And Sinners Shall be Converted Unto Thee 1978

It's amazing how many times the Spirit of God works from so many different angles in the preparation of a service. That was Psalm 51, wasn't it, that answer? It sounded like it anyway. Psalm 51, I'm almost sure.

And that's what I felt that I was to bring today. Really, the whole Psalm 51, which we can read on our own, later on in the day or whenever it's convenient or your desire. But I'd like to read 10 through 13 of Psalm 51.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Once we have begun to come free from the need to impress human eyes with our labors in God's kingdom. And I say begun because that thing goes on and on.

So that now we're satisfied that God's eye sees what we're doing, and that's all that matters. Once this starts to happen in our lives, we begin to experience a new kind of discontentment. A holy discontentment which comes from God.

So that now we're troubled, not by the fact that people don't appreciate us, they don't understand us, nobody pays attention to me, nobody realizes what I'm going through, it's no longer that. Now we are troubled by the fact that so many of the lives which we are touching in the name of Jesus remain unconverted. From our own experience, surely we've come to know that the only hope for the human soul is a conversion.

A complete turning around, a total radical change. Unless that happens, you know, these cosmetic improvements and these superficial changes in people's lives don't amount to very much. The man may go to Bible studies every time they have a Bible study, and this lady may be reading spiritual Christian literature until it's coming out her ears.

But if there isn't an inner change, you know, if those chains haven't come off her heart, if that bar of iron doesn't break inside her, and those gates of brass don't yield so that her heart remains isolated from God's mercy, whatever superficial changes may be happening in his life or her life, that person goes right on in the old rut. And eventually that will become obvious. And as we look around our own lives and we see, you know, how that works, people whose lives we've touched, and yet when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, they go right on.

They go to Bible studies, they go through the church routine, and yet somehow that change hasn't happened. Lord, all these people that you put across my path, and yet so few conversions. Why, Lord? We notice that the woman of Samaria comes to the well to draw water, and she is quickly drawn into conversation with this Jesus of Nazareth.

And before that conversation is over, that woman is converted. I mean, she doesn't get down on her knees and start to cry, perhaps, but there's a change in her life. And immediately what we see, she leaves her water jar, goes back into the village, and says, Come see a man who told me all I ever did.

Is not this the Christ? And on the strength of this woman's very simple testimony, the whole town begins to get moved, and many of them are converted, brought to faith. And the reason, of course, is that they never heard this woman talk like that before. They've known her for a long time.

They know what she's been up to. But now, words are coming out of her mouth that utterly amaze them, and they have to go and find out what's going on. And then, as a result of this, many in that town experience the same thing she did.

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all I ever did. So, when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, It is no longer because of your words that we believe, but we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. Now, is it too much for us to expect that in Detroit, which is a kind of American Samaria, a lot of people would rather go around Detroit than through it, words could be put on our lips, changes could be brought about in our hearts that would enable us to come across with what needs to be heard, that will bring about faith in people's lives, conversion, something radical, something real.

Is it too much to expect that from our very lips, that kind of ministry may go forth, and that people get hungry for Jesus, and turn their lives around, and come to him, and find that this is so, and experience the life that these people did? Surely that's not unrealistic for us to expect this to happen in our own lives. The harvest around us is ripe, this is obvious. We're surrounded by souls that are almost begging to be converted.

You can almost hear the cry coming out of people's hearts. Convert me, show me something good, lead me to the fountain of living water, take me to the cross, help me out of this mess that I'm in. We're living in an hour where there will be conversions in abundance.

As a confirmation of this, as I was thinking and praying about this, yesterday down in the streets we saw a couple isolated incidents of just that kind of thing. Down in Kennedy Square, two of the people were talking to a man, and just broke down sitting on the bench. I was in front of Hudson's, listening to an 83-year-old believer, woman, telling me about Jesus, and one of the sisters from here was talking to a young woman who was well-dressed, and seemed to be very together, and I was just watching, and tears started going down her eyes, her face, and she's getting the Kleenex out, or her sister giving her Kleenex, and she just can't stop.

And you could see, this is the moving of the Spirit of God, this is something supernatural, this is God moving. And we're going to see more and more of this. Any fellowship of believers that at all tries to live in the presence of God in this hour, is going to see people turning around, in abundance, almost everywhere it goes, almost every single day, under almost any circumstances.

But, we have to understand the means by which God brings about this conversion, because most of us have a wrong idea. Most of us, if we really got down to it, would still think that conversion is to be brought about by some kind of evangelistic hotshot. Somebody who really knows how to talk.

Somebody who has all the Bible verses together and can hammer them out. You know, 1, 2, 3, 4 spiritual laws, 7 steps of salvation, this and that, programming them to an experience of rebirth. And this is never the way it is, never.

A lot of us still seem to think that when some Christian celebrity comes to town, then everybody's going to get converted. That's not the way God operates. But it's always through channels, people who are painfully conscious of their own sinfulness, and their own need of God's mercy.

Now, the center of the whole thing, to begin with, is Jesus himself. And to understand, Jesus does not fly into town in a Learjet, in a $700 suit, and a diamond stick pin, and hobnob with princes and kings. Jesus is down at rock bottom, at the lowest place.

He is the one who became sin for us. He's not some kind of spirit that hovers over us at a distance and converts us by remote control. But he's down in the mire, with us, takes us by the hand.

He's our brother, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, the son of man, breathes the same air we breathe, walks on the same earth we walk upon, enters into the same waters of baptism we do, experiences every single temptation we have ever known, or will ever know, and dies our death. And when Jesus sends somebody to us with a gospel, this person who's going to really get through with a gospel to us is almost invariably somebody who knows himself to be, or herself to be, a sinner. Needing that blood, hour by hour, needing that grace, day by day, all the time.

Who was it who said, then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee? Notice it was not some evangelist who just finished a masterpiece sermon, and he looks at his notes and he says, this is going to do it. Man, when I get up there and preach this, they're all going to be on their knees and on their faces. But rather, those words came from a man who was utterly broken, weeping with repentance, filled with remorse for what he had done.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. That's the testimony that's couched, cradled inside the most penitential psalm David ever wrote. The psalm begins like this, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness.

According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.

David knew very well that what he had done with Bathsheba, and what he had done to Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, when he sent him off to the front and had him killed, were sins against God, which even after they were forgiven, would leave a scar in circumstances the rest of David's life, and on through the centuries of history which would follow. And yet, sinner that I am, Lord, if you will create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me, and if you will not cast me away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me, and if you will restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with your free spirit, then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to you. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Such words are presumptuous except when they come from the heart of people who are continuously thanking God for their own conversion. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Where were you when Jesus found you? Maybe you looked pretty good, but you were in the mire.

Maybe nobody knew that, but perhaps you didn't even know it. But you couldn't even think straight. Maybe you were running some church somewhere.

Maybe you were getting the award for the Christian Citizen of the Year, but you knew in here what garbage was there. How can we ever forget what he did to us? How can we ever forget where he brought us from? If he hadn't come and yanked us out of that web of evil, and washed us with his blood, and quickened us with his spirit, where would we be? Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. To be able to say that.

But such words are presumptuous except when they come from a person who knows his utter, her utter, desperate need of God's mercy continuously. We're just as much in need of God's mercy right now as the day we were first saved. And some of us can point to a day and an hour, and some of us can't.

That doesn't make any difference. But we're just as dependent right now for answers to our prayers, for the air we breathe, the food we eat, peace in our hearts, some vision of God's presence, for God's mercy, as we were the day that we first found Jesus. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

A lot of us still, you know, have in the back of our minds, one day I'll have a knack of it. That's not the way it goes. Those words are meaningful and genuine only from the lips of people who are continuously crying out to God for a clean heart and a right spirit.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Who of us can say that we got out of bed this morning with a clean heart? And who of us would dare to say that we walked in here today, into this building, with a right spirit? The effort is to be expended, not in learning some technique for converting people. The effort is to be expended in finding the God who can give us a clean heart and a right spirit all the time.

That we pursue him so that we really come into his presence. And so that we truly, and in fact, are filled with his spirit. Not just goosebumps, but the spirit of the living God.

That we have restored to us the joy of his salvation in truth. And are upheld with his spirit, which is free and gives freedom to everything it touches. When we're under that kind of influence from God, then no matter where we go, people will respond when we say, come see a man who turned my life around.

If you're living in the presence of God, then you can expect to see conversions. If you are continuously dependent upon God for mercy, you can be sure that everywhere you go, there will be conversions that will last. Almost without effort, and to your own amazement, as a result of your living testimony to God's mercy, people will be shown the way of the merciful God.

And sinners will be converted to him. Why do you think God is sending to us at this hour, all these people, not just to this church, I'm talking to our, in our private lives, the things that are going on. Our doors are being knocked upon.

The phone rings day and night. We're getting letters from our old friends. Faces are coming up in our prayers.

I believe we're going to have to, we're just getting too much traffic in and out, in and out. Where if the adults are coming in, the adults who are in charge of these children, don't stay on the ball. Somebody else will have to do it.

But today, it's just getting, if I don't cut this down, say something about it, next week we'll have twice as many. And then, you know, by a month from now, we'll all be taking off during the service. And so we'll just have to kind of all work together to keep this tight so that we can concentrate.

This is essential. The only time in the whole week that we all are able to get together and worship God and concentrate on these things, that we hold things under control. But I don't believe it's an accident.

The way all around, in all of our lives, who have any sense of God at all, we're getting more action now than we've ever had in our lives. Phone ringing, letters from old friends, and so forth. People coming to us with their needs.

All kinds of needs. The only reason is that we might be able, you know, to impart that thing. We're not to send them away empty, but to give them what they're seeking.

God help us to settle for nothing less. Each one of us. Each one of us.

Than the power to truly turn people around to the Lord. You don't hire somebody to do that for you. You do it.

God help us to so live in his own mercy. So live as people who have been converted. So conscious of what he is doing in our lives right now.

That we may be people who know God's peace in Jesus Christ. Live in that peace. And are truly able to touch in a life-giving way those lives that come to us right now with hungry hearts.

In the midst of all this, if there should be anybody right now who's hearing the Spirit of God call, you know, then it means that he wants to convert. And there's no set routine we have to go through. It just means that we answer the call, we turn around, we come.

And if it helps to kneel here at the altar rail before the service ends or afterwards, do that. If it means praying, sitting in your pew or standing up or whatever, it doesn't make any difference. But may the Lord encourage everyone who's standing outside the door and hearing the call to turn around and come to him today.

Let's wait upon him in prayer. Oh Lord, the needs of so many. Help us to have our eyes open to see how many there are.

And enable us to get our eyes off ourselves sufficiently that we begin to really understand and hear those cries that are coming from every direction. Deliver us from the misconception that we have to be skilled technicians to bring people to know you, Lord. Bring us to the place where we're utterly overwhelmed with your forgiveness for us.

And so filled with an appreciation of that forgiveness, that we may just spontaneously cause people to see your way of mercy and bring them to know you and to love you. We pray that as we go forth from this place today, Heavenly Father, you would enable us all to go so filled with the spirit of your sight that the lives that we touch in this coming week will be touched with authority, with healing, and with power. We ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.