is not that I did you. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. I've entitled this message, True
Conversion and False Conversion. I would like you to follow along
as I read in this passage of Scripture from Luke chapter 11,
verse 21. Now this was after the Lord had
cast out a demon out of a man. And he was accused of doing it
through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And he demonstrated
that he had done so by the power of God. He said, beginning in
verse 19, actually, of Luke chapter 11, And if I by Beelzebub cast
out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall
they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God,
cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come unto you. When a strong man armed keepeth
his palace, his goods are at peace. Now that strong man armed
is Satan. The palace is man and this strong
man armed keeps his goods in peace. But when a stronger than
he shall come upon him, that's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and overcome him, he's the only one who can do it. He taketh
from him all his armor wherein he trusted and divided his spoils. That is true conversion. Then the Lord says, he that's
not with me is against me. And he that gathereth not with
me scattereth. Now here is the false conversion. When the unclean spirit is gone
out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and
finding none. He saith, I'll return unto my
house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth
it swept and garnished. Matthew's account says, empty,
swept, and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh to him
seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter
in. and dwell there, and the last
state of that man is worse than the first." There is false conversion. Now, wherever you have the true,
the counterfeit will not be far behind. Now, in this passage
of Scripture, we're given true conversion and false or spurious
conversion. Now the Lord had been casting
out a devil. This was something he did a whole
lot during his earthly ministry. He was all the time casting demons
out of people. You know that there is an unseen
world that you and I know very little of. But Satan is called
the God of this world and the prince of the power of the air
and the prince of this world. Unbelievers are called children
of the devil. Children of Satan. Remember when
the Lord said to that one group of people, you're of your father,
the devil, and the loss of your father, you will do. Now, the
devil is the strong man armed, our Lord speaks of, that keeps
the palace. Now remember, Ephesians chapter
6 verse 11 says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be
able to stand against the wiles, the deceit of the devil. For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, Men are not the problem,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. Oh, the influence of the wicked
one. He has so much more influence
than we're aware of. And this palace he keeps and
guards over is man. Men who do not believe. And he's strong. He's the strong
man armed. You and I are no match for him.
I have heard preachers talk about like dancing on the head of the
devil and so on, and they don't realize when they say something
like that they're under his complete control. He is strong. He's the strong man armed. Peter
said, your adversary, the devil, goeth about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour. And he's a strong man armed.
He has an arsenal. You know, he defeated our first
parents when they had innocent natures. Don't think you wouldn't
have done the exact same thing. He defeated our first parents
when they had no sinful nature. They had innocent natures. You
and I have evil natures that he has so much to work with.
Oh, what an arsenal he has that he can work with. The palace is man, the devil
keeps his palace. No one is able to get out from
under his power and his influence. And the scripture says, when
a strong man armed keeps his palace, his goods are at peace. You see, there's a peace that
the devil gives. You'll feel peace. Peace is a
feeling. And you'll feel peace. I'm OK. You're OK. I've made
my peace with God. I've done what I need to do in
order to be in heaven. I have peace about that. I've
got peace about dying. The devil gives a peace. It's
not the peace that passes all understanding that comes from
God. It's not the peace of which Christ said, my peace I give
unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. The peace that
comes from Christ, the peace, it's a false peace that the devil
gives. There is no true ground for that
peace. You may feel peace, but you don't
have a good reason to have that peace. It's just a feeling and
nothing more. It's a bloodless peace. Now understand
this, if I get any peace from anything other than the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a false peace. Let me repeat
that. If I get any peace that's not
wholly founded, in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is a false peace. If I get peace from something
I've done in the past, some experience I had, if I get peace from thinking
about what I will do in the future, it's a false peace. Men hide
in these false refuges of the past and the future. It's a false
peace. It's a peace of ignorance. I
was driving down the road the other day, and there was a truck
pulling a big trailer full of cows, and I looked one of those
cows right in the eye, and it looked so serene. It seemed so
peaceful. It had no idea that it was getting
ready to be slaughtered. It was a piece of ignorance,
and it's a superstitious piece. I was at a funeral once where
someone said concerning the person that died, well, I know they're
in heaven because I hear birds chirping and birds don't generally
chirp and sing in the winter, but when I heard those birds
chirping, I knew this person's in heaven. What superstition. It's a piece that goes with the
crowd. People like to be with everybody
else. They have peace, I have peace.
People go to hell in a crowd. The peace of the world, the peace
of the wicked, it's not real peace. But the devil gives a
peace. I'm okay, you're okay, everybody
is fine. And you'll stay that way. unless
the stronger one comes. In verse 22, it says, But when
a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he
taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and he divides
the spoils. Now, the only one who can be
called the stronger one is the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the
devil's strong. But understand this, he's God's
devil, he's on God's chain, and he can't make a move without
God's permission. He's under the thumb of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He may be powerful, but Christ
is omnipotent. He has all power, and he can
overcome the devil, and that's exactly what he does. He overcomes
the devil. Chapter 2 says that he was manifested
to destroy the works of the devil. That's why he came. He was manifested
to destroy the works of the devil. Now when I think of the works
of the devil, the first thing I think about is the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve in innocence, walking in fellowship with God. And even
in their innocence, the deceiver was able to deceive them. And
he caused the fall of our first parents. And they went from loving
God to hating Him. They didn't want to be in His
presence anymore. They fled from His presence. They knew they
were naked. They were naked before, but it
was never an issue. But now they have fallen, evil natures. And
their attitude toward God, they didn't say, forgive us. They
didn't come back and say, oh, we've sinned against you. Please
forgive us. No, they blamed God for what
took place. Adam said, the woman that you
gave me, she gave me of the fruit, and I did eat. They laid the
blame on God himself and wouldn't even stand up to their own responsibility
and their sin. Oh, behold the works of the devil,
what he did to them. But the Son of God came to destroy
the works of the devil. And that is precisely what he
did. You see, on the cross, he destroyed
the works of the devil. Now, the devil thought he had
defeated Christ. He had been watching him all
his life. He knew exactly who he was. He
was there watching when our Lord was baptized and the voice from
heaven came down and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm
well pleased. That's when he started the, if
you're the son of God, if you're the son of God, if you're the
son of God. On Calvary's tree, he was defeated. How so? All the sins of all those
people that the devil had enslaved, who were God's elect, those whom
God loved before time began, he delivered them. He paid for
their sins. He overcame the devil by his
work on the cross. They were overcome. The devil
was overcome. He couldn't hold them. You see,
the gates of hell shall not prevail against the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. knocks the doors down, and delivers
all who believe. He defeated the works of the
devil by his death. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. That's what he did on the cross.
He crushed the devil's head. And when he comes in saving power,
he takes away all that armor that we trust in. You see, we
all have this armor we trust in, that we think we're saved
because of something we did. I must be saved because I remember
when I was really affected by that sermon and I was moved and
I came down to the front of the church and I accepted Jesus as
my personal Savior. Now, I've lived like hell since
then, but I still believe I was saved at that time. I remember
when I prayed, and I read the Bible, and I study, and I do
all these things, all these things that we trust in. I go to church,
I tithe, I give, I try to be good to my neighbor, I try not
to hurt anybody, all these things where we trust. I'm religious,
I'm a Christian. He takes all those away. You
see, when God saves you, what he does is he strips you. He
makes it to where you have nothing but sin. You stand before him
self-condemned as a sinner. And only then, when you have
nothing, can you receive Christ as all. Now, let me tell you
something I have no doubt about. I may have doubts about many
things on many levels, but here's something that I have no doubt
about. Christ is all in my salvation. Everything God requires of me,
He looks to His Son for, and I rest in Him God looks to Christ
to be satisfied with me. I look to Christ for God to be
satisfied with me. He destroyed the devil and all
of his works on the cross. And when he comes in saving power,
he takes away all those things wherein we trusted. And it says
he divides the spoils. And this is an answer to Isaiah
53, 17. He shall divide the spoils with
the strong. This is what happens in true
conversion. Now understand this, there is
such a thing as true conversion. It's what all of God's elect
experience. They were elected before time
began to be saved. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him. When Christ comes When Christ
came to the earth, He came to save all of those people. And
that's precisely what He did. When He said it is finished,
their salvation was accomplished. And then in time, Christ sends
His Spirit and overcomes them and converts them and brings
them to a saving knowledge of Himself. They're made to bow
the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. They're converted. They're turned.
They turn from salvation by works to the Lord Jesus Christ. They
turn from the ways of this world to the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
turned. That's what conversion is. Turned. They're turned. They're
truly converted because the strong man arm came and overcame them. Now anybody that's converted
knows this. The only reason they are is because
the Lord converted them. The Lord saved them. The Lord
did something for them. Salvation is of the Lord, and
He does it all, and everybody that's saved knows that. I don't
have to argue with anybody that's saved over that. Now, an unbeliever
may not. Believe that, but every believer does. You see, believers
all believe the same thing. They all are saved the same way.
They look to the same Lord. I love that song. Hail sovereign
love that first began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless
free eternal grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Enwrapped in thick Egyptian night
and fond of darkness more than light. Madly, I ran the sinful
race, secure, without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran. Almighty love, arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place." What a scary time that is. indignant
justice stood in view. To Sinai's fiery mount I flew,
and justice cried with frowning face, this mountain is no hiding
place. Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
and mercy's angel form appeared and led me on with gentle pace
to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. On him eternal vengeance fell
that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race and thus became their hiding place. Should storms of sevenfold
thunder roll and shake the earth from pole to pole, no flaming
volt can daunt my face for Jesus is my hiding place. A few more
rolling storms at most shall land me safe on Canaan's coast. There I shall sing of sovereign
grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. There is such a thing
as true conversion. Now the Lord says in verse 23,
he that's not with me is against me. And he that gathereth not
with me scattereth. You see, there is no neutral
ground. There is no non affiliation. We're either with him or against
him. We're either for him or against
him. We're either in him or we're
outside of him. There is no intermediate. We
either believe all grace or all works. We either believe Christ
is all or we believe he's nothing. We're either children of the
God or children of the devil. We're actively standing for his
gospel and gathering people in or we're opposed and scattering
people. Now the Lord speaks of the unclean
spirit leaving a man. Now here is a false conversion. Here is a spurious conversion. Verse 24, when the unclean spirit
is gone out of a man. Now notice he's not driven out.
He goes out voluntarily. Now, I don't understand what
all is behind this, but I know this. This unclean spirit felt
very comfortable in this man. You see, there's an affinity
between an unclean spirit and a natural fallen man. The fallen man's evil. The evil
spirit feels totally comfortable dwelling in him. But this unclean
spirit is gone out of a man voluntarily. He walketh through dry places,
seeking rest, and finding none. And he saith, I'll return unto
my house, whence I came out." Now, what was he doing, seeking
rest and finding none? I don't know. But he does say
he's going to return to his house, the place he felt at home. When men were possessed with
devils, they would say things like, let us alone, thou Jesus
of Nazareth. Who's speaking? The man? The
demon? Both. Both. I don't understand all
this, but I know it's so. There's demon possession, and
I don't know what all to extent it is, but this demon left this
man, and he returns, and the scripture says, he found his
own home. Empty, swept, and garnished. Now here is false conversion. Empty, swept, and decorated. Garnished. Empty of grace. Empty of the Spirit of God. Empty
of Christ being there. Empty. But during this conversion,
and you've seen people turn religious, Sweep up the dirt. That's not
true cleaning. It's just moving the pile of
dirt from one place to the other. Sweeping has to do with the outside.
This man is swept and he's decorated, garnished. He doesn't have any
faith, but he's got a beautiful picture of faith with a nice
definition hanging on his wall. He doesn't know what it is to
glory in the cross, but he's got a big golden cross around
his neck to show everybody. He has no love for the Word,
but he carries a Bible that everybody can see. He has no true humility
before God, but he's got a false humility. He can really act humble. He doesn't have any communion
with Christ. He doesn't feed on Christ and
the secret of his soul, but he can brag and boast about his
devotional life and how much he reads the Bible and how much
he prays and what all he does and who all he witnesses to.
There's no prayer to God, but there's plenty of praying thus
with himself, like the Pharisee in the temple did. There's no
love for Christ, but there's plenty of love for the praise
of men that will cause a man to do many things in order to
gain men's approval. There's no mourning over sin,
but there's plenty of mourning over the consequences of sin
when you get caught and when it causes difficulty in your
life. But this man knows nothing of true mourning over sin. No poverty of spirit. but plenty
of Eladisean spirit. I'm rich, increased with goods,
and have need of nothing. I'm OK. I'm all right. You know,
Eladisean spirit doesn't know it's Eladisean spirit. Doesn't
know it when it's lukewarm. Oh, you know it when you're hot.
You know it when you're cold. But when you're lukewarm, you
don't even know it. No self-condemnation. Confession
of sin, but plenty of self-vindication. No judging of self. Paul said,
if we judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But there's plenty
of judging others. There's no bowels of mercies.
Empty, empty, swept. Some of the outward sins move
from one place to another. Well, you can't see them, I suppose,
swept under the carpet. They're still there, though,
even though it's been swept. Decorated, garnished, made to
look good, a religious conversion. Now, our Lord says regarding
this man who is empty, swept, and garnished, then goeth he
that unclean spirit, and taketh to him seven other spirits more
wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there,
and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Now,
what that is speaking of is the same thing that Peter was speaking
of in 2 Peter chapter 2 when he says in verse 20, For if after
they escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are entangled
therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the
beginning. For it had been better for them
to not have known the way of righteousness." Do you know the
way of righteousness? The way of righteousness is the
way of Christ's righteousness being my personal righteousness
before God. When Peter's speaking of knowing
the way of righteousness, he's not talking about right living. Now, I want right living. I want
to live in a way that glorifies my Redeemer. I don't want to
live in a way that would bring reproach to Him, but I know this.
The way of righteousness is not my right living. The way of righteousness
is the righteousness and the merits of Jesus Christ the Lord
being my personal righteousness before God. You see, my sin became
his sin. He who knew no sin was made sin,
that we might be made, every believer might be made the very
righteousness of God in him. Now that's the way of righteousness.
Now to hear that and to turn from it, to see something that
interests you more, or perhaps because of the persecution you
might experience by standing for that, Peter says, Now that's
what happens when someone has some kind of religious conversion,
but it's false, and it doesn't last. Empty. Grace is not really there. Swept. Life swept up some. No true cleansing, but just swept
and decorated. Garnished with all kinds of religious
trinkets. And what that person ends up
doing is being sevenfold more the child of hell than they were
before it took place. There's true conversion. There's
true salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. And
there's false. Now what does that do to me?
I'll tell you what it does to me. I know I'll be false if the
Lord doesn't preserve me from that. When I read passages of
scripture like this, it scares me because I know that could
be me if God doesn't prevent it. So I cry once again, Lord,
save me from myself. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, Ryder
E. Mills will send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.