The above quotation is made from Isaiah vi, 10, where it reads: "Lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and _convert_, and I should heal them." Paul, speaking of the disciples in Macedonia and Achaia, says: "They themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned, _converted_, to God from idols to serve the living and true God." 1 Thess., i, 8, 9. "Repent ye therefore and be converted," is passive in our translation, but imperative active in the original. In the Geneva text it reads: "_Amend_ your lives and turn. So conversion is a commandment of God. If there is anything necessary to conversion that is not in the power of the sinner, why should he be commanded to convert? If the trouble is in his corruption, through inborn depravity, why are _some converted_ and _others not_? If there is anything in conversion that is not in the power of the sinner, then he must of necessity be saved without it, or remain unavoidably in sin--_doomed to misery_." Webster defines the term _convert_ "to change from one state to another, as to convert a barren waste into a fruitful field; to convert a wilderness into a garden; to convert rude savages into civilized men; to change or turn from one party or sect to another--as to convert Pagans to Christianity, to turn from a bad life to a good one, to change the heart and moral character from enmity to God and from vicious habits to the love of God and to a holy life." Hence the ancient commandment: "Make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will you die." Eze. xviii, 32. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." Is this out of your power? Then who is to blame? Does the blessed Father command you to do what you can not? Are you thus lost without remedy? Does the Lord mock you with commandments that you can not obey? The importance of conversion is in the fact that it is the turning point or dividing line between those who serve God and those who serve him not. I. The Lord commands sinners to convert. II. The Lord's commandments are duties that sinners owe to God.