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TOPIC: Spurgeon - C.H. - Is Conversion Necessary (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: Section 4 of 4
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Some have said that Paul's case is a special and solitary one. But this is an error, for he says himself, the Jesus Christ in him showed forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. (1 Tim. i. 15,16.) That which is a pattern is not a special case. Though the Lord does not always work to pattern in details, yet the case of Paul suddenly converted is the pattern rather than the exception.
Let us look at other instances. A Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water, Christ speaks to her, she is converted, and goes away to tell the men of the city. Is not that a case of sudden conversion? Zaccheus is in the tree, he is a rich publican, and a sinner. Jesus cries, "Zaccheus, make haste, and come down;" he comes down, receives Jesus into his house, and proves his salvation by his works. Is not that a sudden conversion? Matthew sits at the receipt of custom, another publican and sinner: Jesus says, "Follow me." He rises and follows Jesus. Is not that a sudden conversion? Three thousand persons gather at Pentecost, Peter preaches to them, and tells them that Jesus whom they had murdered was really the Christ of God; they are pricked in the heart, they believe, and are baptized on the same day. Have we not here three thousand sudden conversions? Sudden enough to prove my point. Further on, the jailer has gone to his bed, having fastened Paul and Silas in the stocks; his prisoners pray and sing praises unto God, there is an earthquake, the jailer in alarm cries, "What must I do to be saved?" He believes in Jesus there and then, and is baptized with his believing household. Are not these "at all analogous to John Bunyan's pilgrim" and his losing his load? It really seems to me as if it would be much more difficult to find a gradual conversion in Scripture than a sudden one, for here they come, one after another, men and women brought to Jesus Christ who knew him not before, in whom the Scripture is fulfilled, "I am found of them that sought me not."
Furthermore, we need not go back to Scripture for this. The matter of the conversion of souls is one about which I feel it a weariness to argue, because these wonders of grace happen daily before our eyes, and it is like trying to prove that the sun rises in the morning. By the space of twenty years there has certainly never occurred to me a single week, and I might with truthfulness say scarcely a solitary day, in which I have not heard of persons being converted by the simple preaching of the gospel either here or elsewhere, when I have borne witness for Christ; and these conversions have been in far the greater majority of instances very clear and well-defined. Sometimes the children of godly parents who have been long hearing the word are converted, and in them the inward change is as marked as if they had never heard the gospel before. Infidels become believers, Romanists forsake their priests, harlots become chaste, drunkards leave their cups, and, what is equally remarkable, Pharisees leave their self-righteous pride, and come as sinners to Jesus. Why, if this were the proper time and place, I might say to you now assembled, "Brothers and sisters, you who have experienced a great change, and know that you have experienced it, and can tell how it came about, stand up!" and you would rise in numbers like a host and declare, "Thus and thus, God met with us under the preaching of his truth, and thus did he turn us from darkness to marvelous light." I would to God that every man that heareth me this day had received such a distinct conversion that it would be so plain to him that he was a new creature that he could no more doubt it than he can doubt his existence.
III. Thirdly, THIS CHANGE IS RECOGNIZABLE BY CERTAIN SIGNS. It has been supposed by some that the moment a man is converted he thinks himself perfect. It is not so among us, for we rather question the conversion of any man who thinks himself perfect. It is thought by others that a converted man must be henceforth free from all doubts. I wish it were so. Unhappily, although there is faith in us, unbelief is there also. Some dream that the converted man has nothing more to seek for, but we teach not so; a man who is alive unto God has greater needs than ever. Conversion is the beginning of a life-long conflict; it is the first blow in a warfare which will never end till we are in glory.
In every case of conversion there are these signs following. There is always a sense of sin. No man, rest assured, ever found peace with God without first repenting of sin, and knowing it to be an evil thing. The horrors which some have felt are not essential, but a full confession of sin before God, and an acknowledgment of our guilt, is absolutely required. "The whole," says Christ, "have no need of a physician, but they that are sick; I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." Christ does not heal those who are not sick, he never clothes those who are not naked, nor enriches those who are not poor. True conversion always has in it a humbling sense of the need of divine grace.
It is also always attended with simple, true, and real faith in Jesus Christ; in fact, that is the king's own mark, and without it nothing is of any worth. "Like as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;" and that passage is put side by side with "ye must be born again," in the same address, by the same Saviour, to the same inquirer. Therefore we gather that faith is the mark of the new birth, and where it is, there the Spirit has changed the heart of man; but where it is not, men are still "dead in trespasses and sin."
Conversion may be known, next, by this fact, that it changes the whole man. It changes the principle upon which he lives; he lived for self, now he lives for God; he did right because he was afraid of punishment if he did wrong, but now he shuns evil because he hates it. He did right because he hoped to merit heaven, but now no such selfish motive sways him, he knows that he is saved, and he does right out of gratitude to God. His objects in life are changed: he lived for gain, or worldly honour; now he lives for the glory of God. His comforts are changed: the pleasures of the world and sin are nothing to him, he finds comfort in the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. His desires are changed: that which he once panted and pined for he is now content to do without; and that which he once despised he now longs after as the heart panteth after the water brooks. His fears are different; he fears man no more, but fears his God. His hopes are also altered. His expectations fly beyond the stars.
He pants for a country by sin undefiled."
The man has begun a new life. A convert once said, "Either the world is altered or else I am." Everything seems new. The very faces of our children look different to us, for we regard them under a new aspect, viewing them as heirs of immortality. We view our friends from a different stand-point. Our very business seems altered. Even taking down the shutters of a morning is done by the husband in a different spirit, and the children are put to bed by the mother in another mood. We learn to sanctify the hammer and the plough by serving the Lord with them. We feel that the things which are seen are shadows, and the things which we hear are but voices out of dreamland, but the unseen is substantial, and that which mortal ear hears not is truth. Faith has become to us "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
I may go on to talk about this, but none will understand me except those who have experienced it, and let not those who have not experienced it say it is not true. How do they know? How can a man bear witness to what he has not seen? What is the value of testimony from a man who begins by saying, "I know nothing about it?" If a credible witness declares that he knows such a thing to have happened it would be easy to find fifty persons who can say that they did not see it, but their evidence goes for nothing. Here are men of position, quite as keen in business, and able to judge between fact and fiction as other men, and they tell you solemnly that they have themselves experienced a wonderful, thorough, and total change of nature. Surely if their honest testimony would be taken in any court of law, it ought to be taken in this case. Brethren, I pray that we may know what this change is, and if we do know it, I again pray that we may so live that others may see the result of it upon our characters, and inquire what it means.
The phenomena of conversion are the standing miracles of the church. "Greater things than these shall ye do," said Christ, "because I go to my Father"; and these are some of the greater things which the power of the Holy Ghost still performs. This day the dead are raised, blind eyes are opened, and the lame are made to walk. The spiritual miracle is greater than the physical one. These spiritual miracles show that Jesus lives and puts life and power into the gospel. Tell me of a ministry which never reclaims the drunkard, never calls back the thief to honesty, never pulls down the self-righteous and makes him confess his sin; that, in a word, never transforms its hearers; and I am sure that such a ministry is not worth the time which men spend in listening to it. Woe unto the man who at the last shall confess to a ministry fruitless in conversions. If the gospel does not convert men, do not believe in it; but if it does, it is its own evidence, and must be believed. It may be to some of you a stumbling-block, and to others foolishness, but unto those who believe, it is the power of God unto salvation, saving them from sin.
Beloved hearers, may we all meet in heaven; but to meet in heaven we must all be renewed, for inside yonder gates of pearl none can enter but those who are new creatures in Christ Jesus our Lord. God bless you, for Christ's sake. Amen.
Taken From:
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
Vol. 20, No. 1183