Charles Finney said this, Evermore, the law must
prepare the way for the gospel.
To overlook this and instructing souls is almost
certain to result in false hope, the introduction
of a false standard of Christian experience, and
to fill the church with false converts.
And then he said, time will make this
plain.
John Wesley said, regarding those who failed to
use the law in evangelism, All this proceeds
from the deepest ignorance of the nature, the
properties, the use of the law, and proves
that those who act thus, either know not
Christ, are out of strangers to living faith,
or at least that they are but babes
in Christ, and as such, unskilled in the
words of righteousness.
Martin Luther said, Satan, the god of all
dissensions, stirs up daily new sects.
And last of all, which of all other
I should never have foreseen or once suspected,
he has raised up a sect, as teach
that such, the ten commandments ought to be
taken out of the church, and that men
should not be terrified by the law, but
gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace
of Christ.
Charles Spurgeon said, they'll never accept grace until
they tremble before a just and holy law.
And George Whitefield said these words, That is
the reason we have so many mushroom converts,
that converts that spring up out of nowhere
and disappear, because their stony ground is not
plowed up, they have not got a conviction
of the law.
They are stony ground hearers.
Okay, Romans 7 verse 4, let's read it.
Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead
to the law by the body of Christ,
that you should be married to another, even
to him who was raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead
to the law by the body of Christ,
that you should be married to another, even
to him who was raised from the dead,
that you should bring forth fruit unto God.
In the book called Hell's Best Kept Secret,
we have a story of a young speedster,
who was drunk and drove through his town
with his hand on a horn, 120 miles
an hour.
Now, the town had no law against speeding,
everything was horse-drawn, a backward town.
So, they gathered together and passed a law,
stating that 60 miles an hour was the
maximum speed.
Back comes the drunken.
This time, they nab him, throw him in
prison, land with a $6,000 fine.
He's got no money, no words, defense, he's
going to spend a long time in prison.
His father arrives at the door and says,
Son, because I loved you, I sold all
my worldly goods and paid the fine for
you.
You are free to go.
What, therefore, is the son's attitude going to
be to his father?
Well, he's going to be blown away.
He's going to be broken by his father's
sacrifice.
And now, he is going to live a
life that is pleasing to his father, in
the light of his father's sacrifice.
Man, if his father did that for him,
the least he can do is live a
life that is pleasing to his father.
What is his attitude going to be to
the law?
Well, he owes nothing to the law, absolutely
nothing.
It has been satisfied by the sacrifice of
his father.
The law has no demand on him.
Now, with those thoughts in mind, look at
Romans 7, verse 4 again.
Wherefore, my brethren, you also become dead to
the law by the body of Christ.
D.L. Moody said, The law can only
chase a man to Calvary, no further.
We have become dead to the law by
the body of Christ.
That's the payment of the father, the body
of Christ.
The law has been satisfied.
We're not under its wrath any longer if
we're in Christ.
That you should be married to another, even
to him who was raised from the dead,
that you should bring forth fruit unto God.
So we now, as Christians, those whose sins
have been forgiven by the blood of Christ,
bring forth the fruit of a new lifestyle
that's pleasing in the sight of God.
If we're rooted and grounded in Christ, it
should be evident.
Jesus said, I am the vine, you are
the branches.
He that abides in me, the same brings
forth much fruit.
Colossians 1 says, The gospel brings forth fruit.
Now, what does the Bible mean by fruit?
Well, very briefly, number one, fruit of repentance.
Matthew 3, verse 8.
If you're stolen, you'll return stolen goods.
Zacchaeus says, Fruit of repentance, return that which
is stolen fourfold.
Fruit of repentance, Matthew 3, verse 8.
Secondly, fruit of good works, Colossians 1, verse
10.
If you're a Christian, it should be evident
by your good works.
Wesley said, Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can, in all
the ways you can, in all the places
you can, to all the people you can,
as long as you ever can.
And if you read the book of Titus,
you'll see again and again, it says things
like, Let those who have believed in God
be careful to maintain good works.
1 Peter 2.15, For so is the
will of God that by your well-doing,
you may put to silence the ignorance of
foolish men.
If you want to be a witness to
your friends, your workmates, don't preach to them,
buy them gifts.
Somebody at your work, they don't like you,
just leave a gift on their desk.
You say, I was out shopping, thought you
might like this.
Bottle of sparkling, non-alcoholic wine or something
like that, thought you'd like it.
You'll stop his mouth.
He said, I don't agree with what that
guy believes, but he really is genuine.
For so is the will of God that
by your well-doing, you'll put to silence
the ignorance of foolish men.
Often when I want to witness to someone,
I'll give him a hamburger, it shuts him
up.
He can't speak through his mouth.
And it shows that I really care about
the guy, I'm not just after his soul.
Jesus said, Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Number three, the fruit of thanksgiving, Hebrews 13,
verse 15.
If you're saved, you'll kneel at the foot
of that blood stained cross and say, Oh,
thanks be to God for the unspeakable gift.
Number four, fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5,
22.
If you're soundly saved, it'll be evident by
the fact that you have the fruit of
the spirit.
God's nature will manifest itself through you.
Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness
and temperance.
And the fruit of righteousness, Philippians 1, verse
11.
You'll walk a path of righteousness.
You'll be righteous in all your dealings with
others.
You'll have righteous thoughts.
You'll do that which is right.
Philippians 1, verse 11.
And then Matthew 3, verse 10 says, Every
tree that brings not forth good fruit will
be cut down and cast into the fire.
Doesn't just say fruit, it says good fruit.
Every tree that brings not forth good fruit
will be cut down and cast into the
fire.
So as Christians, as witnesses of Christ, our
aim shouldn't be just to get youth group
members, church members.
No, we want to see fruit bearers.
Because every tree that brings not forth good
fruit will be cut down and cast into
the fire.
So to get an insight into what hinders
and produces fruit, look at Mark 3 of
chapter 4.
Mark 4, verse 3.
We see perhaps the most important of Jesus'
parables.
And verse 3, it's called the parable of
the sower.
He says these words, hearken, behold.
And it's been well said, if you ever
find the word behold in scripture, it's like
a little trumpet sounding and saying, hey, this
is important, listen.
If you ever see the word hearken, it
means the same thing.
But here we have Jesus saying, hearken, behold.
In other words, a double trumpet.
Something important is coming up.
There went out a sower to sow.
And it came to pass, as he sowed,
some fell by the wayside, and the fowls
of the air came and devoured it.
And some fell on stony ground where it
had not much earth, and immediately it sprang
up because it had no depth of earth.
But when the sun came up, it was
scorched, and because it had no root, it
withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns
grew up and choked it, and it yielded
no fruit.
Another fell on good ground, and it did
yield fruit that sprang up and increased and
brought forth some thirtyfold, some sixty and some
a hundredfold.
And he said to them, he that has
ears to hear, let him hear.
And then in verse 13, we see an
incredible Bible verse.
It seems the disciples had no idea what
Jesus was saying.
So, Jesus said this to them.
He said to them, do you not know
this parable?
How then will you know all parables?
In other words, the parable of the sower
is the key to unlock the mystery of
the other parables.
In the parable of the sower, we see
there is true and false conversion.
When the gospel is preached, when the seed
is sown, there are false converts and true
converts alongside one another.
And once we understand that principle, once we
know this parable, then we will understand all
the other parables.
The sheep and the goats, the true and
false.
The wise virgins, the foolish virgins, true and
false.
The good fish and the bad fish, true
and false in the net together.
The wheat and the tears, the true and
false alongside each other.
Now, the parable of the sower is also
given to us in Matthew 13 and Luke
chapter 8.
So, using the harmony of the gospels, we're
going to look at six characteristics of a
stony ground hearer.
Let me read the rest of that parable
so we see the interpretation that Jesus gave.
Verse 14, the sower sows the word.
And these are they which on the wayside,
when the word is sown, when they have
heard, Satan comes immediately, takes away the word
that was sown in their hearts.
And these are they in like manner that
are sown on stony ground who, when they
have heard the word, immediately receive it with
gladness and have no root in themselves and
so endure but for a time afterward when
affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake,
immediately they are offended.
And these are they that are sown on
among thorns, such as hear the word and
the cares of this age and the deceitfulness
of riches and the lust of other things
entering in, choke the word and it becomes
unfruitful.
And these are they that are sown on
good ground, such as hear the word and
receive it and bring forth fruit, some 30
fold, some 60 and some 100.
So, as I said, using the harmony of
the gospels, we're going to look at six
characteristics of a false convert.
So, number one, in a false conversion, there
are immediate results.
Mark 4, verse 5.
That is, there's no weighing of the issues,
no doing what Jesus said.
What man goes to build a tower and
doesn't check that he's got enough materials?
What man goes to war without checking to
see if the enemy has got more weapons
than he's got?
No, there's no weighing of the issues.
There are immediate results.
Mark 4, verse 5.
Secondly, there's a lack of moisture.
Luke 8, verse 6.
Thirdly, there's a lack of root.
Matthew 13, verse 16.
They're shallow.
Number four, they receive the word with gladness.
There's no contrition or sorrow for sin.
Mark 4, verse 16.
Number five, they receive the word with joy.
Matthew 13, verse 20.
And number six, for a while, they do
believe.
And this is where the confusion comes in.
We think someone's had a false conversion, but
they really did believe.
Of course they did believe.
The Bible says they did believe.
They have a genuine false conversion experience, if
you can figure that.
Now we're going to look at some pictures
on the overhead.
For those that hear the tape, I'll describe
the picture in detail.
In picture number one, we have two plants,
all plants.
We see on the left side, we have
a large plant.
It looks healthy.
And a little plant next to it that
looks kind of spindly.
And if we had to make room in
our garden, probably the sensible thing to do
would be rip out this one that's not
doing very well and leave the good, healthy
plant there to grow.
But then something unusual happens.
The sun comes out, and the healthy, big
plant seems to be withering, while the little,
stumpy plant seems to be doing well in
the heat of the sunlight.
In the third picture, we see why the
big plant was withering.
Because the soil it was on was very
shallow, and because it had no depth of
root, the roots couldn't go deep because it
was bedrock under the soil.
The little plant looked not very healthy.
It sent all its goodness, all its energy
into a large root system that was in
good soil, and it sought after moisture.
So let me repeat that.
The big plant was on shallow soil, and
because it had no depth of soil, it
had no depth of root to seek after
moisture.
It was on bedrock.
The little plant had good soil and therefore
sent its roots in deep under the heat
of the sunlight.
Now, can you see that it was the
sunlight that revealed what we couldn't see under
the soil?
Now, in the spiritual, the sunlight is tribulation,
temptation, and persecution.
Tribulation, Matthew 13, 21.
Temptation, Luke 8, verse 13.
And persecution, Mark 4, verse 17.
It is the sunlight of tribulation and temptation
and persecution that reveal what we can't see
in the soil or the heart condition of
a professing believer.
Just as it was the sunlight that revealed
what we couldn't see under the soil and
the plants, so it's the sunlight of tribulation,
temptation, and persecution that reveal what we can't
see, the soil or heart condition of a
professing believer.
Now, if you buy a house plant, it
costs you $25.
And you look at it and say, this
is an expensive house plant, and take it
home.
And you say, I'm going to put this
in a closet.
I'm going to put it in a nice
dark cupboard to keep it away from the
horrible sunlight.
Your plant will die.
The best thing you can do for a
plant, a house plant, is put it in
the sunlight.
And if you know what you're doing, you'll
rotate it, make sure it's in good soil,
and you'll make sure it's got access to
plenty of moisture.
The worst thing you can do with a
plant is hide it from the sunlight, because
the sunlight will benefit it if it's in
good soil and has access to moisture.
In the same way, the worst thing you
and I can ever do is shelter a
new Christian from the sunlight of tribulation, temptation,
and persecution.
No, the sunlight will reveal what you can't
see, the soil condition of his heart.
Years ago, when Russia was in communism, I
heard of a true story where a group
of Christians, or professing Christians, were praying in
a prayer meeting.
Suddenly, the doors burst open.
Two Russian guards stood there.
They were fully armed.
They said, if you're not prepared to die
for your faith, get out of this place.
And half the professed Christians left the prayer
meeting.
Once the doors were closed, put their guns
down, opened their jackets, got out the Bibles
and said, we're Christians.
We just wanted to sort the sheep out
from the goats before we'd risk fellowship.
Now, if our country came under a Russian
guard cleanout, what it would do would purify
the church.
The professed Christians would leave.
If severe persecution came on the contemporary church,
it would purify the church.
It would get rid of murmurs, complainers, false
converts, those that cause division.
That's one thing it would do.
It would purify the church.
And secondly, I think more importantly, if severe
persecution came to a church, or our church,
the contemporary church, what it would do is
it would reveal to the stony ground hearer
and the thorny ground hearer, the false convert,
the error of his ways, that he's a
false convert.
Could you imagine the tragedy of propping up
someone that you led in a sinner's prayer?
Now, let's say you didn't do it biblically.
You didn't do it according to the pattern
of biblical evangelism.
Instead, you listen to modern evangelism, and you
learned the manipulative techniques of modern evangelism.
And you went up to someone and said
this.
Instead of doing it biblically, you do it
like modern evangelism teachers.
You go up and say, if you come
to the point in your life where you
know that if you die tonight, you're going
to heaven.
And the person said, well, I hope so.
And you said to them, well, you know
that you can know so if you die
tonight.
You know it.
You can know you're going to heaven.
All you got to do is repent of
your sins, give your heart to Jesus.
And he died on the cross for you,
rose again on the third day.
If you give your heart to him today,
you can have assurance that when you die,
you go to heaven.
Would you like me to pray with you
right now and lead you in a sinner's
prayers so you could have that assurance?
And the person says, yeah, I'd like that.
So you take him by the hand, and
you lead him in a sincere sinner's prayer.
You get a decision for Jesus with modern
methods.
But you find there is something wrong with
your convert.
There's no zeal for the lost.
He doesn't evangelize.
The world's going to hell, and he couldn't
care less.
He's like a fireman who sits on the
fire hydrant, drinking coffee, making jokes with his
friends, while someone is burning to death that
he has the ability to save.
No, he's not concerned about the welfare of
those that are going to hell.
Secondly, he's got no hunger for the word.
Thirdly, he doesn't really get in a fellowship
very much.
But he's saved because he gave his heart
to Jesus.
So what you do is you read the
Bible to him.
You pick him up, make sure he comes
to church.
Even though he says he's busy, you prop
him up.
Even though he says he's got Reader's Digest
to read and TV Guide, he hasn't got
time to read his Bible, you read it
to him.
And you're able to prop him up, keep
him going in his faith, right until Judgment
Day, when the omniscient eye of a holy
God reveals that he's a hypocrite, never found
a place of genuine repentance.
Whose fault is it that he made it
all the way until Judgment Day with this
false assurance that he's saved?
Better to let him fall down.
Don't shield him from the sunlight.
Let the sunlight of tribulation, temptation, persecution come
to him and reveal to him his true
state.
And for years, I'm speaking from experience, tragic
years of experience, where I propped up, professed
Christians.
I'd lead them in a sinner's prayer.
They had no desire to read the Word.
Look, if you've got a little lamb and
it hasn't got a healthy appetite, something is
radically wrong.
If you've got a lamb and you bottle
feed it, it just about swallows the bottle
if it's healthy.
And someone who is healthy, as a Christian,
will desire the sincere milk of the Word.
They will have a desire.
They will say, well, David, I rejoice to
your Word as one who finds great spoil.
And when I was a Christian, there wasn't
a day I'd...
I've been 29 years a Christian.
I've never let a day go by when
I haven't read God's Word.
I esteem the words of his mouth more
than my necessary food.
There is a natural or a supernatural desire
to read God's Word.
I discipline myself.
Hereby, we know that we know him if
we keep his commandments.
But I have these people, didn't have time
to read the Bible, didn't have time to
get to church.
And yet Jesus said in Luke 9, 62,
if a new convert even looks back, he's
not fit for the kingdom.
If we even look back, Jesus said we're
not fit for the kingdom.
That word fit, as you said, it means
ready for use.
The soil of the heart has been turned,
exposing the stones of sin that are removed
through repentance so we can receive the engrafted
Word.
Remember what George Whitefield said?
That is the reason we have so many
mushroom converts because their stony ground is not
plowed up.
They have not got a conviction of the
law.
He said that's the reason we have so
many mushroom converts because their stony ground is
not plowed up.
They have not got a conviction of the
law.
I had a friend once, his name was
Richard.
He came into my office and he said,
Ray, he said, I don't seem to have
the zeal that you guys have got.
I don't really care about the lost.
I don't have a hunger for the Word.
Something's not really right in my Christian walk.
So I said to him, Richard, have you
got love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faith,
meekness and temperance?
And he said no to, I think, seven
of the nine fruits of the Spirit.
So I said, Richard, sounds to me like
you're not even a Christian by your own
confession.
There's no evidence.
Now, at that point of time, he exercised
the fruit of self-control because he said
later he wanted to rearrange my face.
But instead of doing it, he went home,
examined himself to see if he was in
the faith.
And when he realized he wasn't, he repented.
And within three months, he was in a
responsible position with our church because he was
such a fruit bearer.
Colossians, verse five of chapter four says, walk
in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming
the time.
I used to look at that verse and
say, walk in wisdom toward them that are
without.
Oh, yeah, that's them.
That's the world.
They're without.
I'm going to walk in wisdom toward them.
But it doesn't necessarily mean that.
It means more than that.
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without.
Someone can be within your church and be
without the body of Christ.
They can sit next to you on a
pew as a professing Christian.
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without
redeeming the time because if anyone will steal
your time from you, it is a false
convert.
It's a stony ground here.
They will be hearers of the word and
not doers.
And I've spent so many hours counseling people
that didn't need counsel.
They needed repentance.
Remember, the plant was beginning to wither and
die under the heat of the sun.
If you look at that person, oh, man,
plants withering and dying.
I'm going to fix it up.
And you got fertilizer and you put fertilizer
up to the top leaf.
Is it going to help the plant?
It doesn't need fertilizer.
It needs good soil.
And a false convert doesn't need the fertilizer
of counsel.
It needs a good soil of an honest
and repentant heart.
And a number of years ago, I wished
I had a video camera because I was
going to step across the road and I
saw this guy coming toward me.
Before I tell you about that story, I'm
going to tell you something else.
I was an associate pastor at a church
way down under in New Zealand.
And by the way, New Zealand is a
different country from Australia.
OK, people say, oh, Australia is in the
same country.
It's like saying Canada, United States, same country.
No, no, they are a thousand miles apart.
Australians speak different from New Zealanders.
Australians say, they speak more like this, don't
they, mate?
OK, it's more nasal.
And they put their heads down crocodiles' mouths
and things like that.
They're rather strange.
But when I was down under, I was
an associate pastor of a fairly large church.
We had a senior pastor who was a
very godly man, a real shepherd.
He so loved his flock.
Now, he was really skinny.
He used to make jokes about his skinniness.
He only had one stripe on his pajamas.
He had to run around in the shower
to get wet.
The guy was real skinny.
He says, man, I pig out.
I don't put on any weight.
I think he had his glorified body.
I tell you that for a reason.
He was about six foot, 120 pounds, whatever,
something like that.
But he was pretty frail.
He really was.
One night, someone came to his door 3
a.m. for council.
It was a guy from his church.
They used to go to his church.
One of his teenage sons got up and
opened the door.
He said, I want to talk to your
dad.
I need some counsel.
So he, knowing his father's heart that he
was a shepherd by nature, didn't hesitate to
go and wake his dad up at 3
o'clock in the morning to counsel this
guy.
He said to the guy, go and wait
in the living room.
So the father got up, came down the
hallway, stepped into the living room.
And as he did, a 14-inch blade
machete came down and hacked into him.
This guy tried to kill him.
His teenage sons heard him screaming.
They ran into the room.
The pastor's blood was scattered around the walls.
They grabbed the guy.
They almost killed him because they thought he
killed the father.
Father lived.
He had massive blood transfusions that destroyed his
ministry, destroyed his life.
Next day, another pastor called me.
He said, you heard of him last night?
I said, oh, heavy.
He said, heavy?
He said, that guy went to my church.
He said, can you imagine that?
A Christian trying to kill the pastor.
I said, what?
I said, hang on a minute.
If someone in your church tries to cut
the head off the pastor, you can probably
conclude he lacks a little bit in the
area of love, goodness, gentleness, self-control.
Folks, we're going to stop saying, oh, he's
a Christian.
He gave his heart to Jesus.
No, no.
Look for fruit.
We're going to stop putting our arm around
everyone who says, yeah, I've given my heart
to Jesus.
Now, look for fruit until you're assured or
can be assured of its salvation.
It may not matter to you today, but
it certainly mattered in the time of Paul
when Christians are being thrown to lions because
they were being betrayed by other professing Christians.
As I said, the Bible speaks of false
conversion, false brethren, false apostles, false prophets, false
teachers, and true and false conversion.
As I said, I was walking along the
street when suddenly I heard it.
I went down the street and there was
this car in the middle of the road,
no muffler, screaming down the road.
I thought, man, I've got to get off
the road, step off the road before this
guy kills me.
Suddenly, as it went past, it slammed on
its anchors, which is a down under co
-occulism.
That means it stopped and it backed up.
And this guy got out, as I said,
I wish I'd had a video camera because
he was the ultimate stony ground hero.
He had three Jesus stickers on the front
windshield of his car.
No, nothing wrong with Jesus stickers, they're good,
but he had three on the front windshield
of his car.
When he got out, he had his shirt
unbuttoned to his navel, and amidst the great
bush of hair on his chest, a little
bit of jealousy there, there was this great
big wooden cross dangling there to convince me
he was a true Christian.
You see, what a false convert lacks inwardly,
he'll try and impress you with outwardly.
He said, can I see you, get some
counsel off you?
And I told him I was busy for
a couple of decades because they'll steal your
time.
A false convert will have more stickers, more
t-shirts, say hallelujah louder, and he'll probably
even have a bigger Bible than most.
I know as a new Christian, I came
under the heat of tribulation.
I've never known anything like it.
Anyone here had a wilderness experience?
If you know what that is?
I went into such depression after about two
weeks as a Christian, but I didn't hold
my fist at God, I dropped to my
knees.
This is, oh God, this is like hell.
I never want to fall away from you.
I can look back and say it was
good for me that I was afflicted, that
I might learn your statutes.
Tribulation strengthened me, caused my roots to go
deep into God's word.
Some say Judas was a Christian.
You may be confused as to whether Judas
was a Christian or a non-Christian.
Let me tell you something.
Judas fooled the disciples.
Jesus said, one of you is a devil.
Now, there's a good clue.
Judas really cared about the poor.
When some woman broke an alabaster box of
ointment, it was very expensive, Judas complained and
says, this should have been sold on the
money given to the poor.
The Bible says he didn't care about the
poor.
He was a thief.
He looked after the bag.
He stole from the collection bag.
He was a hypocrite.
A thief.
And he was living a lie.
A worker of iniquity.
But he hid it well from the other
disciples.
Judas had no idea who Jesus was.
Absolutely no idea.
Jesus wasn't worthy of this act of worship.
That should have been sold, money given to
the poor.
No, Jesus worth about 30 pieces of silver.
No idea that this was life manifest in
the flesh.
The most precious, precious thing that ever walked
this earth.
Was manifest in that body.
But he hid it well.
When Jesus said, one of you will betray
me.
The disciples didn't say, oh, we know who
that is.
Old hook knows.
Rotten old Judas.
Yeah, yeah.
That didn't surprise them.
No, they said, is it I, Lord?
Is it me?
They examined themselves rather than look to Judas.
Because he hid it well.
False convert.
Plenty of leaves and branches.
Jesus said, it's he who puts the salt
in the dish.
Judas put that bread in the dish.
And when they still didn't know that was
Judas.
Because Jesus said, what you do, go and
do quickly.
And it says the disciples thought he gone
to give money to the poor.
They still didn't know.
But he didn't fool Jesus.
The Bible says Jesus knew from the beginning
who would betray him.
And if you're a false convert, if you're
a Judas.
The only one you're deceiving is yourself.
Because you're not deceiving your creator.
He sees right through your facade.
He sees your heart.
And maybe through this teaching, you'll be awakened.
If you read the book of Colossians, verses
7 to 14.
You'll see that when Paul spoke of certain
believers.
He put a seal of approval on them.
He said things like.
Anesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who was
one of you.
If he comes to you, receive him.
He goes through these list of people and
says he's a beloved brother.
If he comes to you, receive him.
And he went right through this list of
people saying, yep.
You can trust him.
But when he came to a guy called
Demas.
He just says, Demas greets you.
Why?
Well, we see in the book of Timothy.
2 Timothy 4, verse 10.
Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present
world.
Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present
world.
And so Paul looked at Demas and thought.
Now, I'm not going to say if Demas
comes to you, receive him.
I'm going to wait and see.
And he was eventually exposed.
So just as we begin to draw to
a close.
Which is a meaningless preacher's statement, which is
often said.
Let me share with you some characteristics of
a true convert.
Then we'll close.
The true convert is he who hears and
understands.
Now, what is it that produces understanding in
the soil, the heart of an unregenerate person?
If we want to produce genuine converts, should
we look around for people who hear and
understand?
Are they out there waiting for us?
No.
The Bible says there's none that understand.
None.
So the understanding that's in the heart of
the true convert must come from an outer
source, outside his own heart.
What is it that can produce understanding in
the heart of an unregenerate person?
It's the law.
Paul says it's a schoolmaster.
It brings the knowledge of sin.
What the schoolmaster does is it teaches sinners.
It brings an understanding and knowledge of sin.
So we can find a place of genuine
repentance.
So he values a seat of everlasting life.
So we can see that he's undone.
He's condemned.
And so when he hears the gospel, he
embraces it.
He's convinced of the disease.
So will he appreciate and appropriate the cure?
He who hears and understands.
And I've been in meetings.
I remember once I was part of the
leadership in a city.
We had 3,000 people show up for
a meeting.
We had an international overseas evangelist come in.
He didn't preach the law, didn't preach the
cross, didn't preach repentance, didn't preach righteousness, didn't
preach judgment day, didn't mention how.
He just talked on faith.
And right in the middle of it, he
said, ah, he says, stop, stop, stop.
Everyone bow in prayer.
It's as though God had suddenly spoken to
him.
It seemed very spiritual.
And then he used modern methods to get
decisions.
He said, every head bowed and eye closed
while the music is playing.
You need to give your heart to Jesus.
Something is missing in your life.
He said, raise your hand if God is
speaking to you now.
Hands raised up.
Then he says, OK, I want everyone to
stand now.
He says, now I saw you raise your
hand.
You come to the front now.
He put psychological manipulation.
Out came the counselors as the draw card.
Then came the music for the emotional thing.
And then he got 80 decisions.
Great success.
But I could see the facial expression on
those that made a decision was like, what
am I doing up here?
I mean, it's as though they thought, how
did I get from my seat up here?
It was because they were manipulated by psychological
means.
Someone who counseled those who had made decisions
said it was just a madhouse out the
back.
No contrition.
People, it was like a tea party.
People said, oh, Bertha, what are you doing
here?
No brokenness, no crying out to God for
forgiveness of sins.
Years later, I found out that 96%
of that man's converts, and they were his
converts, fell away from the faith.
And the latter end, no doubt, became worse
than the first.
And the other 4% who stayed within
the church, I even doubt their salvation.
Because there was no knowledge of sin.
The true convert cries out, woe is me,
I'm undone and received the engrafted word, which
is able to save his soul.
And if he's genuine, he'll bring forth fruit.
So you've got two guys in your church,
both sitting in the front row.
One guy's always taking notes, doesn't say much.
The other guy's, how are you?
Amen.
He's really loud.
He's going for it.
You're proud of this guy.
That guy doesn't say much.
But suddenly your prized convert falls away.
Don't understand it.
This little fella's hanging in there.
What's happening?
As this guy's got leaves and branches.
This guy has got deep roots.
He's bringing forth fruit with patience.
He's returning stolen goods.
He's apologizing to his parents for rebellion.
My son-in-law, his name's easy, Mules
Wayne.
When he got saved, he went around and
apologized to each one of his neighbors.
Because he was in a gang.
He was a brat as a teenager.
He went and asked the neighbors for forgiveness.
Bring forth fruit with patience.
And because he's on good soil, it doesn't
matter the heat of the sun, I'll make
him grow.
This is why James says in James 1
verse 2.
My brethren, count it all joy when you
fall into various trials, knowing the testing of
your faith brings forth patience.
Paul says, I'm exceeding joyful in all our
tribulation.
In other words, Paul was saying, when the
sunlight comes out, I'm going to rejoice because
it's going to cause me to grow.
Peter says, unless you greatly rejoice.
Though now for a season, if need be,
you're in heaviness through manifold temptations.
The trial of your faith being much more
precious than of gold that perishes might be
found to praise and honor and glory the
appearing of Jesus Christ.
You are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
Your leaves may wither, but your roots are
going to grow strong and deep into the
soil.
Early in 1993, this happened to a friend
of mine.
He's a pastor back in New Zealand, a
city called Auckland.
And be very careful with the pronunciation of
that word.
About in the early, mid 80s, a guy
showed up in New Zealand who was supposed
to get on a plane in LAX to
go to Auckland.
He showed up in Auckland.
He went 14,000 miles because he didn't
listen very closely.
Auckland, not Oakland, OK?
In the city of Auckland, this pastor purchased
or rented an old jewelry factory.
And someone, when they went to throw out
a piece of carpet, said, hang on, I
know about jewelry.
He says, let's burn this carpet.
So what they did, they got this big
piece of carpet.
They took it to a refinery.
They said, would you burn this?
That carpet, when it was burned, yielded $8
,500 in gold dust.
They vacuumed it and got $350 worth of
dust from the ceiling.
Found another little piece of carpet, yielded $3
,500 of gold.
And when it comes to the Christian, when
heat comes to him, all it does is
purify him.
It brings forth that which is precious in
the sight of God.
Psalm 66, for you, O God, have proved
us.
You refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net.
You laid affliction on our loins.
You caused men to ride over our heads.
We went through fire.
We went through water.
And you brought us out into a rich
fulfillment.
Often we blame the devil when things go
wrong, when the heat comes.
But it's God putting the plant in the
sunlight.
You, God, tried us.
You tested us that you might bring us
forth into a wealthy place.
You brought us through fire.
You brought us through water.
When God takes us through fire, it's not
to burn us.
It's to purify us.
When he takes us through water, it's not
to drown us.
It's to cleanse us, because he wants us
to grow.
And that's why the Bible says in 2
Corinthians 4, 17, for our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, works for us
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory.
When tribulation comes to a Christian, it doesn't
work against us.
It works for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory.
Now, if you're not right with God tonight,
if God's been speaking to your heart, I
don't want to have an altar call.
I just want you to seek God yourself.
Just find a place of solitude and say,
God, I don't know if I'm saved if
I die in my sleep tonight.
Which could happen.
You'll end up in hell.
I don't want that to happen.
God doesn't want it to happen.
So confess and forsake your sins.
You know what sin is.
You've got a conscience.
You know what you've been doing is wrong.
And just put your faith in Jesus.
And then pick up the Bible and determine
to obey what you read.
And you'll never look back.
Let's close shall we in prayer.
Father, we rejoice in your goodness to us.
We cannot express in words our joy at
the cross of Calvary, that you didn't leave
us in death.
But to them that sat in the shadow
of death, a light sprang up.
And the light is that glorious gospel of
Jesus Christ, the image of God.
You saved us.
And Father, we want to do that which
is pleasing in your sight.
Forgive us if there's any hypocrisy in our
hearts.
Any secret sins, we confess and forsake them
tonight.
Of all the things we need to be
sure of, it's our calling and election, our
eternal salvation.
Thank you for your goodness tonight, Lord.
I thank you for these dear folks who
have listened so intently.
And I pray the word will find a
good lodging place and bring forth fruit also.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.