Who am I? Why am I standing here to give a sermon? I’m a retired state and federal probation officer. After 25 years in the federal system, I retired at the end of 2016. Now, I am a sentencing consultant on state and federal criminal cases. In 2002, I began facilitating Bible based 12-step meetings in Cheyenne. Since then, I have facilitated some 1,500 Bible studies and preached perhaps 50 sermons. I lead three Bible studies weekly, one in my home and two at the Volunteers of America Harmony House – a residential substance abuse treatment center for men here in Cheyenne.
I have also had my sermon outline vetted by Pastor Keith, so he is fully aware of what I am sharing with you today.
At age 13, I had a false conversion. At age 19, I had a real conversion. How do I know the first one was false? Because after I had a real conversion and started actually reading my Bible, I realized I had been completely devoid of any spiritual fruit. I lived for myself and my carnal appetites. So, I have a passion for making sure people get the Real Thing and not a deception. Now, are false conversions common?
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Strong’s 4183 Polus. Many. Much. Mostly. Largely.
Strong’s 3641 Oligos. Few. Little. Small. Puny.
Take the number 100. Now, think of a number that would be few, compared to 100. Is it 10? Could it possibly be as high as 20 and still be few? Perhaps. But that still leaves 80. The “many” who don’t find life. So yes, we have a serious problem with false conversions.
Even worse, the “many” don’t realize they have a problem. I didn’t. I thought I was saved. I was not the only one.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
These are not pagans who never darken the door of a church. The “many” think they are saved. These folks are just like I was, thinking they had a relationship with God but actually didn’t.
So how did we get in this mess?
When the pastor shared the Gospel with me at age 13, I don’t remember the exact words, but he used a variation of the so-called Roman Road. It’s a series of verses in Romans that people use for evangelism. It has some common elements:
Roman Road
Romans 3:10 None is righteous, no not one
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death
Romans 5:8 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10: 9-10 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
So, after that, the pastor asked if I wanted to avoid Hell and go to Heaven, and of course I said yes. He then led me in a prayer which I repeated, while in somewhat of a daze as everything was happening so fast. Although I said all the words, they were being parroted and while sincere, were not spoken from a broken heart but from a mind that wanted good for me and to avoid the pains of Hell. Self-serving? Undoubtedly. It wasn’t about God’s glory, it was about me and my eternal comfort.
He pronounced me saved! I felt relieved and happy, and was glad to go through baptism the following Sunday.
Although I believed I was saved, God knew better. He also knew I was sincere in what I had said. So, he began to bring about the reality of what I had confessed.
I believed the right things, but later I would learn, so do demons.
Consider this passage:
James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder.”
I had demon faith. I believed, as demons know, that Jesus is God, and that He died on the Cross to save people. However, they were not intending to obey him, and unfortunately that concept of “Jesus is Lord” had not sunk in on me either. I wasn’t obeying Him. I knew nothing about my own depravity or about full surrender of my will. I was to learn much about that in the next six years, as God led me to the reality of what I thought I had.
Think about this:
James 4:13-16 “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
This is truly a staggering passage. Think about it: there is nothing sinful in going to another city and engaging in commerce! The sin was in the self-willed planning. It was their idea, not the Lord’s. Self-will and selfishness are utterly contrary to a life surrendered and submitted to the Lord.
The next six years. Six years of depression, alcohol abuse, sexual sins, extreme selfishness, rage, pride, suicidal gestures. Finally, in June 1982 on a hot summer night in San Antonio, I cried out to God to take my life, as I didn’t want it anymore. All I did was hurt people. Either He would take my life or I would have to take it. That was the moment God had been leading me to for the past six years. I was crucified in Christ. His life in me began.
The next morning, I knew something strange had happened to me. I felt joy! The grass was so green! The sky was so blue! Immediately, His word became of interest to me. I think I read through the entire Bible three times that summer. I began to see what had happened to me.
People call what happened to me being “radically saved.” A secret: all true salvation is radical. It changes the purpose and direction of our lives drastically. Now, some children truly get saved at a young age and their journey of course doesn’t look quite so dramatic because they haven’t engaged in many advanced forms of sin yet. But there will be a heartfelt desire to live for Jesus even then.
Sometimes people say, “I’ve always been a Christian.” That’s a red flag to me, because of course that isn’t possible. Some people can’t remember a time when they didn’t believe in God and the work of Christ on the Cross. I can’t either. I’ve always believed that. But there must be a moment in time when the selfish nature is stricken and the person surrenders to the Lordship of Christ. At that moment, we are born again, and we will never forget that experience.
We must be very careful to avoid making intellectual Christians. It is easy to say, “Jesus is Lord,” but it is a total act of self-renunciation and abandon to actually mean it. I can believe I am a blue polka dot duck and confess it a hundred times, but that doesn’t make it so.
What word is conspicuously absent in the Roman Road? Repent. We can use our natural eloquence to persuade people to make “decisions for Christ,” but we cannot lead anyone to repent. That is work only the Holy Spirit can do. We must emphasize repentance when evangelizing or we risk having the blood of their souls on our hands. We cannot improve on the words of Christ, “Repent and believe on the gospel.”
Actually, repentance is right there in the Roman Road if we start in chapter two:
Romans 2:4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Repentance is easy to see in the Scriptures if we are looking for it. Consider the following passages:
Matthew 3:1 Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (John the Baptist)
Matthew 3:7-8 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. (John the Baptist) (He was saying, “Let’s see some repentance, then come for baptism”)
Matthew 4:17 Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Jesus).
Mark 1:4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Repentance is the event that qualifies us to have our sins forgiven.
Mark 1:15 The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel. (Jesus)
It’s not just believe; it’s REPENT and believe
Luke 13:3 Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish (Jesus)
If we believe but don’t repent, we have a false conversion.
Acts 2:38 Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Peter)
And from the same author as Romans 10:9:
Acts 17:30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands ALL men EVERYWHERE to repent. (Paul)
Acts 26:19-21 “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. For this reason, the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.” (Paul)
How could we miss repentance? Because we desperately want to have people come to Jesus and we inadvertently have latched onto techniques that, as Saul spared Agag, leave the fleshly nature intact. “Just believe.” All of this is done with good intentions, of course, but with disastrous consequences.
The narrow and hard way: Repent and Believe
The broad and easy way: Believe
If people don’t repent, they don’t truly make Jesus Lord even if they confess it.
Of course, we want people to be saved, and not just make “decisions for Christ.” So, our message needs to be, “Repent and believe.”
What is repentance? Strongs 3340 Metanoeo. It involves retrospection about the course of your life which leads to deep regret and a heart-felt change for the future. You feel repentance. Deeply.
Consider this passage from Ezekiel 36:31 “Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.”
Loathe yourself. The pain you have caused yourself and others, as you selfishly pursued your will, your desires, your ambitions. You were taking a life God created for His glory, and using it for your own purposes. When you are sick of that, and sick of you, repentance is at your doorstep.
Repentance involves the surrender of the will. It is there in Romans 10:9 “Confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord,” repentance is implied. (Remember, Paul wasn’t trying to evangelize the Christians in Rome. They were already Christians. He was simply contrasting the difference between righteousness by works and righteousness by faith). We have to think what that means to say Jesus is Lord. It means He is boss. He gets to tell us what to do. Unless we emphasize that people will miss it. Satan will make sure of that.
To make real disciples, we need to work with truly broken people.
Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the broken hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
Let’s make sure we don’t see ourselves in this description:
Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”
That was me. I was detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. Deceived. About to hear, “I never knew you.” But God in His mercy rescued me from my deception.
If you are feeling dismayed right now, maybe feeling like you are in the same position I was, take heart! God orchestrated you to hear this message while you still have time to repent. That’s good news!
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
When we look at ourselves, what do we see? Are we running our own life and paying lip service to the idea of Jesus as Lord? Or are we people who want to see God glorified in our lives, even more than life itself? God needs us to be all in so we can be salt and light to a lost world.
Get alone with God. Make sure you are converted. Then take that message to others. Get your questions answered and your heart settled.
