ARE YOU FOR REAL?
EXPOSING COUNTERFEIT CHRISTIANITY
INTRODUCTION:
For every good thing that God gives us, satan attempts to create a counterfeit. God gave us music, and satan has created an industry that ruins the blessing of music. God gave us his word and satan tries to produce a counterfeit. God gives revelation and satan created false revelation. God gives, and satan attempts to counterfeit.
What is one thing we think about when we hear the word counterfeit? MONEY (Slide 1)
Do you know how bank tellers are able to identify counterfeit money? There are so many good counterfeit bills around today. It is impossible to keep up with the ways crooks are operating. It would not be productive, nor would it be efficient to study all the ways people counterfeit bills. The Best Way, and the Only Way to train tellers to identify counterfeits is to make them familiar with the real thing. The more they handle real money, the less likely a counterfeit will be accepted.
A good counterfeit bill will look like a genuine note and it will feel like a genuine note to MOST PEOPLE. But to those who are familiar with real currency, they can SEE the difference and they can FEEL the difference.
What I would like to talk to about this morning is counterfeit Christians. (Slide 2)
Just as satan has a counterfeit for nearly everything God has given us, he also has a counterfeit salvation that makes counterfeit Christians. What is a counterfeit Christian?
A counterfeit Christian is someone who looks saved, talks saved, acts saved, BUT IS NOT SAVED! They usually believe they are saved. Some know they are not saved but want to fit in with those who are.
They say the right things, wear the right clothes, hang out with the right people, some even pray and read their Bibles – EVERYDAY!
BUT they are lost and going to Hell!!!
THE QUESTION I ASK YOU THIS MORNING IS “ARE YOU FOR REAL?”
(Slide 3)
WE have more reality TV shows than we can even name. WE have Xtreme Makeover / Home Ed.; Bachelor / ette; Big Brother; Survivor; 2 Nanny Shows; Fear Factor! And many more. We are obsessed with seeing the truth, looking beyond the superficial and seeing what is REAL! Yet, these shows offer us only superficial and fabricated conditions and stories. THEY ARE NOT REAL!
Coca Cola used to advertise themselves as the REAL THING. Then a few years later they changed the whole formula for their product. Remember New Coke, and Coca Cola Classic? Apparently they aren’t The Real Thing!
What about you? Are You For Real? Let’s take just a few minutes this morning to look at one of Jesus parables.
THE WHEAT AND THE TARES: (slide 4)
MATTHEW 13:24-30
(Slide 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 =blank)
The SOWER The LORD
The SEED God’s CHILDREN
The ENEMY The DEVIL
The TARES FALSE PROFESSORS
The HARVESTERS The ANGELS
The FATE HEAVEN or HELL
According to this parable, Jesus says that there are false professors, or counterfeit Christians, in our midst. How can this be? And exactly what is a counterfeit Christian?
According to the parable the tares are sown by the enemy, satan. The tare is a weed that looks just like wheat to most people. It can be nearly impossible to tell them apart until harvest time. Although, they look like wheat, they are not. Although they are in a wheat field, they are not wheat. They are fakes.
So How Do You Tell The Difference? You Look Inside. (Slide 10)
The head on wheat contains grain. The weed does not. The weed is empty, providing no lasting benefit. You don’t make bread out of tares. AS a matter of fact, many scholars believe the tares to be poisonous weeds that look just like wheat. Imagine making your family a loaf of bread made of poisonous weeds!!
Tares the bearded darnel, mentioned only in Matt. 13:25-30. It is the Lolium temulentum, a species of rye-grass, the seeds of which are a strong soporific poison. It bears the closest resemblance to wheat till the ear appears, and only then the difference is discovered. It grows plentifully in Syria and Palestine. Source: Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary.
HARVEST TIME REVEALS ALL THINGS!
So, what does that mean to you and me? I mean, so what, if there were tares in the wheat? UNDERSTAND, that JESUS was trying to show us a very important lesson!
You can appear to be Christian and still be lost. You can think you are a Christian and still be lost. You can hang around and grow up with Christians and still be lost. You can look like a Christian and still be lost. You can talk, act, like a Christian, etc.
ARE YOU SAVED? (Slide # 12)
2 CORINTHIANS 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Notice that Paul says to EXAMINE OURSELVES to make sure we are saved!
So, are you? How do you know? Are you sure?
Answer # 1 – I do all the right things Not by works
Answer # 2 – I go to Church / Christian School, etc. Not about looks
Answer # 3 – I am just as good as everyone else. Compare to Jesus only.
Answer # 4 –
There are many people who have gone to Church for years and remained lost!!!!
They thought all along that they were saved, because
MOM SAID SO
DAD PRAYED W/ OR FOR THEM. (No one can “pray” you saved)
THE PREACHER TOLD ME I WAS SAVED (What do I know?)
I WAS BAPTIZED (Dry sinner / wet sinner)
I AM A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH (Joining Church doesn’t save you)
I READ MY BIBLE (Reading Bible doesn’t save you)
I PRAY EVERDAY (Saying your prayers doesn’t save you)
I LEADS MUSIC (Leadership doesn’t save you)
I AM A PREACHER (Preaching doesn’t save you)
I WALKED THE AISLE AT CHURCH (Walk aisle at groc. store / Wal Mart all the time
I CAME TO THE FRONT (No magic at front)
I RAISED MY HAND (I raise my hands at OU ball games all the time)
I REPEATED A PRAYER (You can repeat anything you want – it doesn’t save you)
I ACTUALLY CRIED (I can make you cry- it doesn’t save you)
I FELT BETTER AFTERWARD ( A good cry will make you feel better)
ARE YOU FOR REAL? (Slide #14)
Look at the parable:
I. THEY WERE PLANTED TOGETHER
a. Notice that they had a “Similar” Experience
b. They can both have a testimony of that experience.
i. Usually “No Repentance” in testimony of false professors
Testimony about accepting Jesus but not about how bad they needed saving, the magnitude of their sin, nor their brokenness and repentance!
ii. Wanted to follow the crowd. (to fit in)
iii. Wanted to please someone (mom / Dad / Friends/ Preacher, etc.)
iv. Wanted to see what all the fuss was about
v. Wanted to get someone off your back. (illustr. Camp)
c. They rest in a one time experience
i. I prayed that prayer
ii. I walked the aisle and shook the preachers hand
iii. I went down front at Chapel Service and knelt at the altar.
iv. I have a certificate of baptism.
Sometimes being around “religious things” all your life will cause you to fit in. You become hidden. You don’t drink and do drugs, You are not out having sex, and committing crimes. You are the good kids. You wear the Christian clothes, carry your Bibles, listen to Christian music, etc. You have had “Counterfeit Experiences”, and everyone thinks you must be saved. The DEVIL tells you that you are saved. You are OK. BUT YOU ARE NOT! YOU HAVE BEEN LIVING A LIE. You look the part but “GOD LOOKS ON THE HEART!!!!!” He sees inside. He knows what you really are.
ARE YOU FOR REAL?
II. THEY PROGRESSED TOGETHER
a. Weeds grow! (illustrate – yard in early spring, weeds often appear first / sometimes in the summer they are the only thing green in your yard!)
b. Counterfeit Christians can appear to grow as well
i. Give More
ii. Do More
iii. Act Better
iv. Teach, etc.
c. JESUS SAID, “YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN”!!!!!!!
d. PAUL SAID, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
III. THEY WERE PROCESSED TOGETHER
a. There is coming a day, very soon , when time will run out!
b. You cannot pretend forever!
c. You can fool:
i. Pastor
ii. Teacher
iii. Friends
iv. Me
v. Parents
vi. EVEN YOURSELF!!!
d. The Angels were sent to:
i. BIND – unable to escape – unable to repent
ii. BUNDLE – w/ most evil - classified
iii. BURN - to suffer burning forever!
e. Know this: It is not about what you do – There will be preachers, teachers, deacons, etc. in Hell. Hell is full of good people, of Church people, of teens from youth groups!!!
ARE YOU FOR REAL TODAY?
God knows who is real today. When he looks down right now he sees: wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, tare wheat, tare, tare, wheat, wheat, tare, etc. Sheep Sheep Sheep Goat.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? I cannot simply look at you and tell, but God can and Is.
Saved, saved, saved, Lost, Saved, Lost. Heaven, Heaven, HELL, Heaven, Heaven, Heaven, Hell!
IF YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT TRULY SAVED – GET SAVED TODAY
IF YOU ARE NOT SURE - GET SURE TODAY! (99 % Saved = 100% Lost)
You must be totally saved!
Ask for forgiveness.
Repent of your sins (turn away)
Turn to God.
Trust in Jesus as your savior
ARE YOU FOR REAL? Receive Jesus as your Lord.
Just because you are here doesn’t mean you are saved. God is speaking to some hearts this morning. Is God speaking to you? Young people, maybe adults here today,.. Is God speaking to you? ARE YOU SURE? ARE YOU WHAT YOU PRESENT YOURSELF TO BE? ARE YOU FOR REAL?
GET REAL THIS MORNING - FIND PEACE IN JESUS - GET UNDER THE BLOOD! HAVE YOUR SINS REMOVED!!!!
Why would you leave here this morning, on the last day of this school revival, the same old way? Waiting to be Bound, Bundled and Burned!! When you can have the assurance of being brought into the Fathers house!
