Conversion

(Article for publication week of 10-3- AD 2013

“….Ye turned from idols to serve the living and true God” (I Thessalonians 1:9b).

I continue to blast the trumpet of warning against false profession. For several weeks I have been writing to you from our Lord’s warning found in Matthew 7:21-23. Last week I showed you that one of the defects in the false professors in that passage was that they had missed the gate of conversion. The characters addressed in Matthew 7:21-23 are not unlike many of you. They were as religious as all get out, but were unconverted. Dear reader, if you come to the Final Judgment unsaved, you blood will not be on my hands, for I am faithfully laboring for your soul and warning you of the wrath to come.

Now, we have previously noted that conversion is illustrated by our Lord in Matthew 7:13. True conversion is like a ‘strait” gate. True conversion is necessary, urgent, difficult, agonizing, and rare. After urging us to enter into the narrow way by means of the difficult gate of conversion, our Lord goes on and describes many who missed that gate. And this is exactly where the majority of professed Christians and church members are in our day and in our county. There are multitudes that have been close to the gate, but have never entered in. Multitudes have tumbled over the wall supposing to be in the way, but they did not get in the right way. To be sure that you understand what true conversion is, we shall now devote at least a few articles to the subject.

Our text today in I Thessalonians describes for us true conversion. Paul would write to the believers in the Church at Thessalonica and tell them he knew they were of God’s elect (see I Thessalonians 1:4), because they “turned from idols to serve the living and true God.” If you care to do a simple word study, get your Strong’s concordance and compare “turn” with “convert”. You will see they are generally translated from the same Greek word. And so you see, conversion is a turning from idolatry to the only true God. Dear reader, does this describe you? Have you turned from your idols to serve the God of the Bible? Have you ever admitted that you have been an idolater? Some of you are so ignorant as to suppose that because you have not bowed to a statue of a heathen “deity” that you are not an idolater. But go read Colossians 3:5 and you will see that covetousness is idolatry. If you have something or someone that you love more than God, you are an idolater. Some of you have made money your god. Some of you have made pleasure your god. Some of you have made your base lusts your god. Some of you have made your children your god. Some of you have made your religion your god. Ultimately, a lost man worships himself. You are not saved, because you have never turned from your idols to serve the living and true God.

Now God’s word is clear. “Idolaters… shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8). Dear reader, unless you turn this moment from your idols, and turn to God, you will spend eternity where the fire is not quenched, and the worm never dies. Sinner, turn or burn!

Professors, but not Possessors

(Article for publication week of 9-26- AD 2013)

“Not every one that saith unto me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;” (Matthew 7:21).

There are multitudes that profess Christ, but do not possess Christ. There are multitudes that are very religious, but are unsaved and will hear their awful doom at the Day of Judgment. Dear reader, am I talking about you? Will you be exposed at the Day of Judgment as a false professor and finally go to hell to be punished forever?

We have previously seen these defects in the false converts that our Lord talks about here in Matthew 7:21-23: 1) they never questioned whether they were genuinely saved; 2) they did not the will of God; and 3) they were antinomian. Now we come to notice another defect in false professors: though they had a loud profession, they had missed the gate of conversion. Note well, that back in verse 13 our Lord exhorted us to enter into the strait gate that opens to the narrow way that leads to life, and warned us to avoid the wide gate that opens to the broad way that leads to destruction. Now in verses 21-23, He tells us of that destruction. He goes on in the following verses and says the destruction will be great. Our Lord warns us that a man may be religious and profess faith in Christ, and yet never possess Christ. A man may profess Christ, and yet be unconverted. A man may even be a preacher, and yet never enter the strait gate of conversion.

Dear reader, have you been converted? Do you even know what conversion is? I wrote on this extensively several weeks ago as we looked at the strait gate of Matthew 7:13. That difficult gate represents true conversion which we showed is necessary, urgent, difficult and rare. Conversion is a turning from sin, and a turning to the Saviour of sinners. Paul would write to the saints at Thessalonica and tell them he knew they were elect of God because they had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (I Thessalonians 1:9). A lost sinner turns from the darkness of sin, to the light of Christ, when he is turned by the efficacious grace of God (Jeremiah 31:18). Conversion is the inevitable and conscious turning of an elect sinner from his natural state to a state of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. A sinner may do all kinds of religious things and remain unconverted. He may attend church, and even join a church; he may “walk the aisle’, or “decide for Christ”; he may be active in all sorts of religious activity; he may be as busy as a bee in community affairs, or works of so-called benevolence; I tell you, you may be do all these things and more and remain unconverted and a stranger to Christ and His saving work. Unless you have consciously entered the strait gate of conversion, you will hear Christ say to you, “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity.”

There is somebody reading the Narrow Way this week that needs to come see me so I can tell you what true conversion is. There is somebody reading this article that needs to come see me or call me at 601-927-5070 so I can tell you how to be saved. There are many of you who have missed the strait gate of conversion altogether. If you have missed conversion, you have missed Christ, and if you miss Christ, you miss everything. Except ye repent, ye shall certainly perish. May the Lord have mercy upon you, because if He doesn’t, you will be miserable forever in hell.

Sin Defined

(Article for publication week of 9-19-2013 AD)

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3:4).

For the past several weeks we have been exposing false profession from Matthew 7:21-23. I encourage you to go back and read the text. One of the things we noted that is fundamentally wrong with the false professors in that text is that they are in reality lawless. Though they had a fine profession, our Lord pronounced them “workers of iniquity.” Our regular readers will remember that we pointed out that the Greek word translated “iniquity” means “lawless.” At the final judgment our Lord will say to many “depart from me”, for they are antinomians, that is “lawless.” They had no regard for the law of God. They probably misused Romans 6:14 and insisted the law had nothing to do with them because they were saved by grace!

Lawlessness appears to be the attitude of most professed Christians nowadays. (And I keep reminding you who make no profession of religion that you are no better off, so don’t start thinking you are better than all the “hypocrites”; you are lawless too, as is evidenced by your refusal to worship God as He has commanded.) Antinomianism is the spirit of the age, even in the professed church. This lawlessness is two-fold. First, there is a refusal to call sin what it is, and a libertine spirit that refuses to be ruled by the word of God. You cannot tell the professed church from the world. The average church member dresses like the world, talks like the world, thinks like the world, and generally lives like the world. This generation of hell-raising church members thinks the casino and the ball game is perfectly compatible with Christianity. About the only “sin” known to the modern church is the “sin” of being “judgmental”!

But secondly, not only is there a refusal to call sin what the Bible calls sin, but there is the practice of calling sin that which the Bible does not. Our text this week plainly says, “sin is the transgression of the law.” In too many cases the professing church has accepted political correctness as its definition of sin. It is sinful to refuse to call sin what the Bible does, but it is equally sinful to call sin what the Bible does not. For example, the modern church has maligned and even reprobated our Forefathers for the practice of domestic servitude, but the Bible nowhere calls domestic servitude a sin. In fact it regulates, condones, and approves the practice. Before you start cussing me, go read Genesis 17:23; Genesis 24:35; Exodus 20:10; Exodus 20:17; Matthew 8:5-10; Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 4:1; and I Timothy 6:1-5 for starters. I just use this as a vivid example of accepting some standard other than the Bible in our definition of sin. Many more examples could be cited.

Dear readers, especially you who claim to be Christians, I challenge you to think Biblically, not like the world. Do you love the law of God? Do you delight in the law of God after the inward man? Do you accept the law of God as your rule of life, even though you know you come far short in keeping it? (I have written plenty over the years showing that believers are saved by grace, not law keeping. But I have also tried to be faithful to your souls in showing that salvation by grace is not a license to sin.) May the Lord deliver us from a sprit and practice of lawlessness.

What it Means to be Under Grace

(Article for publication week of September 12, AD 2013)

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Roman 6:14).

For several weeks we have been exposing false profession from Matthew 7:21-23. One of the indictments our Lord will bring against false professors at the Day of Judgment will be that they are, in spite of their profession, “lawless” (workers of iniquity). Lost men, whether professors of Christ or not, are, after all “lawless;” they have no regard for the law of God.

Sadly, we see this attitude toward the law of God prevalent amongst professed believers all around us. How often do we hear church members, and even preachers parrot, “we are not under the law; we are under grace.” I had a preacher parrot this to me just recently. This is a blatant example of the lawlessness our Lord describes in Matthew 7:21-23. It is an example of men wresting the scriptures to their own destruction.

So what does the inspired word mean when it says in Romans 6:14 “ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Does this text say that a believer in Christ is free to ignore the law of God since he is saved by grace? A million times “NO”! This text in no way even suggests, nor implies, much less commands that a believer reject the law of God as his rule of life. The context in which it is given, and the whole of scripture will not allow such an interpretation as the antinomians try to give for this verse.

First of all, this statement is made in the context of Paul’s defense of free grace from charges of antinomianism. In Romans 3:21- 5:21, Paul proves wonderfully that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Alone, concluding with the glorious declaration that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Then Chapter 6 opens with “shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” The answer is,”God forbid”! Paul’s whole point in chapter 6 is that being saved by grace frees a man from the “dominion of sin.” He is not under the dominion of sin because he is freely justified by imputed righteousness, and he is being sanctified by the Holy Spirit indwelling him. A believer is not under the law for his justification, so he is not under the condemnation of the law. The happy result of this is that he is no longer under the dominion of sin. A believer is “not under law” in these two senses: 1) he is not under the law as a covenant of works to be saved by it; and 2) he is not under the condemnation of the law, because Christ has answered all the just claims of the law for the believer.

Our Lord Himself has forever answered every lawless one in Matthew 5:17 when He said, ‘think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” The Apostle Paul dealt a deathblow to antinomianism in Romans 3:31, when he was inspired to write, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

I call upon all my readers, both professors of religion, and non- professors to repent of all your lawlessness in action and attitude and flee to Christ, the Only Saviour of the lawless. May the Lord spare you before it is too late.

The Believer's Love of the Law of God

(Article for publication week of 9-5-AD 2013)

"O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the the day" (Psalm 119:97).

The Psalmist expresses the delight of every true believer. The believer in Christ can never be an antinomian, but can truly say he loves the law of God. This is the heart's delight of believers under both Covenants for we find the Apostle Paul expressing the same love for the law of God in Romas 7:22 where he says, "for I delight in the law of God after the inward man."

A Christian does not love God's law because of any hope of saving himself by his own keeping of it. A thousand times no! A saved person knows he is always coming short of what God's law requires, and he knows that his very best is tainted by sin, and he knows that God's law requires perfect and perpetual obedience, and this he is not able to perform. If it were left to us to save ourselves by keeping the Ten Commandments we would be damned and doomed forever. But even though a converted man knows he cannot save himself by law keeping, he still loves the law of God and it is his rule of life. Thank the Lord we are not under the law's condemnation, nor are we under the law for our justification (Romans 6:14).

A believer loves the laws of God first of all because he sees the perfections of a Thrice Holy God in His moral law. As we read in Romans 7: 12 "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just , and good."

The believer understands the law of God was given by God as reflection of His Own Holy Character. The Ten Commandments tell us what God requires as far as our duty to Himself, and our fellow man.

Secondly, a believer loves the law of God for by it he knows what is sin. We read in I John 3:4, "sin is the transgression of the law." A believer knows he may not make up his own standard, or accept the world's standards, but he must abide by God's holy standard. Sin is not the transgression of any man's pet peeves, nor the transgression of what is socially acceptable, nor the trnagression of what is politically correct, but it is the transgression of the moral law of God. Those who reject God's law end up calling evil good, and good evil as we see in our nation, and sadly in the professing church.

Thirdly, the believer loves the law of God because it was written in his heart in regeneration (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10). When a a poor sinner is born from above (John3: 1-8), he is a different person. He begins to hate what he once loved, and begins to love what he once hated. Regeneration, the new birth makes a person a new creature who loves God and His Laws and His Ways. Thus the believer is saved from the dominion of sin and now desires to obey God. Though sin still remains in a believer (Roman 7:20), it is not the controlling power of his life and he does not live in sin (I John 3:9).

Fourthly, the believer loves the law of God because he knows he is in right relation to it. By the obedience of Christ, the believer in Christ is constituted by God in right relation to His Holy Law (Romans 5:19). Our Lord Jesus Christ kept the law of God perfectly, and His obedience is accounted for righteousness to all who believe in Christ (Romans 4). Not only that, but Christ paid the penalty for all of the believer's law- breaking. Every sin that a believer has ever committed, and all the sin a believer ever will commit was charged to Christ and He paid the price on Calvary's cross. Therefore, the believer is in right relation to the law of God.

So you see, a saved person will not be lawless, but he will love the law of God, and be meditating upon it. God bless you all my dear readers.