1270. Conversion

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series entitled Our Great Salvation, which is a study of the doctrine of salvation, or soteriology. Today's speaker is seminary professor, Dr. Jason Ormiston.

Well, good morning. I want to declare at the very beginning that God answers prayer and Jesus is mighty to save. My topic today is on conversion and my heartbeat is that perhaps there would be some in our student body that has professed faith but has not really possessed faith in Christ and today may be the day when you choose to come to Christ. And there are many of us who have possession of the Spirit within us. We are born again believers and we need an encouraging reminder that God gives us the power to say no to sin and to say yes to him. I want you to find that hope with me in 2 Corinthians chapter 13. When I say God answers prayer, here's what I mean.

I've been praying a prayer for the past 20 plus years, probably 23, 24 years. It relates to my sister, my youngest sister, Sarah. I happen to, because of the way things worked out, dad's pastoring at Family Baptist in Minneapolis, Minnesota and upon graduating from Northland Baptist Bible College, I went to Family Baptist to help get that ministry started and I was kind of by default the youth leader and ended up being the youth pastor and guess who was in the youth group?

My sister. Now that had to have been really awkward. I mean imagine this, your dad's the pastor and your brother's the youth pastor. Well indeed it was a little bit challenging and she was on a journey of her own seeking to know truth and identify the right way, not wanting to just buy into what everyone else is saying and that journey took her into some really dangerous places and had some serious consequences and it began a process of me trying my very best to reach out to her as a brother, reach out to her as a youth pastor and then eventually she ended up leaving the church and just kind of saying I'm kind of done with your version of Christ and Christianity and I want my own thing. That always is a concern.

What does that mean when someone says my version, right? Well I tried over the years and we're talking about 20 plus years to connect with my sister. It always seemed awkward, kind of strained.

Sometimes it's confrontational but I don't mean it to be. I just want to, how are you, how are things going and no I'm not interested would be the response or she would just smile and just kind of move on or whenever I would show up to visit back in Minneapolis she wouldn't be there. And the Lord worked in the years and years of prayer and the years and years of pursuing her that over the past summer she was at a very low point and in need of some help in getting back on her feet. At this point she has two children, ages six and five and I connected with her and I said you know we'd love to have you come and live with us and kind of get back on your feet and seek whatever God would want you to do and she accepted that offer and the Lord answered prayer and there was an opportunity to open a door to normal conversation and relationship building and she told us a story about how the Lord worked in her heart to get a hold of her, to help her see this is real and I do believe. And it made her desire for what the world had to offer through alcohol or through different relationships seem like strangely dim in the light of his glorious grace. I wonder how many of you right now are kind of enticed by what the world has to offer, kind of interested in maybe trying a different path.

I want you to know that I have experienced in my own life that the way of the transgressor is hard. I've seen others that have experienced that same thing and the question is really when it comes down to it, are you converted? Are you born again? I want you to know that Jesus is mighty to save. He can save and he will save. A definition of conversion for you is just take it from a general source here, dictionary.com.

You can't get more general than that. Notice it's talking about a total change of attitude, a change of your viewpoint and notice how it is included in here especially such a change in a person's religion. So to be converted is to go from one perspective to a totally different perspective and you have to ask yourself the question theologically, who is the one doing the work?

Is it God or is it me? And I think it's interesting that God's part in conversion is this three-fold. He is the one who gives life to the dead, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 5. He is the one who gives sight to the blind. Apart from God doing this, conversion does not take place.

He is the one who actually gives it as a gift. I think there's something amazing as we understand theologically how to pray for those that we don't know, are you born again or are you not, to ask God to do these things. Lord give life to the dead, give sight to the blind, give this gift of repentance to those that need it the most. You don't have to know a person's spiritual condition to pray these prayers. All you do, you can look at their life and the fruit that they're bearing. You don't know what's going on internally.

I had no idea what was going on inside my sister's head all those years. But I can tell you that something's changed in her and she's on that journey of seeking after the Lord and she's not perfect but guess what, I'm not looking at a single perfect person in this room and you're not looking at any perfect people. But God does these things. What do we have to do?

Well man has a part in this conversion. Man is to repent of sin and man is to choose to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I wanted to make sure that as I get started I lay this foundation that God does his part, we do our part and you need to pray effectively for those that are wandering and perhaps you are currently praying for someone who is wandering and you're wanting them to come to Christ.

Don't give up. God answers prayer and I want you to know that Jesus is mighty to save. But I want you to see this in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 in verses 1 through 5 but the key verse I think is found in verse 5.

In verse 5 it helps us understand a concept that we have to examine ourselves and test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. Now here's Charles Spurgeon, a very famous preacher. He was one that upon his conversion and quick speed to ministry would preach to audiences of six and seven thousand people every Sunday. I mean God used him in an amazing way, in mighty ways. High Pickering is one who authored several of these brief biographies and I'm pulling from his statements from Spurgeon's own mouth from a sermon he preached.

This is what Spurgeon talked about. He says I sometimes think it might have been in darkness or despair now, I might be in darkness or despair now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning. When I was going to the place of worship, when I could go no further I turned down a court and came to a little primitive Methodist chapel. In that chapel there might have been a dozen or fifteen people.

The minister did not come that morning, snowed up I suppose. A poor man, a shoemaker, a tailor or something of that sort went up into the pulpit to preach. He was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason he had nothing else to say. The text was look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth.

He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in the text. He began thus, my dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says look.

Now that does not take a deal of effort. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger, it's just look. Will a man not need go to college to learn to look? You may be the biggest fool and yet you can look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look.

Anyone can look, a child can look, but this is what the text says. Then he says look unto me, I said he in his broad Essex. Many of ye are looking to yourselves, no use looking there.

You'll never find comfort in yourselves. Then the good man followed up his text this way. Look unto me, I'm sweating great drops of blood. Look unto me, I'm hanging on the cross. Look, I'm dead and buried. Look unto me, I rise again. Look unto me, I ascend. I'm sitting at the father's right hand. Oh look to me, look to me.

When he had got about that length and managed to spin out about 10 minutes, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, this is a dispersion saying, I dare say with so few present he knew me to be a stranger. He then said young man, you look very miserable. Well I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before.

I thought about maybe doing that this morning, but no I won't. However it was a good blow struck, he continued, and you will always be miserable, miserable in this life and miserable in death if you do not obey my text, but if you obey now this moment you will be saved. Then he shouted as only a primitive Methodist can, young man look to Jesus Christ. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away. In that moment I saw the sun and I could have risen that moment and sung the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ.

Have you had that experience? Have you been born again? Notice it says in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 5, I hope you're there, examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates. Notice we have Paul wrapping up the book 2 Corinthians. We know if we look earlier there's 1 Corinthians and then we have 2 Corinthians and he's at the end of this book and so why is he so adamant to get the attention of those believers in Corinth in the church to say you need to slow down and you need to examine yourself and ask yourself the question am I in the faith?

I think there's reasons for that. Let me give you a quick background. Here the whole church was full of corruption and if you went back into 1 Corinthians and you started with the thought and the conversations about the divisions that they were engaged in as to whom to follow, you find that in the first couple chapters of 1 Corinthians but you also find things like sexual immorality, lawsuits, idolatry, profanity in worship, abuse of spiritual gifts, heresy regarding the resurrection in defense, he was always defending his apostolic power and his presence. He was one that really cared about this church. If you consider Paul on his missionary journeys, he spent the most amount of time with the believers in Corinth. No other congregation received the kind of attention that the church in Corinth received. Paul stayed with them a year and a half during his first visit according to Acts 18 and 11. He wrote at least three letters to Corinth. He returned a second time for a painful visit in 2 Corinthians 2, 1.

He received correspondence from the church and if you attended Dr. Belford's lectures over in Rodeheaver, you know about those letters received and his responses to those letters. Three of its members visited Paul, 1 Corinthians 16, 17 and Paul wrote to them about his intentions to return in 2 Corinthians 12, 14 and so he really cared for them but they had this problem. They had examples of excessive correction and this is in 2 Corinthians dealing with a church discipline situation and they were really kind of mean spirited towards one who wanted to repent. And then as we wrap and kind of get our way into our text this morning in 2 Corinthians 13, I want you to look at verse 12, chapter 12 verse 21. That's the very last verse of chapter 12 leading us into chapter 13. Unless when I come again, my God will humble me among you in that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. So they evidence quite a bit of carnality here and so then he begins to break down aspects of why they need to examine themselves.

And so I'm going to give it to you in two simple points. We have to ultimately repent and believe the gospel and if we do this, we understand that the purity of the gospel demands accountability and I want to show you that accountability in 2 Corinthians 13, 1 through 3 and then I want to show you last of all here the power of the gospel enables victory. And that's in verses 4 and 5 and we will rest a little bit in that verses 4 and 5 to be an encouragement to you. But to understand what's going on, notice in verses 1 through 3, first of all follow the biblical process of confrontation.

If you're wondering is someone really born again like Paul was and he had good reason to wonder, what should you do about it? Notice he says in verse 1, this is the third time I'm coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Now is Paul physically coming to them a third time or is he talking about letters that he's written to this church? Whatever the case, Paul is saying we should follow the biblical process of confrontation and we learn about that process. He's quoting from Deuteronomy 19, 15. You go back to the Torah or you go to Matthew 18, 16 which talks about the process of confrontation is not 2 to 3 to 1 and then before a large group.

It's always 1 to 1, 2 to 3 to 1 and then in a large group. And so I encourage you as you're thinking about that person you're praying for, you're not sure if they're truly born again, I encourage you to heed what Paul is saying and follow the process. And that process involves you giving personal care for that image bearer, reaching out to them and saying hey I haven't connected with you for a while, can we get together and talk or how are things going and engage with them. And pray for God to open up an opportunity for you to help out in their time of need. Notice this process in verse 2. I told you before and foretell you as if I were present the second time and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned and to all other that if I come again I will not spare. Now that sounds like a lot of verbiage but I want you to notice the connection to heretofore have sinned. Paul was convinced that I need to address an issue because you have in the past been involved in sins that do not please God.

And what would those sins happen to be? Well I just got done telling you in verse 21 of chapter 12, it gives us a list of sins that you have already committed which include uncleanness, fornication, lasciviousness. So as you break down what he is saying here, he's talking about uncleanness or impurity. You've been involved in impure relationships, you have been involved in sexual immorality, or you have given yourselves over to sensuality.

And this is a problem. And what I think is pretty obvious here is that Paul is saying that if you are engaged in those things you should really pause and ask yourself, am I truly born again? If my life is characterized by sensuality, sexual immorality, or I'm just focused on how I can break the rules and just kind of round the corners to benefit my own gut, what I feel, you are not one who is completely surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

And that's a serious concern. Paul goes on to talk in verse 3, not only just about the process but the reason for confrontation, and they were ones at this church that loved to confront him with the fact that you do not have the right to say that to me. And he says in verse 3, since you seek proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you where it is not weak, I'm speaking to you and Christ is speaking to me and it's not a weak thing that I'm doing.

And what is the proof that Paul had the authority to say anything to anyone in the church of Corinth? What's the proof of his apostleship? If you look over in chapter 12, we see in verse 12, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Paul says, hey I am an apostle, big A apostle.

I have performed signs and wonders in front of you. And if you tie that into 1 Corinthians 9, 1, proof of an apostle is one who has seen Christ. So Paul has seen Christ and he has performed signs and wonders. By the way, just as a side note, if you know anyone today who calls themselves an apostle, big A, then ask him the simple question, do you fit the qualifications of an apostle? You have seen Christ and you're able to do signs and wonders. And most people can claim they've seen Christ in a vision, but then to be able to do signs and wonders, and if they can, then take them please to the children's hospital and invite them to demonstrate their power. Paul is saying I have the ability because God has given it to me, and though it may seem weak towards you, I want you to know here at the end of verse 3, but is mighty in you, Jesus is mighty in his working in your congregation because it's his church and he cares. So you may not want to hear from me, but I want you to know that Christ is pursuing you and wants your purity.

He wants you to follow him with all of your heart. Now let me pause and ask this question. Does that mean you have to be an apostle in order to confront someone who's in sin? No.

I'm glad about that, right? Galatians 6, 1 tells us your qualification, you have to be walking in the Spirit. Let the one who is spiritual confront in a spirit of meekness, and to be spiritual is to be one who is walking in the Spirit.

So if you are walking in the Spirit, you have every opportunity to love on someone enough to say there is a cliff, you're right about to fall off, I want to keep you from that. But notice not only the purity of the Gospel demands accountability, I am so reminded of Dr. Greg Mazak when he in chapel, I think a couple years ago, spoke about the difference between dogs. Dogs are expected to do what? They're expected to bark.

So as he put it, dogs bark, birds fly, fish swim. What do babies do? Babies cry. And what do Christians do? Christians grow.

You hear me? Dogs bark, birds fly, fish swim, babies cry, Christians grow. Are you growing? Are you growing in your walk with Christ? If not, you need to ask yourself the question, am I truly born again? So notice the second point here, the power of the Gospel enables victory, and this is in verses four through five.

You can experience victory. Some of you are truly born again, but you're struggling big time. And I want you to understand this, I want to say this so it's as clear as possible, welcome to the club.

Again, we don't have any perfect people in this room right now. We all struggle, but we can find victory in Christ, and I want you to see the victory in verse four. Notice this. For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.

For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God towards you. And I want you to notice the aspects of the parallels. Notice these parallels.

First, two sentences. There's a period right after a description of Jesus, and then it's a description of believers that are working at it, right? Notice also, he was crucified through weakness. How is Jesus weak? Well, he humbled himself in his incarnation to submit himself to the will of God the Father regarding anything he would know or do or say. Jesus was willing to do that.

He became flesh so that he could redeem us. So in his weakness, he did that for us, and we can be weak in him. If you think it's only for the strong that survive, I introduce you to the reality that we are all weak, but in our weakness, we can look to Christ, who demonstrated victory through his weakness. Notice that the contrast. Yet he liveth by the power of God, and guess what the good news is for us?

Our contrast. But we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. You want to find victory and lasting hope from life besetting sin? Look to Jesus and understand that even though he was weak, he found strength through the power of God working in him.

And even though you are weak, and even though I am weak, I can find strength through the power of God, which works in me, and he works in me mightily. So take David Brainard. You know, this guy was not accepted by any mission agency. I was a little young in the date book to have a bunch of mission agencies interviewing him. But this guy had troubles with his lungs.

He ended up dying of tuberculosis at age 29. He had a passion for the American Indians, and in his pursuit, he went there with his Bible and his journal and pursued a change in the lives of people around him because he saw the need. But I want you to note this about his life. This young man is amazing in his pursuit of Christ. The Indians were out to get him.

Look at this. Brainard's first journey to Forks of Delaware to reach the ferocious tribe resulted in a miracle of God that preserved his life and revered him among the Indians as a prophet of God. Encamped at the outskirts of the Indian settlement, Brainard planned to enter the Indian community the next morning to preach to them the gospel of Christ. Unknown to him, his every move was being watched by the warriors. When the warriors drew near to his tent, they saw the pale face as they put it on his knees. And as he prayed, suddenly a rattlesnake slipped to his side, lifted up its ugly head to strike, flicked its forked tongue almost in his face, and then without any apparent reason glided swiftly away into the brushwood. Now Dr. Carmichael would say, exactly. Stop getting worked up about snakes. The Indians would say, the great spirit is with the pale face.

And that's what they said. And you know, if you read his diary, you find so many powerful examples of God doing a work in and through him. But notice from his journal, Wednesday April 21st, this is what he wrote down. God again enabled me to wrestle for numbers of souls and had much fervency in the sweet duty of intercession. Lord's Day, April 25th, this morning I spent about two hours in secret duties and was enabled more than ordinary to agonize for immortal souls.

Though it was early in the morning and the sun scarcely shined at all, yet my body was quite wet with sweat. When was the last time you sweat over an unbeliever? Saturday, December 15th, spent much time in prayer in the woods and seemed raised above the things of this world. Thursday, August 4th, was enabled to pray much through the whole day.

And he goes on and on and on. I commend to you to read and reread the life and diary of David Brainerd because there are examples after examples of the power of God at work. I bring that up to you because I think the problem we have when it comes to life besetting sin is we have not personally seen God do an amazing work in us.

And probably the reason is we're not taking account of all the great things he's doing for us on a daily basis. So go to bed thanking God for at least five things he's done for you today. And wake up and realize that Christ in you, though you are weak, is the hope of glory. Notice the last thing, verse five, you must evaluate your personal standing.

And I close with this thought. Examine yourselves. Know ye not your own selves? Prove your own selves? The words here in the Greek seem to indicate we need to realize that this is a personal test. It's not a test that you're supposed to give someone else, it's a test you're supposed to take.

So how are you doing? Are you truly born again? Notice the test is factual.

Whether you be in the faith in how that Christ is in you, these are phrases found throughout the New Testament that actually give us definition for what it means to be in the faith in Christ in us. It's not a religion, everyone, it's a relationship with Jesus Christ. Examine yourself. It's personal. It's based on fact, a real relationship, right?

A relationship that's real and personal. And notice it is unavoidable, except ye be reprobates. What am I talking about here?

Well, it's pretty simple. There's coming a time when you're either going to pass or fail this exam. You cannot run from it. Now as I look at the broader context of chapter 13, the next verse seems to imply that Paul gives great hope to the body in Corinth to think that many of you will pass this test. Many of you will find victory and I have that same hope for you, but you've got to take this seriously, so my application. Really simply, right now, I want to encourage you to evaluate the fruit in your own life. I'm talking about not how many people are you leading to Jesus, that's great if you can do that, but I'm talking about the fruit of the Spirit.

Does it come out of you when the pressure hits? Are you born again is the question. And if you're not, you can come to Christ right now.

Do I need to reread Spurgeon's sermon, look to Jesus? Do I need to start saying, you look miserable, look to Jesus? Because truthfully, some of you really do look miserable. I'm not talking about just external beauty thing. I'm talking about I see some in the student body right now that did not sing a note today, did not recite the creed.

I don't really know why. There could be other things going on, like deep burdens, and so I'm not trying to offend you. I'm just calling out to you, are you born again? You mean born again means I sing songs and recite the creed? No.

Born again means that you know that you're a sinner, you run to the cross and find Christ the only sufficient savior, and you enjoy a relationship with him. You can do that right now. You can come to Jesus right now for real. And some of you just need to come back, right?

So I ask you to care enough to lovingly confront those that you look around you and you say, man, they're on Facebook the entire time, all semester, someone needs to say something. Out of love, not because I want to get you demerits. Out of love, because hell is real. And then practically memorize and meditate on 2 Corinthians 13 four through five. If you took the time to do that, it will really greatly benefit you in your walk with Christ. I want you to know that I'm praying for you and I am very interested in talking personally with you. If you have any part of you that's like, I don't know if I'm born again, I want to talk to you. I want to point you to Christ. I'm not trying to get you to pray a prayer. I want to introduce you to a relationship with Jesus Christ. And I'm not alone.

I'm on a team of faculty that love you and want the same thing for you. So I'm just speaking from my heart. There it is, conversion. Are you saved? If not, repent and believe the gospel. God, I pray that you take these words and you do a work in our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon from the series Our Great Salvation, preached by Bible professor Dr. Jason Armiston. Join us again next week on The Daily Platform.