“Conversion Means Change” – FBC Morning Light (5/31/2023)

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. We are in the middle of the week, and I hope your week is going well thus far. Well, today we're reading in 1 Kings 7 and 8, Acts chapter 19, and the 108th Psalm.

Conversion and Genuine Change in Acts 19

Yesterday we were in Acts 18 and looking at Paul's encouragement that he received in the city of Corinth. Eventually he did leave Corinth, and today in chapter 19 we find him in the city of Ephesus. There are people who come to faith in Christ there in Ephesus, and in the recounting of that, there is an interesting principle that is brought out when it comes to the matter of genuine conversion.

What is a conversion? Well, in general, the word to convert means to move from one thing to another, from one way of thinking to another way of thinking, to one kind of practice to another way of practice, and so forth.

When we're talking about conversion spiritually, we're talking about leaving behind one religion for the sake of another. People convert to Islam these days, people convert to Mormonism, people convert to Christianity.

When you come to faith in Christ, you are converted from your old way of life and thinking and religion and so forth to following Jesus Christ, becoming a follower of his. So conversion involves a departure from the old and an embarking on the new.

One of the things that is brought out in Acts 19 here is that true conversion will involve some kind of change of life. It will involve a change of life. It's not only just a change of a set of beliefs.

Your set of beliefs will influence your behavior. It doesn't always guarantee what you believe, it doesn't always guarantee your behavior is going to follow suit, but nevertheless, a true conversion will involve some kind of change of life.

You see this here in verses 18 and 19, where it says, many who had believed, they came to faith in Christ, they came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all, and they counted up the value of them, and it totaled 50 ,000 pieces of silver.

Sinful practices, some kind of corrupt religious practices, maybe even certain material possessions that are associated with false religion will be eradicated. Now, what's interesting here is that there's no suggestion whatsoever that Paul told these people to do this.

They just spontaneously did so because of what was going on in their heart. The Holy Spirit brought these things to their mind and helped them to see that they were just totally inconsistent with their new faith in Christ, and they took the initiative to eradicate those things from their lives.

I think that's a good evidence of genuine conversion. Now, this is, of course, a relative situation. There are some people who are converted when they're young, they're children, so they don't have the accumulation of all kinds of bad practices and corrupt ways of thinking and accumulation of things associated with sinfulness and so forth.

They don't have sinful habits to deal with when they're five, six, seven years of age. They have things that certainly are brought out by the Holy Spirit when they're children. But obviously, someone who is converted when they're seven years of age, especially growing up in a Christian home, will not necessarily have such a dramatic conversion transformation in their everyday life as, say, someone who's converted when he or she's 25, 26 years old, having lived in the world and having lived like the world and having adopted the world's practices and accepted the world's sinfulness and so forth.

There's a lot to be eradicated. But here's the thing. Genuine conversion will make such a change in the heart that the truly converted will want to change their lives. And so, I trust as you reflect on your own life, you can notice some things, you can point out some things, where you can say, you know, this was true of my old life, but the Holy Spirit convicted me about that, and I had to get rid of those things.

I had to put those things out of my life, and I could no longer practice those things. I could no longer go to those places. I could no longer have this kind of possession, and I had to get rid of it.

Those are good evidences that God's Spirit has truly been working in your life. Father, we thank you that you do change our lives when you save us, you save us from the penalty of sin, but also from the practices of sin.

Your Spirit works within us and convicts us of things we need to eradicate. By your grace, he enables us to do so. Help us to be obedient to those promptings, we pray. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and for his sake.

Amen. All right, well listen, you have a wonderful rest of your day, and I trust God will bless you in it. Good day.