Goodbye, Stranger!

According to some estimates, up to 80% of professed "Christians" are what Jesus called "Workers of Lawlessness" 
"Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.  On that Day, many will say to me, `Lord, Lord! Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we expel demons in your name? Didn't we perform many miracles in your name?' Then I will tell them to their faces, `I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!"  Matthew 7:21-23 CJB

Notice that Jesus didn't say that He previously knew them, then forgot them. He will say to those false believers, "I never knew you." Powerful words, and certainly something we don't want to hear on the other side of this life.  So, if you say you're saved, how do you know?  Is salvation secure or is it like loose change in a threadbare pocket; subject to slip away if we're not careful? The Bible is clear on two things:
1: Salvation, if we truly experience it, is a once and for all deal.
2: The door to Life is narrow and few find it.  Many fake it even without knowing it.   

Ok, so if it's such a rare thing to be truly saved, why are there churches filled with people, Bible teachers, Sunday School directors, elders, deacons, preachers?  Let's think on this question: Why did Jesus have so many followers?  There are many places in the Gospels that tell us that Jesus had to get away from the crowds, and on two occasions He preached into the evening and then fed huge crowds numbering in the thousands.  Were these throngs of people all true believers in Messiah? The Gospel of John, chapter six records Jesus' words to the crowds who followed Him around the lake after He fed them.   

When Jesus tells the parable of the sower, He illustrates four kinds of people who hear the Gospel. Only one of the four is fruitful and useful to the Kingdom. One hears, but the message doesn't take root at all.  One converts quickly but takes no deep root in the Word or in the church. He quickly burns out. One takes root and tries for a while but the everyday worries of life crush his efforts to grow.  In many parables, He speaks of true and false converts: sheep and goats; wise virgins and foolish virgins; wheat and tares; good and bad fish. 

All these parables speak of people in the same group, but when Judgment day comes, the false hearts and motives are found out and those people are cast away into punishment.  They all looked like believers.  In the parable of the wheat and tares, the workers ask if the newly planted tares may be pulled before the harvest.  They are told to wait, lest the wheat is pulled up too.  God's timing will reveal the fakers. It's not for us to try to point them out. 
Nowhere in scripture do we see the true convert losing eternal life. 

"My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me, and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father's hands. I and the Father are one."             John 10:27-30

We see that they can fall into sin and self-righteous defense of that sin and be cast out of fellowship, handed over to the chastisement of the world. (Matthew 18:15-17)  This was spoken of as a last resort to shake up the believer who is spinning his wheels. The parable of the prodigal son was the story of a believer who fell into sin and had to be knocked down to a low place before repentance kicked in and he came back to fellowship. He was never disowned  by the father, but his pride led him to lose the joy of being an heir. 

A true convert may, for a season, fall into sin but the Spirit is always trying to prick us into repentance. If a person is sinning and they have no sense of conviction at all, then the problem may  very well be that they were never truly saved in the first place. Paul spoke of quenching and grieving the Spirit through sin, but we cannot force Him out once He has entered.  If we're walking in Light, then we will be full of truth and darkness will be far from us. 

1 John, chapter 3 teaches that if we're saved; that is, if we belong to God, we will not keep on sinning, or follow a pattern of sin.  Those who claim to be believers and still continue a sinful life were never believers in the first place. They belong to Satan, not God.  There aren't people who get saved, start falling away and get unsaved. There are true converts who, when they sin feel the sting of conviction and repent and  there are the ones who lie to others and themselves, claiming to belong to God but who still walk in darkness. 

These words of John reflect the words of Jesus, that we're either saved or we're strangers to the Lord.  Only God can see with certainty, so we can only really examine our own lives.  When we sin, does it grieve us or is the grief delayed a bit or muted? If that's the case, we have some confession time ahead of us, a sit down with Jesus to clear away the mess and let Him soften our hearts again.  If you are doing what you've learned to be wrong but just keep doing it without any feeling of remorse or conviction, be aware that this is not the mark of a convert.  You can continue lying to yourself "I can follow God and still...(enter your pet sin here) but you cannot get past God on Judgment Day. Please, don't be one of the souls who is told "I never knew you" despite your grand claims of service to The Lord.