It's great to be here with all of you today to worship God in
spirit and in truth. As Terry brought out in our
introduction before we had our introductory prayer, it's good
to be assembled, it's good to worship, and I've enjoyed so far
worshiping with all of you. I want to talk on a subject
found in the great Sermon on the Mount as we continue our series
and we've now down to Matthew Chapter 7 and verse 16.
When Jesus said these words, He said you will know them by their
fruits. Now you know that I'm all about
context and trying to emphasize the context.
The context of verse 16 goes on the heels of the context of
verse 15. So let's begin in verse #15
Jesus says beware of false prophets who come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
If you go back to Matthew chapter 6, just a just a by way
of introduction and very, very brief review.
In Matthew chapter 6 in about verses 19 through 21, Jesus said
that man, our existence will go beyond this life.
And I don't know about you. I am so thankful that this life
is not it, that our existence will go beyond this life
eternally. Then in Matthew Chapter 7,
verses 13 and 14, Jesus said that that existence or man's
eternal existence, it will be in one of two places.
That's why Jesus emphasized the importance of staying on the
straight path or the narrow path, or as some translations
render it, the difficult path that leads to life.
That's one way. The other way is the easy, easy
path that leads to destruction. OK, remember what we said last
time, We're emphasizing the fact there's only one way and that's
Jesus Christ. As Jesus said himself, no one
comes under the Father except by or through me.
So we got to stay on the path. We are the sheep, He is our
shepherd. And may I just suggest, even
though the Bible says it's difficult and Jesus says few
there be that find it, meaning few people are going to make the
choice to choose the difficult path as opposed to the easy
path. That's understandable in our
life. But as I said at the end of that
lesson, I'm going to say it again by way of encouragement.
There's room on that path for every Christian, provided every
Christian follows the shepherd as one of his sheep in a single
file manner. So Jesus emphasizes, you got to
stay on the path. Now he says this while we're on
the path, we got to be careful. We got to be watchful for what
he calls false prophets because false prophets are going to do
their very best to lead us off the path and away from God.
That's why he emphatically stated beware of false prophets.
Hang on one second. This happened last time.
I think we can fix it. We didn't fix it.
Still didn't fix it. OK, this is scheduled to
restart. OK, hang on.
It's it's this Terry. It's let me try it now.
Hit it. Let's try it now.
There we go. It was trying to back up or
restart or something. So we're good.
That's why Jesus emphatically stated beware of false prophets.
And may I suggest too, false prophets are always a problem
for God's people. And here's why.
And also for the furtherance of the cause of Christ.
And here's why. We know that God sends his
people to preach the truth. He sends preachers out into the
world to preach the truth. And I'm not just talking about
evangelist. I'm talking about every
Christian to preach the truth. But at the very same time, the
devil dispatches his servants to try to pervert or change the
truth. I'm going to make a bold
statement here that's very general and we can really sum up
everything we're going to talk about with this general
statement. Here it is.
Remember this, anything or anyone that teaches anything
that is contradictory to the Word of God, and I'm talking
about the word that has been revealed and confirmed.
It's been established. It's the Bible.
If it contradicts that, it has to be rejected.
If a man preaches something else other than that, he has to be
rejected. I think we can understand that,
right? We got to stick to the standard.
That's the Word of God. But I'm going to give you a
Bible for that. In Galatians chapter 1,
beginning in verse 8, Paul said this.
But even if we or an Angel from heaven preach any other gospel
to you than what we have preached to you, let him be
accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what
you have received, let him be accursed.
OK, couple of things here. I thought about this the other
day. Now I am now actually old enough
to make this statement. And I never thought I'd actually
get old enough to make this statement back in my day or back
in my time, or I remember days gone by or things like that.
I never thought I'd actually get old enough to say those words.
I'm now old enough to say those words, and I'm going to use that
with reference to something very specific.
I remember back in my day or as a young person in my life, I
remember this, that people in our society knew something about
the Bible. They did.
It seemed as though their moral fabric was built upon the
establishment or the principles found in the Word of God.
We lived in a different time, a long time ago.
People actually made decisions based upon the word of God.
And I remember this too, that people that didn't even profess
anything knew something about the Bible, even had their
favorite Bible passage and they would quote it from time to
time. There was a time when that was
prevalent in our society, in this country.
But you know what happened? There came a time when people
got away from the Bible, People departed from the Bible.
And at the end of our lesson, we're going to talk about kind
of when all that stuff kind of happened, but people actually
started to depart from the Bible.
And then you've heard me say this over the years, many times
I said because of those things, we truly live in a Bible
illiterate society because people really don't know the
word of God. OK, I got something to say
that's a little encouraging. Now though, I think the times
are changing. I really do.
And what I've seen in my life, the tide is turning and the
things are changing in life a little bit and people are trying
to get back to the Bible. They are, I know people in my
life, they don't profess anything, but they're studying
the Bible, They're having Bible studies, they're getting
together, They're trying to figure out what God wants for
their life. And they're doing a great thing
by getting back to the Bible. And that's a wonderful thing.
So don't say this, by the way, don't say this.
Please don't ever say this. Don't say this.
Don't say people don't care about the Bible.
It's not true. Times are changing and people
are doing their best or at least making an effort or an attempt
to get back to the Bible. Here's the problem though, to in
order to understand the Bible properly, it has to be with two
things #1 context and #2 application.
And in our life, if we don't understand the context of the
passage, then we can very sadly miss apply the passage and form
beliefs based upon misapplication.
And we can twist it all around. You know what?
That's as bad as not knowing it at all.
OK, so it's got to be about context and application.
Because without proper Bible knowledge, and that's knowledge
that is properly comprehended, understood and applied, we can
be LED astray by amazing events. We can be LED astray by
unexplained phenomena or even emotional encounters, and we can
fall victim to these things as they're called, lying wonders of
false prophets. You know, Jesus warned about
these things. Oh the Lord was brilliant going
back to 803337 years before the destruction of Jerusalem.
In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus said this was going to happen as
one of the remote signs that would happen before AD 70.
And by the way, this is still prevalent today.
OK, notice Matthew 24 verse 24 For false Christ and false
prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to
deceive. But please get this.
Notice these last two words, if possible, last three words, even
the elect. Now we understand that a false
prophet or a false teacher can deceive people that are not
Christians. Absolutely.
But he never stopped to consider that even Jesus said be very
careful going all the way back to 8033.
He spoke these words and he said that these false prophets will
rise and show great signs and great wonders and deceive.
Notice even the elect. Who's that?
Who's the elect? The elect is talking about a
Christian. The elect is talking about one
of God's children. Now people get election all out
of whack today. They really do.
Let me just explain what it does not mean very briefly.
It does not mean, as Calvinistic teaching says, that God
predetermines or pre selects individuals to be saved.
In other words, divine election that is unconditional, that is
unscriptural. In other words, God picked this
guy, you're in, this guy you're out, and if God chose you,
there's nothing you can do. It doesn't make any difference
at all. You're in.
And if God didn't choose you, it doesn't matter how bad you want
in, you can't get in. I'm so grateful that that is not
scriptural and that is not true. We believe in divine election.
We just believe in conditional divine election, and the
condition is our obedience. What did Jesus say?
He said you go to the streets and the lanes and the hedges and
you bid anyone that will come. And what's the criteria?
All that will, anybody that will, can come to Christ.
Remember in Acts chapter 2 when the gospel was being preached
for the very first time with the opportunity to respond to it,
they said you, you, you crucified Jesus, the one that
God made Lord in Christ. They said, what do we do?
They said repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you and
to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the
Lord our God shall call later on in the chapter.
Do you remember what Peter said and the apostle said they said
this save yourself. That is conditional election
based on obedience. In other words, obey the gospel
and live a Christian life. Save yourself and the blood of
Christ washes our sins away. You know Paul talked about some
of these signs as well in Second Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 9. He said the coming of the
lawless 1 is according to the working of Satan with all power
signs and lying wonders. Just remember, please get this
the test for truth has to be based upon doctrine and not
experience, OK? What's doctrine?
What is it? In Second Timothy 316 and 17,
Paul tells us what doctrine is. All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God. And then he said, and it's
profitable for doctrine. I said that because I want to
talk about the word itself. There's two Greek words for
doctrine. OK, Number one Greek word is the
word that means simple teaching, OK.
But in Second Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, when it's
talking about the scriptures, all scripture given by
inspiration of God, it's talking about a different Greek word.
That Greek word actually means that which is authorized to be
taught. So what is authorized to be
taught? All Scripture in context and
application. So truth has to be based upon
doctrine and not experience. Because the problem with all of
that, our senses can be deceived into thinking that we're safe.
But in reality, as Jesus says, there are wolves among us, there
are wolves around us. OK, the New Testament actually
constantly warned against false prophets.
Paul warned the Ephesians that savage wolves would enter the
flock. Acts 20 and verse 29 For I know
this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among
you, not sparing the flock. Notice a few other passages.
Galatians one and seven. He warned the Galatians of those
that would pervert the gospel of Christ.
He said in Romans chapter 16 that he told those at Rome to
mark those that cause division and offense among them.
John said that false prophets have gone out into the world.
Many false prophets have gone out into the world.
OK, my point is this apostasy and error folks is not only
possible, but apostasy and error is also extremely probable
because of false teachers. That's why Paul said this Second
Timothy 2 and verse 2, and the things which you have heard from
me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will
be able to teach others also. What's the criteria for
preaching the Word of God? What's the criteria for teaching
the Word of God? Here it is faithful men who are
able to teach. That means the faithful part
that deals with your life and able to teach, deals with
knowledge that is properly comprehended, understood and
applied and able to be taught. OK, what did Jesus say in verse
15 though? He says beware of false
prophets. And then I want to look at this
phrase right here. He said they come to you in
sheep's clothing. First of all, please understand
it's about deceit and it's about imitation.
It's opposition by imitation. The subtleness, by the way, of
these prophets or false prophets is seen by the fact that they
wear sheep's clothing. And there's actually two
different interpretations about wearing sheep's clothing.
OK, who's doing the imitating? Remember what I said?
It's opposition and it's imitation.
OK, So what is it? Well, first of all, it could be
one thing. It could be, as some scholars
say, that the imitation is a man that is imitating the sheep.
In other words, somebody that is among us, even any Christian
that is among us, that is imitating the sheep.
On the outside they they appear pious.
On the outside they appear to be one way, but inside they're not.
They have ulterior motives, as one scholar put it this way.
Inconspicuously they mingle with the sheep, taking note of the
young, the weak and the discontent.
They faint piety as they commune at the table and give lip
service of the shepherd. Even though they're woolish
soft, their hearts are hard. Few suspect they are ferocious
beasts, waiting for spring from cloaks of deceit and hungrily
devour. OK, do you remember very
important here, Remember when Jesus gave the parable of the
sower? And then right after that he
gave the parable of the tares? When he gave the parable the
sower, he talked about a farmer that takes seed in his hand and
broadcast the seed out on the soil.
And he said that seed will fall into one of four kinds of soil.
Only one's any good, The one that produces 30 fold, 60 fold,
100 fold. OK, that's the good soil.
You know what the soil represents the heart, right?
We know that. But then in the very next
parable, Jesus says, let me tell you another story about the
tares. And he said while the man went
out and did everything right, he prepared the soil right.
He planted the good seed in the soil, and here comes wheat.
But then the man goes home and he sleeps.
You know why he slept? He went home and he slept.
The sleep that Solomon talks about, the sleep of a working
man, He did everything right. And then he goes home and he
sleeps right. Then what happens?
He said the enemy comes and he sows tares in the same field.
And tares, by the way, are noxious weed seeds.
And when they come up, they look like they're good.
They look like they're innocent. They look like they're like
everything else. They look like the wheat, right?
But in time they're not. Jesus says the enemy does that,
and then he says who the enemy is, and that's the devil.
Now I'll tell you this. It's true that the devil can use
tares out in the world because the Bible says the field is the
world. I get that, and that is true.
But it can also be true that the tares are actually among God's
people. And when that happens, remember,
these are sheep that pluck the ones that are on the outskirts.
Chris Reed's not here this morning.
They had a accident. Somebody drove into the side of
their house and the police are there and he's got to make a
report and all that. That's where Chris is today.
But in a Bible study we're having this last week, he, he
was we're talking about the wolves and the sheep.
And he said, yeah, Frankie said, you ever noticed that wolves
never go into the pack? They never go into the pack
where everybody's strong. They just pluck the ones that
are on the outside. And I said, brother, that'll
preach plucks, the weak ones that are on the sidelines or on
the outskirts, the ones that are struggling, those that imitate
the sheep can do just that. Jesus calls them sheep, wolves
in sheep's clothing. But there's a second
interpretation and that is that the those that are impersonating
here are not impersonating the sheep, they're impersonating the
shepherd. I don't mean the Good Shepherd.
I don't mean Jesus. I mean, preachers in the Old
Testament, shepherds traditionally wore sheepskin
that had their skin on the outside and the fleece on the
inside, and that was to distinguish them from other men.
Elijah, for example, wore a type of hairy mantle.
In First Kings 19 and 13, John the Baptizer wore a garment of
camel's hair. So they can be identified as
prophets and be identified in their plain, coarse attire.
Zechariah, another example, by the way, alluded to the type of
dress when you spoke about those who put on a hairy robe in order
to deceive. Zechariah. 13 verses four and
five. OK, according to this
interpretation, the Lord is not talking about necessarily sheep.
He's talking about shepherds. And please understand, not all
men that call themselves from God are really from God.
Just because you call yourself from God or a man of God does
not mean that you are. This illustration depicts a
false preacher, a false teacher who pretends perhaps to care for
the sheep. He may learn their names and
even do things in a superficial fashion to them.
But here's the problem. There's no concern.
He doesn't sacrifice for them, He sacrifices the sheep.
Notice how in Matthew 7 and verse 15 in this passage, they
come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous
wolves. The word ravenous, by the way,
conveys greed. The same root word is translated
in other passages in the Bible, like the word extortioner.
Do you remember in Luke chapter 18?
In Luke chapter 18, when that man was praying to God, remember
that he's praying thus with himself.
It was the Pharisee and the tax collector member, and they
prayed. I'm not going to go into that
story, but remember what he said.
He talked about this word right here, the word that's considered
ravenous. It conveys greed and it means
extortioner and it means that in Luke chapter 18 and verse 11,
the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners,
unjust adulterers, or even this tax collector, OK?
The idea is this that the false teacher or false prophet will be
greedy, will be power hungry, self-centered, who are
interested only in personal gain.
They give you a Bible for that though.
First Timothy chapter 6 and verse 5.
Useless wranglings of men, of corrupt minds and destitute of
truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain
from such, withdraw yourself. Have you ever known or heard of
a preacher that made a lot of money?
Chris pointed out a couple of them last Sunday.
Preachers on TV, false people doing fake miracles on TV, and
people are sending them all kinds of money.
They're getting wealthy beyond belief.
That's a false shepherd sacrificing the sheep.
My dad used to say this from the pulpit.
He used to quote this song, this old country song, and it says
there are some preachers on TV with a suit and a tie and a
vest. They want you to give their
money to the Lord, your money to the Lord, but they give you
their address. Now all of your donations are
completely tax free. And then it says God bless you
all. But most of all, send your
money. There's a lot of people that are
reaping the benefit of good, honest people that think they're
doing good by sending them money and they're becoming extremely
wealthy. They are men like Paul told
Timothy that suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
OK. In verses 13 and 14, like I said
in my introduction, Jesus says stay on the path.
And while we're on the path, we got to be aware of false
teachers and false prophets. How are we going to know who
they are? Jesus says you're going to know
who they are right there by their fruits.
You know, I realized that sometimes it takes a while to
really know what somebody really is.
Have you ever known that? Have you ever known that
sometimes people fooled you for a while?
There are people that thought, man, you really thought this was
one kind of a person. But in time, and here's the
phrase that we often use, in time, people see their true
colors. You know why that is?
Because sometimes determining a person's fruit is to wait until
the fruit is manifested. In other words, you got the
tree. Is a tree any good?
I don't know. You got to wait till the fruit
grows and then you'll know. And Jesus says by their fruits
you will know them. One scholar said it this way.
Deception is temporary. Wolves may wear wool for a
while, but because they're not sheep, eventually their coats
will wear thin or RIP, and their ugly forms will then protrude.
OK, the Lord's switching now the analogy to fruit to help us
better understand. And the point is this, we got to
be able to inspect the fruit. The real test of a prophet is
not how flashy they dressed is, not what a good speaker they
are, not how popular they are. Because I tell you this too, you
can even be a person that speaks the truth and still lead people
astray because your life is not what it should be.
May I just say this? I'm going to do everything that
I possibly can to preach the word of God, as I always say in
context and application. And I'm going to always do my
best to give book, chapter, and verse for what I believe.
And all of that's great to do. But if my life is not conducive
to the life that a preacher should be, don't follow me.
Do not follow me. It's important to follow those
who are following Christ. And by the way, that's how we
imitate Christ. We do so by following their
example. Chris pointed out last Sunday
we're never going to be perfect like Jesus.
He's absolutely right. We cannot imitate perfection.
That's true. But when the Bible tells us to
be imitators of Christ or imitators of me, Paul says as I
imitate Christ, it means this. Follow my example.
So we need to follow the Lord's example.
If I'm not doing that, don't follow me.
First Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12.
Let no one despise your youth. This is what Paul said to
Timothy. But be an example to the
believers. Notice in Word, in conduct, in
love, in spirit, in faith and in purity.
That's what's necessary. That's what's needed in our
life. So the true test of genuine
prophets is the good fruit that they bear.
If a person is morally upright, if they shed abroad the love of
Christ, if they are #3 spiritually minded and all of
that, and this, and have words and works in accordance with
God's will, then guess what? We can follow them.
If, on the other hand, a man spreads dissension or has
unrepentant sin, is carnally minded, follows after his own
lust, and teaches false doctrine, he must be branded a
false prophet. He must be rejected.
Romans chapters 16 and 17, Paul says.
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and
offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned
and avoid them. OK?
You know the apostle Paul foretold of those who would do
just that in a very familiar passage, and it's found in
Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse one.
Want to spend a little time on this Second Timothy chapter 3
and verse 1? He said, But know this, that in
the last days, perilous times will come.
Talk about last days for just a moment.
Last days does not mean the last few days of life.
And it doesn't mean, you see, look at the signs.
We're in the last days. There's only a few left.
The Lord's coming back real soon.
That's not what that means either.
Last days here in this passage means last dispensation of time.
And the word dispensation, by the way, means spiritual
arrangement, right? We've been under three.
Number one, there was the patriarchal age where God dealt
with the heads of families. It was the family arrangement.
God would deal with the heads of families and part His will, and
then the heads of families would pass down that will to those
that were under or beneath them or subordinate to them.
Then came the Mosaic age where God dealt with the nation.
It was the national arrangement. Glad we're not under that
anymore. The Bible says in the book of
Colossians that Jesus took that old law and he nailed it to the
cross, and we no longer are under the old law of Moses.
Great stuff, right? Well, guess what?
There's a third spiritual arrangement and that's the one
that we are in now, and it's the one called the Last Days.
It is the Christian dispensation.
It began in AD 33 on the day of Pentecost when the church was
born and Christianity began and we are in the last days.
It started then. We're in the last days now and
we will be in the last days until Jesus comes back.
That is the last days. So what was Paul telling
Timothy? Paul was telling Timothy that in
this last dispensation or in the Christian dispensation, guess
what's going to happen. Perilous times will come here at
the word perilous means. It means dangerous, it means
difficult, and it can also be translated as savage.
That's pretty brutal, isn't it? Savage times will come.
The word times, though, means epics or movements.
You've heard me say this before. I'm not preaching an old sermon
here. You've heard me say this before.
I'll say it again. When dangerous movements come in
among us, one of the great dangers about it is those
movements don't come and leave. Those movements come and they
stay. They come and stay.
In fact, Paul said it would in Second Timothy chapter 3 and
verse 13. But evil men and imposters will
grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
It will get worse. OK?
I have a sermon. It's very old.
I preached it so many times throughout the country.
I don't preach anymore. Got tired of it.
I got several like that. They're just, I'm just shelving
those, you know. But you've heard it and it's
been years. And it was on Five reasons to
Preach the Word. And in that sermon, you remember
what I did. If you remember that sermon, I
go back and I talk about all the dangerous seasons or dangerous
epics or dangerous movements that go all the way back to the
4th century. I'm not going to do that today,
but I thought something might be interesting to all of us.
What about 5 movements? Only 5?
I'm eliminate a lot of that information and just talk about
5. What about 5 movements that have
come in in your lifetime? And when I say your lifetime,
I'm talking about older folks and I'm talking about those that
are maybe intermediate folks. The problem is, every one of
these movements that came in a long time ago, they still exist,
and the lives of our young people have to deal with these
very same movements. They did not come and go, they
came and they stayed. Let me suggest these to you.
You might remember this. This was the generation, first
of all, before me, and it was in the 1950s, and it was the
doctrine of acumenism. What's that?
Acumenism, The doctrine of acumenism actually was this
theory right here. Hey, I got an idea.
Let's not divide over doctrine. Doesn't really matter, right?
We just talked about doctrine, how important doctrine was,
right? In the 50s, all of a sudden it
came up. Let's not divide over doctrine.
Fact. What we're going to do is we're
going to get sentimental. And sentimentality became the
issue. And they brought in what was
known as the Jesus ethic. You know what the Jesus ethic
is? Here it is.
Jesus is nice. Is Jesus nice?
Oh, yes, he's nice. Died for your sins.
Oh yeah, he's nice. But the Jesus Jesus ethics said
this because Jesus is nice. Let's remove all the negative
stuff in the Bible, all the judgment, all the retribution.
Let's get rid of all of that. You know what the end result of
that was? The lack of discernment and the
lack of understanding began in the 1950s.
You know what? It still exists today.
How about this? How about the era where I was
born? How about this?
How about the 60s? It came the dangerous movement
of experientialism, where truth comes from intuition, truth
comes from experience. And do you know what happened?
I said I was going to get back to this.
People left the Word of God as a standard for what they believed.
You know what else happened? Let's Fast forward.
Oh, there's a lot of other things I could talk about, but
I'm talking about the prevalent ones that still exist today.
How about this? How about the years where I was
in high school and I was in college, the age of big hair?
How about the 80s? Subjectivism.
Subjectivism kicked in in the 80s.
You know what happened? That's when psychology, by the
way, captured the religious world.
You know what man said? We need man based religion.
We need needs based religion. In other words, we're going to
find out what really is good for our own personal comfort and
personal comfort became the issue.
See where this is leading. How about the years?
Where are they? The 10 year period in that
period where my kids were born? How about the 90s about this?
You know, what happened in the 90s came pragmatism.
You know, pragmatism is appropriate means for preaching
the gospel are determined by the people.
All you got to do is give them a survey.
They'll tell you exactly what you want they want and give them
exactly what they want. Wow, you know what else happened
in the 90s? Syncretism.
Syncretism basically is a, is a very fancy word.
You know what it means? It means this.
It is the doctrine that all religions, no matter where they
came from, all religions that are monotheistic are going to
heaven. And by the way, monotheistic
means you recognize only one God, doesn't matter who that God
is, even though we all know there's only one Jehovah God in
heaven. But if a person recognizes only
one God, whatever idle God that is, if it's only one, he's
monotheistic. And there come a belief in the
90s that if you're monotheistic, you're going to heaven because
you worship only one God. And a guy actually wrote a book
about it. He wrote a book that he took a
trip to heaven. I don't want to be rude or
sarcastic, but yeah, he was tripping, all right.
He said he took a trip to heaven and when he was there, you've
heard me say this years ago, he found Confucius, he found
Buddha, he found Muhammad. He looked around and he found
Orthodox Jews that had rejected Jesus.
Even though Jesus said, even though Jesus said I am the way,
the truth and the life, no one comes under the Father except
through me. This guy says Orthodox Jews that
rejected Jesus were there too. You know what else he said?
Were there atheists? Atheists.
But then he clarified it. He said atheists that were
seeking truth. Here was his rationale.
Since God is ultimate truth, and the atheist was actually in some
way seeking truth, then in a roundabout way, because God is
ultimate truth and he was looking for truth, therefore in
a roundabout way he was seeking God.
Therefore he was monotheistic, therefore he is in heaven.
Come on now, one final thing. Notice how they all flowed
together as a result, one from the other dangerous movements.
It all began with saying let's not worry about doctrine, let's
get sentimental. Let's let's cast aside judgment
and retribution. Let's just cast aside doctrine.
It led to finding truth by way of experiences and intuition.
Bible went right out the window. What did it do?
It led to subjectivism, where psychology took over and capture
the religious world and man only cared about himself and his own
personal comfort. What that lead to, hey, by the
way, let's just tell people what they want.
Let's give them exactly what they want to hear.
What does all that lead to? It doesn't matter what you do,
everybody's going to heaven anyway.
See where they lead. See where they lead.
Dangerous movements don't come and leave.
Dangerous movements come and they stay.
Paul summed it up like this about folks that are involved in
dangerous movements, beginning in verse five of Second Timothy
3, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, and from
such people turn away. For of this sort are those who
creep into households and make captives of gullible women,
loaded down with sins, LED away by various lusts, always
learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now, as Janice and Jambreeze rejected, resisted Moses, so do
these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapproved
concerning the faith. And by the way, because of all
those reasons, because of all of those dangerous movements that
Paul said was going to happen. Yeah, in their lifetime,
beginning with the 4th century, and in our lifetime too, he said
preach the Word. I know that we say that a lot.
Oh, we got to preach the Word. Yeah, we do, but don't just mean
that in a general sense. Preach doctrine, which is that
which is authorized to be taught.
How you going to do it? You're going to teach it in
context and application so that we don't miss apply what the
Word of God says. Paul says preach the Word, be
ready in season and out of season.
That means this, preach the Word when it's convenient and preach
the Word when it's inconvenient. Then he says, reprove, rebuke
and exhort with all long-suffering and teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but according to their own desires, because they have
itching ears. They will heap up for themselves
teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth
and be turned aside. The fables, You know what, those
are some really harsh words and I'm so glad I didn't come up
with those, man, I'm glad about that.
All I got to do is just read it because somebody else said that
divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, it was the apostle Paul.
I'm glad I didn't say that. OK, so when you go back to our
text now, Jesus said you'll know them by your fruits, and then he
said this. Even so, every good tree bears
good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear
good fruit. Every tree that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
I want to make a point about what we are, OK?
The Bible says Jesus says that a good tree is going to bear good
fruit and a bad tree is going to bear bad fruit.
OK, I have a saying that I've said for years, you've heard it,
and that is we are what we are. I remember when our kids, my
kids were little. I'd say if you don't like the
reality, change the reality. But we are what we are.
You are what you are. You can't separate your behavior
from what you are. You can change what you are.
You can't. Everybody can.
It's wonderful to change what you are.
And that's the beauty of being a Christian.
If you're going down the wrong path and you're a certain person
from days gone by, you don't have to be that person for the
rest of your life. You can change.
Paul did. Paul changed.
Everybody can change. But make no mistake about it, we
are what we are at the time. And Jesus says a good tree is
going to bear good fruit and a bad tree is going to bear bad
fruit. Give you a little example.
There was a guy that used to live.
We, I have great, we have T and I, we have great neighbors now.
We really do. We had a guy behind us that was
a real creep. This guy, I don't know what it
was. I don't know why, but he seemed
to take pleasure in yelling at women and children.
And I have no respect for that. None of us do.
And one day he was ball. He balled out Tina and then
balled out my kids over something that I did and I
wasn't even there. I'll tell you what I did.
I hit some of those foam golf balls over the fence on accident
and he got in his backyard and he got mad.
He made him so mad that he came over and he starts yelling at
Tina. He starts yelling at my kids.
Awful. The same guy had a tree that was
growing over our fence and we I talked to him and he said, yeah.
He said, I'll if you want to have it removed, go ahead.
So I hire a guy to cut the tree. The guy's there to cut the tree.
He starts yelling at the guy and runs him off.
So I cut the tree myself. And about two days later his
wife comes over and knocks on the door.
And, you know, wonderful person, the wife.
And she comes over and she says, oh, please excuse my husband.
He's really a wonderful man. I said, no, he's not.
You are what you are. If you don't like the reality,
change the reality. But you are what you are.
He repeatedly does what he does. You can't change that unless you
change that. You are what you are.
You know what Jesus says. By their fruits you shall know
them. We are what we are.
That's how we're going to know. Jesus sums it up like this.
By their fruits you will know them.
This concluding passage in this section is a is words of comfort
and it's also words of warning. God doesn't leave us to wonder
about teachers that come our way.
He gives us the key. What do we got to do?
We got to inspect the fruit and listen carefully to the words.
Simple as that. OK, in conclusion, this morning,
a false teacher. What is a description of a false
teacher? I'm going to give you one verse,
Romans 16 and 18. For those who are such do not
serve the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth
words and flattering speech deceive their heart, The hearts
of the simple. These are those that we have to
avoid. A trusted and true teacher, one
that we can follow and have confidence in.
Paul said this about Timothy in Second Timothy chapter 3 and
verse 10. He said, but you have carefully
followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
long-suffering, love and perseverance.
Like Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ.
And that's exactly what Timothy did.
OK, in summary, what do we learn today?
We got to learn to stay on the path.
We got to learn to avoid and be careful about false teachers and
false prophets because they're going to try to pluck us off and
lead us astray. They lead us astray when they do
so by their lives that they live or by the words that they speak,
or both. So we know them by their fruits.
So we must be inspectors of that and listen to their words
closely. And one final thing, it's
imperative that we have a knowledge of the Word of God so
we can know the difference because often times there's
wonderful people that are being LED astray because they know
that there are voids in their life.
There's empty places in their life.
They know that. But in the absence of the Word
of God, because they don't know any different, they're being
offered dangerous substitutes that don't help.
So we got to do our part to preach the Word and be
strengthened by the Word of God and stick to it.
Thus saith the Lord and all that we do.
I'm finished this morning. Thank you for your kind
listening. I hope something was said that
was encouraging and edifying and helpful to you in some way.
We never close a time when we teach from the Word of God
without extending an invitation. It's the greatest invitation in
all the world. It's the invitation that'll put
a person on the path that Jesus talked about in Matthew Chapter
7, verses 13 and 14, and that's to become a child of God.
That's to become a Christian. The steps of obedience are
simple. First you got to hear the word
of God. Romans 10/17 So faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
After you hear the word of God, you have a choice to make.
You got to believe with all your heart.
Hebrews 11 and 6. Without faith it's impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Then what we got to repent of our sins.
All that means is this I got to change my ways.
I've been going to One Direction.
I got to change my direction starts off with a change of
mind, which is your heart leads to a change of life and the best
part is it'll lead to a change of relationship with the Lord.
Repent of our sins. Truly, these times of ignorance
got overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
And then if we're willing to do that, we're willing to say the
greatest thing we will ever say and confess Jesus Christ as the
Son of God. Acts 837 then feel upset if you
believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. Upon taking these steps, now
there's one act. It's the act of salvation.
It's the point of salvation. It's the time you contact the
blood of Jesus. This is the point that you're
saved. You got to be baptized for the
remission of your sins. Mark 1616, He who believes and
is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be
condemned. If you've never taken these
steps of obedience, we would love to assist you in doing that
today. We're ready and willing to help
you in that. Maybe you have taken those
steps. Maybe there's something in your
life that is not what it should be.
Then just repent of those things.
Confess those things. We'll pray with you and for you,
and God will forgive and restore.