Professors, but not Possessors

(Article for publication week of 9-26- AD 2013)

“Not every one that saith unto me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;” (Matthew 7:21).

There are multitudes that profess Christ, but do not possess Christ. There are multitudes that are very religious, but are unsaved and will hear their awful doom at the Day of Judgment. Dear reader, am I talking about you? Will you be exposed at the Day of Judgment as a false professor and finally go to hell to be punished forever?

We have previously seen these defects in the false converts that our Lord talks about here in Matthew 7:21-23: 1) they never questioned whether they were genuinely saved; 2) they did not the will of God; and 3) they were antinomian. Now we come to notice another defect in false professors: though they had a loud profession, they had missed the gate of conversion. Note well, that back in verse 13 our Lord exhorted us to enter into the strait gate that opens to the narrow way that leads to life, and warned us to avoid the wide gate that opens to the broad way that leads to destruction. Now in verses 21-23, He tells us of that destruction. He goes on in the following verses and says the destruction will be great. Our Lord warns us that a man may be religious and profess faith in Christ, and yet never possess Christ. A man may profess Christ, and yet be unconverted. A man may even be a preacher, and yet never enter the strait gate of conversion.

Dear reader, have you been converted? Do you even know what conversion is? I wrote on this extensively several weeks ago as we looked at the strait gate of Matthew 7:13. That difficult gate represents true conversion which we showed is necessary, urgent, difficult and rare. Conversion is a turning from sin, and a turning to the Saviour of sinners. Paul would write to the saints at Thessalonica and tell them he knew they were elect of God because they had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (I Thessalonians 1:9). A lost sinner turns from the darkness of sin, to the light of Christ, when he is turned by the efficacious grace of God (Jeremiah 31:18). Conversion is the inevitable and conscious turning of an elect sinner from his natural state to a state of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. A sinner may do all kinds of religious things and remain unconverted. He may attend church, and even join a church; he may “walk the aisle’, or “decide for Christ”; he may be active in all sorts of religious activity; he may be as busy as a bee in community affairs, or works of so-called benevolence; I tell you, you may be do all these things and more and remain unconverted and a stranger to Christ and His saving work. Unless you have consciously entered the strait gate of conversion, you will hear Christ say to you, “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity.”

There is somebody reading the Narrow Way this week that needs to come see me so I can tell you what true conversion is. There is somebody reading this article that needs to come see me or call me at 601-927-5070 so I can tell you how to be saved. There are many of you who have missed the strait gate of conversion altogether. If you have missed conversion, you have missed Christ, and if you miss Christ, you miss everything. Except ye repent, ye shall certainly perish. May the Lord have mercy upon you, because if He doesn’t, you will be miserable forever in hell.