Warning

[0:00] On April the 10th, 1912, the RMS Titanic left her berth at the harbour in Southampton, England.

[0:18] This was her maiden voyage for this 882-foot-long ocean liner that had been billed as unsinkable. She carried with her 2,228 passengers and crew.

[0:30] Most of the passengers had paid thousands of dollars to sail on that great luxury liner. Four days into the voyage, on April the 14th, 1912, severe ice warnings were received for the area through which the Titanic was sailing.

[0:47] These warnings were ignored and the Titanic maintained her course for New York Harbour, but she never arrived. At 11.40pm the Titanic struck an iceberg on the starboard side of her bow.

[1:00] She began to take on water at an alarming rate and within three hours the Titanic and 1,523 of her passengers were at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

[1:12] Only 705 of the original 2,228 people on board survived that great shipwreck.

[1:24] What a shipwreck that was. The warning was ignored. Warnings can be ignored. The warning was all the time. Look at the cigarette packet next time you're tempted to buy yourself one.

[1:36] Nowadays, you don't ask for a Marlboro or a Winfield. You say, oh, I can have that one. But it says, smoking doubles your risk of stroke. Or perhaps another day at the shop you might choose the one that says, smoking causes mouth and throat cancer.

[1:56] Or perhaps the one that says, smoking causes peripheral vascular disease with its graphic picture of a gangrenous foot. Or perhaps you'll prefer to smoke one that says, smoking clogs your arteries with a picture of an artery with yellow liquid oozing out of it.

[2:13] Warnings. Warnings. They often go unheeded. And it's possible to have spiritual shipwreck. If we do not heed the warnings from the scripture, ignore the warnings at your peril.

[2:25] Satan today is deceiving multitudes as he delights even in attempting to deceive the saints. And we are warned many times through the scriptures.

[2:36] We are warned of deception. In the last days, we are warned of deception from seducing spirits. 1 Timothy 4 verse 1, it tells us now, the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

[2:54] Deception. It's the mark of the last days. Seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. The devil undermines pure doctrine. He attacks pure doctrine, sound doctrine.

[3:06] And he wants to bring confusion and chaos for individual believers and churches. And these last days, we'll see a real Jesus and a fake one.

[3:17] A fake Jesus. The fake one is a counterfeit, an imposter. Nowadays, the church has changed. The message has changed. The Bibles have changed. The preaching has changed.

[3:28] And we've lost something along the way, across the church world, especially across the Western world. There's something missing. The fear of God. The zeal for God. The heart to live for God.

[3:40] And this is a time, more than ever, that we're called to be sober. To be vigilant. We must think biblically. Think soberly. In Romans 12, 3, it says, Paul says, For I say through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

[4:05] And our Lord warns us of these latter days. He urges us to be alert and to be aware. In Matthew 7, 15, it says, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

[4:20] Not long ago, Julie and I became the proud owners of two new pets, two chooks. And we just love them. These chooks, they're friendly, they're quite tame, and they lay delicious eggs for us.

[4:32] And like with any pet you own, you have a duty of care. Again, pets bring enjoyment, but we have a responsibility to look after them. You know, you might be a cat owner, have a kitten.

[4:45] You wouldn't want to take it in the presence of the Alsatian next door as it slobbers and wants to bite and attack your kitten.

[4:56] And as I think of these hens that we have, hens need protection. The neighbour was telling us lately that she'd seen a couple of foxes in the nearby paddock. And foxes are renowned for breaking into coops and taking hens and tearing them to shreds.

[5:15] Hens need protection. And I spent a good deal of time yesterday securing the hen house. We bought a bigger coop structure like a cage that was sturdy and stronger than the one that we had before.

[5:28] We want our chooks to be safe. And while I was making this chook pen, it got me to thinking. As I was making this chook pen safe from the foxes, the danger of foxes, I couldn't help but think about the spiritual danger to God's people.

[5:44] The Bible speaks about little foxes that spoil the vines. The Lord Jesus called Herod a fox. And there's a song in our Sunday school children sing, The devil is a sly old fox.

[5:57] Foxes can represent the danger of false teachers. And I was reflecting, as I say, as I was making this chicken coop, about a coming preacher who will be speaking at another church.

[6:09] And I have grave fears about the barrow that he is pushing as he effectively is advocating for rock music in the church. Alongside associated errors that draw churches closer to the charismatic movement and all the associated compromise of that.

[6:27] And it made me think, why would you invite a fox into your hen house? What would possess a church to invite such a man to preach and promote such a wayward message?

[6:40] Paul warned against grievous wolves. And so should we. We have to warn the flock. We have to warn against false prophets.

[6:52] Warn against the foxes. They can be sly. Foxes can work under cover of darkness and do much damage. Likewise, the false prophets, false apostles, false teachers of today.

[7:03] And the Bible foretells of such. They can sound good. They can look good. But do much harm. Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. You know, he'd be top of the pops if you had to vote someone in.

[7:17] As it were, they can look and sound so convincing, yet the message is tainted and toxic. And so, people of God, when you turn on the TV, not channels, or the radio, watch out.

[7:32] Don't just take everything in without testing. Beware of deception of such false teachers. Sin itself is deceitful. There's many references to deception, to deceit, deceitfulness.

[7:45] One is that sin itself, sin is deceitful. In Hebrews 3.13 it says, Sin is so easy.

[8:01] Sin is comfortable. It can harden our heart. Young people, young people, older people. We can lose that sense of conviction.

[8:12] The sensitivity to the Spirit of God. It's like when you first play a guitar. And the metal strings hurt your fingertips. And it's sore. And it hurts.

[8:23] And it leaves your hands sore and bruised. But play regularly. And the hardness builds up on your fingertips. And you lose that feeling. Sin is like that. It hardens you in your heart.

[8:36] It creeps up on us. And we lose that sense of conviction. That discomfort of that sin. It gradually wears down. It wears off. And we become a careless Christian.

[8:47] That sense of duty can wear thin and weaken. And it gets easier to drop out of fellowship. And that prayerlessness can become a habit. And before long we get entrenched in that shallowness of our profession, of a superficial kind of Christianity.

[9:04] While we lack that spiritual depth. And we can grow accustomed to that. We can lose that fervor and it becomes normal for us just to be a coasting Christian.

[9:16] We can get hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So how do we guard against the deceitfulness of sin? It says in 1 Thessalonians 5.22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

[9:29] Now that's a fairly wide berth there, isn't it? All appearance of evil. So in other words, keep a wide distance between you and what is questionable. If it's questionable, try to steer away from it.

[9:43] Better to avoid that which just got a question mark over it. Better to make that cage stronger and sturdier than it has to be.

[9:55] Make it strong that you will not be overtaken. Better to have a wider degree of separation than others may choose to. Than for you to associate with that which is tainted and soiled.

[10:07] Better to aspire to a personal purity that is of a stronger standard than to weaken and give ground. Another area we need to be alert to is the area of self-deception.

[10:21] It is possible to be self-deceived. We can end up barking up the wrong tree and have well-meaning convictions, but they're not biblical convictions. That's a danger too.

[10:32] I'm not saying I've got the monopoly on the truth. I'm learning. 2 Timothy 3.13 it says, But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

[10:47] Evil men and seducers. They will be evident in the last days. I think some of these people you might think, Oh, this one's a false teacher. That one's a false teacher. They might not even be aware of it.

[10:58] They really believe what they're preaching and teaching. This will be evident in the last days. And we should pray for them. That their eyes will be opened. Deceiving and being deceived at the same time.

[11:11] I think of some, they're well-meaning people. They themselves are deceived, but they don't even know it. So we have to wise up and watch ourselves, each one of us. Carefully, we can all trip up if we're not careful.

[11:24] Here's a man who wrote a book. Jim Fox. For 15 years, Jim Fox was the author of the 1978 bestseller, The Complete Book of Running.

[11:42] Now, who likes running here? There's a few people that, there's some crazy people that jog past my place. They go up this hill and I think, wow, they must have rocks in their head. But they're running up this huge slope.

[11:57] And this man ran 80 miles a week. 80 miles a week. And he appeared to be in tip-top shape. He wrote the book, for goodness sake. The Complete Book of Running.

[12:08] And so here he was. It didn't seem possible that a man of his age could be in a better condition than Jim Fox. Yet at the age of 52, Fix died of a massive heart attack while running alone on a Vermont road.

[12:25] His wife, Alice, later said she was certain that Fix had no idea that he suffered from a heart problem. Why? Because he refused to get regular check-ups. And so you're one of those mad keen runners.

[12:38] Just watch it, you know. After Jim Fox's death, doctors speculated that his heart was so strong that he may not have had the telltale chest pains or the shortness of breath that usually signal arterial heart failure, disease.

[12:53] So Jim Fix, he was self-deceived. He was deceived to thinking he was all right, Jack. But he was far from it. And again, it is possible for any one of us, too, to be self-deceived.

[13:06] Our Lord warned his own disciples to be not deceived. So we need to get some regular spiritual heart check-ups, as it were, to keep close watch of ourselves because sin is deceitful.

[13:18] And to keep strong, we need to take to heart biblical principles, biblical standards. Don't shy away from them. Guard them. Principles that are founded on the Word of God.

[13:28] I'm not talking about man-made principles, but principles that are anchored in this book, that guide us, that ground us. We need to stay in the Word. In Acts 2.42, it says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.

[13:46] The Word of God keeps us strong and faithful. Brother, sister, keep strong in the Word. Keep in the Word. Keep in prayer. Keep in fellowship. These are safeguards for us.

[13:58] Yet nowadays we're seeing, sadly, the Word of God is kind of marginalised. It's kind of put on the shelf. In some churches, it's all about the supposed prophetic and experiential.

[14:10] And the Word of God is missing or it's misapplied. And as a result, many Christians are weak and misled. And they're weakened by this diet of fluffy preaching without substance.

[14:22] The hard-hitting Word, the challenging Word is gone. It's been softened and blunted and sidelined. And so we must get back to the Word of God as a Bible-believing people because it's a protective covering for us, the Word of God.

[14:38] Otherwise we become fair game for the foxes and wolves. How do we keep strong when temptation threatens? What can keep us safe from the deceiver?

[14:49] When we're prone to wander from the will of God, what will keep us safe? We need the strengthening power of the Word of God. In 1 John 2, John writes to the young men.

[15:01] He says, young men, I have written unto you, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

[15:12] Young men, young women, older men, older women, the Word of God, let it abide in you, and you will overcome. Let the Word of God abide in you. Do you seek it out for personal study, for corporate study?

[15:26] The Word of God. This is our safeguard. Keep in the Word. By this Word, we will overcome the wicked one. Doctrines of devils.

[15:36] Deception can come in many forms. Doctrine, teaching, can be deceptive. In other words, the teaching can be deceptive. False teachers. We're warned of that in Ephesians 4, verse 14, where it says that, We henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

[16:00] You know, slight is what the magicians use, isn't it? When they kind of pretend to give something, but it's really up their sleeve, and they're hiding things. There's that deception. There's a slight of hand.

[16:12] That's what it's speaking of here, of this deceptive characteristic. We see the wind, tossed to and fro. Here's a picture by Rembrandt.

[16:27] Of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Many are like this storm-tossed vessel, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. They can't chart a course because they're just blown here and there, willy-nilly.

[16:41] Well, many variant views, and contrary teachings. You know, we see that as a church, as a pastor, I see people blown here and blown there. The latest fan, the latest gimmick, the latest teaching, the latest YouTube video, the latest doctrine, the latest teacher, the latest teaching.

[17:00] And they're blown here, there. They can't set the straight course. They can't chart the course because they're blown aside by all of these teachers. There's lots of teachers we can tune into these days.

[17:11] And it's another sign of the end days. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust, they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

[17:24] You know, it's a big problem. Itching ears. Now, is your ear a bit itchy today? I was a bit worried when I come to church and my ear gets itchy and people think, oh, I'm listening to unsound doctrine.

[17:37] But that's the picture there of itching ears. They just want to, just want to scratch where it itches. You know, we can end up like this guy. And that's what people want.

[17:50] They want the preacher who's going to scratch them where they itch and give them what they want. The latest and greatest from the TV preachers and teachers. To jump on the latest bandwagon that rolls into town.

[18:02] To hear the latest new fad thing. To go buy the latest CD or DVD that's on the shelf at Curon. It's the top 10 bestseller, so it must be good.

[18:13] Everybody loves it. You can buy it all down there at Curon. Now, I go to Curon and get the occasional thing. But they just sell some things because they sell what people will buy.

[18:25] And they don't care whether it's truth or not. People of God. You know, the piano guys, you see some people push them on YouTube. They sound great.

[18:36] They're Mormons. They're Mormons. Why would you flog the piano guys who are Mormons? Why would you promote that? Rob Bell. Demonic stuff. Rob Bell. And you can even buy yourself a Joyce Meyer Bible.

[18:51] Oh! Whatever scratches your itch. That's what people are into these days. Whatever sells. 2 Timothy 4.3 It says there that people will get those itching ears.

[19:04] Amen? The next one you see here is a picture of what one preacher called it where the shepherds are feeding, they should be feeding the sheep but instead they're like clowns entertaining the goats.

[19:21] Friends, some churches are marching lockstep with the beat of Babylon. They're just following these consumer mentality, marketing gimmicky techniques, giving people what they want to hear and afraid to preach the truth.

[19:36] And sometimes the deception is like this one here. It's in your face. You know, some people go to churches where there's men walking around with these mitre hats on.

[19:53] And if you look at the picture on the left there, there's a picture of a priest of Dagon. Dagon. Dagon is the fish god back in Babylon, back in the pagan times where the so-called god with a small g, Dagon, was the fish god.

[20:15] And here you see, if you look carefully at the picture on the left here, you've got a head like a fish with the scales down the back and an eye and then the open mouth on the man's head.

[20:26] And on the right-hand side we see, as is commonplace in certain traditional churches where men wear these funny mitre hats, it all stems back to Dagon, the fish god.

[20:41] And there's many more examples of this that we could give, but at other times it's more subtle, more deceptive. That we, we can't grow accustomed to this. That's what people wear in some churches.

[20:52] That's their kind of get-out. That's what they wear. That's the norm. But it stems back to Babylon and Babel and the false, falsehoods of those days.

[21:03] And yet today there's the great danger of compromise still. If we join party with the ecumenical crowd that we're supposed to be apart from, not joining forces with.

[21:15] And so, you know, some people might accuse this church and say, oh, you're a bit standoffish. You're a bit too, someone was telling me some renowned man actually, that's highly regarded, he was saying, oh, you're one of those churches that believe in come out and be separate.

[21:32] Sort of having a, you're one of those churches, come out and be separate. I said, yeah, we are. We are. We are one of those churches. Because we don't join party with that which is doubtful.

[21:43] God helping us, we try to be careful what we associate with, who we associate with, the causes that we join forces with. And we must stand fast resolutely for the truth otherwise we'll end up like these guys wearing the Dagon fish hat.

[21:58] And so, yet Christianity is weaker today. Why? Because we've moved away from the word of God. We've lost it. The Bible, it's the inspired word of God, our final authority.

[22:10] We can trust this book entirely. And we must go to the word because it is here that we gain understanding. Next one is, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

[22:21] But fools despise wisdom and instruction. It's the beginning of knowledge. To fear him, to honour him, yet worldly care and lust can be deceptive. We see here in Matthew 13, our Lord is telling of the story of the seed, sown of the seed among thorns.

[22:40] And here's the word, the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. That word deceit again, deceitfulness, deceiving. That worldliness, that care of the world, that deceitfulness of riches, there's a choking that goes on.

[22:55] Where we get sidetracked with worldly things that get in the way, that stifle our Christian growth. Some are deceived by drink. It's another of the devil's little strategies.

[23:07] Wine is a mocker, it says. Strong drink is raging. And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. What is it saying in the word of God about drink?

[23:18] If you're deceived thereby, you're not wise. It's not wise, it's a dumb thing to do. Now more than ever, we're called to be sober, yet sometimes we're like this guy.

[23:33] We're the opposite of sober. I heard a preacher sum up, what are the primary ways that Satan tempts us to deceive, to believe his lies. He put it as the flesh, the world and the devil.

[23:45] The flesh is yourself, self-deception, that process of misleading ourselves. We can believe a lie. The flesh, it's a form of denying the truth and justifying false beliefs.

[24:00] What's your flesh? The world is others, occasionally, unintentionally and intentionally, as false prophets and apostles and teachers. The world, all around us, is a source of deception and then there's the devil or his cohorts, as we started with, that those doctrines of devils, deceiving spirits, seducing spirits.

[24:20] And so, these three things, the world, the flesh, the devil, it's all against us and with that intent of deception. So we need to be wary even of other professing Christians.

[24:32] There's scriptural warnings to mark some people, take note of them. There's a protection because we don't want the fox in the hen house, amen? We don't want him.

[24:43] They're dangerous. Some people we need to steer clear from, some professing Christians can be toxic. They do more harm than good and damage our spiritual life. And some workers can be deceitful.

[24:55] 2 Corinthians 11, 13, it says, for such are false prophets, false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. Now, down through church history, we see such men and women.

[25:09] It's been said that Satan puts some truth in every lie to make the lie more believable. A little truth just makes that lie go down a little bit easier.

[25:23] Sugarcoat it. Here's a picture now of one of the forerunners of the Pentecostal charismatic movement. His name is William Branham. William Branham, an outright false teacher, still esteemed and revered as one of the founders of this false movement.

[25:47] William Branham. Look him up. Look at what he stands for, the doctrine that he preached, the error that he taught, and the false prophecies that he uttered, claiming himself a prophet.

[25:59] And it all comes back to people such as this man. He's gone now, but there's many like him. You can look them up on the internet. Look up Encyclopedia of Pentecostal and charismatic preachers, and you'll see it's a trend, it's a pattern that there's many who follow in his tread, preaching false doctrine and ending up shipwrecked and way off target.

[26:28] That's not to say every such man is a total lost cause, but we see that there's much to be desired here. And so, what does it take for us to keep strong, to keep faithful, to be biblical?

[26:45] We must conform to biblical doctrine. This is the source of truth, where we find the truth. And if it's not here, keep clear of it. Is it biblical is the question? Or is it just some new novelty or hype?

[26:58] Is it some new revelation? Some dream, some vision? Can God give that? Yes, he can. But we don't major on such things that that becomes all that the preacher talks about, yarning on about his special anointing that he claims, or some reinventing of the church of the gospel.

[27:18] It's a total wrong mindset. shift away from the word of God. And we've got to be careful of that. Be careful of that. Because the problem is that Bible teaching is missing. That's the danger.

[27:29] And preachers and teachers can sadly twist Bible truth. Our Lord spoke of such, of the Pharisees, he said, that we should be fruit inspectors. It was in the context of false doctrine.

[27:43] Watch out, what does their fruit produce? You know, I think of the fruit inspectors on the border. You know, you head over to Victoria and you get all those lovely bananas and tomatoes and you get to the border and they say, chuck it out.

[27:59] We're not letting that that's a bit restrictive, isn't it? That's a bit harsh, isn't it? That's a bit extreme, isn't it? Because we want to keep our state's fruit safe from fruit fly.

[28:15] That's why they have these people at the borders. You know, it's almost like the boom gate goes down, isn't it? And you're thinking, oh, am I going to get frisped here? Have I got some fruit in my pocket or something?

[28:28] You know? But they do it because it's important. It is important to be fruit inspectors. We need to have careful watch, as it were. Don't let anything slip through the border.

[28:40] And the answer to deception is constant vigilance. Constant vigilance. Our Lord says, watch and pray. Separation is called for. And sometimes separation has got, it's like a dirty word for some people.

[28:53] They've got bad memories of this or that, of legalism, as some would call it. We're not talking about that. We're talking about biblical separation. We're talking about honouring our Lord and God and Saviour and esteeming Him and honouring Him and not wanting to soil that purity of our Lord, of the one we love, who we follow and adore.

[29:15] You know, some would look at the chook house that I've built. Oh, it looks like Fort Knox. It's this big cage.

[29:27] How cruel. Those chooks are locked away at night so securely they can't get out and nothing can get to them. How cruel that is, that separation of that big cage, that big ugly cage.

[29:40] Some might look at that cage and think, how cruel, how restrictive, how confining, it's like a prison. But that cage keeps our chooks safe for another night.

[29:55] Safe from the roaming foxes. Some may think this way of our church. Why? How legalistic. You only use the King James Bible and you hold that this Bible is the sure word of God.

[30:08] You will not run with the majority of churches where they may hold some ecumenical event. How restrictive. You will not join party with some doubtful preacher who comes to town but you'll speak up against it.

[30:21] How legalistic are you? You will speak against the errors and trends that threaten to damage the purity of the church of God. You speak out against sin.

[30:32] You challenge people to leave the status quo and to take their faith seriously to put it into action. You stir up Christians to take their faith seriously and leave off worldliness.

[30:44] How hard! How strict! And some have the mantra that we need unity at all costs. They virtually cry out for unity at the expense of the truth.

[30:55] Rather steer away from that which is doubtful. Rather have no party with it. There is a rightful division. Someone has said this we are to divide. Guess why?

[31:06] The truth divides. It divides from error. It divides those who follow the truth from those who follow false teachings. And the Lord Jesus said in his word that his word will divide households.

[31:20] Separation is a safeguard. It's good for us. Spiritual deception is everywhere. We must set a watch and keep guard. And so people of God that's why we take this book seriously.

[31:33] We take the word of God as it's read. And we will not join up with doubtful interdenominational gatherings where the truth is blurred and the gospel message is muddied and confused and watered down.

[31:45] We must not join hands with such that do not uphold the sure word of God. we will not walk with them who are blown around with every wind of doctrine.

[31:58] Don't get blown around. Steady course straight. Chart your course straight. Doctrinal purity matters. So we have to be a biblical church even if we must stand alone at times.

[32:12] And that's not to say and God forbid that we should ever get so high and mighty that we have a higher view of ourselves than we ought to have. You know one phrase that stood out to me in my study this week was meekness of spirit.

[32:33] It occurs at least a couple of times in the word of God. We need to have a meekness of spirit. So in other words a humility because when others fall we can do the same.

[32:44] can be just as fallible as the next man. And I've counseled some men, I've had some interchange with some preachers of late and it's been healthy exchange.

[32:55] It's been a helpful exchange. It's been a wholesome exchange because our intent is to edify, to exhort, to lift up, to build up. And we need a mature, a robust faith, a gutsy faith that will be more faithful and strive to be more faithful.

[33:11] We'll not back down. And so next one here is it's time to put away childish things. Paul says, brethren, be not children in understanding, but how be it in malice be children, but in understanding be men.

[33:25] Of course we'll have that heart of a child in that rightful child likeness, but in understanding be men. In understanding be men.

[33:37] We need a manly Christianity that will stand up, a manly Christianity with muscles that will stand tall and stand fast, because now more than ever, such a church is needed.

[33:49] In days of deception, we need to be a people who will stand up for the truth, no matter the cost. The word is a lamp, it says, unto our feet. The final authority of the scriptures must guide us.

[34:04] Colossians 3.16, it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Does the word dwell in you richly, richly? Love the word.

[34:15] Plants it in your heart. Plants it in your mind, in your life. Make a proper application of it. And God's spirit will always act in accord with his word. That's how we test things, isn't it?

[34:27] If it's out of skew with this, then chuck it out. Don't have a bar of it. God's spirit will always act in accord with his word. And so simple Bible truth is our need.

[34:39] We must have Bible truth, the power of the word, to safeguard us from error and deception. Hebrews 11, 6, it says, but without faith it is impossible to please God.

[34:52] For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Diligently seek God. God, don't have that kind of half hearted seeking of God.

[35:06] Diligently seek after him. Pursue him, chase after him, run into his arms, run to God, flee to God for your refuge, for your strength.

[35:19] Be on your guard, test everything. You know, I think of the church library and we're thankful to have Shirley helping in that department now. And sometimes people plant things on that bookcase that I think, why is that there?

[35:32] Why are they reading that? You know, we get some, I don't know, it could be you today, please take it in the spirit that I'm giving it to you, that, you know, the Worldwide Church of God and the Plain Truth and these kind of magazines, it's error.

[35:51] Don't have a bar of it. Don't put it in our church library, please. You know, that's why we'd like to have, we need some, a very strict, harsh, legalistic woman to be looking after that church library.

[36:02] We need someone who's going to scrutinise every little word in those things to make sure we don't want any garbage here. There's enough garbage out there. We don't want it on our church library shelves.

[36:13] And so, well, the point I'm making is be discerning, be discerning people of God. Now, you might say, oh, preacher, you're having a go at me, that was my magazine. Look, come and see me afterwards. I'm not meaning to condemn you.

[36:24] I'm trying to help you because some stuff is not good for you. You know, it's like some of the, some of the chook food that I have.

[36:34] They say, don't feed it to the sheep. So, you've got to be careful. Some food is good for some animals. Some food is bad for other animals. And friends, there's some bad stuff out there. We want to be careful what we feed on, what we feed our minds with.

[36:48] And so, we cannot wander from the word, but rather test everything. Next scripture is 1 Thessalonians 521, prove all things. In other words, watch out for all things and hold fast that which is good.

[37:03] Hang on to that. Watch out for the false, hang on to the good. And so, error can slip in to church's teachings. You know, we are all capable of error.

[37:17] I am capable of being deceived myself. And I have got to guard myself. Pray for me that what I preach is the truth. We must heed the warnings of the word or we can ignore them.

[37:31] Here is a picture of a truck driver about to get smashed by a train. He survived but he ignored the red light warning.

[37:47] He went through. Now, I must confess there is a representative of the law here today. I went through a red light lately. I'll play the final later.

[38:02] It looked like a green light. It looked like a green arrow but it wasn't a green arrow. It was a green circle. We can make mistakes, can't we?

[38:13] We can be deceived. I really thought it was green. It was green but it was the wrong one. We can be like this truck driver and go through the red light and if we miss the warnings, we'll end up in a big mess.

[38:27] A key method we must use is to test before we trust. Be a student of the word. Let me sum up real quickly where we travelled just now. We talked about a shipwreck, the Titanic.

[38:40] A shipwreck, a warning ignored. Iceberg ahead, warning, warning, warning. Oh, we'll just sail through. We can hear a message like this and just sail through and end up a spiritual shipwreck.

[38:56] The warnings are many. When you see those cigarette packets, warning, warning, warning. Oh, I'll have that one over there. The last days are days of deception from seducing spirits.

[39:10] And we can ignore the warning. Yeah, you can ignore the warning. You don't need to listen to anything that I've just said. Our Lord warns us to be alert to wolves in sheep's clothing, false prophets, and we must keep the foxes out of the hen house.

[39:25] Don't invite them in. We might have, we've got to be legalistic, don't we? In a good way. Because sin is deceitful.

[39:37] Guard yourself, guard your friends, guard your church, but exhort one another. The next one, exhort one another daily, while it is called today, for lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

[39:50] Sin is deceitful, so stay in the word, and may the word of God abide in you. heed the warning while you can.

[40:01] So don't trifle with the things of God. People of God, the point I'm making here today is the simple truth that spiritual deception is everywhere. You turn on the TV tube and you don't know what they're saying.

[40:15] You know, people might say, it's like they treat Google sometimes. Oh, Google it. Oh, that must be true because Google says it is. Duh. That's what some people like spiritually, isn't it?

[40:29] Oh, Kenneth Copeland says it, so it must be true. Joyce Meyer says it, so that must be true. Warning, warning. Separation is needful.

[40:41] And so we must stand fast on the final authority of the scriptures for the Bible, for our lives. Now, this message is a warning for Christians. Now, you might say, I'm not even a Christian today.

[40:53] I don't know what you're going on about. The point is there's a deceiver and he wants you to be lost and damned for eternity and hellfire and your only hope is to cry out, Jesus, save me.

[41:07] I believe you died on the cross for my sin to give me the truth instead of all the lies that are around me. I want to believe you. You are the one who says, I am the way, the truth and the life.

[41:22] I can count on you that what you say is true. And he says to you, come unto me. He says, believe in me and you shall have everlasting life.

[41:33] He says, repent. He says, trust. He says, believe. He says, follow. He says, honour me, live for me, die daily to self.

[41:48] He says, beware. Take heed that you be not deceived. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you are the source of truth. We know that the devil is a liar and the father of lies.

[42:03] Lord, we pray that each one would know the truth that sets men free today, that we might know what it is to believe from the depth of our heart, from the core of our being, to let go of our own way of living and to trust in your entire blood sacrifice for our sin, paying the penalty there and receiving the free gift of eternal life, even here and now, for time and eternity.

[42:28] We pray for every believer. We pray for this church. We pray for our sister churches. We pray for every church in Adelaide, in this nation, for every preacher. Lord, we pray the truth would be declared soundly and forcefully and without fear or favour or compromise, Lord, that you would be glorified in your church.

[42:48] As we know, one day you will come and this church that you are coming for will be pure, spotless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Lord, we look forward to that day when we will be entirely right with you, entirely cleansed and pure as your people.

[43:05] Help us to find that sound and pure doctrine, to yearn for it, to love your word, to let it live in our lives, let it be such that we apply it in our 24 by 7, Lord, until we see your face, we pray in Jesus' name.

[43:21] Amen.