I’ll begin with the book of Romans, chapter 4, verse 16. These are familiar verses about Abraham.
Therefore it is of faith, that it may be according to grace;
to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed;
not to that only which is of the law,
but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all
(as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations)
before Him whom he believed, even God,
who giveth life to the dead,
and calleth the things that are not, as though they were.
Who in hope believed against hope,
to the end that he might become a father of many nations,
according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be.
And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead
(he being about a hundred years old),
and the deadness of Sarah’s womb;
yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief,
but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God,
and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform.
And I want you to pay attention to that phrase, because it is the theme: “being fully persuaded.”
Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.
Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned to him,
but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned,
who believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered up for our trespasses,
and was raised for our justification.
It will be reckoned.
I would like to read another passage in Romans. I think you are familiar with it: Romans 14:5. Paul was speaking about days and honoring days—and that is not going to be the message, by the way.
One man esteemeth one day above another:
another esteemeth every day alike.
Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.
Then just one more verse: 2 Timothy 3:14. Paul was speaking to his beloved son in the faith, and he said:
But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned
and hast been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we thank You so much for Your Word. We always reflect upon that abiding truth that Your words are spirit and life. As we come, we say, “We have no one else to go to but You, no one else to hear from but You.”
So we say, “Lord Jesus, speak. Speak to us. Open Your Word to us, and cause us to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”
Lord, this could be just such a waste of an hour with words—only words. We are asking for more than words: words of life, words of power, words from the Holy Spirit. We ask You to speak in that way. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, for some time, this word persuaded has been ringing in my heart. This has been for months. Every year, at the end of an old year—and this is not a New Year’s resolution, by the way; I do not believe in those, and I am not very good at those—I start thinking, “Lord, what are You saying for this year?”
This phrase, in particular, seemed to resonate in my heart and in my spirit: being fully persuaded. Then, over and over again, I kept seeing in the New Testament this word persuaded, and the phrase that you will know momentarily, if you do not know it by heart already: “I am persuaded.”
So this is what is ringing in my heart for this year. This burden seemed to be quickened to me, and it comes particularly from this portion in Romans 4 about Abraham. It is first used about Abraham.
Paul, when he wrote this glorious gospel of Romans—which is unparalleled in its presentation of the gospel in the New Testament—saw something in Abraham that nobody else saw. He said that Father Abraham’s distinguishing mark was that he was fully persuaded.
I think that is important, brothers and sisters. I think that is important for you, and I think that is important for me. So often, as Christians, we have a tepid faith. So often, as believers, we have a lukewarm faith, like Revelation 3 when you think of the church of Laodicea.
But this distinguished Father Abraham. Think of the title Scripture gives him: he was the father of faith. The distinguishing mark, the overwhelming remark that Paul saw in revelation, was that he was fully persuaded.
It reads in Romans 4:21, “And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He is able also to perform.” Can you imagine if that were your faith, and my faith—the difference it would make?
To me, this is a very important thing. I do not think it was just to be Abraham’s testimony, because it says right after that that it was not written on his account alone that it was reckoned to him, but for ours also.
You remember the verse I read in Romans 14:5. Forget the thing about the days. You can have holy days all you want. You can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today if you like. I am sorry I did not wear any green, if I offend you.
But this was the point: let each man be fully persuaded. That was what Paul said. I believe this is so very important.
He even said to his son Timothy, his beloved child in the faith, that he had been fully persuaded. To me, that seems to be what God is after. That seems to be the end of what God is after for every believer.
It was first found in Abraham, but it was to go from Abraham to a whole nation. Abraham is the beginning of God’s recovery of His testimony. You might argue with me and say, “Well, it is Noah,” or this and that, but in fact it is Abraham.
The view God had in mind was a people who would be holy and fully persuaded in all that He said. This begins with Abraham.
I believe if we have this testimony, it will be the difference between a testimony that is living and just words. I think it is to be the distinguishing mark of every Christian who would live life to the fullest, just as it was for Abraham, every man that Paul preached to in Rome, and his son in the faith, Timothy.
For everyone, it is to be that distinguishing mark. In the end, corporately, for us who are together as the assembly that has the testimony of Jesus, it is to be that distinguishing feature.
Jim talked recently, I think, about the draft, and none of you young people knew what he was talking about. But when I got my draft card, they said, “Do you have any distinguishing marks?”
I thought about it, and I thought, “I do not know.” Then I realized I had this birthmark—I will not show you—on the small of my back. They put it on my draft card.
I suppose if I went to Vietnam—and I thought I was headed there—and they found me in a pile, they would turn me over, flip me over, pull up my shirt, and say, “There he is—the birthmark.”
It was a distinguishing feature. But there is a much more important distinguishing feature for every child of God: it is to be those who are holy and fully persuaded.
What we will look at today, I hope, is this matter: what does it mean to be fully persuaded? I think we need to understand that. But there is more than that. We need to see, I think, Paul’s testimony, because there is a phrase applied over and over to the Apostle Paul.
It was his phrase: “I am persuaded.” What a secret.
Then perhaps we can look at this and begin to discover that it is the whole theme of the Bible. I believe it is. We see Christ Jesus, the theme of the Bible, looking for a people who have this distinguishing mark.
Well, this is the burden that is on my heart: what does it mean to be fully persuaded? You might wonder, and you might begin to think, “Well, I am not fully persuaded.” Many of us would agree.
But first of all, I think being fully persuaded is an important term. It is a process. You are not all of a sudden fully persuaded and transformed into the image of Christ and conformed to the image of Christ.
There is a process in this Christian life of being fully persuaded. Do you understand it? I think the Holy Spirit was very right to pick that phrase.
As a matter of fact, fully persuaded in English comes from a single Greek word. But that single Greek word is so absolutely full that you could not describe it when it was translated into a single English word.
So the translators of the English versions took these two words, fully persuaded, and put them together. There is another Greek word for persuaded. It occurs many more times in the Bible, and that is the word translated into a single English word: persuaded.
That was the word used when the Apostle Paul said again and again, “I am persuaded.” It means to be completely assured—fully persuaded. It means to be convinced entirely—fully persuaded.
That is the force of that word in the Bible. That is God’s end, brothers and sisters: to convince us entirely, to completely assure us that all that He said He is able to do.
Everything He promised—that was Abraham’s secret—He is able to do. I think this is the end of every believer.
Sometimes in business—and I am a businessman—we use this phrase. I do not hear it so much lately; perhaps we have worn out phrases. I hope we never wear out this phrase, being fully persuaded.
But we say, “What is the end game?” I remember sitting around in meetings after meetings after meetings, and people would always say, “What is the end game?” They meant, “What do you want to accomplish with all this planning you are doing?”
Sometimes the best-laid plans of mice and men go astray. What, in the end, is the end game?
When we read in 1 Timothy 1:5, it says:
But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart
and a good conscience
and faith unfeigned.
Brothers and sisters, I think unfeigned faith—the end of those things he talked about—is being fully persuaded. That is what God is after.
I have my own definition. You may not like it, but at least it is my definition: being fully persuaded is believing to the utmost.
That is what I think it means. That is what I think God is after. The Lord is after a people who believe what He says, believe what He promises, and know it is fact.
I remember—I will tell you a little story; I will not waste too much time—but I was an outright agnostic. I was a bona fide, card-carrying agnostic.
I was caught up in all the stuff in the sixties and seventies and believed all truth was relative and that there was no God. I believed it with all my heart.
You have heard this story. Jerry tells it better. He was a bona fide, card-carrying Baptist. The Lord put us together at work when I got out of college—well, I was still in college, but I was working while in college at the City of Richmond Department of Public Works.
I met Jerry there. One day, in his witness to me, he came up to me. I want to tell you, Jerry exaggerates the story, just for the record. He says that I had hair down to the middle of my back. That was never true—maybe to my shoulders, but never the middle of my back.
He said to me, “Do you believe the Bible?” I will never forget it. He came up to this card-carrying agnostic and said, “Do you believe the Bible?”
I said, “Of course not. It is written by men. How can you believe it? It is full of errors.” I did not know a single error that was in it, but I loved to say it. “It is full of contradictions. It is written by men.”
Like any good Baptist would do, he shook the dust from his shoes and left me in my fallen state.
It was about a year later. I had moved out of his division over to the Division of Structures, and Jerry walked into the room to talk to another engineer. I remember the fellow’s name: Wayne Wiles.
Jerry heard me witnessing at lunch on the phone. His whole Baptist cloak must have fallen off of him, and he thought, “Look at that. What is he doing?”
He sauntered over to me with such an eye of disbelief. He looked straight at me and saw tracts stacked on my drafting table—and the Bible.
He said to me, “Do you believe the Bible?”
And I said, “Every word of it. Every word of it. It is the inspired Word of God.”
Thank goodness he did not have a heart attack. We have been together forty-nine years, serving the Lord together.
Something happened. God is able to take the hardest heart. God is able to take the most unbelieving person. God is able to transform the strongest agnostic into one who fully believes and is fully persuaded.
Well, that is my testimony.
Hebrews 11:1—I read it recently in the Amplified Version—says, “Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed.” I like the way the translator put it.
It is the title deed of the things we hope for, being proof of the things we do not see and the conviction of their reality: faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.
Brothers and sisters, we often talk about blind faith. We do not believe in blind faith. We believe in convincing faith. We believe in convicting faith. We believe in faith that is able to take and transform the worst into one who is fully persuaded.
That is what we believe in.
The judicial system of the United States is based on the highest level of proof. That is a good system. Be thankful you live here and not in Iran, okay? That is not a political comment, and some of you are suspicious of me already. But be thankful.
“Beyond reasonable doubt” is the highest level of proof that you can make in a court of law. It is important, because think of it: if you were in court for murder, you would want every right of protection, and you would want the highest absolute proof before they locked you away forever in that four-by-eight cell.
But do you know that is not the highest proof? Hebrews 11:1 says this is the assurance of things unseen. This is the proof—this being fully persuaded.
There is no proof in law, in the land, or in the world that is higher proof. As a matter of fact, many versions say it is evidence. It is the highest evidence.
In our world system in the United States, all you have to do is sow some doubt. It has to be reasonable, but it is reasonable doubt.
You remember Johnny Cochran, O. J.’s lawyer. He stood up and, with all the theater he could do, took that glove and yanked on it and blew on it. His veins were popping out in his forehead and his neck.
He uttered those famous words: “If it does not fit, you must acquit.”
You can think what you want about that trial. It captivated the nation for a hundred days. People were glued to it, watching television in shop windows and on the streets.
One single doubt was enough to free this man who murdered those people. You may say, “Kenny, you are being a bit unfair to O. J.” No, I am not. I am sorry if you are an O. J. fan. You might still be wearing your Bills jersey.
But the highest proof—the evidence of things, the conviction of things hoped for, the assurance of things not ever seen—is in being fully persuaded.
This is what fully persuaded means. It is the highest evidence. It is never blind faith.
Next time someone says to you, “You just believe in blind faith,” say, “No, I do not believe in blind faith whatsoever. There is a conviction in my heart that is the highest evidence. There is proof in my being of the highest evidence—irrefutable evidence.”
This is being fully persuaded.
One writer once described it in a sailing context. He said it is a ship being carried forth with full sail.
I have a partner who loves to sail. He has a nice sailboat. There is something about sailors: they get out in the wind and they love it. It gets into your blood. You love the wind in your face and the spray in your face. To them, there is nothing like it.
But being fully persuaded is a sail full of wind. He said, “All the canvas is out.” Do you understand what I mean? It is catching all of it. This is what it means to be fully persuaded.
Well, brothers and sisters, this is a burden. My prayer is that God will find among us people like that.
Are you fully persuaded? Are you lukewarm? Are you tepid in your faith?
In the end, He is looking for such people. It is what He found in Abraham. It is what He found in Paul. It is what He found in Timothy. It is what He is after in us.
Another thing I am thinking of is this phrase that came to me over and over with such assurance. I began to see it everywhere.
First, you know, it is like the Holy Spirit speaks a phrase in your heart, and it is alive. It grows stronger and stronger. I never take that initial conviction as something from the Lord for me to share, by the way. I try to shake it. I try not to think about it. I ask, “Is this right?”
Then perhaps a few months later, I start looking into it and going a little deeper into it. If the Lord convinces me, then I am convinced.
But this phrase that the Apostle Paul used over and over was, “I am persuaded.” It is particularly his testimony.
Brothers and sisters, the argument I want to make is this: this should be our testimony. We should not say, “So-and-so believes,” and, “So-and-so believes,” and, “I believe that,” and, “I believe this.” We should simply say, “I am persuaded.”
Everything You say is right. Everything You promise, You will do, as Abraham said. There is no shadow of turning in You. I am persuaded.
This single Greek word translated persuaded means an inward confidence and an outward convincing. First of all, you have to have that inward confidence in your spirit, with an amen: “This is right.”
Then you become a living witness, and you can do that outward convincing of others. If you do not have that inward confidence, you will not have any outward convincing.
The Lord said, “Go, wait until the promise of the Father comes in Jerusalem, and you will receive power from on high, and you will be My witnesses.”
Once you have that inward knowing, that inward sensing, then you have that outward ability to convince. That is what it means: “I am persuaded.”
If you look up persuaded—and I encourage you to do so, because we cannot read all the verses—you will discover that this word in the New Testament, translated persuaded, is associated over and over again with the Apostle Paul.
Because he was so inwardly confident and inwardly convinced, he spent his life and ministry persuading others. When you read the book of Acts, you will discover Paul tried to persuade those at Athens, King Agrippa, and the Jews. That word occurs again and again.
In his own testimony in 2 Corinthians 5:11, he said:
Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men.
That was his testimony: “I am persuaded,” and, “We persuade men.” That was his life and his testimony.
You see it again and again. Maybe I will read one verse. I will run out of time if I read all these verses. Acts 13:43:
Now when the meeting of the synagogue broke up,
many of the Jews and of the devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas;
who, speaking to them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
You begin to see that thought over and over. But brothers and sisters, as important as the outward witness is, that is not my burden this morning. My burden is that inner assurance: “I am persuaded.”
I am convinced. You may not agree, but if you have that inner convincing, you will have that outward witness. You cannot help it. That was the truth of the story of the Apostle Paul.
So when you go home, look it up. When you read over and over, you are going to see this phrase coming up in the Apostle Paul’s own words: “I am persuaded.”
One of the most famous passages is Romans 8:38-39. You all know this:
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This was his testimony—his concluding testimony. When he presented the gospel, he said, “I am persuaded.”
There are so many examples of this. In 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul says:
For which cause I suffer also these things:
yet I am not ashamed;
for I know Him whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
Again and again, he says, “I am persuaded.”
Philippians 1:6 says, “Having confidence.” Actually, the word there is being persuaded. He is persuaded that He who began a good work in them is able to complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
This was Paul’s testimony, and this is to be our testimony.
Now, I know what you are thinking. You are probably a lot more like me than you are willing to admit. But you have doubts. All of us have doubts. We think, “This could never happen to me. It is impossible for this to happen to me.”
It can happen to Abraham. It can happen to Paul. But can it happen to me? Brothers and sisters, the testimony of the Apostle Paul is that it can happen to you. It is for you.
Remember, here was the greatest enemy. Think of it. He was the greatest enemy of the Christian life. He said he persecuted the church. More than that, he said he ravaged the church—strong words. He consented to the death of Christians.
Could you see anyone farther from the grace of God than the Apostle Paul? He was the greatest enemy of the gospel, an unbelievable enemy, the greatest persecutor of the church.
And he was transformed into the most powerful proponent of the gospel. Brothers and sisters, he had a Damascus Road experience, and every one of us can have a Damascus Road experience where we are captured.
We become transformed, and our testimony becomes, “I am persuaded.” If it can happen to Paul, it can happen to you.
It happened to me. I could never have imagined, in all my life, that I would stand before you sharing the gospel. In my wild and woolly days, I could never imagine it.
But my explanation of what happened to the Apostle Paul is simple. Paul had a plan. He was executing that plan. He was going about life, tracking down Christians, consenting to their death, and taking them to trial.
And God interrupted that plan.
I will never forget a sister in this room praying and saying, “God interrupted my life.” I knew what she meant. I said, “That is the secret.”
Are you captured like that? Are you tepid? Are you lukewarm? If God can come into the Apostle Paul’s life—the greatest enemy—and make him the greatest proponent, He can come into your life and turn your life upside down.
He can make it so that, in the end, this is not just the Apostle Paul’s testimony. This is your testimony: “I am persuaded.”
Brothers and sisters, this is what I believe being fully persuaded means. But there is another thing. I think this is the message of the whole Bible. You may disagree with me here, and that is okay, because there is a long line.
But I believe the message of being fully persuaded is the message of the whole Bible, from beginning to end. That is what God was after.
I remember that verse in Luke 18:8. You know it so well:
When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?
Is that not an extraordinary thing? When I saw that the first time, I thought, “This is what He wants: living faith, powerful faith that responds.” This is what He is after.
Speaking of the gospel, let me take you back to Luke’s Gospel. You may not have known this. You have heard the opening verses before. Luke 1:1:
Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative
concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us,
even as they delivered them unto us,
who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.
Brothers and sisters, that word there is one of the six places in the New Testament where that phrase fully persuaded occurs—the Greek word behind it: matters fully believed among us.
Then, in Luke 1:4, he writes to most excellent Theophilus:
That thou mightest know the certainty
concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed.
That is, being persuaded—the certainty of those things in which you have been instructed. This was the purpose of Luke’s Gospel.
But when you look at the Old Testament, you might think, “Well, maybe not so much. Maybe it has not been the whole Bible.” There is an interesting thing: when you look at the Bible, the English word faith occurs only twice in the whole Old Testament.
If that does not shock you, I will at least man up and tell you it shocked me. Certainly, I thought that word in English would have occurred more times if this is what God is after—then, twice.
You remember, it first occurs in Deuteronomy 32:19-20, and it is very negative, by the way. It is incredibly negative. The people of God were unfaithful and turned to other gods.
It says that when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them because of the provoking of His sons and daughters. That is a strong word.
And He said, I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end shall be:
for they are a very perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
Can there be a more negative word? Children in whom there is no faith.
But then you go to the end of the Old Testament, and you see Habakkuk. I think all of you know the word in Habakkuk. Listen to this word: Habakkuk 2:2-4. This is powerful.
And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision,
and make it plain upon tablets,
that he may run that readeth it.
For the vision is yet for the appointed time,
and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie:
though it tarry, wait for it;
because it will surely come, it will not delay.
Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him;
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Brothers and sisters, what appears so negative throughout the Old Testament with the unfaithfulness of the people of God, in the end the prophet says, “Write the vision.” This is the vision: the just shall live by faith.
This is what God is after. Yes, the Old Testament is about faith.
All you have to do is read that anointed anonymous writer’s account in Hebrews 11. He did not have the New Testament like you have. He looked back over the Old Testament, and every character he brought up was: “By faith.”
By faith, by faith, by faith—so-and-so. By faith she did this. By faith he did that. It says, “By faith they obtained testimony.”
So when the Holy Spirit looked back over the Old Testament for what God was after, and the record was written in the New Testament, the key was found: there were those who were fully persuaded. They were the ones who had the testimony of God in the Old Testament.
I think that is a powerful thing.
You know that phrase, “The just shall live by faith,” from Habakkuk is repeated three times in the New Testament: Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.
They saw it. It was the vision from the beginning. It was the heart of God. In the end, that writer of Hebrews saw true living faith in these ones.
They were not circumscribed by the law, but their distinguishing feature was their living faith. To me, that is the story of the Old Testament.
I call Habakkuk 2 “the great hint.” I believe that is what the Lord is looking for.
Do you remember, you church history people, how that phrase, “The just shall live by faith,” transformed the Christian world? It changed Christianity from a system to something people could enter by living faith.
You remember the story of Martin Luther? You remember the monk? He was so dedicated in his own flesh that they called him the monk’s monk.
I love Miller’s Church History. It is one of my favorites. I have numerous church history books, by the way. I also like Broadbent’s The Pilgrim Church—a powerful book.
But I like what Miller said when he wrote about Martin Luther and how this man was changed and transformed. This transformation is what we owe true believing to.
It says that in 1510, penniless and barefoot, Luther crossed the Alps to go see the pope in Rome.
Now, it is one thing to go penniless. It is another thing to go across the Alps barefoot. Linda cannot get me to go out to the end of the driveway to get the mail barefoot.
But he was so dedicated, so given in his own flesh. He was sent to the pope because of disagreements in the Catholic Church. When he descended from the Alps, he found lush monasteries full of marble and sumptuous fare.
There was no fasting, brothers and sisters. He exclaimed, “The pope and the church forbid it.” Brother Miller said he almost fainted with his life.
Then he goes to Rome. He became so depressed because the enemy turned him inward on himself, looking at himself and his own thoughts.
Think about that, brothers and sisters. Is that not what the enemy does to you and me so often? He turns us inward. We are looking inward. We are looking at ourselves rather than looking at the Lord.
And he said the word came like lightning: “But the just shall live by faith.” It picked up his spirit so much that he could go all the way to Rome.
When he went to Rome, he knew the superstition. Of course, to him it was not superstition. There was Pilate’s staircase in Rome. It was supposedly miraculously transported from Jerusalem to Rome.
Whoever climbed all the way up those huge stairs on their knees would get a private audience with the pope. Luther began that painful journey, a step at a time on his knees—step after step.
Partway up, he said it came like thunder: “The just shall live by faith.”
Luther sprang to his feet and ran. He left Rome and said, “Only the unholy can live here.”
Brothers and sisters, that one vision changed Christianity. Luther came back, and he was the vessel of God to bring in this understanding of being fully persuaded—living by faith.
I think that is the secret we all need.
Now, when you turn to the New Testament again, the word believe occurs over and over. You remember John’s Gospel. I think you all know this. What is the key word? I gave you a big hint. Mac, you cannot answer this.
Nobody knows? I am stunned. Jim, you can answer it. Thank you, Jim. Thank you for putting up with me.
Believe. Over and over.
For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth on Him
should not perish,
but have eternal life.
When John concluded his Gospel so powerfully, he said this in John 20:31:
But these are written, that ye may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing ye may have life in His name.
This is the whole of what the Bible is about. This is the end. This is what God is after in you and in me.
Let me end with this. I think all of you are familiar with Paul’s trial before King Agrippa. I think you know it: Acts 26. If you do not, go home and read it.
In particular, there are three characters that stand out to me as I read that story: Festus, King Agrippa, and the Apostle Paul. There are others, but those are the three primary ones. They are the ones who really tell the story.
In Acts 26:24, after Paul gives this persuading testimony—riveting testimony, powerful testimony—Festus says with a loud voice:
Paul, thou art mad; thy much learning doth turn thee to madness.
Think of it. There are those who are presented with the clearest, most persuasive, and most powerful testimony who will never believe.
I believe Festus was one. That is one reaction. Is that our reaction? “This is madness. Who could believe it?”
Then there is Agrippa. You remember King Agrippa in Acts 26:28. He was moved. King Agrippa was really moved. Paul’s testimony was so persuasive that even the king was moved.
And that famous verse says:
With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian.
Now, I think a lot of times, brothers and sisters, that is a lot of us. We are moved. We are touched. There may even be a tear. It seems so overwhelming at the moment.
Yet, in the end, the word was almost. Almost persuaded.
Then there is Paul. Look at Acts 26:29:
And Paul said, I would to God,
that whether with little or with much,
not thou only, but also all that hear me this day,
might become such as I am,
except for these bonds.
Paul was altogether persuaded. Brothers and sisters, there are three reactions you can have to the Lord’s promises and to the Lord’s words.
You can think it is pure madness. You can disbelieve it. You can have a heart of unbelief.
You can be touched for a moment, and like the seed that fell on stony ground, it lasts for a bit and then it is gone. You would be among those whom the Holy Spirit would say were almost persuaded.
Then, in the end, there are those He is looking for. Paul said, “I would that everybody who hears my voice would be altogether persuaded.”
To me, that is the definition of being fully persuaded.
Is that your testimony? I know it is a process.
But brothers and sisters, with everything that is in my being, in the short while I have yet to live, this is what I want my testimony to be: altogether persuaded.
Not somewhat. Not almost. Altogether persuaded.
I believe, in the end, this is what the Lord wants: people like that. People like that.
Can we say, like Abraham, “Being fully persuaded that what He has promised, He is able also to do”?
Can we say, “I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day”?
I am altogether persuaded.
Lord, we just commit these weak thoughts to You. Forgive us for not being able to communicate what is in Your heart.
But Lord, we believe You want this. Today, here among the people of God who are gathered here and who will hear this voice later, our prayer is that You will find those who are being fully persuaded.
In the end, our one testimony will be, “I am persuaded.” Ultimately, we will be altogether persuaded.
Lord, do what we cannot do.
I remember that man in the Gospel with that sick child. You said, “All things are possible to him that believeth.”
That dear man did not go away sorrowful like the rich young ruler. But he said:
I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
Lord, that is us. We are often the unbelieving believing.
Will You do a work in our heart to capture us the way You captured Abraham, the way You captured Timothy, the way You captured Paul? Will You do that work in our heart?
This we ask together, in the name of Jesus. Amen.