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.
Here we have the Israelites. The people of God. Chosen and set apart from the other nations to be God's very own! They were the ones through whom God would show His great power, mercy and love! Much like the Church today! I don't want to go into a discussion about whether or not God has finished with Israel and replaced them with the Church, but I what I do want us to see that here Israel represents the Church today.
Then you have the 450 prophets of Baal, those people who have crept into Israel and heave led them astray to worship this false god! Now they represent the false prophets and false teachers today. Men and women who have crept into the Church and have climbed into positions of power and influence and have and are leading the Church astray!
How can a Christian leader say that homosexuality is acceptable, when God call it an 'abomination'? And how can denominations ordain practicing homosexuals into the ministry when the Bible says those who practice such a thing will not inherit the kingdom of God?
There are many leaders today who deny that the Bible is the complete, inerrant Word of God! To deny that is to deny the very foundation of our faith! If we can pick and choose what to accept as true and what to cast off as not then where do we stop? Are only the good things to be accepted and the harder teachings, the things we don't like to be dismissed? Pretty much then, we'll be going back to the days of the Judges when 'men did what was right in their own eyes'!
Then you have this Ecumenical movement where Church leaders want us to work with other religions saying that ALL roads lead to heaven! If I follow Christ and you follow Mohammed and you follow Buddha, it doesn't matter- it's the same god and we're all going to the same place, just by a different means of transport! Rubbish! The Bible clearly says that there in 'NO WAY to the Father but through Jesus Christ!'
Then you have prevalent Church leaders saying that the idea that God gave His only Son to die on the cross for our sins is nothing more than 'cosmic child abuse' and is therefore not true is denying and dismissing the most fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith! It is the basis of the Atonement! Without Christ's death we would ALL be lost! When we stand before the Judgement Seat there is NO hope!
These are Church leaders! These are supposed to be the Peters and Pauls of our generation! But instead of building us up and leading us to heaven, they are taking us straight to hell! And the problem is, so many are just accepting it!! Their books are best sellers and their churches are full!
It is the work of the devil to oppose the work of God, twist the Scriptures and hinder the Gospel! And if we look, and we don't even have to look hard, we see it seeping through into the Church!
Now about such people, let us say this, just because there are many of them doesn't mean they are right! Just because they have a large following and their Churches hold 40,000 plus people doesn't mean that the Spirit of God rests upon them! There was/is an American pastor I see sometimes on the Christian channel here and I must say the biggest church I have ever seen, yet all the sermons I've heard him preach have been about self gain and self glory and nothing about God! He even went on national TV and denied that Jesus is the only way to heaven! Just because someone is popular doesn't mean they are right! In fact the Bible warns us of a time when people will flock to such preachers because they don't want to hear the truth but rather nice messages!
Another thing is just because the church services are loud or that the people are jumping about and dancing down the aisles doesn't mean they are right! And it doesn't mean they are alive! While the false prophets where jumping about, shouting and dancing, what was Elijah doing? Sitting down, quiet! Now, I'm not saying that ALL churches should be quiet and that singing and dancing etc is wrong because I'm not, the Psalms are full of songs and David danced often before the Lord. What I'm saying is don't judge a church simply upon their noise.
And last thing I want to say about the false prophets is this, don't think that just because they are sincere or dedicated that they are right, that they know God. There are many people out there who are very sincere about what they believe and teach, there are many who are extremely dedicated, the cults are full of such people, look at the Muslims and Jehovah Witnesses, it means nothing. These false prophets beat themselves and cut themselves with knives as they cried out to their god but their god was NOT the living God! Be careful not to be deceived by the devil into following someone solely upon their sincerity or dedication.
As Christians we need to know God, we need to know His Word. The Bible says that we are His sheep and 'His sheep know His voice'. And as we spend time with Him we will soon be able to see who and what is of God and what isn't!
And then we finish with Elijah who represents the genuine, Spirit filled man of God. He knows God, he believes His Word and isn't afraid to act upon it! He is humble in his heart and as such was used to perform some great miracles!
But in the midst of all the ungodliness and false prophets he feels that he's on his own, that there is no one left on his side! When he hears the message of these false teachers his heart burns within him to a point where he thinks he's the only one left. Don't be discouraged if you ever feel that in the midst of all the false teaching in the church today that you are the only one left who knows God and can see the truth of His Word.
Because through you God can do mighty things! Through you God can change the heart of the Church back again to the living God! Through you God will surely move! In the midst of a terrible famine God provides for His own!
Whatever the devil throws at us throughout our lives we can be sure that God will make a way! We can rest in the knowledge that through Christ He has overcome the devil and all his wicked ways and we too will overcome; we too will come out stronger on the other side!
