The marks of the unconverted are examined, highlighting that true conversion involves a profound inner change rather than mere outward religious activity. The sermon identifies several key indicators of an unconverted state, including willful ignorance of God's Word, reliance on religious formality without genuine faith, wrong motives in religious duties, trust in one's own righteousness, a predominant love of the world, unmortified pride, and a prevailing love of pleasure. These characteristics are contrasted with the transformative work of God in salvation, emphasizing that holiness, righteousness, and redemption are found solely in Christ and received by faith.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.17 → restored 4.03
We want to turn this morning in our Bibles to three passages. The first of which is in Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five. This morning we want to examine together the marks of the unconverted. We want to deal in the next number of Lord Day mornings with the subject of conversion. What it means to be born of God. And this morning we want to Look at the unconverted. What marks manifest their lives as recorded in the Word of God? Ephesians chapter five, and we begin at verse five.
For this ye know that no whoremonger or unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. From the book of the Revelation chapter twenty-one.
You go to the end of the Bible and just back a little way, and you'll be at chapter twenty-one. And we only are going to read two verses, verses seven and eight, where we read, He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death now from first corinthians chapter six first corinthians chapter six and we begin reading at verse nine know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But Ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Let us look to the Lord at Thanksgiving. We're going to ask our brother Dave Nethery to lead us into the presence of the Lord this morning.
Let us pray. Now let us again look into the Word of the Lord before we look into the Word. Loving Father, we thank you for this great salvation that is provided to our Lord Jesus Christ. We recognize that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build. And we recognize that conversion, salvation, is of thyself. That a man cannot convert himself, that you do the conversion. And we ask, O our God, that as we approach this subject of the marks of the unconverted, that if there are any in our meeting who possess these marks, that thou wilt so convict them, that thou have no rest nor peace until they turn and cry out to thee for mercy and receive the salvation so freely provided to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Meet with us in this hour. We expectantly wait upon thee for the Lord Jesus' sake and glory. Amen. Whenever we think about or speak about the subject of conversion, we have reference to that great change that takes place in the life of a person who is saved in the biblical sense of the word. First John, that little epistle of First John of five chapters, in it we have what I call the birthmark of the redeemed. There are various expressions and tests in the first epistle of John, enabling the child of God to determine that he has truly been born of God.
And I call them the birthmark of the redeemed. because the redeemed person has been born of God, and therefore the birthmarks of the family of God appear in the life of the child of God. But the person who has not been saved, the birthmarks of the family of Adam, are there, and they are evident. They are outlined in the Word of God. Now when our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, he stated a very clear and emphatic doctrine, you must be born again.
And there are few people who will deny the necessity of the new birth. There are very few who will deny that we need to be born again. But I'll tell you this, but there are multitudes of people who will acknowledge they need to be born again, but they have a self-deluding confidence that the work needs to be done now. And they put off many times this matter of conversion, coming to Christ, owning Him as Lord and Savior, it is put off. It is possible for an individual to be like the church at Leia de Chihuahua.
They were rich and increased with goods and at need of nothing. But God looked at them and said, you're wretched, you're poor, you're blind, you're naked, you're miserable. And it's possible because a person is increased with goods and don't have need of things in this life that everything is all right. Well, you see, that was a problem with a rich farmer in John or in Luke chapter twelve that our Lord called a fool. He had everything laid up for himself for this life, but nothing for eternity. And the Lord called him a fool.
You see, the scripture declares in the book of Proverbs chapter thirty in verse twelve, these words, there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their own filthiness. They are words, beloved, that describe our generation. Now in the scriptures that we've read this morning, we find a catalog of sins listed. And I'm just going to mention them, for I'm going to catalog them into categories as you take all the scriptures together. And you find there are ten categories there, if you examine it.
Number one, you have the unclean. Second, you have the covetous. And the covetous man in Ephesians six was called an idolater. Third, you have the drunkards. Fourth, you have the liars. Fifth, you have the swearers, or those who take an oath. Six, you have the railers and the backfighters. Seventh, you have the thieves and the extortioners. You have all that you ordinarily live in the neglect of the gospel and the worship of God. And finally, you have those who stop at the gospel.
The mark of the unconverted roll unto those whose names are found in this category. The scripture says they shall not. inherit the kingdom of God. I didn't write the Bible. If you have a problem with those things, you have to take it up with God. God sent it. The Word of God declares that God is holy. God is holy, and his standard is not your standard, and your standard is not his. And he cries out in First Peter chapter one and verse sixteen, Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
And it is he who demands you to come before him on the basis of his standards and not yours. And when I read Hebrews chapter twelve and verse fourteen, I read those words. without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Beloved, we need to examine the marks of the unconverted. For the Word of God describes those who have never been born of God. And I want you to think with me about these marks this morning. I'm going to mention seven of them.
We want to look at them from the Word of God. and open up our own heart. And we want to do it in such a way, I trust, that if you're here without Christ, your heart will cry out, Lord, save me today. The first of these is gross, willful, ignorance. And I'd like you to turn with me to the prophecy of Hosea. Hosea, chapter four and verse six. Whenever I think of Hosea, I think of the man who was preaching his second sermon. His first sermon, he ran out of gas after about ten minutes.
He had nothing else to say. So in his second sermon, he decided he'd take the whole of the Bible for his text. So after preaching for three hours, beginning in Genesis, he said, now we come to the minor prophets, here's Hosea, and what are we going to do with him? So I'm following the back row. He said, well, he can have my seat. I'm going home. So we're in Hosea chapter four this morning. And we want to read verse six. Where he says, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee. That thou shalt be no priest to me.
Seeing thou hast forgotten the law thy God, I will also forget. thy children. Here is a text that speaks of gross, willful, ignorance. How many souls does this sin kill in the dark? Well, they think that certainly they have good heart and they're all set for heaven. Because they've learned, you see, Hosea is speaking to a people who were a priesthood a people who have a claim upon God so they thought and he says concerning them my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge this murderer gross willful ignorance dispatches thousands in a silent manner now you can make an excuse for your ignorance and I hear excuses time and again Excuses number one, I don't have time to study the Word of God.
How many people there are who claim, I just don't have time to study the Word of God. My people are destroyed! Hosea cried for a lack of knowledge. I don't have time to study the Word of God. And then there is a second excuse, I don't like to read. Oh, when I went to college, I had to read so much. I read so much and I just don't like to read. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter twenty-seven. Isaiah twenty-seven. And we want to read verse eleven.
And here Isaiah is crying out to the people concerning the coming judgment of God, his chastisement upon them as a nation. And in the eleventh verse he says, when the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off. The women come and set them on fire, for it is a people of no understanding. In other words, he's speaking of the coming judgment upon the nation of Israel, his covenant people. And he says of them, it is a people of no understanding. Therefore, he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.
Somehow or another, we have in our minds that no matter what we do, God is a God of love, and he's not going to require from us that which is holiness demands. But beloved, the expression in the Old Testament is just the opposite. God declares a coming judgment. This coming judgment was executed in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and when the Babylonians swept down over Israel as a nation and took them captive. And God says of them, Therefore he that made them will not have mercy upon them.
All my friends, this willful ignorance I don't have time. I don't have a desire. We'll dispatch you into the lake of fire. My people are destroyed, he says in Hosea, for lack of knowledge. Turn with me, if you will, to Second Thessalonians chapter one. Second Thessalonians chapter one. And we want to begin reading at verse seven. And here are a series of verses that deal with the coming again of the Lord. And he said to them, says in verse seven, and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with these mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Here we find that he is going to execute vengeance upon them who know not God. Turn with me to Second Corinthians chapter four. Second Corinthians chapter four and verse three. Here the apostle says, but if our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost. Oh, those awful words, it is hidden to them that are lost.
And then he adds, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine in unto them. All friends, if our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost. All men by nature are in a condition of being unconverted. They have never been saved by the grace of God. And if we withhold the message of the gospel from them, Our gospel, if it's hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost.
I remember when I was about nineteen years of age, there was a little girl by the name of Kathy Fiskett. She fell into a well shaft out in the Midwest. I think it was in the state of Wyoming. And I remember as they drilled a shaft as quickly as they could nearby, in order that they could tunnel over and try to get her out of that well shaft in which She was wed. She was there and they pumped air down there while they had a vigil day and night for two or three days. But when they brought her up, she was gone. But the thing is this, that was only physical.
That was physical death. Do we care enough for the souls of men? For men without Christ are lost spiritually, and if they're lost spiritually, it is an eternal loss. If our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost. My friend, I'm convinced that if we heard of an accident of similar nature to Kathy Fisk, or if it were one of the little children from this Sunday school here, we would all be gathered around and do everything we could. But are we as concerned, friends, for the souls of men?
For they're perishing. Men are lost, beloved. And they unconverted. The first mark of an unconverted person is willful ignorance. They're willfully ignorant. They really don't care. And the reason they don't care, to Corinthians Chapter IV says that the God of this age, Satan, has blinded the minds of them which believe not. Oh, if you're here in this condition, cry out for the mercy of God. Beware, my friend, that ignorance is not your case.
Make no plea for ignorance. If you spare that sin, remember this, it will not spare you. That sin will not spare you if you spare it. The second mark of the unconverted is mere formality in religion. Many people rest outside of genuine salvation, content with a mere external performance of religious duty. Oh, how this deceives many. It's more deadly than open profaneness.
When a person is openly profane, we know where that person stands. But the religious person who goes through the activities of religion, but has never been truly born of God, you never know where he is. So it was with the Pharisees. They heard, they prayed, they gave alms, Their religion affected their stomach. Their religion affected their pocketbook. The Pharisee of Luke eighteen, he could say, I fast twice in the week. He says, I pay tithes of all that I possess. He was punctilious in all his religious duties.
But he had no heart toward the person of Christ. Oh, how dreadful it is, friends, when a person's religion only serves for hardening. And I've met people, beloved, who are hardened in religion. I've met people who are so proud that they're a Baptist, so proud that they're a Presbyterian, so proud that they're a Methodist, so proud that they're something else. But it can be a mark, friends. of the unconverted. And the second mark, mere formality in religion.
And that brings us to the third. And the third is the prevalence of wrong motives in holy duty. Oh, this is a curse of the Pharisees. Wrong motives in holy duty. You see, a person may perform his quote good duties unquote and so think that all is well but he doesn't realize that he is activated by the carnal motives of the flesh and the word of God declares that which is born of the flesh is flesh now even those of us who are saved and who can give a clear testimony to our salvation we have to admit that many times the carnal motives of the flesh get involved in our religious duties.
And if they get involved with us who are born of God, how much more are those who have never been born of God? So we need to ask a question this morning. And we need to ask a few questions. And as we ask these questions, it is basically death. Why do you perform... the, quote, spiritual duties, unquote, that you do. Why do you do what you do religiously? Question number one. Is it to satisfy your conscience? Did you just come this morning to satisfy your conscience?
Now we have to ask the question, because there might be a place that you're thinking of right now that you'd rather be. Remembering we're dealing with a God of the whole earth who looks through the prasad and he sees the heart and he knows the motives and he's going to deal with them. Are you here this morning just to satisfy your conscience or second, are you here Because you'd like to have the reputation that you're religious. I go to church every Sunday.
Is that why you're here? Or maybe. Or you're here to be seen a man. We like when others see that we're in church. Here to be seen a man. Or for us. Are you here to show off your talent or your gift? You see, a mark of the unconverted is wrong motive in holy duties. The Pharisees went through all these religious exercises. They had their pharisees of doctrine.
And they went through their exercises in a way that only did one thing. It only dealt with the outer man. It never got to the heart. And, beloved, when God saves a man, he begins on the inside. He gives him a new heart, which manifests itself in new desire. The fourth of these marks of the unconverted is they trust in their own righteousness. To trust in one's own righteousness is a self-daming mischief.
Oh, how many have fallen fear. And it's a very subtle thing to trust in your own righteousness. For when people trust their own righteousness, they reject Christ's righteousness. Turn with me to Romans chapter ten. Romans chapter ten. Paul, when he writes in the tenth chapter of the Romans, he says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
and friends of subtle things about resting in your own righteousness is you automatically reject the righteousness of God. This is what Israel did. They were settled on their own righteousness and they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. Now, beloved, it's easy to perish by subjecting yourself to a seeming righteousness and the graces of yourself. And it's just as bad as committing the gross sins that could be mentioned and that were catalogued by the Holy Spirit in the Bible reading today.
You can look at that list, say, in First Corinthians six and say, oh, thank God. that I'm not coveted. Thank God that I've never done this and I've never done that. But on the other hand, like the Pharisees, you can go along with your own brand of righteousness, a righteousness which has its origin in you rather than in God, and it's just as bad and just as abhorrent to God as the grosser sins that are there mentioned. You see, it creates a problem. And the problem is this, when a person trusts to his own righteousness and his own graces for satisfying God's justice and appeasing his wrath and obtaining his pardon, he puts Christ out of office.
He makes a savior of his own graces. For anyone to say that I have a righteousness that God will accept is to tell God that he wasted his time when he provided a righteousness for sinners by his own dear son. It is to put Christ out of office. Oh my friend, recognize your own righteousness and your own graces for what they are. filthy rags. For that's what God calls them. In Isaiah chapter sixty-four in verse six, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
We are all as an unclean thing. The fifth mark of the unconverted is a predominant love of the world. First John chapter two verse fifteen says, If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. How often does this sin lie under the fair cover of a forward profession? A love of the world. This sin has such power to deceive that many times others can see a person's worldliness and covetousness, and a person can't see it in himself.
The Bible says if any man loved the world, and the thought of the world there is this present world system with all its activity, its glitter, and its glamour, for it is a world system that crucified the Lord of glory. And the church is a called-up people who have been called out of the world into the fellowship of Christ. And when a person has his own eagerness after the world, It blinds his eyes, and he is slain by his own self-conceit. My friend, are you trying to make a mark in this world?
William Kelly, that great preacher of a century and a half ago, had a nephew who was attending Oxford University. And William Kelly was a great Greek student. In fact, had Jay and Darby not translated the scriptures from the Greek and Hebrew, William Kelly would have. And William Kelly was teaching his nephew who was attending Oxford Greek. And the professor, his Greek professor, couldn't understand. Why this young man knew Greek so well?
And he asked him, Where are you getting this grasp of the Greek? Oh, he says, For my uncle. Who is your uncle? He says, William Kelly. He said, I'd like to see him. So William Kelly went to Oxford to visit with this man. William Kelly was just an ordinary fellow. An ordinary job. And the professor said to William Kelly, He said, Kelly, what are you doing? Why are you not making a name for yourself with a knowledge of Greek that you have? And Kelly just said one thing to him, for which world? There are multitudes of people who are self-received making a name for themselves in this world.
The Word of God says a mark of the unconverted is, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, in Philippians chapter three in verse nineteen, he spoke of those whom he wept over, who were the enemies of the cross of Christ, and he says concerning them in that text, they mind earthly things. a love of the world. And you see an inordinate love of even lawful comfort can deceive us as easily as unlawful things.
A love of the world, a mark of the unconverted, a love of the world. Paul, when he wrote to the Galatians, he said, But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Paul there saw the world as a prince who could be still honor and riches and much blessing. But he said the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. And they that are Christ the scripture says have crucified the flesh with us affections in life.
A love of the world is a mark of the young conversion. Sixth, a sixth mark. Unmortified pride. What do we mean by that? Unmortified pride, we love the praises of men more than the praises of God. And I'd like you to turn with me to the twelfth chapter of John. John's Gospel chapter twelve, where John has some things to say concerning the men of his own day.
John chapter twelve in verse forty-three. But we have to read verse forty-two first. Verse forty-two says, Nevertheless among the chief rulers, Also many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Unmortified pride, the fear of man bringeth a snare, and beloved, if we love the praise of men, And we sidestep mortifying in our own lives by taking up the cross with our blessed Lord.
They love the praises of men more than the praises of God. I'd like you to turn to Galatians chapter one. In Galatians chapter one where Paul is taking a stand for the truth of the gospel against the legalists of the first century. He had this to say in chapter one and verse ten of the book of Galatians. He says, for do I not persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Beloved, if you want to be the servant of Christ, the praise of men.
The pleasing amends we set aside, we turn our backs to it, we turn our faces to him who alone can save. Oh, this mark of the unconverted, unmortified pride, if you do not groan, my friend, under the load of the pride of your own heart, realizing it for what it is, it is a sign that in all probability you are not the Lord. For one of the signs that we are truly born of him is we groan as we examine our own heart and we see the pride of our own heart. Finally, a seventh.
A seventh mark of the unconverted is a prevailing love of pleasure. A prevailing love of pleasure. This is a day. When fleshly pleasure is constantly craved and even accepted by the Christian community, a flesh-pleasing life cannot be a life that is pleasing to God. For God knows what the flesh is, and he hates the flesh. Galatians chapter five, verse twenty-four says, They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and its lust.
concerning demons the word of God says demons have forsaken me having loved this present world and is departed marks of the unconversion converted now in closing I'd like to make a few number one God is holy and with our holiness no man shall see the Lord And number two, God has provided holiness for us and it's found in Christ. First Corinthians chapter one and verse thirty says, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom.
And that wisdom is in a threefold package. Righteousness, sanctification, or holiness. and redemption. Righteousness, the ability to stand before God for we're closed with His righteousness. Sanctification, a holiness that God requires and has been provided for us in Christ. Redemption, that blessed, whole redemption that awaits us yet in the coming day when we shall behold the King in His beauty. Where is it found? It is found in Christ.
Oh, my friend, if you had the marks of the unconverted, would you not turn to Christ this morning and receive him? The Word of God declares that as many as receive him. It's not by joining the church. It's not by becoming religious to as many as receive him. So then he gives a right to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on his name. Or if you receive him, you have it all. You have righteousness. You have sanctification. You have redemption. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Oh, my friends, do you have it? Not in yourself, but in Christ, because you received him, and he has received you.
Oh, we invite you to come to him today. Let's stand together and sing two stanzas of a hymn. Hymn number three hundred fifty four. All the words of this hymn, look at it and look at them well. Come every soul by sin oppressed. There's mercy with the Lord. And he will surely give you rest by trusting in his words. Only trust him. Only trust him. Only trust him. Now, that's what it means to receive him. It means to trust him. And so rely alone on what the Savior did for you. Will you trust us?
Leave those marks to be unconverted. Be among that group of whom Paul wrote. Such were some of you past tense. But you are washed. You are sanctified. You are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. Will you come to Christ today? Let's stand and sing the first and last of the three hundred fifty-four.