Forgive me, I've got what's going
around. I'm cold and I feel very stopped up. Matthew 7, Matthew chapter 7, let's read
one verse. We'll be looking from verse 15
down through 20, but let's just read verse 15 right now. Our
Lord says, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheeps clothing
but inwardly they are ravening hungry. Now there's a great deal written
in the scriptures about false prophets we've already we just
browse through and saw quite a few verses. It is a great deal
said by our Lord our Lord says as much or more about false prophets
as anybody. Because he's the good shepherd. And when he sees a wolf coming,
he doesn't, like a hireling, flee. He lays down his life for
the sake of his sheep, for the saving of his sheep. And he's
the good shepherd, and the good shepherd will not allow his little
ones, his little sheep, his little fearful flock to be in the hands
of the wolf. That's a great comfort to me. not leave them in the
hands of false prophets who are wolves disguised as sheep. And I say a lot from this pulpit,
there's a great deal said about false prophets because I say
the same thing as the Apostle said, I can't help but see or
I can't help but speak the things I've seen and heard. And as an
older shepherd, that's what a pastor The word pastor means under shepherd,
a watchman. I must do and say the things
I've seen and heard the great shepherd say to his sheep. And
right now he is warning his people of these wolves, these false
prophets. Now turn over to Matthew 10 quickly,
Matthew 10. Our message, I say this over
and over again, and I want this to be understood, that our message
and our ministry here And I do say ours, because that's what
Paul said. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, it's ours. Our message and our ministry
is not one of negatives. We're not building a ministry
or a church by tearing down everybody else. No, if you preach the truth,
it will clearly reveal error. I called it one time straight
stick preaching. If you lay down a straight stick, you'll see
the crooked one. But like I said, there's a great
deal said about false prophets and weak as we are. Brother Milton
talked about sheep being dumb animals, and we sure are. We're
dumb. We're easily influenced and easy to be led astray. All we like sheep have gone astray.
Matthew 10 is the Lord's ordination sermon of his disciples. That's
what Matthew 10 is. He's ordaining his disciples
and sending them out, and this is what he tells them in verse
16. I send you forth as sheep in
the midst of wolves, and thee, therefore, wise as
serpents and harmless as doves. At no time in history has this
been more relevant and needed than now. There are truly many false prophets
that have gone out into the world, aren't there? As a matter of
fact, you really have to strain and look very hard to find a
real prophet, don't you? A real preacher of the gospel.
And a true and a faithful shepherd or pastor will warn the flock
and even call names. I've often pleaded youth and
ignorance for my calling names from the pulpit, but I got that
from another Paul, Paul the greater. He called names, I've told you
before, he called ten names, ten different names. Most of them, you want to look
them up sometime, most of them are found in 1 and 2 Timothy. He
keeps telling young Timothy, who's going out to preach and
pastor, he said, and Hymenaeus and Alexander and Philetus and
all of these, Alexander the copper smith, done me much evil, watch
out, didn't he? And I call these false prophets
by name. They need to be, don't they? But, you know, the utmost discretion
has to be used for fear of labeling somebody a false prophet who's
not. I wouldn't want to do that. Can you know a false prophet
without a doubt? Can you? According to our text, you can.
Our Lord says it. Look at it here again in Matthew
7. Matthew seven says, Beware of
false prophets which come unto you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them. You shall
know them. Isn't that what he said? You can know them. Now they're
fruits. Two things, he says, he warns
us about. One in particular that we're
able to know a false prophet by. He says they come in sheep's
clothing. Contrary to popular belief, the
devil's chief work is not in the crack house, it's in the
church house. Contrary to popular belief, the
devil's chief work is not in rock music, it's in gospel music. Contrary to popular belief, the
devil's chief work is not in sexual perversion, but in gospel
perversion. Now there's no doubt he works
in these things, the crack houses and this sort of thing, but that's
not his grand and cheap design. You see, his grand and cheap
design is to, as a deceiver, and to deceive men and women
in religion. There's no more dangerous place
to be than in a false refuge. So he doesn't come wearing horns. If he did, we'd run from him,
right? horns and a pitchfork tail, and
an ugly face like you see in the movies. He doesn't come like
that. He doesn't come wearing horns. He comes wearing a fish
hat. Not horns, but a hat. He doesn't come with a pitchfork.
He comes with a sales pitch. Join our 15,000 clubs that we
may train up junkies for Christ's. A sales pitch. Not a pitchfork. He comes looking good, talking
well, bringing a worthy cause, saying the right things. A smile on his face, a Bible
in his hand, and honey dripping out of his mouth. Or else the people would not
follow him. But our Lord says here, He said,
You will know them by their fruits. By their fruits. How can you distinguish the truth
from the false? How can you? Well, it's as I
just described to you, it's not always recognizable. They're
not always recognizable to the naked eye, false prophets. Not
always recognizable to the naked eye, but they can be discerned
by the ear. Right here. Don't trust this. Right here, though. The ear, the inner ear, the inner
ear. And to recognize, our Lord said,
by their fruits. You shall know them by their
fruits. Fruits. All right, now turn over
to Matthew 12 with that. This first fruit, I believe that we can discern a false prophet
by is the fruit of the mouth. Matthew 12, and this is where
it starts. Matthew 12, beginning with verse
34. Old generation of vipers. Matthew 12, 34. How can you,
being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. A good man, out of the good treasure
of the heart, bringeth forth good things. Do you catch what
he's talking about there? And an evil man out of the evil
treasure bringeth forth evil things. I say unto you that every
idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment. He's mostly talking about false
preachers there. Verse 37, look at it. By thy
words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned. You'll know them by what they're
saying and by what they're not saying. A sheep, you can know
them. And the first fruit you know
them by is what they're saying. Now, how they look. They come
in sheep's clothing. They look good. You can't always
discern them. They look good. But you can by
this. All right, 2 Corinthians 11.
Let's look at a true preacher of the gospel. And look at the
contrast. 2 Corinthians 11. Look at the
contrast between a true preacher of the gospel. I'm going to lay
down a straight stick here, and then you'll easily see the crooked
ones. Paul was a straight stick preacher. He was straight as
an arrow. True preacher of the gospel. Look at verse 1. Let's
read on down a little ways here. And let me say this, and this
is what Paul is saying. We've got to first carefully
hear what a man is saying, rather than watch what he's telling. Our Lord even said that they
will come and say, we did many wonderful works, and there's
some wonderful things going on in the name of Christ. Don't
trust your eyes, though. Don't call them true, because
they do wonderful works. But judge them by their message.
The message before the method. All right, 2 Corinthians 11,
verse 1. Paul says, Would to God you could
bear with me, that you could bear with me,
that you could sit a little while and listen to this old vain babbler. Would to God you could bear with
me a little bit in my folly. In other words, they called Paul,
they said his bodily presence is weak and his speech is contemptible.
Well, he did that on purpose. He said, I'm not come preaching
the gospel of Christ with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
be made of none effect. That was a great puff and deep
of speech, you know, and great affected airs, and this and that
and the other. You couldn't understand a word
I was saying. And a Paul could have preached like that. And
I barely believe I could, too. I could grab down some message
by one of these old Puritans, Thomas Brooks, John Owens, and
bring it to you word for word, and nobody would get a thing
out of it. But Paul says, I don't want to do that. I don't want
to do that. I want you to hear what I'm saying.
I want you to fully understand my gospel. And would to God you
would bear with this foolish, what you consider to be a foolish,
unlearned preacher. And indeed, bear with me. You
do bear with me. Some of you do. That's a miracle
that you'd listen to an uneducated, unlearned man. Verse 2, he says,
Because I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy. In another
place, Paul said, I'm not seeking yours, it's not your money I'm
after, it's your soul. He said, If I have espoused you
to one husband, then I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, oh, he says, I fear,
lest by any means and every means, all means, crafty means, a serpent,
as he beguiled Eve, that brilliant woman. Yet she was beguiled through
his subtlety, and he is that subtle. So your mind should be
corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, or the singular
message of Christ and Him crucified. That's what he means, the simplicity
in Christ, that there's just one message. And go on, he says
in verse four, and if he that cometh preaches another Jesus,
and they are, the one that can't save, he tries but he fails. So for you, a weakling, a helpless
son, an impotent so-called Savior, whom we haven't preached. We've
never preached a Jesus like that whose hands and who's in your
hands to do with as you will. No, we've never preached a Jesus
like that. We've preached a sovereign Lord.
And if another one comes preaching another Jesus we haven't preached,
or if you receive another spirit Another spirit, and there's another
spirit out there, and people are making much of it, but it's
not the spirit of Christ because he's not taking the things of
Christ and showing them to the people. He's drawing attention
to himself, isn't he? This other spirit. And Christ
plainly said that, didn't he, Rick? He'll not speak of himself. Just like Christ didn't speak
primarily of himself, he spoke of the Father. Another spirit which you have
not received, you've never received the spirit of this world, but
the spirit of Christ. And another gospel, and they're preaching
another gospel, one that can't save a flea. Can't save a flea. There's no good news in the gospels
going around today, is there, Henry? There's no gospel in it.
There's no good news in the fact that Christ died for me, but
I just might perish anyway. What good news is there in that?
None whatsoever. Paul said, if this is a better
Jesus than the one we preach, a better spirit, a better gospel,
you'd do well to bear with him. Listen to him. Quit my church
and go down there. If he's preaching a better gospel,
by all means, go hear him. But if not, you'd do well to
bear with me, wouldn't you? Stay with me. Now, verse 5, he
said, I suppose I was not a whip behind the very chiefest apostles,
and he wasn't. He was the greatest. The Lord
used him more than anybody. He was the greatest apostle.
Apostle Paul was arguably the greatest man to walk on the face
of the earth, bar none, Moses included and the rest of them.
The Lord used him more than anybody. But he says, though, verse 6,
I was rude in speech, but not in knowledge. We've been thoroughly
made manifest among you in all the things. You remember over
there in 2 Corinthians 4 where he said, If our Gospels hid,
it said to them that it lost, we hadn't hid a thing. So we
would commend every man, commend ourselves, our conscience to
every man and every man's sight before God. Then he say that. We commend our man. We want you
to go home and study, see if the things we say is so. And
I've said that before, that that's how you know, one way you know
a true prophet is he wants you to try him. He wants you to try
his message by the Word of God. Verse seven, and he says, Paul,
this true preacher says, if I committed an offense and abased him myself
that you might be exalted. Paul, Joe Paul just revealed
himself just as a man. He didn't put on pies there and
wear a collar around backwards, you know, and put on a funny
face and fold his hands a certain way, you know, and sit all secluded
in his monastery and come out every now and then and act like
some god. They got down where the people
were, he worked with his hands, and they said, well, he's just
a man. He's just like us. Yeah. That's Paul said, that's
the reason. The reason being, we have this
treasure in earthen vessels that's the excellency of the power.
Might not be a man, but you won't go away bragging on the man,
you'll go away bragging on the Savior. You know, I haven't committed
offense and abasing myself. that you might be exalted. No,
I'm getting the man out of the way, like you say to me all the
time, Joe. Get the man out of the way and get the man in view,
Christ, the God-man. Get that preacher out of the
way. Verse 15, he says, and verse
13, he says, Now these false prophets are deceitful workers,
transforming themselves in the apostles of Christ. And I'm not
going to go into detail. I told you about that fellow
that today says he's the new apostle. That fellow, what's
his name? Morris Aurelio or something like
that. Is that his name? His name's not worth mentioning,
but he says that he's got a man on his program now that's calling
himself the new apostle of our day. And his blessing is to release
the power of canceled debt. anybody, your Visa card at its
limit, I release unto you the power of canceled debt. It'll
go away." And he's got a following, buddy. And he's got diamonds,
too. He's got one on every finger. He's... And that's what I say
with Jeremiah chapter 12. Lord, God, how long is this going
to go on? I want to weep with Jeremiah.
He's called the weeping prophet. How long? We can't get our hearing. We got 30 people, maybe, at the
most here on Wednesday night to hear a message like that.
And people flocking by the thousands to hear that nonsense. And I want to cry with Jeremiah.
Lord, how long is this going to go for? Blessed are your eyes,
Vicki Patton, your ears, Margaret Torres. You're hearing things
that the angel desires to look into, that are hid from the wise
and prudent of this day. and revealed under secretaries,
truck drivers, cabinet makers, service station operators. It didn't have to be. Oh, he says, verse 15, it's no
great thing if his ministers, Satan's ministers, verse 14,
Satan's transformed himself into an angel of light. There's no
great thing then if his ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness. Now, there's a key word in it. Righteousness ministers of righteousness.
Who's? There's a key here. Who? Man's right man's not Christ. And like I said, it's not always
what a man is saying. But it's what he's not saying
what he's not saying. You know, we often hear some
good things. Some good things. And I've said that before, I've
heard different men preach and they said some good things, but
it's what they did not say. Scott Richardson brought out
this point. He said, you know, rat poisoning
is 99% good food. Well, rats wouldn't eat it, would
they? Rats wouldn't eat it, wouldn't
go near it. They're smarter than that. And so are men and women,
doctors and lawyers and professionals. They're smarter than that. They
wouldn't eat. But 99% of what they're saying
is good things, Bible things, you know. They use words like
mercy, grace, forgiveness, blood, Christ, Calvary, cross, sin,
even election. Not very often, but they do say
the word occasionally. They stumble across it, don't
they, Joe? If they read Romans 8, they'll have to say it eventually,
Romans 9. And they rarely use words like
this, though, do they, Rick? Righteousness, imputed righteousness. covenant of grace. They're not preaching them clearly
enough, but they're preaching to salve their own consciences
a little bit, maybe to pacify a few theologians out there,
but they don't preach them so that the people fully understand
them. Now, you get a man up and he stands up and he says grace,
salvation by grace. And they all say that, don't
they? Roman Catholicism, which is the most works-oriented religion
of all. boldly contends that they believe
salvation by grace, don't they? What do you mean grace? Now,
wait a minute. You say in salvation by grace,
what do you mean grace? Would you define that for me?
Could you define that term? Would you? Well, it's a gift
freely offered, darling. No, no, no, no, no. Wait a minute
now. That's not the grace of God. Grace of God, it's you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. It's not,
like I said Sunday, it's not a gift offered, it's a gift bestowed
on a dead man. It's life given to a dead man. Right? It's strength given to
an impotent man. It's not a general amnesty, but
it's a full effectual pardon. Not general amnesty. For whoever
wants it, all effectual pardon that says, in the end, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect, they're saved by
grace. It's of grace, Terry, that it
might be sure, for all of the elect, that it might be sure. If it's by work, nobody'd get
in. If it's by grace plus work, nobody'd get in. But since it's
all by grace, everyone that is bestowed upon gets in. And they
say, well, the death of Christ, Christ died for your sins, to
put away your sins. Now, wait a minute now. Let's define this. You say Christ died to put away
sin, for the forgiveness of my sins, to justify us. Did he do
it or didn't he? Well, he made a down payment.
He made a partial payment, and you buy your... No, no, no. Wait
a minute now. He didn't put away my sins, did
he? Huh? Did he justify me by his blood
or didn't he? If I speak, you speak with forked
tongue, man, double-tongued man. Did he make a partial payment
or did he pay it in full? What'd he say? It's paid. It's
finished. A definite atonement. Let's use
the word for now. Let's not use the word limited
atonement. Let's use definite atonement. Nobody can argue with
that. When we use the term, we say we believe in limited atonement,
but people are a little pious. They say, we don't believe in
limited atonement. God's not limited. He can do whatever He will. Well,
we believe that, too. Let's use the word definite atonement.
We believe in a definite atonement for a definite people. What are
they going to turn around and say? We don't believe that. We
believe in an indefinite atonement. Are they? No, I can't argue that. Definite atonement. Salvation
depends on it. Old Brother Todd, I appreciate
so much his stand upon these blessed truths. He said, My soul
rests upon the fact that he obtained eternal redemption for me by
his precious blood, the blood before the Lord, the blood before
the Lord, the blood on the doorpost. This centers only hope, not my
faith, not my words, not my love, not anything in regards to me. It's my high priest. How about
you? There wasn't a doctrine in the
John. So, let's get these fellows to
define what you mean by the death of Christ. Put away and say,
did it or did it not? The love of God. Now, I want
to talk about, you hear a man talk about the love of God. Now,
is he talking about everlasting love, effectual, sovereign love
that can reach way down and take a man out of the mire, up in
the mire and clean him up and take him all the way home, all
the way to eternal glory? everlasting love. Therefore,
with loving kindness, he draws us, puts us on his blessed shoulders,
and takes us all the way home. Is that the kind of love he's
talking about? Sovereign love that gets the job done? Unconditional
love that doesn't depend on the fickle creature? Doesn't depend
on his ups and downs? His love for Jesus? Is that the
love he's talking about? Is he talking about saving love?
I mean to save? Or is he talking about some kind
of sympathetic sugar daddy up there who just kind of pours
out his benevolence He pities all men who can't do anything
about it. Define what you mean, man, by love, the love of God. Right? Let's hear a few amens
tonight. How about when you hear a man
say, faith saves. By grace you say, through faith.
Faith saves. Whose faith? Yeah. Right. Not ours. I face up one
day and down the next. All right? All right, Sam? Faith
of work or a gift? Faith within every man, he's
just got to exercise it? Bull. It's a gift of God. It's what God Almighty creates
and puts within the heart of a man who otherwise is a rebel
against God Almighty. Is faith meritorious? After we
believe, then does faith give us some merit with God? I say
again, it's our reasonable service. I asked John Calvin one time,
I said, John Calvin, what if you found out for sure that your
name was not written down in the Lamb's Book of Life? What
if you found out for certain that your name was not, that
you were not one of the elect, your name was not written there?
Would you go on serving God like you do with all the zeal that
you do? Would you? He said, I sure would. He said,
well, why? You wouldn't get anything out
of it. He said, because God's worthy. Whether he saves me or
not, he's worthy. He's worthy. And I ought to believe
on God because he's worthy to be believed. Faithful saying,
worthy of all acceptation, isn't it? That doesn't merit me anything. It's my reasonable service, isn't
it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a commandment, it's
not a request, is it? Thank God he commanded me to
believe, or I would not have believed, ever. So let's get these fellows to
define what they mean by it. Paul said, See, in men we have
such hope, that is, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one hope of your calling. Joe Clark, there's only one hope
you're going to get, that you're going to call on the Lord, that
is, that he first calls you. One hope of your calling. Paul
says, see, we have one hope, we use great plainness of speech,
didn't we? Not mincing words, not beating
around the bush, we'll tell it like it is. He says man's dead
and trespassing sin. Barnard gets down a little further,
graveyard dead. And Ezekiel a little further,
he's stinking dead. In the flesh no man can please
God. That's about as plain as you
can get in it. In the flesh, no man can please God. It's impossible. Isaiah said in chapter 64, 6,
all our righteousness, our best religious deeds are filthy rotten
rags. Look it up in the Hebrew, what
it means. Filthy rags. Despicable. Scripture says very plainly,
if righteousness comes by the law, Christ didn't need to come.
He died in vain. Oh, that's the most serious charge
you can... You lay foolishness at the door
of God Almighty, don't you? If righteousness comes by the
law, us doing anything, becoming anything, being anything, quitting
anything, our morality, our works, our churches, our faith, even
if it comes by that, Christ died in vain. You don't need a Savior. But he goes on to say in Romans
10, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone
that is bleak. The goal, the purpose, the reason
for the law. That's plain language, isn't
it? And he goes on and gets about as plain as you can. In Colossians
he said, Christ is all. Let's just sum it all up. Christ is all and in all. That
means I'm nothing at all. Everything that has to do with
me is nothing. We ought to ask preachers. what
the Jews asked our Lord. If you be a true prophet, tell
us plainly, what think ye of Christ? Is he God or is he not? Did he save or did he not? What's that mean to me?
answer this if you can. Where's that passage Jeremiah
that said the book was delivered on isn't Jeremiah the book was
delivered under the prophet but he couldn't read it they were
all he couldn't understand it. Well it's the fruit of their
mouths. Fruit of their mouths. You'll know them by what they
say or what they don't say. You follow me now? Not always
what they do say, but they say some good things, don't they?
And it's what they're not saying. Now, back in our text, Matthew
7. Look at verse 16. This is good. Our Lord sure does
expose these fellows. You shall know them by their
fruits, the fruit of their mouths and the fruit of their works.
Verse 16. Do men gather grapes, that is,
fruits Where are they getting their converts? How? Do they
gather figs or fruit or whatever? What is their ministry based
upon? Where do they get it? Thistles? Our Lord here is talking about
fruits or apparent fruits, results, converts, conversions Save people,
signs, wonders, miracles. Where are they getting these
out of? Thorns and thistle? Thorns and thistle are wicked
devices, corrupt practices, cunning craftiness, trickery, forgery,
deceitful methods. Now some of these devices, does
that make sense to you, what he's saying there? Very plain
to them to understand. Some of these evil devices are
easy to spot. All these, some of these money
gimmicks, you just say, how in the world could somebody fall
for that? Don't you? You see, so plainly,
crazy miracles and blowing on a man and him falling down. Now,
I'm not going to that, but I've seen them wave their hands and
whole crowds, you know, fall back on my soul. It ought to
easily be exposed by any intelligent thinking human being, but you
know they're not all fake. All these things are not fake.
Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 with me. 2 Thessalonians 2. Now hurry.
I've only been 33 minutes. 33 minutes. 2 Thessalonians 2. Look at this, what Paul says
concerning these fellows and their works. 2 Thessalonians
2 verses 7 through 12. Here the work is the mystery
of iniquity. That's already work. The spirit
of antichrist, the mystery of iniquity, that's already work.
It's at work real strong. Only he who now let us will let,
or that is God's in control, he's allowed it to go on until
he takes Satan out of the way. And then shall that wicked man
be revealed for what he is, whom the Lord shall consume with the
spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming. Even him, Satan, whose coming is after the working
of Satan, with all powers and signs and lying wonders, and
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and them that perish because
they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie." that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth." God sends the delusion. That's scary isn't it? God sends
it and it's real. Why? Because they received not
the mere preaching of the gospel. That's not enough. Gospel's not
enough. Isn't that what the children
of Israel were guilty of in the wilderness? We're getting tired
of this light bread. Give us meat, all right? You'll
get it coming out your nose. Right? Wait, the gospel's not
enough. Give us some signs and wonders. Make us feel good. You know,
religion today is based on feeling, feeling good. The religion of
Christ is based on the truth. You'll know the truth, and it'll
set you free. You'll have a feeling, and it'll
set you to acting like a devil, writhing on the ground and doing
things you wish you'd never done. Give us signs and wonders. Christ said no sign will be given.
An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign
will be given. Devils will receive strong delusions, though. God
sends lying wonders, strong delusions. This is so interesting, Deuteronomy
chapter 18. Look over here, Deuteronomy 18. This is so interesting. I think I noted this for the
first time today. Telling Brother Terry, you know, if you read
the Bible at all, you've probably read it through, but my, my,
you don't see everything that's written. And you come back and
say, I never seen that. You did see it, but you didn't.
And this right here, Deuteronomy 18, now this is very evident. Verse twenty-two, when a prophet
speaks in the name of the Lord. Verse twenty-one, how should
we know the word which the Lord has spoken, not spoken, not spoken?
Verse twenty-two. Notice he didn't say what the
Lord has said, but what he has not said. That's important. Verse twenty-two, when a prophet
or a man who claims to be, speaks in the name of the Lord, God
said, told me, if the thing follow not. or it doesn't come to pass.
That is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. Now, that's obvious,
isn't it? He's spoken it presumptuously,
thou shalt not be afraid of him. And you've seen him, you've heard
him, there are many predictions and prophecies and so forth,
and they don't come to pass. Write him off from that day forward.
He's preaching, prophesying lies in God's name. So write him off,
never turn the TV on again. But now, wait a minute, look
over at Deuteronomy 13. This is plum scary here. Deuteronomy 13. Deuteronomy 13,
verse 1. If there arise among you a prophet
or a dreamer of dreams and gives you a sign or a wonder, something
does happen. And the sign or the wonder does
come to pass. whereof he spake unto thee,"
but be careful what he's saying, though. Even though it comes
to pass, if he says this, let's go after other gods. He's preaching
another gospel, another Jesus, another spirit. What you haven't
known, what you haven't heard, which doesn't gel with this book, don't hearken to him. Verse 3,
the words of that prophet, he's a dreamer of dreams, a Lord your
God, he's proven you. You see that? Isn't that something? He's going to prove it. He's
going to be so close in the last days, Christ, that if it were
possible, it would deceive the very least. And there's going
to be true signs and lying wonders that are true. And people are
going to be amazed by it and say, well, this surely must be
a man of God. But the Lord God has proven His people to know
whether or not they know Him, whether they love the truth. What do you need, Joe Park? What
do you need to go on from this pulpit and all? I need to get
a pep rally going here. Give me a J and E. We need to
have some, any ailments here? We need to have any healing service
and all that? Is that what we need here? Is
that what you want? Well, you ain't gonna get it.
But what do you want? What suffices? What do you need
to hear? Working all week, coming in here, tired and ragged and
feeling, battling with your sin from morning, noon to night.
What do you need to hear? The gospel. Cry. The only thing
that's a surprise, won't it? Get all that rubbish out of here.
Get right to the heart of the message. Well, you know they
can preach the gospel sometimes, though, these false prophets? I showed you one time before,
you just want to jot this down and don't turn to it now. 1 Samuel
19. You go back there and look sometime
about when Saul. Saul was not God's king, nor
was he a true man of God. He was a reprobate. Saul what? No doubt about it. King Saul.
He had an evil spirit in him. You know the Lord sent that one?
But in 1 Samuel 19, it says that Saul sent his men down to cause
trouble with David and the true men of God, to cause troubles.
And false brethren kept getting away, John. And they went down
there and they began to prophesy. They sat around the table, you
know, and they was talking sovereign grace, Rick, the men of God,
David and his bunch, and they did too. They weren't talking. And Saul came down. They never
did come back, and finally Saul went down to check it out himself.
1 Samuel 19. Look at that. And Saul went down
there to see what was going on, and he started prophesying. Yep,
God's suffering. And this and that and the other.
Now, was Saul a true prophet of God? And they said in the
very last verse in 1 Samuel 19, it says the people said, Is Saul
among the prophets too? Is he a true prophet? No. Listen
to him the rest of the time. Listen to what he says after
his message. You'll tear it all down with his altar call, Saul
Grail. He says some good things along
the way, but you listen to him all the way to the better end
and hear what he says. Hear him out. Take what he's
saying to its logical conclusion, to its scriptural conclusion,
comparing scripture to scripture. You see what he's saying is so.
And you'll hear it if you have a discerning ear. It won't be
C, it'll be C minor. All right? Jeanette, you have
an ear. We had our piano tuned the other day down in the basement,
and I, you know, I can't play the piano. I can play a few chords,
and it sounds pretty good. We had it tuned, and I played
on it there. Oh, this is great! Jeanette came
in, and I said, you happy with it? Doesn't it sound good? She
said, well, it's not up to key. I don't hear it. see her ear. She's got a professional, she's
got a knowledgeable ear. She can hear it. And God's people
do too. Middle C. They'll hear a C minor,
a flat, something just not right there. Right? You can't always
put your finger on it either, can you? I always said some good
things. I just don't, I just can't quite put my finger on
what He was not saying or what He did say there. Right? Oh boy, try the spirits, the
scripture says, and I'll go back to the text and I'll quit. I've
got four more minutes. I'm trying. I'm watching that
clock like a hawk. I tell you, I wanted you to look
at Deuteronomy 18, but don't do it. Don't do it. He talks
about that prophet, the preacher that preaches about that prophet,
not himself. I'm a prophet. No, the one that
says that prophet, the Lord shall raise up unto you that prophet. Christ, that's in Deuteronomy
18. In Nehemiah 7, verse 17, God, the Lord says, even so,
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. Christ is the tree
of life and he brings forth real converts. People are really saved
when the Lord saves them. You know every illustration I've
ever used. This virgin, you know, ran across a drunk in the alley
one day. And for those of you who haven't heard it, he ran
across some drunk in the alley. Spurgeon was a great preacher.
And the man stumbled out there and said, Brother Spurgeon, do
you remember me? And Spurgeon said, No, I'm sorry.
I'm afraid I don't, sir. And the fellow said, Well, I'm
one of your converts. He was staggering, stinking drunk. And Spurgeon said, Well, you
must be. You're obviously not one of the Lord's converts. You
must have been one of mine. God's people, if he saves, they
stay saved. Christ's people, they're saved.
Good fruit brings forth good fruit. He said, I'm the vine,
you're the branches, you'll bring forth fruit. A real Christ brings
forth real converts. A real powerful gospel really
saves. Really saves. It's real, isn't
it, Rick? Grace is real, buddy. It really
changes people, doesn't it? Rick stood up in my house I want
to put a pulpit in front of him. He was talking about how grace
is real. Grace is real. And a good preacher
preaches the good news. A good preacher uses good message,
too. Biblical message. He doesn't
resort to thorns and thistles, gimmicks and tactics. He doesn't
have to. This is good enough. If the gospel doesn't save a
man, I don't want to save him. If the Lord doesn't open the
door, I sure don't want to open it. If this is not enough, then what
else is there? What else is there? A good tree has to bring forth
good fruit, has to. Hosea, 14a, says, Hosea said,
what is he from saying? He says, I've seen the Lord.
I've seen him. What do I have to do anymore
with idols? I've seen him. Paul said, no,
I preach the gospel. And they bragged on him. Paul,
he's a good gospel preacher. And you may brag on this Paul
or whatever Scott or Henry. Boy, he sure is a good gospel
preacher. Well, there ain't no other kind. Right? He sure does preach the gospel.
Well, if he's preaching at all, he's preaching the gospel. He
sure is a good guy, isn't he? A great preacher. And that man,
if pressed with this, he'll say, though I preach the gospel, I
don't have anything to glory. Necessity is laid upon me. Woe
is unto me if I don't preach the gospel. God says, if you
don't, I'll kick you out. I'll raise up a stone to preach
the gospel. Though I preach the gospel, it's
nothing, just a man. Necessity is laid upon me. Now
look at verse nineteen and twenty. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Now, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down and cast into the fire. These false prophets, they're
going to be done in. You've seen it tonight. You've
gone to the house of the Lord. You've heard the word of the
Lord, like David, and you say, oh, it's foolish. The Lord, he's
going to take care of these fellows. He's going to take care of them.
And every true under shepherd warns faithfully, warns his sheep
like I've tried to do tonight. And you know, you don't have,
you know, Christ said. By their fruits, you shall know
through their mouth and through their gimmicks and tactics and
works and methods and so forth. And I tell you what, generally,
when the message begins to fail, the methods take on different.
They start resorting to other methods. If we ever start having
bait sales out here, it'll start in the pulpit. The message will
be diminished. We've got to do something for
the Lord now, and then we'll have a bait sale. Or this and
that and the other. We'll go on and on about things
like that. When the message begins to deteriorate, so do the methods.
You start resorting to man-made methods to get a hearing. When the gospel's not enough,
you start resorting to other means. I'm here to tell you,
John, the gospel's a dynamite of God and a dunamis. It's good
enough for me. What's good enough for the Apostle
Paul? Good enough for this one. And God's sheep will hear his
voice. I'm not worried about not having
big crowds. I'd like to have more people in here, but I'm
not. I'm not worried about it. His sheep will hear his voice.
Christ said, that stranger they'll not follow. And you know, I don't
have to police you. I don't have to worry about what
tapes you hear. And what books you read? I don't have to worry
a thing about that. Christ said, the stranger they'll
not follow. They'll not hear his voice. They'll
follow the voice of the shepherd. You preach the truth, preach
Christ, and the sheep will follow. I want to tell you a story. This
is unbelievable. A man was going to come visit
us, a believer and preacher, his
so-called pastor. heard about it, that he was coming
to visit us here. And that preacher told him, you
know what his comment was? It shocked me. He told the man who was preparing
to come see us, he said, you know, I don't like that. I don't
like you going down there. That hurt me so bad, I couldn't
believe it. I couldn't believe it. And what
he's saying, and saying something like that, is he doesn't have
enough confidence in his message, in his gospel, in his own preaching,
to turn that man loose. And he's afraid that what the
man might hear... Paul said it there in 2 Corinthians
11, didn't he? If you can hear a better gospel
somewhere, by all means, go hear it, didn't he? And no doubt there's better preachers
out there than I am. A lot better looking ones too.
But it's, you know, you can't always trust your eye. But you
can hear. And there's a get better gospel
out there if you can hear it on tape. Do it. Gather all the
tapes, books, and everything you can read. Gather them. But if I'm preaching the gospel
here, you do well to bear with me. You don't have to please
God's people. You don't have to police them.
If you preach the gospel, that'll police them, won't it? That'll
police them. That'll lead and guide in all
truth. All right, five minutes over.
Sorry. Stand with me. I'll dismiss it. Our Lord, we thank you so much.
What a blessing, what a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on
the everlasting arm Pray, Lord, that we are truly leaning here
upon you, truly looking to you and not to ourselves. Don't let
the preacher nor the people ever be lifted up with pride, and
don't let anybody cause any dissension. Keep us low, Lord. Keep us in
the dust. Keep us humble, broken before
you, broken sinners in desperate need of a Savior always. Keep
us here in this gospel. Keep me preaching it. Keep people
coming to hear it. It's our only hope. In Christ's
blessed name, we pray and ask these things. Amen.