Becoming a Christian isn't a matter of making a decision to get a little religion or to. clean up your life. Today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg takes a look at what happens when someone is truly converted. He's opening the Bible to Colossians chapter 1, looking at verses 21 through 23. Christ.
pardons those who believe. Although we have sinned. And although we deserve his condemnation, Without this, We would be excluded from God's presence forever. And in the cross, he displays and he satisfies his perfect justice. By executing the punishment that sinners deserve upon his only beloved Son, and without that, God would not be true to himself.
Cecil Francis Alexander, the Wife of a Presbyterian minister who wrote hymns in order to teach young people theology.
So she wrote for the doctrine of the atonement: there is a green hill far away outside a city wall with amazing verse. for boys and girls to understand there was none other good enough. to pay the price of sin. He only. could unlock the gate of heaven.
and let us in. No, the cross is where reconciliation is provided. And the church is where reconciliation is to be proclaimed. Actually, the church is where reconciliation is to be displayed. But we'll leave that for another time.
It is where it is to be proclaimed. It is to be declared. There's the rub, isn't it? Because the message of reconciliation, which again 2 Corinthians 5 is entrusted to us as ambassadors of Christ. Is a muted declaration whenever the church in any generation loses a deep-seated conviction.
Concerning the truth, And the power and the relevance of the gospel. And I say to you as a young person, unless you are convinced in your heart of hearts concerning the truth and the power and the relevance of the gospel, there will be no reason for you, there will be no propulsion for you to go out and make much of that in your life and in your lifestyle. If you lose confidence in the very truths that are fundamental here, then it will matter little how long you study here. And the church bears testimony to that. William Booth, who was the founder of the Salvation Army a long time ago, back in the 19th century, as he was nearing the end of his life and proceeding towards his death.
They came and asked him, they said, Mr. Booth, what do you consider are the great dangers confronting the church in the 20th century? And this is what he said. In answering your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century. will be religion Without the Holy Spirit.
Christianity without Christ. Forgiveness. without repentance. Salvation without regeneration. Politics without God.
and heaven without hell.
Well, that was kind of prescient, wasn't it? The very things he warned about. Are the things that essentially led to the collapse of the salvation? Army. Oh, there are some Bright lights around in the midst of it all, but by and large it's become a social agency.
By and large, it doesn't do anything that any other kind of social agency is unprepared to do or unwilling to do. But no, that's exactly what is to happen.
So, therefore, when Paul is concerned for these believers in Ephesus or Colossi, when through the scriptures he speaks into our lives today, the Spirit of God brings it home, it's a reminder to us that when this gripped Paul, he says, The love of Christ constrains us, the one died for all, and therefore all died. And he says, and so we must get this message out there. And that's why he says, we beseech you. We implore you. By the mercies of God.
We beseech you, we implore you, be reconciled. to God. Receive your reconciliation. You see, When you teach the Bible, and some of you do teach the Bible, and you're going to do it some more. Let me tell you what your primary aim is.
But well let me tell you what it isn't. Your primary aim is not to provide information about a passage of scripture. with two or three practical pointers at the end of it.
So that you might know what you're supposed to do with the talk you just heard.
Now, our primary aim when we teach the Bible is in order that we might have A life-changing encounter with God. Because the scriptures, as we saw on the screen, have been breathed out By God. When God's word is properly proclaimed, God's voice is really heard. And it is that conviction which underlies Paul's emphasis here. In other words, We want to go at it in such a way That life's are then Transformed.
Which is my Third word. A R T. E. Alienation? Reconciliation?
Transformation. Actually, we could have said conversion, that would have been fine too. or regeneration. or justification. or a number of synonyms.
But I needed a T, otherwise it wouldn't be art. I could have gone with Ark. But some of you would have spelled that wrongly later on and tried to remember what it was that began with K and it didn't, it began with C. But let me spend the balance of my time on this. The absolute vital importance of seeing men and women confronted Challenged, spoken to by the gospel.
in order that they might be Converted. Converted. It's a sort of old-fashioned word, isn't it? Let me give you a quote from an old Scotsman from the 19th century called George Smeaton in a wonderful book that he wrote called The Atonement. Here's the quote.
If we had time for QA, I would be happy to dialogue over this. I often think about it when I have the occasion to speak to groups such as yourselves. I'm not sure what the immediate reaction of people is to this quote. Here it is. To convert one sinner From the error off his way.
is an event of greater significance Than the deliverance of an entire kingdom from temporal evil. Let me say it to you again. to convert one sinner. We understand God converts. to convert one sinner from the error of his way.
is an event of greater importance, significance. than the deliverance of an entire kingdom from temporal evil.
Now, was Smeaton suggesting that temporal evil should not be addressed? No. Was he suggesting that there is no engagement that flows from the gospel in relationship to these issues of life? No. But what he was making perfectly clear was simply this.
And let me quote William Booth to you again. Because William Booth is the soup kitchen man. He's the champion of soup kitchens. He's that champion of bottles of water. He's that champion of, can I give you a few new clothes and so on.
So what did he have to say? Would would Booth have agreed with Smeaton? Yes. Here's both. to get a man soundly saved.
It is not enough to put on him a new pair of breeches. to give him regular work. or even to give him a university education. These things are all outside a man. And if the inside remains unchanged, You have wasted Your labor.
Now young people, I know how trendy it is to go on short-term missions trips. I don't really haven't kept up to date with the the the trips that go from here. I'm sure they're they're very good and not like this at all. But I don't want to be a crotch steel guy like one of the two up on the Muppets. I don't want to grow old like that, whatever that guy was called, Waldorf or whoever he was.
He just sat up there and moaned about everything. I don't want to become that man. But I do want to tell you that it really alarms me to see all these young people taking tons of money to go halfway around the world to drill wells. or to do all kinds of nice things. that Muslims are doing.
And others are doing. At the expense of the gospel. You say, well, I think you're maybe overemphasizing that.
Well, that's for you to consider. But the issue that we are given Is that we would go into all the world and we would proclaim the gospel, and that Jesus would be with his apostles to the ends of the earth. But they never went into all the world. How could they? They didn't even know where the end of the world was.
And he wasn't with them to the end of the age. Because they didn't live to the end of the age. It's not the end of the age yet.
So what does that mean? It means that the apostles' words which were inscripturated for us. are now ours to take. to the ends of the earth. And The promise of God to every succeeding generation is that He will be with.
Those who take his message to the ends of the earth. But it is his message that we're taking to the ends of the earth. And the message is that God reconciles sinners to himself.
Now, just so you understand, you don't think I got some kind of hobby horse on this. I thought about it in relationship to our own church. You know, we have these things where you go out in the community and you try and prove to people that you're really nice. You know, like, oh, we're nice people. And so, what do we do?
We sit there and we give them bottles of water. It's a hot day in Ohio. Would you like a bottle of water?
Okay, well that was very nice. But what did that actually do? For the cause of the gospel, nothing. I mean, there's nothing in the water. There's nothing, we don't have like John 3:16 around the bottle or anything like that.
There's nothing. It's like, would you like a bottle of water? And I realized after I'd been in England on a mission where we were walking up to people in the high street in suburban London and saying to them, Excuse me, would you like to hear about a bad man that went to heaven? Or excuse me, have you ever read the Bible? Or excuse me, have you ever considered the claims of Jesus Christ?
And I said to myself, when I came back, and we're just offering people bottles of water. We haven't even got our warm-ups off yet in relationship to evangelism. And we're satisfying ourselves with this. We need to see men and women converted. That's what Paul is declaring.
You were once alienated, you've been reconciled.
Now, this message of reconciliation is yours to take, so that men and women might be converted. If your mom and dad don't believe, they don't just need to know you're going to a Christian college. They need to know Jesus. They need to be converted. The people that you travel with on a daily basis to sports events and so on are by nature without God and without hope in the world.
You see, The evangel is quenched. When you lose confidence in the truth and the power and the relevance of the gospel. And the reason that Paul is so clear on this is because Paul himself was radically converted, wasn't he?
Well, he said his his conversion was Very, it was unique. Incidentally, he can't say very unique because it's either unique or isn't unique, but it can't be very unique.
So, his conversion was unique. There were unique elements to his conversion. The shining light, the blindness, the visit of Ananias, and various things.
Well, that was also true in relationship to the Ethiopian eunuch. I mean, I don't think you were converted riding around in a chariot coming out of Jerusalem, reading Isaiah 53 on a scroll, were you? No, but that's not the issue. Or what about the woman of the well? Were you converted as a result of somebody asking you if you like a drink of water, ironically?
And the answer is no. No. I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing man of sin. Revealing Jesus through the Word, creating faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed.
But let me just say to you. That when a person is converted. And you see this in the life of Paul. When you see when a person is truly converted, They will come to firm Strong Settled Convictions. Firm, strong, settled convictions.
About what? about all kinds of things. But definitely about this. And you can do this for your homework and read Acts 9 and so on. Paul came to an immediately settled conviction about God's Son.
about God's Son. When you read in Acts chapter 20, it says, And after he had spent several days with the disciples in Damascus, at once or immediately, he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. Immediately his view of Jesus was changed. Immediately, his view of Jesus was changed. Up until this point in his life, Jesus was a fraud.
And the followers of Jesus were crazy. And they were deserving of death and imprisonment and so on. What in the world has happened to this fellow? What is this dramatic change that has taken place? He's been converted for goodness sake.
It wasn't that he just banged his head somewhere and decided to become religious, or he had some kind of quasi-spiritual experience that changed his outlook on life, or he had a new purpose, or whatever you want to describe. No, no, no, no, no. He had been living his life upside down. And he got turned upside down, which means that he then got turned the right way up. And that's what the Bible says, that we live our lives upside down.
And the work of grace is to turn us upside down, therefore to turn us the right way up. and an entirely different view of Jesus. The people were astonished. that he was declaring these things. And that was the astonishment of the wonder of grace.
And he saw a light that was brighter. than the noonday sun. And he fell to the ground. And you remember He looked up. And he said, who are you?
Who are you, Lord? Of course the punctuation is interesting, isn't it? I'm not sure that I'm not sure that it shouldn't be who are you question mark, Lord exclamation mark. That would seem to make more sense to me. Who are you?
Lord? Lord, you are Lord? You are Messiah God? And entirely different understanding. of the person.
of Jesus because a person converted is a new creation. A new creation. If you don't have a firm and settled conviction this morning, young person, that Jesus is the Christ. that he's going to judge the world. that every knee will bow to him.
Then you might have really want to take a good hard look at what your profession of faith really means. When a converted person Declares Jesus, then declare Jesus as he is the Son of God. A new view of God's Son. A new view of God's mercy. of God's mercy.
That was in, again, that's Paul, isn't it? You have to wait until you get into his letters. And in his letters, he's explaining to Timothy in his first letter. He says, You know, we are, I have to tell you that I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointed me to his servants. Here we go.
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown. Mercy. Marcy. I don't know about you, but I don't like having my photograph taken. I d it's when they try it, it never works.
Well, I guess it works, it's lousy and I think I look better than I actually do when they take the photograph. But I don't like when they go, One, two, three. You're just like frozen, more frozen, completely frozen And so every so often they say, We need a photograph for this, and they bring some poor soul into my room, and it's always a disaster. It's always the same thing. Because I always tell them, I say, you know.
I haven't had very many good photographs, and if you could help me out, because I'd like this photograph. to do me justice. And inevitably, the person says, It's not justice you require, it's mercy. the face. With a face like yours, it's mercy that you require.
You see, by nature Paul was a pro-Jew, wasn't he? He was able to rehearse all of that. I got a great background. He said, I had the best teachers. I went to the university.
I'm really smart. I kept the law. I was pretty well faultless on this stuff. And then he says, but all of that I no longer regard as of significance anymore because all I once held dear, all the things I built my life upon. All the things the world reveres and wars too on.
Fall away in relationship to a new view of Jesus. You see, by nature, unaided by the Holy Spirit, our friends. Our loved ones. rely on their Sout themselves on their decency, on their good works. where I work in suburban Cleveland.
The the sort of prevailing view is that a good God, if he exists, will reward nice people. if they just do their best. And it is quite a radical thing when someone is converted. And they say, you know, I used to think That God looked upon me with favor until He opened my eyes to see what a mess I was. And now, oh, the love that drew salvation's plan, mercy there was great.
and grace was free. A new view of Jesus. A new view of mercy. and a new view of God's people. The people to whom he went, that is Paul, were completely freaked out.
They were afraid of him. They weren't sure about him, but he was sure about them. They said to one another, Isn't this the fellow who just came from Jerusalem with the letters to deal with us in Damascus? And they said, yeah, but he's... He's a new person.
He's been made new, Jesus. has changed his life.
Now let me finish in this way. Professor Murray of Westminster Seminary on one occasion was riding in a car in the north of Scotland with. uh a book publisher that is well known around here uh called Willie Mackenzie. And uh And Murray, who liked to play with the minds of people, said to Willie Mackenzie, He said, what do you think the difference is between a lecture and The preaching of the Bible. What do you think the difference is between a lecture and a preaching of the Bible?
And Mackenzie tried his best, he gave various suggestions. And Murray said, no, no, you didn't get it right at all.
So eventually he gave up. And Murray said, This is what it is. He says, preaching is a personal power. passionate Plea. And Mackenzie said, In what sense?
And Maury said, in the Pauline sense. We beseech you. By the mercies of God. Be Reconciled. to God.
When the queen spoke to Polonius in Hamlet, you remember when he does that big long thing where he runs off his mouth? And she eventually gets fed up with him and she says, Polonius, More matter. with less art. More matter with less art. I want to say to you today, More art.
More art. with less vague accommodating useless. unhelpful nonsense. We are not anthropologists. We are not pragmatists.
We are ambassadors. as though God were making his appeal. through us. What a wonder. What a responsibility.
What an immense privilege. And you folks. with all your future in front of you. Father, thank you. That your word is fixed in the heavens.
Thank you that you accomplished the purposes that you ordain for it. Thank you for the privilege. of casting our bread upon the waters. Resting in the assurance That as we take our stand. upon the very rock of Christ himself.
As we rest confidently in the wonder of his work of reconciliation.
So then that we in turn may have the immense privilege. of taking all that we learn here. and bringing it to bear upon the places to which you are going to send us.
So that unbelieving people May become the committed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray. Trump is That is Alastair Begg urging every one of us to be reconciled to God. You're listening to Truth for Life. If you'd like to introduce others to Jesus but you're not sure how to begin, visit the Learn More page on our website at truthforlife.org/slash LearnMore.
You'll find a couple of brief videos there that are perfect for sharing with friends. In one of the videos, Alistair explains the gospel message clearly and concisely. The other is an animated presentation called The Story that walks you through God's plan of salvation from Genesis to Revelation. Again, you'll find both videos and more at truthforlife.org slash learn more.
So I'm wondering if you struggle with Prayer. Many of us do, and regardless of whether you're a new Christian or you have followed Jesus for years, prayer often does not come easily. Alastair has written a book called Pray Big, Learn to Pray Like an Apostle, where he helps us learn how to pray, what to pray for, by looking to the Apostle Paul as an example. And if you've not yet read this book, you can request it today as a free audiobook. you visit our website.
truthforlife dot org slash pray big. The book includes hymns and poems along with scripture and practical guidance to help deepen your prayer life, and it comes with a companion study guide that you can download and print or use digitally as an interactive PDF. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we'll find out why an encounter with Jesus should make us eager to tell others about Him. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life.
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