The Lost Doctrine – The Evidence of Conversion (audio)
Paul Washer audio | transcribed by HHA
Salvation is a supernatural work of God whereby the power of God is manifest to such a degree that it parallels or exceeds the power of God manifested in the creation of the universe! The universe was created […] out of nothing, but when God saves a man, He recreates him out of a corrupt mass!
The evidence of conversion is not a decision card filled out. It’s a life being lived out! God commands all men everywhere to repent of their sins and believe the gospel and to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. You say “Brother Paul are you talking about a works salvation?” Absolutely not! I’m talking about a lost doctrine in the church. If there is a lost doctrine in the church today […] it is the doctrine of regeneration. Regeneration is not merely a human decision. You do not get saved simply because you decided to jump out of the line going to hell in order to jump into the line going to heaven. Salvation is a supernatural work of God whereby the power of God is manifest to such a degree that it parallels or exceeds the power of God manifested in the creation of the universe! The universe was created […] out of nothing, but when God saves a man, He recreates him out of a corrupt mass!
When people have truly repented, when people have truly believed, there is a work of regeneration going on in which that person becomes a new creature! And as a new creature with a new nature they WILL LIVE A DIFFERENT LIFE!
The evidence of regeneration is not that you made a decision one time at an evangelistic campaign. The evidence of regeneration is that your life is being transformed!
Do you think that God just transforms SOME of his children? The doctrine of a Christian living in a continuous state of carnality is absolute heresy.Do Christians sin – yes. Can Christians fall into carnality – yes. Can Christians walk in immaturity for a while – yes. But can Christians live a godless, worldly life all the days of their life – absolutely not! Why? Because salvation is a supernatural work of God whereby if any man be in Christ he’s a new creature, and new creatures live a different way!
That’s why when people tell me today there’s just as much sin in the church as outside of the church. There’s just much divorce and pornography and lying and hating and bickering in the church as outside the church – that is a LIE! The church of Jesus Christ in America today is beautiful! She is broken! She is confessional! She is walking with her God! And when she sins it breaks her heart and she returns to him! Your problem is what you’re calling the church is not the church! If the church is as most people say, then every new covenant promise in the Bible has failed! But God says in the new covenant He will make a people and He WILL be their God and they WILL be His people! And the law of God will be written on their heart and they will walk in it!!
The evidence of conversion is not a decision card filled out! It’s a life being lived out!
[…] “The puritans really didn’t give invitations and things like we do today. How did they know when someone got saved? […] Their life changed and they kept coming to church. How do we know they got saved (today)? They don’t come to church, their life doesn’t change, but they got saved cuz they raised their hand. Look at what we’ve done! Just look!
[…] (If) you’re troubled about your soul I will not ask you to raise your hand. I will not ask you to fill out a card, but I will stay here til 6 o’clock in the morning until my plane leaves to counsel you. You see, that’s the problem isn’t it? The great assumption. People come forward, they sign a card, we talk to them five minutes about salvation, we declare them saved, and then we wonder why we have to force so much discipleship in them and they still won’t grow. We’ve made the great assumption. We’ve passed them through an evangelical rite, and because they said all the right answers we declare them saved and we never worry about it again. That’s wrong!
I’ll tell you this – If you repent and believe in Christ tonight. If you have done that – He saved you. But I’ll tell you this – If you’ve made a decision for Christ, if you see Christ as Lord tonight and you profess Him as faith – He saved you. But if you walk out of here and your life doesn’t change, and you do not begin to grow, and “He who began a good work in you” doesn’t complete it, what happened here tonight wasn’t genuine conversion. Because the evidence of genuine conversion is an ongoing work of God in the soul of a man. That’s the old way. That’s historical Christianity.
How many of you, and how many people do you know? — Is it not true? — Maybe you have a child and they’ve made a profession of faith when they were six because someone asked them if they wanted to go to heaven or if they loved Jesus. Of course they raised their hand! Then when they got fourteen or fifteen, they started living in the world, hating the things of God…and you go to them and you go “but you’re a christian – you need to act differently.” You are wrong in the way you are approaching them. You need to approach them this way: “You made a profession of Christ but every bit of evidence in your life at this moment dictates that maybe your profession of faith in Jesus Christ was false and you are still in your sin and if you died you would go to hell. Now make your calling and election sure. Repent. Return to Christ!” You see how superficial our Christianity has become?
Oh my dear friend, these things should not be so, but they are. Awaken to the gospel, the real gospel, not the reduced kind! It is a gospel of grace and a gospel of power, that He who began a good work in you will finish it!
The evidence of conversion is not a decision card filled out! It’s a life being lived out!
