Summary:
Let’s not be deceived, both physically and spiritually. In this second installment, we learn about another tactic of scammers - they disguise themselves as figures of authority to deceive us. How to deal with spiritual scammers?

1. Be aware of the characteristics of false prophets
2. Know what we believe in
3. Identify and deal with false prophets

The speaker received a message a few days ago. It read, “Scammers everywhere! But this is not a scam. You can borrow at low interest rates…” He deleted the message. Scams are going about all the time and we’ve heard a talk about it too. We also try to protect ourselves using various ways. The speaker spoke about scams before, about the Gibeonites. The purpose is for us to gain an awareness of the techniques that scammers use to scam people, so that we can be wary and protect ourselves.

At the same time, not only are there earthly scammers, there are spiritual scammers - the original deceiver, Satan. He uses the same techniques to deceive the people of God. We spoke about how we can defend ourselves. This is the second instalment of the sermon, to prevent us from falling into earthly and spiritual scams.

1 Kgs 13

This is what happened after the kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was ruled by Jeroboam. He had just built a new religious organisation - two idols in Bethel and Gad. He built these so that the people did not need to go to the southern kingdom of Judah to worship God.

This chapter tells us about God’s response and about this individual, although not named, (only as “man of God”), and we see his faithfulness.

1 Kgs 13:1-10
1 And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
2 Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.’ ”
3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.”
4 So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself.
5 The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
6 Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before.
7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”
8 But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place.
9 For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ”
10 So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.

This man was faithful in passing the message of God to the northern kingdom king, Jeroboam. From this short passage, we see this man was a pretty brave individual. When you decide to go to the king who has just created his own worship, and you tell him that God is going to judge him, you would require a lot of courage. The king could execute him anytime. He was also faithful in passing the words of contemplation to the king. God worked mightily through this man of God.

Through him, three miracles were performed that day. The first was that Jeroboam’s hand withered. The second, Jeroboam’s hand was healed. The third — splitting of the altar. This was done so that Jeroboam would know that the sign was true.

And when this man of God completed his mission, he had passed the message to Jeroboam, he was still very faithful to God’s command. When the king wanted to reward him, this man of God was insistent that God’s command to him was very clear - he was not to eat or drink there and had to go back a different way. Such a faithful and brave man, whom God worked mightily through.

But unfortunately, this man of God would be tricked to break the command of God.

Let’s read v11-22,
11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.
12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah.
13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it,
14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
And he said, “I am.”
15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”
16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.
17 For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ”
18 He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (He was lying to him.)
19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.
20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back;
21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,
22 but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ”

If you read on further, ultimately this man of God would be killed, as a result of his disobedience to God’s commandment. We understand that this man of God was a very faithful person, but yet he was tricked by this old prophet. We don’t know what the intention of this old prophet is. Maybe it was done out of admiration, he wanted to entertain a good worker of God. Maybe he was sent as a test to the man of God. We don’t know. We only know that he lied.

At the same time, we also know that this man of God was very clear what the commandment of God was, because not only did he relay it to Jeroboam, he also repeated it to the prophet. But after the initial rejection, unfortunately he still got tricked and made this mortal mistake.

The method which this old prophet used is an age-old method. A technique that many scammers also use today. They’ll use it in a way to trick their mark of possessions or information.

V18,

He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (He was lying to him.)

This technique is this. They disguise themselves as authority, to convince you to do something. In fact, this old prophet even invoked the fact that it was an ANGEL who had asked him to invite the man of God. To disguise oneself as authority or to make use of authoritative powers to deceive you is something that scammers do all the time.

For earthly scams, it may be people who dress up as policemen. Or they pretend to be some authority, like someone from MOH (Ministry of Health). These scammers really know how to make use of the situation at hand, like the current coronavirus. At the start of the circuit breaker, people tried to scam others by disguising themselves as contact tracers. So scammers disguise themselves as authority figures to try to trick you into giving information you should not be giving.

For our response to earthly scammers, we can ask policemen to give you their ID, and this isn’t something they should hide. Another technique shared is to erase the messages we have in our phones. Whether it’s a text from IRAS, or banks, the message would show which organisation it is from. But the scary thing is that you could buy messages and send texts from that number. It would then appear as a text from the particular organisation, but with a message from the scammers. So when you look into your phone, you would see a sequential text, and the message is from an official ministry, but it could have come from a scammer.

What about the spiritual implication?

The spiritual scammer and his craftiness in disguising himself as an authority, and therefore, misleading the people of God.

2 Cor 11:3-4
3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!

Here we read Paul using irony or sarcasm because he is so worried for the Corinthian believers. He does not want the believers to put up with these false teachers, but he says “you may well put up with it!” He is very worried about this happening. He wanted to jolt the Corinthian believers to realise that there were these scammers around.

If we read V13-15,
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Paul makes it clear that these are the workings of Satan and his messengers. When Paul wrote all this, he was warning the Corinthian believers that Satan and his minions could transform themselves to be angels of light.

This is not the first time that Paul warns believers about false prophets. We know in the earlier epistle - the letter to the Galatians, he said, “I marvel that you are turning so fast to another gospel, but this is not a gospel…even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than what you have received previously, let this angel be accursed.” This is the warning and danger that abounded even during the New Testament apostolic era.

How do we prevent ourselves from falling into this scam of false prophets, teachers, and the gospel?

We must know what is the true gospel we have received from Jesus and his apostles. We can learn three points to deal with such spiritual scammers.

1. Be aware of the characteristics of false prophets

Matt 24:24

Jesus talks about the signs of the last days.

For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

In the last days, there will be a rise in false prophets. But they’ll be performing signs and wonders, seemingly miracles. We are already living in the last days. And during this period of time we cannot only use miracles, signs and wonders to determine if a worker is true. Because the false christs have the power to do so as well. To the extent that they can even deceive the elect. If we only use miracles as the definitive proof that someone is a worker from God, or the gospel, then we are in for a very shocking surprise. Because that is what the false prophets can do as well.

What then must we do?

2. Know clearly what you believe in

Jude 3-4
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

These two verses remind us that we need to contend earnestly for this faith. This faith here is not about your individual faith in God, but this common set of beliefs that have already been delivered once and for all to the saints. We know that the gospel has already been passed and the message of salvation has already been given and no one can change that.

In order for us to contend earnestly for the faith, we must know what is this faith. Do we know the articles of faith? We may know “one true God”, we must be baptised, but if we are asked further questions, are we able to contend and defend the faith?

When people challenge us and ask us, “we are saved by grace through faith and baptism is a work!”, will we know how to respond? Do we know our basic beliefs enough in order to contend and explain clearly why it is a misinterpretation that baptism is a form of work? Baptism is a form of faith. A deed that is done because of our faith. Can we defend our faith accordingly? If we do not, now is the time for us to quickly learn from our basic beliefs. Because this is our defence against scammers who may cheat us of our salvation.

To know our faith enough to be able to contend, explain and let others know that their reasoning is wrong. That we are in a position to defend. Not that we want to argue, but this faith is already being attacked.

3. Deal with false prophets

2 Jn 7-10
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.
9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him;

If we have already identified the characteristics of false prophets and we know the truth and defend it, we can then identify who are the false prophets and christs. Then what is important is that we should not receive this person into our house or receive this person.

Sometimes we are clear that this minister has fallen away, and is no longer a true prophet. What do we do next? If we welcome him and show that we’re still friends, then it may seem to others that you agree with what he’s preaching.

The Bible is not trying to be strict and force you to be unfriendly. But we’ll see throughout the Bible, when Jesus mentioned church discipline in Matthew, that if your brother sins you persuade him yourself. But if he doesn’t listen then bring two or three to persuade him. If he does not, then the church. If still not, he shall be to you a tax collector, someone not worthy to be in the house of God. This is to protect the rest of the house of God. An important message for us. When we know someone has turned apostate, then we steer away. Lest we share in this person’s evil deed. Even if we don’t think he’s correct, the Bible is clear on how we should deal with those who have turned apostate.

Moreover, we must also consider ourselves. Who are we to think that we won’t be slowly influenced, if we are in this person’s presence? Being around this person may cause seeds to be planted in you. There will always be a time when this person can plant seeds of doubt in you. Cut off ties with this individual. 2 John is clear - these are spiritual scammers that have the ability not only to draw away your soul but others around you.

Hence we must use the Bible to determine the truth. We don’t determine who is true based on who can perform miracles. And once we have identified one who has fallen, know that this person has become cancer to the church, and must be removed lest the impact is worse on the church.

May God help us in our journey of faith. It is inevitable that we will meet with scammers. We’ve discussed how people disguise themselves as authority to scam. Let us be careful in our spiritual walk.