Three thousand persons gather at Pentecost, Peter preaches to them, and tells them that Jesus whom they had murdered was really the Christ of God; they are pricked in the heart, they believe, and are baptised on the same day.
Have we not here three thousand sudden conversions? Sudden enough to prove my point. Furthermore, we need not go back to Scripture for this. The matter of the conversion of souls is one about which I feel it a weariness to argue, because these wonders of grace happen daily before our eyes, and it is like trying to prove that the sun rises in the morning.
By the space of twenty years there has certainly never occurred to me a single week, and I might with truthfulness say scarcely a solitary day, in which I have not heard of persons being converted by the simple preaching of the gospel either here or elsewhere, when I have borne witness for Christ; and these conversions have been in far the greater majority of instances very clear and well-defined.
Sometimes the children of godly parents who have been long hearing the word are converted, and in them the inward change is as marked as if they had never heard the gospel before. Infidels become believers, Romanists forsake their priests, harlots become chaste, drunkards leave their cups, and, what is equally remarkable, Pharisees leave their self-righteous pride, and come as sinners to Jesus.
It has been supposed by some that the moment a man is converted he thinks himself perfect. It is not so among us, for we rather question the conversion of any man who thinks himself perfect. It is thought by others that a converted man must be henceforth free from all doubts. I wish it were so. Unhappily, although there is faith in us, unbelief is there also. Some dream that the converted man has nothing more to seek for, but we teach not so; a man who is alive unto God has greater needs than ever.
Conversion is the beginning of a life- long conflict; it is the first blow in a warfare which will never end till we are in glory. In every case of conversion there are these signs following.
There is always a sense of sin. No man, rest assured, ever found peace with God without first repenting of sin, and knowing it to be an evil thing. The horrors which some have felt are not essential, but a full confession of sin before God, and an acknowledgment of our guilt, is absolutely required. True conversion always has in it a humbling sense of the need of divine grace. Conversion may be known, next, by this fact, that it changes the whole man.
It changes the principle upon which he lives; he lived for self, now he lives for God; he did right because he was afraid of punishment if he did wrong, but now he shuns evil because he hates it. He did right because he hoped to merit heaven, but now no such selfish motive sways him, he knows that he is saved, and he does right out of gratitude to God.
His objects in life are changed: he lived for gain, or worldly honour; now he lives for the glory of God. His comforts are changed: the pleasures of the world and sin are nothing to him, he finds comfort in the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. His desires are changed: that which he once panted and pined for he is now content to do without; and that which he once despised he now longs after as the hart panteth after the water brooks.
His fears are different; he fears man no more, but fears his God. His hopes are also altered. His expectations fly beyond the stars. The man has begun a new life. The very faces of our children look different to us, for we regard them under a new aspect, viewing them as heirs of immortality.
We view our friends from a different stand-point. Our very business seems altered. Even taking down the shutters of a morning is done by the husband in a different spirit, and the children are put to bed by the mother in another mood.
We learn to sanctify the hammer and the plough by serving the Lord with them. We feel that the things which are seen are shadows, and the things which we hear are but voices out of dreamland, but the unseen is substantial, and that which mortal ear hears not is truth.
I may go on to talk about this, but none will understand me except those who have experienced it, and let not those who have not experienced it say it is not true. How do they know? How can a man bear witness to what he has not seen? If a credible witness declares that he knows such a thing to have happened it would be easy to find fifty persons who can say that they did not see it, but their evidence goes for nothing.
Here are men of position, quite as keen in business, and able to judge between fact and fiction as other men, and they tell you solemnly that they have themselves experienced a wonderful, thorough, and total change of nature. Surely if their honest testimony would be taken in any court of law, it ought to be taken in this case. Brethren, I pray that we may know what this change is, and if we do know it, I again pray that we may so live that others may see the result of it upon our characters, and inquire what it means.
The phenomena of conversion are the standing miracles of the church. This day the dead are raised, blind eyes are opened, and the lame are made to walk. The spiritual miracle is greater than the physical one. These spiritual miracles show that Jesus lives and puts life and power into the gospel.
Tell me of a ministry which never reclaims the drunkard, never calls back the thief to honesty, never pulls down the self-righteous and makes him confess his sin; that, in a word, never transforms its hearers; and I am sure that such a ministry is not worth the time which men spend in listening to it.
Woe unto the man who at the last shall confess to a ministry fruitless in conversions. If the gospel does not convert men, do not believe in it; but if it does, it is its own evidence, and must be believed. It may be to some of you a stumbling-block, and to others foolishness, but unto those who believe it is the power of God unto salvation, saving them from sin.
Beloved hearers, may we all meet in heaven; but to meet in heaven we must all be renewed, for inside yonder gates of pearl none can enter but those who are new creatures in Christ Jesus our Lord. July 18, By the end of his life, Spurgeon had preached the gospel to an estimated ten million Victorians, all without television, radio, microphones, or the Internet. Thousands of Londoners were converted under his four-decade ministry.
Some were orphans, others beggars. Many were prostitutes, chimney sweeps, and domestic servants. Yet all of them shared one thing in common: …. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was …. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, ….
For example, an advertiser runs a campaign with an audience of 20, people. Out of that group, people clicked on the ad ie. KPIs associated with conversion are key to assessing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. You can only determine your ROAS if you measure how many users convert as a cause of that spend.
In this case, the conversion rate for installs and in-app purchases both need to be considered in your analysis to learn how to convert users from install to purchase.
AppLovin provides a platform for advertisers to reach new users that are likely to convert. Our algorithms identify pockets of inventory with users who are most likely to download after they have seen an ad. All rights reserved. It involves a change of will, which is a volitional change, an intentional turning away from sin and a turning to God through Christ to seek forgiveness.
The entire person—mind, affections, and will—is radically, completely, and fully changed in conversion. Theologically speaking, regeneration and conversion are two sides of the same coin.
Regeneration is the implantation of new life in the soul. Regeneration gives the gifts of repentance and faith. On the other side of the coin, conversion is the response of the one who is regenerated. Esteemed British pastor D. It is the first action of the regenerate soul in moving from something to something. There is a cause-and-effect relationship between these two. Regeneration is the cause, and conversion is the effect.
Put another way, regeneration is the root and conversion is the fruit. To affirm true conversion implies that there is also false conversion. Put simply, there is such a thing as non-saving faith.
People may know the truth and may have felt grief regarding their sin, but it is a selfish sorrow over what their sin has caused them to suffer, not how it has offended a holy God. The most stark example of a false conversion we have in Scripture is that of Judas Iscariot.
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