What is an example of false repentance?

Paul Carrington explains in this video that he has come across several individuals who he thought they were truly born again but realized that they had fallen away or may have never been saved. He shares an example of one man who was addicted to drugs. After hearing the Gospel, he had rid his life of drugs, got a job, started coming to church, and was baptized. In short, he had turned his entire life around.  

But, over the course of time, he would not part with certain sins. He didn’t have a great appetite for the things of God. He later argued that there were other ways to be saved. Before long, he fell away entirely. Now, he has no desire for God and is living as though he was never been saved. His outward reform lasted a few years, but it was all a mirage – it was not true repentance.

John 15:4 (NKJV) – “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” 

I have come across various individuals who I would have sworn were truly born again, only throughout the course of time to see that they had fallen away or were never really saved. And I do remember one in particular, a young man who was addicted to drugs. He was enslaved and you know all manner of what comes along with that lifestyle. And we had preached to him the gospel, and he had reformed his life. He had gotten rid of the drugs, flushed them down the toilet.

He was now coming to church. He got a job, a pretty good job. And he had just turned his entire life around. When it came time to baptism, he gave a tear-jerking testimony of what God had done in his life. And so everyone, if you looked across the congregation, there probably wouldn't have been a dry eye.

But over the course of time, he just would not part with certain things. He would not let certain sins go and worldliness. And he would always be kind of, I would say, on the outskirts of, instead of diving wholeheartedly and running after Christ he would kind of toe dip and and just want to know and acquire knowledge but when it came time to actually giving up certain things in his life it just didn't seem to have the appetite for it And I didn't recognize it at the time. It was only until one time I got a phone call from this young man and he says, you know, I just don't think I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way for salvation. And who are we to say that this is true and everyone else is wrong.

So he began to question the veracity, the truth of the word of God. And before long, he fell away entirely and if you meet him today, he has no desire for God. He's just living as though he had never had any of those experiences, and that's because he really had never tasted and seen that God is good. All of it was outward reform. It lasted a few years, but at the end it turned into what it really was, a mirage or a facade, something that never really was true repentance.

Sad to say.