June 14, 2020

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control

Library is open Tuesdays and Fridays

11am —3 pm

PRAYER POINTS Psalm 63:3-4 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live and in your name I will lift up my hands.

Our Church Family - In this pandemic may we feel the peace, comfort, hope and

love of Jesus.

Pray for the Lord's blessings on Ps. Jeff and our church leaders and for the guidance of

the Holy Spirit for all preparing the message and Communion talk for the church service

each week. Praise and thank the Lord that we are able to "attend" church in our

homes.

Pray for complete healing for all who are suffering pain, for deliverance of the cancer

cells Peter and Brian are suffering and for perfect eye sight for Sue.

For Mary in Bogota, Matt, Rebekah and their children in Georgia, pray for their

protection from the coronavirus.

For families with young children as schools begins to open. Pray that the children and

their teachers will be protected from the virus. Source - Australia Prayer Network

Praise and thank God for the recent most welcome rains.

Praise and thank God for the blessings his Word brings to us. :-

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the

world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Australia - Pray for continued wisdom for Scott Morrison and our leaders who are

leading us through this pandemic.

Persecuted Church - Pray for the Christians in China, they are now not permitted to

hold religious funerals.

If you have any prayer requests please contact

Ann Sheffield, 0488 598 730

or Ps. Jeff McGregor, 0415 614 781

Bible quiz Answers page 12

Ps Jeff’s

False teachers/ prophets and a false gospel

This title is provocative and I intend it to be. There has been a burden on my heart to

write on this for some time, but did not want to be rash or write in a way that would

cause disunity. What I write here is written as a brother in Christ, as the spiritual oversight

of this church, written in love and to be respectful of all who may read this. But first

before I launch into what I want to say on this, let‟s go to the Word of God.

Matthew 24:3-5 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately,

saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and

of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you

astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, „I am the Christ,‟ and they will lead

many astray, also Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many

astray. ”‟These are the words of our Lord. If He has said these things, then we need to

listen. As a final introduction, read these words of Jesus, Matthew 7:21-23 „“Not everyone

who says to me, „Lord, Lord,‟ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the

will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, „Lord, Lord, did we

not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty

works in your name?‟ 23 And then will I declare to them, „I never knew you; depart from

me, you workers of lawlessness.‟‟

With those verses as a guide let us explore together what is a false teacher/ prophet

and what is the false gospel. This is a very large subject to cover and this blog cannot

give it full justice, so I encourage you; if this has piqued your interest then do some

further research. However, when using the internet as a research tool, be aware there is

a lot of misinformation on the net. Be discerning, use it with wisdom and caution.

What is a false teacher/ prophet? In the most basic terms, a false teacher is one who

distorts scripture, uses it to meet an agenda that they have set. This may not be

intentional, they may have been deceived by a false teacher. Not to have a basic

understanding of the gospel sometimes is intentional; they know what there are doing

and are happy to take people‟s money and souls. The word of God is quite clear to

anyone who teaches the word of God. The bible says in James 3:1 „Not many of you

should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged

with greater strictness‟. For everything a teacher says either from a public platform or in

a study, in any setting, they will be held accountable. God will judge them more harshly

than those that hear. What a teacher says can have an influence on a person and if

they have taught error they will be judged for that. I apply this principle to myself as well

and I would hope you who read these blogs and listen to my sermons would weigh all

that I say in light of Scripture. Do not just take my word for it, check it out; be like the

Bereans who checked the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was the truth or

not.

There are many false teachers in the church in these days, and we should not be

surprised, 2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not

endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves

teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth

and wander off into myths.

But what do they teach? We can break it down to three main areas.

The first is prosperity teaching. In this it is asserted that God does not want His people to

be poor or sick and if they have enough faith they will have riches and will never be ill.

This usually comes with the idea of „sow a seed of faith‟ which is a way of saying; if you

send me your money, God will bless you and give it back to you many times over. The

problem with this is that the only ones who are rich are the teachers who espouse this.

They prey on the weak and gullible. They twist scripture and take it out of context to

prove their point, BUT nowhere in the bible does God say believers will be rich or never

suffer. Paul the apostle had a thorn in His side (it was a physical ailment; click the link to

an excellent article on this https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/thorn.cfm). God never

healed Him. Surely if it is based on faith, surely he would have been healed? But he was

not, and he gives the reason why (see 2 Cor. 12:7-9). Also, Timothy, the pastor of the

church at Ephesus, was never healed of his chronic stomach issues (see 1 Tim 5:23).

I will at this point name some of the main proponents of this type of teaching. My

intention is not to be mean. I am not pulling them down or being hateful toward them.

I have never met them personally, but I want to put a light on their theology, their

teaching. The main teacher in this, known as the grandfather of the prosperity movement

is Kenneth Hagin. Other main proponents are Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and Creflo

Dollar. One of the teachings that Copeland, in particular, gives is that we are „little gods‟.

That; because we are made in His image, we have divinity within us. What does the first

of the ten commandments say? “you shall have no other gods before me”, and the

second commandment says ”Do not made a carved image”. To self-deify is to go

against scripture. Some of you may have listened and have read their books. As a fellow

Christian, I ask that you remove them from your bookshelves, stop sending them your

money, stop watching their T.V shows, go back to His word.

The second area is signs and wonders. Now, I believe that God can and does do

supernatural things. I believe that the gifts are still in use today. I have seen people

healed, I have seen people set free from demon possession, but not all signs and

wonders are from God.

One of the most concerning things in this type of teaching is that of gold dust and gems

appearing during a service or prayer meeting. My question is; what purpose does this

serve? It causes one to look for the experience rather than the creator. Other things that

happen in this type of teaching is those who „manifest‟ under the spirit; people writhing

around on the ground howling, people with uncontrollable laughter etc. One of the fruits

of the spirit is self-control; there is no self-control in this setting. Additionally, we are told by

Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, and also verse

40 But all things should be done decently and in order. There is no self-control, a lot of

confusion and little to no order in the above mentioned situations. When I see these

things it reminds me of the same things I saw while I was involved in the occult: not a

copy of, but exactly the same The purpose of these manifestations was to allow an

unclean spirit to possess someone, to do harm or to fool them to look for an

experience .This is what is happening when we see this in the church. The experience

becomes the reason to attend the church, rather than coming to praise God and give

Him glory. Some of the main teachers of this are Todd Bentley, William Branham, Steve

Hill, Paul Crouch and Rodney Howard Brown. I advise you strongly to stay away from

these „peddlers‟ of experience. They are, maybe unknowingly, inviting evil spirits to

deceive us.

continued

The third area is what I call the „fluffy‟ teachers, those who tell you what you want to

hear, „everything‟s alright; don‟t worry about your sin because God is love‟ type of

teaching. This type of teaching down plays the seriousness of sin. Your sinful nature and

any sin you commit is not an issue, because God is love. He loves you. It is true that God

loves us. In fact he loves us so much, that He sent Jesus to pay for our sin. God sees sin as

an affront to His holy nature. He will not be in the presence of sin. Without Jesus, our sin

alienates us from God. With Christ we are new creations and are told to turn from

sin; 1 John 3:6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on

sinning has either seen him or known him.

This teaching also tells us that we can do it ourselves; the self-improvement seminar type

of teaching. In essence it says that we can, by works, save ourselves or at least help God

save us. This is rank heresy. We cannot save ourselves. Our righteousness before God is

like filthy rags (see Isaiah 64:6). The word tells us that salvation comes from the Lord only,

it states this in John 14:6; „Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No

one comes to the Father except through me”‟. It‟s only through Jesus that we can be

saved, not by works or anything we do. Again, in Ephesians 2:8-9 „For by grace you have

been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result

of works, so that no one may boast.’ Our salvation is a gift from God. By his grace He

chose us and by faith in what Jesus has done on our behalf. If any teacher tells you

what your „itching ears‟ want to hear, downplays sin, tells you that works add to your

salvation he/she not speaking on behalf of God, they are deceivers. Some main

proponents of this type of teaching are Joel Osteen, Norman Vincent Peale, Robert

Schuller, Rob Bell and Beth Moore. Do not listen to their lies. Only Jesus can offer

salvation. Works do not save. Only Jesus saves.

What about false prophets? A prophet is one who speaks for God. They hear His voice

and proclaim His message to the people or person or place God has directed it.

In the Bible we are given very clearly what a prophet of God is like. Their prophesies are

always clear, not couched in a way that it could be interpreted in any way you like.

Nostradamus falls into this category. His visions are so vague they can mean anything

and have been interpreted in many ways. He is a false prophet. This is in line with what

has already been revealed in Scripture, and is correct. If anyone says that are a prophet

and a prophecy they make fails to be fulfilled, then they are a false prophet. There are

no second chances in this. If someone claims to be a prophet and reveals something

that is not in the Bible, or says „this is a new revelation from God‟, that person is a false

prophet. The word of God is God‟s final word. It is His total and complete revelation to

us. We have what is called a „closed cannon‟, meaning God is never going to add

anything else to His word. Deuteronomy 18:20-22 ‘But the prophet who presumes to

speak a word in My Name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in

the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.‟ 21 And if you say in your heart,

„How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?‟— 22 when a prophet speaks

in the Name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word

that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not

be afraid of him.‟ Let this be our guide when someone speaks on behalf of the Lord.

Some false prophets to be aware of are Oral Roberts, Todd White and Harold Camping.

There are many others. Be discerning, check out what they say by the word of God.

The last thing I want to address is false gospel. What is a false gospel? It is one that

denies the already written word, denies Christ and His atoning sacrifice on the cross.

Some very common and well known espousers of false gospels are those who call

themselves the Jehovah Witnesses or the Mormons and even the Christadelphians.

These we mostly know, but there are some teachers/pastors who teach a false gospel,

one that is contrary to the word of God.

continued

If you enjoyed Ps Jeff’s blog and want to read more,

you can find his other blogs on www.livingwatersloxton.com.au

The bible tells us how we can spot a false gospel. 1 John 4:1-3 „Beloved, do not believe

every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false

prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit

that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that

does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard

was coming and now is in the world already.‟ They may sound good, they may play the

„right‟ style of music, may be very loving and sincere, but if they deny Christ and His

fulfilled work on the cross, they are giving you a false gospel. If the tell you that you need

to add extras to your faith in order to be saved, that is a false gospel. If they tell you that

Jesus requires you to submit to the leader totally, that is a false gospel. The true gospel is

this; God love you so much, that He sent His only begotten son to pay for your sin, he

was crucified, died and on the third day rose bodily. If you accept what Christ has

done for you and have asked Him for forgiveness, have turned from your sin and have

asked Him to be your Lord and Saviour, then you are saved. That is the gospel in a „nut

shell‟. Romans 10:9 „Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.‟ That is

the gospel message.

One place to be aware of that promotes a false gospel is Bethel church in Redding,

California, and its pastor Bill Johnson.

My intention in this blog was to bring awareness of these things to you. As the pastor at

Living Waters it is my duty to make sure that you are not being led astray. I hope and

pray that you will take this in the spirit that it is intended; not to harm, but to help.

If you have any questions that have arisen from this blog, or any comments, please

leave a comment below.

In Christ our redeemer Ps Jeff

Published online 11 June 2020

continued

Please note new office hours

Quiz answers

1 pride

2 pursues

3 mock

4 exalts

5 despises

6 honeycomb

7 merry

8 hearing

9 follows

10 humility

11 borrower

12 ancient

13 rich

14 apply