93-09 – Do You Know Your Spiritual Birth Line? – Conversion...The Baby Cries

In this scripture-packed series, Dr. Betters discusses regeneration, effectual calling, conversion, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance and glorification. Come along on this journey and find great joy in discovering many treasures in your journey along your spiritual birthline. Peter’s spiritual journey is a clear picture of a man intrigued by the Messiah, but not converted. In this message we watch as God removes Peter’s spiritual blindness. Peter’s journey helps us see our own spiritual birthlines unfold.

Transcript

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Welcome to In His Group with Dr. Chuck F. Butters, produced by Marking Ministries. Each In His Group message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Butters as he preaches the series, Do You Know Your Spiritual Birth Line?

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One of the things we have been trying to suggest to you is that we are living in urgent times. The hour is urgent. I think it's time for Christians to quit fooling around and wake up and smell the coffee. We are facing some very difficult, uncertain times. And unless you know what you believe, and unless you're willing to make deep commitments to those beliefs, as we get closer and closer to the coming of Christ, you're going to get lost in the shuffle. In fact, we've been talking about some of the signs of the time, one of them being the great apostasy that is going to fall upon the show church, organized Christianity, if you will. There is indeed a spiritual adultery, a spiritual apostasy inside of the church that is a sign of the coming of Christ. That falling away is going to come from within. And since the birth of the church, there has been apostasy. But we do not have to think hard to figure out that the Reformation was rooted in attacks against heresy. But in the last days it's going to be different. 2 Thessalonians 2 tells us for that day will not come until the apostasy or rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. And notice what it says, he will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God and worshiped, so that he sets himself up where? Inside of God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan, displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles and signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. So then, brothers, stand firm. Hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word or mouth or letter. You see what Paul is trying to say, that in the last days the apostasy is going to come, but the key to understanding this is that the apostasy will come from within the church. We will fall away from the doctrines that make the church the church. So it's vital for us to understand what those doctrines are. What do we believe? What do Christians hold to? Now, some of you have been a little troubled by some of the stuff you've heard coming out of the pulpit the last couple of weeks. And you've been stirred. I want to tell you something. What you've heard is not new. What you've heard has challenged the status quo of what you've always believed. You cannot remain stagnant and stale in your understanding of the doctrines of grace. It's much deeper than some sort of superficial treatment. You got to go deep inside of these great doctrines of grace that speak of how Christ secured for you your salvation. And a superficial treatment or a little booklet or some little quaint saying isn't going to cut it. You need to know what you believe. We're going to face in the last days attacks on this book. There are already attacks, just about in every mainline denomination that I know of, attacks on the inerrancy of this book. Forum criticism, additional revelations, other sacred writings, tongues and dreams and visions, and all this other stuff that adds to the prophecy of this book. And you need to know what they are, and you need to know what and how you can stand against this sort of stuff. There's a lot of leaven, rules that are unbiblical, pharisaic leaven, faulty teaching on the doctrines of grace, experientialism, worship that is showy, ritualism, worship that is irrelevant, traditionalism, failing to be the salt of the earth, and all of these isms that affect and infect our understanding of good doctrine. And then there's the leaven of the Sadducees, this rationalism that denies faith, a practical atheism, a secularism where we adopt our beliefs to the standard of the world rather than transform the standards of the world to the gospel of Christ. And you can look at verse 1 of chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, and you'll see there will be terrible times in the last day. Look at this description. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loverhood, treacherous, rash, conceited. You getting sick yet? Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And here is what really ought to make you sick. This is not describing the world out there. This is describing that in the last days, these are going to be the characteristics of the people in here. Say, how do you know that? Look at the next phrase. They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. Have nothing to do with them. Note who these people are. These are people inside of the show church. These are the people that make up the membership where this great apostasy is going to come. The leaven of the Sadducees. Then there's the leaven of Herod. Power politics, shaping social policy that runs counter to the word of God. The zealots did that in the first century. Or power politics that shapes social policy at the expense of the gospel. Some evangelicals have fallen into that trap. Or a power politics that shapes social policy as the gospel. That's what the liberals have done. A social gospel, if you will. So we're talking about signs that will presage the coming of Christ, a spiritual adultery and apostasy inside of the church, a spiritual warfare against the true invisible church, that is, the true church of Christ, will come under severe persecution in the last days. It's going to cost you something to be a Christian. You know where I stand on some of the things that have happened politically. I don't have to go through that stuff again, do I? Except to say this. We do not have a friend to evangelical Christianity in the White House. We do not have a friend to evangelical Christianity in Congress. And I think you're going to see more and more and more anti-family, anti-biblical, anti-Christian legislation going up into Congress that they're going to pass at the drop of a hat because it's the socially correct thing to do. And you and I are going to become more and more of the minority. And it's going to cost us something. We need to know who he is. Because evangelical Christianity is a diminishing minority. We need to know who our Christ is. We need to know what we believe, how he saved us, where this is all going, how God is a sovereign God and in control of everything. Because I'll tell you, if you don't understand that, you can get real depressed. Right? You can get real discouraged if you can't start putting some feet to your theology and understanding the beauty of the doctrines of grace. That our God is indeed a sovereign God. There is another sign we've not spoken of yet. In fact, I was asked this this morning in the membership class, and I think it's quite appropriate. The question I was asked is when is Christ coming back? That's a good question. I don't have an answer for that, but I can tell you this there are signposts. And those signposts are to be warnings to us that the coming of Christ is near. And one of those signposts you're going to find in Matthew chapter 21. I'd like you to turn to that. Matthew chapter 21. Look at this with me. Beginning with verse 19. Matthew 21, 19. Seeing a fig tree, verse 19, chapter 21, seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, May you never bear fruit again. Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. How did the fig tree wither so quickly? They asked. Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what is done to this fig tree, but you can also say to the mountain, Go throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done. Here's the picture of Christ walking up to a fig tree, and he curses it. And as soon as he curses it, the tree withers up and it dies, and he says, May you never bear fruit again, may you never come to leaf again. Now, any scholar of scripture knows that the fig tree is the symbol of the nation of Israel. Jesus, in essence, is standing before nationalistic Israel, and he is rejecting them as they have rejected him. But now go over the same gospel to the 24th chapter, when he speaks of the coming of Christ and the signs of the time. Matthew chapter 24, and look with me at verse 32. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. And as you read that within the context of the prophecies of Matthew 24, it becomes very clear that one of the signposts of the coming of Christ is going to be the re-emergence of this cursed fig tree. The nation of Israel will re-emerge as a nation, and you will know that summer is near. And that the coming of Christ is near, as he says in other scripture, even at the gate. Now you don't have to be a real genius of theology to put that together, do you? Because in 1948, the nation of Israel was duly constituted and the leaf has emerged. Now, what does he say? When you see that happen, I am at the door. The coming is near. Look up. So what do we have? We have this great apostasy. We have this persecution of the church. We have this alignment of prophetic events such as Israel and the breaking down of the East and the West walls and the invasion of Eastern religion into Western Christianity, ecological and environmental imbalance that produces pestilence and famine worldwide. Countries coming apart from famine and pestilence, racial and ethnic hatred, safety and peace that is imagined, but wars and rumors of wars that prevail. What are we talking about here? We're talking about a prophetic alignment, that the coming of Jesus Christ is near. A few weeks ago I asked you a question if you knew you had one year, an absolute certainty that in one year Christ would return, and somehow or another you knew that for a fact. What would you do in that one year? Some of you still haven't come up with an answer to that question. Why? Because our priorities and our values are all messed up. We're so into ourselves and so into our own desires and pleasures that we do not focus upon the beauty of where this whole thing is going. Then we spent some time with Mr. Peter, looking at how he was progressively coming to understand more of what the doctrines of grace were all about. Why? Because Jesus asked him a very profound question. He said, Who are they saying out there that I am? And they gave the answers. But then he said, and I call this the mother of all questions, who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am? And isn't that really where the rubber meets the road? Who do you say that he is? What is your decision and commitment about Jesus Christ? You see, if what we're saying here is true, if the coming of Christ is indeed very near, then we better understand what we believe. We better be able to just see the majesty and the beauty of God and how God operates in these wonderful doctrines of grace. Well, I gave you this little chart here, and I hope it's helpful. You can do the same thing, by the way, on a straight line. I just put it in apply, but you can do it on a straight line. In that upper right-hand corner, you can write the word regeneration. Regeneration. Now, friends, regeneration is not the same as conversion. Regeneration is the moment you are born again. Now that's confusing to some of you. This is where you're all getting a little confused. Why? Because for years you believed that being born again and being converted are one and the same thing. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, he compared spiritual birth. And at that moment of conception, when that egg and that sperm come together, the nature of the egg and the nature of the sperm is changed. A miracle takes place at conception. God infuses within that fertilized embryo life. And a miracle happens. This is what it means to be born again. In John chapter 3, Jesus spoke to Nicodemus and said, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Eris passive verb. It's a point action, but it's something in which you are totally unaware of. It's something in which you are totally passive. It's something that happens to you, not because of you. What does God do? At some point in your life and in the life of all of his elect children, he implants a new nature. He works a miracle of regeneration. He takes your nature and changes it by uniting you to Christ. And then from that point on, and you can draw the second circle out to the right, as you're going clockwise there, you can put the word effectual calling. After a man has been regenerated, God begins to effectually call him. He begins to arrange circumstances and details in his life, events, persons, and even initial commitments, if you will. Moments when you sense the power of God at work in your life. Moments when things begin to take shape. Moments when you begin to understand exactly what is going on. You're convinced that you're a sinner and that your sin has caused you misery. Your mind becomes enlightened to the knowledge of God. Things begin to make sense from the scriptures. God begins to change the way you think. Your will, that is, your decision-making ability, is renewed. As you are persuaded day after day, month after month, perhaps in some cases year after year, you are persuaded and enabled to embrace Jesus Christ as He is offered in the gospel. Then and only then do we come to the third circle of conversion. You see, a man is first born again. Now, what we have interpreted born again to mean over the years is conversion, and that's wrong. To be born again is to be regenerated from within. God brings new life to us, and then he begins to call us. I gave you a few of the circumstances in my own life that God used in my effectual calling. But at some given point along the way, a man truly must be converted. And that's what I want to focus on here today. I want to focus on the concept of conversion. Go over to Jeremiah in the Old Testament, chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. The question I want to ask you this morning is: are you converted? Are you a converted man? Are you a converted woman? Jeremiah chapter 31, and look with me at verse 3. Now you're gonna have to go quick on these. So if you want to get ahead of me, get ready for Romans 11. Because we're gonna jump. Jeremiah 31, verse 3. The Lord appeared to us in the past saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have what? What's that next word? I have drawn you with loving kindness. Romans 11, 29, it says, For God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Now we have the picture of God drawing us and calling us, and that call is irrevocable. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Turn over to that and look at verse 26. 1 Corinthians 1 26. Brothers, think of what you were when you were what? Called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. That applies to most of us, doesn't it? Not many were influential, not many were of noble birth. But notice the word called. You were called, you have been drawn. The calling is irrevocable. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1. Paul says, Ephesians 4, verse 1, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Now he's saying that the way in which we live has to reflect the fact that we have been called. We are a called people. Called to what? Called to holiness. John chapter 6, the key verse. I want you to turn to that and look at it with me. John 6. I want to spend a little time on two verses here. Great stuff here. Great stuff. Follow along. We're talking about the effectual calling and how it leads ultimately to our conversion. John 6 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me, what's that word? Draws him. Sounds like Jeremiah, doesn't it? Sounds like the same thing Jeremiah said. I have drawn you with loving kindness, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Now Jesus says, No man. Does that exclude you? Are you exempt from that? No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day. Drop down the verse 65. He went on to say, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him. You see, we talk about being converted as though it's something that we do. And in a sense, it is, but in a very major sense, it isn't. We'll explain that in a minute. John 6 44, it says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. I spent a little time on that word this past week. That's a very interesting word. Not to impress, but in order to help. You understand. The verb is erist, the verb is subjunctive. What's that mean to you? It means that something happens as some sort of simple, undefined action or series of actions that is closely related to something else that's going to happen out. The future. For example, I might say that I am getting ready to go to the ball game. Now that means that I am going to do a series of things in order to get ready to go to the ball game. The goal is the ball game, but there's a series of things that are going to happen first before I get to that ball game. That's aorist subjunctive. He says, now the father is going to erist subjunctive, draw you or enable you, or call you to something out here in the future. And a series of things are going to happen in your life to get you to that point. It's not the same thing repeated over and over again. If that were the case, the present tense would be used. But it's eris subjunctive and it means a series of things that are different things. So God brings into your life a series of events and circumstances and changes during this period called the effectual call, where he is bringing you to a well-defined goal out here in the future, which is what? Your conversion. And that is what he is working towards. This fits our definition of the effectual calling leading to conversion. The word draw there is not the word that's used for force. That would be another word. That would be the word sure. Sorrow would be the word that's like of a dragging of a net. You're forcing it to go a certain way. That's not the word that's used here. It's not a word of force, it's a word of God beautifully and majestically orchestrating the details of your life to bring you to that point of conversion. That's God's grace. Go over to 2 Timothy chapter 1. Two more key verses I want to look at. 2 Timothy 1. Look with me at verse 9. Speaking of Christ who has saved us and called us to a holy life. Not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. Get that through your heads. Please get that through your heads. You are not saved because God sees in you some innate, inherent quality of faith or good works. In fact, he sees just the opposite, as we'll discuss in the weeks to come. He calls us. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. Notice God gives you grace before time even begins. You following this? Put your name in there if you're a Christian. Erst passive verb. You had nothing to do with it. God's grace was given, acted upon you before time even began. God chose you before time began. Now you know the Arminian will stand up and say, Jesus or God looked down through heaven's telescope, and he saw that certain people would exercise inherent faith, and therefore on that basis, he chose them. That just doesn't fit the language of 2 Timothy 1 9. He makes it very clear, not because of anything we have done, but because of grace that was given us, passive verb given us in Christ before the world began. One more verse, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 10. Then we're gonna try to bring this home to you. What a confusing verse, by the way, this is to so many people. And it's really not that hard. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 10. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to, and I've underlined this, make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall. Somehow placing the onus of responsibility of staying in Christ on you. They say, Well, it says there, make your calling and election sure. Make sure. That means you have to do a series of things to make sure. Once again, just a little bit of scholarship would show them that that's not exactly the definition. Make sure is a present infinitive. It in essence is saying this is something you can rely on, something upon which you may build, something to trust that will not fail or waver. It involves a continuous action without implying anything about the time of the action. In other words, literally, keep on relying upon your election and your calling. That's what he's saying. Keep on relying. In other words, when Satan throws the kitchen sink at you and you begin to have doubts and you begin to waver and you begin to think, how could God save somebody like me? I've sinned, I've sinned grievously. Has he taken his salvation from me? I've fallen, I've backslidden, am I now removed from God's grace? What's he say? He says, Let the foundation, let the heartbeat, let the rock of your faith not be in something you believe or have done, but in something that he has done. That is, make your calling and your election the foundation of your faith. Whenever you begin to doubt, whenever Satan starts throwing that stuff in your face. What do you say? You say, wait a minute, Mr. Devil. Hold on one second. My God purposed my salvation in all eternity by his grace, not on my good works or my good deeds. He purposed this because he loved me with an everlasting love. He promised to regenerate me, he promised to call me, and he has been calling me, and he's promised to convert me, he's even promised to sanctify and to glorify me. You can't take that away, Mr. Devil. That is something upon which my faith can rely on. Sadly, what the Armenians have done with this is they've said, well, you've got to make sure every day. Somehow or another, you've got to work your way into this thing. And you gotta stay secure by being a certain kind of a person. And that's not at all what the verse says. You see, sadly, what we've done is we've placed so much emphasis upon this point of conversion that for some people who can't actually pin it down to a date in the time, they have actually come to believe of themselves that they are second-class Christians. And they miss the whole idea of the process of God's grace. Do something, some outward demonstration to confirm that you're a Christian. We've placed so much emphasis on that that we've missed the whole point of God's elective grace before the foundation of the world, eternity past, and all the way out here into our glorification into eternity future. We've missed the whole process. In fact, I talked to a person the other day. And I asked this person as we were going through this about their own personal life. And this happens to be an individual who had a little difficulty coming up with a quote point X. But you see, I think God is much more concerned with the result or the fruit of the point X than whether or not we can define the point X. Because point X is going to involve something, it's going to become something. We'll talk about that in a minute. Now I asked this person as we discussed his salvation and how God effectually called him and his conversion. And it was an eye-opener. This man's eyes were opened. He was just sitting there and he was amazed. All of a sudden he came to realize that all these years I felt like a second-class Christian because I hear these great dramatic testimonies. I was on drugs and I was drinking booze and I was this and I was that, and God dramatically saved me. And I say, Well, praise the Lord for that. That's great. But the greater miracle of reformed doctrine is this that we raise our children from infancy to know the holy scriptures, and that they don't have to necessarily come to some sort of dramatic conversion, that God by His grace is bringing them along the whole time. The greater miracles are the miracles of our covenant children coming to know and understand the doctrines of grace so that they stand up someday and say, I don't ever remember a time when I wasn't a Christian. Am I saying that you don't have to have a coming out party? Of course not. Just as the baby has to be born, so the regenerated and effectually called elect person has to come to a conversion. But it doesn't have to be this well-defined point in time, hour and second experience. For me it was. For others it was. But that doesn't make me a first-class Christian and you a second class Christian. In fact, it might even make God's grace more effective and efficient and wonderful and beautiful in your life. The issue is not whether or not you can define the point X, but whether or not the elements of true conversion are present. And that brings us to that third circle. The word conversion involves two things. Two things. And without both of these things present, you're not a converted man. In the Bible, the concept of conversion is referred to 146 times. Did you know that? Of course you didn't know that. But now you know that. 146 times. The concept of conversion is referred to in the Bible. Now listen to this. Out of those 146 times, how many times do you think conversion is referred to as an act of man? 140 of the 146 times conversion is referred to as something that you do. Six times it's referred to as something that God does. Do you think God is trying to drive home a message? You see, one of the things we don't understand as reformed Christians is that we are responsible for being converted. Somehow or another we think that God drags us in against our will, that we are dragged into the kingdom, kicking and scratching and clawing. That's not the purpose of effectual call. God is enlightening my mind, convicting me of my sin, changing my will, changing my nature, and leading me to the point where I will consciously choose Jesus Christ, not because I have to, but because I want to. You with me? Psalm 51, verse 13. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Jeremiah 3 22, a command. Return, faithless people. I will cure you of backsliding. Yes, we will come to you, for you are the Lord our God. Your responsibility. But likewise the Holy Spirit has a role. Jeremiah 31, 18. I have surely heard Ephraim's moaning. You disciplined me like an unruly calf, and I have been disciplined. Restore me and I will return because you are left. Turn over to Acts 11, 18. Because I don't want you to miss this. Acts 11.18. When they heard this, they had no further objections. You see, God had prepared these people for this message. Acts 11, 18. When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, notice what they said, so then God has what's that next word? Granted even to the Gentiles. What did God grant to them? What did God give to the Gentiles? Repentance unto life. Notice God gives repentance. Well, we just read in other passages in the Old Testament, we're commanded to repent. So which is it? Are we commanded to repent or does God give repentance? And the answer is both. We are commanded and God gives, Romans chapter 2, verse 4. Listen to this verse. Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? What is this effectual call? What is he doing with your life before you are actually converted? He's leading you. He's leading you. And in that process, he's impressing on you the urgency of your own sins. He's renewing your thinking, enabling your will to do what? He's leading you to a point to do what? To repent. The word repent in the Old Testament is used 1,060 times. I counted them. Actually, I didn't. Somebody else did. 1,060 times. The twelfth most common word in the Old Testament is the word repentance. Most often it's used in the book of Jeremiah 111 times. I did count that. The overwhelming emphasis is on man's responsibility to repent and to be converted. And the element of conversion is repentance. You can't be converted unless you repent. Although it is the Holy Spirit who draws us and calls us to be converted, he does it in such a way so as not to force us to repent, but out of a sense of conviction about my personal sins and in love and obedience to him, I repent of those sins. But conversion, unlike the effectual calling, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You are not converted again and again and again and again and again. At some point, the baby has to be born. You don't take the child back into the mother's womb all over again. At some point, there's a coming out party. At some point, the baby is born. And you cross the bridge. You come to a point in your life where you say, I've had it.

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God has convicted me of my sins. My sins. And know them. Your sins.

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And know them. You see, you sin differently than I do. And if I'm going to repent, it's not a generic repentance. I must repent of my specific sins. And God convicts me of those sins. And I cross the bridge. And I move over from being effectually called to being converted. I gotta tell you something. Once you cross over that bridge, once you are truly converted, every power out of the kingdom of hell, every power of the enemies of Christ, whether it be the flesh or the world or Satan himself will lure you and draw you and desire you to look back over the other side of the bridge and to begin to move into the direction of what you used to be. Now, if you skip ahead two spaces after conversion, skip the next two. You go to the eight o'clock spot over there in your pie. You can put the word sanctification. Because there in that pie, you're not just going to be converted and live the same way. You can't be converted and live the same way. If you're living the same way, you're not converted. Something has to happen. Two elements must be present. We must repent. And we must believe. Faith. Faith. How do you receive faith? Romans 10:17 says, faith comes from hearing the message. And the message is heard through the word of Christ. You want to know how you can understand faith? You want to know how you can believe? You want to know how God can begin to work the work of faith in you? Get into this book. Get into this book. Things will begin to happen. You see, this book is a holy book. Your heart is a dirty place, and you can't put a holy book in a dirty place without something happening. Something's gonna happen, something's gonna give. When you put this book into my filthy heart, the garbage has got to come out. It's gotta come out. And so I repent and I believe. Or as some say, I believe, and because I believe, I repent. I don't really care which one of those two you put first. I don't believe you can actually put one or the other primarily first, although I do believe faith comes before repentance. But I don't think that's important. I think it's two sides to the same coin. You gotta take them both together. They're like Siamese twins. I repent and believe. I turn and I believe. I turn from my sins, my specific sins. And you see, all during that effectual calling, God's been convicting me of that. You know what He's been saying to me? That adultery is wrong. The way you treat your wife is wrong. Your uncontrolled tongue is wrong. Your secret sins in your own little chamber that nobody else knows about, at least you think nobody else knows, that God says is exposed to all of heaven, that's wrong. And God begins to hammer home the message as He's calling you to be converted. You know what He does through the preaching of the Word? He gives you a vision of the cross. Because that's the only way you can be converted. You get a vision of the cross. And what do you see on that cross? You know what I see? You know what I see on that cross? I see every single sin I've ever committed, and I see Jesus going to hell for me. That's what I see. I see Jesus imbibing within himself my sins and dying there on that cross and going to hell on that cross so that I don't have to. Man, if that doesn't get you down on your face before a holy God and say, Why is your mercy extended to me? You know, when Pastor Perkins called us to focus on an attribute of God, you know the first thought that came to my mind of what I wanted to focus on in that prayer time? God's mercy. God's mercy. It doesn't take me long to figure out that God is a merciful God because I know he's a merciful God because he's been merciful to me. You following me? Are you with me? My conversion means that I come to that point of believing what he all along has been telling me. And then I repent of those sins that now he has enabled me to do. And with an act of my will that has been changed by his power and grace, I embrace Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. Then and only then can I lay claim to the Holy Spirit's presence in my life to sanctify and glorify me from that point on. The nature of faith. You know, specific sins. When Paul talked to the Thessalonians, he says, You know, I've heard about you Christian people at Thessalonica.

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I've

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Heard about the fact that you are converted people. Then notice what he says in 1 Thessalonians 1 9. You don't have to turn to it, just listen. He says, They tell me how you turned from idols to serve the living and true God. The Thessalonians had an idol problem. Their sins that they needed to repent of were sins of worshiping idols, specific sins. You can't be converted until you've come to that sense of your own sinfulness and wickedness. The beauty of God's message and the beauty of the doctrines of grace is that before that point of regeneration, all the way back in eternity past, God purposed to save you, who are his elect. At some point in your life, he regenerates, infuses you, and unites you with his nature. Union with Christ, union mystica, the union of Christ, the mystical union. And then from that point on, he begins a series drawing you, calling you, enabling you to the point X where you're converted. Now you may or may not be able to define that X, but you can know that that X has occurred if you see faith and repentance evident in your life. In other words, fruit. You're going to see evidence or proof that you've crossed over the bridge. Abiding elements that mark a truly converted man. I got to tell you something as I close. I have been so burdened with the urgency of this message that I have a growing intolerance for petty Christianity. My job as the senior pastor of this great church is to educate you and nurture you so that you may grow in the full stature of Christ. That's my agenda. I'm not going to be sidetracked into pettiness and pickiness and all this other garbage that goes along with a local church. This is going to be a different church. We're not going to be petty people. We're going to focus on the grace of God and the evangelization of the world. Or I've got news for you. You'd better find another church because you don't belong here. It's amazing to me how we can get sidetracked into stuff that doesn't matter. And I hope you've sensed that urgency in my preaching, at least in the past year. I hope you've caught the vision. Either get on board or pick a door. Because we are facing serious, serious issues. Especially if we're anywhere near the fact of the coming of Jesus Christ. Do you know how ashamed and embarrassed a lot of Christians are going to be when Christ returns and finds them idle and sidetracked and hopping from place to place, splitting churches? We have a much more serious mission and message than that. And I'm not going to be sidetracked. And I hope you're not going to be sidetracked. So who do you say that he is? Who do you say that he is? Are you a converted man? I had the wonderful, wonderful privilege this past week of explaining some of this to a young girl and to a young man. And I saw her come to that point of conversion. I just happened to be the midwife. Somebody else paved the way. Other factors paved the way. I just happened to be there and had the wonderful privilege of praying with her to trust Christ as her Savior. What a glorious, glorious message that is. Man, if you've missed that message, if you've missed that message, what a blessing you've missed. And so, Father, help us to focus on what's really urgent. Help us to take a good, long, hard look at that cross. And what do we see? What do we see? But a wonderful work of grace whereby we are saved not by works which we have done, but by grace. Grace. Wonderful grace. And so, Father, help us to get our eyes off of the things that aren't important and on to the things that are. That is Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. And the light of his glory and grace. Lord, may that be our prayer even as we close.

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Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit, abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said.

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Mark Ink Ministries exist to offer help and hope to hurting people by pointing them to the promises of God and the comfort of his word. Through In His Grip, ask Dr. Betters, Daily Treasure, and Help and Hope, we provide free, faith-based resources for those walking through suffering, grief, confusion, and seasons of deep need. To learn more about Dr. Betters, explore our resources, or contact us, visit S-A-R-K-N-C.org. May you rest today in the assurance that God can be trusted even when you do not understand his mind.