The teaching of Scripture on conversion must determine the way evangelism is done and even our preaching. The mindset for evangelism and preaching must be that a person must be converted and not just pray a prayer. It is not that a person must be convinced of facts to be believed, but that the person must be converted from an unbelieving soul to a believing soul. The soul must not just say the words of a prayer, but the words must be from a soul that has been converted and are the true expression of the heart. Preaching the good news is not just about hell, it is about a Savior “who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age” (Gal 1:4). Unless one is delivered from this present evil age that person has not been converted and not saved from eternal death. What follows is a Scripture that gives a mindset that is necessary for biblical preaching on conversion.
Ezekiel 37:1 – “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.”4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’ 5 “Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'”
The LORD took Ezekiel by the Spirit into a valley of bones. The question was “can these bones live?” He was told to prophesy over the bones. We can imagine what was going on in the mind of Ezekiel then. Why would God command him to prophesy to a bunch of dead bones? But notice what happens in verses 5-6. Ezekiel is to tell the bones that God will cause breath to enter them and come to life. This is very instructive on how to preach. Sinners cannot make themselves alive; they are utterly dependant on the LORD. As God commanded Ezekiel to preach to dry bones, so He commands preachers to proclaim His Word to dead sinners. As Ezekiel realized it was God who raised dead bones and gave them life, so preachers must realize that God alone can make dead sinners alive by grace. Dead sinners must be made alive and be converted, but it is God alone who can do the work. Preaching must point to this rather than the ability of a human being to make themselves alive. Preaching must point to the utter need for a true conversion to occur by the hands of the living God and not the abilities or power of the human will.
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.”‘” 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army (Ezekiel 37).
Ezekiel did not fully understand why he was to prophesy to dead bones, but he obeyed. Verse 7 shows he did what he commanded and prophesied to dead bones. As he prophesied he told dead bones that God would breathe on them and make them alive. The bones came together and the flesh grew but there was no life. What did he do? Did he change the method from what He had been commanded? No, he prophesied as God had commanded him (v. 10) and the breath came into them. We must learn that preaching is commanded, but the method and message of preaching are also from God. While the working of the Spirit is mysterious (John 3:3-8), that does not mean that preachers are not to preach that conversion is a work of the Spirit. We must not preach to dead sinners that they have the power to pray a prayer or to believe in their own power, but we must preach that the power of God is in His Word and used by the Spirit. When we resort to human means, powers, or abilities; we are turning from the power of God in converting sinners and relying on the arm of man to do what only God can do. In our day we have been given over to methods and all that human wisdom can contrive in order to get people in the doors of the building and to get people to make professions of faith. But dead sinners must be made alive by God! Dead sinners will only be made alive by the Spirit of the living God. Dead sinners must be preached to and the words of the living God declared to them because it is the words of God that are used by God. Human methods are dead and will not raise the dead. The Word of God is alive and the Spirit of God can use it to make sinners alive.
In our day preaching has either become the simple teaching of the facts of the Bible or it has become another method of self-help. But true preaching must be more than just instructive, it is a declaration of the living Word of the living God. It is preaching the living word to dead sinners knowing that the living God can make the dead come to life. Preaching is not just informing people of the facts and then urging them to make up their minds on the information, it is declaring the words of God to the dead bones that He can make them alive. It is declaring to sinners that God makes the dead come to life. But this would mean that we must preach to sinners that they are dead in their sins and trespasses so that they can know what it means to be made alive (Eph 2:1-4). Until one realizes that s/he is dead, that person will not understand the nature of true life.
Sinners are in spiritual death and they must have spiritual life. It is foreign to people to think much less understand that they are dead. But if they do not understand something of their deadness then they do not understand that they need to be made alive by the Spirit of the living God. That is one reason why so many people are deceived in our day. They don’t understood what spiritual death is and so they make a decision about Christ and think that in some way they are alive. There are so many who have made decisions and lead religious lives that do not understand the basics of spiritual death. They go from service to service and from one social activity to another while thinking that they have life. Yet, sadly, they are nothing more than dead bones. They have not been made alive by the Spirit of the living God. As such, they have not been converted by God and they are not new creatures in Christ Jesus.
We are trying to talk people into doing things that they can do in their fallen nature. This is trying to get the dead to give themselves life. The Word of God must be proclaimed to them so that they may live rather than just get along in the religious world. A truly converted sinner is alive to God in Christ Jesus, but the non-converted person can be extremely religious and to some degree devout. But they are not converted people and they are not the temple of the living God. It is only when dead sinners have been made alive and have life Himself dwelling in them can they be said to have eternal life which is true life indeed. For some reason God uses preaching to bring this about as pictured by Ezekiel 37. Romans 10:17 teaches us that faith comes by hearing: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Yet two verses just before that (Romans 10:14-15) tells us how people hear: “14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”
Preaching the Word of God is not something to be done lightly. It is not to be done with nothing but illustrative stories and jokes. It is not to be done in just an informative way so that people will live better lives. In preaching there is to be an encounter between sinners and the living God. In preaching there is to be the proclamation of the sinfulness and deadness of human beings and the power of God to make dead sinners alive. It is through the preaching that dead sinners are made alive. But it is not by what goes as preaching today, it is by a true declaration of the words of the living God to sinners. This is not to denigrate all the evangelistic efforts and methods, but it is to say that they must be aimed at getting sinners to hear biblical preaching. As one goes through the book of Acts one is pressed quite hard to find any evangelism in it other than what is built around the preaching of the Word of God. That is because people looked to conversion in those days and not just getting people to agree to some facts.
This may be offensive to many, but the doctrine of conversion does not fit with much of the evangelism being practiced today. The Word of God tells us of the importance of preaching and we must have our beliefs and practices shaped by Scripture. We are commanded to preach the Word (II Tim 4:2). Just before that verse we have the teaching of Scripture as being breathed by God (II Tim 3:16). The natural result of having the words of God is that they must be proclaimed in the way He says they are to be proclaimed. He has sent the Word according to His eternal purpose and He knows how it is to be carried out. He uses His proclaimed Word to convert sinners, not just convince them to pray a prayer and become more moral. If we believe in biblical conversion, we must use the means He has given. He who brings dead bones to life when Ezekiel prophesied can and will bring dead sinners to life when His Word is preached as He has commanded. But we must preach it in truth looking to the true conversion of sinners and as to what it will take for them truly to be brought to life. Preaching the Word of God as the Word of God is vital to the conversion of sinners as it is how God brings the spiritually dead to life. It may be easier to preach easy sermons with jokes and stories or to simply teach the facts of the Bible, but that is not what God has commanded in terms of bringing sinners to life. We must preach the Word or we are not really preaching.
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