Following Christ As A Saint & Sinner - Karlos Limtiaco - Session 4 - The Necessity of Genuine Conversion

Lord, we just come before Your throne of grace. We thank You for this morning. We thank you, Lord, that though a good number of our people here have had COVID, that, it seems that those that we have been the most concerned about are on the mend, trending in the right direction. We thank you for that.

we pray for continual healing as well as protection for those of our people who have yet to get COVID. Just got word of a, a family in my own care group who think that they may actually have it, so that would be a, a new family. Be with them, Lord. Protect them.

And Lord, we just pray a blessing upon us this Lord's Day. There is much going on from the Sunday school hour to the church service with baptisms at the end. What a, what a great day, Lord, and just bless us in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

OK, so we continue on following Christ as saint and sinner, just by way of review quickly, we looked at the great commission briefly. and then beyond that, we covered the necessity of an exalted view of God and, and stemming from that, the necessity of humility. And in the last week it was the necessity of a magnificent view of Christ, the necessity of a magnificent view of Christ. And I'll give you one example.

The apostle Paul, he is always ministering out of the overflow of an exalted view of Christ. He believes firmly in the sufficiency of Christ, the authority of Christ. the power of the gospel to effect change. at the very end of Colossians chapter one, he says, we proclaim Christ, admonishing every man and teaching every man that we might present every man complete in Christ.

Again, he says, we proclaim Christ and, and he believes that the proclamation of Christ is powerful enough to effect change. I'm gonna go ahead and Dragged your attention to the first chapter of Colossians. In the first chapter leading up to we proclaim Christ, beginning in verse 13. he says regarding Christ, he rescued us from the domain of darkness, and then he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

In Him, in Christ, we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. He, Christ, is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn, the, the preeminent.

Of all creation, for by Him, by Christ, all things created both in heaven and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, all things created through Him and are for Him. He is before all things. Speaking of his eternal existence in eternity past, he existed. He's before all things, and in him all things hold together.

He is also head of the body of the church, and he is the beginning, the first born from the dead, the preeminent one amongst those who have died. And he was the first one born, I think, in this context at speaking of his resurrection from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. So you see what Paul is doing. He's presenting an exalted Christ, an exalted Christ.

He goes on to say it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of the cross through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. He goes on to say, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, you were engaged in evil deeds. Yet he, Christ, has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him wholly and blameless and beyond reproach.

What Paul is doing is he's presenting this exalted, this magnificent view of Christ, and if you take the time to unpack what I've just read to you, it is an exalted view of Christ. And then as we skip just a few verses and we come to verse 28, this is where he says, we proclaim Him. The one that I just presented to you is the one Paul says that we are proclaiming, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom. Here's the purpose.

This is why we proclaim Christ so that we may present every man complete in Christ. You want to present disciples complete in Christ, then you proclaim Christ. That is the primary need. That is the chief need.

Help them to lay hold of who Christ truly is. Again, the necessity of a magnificent view of Christ. And I love what Paul says in verse 29. He says, for this purpose also I labor, right, for the purpose of presenting every man complete in Christ, for the purpose of discipleship, for the purpose of building up the kingdom, for the purpose of the glory of Almighty God.

For this purpose I labor, striving. According to his power, which mightily worked within me. What an encouragement to know that we minister. Not by ourselves but with Him who is with us as we minister.

And so we've got this need for a magnificent view of Christ. There's so much more that could be said. You can go to virtually every single epistle. You can unpack what each of the epistles says about who Christ is, and you have this exalted view of Christ.

And then Paul ministers from that, from that starting point, the starting point of an exalted view of who Christ is. So that was that. So today's topic is the necessity of genuine conversion, the necessity of genuine conversion, and I think the bottom line, what I would want to say is that when a person is soundly saved, there is a difference that is made. Bottom line, right?

And so as we're making disciples, we are for sure wanting to look for fruit. Now we don't necessarily want to get hung up on the fruit or the lack thereof. We don't want to focus on that as much as we want to focus on Christ, presenting Christ, helping them to lay hold of who He is, because we know that the transformation is the overflow of Christ in their lives. So we're seeking to build them up in faith, not in law, not in works, OK?

So that's important, but nevertheless, there will be a transformation of life. There will be a change. It is impossible for the person who is born of the spirit to not manifest some change, some transformation from the inside out. So let's consider a few quotes.

George Whitfield once said that true repentance will entirely change you, and of course repentance is necessary for genuine conversion, right? So true repentance will entirely change you. The, the bias of your souls will be changed. Then you will delight in God, in Christ, in His law, and in His people, right?

There's a delight in God and the things of God because we're transformed. We're new. Paul Washer says when God saves a man, He is regenerating his heart, turns him into a new creature, and the evidence is this He will live like a new creature, and he will confess Christ. Again, Paul Washer, there's a few quotes here from him.

If a person professes faith in Christ and yet falls away or makes no progress in godliness, it does not mean that he has lost his salvation. It reveals that he was never truly converted. Those who are in Christ will persevere. Now they may go through seasons where they struggle to bear fruit.

OK, I direct your attention to John chapter 15, where you've got the vine and the branches and you've got the gardener and, and Jesus says, every branch in me, that bears fruit, he prunes. I want you to think about that. Every branch in me that bears fruit, he prunes. Well, if you think about the pruning process, the gardener comes in, he starts pruning, and let's say that you go and you see that fruit tree immediately after it's been pruned, you're going to look and you're going to see no fruit.

Sometimes what happens is in the cutting away, there may be these seasons where you don't quite see the fruit that you are used to seeing, but that's just part of the process. Eventually the gardener who knows what he's doing will see to it that even more fruit gets born. And so sometimes there's a cutting process that does result in greater amounts of fruit, but for the time being you're looking, it's like where did the fruit go? OK, and, and, and so, so we're we're open to the fact that in the life of a genuine believer they may go through.

What, some theologians in history past has called a dark night of the senses, a dark night, a dark season, those can happen, so if it happens to you or to someone you're discipling, don't be discouraged, right? don't immediately go to the place of, oh, I, I doubt that they're saved. You just, may maybe it's just they're going through the season and they will come out and so how do you get them through? What is the key to helping them get through this season?

It's Christ. It is always Christ from beginning to end. And so you seek to instill hope, hope which serves as an anchor to the soul. You seek to instill hope, helping them, though they're going through a dark season, to, to look to Him as, as strengthless as they feel they might be.

They need to look to the one from whom they will be strengthened, OK. Another quote, It is absurd to think that a man can believe in Christ with his heart and it not have a radical effect on the rest of his life. Steve Lawson, he says the voice of Christ is so powerful that it awakens the spiritually dead in the grave of sin to hear it and live. part of what he is saying is that the dead will come to life in genuine conversion.

Life is given, and, and at the other side of that there will be a change. The greatest work again, Steve Lawson, the greatest work, God ever performs was not the creation of the universe out of nothing, but is the new creation of saints out of sinners. Salvation is nothing less than a miracle from God. It is God who takes dead people and makes them alive.

OK, so with that being said, let's move towards some introductory statement, an introductory statement regarding conversion. Genuine conversion requires right thoughts regarding God, self, and Christ, so we've already covered that in the 1st 3 weeks. The one great triune God of the universe is supremely holy in His entire being, and He demands nothing less than perfection from His creatures who have been created in His image and therefore must reflect His image in their relationships with one another.

This is what it means to glorify God, and this is man's chief end.

Our chief end is to glorify God. By enjoying Him forever and then the overflow of that is that we are in solid relationship with one another manifesting God's attributes, His communicable attributes, being conformed into the image of Christ, being like Him, against the backdrop of God's blazing glory, such creatures are brought low. We realize that we are but from the dust and we are humbled by the reality that we are sinners beyond our ability to fully comprehend. Yet wonder of wonders, Almighty God sent His Son into this fallen world to secure salvation for sinners such as you and I.

As we come to an understanding of who Christ is and what He has done, we begin to have a magnificent view of Christ. It affects our inner person. By the grace of God our eyes are illumined, and as we see such grace, such marvelous, infinite matchless grace as packaged in the person and work of Christ, we are drawn to Christ by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. God, the Spirit is at work in us, drawing us to God Himself, being drawn as we see the grace of God, it becomes increasingly irresistible to us.

The grace of God is irresistible to the humbled sinner in whom the effectual call of God is experienced. When I say effectual call, the call of God that has a positive effect on us. That is the effectual call. Many are called, but few are chosen.

There are those who will. Receive the call but reject the call, and there are others who will receive the call and it will have an effect on them. And so theologians refer to that as the effectual call of God where he speaks and the sinner responds favorably and he experiences conversion. And so, We find ourselves repenting of our sin and simultaneously believing in Christ alone for salvation, and herein is conversion.

Such a conversion is necessary and will be accompanied by change. It is vital for us to realize that such a change flows from faith in Christ. We do not change to be converted. We are changed because we are converted.

Nevertheless, we experience a definite change that accompanies our conversion as we answer the call to disciple. We call sinners to repent of sin, trust in Christ. On the other side of conversion, we call saints who sin to continue in a lifestyle of repentance and trust in Christ as we encourage such disciples to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which they have been called. Ephesians chapter 4, I believe it's in verse 1.

And so let us consider some passages. I don't want to read through the whole thing. I'll read through a big section of, of Matthew 13:1-23., on that day, Jesus went out of the house, was sitting by the sea, great multitude gathered to him so that he got into a boat, sat down, and the whole multitude was standing at, on the beach. And here we have the parable of the seed and the sower.

He spoke to the many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up, and others fell upon the rocky places where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And others fell among the thorns.

Thorns came up, choked them out, and others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some hundredfold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears, let him hear. And the disciples in verse 10, they go on, they ask Christ the question, right? they've got a personal audience with Christ.

Why do you speak to them in parables? And then Jesus is gonna respond to that and the bottom line is not everyone who hears, hears. It's not granted to everyone to be able to believe, to understand, to comprehend these lessons. It, it, it, it does demand the illumination of the spirit.

It does demand God opening up the eyes of one's understanding to have understanding of what Christ is teaching. So I'm gonna forward. To verse 18. Jesus, in explaining the parable, here, then the parable of the sower.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. And the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no firm root in himself but is only temporary.

And when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some hundredfold, some 60, and some 30. In this parable Jesus presents four types of listeners.

Only one type of listener responds in faith to the word. Only one type of listener is truly saved and will persevere in his faith. The parable should sober us, and it warns of the dangers and distractions that would seek our undoing and ultimate destruction, as well as the undoing and destruction of those to whom we, we counsel or whom we disciple. So let us examine some things about this parable, Roman numeral one.

The sower who sows seed is one who ministers the word of God. And so as those who would disciple, that's what you are, right? You're ministering the word of God. You are sowing seed.

OK. And Roman numeral 2, the one who ministers the word of God should anticipate 4 types of hearers, right? Number 1, there are those who hear and do not understand. And in this case, the devil snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

We are engaged in a spiritual battle. OK. We can preach our hearts out. We can minister Christ, to the nth degree, and that does not negate the fact that the devil himself may arise and seek to snatch away what we are seeking to sow.

So we are engaged in a spiritual battle. There is a devil, he is alive and well, and he seeks to destroy. Don't be caught off guard, don't Don't be surprised when you're discipling, especially when you're discipling a brand new believer, one who is freshly in Christ. You, there, there, there may be some attacks, there may be some efforts to, to, to prevent such a person from continuing on.

Number 2, there are those who hear the word, receive it with joy, and quickly fall away because of affliction or persecution, trials, or just the threat of being persecuted because they are professing Christ and so as a result of a Affliction or persecution, they, they by and by fall away. Number 3, there are those who hear the word, but the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, right? Materialism choke the word so that the fruit cannot bear, so, so that fruit cannot be borne.

And then 4, right, this is the good news.

This is encouraging. There are those who hear the word, they understand it, and they bear fruit, right? These are the ones who are genuinely converted. They bear fruit, and you'll know this back in the parable, varying degrees of fruit.

Some people will be extremely fruitful. Other people might be less fruitful, if you're just looking at it with your naked eye. But the fact is, all believers will bear fruit. To some degree.

Right. If there is no fruit, we might conclude that there is no root. Fruit will be born. Fruit is the product of faith in Christ.

So we go on to 3 here, Roman numeral 3 application from this parable for discipleship. Number 1, we must sow the seed, minister the word. So take the truth of God's word and seek to minister to it in now listen to this. This is important in my mind.

We must do so in a God exalting. Gospel centered. Bible-based prayer-infused relational approach, right? As we minister the word, we do so in a God-exalting gospel-centered Bible-based, right?

That's redundant, Bible-based, prayer-infused relational approach. That's how we seek to do discipleship. Number 2, we must anticipate resistance and obstacles. Don't be surprised, don't feel like you all know, caught off but this is just part of God's plan, right?

God will allow these difficulties to come in order to refine and so we encourage people with the fact that there's a purpose, right? and the difficulties that come their way. So again, anticipate resistance and obstacles. Number 3, we must persevere, knowing there will be some who experience genuine conversion and bear fruit.

Number 4, we must help those who are converted to anticipate the resistance and obstacles that they, that, that may come against them. So as you're discipling someone, you wanna help them to understand these things. Now, now, there, there, there will be satanic opposition. In your own life and as you seek to bring others to Christ and as you seek to disciple others, there will be opposition.

Don't be surprised when that happens. the, the, the fact of the matter is, is God actually uses the satanic opposition to accomplish his purposes, right? I think of first John, wherein I think it's chapter 2 where John says, I write to you, little children. I write to you fathers.

I write to you young men, and then he ends up describing the young men as strong young men, right? And so the question is, how did they become strong? Well, he says, you've overcome the evil one and the word of God abides in you. You have overcome the evil one.

So what that tells me is that as a person transitions from child in the faith to strong young man, there will be attack, satanic attack, and as you seek to overcome that through faith in Christ, taking up the whole armor of God, resisting the devil, and he flees from you, you are being strengthened to the point to where at some point you become what we would refer to as a strong young man in the faith. You have overcome the evil one, and the word of God abides in you. Notice the sword of the Spirit is the word of God, and that's what he uses with which to do battle, and that's what you're seeking to help those that you disciple to do.

Take up the sword of the Spirit, right, and put on the whole armor of God and do battle because it's common, it's common.

Again, helping those who are converted to anticipate the resistance and obstacles that may come, satanic opposition, affliction, trials, basically. Now, don't think that because you've come to faith in Christ, that life therefore will become easier. I was, counseling someone just this last week and this person, this young professing believer has this view that if you come to Christ, then life should become smooth, and we had to correct that. No, you come to Christ, in some ways, the battle is on.

You come to Christ in some ways, you then begin to feel the inner turmoil, the struggle. when you're not in Christ, when you're dead in your sin, you can dive into sin, no conviction, no worry, no, just But then you come to faith in Christ and all of a sudden there's an inner battle that you feel, the battle between the spirit and the flesh, and in some ways, life is a little more frustrating, right? In some ways. That's why you got to keep focused on Christ because it's in him that we have joy.

It's in him that we are encouraged. It's in him and him alone that we have hope. So afflictions will come, persecutions will come. And if someone comes to faith in Christ, right, they're in the early stages, at the very least, it's a profession, we got to wait it out to see if it's genuine, but, but, but it's oftentimes it doesn't take long before there's this opposition.

I remember when I first came to faith in Christ, my dad says you are following the devil. And he just ridiculed me and criticized me. I'm like, Dad, following the devil, I'm, I just, I, I, I just repented of all and I, I listed all these sins. I just stopped doing this, that and the other.

I'm not doing drugs anymore. I said, and I'm going to church and I'm praying and I'm like in the word and all of the stuff and, and you're saying that's the work of the devil,. There's a persecution that came to me through my dad way back when I first came to faith in Christ. That's pretty minor, but sometimes the persecution is intense and we want to help those that were discipling to be able to, to be strong against the face of such opposition.

Jesus says in this life, you will have trials and troubles, right?, and, and, and, and they hate me, they're therefore gonna hate you, right? That, that's just, that just comes with the program. So it's not as if, God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life. In a way it's true, in eternity, but this side of eternity, it may mean difficulties.

and if we are willing to enjoy the persecution, then that would be an indicator that we truly are in the faith. Worldly worries. you, you want to help those that you disciple to overcome the worries of the world, worldly riches. And those worries come in all kinds of forms, and every time, a difficulty comes one's way, that gives them the opportunity to look to Christ and in so doing, to be strengthened.

With power by the spirit and the inner man, it is opportunity. So fifthly, here we must encourage those we are discipling to persevere in their faith, which hinges upon hearing, believing, and applying the seed of God's word. Parable of the seed and the sower. Again, I just want to underscore the fact.

There will be fruit born in the life of someone that's genuinely converted. There would be fruit. You, you, you, it's kinda like you, you come in on an accident and you've got bodies all over the place, the cars are all mangled and what do you do? You, you, you're checking for a pulse.

You, you don't, you don't need a super big pulse, but you need some sign of life as you're, doing the triage things with all of the different bodies and you, there's gotta be some sign of life and, and a little bit of fruit being born is an indicator that there is life. OK. Matthew 7:17, Jesus says, even so every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. James 2:14-26.

let me just read through it, make some comments and, and conclude from this. What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? It's a rhetorical question.

The implied answer is no. Faith without works cannot save him, and he's going to unpack his thinking. Example, if a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warm, be filled, yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Is that gonna help them?

Is that any use to them? No. You've been, you've, you've been useless to them. You haven't helped.

You're not operating out of the overflow of, of faith. Verse 17 says, even so faith. If it has no works is dead, being by itself. Faith, if it has no works, is a dead faith being by itself.

Faith alone, right, saves, but faith that is alone is not true faith. Verse 18, but someone may well say, right? And so, and so James is quoting someone who is saying this, You have faith and I have work. In other words, what they're saying is, is that they're like different gifts, your strength is, is you have faith and I, I have works and they're trying to separate the two and James contends you, you can't separate the two out, right?

Someone is saying, one from among you may very well say, you have faith and I have works, right? So that's the quote. Now listen to how James might respond to that. This is how James responds.

He says, show me your faith without the works. Show it to me. I want to see it. Go ahead, show me your faith without the works.

Part of what is, is implied is it can't be done. It's just you, you're not. If you look for faith without the works, you're not gonna find it. Go ahead, show it to me.

my ears are open, my eyes are open. I, I, I'll listen, I'll see. Show me your faith without the works. James says, I will show you my faith by my works, let, let me be an object lesson for you.

I'll show you. My faith, the genuineness of my faith by how I live my life, by the works that flow from my faith. So, James wants us to understand that, that the two do go hand in glove. You can't like separate the two.

If you have genuine faith, you're gonna have a transformed, transformed life in which works are evident. James goes on to say in verse 19, he says, you believe that God is one. In other words, you, you, you've got right belief here regarding who God is, that he is one, you do well, and then it's almost like James's big deal. Just intellectual belief isn't gonna be the thing that saves you.

There's gotta be some transformation of life downstream of faith in order to prove that you're really saved. You can have the right orthodoxy, but if you don't have the right orthopraxy, right? The right practice, then that doesn't really prove much to me at all. He says the demons also believe.

They shudder, they, they've got this belief and at the very least there's a response from them, they're shuddering, but you guys, you don't even have the sense enough to shudder. At the thought of, of, of God. Then he says verse 20, but are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow? That faith without works is useless.

He gives the example of Abraham. We're not going to get into that. I know in the interest of time, and then he goes on and he gives the example of rehab. Write the example of rehab.

And in verse 26, he says, as we, arrive at a concluding statement here, for just as the body without the spirit is dead. So also faith without works is dead. In this portion of Scripture, James emphasizes the fact that genuine salvation always results in a changed life in which good works are evident. Faith is critical.

Faith is important. Faith alone saves, but faith that is alone cannot, cannot save. Right. Thus those who are truly converted will manifest good works.

Good works are the fruit of genuine faith. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but faith that is alone does not save. I just want to address, I'm the back. Pedal just a little bit looking at verse 21, he says, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

there's gonna be some that will look at that passage and say, see, a man is justified by works, and I don't know that this passage is teaching that he's justified by his works insomuch as what it is communicating that. That the, the, the proof of his faith is found in his works. His faith is defended, his faith is justified. His faith is, is seen to be the real deal by the works.

In that sense, right, he's being justified by his works. His work served to prove the sincerity of his faith, right? So I just, as I saw that, I just wanted to backpedal on that and just point that out. Let us now turn to First John, where John presents effects of the new birth.

First John. First John, effects of the new birth. I'm just going to read through the passages. First John 2:29.

If that he is righteous, that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him, born of the Spirit, born again. The born again person seeks to practice righteousness. First John 3:9. No one who is born of God practices sin.

It doesn't mean to say he doesn't struggle with sin. John earlier says, if we, if, if, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to purify us from all unrighteousness. And within the context there in the first chapter, that is what it means to walk in the light. As you're walking in the light, you have fellowship with Him, and the blood of Jesus' Son purifies us from all unrighteousness, and as you're walking in the light, as sin is being exposed, if you confess your sin, He is faithful.

He is just, He will absolutely forgive you of your sin. This is important as we maintain fellowship with Him. Right? our relationship will never change.

We're sons of the Most High God, but the issue of fellowship, right? Enjoying intimacy with him hinges upon a lifestyle of confessing our sins to Him. And walking with Him, walking in the light. First John 4:7, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

How do that you're born again? How do that you truly love God? How do you're a child of God if you love the brethren? You cannot divorce love for the brethren from being born again.

They go hand in glove. First John 5:1, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. Again, love for the brethren, confessing Christ, the truth about Christ, not their own version of who they think Christ is, but Christ has revealed in the scriptures. First John 5:4, whoever is born of God overcomes the world.

This is the victory that has overcome the world, our, our faith, right? What we overcome the world. We're not allowing the world to conform us into its mold. Because we're in Christ, the spirit that dwells.

We are not of this world anymore. We are new creatures in Christ. We think differently. We behave differently.

We're just, and, and if you don't sense that, then you have to ask yourself, like, am I born again? Because he who was born of God like overcomes the world. OK. Not perfectly.

We still wrestle with the remnants of indwelling sin, yet we are saints, yet simultaneously sinners at the same time. But there is a transformation that happens. There is a change. We are fundamentally different.

The Spirit takes up residence in us, and from the inside out we are new, right? We are new. We are born of the Spirit. First John 5:18, we know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin.

The one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. So the one who is born of God does not continue, because you're going to be convicted by the Spirit. And the Spirit's gonna convict you. He's gonna hound you.

You're not gonna be, wretched man that I am, Paul says in Romans chapter 7. Who's gonna rescue me from this body of death, I, it's thanks be to God through Christ. that, that's, that's the, that's the ticket out of the bondage. It's faith in Christ, it's belief in him, and again, we're gonna have to continue to fight the good fight of faith until the day he takes us home and we are finally glorified.

And so this lesson has focused on the necessity of genuine conversion. Those who experience conversion have repented of sin, embrace Christ as Savior, and manifest a transformation of life in which fruit is born and good works are evident. That's the bottom line. And as you minister, as your disciple, we are looking for an encouraging transformation, right?

Don't get too fixated on what they do or don't do. Fix their attention on Christ and help them to understand that when you're in Christ, there's a change, and downstream of that change, we should see fruit. We should see evidence, signs of life. There should be a pulse somewhere, and, and we, we make a big deal over even the smallest changes that we see, and we make a big deal over the big changes that we see, but we constantly encourage seeking to be conformed into the image of Christ through faith in Christ alone.

Right, well, we're over time, so we're gonna end. Let me pray. Lord, just minister to us through what we have contemplated. I pray for everyone in this room that you would build us up in the faith, help us to look to Christ alone and trust in Him alone.

Thank you, Lord, that there is a righteousness from God apart from the works of the law. It is through faith in Christ. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for this peace.

That comes through you and not through the law. And Lord, we are now free to walk in the newness of life. We are free, to honor you, to obey you in our attitudes, in our words and in our actions, Lord, help us. We surrender ourselves to you as living sacrifices.

We pray that you would continue to do your work in us and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.