That Satan labors might and main, by false teachers, which are his messengers and ambassadors, to deceive, delude, and for ever undo the precious souls of men.

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders. I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. (Acts 20:28-30)

These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve. (2 Cor. 11:13-15)

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
(Eph. 4:14)

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“My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.” (Ps 63:8)

Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.  Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow.

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. “No man can come to me,’ said our Lord, ‘except the Father which hath sent me draw him,” and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming.  The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: “Thy right hand upholdeth me.”  In this divine “upholding” and human “following” there is no contradiction.  All is of God, for as von Hugel teaches, God is always previous.

In practice, however, (that is, where God’s previous working meets man’s present response) man must pursue God.  On our part there must be positive reciprocation if this secret drawing of God is to eventuate in identifiable experience of the Divine.  In the warm language of personal feeling this is stated in the Forty-second Psalm: “As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” This is deep calling unto deep, and the longing heart will understand it.

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What is this call that sounds my name? What is this affliction that awaits my soul? Ay, it is the cross of my Lord. It is the cross that He has chosen for me.

Shall I run? Shall I hide from its hideousness? Shall I beg of Him another way?

Terror grips my soul! The sight of it repulses me. My flesh recoils at the suffering I know I am to endure. I cry to Him, “Have mercy, Lord! Deliver me!”…But the cross remains. He insists that I bear it.

My cheeks are stained with tears; my heart, in deep agony; my flesh trembles at the beam that awaits my back.

Mocking and insults are thrown upon me as I consider the cost. Doubt ravages my soul. Insanity threatens and whispers comforting sounds in my ear. Images of compromise pressure me to turn back. The noise rises to a deafening pitch! I cry out to God, “Deliver me!”…. But the cross remains. He insists that I bear it.

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DEAR FRIEND, a false gospel is sweeping our land, and has swept like wild fire through Christendom in these last decades, damning more souls to hell than seemingly any other of Satan’s subtle lies; and I’ve come again to warn you of this FALSE GOSPEL OF CARNAL CHRISTIANITY. In our past messages, we have been showing the fruits that grow on the tree of this false gospel as they are described in II Tim. 3:1-7. We have seen from v. 5 that these fruits are manifested in the lives of those who have a “form of godliness, but deny the power thereof;” so these are not worldlings, but professors, converts of this false gospel that deny the power of the grace of God to break the power of sin. Consequently, their fruits are the fruits of the flesh, for they have never been born again of the Spirit of God. We have seen first that their behavior is all wrong, described by the words and expressions: “blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, traitors, and heady.” Second, their opinion is all wrong, described under the words and expressions: “boasters, proud, high-minded and despisers of those that are good.” Third, their affection is all wrong, described by the words and expressions: “without natural affection, lovers of their own selves, covetous, and lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”

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“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2Timothy 4:3-4).

During the last two or three generations the pulpit has given less and less prominence to doctrinal preaching, until today, with very rare exceptions, it has no place at all. In some quarters the cry from the pew was, ‘we want living experience and not dry doctrine’; in others, ‘we need practical sermons and not metaphysical dogmas’; and yet others, Give us Christ and not theology. Sad to say, such senseless cries were generally heeded: ’senseless’ we say, for there is no other safe way of testing experience, as there is no foundation for practicals to be built upon if they be divorced from Scriptural doctrine; while Christ cannot be known unless he be preached (1Cor.1:23), and he certainly cannot be ‘preached’ if doctrine is shelved. Various reasons may be given for the lamentable failure of the pulpit, chief among them being laziness, desire for popularity, superficial and lop-sided evangelism, and love of the sensational’.

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The personal testimony of J.M. Vergara

It was January 2, 2008; around 10pm…

I’M LOST!
I’M LOST!
I’M LOST AND I’M GOING TO HELL!!!

…is what I cried out to God in prayer as I lay in despair with empty hands, an empty soul, with an anguishful heart.

There is no convincing of myself otherwise that I am saved. Many of us would advise someone like myself in the same situation not to think this way, that maybe it is only Satan’s doing that I go into such a thought. That I must realize that this is only a sort of test. That these are just lies that Satan has imputed into my mind, doing his best to take me from the straight path.

Oh, wicked generation. How many times have we blamed the devil for each and every mishap that has happened in our lives. “It’s because of Satan. Stand in faith and rebuke him and he will leave! Do you not know what the Scripture says? Resist him and he will leave?”

My friend, if only you knew how to differentiate the presence of God from the presence of Satan.

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