True conversion is not merely a profession of Christianity, baptism, moral righteousness, or external conformity to religious rules, but an inward work of the Spirit of God. Jesus' teachings in Matthew 7 and Matthew 25 warn against a superficial faith that lacks genuine transformation. The core lesson is that salvation is found not in outward actions or adherence to religious practices, but in a committed reliance on the person and work of Christ. Therefore, individuals are urged to examine their reliance for salvation, ensuring it is solely on Christ's sacrifice and righteousness, not on their own efforts or external markers.
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turn in our Bible this morning to the gospel by Matthew chapter seven Matthew seven and also Matthew chapter twenty five Matthew chapter seven and we begin our reading at verse twenty one and then in Matthew twenty five we begin our reading at verse one Not everyone 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 unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
And in thy name I've cast out demons, 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 iniquities. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house. And it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings. The people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as described. Matthew chapter twenty-five. verse one then that's an interesting word for it connects us with the twenty fourth chapter and the teaching of our lord in chapter twenty four then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom and five of them were wise and five were foolish And they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all flumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil. for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us, but he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, I know you not. Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. May the Lord bless the reading of these words. Now let's pray. Our Father, we ask you now that What I grace that will speak to us in such a way that our faith does not rest in the wisdom of men, nor in the words of man, but rather in the power of God.
Grant that this may be so. Deliver us from any frivolity or anything that would hinder the Spirit of God from speaking to our heart. We ask this. for the glory of God and the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. Our Lord's public ministry began with a great sermon. It is called the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord's public ministry closed with a great sermon. We call it the Olivet Discourse. In considering his public ministry, it is interesting to note how these two great sermons of our Lord say the same thing in different ways.
Many times when you witness for the Lord and you speak to people, especially religious people, they many times tell you, oh, I just love the sermon on the mouth. And the moment they say that to me, I'm sure one thing, they don't know what the Sermon on the Mount says. The Sermon on the Mount of our Blessed Lord has a message, and it is a great message, a warning. Very seldom do you ever hear anybody saying, I love the Olivet Discourse. The Olivet Discourse deals with the coming of the Lord.
It deals with what is known as eschatology. It is very amazing to me when I read the first public ministry of the Lord and the final public ministry of the Lord, how they both sound a warning to professors. Now, I realize also that there is the upper room discourse which came later. But remember, the difference between the upper room discourse, and the other discourses of the Lord, the upper room discourse of the Lord was to his own, to his own disciples, and to them he revealed his heart. But the Sermon on the Mount is public.
The Olivet discourse is public. Now, in both sermons, a very solemn note is sounded. In the passage we read in Matthew seven, the Sermon on the Mount, in verse twenty-three, Our Lord definitely says that, and he uses the words, against religious professors, he said, I will profess to them I never knew you. He isn't going to say, I knew you at one time, but I've forgotten about you. He says, I never knew you. Furthermore, when you come to the Olivet discourse and the five foolish virgins wrap on the door to come into the wedding room, to the marriage feast and to the wedding.
He says unto them in verse twelve of Matthew twenty five, verily I say unto you, I know you not. Now these are solemn words. I know you not. I never knew you. I was amazed and very intrigued by a statement by Oswald Chambers. In his book on the Sermon on the Mount, and I just picked it off the shelf last night to see what he had to say on a few verses in Matthew chapter seven. And the one statement that he made intrigued me very much. And this is what he said. It's very brief.
He said, always distinguish between warnings and threatening. I'd never thought of that before, and then he added this. God never threatens. and the devil never warns. I had never thought of that. You think it's true. You may live in sin, in iniquity, and there's no warning from the devil. God never threatens man. God cries out to man, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. God cries out to man, turn you turn you why will you die saith the Lord these are not threatening but they are warnings God warns men God warns men in words like this as you find in the book of Proverbs he that being often reproved hardness his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and not without remedy and I like one word out of that in a special way it is a word often He that being often reproved, it reminds me of God's grace.
That's a verse that my friend Bill Patterson came to know the Lord. He that being often reproved, he said, God had been dealing with me in real conviction of sin. But the world, on the other hand, had a real pull. For he was the captain of the cricket team. And he was a captain of the soccer team. And the world had a real pull. And a wise Sunday school teacher who cared for his soul. He said to him, Bill, the scripture says he that being often reproved, pardoneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and not without remedy.
That's not a threat. That's a warning. That's a warning to flee to the grace of God. To flee to Christ. for the salvation that's in him. Furthermore, there are other words in Scripture. I'm thinking of the one at the close of our reading in Matthew twenty-five where we read, Ye know not, be ye therefore ready, for you know not the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man cometh. There are things that finite man will never know. God says, be ready. God says, be ready. So these statements of our Lord that we read in the Sermon on the Mount, and that we read in the Olivet Discourse, they are not threatening, but they are warning.
Satan never warned. Satan never warned when by us. Never warned him. Other people may have, but not Satan. Satan never warned that man from the Cleveland Browns either. Friend, Satan doesn't warn God does. God does. And God's message to man is be ye therefore ready. I have a friend. One. I have a friend and if he likes to greet me with the words, are you ready for that great and notable day?
I love to hear it. Because to be ready for that day means that a person is genuinely converted by God. Now for the past three weeks we examined the subject of conversion. Four Sundays ago we dwelt on the marks of the unconverter. Then we dwelt on the subject of necessity for conversion. And then the nature of conversion last week Today I want to consider with you mistakes made concerning conversion, the mistakes that are made. Now when we talk about conversion, we're talking about that change that takes place when a person believes the gospel.
And when I talk about the change, we expect a change because when a person believes the gospel, their belief is the result. of the grace of God effectually working in them, creating in them a new heart. A new heart that responds to righteousness. A new heart that responds to the Word of God. A new heart that manifests itself in a new life. And that new life is called by many the new birth. And our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, It was absolutely necessary. Now, because there are so many, and because it's so easy to confuse, outward activity and inward reality, and because we're so prone to judge by outward evidence, it is necessary to examine the mistakes that are often made in relation to conversions.
Our word in the Sermon on the Mount, in his clothes, he spoke of two men who built builders. The one man built immediately. He built a house on the sand, and his house went up rather quickly. You know, if you don't dig a foundation, you can build a house rapidly. You just start building. But the man who digs the foundations... Now you don't see a foundation. The foundation's out of sight in a building. You don't see the foundation, but the man who digs the foundation and he gets down to the solid rock, that man is building for eternity.
He's building a house that he's sure. And this is the meaning of the passage. In Matthew seven, our Lord sounds a warning. He says, you may build something that looks great, that looks big. For when the house that was built on the sand fell, the scripture says great was the fall of it. If the house that was built on the rock, it's good. It was solid. It had a foundation. And beloved, if we're wide as God's children in the proclamation of the gospel, We're going to be more concerned with foundations than we are with an outward show.
It is the foundation that is important. And unless we are built on the person of Jesus Christ, unless we know that we have passed from death of the life, Unless the evidence of conversion is ministering to our own spirit, that we are the children of God, and is manifest in an appetite for the things of God, these passages should be a warning to us, to cause us to examine ourselves, to see whether we're truly born of God. Warning I would like to sound this morning as to a mistake that he's made concerning conversion, it is this.
Conversion is not merely the profession of Christianity. Christianity, beloved, is more than a name. When Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter four and verse twenty, and in the precede, the verses before verse twenty, he says, You Corinthians have lived as kings. couldn't help but think of that verse when I heard the announcement bring plenty of money tomorrow or on Friday the next verse in first Corinthians says the word the kingdom of God does not lie in word but in power we can make a big show over what we possess still on it But do we have a power of righteousness within?
Beloved, we are living in a world that is rapidly approaching judgment. The rains are going to descend and the winds are going to blow and houses built on the sand are going to collapse. It doesn't matter how well you sing leaning on the everlasting arms if you have no foundation. Beloved, our Lord speaks directly. The kingdom of God is not lying where it is, but in power. In power, the power of the Spirit of God within. You see, in Second Timothy chapter two, verse nineteen, we read this, therefore the foundation of God stands sure, and I'm not out to rob anybody of their assurance.
Sometimes when a person speaks strongly along this line, a person who has problems with assurance can say, oh, I'm not saved. I'm not out to rob anybody of assurance. The Word of God definitely says the foundation of God stands sure. And my friend, if you're on the foundation, you have nothing to worry about. For the foundation of God stands sure. It has this seal. The Lord knows them that are his. But then he adds, Therefore, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. This is how I know that I'm his. If I'm his, God knows it.
And all by telling him doesn't change anything. He knows it. For in Galatians chapter four, when Paul wrote to the Galatians, he says, After ye have known God, or rather, are known of God. And that's the thing. Not so much that I know God, but that I am known of God. That means that God had an intimate relationship with me. And he has an intimate relationship. I am known of his. You see, First Timothy or Second Timothy, two-nineteen, commands those who name the name of Christ to depart from iniquity. But many profess Christianity, and they continue it.
in their iniquity. Oh, what a fatal mistake. What a fatal mistake. God doesn't save people in their sins. He saves them from their sins. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. There is a departure from iniquity. Paul, when he wrote to Titus in Titus chapter one in verse sixteen, He spoke to him of those who profess to know God, but in works they deny him. We may profess to know God with our lips.
How about the works? In works they deny him. You see, beloved, a fatal flaw, a fatal mistake. relative to conversion is the idea I have professed and when God saves, He saves with an eternal salvation. I believe that. I believe that God only has one kind of salvation. It's eternal salvation. But when you put the emphasis on man where it is placed today in our man-centered society, I made a profession. I did it.
I went forward. I shook the preacher's hand. They took me down the Roman road. I know the four spiritual laws, and you can go down the list, beloved. We have made it so easy for men, and we have failed to dig our foundations and dig them well. They profess to know God. But in work they deny him. This is not a threat, friend. This is a warning. Warnings are given in order that we examine ourselves.
Well, beloved, we cannot say that we are truly converted if we are still living the same way we always did. And if We only think about God when it's convenient to us. The foolish virgins of Matthew chapter twenty-five, they had made a profession of conversion. They even looked like the wise virgins. Furthermore, while the bridegroom carried, they all slept. The wise virgins were sleeping the same as the foolish virgins. They all slept.
The difference was when the cry came, behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meeting. There's a little word in First Thessalonians four in that passage that deals with the rapture of the church. In verse thirteen of First Thessalonians four, we find there are two groups that are mentioned. He says, but I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others, who have no hope. You find there's one group called brethren, and you find another group called the others who have no hope.
There are those who are brethren, and they are brethren because of relationship, not because of denominational names. There are brethren because of relationship, a relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ. Others who have no hope are those who are outside the ark of safety. They never knew a genuine conversion to Jesus Christ. The difference between the wise virgins and the foolish virgins, the foolish virgins had no oil. And all in Scripture speaks of the reality of the Holy Spirit's work within.
Romans eight, verse nine says, Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Now when we talk about profession, and the foolish virgins must have professed, for they were with the wiseness. I have a difficulty with Vs and W. Is that such a being a Dutchman? You don't know how difficult it is, but I have that difficulty. Listen. The foolish virgins profess. And when you read Matthew chapter seven, the list of the activities of those to whom our Lord says, depart from me, I never knew you.
They say to him, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in thy name. Lord, in thy name we have done many wonderful work. And another place they're going to, they say to him, Lord, we've even eaten and we drank in your presence. That means they came to the Lord's Supper. But he'll say, I never knew you depart from me. Christianity. is more than just mere profession. The Lord Jesus says the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. First Corinthians four, verse twenty.
But the second thing we want to consider is this. Conversion is not putting on the badge of Christ in baptism. Oh, how many people I meet who have the idea that because you've been baptized, Everything is all right. You see, Acts chapter eight is very clear. Simon the sorcerer, he believed and was baptized, but he never really believed to the saving of the soul. He believed, but he was never saved. It wasn't genuine faith. I tried to explain genuine faith to a man on Friday morning.
I've spoken to this man many times. And it took place in a restaurant, by the way. I stopped to get a cup of coffee, and I had a wee preach. And, of course, there's a woman sitting next to me, and she said, well, you're not going to have to preach Sunday. You already preach. Well, I'm glad she said that, because I learned something. My message got across the other way. And, of course, you know, I whisper, you know. but I don't believe in I try not to be obnoxious but at the same time we have a message and it's the only message that's saved God but I turned to my friend and I said the faith that's saved can be illustrated this way and you all heard my illustration but I don't know of a veteran and that's why I don't change I don't know of a better illustration If you and I were on a luxury liner crossing the Atlantic, like a Titanic, if we were crossing the Atlantic, you see, and all of a sudden there was a tremendous jolt, and then the captain called everybody to the deck, and he
announced the word, we've hit an iceberg, the ship is taking on water faster than the pumps can expel it. We're going to sink. This ship is going down. Now, there are lifeboats. The men are lowering the lifeboat. I want you to go and get in the lifeboat. About twelve miles over the horizon, there's an island. Get in the boat, and you'll be safe on the island. The men know the direction. Get in the boat. You see, genuine saving faith consists of three things. It consists number one of knowledge, number two of assent, and number three commitment.
Now watch how this works. I turned to my friend and said, you and I on that boat, we'd look at each other and say, boy, that captain's a great guy. He told us the truth. And there are multitudes of people who say that Jesus Christ is a good man. He told us the truth. He revealed the Father. That's knowledge. We have knowledge. We hit an iceberg, the ship is going down. The Word of God is a book of knowledge primarily. It gives us knowledge concerning the teaching and the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, I said we not only have knowledge, we have a sense.
You and I can look at each other and we can say, you know, I believe every word that the captain said. I believe he'd never say anything wrong, but he said he's right. That's ascent. We give ascent to the truthfulness of the message. But where are our feet? Our feet are on a sinking ship. We can have knowledge, we can have ascent. And I'm so afraid that there are multitudes of people who are content with knowledge. We're able to quote a few verses of Scripture. We say, Oh, I believe that everything that the Lord Jesus said is true...
Or we can go down the line and we can talk loudly of what we believe. But you see our feet are on a sinking ship. There must be a commitment to Jesus Christ. And that's saving faith, beloved. We commit ourselves to him. Paul, when he wrote to Timothy and we sing the stanza, I know whom I have believed. And am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Simon believes he wanted to perform miracles but he was never born of God he was baptized but he wasn't saved oh there are many today that dream that effectual grace is necessarily tied to the external administration of baptism my friend it is not unless you've been saved before you're baptized if they sprinkle the water on your head You're just a sprinkled sinner.
If they put you under the water, as I believe the word baptism teaches, immersion, if they put you under the water, if they put a sinner under, they have to bring a sinner up. Otherwise, you're drowning. Baptism does not save. Baptism is a glorious truth. It's a testimony to the world of our position in Christ that we died and we arose again with him. But, beloved, if you're not saved before you're baptized, you're not saved after you're baptized because baptism doesn't save.
Now, if baptism saves, then we'd have to change the language of Matthew seven. Matthew seven in a few verses before the verses that we read in our lesson this morning our verse thirteen our Lord said enter ye in at the straight gate for why wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in their ass because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it if baptism saved we'd have to change those words there are few that be that find the gate, we would have to say, if you there be that nesteth.
Beloved, let us hold to the word of God. Now, conversion does not lie also in moral righteousness. Our Lord says in Matthew chapter five in the Sermon on the Mount in verse twenty, accept your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. Ye shall in no wise enter. Paul in his unconverted state, as Saul of Tarsus, attained the righteousness that the law demanded. So we read in Philippians three, now it was not the righteousness that the law demanded looking at it from the eyes of God. It was the eyes that the law demanded looking at it through the rabbis.
That which these other scribes and Pharisees she's hired. Philippians three verse six. He said, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. The Pharisee of Matthew of Luke chapter eighteen could say, I'm not an extortioner. He could look around and especially at the publican. And he could say, I'm not an extortioner. Boy, the publican. He was. And Zacchaeus, his confession is a good confession regards what publicans did. And the publican, you know, was a tax-catherer. He could say, I'm not an extortioner.
I'm not an adulterer, he said. I'm not unjust. But he was right in his own eyes. But he was wrong in the eyes of God. Now, beloved, genuine conversion does not condemn morality. It only tells you, if you rest in your morality, For salvation, you're lost because God only saves one class of people, it is sinners. And I want to get on to this fourth mistake that he's often made, and I'm afraid that he's made in this area. Conversion does not consist in an external conformity to the rules of piety.
You and I are living in a area where it's easy to listen to the rules that men have set up and thereby compare ourselves with ourselves and among ourselves. It's so easy to do it. It is easy, friends, to have a form of godliness but no power. Second Timothy chapter three, verse five. Paul writes concerning those who in the last days will have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. In the form of godliness you can pray long prayers.
The Pharisees did. Matthew twenty three fourteen. You may fast often. The Pharisees did. Luke eighteen and verse twelve. You can hear gladly. You can hear gladly. King Herod did. He's delighted on listening to John the Baptist. Do you like to listen to John preach? You can hear gladly. You can be very forward in your service for God. The Israelites were Isaiah chapter one in verse eleven. You see, and yet you can be a stranger to genuine conversion.
In all probability, the foolish virgins would fit this category in which our Lord spoke. Now you and I are living in an area of the country where outward conformity to man-made rules is more important than the thus saith the Lord of Scripture. Outward conformity to man-made rules is an illustration in the Old Testament, beloved. I preached on this once. I called it the crutch Christian. And if I had time, I'd tell you the results of the sermon. They're quite interesting even to this day.
But I'm not going to. But I spoke on the Christian, Second Kings, chapter twelve, that the king was a good king. All the days that Jehoiada, the good priest lived. Jehoiada was a good priest. And the king did well as long as Jehoiada lived. He repaired the house of God. He did this and that. But the time came when Jehoiada died. And the king went the way of the flesh. Jehoiada, the good priest, was buried in the tombs and the separators of the king.
Jehoiada, the king, was not buried with the king, he was buried in a common grave. A crutch Christian. A profession without a conversion. You see, beloved, what makes the difference is conversion is not a superficial change. It is an inward work of the Spirit of God. A Felix may tremble at the preaching of Paul. but he wasn't converted. A King Herod may enjoy the preaching of John the Baptist, and yet having beheaded, it shows that the outward part of man was moved, but not the inward part, and conversion deals with a heart.
And beloved, if we make mistakes, the mistakes of awkward profession without inward reality were not converted. It's possible, friends, to be alarmed with sin. When an athlete like Lenny Bias dies by a drug overdose, we're alarmed at sin. The only problem is it only lasts a week or two. And we're back living the same way we always live. It only lasts a short time. You see, it's another thing to be crucified by converting grace.
And reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. It is possible, friends, to mistake conviction for conversion. I have a question in closing. If you were called into the presence of God today, why should God receive you? Forget the person next to you. Why should God receive you into his presence? I want you to think of that. If God called your home today, why should he receive you? On what basis will God say, come home?
your mind. I asked a woman one day who questioned me in a Bible class and this woman I knew did a lot of telephone work. Not that she did a lot of telephone work. spend a lot of time on the telephone. And I said to her, would you take a survey till next week? I'd like you to ask this question of everybody that calls.
Don't tell them any answers. Just don't put words in their mouth. Just ask the question. And my question was, if you were to die in the next five minutes upon what are you depending to get to heaven? That was a question. Well, she didn't come the next week. But someone else did who was there. A lady was there who taught a Sunday school class in one of our large churches in the city. And she said on Sunday morning with a burdened heart, these women had listened to me teach the Word of God for over three years.
And she said, I went around every member of the class One at a time. I didn't say whether they were right or wrong or otherwise. I just asked that question. And she said, it shook me to the core. Only three people had the right answer. Conversion, friend. God doesn't threaten. God warns. Are you converted? If God called you into his presence today, on what basis will he receive?
May I answer that question? I gave you a lot of time to think. If you thought of anything other than the person and work of Christ, what our Lord Jesus did when he died on the cross, that he died for your sins in order that he might provide you with a righteousness that would enable you to come into his holy presence. You're still lost. It's only his work that saves, and it is his work that we receive when we receive him.
It's impossible to receive him apart from his work. And my friend, no matter who you are, no matter where you are, that person who receives his work, in order that you might have his righteousness and not your own, his life, for the Christian life is living his life in your shoes through your body. That's what conversion does. If you thought any other, if any other idea came to your mind on what you're depending or upon the basis on which God will receive you, you're lost and you need to be saved.
Deal with that matter, friend. But if it's the person and work of Christ, sing from the heart, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but holy lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. My friend, if you're here and you realize that you're lost, after the closing prayer, why not stay behind and let's talk about it with an open Bible.