Matthew 7, verse 15, the title
of the message tonight, Who Are False Prophets? Who are false
prophets? Matthew 7, verse 15 says, Beware
of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. The Lord in the previous verses
has just dealt with this matter of the only way of salvation. You remember last week we talked
about the straight gate and the narrow way. And we saw that Jesus
Christ is that straight gate. He alone is that narrow way. that leads unto life. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. And he now turns his attention
to those who would oppose his message. Those who would stand
in opposition to him, he deems them false prophets. Everyone that would stand in
opposition to this straight gate, Jesus Christ, as the only way
to God, are nothing but false prophets. False prophets of the
wide gate and broad way of destruction. Now friends, this warning that
the Lord Jesus Christ gives us cannot be too emphatic and it
cannot be mentioned too often enough to us who are believers
in Christ. We who have now entered the straight
gate by faith in Christ, we recognize that we are also on the narrow
way. Last week, I know I discussed
this with you briefly for time's sake, but the narrow way is faith
in Christ. Just how you enter into Christ
is the same way you walk on this narrow way. It is by faith in
Christ alone, not law. The narrow way is not the law. It is only faith in Christ. If you remember the Apostle Paul
in Galatians, he tells those Galatians, I believe in chapter
3, he says, who has soon bewitched you about these things? He says,
have you begun in the Spirit and then are made perfect by
the flesh? No. No. We're not beginning this
walk with Christ by faith and ending by law. No, we begin this
walk of faith with Christ and we end this walk with Christ
by faith. It's the same way. And so now,
you that are believers, you are on this journey with Christ and
you are on the narrow way of faith. You are walking by faith
each day in Christ Jesus alone. But beware. Beware, there are
some that would come and try to take you off of the way of
faith in Christ. These false prophets, they are
come into the fold of God among the sheep of God to cause disunity
and ruin to the church of God and lead some away into heresy
and error. And these here are called false
prophets, those that oppose the gospel of God's salvation. These false prophets are not
new to the church of God. They have been around since sin.
Ever since there were two, Cain and Abel, there was a false prophet. He was Cain. He was always trying
to move Abel from the way of faith into the way of works. And friends, history does repeat
itself, doesn't it? Do you ever wonder why? Because
human nature doesn't change from age to age, does it? It's still
the same. Human nature is always evil. It is always going against
God. Therefore, history always repeats
itself. And there are these false prophets
in the Old Testament. There are false prophets even
now. And friends, as Peter says, there shall be false prophets
among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresy. Now, friends, he didn't say,
there shall come in among them. He said, there shall come in
among you. Well, pastor, aren't we safe
in Christ? Isn't everything hunky-dory?
Isn't everything wonderful? Shouldn't we just be free and
have no problems? I'm sorry, friends, that's not
Christianity. Christianity is a world full
of trouble. That's what it is. Christ promised
you trouble, and you'll get it. And it comes in the form of these
men coming in among us, among believers, trying to sway us
into another way. They're always there. They're
always there. And so tonight, I want to talk
to us about who these false prophets are according to the Lord Jesus
Christ's description. He gives us a description of
these false prophets. And I want us to share with you
four things tonight about these false prophets. First of all,
the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us of the danger of these false
prophets. Then he teaches us the disguise
of these false prophets. And then he teaches us the way
of the discovery, how to discover these false prophets. And then
he talks to us about the destination of these false prophets. First
of all, danger. Danger. And when I read this
text, I think of the Lord Jesus Christ in His office of a shepherd and protecting
His sheep. Friends, He here is protecting
you with His words. He says, beware. Beware. This is not something to take
lightly. This is not something just to pass over. This is something
He wants you and me to seriously consider. He says, you beware. Beware false prophets. Let me ask you this. Do you think
anyone wakes up in the morning and says, man, I can't wait to
go hear the lies of my false prophet. Do you think someone wakes up
one morning and says, you know, I'm just going to go out and
look for a false prophet. I want to believe a lie, and
I just want to go out and find one. Have you ever heard anybody
say something like that? So what does that mean? That
means that everyone that follows a false prophet is taken in by
them. They're seduced by them. They're drawn in by them, unaware. And it doesn't happen all of
a sudden. It happens little by little. There's just a certain
pull here and a certain pull there. Then the next thing you
know, where do they go? They're gone away from the truth.
No one decides to follow a false prophet. It doesn't just happen,
but rather they are deceived by their smooth speech. They
are deceived by their pleasant and comfortable message. And
they are lulled by their noble presence and commanding voice,
crying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace." Think about that
prophet Jeremiah who cried out to his nation. And the false prophets around
him were swarming around him. There were tenfold false prophets
compared to that one man, Jeremiah. And his message was, God's going
to destroy you if you don't repent. And what was their message? Oh,
don't worry. Everything's alright. Smile. God loves you. Everything's fine. Nothing's wrong. Can you see
the difference in the message? Which do you suppose would appeal
to the natural man? Well, of course, the kind message,
not the harsh message. But you see, God didn't send
the kind message, He sent the harsh message. People love to hear those kind
of things. These men are dangerous and hazardous
because they are men opposed to the way of God's salvation. And they speak against God because
they have not His Word, nor were they sent of God. A false prophet
is a man that speaks when he's not been spoken to. He goes when
he's not been sent. Jeremiah 14, 14, the Lord said
unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name. Notice that. They prophesy lies in whose name? In God's name. They don't prophesy
in a false God's name. They use Jehovah's name. But God says, I sent them not,
neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They
prophesy unto you a false vision and a divination and a thing
of naught and the deceit of their heart. Jude says the Lord will
come in the execution of His judgment because of their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. False prophets, they speak, but
they don't speak the Word of God. And believer, hear the word
of your Master when He warns you against those that are not
sent. He tells us of the danger of them that speak their own
visions and the deceit of their heart because they are not speaking
from God. And brethren, we're surrounded
by them. There are no shortage of false prophets in our day.
There are no shortage. I remember reading a book one
time about careers and it said, under lawyers, it only had one
page. It said, too many lawyers. Well, I've got one page for false
prophets, too many false prophets. We have enough. We don't need
any more. And yet the seminary spits them out day after day
after day, just keeps sending them out. God doesn't send them.
God doesn't send them. There are a lot of false prophets.
Remember Elijah, he was one prophet against 400 prophets of Baal. Believer in Christ, let them
not have a voice among us and let us mark them well and separate
ourselves when we find a false prophet. You find a false prophet,
you get away from him as fast as you can. Jesus said, for there shall arise
false Christs and false prophets and show so great signs and wonders
in so much if it were possible they would deceive the very elect. Don't think you're so strong
that you can convince these men of the error of their ways. It's
best to leave them alone. Remember what Christ said about
the Pharisees? The disciples said, don't you know you offended
them? He says, let the blind lead the blind. They'll both
fall in a ditch. In other words, boys, leave them alone. Leave
them alone. It's best for us to stay out
of their way and leave them alone. It matters not what kind of signs
and miracles a man performs. It matters not how gentle this
man may be. It matters not how moral this
man may be. It matters not if he follows
even the letter of the law or he has a smooth voice. Stay away
from false prophets. Beware of them. They're a danger
to your soul. They're a danger to my soul. If he does not preach the truth
of God, even the straight gate of Jesus Christ and the narrow
way of faith in Christ, then he does not preach the gospel. He is not sin of God. Beware. He's dangerous. He's dangerous. Number two, the Lord gives us
a description of the deceptive disguise of false prophets. First,
he tells us of the danger, and then the deceptive disguise.
Look at this in our text. He says, these are wolves in
sheep's clothing. This is taken from the Old Testament
prophets. When God sent an Old Testament
prophet, these men, they always wore a certain garb. It was usually
a hairy garb, a hairy type of clothing. You remember John the
Baptist, he was in the camel's skin. And so when God sent a man in
that garb, guess what the false prophets did? They went and got
them some camel skin too, and they put it on. And in Zechariah
13, verse 4, God says, And it shall come to pass in that day
that the prophet shall be ashamed of his vision, and when he hath
prophesied, neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. You see, false prophets don't
take on their own garments. They take on the garments of
God's prophets. They always come in disguise. They don't come in plain sight. These true prophets, they have
a certain dress and these false prophets would try to counterfeit. If you think of a counterfeiter,
what if a counterfeiter came out with pink money? I mean,
you'd know right away that guy's a charlatan. You'd know he's
a false counterfeiter. Hey, that's not money. You would
know. But a counterfeiter doesn't do
that. He studies the truth so that he might fake it. He might
counterfeit it so that they're hard to spot. These false prophets
are most dangerous because they are most subtle. Wasn't the serpent the most subtle
beast? Well, friends, he's not changed.
He is subtle. And he comes into the church
subtly among God's people. They don't come into church denying
the Scriptures. You won't hear a false prophet
come into the church saying the Scriptures are false. Even the
Roman Catholics don't say that. They say it in their doctrine,
but they don't come right out and say it. I remember having
to talk to a man that was a Catholic, and I had to really paint him
in a corner to get him to say what he really thought. And I said, if you had just the
Bible or your traditions and you had to leave away one, which
one would you leave? And he had to confess that he
would do away with the Scriptures and keep his traditions. Friends, I had to hard press
him to get there. You don't get that right off
the bat. You won't notice that. You won't notice that. They come
in, as the Scripture says, unawares and unnoticed by believers. Friends,
they look the same as you, they act the same as you, they talk
the same as you do. You want to talk about the grace
of God? They'll talk about the grace of God with you. You want
to talk about the Scriptures? They love to talk about the Scriptures
with you. The love of God, the holiness
of God, the justice of God. You want to speak on these things?
They love to hear these things. And you won't know they're in
your midst. That's the whole point Christ
is making. He said this is going to be difficult
for you to see. Not easy. You won't be able to
see these guys coming. These guys creep in. They stay
below the radar. They look, smell, and act just
like sheep. The Lord tells us in the parable
of the tares and wheat, He said, the Lord sowed good seed, and
the devil, his enemy, came and sowed tares. Now, if you take
a tare and a wheat and you put them together while they're growing,
you won't be able to tell them apart. They have the same color,
the same texture, and they grow the same height. The only way
you're going to tell the difference between wheat and tares is one
thing, fruit. The wheat will have fruit and
the tares will be barren. But you won't know until you
see the fruit. You won't know. Jesus warns us that these men
are not detectable by outward actions or private conversations. Let me ask you this. If you were
among the Pharisees, do you suppose that you would be able to detect
the Pharisees to be heretics and murderers? Not if you lived
in that day, you wouldn't. There was a saying in that day,
even in the day of Christ, that if there were two to go to heaven,
one would be a Pharisee and the other be a Sadducee. Why? Because these men followed the
letter of the law. The Apostle Paul said, you couldn't
convince me of sin. You couldn't see any sin in my
actions. I was convicted of covetousness
in my heart that you couldn't see. Friends, you won't see these
by outward actions. Jesus said, these men are like
whited sepulchers, pretty on the outside, but full of dead
men's bones. And see, we couldn't see that.
His disciples couldn't see that. Only the Lord could see that.
Wasn't that right? He's the only one that could see inside of
a man's heart. Yet God sees into the heart of the matter and overlooks
the body. Jesus tells us that we must expect
them and be warned of them, and this is their disguise, they'll
be just like you. And they won't be easy to detect. Well, pastor, then how do we
know them? If we need to be warned about them, if we must understand
and get away from them and mark them, how then may we discover
them? And that's my third point, to
discover a false prophet. Jesus said they're dangerous.
He said that they're deceptive in their disguise. And number
three, He tells us how to discover. Look at that in verse 16. Verse
16 says, "...and you shall know them," how? "...by their fruits."
By their fruits. As I've just told you, you wouldn't
have been able to look at the Pharisees and tell they were
false prophets. Not by their moral actions or
their character. But how did Christ know and expose
them to be false prophets? How? By their doctrine. Isn't that right? The Pharisees,
you see this in Scripture with them when they start questioning
and trying to dismantle Christ. They try to accuse Christ. That's
how you know that they're evil, not by their moral character.
They're out there counting leaves to know how much to tithe unto
God. You wouldn't have seen that coming
had you not listened to what they said. You have to know their
doctrine. By their fruits. That's what
Christ is saying. The fruit here is not the actions
and deeds so much as it is their doctrine and what they teach. That's how you know a false prophet.
By what they teach. You remember that John tells
us to try the spirits. To see whether they be of God. If you hear a man preach, you
should try him. Try his message. And every time
I preach, you should try the message that I preach to you.
You should try it. I don't ever tell you to take
my word for something. Search it out for yourself like
the Bereans did who were more noble. You search it for yourself to see if these things are true.
Believer, be aware that in our day, in our time, it's not even
so much what men are saying, it's what they're not saying.
You see, there's a subtlety about this deception. There's a subtlety
about it. It's not what they're saying
in their doctrine, it's what's missing in their doctrine. I would rather them say it. Make
it easier for us to see it. But no, they don't do that. They
don't do that. When you turn on the radio, you
hear a man preach, I'll tell you this, you won't be able to
find fault with many of them. You won't. Friends, I've done
it. I've listened to them. I've heard
their messages. And I've tried to find fault
with their messages. And you know what? I can't. I
can't find fault. when he's talking about having
a good marriage. Well, isn't a good marriage a good thing?
I mean, isn't that good? Shouldn't we want and desire
a good marriage? Absolutely. When a man talks
about the success of a business, well, don't you want to be successful
in business? Isn't that good if a man is successful
and diligent in his business? Of course it is. When a man talks
to our children about chastity, about abstaining from fornication,
is that not good? Yes. There's nothing wrong with
that, is there? You can't find fault with that.
Can you? But friends, it's not finding
fault in what they say, it's finding fault in what they're
not saying. There's nothing wrong with what
they say, but it's what they've omitted that makes him a false
prophet. They've omitted Christ. They've omitted Christ. They may tip their hat at the
beginning of their message by taking a text from Scripture,
and they may tip their hat at the end trying to get an invitation
so people to make a decision for Jesus, What happens in the
middle? Nothing. Nothing. There's no substance of their
message. This makes them a false prophet.
If the way of salvation is not preached but omitted, then what
good is that message? If a man is not preaching the
straight gate and the narrow way, what good is that message? It does a man's soul no good
to hear of these things. These things are not lasting.
They don't do any good. Now remember, when I was younger
and how I found this out, I was listening to people on the radio
a lot. In Houston, I was listening to them a lot, and I was engaged
with them. They spoke well, and they had
good stories. Man, the stories that they could
tell! They could spin a yarn, I think
that's a saying. They could really throw them
out there. And I was engaged in listening, and I couldn't
find anything wrong, but in my heart I knew something was missing.
I went to my pastor, and that's when he told me, he says, it's
not what they're saying, it's what they're not saying that
makes him liars. That's what they're omitting.
Don't be deceived by these charlatans, friends. If they are not preaching
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, these men may quote the Word
of God, but they are not preaching the Word of God. Jesus is the sum and substance
of the Word of God. Without Him, there is no message. He is the message. He's everything. He's everything
about this message. Jesus uses the analogy now of
the corrupt tree, and He describes the nature of the false prophets.
Look at this in verse 17. He says, "...Even so, a good
tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit." He asked the question, do you
go out to the thorns and do you rather get the grapes off the
thorn bushes? No. You don't go to the thorn
bush to get grapes. You go to the grapevine. Do you
grab figs off of briar bushes? No. You get it off a fig tree. He said, well, you get good fruit
off a bad tree. No, you'll only get corrupt fruit. Even so, from a false prophet,
you cannot get good doctrine. Don't expect it. I hear a man
gives me a call every once in a while, and he drives his truck
a lot, and he has to listen to the radio occasionally, and he
hears these men. He gets so all fired up and upset,
and he gives me a call, and he says, I just can't believe that
these guys are saying this and this and this. Do you expect
anything else? Are you expecting them to somehow
give you a message of Christ? No. They're false teachers. They can't do anything but give
you a false message. Don't listen to them. Don't listen
to them. He told me it was like a train
wreck. You can't help it sometimes. You know, people gawk on the
freeway when there's a wreck. They just seem to can't help
it. They've got to watch. These false prophets, they can't
do anything because they have a corrupt nature and they're
lost. So what then is the difference
between a good fruit and the bad fruit, the good doctrine
and the bad doctrine? It's only found in this, if a
man preaches salvation is by works, then the fruit is bad
and the tree is bad. Friend, there are only two religions
in the world, grace and works. Grace and works. Put anything
you want to on the door, there's only grace and works. To see false religion from the
true is not difficult if we break it down to its lowest common
denominator. It is salvation of the Lord or
of the works of man. Is salvation by grace or by the
will and works of man? The papists believe salvations
of grace. Do you know that? You know the
Roman Catholics believe salvations of grace? The problem is their
definition of grace is not grace. Their definition of grace is
that you must have Christ plus the priest, Christ plus the saints,
Christ plus the church, Christ plus the sacraments. Arminians believe in grace. They
believe in grace. But their grace is some kind
of mystical force that floats in the air just waiting for men
to make their decision to grab God's grace and bring it down
to their own souls. So then their grace is Christ
plus their will. And I want us to see this, and
friends, I know I'm running long, but this is important. I really
want you to hear this last part, because I think this is the most
subtle. I think you can see the papist coming. I don't think
you have any problem with that. And I don't think you have any
problem even seeing the Armenian coming. But I'm telling you what,
we live in a day in which there's a more subtle, devious doctrine,
and it's called the Reformation doctrines. Pastor, don't you
read after the Reformers? Don't you like Calvin? Aren't
we Calvinists? Yes. I love the Reformers. I think that they have some very
good writings. But I want you to know that there
is a movement today that is, in a sense, exalting the writings
of the Reformation even above the Scriptures themselves. There's a movement in our day
where people are tickled in their minds concerning Calvinism, but
they've missed Christ altogether. They've missed Christ altogether. These men, these Reformers, they
came out of the great lie of Romanism, but I guarantee you
they carried with them baggage from that great lie. You cannot
help but read their works and know that they carried a lot
of baggage from that heretical church of Rome. And some of these that call themselves
reformed have taken and their form of worship and
elevated above the Word of God. These men preach all the right
doctrines. They believe even salvation is
of grace, total depravity. They believe in unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance
and preservation of the saints, and they preach it every Sunday.
What's wrong with that? They have missed Christ in the
message. They're missing Christ. They've
exalted the doctrines themselves to be salvation. Friends, you're
not going to go to heaven because you know the doctrines of Calvin.
The only way you'll ever reach heaven's gate is if you know
Christ. And these doctrines are beautiful
on Him. But by themselves, they're worthless
to your souls. They will not attain you heaven. These men who call themselves
reformers, they believe in law. Well, didn't you say, pastor,
that they believe salvations of grace alone, through faith
alone, in Christ alone? That's what they say. But yet
when they get a man and they say that a man believes in Christ,
they say he must finish by law. So what did I just say about
a false prophet? Isn't a false prophet one that tries to take
you off of the way of faith in Christ and put you in law? Isn't
that a false prophet? Absolutely. The Scripture says,
In Romans 6, 14 and 15, it says, For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Romans
8, 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are
in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
We don't walk after the law of the flesh. Romans 10.4, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Galatians
3.13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Galatians 3.25 says we are no
longer under the schoolmaster of the law.