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&In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths&

"Convinced or Converted"

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Recently, the Lord so graciously afforded me the opportunity of witnessing to a group of about six or seven people directly and a number of others who were present at that time.  This one young lady in particular who I was speaking to about her soul and where she would spend eternity, admitted to me that she was lost and said that if she were to die that day she would go to the "boogie man".  Well, I did my very best to present the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to this young lady as well as to the others.  Then I asked her would she like to have the assurance that she would spend eternity in heaven rather than in hell.  She said, "No".  What a terrible tragedy, but I pray and have been praying for this young lady that the Lord will call her to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ before it is eternally too late.

After presenting the gospel to this young lady and offering to lead her in a prayer and receiving her reply of "no", I told her that I could possibly keep talking and maybe even talk her into asking the Lord to save her, but that I wasn't going to do that.  I told her that my job was merely to present the gospel to her and not to convince her, but that, that was the business of the Lord.  I told her that if I could talk her into salvation, some other man who could talk better than me could talk her out of it and that she wouldn't really be saved at all.

After I had finished speaking with this young lady, I proceeded to speak individually with the others and all but two of them professed to have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.  Those who did profess their salvation however, showed absolutely no evidence that they knew the Lord, so I explained to them to the best of my ability, how that for years I professed to be saved, but that I only had religion, but I didn't have the Redeemer.  My efforts made no difference with them, but there were still two more precious souls present which the Lord so wonderfully saved.  These two souls needed no convincing, because they were already convicted and they eagerly accepted the wonderful free gift of salvation. 

Friends, I did not save these two precious souls, neither did I convert them, and neither did I convince them.  That's not my job and if it were, I couldn't do it.  All my job is, is to present the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That would be like saying that the gloves that a surgeon wears performs the operation.  Without the surgeon, not only would the operation be a failure, but it wouldn't even get done at all.  No friends, the Lord Himself has to do the operation or else there is no operation.  Any man, woman, boy, or girl who gets saved does so through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ upon the cross or else there is no salvation.  I cannot on my best day give someone that faith.  True, I could possibly make them believe that they are a lost sinner and that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins, but they still wouldn't have faith and without faith, there is no salvation. 

I heard a story once of a man who was on a tight rope over Niagara Falls.  This man was turning flips on this tight rope and he was walking on his hands and just doing all sorts of tricks.  While the man was doing all this, a crowd gathered and began watching him.  The crowd was really cheering for this man and he suddenly ran down that tight rope over to where the crowd was.  As the man approached the crowd, he asked them how many of them believed he could carry a man in his arms across that tight rope over to the other side.  Everyone exclaimed, "After what we've seen you do, we all believe that you could carry a man across to the other side."  Then the man held his arms out and said, "Who'll be first?". 

Friends, these people in the little story were convinced that the man could carry a man over to the other side, but not to the point of trusting him to carry them across.  They believed that he could do it, but not to the point of getting involved.  That, my dear friend, is like the difference between believing and faith.  In our churches today, there are a great many people who are cheering the Lord Jesus on, but when He holds out His nail scarred hands and says, "Let me take You across.", they really aren't that sure.  Many a man, woman, boy, and girl have been convinced by some other man that there is a Saviour who will carry them across, but they have not yet trusted Him to the point of placing their very own souls in His hands.

How many times in churches, have there been people who would go forward at the end of the service rededicating their lives to the Lord over and over and yet there is never a lasting change made in their hearts and lives?  Now I won't say all of them, but a great majority of them have never trusted the Lord to the point of actually getting involved.  Like the crowd at Niagara Falls, they have believed, but also like the crowd at Niagara Falls, they have not had faith. 

I heard a man on the radio yesterday telling a story of when he was on a tour of Israel.  He said that on this certain morning they were supposed to go and tour a certain sight and the tour guide, who was a Jew, told them that they were forecasting heavy rains and that they probably wouldn't get to see the sights they were supposed to see.  The man told the tour guide that he would like to pray for the Lord to give them good weather that day.  The tour guide told him that he was welcomed to go ahead and pray but that he considered prayer to be just wishing.  Well, the man said he prayed and that when they arrived at the sight, they had beautiful weather all that day.  When a lot of people pray for the Lord to forgive them of their sins and to save them, they are just wishing.  I heard a sermon recently where the preacher told of people who when asked if they were saved would say, "I hope so."  Friends, these people are wasting their time hoping, because they are not saved.  Faith is not hoping.  Without faith, there is no hope.  With faith, there is surety and no man, no feeling, no circumstance can take that away.

Now, if faith is what a person has to have to be saved and if a man cannot give a person faith and if a person cannot muster up within himself the faith it takes to get saved, how then can a person get that faith?  I'm glad you asked.  "For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:"  Ephesians 2:8.  It is the grace of God that makes this faith available to all who will receive it.  It is God's gift to man.  All a person has to do is to sincerely desire that faith and ask for it and His Word says he will freely give. 

Are you in His arms on your way to the other side or are you merely standing on the sidelines cheering Him on?  Are you sure, are you absolutely sure that if you were to die today that God has forgiven you of your sins and that Jesus Christ will present you before Him faultless to spend eternity with Him in heaven?  Please don't just hope so.  Please be sure.  Be very sure.