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Tonight I am going to preach a very simple sermon. I am going to do my very best to make it as simple as possible. Yet even though it is simple, it is revolutionary, and will be quite frightening to false "decisionist" preachers in our day.

Jesus plainly said, "Except ye be converted…ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." So, He made it perfectly plain and clear that you must experience conversion. He said if you don't experience conversion you "shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." So, we must settle the question - are you converted? Almost everyone in America thinks they are, but almost no one really is. Why? Because most preachers changed conversion into a human "decision," as a result of the false teachings of Charles G. Finney. Today, very few people are actually converted.

It would be best for you to think of yourself as unconverted. That's the safest thing to do. If you are wrong, it won't hurt you. On the other hand, if you think you are converted when you aren't, your soul will be damned for eternity in Hell. So, it is safer to think of yourself as unconverted - which is doubtlessly the truth anyway. Since the Bible teaches eternal security, it won't hurt a bit to think of yourself as unconverted if you really are. But if you aren't converted, thinking that you are will damn you to everlasting flames. So, the safest thing to do is to think that you are unconverted.

Now we have settled that - you are unconverted. Where do we go from there? Well, I'm going to tell you what happens to a person who experiences conversion. Spurgeon said, "There may be such a thing as faith at first sight, but usually we reach faith by stages" (C. H. Spurgeon, Around the Wicket Gate, Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1992 reprint, p. 57). Here are the "stages" most people go through.

I. First, you come to church for some other reason than to be converted.

Almost everyone does this. I did it. So did Mr. Griffith, our deacon and soloist. So have you, in all probability.

I came to church as a teenager because I was lonely, and the people next door, Dr. and Mrs. McGowan, invited me to go to church with them and their children. So I started coming to church in 1954 because I was lonely, and the McGowans were nice to me. I went "forward" at the end of the first sermon I heard and was baptized. That's how I became a Baptist. But I was not converted. I went through a long struggle that lasted seven years before I finally was truly converted on September 28, 1961, when I heard Dr. Charles J. Woodbridge preach at Biola College (now Biola University).

How about you? Did you come to church because you were lonely - or because your parents brought you to church as a child? If you are here tonight out of habit, like a kid raised in the church, it does not mean you are converted. You aren't. Or did you come like I did, because you were lonely and someone invited you, and the people were nice to you? If you did, you are not yet converted. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you're here - whether out of habit like a church kid, or out of loneliness, like me when I was thirteen years old. Those are perfectly good reasons to come to church - but they will not save you. You must have a real conversion to be saved.

So, most of you who are still lost are here for some other reason than to be converted. It isn't wrong. It's just too shallow. You must have something more to be converted.

II. Second, you begin to realize that there really is a God.

You may realize that God exists before you come to church. But many people have only a hazy, unclear belief in God before they come.  That was probably your case as well, if someone brought you here.

If you were raised in the church, you already know a lot about the Bible. You can find the right place in the Scriptures easily. You know the plan of salvation. You know a lot of Bible verses and hymns. But God is still hazy and unclear to you.

Then, whether you are a new person or a church kid, something begins to happen. It dawns on you that there really is a God - not just talk about God. God becomes a very real person to you. I became so aware of the reality of God at the age of fifteen that I actually fell on the ground way out in the cemetery, under the trees, the day my grandmother was buried at Forest Lawn, Glendale. From that moment on, God was a real, living person to me. But I was not yet converted.

Have you experienced something like that? Is God a real Person in your life? That is tremendously important. The Bible says,

"Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is [i.e. that He exists]"
   (Hebrews 11:6).

Believing in God requires a certain amount of faith - but it is not saving faith. It is not conversion. My mother often said, "I always believed in God." And there is no question in my mind that she did. She did believe in God since childhood. But she was not converted until she was past 80 years old. It was important that she believed in God, but something more than that must happen for a person to be truly converted.

So, I am saying, that you probably came to church without any true realization of God's actual reality. Then, perhaps slowly, perhaps more quickly, you see that there really is a God. That's the second stage, but it is not yet conversion.

III. Third, you realize that you have offended and angered God by your sins.

The Bible says, "They that are in the flesh [i.e. those who are unconverted] cannot please God" (Romans 8:8). As an unconverted person, nothing you do can please God. In fact, every day your "impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath" (Romans 2:5). The Bible says:

"God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psalm 7:11).

After you realize that there really is a God, you begin to realize that you have offended God by sinning. You have also offended God by not loving Him. The sins you have committed were against God and His commandments. It will become very clear to you that this is true. Your lack of love for God will also be seen by you as a great sin at this stage.

This stage was often called the stage of "awakening" by the Puritans. But there can be no awakening without a sharp sense of sin and deep self-condemnation. You will feel as John Newton did when he wrote:

O Lord, how vile am I, Unholy and unclean!
How can I dare to venture nigh With such a load of sin?

Is this polluted heart A dwelling place for Thee?
Swarming, Alas! In every part, What evils do I see!
   ("O Lord, How Vile Am I" by John Newton, 1725-1807).

Have you been feeling like that?  I hope you do - soon.

You will think deeply, then, about the inward sinfulness of your mind and heart. You will think, "My heart is very sinful, and very far from God." This will disturb you. You will become very upset by your own sinful thoughts and your own lack of love for God. The cold lifelessness of your heart toward God will trouble you deeply. You will realize that a person with a sinful heart like yours has no hope. You will see that it is necessary and right for God to send you to Hell - because you deserve Hell. This is what you will think when you are truly awakened and realize that you have offended God and angered Him with your sins. The stage of awakening is an important stage, but it is not yet conversion. A person who sees how sinful he is has been awakened - but he is not yet converted. Conversion goes farther than simply being convicted of sin.

You may realize that you have displeased God suddenly, or such an awareness may grow from a mere doctrine into a fuller understanding that God has been offended and is very displeased with you. Only when you are fully awakened to the fact that you are sinful and unholy will you be ready for the fourth and final "stage" of conversion.

Charles Spurgeon came to this awareness of his sin when he was 15 years old. His father and grandfather were both preachers. They lived in a day when modern "decisionism" had not yet made true conversion muddy and unclear. So, his father and grandfather did not "push" him to make a superficial "decision for Christ." Instead, they waited for God to do a thorough work of conversion in him.

When he was fifteen Spurgeon at last came under deep conviction of sin. Spurgeon explained his awakening to his sinfulness with these words:

All of a sudden, I met Moses, carrying in his hand the law of God, and as he looked at me, he seemed to search me through and through with his eyes of fire. He [told me to read] 'God's ten words' - the ten commandments - and as I read them they all seemed to join in accusing and condemning me in the sight of the thrice-holy Jehovah.

He saw, in that experience, that he was a sinner in the sight of God, and that no amount of "religion" or "goodness" could save him. The young Spurgeon went through a period of great distress. He tried in many ways to earn peace with God by his own efforts, but all of his attempts to make peace with God failed. Only then was he ready for "stage" four - the final act of conversion itself.  You must have a somewhat similar experience to Spurgeon's before you are ready for stage four.

IV. Fourth, you come to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for cleansing from sin.

When Spurgeon was being awakened to his sin, at first he did not believe that he could be saved by simply coming to Jesus. He said:

Before I came to Christ, I said to myself, "It surely cannot be that, if I believe in Jesus, just as I am, I shall be saved? I must feel something; I must do something."

But he couldn't "feel" anything, and he couldn't "do" anything! He was miserable. Good! That's what leads a person away from himself - to the Son of God!  If you get miserable enough, you may come to Jesus!

Spurgeon went through a snowstorm to a little church. Only a few people were there. Even the pastor was kept away by the howling storm. A thin little man stood up to give an impromptu sermon. The man simply said, "Look to Christ." Finally, after all his struggle and inner turmoil, the young Spurgeon did just that - he looked to Jesus Christ by faith for the first time in his life! Spurgeon said, "I was saved by blood! I could have danced all the way home!" He simply believed in Jesus! It is simple, and yet the most profound experience a human being can have. That, my lost friend, is real conversion!

Conclusion

Let nothing stop you in your search for a real conversion to Christ! Remember that Jesus said:

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).

Like the man in Pilgrim's Progress, don't settle for any superficial "decision for Christ." No! No! Make sure that your conversion is real, because if you are not really converted, "ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).

To have a real conversion

1. You must come to the place of really believing that there is a God - a real God who damns sinners to Hell, and takes the saved to Heaven when they die.

2. You must know, deep down inside, that you are a sinner who has offended God deeply.

3. You must know that you can't do any good thing to reconcile you to an offended and angry God.

4. You must come to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for cleansing in His Blood, and the imputation of His righteousness to you by faith in Him.

Christ died on the Cross to pay for your sins and reconcile you to an angry God. Christ rose physically from the dead and ascended back to Heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of God.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:1-2).

Look to Christ! Look to God the Son! Be washed from your sins by His Blood!

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:1-7).

As Joseph Hart put it:

The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in his crucified God,
His pardon at once he receives,
Redemption in full through His blood.
    ("The Moment a Sinner Believes" by Joseph Hart, 1712-1768).

Scripture Read Before the Sermon by Dr. Kreighton L. Chan: Ephesians 2:1-7.
Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:

"Amazing Grace" (by John Newton, 1725-1807).