I'd like to welcome Eric Floyd's
class out into my class this morning. I always enjoy having
you all out here. Eric is preaching in Harrisburg, Kentucky this
morning, and we want to remember him. All right, Matthew chapter
7 is where our lesson will be from this morning. And before
we begin, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before your
awesome throne of grace this morning. thankful that we can
come before a throne of grace, that because of the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, our substitute, we do not come before a throne
of justice, but a throne of grace and mercy. Father, we bow in
worship in awe and reverence. We bow seeking a blessing this
morning, seeking a blessing that you would enable us to worship
you in spirit and in truth, that you'd bless your word to your
glory, to the hearts of your people. What we pray for ourselves
in this class, we pray for our children's classes, we pray for
Brother Eric in Harrodsburg and everywhere where your people
gather together to worship. Father, cause your word to go
forth in power. Cause your gospel to run well. Reach the hearts of your people
to save, to comfort, to lead and to guide us. Give us a heart
of faith to believe your word, to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Despite what we see in the flesh,
give us a heart of faith that would rest in thee. Believe you
fully and trust you fully. Father, we pray for your people
who are in times of trouble and trial, in great sickness and
great difficulty, in deep water. Father, bless your people. Give them a Fulfillment of your
promise that you not leave nor forsake your people, but that
you'd be with them and comfort their hearts and provide a way
out when it could be thy will. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name, which is above every name, the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right. Matthew chapter seven. Our lesson
begins in verse 15. I titled the lesson this morning,
beware of false prophets. Beware of false prophets. And
I really, I've struggled mightily, mightily, with this lesson this
morning. Wanted to approach it with the
right attitude and truth. And I wish I had another subject,
honestly, to deal with. But I hate to even spend time
talking about false prophets, but a faithful pastor must do
it. Because of what the Lord says
here in verse 15 of Matthew 7, Beware of false prophets, which
will come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. Our Lord tells us we have to beware of false prophets.
And if we're going to beware of them, we have to be able to
identify them. And this is a warning that we
had better heed. Our Lord said in another place
that these prophets will be so good. They'll be so good at deceiving
people. They'll be so good at showing
signs and wonders that he said, if it were possible, they would
deceive the very elect. Now, we know they can't deceive
the elect forever, but they're so deceptive that unless the
Lord protects us from them, they will deceive us. We'd also be
wise to heed this warning because of where false prophets can come
from. They could come from right here, right here in this room. They could come from there. You
remember when the Apostle Paul was leaving the Ephesian elders,
I'm sure he very sadly, with a broken heart, told them, brethren,
I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock, and of your own selves, he said. Shall men arise, speaking perverse
things, to draw disciples away after them. Now, When you hear
of a false prophet, you think of some of these TV preachers
and different men, women, and then they're easy to spot. But
some of them aren't so easy. The Lord says they're going to
look like sheep. Now they're a wolf, but they
don't look like a wolf. They're going to try to look like a sheep or
you'd never fall for them. You know, the big bad wolf had
to dress up like, you know, grandmother or whatever in order to fool
Little Red Riding Hood. They're not going to be easy
to spot sometimes. Outwardly, they might look like a sheep.
They might use the right religious jargon, throw around words like
election, grace, and love. They're not going to attach any
meaning to them, but they'll just throw those words out there
kind of randomly. You hear those words, you think,
oh, that's a gospel. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11. They
could be very pious, very religious. They certainly will be against
open, the ones that are hard to spot anyway, will be against
open sin. They're going to show a lot of
love and care and concern about people, you know. Look here at
2 Corinthians 11 verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.
Now they're ministers of righteousness, but one thing you'll notice,
I'll get to this in just a moment, they're ministers of righteousness.
not the righteousness of Christ now, but your righteousness,
what you can do to earn a righteous, but they make themselves ministers
of righteousness. They're against open sin. Who's
in should be according to their works. That's very serious, isn't
it? A false prophet is a minister
of Satan. A false prophet is not somebody
who says some good things and they're a really great guy in
the neighborhood. And so, you know, we're going to align ourselves
with them. No, sir. They're ministers of Satan. whose end is destruction,
who will lead people who follow them to destruction? The false
prophet's going to look good. He's going to play the part.
But inwardly, he's really a ravening wolf who's trying to get close
enough to the sheep to eat as many of them, devour as many
of them as possible. The motivation of a false prophet
is himself. That's his motivation, his own
belly, his own well-being, and he'll eat and devour the sheep
to do it. if he can. But it could be hard
to spot a false prophet because we can't see inside a man's heart,
can we? And you know for your own self,
even though you know the Lord, there's things in your heart
you're good at hiding from everybody else. So is this false prophet.
We can't look on a man's heart, so it could be hard to spot.
God can, though, but we can't. Well, if we can't, look in a
man's heart and tell, you know, that he's a false prophet that
way. How can we tell if a man's a false prophet or not? What
the Lord tells us is by his fruits. Look at verse 16. You should
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 not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore,
by their fruits ye shall know them. You can identify a false
prophet by his fruits. And you know, I don't know anything
at all about trees or plants or anything, but even I can tell
the difference between a fig tree and a thorn bush. Even I
can tell the difference between those two things. All I've got
to do is watch and see which one bears figs. and which one
bears a thorn by their fruits, even I can identify that tree.
Well, the same thing is true about a false prophet. Just wait
and watch his fruits and you'll be able to identify him. But
to me, here's the question. What fruit can we look for? Some say it's in his life and
in his character. Now, it is true that a pastor,
God's preacher, must live what he preaches. You know, he has
to be a sinner himself. He's got to be a sinner dependent
upon God's grace. He's got to be a man of faith,
not of works. God's preachers must be blameless. Now, you know, that doesn't mean
they're sinless, but they've got to not be guilty of open
immorality and open dishonesty. He must be the husband of one
wife, one wife at a time. It can't be a big mistake. He
must be vigilant, sober, given to hospitality. He's got to open
his home and his heart to other people. He'll be apt to teach. If he's going to be a pastor,
God's got to have to give him the gift to teach. He can't be
addicted to wine. He can't be greedy of filthy
lucre. He's got to be one that rules
his own home well. Just like the apostle Paul told
Timothy in first Timothy chapter three, God's pastor must be that. But now we've got to be careful.
Is that the fruit now? You've got to be careful judging
a man on that basis. You can, if you want to, disqualify
every preacher of God's grace if you nitpick at him too close.
You get out the microscope too closely and you can disqualify
every preacher of God's grace if you want to. If you want to
pick at him, you're going to find faults. I promise you, you
will. Those things are generally true
about God's pastors, but the only perfect pastor is our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one who's blameless
and sinless. He is the one who has one bride
and he loves her. The bride that the father has
given him. He's so vigilant, he never takes his eye off of
his people. He's given to hospitality. This
man receiveth sinners. and eats with publicans and sinners.
He's apt to teach. He's the only one who can teach
Christ our hearts. I remember what Brother John
Chapman said one time, Christ is both the lesson and the teacher.
He's the only one who can teach it. And he rules his kingdom,
his home well, doesn't he? Now a false prophet, he's got
a bad character. He's motivated by greed and filthy
lucre. His message is for sale. He'll
say whatever you want to hear. as long as it means you're going
to keep putting money in the offering. Sometimes that's going
to be easy to spot, but sometimes it won't. You know, if a man's
a multimillionaire made off of the ministry, you got a pretty
good clue. You know, you got a pretty good
clue, but you know, he may just live comfortably. I mean, you
know, who knows, you know, not, not extravagantly, you know,
so it could be hard to tell that way. A false prophet is a greedy
greedy man. Now he's greedy. He could be
greedy of filthy lucre, or he could be greedy of the love,
of the applause and praise of men. He will appear so sticky
sweet. I mean, you just got to have
a shot of insulin after you're with this guy. You know, he's
so sticky sweet. Oh, he just loves everybody.
I don't care what they do, where they're at. Oh, he loves everybody.
He'll give his time to visit people, to go around from house
to house. And he's not going to have too much time to spend
to study. But oh, he's going to have so much time to go around
with people, you know. And he's going to look genuinely
sincere. And it's no wonder. What did
Paul tell us? He's transformed himself into
an angel of light. He's just putting on an act,
transforming himself into something that you're going to like or
appeal to you. Now, I certainly hope that God's
servant is a kind and loving and gracious and caring man.
If he's God's servant, he is. He is. Absolutely he is. But
now we need to remember this. He's still in the flesh. He's
still in the flesh. And you take a snapshot of him
at any given moment, and he won't look so kind and gracious and
loving. So that's probably not, it's
a good fruit to look at a man's character and conduct, but it's
not an infallible fruit. Well, the second kind of fruit
people talk about is the people who hear a man preach. And you
would hope that a believer who for a good while has sat under
good, solid, consistent preaching and teaching of the word, you
would hope that that person could give a good, clear answer as
to the reason that's found in them, that they have a good hope.
You would think that you'd hope they'd be well enough taught
that they could be able to do that. But you know what? Some
people just aren't articulate that way, are they? They absolutely
know the Lord. They absolutely trust him, but
they're just not articulate in that way. So that fruit, what
kind of things people can say and tell you, that's not an infallible
way to tell you if a man's preaching the gospel. It's a pretty good
indication, but it's not infallible. I can tell you as I travel around
places and as I preach, it's pretty easy to spot a congregation
that's got a good, faithful, solid pastor. Pretty easy to
tell. Not always, it's not infallible.
You've heard it said, if you want to know what a man preaches,
don't ask him, ask the people he preaches to. And if he preaches
clearly enough, people you'd think should, if they really
know, if he preaches clearly enough, they will know what he's
saying. They will. And they should be able to tell
it, but that's not always the case. But now, if a man, if he
wants to, he can preach. so that it sounds good. It sounds
so religious. But you really don't know what
he's saying. You really don't know where he
stands. He can use a lot of good, religious-sounding
words, but you know nothing he says can offend anybody. What
he says doesn't offend an Armenian or a Calvinist. And here is the
thing. He's going to say something.
that's particular to that crowd on that day. What is it that
crowd, what is it that congregation wants to hear? That's what I'm
going to give them. And if he goes to another congregation
and says something completely different because that's what
they want, that's the fruit you're looking for. That's the fruit
you're looking for. He can say it in such a way that
he just doesn't offend anybody. And he doesn't say anything clearly
enough so you you just can't really tell what he preaches.
But some people may not be articulate enough to really be able to identify
that. So that's not an infallible fruit.
And some people say, well, look at the conduct of the people
a man preaches to. Well, if the people a man preaches
to, if they tend to live in open sin, and they really don't have
any idea what the Bible teaches about basic Bible doctrine and
about the believer's walk, That can be a pretty good indication
the man is not preaching the gospel. Could be. It could be
that whatever he's preaching, it just hasn't affected the lives
of those who hear him preach. But again, that's not an infallible
fruit to be able to identify a false prophet. You know, if
you, this congregation, if you find yourself ignorant about
some point of doctrine, the fault could be mine. Could be mine
for not teaching it clearly enough But it also could be yours, for
not hearing it the thousand times that I've said it. Could be,
I don't know. The first place I'd look, honestly,
is myself. I'd think, oh, I haven't taught
this clearly enough. But you know, it's not an infallible
fruit of a false prophet. So what is the fruit? Kind of
like John Gill. I'll tell you what it's not.
Now let me tell you what it is. The fruit that the Lord means here
is our doctrine. is our doctrine. You can identify
a false prophet by his doctrine. The same way you can identify
a true prophet is by his doctrine. And thankfully, we're not left
to our own devices to be able to recognize, well, what is true
doctrine? What is not? What is good fruit? What is bad
fruit? God's word clearly identifies this for us. And the book of
Matthew has a few things to say about this, about identifying
a false prophet. I want to give you six or seven
things here, ways you can identify a false prophet. Number one is
this. False prophets make the way of
salvation broader than the Bible does. Remember the verses we
looked at just last week, verse 13. Enter ye in at the straight
gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because
straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it. Now a false prophet will
find a way in his preaching to make the way of salvation broader
and easier to get into than the Bible does. He'll find some way
to do it. He'll say, salvation's up to
you. If you'll just decide to let
Jesus into your heart and let Jesus be the king of your heart,
you'll be saved. They say, God loves everybody. Now you just gotta decide to
accept him. Now that makes the way broader than God does. Because
what does God's word say? God's word says you must be born
again. You must be given a new heart. You must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You must be washed in the blood
of Christ. The word of God makes the way
so narrow it's Christ alone. But a false prophet will find
a way to make it broader than the Bible does. A false prophet
will say it doesn't matter what you believe. You're saved as
long as you're a nice person, as long as you you know, just
say some religious words, you pray before you eat or whatever,
you know, they make the way broader than what the Bible does. Because
God said, they said, you can believe anything you want. When
God says in his word, if you believe any other gospel, you'll
be damned when Christ comes. They're not saying what the Bible
says, see. False prophets will say, just trust Jesus, just trust
Jesus and you'll be saved. Even if it's not the Jesus of
this book. See, that's the problem. There's
false Jesuses, there's false prophets, and there's false Jesuses,
there's false message, and the Word of God says you cannot be
saved by trusting another Jesus. It must be the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be the Jesus that's described
in the Word of God, not the preacher, not the Jesus that's described
in our old Sunday school booklets now that we've made up. It's
got to be the one that's described in the Word of God. And a true
preacher will say what God's word says unapologetically. His
message will agree with all of the scriptures and a false prophet
won't because he makes the way broader than God does. I look
at Matthew chapter 15. False prophets teach for doctrine,
the commandments, the ideas of men. Matthew chapter 15 verse
nine. But in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Now the commandments
of men are the ideas that men have about salvation, the ideas
that men have about religion and worship that do not come
from the word of God. And let me give you a couple
of examples of commandments of men. You hear people in religion
say, now God's begging everybody to be saved. He's begging everybody
to be saved. Won't you accept him? So what we've got to do
is use psychology. And the first thing we've got
to do is get people to feel bad enough about themselves to make
a profession of faith. But then we've got to use psychology
to get people to feel good enough about themselves to stay. That's
what they've got to do. A false prophet will make the
way of salvation cheaper than God does. It's the commandments
of men, the ideas of men. They say all salvation is is
walking an aisle. It's everybody raise your hand
and bow your head and say the sinner's prayer, you know. That
commandment of men is so ingrained in our society, isn't it? And
you don't find that one place in God's Word. It's the commandment
of men. And a false prophet will push
those ideas upon men, making salvation cheaper than God does
and completely ignoring the blood of Christ. They make the blood
of Christ useless because they say Christ died for everybody.
They make the blood of Christ invaluable. And they ignore the
fact that in this matter of salvation, tell you who's got to be satisfied.
It's not us, it's God. They ignore the fact there's
got to be a sacrifice offered that will satisfy God's justice,
not make you feel sorry for Jesus and make you accept him. They
completely ignore that. But a true preacher will always
point you to Christ. He'll always point you to the
word. False prophet will point you
to yourself. to the ideas of men. I now look at Matthew chapter
23. False prophets ignore the weighty
eternal matters of scripture. Matthew chapter 23 and verse
23. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and
have omitted the weightier matters of the law. mercy and faith,
these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. Now, a false prophet, he ignores
these weighty, eternal matters of scripture because he doesn't
understand. He doesn't understand the spirituality
of the law. He doesn't understand the spirituality
of the gospel. They don't understand this sacrifice
that pleases God. No, they want you to be pleased. They don't understand the new
birth. They don't understand an inward work of grace. They
only understand outward conduct. And they'll say, they'll hear
about these weighty eternal matters and they say, well, I'm not going
to preach that because that's not in me. I'm not going to preach
that there's a new nature in a believer that doesn't sin because
when I look at myself, I don't sin. And they ignore these weighty
matters and they ignore them because they can't understand
them up here. And brethren, salvation is not
there. It's here in the heart. And you know why they don't tell
it? Because you can't tell what you don't know. That's why they
don't tell it. God's preachers deal with weighty,
eternal matters that cannot be understood. They can only be
believed by God-given faith. I don't understand how there's
a nature in me that's sinless. I don't understand that. But
it's not to be understood, it's to be believed. It's to be believed. All right, here's the fourth
thing, Matthew chapter 23. False prophets deal with the
outward appearance, not the heart. Verse 27. Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, For you are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautifully outward, but are within full
of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also
outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full
of hypocrisy and iniquity. See, a false prophet makes salvation
out to be the outward. Just clean up your act. If you'd
just quit drinking, smoking, and cussing, you'd be saved.
And they don't know about the new birth. They don't know about
this new nature any better than poor old Nicodemus did when the
Lord first told him about it. He could not understand. He said,
how is this possible? But God's preachers declare salvation. This is a spiritual matter. It's
not reformation. It's not education. Now, God
saves us. We ought to be reformed. We ought
to be changed. We ought to learn some things.
But salvation is not in changing network. It's not in learning
some things in the mind. Salvation is regeneration. It's
giving of a new nature and God's preachers boldly, plainly preach
that. All right. Fifthly, look at Romans
chapter 16. False prophets cause divisions
and they do it in order to draw a following unto themselves.
You just mark a man. who's always trying to draw a
following to himself. Watch him carefully. Look here
what the Apostle says in Romans 16, verse 17. Now I beseech you,
brethren, mark them which cause division and offenses contrary
to the doctrine which you've learned, and avoid them. Avoid them. Isn't that just exactly
what Paul said would happen to some of the Ephesian elders?
From among you, you're going to rise up and say perverse things. to draw men after you, to try
to draw a following after you. And men are doing the same thing
today. They're trying to cause divisions
among people so that they can call out a people and get them
to follow them. That's why they do it. I'll tell
you what, God's preachers try to cause a division too, between
the flesh and the spirit, between the flesh and the spirit. God's
preachers try to cause a division between grace and works, don't
they? And God's preachers don't try
to cause division among one another. Matter of fact, what they do
is promote one another. Because the most important thing
is for you to know Christ. For you to know Christ. The most important thing is not
for you to know me and to follow me. The most, I promise you,
the most important thing in this world to me is that you and I
know Christ. That's it. Not to gain a following
for ourselves. All right, you don't have to
turn to this one. Let me read it to you. But the
sixth thing is this. False prophets will not call
you a sinner. In Lamentations 2, verse 14,
listen to this. He's speaking here against the
false prophets of Israel. He said, Thy prophets have seen,
they've dreamed dreams, they've seen visions, they've seen vain
and foolish things for thee. They have not discovered thine
iniquity. They've not discovered your sin.
They've not pointed it out to you to turn away thy captivity,
but they've seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. They haven't told you you're
a sinner. Isaiah said this, they've called good evil and evil good. They won't call sin, sin. And the last thing they're going
to do is tell you you're a sinner. Because they don't want to offend
you. They don't want to offend you. False prophets will not
call anybody a sinner so that they are dependent on Christ.
And they might use the word sinner and say you're a sinner, but
if you quit drinking, cussing, and smoking, you won't be a sinner
no more. They won't call anybody a sinner who is totally and completely
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They still say there's
something they can do. They might be a sinner who's
sick and not dead. That's what they say. They just
won't offend anybody no matter what they believe. They're just
careful to say things so that it doesn't offend anybody. But
you know what God's preachers do? God's preachers offend the
flesh every single time they preach. Calling all of us sinners. starting with me and all of you,
calling all of us sinners who must have Christ or we will be
damned, offends the flesh. But it's the only way our captivity
can be turned away from us. And that's what Jeremiah said
there in Lamentations 2. They haven't discovered your
sin. They haven't told you how dependent you are upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now look at 1 John chapter 4.
The problem with false prophets may not be in what they say. The problem will often come in
what they do not say. And the most dangerous false
prophets are those whose doctrine is false, not because of what
they say, because of what they don't say. What they don't say
leaves out the offense of the cross. 1 John 4, verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many
false prophets are gone out into the world, hereby know ye the
Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Every spirit
that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof
you have heard that it should come, and even now already is
it in the world. You say, how is that that you
can know a false prophet because he does not confess that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh? Well, if Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh, he had to come from somewhere first, didn't
he? He had to come from glory. It's denying the deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord Jesus Christ is God,
then he cannot fail in what he did, can he? Nobody he died for
can perish if he's God. Now, of course they say Jesus
Christ was born in a manger. They say, woo-hoo, let's celebrate
his birthday. December 25th, let's celebrate Jesus' birthday,
you know. That doesn't offend anybody. Offends me, but, you
know, not out there in the world. But it offends the flesh to say
this. Christ was born in the flesh because we had to have
a representative to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. because we're dead in sin. We
cannot produce a righteousness that will please God, and we
are dependent upon him. It doesn't offend anybody to
say Jesus was a man. He walked the earth doing good,
doing all these miracles and things. Everybody loves that.
Everybody loved, you know, the Lord come do a miracle for them.
Nobody's offended by saying Jesus did good. But it offends the
flesh to say that the only righteousness any son of Adam can have is the
obedience of that man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He obeyed the law
for us. And if we don't have his obedience,
we're going to be damned because the very best things we can do
are filthy rags that God will not accept. We're dependent upon
Christ. It doesn't offend anybody to
say that Jesus died on the cross, especially if you say he died
on a cross as an example. Or if they say he died on a cross,
and look how horrible those Jews and Romans are who crucified
Jesus. That doesn't offend anybody unless
you're a Jew or a Roman. It doesn't offend anybody. But
it offends the flesh to say that Christ died on a cross according
to the Scriptures. To fulfill the Scriptures that
he died bearing the curse of the sin of his people. Not everybody,
but the sin of his people. He died the death that his people
deserve. and we will be damned if we don't
trust Him. Now that offends the flesh. Christ
dying to make an offering to you to make you feel sorry for
Him doesn't offend anybody. But hearing that Christ died
to make an offering to the Father, that the Father would accept,
so that He would accept all His people because of that sacrifice,
now that offends the flesh. Because that tells us the only
hope we have of eternal life is that Christ died for us. That's the only hope we have.
And the false prophet says one of those things, and the true
prophet says another. And by their fruits, you'll know.
The seventh thing, false prophets give peace when there is no peace.
Ezekiel said they cry, peace, peace, when there is no peace. The false prophet says you can
have peace with God by making your peace with God, by letting
him into your heart. And God's servant says the only
way you can have peace with God is in the blood of Christ. God
had to be satisfied. We've sinned against God. A sacrifice
has got to be offered to take that sin away before God can
have peace with us. And then that blood's got to
be applied to my heart or I can't have peace with God either. It's
all in the blood of Christ. And that's how you can identify
them. Now, I want you to look at one more scripture, Deuteronomy.
Find the book of Deuteronomy chapter 13. You know, this is,
uh, it's, it's kind of frightening, you know, will, will I be, will
I be able to identify these fruits and see these fruits so I can
identify a false prophet and then can I avoid them? You know,
will God give me the faith, the strength and courage of my convictions
to avoid them? You know, will God, and that
just makes me wonder, well, here's this problem of false prophets.
Have you ever wondered why does God even allow them? I mean,
these people are lying on God Almighty. Why does God even allow
them? It'd make life a lot easier if
he didn't, wouldn't it? If you could just trust any man
wearing a suit and carrying a Bible and standing up behind a pulpit,
if you just knew you could trust him, it'd make life a whole lot
easier, wouldn't it? Why does God allow false prophets? Maybe
I'm the only one that wondered that, but I wondered it. And
here's the answer, Deuteronomy 13, verse three. That you should not hearken unto
the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the
Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul. The Lord
allows these false prophets to prove, to show, who it is that
truly believes Christ and follows him. He allows these false prophets
to show, to prove, who it is that has genuine faith and who
doesn't. That's why he does it. Buy their
fruits so you know them. All right, I hope that'll be
a blessing and instructive to you.