Conversion

Good evening. Flip over to the back of your handout because I want to review where we are. We are in the study of soteriology, of course, which is the study of salvation — that God graciously saves us. We started in week one with election, which is where God set His love upon us in eternity past. We didn't deserve it, but He did. Week two, we looked at calling, which is the gospel proclamation that goes out into the world, and then the Holy Spirit internally calls us aside. Right? That's where we hear the gospel in our heart and we're convicted of sin and we turn to Christ. Week three, we looked at union with Christ. We talked about how there is no salvation apart from being united to the Savior. You can't earn your salvation. You can't purchase it. It's simply receiving Christ and having Christ live within you. Last week, Ken taught us regeneration, which is where God makes us new in Christ. We who are dead in our trespasses and sins, we cannot resurrect ourselves. We cannot take something that's dead and reanimate it. We don't have that power, but God does. Right? And He makes us new in Christ. Tonight, we're looking at lesson number five, which is conversion. Conversion actually comes from the word that means turning. Right?

Just as in regeneration, God turns us to Christ — He turns us alive in Christ — in conversion it's man turning himself to God. So let's flip over to the front and look at Bible point number one.

Conversion is the voluntary change in the mind — that's the first blank — of the sinner in which he turns. "Turns" is the second blank. It's a voluntary change. It's not forced. It's something that a sinner turns to the Lord for salvation. He turns on the one hand from sin and on the other hand to Christ. So there are two turnings that take place. He turns from sin and he turns to Christ. The turning away from sin is called repentance — that's the third blank. Repentance simply describes our turning away from sin, self, the world, the devil, the flesh, everything that's not God. Right? The turning to Christ is called faith. That's what faith is. It's turning to Christ as our Savior, saying, "I have no hope of salvation apart from You." This turning is truly man's act. It's not something that God does for us. It's something that we do — this turning in both conversion and also in repentance. Acts 11:21 shows how these work together with regeneration.

In the passage, we have some early disciples who are preaching to what we would call the Jews of the day, and also to the God-fearers and the Hellenists there. They are hearing the gospel and they are being receptive to the gospel and they are believing in the gospel. And it says the hand of the Lord was with them. We talked about that last week — that unless God makes us alive, we have no hope. Right? That's what regeneration is. And the Lord's hand was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. Believing is their action. Turning to the Lord is their action. That's their faith that they indeed are exercising.

Application for number one: is acknowledging the person and work of Christ — in other words, understanding the gospel, that it is Christ's death, burial, and resurrection — is that conversion?

No. What does James tell us about even the demons?

They believe, right, and they tremble. So just learning the facts of the gospel is not enough. It's a great first step to know that Christ is the Savior, that He lived a perfect life, that He came into this world to die in our place and to suffer on our behalf, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. But just understanding those facts is not conversion. We actually have to turn from everything else and embrace Christ. Right? That's what repentance is, and that's what faith is. Bible point number two.

Conversion is the human — "human" is the blank — side of that radical spiritual change which we call regeneration. "Regeneration" is the second blank when viewed from the divine side — "divine" is the third blank. In other words, sometimes Scripture talks about man's regeneration and it ascribes that work wholly to God. Right? That's regeneration, because only God can make what is dead turn alive. But that very same turning that we call regeneration is sometimes described as conversion when it's focusing on what man does — man's faith and man's repentance. Whenever the Holy Spirit regenerates man, He secures an accompanying voluntary change in man called conversion.

This voluntary activity of the human soul is described in Scripture just as distinctly as Scripture describes God's causation. In other words, salvation is sometimes addressed as if it's 100% the work of God — and it is 100% the work of God. Salvation is His from first to last. But also, salvation is described as something that man does, in the sense of man believing and man turning to Christ: turning away from sin in repentance and turning to Christ in faith.

Acts 3:19 — we see this. This is, of course, a sermon of the Apostles: "Repent, therefore, and be converted." Now, when he says "repent," is that a suggestion?

That's an apostolic command. He's saying repent — turn from everything else, all the falsehood in this world, all the empty cisterns, all the things that promise you life but can't give you life — turn from them, repent, and be converted, "that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." If you read that apart from the rest of Scripture you may say, well, yeah, salvation is man's work. Right? We are called to repent. We are called to turn, and then we get salvation. That's why we let Scripture interpret Scripture. We spent last week on regeneration — that again, salvation from first to last is the work of God. But when Scripture talks about man's faith and man's repentance, it's doing so focusing on the human side of the same turning that we call regeneration. It's called conversion when we speak about man's activity. Flip over to the back.

Look at Zechariah 1:3–4: "Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, return to Me, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will return to you."

He's commanding man to return, right?

And it actually sounds conditional — I'll return to you if you return to Me. "Says the Lord of Hosts: do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, Thus says the Lord of Hosts: turn now from your evil way and from your evil deeds. But they did not hear nor heed Me, says the Lord." Saying that your fathers did not hear Me, they did not heed Me, they did not turn to Me. Okay. What we're getting at is that when God addresses sinful man, He calls on them to act. He calls on them to repent. You don't sit on your hands and say, well, if God's going to save me, He's going to save me. Right? You call people to surrender to God, and that's what He's doing here.

Isaiah 55:6–7: "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near." Again, He's putting the emphasis, the responsibility, the onus on man. Other parts of Scripture, of course, say that there's no one who seeks God. Right? But then you get to Acts 17, where it says that God set all men in their places so that they might seek God, if perhaps they could even grasp and fumble for Him. Right? So sometimes Scripture is addressing it from the divine aspect, which is regeneration; sometimes from the human command to repent and have faith, which is man's responsibility. Verse 7: "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Saying you return, you seek the Lord, and He will abundantly pardon.

Acts 2:38 — great sermon at Pentecost: "Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." He calls on them to repent. He calls on them to express faith by being baptized — baptism waters don't save you, but they are an emblem of our faith in Jesus Christ — and then God will abundantly pardon you and you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Mark 16:16: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned."

I submit to you, brothers and sisters, that we must be patient with our brothers and sisters who don't see election — that we've already talked about in week one — or who don't see regeneration the way we talked about last week, because sometimes reading Scripture it sounds as if it's all dependent on man. Right? And that's not a contradiction at all. It's because God is addressing men and calling on them to act, calling on them to throw themselves upon His mercy.

Acts 17:26–27: "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling, so that they should seek the Lord, in hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us."

For Bible point number two, flip back over to the front. The application: do not de-emphasize human — "human" is the blank — human action and responsibility. We can focus so much on regeneration being the work of God and making us alive in Christ. We can focus so much on effectual calling. We can focus so much on election, God's sovereignty, and uniting us to Christ that we don't address men and their responsibility to repent and to believe. Right? Men are made in the personal image of God. We talked about that when we discussed anthropology. And part of that personal image is not only are we rational, but we are resolute — we will and act freely from within — and we are relational. God has made us to relate to Him. And we can't understand fully how man's agency, man's free will, combines and works alongside and is compatible with God's sovereignty, but we trust that both are true. Right? And what Scripture affirms we must not deny.

Bible point number three: while God turns men to Himself — the first blank is "God" — while God turns men to Himself, that's regeneration. Right? While God turns men to Himself — and we have some references here we'll read in a second — men are exhorted to turn themselves — "themselves" is the second blank — to God. And we have some references there that we'll read in just a minute.

Look at Joel 2:12–13: "Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart and not your garments." His honor is not outward acts of contrition or repentance. Do ten Hail Marys and crawl on your knees? No. "Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and He relents from doing harm." God will show us mercy if we turn to Him.

Flip over to the back. Again, many times God speaks of course of the return to Him as being something that God does. We see that in Psalm 85:4: "Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease." Song of Solomon 1:4: "Draw me, and we will run after You." Lamentations 5:21: "Turn us back to You, O Lord, and we will be restored; renew our days as of old."

But then we also see that man is responsible for turning himself to God. Proverbs 1:23: "Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out My spirit on you, and I will make My words known to you." Isaiah 31:6: "Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted." Isaiah 59:20: "The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord." Ezekiel 14:6: "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations."

In the book of Ezekiel, the word for idol — it's used some forty times in the book of Ezekiel — is a word for dung. It's a very repugnant term. Right? But he's saying that what we normally embrace is dung — it stinks, it's empty, it's vile. Right? Saying, leave that, turn from it, and turn to God.

Ezekiel 18:32: "For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn and live." Ezekiel 33:9–11: "Nevertheless, if you warned the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. Therefore, you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you say, If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us and we pine away in them, how can we then live? Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?"

Flip back over to the front. The application for number three is: we must call men to turn to God with all their heart. When we evangelize, sometimes as Christians we become very robotic. Partly it's because we don't want to foul up. Right? So we start thinking, okay, what does 1 Corinthians 15 say? We've got to talk about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection — that's the gospel. Or we start thinking about the Roman Road: okay, I need to tell him that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we get tripped up and think, if I can just spit out this little magical incantation, so to speak, then they're going to get saved. Right? But when you see Scripture, it addresses men who are guilty. It addresses men, it implores them, it begs them. It's not just speaking to their mind but speaking to their heart. It's speaking to their emotions: turn and live, leave off that vile dung and turn to the only one who can give you life — why will you die? That's the way that we preach. That's the way we preach to the whole man: both his will, both his mind, both his emotions, his intellect, everything that makes him man is what we implore when we share Christ with another.

Bible point number four: while God is represented as the author — "author" is as in the author of a book — the author of a new heart and a new spirit, men are commanded to make for themselves a new heart and a new spirit. So the first blank is "author" and the second blank is "make." Look at Ezekiel 18:31–32: "Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn and live." Saying, get yourself a new heart and a new spirit.

Flip over to the back. Here we see God's agency in Ezekiel 11: "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh." We see the same thing in Ezekiel 36. But then in the New Testament, look at 2 Corinthians 7:1: "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Look at Ephesians 5:14: "Therefore He says: Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

So again, men are called not only to turn to God but men are called to become holy — to seek holiness is what God is getting at. Flip over to the front. The application for number four: we must call men to turn from death and be holy. We can't just say to them, okay, well you're a sinner — you know that's who you are, you're not converted, so you're okay, maybe God will save you, God bless you. No, we call them out in their sins and say: go get yourself a new heart, go get yourself a new spirit, turn to God and live.

Application, or Bible point number five: this twofold depiction — the twofold depiction I'm speaking of is in Bible points three and four, man turning themselves to God and man making for themselves a new heart and a new spirit — this twofold depiction is only explained by remembering that man's powers are interpenetrated and quickened — "quickened" is the first blank — by the Holy Spirit in regeneration, without destroying man's freedom but making men truly — "truly" is the second blank — truly free for the first time. In other words, it's not a contradiction to say that God must create in you a clean heart, God must put a new spirit within you, God must turn you to Himself, and on the other hand to say: you turn yourself to God, you create in yourself a clean heart, you become holy. There's no contradiction there, because when we are regenerated God changes us.

What does the Bible say? "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." He takes our will, and all of a sudden the things that we hated — which was God — we love. Right? And all of a sudden the things that we used to love — sin and the dung idols that Ezekiel railed against — we hate now, because that's what God hates. He's changed our heart. He's changed our affections. Okay.

Philippians 2:12–13: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." It's what we call divine compatibility. Right? Man has responsibility to do that which he cannot do on his own, but it's because God is working within him. Right? When man's been made new, all of a sudden he has new powers that he didn't have before. Right? He has the Holy Spirit dwelling within him. When you look at a passage like Philippians 2:13, you should never question inspiration, because what man would write that? This is something that only God would inspire men to write — where we can have these great truths of man's responsibility and God's sovereignty and they're compatible: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

The application for number five: God's sovereignty and man's free agency — "agency" is the blank — are never at odds. We are not robots. Every man and every woman, every boy and every girl is accountable to God and responsible to God for their actions and for their soul.

Bible point number six: regeneration logically precedes conversion. Now, regeneration and conversion are both the same turning but described from different sides. Right? Regeneration is when we describe it from God's point of view, God's activity. Conversion is what we describe as man's activity. But regeneration logically precedes conversion, and how do we know that? Because the Scriptures say that God before the foundation of the world chose us in Him. We've read through that in Ephesians, and we know that regeneration — our heart has to be made new for us to be empowered to turn to God and to repent from our sins — because after all, aren't faith and repentance also gifts of God? Yes. God's turning the soul to Himself is both the accompaniment and the cause of conversion; a man turns to God only as God turns him. We talked about this last week when we discussed regeneration. Yet experientially these are simultaneous — "simultaneous" is the second blank.

In other words, from your perspective as a finite human being who has a beginning and an end, it all happens at the same time experientially. Which also means that from our point of view chronologically they happen at the same time, but we know that logically it's God who moves first. Right? It's God who saves us from beginning to end. One who is regenerate will exhibit repentance and faith.

You cannot be born again apart from repentance and faith. Okay? It's why we hold to believers' baptism. Right? Baptism is a symbol of our union with Christ, and if you haven't repented, turned from sin, and put your faith in Jesus Christ, that's not what baptism would be applied to. Only believers should be baptized. Right? So if someone says, well, I'm born again, but I've never repented and I don't believe in God — are they regenerate? Have they been made new? No. You cannot be regenerated apart from being converted. You can't be regenerated apart from faith and repentance. Right? And if someone claims to be and they do not show any fruit of repentance or show any fruit of faith, you have to wonder if they've made a true, valid profession to begin with.

Number six: one who is regenerate will exhibit repentance and faith, just as a resuscitated man will immediately exhale and inhale the breath of his restored life.

This is a poor analogy, but I think it's one that makes sense. We had CPR training just a few weeks ago inside the training center, and if you're not breathing and you don't have a heartbeat, you're dead, right? But what did she teach us? She started off with chest compressions. Right? We no longer do mouth-to-mouth. She taught us compression-only CPR, and that compression actually puts oxygen into the lungs. Right?

And when their heart starts to beat on their own, immediately what do they do? They exhale that breath that you've put into them. Right? The waste, if you will. That's a picture you could say of repentance, right? We're getting rid of the stuff that doesn't sustain our life, and then we inhale faith — that which sustains us. We inhale Christ. Right? And so just as a dead man, if he's brought back to life, he begins to exhale and inhale, the same thing happens: a person who's regenerate will indeed express repentance and faith. Right? Else they're dead. You can't separate the two.

Acts 13:48: "But as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."

If you're regenerate, you will believe and you will turn from your sins. Application: the regenerate will bear fruit — "fruit" is the blank — of repentance and faith. Right? A person who's dead does what a dead man does.

A person who's alive does what a live man does. Right? Bible point number seven.

Men are never to wait passively — "passively" is the blank — on God's salvation. Jesus commanded us to repent and believe. That's how He started off His ministry. Right? That's one of our memory verses in Mark 1. Right? Man's duty is to use their wills in obedience to the gospel. No different from God saying "be holy as I am holy" or "love thy neighbor." When God says repent and believe, we are to obey the gospel call. It's not a mere invitation, but it's a command. Men are to act only with impassioned earnestness of soul. In this sense, conversion is like the invasion — "invasion" is the blank — of the kingdom.

As quoted from Matthew 11:12: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Jesus said this at the height of His Galilean ministry. If you remember, at that point, before He turned to go to Jerusalem to the cross, everybody was thronging Him.

He couldn't even find time to pray. People were bringing the sick to Him. People were bringing the demoniacs to Him. People were flocking to Him, hoping to touch the hem of His garment that they might be saved. Okay.

Sinners must seize — "seize" is the fourth blank — seize the good that they do not have nor deserve.

Just as soldiers go in and sometimes they will plunder a city — you've seen that in movies set in ancient times, they steal the gold and the wealth and everything there when they overtake the city — that's what a sinner is called to do: to come in and take something that's not theirs by desert. Right? It's not something they deserve. It's not something they merit, but it's something that's freely given. So we are to seize that. Believers will subsequently recognize that God has gone before them in regeneration to renew their hearts and prepare them to obey. In other words, we are to impel men to seize and run after Christ, to use all of their faculties, to throw themselves at God for faith and repentance, and not to delay, not to tarry, but to turn to God with all their might. And when they do, they recognize that it's Christ who first loved them. Right? That they only believe because God loved them and set His love upon them.

Look at Luke 16:16: "The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of heaven has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it." The word "pressing into it" means to forcibly break down. Have you ever seen maybe on TV or on a security camera footage of someone breaking in a door?

I remember when my kids were young — my middle child William, he was about twelve, and my youngest one, he was about nine or so — and I'd sent William to take out the trash. It was at night.

And my youngest son, John, didn't know that William was outside, so he started to come in through the door. John was freaking out because he thought that there was a home invader. He was pushing with all his might, yelling, "Dad! Dad! Dad!" And we all came down there, and William was pushing in as hard as he could and John was pushing him out as hard as he could, not really thinking that that was his brother. Right? But that's the kind of effort that's being talked about here — that everyone should be pressing into the kingdom of God. That's what they did during the time of Jesus Christ. They tore apart roofs and lowered a person who was disabled on a bed before the Lord Jesus Christ. People came and implored, saying, "My son is near death, come!" "My daughter is dead, come!" — healer — because they knew that Jesus was the Messiah. He was Christ the Lord, God made flesh.

Acts 16:29–31: "Then he called for a light." This is speaking of the Philippian jailer after God had miraculously set Paul and Silas free — and all the prisoners free — but they were still within the prison. "The jailer called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." This is a man who knew that if the prisoners escaped, his neck was going to be separated from his head. Right? He was going to be killed by Rome. That was the Roman government's penalty if you lost a prisoner. And so he fell down feverishly, saying, "What must I do to be saved?" Flip over to the back. We see the same thing at the day of Pentecost.

You'll see this in Acts 2:36–37. Peter tells them, "You with wicked hands have slain the Messiah." He says, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

The application is this: preach to desperate, desperate men — "desperate" means those without hope — preach to desperate men who desperately need salvation.

When we talked about hamartiology — the study of sin — we talked about the penalty of sin and we talked about the different terms that God uses to describe sinners: that we are debtors, right, that we are objects of His wrath, that the wrath of God abides upon us. "They are condemned already," is what Scripture says. Right? Those are terms that show man's true desert.

But I encourage you, don't just think of men in that respect. Okay? When you're witnessing to folks, don't just think, well, this is a no-good, rotten rebel against God. What does Romans say? "While you were" — Romans chapter 5 — "while you were still an enemy, Christ was crucified for you." Right? Christ died for you to redeem you. Scripture often says it — yes, we are guilty and we're condemned and we are enemies of God.

But think also of the way it describes sinners who are lost. What did Jesus say? "I didn't come to heal the well, but the sick." Right?

Sick men, sick women are desperate.

Have you ever been so sick that you thought you were going to die?

We all have — that one time I had a stomach virus or whatever it was and I was dry heaving all night long and I was waiting for the chariots and the whirlwind to come and get me. I just knew that was my time. But think about the person though — the woman with the issue of blood who for years and years and years was weak and near death, but she touched the hem of Christ's garment and she was made well. Right? The desperateness of a sick person is one way that we should be thinking of sinners. We should also be thinking of sinners as those who sit in darkness and are waiting for light to dawn — and Christ, the Morning Star, is that light. We should also think about sinners as those who are oppressed. Right? That's what Scripture says — that Christ came to set the oppressed free, those who were in chains, those who are in prison. Christ says, it is said of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 61, and said in Luke chapter 4, that Christ came to preach the good news to them, to set the captives free. Right?

We need to think of men as being desperate in their condition of sin, as hurting, and when we do that, it will change the way we preach toward them. Right?

It'll show. We'll remember where we were. We were in their shoes too, right? And they need a Savior. They need hope, because they're without hope apart from Christ.

Bible point number eight: conversion involves repentance — "repentance" is the blank — which is the voluntary change of mind in the sinner in which he turns both inwardly and outwardly from sin and seeks pardoning and cleansing. Repentance is not mere sorrow for sin, but abandonment of it. In other words, repentance is not just sorry you got caught. Repentance is not just sorry that you're suffering the effects — I'm in jail because I robbed, or I have a broken marriage because I've been a bad husband, or I got fired from my job because I'm a pitiful worker. Right? That's not repentance — feeling sorry for the fruit of your own sin.

Repentance is not of sin or for sin, but is from sin. In other words, it's both an inward and outward turning from sin itself, hating sin, not wanting to do any of it. And when we fall, we immediately repent. Right? It's not that you're ever going to be sinless in this life, but you should grow to hate it, right? Grow to despise it, because it's the opposite of who God is.

Repentance does not ask, "What will my sin bring me? What's going to be the desert of my sin, my reward, the wages of my sin?" But asks, "What does my sin mean to God?" True repentance takes God's part against ourselves, has sympathy for God, and feels how unworthily the Ruler, Father, and Friend of men has been treated. In other words, we're not thinking about ourselves when we're repenting. We're thinking about God, who is holy, and how our sin has besmirched His name, how our sin has done injury to Him — because all sin is shaking our fist at God and saying, "I will not submit to You. I'm going to do it my way." Right?

Repentance participates — that's the third blank, "participates," which means that it has fellowship — in real union in Christ's revulsion from sin and in suffering on account of it.

When you feel drawn to sin, look to Christ on the cross, because what He suffered there was your sin — the sin that you're dancing with, the sin that you're flirting with, the sin that you think may bring you some satisfaction. It's what nailed Jesus Christ to the cross. It's what you deserve — that death, that separation.

Romans 6:1–3: "What shall we say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

I haven't died physically. What kind of a death is that talking about? Spiritual death — our union with Christ. Right? "Just as we have been buried with Christ, we're now risen to walk in newness of life with Him. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?" Right? When we put our trust in Christ we turn from sin and say, sin's no longer going to do it for me, sin's no longer going to be my avenue, it's no longer going to be my modus operandi. I want to follow Christ, and I want His goodness, and I want to have His character impressed upon me and my life remolded and reshaped in His image.

The application for number eight: do you hate what God hates and love what God loves?

Romans tells us, "Let your love be sincere, hate that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good." That's a mark of someone who has turned from sin — again, not that you are sinless or that you will not sin. We will all continue to sin to the day that we die, but hopefully we'll be sinning less of it, and we won't enjoy a minute of it when we do. Right? Because we will love what God loves and hate what He hates, and when we fall — because we are fallible and we have clay feet — we will confess that and we'll turn to the Savior who graciously forgives us.

Bible point number nine: conversion involves faith. So conversion involves repentance — we just looked at that in Bible point number eight, which is a turning from sin — and turning to Christ. Conversion involves faith, which is that voluntary change in the mind of the sinner in which he turns to Christ as Lord and Savior.

Faith is not simple receptiveness, as it gives as well as receives — "gives" is the first blank and "receives" is the second blank. Let me explain that. Oftentimes we hear the gospel message preached saying salvation is a free gift — come and get it. But it doesn't just receive. Faith gives. Let me explain this here.

By faith the soul surrenders itself as guilty and defiled to Christ's governance as Lord. Can you truly come and receive Christ if you haven't turned from sin? If you haven't confessed yourself to be a sinner and in need of a Savior, can you receive salvation? No. Salvation is a promise that is indeed a gift, but faith is two ways: us giving ourselves to Christ as Lord and saying, "I need Your salvation," receiving His salvation. By faith the soul receives and appropriates — "appropriates" means to take.

Sometimes people use that flippantly, saying, "Well, I appropriated some rubber bands from the office supply," meaning you take. But what we mean by "appropriates" is taking all that Christ is. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, we give to Him our sin, we give to Him our shame, we give to Him our death, we give to Him our rebellion — and He pays that price on the cross. Right?

But what do we receive? We receive His righteousness, we receive His favor, we receive His love, we receive His blessings. It's a great exchange that takes place. Right? He takes all of our bad stuff that we give to Him, and He gives to us His infinitely perfect Self. By faith the soul receives and appropriates Christ for pardon and spiritual life. This union is pictured in baptism, with the giving or surrendering pictured in submergence — when you are being put into the baptismal waters.

It's as if your life has ended — your old sinful life, your life where you used to serve self and be on the throne — that's now being buried with Christ. Right? You're being immersed into Him, you're giving yourself to Him, saying, "I want You now to be the operating principle of my life. I want You to be what I live in and what I live for." This union is pictured in baptism with a giving or surrendering pictured in submergence, and into the life of Christ and the reception of Christ's life to interpenetrate and energize our own. In other words, when we are raised from those waters we are raised now as a new person who is in Christ, right, who is indwelt by His Spirit, and we are also in the Spirit — Christ is in us and we are in Christ — this blessed interpenetration.

Faith is the merging of our life into the life of Christ and the reception of Christ's life to interpenetrate and energize our life. So we talked about two weeks ago — union with Christ. Faith is described as responding and receiving: consecration and appropriation, giving and taking. Flip over to the back.

Look at Matthew 11:28–29 — Jesus' gospel call. He says, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He says, "Bring Me your burdens, bring Me your toils, bring Me your labors, set them aside. I will give you rest." We give ourselves to Him and He gives us rest. We consecrate ourselves to Him and we receive from Him. Right? "Take My yoke upon you."

We're saying, I'm going to follow You as my Lord. "Take My yoke upon you, follow My ways, follow My steps, follow My life, and learn from Me." It's how we become His disciple. Right? "For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Yes, we have to consecrate ourselves to Him, but it's a gracious consecration. Right? His yoke is easy and His burden is light. We willingly surrender our all to Christ.

So it's responding and receiving: consecration and appropriation, giving and taking. John 8:12 says, "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life." If we follow Christ, you're not going to have darkness but you're going to have the light — the glory of Jesus Christ and the light of life — dwelling within you.

The application for number nine: have you surrendered to and received Christ as Lord? Express faith in Christ. Have you given yourself to Him and said, "Take my shame, take my inadequacies, take everything that I can't do, and give me Your perfection, Your perfect obedience. Give me Your love that I do not deserve. I want to hear 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant.' I want to hear 'This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,' because I'm putting My life inside of you. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." Galatians 2:20.

Bible point number ten: faith and repentance are inseparable.

Inseparable. In other words, the turning away from sin — which is what again we call repentance — and the turning to Christ — which is what we call faith — they're inseparable. You can't say, well, I've got faith, and later on I'll repent, or I've repented and later on I'll have faith. It's the same turning. When only one is proclaimed in Scripture, the other is always assumed — "assumed" is the second blank. You can't turn to Christ without turning away from everything else.

Can you have one foot in Christ and one foot in the world, one foot depending on your own strength and fortitude and one depending on Christ? Can you have your bottom on your throne and also be kneeling before the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ? Not at all. Faith and repentance are thus different sides of the same turning — that turning is what we call conversion.

Mark 1:15: Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." There you go — repentance and faith, hand in hand, same turning that we call conversion.

The application for number ten: preach both faith and repentance to all sinners. Bid men come and die — die to yourself, turn from your wicked ways. Why should you die? Live! Preach passionately to desperate men who are in desperate need of a Savior.