The Four C’s of Our Calling

There's been something throughout the years that I found baffling at times in dealing with the church and all of us as we come into the church and the different responses people have.

It is amazing to me that most of the people, the great majority of people who hear the Word of God, who hear the truth, do not respond. They may even have a little bit of interest, but really they don't respond. Others respond. They have some interest. They enjoy reading it. They enjoy coming up with this new knowledge, but they quickly just lose interest. They might even come to church for a little while, but they lose interest. Others can stay with obeying God and be very involved, be part of the church. After years of doing it, just give it up. Just walk away from it for various reasons. Then there's people. I think about all the years that I've been attending services, in the 60s as a child, when I used to go with my dad, when he would go out and visit the elderly in the church. Many of those people, all those people that we visited, of course, died. Most of them died in the faith. They spent years obeying God, years doing what was right, sometimes at great personal price. Obeying God, not being part of the world, sometimes losing jobs and losing friends, losing family, in order to do what God wanted them to do. What's the differences? Why is it that some person doesn't respond at all? Why does some person respond partly? Why is it that keeps the person involved in a lifetime? That when that person dies, or when Jesus Christ comes back, we can say that person stayed in the faith.

We're going to look at basically four categories of people and their responses to God. But not only these four categories of people, but there's a second lesson here. These are four stages we go through in our response to God. So what it is, is that in these four stages, there are people who stop in stage one, stop in stage two, stop in stage three, and there are people who go the whole distance, stage four. So even though it's four categories of people, it's actually four stages. Where do you stop? I call this the Four C's because every one of these starts with a C. Okay? So it would be easy to understand. The Four C's of your calling.

The first C is being convinced. Being convinced that God is real, and that His way is taught in the Bible is good and necessary. We have to become convinced. Now, it's interesting what the word convince means in English. It means to persuade by argument or evidence. There is a time when a person has a belief system, and there's a time when they discover the truth that's in the Scripture, they begin to question their belief system, and they must be through argument, through the Scripture, through discussion with maybe other people, maybe a piece of literature.

But there is a comparison of their belief system with a new belief system, and they must be persuaded and convinced to give up their old belief system. For some people, that old belief system may be tantamount to just being agnostic. For some people, their old belief system is no belief system at all, which is a belief system. You know, they just go through life doing what they want.

For some people, it may be a very difficult transition from one religious set of beliefs to another. You know, for some of you, it was very difficult to give up your Baptist belief system or your Catholic belief system to move over into this new belief system. And you had to be convinced and persuaded. It's not like one day you came up with this new belief system on your own.

You had to be persuaded, convinced, that the Sabbath really is the Sabbath. You had to be convinced that the Ten Commandments are the Ten Commandments. You had to be convinced that Christmas and Easter were wrong. And so, this is the very first stage in which God begins to interact with us. He begins to make his case. He begins to argue with us. You must be persuaded into a new belief system. Now, it's interesting that this is where most people stop.

In all reality, this is where most people stop. They begin to be convinced and they just stop the process. Or they ignore it. They're not convinced at all. You know, come on, that's just a lot of silliness. And they're not convinced at all. Others begin to be convinced, but they consciously, and what I want to really stress here, each of these steps, you make a conscious decision that's yours to make. And people start to say, nah, nah, I'm not going to be persuaded by that. Peter gave a passionate sermon at the temple on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts.

And you read through that and he gave a whole set of arguments and he gave support and he wanted to persuade people. And it's interesting, there were a large number of people that were persuaded by him. And Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2 tells us what happens when you are convinced. When you begin to be convinced, when you are convinced and persuaded, okay, my belief system must change. God wants me to do something else.

This Bible is real. What I've learned about the Bible, what I thought the Bible said isn't true. What happens? Notice how the people responded to Peter's passionate convincing. Passionate convincing. Verse 37, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. The very core of their being, something happened. Intellectually they said, we are wrong. Emotionally they felt a need to change. Both intellectually and emotionally something happens. They're cut at the very heart. It is actually painful.

You're cut and you say, I am convinced. They were cut in the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Man and brethren, what shall we do? At this stage, once you accept, I will be convinced. I am going to be persuaded. The next thing that happens is, what must I do? And there are people, and this could be a long process or a short process, there are people that take a lot of convincing. They've even come to church once in a while. They may start praying once in a while, they may, but they're not completely convinced.

They're hanging on part of the old belief system and part of the new belief system. Eventually, eventually, to be convinced, we reach the decision-making process where we say, what must I do? Because either this convincing now becomes a motivation or you give it up. There are people at this stage where they say, what must I do? And they hear what they must do, they don't do it. That'll get us into the next of the scenes of the stages we're talking about today.

It's interesting that the apostle Paul gave an impassioned plea, an impassioned set of instructions to King and Rippa to try to convict him to obey God, to persuade him, to give him the argument. This book is a book of argument. This is God's argument. Every time someone picks this up, they're getting God's argument. But every time a person sees you, they're supposed to see God's argument. Every time we preach the gospel, every time a message is given from the pulpit, it is to be a convincing argument of God's way, an impassioned plea to convince and also take people through every stage.

Your life is to be a convincing argument. Now think about that. Your life is God's convincing argument to the world. How convincing are we?

How convincing are our actions and our words? Because you are God's convincing argument, one of them. Fortunately, the Bible is there. Fortunately, he preaches the gospel through different efforts, different ways. But each of us is to be a convincing argument. Look at Acts 26. Because here is Paul's impassioned plea to convince and Acts 26, 24. So all of it, just like Acts 2 was all of Peter's argument, his speech on, this is what you must do, this persuasion that he was trying to do, all of chapter 26 up to this point is Paul's persuasive argument, trying to convince. Now verse 24, now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, Festus was the governor, he's before all these lean people at the Roman Empire, at the place of the world, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you are beside yourself, much learning is driving you mad. You know, you've become, you know, Paul, you have just filled your head with some of the ideas, you've gone absolutely crazy. Verse 25, Paul says, I'm not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. He says, no, the reason you're having this reaction is because deep inside there's something in you that's saying, this sort of makes sense. Deep inside you know there's some truth here, and you're having difficulty because you know what it would mean, you would have to be convinced to change your belief system. But the king, before whom I also speak freely, this is King Agrippa, knows these things, for I am convinced that none of these things escaped his attention since the thing was not done in a quarter. No, wait a minute! King Agrippa here, he's from this part of the world. He knows everything I've said is true. He's kept up with all these events. He knows what I'm all about. He even knows what Jesus was all about. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do believe. Paul's so brilliant here, he doesn't let him answer. It's a rhetorical question. Because what is he going to say? Well, of course I don't believe the prophets. I mean, King Agrippa is a member of Judaism. That'd be like saying to you, well, do you believe the Bible? Of course I know you believe the Bible. Okay, we don't even have to answer that. Everybody knows, I know, you all know, he believes the Bible. So, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe the prophets. Then Agrippa said to Paul, look at this statement, you almost persuade me to become a Christian.

It's the difference between these two responses that's so interesting. Those men that were there with Peter said, what must we do? You've convinced me, so what do I do now? Agrippa couldn't make the jump. Agrippa said, if I go down this path, I'm going to change my whole worldview. I'm going to change how I see a life. This is massive. You almost persuade me. You almost convinced me, man, I'm not going to do it. It's a decision. We're all involved in this decision-making process, and at some point we are convinced this is where I must go. Now, that of itself doesn't take you there, but unless you come to a decision, this is what I must do, you'll never move on. Let's go to Matthew 13. Matthew 13.

This parable is covered quite a bit. Within the course of a year, you're going to hear this parable probably two or three times in a sermon or a sermonette. I want to look at this a little different this time. Why don't you think about this as nominating four types of people and responses to God's calling, but four stages that we go through. Verse 3. You know the parable. Jesus spoke many things to them in parable, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow, and he sowed some seed, fell by the wayside, some birds came and devoured them, and some fell in stony places where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they weathered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked, but the others fell on good ground and yielded a crop some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. And he said, He who has ears to hear let him hear. That's a warning statement. I believe everybody is here today because you've been called and you're in various stages of that call. And it's the warning from Jesus Christ, listen to what I'm saying. The disciples weren't sure what he was saying, and so he goes on to explain it to them. Let's go to verse 18.

Therefore, hear the parable of the sower, Jesus says, and he talks about the first seed. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away to what was sown in his heart. This is he who receives seed, by the wayside. This is the person who is never truly convinced. The seed is there. They hear it. They might find it interesting, but it never really convinces them. They're never persuaded, I must do. They may even get to the place where they say, you know what? This almost convinces me. This really sort of makes sense. Oh, got a party with my buddies tonight. See you later. I've actually had people sit down with me. Over the years, I've met hundreds and hundreds of people interested in God's way. It's always amazing to me how many people stop at this level. And they'll actually say, you know, this sort of makes sense, but I refuse to be convinced, parentheses, that's not what they say, but I refuse to be convinced because all these churches can't be wrong. Or, you know, just fill in the blank. Or I can't, you know, yeah, this would be too hard because my family would think I was nuts. And they're almost convinced, but they won't make a decision to be convinced. So, you have made a choice to be convinced. You are persuaded that God has called you and God has given you a new understanding. That God is leading you into the Scripture is making sense. You're supposed to do it. You're supposed to obey it. So what's the next thing that has to happen? The next thing that has to happen, you're... By the way, leave a marker here in Matthew 13, because we're going to come back to it. You are now convinced. But, you know, a person convinced doesn't necessarily... Okay, I need to do something. What do I need to do? You know, if you're convinced of something and don't do it for a long time, you'll lose the... You'll forget it. How many times have you been convinced to lose weight? And you still weighed the same you did five years ago?

How many times have you been convinced to clean out the garage? I need to clean out the garage. I'm convinced. I'm persuaded. My wife has told me I need to clean out the garage, and she has persuaded me to do so. I am convinced, but I have not taken the next step. If you've ever been in my garage, you would know that. Because I am not yet convicted to do so. I'm convinced. I understand. I'm persuaded. I know I should do something. But you'll never take the next step unless you're convicted. You know, convicted has a number of meanings. The primary meaning of convicted is that you're found guilty. That's the primary meaning of convicted. But also, it means that a person has a strong belief. So as I am convicted of something, I believe it to the core of who I am. And because you believe it, you will now do. You make a decision to do. You know, conviction leaves no loopholes, no turning back, no excuses. As long as you're still convinced and persuaded, you will come up with loopholes. Now, I'm convinced of the Sabbath. I've actually had this people tell me. I'm convinced of the Sabbath, and I'll start keeping it as soon as I retire.

They're convinced. They're not convicted. At conviction, you're pronounced guilty. Okay. Conviction says, I must do. I must now put forth effort. I must do this. Many people stay at the convinced stage, and they slowly drift back until they're not persuaded anymore. How many times do we see people come to services? And they're convinced and they're persuaded, but when it comes down to conviction, they never move into this direction. Conviction is that there's no loopholes. Conviction is, I do and we do.

Abraham was convinced that God talked to him. It was conviction that made himself off his house and pack up his goods on the camels of donkeys and head towards a land that he had never been to that was hundreds of miles away. See, he could be convinced that God talked to him. I mean, God talked to him. It is conviction. It is a decision. All these involve a decision, I will now do. It is conviction that led Joshua to tell Israel, you are to obey God, and if you don't, he told his entire nation this. This is more than just being convinced. It is conviction that says, but as for me and my house, we will follow the Lord. That's conviction.

There are people who are convinced to keep the Ten Commandments but not convicted enough to do it. There are people who are convinced they should be baptized but not convicted enough to do it. There are people who are convinced they should pray and fast and study the Bible but not convicted enough to do it, and they will not make the decision because the conviction pays a price. The conviction says, I will do. I now must do. It's not, I will, I must. And at the conviction level, you do. You set aside your fear and your temptation and your worry, and you do it anyway because the Almighty God is with you, and you believe you must do it. You want to know what conviction is? Go to Daniel chapter 3. We have read this story so many hundreds of times for many of you in your lives. Let's read it again because you want to see what conviction is. This is conviction. The king of Babylon says, all people will bow down to this statue, and they will worship the way I say they will worship. And Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego say, we will not.

Conviction evolves, by the way, usually a public declaration. I will.

And it evolves accountability. Others know that you will, and when you don't, others will say, you didn't. It is an absolute conviction. All these are, by the way, steps in marriage. You can be convinced. You can be convinced that that's the person you should marry. But until there's a conviction, nobody says, I do. Nobody takes that step. It says, I do until they're convicted, until they're driven. I must do this. I am convicted to do so. Verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. Now, this is conviction. You will die if you don't do what I say, and what I'm telling you to do, is against God. If you're convinced, you will find a loophole. Why, I know I must obey God, but God doesn't want me to die. I know I must obey God, but you know, it's better for me to worship the idol, so that I can stick around and help God's people. You know, God doesn't want me to die because God has a plan for my life.

If you're convinced but not convicted, you will find an excuse, a loophole, a way to turn back. If you're convicted, you will publicly state, in the way that you live, you say, well, I don't... what public statement I have to make? It is the way you live, every day. You are convicted, and you state, this is who I am. I am a child of God.

We don't even have to answer you, but we will. If that is the case, because he just said you're going to die, our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O King. God is able to save me. I'm convicted of that, and I will do it, and he will save us from your hand. Now, he's going to do it in your way, or in his way, because notice what they say next. He says, he will deliver us from your hand, and that may be he'll just pull us out of the fire. But if he doesn't pull us out of the fire, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. Now, that's conviction. I must do this. I have no choice but to do this, because it is what God wants me to do. That's conviction. Now, we know the story that God saved them, but they didn't know that. Remember, later they said, God saved us. They didn't know that, and they said, even if God chooses not to save us, that's His choice. My choice is to follow God. I am convicted at my core. If you're not convicted at your core, sooner or later you'll give this up.

Why do I say that? Let's go back to Matthew 13. Matthew 13. You've just read the verse that describes people who are convinced, but they're not convinced. So, they're not convinced. So, people are convinced. They go to the next stage. We have another class of people. Verse 20, But he who received the seed on stoning places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. This is the prayer. I'm convinced! I get it. So, I'm not going to keep Easter and Christmas anymore. I'm going to do these. And usually, they're the things that can be seen. Yet, he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Some people stay in the church for years and years and years and never really have serious trials concerning their Christianity. And when they do, they give up almost immediately.

They were convinced, but they were committed. Committed is a decision that says, yes, I will do, and then you do. If you don't do it, you're still in the convincing stage. Only conviction drives you to do it. So, a person says, okay, I'm convinced, and I've done what I'm supposed to do. I started obeying God. I gave up the drugs. I started tithing. I started keeping the Holy Days. I've done all the things that I know to do. I've stopped lying. So, I'm now convicted. I'm doing. But, you know, the thing is, this is in the long haul.

The problem isn't sometimes doing it for the first year, or the second year, or the fifth year, or the tenth year. Sometimes it gets harder because of the time period. We hear about waiting in the Sermonette, right? Sometimes it's the waiting, and we get worn out. And that's why we come to the fourth C, or third C. You must be committed.

One of the definitions of commitment is that you make a pledge or a promise that you keep. You make a pledge or a promise, and then you keep it.

You're convicted. I'm convicted. We've been convinced and convicted. But, are you absolutely committed? Because you're... That conviction can drive you to do lots of things. But the commitment is, this isn't a sprint. It is a marathon. And the commitment is, I run the whole race for as long as it is. How long is the race? There's the rub. How long is the race? I remember when I was a kid in high school, I was a shot putter at the track and field. And one day, we're at a track meet, and the guy that was supposed to run the long hurdles got sick. And the coach said, Patty, you're running the long hurdles. I said, I've never run hurdles in my life. He says, yep, but you're running them.

How long is the long hurdles? How high are the long hurdles? How do you jump a hurdle? So, I got, it was the first heat, and the first guy out of each heat went on. There's like five or six of us. The guy only beat me by like a foot. And then I just collapsed. They had to come pick me up and take me off. I ran the long hurdles and almost won the heat. I had no idea how long it was. I kept looking at him and saying, but how long do I run? You run until they tell you to stop running? That's sort of the way God is. Hey, you're going to run the hurdles. How long do I run? Ah, don't worry. This one's only like 500 times around the track.

This is where commitment comes in. It is a decision to stay. It's a decision to stay when it gets hard. It's a decision to stay even when you're struggling with your own sins. It's a decision to follow God to where He takes you, even if it's where you do not want to go. It is a decision that says, yes, Lord. I mean, this was a long run. You know, people wanted to be the disciple of Jesus Christ. There's an interesting passage in Luke. I've seen people spend a lot of time in Luke 9 trying to figure out the sort of the exact situation that is being talked about here. I don't think that's as important as the principle that Jesus is teaching.

So instead of trying to go through the exact situations, there's three of them, I just want to show you the principle. Because He's telling people, are you really committed? Do you understand the long haul? Okay, you're convinced. You're convicted. You're motivated. But now this commitment is, you're going to stay with this until you die or Christ comes back, but you're going to stay with it to that point. Luke 9, 57. Now, it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to Him, Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.

Now, this is the person who's convinced that Jesus is the Lord. This is the person who's convicted, motivated, I will do, right? He's actually made His public declaration of conviction. I will follow You wherever You go. And Jesus says to Him, Great, good, thanks, this is wonderful, I need more disciples. I'm here to make disciples. Jesus looks at Him and says, boxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. In other words, He says to this man, He perceives you do not understand the cost. Are you committed for the long run?

Are you committed for the long run?

Verse 59 says, Then He said to another, follow me. Now, I find this one really interesting. This is the person Jesus chose. He chooses somebody. This isn't just someone who runs up and says, I know your Lord, I want to follow you. This is somebody who says, I want you, I'm calling you. But He said, Lord, let me first go and bury my Father. And Jesus said to Him, let the dead bury their own dead, for you go and preach the kingdom of God. Now, people wonder what this has to do, you know, why He couldn't bury His Father. There's all kinds of explanations that what He's saying is, you know, I need to wait until my Father dies before I can do this because I have responsibilities, which would make sense in the culture. You have to let me go take care of my family until my Father dies, and then I will be free to do this. The important thing is what Jesus is saying. What He's saying is, I accept no excuses, only 100% for the entire race. This is commitment. All these issues have to do with commitment. I picked you. What I expect is 100% for the entire race. The third point, another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and then farewell, we're at my house. But Jesus said to Him, no one having put His hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. He says, what you want to do is keep one foot in the old life and one foot in the new life. And I've seen people do this. They eventually have to choose. They eventually have to choose. You cannot keep one foot in the new life and one foot in the old life. Jesus says that in Mark. Let's go to Mark 10.

The commitment is 100% of the time. You hear a marriage counselor saying, marriage is not 50-50. Marriage is 100% of the time by both people.

But is God's requirement? Commitment. 100% of the time. By the way, that's what He gives. That's what Christ gives. It's what they expect to return. I know we don't always do that. We struggle with that. But when we decide to be committed, we will stay committed even at times when we falter, when we sin, when we get discouraged. We will still stay committed because we've decided it. And it's a decision you make over and over and over and over again. It's a decision you make every day. I am committed. I am convinced. I am convicted. I am committed. Mark 10 verse 29.

So Jesus answered and said, Surely, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake of the Gospels. I want you to stop because for this statement to be true, that means that there are people who are going to have to leave house, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children or lands for the sake of Jesus Christ and for the sake of the Gospels.

He said, You will do this. You will have to do this. We must be convinced that it's right. We must be convicted that we must. We must do and then be committed to keep doing. He says, When you do this, he says, verse 30, who shall not receive a hundredfold now at this time. In other words, you will be blessed for that. You will be blessed for that.

My family and I have talked about this quite a bit. How my parents, my sisters, my one brother-in-law and I are just like brothers, we're so close. And yet we're scattered. We're scattered because of the church. We all had different responsibilities in the church. And how we had to give up an awful lot of family because of the church. I don't see my grandchildren because I'm here. But you know what we all decided? You are our reward. We've received a hundred fathers and mothers and a hundred children and a hundred brothers and sisters in our lifetimes. He says, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions. Yes, this is where that commitment comes in. And in the age to come, this is real important, eternal life. God's ultimate concern is our eternal life. He wants a family and you're it. Of course, the whole world is it. But right now, you're it. Eternal life. That's the commitment. You must be convinced of eternal life, convicted that God's going to give it to you, enough to do, to obey, and committed to it. You see it as the goal of the end of your life. At the commitment stage, we have a problem because at the commitment stage is where we have to give up our personal idols. Let's go back to Matthew 13. Matthew 13, verse 22. This is that third group that he's talking about who received the seed, the seed being the Word of God. Now, he who received the seed among the thorns, he who hears the Word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and he becomes unfruitful. This is very important. He becomes unfruitful. This person actually, the seed grows in. The implication is that this level, this person, has actually received God's Spirit. This person grows in the truth, but there reaches a point where they want the world too much.

They lack the commitment to pay the price for eternal life.

You know, it's amazing when you go through the Old Testament, how many times Israel put up idols and when God would select somebody to lead Israel, they'd say, first thing I want you to do is go tear those idols down so that they must worship me. That teaches an important lesson. Every time you and I erect an idol between us and God, eventually he will tear it down.

There's a real price to pay to have an idol. What is your idol?

What is your idol? Is it status? Is it money? Is it alcohol? Is it property? Is it nice clothes? Is your idol friends? Is your idol your wife? Is your idol your children? If these are the things you say you can't give up, or that you use these things to say, no, I can't obey God because of my job. I can't obey God because of my husband. I can't obey God because of my parents. I can't obey God because if I do, I'll lose my status. I can't obey God because if I do, I won't have a fun time and I'll have to get rid of my things. Whatever you say, I can't because, and that puts that thing in front of God, that's your idol. And what God will eventually do is that he'll tear it down.

He'll tear down your idol.

I bet any time what's amazing is at this stage when God tears down the idol, we blame God. We blame God. Well, you hurt me. But you look in the Scripture, how many times in the Old Testament the people who tore down the idols, then all the Israelites tried to kill them. You hurt us. You did damage to us because we liked our idols. What are the idols you have that are like thorns just growing up through your Christian life and choking out your life, choking out your life now, and it could be a danger of choking out your eternal life.

We're just not committed enough to tear down our idols. So we now are committed. We're removing our idols. We're following God. We're convinced. We're convicted. We're committed. Then we have one last group of people here in Matthew 13. But he who received the seed of the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some 100-fold and some 60 and some 30. These are people who God produces something in their lives. This is conversion.

It is conversion where God does something in us so that we are converted from one thing to another. I thought it was interesting. Webster's dictionary, trying to explain what conversion is, it says, it's like taking wheat and turning it into flour. You've converted it from one thing into another.

God is converting us and fruit comes from that conversion. It comes in little bits and pieces, doesn't it? Sometimes, you know, some seasons you think, man, nothing grew this season. And some seasons there seems to be lots of fruit. But the point is that when we reach this final stage, conversion is taking place. Romans 12. Every time I do baptism counseling, we go to Romans 12.

Because here, Paul talks about this conversion process. You know, the last two sermons I've given, one was on the basic covenants in the Old Testament. And then last week we covered the New Covenant and how the problem with the Old Covenant wasn't God's law and it wasn't God. There was nothing wrong with the Old Covenant except the people. The people couldn't keep the Old Covenant because they didn't have God's spirit. The flaw in the covenant were the people, as we read in the New Testament. So God had to give us His spirit so that we could be converted so that we can keep the covenant. God always keeps His end. Human beings seldom keep their end. And it takes God's spirit to help us keep our end of the covenant. So you've now received God's spirit. You've become part of the New Covenant. What does that entail in the conversion process? Romans 12, verse 1, Paul says, I have beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. This takes a lot of convincing, a lot of conviction, a lot of commitment, because what is a living sacrifice? What did they do to a sacrifice? They slid its throat, bled it out, and killed it. And he says, you have to be a living, dead thing. Okay? You have to be living and dying at the same time. Which exactly is what's happening within us. The old nature is dying, and the new nature is being developed. So you are both living and dying at the same time. That's why Christianity is uncomfortable. And if it's not uncomfortable for you enough, go ask God to convict you more.

Because it is uncomfortable. Because you are a living, dying person. Part of you is developing in life, and part of you is dying at the same time. The old man, as Paul calls it, and the new man, as he calls it. All of us are those two things. Verse 2 says, do not be conformed to this world. You and I can't keep one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God. We can't. Eventually you must choose. But be transformed. You're changed by the renewing of your mind. That you may prove what is the good and acceptable, perfect will of God. If you're convinced that you need your mind transformed, you become convicted. You say, what do I do to be transformed? And then you become committed for the long haul. And obedience becomes part of your way of life. And then you're in this process of conversion, where you're actually being transformed from a human being into an eternal child of God. Fascinating transformation. You're being transformed from one type of being into another type of being. But the old being keeps wanting to stay, you know, that way.

But God keeps saying, no, I've got to transform you into a new being. And that's why we receive God's Spirit. That's what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2. So now we're going to explain how the pouring out of the Holy Spirit of the New Covenant, what it actually does. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9.

But it is written, Paul says, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of man which is in him, even so no one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God. The human mind is amazing. The human brain is amazing. But it can only go so far. You and I can't go the things that are needed for conversion without God's Spirit in us. We do not have the love, the power, or the sound-mindedness to do it.

So God has to give us the love, the power, and the sound-mindedness to do it. It is His love, His power, and His sound-mindedness in us that then convinces us, and then we decide to, yes, I will be convinced. See, we're always... You and I are involved in all the decisions. It is His love, the power, and the sound-mindedness that convicts us, and then we say, yes, I will be convicted. I'll give myself over to the conviction. And it's His love, the power, and the sound-mindedness that gives us the power to commit, and we say, yes, I will pay the price. It will be uncomfortable, but I will stay committed. And it is His love, the power, and sound-mindedness that converts us, and we submit.

We submit. We say, yes, Lord. Verse 12, Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak not of words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. I have seen many people become convicted, and even convicted, but when it came to commitment, when it came to actually living God's way, and being out of step with the rest of the world, they gave up, and they said, this is foolishness. This is silliness. You really, really, really think God cares if we eat pork or not? You really, really think God wants me to love my neighbor, who is a rotten person? You really, really think that God at times tells me to take abuse for a greater good? I'm not going to take abuse for any reason. I can show you deathless of scriptures, like Jesus Christ taking abuse for us. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to do that. Because it's foolishness. See, the old man comes back. You and I have to keep killing that old man. It's like some kind of horror film, you know, it's like a zombie. It just won't die. He eventually does, but it just keeps coming back. He goes on, he says, but who is spiritual? He who is spiritual judges all things, verse 15. Yet he himself is rightly judged by no man. Verse 16 is a remarkable statement. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? Question from the Old Testament. Who can know God? Who can instruct God? Well, nobody can. But then he finishes it with, but we have the mind of Christ, the God-man, who comes into us through the Holy Spirit and gives us thoughts and gives us emotions and says, here's what it's like to be like God as a man. Here's what it's like. Here's what it is to live like a child of God in flesh. Here's what you do. Here's what it's like. We receive those instructions from someone who has been here, done that. Why? You talk about conviction. You talk about commitment. He had no need to be converted. But you talk about conviction and commitment. And he says, so we have the mind of Christ. When we receive God's Spirit, we start to learn how to think like God in a human body.

We start to act like God in a human body. We have the mind of Christ. You and I just don't submit to it very much. But that's what we have. It is submitting that it's the optimum word because the natural man will always resist. The natural man will see this as foolishness. So part of you always responds, this is foolish. Well, not always, because as we become converted, that becomes less and less. But you will struggle for your whole life where sometimes the old man will say, he really doesn't mean that. He really doesn't want you to do that. Come on. He really doesn't mean... I just fill in the blank. He really doesn't mean not to sleep with your boyfriend. You love each other. He really doesn't mean... Come on, dishonesty is just part of the old business, right? He really doesn't mean you can't divorce your wife when you're both Christians. He really doesn't mean that because he wants you to be happy. He really doesn't mean those things. That's the old man. The new man, which has the mind of Christ, says, yes, he means it. Do not have sex outside of marriage. Yes, he means it. That you will stay and work out your marriage, and you will learn to love each other because you have the love and power and self-mindedness to do it. He doesn't expect us to do it on our own. Yes, he means that. Yes, he really means it. Fill in the blank. Where does that thought come from? Well, it comes from the Scripture, and who brings it to mind? And who tells us and shows us how to do that? Well, we know it's through the power of God's Spirit, but it's Christ saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, here's how you think. Here's how God thinks He's a human being. I can tell you.

I can tell you how God thinks He's a human being.

That's a remarkable statement. We have the mind of Christ. Peter talks about this in 2 Peter. Let's go to 2 Peter chapter 1. This really then sort of summarizes this whole concept of where God's Spirit now takes us. 2 Peter chapter 1.

He says, Every time I read this verse in a sermon, I always ask you the same thing. So, we think we can't make it. All of us struggle. I can't make this. I can't do this. I can't have the mind of Christ in me. I can't do what's right. I'm not convinced. I'm not convicted. I'm not committed. I'm sure not being converted.

Okay. That's where we are. What is it that God has given to us? It says, all things. Now, I've asked this question and I have never yet had a person give me an answer. Name one thing in your salvation that is not included in all things.

One thing. I challenge you to come up with one thing that God says He's holding back from you. Because He says His power, right, has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. So what is there in life, this life and the life to come, and what is there in godliness that God hasn't given to you?

And I haven't yet had anybody be able to answer that question. Then name me one thing that's not listed in all things. Give me a number that's not in infinity.

You see that commercial with little kids? Now, what's the biggest number you know? One kids is like 10. Someone says infinity. Someone says infinity plus infinity. Someone says infinity times infinity. The guy just goes, pfft, blows his mind. Okay, name me a number that's not in infinity. Name me something that's not in all things.

That's the incredible statement that's being made here. It's our lack. It's our unwillingness to be convinced. It's our unwillingness to be convicted. It's our willingness to be committed. And it's our unwillingness to be converted that can hold us back. Nothing on God's part is being held back. Nothing. He says, verse 6, By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. You are now a partaker of the divine nature. You will become converted into the divine nature. You are now a partaker. You receive God's Spirit. It is God's divine nature that was given to us. And you will be a creature of divine nature when you are changed. That is what the New Covenant is all about. That's it. That's its purpose, its goal, a family.

He says, verse 5, But also for this reason, giving all diligence. He says, Now you have to do something here. He's back to commitment, by the way. Okay, we have to do something here. In the long haul, what do we do? We add to your faith virtue. This is a whole sermon in itself. I gave a sermon, it's probably 12 years ago, I need to do it again, just on this segment of Scripture. Add to your faith virtue to virtue of knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness. He already said he's giving you all things pertaining to life and godliness. So here's how we build on this. This is what we do. This is what we have to, our commitment is to build these things, to submit to these things, to study these things, to do these things. Verse 8, well verse 7, I haven't even finished the list, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness agape. Now, we're back to agape, aren't we? But what is agape? The character of God, the mind of Christ. We're back to what we are becoming. He says you have to add to these things. In other words, you have to be committed to this. You have to work at this. But God has given you everything you need to accomplish this. God will hold back nothing from us. Nothing.

Verse 8, for if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful with the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will be the Matthew 18 people who bear 30-fold and 60-fold and 100-fold. We will be fruitful. But he who lacks these things, he who has come into the church, Peter's writing to the church, he's not talking to the world, he says he who comes and receives this calling, but somehow isn't convinced and convicted and committed and converted. He who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. He goes back. Verse 10, therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly and to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In other words, he says, you're going to make it. God's given you everything you need. We just have to work it through now. We just have to do what he says. We struggle, we fall down, we stumble, we get up, we work it through. And as these things become our character, eventually we are agape. God is agape, says it in the Scripture. We have the mind of Christ. We're beginning to be like God would be in the flesh. He says, okay, now I can get rid of the flesh. And you could simply be like a divine being, a member of the God family. You could be there. So an entrance into the kingdom of God, into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is very encouraging. This is the covenant you've entered into. This is what we've been talking about the last two sermons. This is what God wants. Convinced by the truth, convicted to take action and live in obedience to the truth, committed to stay the course, whatever the temporary difficulties, and submitting to the guidance of God's Spirit to be converted. These are the steps we take in the conversion process. There are also four stages that we can go through. And we have to be careful that we don't get stuck in one of those stages, as Matthew 13 shows us. But remember the encouraging words of Peter here. Make your calling an election sure. Remember God will hold nothing back from you. And what God's desire of purpose is for you is to give you a grand entrance into His kingdom and His family.