Calvary Road Baptist Church

“TESTS FOR CHRISTIAN CONVERSION, #2, Part 1”

Second Corinthians 13.5 

Please turn in your Bible to Second Corinthians 13.5, where we find that portion of God’s Word I will use as the starting point in this message. Once you find that verse, please stand so we can read God’s Word together: 

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.” 

Someone can be convinced she is a Christian and yet be lost. It is possible for a man to honestly believe that he knows Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior and yet be dead in trespasses and sins. How is such a thing possible? A person can be completely fooled about his own spiritual condition because of the nature of every unsaved person’s condition. You see, whether you feel this description fits you or not, if you are lost, you are a person who is spiritually blind and profoundly deceived.[1]

One can be spiritually blind for two reasons: First, because it is impossible for someone unsaved to correctly perceive spiritual truth. First Corinthians 2.14: 

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 

So, the Apostle Paul pointed out that the unsaved do not have spiritual faculties.

But that’s not all. According to Second Corinthians 4.3-4, someone is susceptible to Satanic influence of a profound nature, so profound as to be render them spiritually blind: 

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath 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 unto them.” 

The lost do not have the capacity, both because they are naturally deficient and because they are supernaturally blinded by the enemy, Satan, to see, to perceive, to grasp, to understand spiritual things. Such spiritual insensitivity can’t help but result in individuals drawing incorrect conclusions about their spiritual condition. They will mistake some act of prayer, some token gesture, a decision made, some emotional outburst perhaps, as evidence that they are Christians when the fact is they are not.

There is a second reason why those of you who are unsaved may think you are Christians. Let’s call it spiritual confusion. Whereas spiritual blindness speaks of the failure of spiritual light and truth to penetrate, the failure of spiritual light and truth to be perceived, because of insensitivity or Satanic activity that blinds you, spiritual confusion has to do with what slender rays of truth do penetrate the darkness.

In Second Corinthians 10.5, the Apostle Paul described his and his co-laborers' ministry. Listen to a portion of what Paul wrote, declaring that he and his colleagues ministered by, 

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.” 

There are two things I want you to take note of here that give insight into people’s thinking who have what I will label false hopes: First, Paul pointed out that he and those men who worked alongside him wielded the Word of God in spiritual conflict for the souls of men in such a way that the imaginations of the unsaved were cast down. What does this let us know? It lets us know that unsaved people have imaginations that hinder their understanding of God's truth, like a fortress wall’s barricades.

But what are imaginations? Imaginations are those reasons people have in their mind that they will not share with anyone else because they know they are unreasonable reasonings. They are illogical conclusions that have been drawn. They are opinions one has and holds onto that cannot be supported by Scriptural truth. And I mean views about one’s standing before God, conclusions drawn about one’s salvation, and utterly illogical personal convictions about one’s own imagined relationship with Jesus Christ. People persuade themselves they are Christians while coming to prayer meetings and yet not praying? Why come?

Alongside such beliefs, conclusions, opinions, and intentional misunderstandings they have are high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. But what are the high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God? High things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God are best described as proud thoughts. Psalm 10.4 says, 

“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” 

Thus were such men as Judas Iscariot, Simon Magus, and Demas, who forsook Paul and went to Thessalonica.

Religious but lost, with a pride of intellect that interfered with logical thinking and with twisted thinking and false reasoning that resulted in them being convinced they were Christians when they were not. Spiritual confusion is all it is, characteristic of the unsaved, particularly when the lost person imagines he is a believer in Jesus Christ.

A third reason the lost think they are saved is spiritual comparison, especially in this country and at this time in history. Let me cite a verse of Scripture and then apply it. Second Corinthians 10.12: 

“For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” 

The vast majority of people in our country who are sincerely convinced that they are born again are, in fact, unsaved and on their way to Hell. But with so many lost people insisting they are true believers, it is so easy for someone religious but lost, who is moral but lost, who has a thin veneer of spirituality but is lost, to convince himself or to convince herself that she is saved.

I was once with some Baptist preachers. One of the preachers in attendance was from Romania. And I overheard him say that so very many Romanians claim to be Christians that those who are genuinely saved distinguish themselves from everyone else by referring to themselves as “Repenters.” They knew enough in that country to be careful about comparing themselves with themselves. They have learned by harsh experience under communist rule that it doesn’t pay to be unwise. Well, we have that same kind of problem in this country. But there is a difference.

The false Christians in Romania are in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Repenters are in the Baptist Churches. What are we to do in the USA when what we have here are very few saved people and very many who are lost in the same congregation, with those who are wrongly convinced they are saved comparing themselves with the lost majority and concluding, “I’m better than him. I’m better than her.”

We have folks in our Church who are convinced they are saved because they haven’t yet figured out that we are not a fully converted congregation—no congregation is. And so, when some of you mentally compare yourselves with others in our Church and figure out that you are well off in the comparison, it never really enters your thinking that you are unwisely comparing yourselves with the wrong people.

Don’t compare yourself with another human being to evaluate your relationship with Christ. Compare your experience with what God’s Word says. Second Corinthians 5.17 declares to us that 

“if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 

If you are a Christian, if you are genuinely saved, if your sins are forgiven, if you are heaven-bound, then you are a new creature, and the old things of your life have been replaced by new things. Has your personality changed so you are humble, or are you the same self-willed and stubborn individual you’ve always been?

Do you actually serve God, or do you think serving God and involvement in Christian ministry is for others? Do you attend Church regularly and faithfully, or is such extremism reserved only for those who have less important occupations, who are somehow less needful for the betterment of mankind than are you?

But before you ask yourself such questions, which have to do with whether or not you presently are a Christian, spend some time dealing with whether or not you ever became a Christian. It doesn’t make much sense to spend time evaluating whether or not you are a Christian if, in fact, your so-called conversion experience, which is how you supposedly became a Christian, doesn’t pass muster. Amen?

One of the valid approaches to examining a person’s credibility as a Christian, and such examinations are reasonable, proper, and called for in God’s Word, is the present conduct of your life. The Christian life is so much more than an unsaved person's life with a new destiny tacked on to the end. The Christian life is actually new life in Christ.

So, it is necessary to question your salvation if you are a Christian who does not attend Church, tithe, read your Bible, pray, love being around other Christians, or actually serve God in an accountable and reasonable way.

Why? These are things Christians do, that’s why. All Christians do these things, and Christians have always done these things because we know these things to be God’s will, God’s way of nourishing and sustaining us, and the most basic ingredients in the Christian style of life.

However, this is not the only way to examine a person’s Christian credibility. Because we live in these last days of spiritual apostasy, with so many people claiming to be born again who are actually lost, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, and having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, there is another valuable tool that can be employed. It is to subject yourself to the tests of conversion.

Previously, we considered Richard Baxter’s first test of Christian conversion, which he derived from his personal study of God’s Word. And you will remember that Baxter’s tests of conversion were accepted by most spiritually-minded pastors in his day and for centuries afterward. Sadly, it’s been since Charles G. Finney’s adverse influences on American Christianity that Baxter’s tests of conversion have fallen into disuse by most pastors of Churches, evangelists, and missionaries.

But despite their lack of popularity in Christendom at large, we can benefit from that anointed man of God as we put his tests of conversion to use in our lives and in our Church. My prayer is that today you will put the second of Baxter’s tests of conversion to use in your life.

Let me read Baxter’s words on your handout: 

“That man who was never led to Christ for deliverance, nor beaten out of the conceit of merit of sufficiency in himself, nor brought to admire the glorious design of God in the great work of redemption, nor to relish the sweetness of the glad tidings of salvation brought to distressed sinners in the gospel, so that his heart was never warmed with the sense of the Redeemer’s love, but who hears and reads the gospel as a common story, or as if it were not he who was thus redeemed, is yet unconverted, whatever he may seem or think.”[2] 

Please note that Baxter’s second conversion test is not a clarion call to judgmentalism. He was not urging his readers to take up his tests so that they might walk around with an air of superiority, condescending upon others and declaring them lost. That’s not ever been the goal. It was always his desire, just as it is my desire, for you to use this test of conversion for self-evaluation. Then, should your soul become troubled, and you need a pastor's help to guide you to Christ, I urge you to come to me.

Take the time to consider Baxter’s words again. Notice that they are written on the handout just so you can do that. Notice also that his comments show that he recognized conversion to be a profound break in a person’s life.

Imagine the great continental divide from Canada through our country’s great Rocky Mountains and down through Mexico if you would. All rain that falls to the East of this great divide eventually ends up in the Atlantic Ocean. All rain that falls to the west of the divide flows into the Pacific Ocean.

Such a great spiritual divide is conversion, with evidence in your own mind and heart to show you if there really has been a before and after, a former condition of spiritual death, and a latter condition of spiritual life. I would like you to consider whether there really has been a before and after, as Baxter’s words suggest, and more importantly, as the Word of God clearly teaches. If you are a Christian, you must have been converted, for no sinner can become a Christian without conversion. “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned,” we read last week from Jeremiah 31.8. Are you so turned?

Has the Lord God so completely turned you about that there has been a great divide in your life? Much more than just breaking a bad habit or adopting a good one. I speak of something fundamental, running as deep in you as your eternal soul. Are you converted?

Let’s consider the before and after of conversion at this time. As the Rocky Mountains form the great continental divide of North America and separate the East from the West, I challenge you to investigate whether there has been a great watershed of real conversion in your life. 

First, HAVE YOU THE KINDS OF EXPERIENCES BEFORE CONVERSION THAT CONVERTED PEOPLE TRULY HAD, OR ARE YOU LACKING THOSE PREPARATORY EXPERIENCES FOUND SO OFTEN IN THOSE TRULY COME TO CHRIST? 

Look back on your experiences. Was the conceit of self-sufficiency squeezed out of you? I am reminded of the great Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the man served by godly Daniel. In Daniel chapter 4, in Nebuchadnezzar’s own words, we read that he had dreamed a dream that frightened him. And though none of the magicians of Babylon could tell him his dream, God gave Daniel the interpretation of the king’s dream. The dream was a prophecy that foretold Nebuchadnezzar’s great humiliation, at which time his kingdom was taken from him, he was driven from the presence of men, and he lived with and ate like the beasts of the field. In short, this mightiest man on earth lost it all. He was humiliated. He was debased. What was the purpose of it all? In Daniel 4.32 we read Nebuchadnezzar’s own words explaining why these things happened to him: 

“until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” 

The purpose of the king’s humiliation was that he might know that God reigns and that God is sovereign.

Listen, now, to Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony of what happened when his conceit and sense of self-sufficiency was forced out of him: 

34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:

35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

36 At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.

37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works 0 are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase, 

Daniel 4.34-37. Has something akin to that happened in your life? Oh, I don’t mean to say a person needs to go raving mad to be humbled by God. But God gives grace only to the humble.[3] So, look back. Was your conceitedness kicked out of you? Was your self-sufficiency destroyed? If you are converted, it was.

Now, look back on another thing. Were you distressed? I understand that experiences leading up to conversion differ greatly. But there are some common factors. No matter the direction you come from, to pass through salvation’s door, you must walk on some of the sidewalk that others coming through that door have walked on.[4] Amen? In like manner, the Holy Spirit’s preparation of a sinner’s heart leaves him distressed. Distressed how? 

Did you become alarmed under Bible preaching? Do you remember how concerned you were? Can you imagine what Nebuchadnezzar must have felt like when he was crawling around like a beast of the field, being taught that God rules, that God reigns, that God does what He will with Whom He chooses? Can you imagine what those people felt like when Jonathan Edwards preached “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God” and compared them to a spider held over a flame, that might be consumed at any moment? Do you remember being distressed? If you were never distressed before you were converted, it’s likely you’ve not been converted. Why so? Because, 

On the Day of Pentecost, the distress of the 3000 who were converted can be seen in the fact that they were pricked in their heart and cried out, “Men and brethren, What shall we do?”[5] In Acts chapter 8, we see evidence of the Ethiopian eunuch’s distress. How so? He traveled from Ethiopia to Jerusalem on a fruitless search for salvation. What prompted him? What was his motivation? Was he a seeker of truth? Don’t be ridiculous, he sought relief. The man was distressed and he found relief for his soul and forgiveness of his sins only when Philip crossed his path and introduced him to Christ.

In Acts 16.30, we see the distress of the Philippian jailor as he falls down before the feet of Paul and Silas, and cries out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

It’s distress that causes the lost to attend Church in the hopes they will hear what to do to be saved. It’s distress that prompts them to talk to the preacher. It’s distress that provokes them to cry out to God for mercy, to strive to enter in, and to press to enter the kingdom. My supposedly Christian friend, do you remember being a sinner in great distress? Not all distressed sinners are saved, but all Christians were at one time distressed sinners. 

Now, let’s look at the other side of the great divide.

We will come back to that next time we gather to conclude this second test for Christian conversion.

The other side of the great divide, has it been after, since conversion, the way it must be since conversion? Or are you, since conversion, the way you were before conversion, which means you are not converted?

__________

[1] James 1.22

[2] Richard Baxter, A Treatise On Conversion (New York: American Tract Society, 1830), pages 193-195.

[3] James 4.6; 1 Peter 5.5

[4] John 10.1, 2, 7, 9

[5] Acts 2.37

 

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