How can I detect a false conversion?

I have purposely left this point until last because people generally take it for granted it will be the first passage used in taking up this subject. In John 10:27 we are told, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Notice these three things. It matters not what profession a man makes, if he does not hear the voice of the Son of God he is not a Christian, and therefore the Savior does not know him as His own. No matter what profession he may make, if he does not follow the Lord Jesus Christ, he is only a sham and a fraud and a hypocrite. He may follow for a little while outwardly, like those of whom the apostle Peter speaks, who walk in the way of righteousness and then turn from it. “But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22). If that dog had ever been regenerated and become a sheep, if that sow had ever been changed and become a lamb, neither would have gone back to the filth; but, you see, the dog was always a dog, and the sow was always a sow. They were just whitewashed, not washed white, they were never regenerated, and so went back to the old things. But the sheep of Christ are different. “They follow Me,” Jesus says. Be careful. Do not profess to be one of His sheep if you do not follow Him, It is the test of reality. There are many people who tell us, “At such and such a time I was converted, I went forward, I signed a card.” You can do all of these things and be lost forever. What you need is a new birth; and when you are born again, you get a new life; and when you receive a new life, you love to follow Jesus; and if you do not, you are not a Christian. Think about it; examine your own foundations a bit.

You say that you are converted, and yet there has been no change in your life. I doubt very much if you have been converted, if there is no change in your life. Converted! What are you converted to, if your ways, your habits, and your manners are unchanged. Converted! No, no. Whenever God is working, Satan has a number of false converts about, in order to spoil the work. Ah! says some one, that is what upsets me. I do not think I shall ever make any profession, because those who do so do not walk differently. I do not think there is any reality in conversion. Why? Because you think some people inconsistent. Do not let that upset you. If the Spirit of God were not making real, genuine converts, the devil would not make false converts in order to spoil the work. Do not you be a false convert. Do not you profess what you do not possess. But if you know Christ, own Him boldly, hoist your colours, and confess Him.

A local assembly will therefore first put the question to anyone asking to break bread whether they possess life from God. We can naturally not see into a person’s heart, but God gives us a sure means of verifying: we can judge the fruits that new life produces (Matthew 7: 20). One fruit of eternal life is our love towards God, shown in our obedience to Him; the second is our love of our fellow believers. (1 John 5: 2). These are two pillars that support our new life. Now we cannot know whether someone is telling the truth or not, but we can judge whether a person wishes to be obedient to the Word of God, loves God and enjoys being among His children. If we notice, for example, that somebody who claims to be born of God and yet shows no concern for His Word and feels most at home with friends who are unbelievers, we begin to wonder whether he is genuinely born again. It is true that the Lord alone knows those who are His own, but whether someone abstains from unrighteousness can be seen (cf. 2 Timothy 2: 19). This we recognize by their fruits and can make our judgment accordingly.

Here is a rich man who, when requested, will draw out his cheque-book and sign away large sums for charitable services. There is a poor woman who is astonishingly kind and helpful to her equally humble neighbours. What do their works show? Their faith in Christ? Not with any certainty. True it may be that their kindly spirit is the result of their having been converted, but on the other hand it may only spring from a desire for notoriety or for the approbation of their fellows. But suppose they both begin to display great interest in the Word of God, together with a hearty obedience to its directions, and a real affection for all the people of God. Now we can safely draw the deduction that they really do believe in Christ, for that is the only root from which springs such fruit as this.

It is greatly to be feared that very much of what passes, now-a-days, for conversion is not conversion at all. Many so-called cases of conversion are published and talked of, which cannot stand the test of the Word of God. Many profess to be converted, and are accredited as such, who prove to be merely stony-ground hearers. There is no depth of spiritual work in the heart, no real action of the truth of God on the conscience, no thorough breaking with the world. It may be the feelings are wrought upon by human influence, and certain evangelical sentiments take possession of the mind; but self is not judged; there is a clinging to earth and nature; a lack of that deep-toned earnestness and genuine reality which so remarkably characterise the conversions recorded in the New Testament, and for which we may always look where the work of conversion is divine.

Many are greatly moved by the scenes and atmosphere of a meeting where the Holy Spirit is working, without any divine work in their own souls; and these for the moment, have the most hopeful appearance; there is no sense of guilt to discourage; no sense of danger to alarm; and little hesitancy in saying that they do believe. Neither are such dishonest or deceiving; they feel all they say at the time. But there is a missing link. Sin has not been felt; Christ has not been seen; the heart has not been turned to Himself under a sense of helpless ruin. They are attracted, interested, and it may be, delighted, but when the extra meetings are over, and things return to what is called "dull and dry," those who have been carried along by the general current soon cool down and return to their former habits. Who has found Christ — who is now looking to Him? is the one grand question. Christ Himself before the soul is its only power against adverse currents, against the attractions of the world and the assaults of the enemy. His presence is what keeps us holding fast "the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." "Two lads who professed to be converted last year, have gone back to the world," said one who had watched over them; "the others have gone on well; some are at the table, and one young man is now preaching the gospel." A round year is a fair test as to the varied results of the work.

Take another example. From one family, under the same roof, four of the household professed to be converted. A son and daughter are selected to illustrate our subject. All seemed equally happy, all confessing faith in Christ, all rejoicing in their new light and heavenly hope, The parents being Christians, there were great rejoicings in the family. For a short time, the four seemed to go on as they had commenced; but by-and-by, in rather less than a week, the impressions began to fade away from the mind of the son, and he soon slipped back into his former habits. When reminded of what he had so recently professed, and asked why he had so soon given it up, he could not tell; the feeling, he said, had gone quite away, and he had nothing before his mind: neither himself as a sinner, nor Christ as a Saviour. The name of Jesus was mentioned to him, and the blessedness of trusting in Him was earnestly pressed upon him, but there seemed no vital link between them. There was no proper sense of sin, no exercise about it, no appreciation of the Person and work of Christ. Being naturally amiable, there was no opposition, but, like the morning cloud and the early dew, that which at first seemed a happy conversion, passed away. But its lessons remain; it teaches the need of dealing with the conscience, watching the direction of the eye, and ascertaining if some portion of the word of God is ruling in the heart. We see the happy contrast and the divine reality in the daughter.

But we speak above of one truly born again. God is God, and we are men. God never makes mistakes; we often, too often, do. "The Lord knoweth them that are His" — this is Scripture. We sometimes think that people are His — but our thinking is not Scripture. I may see tears, I may hear groans and cries, I may even see a fairly long-continued profession of acceptance of Christ, and think that a man is born again. But my thoughts are — let me repeat — not Scripture. The Word of God itself teaches me that good seed may drop into stony ground, and gives as its own explanation that some may hear the Word and anon with joy receive it. We may be deceived into counting these promising "cases of blessing," only to discover with bitterness the "afterward" of Mark 4:16-17, and that they had no root in themselves. A sailor in a storm, a soldier on a battlefield, a civilian in sudden peril, may all cry and appear in earnest; and one may add, an impressionable nature in a "revival," or under the influence of a touching or thrilling song, may appear to us to be converted to God, yet be a mere flash in the pan. The reality of new birth is proved by its continuance (Heb. 3, 6, 10; Col. 1:23; Jude 4, 12, 13). We may be deceived by appearances; God never is. New birth is God's own work, and will eventuate in the accomplishment of God's purpose.

Belief there might have been, of a certain sort, in Christ, without its being to salvation. Such faith, never having been of divine workmanship, had a natural tendency to wear out and come to nothing. We see many instances in every one of the (so-called) "revival" movements. Nor are they a proof necessarily of anything wrong in the preaching which produces them. The Lord gives us in Matthew 13 plain assurance that where the true seed of the gospel is sown, and He the Sower of it, such things will occur. There will be cases such as his who "heareth the word, and anon (immediately) with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word, by-and-by he is offended." Such a man believes: he is not insincere, not a hypocrite; simply, the Word, like seed in stony ground, has no root in him; his heart, never ploughed up by conviction of sin, remains in unchanged hardness. The joy in him was too "immediate;" there was no finding out of self, no taking the place of lost, that Christ might save. He believed a doctrine; never came to Jesus. He had joy, not peace. There was no change in the man himself, and no root. Mark, it was not what had root that withered, but because it had no root it withered away. It would not have withered had it had root.

Scripture then, which teaches that there is such a thing as "believing for a while," teaches too its character. And while we see the need of the admonition as to the necessity of continuance in the faith, we see also abundantly that those who believe to the saving of the soul belong at all times to a different class from those who draw back unto perdition.

One who professes to know God and does not manifest obedience is no Christian at all, but he is a liar, and the truth in the knowledge of the Lord is lacking in such a one. He is a mere professing Christian, one who has the outward form of godliness but does not know the power of it, because he has not the life in him, which is His life and in which he delights to obey. The first great test of the reality of the divine life in the believer is obedience.

If we profess to have life, this life must express itself in something more tangible and forcible than mere words. There is an appalling amount of empty profession--shallow, powerless, worthless talk--today. We have a wonderfully clear gospel; we see very distinctly that salvation is by grace, through faith, not by works of righteousness, nor by works of law. Blessedly true, and our heart praises God for it! But when people are saved, ought they not to live as such? Ought not the new life to come out in fruits? It must come out if it be in; if it does not come out, it is not there.