Conversion and God's Existence #2

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in the Truth Pulpit. Now, what I want to do as we think about this matter of conversion just a little bit more is to take you to a handful of other passages that make this same point.

So if you would turn back in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. First Corinthians chapter 2 These are the things that create conviction in your heart. These are the things that give you assurance.

These are the things that make a man courageous in the face of The opposition of the world. This is what gives a man boldness in the pulpit and gives people confidence in their evangelism These are the things that raised up men Godly men like John Knox and John Calvin and others like them to be strong and courageous in the face of even the most horrific hostility from human authorities Look at it in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 beginning in verse 9 The Apostle Paul says as it is written what no eye has seen nor ear heard Nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him Then he goes on and he says these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit For the Spirit searches everything even the depths of God For who knows a person's thought except the spirit of that person which is in him So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God now look at what he says here in verse 12 as he speaks to Christians to build them up to edify them to establish them in the faith He says now we have received not the spirit of the world But the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God Paul says the Spirit of God has given to you new life He has given to you salvation with the to the end of that you would know and Understand the things that God has freely given to you The Spirit works in our heart in order to create a certain knowledge that we have Not a and I say certain I mean a conclusive knowledge Not simply others a kind of knowledge a certain kind of knowledge. No, it's a knowledge of certainty And that God has done that God has put into the heart of everyone that he is saved look over at 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6 and as we're so often doing we're taking these various passages of Scripture and building building a comprehensive case a comprehensive Argument for the fullness of the conclusions that we set forth before you So that in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4 let's say because it gives us both the before and after the darkness and light aspects of this Going even back to verse 3 Paul says if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing in Their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers To keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God For what we proclaim is not ourselves But Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake now look at verse 6 in light of Everything that we've been saying here this morning look at verse 6 and may the Spirit of God open your mind And your heart to understand the fullness of the significance of it that it would hit your heart with great power For God verse 6 Who said let light shine out of darkness? Has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

You see what he's saying? He says he makes the contrast That he does so often there's there's the world those blinded by sin They're blinded by the prince of the air But Christians as I speak to you understand that something different has happened to you. God has done something for you God Through the Spirit of God has done something in your heart God as it were shined the light of truth into your heart By the Spirit of God God took the Word of God and created faith in your otherwise dead heart and now through that infallible powerful Irresistible work of the Holy Spirit God has put into your heart the knowledge of his own glory It's powerful And I can only ask you I can only ask you at this point You know, do you know something of that spiritual reality? Do you know in your own heart something of the power of the work of God that goes beyond political motivations for an interest in? the gospel That goes beyond mere morality And trying to be a good person.

Do you know something that goes far far beyond that? Do you know something of the beating of a new spiritual heart? That has new affections a love for Christ a love and a submission to the Word of God Do you know something about that? That's the pulsating work of the knowledge of God That has been implanted in your heart by the Holy Spirit We're not talking about external ritualistic religion Where people just go through the motions on a Sunday or other times And never change and never think differently and with no passion no desire no love for the Lord Jesus Christ Even if that kind of religion is done in the name of Christ It's a false religion And even if the church in which you attend has these things vibrantly as a corporate testimony It still must be real and true in you And if you are lacking that and you have lacked that and you have never known the kinds of spiritual affections of which we speak from the Word of God today, beloved I say it in love and for the benefit of your eternal soul, you need to examine your heart and ask God to show you what's wrong That things like this would be so dead to your heart Christian, if you can say yeah I do know those things, I do know those things, I do know those things If you can say yeah I do know those things Then all of the grounds for joy and and confidence and assurance The fountain has burst open and you can drink freely from it Look over at the book of Ephesians chapter 2 Ephesians chapter 2 Verses 1 through 5, let's just dive right to it You and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind You see, don't you, the pattern by which Paul presents these truths He did it in Titus verse 3 He did it in there in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 Here he's doing it again in Ephesians 1, before and after The switch was off, the switch is on It was dark, now it's light And how did that happen?

Is this something in which we boast about our own attainment and our own superior insight? Perish the thought, out on the suggestion No, in that condition of deadness God did something for us, to us Verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus Discouraged Christian, look at the flowing words of the goodness of God to your soul In what we just read there, He's rich in mercy, great in His love toward you He made you alive together with Christ, it's by grace you've been saved He raised you up, He seated you with Christ in the heavenly places And there's more to come, the best is yet to be for those of us that are in Christ Because in the coming ages He is going to show us the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. As wonderful as it is to be a believer now, as great as it is to be in Christ now, this is just a foretaste, this is a modest appetizer compared to being in the fullness of His glory in heaven and seeing the face of Christ face to face with our own eyes and looking into the face of the One who gave Himself to us in Christ Jesus The One who gave Himself for our sins God has shown you all of that as a manifestation of His love, His grace, His mercy, His kindness The hope that He's given to you, whether you're on the front end of life or at the very tail end of life, God has been good to you, God is being good to you, God will be even better to you so to speak in the ages to come. These things as scripture speaks to our heart this way and the Spirit affirms it to our heart, this is showing to us inside in a manifestation to the depths of our being there is a God, He exists and He has been good to me in the Lord Jesus Christ He saved me and I belong to Him. One more passage, Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 24 Paul says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body that is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the Word of God fully known. The mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints. To them God chose to make known, see God is causing this knowledge to be born into the hearts and minds of believers.

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles, that's almost all of us, there are very few if any Jews in the audience here today, we were Gentiles excluded from the promises of God outside the covenants having no hope having no knowledge of God and no hope in the world and yet God reached out to you. God ensured that the gospel came to you. God did a work of the Spirit in your heart so that wouldn't be left to your dead mind and to your your fickle will to choose Him.

God said, No I chose you, I will bring you and make you my own, I will make sure that you could never be lost. Verse 27, The riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in you the hope of glory, Him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For purposes of today, one day soon enough we'll come to this text in the exposition of Colossians, but for purposes of today notice that God chose to make known Christ in you. God has done something in Christians to make Himself known in a in a saving redemptive way that goes beyond the general revelation in creation that goes beyond the written word that goes beyond conscience that goes beyond Christ may be better stated in addition to all of those witnesses, God for the Christian has put His knowledge in your heart directly to you by name. That's the thing I never get over, that's the thing I never get over that Christ loved me and gave Himself up for me. When we come to the table, when we remember the table, Christ didn't just, Christ didn't just die a general death for mankind and then leave it up to men to decide whether they'd take it or leave it.

Christ loved me, Paul said, and gave Himself up for me. There is a personal aspect to this in the counsels of God before the beginning of time, if you are a Christian you were in the mind of God to be included in the plan of redemption. You were in the mind of God to be included in the plan of redemption. In the redemptive work of Christ as He suffered on the cross somehow in a way that I can't begin to understand or explain but He was suffering for your sins, somehow He thought of you in His redemptive work, somehow what all of your wrongs were laid on Him and He gladly bore them and said I'll take these sins for Paul, for Tim, for Becky, for Jim, I'll take those sins, I'll take the responsibility for them, Father you can punish me for them just so long as they go free, just so long as they're forgiven.

For a wretch like me, a wretch to save amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, He did that for me, the eternal Son of God did that for me? Why do we believe in God? The true Christian can rightly say I believe because God opened my heart to believe. God has made Himself known to me through the Spirit of God in a way in a way that is made manifest and is perfectly consistent with the written Word of God. God opened our eyes, beloved, God opened our eyes to see, this is really important to understand, God opened our eyes so that we could see what was there all along the whole time. All of this testimony had been vibrating throughout all of the universe, creation, canon, conscience, and Christ, it was there all along, but when God opened your heart to believe it came to you with power, and now as you study these things with a new heart and with the indwelling Holy Spirit you can grow in the knowledge of them in a way that you can know for certain what the truth is and not be shaken, cast down, rattled by opposing voices. This is what God has given to us in Christ and it's what we celebrate at the Lord's table.

The God of creation, canon, conscience, and Christ not only revealed Himself to humanity generally, but Christian, He revealed Himself to you personally. And if that knowledge isn't enough to make you grateful and joyful, I don't know what I can say to you. I don't know what else I can say to you.

I don't know what else I can say to you. In light of the glories of all of that and to be secured for all of eternity, isn't it obvious that the things of this world either personally, nationally, or in the church are secondary to the glory that is yet to be revealed to us? The fact that God loved us by name and saved us by name and made all of this known to us?

Isn't that enough to approach the table with a chastened, humbled, grateful heart? Matthew Henry, the great Puritan commentator, said this. He said, The gospel of Christ has influenced my soul. It has had such a command over me and been such a comfort to me that it demonstrates to myself, though it cannot be so to another, that it is of God. I have tasted in it that the Lord is gracious.

No one can convince a man who has tasted honey that it is not sweet." He's saying, I know the influence of these things in my own soul. I know these things in my own heart. And because I know these things in that way, it demonstrates to me that this is all from God. Now this inward work in my heart is not conclusive in the same way to another man's heart, but he has the other four aspects of revelation that he needs to deal with. God has given us, Christian brother, Christian sister, he has given us something so precious, so sweet, so kind and loving and merciful. In addition to everything else, he's given himself to us in Christ in the depths of our soul and has promised us, I will never, ever, ever leave you, nor will I ever, ever, ever forsake you. Hebrews 13.

For I am convinced that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor any other created thing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. James Boyce says this, and the writings of James Montgomery Boyce, incidentally, every one of his books is valuable. There's not a book that he's written that you should avoid.

You should read them all if you could. But James Montgomery Boyce said this, he said, God exists. He has not hidden himself. Rather, he has made himself known in multiple ways that commend themselves to our minds, hearts, and conscience. The good news is that God forgives sinners just like you. That God sent Christ to the cross to bear the punishment for all of the sins of any one who would ever believe in him.

So gracious. This same message, you could preach the same message in Tibet. You can preach it in Houston. You can preach it in Alberta.

You can preach it in Peru. Without change, because it's the love of God revealed to humanity in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do understand, my unsaved friend, you need to do more than believe in a generic God of some kind of your own making. You need, you must have Jesus Christ. And in Christ, your fight against God can turn into peace with God.

Scripture says you may believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but you must as you may believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved today, right now, with a full complete justification that will survive the judgment of God, because it's based not on your righteousness, but on the righteousness of Christ. All of your sins today, past, present, and future, forgiven. No fear of mortal sin. No fear of venial sins.

No fear of anything to come that someone will take it away from you. No secure in the hand of Christ who said, I hold them in my hand and no one can pluck them away. That's what we celebrate as we come to the Lord's table today.

Would you bow with me in prayer? Gracious Father, these are sober truths for sure, but for the Christian, they are the most glorious truths that could ever be known, that could ever come forth from our lips, that could ever settle with depth into our weak and trembling hearts. Oh, oh God, oh God, with joy we say and affirm that an invisible God clearly exists, and there is no excuse for anyone anywhere to say otherwise. And yet, Father, as Christians, we go further and we say that our Christ clearly exists.

He was crucified, buried, resurrected, and now ascended on high where he intercedes for us without fail in an ongoing ministry of intercession to ensure the completion and the full revelation of our salvation in the final day. And in that we rejoice and give you great, great thanks. We worship you, oh God. We thank you that you went beyond our guilt and sin in Christ to show us loving kindness, goodness, mercy, grace, and hope.

Pray, Father, that you would bless this time of remembrance that is just ahead. That's Don Green here on The Truth Pulpit, and here's Don once again with a final word. Well, my friend, before we go after today's broadcast, I just want to invite you to look me up on Facebook, Don Green on Facebook.

I often make original posts. I make comments about ministry and other matters of biblical importance there that do not make their way into this broadcast. And so if you are on Facebook, I invite you to join me. Look for Don Green and join us on Facebook for another way to connect with our ministry. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much, friend, for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us again next time as Don begins a new message as we continue teaching God's people God's Word on The Truth Pulpit.