Devotional thoughts

Here is a recent note I wrote to a men's Bible study regarding "professing" Christians and the world.

This summer I have spent a good bit of time studying and thinking about the practical living out of the Christian life according to God's word. It continues to occur to me that American evangelism has equated, for the most part, spiritual success with the number of conversions in a particular month, quarter or year within the church. However if one takes an objective look at the "Christian" landscape in America the results should bring us much concern. It's almost as if in all categories whether it be divorce, pornography or you pick the subject, the statistics in the church look almost identical to the world. How can that be possible? Well according to everything said by the Lord Jesus Himself and the Bible, it isn't possible, so what is the answer to this modern day dilemma? The number one problem with American evangelism, in my opinion, is that it is producing "false converts." People are "making decisions" for Jesus and then still living like they did prior to their supposed conversion. They have simply acquired and agree to all the information about Jesus but there is no transformation of the heart and life by Jesus. Well, let's go to the Bible and see what the Lord Jesus had to say about this subject.

Read carefully John 8:43-47:
"Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.

44"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

45"But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.

46"Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?

47"He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."

Now read carefully John 10:25-28:

Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me.

26"But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.

27"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

28and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

Compare John 8 and John 10:

A person does not believe in order to become a sheep, but rather a person is a sheep which enables that person to believe. In John 8, the reason a person does not hear is because they are not of God. Again look at these two sections of Scripture and see if the following conclusion would be correct: "Being of God" and "being a sheep" are the same thing according to Jesus. These two things are not the result of what we do when we believe but rather this is what God does to us, so that we are able to believe.

This is called the doctrine of regeneration. Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us. This is sometimes called "being born again" (using language from John 3:3-8). This definition is from Wayne Grudem.

Guys, bottom line is that no program, event or strategy can produce a true convert to Jesus because only God can do this work. Unfortunately we in our evangelical zeal to get people "saved" we have come up with all kinds of man made tools. Do you see why this is so dangerous? It gives people a false assurance that they have been saved, when in fact if they have not been regenerated by the Spirit, they are still headed straight for hell. I draw these kind of hard conclusions based on what Jesus requires from those saved and what I see and observe in the professing Christians of our day. Again the statistics point to little if any difference between American Christians and the world and that is a spiritual impossibility according to the Scripture when someone is genuinely converted.

There is so much more to discuss in this area and so many more verses that confirm the conclusions drawn in John 8 and John 10. Hope this will challenge you and help you when talking with those in your ministry sphere of influence. It is a matter of heaven or hell.

Blessings,