Beware of false prophets, which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt
tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth forth good fruit is hewn down and cast
into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye
shall know them." Beware false prophets, our Lord says. The
Lord Jesus always spoke in plain language. You'd be amazed how
many one- and two-syllable words he used. He spoke in such plain
language, easy to understand. Just like in this chapter here,
he says, Judge not that you be not judged. And while you're
looking at that moat, that little bitty tiny thing that's in your
brother's eye, you can't see the beam in your own eye. We
can understand that. We can understand that. And we can understand, asking
you shall receive, seeking you shall find. And how that we would
do good for our children. If our son asked a fish, would
we give him a serpent? Of course we would. We'd give
him a fish. We'd feed him right. See that
he'd eat healthy. And if you being evil know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much shall your father give
good things to them to ask? That's plain language. We don't
understand that. And then he says, you know, this is easy
to understand. How do you want people to treat you? How do you
want to be treated? You want people to love you,
to like you, respect you, be kind to you, be forgiving to
you, be patient with you, be loving towards you, to trust
you. He said, well, if that's the
way you want people to treat you, that's the way you treat
everybody else. You treat them exactly that way.
You treat them that way. And then he comes here and he
says, now beware. Beware of false prophets. Why
does he say now beware? Because of the gates. Because
of the gates. It's always right here where
the gates are. There's two gates here. Remember, we're standing
before two gates. Here's a gate over here and here's a gate over
here. One of these gates is real straight. Real straight. And when you went through the
straight gate, the way was narrow. And that narrow way led to life,
which was Christ. Over here is a big old wide gate.
Very big wide gate. Lots of people can go through.
And the way when he got on was very, very broad. Lots and lots
and lots of people on it. And he says that leads to destruction.
So he says, now, since you're before two gates, they both lead
somewhere, you beware of false prophets. Why would he say that
now? Because of these two ways. That
false prophet hangs around there. He don't want you to go through
the right gate. He don't want you to get on the narrow ways.
And then he calls them false prophets, which come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're waving in wolves. Now,
a prophet is someone who speaks for God. Now, in the Scriptures,
in the Old Testament, a prophet was someone who would sometimes
foretell the future. Jeremiah foretold the future.
Ezekiel foretold the future. Isaiah foretold the future. But,
you know, when other prophets, they just declared what God said,
thus saith the Lord. And that's what they are in the
New Testament, a prophet in the New Testament is someone who
speaks for God. And there's always, always, as long as there's been
a true prophet, there's been a false prophet. That's what
God says, there's always been a false prophet. Don't you think
there were false prophets in Noah's day? They was running
around telling folks, it ain't gonna rain, it ain't gonna rain,
I'll show you that. Look with me in Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23. Now you keep Matthew
7, but there's always been false prophets. There was false prophets
among Israel. There's false prophets right
now among the church. There's false prophets among
people. But in Jeremiah 23, in verse
16, you know God said it this way. He says, you know, they'll
cry, peace, peace to my people, and there ain't any peace. They'll
tell you there's peace. He says, now listen to what He
says here in verse 16. Jeremiah 23. Thus says the Lord
of Hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy
unto you. They make you vain. They speak
a vision, watch this, of their own heart. They're not speaking
out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them, that
despise me. They say this to people that
despise me. Don't want to know God. Don't
care about God. The Lord has said, you shall
have peace. Now they're saying this to people that despise God,
have no regard for God. You shall have peace! And they
say unto everyone, walk after the imagination of your own heart.
No evil shall come upon you. Ain't that what preachers are
saying today? You just go home, walk away, but you know, you
worship your God your way, I worship God my way. Homosexuals can worship
God and be saved. And they can have homosexual
churches, you never. Churches over here for this kind,
churches over there for that kind. It don't make no difference
what you believe. You can call God he, she, it,
or anything you want to. As long as it's a high power. And all mine, that's what God
says. They say, no evil is going to come on you, God. God's not
going to judge you. There's nothing bad going to
ever happen to you. For who has stood in the counsel
of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word? Who has marked
his word and heard it? Who among these fellows ever
stood before God and says, Lord, give me a message? Marked his
word and said, now listen to what I'm going to say. Now listen
to what God says now. Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord
is going forth in fury. Even a grievous whirlwind, it
shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger
of the Lord shall not return until he hath executed, until
he hath performed the thoughts of his heart in the latter days.
You shall consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets,
yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet
they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel
and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have
turned from their evil ways and from the evil of their days. They were going preaching but
I didn't see them. And over in Ezekiel he
called them wolves. He says the princes of my people
are wolves, ravening wolves. But now back over in our text
it says beware of false prophets. But they don't look like false
prophets. They don't even look like wolves. What do they look
like? Sheep. It says here may come to you
that beware of false prophets, but they come to you. You don't
go to them. They come among you. They come
and mix and mingle with you. They come among the Lord's people.
They come with a message. They come with great swelling
words. They come with peace. They come
with great personalities. They come with great warmth and
great administrative powers. And they come to you in sheep's
clothing, and they're not recognizable outwardly. The devil come in
here, and he look like the devil, and act like the devil, you'll
spot him in a minute. But that's not the way he comes.
He comes in sheep's clothing, and they speak. And when there
isn't, they come in and they win people's hearts, they win
people's minds. And they deceive people and just
draw right in. And here they come among the
sheep. And that's why they wear sheep's clothing. That's why
they wear sheep's clothing. Now you keep back here, let me
show you 2 Peter chapter 1. I want you to see this in 2 Peter
chapter 1. There's always chapter 1, 2 Peter
chapter 2, excuse me, chapter 2 in verse 1. You know, and this is no marvel.
Because Satan transforms his ministers into angels of light.
He himself is transformed into an angel of light if he transforms
his ministers into ministers of righteousness. They're not
going to get up and preach to you heresy right off the bat. They're going to take you in
little at a time and little at a time. But they wear sheep's
clothing. And look what he says here in
2 Peter 2.1, But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you. Right out
of the musty. who privately, now see that's
what they do, they get along with you and they start talking
to you and they'll start saying, well you know, do you believe
what that preacher said about that? You know I love that preacher,
I think that preacher's a fine preacher. But you know I don't
just agree with everything he says. And so he comes in privately,
and then he'll start saying things and he'll bring in damnable heresies.
And he'll bring in such a damnable heresy that he'll deny the Lord
that bought him. They'll deny the power of the
blood. They'll deny the power and effectiveness of the blood
of Christ. They'll say that the blood of
Christ, you know, it really is not effectual unless you mix
your faith with it, unless you mix your tears with it. And oh,
they'll bring upon themselves swift destruction. And listen
to this. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways, deadly ways, lascivious ways. And because of these false
prophets, because of these false teachers, The way of truth should
be evil spoken of. I don't know how many people,
and I'm not trying to stay pious, how many people say that I'm,
how deceived, how deceiving I am, how many people I've deceived
with my message. You would not believe how many
people say that out here and believe that. One person told
another person says, told my daughter, your father would be
more responsible for people in hell than anybody I know of.
The reason, the way of truth is evil spoken in. Evil spoken
in. And I've told preachers time
and time again, and I've asked people and I've had them come,
bring your Bible. Bring your Bible and show me.
Show me where, you know, I'm bringing such heresy. And I'm
such a damnable preacher. And I'm not preaching the truth
of Christ. I said, you bring me. You bring your Bible and
you sit down with me and you show me where I'm wrong. I want
you to show me. And I cannot tell you how many has done that.
And they end up not even knowing where they're coming or where
they're going, where they're up or where they're down. All they
can say is, well, I believe, or I think, or I feel this is
what I believe. But show me. If I'm wrong, show
me. I don't want to know. I really,
truly do. I don't want to be left to be
weary of Paul's puppets. And that's why we come down to
the way of whom the way of truth shall be spoken of. What did
they say about Paul? They said, here's this man. Oh,
it's not fit that he should live. What was he doing? Setting forth
Christ instead of Moses. Setting forth grace instead of
law. Send forth salvation of Christ instead of salvation by
you what you do. Send forth the righteousness
of Christ instead of the righteousness of the flesh. And oh my, and
watch this, and through covetousness, what kind of covetousness? They
want your praise, they want your applause, they want your approval,
they want your bragging on them. And they will, with famed words,
make merchandise of you. You know what you are to them?
Just merchandise. You're just another soul that
they can glory in. They say, I want these people,
the Lord. This is how many people I have confessed this week. How
many moons did you have in church this week? And I whose judgment now of a
long time lingereth not, and the damnation slumbereth not.
Oh my. And that's what Paul said. You
know he told them over in Acts. And I'm going to read it to you.
You don't have to look for yourself. I'll just read it to you. But
he said in Acts 20, when he was getting ready to leave Phelps,
he stayed over in Ephesus for three years, and he's getting
ready to leave. He said, Take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock, The sheep, the flock of
God, over which the Holy Ghost hath made ye overseers, to feed
the church of God, which is purchased, bought with his own blood. Now
listen, for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous
wolves enter in among you, and they will spare the flock. And
also of your own selves, even right here the people I'm talking
to, even so of your own selves, shall men arise speaking perverse
things, what for? To draw disciples after him.
You know why you don't like that preacher? Come on, we'll just
start another church. We'll call it the double-splintered
Baptist church. Lord, how do you recognize these
false prophets? How do you recognize these sheep
that come, these wolves that come in sheep's clothing? Well,
you recognize them by their message. First thing about this false
prophet is, is that there's no straight gate and there's no
narrow way in their preaching. There's never no straight gate
or narrow way in their preaching. That's what our Lord says, because
straight is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth to
love. There's no straight gate, no narrow way in their preaching.
Has a false prophet ever going to preach a straight gate in
a narrow way? No, he's going to make the way broad. He's going
to make it just as wide as he possibly can. They say becoming a Christian
is easy. All you've got to do is make a decision. Don't count
the cost. Don't sit down and count the cost. Don't ever tell
a man he must deny himself before he ever can come to Christ. Don't
tell a man that he has nothing to bring to God, but he's sinfulness
and he's poverty. Don't tell a man. They say, don't
deal with men's sin. Tell them that they need Christ.
Tell them that they're pretty good people. This is how they
get folks. And this is so deceiving. The
first thing they'll say is, you don't want to go to hell, do
you? How many of you would have thought that when you was lost
and somebody walked up to you and says, you don't want to go
to hell, do you? Would you have said, well, of course I do. But that's the first thing they
get you. Or they'll walk up to you and say, do you know Jesus? Well, what? Who is He? No, I
don't want to go to hell. You want to go to heaven, don't
you? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you how to get there. You repeat
this prayer after me. And see, they won't tell a man
that you don't need nobody to teach you to pray. If God comes
to you, you'll pray. If God comes to you, you'll know
how to cry out. You'll find out all the way through
the Scriptures where when Christ would come by, they would cry
out. Barnabas cried out. That woman said, if I can touch
the hem of his garment. Those lepers come down from the
mountains and fell down before him in worship and said, Lord,
if you will. That Syro-Phoenician woman just
kept coming. They said, send her away. She
just kept coming. She just kept coming. It's not
fit to give the children's bread to the dogs. Yes, Lord, that's
the truth. But I'm not leaving here until
I get what I want. I take the crowns, my daughter. That's what I'm telling you.
When God deals with a man, you don't need nobody to tell you
how to get to Christ. You'll get there. Oh, they'll stand, God loves
you and stands with open arms and Jesus died for you. And they
don't know that. They cry peace to men. Whenever
somebody starts, one of their church members or somebody starts
having doubts or anything like that and says, don't let the
devil put them doubts in your mind. I know you had an experience. You did trust in Jesus. You did
repeat your prayer to me, didn't you? You did pray, didn't you? Yes, I did pray. Well, don't
let the devil talk you out of it. And they keep running back
to a time and a place, to an experience or a prayer. And they
just keep giving peace when there ain't no peace. They know they
ain't got any peace, so the only way they're going to get is trying
to keep you to have peace. But if you ain't got peace, you know
it, God knows it. And then I'll tell you another
thing about their message. There's no disturbing doctrine
in their message. The false prophet has no disturbing
doctrine. They don't ever talk about sin. They talk about sins. They talk about sins. You need
to quit sins. Quit your sinning. Quit this
thing, quit that thing, quit another thing. They don't ever
deal with sin. What a man is, the nature, the
principle, for within him, how the heart perceives evil, pauses,
indulges, fornications. They don't deal with how a man
became a sinner. How did we become sinners? How
did we get this nature, this sword against God? How did we
get this nature that's born to live, that's born to be proud,
that's born to be self-righteous? How did we get a nature that
makes us put both feet and fists in the hands of God and say,
Leave me alone! I want to live my life! Where
did we get that nature? Where did we get a nature that
children can't wait to be independent from parents? Where do we get
the nature that makes us covet and greedy and liars? Where do we get such a nature?
And they don't talk about that because they don't believe. And
that's why they don't talk about how you must have a new nature,
must have a new heart, must have a new spirit, that you must be
born again. And a new birth is not something
you do. It's something God does for you. Oh, they don't want to talk about
depravity, no enmity in the human heart. They don't talk about
the justice of God that says the soulless sinner must die.
They don't talk about the holiness of God that He can dwell in a
life that no man can approach. They don't talk about His righteousness
that He will by no means clear the guilt. Oh, their preaching doesn't search
the conscience. Oh, it don't get down in the
conscience. It don't get down in the mind, in the conscience.
It doesn't make empty professors uneasy. Empty professors need to be made
uneasy. Oh, instead of humbling men,
instead of their message humbling men, it puffs them up, makes
them feel good about themselves. I'm doing something for God!
I left here on the floor, we had a wonderful time, we read
Jesus' book, we praised Him, we gave Him handclaps. And I'm living good, I'm going
to the right places, and I know how to be a good husband, I know
how to be a good wife, I know how to be a good child. The preacher
just told me how it was done. And instead of looking to Christ,
they end up looking to themselves. to an experience, or to their
faith. And faith, where it's always
real faith, always goes outside of the self to Christ. And oh, I'll tell you what, they
got a three-point message. I'm going to show you a three-point
message they have in Genesis. Genesis 3. These false prophets,
that's why our Lord said, beware of them now. These fellows in
sheep's clothing, you can't recognize them. So how are you going to
recognize them? By their message. Rather a message? And a false prophet will scatter
sheep. That's why Paul said this prayer. They'll scatter the sheep
and never feel no compunction about it. To hurt the Lord's people and
never feel no compunction about it. Here they have a three-point
message. Look here in Genesis 3 with me.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, here's
his first message, first point of his message. And he said unto
the woman, Jahab, God said. He admits God said something.
He'll use God's word. God said. But now look how he
twists the word of God, how he perverts the word of God. Yeah,
he has God said, and you see he puts just a little question
mark on there. He puts a question mark on the truth of God, on
the word of God. He shall not eat of every tree
of the garden. First I gave that answer, he's
going to twist the word of God. Oh, God said something, I know
God said something, but is that what he means? He admits God's
feet, but he changes his meaning. And then the woman said, we may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but see, the first
thing he says, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Oh, my. That's something that,
you know, what's God holding back from you? Oh, but the fruit
of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said,
you shall not eat it, neither shall you touch it, lest you
die. Oh, here's his second point. And the serpent said, you shall
surely not die. There ain't going to be no judgment.
God's not going to be no judgment for you. God's too loving. God's too merciful. God's too
kind. You're too good. Oh, he denies
the justice of God when God says, you shall surely die. You reckon
God's going to lie when he says, you shall surely die? Well, that's
what he says, God, you will not die. God is just too, mercy is
just too good. He's lying to you. You shall
die. There will be no judgment for you. Judgment won't come.
Death ain't going to come. Death ain't going to come. That's
what he says to her. That's the first thing he does.
How many people you know went out into eternity? It's fine
and dandy, no matter what happens. No judgment, no judgment. And
then look at his third message. And verse 5, now here's what
he does. He denies the glory of God. For
God doeth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, you shall be as God's, knowing good and evil.
You see, God wants all the glory, and He's keeping your eyes blinded.
He's keeping you safe from things because He don't want you to
be God. You've got all this power. You've
got all this glory. You've got all this ability.
And God's just wanting all the glory for Himself. So He's keeping
these things hidden from you. And if you ever see these, then
you'll get some of the glory yourself. And He won't get all
the glory. He's just trying to hog the glory to Himself. So
He attacks the Word of God. He attacks the judgment and justice
of God. And He attacks the glory of God. He takes and prefers the Word
of God. Then he comes along and says, Oh my, God loves you. We love you. Please let God save
you. He's standing with open arms.
Jesus walks the benefits of heaven and tears are on his face. They've
got pictures when he's heart open. And all you've got to do,
you've got this great big heart. He wants you comforted in this
heart. And oh my. And they will not give God all
the glory. And then it's back over in our
text. Not only do they have no disturbing doctrine, but you'll
know them by their fruits. Test their fruit. He says here
in verse 16, you shall know these false prophets by their fruits. And he says this twice. He says
this twice, he says down there in verse 21, verse 20, work for
by the fruits and shall you know them. You shall know them by
the fruits, work for by the fruits and shall you know them. He mentions
that twice. Now preachers and people are
like fruit trees. Our Lord makes this so simple
and so plain. They're like fruit trees. There's
real good fruit trees and there's real bad fruit trees. And that's what he says here
in verse 17. Even so, every good tree brings
forth good fruit. If God planted the tree, and
you know everything has its fruit after its own kind. And even
so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. If God planted
the tree, it's a good tree, it's going to bring forth good fruit.
But a corrupt tree, a rotten tree, A tree that is corrupt,
and bad, and rotten, and is not planted by God, bringeth forth
evil fruit. Now watch what he says next.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. It's impossible for
him to. His message will be right. His
message will be God-honored. His message will be Christ-exalted.
His message will deal with men as they are, not as they hope
to be. His message will give all the glory to God. and put
man in the dust. And neither can a corrupt tree
cannot bring forth good fruit. Can't do it. And also, how well can we tell
their fruit? Look at their converse, look
at their message, and look at their converse. What kind of
converse are they? You find somebody like Henry
Mayhead said this years ago, and we're talking about this
week. He says, wherever there's grace, there'll be graciousness. And that's true. The more you
get around folks and preachers, the people that they preach to
will end up being like them. If they're mean and argumentative,
the people will be mean and argumentative. But look at their converts. Look
at how they act. Did they live to the glory of
God? Did they talk about Christ or did they talk about themselves?
Do they talk about what God has done for them, or do they talk
about what they've done for God? Do they talk about the Scriptures?
Do they talk about all the things that they're going to be doing? Oh, look at what they glory in. Look at their life at home. And
if you really want to know a fellow, ask them that know him. Ask them
that know him. Go home, ask the wife, ask the
children, ask people they work with. You can find out real quick what
a man's like, can't you? I know that's true. Go home,
ask them that know. They're converts, they're messiahs,
what's their glory? And there must be fruit. True
preaching produces it. There must be fruit. There's
got to be fruit. True preaching produces spiritual fruit. And
when we talk about fruit, we're talking about spiritual fruit,
good fruit. Not just good works that the world can produce. The
world can produce good works. Man, they got soup kitchens.
They're building houses for poor people. I mean, the world's doing
great works, good works. I was on a plane here a few months
ago, and there was two great big huge groups of people with
t-shirts on. from churches going into South
America someplace, going down there to build churches and to
build churches for those people down there, going down there
and set up and do a great good work. And that's great, that's
wonderful. But that's not the gospel. If that's what their glorying
is, huh? Is that what they're glorying
in? You told me about one of your nephews going to Africa.
He's glorying in going to Africa for a month. Man, I'm just grateful to get
to come to Lantana Grace Church. But what I'm telling you is that
the world can do these things. The world can do good works.
And there ain't this glory in this. And they brag about it. So it's got to be something besides
just good works. If the world can't do it, then
it's not spiritual fruit. It's not spiritual fruit. And look what our Lord said down
there in verse 16. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes off of thorns? If you went out
to pick grapes, you wouldn't go out on the blackberry bush
and start picking them. You wouldn't go find you a thistle
and start trying to pick grapes off of it. Or if you was going
to pick figs, You wouldn't go out and pick figs off of big
old thistles. I spray the figs. I've got big old thistles in
there. And you go out and find these thistles. You're not going
to go out and find figs on them. Figs grow on trees. Grapes grow
on vines. And that's what our Lord said
here. That's all in the world a false prophet can produce. You cannot find grapes on them
because they're thorns. You can't find figs on them because
they're thistles. A good tree is going to bring
forth some grapes, and a vine is going to bring forth some
grapes, and the tree is going to bring forth some pigs. And
oh beloved, this is how we can know if we are real. How do you and I react to God's
Word? How do you and I? When we converse,
if our spirit fruits spiritual, how do you and I react to God's
Word? How do we react to it? As we say, it's real, it's true,
yes, that's so. How do we react to His will? How do we react to His will? Sometimes He deals very brutally
with us, it seems. You know, He met Moses when Moses
was fixing to Go down to Egypt, and he had his wife with him,
and they had a little boy, and he had to circumcise that little
boy, and God said to him, stopped him in the middle of the road
and says, I'm going to kill you if you don't circumcise that
lad. You know why he hadn't circumcised
him already? Because his wife did not like the way God done
things. She said, you're a bloody husband to me. You and your religion
just, it's not no good. But God said, I'll kill you.
He said, if you're going to do things my way, why else? You
know, he's called to be a prophet. And if he's going to be out there
preaching, he's going to have to practice what he preaches. That's
why I say God sometimes, and old Paul spent years in prison. Why would he put a preacher that's
preaching the gospel in prison? That's God's business, but He
used him. God's ways are pacified now, so how do we react to His
will? How do we react to His gospel? When we hear His gospel,
when we talk about the gospel, when I mention the gospel, I'm
talking about Christ coming manifest in the flesh, and living a life
as a representative, and a representative for His people. And then, beloved,
He comes down to the end of the way, the end of His life, And
God takes the sins of His people and He charges them to Christ's
count. And Christ bears our sins in His own body as our substitute. And He stands in our room and
in our stead. And the justice and judgment
and wrath of God falls on him as he's on that cross. And God's
vengeance and wrath falls on him. And oh, and it's righteous
because sin's on him. And God punishes him until he
cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And oh,
and when God's justice is satisfied, Christ says it's pity. And he
gives up the ghost. And they put him in a tomb. And
because he satisfied the justice of God and put an end to sin,
God raises him from the dead. And for 40 days and 40 nights
he appeared to over 500 men. And he ascended back to glory.
And right now he sits at the right hand of God with all power
and heaven and earth festered in him to make intercession for
us. That's the gospel. And because of Him sitting there,
and because of Him bearing our sins, He took our death, that
we could have His life. He took our unrighteousness and
sin, that we could have His righteousness. And oh, how do we add to that
gospel? Oh, that's the best news I've
ever heard in my life. You mean I've done but the judgment
of God? Yes. You mean my sins have been
paid for? Yes. You mean God is satisfied
with me? Yes. Do you mean I have the righteousness
of God? Yes. We're in Christ. The work's been done. How do we react to that? What
do we think of Christ? Do we love him? Do we need him?
Do we want him? Do we bow to him? Do we worship
him? Do we cry out to Him? Do we need
Him? Do we acknowledge Him to be our
all and our righteousness, our forgiveness, our justification?
Do we say Christ is our all? And how do we see ourselves? False prophets won't deal with
issues like that. They don't produce grapes. They
don't produce pigs. They're just thorns and thistles.
And look what happens to the end of them. There in verse 19. Every tree that bringeth forth
good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. You know, John
said it this way. He says, try the spirit. Try the spirits. For every spirit is not sin of God. Every spirit. Try the spirits. See whether
they are of God or not. And how you gonna do it? Does
he preach a straight game? The narrow way? Does he deal
with disturbing doctrine? Doctrine that will disturb you,
that calls you a worm, calls you a sinner, tells you what
condition you are in the sight of God. Does he come and does
he have any fruit? What about his convert? What
about his message? What does he think of Christ?
What does he glory in? Does he give God all the glory
or does he reserve some for you and run some for me? It's very
simple when it's all said and done. You know, that's why Paul
said, Be not children tossed to and fro, deceived by cunning
men, lying in wait. They're just sitting here waiting
to deceive somebody. Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for your word. Thank you
for your truth. Thank you for the gospel of the
grace of God in Christ. God bless this to our hearts
and our understanding. I don't want to be mean. I don't
want to be ill. I don't want to be hard. But
oh Lord, we need to know. We need to know the difference.
We truly need to beware of false prophets. that come in these
sheep's clothing, that come with a message of peace, when there
is no peace. When God didn't speak peace,
God didn't send them with a message of peace. You didn't send them,
Lord, with a message of Christ and Him crucified. Christ is
the sin bearer. Christ is the sacrifice. Christ
is the satisfaction of the justice of God. Satisfaction for the
soul. So Lord, help us always to honor
and glorify you. Never take any glory to ourselves.
Lord, we want no glory to ourselves. Oh, we don't. To you be the glory. Great things you have done. Great
things you have taught us through Jesus, your son. Oh Lord, bless
the word to us. And again, be merciful and gracious
to them. Dear saints of God here, We need
you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.