80 Sermon Illustrations on Conversion Experience

The Rev. J. C. Smith gives the interesting history of a young man who was a friend of the captain of the United States ship Hornet; and had engaged to sail with him, from the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, as clerk on the voyage in which the Hornet was lost—probably in a hurricane in the West Indies. At the hour of sailing Providence prevented his embarking—but he had already, when alone in the cabin, discovered in the sideboard drawer a tract, (Heaven Lost, by Baxter,) having on the titlepage a cut, with the words, "If thou art lost say not that thou hast not been faithfully warned." "I was amazed," he says; "I trembled; I opened the book and read its few but powerful pages. The life, the energy, the reality I found in every paragraph are fresh in my memory. I began to pray, I searched the Scriptures. I had received a wound which nothing could heal but atoning blood." It was while in this state of mind that the cruise was abandoned. On his way home to Maryland, he found in a steamboat, and read with profit, another tract—on the authenticity of the Scriptures. The insignia of the navy were laid aside. A desire to make known the love of God to sinners was awakened in his heart; he began to prepare for, and in due time entered the ministry. God has owned his labors and blessed many souls through his instrumentality; and few ministers have a stronger hold on the affections of their people than Rev. A. W—, "the captain's clerk."

BREAKER AND THE TRACT.—Hon. Mr. Wilson, agent in Vermont, writes that a respectable clergyman, while residing at the West, became acquainted with a very devoted minister who was converted under the following circumstances.

He was long a most abandoned, dissipated character. One night he was found trying to get into a neighbor's house at a late hour. The family were aroused by the noise, got up, helped him in and made him comfortable till morning, and then put a small tract in the crown of his hat, and sent him home.

When he discovered the tract, he wondered how it should have come there. He read it again and again, still wondering where such a message should have come from. He was finally brought under deep conviction for sin, and fled to the Savior; was drawn to the ministry, and is now a very successful preacher of the gospel.

# 420. Revivals and Numerous Conversions.

The friends of a young Brahmin strove in vain to make him recant, but all in vain. Then they changed their tactics, and said that the missionaries had given him some medicine to turn his mind. “No,” he replied, “God has given me His Spirit to change my heart.”

Lyndhurst was nearly eighty years of age before he became converted. Desiring to be loyal for Christ, he used to hobble about the lobbies of the House of Lords, watching for an opportunity of bearing testimony for the Master. He would stop and plead with his friends there, while tears bathed his cheeks, and, in a voice tremulous with emotion, plead the Redeemer’s cause. He would say: “My soul is saved, but my life is lost.”

The Holy Spirit comes like a rushing wind upon the disciples, and in an hour they are new men. The jailer hears and believes in a night. Luther, while toiling up the stairs, holding to salvation by works, drops that scheme, and lays hold of salvation by faith. Ignatius Loyola, in a dream, has sight of the Mother of Christ, and awakes a soldier of Jesus. It is often so. We do not so much grow into the possession of new spiritual truths as we awake to them.

A friend of mine, seeking for objects of charity, got into the room of a tenement house. It was vacant. He saw a ladder pushed through the ceiling. Thinking that perhaps some poor creature had crept up there, he climbed the ladder, drew himself up through the hole and found himself under the rafters. There was no light but that which came through a bull's-eye in the place of a tile. Soon he saw a heap of chips and shavings, and on them a boy about ten years old. "Boy, what are you doing there?" "Hush! don't tell anybody -- please, sir." "What are you doing here?" "Don't tell anybody, sir; I'm hiding." "What are you hiding from?" "Don't tell anybody, if you please, sir." "Where's your mother?" "Mother is dead." "Where's your father?" "Hush! don't tell him! don't tell him! but look here!" He turned himself on his face and through the rags of his jacket and shirt my friend saw the boy's flesh was bruised and the skin broken. [Illustration]"Why, boy, who beat you like that?""Father did, sir.""What did your father beat you like that for?""Father got drunk sir, and beat me 'cos I wouldn't steal.""Did you ever steal?""Yes, sir, I was a street thief once.""And why don't you steal any more?""Please, sir, I went to the mission school, and they told me there of God and of Heaven and of Jesus and they taught me, 'Thou shalt not steal,' and I'll never steal again, if father kills me for it. But, please sir, don't tell him.""My boy, you mast not stay here; you will die. Now you wait patiently here for a little time; I'm going away to see a lady. We will get a better place for you than this.""Thank you sir, but please, sir, would you like to hear me sing a little hymn?"Bruised, battered, forlorn; friendless, motherless; hiding away from an infuriated father he had a little hymn to sing."Yes, I will hear you sing your little hymn." He raised himself on his elbow and then sang:"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, Look upon a little child; Suffer me to come to Thee. Fain would I to Thee be brought, Gracious Lord, forbid it not; In the Kingdom of Thy grace Give a little child a place.""That's the little hymn, sir; Goodbye."The gentleman went away, came back again in less than two hours and climbed the ladder. There were the chips and there was the little toy with one hand by his side and the other tucked in his bosom underneath the little ragged shirt -- dead.-John B. Gough.

A lady was one day at an evening party, and there met with Caesar Malan, the famous divine of Geneva, who, in his usual manner, enquired of her whether she was a Christian. She was startled, surprised, and vexed, and made a short reply to the effect that it was not a question she cared to discuss; whereupon Mr. Malan replied with great sweetness that he would not persist in speaking of it, but he would pray that she might be led to give her heart to Christ, and become a useful worker for Him. Within a fortnight she met the minister again, and asked him how she must come to Jesus. Mr. Malan's reply was, "Come to Him just as you are." The lady gave herself up to Jesus: it was Charlotte Elliott, to whom we owe that precious hymn,—

When once the human heart is put under the microscope of Scripture, and we see it with a spiritual eye, we perceive it to be so vile that we are quite sure it would be just as impossible to expect to find good works in an unrighteous, unconverted man, as to hope to see fire burning in the midst of the ocean. The two things would be incongruous. Our good works, if we have any, spring from a real conversion; yet more, they spring also from a constant spiritual influence exercised upon us, from the time of conversion even until the hour of death. Ah, Christian, you would have no good works if you had no fresh grace day by day! You would not find the grace given you at the first hour sufficient to produce fruit today.

Rev. J. Hawksley, a missionary among the Indians of the Klondyke, was one evening holding a service and using a magic lantern. He threw upon the screen a picture of Christ cleansing the temple. An inveterate gambler in the audience was so imprest with the attitude of Christ that the words in explanation went straight to his heart. “If Christ was so angry at those who did such things in His earthly temple, I am sure He would never let such a sinner as I am come into His holy temple above. I will give up my gambling and ask His pardon.” And the man kept his word.

* * * * *

In 1855 some Hebrew Christians met in New York to observe the Passover. The meal being over, one after the other rose to testify to faith and love in Christ. One man sat with head dropt between his hands, then sobs shook his body, and those around saw that a mighty conflict was in progress in his soul. Suddenly he leapt to his feet and cried, “I will no longer deny my Lord! I will follow Him outside the camp.” God took that Polish Jew--for it was Bishop Schereschewsky--and through him gave the Mandarin Bible to the vast empire of China. The Passover had become the Supper of the Lord.

See CREATURE, A NEW.

CONVERSION AND A BUTTON

In the life of Charles G. Finney there is an account of the conversion of a prominent merchant. He went to hear Mr. Finney preach and was powerfully affected. Mr. Arthur Tappan, the eminent merchant, sat near him and noticed his agitation. In telling his experience afterward he said that as he arose to go, Mr. Tappan stept up and took him gently by the button of his coat and asked him to stay for prayer and conversation. He tried to excuse himself, but Mr. Tappan held on till he finally yielded. He said afterward, “He held fast to my button, so that an ounce weight at my button was the means of saving my soul.”

Why should people balk at conversion as if it was something foreign to the universe? The fact is that there is not a moment of time when the process ceases. Dr. W. L. Watkinson calls attention to it in this way:

You come away from your house leaving your inkpot with the sun shining upon it. You go back. Where is your ink? Why, if you look up into the sky to-morrow you will see it in the rainbow! Nature is absolutely full of cleansings, of refinements, of marvelous chemistries, upliftings, transformations, transmutations, transfigurations! And do you mean to tell me that in a world where you see every day the miracle of renewal, the miracle of transfiguration--do you mean to tell me that the only thing in it that can not be changed is the human soul, that which it is most desirable to change? (Text.)

The first conversion to Christianity by Halley’s comet was recorded to-day. As far as the available records show, this is the comet’s first convert.

At 4:30 o’clock yesterday morning a number of people who had shortened their matutinal slumbers to watch the great sidereal visitor from the roof of a Fourth Avenue apartment house were startled by a loud cry from one of their party. The man, a professional skeptic, was standing with arms outstretched to the heavens, weeping profusely.

“This convinces me that there is a God,” he said to his friends. “Hereafter I shall always live as a Christian. These stars could not be unless there is a God.”

The profound impression created on the man by the spectacle had not worn off to-day, and he assured his friends he meant to attend church regularly hereafter and to conduct himself as a Godfearing man should.

“I had never seen the heavens as I did then,” he declared this morning. “I did not realize what a wonderful world it is.”

The man’s name is withheld in order to save him from what his friends say would be embarrassing publicity. His agnostic beliefs have long been the despair of his well-wishers, who are elated over his curious conversion.--Brooklyn _Eagle_. (May, 1910.)

Rev. C. H. Spurgeon used to tell this story:

A woman in Scotland, who was determined not to have anything to do with religion, threw her Bible and all the tracts she could find into the fire. One tract fell out of the flames, so she thrust it in again. A second time it slipt down, and once more she put it back. Again her evil intention was frustrated, but a third effort was more successful, tho even then only half of it was consumed. Taking up this half, she exclaimed, “Surely the devil is in that tract, for it won’t burn.”

Her curiosity being excited, she began to read it, and it was the means of her conversion. It was one of the sermons published in “The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.” (Text.)

Seventeen years of prison and a lifetime of hate, violence and racism is mapped on Steven Neill’s body. Druids, swastikas, skulls and symbols of the occult circle and mesh darkly up his arms and disappear into his shirt. The letters “skinhead” are tattooed across the knuckles of both fists. Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous phrase –- “God is dead” -– stands defiantly in black, inked into his wrist.

But God is very much alive to Neill, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Mineral Wells, Texas, and his markings weave a visible testimony of a life transformed.

“These are the roadmap of my life story,” he said unashamedly, running a rough hand up his arm. The tattoos are an easy way to share Jesus, just like “Share Jesus Without Fear” -– the witnessing method that stopped Neill in his tracks and led to his salvation.

The hate and resentment came at a young age for Neill, festered in a broken, abusive home and reinforced in Houston’s dangerous 4th Ward district. After a violent conflict with Hispanic gangs, a 13-year-old Neill found brotherhood with a group of American neo-Nazis. The abuse and neglect crystallized into hate as Neill studied the teachings of radical supremacists.

“We were extremely violent and militant,” he said. “We wanted to wage the racial holy war that Nietzsche spoke about.” Needing paramilitary training to advance in leadership, Neill joined the Army. The white supremacist attachments weakened in the discipline of the military until another altercation changed Neill’s life forever.

The fight started as an argument, but “I stabbed him,” Neill said. “Punctured a lung, severed the small intestine. He died four hours later. Aggravated murder with a deadly weapon gave me a 40-year sentence.”

Going to prison catapulted Neill back into his past. “It was a fight for survival,” he said. “I fully embraced my past and became violently racist.”

Following the teachings of Nietzsche, who blamed Christianity and Christians as the cause of all ills, “I was going to do anything I could do to eradicate Christianity,” Neill said. “In prison, society is organized into predators and prey. I was a predator. I could sense without a doubt who was prey.”

Religious lines in prison also were obvious, Neill said. Groups would organize based upon what particular ministries had come in and won converts. Converts were weak prey-types, he said. Some would become emboldened and share their faith, an exercise Neill relished.

“If I couldn’t verbally convince them their faith was wrong, I’d beat them up,” he recounted. “But I didn’t have to do that very much because I knew every bit of anti-Christian philosophy -– and I enjoyed a good argument -– so I would utterly crush them.”

FACED WITH THE TRUTH

Against his will, Neill was signed up to attend a prison ministry weekend. With his attendance now mandatory, Neill decided to be as offensive as possible.

“I’m rude, belligerent and I go off on how hypocritical everyone is at this thing,” Neill said. “I cussed everyone out and stormed off the stage. Then this guy jumps up into the aisle and jabs a finger in my chest.”

Until that moment, Paul Harris had begrudgingly endured the prison outreach. His pastor made him come to the prison. Harris had only recently recommitted his life to God after years of charting his own course. But sitting in the prison yard listening to man after man speak about how much they loved God, feelings of self-condemnation and hypocrisy overwhelmed him.

“And all of a sudden I’m hearing this guy on stage calling us all hypocrites, and I’m agreeing with him. As he’s stomping out, I jump out of my seat and stick my finger right in his chest and say, ‘You’re the reason I’m here!’” Harris said, sensing that he would witness to Neill.

“As a former atheist, I had dabbled in everything he’d been in,” Harris said. “We locked horns that first night. We were both determined to win.”

Neill said he knew he was in a place of heavy discontent. “I came in unhappy, knowing I needed to change. But I went in with a combative attitude and Paul met me on that ground.

“It was intense,” Neill grinned. “Everything he threw at me I had an argument for.”

After an entire day of arguing, Randy Wilson, Harris’ pastor, stepped in and changed the game plan. “I hadn’t read all those books,” Wilson said. “Steven and Paul are both so intelligent. They sat there arguing and contradicting each other with humanistic philosophy. I told Paul it was time to present the Word.”

Wilson is a longtime fan of Share Jesus Without Fear, produced by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. The resource offers three simple steps for sharing the Gospel: Five questions to determine where God is working, seven verses to let the Bible speak for itself -– which the unbeliever reads for himself -– and five questions that lead to the point of discussion.

“What’s so appealing is that it’s not about memorizing a thousand verses and quoting them all,” said Wilson, pastor of Carey Baptist Church, located outside Childress, Texas. “It’s easy. You ask five simples questions; the last is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

“Steven Neill could argue all day against [the Bible], but he’d never read it,” Wilson said. “And so we walked him through this simple process -– with him reading the Scripture for himself. At the end, it’s a simple question: According to what you’ve read, are you a sinner? Steven wouldn’t answer.”

That night back in lockdown, Neill said his life came into view. “I saw my life as it really was. But I saw everything as God would see it. I saw that I had gloried in active rebellion against God.

“There was no relief that night,” he said. “There was no hope. If I was prone to suicide, I would’ve done it that night.”

FREEDOM

Neill said he walked back into the meeting the next morning a broken man. Harris and Wilson could only stare at what was a literal physical transformation. “The darkness was dropping from his face,” Wilson said.

“Randy pulled out his Share Jesus Without Fear Bible and had me read the Scriptures,” Neill said. “By the end, I was bawling like a baby.”

“We didn’t lead Steven to the Lord. We just witnessed to him,” Harris said. “That’s what is so good about Share Jesus Without Fear. When I first used it, it triggered something in me -– it wasn’t about me or what I knew anymore. It was up to the Lord, His Word and the Holy Spirit.”

Neill knows it was the Holy Spirit that opened his eyes that day, but “I think the [SJWF] method is the only way I would’ve gotten there,” he said. “Instead of arguing, I was sitting there reading the Scripture. I’m honest enough with myself to reach for the truth.”

Unable to counter the truth, Neill gave his life to Christ and immediately began a journey of growth. After beginning a Bible study with two other prisoners, the group grew to 26 as lives changed and people began to come to Neill for spiritual matters.

“God wanted something more from me than just going to church,” he said. “He was calling me to something bigger. I was studying Scripture 14-16 hours a day and some amazing things happened. I would dream Scripture passages rolling through my head. I would wake up refreshed, often praying even as I woke up.”

Neill earned a diploma of pastoral ministry through Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s extension program and a diploma in biblical studies through Amherst College. After 17 years in prison, Neill was paroled, and he immediately submitted himself to further discipleship under Wilson. A short time later, Neill was ordained into the ministry.

“I want to see this church walk in freedom,” he said, speaking of Northside Baptist, the small West Texas congregation that accepted him with open arms. “I want them to know they can walk with the vilest of sinners because they have in them He who is stronger than the world. Then, lives will change.”

On June 29, Neill, along with Wilson, ordained Harris as associate pastor of Northside to serve alongside the former prisoner he introduced to the Lord. The foundation of the two men’s ministry is grounded in their mandate to share Jesus with boldness and confidence.

“Bill Fay [the writer of SJWF] truly had a great vision,” Harris said. “I believe it’s probably the best way for witnessing. And Share Jesus Without Fear has affected the mindset of our entire church. I believe it’s going to be a catalyst as we look outward.

“The radical power of God to transform lives is what amazes me,” Harris added. “Jesus was a radical man. And that’s why I love to share the Gospel.”