The Tests of Conversion - Paul Washer

Before I get started I would just like to thank the those who did the worship it reminded me of something that happened to me last year I was actually in Europe and I was teaching at a secular University and I noticed that a lot of the girls came in my heart just immediately went out to them 19 20 year old girls in much of European fashion some of them With pink and purple hair and grunge and earrings in every part of their body and so on and so forth and before I begin the lecture I

asked them the question is our generation the generation that has destroyed Beauty have we seen in our generation the death of beauty and then I asked them something that may seem to you rather secular but I asked them I said How many of you girls here in the audience tonight have ever seen BBC's version of Pride and Prejudice and and so many of the girls raised their hand and I said now let me ask you a question and before you answer I just want you to think about it and I want you to be sincere

how many of you after you saw that movie had a sense of melancholy come over you a sense of sadness a sense of Woundedness and hurt and after a while even what seemed to be the most hardened among the girls sheepishly went yes and I said why could it be that our culture knows nothing of that which is precious has lost the idea of beauty of femininity of masculinity has taken all the precious terms of the Gospel such as simplicity Beauty refinement excellence has taken those terms and turned them into luxury luxury sensuality extravagance and

I told them I said you live in a culture that has witnessed the death of beauty because as a culture gets further and further away from God it becomes a culture of death of moral filth of ugliness of that which Is scraped off the inside of a tomb and it's true that's why I believe that when you talk about a Reformation if we're going to be historical the Reformation I believe begins with soteriology I be I believe it finds its way then into such things as church and family much of what was good about Europe

before its great departure from Christ did not come from some cultural thing of Europeans let's just face it prior to the Advent of Christianity in Europe most of our forefathers were running around naked painting themselves blue and eating one another but it was Christianity that brought a sense of beauty of hiddenness of all the things we consider to be virtue I want all of you young people to think about that we have no desire here for a nasty rigid legalism but we do have this desire that The beauty of Christ would Prevail in every aspect

of our own personal lives our family and our society some of you may have come here and you're just all about legalistic rules and rigidness I want you to know I'm not I'm about God's wisdom and the beauty of God's law and the essence about the the fruit of the Holy Spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and Self-control about the magnificence of the Beatitudes lived out in the soul of a man that's what we're looking for isn't it an inner working of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is our heritage and inheritance

as Christians as part of this great thing that God has done now I don't know why it is but anytime I'm in a conference such as this my heart yearns for the Young For the Youth for for the children for those who have now come out of childhood and are moving into adulthood or maybe young adults my desire that that though you try so hard to live in a certain way that you you not miss the core of the Gospel which is the inner working of the spirit of God that brings about a change in

your nature and that change in nature you become a new creature which brings about a change Of affections and those affections drive you to God and to the wisdom of his word and the greatness of his law not as some burdensome task but as the most magnificent joyful thing to be discovered and to be lived out I want to be assured that you leave this place converted soundly matched with Christ filled with the holy spirit of God it's my desire believe it's all our desires I Believe it's God's desire I want to be assured that

you are assured in the most biblical fashion possible that you are in Christ now the question is how can we determine whether or not we truly are in Christ well there are many things that we would have to talk about tonight we would have to look over your conversion experience and the gospel that supposedly led to that conversion experience were you told A gospel of a just God and since he is just it is impossible for him to Simply pardon unless first his Justice is Satisfied by an atonement the gospel that you heard at your

conversion did it tell you that on that tree the perfect man Jesus Christ God In the Flesh that your sins were imputed to him and he suffered the wrath of almighty God and with his death he satisfied God's justice appeased God's Wrath and made it Possible for the guilty sinner to come before the bar of God and be pardoned fully pardoned because his sins have been atoned for is that the gospel that you knew were you told of a gospel of a resurrection one that did not end in the Tomb but a glorious Proclamation that

this Jesus who died for our sins the power of his death has been confirmed by his father who raised him from the dead on the third day that he is ascended to the right hand of almighty God and there He reigns not as a future Lord but as the present Lord of Glory King my dear friend there is a sense in which nations still abide they still exist but there is another sense in which all nations are nothing more than a cut flower because there is truly innocence only one nation only one people only one

king and that King is Jesus Christ everyone Plays games at his footstool they call themselves Governors and kings and presidents but they play at his footstool as little children for he alone is King and his sovereignty rules over the Nations and if that sovereignty rules over the Nations then most assuredly it rules over the hearts of his people is that the gospel that you heard was it A gospel that commanded you by the authority of God to repent of your sins to change your mind they say brother Paul just repentance is just change my mind

isn't that rather superficial absolutely not your problem is you don't understand what the mind is the mind is the very core of of your will of your volition of your emotions to change your mind is to change absolutely everything about you as I was sharing earlier today the perfect Illustration of repentance is the Apostle Paul what happened to him on the road to Damascus one thing he changed his mind imagine this this man takes off to Damascus he believes that Jesus Christ is possibly the greatest blasphemer that ever lived and he believes that those who

are his followers that they are at best worthy of prison and at worst they are worthy of death And yet he is confronted by the Christ on that road and in that moment his mind changed and that is the reason that for three days he sat in the darkness neither eating nor sleeping why his entire reality was totally and completely disintegrated and completely replaced with the very opposite of everything he had thought before now he knew that the one he called a blasphemer was God the king the son of God And that the people he

was killing were the very people of the most high God that's repentance his mind changed and we see the power of a changed mind for that changed mind led to a changed life the gospel that you heard preached did it tell you of the power of Salvation that salvation is not merely a human decision let me share something with you if if justification Is brought forth from just the decision of a man then sanctific sanctification will rest upon another decision of a man and that's what people believe today well I was saved because I made

the right choice but I did not go on into sanctification because I didn't continue making the right choices my dear friend that's not true that's absurd I want you to know that your salvation your repentance your faith is a result of the new birth This Magnificent recreating work of the spirit of God that made you a new creature and being a new creature it is assured that you will now follow him why your Nature has been changed to be conformed to his thus your affections are poured out upon him and your will is controlled by

those affections that drive you to Christ your heart now belongs to him you want nothing but him you want nothing but his law his wisdom his word Oh What a Mighty God with a mighty salvation that's what we have here today is that the gospel that you heard and did you hear this kind of gospel that if any man be in Christ he is a new creature this is more than just the change of the will we're dealing now with ontology the very changing of nature of being you become a new creature this is not

biblical poetry this is biblical truth this is not merely a promise to be hoped In it is a reality in the most the tiniest newest child of God they have become a new creature a new creation of God I believe that's why the Gospel of John begins with in the beginning he's telling us about this new work that's going to happen that is greater than any creation of any universe that's ever been created that if any man be in Christ he's a new creature That's The Power of salvation but then we go on to the

Providence of Salvation he who began a good work and you will finish it he will not let you go this is one of the most amazing truths of Christianity and one of the greatest evidences that you have truly been born again is that the Providence of God in your life is inescapable he is working in teaching in blessing and disciplining in all things he is working to do what To conform you to the image of his son Jesus Christ everyone says they agree with that but they believe that this transformation will occur in the eschaton

it will occur only on the last day that men are basically Justified live their entire life in the broad way in abject carnality and rebellion and then in the last moment God changes him absolutely not salvation is past tense by faith and Faith alone solafide we were Justified but The God Who Justified Us in past tense is now sanctifying Us in present tense he is constantly working you see this is not some side note with God this is The Passion of God to work in an existent people changing them while they are on this Earth

in order to be a testimony to his power and then finally comes that great and Future glorification great glorification when Christ returns Were raised from the dead there is a sense in which man only has two problems I want you to understand this clearly the first problem of man is the condemnation of sin the second problem of man is the power of sin condemnation of sin was taken care of in our justification there is therefore now no condemnation why because of Christ Because of our own virtue and Merit absolutely not because of the virtue and

the Merit of the person of Jesus Christ we stand before God righteous in the righteousness of Christ so the condemnation of sin has been done away with in those who believe in Christ but what about the power of sin well the condemnation of sin is taken care of in the doctrine of justification the power of sin is taken care of in the doctrine of regeneration And that we become new creatures no I'm not saying that the Christian can attain some level of spirituality in which he's removed from sin or even the struggle of sin absolutely

not but what I am telling you is that through the doctrine of regeneration we become new creatures with new desires that live a different way with a new inclination toward the things of God toward godliness and when we move away from that inclination we are struck by the Holy Spirit we are truck we are struck and made nauseous by our own sin and we must return to Christ because we are his we are his and it is on the basis of this that the Apostle Paul can come to the church in second Corinthians let's turn

there chapter 13. and say the following now second Corinthians Chapter 13 Verse 5. Now we all know that the church in Corinth is famous for many many things of which I am sure they would not now be proud but how on Earth anyone any preacher in his right mind or in good conscience could take this church and use it as a defense for the carnal Christian I cannot understand because as a matter of fact in these two letters we do not see a defense of the Carnal Christian that someone can actually be be saved and

live their entire life in carnality rather we see that Doctrine refuted how we see this in that first letter and in this second letter we do not see these Believers throughout the full course of their life we see a moment in time in which sin had struck to the core of the church but does it mean that it continued on that way forever no we see great Repentance there don't we we see a great Zeal for a hatred of sin and a return to God you see a Believer can trespass a Believer can fall into

sin but the grace of God the power of God the very nature of regeneration will not allow that believer to stay there he will come forth he will bear fruit 30 60 and 100 fold he will and that's why Paul can say looking at a church in which some of the people had Become Wayward he tells them this test yourselves to see if you are in the faith examine yourselves or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test now that what he is doing here

is almost unknown in the modern Evangelical Community if someone came to a a preacher today and said I'm not sure if I'm saved the great majority of preachers would do this They would say well let me ask you a question was there ever a point in time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus to come into your heart well yes well were you sincere well I think so well then look Christ is in you he promised to come in you this is just the devil bothering you if I had a dime for every

time I've heard that We could support every needed missionary in the 10 40 window it's true or I'll hear people say something like this a child that has been in the church for a time even made a profession of faith in the church and seemed to walk for a time in submission to God and His law and his parents at 16 or 17 breaks away like a wild cult bolting from a stall lives in total immorality and his pastor and his parents go to him and say Something like this you're a you're a Christian and

you need to start acting like one you shouldn't act like this you are a believer that is not the way the Apostle Paul would have dealt with such a person but he would have said of this test yourself examine yourself to see if you are in the faith he would have said be diligent to make your calling and election sure examine your life in light of scripture To see if there is any reflection of the life of God and then Paul I am assured would have warned that man if you continue on young man in

this course it does not mean you have lost your salvation it means that you are giving evidence that your salvation has been false from the very beginning now how do we test Our Lives how do we what standard do we use where we can examine ourselves to see if We truly are in the faith now should we compare ourselves by ourselves no Paul says that isn't wise should we compare ourselves with other Christians no because we may compare ourselves with a person who professes Christ and yet is ungodly and we might find in them an

assurance that is false should we compare ourselves by some mature and outstanding Christian in the congregation no because maybe they have many many years in the faith and we will Fall into a false condemnation even though we are truly Believers what should we do we should go to scripture and we have a magnificent book to give us biblical Assurance with regard to Salvation and I want us to turn there for just a moment the first John chapter 5 verse 13. the Apostle John does something marvelous for us when he writes his gospel he tells us

why he writes it and why does he write the Gospel that we Might believe that Jesus is the Christ that we might have eternal life well now John takes us in this first epistle and at the end of it in chapter 5 verse 13 he says something absolutely astounding very informative he says these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you will know that you have eternal life now we need to be very careful here John has not written this Epistle in order to try

to convince people that they are lost no what has possibly happened in this church is a group of false prophets have come in and the True Believers are beginning to waver in their Salvation And since these super spiritual leaders were far beyond anyone else in their own words it's possible that many of these simple beautiful children of God were beginning to waver to doubt whether they Were even converted and so this book is designed to give us a Biblical Assurance of Salvation yet at the same time it plays an opposite role in this book we

can also possibly begin to see is it right with My Soul compared to the evidences given to me in the word of God should I have the greatest confidence that I am a believer or should maybe a healthy gospel fear be Mine that drives me to receive greater counsel from Wise Men from the word to examine myself more fully to determine whether or not I'm truly a Believer and so that's what I want to do tonight now obviously I can't go through the entire book but I do want to take some of the first tests

of conversion and I want to lay them out before you and it's an amazing thing I preached this many years ago to a church Very typical Evangelical Church and the pastor came up to me afterwards and he said Paul when you started preaching said I thought I've got four or five women in this church that bear all the fruit of Christians but they're constantly struggling with Assurance they're constantly feeble they're constantly lacking in that great confidence that should be theirs and I was terrified that you're preaching on this matter would drive them into Further doubt

I have never used first John in that way I did not know that was the purpose of the book and when you begin to preach I began to look at the ladies and gradually I saw Joy come over their faces and now look at them they're back there right now in the back of the church rejoicing in such a way as I've never seen them rejoice and I said brother that's because the word of God is that which Gives us the confidence the spirit of God working through the word of God and assuring our hearts

that we have truly become the children of God and I hope the same thing will happen to you I hope that some of you who have maybe wrestled with assurance that you'll walk out of here tonight by the word of God confirmed in the faith but also at the same time I hope that some of you may hear this message and be struck to the heart and maybe go Sleepless for weeks Until you find peace with God I do that he would strike your heart even as far with something of a holy Madness until you

knew without a shadow of a doubt that you belong to him well let's go and start at the beginning of the book in in first John chapter 1. verse 5. this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no Darkness at all now John uses Darkness and Light Quite a bit and it is proper to say that he is speaking about the Holiness of God the impeccability of God that the fact that God is is without sin there is no spot there is

no blemish there is no shadow in his character all his works are perfect and just but I think there's something else going on here also it's very important to see what we know we know something about these false teachers and they seem to be At least maybe the root of what later became gnosticism and it was a very esoteric religion very dark you never really knew where you stood or you had to have all these secret ideas and thoughts and you had to be initiated into the group to go up into higher and higher levels

of knowledge and so these simple Believers would be concerned that they were nothing more than well immature spiritual creatures who had no Chance of ever attaining such a high knowledge but John comes and he says something very important to us he says this God is light and I believe that this not only refers to the fact that God is Holy that God is without sin but I believe there's a tinge the idea of Revelation here that God is not a dark esoteric God he is not a hiding God from a seeking man that God is

light he has made known himself to men especially through the Person of Christ that we know something about the nature and the works and the will of God it is known it's not hidden and so he goes on and he says this if we say we have fellowship with him now throughout this throughout this entire book the meaning of this phrase this type of terminology if we say that we are Christian if we say that we are children of God if we say that we are born again that's the idea here He says if we

say that we have fellowship with him and yet we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth now the idea here is this if we say that we are Christian and yet we live in darkness with regard to the revelation of God concerning his nature his person and his will we're lying in our confession if we say that we are Christian and yet we live in a manner that contradicts what God has revealed to us about his Nature and his will we are lying when we make that confession now let's go on

I want us to see something else he says if we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness talking about its present tense it's a continuous action it's talking about a style of life and Believers you must grasp this or you'll fall into a false condemnation John is not talking about a perfect walking in the revelation of God but He's talking about a style of life that when you look at an individual through the course of their profession of faith in Christ you can see that there is an inclination a tendency

a lifestyle of seeking and actually walking according to the revelation of God concerning his person and his will let me give you an example if you follow me around with simply a snapshot camera a digital camera not not anything that would shoot any form of video but just a digital Camera with a snapshot and you followed me around it wouldn't take long for you to find me in a moment of sin maybe I'm impatient maybe I was short with someone maybe I I was lazy something you would be able all of a sudden to follow

me around and the moment that happened you'd be able to take a snapshot click and then you could come here next year to this conference put the picture on the wall and say look told you that Paul Washer was reprobate I told you that he was unconverted look here he is obviously not walking in the revelation of God's person and God's will he's sinning but see that wouldn't be just and it's most certainly not what John is talking about but if you followed me around for several days weeks months maybe even years with a video

camera going on Continuously you just followed me around and then you were able to play that video in its entirety you would have a better picture of what John is talking about he's not saying that the True Believer in Christ never steps outside of what God has revealed about himself and his law no what he's saying is when you look at the full course of the believer's life you can see this tendency and probably an ever increasing tendency to Conform himself and his actions more and more to the nature and will of God now my

question for you is this is that a reality in your life now I want you to understand me when we talk about this when we go up to the mountains we kind of live in the mountains but when we go farther up into the mountains you know that we do not take a straight course for example it is not a a going up without break or intermission is it but You go up in this way you go up you go down you go up you go down you go up you go down but even though

even though there is a going up and there is a going down over the course of the route you're seeing a constant ever increasing height in our travels it's the same way in the Christian Life The God Who began a good work and you will finish it there will be great struggles with sin there will be at times possibilities of even great Fallings but over the course of your life as you walk with God if you truly belong to him as a child of God people are going to say that in increasing measure your life

is being conformed more and more to what God has revealed about himself and his will in the word of God and that word of God will be such a strength to you in such a confirmation now that's the first test the child of God walks in the light as a Style of life now let's go on to an absolutely wondrous truth that follows that is so important so perfect the order of this the next test it's this he says in verse 8 if we say that we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the

truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar And his word is not in US I think that there is great evidence in this text to say that any idea of sinless perfection in the believer's life is simply wrong what do we learn from this how can this be a test of true conversion the True Believer will struggle with sin and experience many great victories over

sin but will also experience many disheartening Defeats with sin but now here is the difference in the life of the True Believer when he sins it breaks his heart the spirit of God testifies against him and speaks highly of all the goodness of God in Christ for him and it will lead that believer to a life of confession I believe this is what Jesus is speaking about when he says blessed are those who mourn for they Shall be comforted you see the Christian is identified by this that it is difficult ever increasingly it is difficult

for him to tolerate sin in his life and that when he sins when he falls in the struggle it bursts confession and asking for forgiveness a greater Reliance upon Christ to clinging to him an unbeliever Knows No Such attitude towards sin a believer An unbeliever can sit in a church and be full of sin and hear sermons directed straight towards his conscience and not even be moved isn't it amazing isn't it amazing this has happened so many times and I've spoken with other pastors and they have told me the same thing that at times you

will be preaching in a church and every once in a while there is a very special a very unique move of the Spirit of God and I've seen it at times where I was preaching and maybe over over on this side people begin to weep and then the Weeping began to pass and other people begin to weep and weep over their sins and what's amazing some people even getting out of their seats even though I don't give an invitation they're taught that way they come forward in the midst of preaching and they're weeping and you

know what's the amazing thing The people who come forward weeping with a broken heart over sin are the people that are known in the church to be the most devoted to Christ the most sincere in their faith and yet the most wicked carnal disturbing people in the church sit back there as though their conscience had no feeling because surely it had no feeling you see what's being done here is a great judgment Throne of Christ in present tense the sheep and the goats Are being divided the goats are the ones that sit back there with

no mention of sin in their conscience and the Sheep are confessing their sins before God just the reverse of what the world would think that the believer let me give you let me give you an example and and I want to get on to more tests but this is so important just give you an idea of the change in nature of a believer a man is unconverted he's late for work He's running out the door it's snowing he knows his boss going to be mad at him he hasn't done his homework as he should have

done or is his work for his business he's running out the door he comes to the door he's about to open it up his wife comes down says please take out the trash he's so angry turns around he shouts at her is very angry with her and walks out the door totally justified he has no Affliction of conscience whatsoever he goes to work he's at peace He even comes home he's still angry with her for even mentioning that he ought to take out the trash while he's had such a burden that day now let's say

that three weeks later that man is converted and for the next eight months he begins to grow in Christ and then again it is winter and the Man rises late he's late for work by accident he's running out the door he's nervous about a meeting that he has he's all tense in every manner Shape form and fashion and at that moment when he grabs the door handle his wife comes down and says to him this honey can you take out the trash and in that moment without thinking he reacts and he tells her well he

tells her off he is angry he is he is for him in it he's just he's just wrong but this is you say well what's the difference brother Paul the moment he does that he is struck in his heart and you men know exactly what I'm Talking about he is struck in his heart and he brushes it off he's still angry he walks out to the door but he gets in his car he is miserable he's eaten up he knows he was wrong he knows he needs to get on the cell phone he needs he

knows he needs to cancel the meeting but he doesn't he bucks up against it he drives to work he's there in the office trying to gather his thoughts he cannot do it he is miserable he has sin it's like a Voice screaming at him you are wrong you are wrong you are wrong and finally he gets no peace he calls his wife on the phone he begs for forgiveness she releases him and he feels peace he cries out to God forgive me change me make me a new man that is evidence of conversion he has

become a new creature he can no longer wallow in the Sin he is a higher being now and that sin makes him nauseous he cannot feed upon it he cannot justify it because he has been Changed and furthermore the work of the spirit of God upon Him convicting him of sin that is why when preachers tell you that in their Church they do not mention sin I can tell you the Holy Spirit has absolutely nothing to do with their Ministry because one of the chief ministries of the holy spirit that when he comes he will

convict the world of sin and so this man is brought to confession do you see that in the Christian Life my Dear friend realize this this is what I expect for myself I hope if I live to be 90 years old there will be something well I already know this paradox I hope that when I am 90 I am so much more like Christ than I was when I was converted at 21. I hope that I am so radically transformed to be like Christ when I'm 90 but I can assure you that if I am

I will see more sin in my life than when I was 21. And although because I see that sin my mourning will be deeper at the same time my joy will be deeper because the greater revelation of my sin does not hurt me to the point of Affliction and death because with that I also have a greater revelation of the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ and there's a transference in which my joy no longer comes from me and my virtue and Merit that it comes only from Christ and his virtue and

Merit No longer hoping in anything but Christ being made being made thousands of times more holy than when I first began and yet much more sensitive to sin than I could have ever imagined rather that's the hope of the Christian Life he who began a good work in you will finish it one of the greatest evidence of Salvation is not that we are sinless but it is our reaction towards sin in Our life now let's look at another it says in in verse 3 of chapter 2 by this we know that we have come to

know him if we keep his Commandments as a friend of mine says Brothers to understand that my goodness it's not rocket surgery he says to understand that listen to what he says by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his Commandments and possibly you're out There right now saying then I am doomed because I look at his Commandments I fall short of them again understand what John is speaking of he's speaking of a style of life and it's within the context of what we know about sanctification you see the

unbelieving man though he be in the church soundly resting in Zion the unbelieving man cares not to know the will of God through the Commandments he does not want to hear them He is ignorant of them in many ways and even the Commandments he knows when he breaks them he cares not he's not Afflicted in his conscience he just goes on he lives as one without law and Jesus says in Matthew 7 thus he shall be condemned but the True Believer begins to grow and Delight in God's Commandments Delight in the wisdom and the precepts

that are found In his law throughout the full body of scripture and gradually begins to grow in that delight and seeks to be conformed to those Commandments and throughout his life you see an increasing Deliverance of this person over to greater and greater obedience you see just a simple change in Direction in the believer's life where the unbeliever cared not for the Commandments of God the believer begins To grow in his affections for the Commandments of God where the unbeliever cared not whether he was conformed or not the believer he Mourns at his lack of

Conformity and presses on to Greater conformity he's inclined toward these Commandments it's amazing to me today I I honestly I just don't understand the aversion of the Evangelical Community to God's law I can't understand it as a matter of fact I can't even Understand the unbelievers hatred of God's law let me give you an example I was teaching again in Europe at this at this University and uh someone made the mention that the law of God it just binds us and does all these things and I and they just did not like the law of

God so I asked the question to the the students I said let me ask you a question just what part of God's law is it that you hate is it the part about you shall not lie Is it the part that says don't steal another man's life and wife and Destroy his family is it the part about not coveting so that there's no Wars and murder among you just tell me what part of this law is so ugly to you and if such things if I have as I have just spoken are so ugly to

you what does that say about you what kind of evil vile radically depraved creature are you that you would hate Commandments that tells you to Respect other people not to lie to them not to kill them not to steal their wives I don't understand but it's the same way with the Evangelical Community I began to talk about the law of God as a delight in my heart and they're calling me a legalist I said what about this don't you love what about the Book of Proverbs it makes you hate hey what is it in all

this stuff I just find it as beautiful Do you find the law of God his Commandments his wisdom do you go into the Book of Proverbs and find something maybe you've read the book a hundred times but all of a sudden you find something you've never seen before and you just get so excited you're delighted in it that's a mark of Christianity but the type of Christianity that hates the law of God and hates the wisdom of God and looks for every possible loophole In the law of God in order to fill their Christianity with

their fallen culture if you're that type of person be afraid that on the day of judgment you will stand naked before God in your entire life will be exposed and your soul will be cast into hell because you were found to be one who claimed to be a disciple and yet lived as though God had never given a law to be obeyed do you Delight in the law of god let's Go on to another test quickly it's one of my favorites verse six the one who says he abides in him in Christ ought himself to

walk in the same manner as he walked sometimes I'll say that and I'll see somebody on the front row just giving up all hope and salvation at that moment what do you mean surely I have not converted walk as he walked I have no hope let me just clear it all up with an illustration from my Childhood I was raised on a well we raised Charlie cattle and quarter horses and we were in Illinois it snowed at times and my dad would wake me up at about 5 30 in the morning just a little boy

maybe six years old and he'd always say Paul boy first Bible verse I ever memorized Paul boy get up no rest for the wicked that's what he would say and I'd go out there and my dad was this huge man with a long stride and we'd go Out there and we would water the animals because the ice had frozen over we'd bust the buckets fill them up with water and go off across the feed lot he would have one bucket and one hand another in the other hand and take off across that snow with the

largest stride you could ever imagine well as a little boy I just thought my dad he was just my hero I was scared of him but he was still my hero and I'd fill up my water bucket and I was determined that when I walked across That feedlot I would put my foot in his footprint that I would do it I looked like a drunken spider I would fall down in the feedlot so if somebody on the outside had been staring at me as a little boy watching me do that they would have maybe mocked

me they would have accused me they would have scoffed at me they would have made fun of me but there wouldn't be one person who would be able to say that boy doesn't want to be like his dad In all my flaunting and failures and stumbling and everything else you could take a look at my life and you could see that little boy wants to walk in the steps of his father in the same way with the believer and I've seen this countless times some young guy was like a bull in a china shop he

seems to do more wrong than good but when you take a look at this young man you can see something has happened in his life and all he wants to Do is walk like Jesus yes he looks like a spiritually drunk spider but there's no doubt in your mind this boy honors Christ esteems Christ and wants to be like Christ you know him you want to walk and here's the great thing the love of God the safety net that gives us such boldness to take off and say I will press on I will enter in

violently I Will walk like him because it mattered not how many times I fall my Father in heaven knows he has made me righteous and though a righteous man falls seven times he will rise gives you that freedom to take off with no fear and walk like him now there's one more and it's the only one we're going to have time to get to it may be the most important and it's this he says beloved in verse 7. I am not Writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment which you have had from

the beginning the old commandment is the word which you have heard on the other hand I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him and in you it's true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the True Light is already shining now what is he talking about he's talking about love now how is Love An Old commandment and a new commandment it's an old commandment And I don't have to argue or debate this just read the book of Deuteronomy you will find the love of God in

that book you find the love of God on every page of scripture when it is read rightly love has always been a major player in God's economy love and so it's old he's always told us to love but it's new in that in the person of Jesus Christ Such an illustration and such a definition of love has been given to us that it is though we had never been told to love before so magnificent this Christian love that is to be ours now he says it's true in Christ and he also says it's true in

The Believer and then he says because the darkness is passing away and the True Light is already shining and so he tells the believer it's true in Christ and it's true in you and the believer looks At himself and say how can it be true in me then we see I think the idea here of sanctification the darkness is passing the true light is shining you're growing you're learning to love you're becoming more like Christ and then he goes on and says in verse 9 the one who says he is in the light and yet

hates his brother is in the darkness until now the one who loves his brother abides in the light and There is no cause for stumbling in him now this is where we get to the part of the church here brother does not refer to the poor even though we have plenty of passages in the scripture that tell us to love the poor brother does not refer to someone from another race because there just so happens to be only one race it's called the human race but it doesn't refer to loving someone of another nationality of

another skin here brother Refers to the Christian and what he is saying is this the one who loves his fellow Christian abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him but the one who hates the believer hates the child of God is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes one of the greatest evidence says of conversion is that you love the People of God you love the people of God before I was converted there was this place where

I lifted weights and it was right across this very narrow street from the First Baptist Church and when the Christians would go to church on Sunday Sunday night or Wednesday if I was in the gym lifting I would many times open up the windows as in the door and everything to the gym and I would turn on the worst Rock heavy Metal whatever you could imagine just to bother them my favorite was Highway to Hell by AC DC and I just loved just first I don't even didn't even know why there was such antagonism in

me but when God saved me I wanted to be in church I wanted and if my church wasn't having a meeting I wanted to go somewhere else that was look in the newspaper for a revival going on anywhere I didn't care after church just sit back at the door hoping That an old couple would take me home and share with me something about the scriptures your heart changes for the people of God one of the greatest evidences that you are truly Christian is that you long to be with God's people in fellowship and practical service

I hear so many people say well I Believe In Christ and I love God but I'll not go into that church it's full of Hypocrites and when they tell me that I figure they have thrown down the gauntlet and my Proper response can only be this congratulations you child of the devil you're doing the work of your father who was an accuser and a liar from the beginning you stand outside the people of God and you spew your hatred at them you are not Christian in spite of all the problems that we have in church

life because in community and closeness and relationship there's always going to be problems But we cannot separate ourselves from the people of God we love the people of God and I know that people are always talking about where there's so much division in the body of Christ and all these things I for one don't agree Jesus prayed that we would be one the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31 and chapter 32 talks about the Oneness of the people of God I believe we are one I do because I have sat down on so many planes walked

through so many jungles everything else and come across someone I had never met in my life and the moment we start talking find out that they are a Believer see that it is evident they love Jesus and at that moment I would die for them because we're one were one I love that person that person loves me We are in Christ now I want to give you an example of how this works out and will close but I also want to give you an example of how we can wrongly treat scripture here it says that

one of the greatest evidences of conversion is our love for the people of God now when we go over to Matthew 25 what do we find we find the great judgment and the separation of the sheep and the goats and in that what does Jesus say Well to the Sheep he says enter into the The Joy enter into heaven why well I was I was hungry and you fed me I was naked you clothed me I was in prison you visited me and so on and so forth and then he looks at the goats and

he says this he says depart from me well why well I was hungry and you did not feed me I was naked you did not clothe me I was in prison you did not visit me now so many Ministries that deal with The poor so many prison Ministries use that text as the very Foundation of their Ministries now we ought to have Ministries to the poor and as the brother shared with us yesterday so powerfully in that small meeting we ought to care for the poor if we're not caring for the poor there is sin

but that text is not talking about a Ministry to the unbelieving poor now we ought to have prison ministries Yes we Ought to be going into prisons and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the most dark the darkest of cells but that text is not talking about a Prison Ministry Jesus is not saying I was a pedophile in prison and you didn't visit me that's not what he's saying remember the identification that we've been studying about in Christ Our Unity being united with Christ that when when God's people is persecuted Christ is persecuted Paul

why are you persecuting me so what is he saying here in this great separation of the sheep and the goats we see that one of the greatest evidences of true conversion is the Practical outworking of the individual toward the Community of Christ in love even though it might cost that individual everything here's what he's teaching I want you to think for a moment that we're back in Rome We have an underground church and we're meeting out in the woods somewhere there's about 30 of us and so we're out there we're having a service and as

we know how to do we each depart from that service two by twos in different directions to make our way home and then you make your way home about midnight you're getting ready for bed and all of a sudden there's a frantic knock at the door You open up the door you're scared but there's a Believer you bring him in and he says oh listen to me when we were coming back I saw just over the the other side of the woods I saw that two of the brothers were going in that direction on their

way home and they ran into a Roman guard and they were captured and accused as Christians they were beaten right there they were stripped of their clothing and they were hauled off to the prison What are we going to do well we got to call a meeting so go around and secretly go to each house and they call a meeting all the Believers are gathered there now at four in the morning and this is what they say look two of ours were taken they're thrown in prison they're beaten they're they're hungry they're thirsty they have

no clothing they need medical attention they need help we've got to do something and a young man stands up and says I'll go I'll go immediately And then a wise brother in the church stands up and says young man thank you so much but you need to understand something if you go to that prison to take water and medicine and clothing they're probably going to identify you with the two that you are visiting and they will capture you maybe at the loss of your own life now I want you to think closely about this matter

on hearing that a few members in the Congregation begin to grumble and some of them go look look this is just unwise anybody goes there they're going to get caught no one should do anything let's just be secret about this if some of us get caught all of us are going to get caught let's just leave the matter alone there's nothing we can do about it that older wiser brother stands up and says no Christ commanded us if we are truly Believers we will love At all cost we will go no matter what it takes

and the ones that we're grumbling go we've had enough you know we've seen the direction that all this is going we think every week we meet here you people are just getting more fanatical we'll have nothing to do with any of this we're out of here about 15 of them March off and the young man stands up again and says I'll go I still want to go I gotta go and another believer says I'll go with him I'll go we'll go the Believers run out and they get water and they get bandages and they get

clothing and they get food and they March over to the prison and visit Christ You see the whole thing works together just so perfectly one of the greatest evidences that we are truly born again is that we love the people of God practically not in great eloquent words but in Practical Deeds we love the people of God and we love them sacrificially one of the great passions that I have is to unite the people of God in this sense I have spent a great deal of my life watching the people of God suffer in other

lands I could tell you stories you would not believe that you would not be that you would not permit being told in mixed company such terrible things remember your brothers and chains remember your brothers without Bibles remember your brothers without the sound Doctrine Remember the brothers that have not had the Privileges that you have known and like me taken for granted remember your brothers throughout the world remember them show forth Your Love make your calling an election sure a Believer we are granted assurance in many ways Assurance comes can come in a supernatural Manner and

manner involving The will and the emotions and the affections at the moment of conversion a great testimony of the outpouring of the love of God within our hearts that is a wonderful thing but that in itself is not proof as we increase and go on we can see the Providence of God working in our life through the years of our Pilgrim's Progress that is an additional proof as we begin to look in the mirror of God's word and we honestly without Pride can Say he's changing me glory to God he's changing me that is another

great proof of our conversion for one of the greatest proofs is that we do what the law you know that primitive ugly thing that no one likes anymore what the law from the very beginning told us to do to love the Lord Our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength And to love our neighbor as ourself to love our brother in Christ in a way that supersedes to have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus the great evidence of conversion is a progressive sanctification in a love for God

and a love for the people of God the people of God closest to you in your community of faith in your local Church are you growing in these things children is there a fire in your heart is there a work of the spirit of God I don't just want to have the Theology of the Puritans and then brag about the size of my brain I want the fire of the Puritan that which burned in the reformers is there a work of God is there a life of God in the soul of man in you are

you Christian You will know them by their fruits God bless you