Great Doctrines of Salvation, Conversion
Mike Doyle · Jul 9, 2006
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826235665852

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Let's see. Epistrophe. What does it mean? You didn't look it up, did you? To revert. It means to come again or go again. It means to convert. It means to turn around. Epi, which is the first part of the word, is a primary preposition meaning superimposition of a time, a place, an order. It can mean turn about, turn after, turn against, turn around. What it really means, to make it simple, is that I was going this way and I did a U-turn and now I'm going that way. So, it can be a physical turning, it can be a moral or a spiritual turning. So, I can be walking this way and do a U-turn and I'm coming back and you could say I've converted. I've had a conversion.

Matthew 16.23 says, But he turned and said unto Peter. That word turn there is the word for conversion. It's this word.

1 Thessalonians 1.9-10 For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned to God. Would you say conversion is synonymous with salvation? Yes is over here and no is over here.

What do you think? Explain. What do you mean? turn away from God? Well, if I'm going this direction, away from God, can I turn and be more away from Him than I already was? So... It is something you do. Could you say that, Steve? I would say that salvation is something that God did through Christ for us. Conversion is whether or not I respond to that. Whether it had an effect on you? Everybody hear what Steve just said? Steve said that salvation is something that God did. Conversion would be something that I would do in response or not respond to God's salvation. So... I was just thinking at the beginning of that chapter. How does it say it?

That if you were saved, you had a conversion. You don't have to be converted, or you can be converted and don't have to be saved. I understand that, and that's really kind of some of the essence we're going to talk about. In order to be saved, you must go through a conversion. You have to change direction. You just do. Let's jump down to question four. Get to stand up. Once I do this, though, I might not ever be able to go back. You can be a question for us that can you be converted to certain beliefs? I mean, let's say you were Catholic and now you're a Hindu.

I was a Republican. I'm a Democrat. Sure. Absolutely. And I can be converted to, you know, Holly Hills Bible Church to the First Church of the What's Happening Now or whatever, you know, or I can go to two blocks down and one over. I've converted. See that? Or I could be, I could change my, if I'm an alcoholic and I go to Alcoholics Anonymous, what have I done? I've converted.

Hopefully. In other words, I've changed what I'm doing in my life. And it doesn't necessarily have to be... I can convert to a lot of different things. I can decide that I'm old and slow and out of shape and I'm going to change my way of doing things and I'm going to get in shape and get fast and be cool. I've converted. So it can be a change in your behavior in any manner, because I was going this way, and now I did a U-turn, and now I'm going that way.

And then back up to question three, I ask you to look up Galatians 4.9 and 2 Peter 2.21-22, and what's the difference in the direction of these two verses? So let's first do Galatians four nine. Somebody has it. They can read. Please. Yeah, that didn't sound...

But now that you have known that, I'm ready to honor you up there. I'll turn you again to the East and back away, gentlemen. And then we'll go to the East. We'll go up again. In Galatians, what's the conversion there? From what to what? Say that again. Turned away from what? God and grace. And back to what? Back to law. So there's a conversion that goes on there. Same word. So it's possible to Be functioning under grace. Change your mind. I shouldn't say that. Do a U-turn and put yourself back under law. Conversion. 2 Peter 2, 21 and 22. Okay, so in this case, it says that they have personally known the way of righteousness. They've known it and they've turned away from that back to sin. Distinguish between repentance and conversion. What's the difference? Is there a difference? What was the basic definition of repentance as we talked about last week?

Simply. Just have a change of mind. Doesn't necessarily mean to change your direction, but you changed your mind. So conversion means to have a change of direction. Now, they almost sound like they're the same thing, but they're not the same thing. Because you could change your mind about something and not do anything about it. You'd not make a U-turn. You okay with that?

As an example, a personal example, when these two men were leading me to Christ, I had a dramatic change of mind about who Christ was and what salvation was. And I thought that they were absolutely right, which was different from what my Catholic background had taught me. The problem I was having was that I wasn't willing to do the U-turn. I wasn't willing to change and to convert from the comfort zone that I was in to something totally different, even though I had changed my mind about it.

Let me give you another good example. and we don't have to look it up, but in Acts when Peter stands up at Pentecost and delivers that great sermon, towards the end he says to the Jews, you need to repent and be baptized. What does he mean there by repentance?

Think differently about what issue? About Christ, because who did they think Christ was? Who did they think he was? A prophet? Or some guy from Bethlehem? And Peter said, no, no, this is the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel. And you need to have a change of mind about who He is. See that?

Now most of the time, those verses are promoted as the repentance has to do with you being sorry for your sins. But as we learned last week, Sorrow has very little to do, if anything, with the word repentance. Repentance simply means to change your mind. So, can you repent and not convert?

What do you think? So, the Jews, please. And you said you had a change of mind, but no change of direction. So where does belief... change of mind... if you had a change of mind, that doesn't mean you believe. Because belief means... Yeah, let's open that up for discussion. Can you have a change of mind without faith?

In other words, can you have a change of mind about certain facts, say about who the person of Christ is or what the issues of salvation are, and not exercise faith in those facts that you know? What do you think? Huh? I've got a no. Do I have a yes? Oh good, we have a controversy. Isn't that interesting? Yes, I think so too.

There's no question in my mind, and again, my personal experience doesn't verify reality or not, but there's no question in my mind that just because I knew the facts and was convinced that they were true, I wasn't saved. So what part does faith play? I mean, you can even assert that, okay, the facts are true. I don't have any question that, you know, without faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, condemnation is where I'm staying. I can also know that if I believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that God will save me for all eternity.

That was the issue with me, was this, the eternality of salvation. That once I, if I believed, that once I believed, that the thought that kept going through my mind is that my history as a human being would be over. It would never change, because if you come out of a religion like Catholicism, it's all about doing the best you can, the longest you can, and hope you hit the finish line with enough good as opposed to enough evil, and hoping that you've confessed as much of the evil as you can before the bullet hits you between the eyes.

He didn't have an opportunity either. Yeah, he knows the facts. So what's the conclusion? That you can know the facts and not exercise faith in them? Isn't there two different kinds of knowledge? I mean, you can know something in the brain, but if it doesn't apply to the heart, Okay, so what does faith do then? Which is?

Okay, Steve. I don't know. For our conversation here, it seems faith is kind of a crossover bridge from repentance to conversion. If you change your mind, there's still an element of faith function there. But then to be converted is another realm of faith. I don't know if that's the right terminology. Steve says that faith is the bridge that you cross over from repentance to conversion. So you've got that chunk in James that talks about faith and works, and I believe that those things that we have faith in will naturally act on, so I think that the repentance leads to conversion. That's believed. Okay. Everybody hear that? I think that from my recent thinking lately, and I've been thinking about this lately, is that it seems like faith is saying, okay, I know that, I'm going to need that.

Or, I don't need that. I'm good enough. If the elements of salvation are presented correctly, which is my position before God, before salvation. You know, Romans 3, that I don't seek after God, I have no hope, I'm lost, I'm condemned. I've got to be persuaded about that, right? I've got to have a change of mind about that. And then the Gospel is presented to me, you know, that Christ died for my sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried and raised according to the Scriptures, and then I'm told if I believe that, He will save me. So, I think at that point I can still, again, I can still acknowledge that, well, maybe those facts are true or they are true, but I still am holding out hope for me to be able to do it some other way, you know, rather than depending on him or whatever.

Conversion, I kind of like what Steve said, that conversion or faith might be that bridge that takes you from a change of mind. Because listen to what Peter said. He said, you need to repent and be baptized. Now let's talk a little bit about what baptism would mean. From an Old Testament standpoint, and understand that when someone was, let's go back to John the Baptist. If you were a Jew, and you had run into John the Baptist, and you had listened to what he had to say, and he says you need to be baptized, you need to repent and be baptized. What were you doing? What were you thinking? And why were you doing it? Were you doing it for Christian salvation? No way. There wasn't any Christianity. So what were these Jews doing? By being baptized by John. Maybe.

Yeah, see, they actually had a change of mind. They were undergoing a change of mind and they were converting from whatever the Judaism of the time was to a real issue about their sins. And the baptism meant that they identified themselves with the doctrine that John was preaching. They united themselves.

So baptism in a Jewish mind is like the Jews in the desert were baptized into Moses. What did that mean? It meant that they identified themselves with what Moses was all about. So when Peter says, repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, what is he asking them to do? To identify themselves with the change of mind that Peter was promoting about who Jesus Christ is and what he'd done.

Did that save him? Absolutely it did. The baptism didn't save him. What the baptism did was gave them an... they were identifying themselves with Peter and what he was saying. Did the baptism add anything to them? No. It was an outward symbol of something that had already happened internally because they had a change of mind. And I would say that the baptism is evidence of a conversion taking place because they have demonstrated publicly that they've had a change of mind and they've gone in a different direction.

Right? Does that make sense? If it doesn't, challenge me. Yeah. As I was thinking about this, your patent seems like you turned from Your sins and you convert to Christ. And faith is when you take it personal, when it becomes personal to you. Salvation. Let's distinguish between them. What would true conversion be? From the author's viewpoint, this is what he says. like you're saying, Donna, that you're turning from self, from the world, and from sin. So you're turning from. And you're turning to God. That's what conversion would be in his mind. And, you have, having had a change of mind regards who God is. You've had the change of mind, so you've done a turning. and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

He says, the author says, all these are part of faith in the person and work of Christ. Do you agree with him? Yeah, I think it's okay. What do you think? So all of these things take place, I think, in a conversion that has to do with the person coming to Christ. Go ahead. What do you mean? Let's talk about that for a minute. As a believer you mean, right?

In Galatians 5 it says, if you walk in the Spirit you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If you look at that closely it says, If you walk in the Spirit, you cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh. So, let's say Jessica is walking in the Spirit. And what the verse says is that at that point there's no chance, there's no sinning in Jessica's life.

Can't be, because you can't do both at the same time. So if you're walking in the Spirit, you are not fulfilling the strong desires of the flesh, and you can't fulfill them. So in order to fulfill the desires of the flesh, what's got to happen? You've got to come out of walking in the Spirit, right? And if you look at James and the temptation to sin, that's exactly what is described there, is that you're abiding in Christ and the lure is to bring you out into the flesh. Now, just because the flesh is active in you, Desiring to manifest itself through you doesn't mean that you're not walking in the Spirit. The desire is there, that doesn't mean you've fallen. It's when you go for it. And that would be, you convert to it. You were walking in the Spirit and you did a U-turn, right back to the flesh. Crystal?

We face questions and there's a tendency to take the salvation foods and try and somehow match up who we are with Christ and what happens in the moment of salvation. At one point it happens on God's side and it effects us. But salvation in and of itself doesn't exist. It's a different matter entirely than what happens after salvation. Does that make sense?

So when we talk about repentance and conversion, we're talking about these terms, pre-salvation... Coming right up to the door, yeah. They're different terms than once the Lord says, And like the last class, the last thing we did for the last 10 months of it was study the 34 things that happened to us at the cross. Well, I'm sure there was lots of conversion going on through those weeks because people were learning new information which was changing their mind and their direction about what what was up. I know I could describe repentance and conversion as being raised in covenant theology and by reading books or being influenced by someone or the Word of God that I decide that dispensationalism is the right approach, not covenant theology. And so what happens? I have a change of mind and I convert.

Those two terms are relevant before salvation and after. So what would you say the accomplishments of a genuine conversion are according to the author? He says that the eyes of the heart once blinded now see. Let's look up some verses to see if he's right.

2nd Corinthians 4.3 and 4. So part of conversion is that you were once blind but now you see. And these verses talk about the fact that Satan purposely blinds you. so that you can't change your mind. But now the light has come and you see. The second one that the author says is, where there was darkness there is now light.

I would say he used Ephesians 5.8 and 2 Corinthians 5.6. Somebody else look them up. You can't make Erlene do all the work.

Ephesians 5.8. For you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord, for all His children are light. Okay. You were in the darkness, now you're in the light. And 2 Corinthians 5, 6 says, For it is God who commanded light to shine in the darkness, out of the darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

What? Oh, I got the wrong one, didn't I? Yeah. That's got to be Colossians, doesn't it? Yeah, but we always have to know that. Yes, I got the wrong verse. I got the right quotation, but the wrong designation. Is that Colossians? Isn't Colossians that verse? We don't need to chase that rabbit.

The verse is, for it is God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Yeah, that's Colossians for sure. So, God is the one who shows you the light.

The next thing that the author says is that Satan held us in his power and now we're free to serve the Lord. The fourth thing is that sins are forgiven and they're put away. And the last thing, errors of God and joint errors with Christ being new creatures released from the old creation.

My question was, what are the accomplishments of genuine conversion? The author listed five. There's actually 34, but five's good enough for our purposes. accomplishments of salvation, what happens when you are saved is that the light goes on, Christ is known, the power of Satan is broken over you, your sins are forgiven and put away, and you become heirs of God and join heirs with Christ. These are the five the author mentions.

I wanted you to look up Luke 22, 31 and 32 Luke 22, 31, and 32, and we want to maybe distinguish a difference here between terms that have to do with Jewishness and Christianity. Somebody knew. 22, 31, 32, somebody knew. Now, how many of you read the chapter? What did the author say about this verse? He said that the author makes the assumption that we believers are to continually be converted. Do you remember reading that? Continually confessing and continually turning from his sins that has any testimony to the unsaved.

What do you think about that? Wrong focus. Do you understand what I'm asking? You don't understand what I'm asking. The author says that believers, this is to be a continual action on their part, that they should continually be converted, continually confessing, continually returning from his sins, so that his testimony would be good to the unsaved. Remember reading that part? What do you think about that? Yeah, a lot of work. What's that? Well, that's the point.

If sin is not the question, then why should you always be turning from it? I mean, if you were continually turning, what would you be doing? Going around in a circle. If you were continually confessing, What would you be doing? Totally focused on the flesh, right? Totally.

So, I take issue with the author at this point and I'd say that the believer who is walking in the Spirit and in the love of Christ is manifesting the life of the Lord Jesus, right? And so, that's what has an effect on the unsaved. So, do you understand the difference? Like I said, the focus is on the sin, not on the Lord Jesus. That's right. And so, therefore, I think the unbeliever is not going to see Christ. He's going to see the sin in that person. He's nobody's money. Yeah.

If we turn in walking in the Spirit, we turn down. And that's something I think we'll constantly do. I mean, when I believed Jesus died on the cross, prayed, raised again, that was one thing, but to believe everything that is true of me in Christ, it's hard for me to grasp. And that's going to be a lifelong process. As a point of contrast, I said, you know, look this up and apply it to the Christian.

If you look at 2 Corinthians 3.2, and you don't have it, I'll just read it. Paul says to the Corinthians, you are an epistle written in our hearts and known and read of all men. Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, on your hearts. I specifically ask this question this way because I don't think the authors write about this.

And that is, if you're an epistle of Christ, and Christ is written on your hearts, and you truly have converted and repented, what have you freed yourself from? Sin, didn't we go through them? Sin, the world, Satan. So why would you want to go back there and spend all that time confessing and converting and all of that kind of stuff if you're free from it?

Are we to show believers how repentant we can be and how converting we can be, or are we to show them the freedom that we have in Christ because Christ is written on our hearts and we're an epistle for all men to read? Like Malloy likes to say, you might be the only Bible somebody ever gets to read. You personally might be.

No. What I'm saying is that the proper behavior for a believer is to walk in the Spirit. And when you're walking in the Spirit, what are you doing? Let me clarify the question. From behind your eyeballs, from your perspective, when you're walking in the Spirit, what are you doing? What are you thinking about? What are you focused on? You're focused on Christ, right? To the exclusion of things that aren't of Christ, right? That doesn't mean you can't be driving your car, hiking in the woods, or doing whatever you're doing. But if Christ is the focus, then you're taken up with Him.

That's the proper, normal behavior of a believer. Would you say that it's over-the-top to say that sinning is spiritual insanity? It's not the normal behavior of a Christian to sin. Am I right? As a matter of fact, what does John say in his epistle about sinning? What does he say? He says that if you say that a believer doesn't sin, because the seed of Christ is in you, that seed can't sin. So if you're abiding in Christ, it's impossible for you to sin. because he's manifesting his life through you. And if you could say that you can sin at that point, then you could say Christ could, because it's a matter of nature.

You following me? Are you with me so far? Whereas if you abide in the flesh, walk in the flesh, you do nothing but sin. We have this concept that I can walk in the flesh and every 15 minutes I'm going to commit a sin. No, no. The minute you're in the flesh, it's sinning 24-7 because you're not living by faith and you're not abiding in Christ. And if sin means falling short of the mark, you're not continually shooting the rifle and missing the mark.

It's just automatic. Do you see that? I think we have this concept that I can walk in the flesh and I'm okay as long as I haven't committed a sin that the Spirit isn't going to convict me about. When you go in the flesh, the spirit starts the conviction process immediately, and he doesn't do it based on, oh, you're a bad guy, you did A. He convicts you based on, you're in the flesh, that's not who you are.

Your position is in Christ. And you lose fellowship right away. Is that right there where the functioning of the first Adam and the last Adam are? That's where, like Galatians says, the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. Both sources have very strong desires to manifest their nature through you, thereby controlling you.

And you, when you became a Christian, you had a change of mind about that and you did a U-turn and said, I'm not going to be controlled by the flesh anymore. I'm free. The thing that impresses non-believers about a believer is the fact that Christ is visible in that person. It isn't that he's a real marathon runner in terms of confessing all the time and feeling bad about his sins and turning and converting. A Christian shouldn't be doing all that turning and converting. Once you're in, you're in. I mean, if I became a Republican, I wouldn't call up George Bush every 15 minutes and say, I'm becoming a Republican. I'm going to change my mind. I'm going to be a Republican. I'll call you back in 15 minutes and I'll tell you that again. No, I already am.

And there's certain characteristics that are consistent with what a believer is. So that's why I take issue with the author. And I'm not discounting the fact that you don't confess your sins when the spirit convicts you. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that the normal conduct of a believer is to abide and rest in Christ. That's normal for a believer. It's not any big spiritual thing. It's the normal deal. David knew he was saved. What I love about David, is that the Mosaic Law was in place and they were living under the system, right?

So when David is convicted of his sin, does he immediately run and grab a bull and run down to the temple and sacrifice it? And what does he do? He goes directly to God. He knows he has access and he confesses his sin, right? And he asks God for restoration.

No. No. You know, the Lord Jesus said, you come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls. So if you're walking around manifesting a rest for your soul, you think other people will notice that? Absolutely they will. Because they don't have it. They do not have it. Nobody outside of Christ has rest in their soul. They don't have it. Because there's only one person who can give it to you.

Donna? He was saying that the confession was the testimony and it isn't. It's being in fellowship. He couldn't be a testimony to others unless he was in fellowship. I agree. I absolutely agree. Donna? Well, you know, if I wrote a book, boy would I be misinterpreted. I'd probably have more errors than he wouldn't read it.

Oh, that's a good question. If you're a non-believer and the Spirit begins to illuminate you about what's up, about who you are in your relationship with God and that you don't have any, and He presents the Gospel to you, is it the old man that believes or the new man? Come on, it's not a hard question. It's a trick question, but it's not a hard one. I have an old man. Everybody agree with that? Who thinks it's the new man? Chickens. It is the old man. Because if you said it was the new man, you'd have to buy Calvin's point in which you're regenerated in order to believe. The old man believes.

Now, what's interesting about that Miles Stanford used to say that the old man has a responsibility before God to reclaim his lost estate, right? Isn't that what the people outside of Christ are trying to do? They're trying to get back to Eden if they can. And they're trying to do something to have God not be so mad at them if they even care. So the old man actually fulfills his responsibility before God by exercising faith. But then the minute he does that, what happens to him? He gets killed. He gets crucified. The minute that happens, he's identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. I'd see you pondering back there.

So the old man, And maybe that's why it's difficult, because the old man exercises faith in the person and work of Christ. That's his last act. Well, I shouldn't say it. No, it's not. Because you're not new the first time you believe in the person and work of Christ. You may be illuminated, you may have understanding, you may have the Spirit of God making you aware of incredible things, but without your faith, there's no salvation for you. And that old man is the one who does the believing. I'm convinced of it.

Otherwise, you'd have to buy what John Calvin said. You'd have to say, well, you got regenerated in order that you could believe. And I don't buy that for a minute. Then you'd have to say, well, there is limited atonement. It's only for those guys that God's going to regenerate so they can believe. And that's not true.

According to the author, what is the substance of the human heart? I think he's really right about this one. What is the substance of the human heart? He said the human heart is proud and rebellious. He said that it's only seeking its own way. And it's absolutely ready to trample on the rights of others at any given time. And it's defiant towards God. I think he's right about that. You know, somewhere in the Old Testament it says that the man of heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? I must tell you, as believers, that the heart that you have in Adam doesn't change when you get saved. We're not in the heart improvement society. We're not in that business. We're not trying to get your old heart to act better and do better, and to maybe sometimes not be so proud and rebellious. That's not what we're up to. We have an entirely new life. salvation and how careful and clear you are to make us aware of all the elements that go into it so that we might understand and rest in your grace, Father. We thank you. We pray in your Son's name. Amen.