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.
When God created everything, He made laws to govern the physical universe and we could name many of those that affect our lives each day – the law of gravity, light travelling in a straight line, the law of cause and effect, and so many others. Likewise, when He created human beings, he established eternal laws based on the attributes and character of God, that gave us laws about sin and morality. We can not break these, for they are laws with penalties and laws with consequence. God said that a soul that sins shall surely die. We can not put our hands in the fire of sin and withdraw it unburnt. That jockey who deceived bore the consequence of deception. That is how we were made.
ACCOUNTABILITY AND CONSEQUENCES
Because sin has consequences, then there is a day of reckoning; what we call the day of accountability. Every sin must be punished; you either accept Christ's punishment on your behalf, or you will bear your own penalty in hell. There are only two destinies – one the Saviour prepared for you by His death on the cross; or the one you are preparing for yourself in hell through unrepentance. There is no middle option. God wants no one to perish but for all to come to a knowledge of the truth. Paul wrote about this moral law of God that is binding for all eternity in the following passage – {{1Timothy 1 v 9 “realising the fact that law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 1Tim 1:10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, 1Tim 1:11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”}}
The man in our story of the deceptive gold was immoral and a liar and a sinner. It is true he had committed those acts, but remorse at the end of his life was not good enough. He needed repentance and confession of sin, and then he could have gained the forgiveness of God, and would have become a new creation in Christ Jesus. The beauty of God’s grace, is that the worst of men can come to forgiveness of sin and be washed as white as snow. It was the grace of God that sought me and saved me.
I want to repeat one of the verses I quoted a bit earlier, this one – {{1Timothy 1 v 10 “and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,”}} “CONTRARY TO SOUND TEACHING”. I said earlier we are living in dark days where deceivers abound, and maintaining a Christian witness and the truth of Christian doctrine, is more difficult than it was even 10 years ago. Paul wrote with pleading to the Corinthian church in these words – {{1Corinthians 6 v 9 “Do not be deceived. (there we have this deception again). Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 1Cor 6:10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God, 1Cor 6:11 and such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”}}
[B]. STANDING ON A SOLID FOUNDATION – LET JUDE SPEAK
There is one answer to deceivers in the Christian faith. It lies in a good foundation in the bible. Actually, there is NO other way, none whatever. I would urge you today to be established in sound teaching. Study to show yourselves approved by God rightly dividing the word of truth. One of the most amazing books in the bible is Jude, written by the half brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to look at something from verse 3 (also done in the Jude series) – {{Jude 1 v 3 “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints,”}}
(a). OUR COMMON SALVATION. If you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, you don’t have a different salvation from mine. There might be many paths to the cross, but there is only one Door, one entry, and one sheepfold. The door is the door of faith, the entry is through confession and belief, and the sheepfold is for those who are born again through the Good Shepherd laying down His life for the sheep.
Salvation that belongs to God embraces all ages throughout time, all nationalities and all cultures. All who are part of it know there is only one Way, one Truth and one Life. All come as sinners, hopeless to fix themselves, realising that salvation is obtained only through believing in the Saviour, and receiving Him personally. That is our common salvation.
(b). FEELING THE NECESSITY. Let us try to look into Jude's mind as he made this statement “I felt the necessity” (The NIV is a bit weak in “I felt I had to”). Jude was setting out the points of our common salvation, when the importance and urgency to defend that salvation, overtook him, and he asked the readers to “contend earnestly” for the faith. He APPEALED to them to do that (NASB); URGED them (NIV). We are not playing tiddlywinks here, for the matter demands our full attention. This expression, “contend earnestly” is a very strong term. It means an attitude that takes up arms for the cause, though not literally so. We are to be soldiers for the truth who will not lie down when the word of God is attacked, and when men and women preach and distort the word, and compromise the truth because they are cowards, or take the position of liberal theology. We must not give ground to false teaching, and it obligates us to make sure that we ourselves, are holding to the truth, and shut the door to error.
(c). CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH. I want to look at how we do that and how we contend for the faith. It will involve effort on our part as we equip ourselves to be worthy. I think the most important aspect is that we can’t defend the faith if we don’t know what the faith is, or if we are not established properly in the faith. How can we be established? Paul wrote – {{2Timothy 2 v 15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.”}} When it comes to knowing the bible and living according to its precepts, the principle of osmosis does not apply. Osmosis is when liquid seeps into another substance. The bible does not seep into us and we do not absorb the word of God. There is no easy fix. We must study for ourselves, which means reading and meditating on our own, and reading good commentaries by good Christian teachers, and listening to good messages by gifted men, and on tape or using other technical means, and coming to bible studies, and not neglecting attending a church where the bible is honoured. [Being with Christians where the bible is honoured].
My understanding is that our generation has seen the quickest decline, departure and mutilation of the faith, of any generation before us. We live in a post Christian era and secularism and paganism are openly in revolt against Christianity. It comes from all aspects of the media, and a full frontal attack in education in our schools, and from so-called initiatives from politicians such as we see in homosexual marriage. All these things are attacking the very tenants of the Christian faith with an increasing hatred.
What is sad is that too many preachers who stand in pulpits today throughout Australia and all over for that matter, are compromising the truth, and adopting the thinking and standards of the pagan world. Some are advocates for gay marriage; quite a number have adopted liberal theology; others are on the environmental or social gospel bandwagons as the ideal for Christians. Many are adopting the health and wealth ideas of neo-Pentecostalism and the Charismatics. These are the days of Laodicea where all is lukewarm, meaning a denial of the power of the gospel. These men preach to itching ears, a watered-down, powerless gospel so no member of the church is offended, or challenged as to faith or belief.
It is with that situation in mind, that Jude strongly appeals to his readers to contend earnestly for the faith, and this he develops in his letter. Synonyms for “contend” include, struggle, resist, oppose, challenge. This Greek word for “contend” means to be focussed on a contest or competition, and to struggle. It is like the sportsman who will give his all, fighting to win the prize. It suggests skill and commitment. Let us never be part of the word being denied or adulterated, for believe me, the progress of evil against the true gospel is as subtle as the enemy sowing tares (weeds) in the night, unnoticed, that grow up looking like the wheat. The Apostle Paul also stressed the urgency of this matter – {{Philippians 2 v 27 “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”}} (ESV)
ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER IN THE FAITH
I think these days we need the encouragement of each other. The battle is long and hard. We must support one another because those who would uphold the truth of God are becoming fewer and fewer. Do you recall the time when Moses was involved in the battle against the wicked people called Amalek. This is it – {{EXODUS 17 v 8-13 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”}}
What we gain from this, is that Moses held up his hands in intercession, that is, his effort and involvement was winning the fight, but when he eased off, or when it became too hard for him, then the battle was being lost, but Moses needed the encouragement and help of Aaron and Hur to hold up his hands. Joshua overcame by the sword of iron and steel. We overcome by the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. In the fight against the enemies of God’s word, we need the help of our friends to hold our hands up in the fight, and our friends need our help in holding up their hands as well. Moses contended earnestly that day, and so must we. We must contend against the enemies of the word.
We are not able to defend anything of the Lord if our lives are compromised, or we are living with the world’s standards where we find no time for separation to God and His pursuits; no time to be with God’s people; and little interest in promoting God’s interests. God wants commitment – TRUE commitment!
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
