The purpose of this website is to provide free sermon manuscripts and sermon videos to pastors and missionaries throughout the world, especially the Third World, where there are few if any theological seminaries or Bible schools.

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At Thanksgiving we think of the ways God has blessed us. One thing I have to give thanks for is that my youngest son, Philip, was converted this year! And I’m going to give you parts of his testimony. In fact, the title of my message tonight is, “A Sermon from My Son.” Philip will tell us how he went from being hopeless and filled with despair to having the great joy of being a real Christian. Philip started by saying,

“I fell into a state where I was upset and depressed. I remember thinking I would never be converted. I thought, what is the point of trying? I even started to doubt whether conversion was real at all.”

Conversion is the great change that comes when a person trusts Christ. Conversion changes the direction of a person’s life. I want to say very plainly that conversion is real! Every true Christian can tell you about his conversion. And I thank God that Dr. Hymers believes in real conversion! And our pastor insists that our people have a real conversion experience. If you are not truly converted, he will tell you so. Believe what he says! He has 57 years in the ministry of winning souls, and God has given him great wisdom in this. He will tell you the truth because he knows he is accountable to God, and because he loves you.

Our pastor rediscovered real conversion the hard way. We had a baptism class several years ago where almost everyone who was baptized left the church in a few months. That’s not unusual at all. In fact, nearly all the churches here in the United States have experienced the same thing. People eventually stop going to church after they’re baptized. The Southern Baptist Convention lost two hundred thousand members last year! They stopped going to church. But the churches continue to baptize lost people. They do this because they don’t understand real conversion. After that terrible experience of ours, Dr. Hymers determined not to baptize anyone unless they had a solid testimony of salvation in Christ. And then we wait to see if their testimony is real. I thank God for our pastor’s commitment to real conversion. I thank God for my son Philip’s conversion. And I thank God he was baptized into the membership of this church last night! Praise the name of Jesus!

But Philip’s conversion, like many conversions, was not quick and easy. He even had doubts about whether conversion was real. He was blind to his need for conversion. And his sinful heart would simply not trust Christ. He said,

“I was still thinking in circles. I thought, I must figure out how to get saved by experiencing some type of assurance…I was not striving [to find] Christ. I did not want anything to do with Him.”

Philip would not have anything to do with Christ. But Christ would have everything to do with him! Christ was willing and waiting patiently for Philip to trust Him. Oh, how much Christ loves us! The sinner will say he wants salvation. He will say he wants Christ. But he will think of anything but Christ Himself. Hear what Philip wrote,

“I would never have said it, but Jesus was just a person that I associated with salvation. I never thought of Him as a loving Saviour or as the Son of God who came down to atone for my sin. No, to me I only thought of Him in passing or when Dr. Hymers preached.”

Philip did not want to think of Christ Himself. He didn’t think of Christ as the Saviour who died and shed His Blood for his sins. Philip only thought of Him “in passing” when the pastor preached on Christ. But this only left him to “thinking in circles.” When Philip heard that he needed to trust Christ, he would always go in another direction away from Christ. He kept on trying to find assurance of salvation. But He didn’t want Christ Himself. And so he didn’t find Christ. Again and again he would go in a circle of seeking feelings of assurance and not finding it, seeking feelings of assurance, and then again not finding it. I thank God for Christ’s mercy on Philip. Oh, the great patience of Christ toward us! He loves us so much!

But then Philip said,

“The morning I was saved, Dr. Hymers preached on how Satan blinds those who are without Christ. He said that one of the ways that Satan does that is by working inside the mind of a lost person and making him think that he must have a feeling of assurance in order to have something to say to the counselor. I thought to myself, ‘That’s me! That is exactly what I have been thinking.’ I had been going in circles and yet never once looked up to Christ.”

Satan doesn’t want a sinner to trust Christ. He doesn’t want to lose anyone from his grip. So he gives the sinner thoughts to confuse him like, “I need a feeling of assurance.” The Devil knows that as long as someone looks for a feeling of assurance, he will not seek Christ. But I thank God that He is more powerful than the Devil. I thank God that He finally convinced Philip not to believe the Devil’s lie. I thank God that He set Philip free from hopelessly “thinking in circles.”

Then God began to convict Philip of his sin. My son wrote,

“The Holy Spirit began to [work] on me. He showed me how awful I am to the core… And he also convicted me of the many times I [rejected] Jesus…I had nothing to clear my record [of sin]. The Holy Spirit convinced me of my desperate need for Jesus, my need for His Blood and righteousness to cover all my sin.”

Philip began to have a sense of His sin. His sinful heart became very real to him, and he was troubled.

God’s Spirit first convicted Philip of his sin. He then convinced him of His need for Christ. He became awakened to his need for Christ and His cleansing Blood. Philip wrote about what Dr. Hymers said to him in the inquiry room,

“He spoke on the story of the leper, of how he came to Jesus and said ‘if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.’ Jesus said, ‘I will, be thou clean.’ The pastor told me that I must come to Jesus like this man. Now, the Gospel seemed so clear to me. Just before, I was swirling in doubts and analysis. Now, Jesus was in front of me! Now, the Saviour was waiting to take me in His arms! How can I [reject] Him again? How could I hold on to my sin and not look to Jesus, the One who has loved my soul? Oh, how desperately I needed Him to take the load of sin from me.”

God in His mercy had awakened my son. Christ now became real to Him. Christ was waiting and willing to cleanse him of his sin. He felt that Christ would save him. He wrote,

“I went to the waiting Saviour! I did not wait to experience any feeling. I did not wait to listen to the lies of Satan. I knew I needed Jesus then and there. I must not wait! To wait was to stay in bondage. I had to go to [Christ] for cleansing from sin. So I went to Him! He took me and cleansed me and made me whole!…The thoughts of finding self-assurance were gone. Jesus became my assurance.”

Philip found something far better than feelings of assurance. He trusted Christ Himself! Philip’s life will never be the same! He has the joy of his sins being washed clean in Christ’s Blood! Philip wrote,

“Now I can truly call [Christ] my Saviour! Now the hymns that speak of Jesus have meaning… They continuously remind me of Christ, the author of my salvation and the Solid Rock on which I stand. Now, when Dr. Hymers preaches on the Gospel, it sounds refreshing and encouraging. It reminds me of the time that Jesus sought me when I was a stranger…When I feel dry and empty, I remember the hymns like ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul’ and I remember that I have a friend in Jesus. Oh, what a friend! He gives me a desire and concern to see other lost souls find salvation in Christ... Praise be to God that He gave His Son, Jesus, to rescue me and pardon my sin with His Blood!”

Christ saved my son! Hallelujah! Thank you, God, for your marvelous grace in bringing salvation to my son! And that’s what we want for you. We want you to be converted to Christ, too. Christ can also wash all your sins away with His Blood. And you will have a new life with Christ!

We have many things to give thanks for in our lives, and all the things that God has done for us! We thank God for all of you who are here with us tonight. We thank God for your love, support, and what you mean to us. Thank you for coming! We thank God for our church, standing firm and true for Christ all these years in this wicked city of Los Angeles. We thank God for the “Thirty-Nine” who sacrificed their time, their money, and their youth to save our church building. We thank God for deacons who greatly support our pastor. We thank God for Mr. Kunz, Dr. Cagan’s right hand man. We thank God for Emi Zabalaga who plays the piano and Mrs. Eloise Roop who plays the organ for us every week. We thank God for Mr. Ceron and Leslie Hymers who work up there on the soundboard. We thank God for Mr. Olivacce and his work on the video ministry and website ministry. We thank God for richly blessing the website ministry, and how we love to hear those wonderful emails from around the world. We thank God for all of our translators. We thank God for all of Dr. Cagan’s hard work coordinating all the translations. We thank God for the men who guard the building and those who watch the parking lot. We thank God for our faithful kitchen crew. We thank God for all the new young people that God has sent to our church! We thank God for Mrs. Hymers, Mrs. Salazar, Lara Escobar, John Samuel Cagan and the many other young people who take such good care of the new people. We thank God for the men who lead us so boldly in prayer. We thank God for all of you who work so hard and tirelessly in prayer and evangelism. And if I didn’t mention you by name, we thank God for you, too! And we especially want to thank God for our pastor, Dr. Hymers. He is a man called by God to rediscover true conversion and preach it boldly to the whole world on our website. We thank God for our pastor and Dr. Cagan in their wisdom in counseling for conversion. Even if you’re not converted, you have much to thank God for. For God has called you to this church, where you will always hear the Gospel of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord! Amen and Amen!

(END OF SERMON)
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Solo Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“May Jesus Christ Be Praised” (translated from the German
by Edward Caswall, 1814-1878).