Mr. Smith went into the bank to deposit money into his account. He walked up to the counter and handed the bank teller a piece of paper money to deposit. She took one look at the bill and quickly called the sheriff, who came and arrested Mr. Smith.
Why didn’t the teller accept his money? And why did she call the sheriff right away? Because Mr. Smith had tried to deposit a counterfeit $1,000,000 bill. The teller knew this country has never had $1,000,000 bills in circulation!
Boys and girls, counterfeit money is a worthless imitation—it is fake money! It’s a serious crime to make and use counterfeit money. Mr. Smith tried to fool the teller with a fake paper bill. It wasn’t real, and he was sent to jail. At least several other people have tried to use fake million-dollar bills to buy things in stores, mostly so they could get real dollar bills back in change. They were also caught and sent to jail.
How about you? We certainly hope that you have never tried to pass fake money in a store, but are you a fake Christian? Are you trying to pass yourself off as a real Christian? Have you ever confessed to the Lord Jesus that you are a sinner and want Him to take away your sins? Unlike bank workers and store clerks who can usually spot fake money, the people around you might very well be fooled into thinking you are a Christian when you are actually a fake.
There are simple steps that bank tellers learn in order to identify counterfeit money. They don’t look for things that are the same in the bills but ways the counterfeit money is different. One main difference is how the money feels. It just doesn’t feel right. Bank bills are printed on special cotton paper that can’t be bought in stores.
Besides not feeling the same, a fake bill really does look different. If examined carefully, the paper it’s printed on is missing tiny red and blue threads. When held up to the light, real bills have stripes, called watermarks, which are hard to reproduce. Counterfeit money also doesn’t have the same microscopic printing or careful artwork that appears on real dollar bills. Sometimes a magnifying glass is needed to check for these missing details.
God knows your heart, and He doesn’t need a magnifying glass to see if you are real. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). A man in the Bible named Simon, who was pretending to be a Christian for selfish reasons, had to be told by the Apostle Peter, “Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness” (Acts 8:21-22). It is so very important to be a real Christian! If you aren’t and you die, you won’t be sent to jail; you’ll be sent to never-ending punishment: “Whosoever was not found written in [God’s] book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).
Next time you handle paper money or watch bank tellers counting out bills, think about things that are real and things that are counterfeit. Make sure you are not a “counterfeit Christian.” You might trick your friends, but you can’t fool God. He knows everything about you and made a way for you to be washed clean from your sins. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).
Right now is the very best time in your life to give up being a counterfeit Christian and to become a REAL Christian.
MEMORY VERSE: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Isaiah 1:18
ML-07/14/2013