Untitled Sermon

Believe

Belief, Believe. Conviction based on testimony that something is true or that someone is reliable. As used in the Bible, to believe in God involves the element of trust, not mere acknowledgment of his existence.

Acts 16:31 NKJV

31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Conviction: It always implies the presentation of evidence. It is a decision presumed to be based upon a careful and discriminating consideration of all the proofs offered, and has a legal character, the verdict being rendered either in God’s judgment (Rom 3:19), or before men (Jn 8:46) by an appeal to their consciences in which God’s law is written (Rom 2:15). Since such conviction is addressed to the heart of the guilty, as well as concerning him externally, the word “reprove” is sometimes substituted. To “convict … in respect of righteousness, and of judgment” (Jn 16:8), refers to the conviction of the inadequacy and perversity of the ordinary, natural standards of righteousness and judgment, and the approval of those found in Christ, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, as the great interpreter and applier of the work of Christ.

Repentance is a change of mind leading to a change of action.