(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. OK, so from as early as the first offspring on the Earth, Cain and Abel, there has been violence in this Earth, hasn't there? And as people increased, violence became war and with war came more and more deadly weapons specifically for use in war. From Greek fire in the Byzantine Empire, which we know of nowadays as napalm, to the shock cavalry of the European Mounted Knight, to the rifle followed soon after by the Maxim machine gun, the assault rifle, there have been many game changers in warfare. Over the years there have been many things that have really changed how warfare has been fought. One particular massive game changer, game changing weapon as you call it in fairly recent history, was the submarine in World War I. OK, if anyone knows much about their history and the history of warfare, the submarine in World War I was a massive game changer, particularly what we know of, they were called, I think the British was the E-class submarine, but specifically I want to talk about something which was a big deal which was known as the German U-boat, the German U-boat. And if you're wondering what that picture was on the front of your bulletin, the nearest thing to you was a German U-boat. Funnily enough, U actually is or the U-boat is an abbreviation of Unterseeboot, and I don't know if I pronounced that at all, was that not bad? OK, thank you. Which if you look at how that's spelled, it just looks like undersea boat, yeah, which is basically what it's saying, OK. And that's what the U-boat was, it was an undersea boat and what we know of as a submarine, yeah. Now hidden beneath the water, these U-boats were feared by many warship captains and they were used both against the battleships and then later against what were vital trade ships. So you can imagine when you're in a World War, trade and all sorts of different supplies are very important, aren't they? The average U-boat carried just 12 torpedoes, OK, in World War 1, 12 torpedoes, but one of these could be enough to sink a much larger ship, OK. Now it wasn't that they had great defences and it wasn't that they were armed with an array of different weaponry, it was their ability to strike first and the effectiveness of their strikes. Now today, in case you're wondering what is this guy on about, well I want to continue our series on weapons of the enemy and the weapon that I want to focus on today is slander. So the weapon of today is slander. We'll go to the Lord in a word of prayer before we get started properly. Father, I thank you, I thank you for this day, I thank you for this church, I thank you for your Bible, I thank you for the many lessons you teach us out of it, the many examples you give us of things to watch out for and this particular weapon today, this vicious weapon of slander, I want you to help me please now, I ask you to help me to just explain this clearly, to preach accurately, to preach boldly, to be filled with your Spirit, help everyone to have attentive ears here and for all these things to be done in Jesus Christ's holy name, Amen. OK, so what is slander? Well, slander, the noun, is a false tale or report, maliciously uttered and tending to injure the reputation of another by lessening him in the esteem of his fellow citizens, by exposing him to impeachment and punishment or by impairing his means of lining, defamation and its also disgrace for approach, disreputation, ill name. And as a verb, so to slander someone is to defame, to injure by maliciously uttering a false report, respecting one, to tarnish or impair the reputation of one by false tales, maliciously told or propagated. And like the submarine of World War One, like the U-boat of World War One, slander can be a deadly weapon. OK, it can be a really deadly weapon. Keep a finger here and turn to Genesis chapter three. We're going to be coming back to Acts six, but turn to Genesis chapter three. Because unlike the submarine, slander isn't a new weapon, but has been in existence from even before the first violence on the earth. OK, slander has been in existence from even before the first violence on the earth. Look at Genesis three and from verse one, the Bible reads, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in a day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now you might be looking at that, going, well, where's the slander there, brother Ian? He was just a bit economical with the truth, wasn't he? Twisted it a little. No, he was subtly slandering God, wasn't he? He was subtly slandering God. In verse four, he was calling God a liar. He said, Ye shall not surely die. In verse five, he was suggesting that maybe God didn't want what was best for them, maybe that God would feel threatened by their knowledge. Because slander isn't always an out in the open attack on someone's character. It can be subtle, it can be suggestive, like the example here in Genesis 3. Now, turn to 1 Peter 5. And what a great example it is there in Genesis 3, because it's the first appearance of the devil. Revelation 20 verse 2 says, And he laid hold on a dragon, that old serpent which is the devil, and satan, and bound him a thousand years. That old serpent was the devil, and the devil is our ultimate adversary, isn't he? Okay, he's the captain, he's the leader of the army of evil. 1 Peter 5.8 says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. We're told to be sober, aren't we? Yeah, that's regular calm, not under the influence of passion I think is what it's referring to there, but obviously not drunk, yeah? Obviously not drunk as well as the Bible tells us not to even look upon fermented juice. Okay, obviously. Now, and that's regardless of how you may want to fit words like Mary into your sort of alcoholic view of society, and I had someone recently with this trying to debate, well, it says Mary, well yeah, we might have changed the use of the word Mary to fit, well it's just kind of like a polite, it's like a socially acceptable drunk, isn't it? That's alright, just a bit Mary. Well, the Bible never tells us to drink alcohol, does it? But sober would also include other drugs, wouldn't it? Like cannabis as well, wouldn't you say? Yeah? Why? Why other things that are mind-altering? Well, you're in a war, soldier, aren't you? You're in a war. Do you find people on the battlefield just getting stoned before they go to battle, getting drunk, getting high on other drugs, or other things like that? No, because you need to have your wits about, don't you? We want to have our wits about us because the Bible tells us, be sober. Time and time again, be sober. Well, here it says be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. And like the German U-boat in the dark depths of the ocean, he and his people are prowling around in the shadows looking to destroy you. Okay, that's what they're looking to do. They're looking to destroy you, men and women of God particularly. And that can be either by direct hits on you or your spiritual trade ships that are there to nourish you. Okay? And that's how it works. That's how the devil works. He's looking to attack you, he's looking to limit you, he's looking to weaken you. And there are many examples of this in scripture. Turn back to Acts chapter 6 for a real clear one. So there's a real clear example of this use of slander and the way that he attacks and the way that the enemies of God attack. Acts chapter 6 and from verse 1 reads, And in those days when a number of the disciples were multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest rapport, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer to the ministry of the word. So the church is growing big and some of the Greek widows aren't getting their daily needs met. And remember they're meeting up daily. We were looking at, we just talked about that earlier in the announcements. Now there's only so much that twelve can do, isn't there? Remember it's growing really big at this point. So they look for seven helpers. Okay? What's the criteria? Well, honest report. Okay? So was it that they were just, you know, just amazing hard workers or was it that they just had real ability, they were just really clever with certain, no, honest report was one of the most important things, that they would just be honest, honest. That's what we want, don't we? That's what you want around you is just honest people. That's what you want helping you, honest people that you can just trust. Trust is going to do what they say. You can trust them around money, trust them around the things that they're feeding people, trust them to just do a good job, trust them to just do the best they can. Full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Well, why is that important? Because again, this is church business, isn't it? Okay? This isn't secular work. It's not secular business. Okay? We want people that are full of the Holy Ghost. That's what you want. That's what you want working around a church, doing things. And this is a big church here and they wanted people of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. And obviously the wisdom comes from the Word of God there. They're obviously in the things of God, full of the Holy Ghost. Verse 5 says, And the saying, Please the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. Notice how Stephen gets a special mention about being full of faith and the Holy Ghost, doesn't he? Okay? So Stephen seems to be standing above the rest here. Whom they set above the apostles, sorry, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the Word of God increased, and a number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. So it seems from there, where it says, and the Word of God increased, a number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, that it was probably at least in part due to this decision. It was at least in part due to the seven people helping out, because organization is important, isn't it? It's really important for a church to function properly, it needs to be organized well, and it needs to have people that are able to be organized and people that are just able to do as they're asked to do and just run a well-oiled ship, yeah? And you can imagine with thousands of people, that was really important, wasn't it? Okay? So they have these guys getting involved, getting stuck in, and the Word of God increased, because it's not just the preacher of the gospel. Yeah, we all, we are all commanded to preach the gospel, okay? But there are many other things which make a church function to then send you out to preach the gospel, okay? Okay, so the Word of God's going out, the priests are doing things properly, it's all looking good here. Look at verse 8, and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. So it's not that Stephen is now just stuck inside doing menial tasks, is it? Okay, he's serving God, and because of that, he's then being used mightily, isn't he? Okay, he's being used mightily, he's doing amazing things. Then there arose certain of the synagogues, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen. Now, by the way, this is the first mention of Alexandria, or Alexandrians in the Bible, which if you're wondering what's that got to do with anything, well, this is where the text come from for our modern corrupted Bible perversions, okay? And the first mention of Alexandria, and the Alexandrian text is what they base all these modern perverted Bibles on, is actually not a very positive one, is it here? Okay, Stephen is out preaching the gospel, like I said, he's doing amazing things, and these Jews have come to argue or dispute with Stephen. And think about when you're out soul winning, you've probably experienced things like this before, when you're out, especially when you're in those receptive areas, and then suddenly out come the debaters, don't they? Out come the disputers, the ones that just want to have a row with you, the ones that just want to try and somehow get you into some sort of debate, some sort of way they can try and capture in your words or something, in some way to basically distract you from doing the work of God. Verse 10, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. So it's not that Stephen, I believe, I don't think Stephen was necessarily the best debater out there, I don't think it's that he had done, you know, all these great apologetics classes in his degree at university, I think it was that Stephen was full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and that Stephen had the truth, didn't he? And it can be quite satisfying sometimes when you do get a bit fleshly and drawn into these debates, just knowing that you've got truth, it doesn't matter who's in front of you, it doesn't matter, because look, some of these people, you know, when you knock on the doors, and it's like they, they're used to the Jehovah's Witness, aren't they? Who's going to crumble under any sort of interrogation about God and the truth of the word or anything else. And then they get a bit shocked when you're just able to answer them quickly, succinctly, and obviously we don't want to be drawn into debates, do we? And we want to just bring it back to the gospel, when you're just able to just answer quickly, but it's not because we're all these great super intelligent people, and sometimes you probably have people that by worldly standards are clever people, that on these doors have got one here, and they're thinking they're going to bamboozle you now, but no, we have the truth, we have the word of God, yeah? And that's why we, you know, when we do have to give a few answers, we don't need apologetics classes, we don't need to learn, you know, the ins and outs of evolution, the ins and outs of all the different theologies out there, we have the truth, don't we? We have the word of God, and the word of God cuts through all of that. When they try to disprove God, you know, blame him for X, Y and Z, and they just think you're just going, so why does this happen in the world? And you just go, free will? How about that? Because they're so used to dealing with people that don't even believe that we have free will, aren't they? And the rest of it. Well, we're coming with the word of truth, not some watchtower lies, not some other lies that all these other false religions come with, but these Jews here were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke, were they? So what happened next? They got saved, yeah? They must have just got saved! They couldn't resist the wisdom and the spirit! But the disputing really results in that, does it? Okay, and it doesn't, does it? Like, as soon as you start getting pulled into debates, soon as you start getting pulled into an argument, a row, a dispute with someone, how often does that end up with that person getting saved? Very rarely. Very rarely at all, if ever. Okay, now and again you might be able to just bring it back to the Gospel, but it's very rare. And here, obviously they didn't get saved, and they're out disputing, and really, what was their motivation, really? They're out to try and disprove the spirit and wisdom that they couldn't resist. So what did they do? Well, let's have a look. What did they do? Verse 11, then they suborned men which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. Now, suborned is procured, which is obtained or caused to take a false oath or to do a bad action. So basically they organized some lies to purposefully slander Stephen. That sounds pretty amazing, doesn't it? Yeah, they purposely, so it wasn't that they found some guys that made up some lies, no, they actually looked for people to lie about Stephen. Did he speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God? Of course not, it was a lie. So why did they do that? Why did they do that? Because they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. And it is amazing, isn't it? It's amazing, and it should, it is amazing, you know, for everyone here, it's just a normal person who hopefully just have pretty normal standards and normal morals to just think that there are people out there that will actually tell someone, encourage someone, persuade someone, give someone a platform to just lie about someone, knowing full well that they're lying. I mean, it's wicked, isn't it? Isn't that wicked? But, you know, are there that many people around there that are like that? Are there many people now like that? Was that just the angry Jews of the day? Well, I told them my servant says, you know, his weapons are the enemy slander, and kind of question point number one is how common is slander? Well, if you're sitting here thinking, well, I haven't been slandered before, there's probably not that much of it around. Well, it's probably because you weren't, and hopefully not, but maybe still aren't, in the middle of a war. Because, here's something about those U-boats again, in 1914, just before World War I began, Germany had just 20 U-boats. By 1917, it had 140, 140, and the U-boats had destroyed, check this out, about 30% of the world's merchant ships, 30% of the merchant ships of the world were destroyed by the German U-boats, which started at 20 and grew to 140. Why did it grow to 140? Because they were such an effective weapon that during war, the enemy developed and used it more and more. And we're in a war, aren't we? Anyone here think you're not in a war? Tell you what, we're in a war, and hopefully this series of sermons on weapons of the enemy has helped you understand that if you're saved, you're in a war. It's not about whether or not you're serving God, because if you're saved, you're in the war, you're just going to be some, like in the chess game, you're going to be the expendable pawn. If you're not serving God, you're just going to be an easy target, or you could be in the back row there with all the other pieces of, what do you call those pieces? Is there a word for them? Anyone? No, I'm looking at the chess players here. Anyway, Father Dave is not here. But, okay, you can be a pawn or you can be one of the more important pieces, yeah? Well, look, we are all in a war, okay? We're all in a war. And slander is such an effective weapon, okay? It's such an effective weapon, and that means it's going to increase, yeah? And here's the thing with it as well, in this day and age, in the day and age of social media, it is an even more effective weapon, okay? In this day and age, and if you're sitting there going, well, who cares about social media, brother? We should just cut off from all of that, shouldn't we? We should just delete our WhatSaps, delete our YouTube, delete Facebook, whatever other stuff you're on, delete it all, because it's, you know, it's of the devil, isn't it? Yeah, but I'll tell you why. It's a great tool for getting people saved, though, isn't it? Yeah? And it's a great tool for getting the word of God out there, isn't it? It's a great tool for preaching as well. And, yeah, for some people, look, maybe they have to avoid certain parts of it. Maybe some things aren't really very profitable for you. But there's a lot of people in this room that got saved by a YouTube gospel presentation. And you know what? There's a lot of people in this town that have at least had a seed sown, or probably many that have been saved as well, by a YouTube presentation that we've handed out to them on the door. And, look, social media is big. Social media is a big part of our world. And, look, we have to be in the world, don't we? Okay? We have to be in the world, yeah? We don't want to be of the world. We don't want to be conformed to this world, but we do have to be in the world. Okay? Social media is a part of our world, and that means that slander is an even more effective weapon. And, sadly, there are many people that hate God, aren't there? Yeah, there are many people that hate God and the gospel so much, so much that they would happily lie about a man or woman of God and about God himself. Because they do, don't they? They often just lie about God. They often slander God. And, in fact, there are people that would tell, they would tell someone else to lie about a man of God. Doesn't that sound amazing? Well, you think, well, I don't know. Who's done that then? What are the examples of that? Well, verse 11 there, it said, when, then they, plural, suborned men, which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. So, it sounds unbelievable. Aren't they claiming to be holy men? They're of the synagogue, aren't they? Well, how about the more recent trend, something recently I thought of, of NIFB-obsessed YouTube channels, you know, quite a lot of those about, interviewing disgruntled ex-church members and airing their slanders all over social media. They know full well they're lying. You think they don't know they're lying? They know they're lying. They don't care what, they don't care how many witnesses there are to it, they don't care how ridiculous the accusation is. If they want to complain about a soul-winning church, here's a platform for you, get on, get on my channel, I'll promote it, I'll send it around, I'll tell everyone about it. That's how they think, isn't it? That's how it works. Suborning disgraced pastors' wives, suborning disgraced evangelists, suborning damnable heretics. They don't seem to care what they believe once they've left a proper church, do they? Doesn't matter, they're all trash-can Baptists, isn't it? Just all come in together. Doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what you believe, doesn't matter what damnable heresy you believe, doesn't matter what you were kicked out for, we're all friends here, here's a platform for you to slander men of God. We see that a lot, don't we? See that a lot on social media, see that a lot on YouTube, and people can look up a church-like, our sort of church, our sort of beliefs, and get fazed by this sort of thing, couldn't they? They think, wow, but what if there's no smoke without fire? There must be some truth in it, isn't there? Well, we'll look at that in a minute. But that's what they're saying, you can have a platform as long as you're slandering the man of God. And when it comes to these damnable heretics, when it comes to the enemies of God, slander is just water off a duck's back, yeah? It's a nothing. It just rolls off the tongue with these people. They don't care, because they don't have the same morals as you and I. And that's something we have to understand when we go through this series, when you're talking about the enemy, when we're talking about the real enemy, when we're talking about the enemy's sort of elite, his chosen people, you're talking about people that don't think the same as you and I think, okay? You're talking about people that have completely different standards, have completely different thought processes. Turn to 2 Timothy 3. Reprobation and false accusations go hand in hand, okay? While you turn now, I'll read Romans 1.29, which describing the child of Belial says, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers. Deceit and whispering are classic signs of a reprobate. 2 Timothy 3 from verses 1 to 5 also describes these reprobates, these works of iniquity. It says, this know also that in the last days perilous time shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. Verse 3 says that they are false accusers, that they hate the righteous. Verse 4 says that they are traitors, they can appear to be your best friend, but they're ready to turn at an instant. And okay, so we understand that the reprobates are out there trying to slander us, but are there that many of them around? Are there that many reprobates really in this world? I mean, these are like the extreme, aren't they? Just the serial killers, isn't it? Well, verse 13 says where you are, but evil men and seducers, seducers, sorry, shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. You might think, oh, it's just saying that they'll become worse themselves. Well, verse 1 said this know also that in the last days perilous time shall come. I believe that's saying that there's going to be more and more of these people, and it seems like there are already a lot of them. There are already a lot of them, weren't there? Because it wasn't that, oh, there's just one or two in scripture. I mean, this is a constant theme throughout scripture of these people, and how many churches just ignore the fact that you have these types of people in the world? Sadly, many. Well, turn to Psalm 109, because there were already a lot of them. While you turn, I'm going to read Mark 14, 56, which is talking of Jesus when he's before the high priest, and it says for many bear false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. There were many false witnesses when Jesus walked the earth, and there were many a thousand years earlier in David's time, and if you read through the Psalms, yeah, just read through the book of Psalms, and you'll see him talk about it time and time and time again. Psalm 109, you've turned to him from verse 1, it says, it's the Psalm of David, it says, hold not thy peace, O God of my praise, for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compass me about also with words of hatred and fault against me without a cause. For my love, they are my adversaries, but I give myself under prayer, and they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. So according to David in verse 2 to 3, the slanderers compass or surrounded him with words of hatred. It was without, without reason, okay? There wasn't a justified reason for it. Time and time again in the Psalms, time and time again, David's talking about this sort of attack from these wicked people. I'm just going to read a few, don't have to turn there. Psalm 10 verse 7 says, his mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. Psalm 50 verse 19, he says, thou giveth thy mouth to evil and thy tongue frame of deceit. Psalm 57 verse 4, he says, my soul is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire. Even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. In Psalm 120 verse 2, he says, deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. It's a theme of it, isn't it? That's a theme in the book of Psalms, and really it's a theme in the Bible as well, slandering people, trying to attack people with their words, with their mouths. It's a common weapon, and look, some of you might have been on the receiving end. You might have already been on the receiving end, because you don't always know when the attack has happened, do you? Okay, just because you've been slandered doesn't mean you're going to automatically know that you have. What about those family members that are just suddenly completely distant, and you're thinking, what's actually happened? Has someone said something? Maybe someone did, and I'm not saying, right, time to start accusing and slandering other people, but you start to wonder sometimes, don't you, when suddenly someone just seems completely doesn't want anything to do with you. Maybe if you've assessed yourself, you think, well, I didn't do anything. I didn't say anything. I barely even seen them. Maybe someone's been slandering you. What about that new salvation that just seemed so keen, didn't they? They were so keen. They were adamant. They were coming to church. They were ready for the things of God. They wanted to get baptized. They wanted to get involved with church. What happened? What happened in that time? Maybe someone was slandering our church. Maybe someone was slandering salvation, slandering the things of God, slandering God. Who knows? The friend who suddenly wants nothing to do with you. Again, like the family member, what's that about sometimes? When that happens, you wonder, who's been slandering you? The workmate that suddenly just has a problem with you. Maybe you're getting slandered. It does happen a lot. Go back to Acts 6. Like I said, the title of my sermon today is Weapons of the Enemy Slander. How common is slander? Common. Okay, it's common. It's common throughout scripture. It's constantly talked about throughout scripture, which means that it's something that we need to be aware of that's going to be common in our lives. Right, point number two. What are the tactics of slander? So what are the tactics of slander? Well, back to these U-boats of World War I. They started to hunt in packs. Anyone know much about the U-boats? They started to hunt in packs. And by World War II, they'd be what's known as they were called wolf packs, funnily enough. Wolf packs of between eight and 20 U-boats attacking together. Okay? And this attack in numbers is obviously something that we also see in our spiritual warfare, isn't it? And especially with the weapon of slander. The bigger the wolf pack, the more likely the success will be. Okay? That's how slander works. Look at Acts 6 and verse 11. Said then they suborned men. Okay, that's plural. Which said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes that came upon him and called him and brought him to the council and set up false witnesses, plural, which said this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against his holy place and the law. So they've suborned these men, plural, who have then lied. Yeah? Then they set up false witnesses to continue the lies against Stephen. Now, obviously there was the law that called for two or three witnesses to establish accusations. You'd have to turn their Deuteronomy 19.15 says one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin. In any sin that he sinneth, at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. But when it comes to our current day slander, the goal seems to be create as big a wolf pack as possible. Okay? That's the plan. That's the goal. Just create that wolf pack and get it bigger and bigger and multiply it and get as big a wolf pack as you can. The slander becomes a sort of mantra. And if enough people are saying it, the simple start to believe it. You ever notice that before? Sort of mantras you see out there on social media, you see maybe on YouTube comments, just keep repeating the same slander, the same slander, the same slander. Eventually people just start to think there must be some truth in it. We've seen this with slander against our pastor. Okay? He's been at the receiving end of that. It just becomes a mantra. The same thing, the same thing, the same comments, the same people. And our pastor's friends are the pastor friends of his. Same thing. Just keep repeating it. Keep repeating it. Just keep saying the same lie. And like I said, people just assume there must be some truth in it. That's how it works. Turn to Matthew chapter 26. Because another wolf pack tactic is to throw enough mud and then some of it will stick. So keep accusing, keep accusing, and eventually two of the accusers will agree. Yeah? If you just keep accusing, keep accusing, then eventually two people just accuse the same thing. And it basically is just a game of odds. If you look at Matthew 26 and from verse 59, talk about Jesus Christ here at the end here, it says, Now the chief priests and elders and all the councils sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none, at the last came two false witnesses. So many false witnesses came, but we read Mark 14 56 earlier, which said that their witnesses agreed not together. That was the problem, is that many were coming with all these different accusations, but they weren't agreeing together. They needed the two or three false witnesses to agree together. Well, finally they had two here. In verse 60, at the last came two false witnesses and said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. So Jesus was talking of the temple of his body being resurrected. Okay, we see that explained in the Gospel of John. But get a large enough wolf pack and eventually you'll find two that agree. Yeah? But was that enough to convict Jesus? Was that going to be enough to convict Jesus? No, often the slander, and this is something you've got to understand with slander as well, often it's probing. The goal is to get you to say something else, something that then can't be denied. Okay, so the slander is just constantly throwing shade on you, and then it's to try and lure you into saying something else, something that maybe you can be caught out, you can say something which just, you know, has come across wrong, that maybe you've just worded something differently. It's a probing. Verse 62, and a high priest arose and said unto him, answer thou nothing, what is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace, and a high priest answered unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, thou hast said, nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes saying he has spoken blasphemy, what further need have we of witnesses? But hold, now you have heard his blasphemy, what think ye? They answered and said, he is guilty of death. So even though the charge is absurd, isn't it? It's absurd. Jesus Christ obviously wasn't guilty of death, was he? The goal was to get something more tangible out of his mouth though, wasn't it? Yeah, that was the goal, was to get something else out of his mouth to stir up the rest of them. So the idea was that it stirred up everyone by the two false witnesses to then agree that whatever he said afterwards was blasphemy and wanted death. Because the more you're throwing, the more you're throwing it, and then the more people just want to grab something. They want to go with something in the end and just go, okay, yeah, there's been so much accusation now, let's just, you know, now we've got something, we've got something. Would they have gone with that at the beginning? No. Turn to Psalm 35. Once there's enough slander, like I said, a word out of place, an off hand, what they consider a weak defence maybe of an accusation is enough for them, because there's already been so much slander before. And that's an odds game, but they're just probing and testing defences. Now while you turn now, I'm going to read from Psalm 31 where David is talking about this sort of attack. Verse 4, he says, pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength. So he says that they've laid a net privily for him. Verse 13, he's describing a wolf pack again, he says, for I have heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side while they took counsel together against me. They devised to take away my life. Now you're in Psalm 35, and from verse 11 we're going to read where David says, false witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. So they're accusing him of doing things that he has no idea about. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoil of my soul, but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. So these are people that are close by, and David was still being good to them, wasn't he? That's what he's saying here. When they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. Verse 14 says, I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. What did he get in return? But in mine adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear me and cease not. So when David went through bad times, when he had adversity, they rejoiced. They were happy. And the pack gathered, but he didn't know. Then they tried to attack. How did they try to attack? Well, it was with their words. Verse 16 says, with hypocritical mockers in feast, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. They're gathering together and mocking him, but of course they're hypocrites, aren't they? The gnashing is what they're doing with their mouths. They're gnashing upon me with their teeth. It's about the words coming out of their mouth. Jump forward to verse 21 where he says, yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, aha, aha, I have seen it. So now it's open slander, isn't it? They were gathering together. Now it's just open slander, claiming to be eyewitnesses to some sort of accusation. But to be believable, so to be believable, the accusations, we're talking about tactics of slander here, are based loosely on something true, okay? A lot of the time they're going to be based loosely on something true. They're going to take a little bit of truth and then run with it and go off in all sorts of false directions. Go back to Acts chapter 6. So go back to Acts chapter 6 and verse 13 where it says in Acts 6 13, and set up false witnesses which said, this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. So Stephen didn't speak blasphemous words against Jerusalem and the law, did he? But he probably did say that God was going to destroy it, yeah? And that the meats, drinks, diverse washings and carnal ordinances were over. I'm sure he said that. So what are they doing here? Well the best slander mixes some truth with the slander, doesn't it? So they mix the truth of what he did say, but they mixed it up with saying this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law, and then they use the truth of what he did say and insinuate that it's blasphemous and they're mixing it together. Turn to Psalm 64. But you know what's even better for them is when they can find something actually sinful, okay? Or even some sort of personality trait to run with. Oh, they love that. They can get something which then looks more believable, because that's what the enemy is often doing. Like the U-boat torpedo operator searching for the best place to strike, they're basically looking for a jink in the armour. They're looking for where the armour's weakest. Look at Psalm 64 and from verse 1. Again it's another psalm of David. It says, Hear my voice, I got in my prayer. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the works of iniquity, who wet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows. Even bitter words. Notice, by the way, that King David, there were some physical battles. There were some physical opponents. I mean, you think of people like Goliath that he actually went up toe to toe with. Yet, in the Psalms, what is he constantly talking about? It's the words. It's being surrounded. It's a slander. It's a lie. It's a deceit, which is what he's constantly praying to God for help with. A lot of the time someone said this to me recently, maybe in the Old Testament it might have actually been easier to be able to just chop someone's head off, because nowadays it seems we have to be a little bit more collected and patient and we have to put up with people slandering you and speaking deceit about you. So he said here, Even bitter words, that they may shoot in secret at the perfect. Suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not. They encourage themselves in an evil matter. They commune of laying snares. Privately they say, Who shall see them? Look at verse six. They search out iniquities. They accomplish a diligent search, both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart is deep. So these people are searching for weaknesses and men and women are God. That's what it's saying, isn't it? They're searching out iniquities. So sometimes they can be in the inner circle. They could be in the outside as well, and they're doing a diligent search. They're looking for weaknesses. They're looking for things that they can use to make a slander sound more believable. They're looking for something that they can use to discredit the man or woman of God. And by the way, this isn't just pastors, deacons, evangelists. It's anyone working for God. Anyone doing a work for God, like Stephen was doing, is a potential target. That's what you've got to understand. And here they're searching it out. They're looking for something. That's why the slanders often sound that little bit more believable, don't they? Because they're clever. They're using something that sounds at least believable with that person. Well, that preacher shouts a lot. He must be a hate preacher. Cue just everyone saying hate preacher, hate preacher, hate preacher, full of hate, full of hate. Well, that preacher really knows his stuff. He's very confident in the word of God. He's arrogant. He's so arrogant. Then the slander is based on some sort of arrogant thing he must have done. See how it works? And they're looking for something which they're diligently searching something out. And look, every single preacher out there, and of course I've talked about preachers because this is the stuff that we see and that we can really get hold of that sort of slander. They all have sin. Fancy that. Do you know that even your favorite pastor out there, do you know that he's sinful? Do you know that? I know. Amazing, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. He's that pedestal isn't quite as high. Yeah. Yeah. He has sin in his life. Yeah. Yeah. He shouldn't have sin that disqualifies him, but he does have sin in his life and they will find that. They will look for that. They'll, they will then use that to then discredit that pastor to then try and run with that. Something which maybe is something that maybe has dealt with before. Maybe it's something from his past. Maybe it's something that people can see. Yeah. Maybe he has to deal with that sort of thing. And they'll use that to make the slander sound more believable. They search out iniquities. They accomplish a diligent search. Both the inward thought of every one of them and the heart is deep. Okay. These people aren't just morons. Yeah. These people are out there. They're intelligent. They're clever and they're trying to find ways of discrediting men and women of God. And like I said, it's not just, it's not, Oh, well brother Ian, you're just preaching this for when the slander comes. I've already had slander against me and it started off pretty weak. It was pretty rubbish, but it's going to continue. But it's not just me. Yeah. It's everyone here. Not only everyone here can be, can be a victim of it. And if you're doing a work for God and if you're going out and doing things to God, people will slander you. Yeah. People will slander you. But also I'm going to show you in a minute as well who really are the targets of this as well. So don't go back to act six. It's all in my sermon today is weapons of the enemy slander. Number one is how common is slander. And we look that it's very common. Number two, what are the tactics of slander? And we looked at some different tactics of slander there. Point number three, what are the goals of slander then? What are the goals of slander? Back to our U-boats. Do you know that in World War I, yeah, in the Atlantic alone, German U-boats sank almost 5,000 ships, yeah, with nearly 13 million gross register tonnage. So they basically sunk 13 million tons of ship in the Atlantic alone. Okay. That's a lot of sinking, isn't it? Can you imagine how many boats are at the bottom of the Atlantic from World War I alone? Just from World War I alone we're talking about here. Like I said earlier, they were responsible for destroying 30% of the world's trade ships. That was an effective weapon, wasn't it? Really effective weapon. Now what was their ultimate goal? Destruction was their ultimate goal. Okay. Destruction was their goal. But do you know what they focused particularly on really in the second half of the war was the ships that were feeding and supplying the needs of their enemy, of their opponent. So the ships that were the trade ships that were supplying the Allies were who were focused and targeted by the U-boats. And that seems to be the same with our spiritual U-boats slander, doesn't it? Because yeah, the sons of Belial will happily take down, yeah, they'll happily take down an easy target, just someone, a Christian there. If they see an easy way of slandering them, just an easy way of discrediting them, of course they'll do that. But the wolf packs are sent out for those that feed the sheep. Okay. That's who the wolf packs are really out for is for those that feed the sheep. And obviously that could be someone that's just doing an amazing work, soul winning. Okay. That could be that as well, because obviously they're creating sheep in the first place, but those that are sending out, those that are encouraging, those that are feeding the sheep, the ultimate goal is destruction. But one of the goals to achieve that is to stir up the people. Okay. And the way they do it is they do it by stirring up the people. Look down at Acts 6, verse 11, Acts 6, 11, where it says, then they suborned men, which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council. So the initial slander is to get the people on side, isn't it? To build up the numbers of haters and willing idiots that don't care about things like evidence. Yeah. You know, those types of people don't care about evidence. There's enough slander out there. There must be some truth in it. They build up the pressure, whip up a frenzy with the goal being at the bare minimum, discrediting of the person by popular opinion, because we see that, don't we? Popular opinion has discredited someone. Yeah. And the masses, the unsaved masses are easy to whip up into a frenzy, aren't they? Okay. They're easy. But the problem is, is that Christians often still get fazed by the popular opinion of the unsaved masses, don't they? And ideally for them, the ultimate goal is total destruction, but some discrediting at the least has weakened. Yeah. They've attacked those trade ships. They've weakened at least the feeding of the sheep. Turn to 1 Kings 21. 1 Kings 21 is a famous story where slander was used to stir up the masses to do the destruction themselves. In 1 Kings 21, the wicked King Ahab is upset because he wants this guy Naboth's vineyard. But Naboth doesn't want to sell it as it was an inheritance. Yeah, fair enough. Should he have to sell it? No, it was an inheritance. Well, look at verse 5. 1 Kings 21, verse 5, it says, But Jezebel his wife, this is King Ahab's wife, the evil King Ahab, and the massively evil Jezebel, his wife came to him and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad that thou eatest no bread? And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money, or else if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard And he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard. And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread. Can't see he wears the trousers in this house, can't you? And let thine heart be merry. Oh, notice that. It's merry from eating bread. Not getting boozed up. I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast and set Naboth on high among the people. And set two men, sons of Belial before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king, and then carry him out and stone him that he may die. And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them, they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth on high among the people. And there came in two men, children of Belial and sat before him, and the men of Belial witness against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones that he died. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned and is dead. Now look at verse 10. Notice what they were. They were sons of Belial. Okay, that's what she commands. She said, get two sons of Belial. Get a couple of reprobates, yeah. Get a couple of wicked, vile reprobates, because they'll happily just stand before him barefaced and bear witness against him. Okay, they were sons of Belial, but the rest of the elders and nobles still followed her command, didn't they? And eventually it was all the people, it seemed, that were stirred up to kill him. Okay, the people were stirred up, and it was the people that cast the stones, wasn't it? The slander was to get the support of the masses who were then responsible for killing him, weren't they? Yeah, so the slander then stirred up the masses, which then resulted in him being killed. Now go back to Acts chapter 6, because that's what happens to Stephen. Acts chapter 6, where we started, and from verse 12 it says, and they stirred up the people, Acts 6 12, and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council, and set up false witnesses, which said, this man seeth not to speak blasphemous words against his holy place in the law. For we have heard him say this, Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Now jump forward to chapter 7, because Stephen then preached the sermon to them, and then he finishes it in style. Okay, you got to love Stephen here, because he's kind of, he's in trouble here, isn't he? So he's like, right, well I might as well preach my way out, yeah. So he preaches, and then in Acts 7 verse 51, this is how he finishes his sermon, he then goes, he gives them a bit of a lesson, yeah, a bit of a history lesson, and then he goes, ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before the coming of the just one, of whom you have now been, so you have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, behold I see the heavens open, the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. And they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, these guys are incensed aren't they, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul, later Paul the Apostle that is, and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus received my spirit, and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, lay not this sin to their charge, and when he had said this, he fell asleep. Okay, but they'd already been stirred up before this by the slander, hadn't they? Yeah, that's what stirred them up to this point, it was a slander for all these people to just run upon him with one accord, to stone him. Maybe had he had the slander never happened, he just started that sermon, would he necessarily have got stoned? Probably not, but they've been stirred up by the slander, that's what the slander did. Okay, now that's a pretty extreme case here, isn't it? But this is how it works, okay, this is how it works, albeit the goal is often to destroy a Christian's spiritual life, as opposed to maybe their physical life, as we see here, although a lot of the time they'll go hand in hand. Now, as with all these sermons, what's the answer then? What's our defence? Okay, so each of these weapons of the enemy sermons, I've tried to give maybe a solution in the Word of God to this sort of thing, a defence for this, well turn to Matthew chapter 5, because you might be sitting here thinking, well maybe just don't do much for God and then you won't get slandered, how about that? Yeah, maybe give up now, maybe forget the evening service, time to go home, that soul winning sounds a little bit high risk. Well, first off, if you are thinking that, you're turning to Matthew 5, verse 10 says, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is a kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So look, first off, yeah there's some rewards coming, okay, so don't try and avoid it, because the rewards for eternity is, well eternity is a lot longer time than this vapour of a life that we have here, okay, so rejoice and be exceeding glad it says, for great is your reward in heaven. Now the key here is that they're saying all manner of evil against you falsely, okay, notice it was falsely, you'd have to turn to 1 Peter 3 16 says, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. If you're on the receiving end, make sure that you have a good conscience, okay, if you're likely to be on the receiving end, if you're doing, well you should anyway, but you everyone here should be aiming to do things for God and therefore you need to have a good conscience don't you, because they're probing, they're sitting, they're doing a diligent search, yeah, the enemies of God want to find things to accuse your good conversation in Christ, but we want them to be ashamed when they falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ, okay, but you're getting eternal rewards like we just saw in Matthew 5. It's everyone else that's at risk and that's the key thing with the slander here, okay, when men of God are getting slandered, when people out soul winning are getting attacked by the enemy to try and hamper them or maybe even destroy them, it's less people that get saved. When the people that are preaching, when the people that are studying and preaching the word of God and trying to encourage and edify and rebuke and reprove and all the things which is meant to happen with the word of God, when they're getting slandered, the goal is to damage those trade ships and the goal is to prevent you from getting fed. The goal is for you to look at pastors online and when you, you know, for example, when you see that slander is for you to get put off, it's for you to not get fed by the men of God that are preaching, you know, so much truth and encouraging soul winning and everything else is for you to go, oh yeah but there's no smoke without fire, there must be a bit of truth there and this is what they're doing and this is what they do and they'll do it in a smaller sense to people standing behind a pulpit like myself here and they'll do it to people standing behind much bigger pulpits in bigger busier churches with much more people listening and the goal is to discredit them, is to shake your faith in them, is for you to then not really want to hear what's coming from the pulpit because on your mind is whatever that slander is, yeah, so who's really, who's really the target of the slander? It's the people, it's the sheep, it's the people of God because look, when the lies are repeated, when the truth is twisted, often the sheep stop getting fed, yeah, they stop getting fed especially if that man of God steps down in the end for whatever reason, just can't deal with it anymore, gives up quits or something else, a lot of the time that's just affected the sheep, isn't it? And like I said, it's not just passing preachers, everyone is a target to some degree, okay, that's the more high profile slander we see, the stuff that we're going to have more of a kind of idea of that we, that maybe some of us have experienced already that we're going to see out there but even if it's just to stop you being a support to a Christian friend, you might get slandered. You have to turn there, Proverbs 16-28 says, a thrower of man, so is strife and a whisperer separated chief friends because that's one of the goals of slander, isn't it? It's to stop people being able to help each other, it's to stop those trade convoys, it's to stop those things that you need to help you in your Christian life and that can just be a friend, that could be wise counsel, that can be someone behind the pulpit and look, the enemy will slander anyone but obviously the wolf packs come for those that they think are going to be the most helped, yeah. So the point of these sermons, if you're sitting there going, look brother Ian, you've been talking about weapons of the enemy now on and off for the last few months, yeah, what is the point? Well, you know, don't we just, we just get on, don't we, we just live right and things will work out, well the point of these sermons is for us as a church to be wise to the common attacks and the weapons used, okay, that's what I want, my goal of these is I wanted to go through this because we need to be wise to this sort of thing, okay, we as a church need to be wise because we're the ones fighting the battle, aren't we, okay, and every single person here needs to understand how it works to be able to discern when it does happen, yeah, to be able to discern when it's already happening and some of you probably already have done that, some of you probably have an ear or a nose for it, to not be an ignorant accomplice in one way or another and again it's not just for me, it's for those other people that edify you in the online world, for those, for those friends of yours, for when we have other churches in the future as well, it's to be able to discern when it's slander. Now turn to Exodus 23, how do we do that? Well first off we need to make sure that we have nothing to do with slander ourselves, yes it's a weapon of the enemy but we can easily be pulled into it, okay, yes it's going to be most common amongst those vile reprobates, those god haters out there but we can easily be pulled into it. Exodus chapter 23 and from verse 1, Exodus 23-1 reads, thou shalt not raise a false report, put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness, thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to rest judgment, neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. So verse 1 is saying don't make up lies, thou shalt not raise a false report, he's saying put not thine heart with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness, don't be like the wicked basically, okay, don't behave like them, just because you don't like someone it doesn't mean that you should slander them, okay, just because well you don't like someone it doesn't mean that you then just start making up things, raising false reports, well it's justified because I think that they're wicked anyway or because I don't like them or because they did this to me, because they've offended me. Verse 2 is saying just because everyone else is doing it, don't join in, yeah, and that obviously includes slander, there's thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, okay, don't follow the rest off a cliff and look a lot of people slander, yeah, there's a lot of slander out in the world, it's not just obviously the reprobate's doing it, okay, don't join in, don't follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in the course of decline after many to rest judgment, so he's saying also don't make a point of going against the majority if they're in the right, oh well I'm just I'm not a people follower, you know you get people like that, yeah I just I go against the grain, there are some people like that, some people respect that amongst people that don't just follow and copy everything everyone else does, you can go too far with that as well can't you, when the majority maybe in a church are doing the right thing and you're going against that, he says neither shalt thou speak in the cause to decline after many to rest judgment. Verse three, neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause and in the same way just favouring, countenance here being used here is to favour the poor guy just because he's poor, so there are people that then well you know well that poor person they've just come into the church, they're new or they're this or they don't have much money or they're whatever else, so I'm just going to give them favour and I'm just going to ignore when they're slandering people in the church or when they're doing this or no the bible says there neither shout out countenance a poor man in his cause, basically judge every situation fairly, so if we're judging situations fairly, if we're looking for two or three witnesses to accusations and slanders against people or possible potential slanders, well we're going to judge a situation better and then we're going to have a nose for the slanderers as well. Turn to Proverbs chapter 20 because once we've got that down we can spot the slanders a bit easier can't we? Proverbs chapter 20. If we're starting to judge right we understand what it takes to be able to judge a situation right to have those witnesses to a situation and obviously there are things that you've just seen first hand eyewitness, you don't need two or three witnesses to someone saying something wicked to you, you can judge that and you can say like I'm a witness to that but you start just relaying other things that you've heard about other people and you've got no idea who's witnessed that, what's true or anything else, well you're just at least party to that slander if not slandering them yourself. Proverbs 20 verse 19 says he that goeth about as a tale bearer reveal of secrets, therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips. See the tail bearing and flattering often go hand in hand don't they? If someone is able to easily lie with flattery well do you think slander is going to be that out of bounds for them? Yeah if someone could just stand in front of you and just lie just flatter you just for some ulterior motive of theirs do you think that slander is then out of bounds? You think slander is something they're unable to? No of course they're able of course and they're just as likely by the way to be slandering you. Okay so yeah avoid them, get away, keep away from the tale bearers who are often flatterers too and I'm talking about not just in the church I'm also talking about out in the open world, out in the outer world, out in the online world as well. Keep away from these people that always have new juicy gossip about someone, something else they've heard or something, just keep away from those people, keep away from the people that flatter you, keep away from the people that are tale bearing. Turn to Psalm 101 because 1st Corinthians 5 says not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a railer, doesn't it? 1st Corinthians 5 tells us not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a railer. Okay and a railer is someone that's basically slandering okay is false accusations, lies, insults about people that are untrue okay. Psalm 101 and from verse 5 says who so privately slandereth his neighbour him will I cut off him that hath an eye looking a proud heart will not I suffer mine eye shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me he that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight cut them off and if or when they're in this church obviously you need to be taking that seriously okay it's a serious thing slander yeah slander's used like I said you might think well it's not a big deal it's just a little thing said no it's to weaken that person it's to probe it's to try and build up a general feeling it's to discredit that person and often it's subtle as well okay so slander isn't necessarily someone coming up to you going did you know that brother so-and-so or sister this or no a lot of the time it will be something like oh you know brother whoever they're just they're always I love it they're so stubborn they're so stubborn but is stubborn a good thing is stubborn a good thing no stubborn is not a good thing is it stubbornness and rebellion is is is the sins of witchcraft and idolatry isn't it so so but oh but it's so funny you know the joking insult you get people that do that I've had people around me that do that it's just oh I love you you're so and it's just an insult it's like yeah thanks you know or they'll do it about someone else oh brother this or sister that and I'll bet you know I'm sure people have done it about people in this room myself others you know oh they're because really they're just trying to discredit they're just trying to sow those seeds of slander so you start to think well they're saying it in a nice way like they know them like they're friends of them it must be true they must have this particular sinful trait or you know I really like sister so-and-so and she's come such a long way since her days of being a thief you know she's gone such a long way since her days of being a bit of a slut you know so but it's not oh but they like him so oh but they're giving them a compliment aren't they yeah be careful those those those reverse compliments yeah and again what is it really it's just slander yeah you're just slandering someone but you're doing it subtly proverbs 10 18 says you don't have to turn it says he that hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth the slander is a fool because people hide hatred with lying lips don't they okay and he that utter the slander is a fool now turn to some 114. I'm going to talk about these u-boats one more time so at the end of this sermon if you've learned nothing else at least you've learned a little bit about u-boat warfare yeah do you know when the u-boat was at most risk of being spotted we'll have we'll have a question answer for him here who thinks they know when the u-boat was at most chance of being spotted say again yeah up and why was it up a lot or something similar you go i was going to say when it actually done the sinking in the first place yeah when it yeah when it attacked yeah so when it attacked when it exposed its position when it fired and sometimes it would rise up to do that because in fact some of these u-boats also had like deck guns and stuff as well because some of these torpedoes are expensive but regardless when it attacked was when it was when it exposed itself yeah that's when it was at most risk of being destroyed and look that's the thing with slanderers it's the slanders it's the slander that reveals them okay that's what you've got to understand that's what you've got to remember when someone's a slanderer when you when you catch someone slandering people that's when really they're revealing themselves so as much as it's an effective weapon it's also a high-risk weapon for the slanderer as well so obviously that goes for the church division causer but also the online slanderer the mainstream media liar look when you look at a story and you see a situation you can see the slander in it it just discredits the slanderer doesn't it straight away and if you have a nose for it if you're distancing yourself from it if you're making sure that you're not responsible of it because a lot of sins some of the hardest sins to spot for us the hardest sins to be aware of are the ones that we're guilty of aren't they because we're so used to it we're so used to maybe doing that sin to some degree that we find it a bit harder to then have a nose for it when someone else is doing it but if you cut it out of your life if you make sure that no you know you're going to be serious about what sort of information you relay about people what sort of accusations you give out to people and and whether or not they're in this church or someone completely unrelated to this church then you're going to be more likely to spot the slander or the slanderer when he does slander and it's when they slander that they're exposed and look i i've many times myself i've seen things pop up and straight away when i see it well someone said this i just think slanderer i've not got an interest in watching it at all it's lies and and you'd be surprised you know so so many and just just for myself is so many of these you'd think that i'd be maybe make sure i've watched all these online attack videos of all the different pastors and pastors friends you know of people in our in our sort of movement i'm not interested in most of them yeah because straight away they're just slander i've had a couple i had one sent to me once so i watched it straight away i could barely watch it at the beginning it was just slander it was hearsay it was just accusations of some disgruntled reprobate trying to to accuse accuse our pastor of something or other and look you could spot it just you see it and when you see it they're exposed they're done yeah got no interest in those people you can watch if you want but watch it with an eye for it with a keen eye if you really want to watch this sort of rubbish because you you put certain pastors names into youtube you know you'll probably just turn up with hundreds of attack videos but it's just slander slander and lies they try their best to make it sound believable don't they do that we've got evidence we've got a clip of some conversation or something else and it's like but that's not actually that's not not not proving anything at all there's some that's but it sounds so believable it sounds well there's no smoke without fire and this is what they do but if we cut it out of our life if we cut these people out of our life we make sure that we when it does come in this church that we get rid of them well look for us we're going to spot it easier and then you guys because it's everyone in the church you know it's all of us that are then going to benefit because it's a church it's a sheep that are always the target of the wolf isn't it yeah the wolf pack might scare away the pastor but really it's because it wants to eat the eat the sheep doesn't it it's a slander that reveals them but you've got to have a nose for it like i said if you're able to spot it and you're able to hold your head high when on the receiving end of it then the attack of the slanderer becomes their undoing okay and that's what you want you want let them reveal themselves great yeah it's a high risk weapon it's going to finish off with some 140 did i get you to turn there turn to psalm 140 140 okay psalm 140 a psalm of david again psalm 140 from verse one reads deliver me oh lord from the evil man preserve me from the violent man which imagine mischiefs in their heart continually are they gathered together for war okay so these are physically violent people but then what does he say in verse three they have sharpened their tongues like a serpent adders poison is under their lips sealer it's back to the mouths again keep me i lord from the hands of the wicked preserve me from the violent man who purpose to overthrow my goings the proud have hid a snare for me and chords they've spread a net by the wayside they've set gins for me sealer i said unto the lord thou art my god hear the voice of my supplications oh lord oh god the lord the strength of my salvation now is covering my head in the day of battle grant not oh lord the desires of the wicked further not his wicked device lest they exalt themselves sealer as for the head of those that compass me about let the mischief of their own lips cover them and that's what we want to happen with these people you keep yourself clean you keep yourself pure you keep yourself away from that sort of sin well then we can just let the mischief of their own lips cover them so point number one how common is slander well it's common there's more and more of these wicked people around as far as i'm concerned as the days go on we're going to have more and more number two what the tactics of slander will attack in numbers mantras throw a lot of mud probing for something more concrete distorting the truth diligently searching for weaknesses and number three what the goals of slander stirring up the masses destruction and part of that is cutting off essential supplies what was the defense that we just saw there or if you're on the receiving end keep right we've got to rejoice yeah but as a church make sure that you're not involved in slander expose those that are and keep away from obvious slander on the outside and on that let's pray father thank you um thank you for all the great examples in scripture of the weapons that we come up against in particular this this weapon of slander uh please just help everyone here to be aware of it to keep themselves away from it to make sure they're not pulled into it but also to to have a you know to have their antenna eyes sort of sort of bleeping and ready to to to to locate it when it when it does happen to be able to see these sort of u-boat slanderers down in the depths just lurking trying to slander you know your people your your your men and women of god out there just just help us to be aware of it help us to spot it help us to to be protected from it and help us to just be you know to just be in your will and everything that we do help us to thrive as a church starting this afternoon help us go out and get many people saved and help us to return safely this evening for for this evening's service in Jesus name for all of this amen