When I was a kid, I used to watch in awe the tens of thousands of people who responded to the famous evangelist's Billy Grahams call to "come forward and receive Christ as your Saviour and escape eternal hell". "Wow", I thought all those people saved, soon the whole world will be Christian".
When I was fifteen, a visiting preacher spoke at our church on how we could die at any moment, or walk outside, get hit by a bus, and spend eternity in hell. "Come forward", he would say, "Accept Christ as your Saviour now, and then your eternity will be secured with Jesus".

At that time, caught up in the emotion and forcefulness of his arguments, and the fear of going to hell, I went forward, prayed out loud the "sinner's prayer", asked Jesus into my heart, and went home satisfied, but not really understanding the anathema of sin to a Holy God, why Christ had to die, what His shed blood meant and achieved, and what was now expected of me by Jesus as a supposed follower of Him, even allowing for the fact that I knew that no one, Christian or otherwise, could ever be perfect this side of heaven.

Was I actually 'saved' then?. If I had died, would I have really gone to heaven? God alone knows.

In hindsight, most of the people who responded to Billy Grahams invitations were probably not saved at all. Shock and horror. But I truly believe it.

And in hindsight, I don't believe the night I went forward and said the "sinners prayer", I was really saved either. I may have been. I just don't know. God alone knows, but I truly doubt it.

Jesus often said, "Those who believe in me and follow my commandments will be saved". We tend to leave off the "Follow my commandments" bit.
Shortly after I went forward to accept Christ, my life actually evolved into a willfully debauched way of living that lasted years. Was this "Following Jesus commandments"? "Was this becoming more Christ like each day?"

By their fruits you will know them. Well by my fruits, I was an imposter. No more a Christian that the worse sinner around me.
God is unbelievably patient, but He won't be mocked or superficially represented by us forever. Trouble is bound to strike us in a big way when He gains our attention to see if there's a shred of belief in Him somewhere deep within us.

He will closely examine us to see if we are truly believing in and trying to follow Him.

That's when we MUST decide WHO is our Lord, JESUS, or in fact, ourselves? We must decide who will we emulate, Christ or the world. Don't leave it too late. If He finds no real evidence of us being a follower of Him with our hearts and actions, we'll hear those TERRIBLE words from His lips, "Leave me alone, I never knew you." (Matthew 7:23)