CONVERSION (4 of 10 non-negotiable elements of a healthy church)

Well, today we are going to obviously be continuing our sermon series of the 10 non -negotiable elements of a healthy church.

These 10 that we've walked through, have they been helpful for you guys the past three weeks? These categories that we're walking through to kind of place what we should be looking for in a healthy church?

Has it been helpful? Great. Good. Two of you. It's been helpful. Thank you. Alright. Well, if you have been with us, you know that we ...

Oh, Spencer raised his hand from the back. Okay. There you go. Three of you. Thank you. So, if you've been with us, you know that we started with what?

Let's see if you guys are even listening. What did we start with? Expositional preaching. Right.

We started there because that's where all of this kind of stems from. If this is being done properly, it's going to feed down to every one of these categories.

A healthy church will have a consistent diet of teaching and preaching what the text says.

Not opinion, not good principles, what the text says. Most expositional preaching is, of course, picking a book and going line by line, but as we spoke, even topical preaching can be expositional if it is teaching what the text says, which is essentially what we're doing during this series, right?

Very topical. But that was the first one. The following week, we talked about the gospel.

We talked about gospel orthodoxy paired with gospel orthopraxy, gospel doctrine and truth that we have to have that foundation in order for us to even begin to understand what a gospel culture is going to look like and be gospel -centered and live out those truths that have changed us.

And then, last week, Pastor Jeremiah, Adam wanted to jump in and say it real quick.

He was jumping to get biblical theology, and he did a phenomenal job. This is a huge one.

This is a vitally important element of these ten non -negotiables. And he points us to how all of scripture is pointing to Christ, and a healthy church will constantly be doing that.

It's not a book of moral principles of how to live. A healthy, biblical church sees that just like all roads lead to Rome, all texts lead to Christ.

And we see Christ throughout all of scripture, and that's how we approach biblical theology.

Talk about gospel -centered, right? That's gospel -centered. And so a church must have all three of these.

I keep recapping so we keep them fresh in our minds. But we have to have all three of these foundations, expositional preaching, the gospel, gospel culture with that, but biblical theology in order to even begin to properly understand this next non -negotiable.

And the next one we're looking at is an accurate understanding of conversion. Conversion. A healthy church will always understand, teach, and align their ministry philosophy in light of a biblical understanding of conversion.

And we're going to talk about that a little bit. When a church gets this wrong, though, it shows itself.

It begins to show itself through their ministry philosophy, through pragmatism, the means justify the ends, this is the end that we want, and so we're going to use whatever means possible to get there, and we can justify those means.

It leads to man -made ideas about what the church should be and how the church should function. It leads to faulty evangelism, or maybe it's not completely faulty, but it's an anemic evangelism a lot of times.

And this anemic or faulty evangelism, it leads to unregenerate membership, and that's huge.

We'll talk more about that here in a moment. The point is that getting conversion wrong has severe consequences upon a church.

So, what exactly is conversion? And how do churches get this wrong?

Well, conversion, to put it plainly, is simply what happens to a person in the process of salvation.

They're being converted. They're being changed from one thing to the next. Now a church can get these details about this conversion process, they can get these details slightly wrong, and still have the gospel present within their church.

We see it all the time. There are a number of those churches in this area, a number of them that we even pray for consistently here as a church, because we see them as sister churches.

We love them. We want to pair with them in ministry. They see conversion differently, but I would say that they have the gospel, but they might not be a healthy church.

Not if they get this wrong.

If they don't understand the biblical process of conversion, it's hard for me to say that can be a healthy church.

It may be a church, it may be a group of believers that are seeking to be obedient to the

Lord and missing the point here, but we'll talk about that. But many churches get this wrong because conversion, as taught in scripture that we see, is the antithesis of earthly thinking.

It's the opposite of earthly thinking. As a matter of fact, let me give you a definition from Oxford Dictionary, an earthly entity.

This is what they say about Christian conversion. This is their definition. It says, the fact of changing one's religion or beliefs, or the action of persuading someone else to change theirs.

Now it's subtle, but here's the thing. This definition would fit in most evangelical statements of faith today.

And it's because they see conversion as an act of God through the gospel that man must be persuaded to accept.

That's how they see it, which is essentially what the dictionary defines, right?

Says persuading someone else to change their religion. And so what they've done is they've even condensed the process down to an easy to repeat prayer.

You know the prayer. The sinner's prayer. Many of us said that sinner's prayer when we were saved, didn't we?

I did. Many of us said that sinner's prayer, but what happens is the church has created this rote prayer and they say, repeat after me.

Now, if you truly believe that, never doubt it. Write that date in your

Bible and you never doubt it. Once you've said those words, if you really believed them, you're good to go.

And all you have to do is say that and you are saved. And it's like I always say, it's essentially turning salvation into a heavenly insurance policy, right?

I'm in now. I'm covered. I've got this thing. And I just said these words and we move on.

It's almost like they present this idea, and I know this is a bit facetious, so bear with me and forgive me if I'm being sinful in my actions here, but I picture it like this.

This is the way the gospel is presented in a lot of churches today. There's this little three inch Jesus and he's inside your body and he's knocking at the door of your heart.

You have such a good heart. He loves that heart. It's so, you got a good heart and he's out there, he's knocking on it.

And all he's doing, he's in there, he's just waiting for you to give him permission to change you. He's just waiting on you.

He's just knocking on that door. It's like Jesus, some sort of vampire that has to have your permission to enter your house, right?

This is the idea that many churches have created with Jesus in this process of salvation.

And the reason is because conversion is what we refer to as a synergistic act in their minds.

Bear with me. I know this is a big word, but it's easy to understand. Synergistic, this comes from a compound

Greek word that simply just means to work together. To work together.

This is how much of evangelicals today perceive the process of conversion, salvation.

Now, with that being said, I would like to acknowledge that all evangelicals, the good ones at least, they know that God does all the work in salvation.

They'll even proclaim that. I don't know a single good evangelical that would say that God doesn't do all the work in salvation.

Yet somehow, unbeknownst to us, man plays a part in it. Man plays some kind of role.

But you see, that's the definition of synergism, isn't it? Working together. You're playing some role in your conversion process if you are a part of it.

But you see, they have to make that statement. They have to say that God is in control of all and then be inconsistent with the way they practice that and the way they believe it.

They have to make that statement because Scripture exclusively teaches that conversion is what we refer to as a monergistic act.

You hear it mono, singular? It's an act of the triune

God alone. You have no part in it. You have nothing to do with your conversion.

But that's not how many see it. And the reason is, let's be honest, this goes against our human experience, doesn't it?

Those of us who have been converted, who in here professes to be a believer, right? Alright, so we're pretty much in here.

Everybody professes to be a believer. Can you look back at a time when you believed and you repented?

I believed. I repented. Here's the weird part.

It is the key word, I. Or we. We did this, didn't we?

So, how does this fit in the biblical view of salvation where it's God alone? It goes against our human experience.

Well, in order to answer this, I want us to turn in your copy of God's Word to John 3.

Very familiar passage. We've referenced it before numerous times. But I just want us to walk through this story here in John 3 in the first eight verses.

Alright, well, let's see here. John 3, starting there in verse 1.

It says, Now there was a man of the Pharisees.

Alright, now we just got through going through the Sermon on the Mount. Y 'all are very familiar with the Pharisees by this point, right?

These are the religious leaders. These guys are the rulers there. These are the theologians of the day, aren't they?

These are the conservative theologians who pride themselves on their knowledge. And guess what? These guys know the

Old Testament backwards and forwards. Now they may not understand it in its true reality of what it's truly interpreting.

But they know it verbatim very, very well. And I would even say far better than any of us in this room.

So Nicodemus, this man, he's a Pharisee. It says, Named Nicodemus, a ruler of the

Jews. So that's what a Pharisee is. Verse 2, This man came to Jesus by night.

I always found that interesting that he comes by night. I think John writes this in this account to let us know the specifics of the surrounding environment in which

Nicodemus comes to Jesus. This would have been unexpected by the other Pharisees.

The other Pharisees wanted nothing to do with Jesus. The only time they confronted Jesus was to confront

Him and ridicule Him or to try and trap Him or whatever else. They're not coming to Jesus to actually have a conversation.

And so Nicodemus knows, I can't do this in broad daylight. I can't do this in front of everyone. I have to go at night.

So there's something in him that makes him want to come, not in a facetious way.

I think Nicodemus is really coming in a very sincere way.

So it says, This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi.

Now y 'all are familiar with this phrase. Does anyone in here know what Rabbi means? It's my teacher.

It's not just teacher. It's my teacher, my master. Now again, he could have been saying this facetiously.

Well, everybody's calling you Rabbi. I'll play along, Rabbi. I don't think that's the case here.

And we see later on with Fruit and Nicodemus that I don't think that's the case. I think he's really calling Jesus Rabbi.

And look at what else he says. He says, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Now Nicodemus is acknowledging something that none of his other peers seem to see.

And notice he sees something about Jesus. And he's saying that, hey, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs unless God is with him.

We see that. But here's the problem. The other Pharisees don't seem to see it, even though they're seeing the same miracles

Jesus is doing. Nicodemus and those other Pharisees are seeing all the same miracles, all the same teachings.

They're hearing all the same stuff. But for some reason, Nicodemus is responding to it differently than the other

Pharisees. Now, does this mean that Nicodemus is smarter than the other

Pharisees? Let's play along there. Maybe he is. Maybe he's the smartest, the wisest

Pharisee in the bunch. Maybe he's the guy that is just the more open -hearted guy in the bunch, and he seems to see things where others are just digging their heels in the sand.

But that, I don't believe, is the case. Because here's a problem. If that's the case, then what

Paul will say later is that it's no man, lest any man should boast, would cause

Nicodemus to be able to boast in his wisdom or his high intelligence that helped him see something that the other religious leaders that had the same education, the same background, the same information that he has, to come to a different conclusion.

And I think Jesus goes on to point out why he sees this about Jesus, why

Nicodemus can call him rabbi. Look at verse 3. It says, Truly, truly,

I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

This is quite the exclusive statement from Jesus. No exceptions.

No particular time period. No other options. He says, unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of God.

You can't see me for who I am unless you've been born again.

You can't see that I've come from God, truly, and call me rabbi unless you've been born again.

You have no ability to see the kingdom of God here on earth, the kingdom of God in heaven, the kingdom of God in the entirety of the universe without being born again.

And then verse 4. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Nicodemus has no idea what

Jesus is saying here, does he? He has no concept of what Jesus is getting at.

All he knows, I believe, is that he believes Jesus is who he says he was. I believe

Nicodemus believes that Jesus is who he says he is. What he doesn't realize is why he believes it.

Why he believes it and not the other Pharisees. Why he believes it and not the other

Sadducees. Why he believes it and other Jewish people who have the same raising and background as him don't understand or see.

Why him? He knows the

Old Testament Scriptures very well. However, I don't think he's thought of or realized what the

Old Testament really says. I don't think he's realized or even remembered at this moment

Old Testament passages like Deuteronomy 30. As a matter of fact, flip back there. Keep your place here in John.

Flip back over to Deuteronomy chapter 30. Right there in the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

Chapter 30, verse 6. This is all the way back in the

Old Testament in the law, right? It says, And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring.

And why is he going to do that? Why is he going to circumcise your heart?

It says, So that you will love the Lord your

God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. There's a clause here.

God circumcises the heart so that you will love God. Meaning, until God changes the heart, those people there in Israel could not love him until God did a work.

Now you don't have to turn here. You can if you want. If you can get there quickly. But Ezekiel chapter 11, verses 19 and 20 is another passage.

He says, And I will give them one heart and a new spirit

I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.

That they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. Did you catch that?

I will do this. I will give them a heart of flesh. I will take out their current heart, which is a heart of stone, give them a heart of flesh so that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them.

And they shall be my people and I will be their God. This is just a couple examples, but I can't help but think that Nicodemus probably was reminded of those passages as Jesus says these next words here in John.

Look back at our passage there. In verse 5, Jesus responds to Nicodemus when he questions him.

He's like, How can I be born again? Jesus answered, Truly, truly,

I say to you. And then he just kind of doubles down here, doesn't he? Unless one is born of water and the

Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the

Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

And then there's like this clause there between seven and eight. You must be born again for, because the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Now, I tell you what, you guys know me well enough now to know that, man,

I love a good breeze in the middle of the heat of summer while I'm out mowing, right? I was telling somebody the other day, that's pretty much all

I do. Thankfully, we're coming to the season. I'm not having to mow hardly at all and I'm happier than I've ever been, right?

All I do, I was telling somebody, I say, come over to the house anytime and talk theology because all I do is read and mow.

I mean, that's pretty much my life. But as you're out there mowing, it's hot, you know, that Arkansas humidity and heat just bearing down on your head and then every once in a while, this cool breeze comes out of nowhere and just blows.

It's like life -giving. But here's the thing about that breeze, I don't know when it's coming. I don't know where it's coming from.

I don't know where it's going. All I see is the effects. I feel the effects.

I see the leaves blowing in the trees. I get a burst of fresh life within me, a reprieve from that heat, which by the way,

I think is from the fall. We only have heat because of the fall, right? Adam's fault. Chris would argue with us.

But that's just my opinion. But the point is, man, that breeze comes through and it is like a breath of fresh air.

And then Jesus tells Nicodemus that this is what it's like for every single person who has been born of the

Spirit. Now I want you to notice something in that passage.

Spirit is capitalized properly, and it should be because Jesus is referring to what?

He's referring to the Holy Spirit. You have to be born of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has to bring new birth. So what is

Jesus telling Nicodemus here? He's saying that the only one who actually see me for who

I am, as the Christ, the kingdom of heaven is here with me.

The only ones who actually see that are the ones who the Holy Spirit has given new birth to. Not only that, but a person cannot conjure that work up.

A person has as much power in convincing and getting the Holy Spirit to awaken them as they do with controlling the weather, particularly the wind.

Have you any luck getting the weather to obey you? None, right?

None. Just as Jesus is telling us here, you have no control over when the

Spirit moves. You have no control over your new birth, just as you have no control over your physical birth.

How many of you got with your parents before you were born and said, okay,

I'm going to agree to be born and we're going to be born on this day? Yeah?

I know that's a stupid question. I don't know why I'm even raising my hand. No, that's impossible.

That's stupid, right? Well, why do we treat the new birth differently?

Physical birth and new birth in the spiritual realm are very similar here.

The Spirit moves. The day you were conceived was the day that God had ordained for you to live.

The day that you're reborn is the day that God ordained for you to be reborn. And the

Holy Spirit moves in like the wind. You don't know where it's coming from. You don't know where it's going. You just see its effects.

You experience its life -giving beauty. And this is what we refer to as regeneration.

This is the first process of conversion. This is the first step in conversion. I know

Brother Keith, just a few weeks ago, if you were with us on Wednesday nights, he spent quite a bit of time talking through this process of regeneration.

And so some of this may be a little bit of a recap for you. But for that, I'm sorry, but we have to talk through these truths, right?

But this is regeneration. Paul told Titus in Titus 3, 5, he said,

He saved us. God saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness.

Nothing that I brought to the table. Not because I was lovable. Not because I did good things and God knew that I would choose

Him. None of those things. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration, renewal of the

Holy Spirit. This regenerating work within us. This is essentially that first step in conversion.

And it's a necessary first step because of what we see laid out in Scripture, particularly the

Apostle Paul, he mentions to the church at Corinth in chapter 2, 14 of his first letter, he says,

The natural person. Who's the natural person? The unbeliever. The not reborn.

The person that's only been born of flesh, but not of spirit. They're a natural person. The natural person, the not reborn person, does not accept the things of the

Spirit of God. For they're folly to Him, right? That's what

Paul says. They're folly to Him. And he goes on, he drives it even deeper here. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Can't even begin to understand. Without new birth, man will never turn to Jesus.

Hear me out. Without new birth, without regeneration, man will never trust in Jesus.

No matter how convincing you are. Well, Jesus said so Himself.

In John 6, 44, you can jot these passages down because I'm going to rapid fire a few of these to you. John 6, 44,

Jesus says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

Pretty bold statement, right? Jesus says, Not a soul can come to me. Nicodemus would not be able to come to me and say,

Rabbi, unless the Father draws him. Period. Not possible.

The psalmist drives it even deeper within our own nature.

In Psalm 58, 3, talking about our physical birth, he says, The wicked are estranged from the womb.

They're estranged from God from the womb. They go astray from birth, speaking lies.

They're estranged from God the moment they're conceived. And they immediately run from God the moment they're born.

I thought babies were innocent. Paul says in Romans 3, 10 through 12, he says,

None is righteous. He's quoting an Old Testament passage here. No, not one.

No one understands. No one seeks of God. Seeks for God.

No one. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

Because of what the psalmist just said. They're born in iniquity. The moment they're conceived, they're enemies of God.

And the moment they take their first breath, they run from God the very chance they get.

And they spend their entire life doing it because no one will turn to God. So now all of a sudden, you can see why we need regeneration.

We need new birth. Nicodemus wasn't smarter than the other Pharisees. He wasn't wiser than the other

Pharisees. He was just somebody that the Holy Spirit had revealed the truth to, and now he saw it.

Paul says later on in Romans, in chapter 8, verse 7, he says, For the mind that is set on the flesh, that earthly mind, the one that is not reborn, the one that is set on the flesh, is hostile to God.

Not indifferent, not neutral, hostile.

I said it a couple of weeks ago. Many people think that, Oh, well, I generally loved

God before I was saved. I didn't hate God. No, the only time that you love

God is if you've conjured up some God in your own mind and you love that God. But anyone confronted with the

God of Scripture outside of new birth hates Him, is at odds with Him from the moment they're conceived.

They despise Him. They're hostile to Him. For it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, and here's the kicker, according to Paul, it cannot. It's not in its nature.

A human being not only will not accept God, a human being cannot accept

God. They're hostile to Him.

That's the state of humanity. And it's because of what Paul says in Ephesians 2 .1,

and you were dead in the trespasses and sins. You were dead. You were a slave to sin.

A dead person does nothing. Now, we could go on like this all day long.

We could just rapid -fire throw passages at you. But the point of the fact is that Scripture teaches this as the state of man.

This is the state of man in his physical birth. Hence, man will not and cannot play a role in his conversion.

He has no power to. Regeneration is absolutely essential. Because unlike the old adage, and many of you have probably heard this, you take the first step, and God will take the rest.

You ever heard that during one of the altar calls where you're white -knuckling the pew because you're really feeling a little bit of guilt, and the organ key is playing, and just as I am gets slower and slower.

And the pastor says, you take that first step for God, and He'll take the rest. Just step out of the pew, and He'll take the rest.

But unlike that old adage, Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit accomplishes the first step, and the triune

God does the rest. A church that teaches otherwise cannot be a healthy church because the trajectory of their ministry philosophy is off course.

It's going to affect everything that they do. It's going to affect their evangelism. It's going to affect their membership.

It's going to affect their discipleship. It's going to affect every single element of the church because they have gone off a bad trajectory.

That's what Bible teaches of conversion. So, what about the next step?

The next step of conversion. Is that the step I'm involved in? Am I involved in this next step?

Because remember, we asked the question, what about the fact that I believed? What about the fact that I repented?

I mean, I here, we here, we did something. Is that part of it? Yeah, maybe

God does take the first step, right? Maybe God does regenerate me, and the Holy Spirit just awakens me to the truth, but then

I must do something for conversion. I must do something because that's my experience.

And the problem with this thinking is it's a misunderstanding of the cause and effect of the next step of conversion, which is what we refer to as justification.

You know, I've heard that word before. It's that moment when we're made righteous.

Just as if I had never sinned. That's the next step in conversion.

So, do we play a role in this? Well, we see the steps here in Scripture.

You can turn over with me to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, there's two verses there that are often referred to as the golden chain of salvation.

I want us to look at the second half of that, just verse 30. Romans 8, verse 30.

And I want us to see this process of going from regeneration to justification.

Paul says, and those whom he predestined, right? He set his love and affection on them before the foundations of the world, not because of anything they do, but out of his own good purpose and will and good grace and love.

But he says, and those whom he predestined, he also called. What is this called that Paul's talking about?

It's the new birth. It's that awakening. It's the Holy Spirit coming into the life of a person and that wind blowing where it wills and awakening them to the truth.

They see the effects. All of a sudden, their heart has been circumcised. That heart of stone has been removed.

A heart of flesh has been placed inside of them. It says, and those whom he predestined, he also called, regenerated.

And those whom he called, regenerated. He, notice it doesn't say we.

It doesn't say us. It doesn't say mostly him, some us. It says he also justified.

Now, how does he do this?

Well, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 .8, for by grace you have been saved.

What does Paul mean when he says saved? He means justified, made right.

Just as if you'd never sinned, you've been saved from your sin and self. That is conversion. He says, for by grace you have been saved through, here's the means, faith.

By grace you have been saved through faith. You have been justified now through faith.

Okay, is that where I'm involved? Why are we saved by faith?

So what is this faith? He goes on there in Ephesians 2 .8. He says, and this is not your own doing.

It's a gift. It's a gift of God. This is not of your doing.

That faith has nothing to do with you. You have no part in it. We've already confirmed that none of us have, can have faith without regeneration.

But here's the thing, that faith, that's one of the gifts given at regeneration.

The gift of faith. It's a simultaneous process. Theologians have been arguing over, can somebody be regenerated, and it be like two years before they're justified.

I don't think so. I think it all happens in a moment. But there's a process, and we have to get that process right, because scripture teaches that process.

So I believe that regeneration, then faith, and at that moment of faith, that's justification.

The writer of Hebrews said in chapter 11, he says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Has anyone like me been utterly confused by the seeming paradoxical nature of that verse?

Right? How is there assurance in something I hope in?

How is there conviction about something I've never seen? And this is what the writer of Hebrews is saying faith is.

It seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it? I have assurance in something that I'm hoping for.

I have conviction of something I'm not aware of. Well, that's not what he's saying.

What he's saying is because that assurance, that conviction, that faith is something outside of us, something that we've been given.

This is a gift from God, not something we conjured up, not a blind adherence, not hopeful thinking.

It was a gift that was implanted into us by God himself.

And what does this implanted gift produce? And it produces an outward expression of that inward change.

Always produces an outward expression of an inward change.

And here's the thing. That assurance of things hoped for, that conviction of things not seen also produces a heart of repentance.

So this is where it comes in, where we're a part of this. And this is the confusion. We're getting the cart before the horse.

I love how Pastor Jeremiah puts this. He says, faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin.

I love that imagery. You can't have one without the other. One flows from the other.

They're essentially the same thing. That gift of faith and repentance always leads to an outward expression of faith and repentance.

Because, I mean, we see that all through, like look in the book of Acts. What are the saints calling people to do?

Repent. Repent is what Jesus says. Repent. That's what they're getting at is this outward expression of an inward change.

Paul says in Romans 10, 9, Because if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is

Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Now this is a commonly misunderstood verse,

I believe. Just think about it for a second. If we take this verse at face value and say, okay, if someone confesses with their mouth and believes in their heart, they will be saved.

That's the action we have to take. That's the process we have to take. So you're saying that a mute person is doomed for hell.

That's the logical conclusion here, right? If I can't speak the words,

I'm doomed. And no mute person has ever entered heaven. I know that seems crazy, but if we're going to take it at that level, then we have to follow it to its logical conclusion.

Is Paul saying that the words have to roll off your tongue in order for God to save you? Of course not.

But what Paul is saying in this verse is that if your heart has truly been changed, it will pour out of you.

That mute person, it's going to come out because the fruit is going to show in their life. It may not come off of their lips because they can't, but it's coming out because it's an inward change.

And an inward change always produces an outward expression. Always. What's in here comes out of here.

It's either worship or it's sin. One of the two.

So your outward expression of faith and repentance is merely a fruit of your conversion, not a contributor to your conversion.

I want to say that again. Your outward expression of faith and repentance.

Lord, forgive me. I am a sinner. I believe you are the

Savior. Save me from my sin. I put my faith and trust in you.

That act of an outward expression is merely a fruit of your conversion, not a contributor.

God and God alone is the one who saves. You had zero to do with it. Now, this is a beautiful truth when you start to understand it.

This truth brings about such security. For the life of me,

I don't understand why people buck against this truth. Because all of us instinctively know that if we played a part in our salvation, if we played a role in accepting

Jesus, then guess what? We can play a role in denying Jesus. And we can lose our salvation as quickly as we can gain it.

To be fair, that's where our Methodist and other denomination friends that think you can lose your salvation, at least they're being consistent with that theology.

If it's your decision, then you can decide to lose it. But man, when you see that it's all of God, that God initiates it, that God carries it out, that God accomplishes it from start to finish, we can be eternally secure because God's not fickle like us.

God doesn't change. And so when God sets out to do a work, He accomplishes that work, and it's of great security to us.

This leads us to a part of conversion that we refer to as sanctification.

So we have regeneration. We have justification. Now we have sanctification, and this means to be set apart.

We have an initial sanctification, which happens at the moment of justification. We've been set apart. But then we have this progressive sanctification within the life of a believer.

And I want you to see the root of this sanctifying work. You all know one of my favorite passages.

You all probably... I quote it constantly. Philippians 1 .6, right? For he who began a good work in you will see it to completion the day of Jesus Christ.

Right? He who began a good work in you, he'll see it to completion. He started it. He regenerated you.

He justified you, and he's going to see it to completion. He's going to work in you through sanctification. He's going to do it.

Paul later says in Philippians 2 .13, For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

God is working in us in that process of sanctification. But here's the thing.

Here's where you and I finally get to participate. We don't get to participate in our initial sanctification, but we do get to participate in our progressive sanctification.

This is the point where if you've been regenerated, if you have been justified, you have been given the power to obey

God's law. Before you hated it. Before you rejected it.

Before you didn't have the power to obey it because you were a slave to sin. But now all of a sudden you have the power to obey it.

It doesn't feel like it sometimes in your life, does it? Sometimes you're like, man, sin is taking over. It's like conquering me.

But guess what? You have the power. You have the power to obey. When you sin, you're choosing not to.

You're like Paul. Oh, this wretched flesh, who will deliver me from it? I do the things I don't want to do, and I don't do the things I want to do.

And we constantly fall back because of our sinful flesh. But during sanctification, that process in our lives, we as believers have the power to obey the law.

Not perfectly. But we're being made more and more into the image of our Savior.

And we're able to obey. Not only have we been given power to do so, we've been given the desire.

Before we didn't have the desire to obey the law, did we? But now we do. And this is not only eternally significant for us personally, which it is.

It's also eternally significant and currently beneficial for the health of the church. Because if you are truly converted,

God has given you gifts. According to his purposes, he's given each saint a gift.

And what are those gifts for? They're meant for the body. For building up.

And gifts that only come out of the truly converted. So, when a church is full of false converts because of their faulty evangelism that is brought on by their misunderstanding of the process of conversion, and now they bring in unregenerate people who have merely said a prayer and been dunked in water, but they're not regenerate.

They have no gifts. And all of the sudden, these churches are full of parasites. I don't mean that in a derogatory way.

I mean like leeches taking, taking, taking, and never contributing. And it's not their fault.

They can't. They don't have the gift that can build up the body. All they can do is take.

And the churches are full of these types of unbelievers, unregenerate people.

They may give financially. Some of them may give significantly financially.

They may help in the nursery and children's program. They may sing or play in the praise team.

But they do not have God -given gifts that are meant for building up the church. It's parasites.

It's essential to understand what Scripture teaches about true conversion because, as you can see, it affects so many other elements of the church.

And next week, we're going to be taking a look at how evangelism fits into all of this.

In light of this view of conversion, if God is the one doing all the work, like how do we evangelize? Do we evangelize?

What does that look like? Like how does this affect our evangelism? We're going to talk about that in detail next week.

And then that's going to lead us into topics like membership, church discipline, leadership, discipleship, prayer as a church.

Every single one of these is affected by our understanding of conversion. You can see now why it stems back to this.

And all of these other concepts and all of these other ideas of it being a synergistic work where it's a you and me.

Yeah, maybe God does 99 .999 % of it and I do .0001%.

Well, that's not what Scripture teaches. God does all of it.

And that feeds into our ministry philosophy. It feeds into our Christian life. It gives us encouragement.

It challenges us. Now, I need to jump back here because I see some faces as I was mentioning that you now have the power to obey the law.

That's not a weight I'm placing on you. That's a beauty

I'm pointing out to you. Feels like a weight sometimes, doesn't it? What are you saying? I have the power to, but I'm not all the time.

That's not what that's meant to do. You'll never obey it perfectly. I'm sorry. Not going to happen.

Not this side of glory. You're not. We do not teach perfectionism here. Perfectionism only happens in glory when we're glorified and given perfected bodies as our

Savior and we're made like our Savior. We're in the process of becoming like our Savior now. You're still going to sin.

I sin every single day. The difference is, is unlike my lost friend,

I now have the power to address and mortify that sin as it comes. I now have the power to repent of that sin and turn from it.

I now have the power to seek to live a holy life, whereas he doesn't.

He doesn't have it. So don't be discouraged by that, please. I know sometimes when I mention that,

I need to clarify this in our lives. In light of this, let's prepare to go to the

Lord's table this morning. The Lord's table is just another opportunity for us to practice what we preach about conversion, because this table is only for those who are in Christ.

Not only that, it's only for those who are in Christ who have evidence of the fruit of that in their lives.