We come to the second part of this very important message. And the message concerns how can we discern the truth. I have here in my hand a coin. For those of you sitting at the back, it's very hard to see. It looks like any other coin, but it is not any other coin. Now, this end of the coin, this side of the coin, you will see the head of Alexander the Great. This coin would be 2,300 years old. It would be over 2,300 years old if this coin is genuine. Now, I hope very much it is genuine. I paid 20 US dollars for this. If it is not genuine, I stand to lose 20 US dollars. Not 20 US dollars, about 160 Hong Kong dollars these days. But if it is genuine, it's very significant. Imagine, I'm holding in my hand a coin that dates to before the time of the Lord Jesus. I mean, this is so far back that most of us have problems trying to figure out — what's 2,330 years? For Daniel, I mean, 2,330 years — wow, that is a bit hard to conceive. But don't worry, Daniel, I have the same trouble. 2,330 years ago. Imagine that.
Now, when I was standing on the Mount of Olives last year, together with Helen, and looking at the city of Jerusalem, and looking at the temple, an Arab came up to me and said, "You like to buy a coin?" I said, "What coin do you have?" He said, "Here. Alexander the Great." I looked at it, and indeed, as I examined the coin, on the back of the coin — I know enough Greek to read — in ancient Greek, part of the A is already worn away, but as I examined the coin closely on the back, I could see the A is not there, but Alexander is still there. The A part has been rubbed away. In fact, you see here, the head was worn away with time. And I looked at it, and indeed, it does say Alexander on the back, or part of the word Alexander is still there.
And so I said, "Well, what do you want for it?" And of course, he starts with sky-high prices, so finally I bring him down. So finally, he parted with it for $20. If it is genuine, it might be worth $120. If it is not genuine, it isn't worth much. Maybe $1 or $2, just for the silver. Now, in this case, it doesn't matter very much, does it? Nothing too much depends. I lose a bit of money if it's not genuine.
But what we are talking about here — we stand to lose life. Indeed, eternal life. Today, we are constantly faced with this problem: what is genuine? If you go to a money changer in Hong Kong, and you give him a U.S. dollar, and he takes out a funny-looking instrument, and he runs the instrument over the dollar, you say, "What are you doing to my dollar?" He goes, "Okay, I'm not going to destroy your dollar. I just want to know whether it's genuine." Now, if it's genuine, a light is supposed to come on. Or maybe if it's false, a light is supposed to come on. I'm not too sure which. But this little instrument runs over the U.S. dollar, and it tells you whether it's true or false. Oh, that's very convenient. If we could do that with somebody's teaching — and we listen to it, and we run it — it's not. Okay. But how do you tell?
And there is so much that is going on today that is false. And it is all part of the strategy, of course, of the Antichrist. Today, when you talk to a non-Christian about the gospel, he says, "Yeah, but who should I believe? There are the Catholics, and there are the Protestants, and the Protestants — there are so many different kinds. And then there are the Seventh-day Adventists, and there are this and that. And then not to mention there are also Buddhists, and there is Islam, and so on and so forth." In this world, with a thousand voices clamoring, how do you know who is speaking the truth?
Is there some way to tell who speaks the truth? And let me tell you, as time goes on, if you think it's hard now, it's going to be a lot more difficult as time goes on. It is becoming so difficult that even the experts have a hard time to tell. If I take this coin out to a numismatic expert, that is a coin expert, he will have a hard time telling whether it's genuine or false too. He also has a hard time to tell, because forgeries are so good today. Very hard to tell. I showed it to some of my friends who have been in Israel for years and years. They're archaeologists. And they look at the coin, they can't tell me. "Might be genuine, might be not. I don't know." "What's the matter with you? You're an archaeologist. This is your department." He said, "Yeah, but now forgeries are so skillful. It's almost impossible to tell."
So where does that leave us? Let's say, some of these things don't matter, but some things matter a lot. The Antichrist is going to be like a twin to the Christ. And you look at this one, and you look at that one, and you say, "Hey, how do I tell?"
Well, when I went to Israel this time, I went to St. Andrew's Hospice, a Christian hospice where I also stayed in my student days when I studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. And I came in, and I said, "Hello, John, how are you now?" And he looked at me and blinked. I said, "John?" "No, I'm not John." "No? John? Truly you're John." "No. I'm Paul." I said, "But, uh, weren't you here last time when I came?" He said, "No." I said, "Sure you were here." "No, no, no, it wasn't me. It was my brother." "Your brother? Your brother's called John?" "Yeah, that's my brother." I said, "Then, uh, you're identical twins?" He said, "That's right. We are identical." So identical that they shave, they comb their hair the same way. Everything is the same. I had to blink. I couldn't believe my eyes. The only thing that gave him away was the fact that he didn't recognize me. It took me some time to adjust. If I showed you the picture of these two and told you which is which, you wouldn't be able to tell.
So I said, "Wow." I said to him, "One day it must be very convenient for you, huh? I mean, in school, you don't know one subject and then your brother can take the exam for you." He said, "That's right." Right, it's true. He said, "Even the teachers, after years, couldn't tell which is which." Even after years of teaching them, the teacher couldn't tell which is John and which is Paul. There are no distinguishing marks to tell the difference. Same height, same hair, same hairstyle, same everything. There's no use if two different ones — they wear different jackets, because you don't know which is which, which is wearing a different jacket today. It doesn't help you.
Now there is the problem. That is why I say, which is more dangerous? An antichrist who is obviously opposed to Christ, or an antichrist who is so identical to him that you couldn't tell the difference? I think the answer is not hard to see. Which is more dangerous? An anti-Christian or a false Christian? Which is more dangerous? Certainly the false Christian is far more dangerous than the anti-Christian. The church, through the history of the church, has never been in great danger simply from intensive persecution. Persecution, in a way, has always been good for the church. The anti-Christians have been good for the Christians.
Look at what happened in China. When the missionaries left China, it was estimated that we had about 1.2 million Christians in China. The communists came. They were openly anti-Christian. They were openly hostile. So thanks to the communists, we now have 30 or more million Christians in China. Something that not even the missionaries could accomplish. From 1.2 million Christians to 30 million Christians without a single missionary in China. We run the commandment run...
# How to Discern the False Christ (Part 2)
Anti-Christians have always been good for the Church. They have made us suffer, but they have purified us. They have made the Church strong. Pseudo-Christians, false Christians — they are the most dangerous. And I have been preaching in the Western world always against false Christians. And I have made a lot of enemies, as you know. And I'm going to make more enemies, because I want the false Christians to be clearly identifiable. It is so difficult to identify.
I was in Germany last year. You can go to Germany today and the church is full of people. But which one is a true Christian? You have a hard time telling. They don't behave like Christians. But they all claim to be Christians. And I want to make it so uncomfortable for them in the church, if possible, that they will just either get out or throw me out. And most likely I'll be the one thrown out. I have preached in many a place that will never invite me back again. And I am willing to leave it just like that. I have preached in England and Wales in such a way to make sure that either they love the truth or they will never invite me back again because they can't stand the message. I have done this many a time. Because the most dangerous thing for the church is false Christians. They are going to destroy us.
I didn't want to become a Christian myself. Why? Because of anti-Christians? No. I thank God for the anti-Christians. It's because of them that I became a Christian. In this sense, I thank God for the communists. Because if the communists didn't come to China, I would never be a Christian today. Because they so purged the church of these phony Christians, and finally I saw — I said, oh, so now I know. Before, when I went to church, I saw all these people. I said, who wants to be a Christian? Look at these people. I don't want to be a Christian. But when the communists came, they purged out the phony Christians. And what was left? The real thing. And when I saw the real Christians, I said, those are the real thing. That's what I would like to be. I would like to be like that.
You see, the anti-Christians have done us a great service. But the phony Christians kill us all. How many people have you met who say, "I don't want to be a Christian. I know that Christian in my office. I mean, he's absolutely repulsive." How many people have you met who have been put off by phony Christians?
So let's come quickly to the fact of the cross that I mentioned last time. And this message is basically a clarification of the last message. I want to take it a little deeper. Is there some way to tell the true from the false? Do we have to be Bible experts? Thanks be to God, no. It helps if you are well trained in the Bible. But we are not at the mercy of having to spend maybe five years, ten years in Bible training before we can tell the truth from what is false. No. God is merciful. There is more than one way to tell.
But it starts with you. You must be willing to let God bring about a change in your life through the cross. And if you are willing to let God change you, you will be able to tell what is true and what is false. In other words, to be able to tell what is true and what is false is not a matter of academic knowledge. It is a matter of whether you have the real life of God in you or not. Whether you are a new creation or not. Whether the cross, as Brother Isaac has been preaching very rightly, has been applied into your life or not.
But I want to make this very simple before I close. I want to make it very simple and intelligible. What is the mark of the Antichrist? 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 4 sums it up in two words, I should say. Two words: "He exalts himself." Notice those words. He exalts himself. Now grasp carefully, carefully, the secret of this. Because to exalt yourself is the exact opposite of the cross. Last time I mentioned: Jesus never exalted himself. He always went down. But the natural man, like the Antichrist, always wants to exalt himself.
I put it as simply as that, with no technical details in here, so that this will be as accurate a way of measuring as that special instrument that can tell whether an American dollar is genuine or false by a magnetic reading. Let's start with yourself before we talk about the Antichrist. Look at your own character and your own temperament. Do you like to be exalted? That is where you tell whether the cross is in your life or not.
Every natural man, whether he's a Muslim or a Buddhist or a so-called Christian, no matter whether he's a Catholic or a Protestant, whether he's a Baptist or a Presbyterian — we are not interested in any of this. I don't know whether the Antichrist will be a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or a Catholic or a Protestant or what. I don't know which he will be. This I will expound later as this series of messages goes on. But it doesn't matter what he is. You will be able to tell by looking carefully at his life and seeing whether he exalts himself or not. And you will know whether the cross is in your life or not by seeing whether you are seeking to exalt yourself, or whether you are seeking to go down — down to the death of the cross.
No natural man — and I say this categorically without any fear of contradiction — there is no natural man who is willing to go down rather than up. The natural man always wants to exalt himself and wants to be exalted by others. Why do you think that we work so hard at college to get good marks, to get a good degree, to get higher degrees? It is not in order that we may make a good living. Why do you want to make a good living? You earn money. Why do you want to earn money? People look up to you. Ah. So after all, it is in order to exalt yourself, is it not? Let's be honest. What is motivating a man to work so hard? To exalt himself.
You may say modestly, "I just want to make a nice living." You rebuke him and see how he feels. Very offended. "How dare you talk to me like this? You know who I am? You know how many degrees I have? You know what middle school I came from? Which university I studied in? You know what my profession is?" Ah. Now I see your true colors. Yes. You see, we have an infallible — I would even dare to say infallible — mark whether or not the cross is in a person's life. Very easy to tell.
The teacher who goes to school expects the student to show respect. "You know who I am? Teacher. Behave yourself properly. I shall have you duly changed." Let's just say, are you not being proud? "No. This is the educational system. You've got these youngsters to behave themselves." We always have another explanation for exalting ourselves. We always have another explanation. Sometimes the explanation is true, sometimes it's false. But nobody knows the truth better than in your own heart. You know whether you like to be exalted or not, don't you? You know it, even if nobody else can tell.
The Antichrist wants to exalt himself. That's how we're going to tell. But look at the Bible, and you will see something remarkable. Jesus never exalted himself. Never. Amazing. It is God the Father who exalted him. It says in Philippians 2, gave Him the name above every name. But Jesus Himself went always down. It was God who raises Him up. And God will only raise up those who put themselves down. That is the biblical principle. That is the meaning of the cross.
I want to speak to you in plain language, because if I put it so technically, nobody understands what I'm saying. Look at your life every day. Look at the way you do things in your work. Look at the way you relate to your friends and colleagues. Let me put this thing very practically. It boils down to whether we really love God's truth or not. And God's truth is manifested in His cross.
My time is fast running out. I want to give one or two examples before I close, so that nobody misunderstands this message. I give an example which is very painful to my own heart. Very painful to me. Even every time I think about it, it hurts me, because I love this person so much. To this day, I love this person so much. I use this simply as an illustration. Here was a Christian, a co-worker of mine, a person I love very much. But the way he did things, the way he spoke, the way he acted, revealed to me that he was not suitable for full-time service. He had already been in full-time service for a number of years. I had been trained. I tell you, brothers and sisters, I agonized for many nights over this matter. Sleepless nights.
So one day I called him. I talked to him face to face. I spoke to him out of the deep love in my heart for him. And I said to him, "I have to tell you the truth. You are not suitable at this time for full-time service. You should withdraw and go back to civilian life, because the way you are doing things is causing damage — too much damage to the church. And it's very harmful for yourself." I said to him, "In your own interest, as well as the well-being of the church, go back to your profession. And maybe one day, someday in the future, when the Lord permits, perhaps you can return again to full-time service. But not now." I had to dismiss him.
He was silent for a moment, for a while. And he looked at me and he said, "You know, there was a time when I would have laid down my life for you." Implying that he was very disappointed with me for this decision. "I would have laid down — I loved you so much, I would have laid down my life for you. But not anymore." That was the implication. That last sentence he didn't say, of course.
When I heard these words, I thanked God in my heart. It lifted my grief and the torment of my heart to come to this most difficult decision. Why did it lift my grief? Because it confirmed to me that he should not be in the Lord's work. Why? You know why? Because he loved me as his idol, as his hero. He had come into full-time service because he wanted to follow me.
I want to put it on record, brothers and sisters: if any man loves me because he loves Jesus — because he loves Jesus — I will find it acceptable. But if any man loves me instead of loving Jesus, I will not accept it. I want to put it on record, write it down as it's being recorded, that I will not take one ray, not one beam of the glory of Christ to myself. God forbid. I want to stand only in the shadow of my Lord. The glory will be His alone. I will not allow anybody, even out of his good intention, to make me the Antichrist.
Now you understand the definition of Antichrist. A substitute Christ. Someone who takes the place of Christ. He was following me, not Jesus. And that is why when he said to me, "I would have died for you," I realized I had made the right decision to dismiss him. He should go back to civilian work, which is what he is doing now to this day. I will not have someone in the Lord's work who intentionally or unintentionally makes of me the Antichrist, a substitute Christ, who loves me instead of loving Christ. And I warn any co-worker, from the depth of my heart — anyone who does this, he will not be a co-worker with me. For then it is to make me the Antichrist, a substitute Christ. He will not do. He will not do.
And then I understood in my mind very clearly why the Lord could not use this person and why he had caused so much damage in the church. It was precisely because I was his idol. I was his substitute Christ. No wonder God couldn't bless him. No wonder the Spirit of Christ could not work through him. I still love this brother very deeply. I pray that from now on only Jesus will be his Christ, that he will only follow Jesus. I hope so. And maybe one day he will be back again in the Lord's work. I also hope so. But this point has to be made clear.
Closely related to this, and we must close. Closely related to this, to see whether the cross is in our life: I don't want to be exalted. Let it stand on record. I want only to be granted the privilege to be among the least of the servants of my God and my King, of my Lord Jesus Christ. And let no man dare to make an Antichrist out of me. For that is to condemn himself and to condemn me as well. Let it be clearly understood.
But if I were unregenerate, if I functioned in the spirit of Antichrist, then I would want to be exalted. I would want glory from men. The fact that I don't want glory from men is something that I even don't understand myself. Why? What has God done in my heart to have so captured my heart with His love? I don't want anyone to give me the love that belongs to Him. That is the mark of the cross in my heart which He has implanted. It is not something that we can do to ourselves. We cannot change ourselves. We cannot make ourselves behave like this. That is why I say it is an infallible mark, because it is the work of the Spirit of God in your heart if you can think like this — if you don't care whether people glorify you or not.
I stood at the height of glory in the Chinese churches. My name is known to all the Chinese churches for better or for worse, and mostly for worse. I thank God for that. I really do. I really do. I am not saying this as a shame. I remember how I shared with the first team when they were in training, that wherever I went to every Chinese church throughout Canada — oh, I was looked up to. Oh, the great man has arrived. When I went to a conference in Canada once, the organizers of the conference kept saying, "What a privilege it is to have you here. It is such an honor that you have come to our conference to speak at this conference." I tell you, my heart sank, and really sank in me. And I said, "Lord, what have I done? What have I done, Lord, that I received this worldly honor?" And I said to the first team members before I went to that conference, something is not right. I have turned my back on the world, seeking to take up the cross and follow my Lord through shame and dishonor and perhaps even death. And what do I get? I get nothing but honor. Have I done something wrong?
The Bible says the Lord Jesus said, "Woe be to you when all men speak well of you." And everybody was speaking well of me. What have I done wrong? I felt that I had been compromising somehow on the truth. And indeed, thanks be to God, once I began to insist on the truth of God, I made many enemies. And I shall go on doing so. Not because I want to make enemies, but because I want to speak the truth, whether it makes enemies or not. And for the most part it will.
Are you afraid to speak the truth? In your office? In your school? Among your colleagues? Do you dare to stand up for the truth? Do you dare to let them know: I am an unworthy Christian, but a Christian nevertheless by grace? Does your life speak? Or can it be that you have been a Christian for years and nobody knows that you are a Christian? Let me say, you will be a disgrace to the gospel. You are simply a phony Christian, and there are too many of them around already.
Let's come quickly to our final point and I must close. Closely connected with the foregoing point is the point of whether or not we accept correction. You know why we refuse to accept correction? Because correction humbles us. It takes us down. Rebuke, reproof, discipline humbles us. For those of you who have suffered discipline in this church, I beg of you to understand: you are among the privileged ones. If you have not yet been disciplined, you can thank God too. But if you have, you are privileged. Privileged indeed. Because it is helping you to place the mark of the cross into your heart, to destroy your self, your pride.
The book of Proverbs is full of warnings about people who refuse to accept correction. And it says there that the wise delight in correction, but the fools reject it. Do you understand why? Fools want to exalt themselves. And so when you point out their faults to them, they are very offended. Have you ever tried to correct your children? "You are always unfair." I have never yet discovered fair parents. My daughter will confirm to me that I am very unfair most of the time. I have a witness there. Always unfair. "Why are you so severe to me? You are always justifying circumstances. If you only knew all the facts, you wouldn't be so hard on me."
Have you ever found a parent who is fair? Only later on when they have grown up, they might think, oh yes, yes, that was true. But at that time, you are never fair. Daniel, right? We understand one another. Parents are always unfair. They scold us when we didn't deserve to be scolded. Got spanked when we of course never deserved to be spanked, at least not that hard. Gently might have done, but it's unreasonable to spank us that hard. Parents are always unfair.
And the church leaders — they're always unfair. Have you ever seen a decent church leader around? You do a little small thing and they put you on suspension — two months, three months. You do a little bit smaller thing — five months. What kind of church? They never understand you. They're never reasonable people, are they? If you think like that, you have not yet got a cross in your heart.
Or take your roommates or those who share the apartment with you. They're very unreasonable people. They always point out, "Why are you so fussy with this and that? Why do you do this? Why do you do that?" I mean, you're always unreasonable. You're always wrong. You're always false. How do you take it? How do you take it? And of course your boss is always unreasonable. Needless to say, I mean, there hasn't been a reasonable boss in the world yet. He's always wrong, always arrogant, always unfair, always unjust. Well, sometimes he is, maybe, sometimes, but of course, not the case of sometimes. As far as we are concerned, it's always so.
So you see, the question is how do we take correction? How do we take rebuke? There is the mark of whether the cross is in your life or not. Let me close with one more example.
Some years ago, a co-worker committed a sin. And this co-worker confessed his sin — confessed his sin to me. In fact, he confessed it in detail with tears and with repentance. And I remember one significant statement he said to me. He said, "I have no right to make any requests because I am guilty. But if I may be permitted one request, it is this." He said — I missed his tears — "I ask for maximum discipline. Give it to me as hard as you see fit." He said, "Even if it means that I will be expelled from the team, I understand." When I listened to this, I thanked God in my heart. And I knew that God is going to use this person mightily in the days to come. And indeed, He is doing that.
He asked for five years of suspension on his own request. "If I am not expelled from the team, then grant me five years of suspension. I deserve more than that, and I'll put in my request." He didn't get expelled. He also didn't get five years' suspension. In the end, he got two and a half years' suspension. But most importantly, what encouraged me at the time, which I didn't say anything to him at the time, was the attitude to request the sternest discipline possible. He said, "I know I need it for the welfare of my soul." What does the Bible say? Such a person is blessed. This person, I can predict easily, will be mightily used by the Lord in the days to come. God will use this person beyond measure. Discipline has already well expired, and the Lord is using him.
The mark of the cross is seen in such an attitude. That is the mark of the cross in a person's heart. Can you take discipline? Can you take correction? Do you love the truth? Whether you can answer yes or no will show whether the cross is in your heart.
The apostle Peter did something wrong once. He said the wrong thing to the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus gave him such a crushing rebuke — and I think the word "crushing" is only the appropriate way — that I marvel how Peter could stand such a rebuke. And I have thought about it again and again and wondered, if the Lord said that to me, how would I take it? You remember the case in Matthew 16, when the Lord Jesus said that He would go to die on the cross, and the apostle Peter, out of a human love, said to Him, "But Lord, don't do such a thing. Don't go to the cross." And I try to picture the scene of what happened then, and I think of how the Lord Jesus looked at the apostle Peter. And I can imagine in my heart that the Lord grieved in His heart, sighed deeply, and then said very quietly to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me, because you are interested not in the things of God, but in the things of man. Get behind me, Satan."
Wow. God — I think we have become so familiar with these words, the impact, the crushing impact of those words can hardly even touch us. I think Peter must have just been simply stunned by the quiet but powerful rebuke. I think Peter could have just stood up and said, "Okay, I've had it. I'm through. Enough of this. I mean, I have given up everything to follow You. All the disgrace, all the shame, I've given up my profession, everything. I love You and I just want to say to You, don't go and suffer. Isn't that natural to say that? And what do You say to me? Get behind me, Satan. No."
But you know, Peter didn't say that. No wonder he is chief of apostles. The cross was in his heart in a way that is even beyond my understanding, I have to say. I am filled with spiritual admiration for Peter. I'm amazed. I marvel. You know, there were other disciples who took a much lesser rebuke and quit. They quit. John 6:66. Notice the interesting number. 6, 6, 6. Interesting. The number of the Antichrist. We will come to that another time. But John 6:66 tells us about the disciples who turned away from Jesus because they could not accept what He said. They could not accept what He said. I'm not amazed that some people can't accept what I say. They couldn't even accept what Jesus said. And they turned away from Jesus. They didn't follow Him anymore. The mark of the cross was not in their hearts. They could not stand the truth. Can you stand the truth?
So let us close. Here then is the mark of the cross: first, the willingness to be humbled, not to exalt oneself. And practically, that is seen in such a commitment to the truth that we are willing to take whatever it costs to be humbled. If we are wrong, to be disciplined. If we are right, then we still don't want to be exalted. We receive no glory from men. If you have that mark of the cross in your life, then I guarantee to you, the Antichrist will not be able to deceive you. You will have such clarity of spiritual perception that you will see at once: yes, he is a religious leader. Yes, he is a good preacher. Yes, he is a good-looking man. Yes, he is very capable. But he is false. You will have the eyesight. You may not have years of biblical training, but you will have spiritual perception.
The cross is the means by which you can distinguish truth from falsehood, to distinguish what is the spirit of Christ and what is the spirit of Antichrist. And your eternal well-being depends on it. Let's pray.