As a pastor, I wrestle with this all the time. Why? Because the Lord doesn’t want us to spend valuable time ministering to false converts. A false convert can take up enormous amounts of your time. We are to recognize them when we see them. I know that mercy triumphs over judgment, yet if we don’t make the right judgment, we will have their blood on our hands. This is why I want to write about true and false Christians and show their characteristics according to the bible. (Ro 7:4) “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” And what is that fruit? ”But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Ro 6:17-22). We must bring forth fruit, beause we love God and want to obey His Word.

The fruit of the spirit, in the believer, is an ever-growing capacity of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. (Ga 5:22-23) The fruit of righteousness is doing the right thing according to the way God defines it in His Word, not according to the way man defines it in his own mind. The bible calls a believer a “tree of righteousness” and it also says that any tree that doesn’t bring forth fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire. A good way to begin growing good fruit, is to be thankful. A thankful heart is grateful for what God has done and demonstrates itself by a cheerful disposition. Doing good works is a life that becomes others centered; helping the aged, feeding the poor, teaching children, evangelizing, etc. We are not to live a life of self-absorption.

One of the most important parables in the bible is the Parable of the Sower (Mr 4:3-13). (Verse 13) is the key verse, as it tells us that if this parable is understood, we will understand all of the other parables. If you want to understand the other parables you must understand this parable first. The Parable of the Sower is showing that when the gospel is preached there are true and false conversions. There are stony ground hearers, thorny ground hearers and good ground hearers. According to the parable at least 75 percent of those who get converted are false. This is why it’s extremely important how you evangelize. We don’t want to evangelize just so we can get a decision for Christ; what we want are true fruit-bearing Christians. Once you understand about true and false conversions, then all the other parables will make sense; foolish/wise virgins (Mt 25); good/bad fish (Mt 13); house built on rock/sand (Mt 7); wheat/tare (Mt 13). One characteristic of a false Christian is that he is only a hearer, not a doer.

The man who builds on sand is one who hears the word but doesn’t obey it. There are those in the church who say when the bible talks about those on the broad way or the man who builds on sand, it’s talking about the world however, the world doesn’t hear God’s word let alone obey it. The world only knows a few verses like “judge not, that ye be not judge”; or ”do to others as you would have them do to you” and even then, when using these bible verses their understanding is somewhat darkened. Consequently, the one who built on sand is a false convert. The one who calls Jesus Lord, Lord and says, “we prophesied in thy name, cast out demons in thy name, we did many wonderful works in thy name,” yet the Lord said “I never knew you depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.”

Let’s look at six characteristics of stony ground hearers, false converts.

1. Mr 4:5 Immediately – that’s the key word. The hearer has immediate results. There is no weighing of the issue, no consideration of the cost or worth, etc. Remember (Lu 14:27-31)! There has to be consideration of what you’re getting involved with.
2. Lu 8:6 They lack moisture. They lack the life giving and sustaining power of God’s word. The bible becomes uninteresting and they struggle with daily devotions.
3. Mt 13:6 They have no root or depth. False converts have shallow roots and are like a plant that dries up because its roots aren’t deep enough. Their faith fails when trials, temptations, and persecutions come, because the roots of faith don’t reach the life sustaining water of God’s word, and the tree starts to wither and die.
4. Mr 4:16 They receive the word with gladness. They hear the word and seem to latch onto it. It’s the answer they’ve been looking for – but when the tests and trials come, excuses become their trademark, and they fall away from following Jesus.
5. Mt 13:20 Receives the word with joy (similar to the last point) but when circumstances continue to remain and nothing is changing, they start to lose interest in the things of God and begin to flirt, once again, with the world.
6. Lu 8:13 They believe for a season. This is the one that is most deceiving, because they do believe the gospel message for a short time. These false converts walk and talk a very good game. They often believe the vital truths. Yet like all false converts, when it comes time to deny self, take up his cross daily, and follow Jesus into a life of self-sacrifice, he slowly displays his true heart. They never believed with their whole heart, and so the false convert becomes distracted by the worries and circumstances of life and lives for himself, and not for Jesus.

Let me give you an illustration about two plants. We have two plants growing side by each, one is a large plant and one is a small plant. The large plant looks like it is doing quite well. The temptation is to pull the little one up to give the larger one more room. Then something interesting happens. When the sun comes up and both plants experience the heat of the day, the little one does quite well, while the larger one starts to whither. I’ve witnessed this. If we could see under the soil, we would find out why. The little plant has a good deep root system and can pull up moisture, the larger plant is all show on top, but no deep root system beneath the soil. Now, in the spiritual, the sunlight is equivalent to tribulation, temptation and persecution and it reveals what we cannot see underneath the soil of ones heart. Let’s look at these three testing a bit closer.

1. Tribulation - Trials, difficulties (for example, when a man faces the collapse of his business because the bible has taught him to pay his taxes and run it ethically) the false convert will consistently fall away. He won’t be obedient if it means risking his business.
2. Temptation - Opportunities to sin, to do things that are pleasurable to the flesh; or opportunities tonot do the right things that are unpleasant. When a man faces the temptation to pursue pornography; he may be on a business trip and is alone in the motel with access to a TV or computer internet. The false convert will consistently fall away by constantly giving in to the temptations of his flesh which over time he starts to justify. He will consistently search out his own pleasures and ignore the needs of others to sustain his own comfortable life style.
3. Persecution - When a person gets insults, reproaches, and troubles from others because he is taking a stand for biblical truth and the lord Jesus Christ, what does the false convert do? When a man faces the possibility of being ridiculed, fired or even physically harmed because of his faith in what the bible teaches and in the Lord Jesus, a false convert will consistently fall away by not taking a stand for what he believes. (You know the worst thing you can do for a plant is to keep it from the sunlight; it’s good to expose it to sun, wind and rain.) It’s the same for a believer. If they are genuine in their faith, persecution will cause them to grow. If we had persecution hit the church today it would have a two-fold effect:
   1. It would get rid of the murmurers, complainers, and those that cause division.
   2. It would show the stony ground hearers the error of their ways so that they would see their faith in Jesus wasn’t genuine.

Today, the modern technique being used to lead many to salvation is where you say to them “…if you die will you go to heaven? They say I hope so – and you say you can know, because Jesus died and rose on the third day and if you give your heart to him you can know you’re going to heaven.” The person then makes a profession of faith – but there is no repentence, no fruit, no holiness, no love of righteousness, no hungering after God’s word, no seeking to save that which is lost, no desire for fellowship, etc. You read the Word to him, you get him to a prayer meeting, you prop him up until the day of judgment and then his heart condition is exposed before the omniscient eye of God and he’s judged as a hypocrite. It would have been better to let him fall so that he might come to realize where he stands. I have personally chased after many people trying to get them to receive the Lord. I’ve spent time on those who have made a profession of salvation. I then ask them if they are reading the Word, the answer is always some excuse. I ask if they will be in fellowship Sunday? Again, they give more feeble excuses. I’ve spent years counseling people, and in retrospect it was all a waste of time, because they wouldn’t listen, why? Because they were hearers of the word and not doers. George Whitfield said, “we have so many mushroom converts, those that spring up overnight and disappear just as fast.” The reason is they have not gotten a conviction of the law. Jesus says, “we are not fit for the kingdom if when we put our hands to the plow and look back.” False converts not only look back but they go back, this shows something is radically wrong. It’s what Whitfield said, ‘they hadn’t gotten a conviction of the law!’ What does that mean? The bible says that by the law is the knowledge of sin and Paul said that the law is a “schoolmaster” to bring us to Jesus. The way you see someone biblically saved is to make sure they have an understanding of what sin is and that they have sinned against God. The way to do that is to bring the ten commandments to them and show them God’s holy standard. Once they see themselves in the light of God’s holy standard, they’ll cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness. They’ll be convicted of sin and flee to Jesus as Savior. The One who has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, the Lord Jesus Christ.

One last thing, when you use the law before the cross you strip the sinner of all his self-righteousness. You show him that all his righteousness is like filthy rags. He knows that nothing he has done or will ever do will commend him to God. He now knows he is saved by grace and grace alone, it is a gift of God and not of anything we have done (Eph 2:8-9).

The one whose self-righteousness isn’t stripped by the law, will give his heart to Jesus because he wants a place in heaven. He then makes a decision, not understanding God’s holiness, grace and mercy. Biblically, he is undeserving of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness. He thinks that his bible reading, church attendance and good deeds please and commend him to God. He’s the one that is liable to get into legalism. Touch not, taste not, and handle not. This is why the bible calls the law of God the “perfect law of liberty,”because it strips us of any self-righteousness and frees us of any attempts to justify ourselves and to please God by our own self-righteousness. Therefore, God’s law when used lawfully will not produce legalism but it will produce liberty. Let me close with this thought for you to ponder. The difference between Christian discipline and legalism is motivation. Amen!