The Christian And His Conversion
John 3:3-8
There is a tendency in our world today to classify everyone that is not a Buddhist, Muslin, Jew, etc… as a Christian.
But Jesus Christ said that only those who had been converted would become Christians and enter into the kingdom of God.
If we must be CONVERTED in order to be saved and go to heaven, then we must first understand WHAT IS CONVERSION???
One of the best ways I know to explain it is something you learned back in grammar school.... adding fractions.
How do you add 1/3 + 1/4????
You have to first find the least common denominator, LCD. In this case, the LCD is 12.
So 1/3 is converted to 4/12 and 1/4 is converted to 3/12.
Then you can add 4/12 + 3/12= 7/12
What I want to talk to you about is conversion... becoming a Christian, being washed clean from your sin, being reunited with Christ, being intimate with Christ.
In math, you could not add two different fractions until you find the LCD.
How about Spiritual Conversion?
We are flesh.... we are the carnal person, ruled by the flesh, living for pleasure, and seeking only to please our natural, worldly lusts and desires. We are temporal, we will pass away.
God is Spirit... God is not controlled by the flesh and lusts and sin. He is love and purity, and holiness, and righteousness.
These two are totally, completely, diametrically opposite.
You cannot go to heaven because flesh cannot inherit heaven
That is exactly what God says in our scripture today...
Verily, verily, say unto you, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Romans 8 tells us more... For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is at enmity with God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
And 1Cor. 1:29 plainly says, "That no flesh should glory in his presence."
And just in case you did not understand that... 15:50 says, "Now this I say, brethren, THAT FLESH AND BLOOD CAN NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD, NEITHER DOTH CORRUPTION INHERIT THE INCORRUPTIBLE."
(((I want you to notice something... the scripture does not say that NO BAD flesh can inherit heaven... And it does not say that good flesh can...)))
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary one to another..."
So... you see the flesh and the Spirit are like light and dark… or ice and fire... they are contrary to one another.
So... if we want to be saved, if we want to have a relationship with God, if we want to be pleasing to Him.... we have a problem...
WE ARE FLESH... HE IS SPIRIT
AND THE TWO CAN NOT GET TOGETHER
So.... what do we have to do?????
Find the least common denominator?????
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!
We have nothing in common (no lowest common denominator)....
we are flesh, He is not
He is spirit, we are not
A common denominator would be a God-Man kind of ... mutation
And flesh and blood cannot go to heaven
Does that mean that we are all doomed to go to hell???? Because if you can't go to heaven where else is there?
{{{"Place between heaven and hell where a man suffers for his sins" =Matrimony}}}
So God is spirit and we are flesh and we are eternally separated because there is no LCD… Right???
It says that NO FLESH can inherit heaven or please God.
Why are people going to hell??? Because they are bad??? No, even good people will go to hell.
Because they have sinned? YES.... the wages of sin is death..... Rm. 6:23
But why did they sin???? Because they are flesh, controlled by the flesh, living in the flesh.
The real problem is THE FLESH!!!!!
If they were not flesh, if they were spirit, they would not sin
Are you going to heaven? Are you saved? IF YOU ARE SPIRIT!!!
But how do we become spirit?????
Well, you are in luck!!! At one time it was impossible. Spirit and flesh were completely separate and no communion was possible. That is what the veil in the temple taught... separation between God and man, between holy and unholy, between Spirit and flesh.
The two were eternally separated because there was no common denominator.
Listen to Ephesians 2:12-14 Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world BUT NOW in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near• through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.
But God loved us, even though we were sinners, and He was not willing to see anyone die and be eternally separated in hell.
2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is.... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
BUT HOW???? Flesh is flesh, spirit is spirit, and flesh cannot go to heaven.
GOD CREATED A COMMON DENOMINATOR..
JESUS CHRIST.....The God/man..... he was God, wholly holy God
Our Jehovah's witness friends don't believe it but John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word WAS God"
JESUS IS GOD IN THE FLESH !!!!!
The scriptures are filled with references that tell us JESUS WAS GOD, they were the same, they were one.
And John 1:14 tells us, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us... " JESUS WAS MAN
So, Jesus was GOD.... who came and took on flesh and blood and lived like us, with us, among us.
Hebrews 2:14, For as much as then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.... wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
So… God left his home in heaven, and took on the flesh and blood... so he could understand our temptations.
Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are ...With one exception... HE DID NOT SIN ... he did not live after the flesh, to please the flesh.
WITH ONE EXCEPTION..... "YET WITHOUT SIN."
He did not live to please the flesh or other fleshly persons....... He lived to please God.
So, Jesus became the GOD/MAN He was 100% God
He was 100% man
He is our common denominator.
Now, there was a way for man to come to God, for flesh to be united with Spirit.
I like the way the living bible renders 1 Timothy 2:5 For God is on one side (SPIRIT) and all the people are on the other side (FLESH) and Jesus Christ, himself man[m1d God} is between them to bring them together, by giving his life for all mankind.
Now, because of the common denominator, we can be united, reconciled to God. WHY?????
BECAUSE WE HAVE BECOME SPIRIT...... We have had a second birth, the rebirth, the second birth.
That which is born of flesh is flesh... flesh cannot inherit heaven....
must worship him in spirit and truth
YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN!!!!!!!
HOW??????
1. CONFESSION
Accept that the bible is right, that you have sinned, lived after the ways of the flesh and disobeyed God and His Word.
2. CONCESSION
Concede that the scriptures are right when they say that as a result of your sin, there is a separation between you and God... a wall, a barrier and you are powerless to remove it or go around it
2. CONTRITION
The bible calls it REPENTANCE.... it means two things.....
a. Being sorry for your sin, for disobeying God
seeing it as serious
b. Turning away from your sinful ways
burying the old nature
living a new way
4.FAITH
Belief in Jesus as God in the flesh who came to live and die in the flesh in order to pay for our sins.
Belief that if you will confess that Jesus is Lord... Boss
That you will be saved from the consequences of your sin.... Separation/death
Then you are converted???????
Well… yes and no
You are converted in the sense that you are saved from the consequences of your sin... you cannot go to hell... you will go to heaven.
But conversion is more than being saved.
Saved happens in a moment, You confess, God forgives your name is in the book eternally
BUT THERE IS MORE.
CONVERSION INVOLVES CHANGE.
As I read earlier, Romans 8:5, Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
Conversion has to do with changing our minds from being set on what the sinful nature desires to having our minds set on what the Spirit desires...
Our old will.... to please the self and flesh ... is converted to the new desire to please the Spirit.
This was always God's desire.... even in the OT
Dt. 30:6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart... so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
God wants to perform an operation on our hearts, cutting away the old, that will cause us to love Him most of all
The Psalmist prayed for this in 51:10, Create in me a clean heart of God, and renew a right spirit in me.
In Isaiah 1:16 we are told that we have to work hard to bring this conversion about.... Wash and make yourself clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right.
Acts 3:26, Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
Acts 26:18 says that God sent Jesus, "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me."
Paul said in Romans 6:4 that our baptism is a symbolic burying to show that we die to the old life and live a new life...., Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death: that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life.
vv 11-13 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness.
12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
2 Cor. 5:17 If any on is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.
Eph. 4:22-24 ".... put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its evil desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Co.l 3:9 Lie not to another, since you have put off your old self with its practices, and have put on the new self ...
Listen....... This message is for you. some of you here need to be converted.... you need to start over. This has not been your all-time, spiritually high - plateau year. In fact, as you sit there this morning you can better identify with the prophet Jonah than perhaps any other biblical character.
You've been running away from God.... doing your own thing, living your own way. And you have not been happy. Life has not been roses and caviar.... in fact, it has been more like thorns and rotten eggs. Jonah got swallowed by a fish and you have been swallowed up by guilt, and your circumstances. Like Jonah, you are tired of running.... exhausted. You feel oppressed, guilty, over-used and under-developed, burned out, used up, and put out.
It was in the belly of that fish that Jonah found hope. And right now, today, in the midst of your circumstances and hopelessness, you can find hope. If Jonah could get his head together in the digestive tract of a fish... you can certainly do it here.
What a place to start over! Slopping around in the seaweed and juices inside that monster, fishing for a match to find his way out. Jonah took a long, honest look at this short, dishonest life. For the first time in a long time, the prophet brushed up on his prayer life. He promised the Lord that he would keep his promise and get back on target.
The best things about this day is that it is a time to start over.... Refresh yourself.... change directions.... Begin anew.
That requires taking the long, honest look.... knowing where you are. Taking time to honestly admit your present situation.... facing the music.... coming to terms with the things that need attention.
Our enemy, Satan, is whispering in your ear... "You are finished, through, burned out.."
But that is a lie... the truth is what Joel wrote to all the Jonahs... "I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten."
If God can take a disobedient Prophet, turn him around, and set him on fire spiritually, HE CAN DO THE SAME FOR YOU.
He is a specialist at making something useful and beautiful out of something broken and confused.
WHERE ARE YOU??????? START THERE!!!!!!!
Openly and honestly declare your need to the One who cares so deeply for you. Don't hide a thing. Show God all those fish bites. He is ready to heal every one
He will meet you right here today... He will begin the process of converting you into a new creature
Won't you come?????
