False Prophets

We have spent a long time lately looking at the right road to God, the road to maturity, and hopefully, where ever we were before, whatever direction we were going, we have all now started to walk down this road.

And as we start there is something I must make you aware of. This road is not an easy road. As we fix our eyes on Christ and the future that awaits us in heaven, there should be joy in our hearts and an anticipation of what the future holds for us.

But there is a devil who will do all he can to shipwreck our faith! There is a devil who will throw all hell at us to try to knock us off this path we're now walking and on to the broad road that leads to everlasting destruction! He lives to oppose God and will stop at nothing to accomplish it!

In Scripture, the devil is described as a 'Wolf', 'a serpent' and a 'a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour'. He has no morals and will use every trick and fear to try to drag us to hell with him! And he will throw things at us that we may now think 'If that happens I don't think I can trust God any more', but in reality will only make us stronger in our faith! Just look at the book of Job and the terrible things that happened to him. Even his closest friends said to him 'Things are so bad for you, why don't you just curse God and die!' yet through it all, through it all Job could say 'though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!' (13:15) and 'I know that my redeemer lives!' (19:25) yet through all the persecutions and trials and afflictions the devil may throw at us, in Christ we find strength, in Christ we find comfort, in Christ we find the grace to get through it all to the blessings that await on the other side! David said 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil for You are with me! Your rod and your staff they comfort me!' what else does he say 'He restores my soul'

But while the devil is a fierce, roaring lion, and a wolf seeking to ravish the sheep of God, he is also very cunning! He is very crafty and subtle and comes to us, we are told, as 'an angel of light' who perverts the Word of God and even performs lying signs which may be and have been mistook for work of the Holy Spirit! When Moses when in to Pharaoh he threw his staff on the floor and it became a snake, the Pharaoh's sorcerers then threw their staffs down and their too became snakes! Don't think the devil can't imitate God! The difference is God's power lasts, the devil's will soon fade away! Moses' 'snake' ate those of the sorcerers!

So while the devil will come at us as a lion or a wolf or a snake and through all kinds of terrible things at us, and things we might expect, I want us to just look at the things we might not! I want us to look at the devil coming as 'an angel of light', false teachers or false prophets leading the people of God away from truth and into darkness!

Never in the history of the Church has the Church been so easily led astray! We live in a time where any minute of any day can we turn on the TV or the radio or the computer and find a Christian station and sit and listen to a sermon. And while this is great, the problem is that so many of the preachers tend to speak rubbish! They do not teach the word of God as it is here, to build us up and prepare us for heaven, they preach ear tickling sermons about how we can become rich, how we can become successful in our work, how we can get anything we want, and more over they teach that this is what God wants!

And because it's so much easier to listen to a preacher than it is to read and study the Bible ourselves Christians can't seem to be able to discern what is right and what isn't! Throughout the Bible we are warned about such things and are told to search the Scriptures and test these things to see if they are true or not!

And as Christians just starting out on the road to maturity we need to be fully aware of this tactic and be on the lookout so we ourselves are not deceived and lead astray!

Let's just look briefly at 1 Kings 18.