So, when Kevin asked me to give my testimony, he told me that I had a maximum of ten minutes,
so I'll try and keep this as brief as possible.
Just a bit of history on myself, my upbringing and how I got to where I am today, I guess.
Up until about the age of nine, I didn't have any exposure at all to Christianity,
to the Bible, to God, to church.
Neither of my parents went to church.
My grandparents were, I believe they were believers, I believe they're saved, but
their son, my father, decided to throw it all away, basically, so us children didn't
have any of that sort of benefit of going to church.
Then my parents got divorced when I was five years old, and my mother remarried when I
was about nine, and my stepfather, who we were then living with, was in the Air Force,
and he was an Anglican, so we started going to an Anglican church, and that was the first
time that I was exposed to any form of Christianity at all.
I think at the time I learnt that Jesus died for my sins, but I don't believe that I
was yet saved at that point, so I had this knowledge of Jesus Christ dying on the cross
for my sins without being saved.
That was up until about the age of 16, we shifted to Malaysia for two years, and then
in Malaysia, sorry, up until the age of 16, came back from Malaysia, then at 16, my father
then became born again Pentecostal, and so he introduced me to his, what he believed,
and he basically raced me up to the Gold Coast to get baptised, because he believed I had
to be baptised, and full immersion and all the rest of it, but the Gospel still hadn't
been clearly presented to me at this point.
I was reading a New King James Bible at the time, and I don't believe I was still saved
at this point, I really don't, when I reflect back on this, and then at the age of 21, shifted
down to Melbourne, that's where I met Cindy, we got married down there, I became part of
the church that Cindy was in, and this was called the International Church of Christ,
I don't know if any of you are familiar with this particular movement, maybe not,
but it was led by a fellow by the name of Kip McKean, and it started in Boston in the
70s, and spread around the globe basically, it was a breakaway from the mainstream churches
of Christ, they taught that baptism was necessary for salvation amongst other things, but one
of the other things that this church did, and I'm just going to share this, is that
they linked salvation with being a disciple, you had to be a disciple in order to be really
safe.
So how these guys would go about this sort of thing, and they used the New International
Version, and in Acts 11 26, they would use this verse, Acts 11 26 reads, and when he
had found him, he brought him unto Antioch, and it came to pass that a whole year they
assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people, and the disciples were
called Christians first in Antioch.
So they'd say, if you're really a Christian, then you're a disciple, and then they'd
take that back to the New Testament, in the gospels, where Jesus in Matthew 16 24, then
Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow me, for whosoever will save his life will lose it,
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
And it became this thing where you had to give up your life, basically on a daily basis,
otherwise you weren't really saved, and not only that, if you didn't continue in this,
then you could lose your salvation.
Not that I was saved anyway, because the whole time I'd been trusting in works.
Even from a young age, I thought I had to be a good person to get into heaven.
So it was believe in Jesus, and be a good person, then I encountered this group that
teaches me that I have to do the works of a disciple, being sacrificial on a daily basis,
to remain saved.
Even though I was never saved, but that's part of the deception.
Sadly, and in Luke 14 26, just to reiterate this, and I was deeply entrenched in this
by the way, deeply entrenched in this.
The International Church of Christ itself, because of the teachings being so full on,
it was cultish, very much a cult, where it was almost impossible to get out once you
were in, because they'd hang this over your head that if you leave the church, you'll
lose your salvation, tying everything in with salvation as a control mechanism.
So Luke 14, 26, it's on a similar lines.
If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren
and sisters and yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
This is what they taught.
They linked this with salvation.
So instead of salvation being simple and a free gift, just everlasting life by just simply
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's just a part of it with what they taught.
And I believed this.
I got deceived by this for a number of years.
I was there, I think I was there until about 28, 29 years of age.
Like I said, Cindy and I were married.
We had our first child before we moved away from Melbourne.
So this all took place down in Melbourne.
After being away from that, would have been 29 up until I was about 36 years of age when
I encountered a clear presentation of the gospel.
At the time, during those seven years, I was really confused and in the back of my mind
I'm thinking, I'm going to hell because I'm not living right, I'm not being obedient
to these commandments, I'm not doing what I should be doing based on what I've learnt
from this church.
But then I encountered the gospel online through Stephen Anderson.
I watched after the tribulation and then a couple of months after that I started watching
some of his other sermons.
What confused me a little bit at first was, I'd see him preaching really hard on sin
but then at the same time teaching that salvation is by grace through faith, that it's just
a free gift.
It's not about turning from sin.
And I'm like, wait a sec.
It just took a while for me to just work that out after listening to a couple of his sermons
and it started to click that the two were separate.
That being a disciple or following Jesus, living the life, being obedient to the commandments
has got nothing to do with salvation.
There's this distinction, this really clear line between the two that salvation is this
free gift and what I do after that is just purely service to the Lord, there's rewards
for doing those things in heaven and yeah there's this clear line between the two.
And at that instant when I understood that it was eternal life and that it was a free
gift and all I had to do was just believe on the Lord to receive it, I was just saved
in an instant just like that.
I was just like, thank you Lord.
Amen.
And breaking free from that was just such a relief for me.
It was like just this massive weight lifted off my shoulders.
Cindy was saved pretty much at the same time I was.
So we both came to this understanding at the same time through these teachings through
Steven Anderson.
And I just want to share I guess a little bit about what this has done for me now that
I've reflected back on these false teachers and the things that I was taught falsely.
Because now having been deceived for so long and it's really crafty how they go about
it, I've got a special kind of hatred for these false teachers that teach a false gospel
because they're sending multitudes to hell through their deception.
And whenever I encounter someone that is preaching a false gospel I get quite fiery, I really
do fire up inside.
I do become a little bit confrontational.
Now I'll say this, the Bible does say in Jude chapter 3, sorry Jude verse 3, Beloved when
I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me
to write to you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints.
And I'll contend for that faith.
And sometimes that means I wind up getting into some confrontations with people but so
be it.
I think I've been preached against by about three different pastors in the local area
because of various confrontations because they have got a false gospel.
And I'm glad Kevin in your opening message to us in the first service of the church you
talked about warning against grievous wolves coming in and not sparing the flock because
I think that's what has happened to a number of churches in this local area.
These guys have just come in, they're now leading these churches with a false gospel,
this repent of your sins, if you're not living right then you're not really saved type of
rubbish.
It's deceiving people.
And I feel strongly about it, really strongly because I myself was deceived for so many
years.
And I'm sure I'd rather be the kind of guy that was just brought up with the right gospel
like you Kevin and just saved early on.
I guess that's just not the path God had for me.
And so this is where I'm at and that's my testimony.
And thank you for your time.
Thank you for listening.
Amen.