I want to turn today to 2nd Corinthians
and chapter 11.
Paul was a father to the Christians in
Corinth and a father has a greater concern
for his children than a teacher has for
his students because a father brought his children
forth and brought them up and one of
the things he pointed out to the Corinthians
in his first letter was you can have
ten thousand teachers but you don't have many
fathers and when a father corrects his children
it's in a different spirit than a teacher
correcting students.
Paul was very strong in the way he
corrected people but it's because he was concerned
that they shouldn't miss out on something in
eternity.
Teachers are more concerned with their salary.
They got to do a job in school
in order to get their salary.
It's very important brothers and sisters for you
to distinguish between a father and a teacher
because you know the world is full of
preachers now and we have a lot of
them coming right into our sitting rooms through
television and the thing that surprises me even
of people in this church is that they
have suddenly developed respect for unknown teachers whose
faces they see on the screen more than
for fathers who cared for them for many
years.
It amazes me.
That is one of the great deceptions of
Satan.
When we don't know anything about a man's
life, how he lives, whether he's divorced or
not, how he's brought up his children, what
sort of church he's planted, I'm absolutely amazed
that so many people swallow preaching because that's
all that seems to matter to them.
Words, not life.
Now I've asked the Lord, I said, Lord
why is that?
And I got an answer.
It's because there are people even in this
church who do not love the truth.
That's why they are fooled by teachers and
develop more respect for them than for fathers.
That's the reason why the Corinthian, this is
not something new to the 21st century in
Bangalore.
It happened in the first century in Corinth.
The church in Corinth had no respect, most
of them, for the Apostle Paul who planted
them, cared for them, brought them up for
so many years.
And they got taken up with these fancy
preachers who came along who were only after
their money.
One way you can distinguish between a teacher
and a father, I think all of us
sitting here have had fathers and teachers, or
at least mothers, even if your father died
when you were young.
And what is the difference that you've seen?
When your parents brought you up, they were
not interested in what you could do for
them.
They were only interested in what they could
do for you.
Whereas a teacher works for a salary, he's
interested in what he can get out of
it.
That one simple test will deliver you from
a lot of deception.
Is this man interested in what he can
get from his listeners, or is he interested
in you?
There was a rich man who once came
to Jesus, and Jesus said, Give away your
money, and come to me without your money.
Have you ever in your life heard a
preacher say that?
I've personally said that to people, to come
to this church and never drop any money
in the offering box.
I said, Because we are interested in your
soul.
I say this because I find that despite
repeated mention, people continue to be deceived.
So Paul says here, verse 2, I am
jealous for you with a godly jealousy.
He speaks about a passion burning inside him.
He says, I promised your hand in marriage
to Christ, and I presented you as a
pure virgin to her husband, but now I'm
afraid that you're being deceived.
I think of Abraham's servant who went to
Mesopotamia, a picture of the Holy Spirit who
has come to the earth.
Do you know what he went to Mesopotamia
for?
You read in Genesis chapter 24, he went
with only one purpose, and he had no
time even to see the sights in Mesopotamia,
the new land and all that.
He wasn't a tourist.
He came there with one purpose, to get
a bride for Isaac.
The Holy Spirit has come to earth with
one purpose, to get a bride for Jesus
Christ.
And it says in that long journey, I
don't know how many days or weeks it
took traveling from Mesopotamia all the way back
to Canaan.
What do you think Rebecca would have been
talking to Abraham's servant about?
I think I know.
She would have been telling him, tell me
more about Isaac.
I want to know about him.
I've never seen him.
I want
to know what he's like.
I want to know him before I meet
him.
And can you imagine how, I don't think
Rebecca would have asked him, well, do you
think he'll give me a lot of money?
Do you think he'll give me a chariot
for myself?
No.
And I can imagine how jealously Abraham's servant
would have protected her from men who tried
to tempt her along the way.
She was a pretty woman.
And how he would have been, how he
would have defended her from deceivers, robbers.
And that's how the Holy Spirit seeks to
protect us from deceivers so that we are
preserved as a pure virgin for Christ.
And when a man like Paul, an apostle,
was filled with the Holy Spirit, he had
the same passion that the Holy Spirit had
to protect this virgin bride of Christ.
That's what he says here.
I promised your hand in marriage to Christ.
There are very few servants of God like
this who, when they bring a person to
Christ, like Abraham's servant, will seek to preserve
that person right until the day they present
that person to Christ in marriage.
Abraham's servant didn't sort of get Rebecca and
say, okay, this is the direction to gain
and go.
No, he took her all the way and
gave her to Isaac.
And a true servant of God is like
that.
He's not just concerned to preach a message
to you.
He's concerned for you that he will present
you one day as a pure virgin to
Christ.
My dear brothers and sisters, don't be deceived
by teachers who don't even know you and
who have no interest in presenting you as
a pure virgin to Christ.
And here he speaks.
He says, I'm afraid like the serpent deceived
Eve by his craftiness.
The thing we have to beware of in
Satan and his deception is his craftiness.
Your minds will be led astray from simplicity
and purity of devotion to Christ.
All going astray comes when our devotion to
Jesus is gone.
I don't take the credit for myself.
I believe God himself has protected me from
deception these 46 years of being a believer.
I've listened to many doctrines.
I've been in many groups and heard many,
many things.
But one of the things God planted in
my heart when I was a young Christian,
20, 21 years old, was a devotion to
Jesus Christ that I have sought to preserve
in all these 45, 46 years.
And whenever the main thing in your life
is not fervent love for Christ, fervent devotion
to Christ, a longing to meet your bridegroom.
The first book I studied in the Bible
was the Song of Solomon.
The Lord did that.
Now I see why God did it.
I didn't know anything about the Bible.
I never studied the Bible.
But I didn't know how to study the
Bible.
And it wasn't my choice.
I was all alone in a ship and
I had the Bible.
And the only other book I had was
a book on Song of Solomon I picked
up somewhere.
So God compelled me to study that book
and showed me what devotion to Christ was.
And that brought into my heart an understanding
of Christ's immense love for me and that
the whole of the Christian life was to
be a walk with a heavenly bridegroom until
the day I'd get married to her.
And that is what Paul says here, will
protect you from deception.
But when you get taken away from love
for Christ and get taken up with love
for money, material things, human beings, creatures, houses,
land, possessions, your job, or any other thing,
you are a prey for Satan to deceive
you.
He's out to deceive you and you won't
even know it.
You see, if you knew that you were
deceived, you're not deceived.
Deception is such that you don't even know
you're deceived.
How does somebody deceive you with a counterfeit
hundred rupee note?
If you look at it and say, hey,
this is counterfeit, you're not deceived.
Deception is when you have taken the money,
gone away, and you're completely convinced you're a
hundred rupees richer and you're not.
You've been fooled.
And deception comes when you listen to a
message and you're convinced it is the truth.
And it's not the truth.
And why is it not the truth?
Because it has not led you to devotion
to Christ.
He's got you taken up with something else,
with ministry perhaps, with miracles perhaps, with healing
perhaps.
Something other than fervent devotion to Christ.
It doesn't matter what it is.
I guarantee you're a candidate for deception.
But it's very easy to be protected.
If your main aim in life is devotion
to Christ, ministry can be a deception.
I've had to watch that.
You know, I'm engaged in ministry now.
For many years I've been in full-time
Christian work, nearly 40 years.
But I say, Lord, never will my ministry
be my God.
I don't care if it all goes away.
Devotion to Christ.
I want to warn you, dear brothers and
sisters.
And he says if somebody comes and preaches
another Jesus whom we have not preached, or
you receive a different spirit which you have
not received, or a different gospel which you
have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.
For I consider myself not in the least
inferior to the most eminent apostles.
Because even if I'm unskilled in speech, yet
I'm not so in knowledge.
I want to read that in another translation.
You put up with these big-shot apostles.
They are rich.
They have enough money to come on television
every day.
Why can't you put up with simple me?
I'm as good as they are.
It's true that I don't have their voice
and their eloquence, and haven't mastered that smooth
eloquence that impresses you so much.
But when I do open my mouth, at
least I know what I'm talking about.
We haven't kept anything back from you.
We let you know everything.
Oh yes, I wonder if I made a
bad mistake in proclaiming God's message to you
without asking you for any money in return,
like all these other preachers.
Maybe that was my mistake, serving you free
of charge so that you would not be
inconvenienced.
That's the thing.
That's why the Corinthians didn't respect Paul.
They say, he doesn't charge anything for his
sermons, so his sermons must be cheap.
But these fellows charge a lot, so they
must be good.
Right?
It's the same thing today, after 20 centuries.
Exactly the same.
Things haven't changed.
You know, when Jesus, when the people asked
Jesus, the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 24,
I want you to see this.
We've looked at it many times, but it's
worth seeing it again.
Matthew 24, the disciples asked Jesus, what's going
to be the sign of your coming?
And you know, all over the world, Christians
preach about the second coming of Christ and
the signs of his coming, and there are
so many magazines and so many messages on
Christ is coming soon, and here are some
of the signs, what's happening in Israel, what's
happening in Iraq, and the wars and earthquakes
and tsunamis and all those things.
Okay, it's all true.
But, please notice, what is the first thing
Jesus said?
And what's the thing that he kept repeating?
He didn't keep repeating earthquakes and wars all
the time.
No, and that was not the first thing
he said.
He didn't speak about Israel, first of all.
No.
Matthew 24, what will be the last part
of verse three?
Tell us, what will be the sign of
your coming and of the end of the
age?
And listen, please listen, my brothers and sisters,
and don't ever forget this.
These money-loving preachers won't tell you this.
Jesus answered and said to them, see to
it that no one deceives you.
That's the first thing.
Many will come in my name, saying I
am the Christ, and will mislead many.
Now, you know, there are two ways you
can understand that sentence.
I have never heard, I never met anyway,
a man who stands up and says, I
am Jesus Christ.
There may be some crazy nuts, some part
of the world.
Do you think any of you will be
deceived if somebody gets up here and says,
I am Jesus Christ?
I'd like to know if the youngest child
here will be deceived by that.
There's no need of...
but read that sentence in another way.
And like this, many will come to you
and say that I am Christ, that Jesus
is the Christ, and then they will deceive
you.
You understood it?
Supposing I am saying, supposing Jesus is standing
here, and many will come to you saying
that I am Christ, and then they'll deceive
you.
See, those days, you've got to understand what
Christ means.
Christ means the Messiah.
Jesus lived in a country where 90%
of them said he's not the Messiah.
Jesus said, many will come to you and
say, Jesus is the Messiah, I am the
Messiah, then they'll deceive you.
The other fellows won't be able to deceive
you.
So Jesus is saying the people who will
deceive you are the people who will say
that he is the Christ.
People who got the Bible, people who follow
Jesus, apparently, but they'll deceive you.
See to it whose responsibility is that.
Your responsibility, see to it that you're not
deceived, and I want to help protect you
from deception.
And then, further down, he says, verse 11,
he repeats it.
You know how when something's burning in your
heart, and you keep giving advice to your
children, and you're protecting your children from something,
he says, be careful about this, my son,
my girl, be careful about this.
And then you keep saying other things, and
then you come back to what you said
earlier, hey, I want you to be careful
about this.
That's what he says here.
Verse 11, many false prophets will arise and
will deceive many.
And why will they deceive many?
What did we read in 2 Corinthians 11?
Deception comes to those who have lost their
fervent love for Jesus Christ.
You know where Paul got it from?
He got it from Paul, from Jesus.
Many false prophets will arise and mislead many
because, I'll tell you why they'll deceive them,
because the love of many people is going
to grow cold in that time.
And when fervent love for Jesus grows cold
and love for other things take over, deception
is widespread.
But, listen to this, the one who endures
till the end in fervent devotion to me,
he'll be saved.
So I know how to be saved.
I've got to preserve myself in a fervent
love for Jesus till the end.
It doesn't matter if you don't travel the
world, it doesn't matter if you're not a
great preacher, it doesn't matter if you don't
do miracles, it doesn't matter if you don't
heal the sick or raise the dead.
If you preserve yourself in a fervent devotion
to Christ, you'll be saved.
On the other hand, you can do all
those other things and be lost.
Jesus himself said how people would do miracles
in my name, do prophesy in my name,
cast out demons in my name, and he
would say, reject it.
So that's what he spoke about.
But he hasn't stopped.
He again comes back to it.
He says in verse 23, in those days,
if anyone says, no, here is Christ, there
he is, don't believe them, because false messiahs,
false prophets will arise.
And now he says something more, which he
didn't say earlier.
These deceivers will show great signs and wonders,
so as to mislead, if possible, even the
elect.
You know, I never expected that I would
live to see that day when even those
who were elect would get swallowed up and
deceived, because they see signs and wonders and
miracles.
But I have seen that day.
We live in that day right now.
Even the elect, why are they deceived?
Because deep down in their heart, from the
beginning of their Christian life, they were more
interested in miracles than in love for Jesus
Christ.
They were always interested in the spectacular.
They were always insecure in the love of
their Father.
They were orphans.
And you've got to be careful if you're
like that.
That's all I can say.
I'll tell you one thing, my brothers and
sisters, I cannot protect any of you from
deception, but I can warn you.
And if you get deceived after the warning,
it's your fault.
Paul could not protect the Corinthians from deception,
but he could warn them.
And if we read this and we don't
care for it, listen to what Jesus says.
Behold, I have told you in advance.
I've given you a fair warning.
When anyone tries to say, here's the Messiah,
there he is, don't fall for it.
Lying preachers are going to pop up everywhere.
Their dazzling performances will pull the wool over
the eyes of even those who ought to
know better.
That's it.
They're going to fool people who are supposed
to have known the truth.
So if they say, come on, run to
the country, come and see him.
He's over there.
Take a trip to this other town, the
other city.
He has come there.
The great Messiah, the great preacher.
Quick, go down there and see him.
Don't waste your time.
Don't be fooled by all that.
But people are being fooled.
The Bible says, people, Amos chapter 8, the
Lord says, judgment day is coming.
Amos chapter 8, verse 11.
I'll send a famine throughout the whole country.
It won't be a The
word of God is the Bible.
When the phrase word of the Lord is
used, it always refers to the prophetic word
that is spoken by a prophet.
The word of God, there'll be plenty of
it.
The Bible Society will make sure that the
Bible is the best selling book in every
year.
But the word of the Lord, the prophetic
word from a prophet will be rare.
There'll be a famine.
There will not be a famine of Bibles
at any time.
But there'll be a famine of the prophetic
word.
A word from God.
And then people will drift from one end
of the country to the other.
They will travel here and there, thinking, oh,
maybe I'll hear it there.
And they'll listen to anyone.
But they will not find the word of
the Lord.
And I want to tell you, I've traveled
a lot.
I've heard a lot.
I've heard more preachers than all of you
here.
And listened to preachers from more denominations than
all of you.
And I'll tell you something.
The word of the Lord is rare.
I've heard almost all the preachers on television.
And I'll tell you the word of the
Lord is rare.
You can take it or you can leave
it.
This is the situation we're living in.
Now let's turn to the New Testament and
see what the Apostles said.
Paul says in 1 Timothy and chapter 4,
the Holy Spirit makes it very clear as
time goes on, in the latter times, some
will fall away from the faith, giving attention
to deceitful spirits and professional liars, doctrines of
deceit.
By means of the hypocrisy of liars, these
liars have lied so well that they have
lost their capacity for truth.
Do you know the number of preachers who
are telling lies today about things that never
happened, as though they happened?
About people being raised from the dead, who
were never raised from the dead?
I remember in the late 1960s, there were
a lot of reports about revivals in Indonesia,
and reports of people being raised from the
dead.
I went to Indonesia a few years after
that, 1972 or 1973, and I discovered something,
that those people there didn't seem to be
so excited as people in other parts of
the world who read these books, who never
went there, who never...
You know, in many countries, particularly in more
backward countries, many people are not able to
distinguish between someone who's unconscious and someone who's
dead.
That's why you hear of so many reports
of raising the dead from these places where
there is no proper medical verification.
Why is it you never hear it in
a hospital, in a good hospital?
You never hear it there.
I mean, if you want to be deceived
with all of this, you can be.
I believe God can raise the dead, sure.
God can do many things.
All I'm saying is, all these reports that
we hear, many of them are just to
fool you.
Somebody's unconscious, somebody's in a coma.
I've heard of people who are in a
coma for months, never said a word, just
lie there like dead people, and then they
recover.
All I say is, don't be fooled.
Keep your heart fervent in devotion to Christ
and you'll never go wrong.
You have everything you need in the Bible.
Everything related to life and godliness has been
given to us.
But professional liars have lied so well.
They say one million people were converted in
the meeting.
How do you know?
I don't even know whether all 200 of
you sitting here are converted.
Even after knowing some of you for so
long.
How does a preacher discover in one evening,
just because one million people raised their hands,
that they're all converted?
I don't think he's deliberately telling a lie,
he's just deceived.
Do you think the Apostle Paul would have
been deceived like that, just because somebody raised
his hand?
So many raised their hands, they were converted
to Christ.
I've been long enough in the ministry to
know that a man raising a hand or
signing a decision card or even saying the
words, Lord Jesus come into my heart, doesn't
ensure the guy is saved.
By their fruits you shall know them.
Professional liars.
But we can ask ourselves, why does God
allow deceitful spirits to come into the midst
of His people?
I mean, if I knew somebody was a
deceiver, would I allow him to come into
my home when my children are small and
talk to them?
I wouldn't.
No, none of you fathers would allow a
deceiver to come and spend time talking to
your children.
Why is it an almighty God who's a
million times better father than you and me,
does that?
I mean, not just in the world, but
among His children.
Why are there 39,000 denominations?
Why are there so many cults, all holding
the same Bible, all claiming to speak the
truth?
Why has God allowed it?
I'll show you a verse which explains the
answer.
1 Corinthians chapter 11 and
verse 19.
There must be divisions or denominations or groups
among you in the world, because that is
how those who are approved of God become
evident.
Or as the message of the Bible says,
the testing process brings truth into the open
and confirms those who have really got the
truth.
Do you know how God...
supposing there are a million believers here who
claim to love the Lord, who have accepted
Jesus, signed decision cards and raised their hand,
etc., or who have done more than that.
And God wants to find out how many
of these fellows are really devoted to Jesus
Christ.
How many of these people are really interested
in being the bride of my Son?
How many of them want to walk as
Jesus walked?
How many of them want to live as
He lived?
How many of them want to be overcomers
as He overcame and sit down with Him
on His throne one day?
You know how God finds out?
He opens a door and allows a flood
of deceiving spirits to come into the midst
of these millions of people.
And very soon the lines are drawn.
Small group of people, they are devoted to
Jesus.
They are not fooled by all these deceptions.
The vast majority of believers.
He can deceive even the elect.
Get taken up with signs and wonders and
preachers whom they have never met once in
their life.
I am amazed how you can follow a
preacher you have never met in your life.
Have you got any understanding of the New
Testament?
You know what New Testament preaching is?
Follow me as I follow Christ.
Do you know anything about how that fellow
is following Christ?
How in the world are you following Him?
Oh brother, his preaching is so great.
He expounds so many clever things from the
Bible.
Aha!
You are number one candidate for deception.
Do you know the difference in the Old
Covenant and the New Covenant was that in
the Old Covenant they just proclaimed messages?
And in the New Covenant you follow an
example.
You don't just listen to messages.
Messages are good.
But I will tell you this.
The fundamental principle of the New Covenant is
you follow an example.
Paul said that.
Follow me as I follow Christ.
Nobody could ever say that in the Old
Testament.
The first person who said it was Jesus.
Even John the Baptist didn't say that.
Nobody in the Old Testament said follow me.
First person who said it was Jesus.
He was establishing a New Covenant.
He didn't just say listen to me.
Old Testament prophets said listen to the word
of the Lord.
Listen to the word of the Lord.
They never said follow me.
Even great men like Elijah or John the
Baptist, the greatest of them all.
But Jesus came with a new message.
Follow me.
Take up your cross and follow me.
You say only Jesus could say that.
No.
Paul.
1 Corinthians 11.1. Follow me as I
follow Christ.
You say well only the Apostle Paul.
No.
Not only the Apostle Paul.
See what he says in Philippians 3 and
verse 17.
He says brothers join in following my example
and also others who walk according to the
pattern you have in us.
So it's not only Paul.
You can follow a man who is following
the example Paul set because he followed Christ.
And that's why he says I'm very careful
that nobody will categorize me along with these
money loving creatures.
You know he says that in 2 Corinthians
11 after he speaks about all this deception.
It's the one place where he talks about
money a lot and I believe that it's
by a man's attitude to money that you
discover whether he's a false prophet or not.
One of the ways anyway.
And he says here I'm not going to
give anybody grounds.
This is in verse 12.
I want to read the message Bible.
I would rather die before taking your money.
Why?
There's a reason for this.
I'm not going to give anybody grounds for
lumping me with those money grabbing creatures.
No.
You're not going to put me in the
same category as those money grabbing creatures who
boast that they are something special.
They're a sorry bunch of people.
Pseudo apostles, lying preachers, crooked workers posing as
Christ's agents but sham to the core.
And no wonder because Satan does it all
the time.
I'm just reading here.
Dressing up as a beautiful angel of light.
How many of you would know when you
saw a beautiful angel of light, would question
if you saw a beautiful angel of light.
Hey is that the devil?
Or would you be just waiting to give
a testimony the next Wednesday meeting.
Hey brothers you know what I saw last
week.
You won't believe it.
An angel of light.
You're a candidate for deception.
Whether it's an angel of light or a
preacher who appears to be his servants masquerade
as servants of God.
You can't put me in the same category
as them because money will expose them.
Their attitude to money will expose them, Paul
says.
I'm different from them and you'll never be
able to put me in the same category
as them.
I'd die before taking your money.
Do you think people have listened to Paul?
Even the elect are being deceived.
I mean Jesus said if possible the elect
would be deceived.
That's what he said in Matthew 24.
But I suppose some of these people who
think they are the elect are probably not
the elect.
The real bride of Christ, devoted to Christ
will never be deceived.
But if you lose out in that devotion
to Christ you can be deceived.
Now turn back to 2 Corinthians and the
top part of that chapter.
Notice what he says here.
These people who come, there are three things
he says in verse 4.
They preach another Jesus, another spirit, and another
gospel.
They are moved by another spirit and they
preach another gospel.
They proclaim another Jesus.
Now I want you to listen to this
carefully.
There are just three little things here.
Is the Jesus being presented by those preachers
the real Jesus of Scripture or not?
Remember what I said, follow me as I
follow Christ.
That means look at that man's example.
Is he presenting the real Christ?
When you listen to him preaching, ask yourself,
can I picture Jesus preaching like that?
When you see him pushing people down, ask
yourself, can I picture Jesus pushing himself down
like that?
No.
But you sit with open mouth and wonder,
oh man of God.
Because you have not seen the real Jesus.
It is another Jesus.
The name is the same.
Do you know in the Old Testament, when
they made a golden calf, you read in
Exodus 32, you know they gave the golden
calf a name?
Jehovah.
That's worshipped Jehovah.
Jehovah, yeah that's the God who built us
and brought us out of Egypt.
Just because the name is the same.
Don't be deceived.
Jesus, oh.
Do you know there are many Jesus being
preached?
Not only now, in the first century.
Just because somebody takes the name Jesus, people
say, oh brother but at least the name
of Jesus is being proclaimed.
That's what they could have said in the
wilderness.
Oh at least the name of Jehovah is
being proclaimed.
So what if it's a golden calf?
The name of Jehovah is being honored.
That's the type of deception that's going on
in the world today.
I mean, if I went to visit my
children's home and I saw a picture of
a big cockroach there, and underneath written Zak
Poonen, I'd say, well at least they're honoring
Zak Poonen.
What do you mean they're honoring Zak Poonen?
Can you imagine?
But this is the type of deception going
on among the elect.
Please brother, the name of Jesus is being
proclaimed in Bangalore.
With Jesus.
Cockroach, deceived, you're a candidate for deception and
I'll tell you why.
I'll tell you the truth in love.
You don't love Jesus Christ with all your
heart.
You love your job.
You love money.
You love possessions.
You love pleasure.
You love sex.
You love these things.
No wonder you're deceived.
You're a candidate for deception.
Another Jesus.
The real Jesus was one who was tempted
like us.
Do you know why for 30 years almost
every denomination in this country has opposed us?
Because we preach Jesus was tempted like us
and overcame and you can overcome.
That's the thing that turned Christians in this
country against me.
You think I stopped preaching it?
It changed my life.
I'll never stop preaching it.
Some people have lost that vision.
Some people who were gripped by it in
this church I know years ago are not
gripped by that today.
Therefore they're candidates for deception.
The real Jesus became a man like us.
He was almighty God.
He lived on earth as God but he
did not use his powers as God.
He lived as a man.
Tempted like us every day.
Praying fervently with tears so that he might
not sin.
This is the Jesus I follow and he
helps me to overcome sin.
I follow a Jesus who never lost his
temper once concerning himself but lost his temper
when the name of God was dishonored in
the house of God.
This is the Jesus I want to follow.
The real one.
Who never lusted with desires.
Who never thought internet pornography was a light
thing.
His whole attitude to sex was completely different.
This is the real Jesus.
Are you following him?
Even if you're not overcoming sin are you
battling it?
Do you hate it?
There's another Jesus being proclaimed today.
The real Jesus was a servant.
He never once asked people for money.
You know that?
When a man gets up on a platform
and says the Lord has asked me to
take a collection today from all of you.
I say which Lord is that?
Not my Lord Jesus.
I say don't insult my friend.
Don't insult my friend by saying that he
changed his opinion after going to heaven.
He never asked anybody for money on earth
and he's not changed his mind now.
Don't be deceived.
That is another Jesus who tells people that
collect money from them.
It's so obvious but like Charles Finney said
people have got to listen to it ten
times before they understand the truth.
Before they even hear it.
Before it sinks in.
Because the ground is so hard.
The ground is so hard and very often
the seed is falling on ground which is
hard or shallow.
That means they hear it and forget it
within a week.
You've got to hear it again because the
ground is shallow.
So the real Jesus was a servant of
people.
He wasn't carried around on a throne adored
by people.
No.
He was a servant who mingled with people.
He was not a political leader.
No.
He was not a person who was trying
to speak to the mass media and become
popular.
No.
I'm not deceived by all these things.
So many Christian leaders of every denomination trying
to become famous and accepted by the world
media.
Who cares for the world media?
God's work is not done through the world
media.
It's done through the Holy Spirit.
And I'll tell you this, though he wants
all men to repent and all men to
be saved, he's calling out a people for
his name.
The word church.
I don't know whether you know the meaning
of the word church.
We use it church, church, church, church, church,
church.
We don't even understand what it means.
It's like supposing you kept on using an
English word and you didn't even know what
it's meaning was.
That's how we're using the word church.
You know there's an English word called serendipity.
Supposing you keep on using it.
Ah, that's a good word.
Brother Zach used it today.
Serendipity, serendipity, serendipity.
You don't even know head or tail what
it means.
That's how a lot of people are.
It's an English word, by the way.
You can look it up in the dictionary.
It's church, church, church, church, church, church, church.
What does church mean?
For some people it's a building, for some
people it's a denomination.
The word church is from a Greek word
ekklesia.
From which you get the English word ecclesiastical.
Ekklesia means called out from.
A group of people called out from.
That's what I am.
That's what a church is.
From the multitudes of people, all of whom
God wants them to repent and all of
them He wants to be saved.
All of them should come to the knowledge
of the truth.
From that number He's called out a few.
The real Jesus was a servant.
It says here also about another spirit.
That's another thing you've got to see here.
Another spirit.
And you see a lot of that today.
Don't think that every supernatural manifestation is of
the Holy Spirit.
This is one of the greatest deceptions going
on in the world today.
Jesus said, people will deceive others with signs
and wonders.
The real Holy Spirit is one who will
make us holy.
Supposing you heard in English for example.
Oh, let's take, forget English.
When you read in the Bible about an
unclean spirit, what is the picture you get
in your mind?
Uncleanness.
Or we read about deceitful spirits.
Okay.
We looked at the word deceiving spirits.
What do deceitful spirits do?
Deceive.
What should the Holy Spirit do?
I ask the children.
Some of you are struggling with the answer
to that.
Make you holy.
What do unclean spirits do?
Make you unclean.
What do deceiving spirits do?
Make you, deceive you.
Supposing you go to a meeting and you
say, there was a noisy spirit in that
meeting.
What do people understand?
There was noise.
Supposing you say, the Holy Spirit was in
that meeting.
What do you understand?
There was holiness.
But do you think that's what many Christians
understand today by the Holy Spirit?
Oh brother, Holy Spirit was there.
Brother, it was fantastic.
You say, what do you mean?
You mean people became holy?
No, no, no.
They were all shaking and there was a
lot of noise.
And people haven't, and I say such people
need to go and study the English language.
That's their problem.
They need to go to the dictionary and
turn to holy.
Holy does not mean noisy.
Holy does not mean excitement.
Holy does not mean getting shakes in your
body.
It's a dictionary.
That'll help you.
You don't need discernment.
You know what deceitful spirits do.
You know what unclean spirits do.
But you don't know what the Holy Spirit
does.
How is that?
What a work the devil has done.
What a fantastic work the devil has done.
You have an immediate answer when I ask
you what deceitful spirits do, what unclean spirits
do.
But when it comes to the Holy Spirit,
you got all these crazy ideas.
Who put those crazy ideas in your head?
I say the devil has done a fantastic
work of even deceiving the elect.
Another spirit that doesn't bring holiness.
And he speaks here about another gospel.
That's the other thing.
Another gospel.
What is this other gospel?
See, the Bible speaks in 2 Thessalonians 2
and then you'll understand this.
Sometimes we, 2 Thessalonians 2 is a great
chapter on deception.
And I want you to look at this.
2 Thessalonians 2 and you'll be protected from
deception.
Dear brothers, in connection with the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to
not be shaken from your composure or be
disturbed by a spirit.
Can you be disturbed by a spirit?
Or a message?
Or a letter?
You know there were people who were signing
Paul's name and sending out letters.
Hey, Paul said this.
Paul never said it.
Saying the Lord has come.
Again, what does he say in relation to
the coming of the Lord?
Let no one deceive you.
The apostles, Jesus all spoke about deception, deception,
deception.
So I would say any message that preaches
on the second coming of Christ should speak
about deception first.
Otherwise they are not in tune with Jesus
and the apostles.
You can talk about other things, but they
are second.
It says here, let no one deceive you
because that day will not come before there's
a great apostasy.
Apostasy means a great falling away, which he
says in 1 Timothy 4.1 also.
Many will fall away from the faith.
He's not talking about non-Christians.
People who have come to know the Lord
are going to fall away from there.
See, I'll tell you honestly, I don't believe
that once you've said the magic words, I've
accepted Christ, you're safe forever.
It's not true.
The Bible speaks about many things, about enduring
till the end, and hold fast, and the
beginning of your confidence firm till the end,
and be careful that with an unbelieving heart
you don't fall away from the living God.
There are many, many warnings.
I don't have time to go into that
subject.
But you can fall away.
A person who claims to be a believer
can fall away because God knew it from
the beginning.
So, he knew from the beginning, this guy
is going to fall away 20 years from
now.
So, it's okay.
He knew that.
He's acting like he's a believer and all
that.
But Jesus spoke in Revelation 3 about your
name being erased from the book of life.
How does he tell people their name can
be rubbed out from the book of life?
Revelation 3 verse 8, I think it is.
So, there is going to be a great
falling away before Jesus' coming.
The next day you'll read tens of thousands
getting typhoid in Bangalore.
Will you sit there and say, ah, don't
touch me.
You'd be crazy.
We'd all go and get anti-typhoid shots
or whatever there is available to protect ourselves
from that.
But I'll tell you something, please listen carefully.
Most believers that I've met are more afraid
of typhoid than deception.
They'll take every precaution to avoid typhoid.
But deception is worse than AIDS.
Because you can't go to hell with AIDS.
You can go to hell with deception.
So, when you hear that many will fall
away, supposing I hear that, supposing the Lord
came here and said, listen, supposing Jesus or
the Apostle Paul stood here one day and
said, brothers and sisters, 90% of this
church is going to fall away.
What would you say?
Ah, thank God, I'm in that 10%.
You will be the number one candidate to
fall away.
Let him who thinks he stands take heed
lest he falls.
When I read a word like this, I
say, God save me.
I don't want to be in that crowd
that falls away.
I want to live in devotion to Christ.
Very simple.
And how are they going to be deceived?
He says, don't you remember verse 5, that
when I was with you I told you
these things?
And he's repeating it.
You know that Paul kept on repeating messages
on deception?
He said, I already told you this, but
I'm going to tell you again because you
need it.
Because you guys don't believe that you'll be
deceived.
I have to tell you again.
And the true Apostle will keep telling you
these things again and again.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit.
And he says, you know what's going to
happen?
This person, this deception is going to come,
verse 9, with all the activity of Satan.
With power, signs, false wonders.
Everywhere you see this, in the last days
there is going to be false wonders.
Deception in the name of Jesus, like the
Jehovah calf in Exodus 32.
In the name of Jesus, false wonders.
How do you find out?
Do you have a devotion to Christ?
What is that guy's attitude to money?
It's very simple.
But do you think people will be fooled
by that?
That people will believe that?
No, they'll continue to be fooled.
Because they think, oh I'm smart.
No, you're not.
You're not smarter than the devil.
It says here, with all the deception of
wickedness.
Now, I was talking about another gospel.
How to be saved from this other gospel?
The gospel that we have to come to
is described in verse 14.
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 14.
He's contrasting this deception with the real gospel.
The real gospel is the gospel, verse 14
of 2 Thessalonians 2, of gaining the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I want you to remember that all your
life, if you want to be saved from
deception.
It's come smack in the middle of 2
Thessalonians 2, the great chapter on deception, that
the true gospel is the gospel which enables
you to gain the glory of Jesus Christ.
Do you know what the glory of Jesus
Christ was?
It was not some light.
John says, John 1 verse 14, We beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten Father, full of grace and truth.
Okay?
What has grace and truth been replaced with
today?
Health and wealth.
We beheld His glory, full of health and
wealth.
And do you know the number of people
who are being deceived by that false gospel?
Millions.
And not only that, there are people who
stand up against it, who stop speaking against
it.
I listened to a very powerful message on
this by a man of God whom I
respect very highly.
Very clear message.
He said in that message how God urged
him to speak that and he hadn't spoken
it for a long time, but now he
had liberty and all that.
Some powerful things he said in that tape.
We've got that tape here.
And he spoke against this health wealth gospel
and then a little later, that one message
was removed from his website.
Every other message is there.
Why is that?
What happened?
Change your mind on that?
Or these other people have become so popular
that you better not speak against them?
I couldn't care less how popular they are.
God's word remains the same.
And if I say God led me to
do something and urged me to say something,
I'll never take it off my website.
What I'm saying is, even great men of
God can get cold feet.
What will people say if I speak against
these people?
Aha!
Are you a servant of God then?
I don't judge a man who's accomplished so
much for God, but I say I can
follow him to the measure in which he
follows Christ.
He's followed Christ.
Man, I'm speaking about in many, many areas
and I'm not anywhere near in those areas.
But in this one area, I disagree.
That's all I say.
I'm just mentioning it as the gospel of
gaining the glory of Jesus Christ.
Now how can we be saved from deception?
Here it says, verse 10, if you receive
the love of the truth so as to
be saved, you will be protected, otherwise God
himself will send on you a deluding influence
so that you will believe what is false.
Let me tell you three things.
One, you've got to love the truth.
Hate lying in your life completely.
If you've got any bit of lying in
your life, any area you tell lies, you're
a candidate for deception.
Love the truth, verse 10.
Love it.
Don't cheat.
Don't deceive.
Be upright.
Be honest.
You guys who are in business, be honest
when you speak to your customers.
Speak the truth.
Don't deceive.
Otherwise you'll be deceived.
You may get some money from them, but
you'll be deceived by the devil.
And truth also means reality.
In the New Testament, truth means more than
just opposite of lying, but it means reality.
That means there must be no unreality in
my life.
No talking about things which are not true
in my life.
Like you've heard me say many times, don't
ever speak things which you have not done.
If you have not done it, wait.
If you have to wait another 50 years,
wait 50 years and then speak it.
Jesus waited 30 years before he spoke.
Why can't we wait?
Why are we in a hurry?
Don't be deceived by this.
I'm going to confess my hope.
I'll do that one day.
The other thing it says here is, we
must love the truth so as to be
saved.
I must have a desire to be saved
from sin.
That's how I'm protected from deception.
I love the truth about myself also.
When God shows me something, I say, Lord,
that's true about me.
That was selfish on my part.
Confess it.
I hurt my wife there.
Go and apologize to her.
Seek to be saved from sin immediately.
You'll never be deceived.
Apologize immediately.
Go and forgive somebody.
Seek to be saved completely from all sin.
One more thing I want to say is
Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 12 and 13.
It speaks here about 13, about the deceitfulness
of sin from which we can be saved
if we listen to encouragement from other brothers
in the body of Christ.
There's a protection in the body of Christ.
And if you think you're so clever that
you don't need that protection, you're a candidate
for deception.
There are a lot of lonely wandering believers
today like butterflies.
They'll be sitting on one flower today, another
flower this day, another flower another day.
They're not committed to a body of local
believers.
Easily deceived.
The devil just knocks them off one by
one.
Our protection is in a fellowship, in a
family where we humble ourselves and listen to
one another, encourage one another.
And when I don't have the brothers in
the church to encourage me, I've got in
the Bible Peter, James, and John to encourage
me every day.
Dear brothers and sisters, we're living in terrible
times.
Let's be watchful, let's be careful, so that
we can be ready for the coming of
Christ.
And not only ready for the coming of
Christ, but do something useful for the Lord
before He comes.
Let's pray.
Our heads bowed in prayer.
Let's first of all humble ourselves.
Say, Lord, I want to love the truth.
I want to be saved from sin.
I want to value the fellowship of a
local body of believers.
I want to preserve myself in a fervent
devotion to Christ.
I want to learn to recognize and distinguish
between fathers and teachers.
Save me from the familiarity that breeds contempt,
Lord, which leads to deception, seeking to follow
people whom I've never met and don't know.
If you're honest, God will hear your prayer.
Heavenly Father, help us all, we pray, for
so much depends on this.
We've got only one life to live, and
if we get deceived all through that life,
or even part of that life, what regret
we'll have in eternity when you give us
your word.
Preserve us, we pray, in these days, in
the days when you have allowed this flood
of deceitful spirits to come into the midst
of your people to sift out those who
are approved from those who are not.
Give us grace to remain in fear and
trembling so that we can be among those
who are approved by you in the final
day.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.