All right, let's go right into this. So if you could bow your heads with me in prayer, we'll start the seminar. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning and thank you God that there are many who are here to ask this very weighty question, what is genuine conversion?

And so would you teach us, as lengthy and as quantifiable this material is, oh Father, instruct our hearts to not just test our own salvation, but also to think about how we can better understand our interactions with the lost. So God, thank you for this morning. Would you give me clarity and would you keep us awake and alert because we know God that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

So would you train the workers this morning? In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, so we're going to be talking about what genuine conversion is today. And rather than talk about conversion, I'm going to most likely be using the word salvation throughout the length of this seminar. And like I was praying, one of the big things is I want our college ministry and our church to become very aware of our surroundings and spiritual state.

So you know how like when you're living your life, you kind of break up your day into things you're doing, you're in class now or you're at home now or you're at church now and all these kinds of things. But I do want us to be very sensitive to the fact that there are people existing in those spheres.

So when we look at it in categories, in terms of our own lives, we kind of become very self-centered and thinking like this is what I'm doing. And so people become a program or an agenda. But rather than that, I hope that our eyes are open to see people where they are.

And everyone that you see, yes, people outside, but even here in this room, you are destined for one of two places, heaven or hell. And that's it. And that should put an eternal burden on your soul because we're dealing with eternal beings. And so that's why we're covering this.

That's why this was maybe one of the harder studies I've had to do because you know, I was like, "Oh, a seminar. I've done seminars before." And then as I was going into it, I was like, "Oh, this is kind of a big topic." So I don't...man, this was really tough for me.

So I stayed up pretty late last night doing this. And so if some things come out a little bit incoherent, please use the question and answer time at the end. Steven has put up on the Facebook page, like a Google form kind of thing. So you can send your questions that way.

And then at the very end, after I give you guys a little bit of a break, we'll be going straight into the Q&As. So I am going to be trying to run as fast as I can here. But at any point, if you have a question that you feel like, "Oh, this would be better addressed like right now," please raise your hand and just ask it.

Okay? So just do this and you can ask the question right away too. And I don't mind stopping the teaching for that. Okay. So the schedule is going to be, we're going to be going through the teaching. And then afterwards, we're going to be doing a Q&A. And then at the very end, if you have further questions, we're going to have the staff kind of sitting around up front while people are going out and hanging out or going upstairs to get ready to eat and things like that.

If you have more questions about your own faith or even about like, you know, I have this roommate, I have this friend who's not a believer, and how can I track through this with them? And so the staff is going to be here to kind of help you out with that.

Okay? So more than anything, please use this morning to gauge where you personally stand. Yeah. So let's get right there into the introduction. The question is, how does a person know that he is really saved? Matthew 7, verse 21 through 23. You don't have to turn there because I'm going to try to have this.

Okay. Did I do that or did you do that? You did it. Okay. All right. Matthew 7, verse 21 says here, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" Now this is probably, you've read it before and seen it to be one of the scariest passages in scripture. It's terrifying because there's a sense of these people who are proclaiming believers of some sort. And they do lots of things that a believer would do.

And yet they get to the gate, they get to the judgment seat, and they say, "Hey, it's me. Let me in." And then Jesus says, "I never knew you." And it's scary because this isn't a hypothetical. This is not something that we're reading like, "Oh, this is a scriptural metaphor." This is something that will happen and has already happened.

The people maybe even we have known in our lives. This is maybe the track some of us in this room might be on right now. And that's why it's so scary. That address up here when it says, this guy who gets up there and says, "Lord, Lord." If you ask that question, why is he saying it twice?

Because that's a form of intimacy and relationship in the Hebrew culture. So... Oh, man. Why is this not working? What does this thing do? Did you do that, sir? Or did I... You did that, Thijs? Okay, thank you, Thijs. All right. You might just have to do it the whole time.

All right. So when the personal form of address is repeated, it suggests an intimate personal relationship to the person being spoken to. So that's there on your worksheet. In Genesis chapter 22, verse 11 through 12, you don't have to write these down. Genesis 46 to Exodus 3, 4, 1 Samuel 3, 10, Luke 10, 41, Luke 22, 31, Acts 9, 4, Matthew 27, 46.

Every time in a Hebrew sense when the name is repeated. For example, when God calls out to Samuel, if you know that Bible story, what does he say? He says, "Samuel, Samuel, come." It's a sense of intimacy and relationship. And so in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, when these people are coming to God and saying, "Lord, Lord," it's saying that they assume they had an intimate relationship with Christ.

And then Christ, with those heartbreaking words says, "We didn't. You fooled yourself. You were deceived into thinking that." I brought this up at the retreat, but since the PowerPoint didn't go up, Demas in Colossians chapter 4, verse 14, and Philemon 23 through 24, says, "Luke, the beloved physician, greets you, as does Demas." Meaning, for the Apostle Paul, Luke and Demas were very intimate, close friends and workers of the gospel together.

In Philemon 23 to 24, it passed for another great hero of the faith, "My fellow prisoner in Christ, Jesus sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers." Demas was part of the inner circle of Paul. They worked together. And then again, another heartbreaking passage in 2 Timothy 4, 10.

If you don't know, 2 Timothy is the last letter before Paul's death. At the end of his life, this guy has run with him, has walked with him, has cried with him, has done gospel work with him. They've done many things together. They've seen the fruit of the harvest reaped together.

And he says, "Come to me quickly," because you can read the tear-stained words of Paul as he's writing this. He says, "Come to me quickly, I need you, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica." Even a guy named Demas, a guy like Demas, who was so close to God and who did so much God work, ended up forsaking Christ.

There's none of us in this room that's kind of above this. We really have to think through this together. We don't have to turn very much further than a passage like John 13, verse 21 to 26, to see how someone so close to Christ can be so far than a guy like Judas.

In John 13, he washes Judas' feet. It's a very intimate act, and even Judas. So question for you before we begin, as we're still in the introduction here, if you were to die tonight, where would you be? Where would you go? Heaven or hell? This is not a question to end all questions because of this.

There are a lot of people who will say, "I'm going to heaven," and they believe it with all their hearts. But the secondary question you need to ask them is, "Why do you believe that? Why do you think you're going to heaven? Why do you think you're going to be rescued from hell?" If God asks you, "Hey, so yeah, you're here, and you're saying you deserve to be here, but why should I let you in?

What would you say in a scenario like that?" So let's go into our first Roman numeral point here. What is not salvation? What is not salvation? Now we're going to run through these quickly, these five points. First, salvation is not saving from your circumstances or trials. It's not saving from your circumstances or trials.

It might be tempting in a lot of your testimonies, if you've ever written out your testimony, to say, "This is what God saved me from. I was in the pit of despair. I was in darkness." A lot of times it's because you guys break up with someone, and you're crying into your pillow every single night.

You're like, "Oh, Jesus saved me." That is not what salvation is all about. Although he can use those circumstances to bring you to himself, he is not here to save us from our circumstances and our trials. Secondly, he's not here to save us from depression. Thirdly, he's not simply here to save us and to hand us a get-out-of-hell-free card.

It's not just hell insurance, the salvation. Fourthly, he doesn't do it just to save us to a better life. That's the health and wealth gospel. People like Joel Osteen. Obviously, you've got to be really careful on the pulpit of who you out, but Joel Osteen is an obvious guy that has led a charge.

This health and wealth gospel of thinking that Christ saves you, and so now you can live in all the prosperity that this world can offer you. That is not why he saved you. Fifthly, all of these might happen as byproducts of salvation, but they are not the point. All of these things can happen and will happen, but they are not the point of salvation.

Roman numeral two. As you guys can tell, this is kind of a longer worksheet than you're used to, so we've got to move quick. What is salvation? Simply put, it's to place your faith in the message of the gospel. That is not only salvation, but how you apprehend salvation.

That's how you take salvation and make it your own. You place your faith in the message of the gospel. Then you have to know what the gospel is, so let's run through the gospel. Four points of the gospel. First, God. Everything begins with God. He is the standard. He is holy.

Creation begins with God. Salvation begins with God. The beginning of your life begins with God. Everything that you're doing in your life is about God. Everything that you see is there to glorify God. Everything is God. He is the standard, and he is a holy God. In Isaiah 6, verse 3, Psalm 96, verse 9, you see some things here.

Isaiah 6, verse 3, "On one call to another and said," remember this is the seraphim, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory." He is holy, and it says that the whole earth is full of his glory, meaning everything is meant for his glory.

Thank you so much. All right, and then Psalm 96, verse 9, "Worship the Lord and the splendor of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth." This is an understanding of a high view of God. God is not here to just become an accessory to our lives. Everything is about God.

God is the standard. He is the meaning and reason and the sustaining work behind everything that we see. And so in 1 Peter 1, verse 15, it says, "But as he who called you is holy, then you also be holy in all your conducts, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" Do you see that?

He is the standard. Sometimes we want to become holy just because we feel like it makes us feel better or makes us feel like we're growing as a Christian, or it makes us feel like we can serve better or that we can evangelize better or things like that. Those are all man-centered reasons of holiness.

And we know that the standard of why we want to be holy is because God is holy. He is the only standard. And so God and sin cannot coexist. You know, we get into the gates of heaven and he asks us, "Why should I let you in?" You can't say, "Well, I've lived a pretty good life." You can't say, "I was better than my roommate." You can't say, "I was better than that criminal." God sets the standard and his very holy and perfect character is the thing that will become the rubric as to how we can enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Sin and God cannot coexist, and by that, sinners and God cannot coexist. Sometimes we say things like God hates the sin, loves the sinner. True and false. True, because yes, he loves people, but he cannot love sinners in their sin. He will love us to save us and to redeem us, but there will be a day where sinners will have to face the wrath of God and they will be devoid of God's love for them.

There is no arguing, understanding that God is the standard behind everything. There is no arguing. This question that society comes up with and as humanity we bring up, we say, "If God is so good, how could there be suffering? If God is so good, how could there be hell?" If we understand this point, we see that if God is so good and he is so holy like this, how can any of us be existing right now?

The simple, enormous truth that God is holy and nothing impure can reside in his presence. Nothing. And that brings us to the second part of the gospel, which is humans. Whoa, that is tiny. Good luck. Humans. Humans are sinful. Humans not only do sinful things, but are sinners to the core from birth.

Humans exist in total depravity, meaning that there is nothing that we can do in our sin to rescue ourselves. There is nothing good in ourselves to even choose God. Have you thought about that? We are not going to be talking about Calvinism versus Arminianism or anything like that today, but have you ever thought about the Arminian point of view that says that I can choose God?

What is it inside of a person that says that that person would be able to choose God, whereas that person will not be able to choose God? You're saying that there is something inside of that person that is good to be able to choose, and that is not the case.

Humans are sinful. We're saturated in it. It's not only that we do sinful things, but that we're sinners to the core. Romans 3 9-12 says, "There is none righteous, not even one." There is no one who understands, none who seeks after God. No one wants him. Who wants a God over our lives when we desire that position ourselves?

And Romans 3 23, hopefully you've all memorized this one, "For all have sinned and fall short of his glory." Right after that is a great gospel message and have been justified, but let's stick with the falling short of his glory part here. We fall short of God's glory. We fall short in giving him his due.

In Hebrews 2 2, we begin to see as sinners before a holy God that judgment is coming to us. Judgment is coming. In Hebrews 2 2 it says, "For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution." That should like make you tremble.

Every transgression, bar none, ever committed by every heart, by ever in existence of humanity, every transgression or disobedience receives a just retribution. It doesn't matter if you're Adolf Hitler. It doesn't matter if it's your mom. Everyone, all of us. Hebrews 10 30, "For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine.

I will repay.'" And again, the Lord will judge his people. This is the state of humanity. If God is holy, then we are sinful. And then we're in trouble. Jesus preached more about hell than heaven. Isn't that crazy? Jesus preached more about hell than heaven. Now we are not fire and brimstone like the sons of thunder like James and John saying, "Bring down your fire upon this world, God." We're not going to do things like that.

We're not going to go out and picket with like you're going to hell signs. And yet it's telling if Jesus preached more about hell than heaven. Let me ask you a question. What do you preach about more? What do you think about more? Just by sheer amount of quantity of Bible text that is reserved for talking about hell rather than heaven, how are we skewed in our thinking?

And so it's clear to us and to every person in mankind, if you have not placed your faith in Christ, you are going to hell. And I tried to make it as blunt as possible there. If you have not placed your faith in Christ, hell. There is no alternative.

There is no in-between. There is no purgatory. There is no annihilation. You will not cease to exist. Hell. This is serious. If this is truth, and if you believe this, then you should be thinking about hellbound people right now. And so salvation, we talked about before what salvation is not.

Salvation isn't rescuing us from a bad life or being poor or a horrible breakup or anything like that. Salvation is rescuing from God's furious wrath against sin and evil in light of his ultimate holiness. Sinfulness is not just human error or human trials, but it's deep, pervading, cancerous, festering, terminal sin.

We are dead in sin, we are helpless to it, we are hostile towards God in it. And so this is humanity's greatest problem. This is humanity's greatest problem. Can you guys read it? Sorry. That brings us to our third point. Here's the good news, right? We know this now here at Berean.

Like Jesus time! By this point, your heart is like weighing down and getting heavier and heavier and heavier and then it's like Jesus! Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 says, "At the right time, God sent forth his son Jesus." God sent Jesus as the answer. In Romans 5a, it says, "While we were still sinners, while we were in the depths of that, while we were mired under the weight of the standard of the holiness and wrath and ferocity of God, Jesus came and he died for us." Because why?

Because he loved us. How do you love someone unlovable? And more than that, how do you love someone unlovable to the point where you will sacrifice your life for them? Amazing. John 3:16, "That whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." And so by his perfect life and his death for our sins and his resurrection to prove his victory over our sin, Jesus gives his life.

Salvation comes through Jesus' perfect life, that's the next point there. His death for our sins and his resurrection to prove his victory over our sin. Let us see, the worst of sinners can come. You cannot out-sin God's grace. We see this glorious gospel scene in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, it says, "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord, "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." In Isaiah 43-25, "I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not," listen to this and let it just marinate in this truth, "I will not remember your sins." Praise God, yes? Oh my goodness, look at that.

"I will not remember your sins." That should make us weep. This is what God offers the world through his Son. So there it is, God, humans, Jesus, and now we get to the fourth part. This is where the rubber meets the road. Now here's the thing, let it read there, "Many people are in hell who have heard and mentally assented to the above message." Many people are in hell who heard and mentally assent to the God/Man/Jesus message.

This is scary. Letter B, "Many people stand at the line drawn on the sand and cannot decide whether or not to cross over that line. Ultimately, this is the same as not crossing over at all and remaining in the clutches of hell." There are many people who are in churches today who just sit and falsely worship sitting behind this line.

And this is where a lot of confusion happens because one might believe these things, you guys see my air quote? One might believe all these things but never understand what to do to cross over the line and make that step. God beckons, He calls, the question being then, not only what do we believe as believers, but how do I cross into that?

And I think that's the burning question when we think about genuine conversion. How do you do this? You've read the contract that God sets before you, this is the truth, and you have to sign on the dotted line. Many of you guys can attest to the point that you've heard the gospel before, maybe in youth group or elementary school or things like that, and you were just sitting right on that fence.

And your life began to change and you began to see fruit when you crossed over and said, "I give my life for this truth." This is the difference, there is a difference between what God does and what we do, so this isn't part of your worksheet but I want to make it clear that God is the one that does the electing, calling, regenerating, converting, justifying, adopting, and reconciling.

What are we called to do? That's His part in salvation. We are called to repent and believe. We'll keep it very simple. This can become very complex but let's keep it very simple. Repent and believe. That is how you cross over that line. Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.

I'm going to read this again. It's a heartfelt, this is deep, cutting, where your heart is just diced up. You feel like a sword stuck through your chest. Sin. If you do not understand sin before a holy God, there will be no crying out for God. There will be no need for you to step over that line other than fire insurance.

It's a heartfelt sorrow for sin and a renouncing of it, a sincere commitment, a commitment. We use that so lightly. Will you commit to this? Will you commit to this? Think about it like a marriage commitment. It's a commitment to forsake this and walk in this, to forsake this world and to obey Christ.

This is different from remorse. If you look at 2 Corinthians 7, verse 9-10, it says, "As it is, I rejoice not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting." Difference. You can grieve over your sin but there's a difference between that and grieving into repentance. For you felt a godly grief so that you suffer no loss through us.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation. You see that? Without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. So what is repentance? First it's acknowledgement. Your understanding that sin is wrong and that we reside before a holy God. You're saying, I put these quotes because I felt like it encapsulates it in more layman's terms.

I get it. I get this. I understand the offense of sin before a holy God. I get that. Secondly, that moves us into agreement. I agree with you. I agree with you God. I agree that this is an offense, that this is sin. Which moves us into a third part which is confession.

You say, I did it. I did do this. I am a sinner. You are, and that line there is, you are crushed by the reality of your sin and are drawn to confess under its weight. So that whole idea of confession you can see in Romans, a lot of places, but in Romans chapter 10 verse 9 it says, "Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." There is confession that is needed in this.

That moves us into the fourth point there. You ask for forgiveness. So you've acknowledged it, you agree to it, you confess it, now you're asking for forgiveness. So it's that question, very simply put. You're coming before God and saying, "Will you forgive me?" It's funny how we can know about our sin, but we can feel grieved over our sin, and yet we never come before God and say, "Oh God, I'm really sorry.

I'm really sorry about this." You know, in asking for forgiveness, I want to make it clear that this is audible. You're talking to God. He's not some entity that floats around. You're talking to him, you're saying, you're asking for forgiveness as you would in a relationship. If you've ever had a friend who knows they did something wrong against you, but they don't say anything, they just know, and you know, they don't say anything.

A friend like this could even have confessed, like, "Yeah, I did that." But if they don't ask for forgiveness, there's always going to be this big elephant in the room that your relationship doesn't heal, it doesn't fix, until they say, "I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" You're going to see that even clearer when you get married.

Oh yeah. Your wife is usually sleeping in the same bed. When forgiveness is asked for is when the relationship can start being repaired. And that brings us to the fifth part of repentance, is that you make a decision. There must be a renouncing of sin, and a decision of the will to forsake it and lead a life of obedience to Christ instead.

This is a 180 degree turn. Notice that this 180 degree turn is a decision. It's not that you're perfect. This is your resolve. This is what I want. 180. Not 179. Not 181. This is 180, right? All the way, you're beelining towards God. I saw the math majors right now go like this.

I get that. It's a decision. You acknowledge, you agree, you confess, then you ask for forgiveness. It brings you to this point of decision making. At this point, it should be clear that you don't want to live the way you used to live. And this means that you make an active decision to change your mind, your emotions, and your will.

This is everything about who you are. Don't get too caught up in those words. It's just everything about who you are, top to bottom. Your mind, your emotions, and your will. Everything changes. And yes, that does mean your feelings change too.