my own purposes?

58:07 Can I say that I now desire to live unto Him? To me, to live is Christ, Christ's word, Christ's honor, Christ's purpose, Christ's purposes for me. That's the rationale for who and what I am. I'm Christ-man.

58:25 Turn to God from your idols. Are you sitting here as a man who says my goal in life is to be a willing bond-slave of this God? I take His word seriously when that God tells me to love my wife as Christ loved the church. I say, Lord, by Your grace I'll at least begin to learn how to love her as You loved the church.

58:52 Trample underfoot my selfishness, my insensitivity, my silly reactions and anger at her. Oh, Lord, I want to be Your slave. And when You tell me how to treat my wife, I'm committed by Your grace to treat her that way. When You tell me that I'm to be honest to a penny in rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, I'm ready to make up my income tax forms with You looking over my shoulder.

59:25 And to make out that form in such a way when I'm done I can hold it up and say, Oh, God, I'm Your slave. And You've told me to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And You've told me You shall not steal. And I'm not stealing from uncle.

59:40 I'm not being dishonest. Thou shall not bear false witness. When I sign that form to the best of my knowledge, this is an honest and true account of my financial affairs. I'm God's bond slave.

59:54 I know I've pleased God the way I fill out my tax form. This is what we're talking about. This is what a Christian is. He serves the living and the true God.

60:06 And he waits for his Son from heaven. He loves the Lord Jesus. And he yearns to see the Lord Jesus. And he seeks to live in such a way that he knows he will bring pleasure and honor to the Lord Jesus.

60:21 Now brethren, this is the Biblical doctrine of conversion taught by our Lord, taught by the Apostles. Paul could say that he taught at Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth among the Gentiles that men should repent and turn to God doing works consistent with that repentance. Acts 26, 20. This is what the Bible says.

60:40 This is what the Bible says. Acts 26, 20. This is what the Bible says. Acts 26, 20.

60:46 This is what the Bible says. This is what Whitfield preached. And though Wesley had a differing theology at places, this is what Wesley preached. Jonathan Edward preached.

60:57 This is what John Owen preached. This is what Spurgeon preached. This is what every true servant of God preaches. And this business of just getting a little touch of Jesus and a little touch of Christian faith and everything is all right, the Joel Osteens and his ilk are lulling thousands into hell.

Pastoral Application and Closing Call

61:17 It is no biblical gospel. It is no biblical doctrine of conversion. And I now say to you where we began with the words of Jeremiah the prophet, stop. Don't keep moving along in the direction you've been in.

61:34 Stop. Stop. And look and ask what is the old path and the good way. You've heard it tonight.

61:47 The old path and the good biblical Holy Spirit wrought conversion to God. Now walk in it. Walk in it. Look away from yourself.

61:59 Acknowledge that what you've had up till now is perhaps sham and not real. And if you're not certain, give yourself no rest till you are. Walk therein. Because one of the saddest things and I didn't read the last part of that verse and they said we will not walk therein.

62:22 God graciously stretched out his hands and they slapped his hands and said no thank you God. I'm content to go my own way. May God grant that that may not be said of any one of you men. Let's pray together.

62:47 Our Father we thank you for your word. We thank you for the old path that these Thessalonians have taken in the spirit. They responded to the gospel and turn to you from their idols to serve you the living and the true God and to wait for your son out of heaven. Oh Lord may every man in this place determined by your grace to be found in that old path that we've considered fresh in mind and body and may we know your presence with

63:32 us throughout our remaining hours together. Thank you for one another. Thank you for your people here in this assembly and all the provisions made for our comfort. Give grace and blessing upon our time we plead in Jesus name.

63:54 Amen.