Msg #1911 Except ye be converted...

Msg #1911 Except ye be converted...

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? (Heb. 2:3a)... We shall not! “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted... ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). Conversion is under-studied. The Bible ascribes true conversion to God, to the Word of God, to the sinner, and to the soul winner. Some try to eliminate a couple of these. Calvinists attribute it to a Sovereign God only, and highlight their proof verses, while ignoring the others. Two-hundred years ago Charles Finney rebukes these narrow minds in his, “Lectures on Revival.” He gives two great illustrations. A man points to a physician and says, “That man saved me.” The physician corrects, “It was the medicine that saved you.” But the man himself, who trusted the medicine, and took it faithfully, saved himself, and in actuality God overseeing the whole process is what saved him. All four can be ascribed to his salvation.

A man looking over the great precipice at Niagara sees another trudging blindly, as if in a stupor, towards the edge of the overview. Just as he lifts his foot towards the fatal plunge he yells with a loud shriek, “STOP!” At the last moment the man wakes from his stupor, violently swerves and saves himself from certain death. “That man saved me,” he could say. But the shrill warning, the frantic turn, and God's providence saved him. The Bible ascribes conversion to the soul-winner, the sinner's repentance, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit. Sinner, God commands you to make a new heart, and if ever it is done, you must do it. If you do not, you will go to hell. Believer, give the warning, prescribe the cure, be a soul-winner. “He that winneth souls is wise” (Prov11:30b).

An Essay for week #11 Mar 17, 2019

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs190317.mp3

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A weekly 300 word essay- The Penny Pulpit
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