Great Doctrines of Salvation
Mike Doyle · Jan 17, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926152176602

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

Okay, today, chapter two of the book is conversion. Now, seeing as how all of you guys are already converted, so I did a little bit of asking questions about a Greek word which I'm sure you scholars really know about. The Greek word is epistrophe. So if you divide the word up, epi means to revert or to come or go again or to turn about. Strepo means to twist or to turn or to turn quickly around, to reverse or convert, turn again or back again. turn about. It can be either physical, or moral, or spiritual.

If I'm walking this way, and I do an about face and go that way, that's the word conversion. That's a physical conversion. What would you say would be a moral conversion? a moral conversion? If you've been a hooker and now you're not. No, that's good. You've changed your mind about that. But is it just a change of mind? It's that you were something at one point and now you're not. How about a spiritual conversion? That's right. Turn to God.

An example in the Bible of a physical conversion is Matthew 16.23. The Lord says, But he turned to Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest but man's. When the Lord says, Get behind me, he turned to Peter, that's the word astreta. He could have said he converted to Peter. He could have said that.

1 Thessalonians 1.9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. That's the word conversion, how they turned. So now that we've got that, End of class. So is the word conversion synonymous with salvation?

No. When you say no, you've got to explain it. No and because. Because you could turn either way. It just means to turn, so it doesn't necessarily mean to turn to God. It could mean to turn away from God. You could turn away from God. So even though people In my ignorance, I always would link those. You would, would you say, well, I always thought of conversion as turning to God, turning to God, because you naturally assume that all those that are not believers, if they're going to make a turn, I didn't realize. So if Courtney calls me up and says, how many converse do we have? And I say 25, that doesn't mean. Well, how many do we have in a list converted to our class? I thought we could have said. we turned them from Burns class to ours.

So if you want to link it to salvation then you have to be specific and you have to say that it means turning to God through the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. But you can turn away from God too. Right? You certainly can. Or to a false religion. Oh yeah, you can turn to all kinds of stuff. A lot of those people can convert too. Sure. Absolutely. Well, even people that have, for instance, been ministers and all of a sudden they become atheists, I guess people say that on the television. Oh sure.

Or they have been... basically fundamentalist for 25 years and they become charismatic. Or they've been dispensational and they decide that being reformed or covenant is better. That's a conversion. They were going in one direction and now they're going in another.

Well, if the change isn't in what they believe about God, for the most part, I mean, you know what I mean? things that are completely non-negotiable, you know, that Jesus Christ is God, that he died for our sins, and that only by accepting that gift can you be saved, so on and so forth. If you're not flipping on that issue, then your conversion is still the same. Well, let's talk about that.

Move ahead. And there's also false conversions and true conversions. Sure. Sure. So if I'm going to relate conversion to salvation, you said no. They necessarily could be the same, but they don't have to be. Because I could be converted to evangelical Christianity and not be saved. Why not? Because you're not talking about God. Yeah, I could be going to a church or I could be, you know, just cleaning up my act. To a religion rather than the person of Christ. You see that? And most religions, that's their focus and their purpose. It's more important to be whatever the religion says you should be.

I don't think any of you remember this guy. This was a guy who came to church here for a while. He now lives in California. And he was an elder at one time at one of the big Presbyterian churches in town. And I was having lunch with him one day and I said, how's that elder thing going? Here was his answer.

He said they're more interested in being Presbyterians than they are Christians. See that? That's subtle isn't it? That's very subtle. Now is he talking about the people of the church or is he talking about the other elders? The board of elders. The people on the elder board.

Okay, so let's look at Galatians 4.9 and 2 Peter 2.21-22 and let's look at the difference in direction of these two verses.

So somebody look up Galatians 4.9 and somebody here that can read, go ahead and read it.

Now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, tell us that you try again to delete and decimate elements which you desire again to be embodied. Okay, so that's a turning. The question is, how do you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Now would you say Paul is talking to the Galatians and if they turn back they're losing their salvation because they've been converted back to some practice they had before?

They're trying to add to their salvation. What's that? They're trying to add by going back to being Jews. What's the turning from and to here? What are they turning from? In their case, grace and law. They're turning from grace back to law. Trust me, there's a ton of conversions within the Christian church that are just like this. Where believers turn from grace to law.

Now it may be because they're ignorant. It may be because they don't think this grace thing works. whatever it might be. Law is so attractive to us because it sort of gives us a guidepost where grace is new. Because there's not as much faith needed with law. It says it and you do it and you're like, okay. Whereas if you don't have a bunch of laws, everything feels more ambiguous. You don't feel like you've ticked off milestones. There's a lot of that. Like I said, I think that's true because there's such ignorance of grace.

Those of you who have been in the grace class, what is the standard definition of grace? What is it? Look around, there are several of you who have been in that class. Grace can be defined as the unlimited and unmerited blessings from God Based on what?

On the totally adequate work of Christ. So if grace is unmerited, unmerited, unmerited, unmerited, it means you cannot earn it. You cannot earn it. The minute you try to earn it, it's gone. And it's unlimited. It's unlimited. It has no limits at all. So if it's unlimited and unmerited blessing, If that's what grace is, then like you said, if you're going to go from there to a milestone, you have truly converted from grace to law.

I think one of the biggest problems with almost all of the spiritual issues that we grapple with understanding is that because of the fact that we can't really understand the true nature of God, we put human things on Him. You know, the way that people who can't accept grace were maybe treated more harshly when they were growing up.

I would say this. We put human attributes onto God. But I would say it's not because we don't understand it. I think it's because we don't believe it. Because the grace of God is so overwhelming, and it's such incredible news, that we just don't think God is that gracious. And so we don't believe Him.

And don't you find it interesting in this verse that Paul associates the words weak and beggardly with law. Isn't that interesting? You have turned from grace, which is overwhelming, to the weak and beggardly elements of the world. It isn't that they're not informed. I mean, how informed do you have to be? I think there is a how informed you have to be. One is, you have to recognize that salvation is infinite. Only an infinite being can make it happen. We are finite. No matter what we do, we can't make it happen.

Then it has to be by grace. It is by grace, through faith, Romans 4 says that it is by faith so that it must be by grace. It has to be that way. Well, we have such a pea brain that it's sometimes difficult to comprehend because it's incomprehensible.

We are of God. Okay, let's take everybody in the room with the pea brain. That means all of us, right? So here you are, sitting in your study at night, and you open up the Word of God, right? Is your understanding of the Word of God dependent on your pea brain? What's it dependent on? The Holy Spirit. Gee, it's back to grace right away, isn't it? It's dependent on the Spirit of God. If you would just open the thing up and expect God to show you what He's got in there, He'll do it. He wants us to know. He wants us to know way more than we want to find out. Way more. How cool was that? Yeah, that's what I mean, so I didn't state it right. No, that's okay.

It is overwhelming, and that's the point that I mean. We get to a point where we start to see this unbelievable grace coming at us, and I don't know, we're not deserving, oh I can't take this in, I'm not smart enough for that, or for whatever reason, rather than just take it. God wants us to take the grace, all of it, as much as you can get your arms around, because you can't exhaust it. We're just so busy thinking that we're not worthy and whatever and we're not worthy.

That's the whole point. That's exactly right. Like Newell says in Romans. I take exception to that because I asked, you know, when I was teaching, you know, how many people feel worthy to be in his presence or what? So everybody, no, no. Why not? You should feel, because of your position in Christ. You know, where we beat ourselves up and we're not worthy.

That is the old man, not the new man. And you should feel, you should be able to go have this intimate relationship with Christ at any time, any place, anywhere, because of your position. You're in Him. You're right beside God the Father positionally. We should feel worthy. We are worthy in Him. Nothing in the old man. And who is not feeling worthy? The old man. The old man. Because he's not. Because he's not.

But in, I was going to say my broken record, before grace, is the identification. You have to understand that. Because, you know, a lot of times with me, I end up going, I am dead to this. You know, some temptation or something, or I know I'm getting angry or doing something, that I know is wrong. Sometimes I literally say to myself, I am dead to that. I am dead to that. My old man, my new creature in Christ, I don't have to worry about this. I'm dead to it. There's these commands in the New Testament, in Paul's epistles, Verner calls them logical imperatives. And they're commands. Do this, do that.

And most of them have to do with take the ground that you already have, Like in Hebrews 10, what does it say about the Holy of Holies and we as believers? What are we supposed to do about that? We're supposed to boldly go in. And oh, by the way, there's no sentence that I can find that says to leave once you're there. We live in the Holy of Holies. That is our home. We live there. We belong there. That's where we're comfortable. Anything outside of there is foreign territory to us.

Do you believe it? And I think that's what it comes down to. Back to you at night, in your study, with the Bible out, you know, and you read this wonderful stuff. Do you buy it or don't you? Well, it does matter whether you believe it or not, because your faith is the open door. I think it starts out with specificity about what you believe, but it soon becomes an attitude of faith in the one who's telling you.

If God says it to me, it's good enough for me. I don't care what it is. He can tell me anything and I'll buy it. because he's the God of the universe and he will not tell me anything that wasn't true, no matter how magnificent it is. I'm a son, I'm an heir, I'm a joint heir with Christ, you're going to share your glory with me and what all of that means? Yeah, he's going to do it. I believe him.

The best part for me is that I don't have any other, maybe a lot of other people don't either, is that you don't have any human relationships like that, so it's like something that's so totally new. You know, that's a great point, because we really do want some anecdotal evidence that our faith is real, don't we? We want some experience to verify our faith. Let me show you where that is. The great faith chapter in the Bible is Hebrews 11. 1 and 2.

Hebrews 11.1 says faith is a substance of things hoped for and the evidence or the proof of things not seen. That's the definition of faith. Sounds like, you know. The next verse says that by it, I think it says the fathers or somebody received confirmation. Now what's cool is that if you believe God, there's going to come a time that he's going to solidify that faith in you.

It may or may not be anecdotal, but inside your heart... I'll give you a good example. How many in this room, raise your hand, are absolutely convinced that you're saved? How many don't have any doubts at all? Who persuaded you? Who persuaded you? The Bible. Who did? The Bible. The Bible did who out? Who persuaded you? It's the Holy Spirit of God, right? Now, can you convince me that you're saved? No way. I don't know. All I know is that I'm saved. How did I get persuaded? The Holy Spirit. That's what happens. How about the fact that I was co-crucified with Christ? Is that true? How many of you believe that? How many of you would bet your life on that?

The Spirit of God has persuaded you that that's true. So you learn it, you read it, you believe it, and then the Spirit of God comes and pours the concrete into it, so that it is true of you. And your whole Christian life is the discovery of these unlimited, unmerited blessings of who you are and what your relationship is with God. All you have to do is believe them. It's not that tough.

2 Peter 2.21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sow, after washing, returns to wallow in the mire." Now this is a very interesting verse because we read it and we think it's us and actually what he's talking about is a teacher. that a teacher has known the way of righteousness and returned to sin. It has nothing to do with their salvation or not, but it has to do with their conversion.

I have known people in my life that at one time seemed to be really stellar Christian people. And for some reason, they start to live in the world again. And you would not, by their by observing them, believe that they were believers. But they are. They are. Is that possible? Sure it is. But it's like a dog returning to his... What an awful picture I get in my mind. Supposedly, right?

People who experience salvation, but people who have not ever known the way of righteousness are unsafe. So your experience in this world might be worse if you knew and then walked away from it than the experience of someone that's not safe. But the fact is we're either living eternally or we're dying internally at any given moment in time. So even a person that is a Christian that is not walking in faith anymore, is in a better place, per se, than someone who is positionally not Christian?

From a positional standpoint, yes. From a conditional standpoint, no. They are the most miserable people. I understand that. I mean, positionally, yeah, there's no... Well, right, but that's, you know, I mean, if everybody dies today, that's, you know, slightly more significant than... Yeah, I agree. Well, I might as well bring this up.

The Lord will sometimes take people out of here. I've seen him do it. I know a young man that at his high school graduation stood up and he was a valedictorian and his address was the gospel message. That's what he gave. And this kid was truly a believer. He goes to Boulder Graduates from Boulder and his minor is in philosophy. Over the next five or six or seven years of his life he turns his back on the Lord. And of course he was the president of the Hemp Society. That helped. And at 27 years old, he woke up one morning with a headache and by that night he was gone.

Isn't that interesting? No reason. Perfectly healthy. I'm convinced that the Lord took this kid off the planet. There's all kinds of stories like that. I don't say that to make you fearful. There's some in the Bible too. Sure there is. Ananias and Sapphira. Since he talks about the dogs and the pigs, they're doing what is their true nature to do.

So could you be introducing a hypothetical situation where these were never truly believers? I don't think so, but he could be. My nature... But since he's talking about the nature of faith and God, and he goes right to that from the nature, these people, were they ever truly away from the Adamic nature? Since he uses that illustration. Yeah, I know. I could say this in response, if I were to turn my back on the Lord. Where would I go? I'd go right back to the world, back to my sin nature, right back to what, you know, I'd be a pig. I really would be.

So it can be both, but I think these people are saved people that turn away. I really do. But you know the fellow that you were just saying dies? Yeah. He also, it's like that first, number one, he did have that conversion. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He just got his mind changed and so he converted back.

Next question. Can one be converted to certain beliefs which they didn't formerly hold? Answer sure. Example. You could be converted from being fundamental to liberal or independent or conservative to liberal or whatever. Could you be converted from one religion to another? Absolutely. You could be converted from Catholicism to Islam or to the New Age. That's a conversion, isn't it? Or you could decide, I don't like these Baptists anymore, I'm going to become a Methodist. That's a conversion. When I became a believer, I turned away from Catholicism. Not that I was ever a stellar Catholic, trust me. But I turned away from Catholicism and no longer depended on whatever their teachings were. How about, can I be converted by a reformation? Let's say that I drink too much Jack Daniels and I go down to the local AA meeting and I get converted. Don't I? I joined the group. I'm now in the club. And so I decide that I want to do a bunch of civic stuff. So I get converted to one of those service organizations. Or I can be converted from nothing to something.

So tell me the difference between repentance and conversion. Do they? You can repent and convert. I'm going to change my mind about those Methodists. I think those Presbyterians got it better. So I change my mind about that and I'm going to convert over to Presbyterianism or whatever. that it's easier to convert to their own self-described do-gooder programs or whatever than the rest of them. Yeah, that's true. I think that's really true.

I find within Christianity that people think, well, now that I'm a believer, I've got to find something to do for the Lord. And so they look around for something and they convert to it. rather than waiting for God to give him the direction. It's like a young family of mom and dad and the mom and dad are saying, I need a ministry and I've got three kids running around.

It's right there. It's right there. What else do you need? The simplest way to... I was just going to say, would you say that conversion who can only follow repentance, because you have to change your mind, and then from there follow suit to convert. Yeah, that's right. Repentance is a change of mind, conversion is a change of direction. That's the real difference. You see that? Can you have one without the other? Sure you can. Sure you can. I can? Sure.

Well then why would you change? Well, I could change my mind about the Lord and not make any directional changes at all. Because maybe I'm fearful. Isn't that true when you convert? Convert a Catholic to a Baptist or whatever? One of my best college buddies, a good old Catholic guy, got baptized in a Baptist church about a month ago. I couldn't go because it was on a Sunday. I said, make sure the water is clean. He said, well, they wouldn't let me be a member of the church unless I agreed to let them baptize me.

I said, that's a true conversion, man. So let's define then what true conversion really is. What is it? Give me according to Marx-Banks and the elements in there. It has something to do with your heart. Let's do the simple part first. It's a turning away from self, from the world, from sin, from the law and from Satan. It's a turning away from all of that. That's the away part. The turning to part. What's the turning to part? Turning to God. then incorporated in that is going to be a change of mind about who God is, isn't it?

My own conversion, I had used anecdotal evidence, my own conversion, that was really what was going on. I got my mind changed about who God is, and especially about his attitude towards me. Because I'd always been under the rock, you know, the hope for reward and the fear of punishment deal. And I found out that God loved me and that he got rid of the rock. And all I had to do was believe him and he would save me for all eternity. And the change of mind was that he was going to do the saving, not me. That was really good news.

The fourth part of a true conversion has to do with faith. that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's what I would call true conversion. These are all parts of faith in the person and work of Christ. So when you're sitting and talking to somebody about salvation, hopefully you won't be fooled when the word conversion comes up. Wait a minute, let's be careful here. What are we talking about in terms of the turning away from and the turning to? Having a change of mind in regard to who God is and specifically, who is this person?

When Paul was on his missionary journeys and Peter was evangelizing the Jews, his whole message was, you need to change your mind about who Jesus Christ is. That's what you need to do. And then you need to be converted, once you've changed your mind. Question 7. What are the accomplishments of a true conversion? And I said there are five.

Look at 2 Corinthians 4.3 and 4. Another one of you scholars who can read, when you get there, read it. 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4.

But if in fact our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, regarding them the God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Okay, so I think the very first accomplishment for one who has experienced a genuine conversion is the eyes of their heart that was once blinded now see. They now see. Isn't that true of all of you who have come to Christ? There was a time that unless you have always thought yourself to be saved and didn't have a conversion experience like I did, I could see for the first time. Genuine. I could not see before. I was blinded.

Ephesians 5.8 and 2 Corinthians 5.6.

Let's do Ephesians 5.8 first. Ephesians 5.

And 2 Corinthians 5.6 says, For it is the God who commanded 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. The second accomplishment of a genuine conversion is that where there was darkness there now is light. Now I find it interesting here that in 2 Corinthians 5-6 that God commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, right?

And it was shown in our hearts and what do we see when it's shown in our hearts? It's the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Now, nobody The only guy in the Old Testament, well a couple guys in the Old Testament, that could faintly see the glory of God were some of those Old Testament saints. But this verse says that the God of this universe has given the light of his glory into our hearts. That we now see it. The glory. And that, where is it observable?

In the face of Jesus Christ. Now you know why that's so cool? When our boy Moses was up in the mountain getting the Ten Commandments, he wanted to see God's glory, didn't he? What did God say to him? No way, buddy. He wouldn't be able to survive if I showed you. But this says that we can behold the glory of God in the very face of Christ.

So how do you do that? You do it through the word of God. Back in your study, tonight you're studying, right? And you're reading your Bible. What are you looking for? Oh, so I can memorize these verses and look like a really cool Christian. No. Am I looking for knowledge? What am I looking for? What's this first say I'm looking for? I'm looking for the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In other words, If I'm going to have lunch with Courtney, we're going to sit across from each other. We're not going to sit like this at the table. But we're going to look at each other in the face and we're going to have a discussion and we're going to talk. The God of the universe says, through my word and through the work of the Holy Spirit, you get to go face to face with me and see my glory. I know that's too good a news and you can't believe it and you're not going to go there.

You've got to go there, because that's what he wants. He wants us to behold His glory face to face, in the Word. So that's the motive for studying the Word of God. The motive for studying the Word of God is to acquire the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Is that okay? A little scary, isn't it? But it's cool. Go for it.

Third thing, Hebrews 2.14. Let's see, who read last night? Somebody on this side.

Hebrews 2.14 For as much as the children are for takers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise declares the same, that through the death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. The third accomplishment of general conversion is this.

You didn't know this but you were in abject bondage to Satan and his kingdom. Now you're not. And so you discover that in genuine conversion, that Satan held us in power, we're now free to do what? What are you free to do? To serve the Lord. That's really cool. You're free now to do it. You were not free before. Genuine conversion.

Fourth one, Romans 5.8-11, I'll read that one because it's kind of long.

God demonstrated his own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life and not only this but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ to whom we have now received the reconciliation. So what else do we get to see? What else was accomplished by true conversion?

Your sins are forgiven and they're put away. The put away part is as important as the forgiving part. One of those little anecdotes that stick in your mind that people say things to you in your life and they never go away. One of them is the following.

God has finished with your sin, how come you're not? Is he? Yes he is. Discovery of true conversion that God has accomplished for me, not only my forgiveness of sin, but he's put sin away from me. I'm not associated with it anymore. Kind of cool. Yeah, you do. Why do you do that? Well, it's a matter of, again, God says he's paid for your sins. You don't have any problem with that. You don't ever say, oh, he must have not paid for that one from Thursday. That's done. The putting away part is the hard part.

Did he put sin away from me? Yeah, he did. And it's a matter of faith. Do you believe him? And if you do, He'll solidify it in you. He will. Trust Him. Well, you can't rest in your position. Why not? Unless you let go of sins just like God did. And that was my whole point. If God is finished with your sins, how come you're not? If He's done, why shouldn't you be? Well, He looks at you and says, Because you're not done, I'll have to give you more grace. No, he's done. He is finished with sin. See? He's done.

We should be too. That's the main thing that sin uses to keep me away from God. If I'm doing things I shouldn't do, it's just burnt into my head that I have to fix it before I can go to God. Sure, you've got to fix it. You know what I mean? Yes, I do.

Without Him, a lot of things you can't fix. The longer Satan can keep you away from fellowship, he'll do it. He'll do it through guilt, he'll do it through shame, he'll do it... You know, it's really interesting that God has given us one provision to restore us to fellowship. What is it? To confess our sins. How tough is that?

All you have to do is agree with Him about them. And, you know what? You don't have to remember them all. You don't have to give them all the list. you have a change of mind and a change of direction about your sin, it's over with. He wants our company, he wants fellowship with us, and he wants us there all the time. And for you to feel unworthy is prideful, because you didn't deserve it to start with.

Romans 8.17, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we also may be glorified with him. The question was, what are the accomplishments of genuine conversion? Wow, you get to be an heir.

How cool is that? So how much of Christ's heirship do you get? 149 billion? How much do you get? You get it all. The only thing you aren't is deity. Wow. Wow. 2 Corinthians 5.17 Therefore if anyone be in Christ he is a new creature, or a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold everything has become new. Guess what else you got? You got this thing called a new creature. You're a new creation in Christ. You still look the same, and you're still getting older, but you are, from God's perspective, a brand new creature. And so you're in the Word of God at night and you're studying, what are you finding out? You're finding out about who you are. And you get up and look in the mirror and say, no, I'm the same old Steve.

In verse 17 there, talk a minute about that qualifier, if indeed we suffer. Well, the if isn't the if of uncertainty, it's the if of certainty. You are going to suffer with him and you are going to be glorified with him. Just by virtue of the fact of who you are and where you're positioned in the enemy's world, what do you think is going to happen? I mean, a believer who thinks he's going to live here without sharing in the sufferings of Christ is somebody who's pretty ignorant.

Yeah, we're Americans, we're immune. But the day is coming. I have to tell you, I look at what my son's going to face in the next 20 or 30 years, I'm glad I'm out of here. It's going to get tough. everything that is true rest you understand that so the trials of sufferings when you put that in perspective of all the other things God can you ever be separated from his love sure so in suffering it's still him eradicating some part of your old name you your reliance upon the old man it's done in love his purposes. And that's where the rest and the relief and the peace and all that comes from. When you find out you're a son, you're a new creature, and you are the representative of Christ on the planet now, what do they do to him?

So guess what? Get ready. But the cool thing is that you recognize, like Noel used to say, I think he said it to Norm Avery one time, he said, haven't you ever thought about how graced you are to be able to suffer for Christ in this manner? We don't ever think that way. Sure, Paul said it. That's the change of mind you get from walking with the Lord.

We are not here for our own purposes. We're here to manifest the life of Christ in whatever circumstances we may find it. Maybe in a hospital. Maybe down in Haiti someplace under a pile of rocks. I don't know. Maybe in your office building. Whatever.

Last thing, we are new creatures and we have been released from the old creation. Those are the seven things I got out of there in terms of the accomplishments of general conversion. There are, if you read Lewis Barry Chafer's book on Grace, there are 34 things that happened to you at the cross, 34, and I have a list of 212 if you're interested, that are things that are true of you now because you're a believer that were not true of you when you weren't a believer. Isn't that cool? And oh, by the way, every single one of those is already set in concrete.

You can't increase them or decrease them. You can't make them better or less. They already are true of you and that's how God looks at you. Only that way. Look up Luke 22, 31 and 32 and apply it to a Christian. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon. Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me," converted, strengthen your brethren. I have the next group here. The next subject is regeneration. So while we're handing those out, we'll pray in close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace towards us and we thank you for the position that we have in your son because of salvation. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.