Conversion # 2
Look around the congregation with which you worship every Sunday. Mark how little interest the great majority of them take in what is going on. Observe how listless, and apathetic, and indifferent, they evidently are about the whole affair. It is clear their hearts are not there! They are thinking of something else, and not of religion. They are thinking business, or money, or pleasure, or worldly plans, or new dresses, or amusements. Their bodies are there - but not their hearts. And what is the reason? What is it they all need? They need conversion. Without it they only come to church for fashion and form's sake, and go away from church to serve the world and their sins.
But this is not all. Without conversion of heart we could not enjoy heaven, if we got there. Heaven is a place where holiness reigns supreme, and sin and the world have no place at all. The company will all be holy; the employments will all be holy; it will be an eternal Sabbath-day. Surely if we go to heaven, we must have a heart in tune and able to enjoy it, or else we shall not be happy. We must have a nature in harmony with the element we live in, and the place where we dwell. Without conversion of heart we could not be happy in heaven.
Look around the neighborhood in which you live, and the people with whom you are acquainted. Think what many of them would do if they were cut off forever from money, business, newspapers and cards, and balls and races, and hunting, and worldly amusements. Would they like it? Think what they would feel if they were shut up forever with Jesus Christ, and saints, and angels! Would they be happy? Would the eternal company of Moses, and David, and Paul, be pleasant to those who never take the trouble to read what those holy men wrote? Would haven's everlasting praise suit the taste of those who can hardly spare a few minutes in a week for private religion, even for prayer? There is but one answer to be given to all these questions. We must be converted before we can enjoy heaven. Heaven would be no heaven to any child of Adam without conversion.
Let no man deceive us. There are two things which are of absolute necessity to the salvation of every man and woman on earth. One of them is the mediatorial work of Christ for us - His atonement, satisfaction, and intercession. The other is the converting work of the Holy Spirit in us - His guiding, renewing, and sanctifying grace. We must have both and a heart for heaven. Sacraments are not necessary to salvation - a man may be saved without them. An interest in Christ and conversion are absolutely necessary - without them no one can possibly be saved. All, baptized or unbaptized, young or old, all must be converted or perish. There is no salvation without conversion. It is a necessary thing.
4. Let me now show, in the fourth place, that conversion is a POSSIBLE thing. I think I know the feelings which come across many people's minds, when they read the things which I am writing in this paper. They take refuge in the idea that such a change as conversion is quite impossible, except for a favored few. "It is all very well," they argue, "for parsons to talk of conversion; but the thing cannot be done; we have work to mind, families to provide for, business to attend to. It is no use expecting miracles now. We cannot be converted." Such thoughts are very common. The devil loves to put them before us, and our own lazy hearts are only too ready to receive them - but they will not stand examination. I am not afraid to lay it down that conversion is a possible thing. If it were not so, I would not say another word.
In saying this, however, I would be sorry to be mistaken. I do not for a moment mean that anyone can convert himself, change his own heart, take away his own corrupt nature, put in himself a new spirit. I mean nothing of the kind. I only mean that there is nothing in Scripture, nothing in God, nothing in man's condition, which warrants anyone in saying, "I can never be converted." Anyone, however sinful and hardened, anyone may be converted. I can say it because of the things contained in Christ's Gospel. It is the glory of that Gospel that under it nothing is impossible.
Conversion is a possible thing, because of the almighty power of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him is life. In His hand are the keys of death and hell. He has all power in heaven and earth. He quickens whom He will. It is as easy for Him to create new hearts out of nothing, as it was to create the world out of nothing. It is easy to Him to breathe spiritual life into a stony, dead heart, as it was to breathe natural life into Adam when He formed Him into a living man. His hand is as strong as ever - His love is as great as ever. The Lord Jesus Christ lives, and therefore conversion is not impossible.
But besides this, conversion is a possible thing, because of the Almighty power of the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sends into the hearts of all whom He undertakes to save. The same divine Spirit who cooperated with the Father and the Son in the work of creation, cooperates specially in the work of conversion. It is He who conveys life from Christ, the great Fountain of Life, into the hearts of sinners. He who moved on the face of the waters before those wonderful words were spoken, "Let there be light," is He Who moves over sinners souls, and takes their natural darkness away. Great indeed is the invisible power of the Holy Spirit! He can soften that which is hard. He can bend that which is stiff and stubborn. He can give eyes to the spiritually blind, ears to the spiritually deaf, tongues to the spiritually mute, feet to the spiritually lame, warmth to the spiritually cold, knowledge to the spiritually ignorant, and life to the spiritually dead. "None touches like Him!" (Job 36:22). He has taught thousands of ignorant sinners, and never failed to make them "wise unto salvation." The Holy Spirit lives, and therefore conversion is never impossible.
What can you say to these things? Away with the idea forever that conversion is not possible. Cast it behind you - it is a temptation of the devil. Look not at yourself, and your own weak heart - for then you may well despair. Look upward at Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and learn that with them nothing is impossible. Yes! the age of spiritual miracles is not yet past! Conversion is a possible thing. If people are not converted, it is because they "will not come to Christ for life." (John 5:40). Conversion is possible.
5. Let me show, in the fifth place, that conversion is a HAPPY thing. I shall have written in vain if I leave this point untouched. There are thousands, I firmly believe, who are ready to admit the truth of all I have said hitherto. Scriptural, real, necessary, possible - all this they willingly allow conversion to be. But will it increase a man's happiness to be converted? Will it add to a man's joys, and lessen his sorrows, to be converted? Here alas, is a point at which many stick fast. They have a secret, lurking fear, that if they are converted they must become melancholy, miserable, and low-spirited.
I assert without hesitation, that the conversion described in Scripture is a happy thing and not a miserable one; and that if converted people are not happy, the fault must be in themselves. The happiness of a true Christian, no doubt, is not quite the same sort as that of a worldly man. It is a calm, solid, deep flowing, substantial joy! It is not made up of excitement, levity, and boisterous spasmodic mirth. It is the sober, quiet joy of one who does not forget death, judgment, eternity, and a world to come. I am confident the converted man is the happiest man.
What says the Scripture? How does it describe the feelings and experience of people who have been converted? Does it give any countenance to the idea that conversion is a sorrowful and melancholy thing? Let us hear what Levi felt, when he decided to follow Christ. We read that "he made a great feast in his own house,"A as if it was an occasion of gladness" (Luke 5:29). Let us hear what Zaccheus the publican felt, when Jesus offered to come to his house. "He received Him joyfully." (Luke 19:6). Let us hear what the Samaritans felt, when they were converted through Philip's preaching. We read that "there was great joy in that city" (Acts 8:8). Let us hear what the Ethiopian eunuch felt in the day of his conversion. "he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:39). Let us hear what the Philippian jailer felt in the hour of his conversion. We read that "he rejoiced, believing in God with all his house" (Acts 16:34). In fact the testimony of Scripture on this subject is always one and the same. Conversion is always described as the cause of joy and not of sorrow, of happiness and not of misery.
The plain truth, is that people speak ill of conversion because they know nothing really about it. They run down converted men and women as unhappy, because they judge them by their outward appearance of calmness, gravity, and quietness, and know nothing of their inward peace. They forget that it is not those who boast most of their own performances who do most, and it is not those who talk most of their happiness who are in reality the happiest people.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 3)
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