The Process of Conversion, Part 1

You know, sometimes movies, poetry, novels, books that we read will say certain things that will give us a certain truth. There will be a line in a poem, there'll be a short piece of a novel that just kind of strikes you and hits home, and a piece of dialogue in a movie will be said that, in a sense, speaks to a truth, one of the truths of God or some principle that we can relate to and identify with the biblical teaching, biblical truth, and though it may be in something totally secular like a movie or a poem or whatever else, nonetheless, it does, at least in principle, speak to that.

Such a line has been with me for a number of years since I saw the movie that I know a number of you have seen. I've seen it several times, I will admit to that. The movie Gladiator, that came out, I think, in the year 2000. It was a big summer blockbuster with Russell Crowe, and of course all the women go to see those movies when Russell Crowe's in the movie. But the movie Gladiator was about the Roman general.

It was a fiction based on fact, but Russell Crowe played a Roman general in the second century named Maximus, a fictional character with the real Emperor Marcus Aurelius. And in one of the opening scenes, as he's rallying his troops and getting them ready to go out into to do battle against the the the Goths or the Germanic tribes, as it were at that point, he rallies them and he says that what we do today will echo in eternity.

What we do today will echo in eternity. And I remember hearing that line in subsequent times since then, and it's just one of those lines that kind of rings true. And of course he had one other he had one thing in mind that I don't, that he was playing a pagan character and they used that theme through the movie to talk about the afterlife according to the pagan Roman mythology. But nonetheless, it is an idea that it's true, that what we do today echoes in eternity.

And as I said, sometimes those lines that will jump out at us and they will they will mean something to us because they they speak to a truth that is self-evident and a truth that we know from God's Word and and the Bible. And I'd like to take that idea from that line of dialogue and weave that into a message here today that follows on from a message that I gave a few weeks ago where we went through the basic teaching from the Scriptures to show what salvation is, what this thing of eternal life is all about, and what what the Bible says about salvation.

As I was going through it in preparation, I thought, well, to follow on to this would be the subject of conversion and the life we have to live today after we become a member of the body of Christ through baptism, repentance, and the laying on of hands, receiving God's Spirit. As I explained in the sermon on salvation, we do not enter a place or situation where we are saved at that point in time.

We become children of God. We have God's Holy Spirit. We look to God as our Father, and we wait for the resurrection. And that is a very special relationship that is far different from what we were prior to that. Salvation is something that we look to in terms of the ultimate change in our life to a spirit being at the time of the resurrection, as I went through in all of those scriptures.

And salvation is not something that then comes upon us, and at that point we are saved. We can say that we are once saved and can ever fall away from that. The scriptures show that we can fall away from that. We may not endure to the end. Salvation is a promise. God's Spirit is a down payment to the whole process, and we covered what that meant in terms of how it is a gift of God, and it's not something that we can earn. But in this process that we work through toward ultimately salvation, the time when God changes our bodies, as 1 Corinthians 15 shows, there is this process of time that for many of us we probably now begin to measure more in decades rather than years.

From the time when we came to repentance and conversion, and our lives were changed, we admitted and acknowledged our need of God and our transgression of His laws and the need of Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, and we were baptized and received His Holy Spirit.

And from that point to today, those of us still alive continue to work through a process that we can call by various names. We can say it's Christianity, we can say it's true Christianity, and it is, but it is also a process of conversion. We use that term to talk about this period of our life where we are in a process, because that's what really Christianity and conversion is all about. We can sin, we will continue to sin, we are not yet perfect, we understand that, we should know that. Sometimes that becomes very painfully aware in our minds and in our lives, and it can be discouraging. As I say, we may measure our time in decades, and we may look back over certain periods and wonder if there is indeed any growth or any change, or where we are in this process of our life towards God's kingdom. We annualize ourselves every year as we approach the Passover, as we should, but we have to, at some point, we should be able to make certain measurements, at least in our mind, of ourselves, not one another, but of ourselves, as to where we are in this process. I'd like to have you turn over to John 7. This is where I came to in the Sermon on Salvation, as we were describing the Holy Spirit and the work of God's Spirit in our lives.

And in John 7, in the statement that Jesus made on that last day of the feast, beginning in John 7, verse 37, it says, on that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart, will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. And so he describes the Holy Spirit here as a rushing flow of living water. And those who believe on him, and as we thirst, we can have this made available. And in the sermon, I explained it as this process being like the Spirit flowing and working through our lives, like that rushing stream of water in a mountain stream that's coming down out of the mountains and through a riverbed that has its banks on the side and weaves its way down a mountain or through a course in a meadow. And that represents God's Spirit flowing through a riverbed in our life as this picture here begins to paint, helping us to understand, again, God's Spirit working through our lives after baptism in this whole process of salvation and of conversion. And that is a very important matter to understand because with God's Holy Spirit, that is the identifying factor of ourselves as really Christian or Christ. In Romans chapter 8, this scripture here shows that it is the Holy Spirit that we must have in order to really begin the process.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 9.

Paul writes, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

I'll set this up. This is, in a sense, kind of the starting point, the benchmark.

When we come to repentance and through baptism, the laying on of hands of a minister, we receive God's Holy Spirit. That is, that understand that that whole process comes about as a result of education, of understanding, God calling us, drawing us to Him, and all that that means.

Without God's Spirit, we don't even begin to measure up to this verse. We have to have God's Spirit. He says, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. So here, the Spirit of God is called also the Spirit of Christ. It's the Holy Spirit. And if we do not have that Spirit, we are not His. So we cannot claim to be Christ's unless we have the Holy Spirit in us through the laying on of hands, that process that begins our life as Christians. And He goes on, He says, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

And so again, that indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives us life. It is a different dimension of life than what we have before. We're all alive, whether before or after our baptism. But with the receipt of the Holy Spirit, there is a new life. There is another dimension to life that is added.

And this is why He says we are not in the flesh in verse 8 and 9, but in the Spirit.

If the Spirit of God dwells in us, our lives take on a spiritual dimension. We begin and should begin to think more in line with the mind of God and take on spiritually minded approaches to life.

And not just pursuing life without the goal of the Kingdom of God, without the goal of pleasing God, becoming like God, looking at things with a fresh spiritual approach, seeking and needing the help of God's Spirit to approach our lives on a daily basis and to be yielded to that Spirit and to begin to think to look at life more from a spiritual perspective. And that's more than just wearing a bracelet on our wrist that says WWJD on it. That's a nice little sentiment, but it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what the Scriptures say about the matter of following Jesus and what this verse really begins to imply. It is a different life and it's a different dimension that we must have. Our salvation is not complete at that point. The life of God is in us, but we are not yet perfect. Something that I think, I don't know of anybody in this room who would deny that statement and argue with me on that. I'm not going to argue with myself on it. And I hope that none of you would. I don't think that you would. We know that. Sometimes all too painfully we know that we are not perfect. That doesn't mean we are not, cannot be righteous. That doesn't mean that we cannot be and are not good people. It's just that we recognize that we can slip. We can commit sins. We know this if we really think about it. From time to time, we have it brought to our minds. Perhaps from times like this in a sermon, we also need to think about it. We know that it is a process.

So we begin this whole process of salvation, but it's not complete. And as I say, it can go on for decades. Now, why does God operate like that? Why is it like that? To be honest with the scriptures, we have to admit that that is the truth. You're not saved now. I'm not saved now. We're in a process of salvation that can also be called conversion. And why does God act like that? Why did He do it that way? Why can't we just go on and do what we want? You know, just live our lives according to our own will without even having laws and just doing being good. Just doing good things.

Why is there a struggle? Why is there sometimes difficulties and challenges in this life?

Why do we sin? Why doesn't God give us the measure of His Spirit to remove all lust, remove all carnal desire? Every stumbling block that might be in our way that would be a weakness that would cause us to sin in whatever it might be. Greed. Selfishness. Why doesn't He just take that away from us? He doesn't. He has it with me. And as I look around here, I know that He hasn't with all of you either. Why? Why do we have to struggle? Why do we have to endure? Why do we have to be converted and grow? The Scripture in Peter says, in grace and in knowledge.

Why can't we just kind of...bing! Be right there. What is it? The answer lies in really coming to understand the nature of the true gospel. To begin to answer that question, there's not just one Scripture, there's just not one sentence that can answer that. We've got to understand, really, what is the gospel? And that is not just the A gospel or the message about Christ. It is really beginning to understand what the message of the whole Bible is about, but specifically, we can focus in on the message that Christ talked about in terms of the kingdom of God. Christ came with that message of the kingdom of God. Mark 1 and verse 14. It says that Jesus came preaching or announcing the kingdom of God. I better turn that since I referred to it here and make sure that I get the quote just right. Mark 1 and verse 14. It says, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel. I have to be sure I get these things right. I was reminded that again this week. I was doing television beyond today down at the home office and recent months they've put another layer of bureaucracy into the Beyond Today programming. They designate one minister from the home office staff to set in on each taping just to make sure that there are no mistakes made. We don't misquote scripture. We don't misquote things here and there. So one of the ministers sets in. We always call him the doctrine Nazi for the day. After every segment winds up, I hear, back in the corner of the studio, and before we can move on to the next segment, I know that they've got to clear up a statement that we've made or make sure we say, right, sometimes we very rarely do have to do it over.

It's really a good thing because sometimes in the heat of the pressure of a moment of taping like that, you do misstate something and we don't want to look completely like dummies when the stuff goes out wherever it goes. So in the post-production that comes days or weeks later, it's too late to have us come in and say something over or even redo a whole segment or a line or whatever it might be. So it does have its benefits, but you're on your guard when the doctrine Nazi's in there. And we always lovingly refer to whoever it might be as that. So we love them. They are our brothers. But I want to be sure I get these quotes right so I had to turn a mark there. But this is the gospel.

This is the beginning of the gospel, or at least it summarizes what Christ brought and what he announced, what he taught in terms of the kingdom of God. His teaching, his parables, so much of what he did focused on this key truth of the kingdom of God. And to answer the question of why, and this process of conversion, what it all is all about, we have to understand what the kingdom of God is. And we should know, at least in a brief statement, that the kingdom of God is what Christ will bring when he returns. It is the government of God that will supersede all other human governments. It will be established on this earth at the time of Christ's coming. But what does that mean for us today? What does that mean for you and I? That's the critical aspect of this question.

This is understood when we go to the book of Luke chapter 19. I want to go through one of Christ's parables that really helps us to understand this. We could go to Matthew 25 and where this parable is called the parable of the talents, but it's the same message here, although it's called the parable of the minas here in Luke chapter 19. But it illustrates just right what we need to understand. Jesus had to pause at this point in time prior to his entry into Jerusalem and explain to his followers and all the others that had come along that the kingdom was not now at his time. The kingdom was not going to be set up. You read in verse 11 that as they heard these things, he spoke another parable because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. Jesus had been making his way toward Jerusalem and this was his final trip to Jerusalem before his death. And he had people following him from Galilee all the way down to Jerusalem. He had not only his immediate followers of his disciples and others that were close part of that family, but I think that he no doubt was pulling in a lot of other people along the way as he was going to Jerusalem. And the word spread that this miracle-working individual calling himself the Son of God, calling himself the Messiah, was going to Jerusalem. And because of what he had been teaching, because of all of his other pronouncements about the kingdom of God and about the need to repent, they were beginning to realize whether they had been with him for a week or two years. They were thinking that the kingdom was going to come now.

And there were hundreds, if not thousands of them, probably following Jesus along the road at this time, or beginning to converge on Jerusalem. It was as good or better than the live earth concert of its day. Probably had more people coming to it than they had on live earth last week. And they were thinking that this was going to happen now. And they were believing that the Scriptures in the Old Testament that prophesied of the throne of David being reestablished was now going to come and would appear immediately. And so he had to pour water on their expectations by saying no. It was not going to happen at this point. And here's how he did it in this parable. And this is the teaching for us to help us understand this matter of conversion. In verse 12, therefore he said, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants and delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, Do business till I come. So this nobleman is a type of Jesus Christ in the parable here. And it says that he's going to a far country, which in Christ ultimately went to heaven. He sat down at the right hand of the Father. We know from other scriptures, Stephen had a vision of Jesus at the right hand of the Father. He ascended to heaven as they later saw him go into heaven. And he went there to receive a kingdom and then to come back.

I'll end now in verse 12, we can see that there is at the course of over 2000 years right here from the time that he went to receive the kingdom until he would return. We've gone that far down the road and it still has not happened yet. But this is then this is what they were saying.

These people probably even then didn't get the point that it was going to be beyond their lifetime.

They probably thought, well, a few years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, we can hang on, we can wait. And they wound up waiting all the rest of their life. And he made the point that it was going to be there was going to be a large time gap here. But that's not really the important thing is what he was really getting them to understand. At the end of verse 13, he said, do business till I come. What is the business of the nobleman who went off to receive a kingdom, as we can relate that it's the business of the kingdom of God. It's the business of the church.

It's the business of preaching the gospel, baptizing those who are brought to the faith and doing teaching all things as we've been taught by Christ, as he said in Matthew 28, 19. This is the business of the church, the business of the kingdom. And he says, do it till I come.

But he said, his citizens hated him and they sent a delegation after him saying, we'll not have this man to reign over us. His own people, the Jews killed him. Not everyone believed it. And some said, well, we're not going to live under these conditions. And so it was.

When he returned, and in the story, then this sets up a time of judgment. This sets up a time when there is an accounting given. Having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. And so, 10 minas given out to 10 servants. One mina for each one, an amount of money. And now he's, there's an accounting as to how much has been gained by trading. Now, stop and think just what that says. There's a, you know, you set up the trade, you set up a business, you set up a plan to increase whatever talent you have. Whether it's a measure of money, a thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars. Whether it is a skill that you have in, you have adapted and or adopted. You've learned a trade that you have learned. Something you have been trained for in school. You go to school to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a programmer. You learn a skill. You learn a trade. You apprentice as a carpenter, as a plumber, as an electrician. You set up a business by which you will begin to support yourself. You are engaging, as they say, in trade. Among the English upper class of the Victorian or Edwardian period, if you were in the trades, you were in the lower classes. The upper class didn't engage in what they called the trades. That's the way they looked at it. Working day-to-day with your hands for a living. They looked down on that. But we all know that that is a means by which we not only earn a living, but we increase whatever we have.

And it takes a long time. And it takes work. And it takes effort to do it, to do it well, to be consistently good at it, and to gain. Or even if you set yourself up to be a money trader, a banker, a stockbroker, to earn your living that way, that takes a lot of work. That's not necessarily easy. I mean, you have to have a number of a lot of skills, sometimes luck, sometimes timing, all of that. But it's something you have to work at, if that's how you choose it as well. And that's the whole thing that is behind this giving each person a mina, giving them something, and then saying, go and do business with it. And we can look at the physical aspect of it and learn. But as important as that is, is the spiritual side of this. Because the ultimate meaning of this parable and all the other parables that use a medium of exchange to explain a spiritual principle. And there are dozens of them. You look through the Gospels, and so many of the teachings of Jesus deal with, he explains spiritual matters with money. And he uses that as a means of getting across a spiritual point about character. And that's why money and character so often are tied together. How we use it tells a great deal about our life and our character.

But that's another subject. But that's the most important lesson that really is behind this expansion of gain and trade through doing business. Well, verse 16 says, the first person came saying, Master, your mina has earned 10 minas. This is the man you want to spend your money with.

This is if you've got two minas, you wanted to give it, you know, an investment with somebody. This was the guy to invest it with. He knew how to use it. He knew how to use it. You know, you learn that over the years. Where to put your money, who to back, who knocked it back.

And sometimes you learn it by experience. Sometimes you just learn it by observation. And you make certain mistakes, you avoid certain mistakes. This man earned 10 minas, and he said to him, well done, good servant, because you were faithful and a very little have authority over 10 cities. And so he gives him authority over 10 cities. And this tells us that of something that is in terms of the nature of salvation or judgment, the nature of a reward and how and what God is going to do, Christ is going to do, when he returns and he sets up that kingdom. That there will be a reward and it will vary. Now the reward is not something we earn. Excuse me, we do earn that, but that's not the salvation. Salvation, we don't earn salvation. We went through all that in the previous sermon. But by what we do in terms of character, and change, and conversion in our life, we'll have a barrier in the judgment on how God uses us in the kingdom. This is what this parable with others is saying. Now the second came in verse 18 saying, Master, your minas are in five minas. So he took the one and he increased it fivefold. And he said you'll be over five cities. Now forget the cities part of it in the sense of, you know, look, if you want to look at, you'll be over five cities, 10 cities, you don't know how many you're going to be over. I don't know how many I'm going to be over. Sometimes I thought I want to be over planets rather than cities when it comes to the reward in the kingdom. But, you know, in reality, let's not start tallying things up. That's not the point that he wants us to start tallying and keeping score in that way. The important lesson is far deeper than how much we come out with in that sense. Then another came saying, Master, here is your mina. He gave him back the one that he had been given. I've kept it in a handkerchief, for I feared you because you were an austere man and you collected what you did not deposit, you reap what you did not sow.

And so he just took it, put it in a coffee can, and buried it. Didn't even put it into the temple or any place else to earn interest. You know, you and I would take $100 or $1,000 when we could put it in the bank and what will it earn today? 3 or 4 percent interest at the max in a passbook savings account or a money market account might get 5 percent with a brokerage firm, or you could invest it or whatever. I mean, if you wanted just a safe investment, government insured, we might get 4 or 5 percent as it stands today. Stick it in your bottom of your drawer or on page 300 of that big thick novel on your shelf and you know that you've carved out, you might stick it in there and forget about it, or you know, wherever you hide your money.

I'm not gonna ask who hides money because that's too personal, it's none of my business, but everybody hides the money. $20 here or $100 someplace and stashes it away. And that's fine, you know, for a rainy day or for emergency situation and whatever, but we all know that, you know, whatever amount we do like that, we're not earning anything. No, not even the interest that it could earn that we're setting in a passbook savings account.

That's not necessarily the attitude here. This person had other issues, other problems, and there was fear. Fear, perfect love casts out fear. God gives us a spirit which is a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. It's not a fear-driven mind in life. This person had fear, and he looked, he had a warped view of God. Say, you're a harsh, vengeful, judgmental, unfair God.

Whatever went through this person's life to cause him or her to think that, that's what they were, they had locked in on in their life at some point. Maybe not at the beginning, but at some point, they look, they had a warped view of God by circumstances that had come upon them.

And he said to him in verse 22, out of your own mouth, I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank that at my coming I would call that I might have collected it with interest? God expects us to do something with our calling. He doesn't expect us to just remain the same. He expects growth, even if it's only a small amount by comparison or within the means that we have available to us. He expects growth. And so he said, take the minor from him, give it to the one who has 10 minas. And they said to a master, he has 10. For I say to you that to everyone who has will be given, and from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. To bring here those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them and slay them before me. This is a pretty harsh parable. If you look at it just on the surface where he says, you know, bring those that don't do what they are to do, take away from them what they've been given, and slay those before me. And speaks of a time of judgment, a time of collection, and a summing up of life which will take place for every one of us.

And this particular parable talks, speaks to the fact that Christ is the nobleman, goes to receive the kingdom, and will return, and at his return will examine, will look at us. And the vast majority of God's people are going to fall into the category of the first two. I have no question in my mind about that. It's a matter of understanding that this is teaching us that in the kingdom, our reward is going to be based, be determined, by how we live our life today. That's why the statement that what we do today echoes in eternity, maybe a trite piece of Hollywood dialogue, but it does speak to an eternal truth that is in the scriptures, and does speak to the relevance and the importance of our life today. The value of our calling, the value of understanding the nature of the gospel and of the kingdom of God, and what this life is all about, to really understand the true and full meaning of conversion. What this parable is teaching us is that we are in training to rule with Christ, to have authority with Christ. And that authority is not a dirty word. It is what it is and means what it says. The only dirty aspect about authority is when it is abused, when those who have it don't know how to use it and misuse it. But it is something that is spoken of quite often in terms of the gospel, and especially right here, because it speaks to the responsibility and the role that we will have in the kingdom of God. And that is something we can never afford to let ourselves get too far away from in our thinking about our life and how we live our lives today. The decisions we make, the way we deal with our children, the way we deal with one another, our approach to God, then into His Word, our zeal for the Word of God and for understanding what it means and what it can teach us, because we are in training to rule with Christ, to help Him as He rules this earth as the coming King of Kings. That is not a revelation. It shouldn't be to any of us, but it should be a focus point. It should be something we focus on and keep sharp in our minds and don't just dismiss because of how long we've been around, what we may have been through, what the church has been through, what somebody else has done, or what is taking place in our life right now. Don't dismiss it, because it is at the center of the Gospel. It is at the center of what conversion is all about. It's at the center of why we are, in a sense, working toward the time when God is going to bring us into His family.

And it does bear on the things we decide, the things we do with our days and the weeks and the months of our lives, and how we handle this talent, this minom of calling that God has given to us, because God is going, is judging us. And it does matter. Eternity does matter, matter based on the things that we are doing today. Back in the book of Daniel, there are a few scriptures that we should just be reminded of to understand this. In the book of Daniel 2, in verse 44, this is the chapter in Daniel where he is introduced to Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar has had this big dream of an image. Daniel begins to talk to him about four kingdoms. He said, you're the first one, the head of gold. There are going to be three more after you, the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman kingdom. And he gives us this overview of world history, really, in chapter 2. But let's go down to verse 44. He comes down to the time of the days of the feet, the ten kings, the ten toes that are ten kings in Revelation, another sermon, another time. But verse 43 talks about the feet being in toes being iron mixed with ceramic clay. They don't mix together. And he said in verse 44, in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. That is the fifth kingdom of the book of Daniel.

There are four earthly kingdoms, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The fifth kingdom is the kingdom of God. And that, for the purposes of this sermon, what we're focused on is the most important. In reality, it is the most important. Let's go look at it here. He says, in the days of these kings, and it's speaking of the days of those ten kings which will be the time of the end just prior to Christ's return, this stone cut out without hands is going to smash that image on its feet at that point in time. And it will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. In the middle of this verse 44, where it says, the kingdom shall not be left to other people.

One of the key verses, a favorite thought of mine, this fifth kingdom will not be left to others.

The other kingdoms, the four that are mentioned here, and every other kingdom and empire that existed on the earth to that point, will have been ruled by other people. Other kings and dynasties and princes and politicians, dictators, all through these years. And all of that time will have been taken up by man learning his lesson, trying to establish utopia, millennial circumstances through human government, or just trying to be cruel in the most evil way that they possibly can, as an Edie Amin in Uganda in the 1970s, or a Hitler in Germany and Europe in the 1930s and 40s.

Whatever their motive, and some of them, they were trying to establish their version of a utopia based on materialism and secularism, and they will have had their chance. This kingdom will be given to other people. It will be given to those of the parable of Luke 19, who took the talent of the kingdom of God and did the business of the kingdom of God and worked toward that kingdom in their life. That's to whom it will be given. Those are the saints that will be given this kingdom, and not to anyone else. And it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. So this is the kingdom of God, spoken of by Daniel. Now turn over to chapter 7 of Daniel, because in this prophecy here, which is further elaboration of what chapter 2 talks about, Daniel 7, it is mentioned again in Daniel 7 and verse 18.

It says, but the saints, in speaking of the beasts and all of this and these visions, he said in verse 18, that the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. And then he said, I wish to know the truth of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful and everything. That's speaking of the empire of Rome. But down in verse 21, he said, I was watching, the same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing over them, against them, until the ancient of days came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High. And the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. I want you to notice something. This is right here in the middle. I've read you three verses, Daniel 2, 44, Daniel 7, 18, and 22, in the midst of one of the most complex prophetic books in the Bible, along with the book of Revelation. You've got beasts and horns. You've got little horns and big horns. You've got all kinds of images. You've got bad dreams.

You've got a man like Daniel fasting for 40 days to try to understand what it's all about.

These beasts and images and everything else. And he comes on, as you know, from the end of the book. He still doesn't know it all. But it's in the Bible, and it is important to study. It is important to have a grasp about, as well, along with the book of Revelation, for that matter, which the two obviously match up and go together. But the big why is in these three verses.

And I would say to you, maybe the most important thing for us to focus on is what's in these three verses. Don't worry about the other beasts and the 1260 days and the 1390 days of Daniel 12 and all these other things. Those are the details. Let God worry about that. Let the world do some prophecy worry about that. We don't worry too much about it, I'll tell you. Just enough to stay on top of it.

The real why of all of those prophetic events comes down to this point right here.

Sometimes we struggle with certain attitudes and questions that come up in this matter of prophecy within the church. And believe me, you've got all kinds of ideas in the marketplace of the church today. But sometimes people just don't even, you know, they're not interested in it. And I can understand that. They don't see the relevance of it. Well, that gets to be dangerous. There are a lot of things that are about to happen before we get to the kingdom of God that the scriptures tell us we do need to watch and understand so that we don't get tripped up. We don't get to see. There are some valid spiritual reasons to understand the basics of prophecy. But we don't need to get buggy about it. We don't need to get really detailed about it and try to figure out all these images and things that are down to the last detail. We can understand the trunk of the tree of the subject.

But God, you know, the answer is of the details is really with God, except on this point here where it says the real why of all of it brings us to the time when the saints are going to possess the kingdom. And that's what's most important for us to focus on and to remember. And to hold that kind of in a proper equilibrium with all the other interesting stuff over here that for some sometimes can be a problem to trip up with and all the aspects of prophetic teaching that sometimes get people buggy and cause them to kind of go off and onto unsound approaches toward the Bible and toward the church and the work and everything else. You've got to keep this tension there.

And you've got to understand what it's all about. And what it's all about are these contained in these three verses. At least the message is contained. Not that these are the only three in the Bible or even in the book, but they get us down to this particular point.

Because we are to receive the kingdom and we are going to be used with Christ to rule, to administer, to work out people's lives and to work out a world that is going to come and to reign and rule with Christ. We could read Revelation 20 in verse 5, but I'd rather turn to Revelation 2 and verse 26. This message to the church, Revelation 2 and verse 26 says, He who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.

These are the words of Jesus several decades after He gave the parable of Luke 19, when He was sitting on the right hand of the Father. As that nobleman gone off to a far country, but not yet returned, He said this in the Revelation to John, and it stands true today, I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel, as I also have received from my Father. Christ has received that kingdom and there is a time in waiting before it will be brought to this earth. Notice what He says in verse 26. He said, He who overcomes. That's the period in a time of conversion. That's what we are to do today, to overcome, to hold fast, as verse 25 says, or to endure to the end, as Matthew 24 says.

To overcome. That's what we have to do today. And this is why our overcoming is this process of conversion that is going to determine where God uses us when this time of the kingdom comes and the saints possess the kingdom. That probably is enough for us to focus on, but it should be enough to energize us and to help us really focus on our life today and to keep it in the focus of what it's all about. Because we can be discouraged, we can be overcome by ourselves, by this world, by Satan, the trials of life, the discouragements that come, and lose our focus. And that's exactly what Satan wants us to do, lose our focus. That is not what God wants us to do. We have to keep our mind sharply tuned on this. Notice something else about verse 26 there. He says, He who overcomes and keeps my works. Until the end, I will give power to that person. It doesn't say keeps our works. This whole matter of salvation and conversion and overcoming and works, it's not our works. It's not about us. There is nothing in the whole process of conversion that we can take credit for. Except a conscious decision on our part to follow God and to obey God. But from that point on, He does everything else. He grants us repentance, even the basic repentance that we have to have to be brought to baptism and ultimate conversion. When we sin, we seek His forgiveness.

Any work that we do in our life of righteousness, we ultimately have to give Him credit for.

If you ever look at your life at some point and see growth, and you can say that you are a more compassionate person today than you were 10 years ago.

Today, when you hear of a prayer request on someone's part who may be struggling with this serious illness, you have more understanding. You have more compassion.

You will pray for them. Whereas maybe 10 years ago, you just kind of forgot.

You wrote it down in that nice little notebook and forgot.

Come Sunday morning or Wednesday afternoon or Thursday night, whenever you pray, you forgot.

But now you remember it, and you pray for them. Maybe you will even write them a note, a letter, and you will pray more than once. And you might even follow up and say, what about so-and-so? And you know that there was a time when you didn't do that.

And you say, and you realize you do that now. Who do you give the credit for that to?

Take the credit all to yourself? Or do you say, that's God's Spirit that has changed my heart.

Do you really understand that? You give God the credit for it and the thanks for it.

Because the righteousness we do, we can't take credit for it.

If it is truly godly righteousness, we have to thank God for it. The privacy of our heart, in our prayers, in our mind, that's where it all begins and ends. And we give Him the credit for it.

Because He says here, you keep my works. That's the capital M right there.

And that starts with M that rhymes with my.

And that's in red letters, at least in my Bible, which means it's Christ talking. It means it's My works, His works, not mine. So the whole process, we can't take credit for anything, really, except, as I said, our conscious, human at will to decide to obey.

That's what we have to do. And that's really at the heart of Christian character and Christian conversion, is our will. God gives us that will, and we have to exercise it and make a choice and demonstrate character, godly character, by deciding to do what is right rather than doing what is wrong. God expects us of that. We can take credit for that. But anything that transpires from that point on, that's righteousness, we have to give God the credit for it.

That's why when we come together here on the Sabbath, when we keep the Sabbath, this is a time for God's works to be done with us. We're doing our work every all the other six days. We are running all over the place, making a living, keeping up with this, doing that.

Hours go by, the day's gone, boom, poof, just like that. We're going to do it all over again at six o'clock the next morning. And we have busy weeks, busy days. God says, keep the Sabbath, rest on the Sabbath. And that means we push out our works so that He can begin to do His works. If we crowd up the Sabbath with our works, His works aren't involved in us.

It's the difference between the amount of water that's running through that garden hose in the backyard of our homes. And maybe the water pressure is good, but you know, and it might water our plants, it'll water our yard, and keep our tomatoes from dying. And it's hot weather.

But if your house catches on fire, that garden hose is not going to do much good.

Your neighbor's house that might, and you've got two or three lengths of garden hose that can stretch to your neighbor's house, and you start pouring that water out of that garden hose, it's not going to do too much until the fire truck rolls up. And they roll out their big, what do they have, five, six, eight inch hoses that they screw on to the water hydrant in front of your house. And then you've got some water, and you've got some pressure. And then they can put the fire out. Well, that's kind of the rough, crude analogy to explain the difference between what is our work and God's work in us. And that's where we should be using the Sabbath to let God's work to be done in us, and helping to focus on Him, on His Word, through prayer.

We don't fill up the Sabbath with all kinds of other activities that keep us from praying and taking the time to study the Bible. Because I know how it is with our lives. We get busy through the week, and hopefully we get more than a few minutes through the week. But the Sabbath is a time for God to work through us, and we have to make room for that to happen, because He's talking here about His works, and helping us to focus on those things that are good, that are righteous, that are noble. You know, this week we had the cap you can do.

And the model this year was Philippians 4 and verse 8.

Very familiar verse to us. Philippians 4 and verse 8. This was the model that we tried to work into Bible classes and through the activities for the kids and the staff.

Where Paul says, finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are a good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Conversion is about coming to fulfill verse 8. And that, as we should know, as we look at ourselves, is a challenge and it's a struggle. But as we fulfill these concepts and these virtues, we're keeping Christ's work. Christ is working through us in these ways. And we are preparing, we are in training to be in the kingdom of God. That's what it's all about.

That's what conversion really means. There's a lot more that I can say and need to say on this subject, but I over-prepared today and I'll have to give this in part two of the sermon on conversion, which I'll do next time. But keep in mind that what we are doing today echoes into eternity.

And what we decide and how we live is going to make a difference in how God is able to use us and work with us in His kingdom. Above all, keep our minds focused on that truth and that reality in this process of conversion.