Let me read it to you.
Look at Matthew 7:21-24 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Notice God tells us there are many who think they are saved will be told one day at the judgment, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
These that the Lord talked about not knowing Him have done many good works.
But notice the Lord refers to them as YE THAT WORK INIQUITY!!!
Why does the Lord refer to them as workers of iniquity?
The greatest sin that a person can commit is to REJECT THE LORD JESUS!
God will lovingly FORGIVE EVERY SIN THAT WE HAVE COMMITTED, BUT HE WILL NOT FORGIVE THOSE WHO REJECT THE PRICE HE PAID FOR THEIR SINS ON CALVARY.
People will not die and go to a Christless eternity because they are drunkard, liars, and adulterers. The Bible tells they will go to a Christless eternity because the Bible tells us in John 5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Those who have not come to Him for eternal life will perish!!!
• I cannot think of anything more horrifying than thinking you were saved to find out that you are not!!!
• I cannot think of anything more horrifying than thinking you were going spend eternity in heaven than to find out that you are going to spend eternity in hell!!!
• I cannot think of anything more horrifying than thinking you had plenty of chances to be saved and now you do not have any more chance to be saved!!!
Now the reason this passage of scripture is alarming suppose you were one of those that the Lord is speaking about in this passage of scripture.
That is:
• You sing with the congregation “When we all get to heaven.”
• You have your name on the church membership book with all the other believers.
• You attend church regularly
• You even have a position of leadership in the church
• You faithfully support God’s church with His tithes
• You invite family and friends to attend church with you
• You have done many wonderful works
And the Lord on the Judgement day tell you And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?
Because we are not saved by works, we are saved by GRACE.
Look at Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Today we have a lot of boasting but when we get to heaven there will be NOBODY boasting they are there because of their works.
How we can know we are a child of God?
First of all to know that you are saved…
I.THERE WILL BE A CONVERSION
Before there can be a CONVERSION it has to do with coming to know Him and LOVE HIM.
Love is a word that we begin to use at an early age in life.
But what is amazing about love is this CONVERSION in life that takes place.
You see we who are saved have NOT ALWAYS LOVED THE LORD.
But when we became a child of God we were CONVERTED!!!
For example:
• A young boy at a certain age despises young girls
• He frowns like he swallowed a dose of castor oil when the teacher makes him sit next to a girl
• But at a certain age, something very mysterious begins to happen to him. THERE IS A CONVERSION THAT TAKES PLACE!!!
That same boy that despised sitting beside a girl, now wants to sit beside her every time he gets a chance.
In fact, he would be happy to have her set in his lap!!!
WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?
We say the “love bug” bit him. This is the only way we know to explain now his odd behavior.
But a CONVERSION in his life has taken place.
Notice this:
• Without ever being in love before
• Without ever taking a course in class
• Without ever reading a book on love
All of a sudden he become and experts on the subject of love!
Now I am being facetious, because they may THINK they know all about love, but in actuality they know very little about it.
WHY DO I SAY THAT?
Illus: For example, a young man might meet a young girl named Susie, and immediately he feels that he cannot go through life without her. The very next week when you see him, you ask him how his girlfriend Susie is doing?
And he might tell you that he has not seen her in three weeks and he has had three other girlfriends since then.
Yet a few weeks ago he was madly in love with Susie!
There is something seriously wrong with the dating system in this country.
We wonder why there are so many divorces in this country, and it could be related to how young folks go about selecting a companion for life.
HOW DO THEY GO ABOUT SEEKING A MATE?
Illus: A young man seeks for a mate the same way a young man seeks for his first new car.
That is, when a young man reaches a certain age and begins to look for a car after he looks them all over he decides that this is the one he wants.
He is excited and can hardly sleep for the excitement of having this car in his life.
But he knows that he is only going to keep this car for so many years.
Illus: He knows, as excited as he is now, there will be a time when the newness will wear off, and he will come across another one that is shinier, and has a lot more features.
When that time comes, he knows he will swap his old car in for on a new one.
This is the kind of love today that many practice when they get married.
It is as if they enter the marriage with the idea that this one will do for the present, but as soon as I can find another one I like better, I will swap this one off.
And if you ask these people if they know anything about love, they would give you that little grin like, “Yes, I know a great deal about LOVE!”
BUT THEY DO NOT!
Illus: You can ask the average man on the street if he loves the Lord, and he will look at you like you fell off the back of a turnip truck, and say, “Of course, I love the Lord. Everybody loves the Lord!”
No, everyone might say they love the Lord, but according to the scriptures everyone does not love the Lord.
The Lord said our love for Him can be summarized in one way.
Look at John 14:15 “If ye love me, you will keep my commandments.”
HERE IS THE PROBLEM WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE!!!
Illus: Many grew up in a home where they never heard the word LOVE mention.
• They heard the word HATE FREQUENTLY BUT THEY NEVER HEARD THE WORD LOVE.
• They never saw any affection like hugging and kissing in the home.
• They grow up in a society where Hollywood love is known to be sex. In fact, they call sex MAKING LOVE!
They grew up in these HOMES and in this SOCIETY and when they get to a certain age they get married and they do not know the first thing about love.
NOT THE FIRST THING!!!
The same thing happens to people spiritually.
Illus: They start attending church and they see people who profess to be saved that CLAIM THEY LOVE THE LORD but their life is no different than those who do not claim to love the Lord.
But God does not want us as Christians to be confused about LOVE…
What does it mean to love Him?
God’s Word tells us the PROOF OF OUR LOVE FOR HIM IS…IF WE LOVE HIM WE WILL KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS!!!
What are some of the areas of our life that will be affected by obedience to his commandments?
Our relationship with the Lord starts off with a love gift – we give our LIFE to Him at conversion.
The fact is, if a person does not do this they have not been converted.
They might have had an emotional experience but they have never been converted (Born-again).
Something very mysterious happens at CONVERSION…
• We no longer have to be begged to attend church we now want to attend.
• We no longer have to be begged to pray, read our Bible, witness and tithe we now want to do these things.
All of these desires come at CONVERSION.
At Conversion we came to realize that life without Him is not worth living.
Illus: For example, one of the ways I know I love my wife is when I met her and fell in love with her to me life is not worth living without her.
Illus: Former President Reagan was asked if his wife Nancy died before him what would he do? He paused and said, “It is hard to imagine life without Nancy!”
At CONVERSION we gave the Lord Jesus our HEART and our LIFE!
We comes to realize LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING WITHOUT HIM!!!
When you find a person who loves to give, you will find a person who knows something about love.
WHY IS THIS TRUE?
Because love always wants to give!
This is why the Bible tells us that God is love and He loves us so much that John 3:16 tells us, “God so loved the world (Us), that He gave his only begotten Son…”
He love us so much He gave His life for me and now we want to give our life to Him.
The first way we show our love for the Lord is by CONVERSION.
We who did not love the Lord are now CONVERTED and we give Him our hearts as He commands us to do.
When there is love THERE WILL BE A CONVERSION.
Illus: When I think of conversion, I think of that song that Hank Williams used to sing, “Something Got A Hold Of Me!”
The lyrics to that song go like this:
“At first when I heard of some people who claim that the old-time religion was real. I said ‘I’ll go down, take a look at the crowd. For just that weak-minded I feel.’"
“I walked up the steps and I peeked in the door, but the devil said, ‘don’t you go in!’ But I said, ‘It won’t hurt me I’ll just step inside. And I’ll sit as far back as I can.’”
Chorus:
“But something got a hold of me [praise god] Yes something got a hold of me [Oh! Lord] I went there to fight, but I’ll tell you that night, God certainly got a hold of me.”
Something Got A Hold Of Me
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How can I know I AM SAVED?
Because I came to know Him and love Him. I HAVE BEEN CONVERTED.
Illus: It is like this…a young man may have many girl friends but one day he meets that special girl in his life and he is willing to forsake all the others for that special girl.
WE CALL THIS CONVERSION!!!
Listen, if you are not willing to FORSAKE the gods of this world for Him you have not been CONVERTED!!!
God’s Word tells us IF YOU LOVE ME YOU WILL KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS.
HIS COMMANDMENT IS Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Again, people will die and go to a devil’s hell not because of sin, they will die and go to a Christless eternity because they will not come to Him to be CONVERTED.
When there is love THERE IS A CONVERSION.
Also, another way you can know you are saved is…
II. THERE WILL BE A CHANGE
There are three big CHANGES in our life…
1) When we got married…life will never be the same!
2) When we had a child…life will never be the same!
3) When we are CONVERTED…life will never be the same!
God’s command is to COME TO HIM WITH YOUR SINS AND BE CONVERTED. And once you are CONVERTED THERE WILL BE A CHANGE!!!
WHAT KIND OF A CHANGE?
A drastic change!!! You will never be the same!!!
If there is no DRASTIC CHANGE it is because you have not been CONVERTED!!!
Illus: There used to be a television program called “Change of heart.”
The program would bring a couple on national television and they would tell how long they had been dating.
The reason they were willing to come on the show was because they were not sure they wanted to CONTINUE THE RELATIONSHIP, or have a CHANGE OF HEART and start a new relationship with someone else more compatible.
Often, after both would go out on a date with someone else, one or both of them had a CHANGE OF HEART.
This is what happened when we were converted.
We were hooked up with the devil, but we were not happy with this relationship. THE BIBLE SAYS THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR IS HARD!!
We became acquainted with the Lord Jesus and we had a CHANGE OF HEART!
At CONVERSION, God the Holy Spirit spoke to our hearts and showed us some things.
WHAT DID HE SHOW US?
• He showed us our sins
• He showed us our destination
• He showed us the Savior
When we repented of our sins, and He saved us. We became converted (born-again) and we had a CHANGE OF HEART.
Notice, he starts this off with a conjunction, “If” ye love me...”
When it comes to loving the Lord, there is a big “If” in the front of some people who claim to love the Lord.
In other words, He is saying:
• Do not go around telling people that you love the Lord when you are not willing to obey Him, because the fact is, you do NOT LOVE THE LORD ACCORDING TO HIS WORD.
There is no CONVERSION and there is no CHANGE in your life.
• Do not get on your knees and pray, and tell God that you love Him, unless you are willing to obey Him. Because you do NOT LOVE THE LORD ACCORDING TO HIS WORD!
When this happens to us, there are some major changes that take place.
2 Cor 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Our life after conversion bears no similarity to what we used to be.
Illus: Linda Tripp became famous during the Monica Lewinski scandal in Washington, D.C. She had to appear in court for wire tapping charges brought against her.
Her lawyer advised her to make some changes in her appearance. She went to a plastic surgeon and had some major changes made. She now has appeared on national television and no longer looks like the same person.
This is similar to what happened to us when we got saved. When the Lord saved us, we became a new creature in Christ Jesus, and now our NEW LIFE bears no similarity to our OLD LIFE.
The Lord said the test of being converted is this; “IF YE LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS!”
This creates a serious problem for some who claim to love the Lord.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
The problem is this, if there is NO CHANGE, there was NO CONVERSION.
• It does not matter what THEY CLAIM, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN BORN AGAIN
• It does not matter how many churches THEY have JOINED, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
• It does not matter how much THEY GIVE to the church, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
• It does not matter if THEY ATTENDED church all their life, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
• It does not matter that their parents are saved, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
• It does not matter how talented they might be, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
Someone might be saying, “Preacher, you have no right to judge them.”
You are absolutely correct!
But I am not judging them, the Word of God is judging them, and the Word of God tells us they have never been CONVERTED THAT LEADS TO A DRASTIC CHANGE IN THEIR LIFE.
The Word of God says that when we become born-again, we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The Lord specifically states that there should be a change when a person is truly converted.
Before conversion, one of the ways we knew we were not born again was because we did not OBEY HIM.
We demonstrate our love for God when we obey Him! We are no longer the same person we once were.
• Before we were converted, our life revealed that we hated everything God stood for.
• But once we came to know Him, we fell in love with Him and wanted to PLEASE HIM!
Illus: J. Allan Petersen tells the story of a woman who came to a minister, Dr. George Crane, and stated she hated her husband and wanted to divorce him.
In her words she said, "I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even with him before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has hurt me."
Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan "Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him.
After you've convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you're getting a divorce. That will really hurt him."
With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised!"
And she did it with enthusiasm.
For two months she showed love, kindness, attention, giving, reinforcing, and sharing.
When she didn't return to Dr.Crane office called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?"
"Divorce?" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him."
At one time, every one of us who are saved were at enmity with Christ.
We did things to hurt him.
• We laughed at sacrilegious jokes
• We stayed out of church knowing we did not have a good excuse
• We did things knowing it would break His heart
• We refused to come to church regardless of how hard Christians would beg us to attend
• We would make time for the things of the world but no time for God
But now we have been CONVERTED and now a CHANGE has taken place in our life.
This crowd today that you…
• Have to beg to attend church
• Have to beg to give financially to the Lord’s work
• Have to be to live a holy life
They ARE NOT SAVED!!!
Now when you come to this conclusion and you preach this some say you are preaching salvation by works.
No, I am not! I am preaching the same thing that James in the New Testament preached.
Look at James 2:17-18 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
Some have never been CONVERTED AND THIS IS WHY THERE IS NO CHANGE IN THEIR LIFE.
Now, the more we serve Him, the more we come to love Him.
Illus: Back in the 50’s there was a love song that had these words, “To know, know, know him, is to love, love, love him. And I do.”
When you hear this song it makes us think of Jesus!!!
Youtube The Teddy Bears - To Know Him Is To Love Him [The Perry Como Show 1958]
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The fact is, the more we come to know about Him, the more we LOVE HIM and WANT TO OBEY HIM.
When there is love:
• THERE WILL BE A CONVERSION
• THERE WILL BE A CHANGE
Also …
III. THERE WILL BE COMMUNICATION
One of the ways you can know you are CONVERTED is that you enjoy talking to God throughout the day.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger said when he first got saved his pastor told him that he should pray at least thirty minutes a day.
So he would kneel beside his bed AND look at his watch when he first started praying and would pray thirty minutes a day.
But his pastor was lovingly wrong to tell him to pray for thirty minutes a day!
WHY WAS HE WRONG?
Because his pastor should have told him every day pray without ceasing because you have come to love to talk to Him and let Him talk to you!
Illus: When I am at the office studying there are times I can not wait to get home to talk to my wife.
I feel the same way when it comes to spending time talking to the Lord Jesus.
Prayer is not an obligation, IT IS ABOUT LOVING TO TALK TO HIM!
Illus: When you love someone, there will be communication. When someone tell us they love us and they do not talk to us, we ask them, “What’s wrong, why won’t you talk to me?”
And there is something wrong when a person will not talk to the Lord IF they profess to be saved.
A. JESUS SAYS, IF YOU LOVE ME, TALK TO ME
If you love Him you will keep His commandments.
And one of the commandments of the Lord is, “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thess. 5:17)
Now listen, we all have met some men who were married to women who loved to talk.
Illus: Phil and Jill had been married for many years, but now they were in a divorce court.
• The judge asked him, "Phil, is it true that for the last three years of your marriage you did not speak to Jill?"
• Phil replied, "Yes Judge, that is correct."
• "And how do you explain this unusual conduct?" the judge inquired.
• Phil replied, "I didn't want to interrupt her Your Honor.”
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger had a man that attended his church and his wife loved to talk.
Since she love to talk she assume everybody she came in contact love to hear her talk.
This husband that was married to her went on to say I look forward going to work just to get away from her talking all the time.
There are people like that!
They spend time in praying not because they love the Lord they loved to talk and want SHUT UP!
But did you know we can talk to God every day, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, and God will never get tired of us talking to Him if it is because we love Him?
He commands us to talk to Him through out the day.
WHY DOES HE COMMAND US TO DO THIS?
Because He wants to hear us tell Him:
(1) WE LOVE HIM
Illus: Some folks remind us of the woman who said to her husband, “We have been married fifty years and you have not told me one time in those fifty years that you love me.”
He said, “I told you before I married you that I love you. And the reason I haven’t told you since then is because I have not changed my mind.”
But everyone loves to hear the words, “I love you!”
• We who are married love to hear it
• We who are parents love to hear it
• We who are grandparents love to hear it
And God also loves to hear it throughout the day. He wants us to tell Him that we LOVE HIM because He loves to hear it.
Throughout the day we should talk to Him and tell Him that -
(2) WE ARE TRUSTING HIM
1 John 5:14 “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, IF WE ASK ANY THING ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, he heareth us:”
You see, as we live throughout the day, we are putting our trust in three places.
We are trusting:
• IN OURSELVES
• IN OTHERS
• IN GOD
We need to tell Him throughout the day, “Lord, I am trusting you!”
Illus: I lost a pair of expensive sun glasses. I look everywhere trying to find them. I went to restaruants and asked them if I left them there? I COULD NOT FIND THEM!
But I told the Lord I have done everything I know to do to find them and now I am trusting you to help me find them. I said Lord you know exactly where they are and I am trusting you to find them.
Several weeks later I was in my wood shop at home and I felt led to do some cleaning.
I was cleaning out some saw dust and as I reached into the saw dust I felt something and pulled it out and it my Sun glasses.
It pays to trust God.
Illus: Several years ago I was helping a small church to build a new church building.
When we got through a real estate company gave us a nice big sign to put outside to identify the church.
A few days late after it was erected me and the pastor of this church noticed this large beautiful sign had been stolen.
The pastor was discourage that someone stole his church sign.
We prayed a prayer something like this.
• Lord, you know who stole this church sign!
• You know where that church sign is!
• Make them bring it back and put it where they stole it from the location it was stolen.
The pastor called me several days later after we prayed and said, “Brother Belger, guess what?
God answered our prayer and whoever stole it brought it back and erected it in the same location.
Listen, God wants us to trust Him!
WHY SHOULD WE TELL HIM THAT WE ARE TRUSTING HIM CONTINUOUSLY?
As we do this, WE ARE REMINDING OURSELVES that we are trusting in Him!
That is, throughout the day we need to trust him:
• FOR OURSELVES
• FOR OTHERS
If I Love the Lord I will COMMUNICATE WITH HIM and pray without ceasing.
Conclusion:
Because I am saved and I love him, THERE WILL BE A
I. CONVERSION,
II. CHANGE,
III. COMMUNICATION.
We can know we are saved because these are the things God commands us to do IF we love Him!!!
