A conversion story - Part 1

From the Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan:

True conversion: Hopeful’s testimony.

Hopeful is telling Christian how he was converted - as he and Christian are walking across the enchanted ground - On their way to Mount Zion (Heaven).

Part 1: Hopeful as an unsaved, unregenerate sinner.

Christian began and said, I will ask you a question. How came you to think at first of so doing as you do now?”

Hopeful: Do you mean, how came I at first to look after the good of my soul?

Christian: Yes, that is my meaning.

Hopeful: I continued a great while in the delight of those things which were
seen and sold at our fair; things which, I believe now, would have, had I
continued in them, still drowned me in perdition and destruction.

Christian: What things are they?

Hopeful: All the treasures and riches of the world. Also, I delighted much in rioting, revelling, drinking, swearing, lying, uncleanness, Sabbath-breaking, and what not, that tended to destroy the soul.

From Salvation by Knowing the Truth – Sermon 1516 MTP.

“When a man comes in very deed to a knowledge of the truth about faith in Christ, he trusts Christ, and he is there and then saved from the guilt of sin; and he begins to be saved altogether from sin. God cuts the root of the power of sin that very day; hut yet it has such life within itself that at the scent of water it will bud again. Sin in our members struggles to live. It has as many lives as a cat: there is no killing it. Now, when we conic to a knowledge of the truth, we begin to learn how sin is to be killed in us-how the same Christ that justifies, sanctifies, and works in us according to his working who worketh in us mightily, that we may he conformed to the image of Christ, and made meet to dwell with perfect saints above. Beloved, many of you that are saved from the guilt of sin, have a very hard struggle with the power of sin, and have much more conflict, perhaps, than yon need to have, because you have not come to a knowledge of all the truth about indwelling sin. I therefore beg you to study much the word of God upon that point, and especially to see the adaptation of Christ to rule over your nature, and to conquer all your corrupt desires, and learn how by faith to bring each sin before him that, like Agag, it may be hewed in pieces before his eyes. You will never overcome sin except by the blood of the Lamb. There is no sanctification except by faith. The same instrument which destroys sin as to its guilt must slay sin as to its power. “They overcame by the blood of the Lamb,” and so must you. Learn this truth well, so shall you find salvation wrought in you from day to day.”

Spurgeon on the Holy Spirit.

Quoted from Receiving The Holy Ghost : Sermon 1790 Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit

“You know, dear friends, when the Holy Spirit was given in the earliest ages he showed his presence by certain miraculous signs. Some of those who received the Holy Spirit spake with tongues; others began to prophesy, and a third class received the gifts of healing, so that wherever they laid their hands disease fled before them. I am sure that if these powers were given now in connection with the reception of the Holy Spirit and your believing, you would all be anxious to possess them. I can hardly imagine a single Christian who would not put to himself the enquiry, “Have I received the Holy Spirit in that fashion?” You would want to be healing, or to be speaking with tongues, or to be working miracles by which you could benefit your fellow-men and glorify God: would you not? Now, be it never forgotten that those works of the Holy Spirit which are permanent must assuredly be of greater value than those which were transitory. We cannot suppose that the Holy Ghost brought forth the best wine at first, and that his operations gradually deteriorated. It is a rule of the kingdom to keep the best wine to the last, and therefore I conclude that you and I are not left to partake of the dregs, but that those works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier miraculous gifts which have departed from us. The work of the Holy Spirit, by which men are quickened from their death in sin, is not inferior to the power which made men speak with tongues. The work of the Holy Spirit, when he comforts men and makes them glad in Christ, is by no means second to the opening of the eyes of the blind. Why, sirs, men might have the gifts of the Spirit as to miracle, and yet might perish after all; but he that hath the spiritual gifts of the Holy Ghost shall never perish: they are saving blessings, and where they come they lift the man out of his sinful estate, and make him to be a child of God. I would therefore press it upon you this morning that, as you would certainly enquire whether you had the gifts of healing and miracle-working, if such gifts were now given to believers, much more should you enquire whether you have those more permanent gifts of the Spirit which are this day open to you all by the which you shall work no physical miracle, but shall achieve spiritual wonders of the grander sort. If we come to weigh spiritual operations, they are by no means secondary in the judgment of enlightened servants of God. Have ye then received the Spirit since you believed? Beloved, are you now receiving the Spirit? Are you living under his divine influence? Are you filled with his power?”

From "Scriptural Salvation". Sermon 2145 Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

"I am not ashamed of my hope; I love to state it, to glory in it, and to make it widely known. I heard of a “modern-thought” minister of some repute, that a person asked him, “Sir, what is your theory of the atonement?” He replied, “My dear sir, I have never told that to any living person, although I have been a preacher for years, and I am not going to commit myself now.” He seemed to think that this was rather a wise thing. My course runs in the opposite direction: I believe in the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, and I am not ashamed of the old-fashioned doctrine. “He loved me, and gave himself for me”; why should I be ashamed to own it? I will not believe anything that I dare not preach. I have a grave suspicion that it will go ill at last with the man who has one faith for the public and another for himself. We should be ashamed at being ashamed of Christ and his truth."

Quoting Spurgeon 22

This is my favorite Spurgeon quote.

From “Where to Find Fruit” Sermon #557.

“From me is thy fruit found.” Now there may be some saint here who has lost his evidences, and he dare not approachthe throne of grace as he used to do, because he says “I have sinned-I must produce fresh fruit before I dare come.” My dear friend! My dear friend! Bring fruit to Christ! How can you talk in so legal a fashion? All the fruit you ever will have you must first get from him! Come to him as you areand get your fruit out of him. Never suppose that you must bring Christ a present or else you must not come to him. He does not want your money.If he takes it he will give it back to you in your sack’s mouth. He will receive your fruit as an offering, but never as a reconciliation. There arethose here this morning who are not converted as yet. They are saying, “I dare not seek the Lord, I dare not trust Christ. I know the gospel is, trustChrist and you are saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but I must not trust him, I am a drunkard, I have been a swearer, I am a Sabbath-breaker, I will wait until I am better and then I will come to Christ.” Why how can you talk thus? “From him is thy fruit found.” If there be any fruit you must come to Jesus Christ for it. Am I, if I am poor and ragged, am I to buy a new coat before I may beg a garment? What astrange proposal that I should do for myself what Christ came to do. How can that be reasonable? If I saw a man standing outside the baths andwash-houses, and he should say, “Well really, I’ve just come home from my work and am as black as a sweep, but I dare not go into those bathsuntil I have washed my face first.” I should say, “How foolish! it is in the bath that your washing is to be found.” There is no fitness wanted forChrist but that which is in Christ: nothing wanted in you, everything is in him. To use the old proverb,” Why carry coals to Newcastle?” Who wouldthink it a profitable business for our London merchants, in the cold winter time, when the price of coals is very high, to charter all the ships they can,and send them laden with coals to Newcastle? If they did so, you would think them mad. And yet there are many sinners penniless, comfortless,with no good thing of their own, who want to bring good works to Jesus! This is carrying coals to Newcastle with a vengeance. Oh! folly! folly!folly! Go with your ship all black and empty, sail up the harbor, and the pit’s mouth will soon yield to you an abundance of precious store. Go toJesus as you are. Do you want faith to-day-repentance-grace? Go to Christ for it. Go to him, resting on him, dependent on him, believing that he isready to save you, to begin, to carry on, and finish your salvation. He will be as good as you ever believe him to be, and infinitely better. If thou canst believe him princely enough to put all thy sins away, and to cover thee with his righteousness, he will do it, for never man thought too well of Christ. Ifthou canst get a big thought of Christ, thou big sinner — if thou canst believe on the eternal Son of the eternal Father, who once poured out hisblood in streams on Calvary thou art secure. God help thee. Amen.

Quoting Spurgeon 21

quoted from "WHITHER GOEST THOU? " Sermon #2098.

“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me,
I shall come forth as gold.”—Job 23:10.

IV. Fourthly, HAVE YOU CONFIDENCE IN GOD AS TO THESE STORMS?
Can you say, in the language of the text, “When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold”? If you are really trusting in Jesus, if he is everything to you, you may say this confidently; for you will find it true to the letter. If you have really given yourself up to be saved by grace, do not hesitate to believe that you will be found safe at the last. I do not like people to come and trust Christ with a temporary faith as though he could keep them for a day or two, but could not preserve them all their lives. Trust Christ for everlasting salvation: mark the word everlasting.” I thank God, that when I believed in His Son Jesus Christ, I laid hold upon final perseverance: I believed that where He had begun a good work He would carry it on and perfect it in the day of Christ. I believed in the Lord Jesus, not for a year or two, but for all the days of my life, and to eternity. I want your faith to have a hand of that kind, so that you grasp the Lord as your Savior to the uttermost. I cannot tell what troubles may come, nor what temptations may arise; but I know in whose hands I am, and I am persuaded that He is able to preserve me, so that when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. I go into the fire, but I shall not be burned up in it; “I shall come forth.” Like the three holy children, though the furnace be heated seven times hotter, yet the Son of man will be with me in the furnace, and “I shall come forth” with not even the smell of fire upon me. Yes, “I shall come forth,” and none can hinder me. It is good to begin with this holy confidence, and to let that confidence increase as you get nearer to the recompense of the reward. Hath He not promised that we shall never perish? shall we not, therefore, come forth as gold? This confidence is grounded on the Lord’s knowledge of us. “He knoweth the way that I take”: therefore, “when he hath tried me, shall come forth as gold.” If something happened to us which the Lord had not foreseen and provided for, we might be in great peril; But He knows our way even to the end, and is prepared for its rough places. If some amazing calamity could come upon us which the Lord had not reckoned upon, we might well be afraid of being wrecked; but our Lord’s foreseeing eye hath swept the horizon and prepared us for all weathers. He knows where storms do lurk and cyclones hide away; and He is at home in managing tempests and tornadoes. If His far-seeing eye has spied out for us a long sickness and a gradual and painful death, then He has prepared the means to bear us through. If He has looked into the mysterious unknown of the apocalyptic revelation, and seen unimaginable horrors and heartmelting terrors, yet He has forestalled the necessity which He knows is coming on. It is enough for us that our Father knows what things we have need of and “when he hath tried us, we shall come forth as gold.”

Quoting Spurgeon 20

Sayings from “Salt Cellars” – Don’t be a donkey.

If a donkey brays at you, don’t bray at him.

Which you will do if you answer railing by railing. Take as a specimen and a warning the following: An American editor speaks of his rival as “mean enough to steal the swill from a blind hog!” That rival retorts by saying, “He knows he lies: I never stole his swill.” Do not fall into the style (we had almost said sty) of these editors.