When speaking about the miracle of conversion, we are not speaking so much of the final act of repentance and faith, but the entire process of conversion. This begins with regeneration and ends with our response at conversion (turning from our sin and clinging to the cross). It is conversion in totality preachers of the gospel are looking for as we have many individuals coming before us hearing the gospel. Surely you are looking for something and praying daily that God would bring them to Himself. What it is, indeed, is a miracle.
It is turning men and women from blindness to sight, bondage to freedom, sin to holiness and from enmity against God to a true love for God. That is what our calling is even today in the 21st century as preachers of the gospel. We are not to entertain or inform human beings, but to see this profound miracle take place in their lives. Surely by now you should know that it is an impossible calling, to be taken by human strength.
In Ephesians 2:5, the apostle Paul speaks of the contrast that God made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions. No wonder Paul immediately posits that by grace you have been saved by faith! It is the sovereign work of God. It is God’s power to save.
Ours is the most important subject. It is important because we are in the field day in and day out looking for the growth of the seed that is being planted. You and I know that a lot of so-called converts today cannot be described in the words that we have just seen in Acts 26. We cannot speak of a lot of people who fill the pews in our church who have moved from blindness to sight, bondage to freedom, sin to holiness and from enmity against God to a true love for God. When you put any kind of test before them, the wind blows them away like chaff. Surely something is seriously wrong. The Church of the Lord Jesus, instead of helping people toward heaven, is pushing them to hell in heavenly wing chairs. This must stop!
It is turning men and women from blindness to sight, bondage to freedom, sin to holiness and from enmity against God to a true love for God. That is what our calling is even today in the 21st century as preachers of the gospel. We are not to entertain or inform human beings, but to see this profound miracle take place in their lives. Surely by now you should know that it is an impossible calling, to be taken by human strength.
In Ephesians 2:5, the apostle Paul speaks of the contrast that God made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions. No wonder Paul immediately posits that by grace you have been saved by faith! It is the sovereign work of God. It is God’s power to save.
Ours is the most important subject. It is important because we are in the field day in and day out looking for the growth of the seed that is being planted. You and I know that a lot of so-called converts today cannot be described in the words that we have just seen in Acts 26. We cannot speak of a lot of people who fill the pews in our church who have moved from blindness to sight, bondage to freedom, sin to holiness and from enmity against God to a true love for God. When you put any kind of test before them, the wind blows them away like chaff. Surely something is seriously wrong. The Church of the Lord Jesus, instead of helping people toward heaven, is pushing them to hell in heavenly wing chairs. This must stop!
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