Theological term
Conversion
13 sermons · All terms
Ask FGBC #61: Conviction of Sin Before or After Regeneration?
The question of whether conviction of sin precedes or follows faith is examined through the lens of the ordo salutis. Conviction of sin necessarily precedes faith because without it the sinner would see no need for Christ, yet Scripture nowhere prescribes a fixed period of misery as a prerequisite for receiving the gift of faith. Conversion is the divine bestowal of the graces of faith and repentance together, not a staged sequence in which the sinner must accumulate sufficient guilt before God acts. The call of the gospel is not prolonged self-examination but immediate flight to Christ, and the doctrine of presumption that keeps sinners in unnecessary bondage is a Catholic, not Protestant, imposition on the gospel promise.
Ask FGBC #17: What does it mean to repent and believe?
Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin in the gospel call, yet they are not equals: the principal act of conversion is faith, and justification is by faith alone apart from works. Repentance, properly understood, is a change of mind concerning sin — not a moral clean-up prerequisite — and is itself a gracious gift granted by God (Acts 11:18). The elements of the ordo salutis (regeneration, repentance, faith, justification, adoption, the beginning of sanctification) occur simultaneously, not sequentially, and neonomianism is identified as a live danger whenever repentance is turned into a condition the sinner must satisfy before coming to Christ.
How the Gospel Brings Change
The short letter of Philemon presents the gospel's power not merely to declare sinners righteous but to produce visible, concrete change in behavior and in human relationships. Paul's appeal to Philemon on behalf of the runaway slave Onesimus illustrates how regeneration transforms a person — one who was once unprofitable becomes profitable — and how that same gospel demands a corresponding transformation in how believers treat one another. The sermon traces Paul's careful, love-driven appeal (vv. 8–11) and the theological grounding of his request for Onesimus' reception (vv. 12–16), showing that God's sovereign providence over Onesimus' flight to Rome underscores the principle of Genesis 50:20: what men mean for evil, God means for good. Hearers are called to extend the same patient, gracious forgiveness to others that God in Christ has extended to them.
The Healing of Naaman
The healing of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 exposes a pagan military commander who possesses everything except the one thing he needs: cleansing from leprosy and reconciliation to the living God. The passage traces the providence of God in orchestrating Naaman's encounter with Elisha, Naaman's fury at the simplicity of the cure, his genuine conversion and humble confession of faith in Yahweh alone, and finally the greed of Gehazi, whose attempt to put a price on God's free grace earns him the very disease Naaman was healed of. The sermon presses toward these gospel applications: sovereign grace humbles its recipients rather than inflating them, salvation is by grace alone through faith alone with nothing added, and God's grace is not a commodity to be bought, manipulated, or supplemented with human achievement.
The Problem of Sin and the Mercy of God
Proverbs 28:13 sets the problem of sin and the mercy of God in sharpest relief: the one who covers his sin will not prosper, while the one who confesses and forsakes it will have mercy. Working through biblical examples — Adam, Achan, Saul, David, Aaron, Ananias and Sapphira — the sermon exposes the instinctive human strategies for concealing sin: outright denial, minimizing its gravity, blame-shifting, religious compensation, and abandonment of moral categories altogether. The solution is not Roman Catholic penance but genuine confession that sides with God's indictment and genuine forsaking that constitutes the inseparable twin of saving faith — what Christian theologians call conversion — received only through Christ, the surety upon whose head the confessing sinner lays his hand by faith.
The Healing of Naaman
The healing of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 is exposited as a portrait of sovereign, free, and humbling grace that reaches beyond Israel to a Gentile enemy — a Syrian military commander who is not only cleansed of leprosy but converted from idolatry to the living God. The sermon traces God's providential orchestration through a nameless captive servant girl, Elisha's deliberate absence from the healing, and Naaman's progression through fury, submission, confession, gratitude, and resolution — all paralleled with the offense and power of the New Covenant gospel. The contrast between the converted pagan Naaman and the perverted Israelite Gehazi underscores that Yahweh's grace is free and cannot be bought, bartered, or manipulated. Hearers are called to recognize in Naaman's conversion the marks of genuine saving faith: humble confession, gratitude, and a sensitive conscience toward the one true God.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 19, 2017 PM
This expository sermon on 2 Kings 5 traces the threefold structure of Naaman's healing: the providence of God working through a nameless Israelite servant girl, the conversion of a Gentile enemy of Israel, and the judgment upon the covetous Gehazi. The sovereign Lord is shown to govern Syrian politics, military affairs, and the destinies of servant girls alike, so that his free grace — which cannot be bribed, manipulated, or earned — reaches even those outside the covenant community. The congregation is called to see in Naaman's conversion a pattern of genuine New Covenant salvation: humility under the gospel, confession of the one true God, gratitude expressed in worship, and a sensitive conscience regarding ongoing sin.
The Early Ministry of Elijah
First Kings 17 introduces the prophet Elijah as God's direct answer to the institutionalized Baalism of Ahab's reign, demonstrating through drought, miraculous provision, and resurrection that Yahweh — not Baal — governs rain, life, and death. The chapter unfolds in three movements: the prediction of drought as a covenantal curse and assault on Baal's domain, the provision of the prophet through ravens and a Gentile widow in Baal's own homeland, and the power of God displayed in raising the widow's son. Jesus himself interprets this narrative in Luke 4 as a type of sovereign election and divine judgment — God withdrawing his word from unbelieving Israel while extending grace to a Gentile outsider. The sermon calls hearers to the same faith the widow of Zarephath displayed: staking everything on the veracity of God's word.
Of Free Will (2LCF9)
The doctrine of free will, rightly understood, is not denied by Reformed theology but carefully defined according to the fourfold state of man as Scripture and the 1689 London Baptist Confession (chapter 9) set forth. This confession-study exposition works through the four paragraphs of chapter 9 — man's will in innocency (able to sin and not to sin), in sin (unable not to sin), in grace (freed from bondage yet still corrupted), and in glory (perfectly and immutably free to good alone) — showing that each state demands a distinct account of human liberty. The doctrines of total depravity, effectual calling, and remaining corruption are not isolated abstractions but are woven into the covenantal structure of the confession, where chapter 9 stands between the covenant mediator (chapter 8) and the application of redemptive benefits (chapters 10 and following). Believers are urged to pray for dead sinners with urgency, to pursue Spirit-enabled obedience with vigor, and to take honest comfort in the confession's frank acknowledgment of remaining corruption rather than retreating into either perfectionism or despair.
The Suffering Servant
Christ's suffering in 1 Peter 2:21–25 is first and foremost substitutionary atonement, not merely moral example — yet because he bore the sins of his people in his own body on the tree, his conduct under unjust suffering becomes a pattern for servants and all who endure hardship for conscience toward God. Drawing extensively on Isaiah 53, the sermon expounds the sinlessness of Christ as the ground of his perfect sacrifice, the imputation of sin to the sin-bearer, and the definitive freedom from sin's penalty and power that his death secures. The recovery of straying sheep by the chief Shepherd and Overseer is traced to sovereign, efficacious grace — not to any act of the will — calling believers to meditate on these realities as they come to the Lord's Supper.
The Greatest in the Kingdom
Matthew 18:1–4 confronts the disciples' dispute over who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven with a child placed in their midst as the model of kingdom greatness. The sermon exposes pride as a systemic spiritual disorder native to fallen humanity — present even among the regenerate — and argues from Christ's own words that the kingdom ethic inverts worldly ambition entirely: the greatest is the most humble. Three means of cultivating genuine humility are set out: knowing oneself rightly through Scripture, knowing the person and work of Christ in his self-humiliation, and knowing the glory of God as revealed in texts such as Isaiah 40.
The Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch
Acts 8:26–40 records the Spirit-directed encounter between Philip the evangelist and an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading Isaiah 53 on his return from Jerusalem. The sermon traces three movements in the passage: the Holy Spirit's sovereign direction of Philip to the eunuch, Philip's exposition of Isaiah 53 as fulfilled in the person and work of Christ, and the eunuch's conversion and subsequent baptism by immersion. The central burden is that Christ's atoning work — his obedient life, substitutionary death, and vindicating resurrection — is the only ground on which any sinner, however excluded by law or circumstance, may be forgiven and brought near to God, and that believer's baptism is the public, visible sign of that inward, Spirit-wrought grace.
The God of Heaven, Earth, and Prostitutes
Joshua 2 presents one of Scripture's most startling demonstrations of sovereign grace: God saves Rahab, a pagan harlot of Jericho, through her faith in the God of Israel. Her confession — that Yahweh alone is God in heaven above and on earth beneath — echoes Israel's own creed from Deuteronomy 4:39 and constitutes a genuine renunciation of paganism. Her conduct, conviction, and flight to the mercy of Jehovah form a textbook pattern of conversion, and she is honored in the genealogy of Christ, in Hebrews 11, and in James 2. The sermon calls hearers to marvel that God sovereignly saves notorious sinners, and that the church is not a club for the respectable but a refuge for the broken who have been brought near through the blood of Christ.