1 00:00:01,240 --> 00:00:07,280 A man named Ebo Noah, a self-proclaimed prophet in 2 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:11,800 Ghana, was predicting A worldwide flood that was 3 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:15,400 supposed to happen on Christmas Day of 2025. 4 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:20,480 He was building several arc like structures he claimed were going 5 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:24,120 to be people's salvation. They were going to save them 6 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:28,240 from the wrath of God that was supposed to come on Christmas 7 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:34,280 Day last year and after the rain never came, he was seen in 8 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:41,000 $100,000 Mercedes-Benz. Some of the people gave up their 9 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,400 whole life savings in their homes and and thousands of 10 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:48,480 people travelled many miles to get to this man and to get to 11 00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:52,840 these arcs and when they finally got there, they were unfinished. 12 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:58,120 One person was so angry that he saw a nearby boat that he 13 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:02,000 thought was this false prophets and burned. 14 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,920 It turned out not to be his boat and he felt deeply regrettable 15 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:10,240 about that. Now those of us who hear this 16 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:15,040 story and know the Bible look at this and we're like, how could 17 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,640 so many people be fooled by this? 18 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,080 We know that God has promised he's never going to flood the 19 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:26,400 earth again. That's the whole point of the 20 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:31,120 rainbow, that God said he would never flood the earth again. 21 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:37,520 Oftentimes Christians though, don't really know their Bibles 22 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:43,400 and even pastors don't really want to teach Christians the 23 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:46,720 Bible. They think all all we got to do 24 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:49,480 is just get them to that point of salvation, right? 25 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:54,360 If we just give them the basic, very basic understandings of, 26 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:58,480 of, of the good news that that Jesus came to save you and all 27 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:00,520 you got to do is pray a prayer after me. 28 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:04,680 If all that we do is get that to happen, then God will do the 29 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,000 rest of it. And we don't have to do anything 30 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:08,440 else. We don't have to learn anything 31 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:09,400 else. We don't have to teach the 32 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:15,560 people anything else. But as Jesus has been teaching 33 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:18,200 us in the Sermon on the Mount, he said there's a narrow path 34 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:21,240 and it's a hard one, and few there be that find it. 35 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:28,480 And we know that it's not true that a Christian life starts and 36 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,320 stops at salvation. Yes, it starts there, But we can 37 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:34,800 commit the rest of our lives, as we've heard people confess 38 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:40,720 today, to go on to live a life that honors God, that that seeks 39 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,080 to obey Him to, to find out all the things that he said and to 40 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:46,920 worship him through that lifestyle. 41 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:55,080 There are many warnings from Jesus to his disciples about 42 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:59,640 dangerous teachers, about the danger of not learning, about 43 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:05,120 the danger of learning, from those who don't want to actually 44 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,760 teach you the whole counsel of God, but rather they just want 45 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:13,680 to give you little quips and quotes and cliches to lead your 46 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:20,280 Christian life. And even Satan uses people to 47 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:24,200 trip us up, to tempt us and to teach us false things. 48 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:28,800 He uses false prophets to lead others astray and some to never 49 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:34,120 come to the true faith. And so today that is what we're 50 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:36,040 going to be talking about. We're going to be in Matthew 51 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:42,960 Chapter 7, verses 15 through 20. We've been walking through the 52 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:46,200 Sermon on the Mount and the and Chapter 7 right here where we're 53 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:52,560 at, Jesus basically drops an atom bomb to close his sermon of 54 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:57,760 some warnings and some challenges to who's going to be 55 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:00,520 the true disciples and who are going to be the false ones. 56 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:03,160 And we'll get to that in the next two weeks. 57 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:05,680 It's going to take us three weeks to get through this close 58 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,560 that Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount. 59 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,520 But today we're just handling 15 through 20. 60 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:16,200 And I've got only two points I want to make out of this. 61 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:21,680 And the first one is this. Be careful who you learn from 62 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:28,920 the first verse, verse 15. Beware of false prophets who 63 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:34,880 come to you in sheep's clothing but are inwardly ravenous 64 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:39,640 wolves. This is a huge statement from 65 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:41,760 Jesus and there's a lot packed in there. 66 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:46,400 And so I want to dissect this with you and, and find out what 67 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:49,400 he means in in the context of this. 68 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:51,400 And then how does it apply to us? 69 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:55,560 And but in but first, before we get into what false prophets 70 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:57,880 are, we should probably understand what a true prophet 71 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,560 is. A prophet of the Bible is 72 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:08,400 someone who was commissioned by God to speak God's message, to 73 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:12,440 speak to the people. They often would say, thus saith 74 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:16,880 the Lord, God told me this, now I need to deliver this message 75 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:21,040 to you. Now oftentimes we think of a 76 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:25,160 prophet as someone who just tells the future, someone who's 77 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,280 going to say, oh, this is going to happen in the future. 78 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:31,520 But actually the majority of what the prophets did in the Old 79 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:35,200 Testament was deliver a message from God that had nothing to do 80 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:38,800 with the future. Some of that is mixed in though. 81 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:43,440 And it's not just a person who tells the future then, it's a 82 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:46,560 person who teaches God's truth, right. 83 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:51,040 And so while I, I do not believe there are any more prophets 84 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:54,760 today like the prophets in the Old Testament, nobody is 85 00:05:55,720 --> 00:06:00,960 receiving new revelations from God to tell the people, you see, 86 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:05,440 the Bible is closed. It's called the Canon of 87 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:09,920 Scripture has been decided early on in Christianity. 88 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:11,920 There's no more books being written. 89 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:15,640 There's no more people that can say, I have a new message from 90 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:17,640 the Lord. And then we add it to Scripture. 91 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,480 Know the book that we have, the 66 books of the Bible are the 92 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:27,920 finished work of God's revelation to humanity. 93 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:32,480 And now the church's job is to go back into all of this and 94 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:36,280 read this and learn it and, and live our lives by it. 95 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:39,240 It is complete. It is a complete work. 96 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:43,680 It's sufficient for everything we need for life and godliness. 97 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:50,480 And to back up what I'm saying, I would share in Hebrews 11 New 98 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:53,480 Testament it says long, long ago, at many times in many ways 99 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,600 God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days 100 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:02,320 He has spoken to us by His Son. Jesus is the last and final 101 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,040 prophet who is also the Son of God. 102 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:08,280 He brought the completion of what the Old Testament was 103 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:11,800 talking about. Now we have the writings of the 104 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:15,920 apostles who were after Jesus, but what were they doing? 105 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:20,280 They were looking back at Jesus. The prophets looked forward to 106 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:23,320 Jesus. The apostles look back to Jesus 107 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:25,800 and everything that he had to say. 108 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:29,400 By the way, there are no more apostles anymore either. 109 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:33,960 I would not trust anyone or any group or any church who claims 110 00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:39,440 to have apostles and prophets. We'll get into some of that a 111 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:46,720 little bit later in the sermon, but again, in Ephesians 220 it 112 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:50,960 says the church was built on the foundation of the apostles and 113 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:55,240 prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. 114 00:07:55,920 --> 00:08:01,720 So what is the saying that the foundation of all that we 115 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:05,760 believe is built on the Old Testament prophets and the New 116 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:12,920 Testament apostles, with both of them being supported by God the 117 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:17,160 Son in the Scriptures? And when you build a house, 118 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:20,040 right, we, we look around, there's a lot of construction 119 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:25,360 going on in Utah, maybe in your neighborhood, and you watch how 120 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,320 a house is built. It starts with the foundation, 121 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,600 but you don't keep. Once the foundation is built, 122 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:34,360 you don't keep building a foundation. 123 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:37,440 You don't just keep going. Cement all the way up with more 124 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:40,600 rebar right now. You eventually put on the things 125 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,280 that make it the house, the wood and the the interior, the 126 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:47,960 drywall and the electrical and everything that's entailed, even 127 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,040 the decorations to make the house. 128 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:55,680 The New Testament church is the building of God's house, 129 00:08:55,680 --> 00:09:00,800 spiritually speaking. There there are no more need for 130 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:04,640 physical temples because we are the temple. 131 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:08,560 The Bible says so. But we still in our day have 132 00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:12,600 people who claim to be prophets and have started new offshoot 133 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:14,400 religions. I'm going to get to that more in 134 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,920 our second point. But today's prophets, although 135 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:21,040 we can look at guys like Ebo Noah and say that's just 136 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:24,880 ridiculous if you know your scripture. 137 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:29,040 Many were fooled. Today's prophets have to even be 138 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:35,160 even more clever by twisting Scripture and to make them mean 139 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:38,400 something that they don't or they just leave things out. 140 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:46,080 The word here for false prophets in our text back in verse 15 is 141 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:49,120 pseudo prophets. So they're not really the real 142 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:52,080 thing. You've heard of, you know, 143 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:55,200 pseudo ephedrine. It's not like the real stuff 144 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:58,880 right in the cold medicine, it might have some of the same 145 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:01,840 properties and make you feel a little bit of the same way, 146 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:04,320 right? Pseudo just means false, false 147 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:10,240 or fake, phony. That's what these prophets are 148 00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:14,320 and today we can still the Bible uses language that they are 149 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:17,680 false teachers then. So when we think about this word 150 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:22,000 prophets in the New Testament, it is someone who is claiming to 151 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,920 proclaim the word of God, much like a preacher stands up and 152 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:29,160 says this is what God's word says and here's what it means. 153 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,040 And so in the New Testament talks about these prophets, 154 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:38,520 there will be these false teachers that are trying to come 155 00:10:38,520 --> 00:10:42,200 into the church, right? Second, Peter 22 says, but false 156 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:44,840 prophets also arose among the people. 157 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:48,720 Just as there will be false teachers among you who will 158 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:56,480 secretly bring in destructive heresies, false teachers will 159 00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:59,880 secretly bring in destructive heresies. 160 00:10:59,880 --> 00:11:05,040 Now, if we go back to our verse and look at that, this, the next 161 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:09,600 part of this, they come to you in sheep's clothing but are 162 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:18,480 inwardly ravenous wolves. You see, they're pretending to 163 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:22,080 be like one of us. They might even look like one of 164 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:24,200 us. They're coming in in secret. 165 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:28,360 They're not so obvious. They're not so obvious that then 166 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:31,520 when they walk in the door or when they come into your group 167 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:39,600 or even when they stand on the stage, that they are in fact, 168 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:43,120 false teachers. That's the whole point. 169 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:49,240 That's how Satan works. You see, Satan, as, you know, 170 00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:53,040 contrary to what a lot of us think or believe, he's not 171 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:56,320 hanging out in cemeteries all day long, you know, or hanging 172 00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,960 out at the haunted houses during Halloween alone, right? 173 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:07,160 He is and has always been trying to twist God's word, trying to 174 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:15,240 come in and fool God's people. And he does it in sly, sneaky, 175 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:19,560 crafty ways. And he's, he's gotten pretty 176 00:12:19,560 --> 00:12:21,120 good at it and he's pretty smart. 177 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:22,840 He's been around for thousands of years. 178 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:31,920 He's a fallen Angel. And so think about it, wolves in 179 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:36,440 sheep's clothing. Now sheep's clothing again means 180 00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:38,360 two things. They come to us looking innocent 181 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:42,200 and harmless and they pretend to be doing everything they're 182 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:46,040 doing for God, right? That's what sheep are doing, 183 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:46,680 right? Sheep. 184 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:49,640 The very image of a sheep is like, wow, nobody's a scared of 185 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:54,600 a sheep, right? I'm like, you might be scared of 186 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:56,520 a bull with horns. You're not going to jump the 187 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:58,200 fence to to go hang out with them. 188 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:01,520 But a sheep, maybe the ones that have the horns, the goats that 189 00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:04,760 can that that can like really ram you. 190 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:06,480 Yeah, I've seen some videos about that. 191 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:10,280 They're pretty strong. But but a sheep is not that 192 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:12,280 scary looking, right? Very innocent. 193 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:19,480 But they're claiming to be a part of the pack when really a 194 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:21,920 wolf describes their true heart motivation. 195 00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:24,560 They're really just there to devour. 196 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:30,600 Interestingly, when we think about this, we don't, we don't 197 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:35,440 really think about how easily we could all be fooled. 198 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:38,880 Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones says this. 199 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:41,400 The picture we need to have in our minds, therefore, should 200 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:44,400 rather be this. The false prophet is a man who 201 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:48,120 comes to us, who at first has the appearance of being 202 00:13:48,120 --> 00:13:50,280 everything that could be desired. 203 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:53,440 He is nice and pleasing and pleasant. 204 00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:56,640 He appears to be thoroughly Christian and seems to say the 205 00:13:56,640 --> 00:14:00,400 right things. His teaching in general is quite 206 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,360 all right, and he uses many terms that should be used and 207 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:05,560 employed by a true Christian teacher. 208 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:09,520 He talks about God. He seems to be saying everything 209 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:13,080 that a Christian should say. He's obviously in sheep's 210 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,240 clothing, and his way of living seems to correspond. 211 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:19,120 So you do not suspect that there's anything wrong at all. 212 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:22,840 There is nothing at once that attracts your attention or 213 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:27,080 arouses your suspicions. Nothing glaringly wrong. 214 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:33,920 And as I talked about, you know Satan is good at at disguising 215 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:37,640 himself, right? It says in in Second Corinthians 216 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:41,160 11/13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, 217 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:44,120 disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 218 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:49,040 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an Angel of 219 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:51,720 light. So it is no surprise if his 220 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:55,480 servants also disguise themselves as servants of 221 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,680 righteousness. Often times we'll look at 222 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,320 people, a group of people, a religion, and we'll say, man, 223 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,840 these people are really moral or they're really living, you know, 224 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:08,760 their faith out. And, and we think they must know 225 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:12,520 God because God is out all about morality and goodness. 226 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:16,240 And yes, God has a standard for morality, but as we know, he 227 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:19,280 came to save sinners who can't keep his morality. 228 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:22,640 But then he empowers us to live it out, but not perfectly. 229 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:31,080 Again, these are very subtle, say a lot of the right things, 230 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:34,920 but the problem here is in what he doesn't say. 231 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:41,000 Will not offend, will not talk about hell, will minimize sin, 232 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:45,120 won't talk about the commands of Christ other than maybe the 233 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:47,760 mandate. We should go and make disciples, 234 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:50,720 right? Minimizes the depravity of man. 235 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:54,400 Minimizes the substitutionary atonement of Christ. 236 00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:01,440 Minimizes repentance. Never talks about it. 237 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:08,120 How to repent is the telltale sign of our faith. 238 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:12,040 Everybody can say that they're a Christian. 239 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:15,760 In fact, most of our nation probably says they're Christian 240 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:22,480 in this passage that says you'll know them by their fruit because 241 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:26,920 it's not just a pray a prayer after me or one day I, you know, 242 00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:30,400 felt an emotional experience. And so therefore that meet must 243 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:36,160 mean I'm a Christian to prove faith comes through life change. 244 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:43,280 But the false teacher will never point the people to that because 245 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:45,560 it seems too harsh. He doesn't want people to 246 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:50,360 examine their faith. Very watered down. 247 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:56,240 Sounds like a Ted talk with maybe a couple verses, always 248 00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:04,480 topical and tickling the ears. They don't want to talk about 249 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:10,599 God's commands or God's call to turn from your sin. 250 00:17:10,599 --> 00:17:14,160 In fact, back in Jeremiah's day in the Old Testament, a prophet 251 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:17,359 whom nobody liked and nobody wanted to listen to, eventually 252 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:22,160 they threw him in a pit because the king was sick of hearing him 253 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:26,599 say thus saith the Lord. There were other prophets in his 254 00:17:26,599 --> 00:17:29,480 day that were saying, Oh no, God's good with everything that 255 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:31,120 you're doing. And it says this. 256 00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:34,400 They have healed the wound of my people lightly saying peace, 257 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,240 peace when there is no peace, constantly saying there's peace 258 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:40,800 with God. You've done all that's good and 259 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:43,600 right, and don't worry about repenting in your sin. 260 00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:47,720 Keep living the way that you're living because God is all about 261 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,600 peace. These are dangerous because they 262 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:56,080 creep in and invade ministries. When they get you away from the 263 00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:59,280 sound believers and the pastors, they will talk about how it's 264 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:04,680 actually the pastor who's too harsh or too judgmental. 265 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:09,000 He's wrong because of his tone or maybe misinterpretation. 266 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:13,280 And they talk about unity. They want to say the word unity 267 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:16,800 all the time, saying that other churches believe different 268 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:20,240 things and and so it's wrong to talk about those. 269 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:27,480 RC Sproule once said doctrine divides and that's what it's 270 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:31,200 supposed to do. This is why we have a 271 00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:33,880 confession. This is why we have a statement 272 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:35,760 of faith. This is why we have distinctive 273 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:40,240 that we regularly teach and back up through scripture. 274 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:43,840 We want to be honest about who we are and what we believe 275 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:47,480 rather than baiting and switching people to get you in 276 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:51,040 here just to have numbers. This is what you would call 277 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:55,560 being seeker sensitive, right? Thinking that if I'm just 278 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:58,960 sensitive to the seekers and don't say anything harsh or 279 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:01,520 wrong or anything that they wouldn't like, I will get them 280 00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:03,720 in the room. And and when we have a bunch of 281 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:07,440 seats in the room, that proves how good of a church we are. 282 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:17,520 I said a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to refer to this this 283 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:23,280 excerpt by a man named JC Rile. He wrote a book and and part of 284 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:25,640 it, it's called Jellyfish Christianity. 285 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,080 That's what he calls this that I'm talking about. 286 00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:33,560 And he says, he says this one plague of our age is this 287 00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:36,600 widespread dislike to distinct biblical doctrine. 288 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:41,040 In the place of it, the idol of the day is kind of a jellyfish. 289 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,000 Christianity. A Christianity without bone or 290 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:47,640 muscle or sinew, without any distinct teaching about the 291 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:50,560 atonement, or the work of the Spirit, or justification, or the 292 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:54,240 way of peace with God. A vague, foggy, misty 293 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:58,160 Christianity, of which only the watchwords seem to be. 294 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:02,440 You must be liberal and kind. You must condemn no man's 295 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:05,000 doctrinal views. You must consider everybody is 296 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,760 right and nobody is wrong. I. 297 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:13,600 I often run up against this quite a bit because for whatever 298 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:17,560 reason, the Lord has put a passion in my heart to fight for 299 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:22,760 doctrine and truth. And I love the church and I love 300 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:26,040 truth and I love you. And even even if it's going to 301 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:30,280 be hard to hear, those things are good for you to hear. 302 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:33,960 In fact, I feel like it would be unloving if I didn't share with 303 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:37,480 you the things that the Bible says that you need to know. 304 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:42,440 And because I've experienced it first hand when I was living in 305 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,600 sin, claiming to be a Christian and somebody was willing to say, 306 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:50,280 hey, look what scripture says, like God, God loves you and he 307 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:54,080 forgives you, but quit saying you love him back and don't do 308 00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:58,360 anything to show him like you should love this God who has 309 00:20:58,360 --> 00:21:01,760 been so gracious and merciful. And when someone was willing to 310 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:06,360 have these conversations with me and preachers, preachers willing 311 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:09,480 to preach. I mean, if I think about the 312 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:13,200 greatest way in which God has brought about sanctification and 313 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:17,520 change in my life, it has been preachers not who are giving me 314 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:21,280 the Ted talks or just generalizing everything or 315 00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,400 giving me topical messages all the time. 316 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:29,120 It was the preachers who walked through the Word of God and it 317 00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:33,320 changed my life and it continues to change my life. 318 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:40,760 JC Royal continues on this and he says this creedless kind of 319 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:44,240 religion, we are told, is to give us peace of conscience. 320 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:51,200 A jellyfish is a pretty and graceful object when it floats 321 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:54,960 in the sea, contracting and expanding you, You can get it in 322 00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,840 your mind, right? Aren't they just some weird 323 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:02,840 looking but kind of Beautiful Creatures that God made like a 324 00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:07,720 transpellent parent umbrella? Yet the same jellyfish, when 325 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,280 cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump without capacity 326 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,280 for movement, self-defense or self preservation. 327 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:18,840 Alas, it is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of 328 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,480 which the leading principle is no dogma, no distinct tenants, 329 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,760 no positive doctrine. We have hundreds of jellyfish 330 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:29,680 clergy, clergymen who seem to have no single bone in their 331 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,800 body of divinity. They have not definite opinions. 332 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:35,440 They belong to no school or party. 333 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:38,920 They are so afraid of extreme views that they have no views at 334 00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:41,840 all. We have thousands of jellyfish 335 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,880 sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge or a 336 00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:50,280 point or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no 337 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:56,400 Sinner, edifying no St. Never was it so important for 338 00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,240 laymen to hold systematic views of truth and for ordained 339 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:04,920 ministers to enunciate doctrine very clearly and distinctly in 340 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:09,240 their teaching. When the first the church 341 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,120 started in the 1st century in the book of Acts, you know, 342 00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:14,840 there's these pillars that they started with and it says they, 343 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:18,600 they had the apostles doctrine, the breaking of bread, the 344 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:21,840 fellowship and the prayer. And we hold those as like major. 345 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:23,720 This is why we do church the way we do. 346 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:25,400 We make sure we have prayer in there. 347 00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:29,000 The breaking of the bread is the communion part, you know, one of 348 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,640 the ordinances along with baptism that we see and, and, 349 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:38,680 but the apostles doctrine, that's the word of God and 350 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:43,640 everything that they taught the word of God said we need to 351 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:49,080 protect this, teach it. In fact, Paul talked about this, 352 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:54,160 this danger coming, this danger coming when he was in the early 353 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:59,000 church, when he was getting ready to go basically in Acts 354 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,520 27. He says I didn't shrink from 355 00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:05,800 declaring to you the whole counsel of God, not just jump 356 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:09,040 around to all the little high points of the things that are 357 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,400 going to make you feel good all the time and never challenge 358 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:18,440 you. But he says this in Acts 2028. 359 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:24,800 He says, Pay careful attention to yourselves and all, to all 360 00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:27,320 the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to 361 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,720 care for the Church of God, which He obtained with His own 362 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,080 blood. I know that after my departure, 363 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:35,640 fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and 364 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:39,200 from your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to 365 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:42,480 draw away the disciples after them. 366 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:49,280 This is a real danger in our church and in our churches, in 367 00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:53,040 the Christian Church in America, and all over the world for all 368 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,000 time. And there is so much talk about 369 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,240 this in Scripture, how can we not talk about it? 370 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:02,760 Be foolish to just skip this part and pretend like 371 00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:04,680 everybody's right and nobody's wrong. 372 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:13,240 I was once told that true shepherds are to be watching out 373 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,080 for the sheep. They're to be caring for them, 374 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:18,160 nurturing them, but protecting as well. 375 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,560 And a Good Shepherd has two voices. 376 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:26,280 One voice is that tender care for the sheep. 377 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:30,800 The tender, the speaking love over the kindness, the grace, 378 00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:35,480 the reminding of you can always come back to the Lord. 379 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,120 But there's another voice that he should have. 380 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:46,200 That's the seriousness of challenge and rebuke and the 381 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:50,320 warning of the wolves. Imagine being a shepherd. 382 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,240 You're standing out there and wolves are coming. 383 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:58,480 Shepherds had a club and a staff or a crook one. 384 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,800 The one side of the crook was to to pull, pull them back by the 385 00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:04,800 neck so you can pull them out. And the club was to hit the hit 386 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:09,440 the wolves, right. So let me give it to you this 387 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:13,520 way. Imagine your child is in the 388 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:18,200 street and a car is coming. Which voice are you going to 389 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,360 use? Which voice are you going to 390 00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:22,880 use? Are you going to say, oh, little 391 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,920 Timmy, there's a car coming? You got to get out of there, 392 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:30,120 man. Like, come on, let's go, you 393 00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:32,040 know? No, you're going to yell, get 394 00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:36,800 out of the road. That's still loving, right? 395 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:47,840 True teachers warn of the false ones willing to even intimidate 396 00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:53,600 the wolves and train the sheep to watch out for them and defend 397 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:57,600 themselves as well. That's what I hope I'm doing 398 00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:00,800 today. By the way, false prophets and 399 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,400 teachers are usually self-proclaimed, right? 400 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:07,560 They just popped out of nowhere. I know all this stuff. 401 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,640 I have a message that's better than everybody else's message. 402 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:17,520 Real pastors and teachers, shepherds are called by God and 403 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:24,520 they're affirmed by other men. I know this stuff is kind of 404 00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:26,960 hard, right? Like this isn't all of the diet 405 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:28,320 that we get from the word of God. 406 00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:30,640 But I'm, I like to go to the gym. 407 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:33,960 So a gym analogy would be like, you know, we have our favorite 408 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,920 days of working out, right? That's usually chest and biceps, 409 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:40,280 you know, but don't skip leg day. 410 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,960 You've seen those memes before. Don't skip leg day. 411 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:47,800 These are that's hard. It's hard and sometimes this 412 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,920 stuff's hard to hear. So I'm going to move into maybe 413 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,400 getting a little more practical about this and talk about how to 414 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,880 discern between true and false teachers. 415 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,400 Let's go to our next. The rest of the verses. 416 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:04,600 It says you will recognize them by their fruit. 417 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,960 Our grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. 418 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,040 So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree 419 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:15,280 bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad 420 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:17,920 fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 421 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,520 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and 422 00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:23,720 thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by 423 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,640 their fruits. I think about this and Jesus is 424 00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,760 kind of just given this analogy. That would have made a lot of 425 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,560 sense to people. Now, I'm not much into 426 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,720 agriculture, but I do live by some fruit trees. 427 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:42,920 You know, I live up by some orchards in Perry. 428 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:46,120 And so I see these often. But I'll tell you what, I look 429 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:49,520 at those and I have no clue what kind of fruits going to come off 430 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:53,800 of those trees. I don't know if it's pears, 431 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,920 apples, grapes don't grow on trees. 432 00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,160 But hey, I don't know a lot about that, right? 433 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,440 But how do you know then what kind of tree it is? 434 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,320 Finally, when it bears the fruit, they're like, oh, that's 435 00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:07,920 an apple. Now some of you guys might be 436 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:11,760 like, hey, I know, you know, I got a book and you know, like 437 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,880 I'm way into this type of stuff. But for most people it's like, 438 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,320 look, I'll I'll just wait till it bears fruit and then I'll 439 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:24,200 tell you it's a crabapple tree and it's useless, you know, 440 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:27,280 anyway, I heard some people use that for stuff. 441 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:31,480 Use it for stuff, right? They just really kills my lawn. 442 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:37,640 But but so this is how we test who's true and who's not right. 443 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,080 And actually in the Old Testament, there's a test in the 444 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,640 Bible that is applied when someone claims to be a prophet. 445 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,760 This is in Deuteronomy 18. It says, but the prophet who 446 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,680 presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded 447 00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:54,480 him to speak or speaks in the name of other gods, that same 448 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,320 prophet shall die. Wow. 449 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:02,200 And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that 450 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,120 the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the 451 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,480 name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or true, 452 00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:15,720 that is a word that the Lord has not spoken, and the prophet has 453 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,640 spoken it presumptuously, and you should not be afraid of him. 454 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:23,920 Now we have the benefit of the fullness of Scripture when 455 00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:27,160 someone says like this guy that the flood's coming, like we're 456 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,000 like, no, I don't need to believe you, right? 457 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:35,720 That's just stupid. As I said, there are other 458 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:43,040 crafty ways and and methods that these false teachers use. 459 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,040 They try to just slip it in there. 460 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:49,800 But there are false prophets in history. 461 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:55,640 And let me just tell you, I would be a coward if I didn't 462 00:30:55,640 --> 00:31:02,440 bring this up. I have grown up in Utah my whole 463 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:08,160 life and been a Christian a lot of those years. 464 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:11,600 And when I became a pastor, there was a certain group of 465 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:13,960 pastors that held these conferences that talked about 466 00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:18,640 how to reach people in Utah. And they would say something 467 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,960 that still does not make sense to me at all, that says they 468 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:25,600 would say, yeah, we agree. You should never talk about 469 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:28,600 Mormonism from the stage or Joseph Smith from the stage. 470 00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,720 Never. And I just, I just, I don't 471 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:39,000 understand it because if this is where we live and our friends, 472 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:43,160 family and neighbors are all around us, wouldn't you want to 473 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:48,040 be taught by someone on how to navigate that, how to, how to 474 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:52,280 have those conversations to know the truth in the error? 475 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:56,920 And, and I'm here today to tell you that when, when Jesus said 476 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,520 that there will be false teachers and false prophets, and 477 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:03,760 Peter said it and Jude said it and Paul said it. 478 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,560 Joseph Smith is one of those false prophets. 479 00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:12,760 And we can test by that Deuteronomy verse. 480 00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:17,760 Did he give a false prophecy? Well, a lot of them were very 481 00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:21,000 general and vague. But let me just say that in one 482 00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:26,280 instance, in September 2223 of 1832, Joseph Smith foretold that 483 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:29,160 an LDS temple was going to be built in independence. 484 00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:34,800 And it was this huge thing in the DNC, section 884. 485 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:37,320 He said it was a revelation from Jesus Christ. 486 00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:40,280 He says that in his writings. I'm not going to read all of it 487 00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:42,720 to you because I just feel like it wouldn't be good in our 488 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,320 church. But he says that this church is 489 00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:48,360 going to be built. This temple's going to be built, 490 00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:51,200 and it's going to be like Zion in Missouri. 491 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:57,840 And all these people after him kept thinking, OK, when's this 492 00:32:57,840 --> 00:32:59,720 temple going to be built? When's this temple going to be 493 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:01,560 built? 40 years goes by. 494 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:04,440 People are making excuses. Generations are longer than 40 495 00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:06,440 years. Finally, 100 years goes by. 496 00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:09,680 And they're like, maybe he meant 100 years by a generation, you 497 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:11,920 know? And then after 140 years, 498 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:14,600 finally, the Mormon Church itself admitted this was a false 499 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,440 prophecy. No temple was ever built on the 500 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:23,640 property and it never came true. And Joseph Fielding Smith 501 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,280 finally admitted there was no expectation this prophecy would 502 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:30,080 ever come to pass. There's a false prophecy right 503 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:37,880 there. But it it gets worse because we 504 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,200 compare Scripture now to things that were said. 505 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:46,080 And in second Nephi 2523, it says, For we know that is by 506 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,080 grace we are saved after all we can do. 507 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:50,600 And there's the little sly thing. 508 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,880 Use similar language, but then add just in the little twist. 509 00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:58,480 After all we can do, That's where it gets wrong. 510 00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,680 We know that grace is by faith alone, not after all. 511 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:08,480 After all we can do suggests that we must earn this grace 512 00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:13,080 after we've tried our hardest. Then God will finally say, you 513 00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:17,520 can have this atonement applied to you. 514 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:19,360 And that's not what the Bible says. 515 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:25,239 It angers me, brothers and sisters, it even gets worse. 516 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:32,199 It says this is him, Joseph Smith, saying that he's better 517 00:34:32,199 --> 00:34:34,120 than Jesus. It says I have more to boast 518 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:36,560 about of them than any other man had. 519 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:39,480 I'm the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church 520 00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:42,679 together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole 521 00:34:42,679 --> 00:34:46,600 stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor 522 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,159 Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did 523 00:34:50,159 --> 00:34:54,040 such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away 524 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:56,800 from him, but the Latter Day Saints never ran away from me. 525 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:07,200 How dare you say this, that you are better than my Lord? 526 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,400 We need to understand this should break your heart, Church, 527 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,520 that we're in a state that our family, our friends, our people, 528 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:19,720 our coworkers are being deceived by this. 529 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,520 And sometimes it takes the second voice of the shepherd 530 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:30,320 lovingly to call people out of the false teaching. 531 00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:34,560 It doesn't just stop with him and that religion though. 532 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:38,360 But I could go on and on about most, if not all of the Pope's. 533 00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:42,040 They claim to be prophets and get new words from God and they 534 00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:45,360 write it down. And the other cult religions, 535 00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:49,680 Jehovah's Witnesses, even Muhammad and Muhammad and Joseph 536 00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,520 Smith have something in common in that their religions were 537 00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:57,640 started by an Angel. They claim an Angel came to them 538 00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,680 and said, I have this new revelation. 539 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:04,600 But we know that Paul says in Galatians 1, he says, but even 540 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:09,240 if we or an Angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel 541 00:36:09,240 --> 00:36:12,080 contrary to the one that we preach to you, let him be 542 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:19,920 accursed. What fruit did these guys bear 543 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,680 leading people astray? That's the bad fruit, right? 544 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:27,240 Or it was minimize the work of Christ. 545 00:36:27,240 --> 00:36:34,360 That's bad fruit. Look at me instead, Matthew 546 00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:38,680 2424. Jesus himself says for false 547 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:42,360 christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs 548 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,320 and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the 549 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:49,560 elect. He warned us about this and 550 00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:55,760 great signs and wonders, by the way, I mean these guys are going 551 00:36:55,760 --> 00:37:01,280 to be silver tongued, able to wow you with their words, make 552 00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:07,480 you feel some kind of feelings, maybe even possible magic or 553 00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:11,280 miracles. In fact, Revelation 1920 says 554 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,760 about this great false prophet and the beast was captured and 555 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,000 with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs 556 00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:20,800 by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the 557 00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:24,680 beast. They were both thrown into the 558 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:30,800 lake of the OR the lake of fire. There are churches. 559 00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:33,000 I mean, let me just say this, right? 560 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,320 There's a reason why we try so hard when we're picking our 561 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:41,680 worship songs not to do anything by Bethel Church. 562 00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:46,280 And I know you guys probably all like some of their songs. 563 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:51,400 I mean, they do a really good musical job at what they do. 564 00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:57,160 And some of the the words of the entire song, you can't say there 565 00:37:57,160 --> 00:37:58,720 was really anything wrong with it. 566 00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:02,720 But I remember when one guy, MacArthur said when he was asked 567 00:38:02,720 --> 00:38:05,960 about this, like, how is it that these people can say good things 568 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:08,720 or sing such good songs? And he says, well, broken clocks 569 00:38:08,720 --> 00:38:15,720 are right twice a day. And So what are they trying to 570 00:38:15,720 --> 00:38:18,640 do, though? They're trying to infiltrate, in 571 00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:22,880 a sense, to get us to sing their songs and then eventually fall 572 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,720 into their doctrine. And I've heard several stories 573 00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:29,120 of people who have listened to songs or seen things that 574 00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:32,840 pastors have affirmed. And then they go off listening 575 00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:36,320 to the false teaching of Bethel Church, which, by the way, the 576 00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,600 leader claims to be an apostle. And his second in command is 577 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:47,360 called the Prophet Bill Johnson and Chris Valaton, Charis mania. 578 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:49,920 You know that. And they're the those ones that 579 00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:55,760 are constantly making miracles like the focus of their church, 580 00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:59,680 just, you know, the playing on people's emotions. 581 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:04,280 And that seems to be what false teachers like to do. 582 00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:15,040 It's always emotional, right? Even the altar calls in the pray 583 00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:19,920 prayer after me. You won't find that anywhere in 584 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:22,120 Scripture. By the way, I'm not saying that 585 00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:24,880 I, I have, I've done that in the past, you know, like pray this 586 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:26,280 prayer after me, repeat after me. 587 00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:29,960 And I was talking to one of the other elders the other day and 588 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:33,480 remembering a man who I was so proud of that prayed a prayer 589 00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:37,320 after me early on in ministry. And guess what he's doing today? 590 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:44,480 He's not walking with the Lord. He does not believe and so we we 591 00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:47,760 don't do that because you won't find a place in Scripture that 592 00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:51,880 says make them pray a prayer after you or pray and ask Jesus 593 00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,360 into your heart. It's repent and believe. 594 00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,320 It's repent and believe. It's a work that God is going to 595 00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:00,880 do in you, and you're going to want to do it without 596 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:06,120 manipulation. But so many of these 597 00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:08,960 evangelists, they want to be able to say, I have this many 598 00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,920 numbers and that many numbers of people come forward and this and 599 00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:15,360 that. And I'm not saying people do get 600 00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:20,080 saved in those types of things. God still uses even the simplest 601 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:22,600 gospel message to save people, but it's God. 602 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:23,800 It's not because of the preacher. 603 00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:29,120 So is the the fruit numbers like this is the thing. 604 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:35,640 And when we're gauging this fruit, the fruit is not numbers. 605 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:42,840 The fruit is healthy disciples, healthy Christians. 606 00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:45,560 A healthy tree bears good fruit because it's healthy. 607 00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:49,280 That's just what it happens. And so when you sit under good 608 00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:52,480 preaching and the preaching is in the the roots of the word of 609 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:55,640 God, and he follows his life after Christ, not perfectly, but 610 00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:59,640 you cannot help to start produce fruit even if you don't like 611 00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:01,440 some of the things that he says sometimes. 612 00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,560 Course, you probably don't like everything that the Bible says, 613 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:14,840 but healthy things reproduce healthy things and bad things 614 00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:18,840 produce more bad things. That's what he's saying here. 615 00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:24,400 If a pastor thinks the Bible's boring and has to spice it up, 616 00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:28,520 he should not be a pastor. I'm telling you that because 617 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:33,040 it's all Christ doing his work, as in as he said in John 15, 618 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,600 five, I'm the vine, you're the branches, whoever abides in me 619 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:38,720 and I and him he it is that bears much fruit. 620 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,600 For apart from me you cannot do, you can do nothing. 621 00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:46,680 All we can do is abide in Christ, in his word. 622 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:53,120 Why do we think we have to dumb this down, water it down or or 623 00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:56,480 take up most of the time with all of my stories? 624 00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:59,040 Because you're just not going to understand what this means. 625 00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:11,520 There's a false fruit you ever seen like like a, a wonderful 626 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:16,640 little like, you know, table setting or you go to one of 627 00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:21,480 those mega stores to buy like furniture for your bedroom or 628 00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:25,040 your kitchen or whatever and they have fake fruit on the 629 00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:28,720 table and some of it looks real realistic, you know, but if you 630 00:42:28,720 --> 00:42:31,080 took a bite into it, it wouldn't give you anything. 631 00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:36,360 It'll actually taste terrible. That's a lot of what comes from 632 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:42,840 this hollow false pseudo teaching. 633 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:46,840 You might get some feelings. You might look at it and think 634 00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:50,880 that it looks real. It looks right, but we've got to 635 00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:58,160 be discerning here. Bad trees or false teachers bear 636 00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:01,080 fake and false unhealthy disciples. 637 00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:07,080 It's like if a tree instead of in Psalm one being planted by 638 00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:11,440 the water and is fruitful. This tree is planted by like a 639 00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:20,120 toxic wage or sludge waste pond. But on the outside, the tree is 640 00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:22,200 still growing and it's bearing fruit. 641 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,200 And you're like, hey, it's still a tree. 642 00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:28,400 Are you going to eat that fruit? I'm not eating that fruit. 643 00:43:35,150 --> 00:43:38,030 This is a warning in love to you guys. 644 00:43:39,830 --> 00:43:43,670 JC Ryle again. Worst of all, we have myriads of 645 00:43:43,670 --> 00:43:47,480 jellyfish worshippers, respectable church going people 646 00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:50,200 who have no distinct and definite views about any point 647 00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,880 in theology. They cannot discern things that 648 00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:56,600 differ any more than color blind people can distinguish colors. 649 00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:59,280 They think everybody is right and nobody's wrong. 650 00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:01,200 Everything is true, nothing is false. 651 00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:04,640 All sermons are good, none are bad, every clergyman is sound 652 00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:08,000 and no clergyman is unsound. They are tossed to and fro like 653 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:11,880 children by every wind of doctrine, often carried away by 654 00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:15,600 any new excitement and sensational movement, ever ready 655 00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:19,880 for new things because they have no firm grasp on the old, and 656 00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:25,040 utterly unable to render a reason for the hope that is in 657 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:28,000 them. But this is the last verse I 658 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:36,600 want to look at from Paul when he was teaching a young protege, 659 00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:38,800 Timothy. In fact, these are some of 660 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:43,160 Paul's last words about how to preach. 661 00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:46,640 He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ 662 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:49,680 Jesus, who is to judge the living in the dead by his 663 00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:52,720 appearing and by his Kingdom. By the way, the Bible says that 664 00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,560 not many of you should become teachers, my brethren, because 665 00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:58,600 teachers will be judged with a greater strictness. 666 00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:00,920 We do this under the fear of the Lord. 667 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:06,800 It says, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of 668 00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:09,040 season. That means when it's popular or 669 00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:14,160 when it isn't popular, just stay in the Word, reprove, rebuke, 670 00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:16,880 and exhort with complete patience and teaching. 671 00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:18,880 Why do we need so much correction? 672 00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:24,440 Because we are so sinful and this is the way to find healing. 673 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:30,840 But it's loving. But here's where it goes on. 674 00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:33,680 The challenge is this. For the time is coming when 675 00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:36,560 people will not endure sound teaching but have itching ears, 676 00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:39,880 they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit 677 00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:42,880 their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth 678 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:46,400 and wander off into myths. And here's the issue here. 679 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:49,760 The people are the problem. In this one. 680 00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:54,640 He's warning Timothy that, look, you're going to be tempted to 681 00:45:54,640 --> 00:46:00,040 change the message because the people want something else and 682 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:03,840 they're going to go find these teachers and they're going to 683 00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:12,640 get their ears tickled. It's our job as Christians to be 684 00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:22,240 learners of the Word, hearers of the Word, preachers and teachers 685 00:46:22,240 --> 00:46:25,280 of the Word to our family, friends and neighbors to learn. 686 00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:30,400 RC Sproul says every Christian is a theologian. 687 00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:35,800 Theology is important. It is we should know it and it's 688 00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:38,720 our responsibility to be a member of a healthy church, to 689 00:46:38,720 --> 00:46:42,080 sit under good teaching. And even if you're not a member 690 00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,440 officially of a church. I heard it said that we vote 691 00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:50,640 with our feet in our wallet. Wherever we affirm, we're going 692 00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:53,520 to go there, we're going to sit and we're going to give money. 693 00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:57,520 And we think it all these false teachers with with unhealthy 694 00:46:57,520 --> 00:46:59,280 churches. And we think, how are they so 695 00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:02,120 big? Like how do they have all this 696 00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:05,280 stuff that they have and we're struggling to get by And you're 697 00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:08,480 like, well, because they're telling them everything that 698 00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:14,080 they want to hear and the people are voting yes, we love this. 699 00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:17,840 Tell me more. Don't tell me bad things about 700 00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:20,640 me. Tell me how I can be wealthy, 701 00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:27,680 healthy and prosper. We must preserve and defend the 702 00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:31,080 truth by fighting air and preaching the whole council of 703 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:35,520 God like Paul has taught us to, like Jesus has taught us to, 704 00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:38,600 like the Lord wants us to. So let me end with this main 705 00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:45,720 idea. Jesus and many authors, other 706 00:47:45,720 --> 00:47:48,400 authors of Scripture, warn us about false teachers used by 707 00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:50,640 Satan coming into the church to deceive people. 708 00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:54,640 They use subtlety in craft to minimize major doctrines. 709 00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:57,600 They pretend to be one of us, claim to be looking out for our 710 00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,000 best interests, but really are promoting themselves and 711 00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:03,520 satisfying their own hunger for power, fame, and money. 712 00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:10,240 We must know our Bibles and submit to preachers who do so as 713 00:48:10,240 --> 00:48:16,040 well. And in this way we will become 714 00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:18,880 more like Christ. We will build his Kingdom on 715 00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:21,920 earth the way He has said to do it, not our way. 716 00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:25,280 And I promise you, the closer you get to Christ, the more you 717 00:48:25,280 --> 00:48:28,040 know about him, the more you love Him, and the more your life 718 00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:29,840 will be changed. Let's pray. 719 00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:39,000 Father, thank you for your word and your stern warnings and your 720 00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:44,400 grace and your love. Thank you, God, that You have 721 00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:49,480 grace on us mere humans who are doing everything we can to try 722 00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:56,400 to interpret Your word, to know what Your will is for our lives. 723 00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:59,280 I pray you'd give us more understanding, more knowledge, 724 00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:01,480 more discernment, no more wisdom. 725 00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:07,920 And I pray Lord, you'd help us to be more faithful today, as is 726 00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:11,600 the goal of week in and week out, that we just become more 727 00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:13,960 conformed to the image of your Son. 728 00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:16,480 Help us to do that. Help us to have discernment 729 00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:19,480 against all the false teachers out there in the world, even the 730 00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:22,400 non religious ones that we're allowing into our hearts through 731 00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:28,400 social media and everything else under the sun. 732 00:49:29,040 --> 00:49:33,440 Forgive us Lord, for our sin and our ignorance and help us Lord 733 00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:35,520 to love you more. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.