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.