Deceptive Gold Works Its Penalty – God Is Not Mocked Series

DECEPTIVE GOLD WORKS ITS PENALTY – GOD IS NOT MOCKED

In 1960 Arnold Long, a missionary to the people of the Australian outback, wrote “The Bushman’s Guide. It contains stories of the outback and of people and was used in outreach. I did meet Arnold once. He was a remarkable man. This is one of the stories -

[A]. STORY – THE GOLD OF DECEPTION

In a country district of New South Wales, a man who had once been a jockey owned a large piece of land. The property was not particularly valuable, but the owner conceived an idea which might enable him to gain money by the subdivision and sale of his land.

He had been fattening turkeys to sell at Christmas time and had also in his possession, a quantity of alluvial gold. Before selling the turkeys, he mixed the gold in with the bran and pollard on which they were fed.

The purchasers were astonished to find alluvial gold, in some cases, up to half an ounce in weight, inside of the turkeys that they had killed for their Christmas celebrations. Naturally they drew their own conclusions regarding the land where the turkeys had been feeding. They hastened to buy what they could of this property, which surely must be fabulously rich in this alluvial gold!

The owner gained the money that he had coveted, but found that his gains, were in reality, far greater losses, in ways he had not anticipated. He had not broken the law of man; nor had he even advertised his property for sale. Verbally he had not lied to anyone, but what was quite clear, was that his intention was to deceive the people who rushed to buy the land from him.

In his heart, he knew that he had taken their money by false pretences and his conscience gave him no peace. Conscience has been described as “the shadow of God’s judgement throne on the soul”. It is the witness of the One who desires truth in the inward parts, that is, in the secret thoughts and motives as well as in all outward dealings. In this case, the uneasiness became steadily worse and increased to a fever which no doctor could cure.

As a result of this story playing out in the years that followed, this old scoundrel, through his actions, was responsible for the death of a man and his wife and five children.

As time went on, the agitation of spirit affected his mental balance, until at last, the man who had so cleverly deceived others, became an inmate of a mental hospital.

Years later an old friend from the past called to see him, but conversation was useless. The visitor was not even recognised. The reigns of the mind had been dropped; reason and memory had fled. [end of story]

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[A] SOCIETY’S EVILS AFFECT THE PEOPLE

How many human tragedies are the result of spiritual disorder? Something has been wrong morally and spiritually, and has never been put right. Is there a remedy for such troubles of the mind and spirit? Yes, thank God, there is a sovereign, infallible remedy. This is the good news which the gospel brings, and it cannot be found elsewhere in the world.

That story I have just read contains some basic principles that will always remain unbroken. Can I list them.

1. When a person sets out to deceive, not much thought is given to where it might all end.

2. Deception always comes at a cost. Be sure the deceiver will be found out.

3. The one who deceives and lies will most often hurt other people.

4. The one who deceives and lies will always hurt himself or herself.

5. All sin is accountable to God. None will be missed.

We live in increasingly challenging days, where it is now becoming more difficult to live for Jesus Christ in a society that is very quickly becoming more evil by the day. I am not being dramatic. 50 years ago we were a Christian society. Lately it was described as a post-Christian era. Now it is an anti-Christian country. We are in the last days of the Church Age and the darkness is increasing. These days are the ones spoken of by Paul in this verse – {{2Timothy 3 v 13 “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”}} You know what is saddest of all? It is that these evil men are so bad that even those in churches are being deceived. Does it surprise you to know that those who are voting for “Yes” in the homosexual marriage vote include a significant number in churches who call themselves Christians. They are deceived, but the saddest of all, many of them are not Christians in the first place. Wickedness is so bad it is even difficult for a Christian to live an uncompromised life.