CONVERSION

Conversion is necessary for everyone, old and young. As the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor a leopard his spots, so a sinner cannot convert himself by his own power. A man spiritually dead cannot convert himself anymore than a corpse can raise itself from the dead. A stone which is rolling down a hill cannot by its own effort reverse its course, so fallen man cannot by his own strength return to God. Therefore the Lord must turn us and then we shall be turned. Don’t forget: we are born with our backs turned away from God and our faces toward sin and hell, until sovereign grace converts and turns us. My dear reader, conversion is no repairing of the old building; but it takes all the old down and erects a new structure. The Lord has to take away our stony heart and to give us a heart of flesh.

In conversion, the process begins with light, letting light shine in upon the ignorance and godlessness of the heart. We are fallen children of Adam, we lost what we had in Paradise and have become enemies of God. Let us not forget that free will in conversion is a downright lie. Like the woman in the Gospel, the more we attempt a cure by physicians, the worse it is made. But the miracle is that the Lord can make the unwilling willing, He can turn us and we shall be turned.

The Lord has to bring us from darkness to light, that seeing our awful state for eternity, our soul must cry, “Lord be merciful unto me, I am a sinner, a lost sinner!” The unregenerated are dead, not passively dead, but actively dead. Having eyes, we see not, and having ears, we hear not.

Conversion is more than external reform. A man who is only externally converted is like an empty vessel. When struck, this vessel will make a great noise, but it is without content. It is therefore most necessary that the Lord opens our ears, our eyes, yea, our hearts. Conversion is not a change of habits, but a total change of heart. A lion has not become a lamb when he has lost his teeth. That is why we must learn that conversion is not merely an outward reformation. It is an inward transformation.

If we still have a speaking conscience, then we know that it is very dangerous to postpone repentance until our death-bed. One who delays conversion is like a man stricken with a deadly disease; the longer he delays to call a physician, the harder it is to cure him. He is like a bird whose feet are caught in a net. We all must learn that conversion is a work of God. But we are not animals, we are human beings. We are responsible before God. O, was there a time that you could not sleep because you saw how awful your state was for eternity? Did there ever come a time that you had to beg, “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned?” Or are we still indifferent, are we still careless? Don’t forget: We have one soul, and soul lost all is lost.

O parents, God grant you to pray for your children who are growing up in such a sinful age. The Lord will hear the cry from a father and mother, if by grace, we might learn to pray for the well-being of our offspring. Monica, a devout Christian woman in the early centuries of the church, incessantly prayed for the conversion of her ungodly son Augustine. Years elapsed before God heard her ardent prayer. It was in the spring of the year 372, when her son, who was then in his thirty-first year, entered his garden near Milan in great distress of mind. The sins of his youth spent in sensuality and impiety, weighed heavily on his soul. Lying under a fig tree, moaning and pouring out abundant tears, he heard from a neighbouring house a child’s voice saying, “Take and read! Take and read!” Regarding this as a divine admonition, he procured the roll of Paul’s epistles. He describes what followed: “I opened it and read in silence the chapter on which my eye first lighted (it was the thirteenth chapter of Romans): “Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” In a moment, by the grace of God, Augustine came to repentance, and by faith He saw Christ as the only Saviour. After the Day Star had thus risen in his heart, he began not only to walk in newness of life, but also became one of the most gifted ministers of the ancient church.

My dear reader: that the Lord might give us to cry to Him, “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned.”

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