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What is the sign that someone has become a genuine Christian? I wish that we would start
teaching this again. What happened to our theology? What happened to our doctrine? What
happened to our teaching? It went right out the window. No one wants to study doctrine
anymore. They just want to listen to songs and read the back of Christian tee shirts. What
happened to truth? Truth tells you this. The evidence––the way that you can have assurance that
you are genuinely a born-again Christian––is that you do, as a style of life, the will of the Father.
You say, “Oh, you’re talking about works.†No, I’m not. I’m talking about evidence of faith,
and it goes like this. Your profession of faith is no proof that you’re born again because
everybody in this whole country professes faith in Jesus Christ. Barnard tells us that 65 to 70
percent of all Americans are saved, born-again Christians. The most Godless country on the face
of the earth. Kill 4,000 babies a day but, bless God, 70 percent of us are born again. How do
you know that the faith you have is not false? A style of life that is concerned about doing the
will of the Father, that practices the will of the Father, and when you disobey the will of the
Father, the Holy Spirit comes and reprimands you either personally through the written Word of
God or through a brother or sister in Christ, and God puts you back on the path again. If you’re a
genuine Christian, you cannot escape Him.
Let me give you an example. If I was your pastor and you were, let’s say, 14 years old and I
came back from preaching at one o’clock in the morning and I saw you standing out there in a
park or on a corner with a bunch of hoodlums, doing things you shouldn’t be doing and you’re a
member of our church, I would tell you, “Get in the car.†I would take you home to your father.
I wouldn’t be mad at you. I’d be mad at your father. I would tell him, “Sir, you are a derelict
father that you would allow your child to be out in such circumstances.â€Â
I want you to know something. God is not a derelict father. If you can play around in sin, if you
can love the world and love the things of the world, if you can always be involved in the world
and doing things of the world, if your heroes are worldly people, if you want to look like them
and act like them, if you practice the same things they practice, oh my dear friend, listen to my
voice. There’s a good chance you know not God, and you do not belong to him.
Now, we bring this to a close, verse 22: Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many
miracles. Then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
You say the most important thing on the face of the earth is to know Jesus Christ. That is not
true. The most important thing on the face of the earth is that Jesus Christ knows you. I’m not
going to get into the White House tomorrow because I walk up to the gate and tell everybody I
know George Bush, but they will let me in if George Bush comes out and says, “I know Paul
Washer.â€Â
You can profess to know Jesus, but my question for you . . . do you know Jesus? Does Jesus
know you? And look how he describes the lost man here. He said, Depart from me you who
practice lawlessness. In Greek, anomia––a negative particle, a, “notâ€Â; word nomos, “lawâ€Â––“no
law.†And this is what it means. Let me give you an accurate translation of this. Depart from
me––Listen to me, if I could come out there and hug you while I was telling you this, I would.
Listen to me. He says, Depart from me those of you who claim to be my disciples who confessed
me as Lord and, yet, you live as though I never gave you a law to obey.
I just described a great majority of North American Christianity. If anyone starts talking about
law, if anyone starts talking about Biblical principles on what we’re supposed to do and not
supposed to do, how we’re to live and not supposed to live, everyone starts screaming,
“Legalist.†But Jesus said, Depart from me those of you who live––you called me Lord, but you
lived as though I had never given a law.
In American Christianity today, pass through the gate. Praise God. Live like the rest of the
world and it’s okay. You’re just carnal. Maybe one day you’ll come back. Do you know what
happens because of our bad evangelism? We have gazillions of children saved in vacation Bible
school, and when they hit 15 years old, they enter into the world and live like demons, a great
majority of them. And then when they’re around 30, they come back and rededicate their life.
Maybe they just got saved. Because, folks, it’s more than just telling someone you’re saved
because you acknowledged that Jesus is Lord. Satan acknowledges that Jesus is Lord. Is your
life in a process of change?
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