The End Of Our Conversation

    The End Of Our Conversation
    Dr. Ronnie W. Wolfe – January 21, 2021

Hebrews 13:7  Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Two Lives To Live

    There are two lives that each of us must live. There is the life that now is and that which is to come. We all must acknowledge that, just as surely as we live in this life, we shall also live in that fixed, unchangeable one beyond the grave, that which sits eternal in the heavens.
    But that second life is not the same for everyone. There are two places in that realm. One is for those who reject the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for the ungodly, and one for those who have been touched and captured by the wonderful grace of God, granting repentance to that one and giving him faith to trust Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection. However, this is not the main subject of this writing.
    Today we consider the end of our conversation, as our text mentions. Those who are over us, who watch for our souls, and who speak to us the word of God, have an end to their conversation, and this end for them is a much more notable end than those who do not have the burden of leading a people to the word of God and instructing them in the ways of the Lord. Their conversation is their way of life, and that way of life is one which should be imitated by all of us (to follow it). We are to watch the manner in which these rulers conduct themselves in life and notice their faithfulness to the word of God and to their obedience to it.
    We must also note the strong exercise of God’s grace in their lives with their strong faith in Christ and dependence upon God for their sustenance and boldness in their preaching and their manners, which is a result of their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Because of their profession and their sustenance in grace, they will truly remain faithful to the doctrine of faith, to teach it and to live it as it is taught in Scripture.
    The end of their conversation should also be noticed at the end of their lives, to see that they have been at peace under unusual and even extraordinary stress of the continual care of the local churches and its many problems. Those who are faithful end their lives in peace, satisfaction, and expectation, having put their confidence in God rather than men. One can tell much about a man at the time of his death. Is his faith real? Does he die in security and expectation? Is he fearful? A man who is steadfast in his faith will die with ease. This we all must follow (or imitate) in order to have a gracious end of our convesation.
    When we all come to our death, how will it be in our conscience, our disposition, our expectations? Shall we enter that deep, dark shadow of death with a divine expectation, that Christ will be waiting to welcome us into God’s presence, or will we be doubtful of the veracity of our faith and worry that perhaps we have not carried on the exercise of our lives (our conversation) in a way that is produced by our strong faith in Christ? How will we die?

Two Deaths To Die

    What will be the end of our conversation? Which way will be travel upon our exit in death? Will it be hell, or will it be heaven? Those two roads follow after death, and every person on earth must travel one or the other; there is no uniting the two, for one is far distant from the other. One leads away from God’s loving, caring, and assuring presence and the blessings and benefits of his divine presence; and the other one leads toward God’s many mansions where we shall abide forever.
    What is the end of your conversation? Where is your life leading you? In your first birth, you began to travel down the road to destruction, for we all are sinners and are born in rebellion against God; so we must be born again in order to comprehend something about a new life that will lead us to a divine and pleasurable end; and, when death comes, there should be no fear, for God will be with those who are born again and love him with their whole being.
    Our conversation on earth will also bring either rewards, given to us for our good works on earth, or to a loss of rewards, thinking that we had rewards that we do not really have. These rewards that we have mounted up on earth, which are not sanctioned and done by the Holy Spirit, will be lost in eternity. We only think we have them, but these will be burned up by God’s spiritual fire.
    How will your life end? Your second birth is extremely important for salvation, and your conversation as a believer is also extremely important, not for salvation, but for the benefit of serving the Lord Christ and of the benefit of receiving rewards from God to be placed at the feet of Jesus, showering him with praise and giving him the glory for our conversation, because it is he who has made our righteous life possible; and it is his persuasion through the word of God that keeps us faithful to him.
    Let us be faithful to him who called us and separated us from our mother’s womb and has called us to his salvation and saved us by his grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Then we shall have a good end of our conversation.


The Conversation Of These Pastors

    Their Ways Are Unmovable

    A good pastor has a way that is unmovable, which implies that he cannot be easily removed from his steady path toward the true doctrines of the Scriptures and his insistence on a holy and righteous life as much as in him is. No one can move him away from his duties or his dedication to his Savior. God has so set his feet in the righteous path that he can hardly leave that path, because he has become wont to do the things that he is called to do.

    Their Backsliding Is Impracticable

    To backslide is completely out of their wont of life, their standard of living, their strong desire to please Jesus in their conduct, their study, and their preaching. It would be, in their mind, too impracticable (or out of their normal practice) to sway away from their divine duties to enjoy sin for a season.
    This is not to say that these godly rulers do not or cannot swerve to do evil, for they most assuredly can; but God is their guide and their support, and they must take a giant step backward to a lesser demeanor to turn into sin again. Some preachers do just that, but it is a hard undertaking to walk away from a God who is the believer’s anchor, who holds him fast with his love, strengthens him in times of temptation, and who supplies his needs. Certainly it can be done but not without hard effort both spiritually and physically. This must be a giant step for those who are truly born again and who are genuinely called to the ministry. Chastisement should certainly bring him to his senses and charge him to return to his duties joyfully, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

    Their Love Is Fierce

    A genuine preacher of the Gospel has a fierce love for God and his Savior, Jesus. He cannot with a cavalier attitude turn from God to serve either the law or the lost world. One who has been brought up out of the miry clay and set on a solid rock can hardly turn again to the sand of the world’s passing luxuries to be put again under the yoke of bondage.
    The love of Christ constrains this preacher. He can hardly not love the Lord in return. The love of God is that which has caused this preacher to love God initially, and that love will sustain him throughout his life.
    So vain is the preacher who will forsake the great blessings of being in favor with God and man and turn to serve the beggarly elements of the world. Sad is that preacher who will forget that he has been purged from his old sins and turn from that great grace that saved him and called him, and turn to enjoy sin for a season. He is a pathetic man who will do this. I say, hesitatingly, that it is nearly impossible to do, though some do it (or it seems they do). Some, no doubt, are reprobates (I cannot tell which ones) and will turn away and never return, because they have never tasted that the Lord is good. They have never been touched by God’s grace and have not come to the acknowledging of the truth that they might be saved ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. How pitiable is that preacher!

    Their True Faithfulness

    How thankful should we be for those preachers who have fought a good fight, who have kept the faith! How appreciative should we be of those preachers who stay with the stuff and preach the wonderful words of life as we listen to the beautiful words of Scripture resounding from their lips and refresh ourselves with the fresh waters of the infallible words of God, preserved for us to hear from a God-called man who has surrendered to be faithful!
    Yes, they are redundant, as they should be, and we should listen to those words and love to say, “sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life. Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life.”
    There is no more peaceful and secure knowledge than to sit in a congregation of God’s people and listen to the words of God as they are preached to us by those who have given themselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word and have studied to show themselves approved of God, workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. This preaching, this exhortation, this exegesis, this blessing is beyond the song, the fellowship, and the appetite. The word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him, the Savior with which we have to do, spoken of by those precious preachers of Scripture.
    And when they are dead, these preachers, we shall long remember their words, their tone of voice, their facial expressions, their command of the subject, their sincerity in proclamation, and their seriousness of duty, their tears and frowns; for they, no doubt, have a necessity laid upon them, and woe is unto them if they preach not the Gospel.
    Then, may they lie there in their graves with that ever-sounding voice from beyond; for, as Abel of old, they are dead, yet speaketh. Their hearers will long remember their words and sorrow, many of them, that they had not followed their advice from God’s word; and many will rejoice that they did believe the word and imitate the conversation of these rulers who were faithful so that they would have a good end of their conversation.