Let's read 2 John verses 7 through
11 together. 2 John verses 7 through 11. Many deceivers are entered into
the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Any man who confesses not that
Jesus Christ is coming to flesh, confesses not that Jesus Christ,
the son of God, accomplished everything you read about back
there in the office, Bob, in this covenant of grace, in his
testament of grace on our behalf, formed on our behalf before the
world began. who confesses not that Jesus
Christ actually fulfilled all that the law and the prophets
said that Christ must fulfill. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, look to yourselves,
each of you, look to yourselves, that we lose not those things
which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward. That is, don't be turned aside
from the gospel. Don't be turned away from the
hope of the gospel. Don't be turned from the gospel
of Christ to another gospel. If you do, if you do, that's
proof and evidence, it's evidence and proof that you never knew
God. For whosoever transgresseth and
abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, Paul said, if you continue in my word, he that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the father and the
son. If there come any unto you, any
preacher comes to you and bring not this doctrine, Receive him
not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. For he that
biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds. In verse seven,
John specifically identifies a group of preachers. He puts
his finger, as it were, right on their chest. And he says,
this is a deceiver. This is a deceiver. This is a deceiver. That's my
subject tonight. The most dangerous thing you'll
ever face in this world is false religion. The most solemn warnings
given by our Lord Jesus and given throughout Holy Scripture. are
warnings against false prophets and false religion. Our Savior,
the Son of God, constantly warned us. He seemed to be relentless
in warning us to beware of false prophets. Beware of false prophets. Beware of false prophets. They've
come to you in sheep's clothing. They look like sheep, smell like
sheep, and act like sheep, but they're out to destroy you. Inwardly,
they're rabbiting wolves. Each of the apostles, as he wrote
to the churches by divine inspiration, warned us, beware of false prophets. Beware of false prophets. Every
man Every man who faithfully preaches the gospel of Christ,
every man who seeks the salvation of God's elect must frequently,
solemnly, and pointedly warn men and women about false religion
and false prophets. Now, I'm fully aware of the fact
that it's never popular to speak against another man's religion.
Men become highly offended when the preacher denounces the enemies
of the cross as the enemies of the cross. But denounce them
I must. In the last day, if you are kept
from the snare of Satan, by me doing so, you will thank me for
it. If it offends you for me to do
so, I'm sorry for that. But I must denounce, identify
and denounce false religion and false prophets. You see, God
holds me responsible. I would far rather offend you
by speaking that which is revealed in the word of God than to offend
God and my own conscience by keeping silent. I am determined. I am determined. Oh, God, give
me grace, make it so. I am determined to be clear from
the blood of all men when I stand before the bar of God. If a trumpet
give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle?
If you don't know precisely what is required and what God teaches,
how can you be prepared to walk with him and how can you walk
with him and be prepared to meet your God? It is my responsibility
to warn you of danger before you and warn you I must. Now
tonight, I'm going to be very plain, very pointed, and very
deliberate, making seven statements by which I will identify clearly
who these deceivers are. But before I do, let me give
you a word of caution. We must not judge the faithfulness
of a man's ministry rashly. There's a great, great danger
in this. We must not judge the faithfulness
of a man's ministry rashly. A good many folks are too quick
because they get upset with something or they don't like something
or the fellow says something they don't like to say he's a
false prophet. Don't have to deal with him now. He's lost.
I don't have to deal with him now. Don't do that. I don't suggest
by any means that all who differ with us theologically, all who
differ with us on various points of doctrine are lost men and
false prophets. Far from it. I had numerous friends
who believe that our Lord Jesus is going to come again and set
up a millennial kingdom and that he's going to reign for a thousand
years and transform the earth into a place of moral righteousness
and peace. He's going to set on a throne
in Jerusalem and regather the nation of Israel. They're called
millennialist. I have a good many friends who
believe that and preach that. I differ with them vehemently. Their doctrine is inconsistent
with the revelation of God in the gospel, but they faithfully
serve our God. They differ with what the scriptures
teach. I'm fully convinced with regard
to millennialism, but they faithfully serve our God. I'll give you
some names. John Gill, C. H. Spurgeon, Augustus Toplady. Most of the men of their era
believed that doctrine. And I often say to folks, John
Gill, as you know, has been my theology professor since I was
18 years old. I read him every day. And if
it still bothers me, his millennialism still bothers me when I see him,
I'll ask him about it. But somehow I don't think it's
going to bother me. I just don't think it's going to bother me.
There are some who, through ignorance, preach the law as a rule of life
for believers. They try to keep God's elect
under the bondage and fear of the law. I differ with them vehemently. Their error is grave and serious,
but it's not necessarily deadly error. Most of my favorite preachers,
writers, and theologians of the past were strict Sabbatarians. Strict Sabbatarians, I mean they
believed in enforcing Sabbath laws John Bunyan CH Spurgeon
many of those old writers Robert Hawker the strict Sabbatarians
John Gill Had a friend there was a matter of fact there was
a family four generations of preachers the Senate's father
and brothers and Samuel Stennett, the whole Stennett family, all
of them, for four generations, were Seventh-day Baptists. He probably never even met one
of those fellas. Baptists who believed you ought to worship
on Saturday because Saturday was the Sabbath day. All four of them
were Seventh-day Baptists. John Gill was a very good friend
to Samuel Stennett. He preached his ordination service.
Stennett stayed with that Seventh-day Baptist until God took him home
and Gil preached his funeral. They differed strongly, but they
were dear friends and close companions in the work of the gospel. We
have in our part of the country landmarkers, folks who believe
Baptist churches own the true church, very strict ordinance,
very strict successions, very strict close communion, all those
things. The doctrine is totally without
foundation of scripture. I don't hesitate to declare that.
But I know a good many who believe and preach the gospel of God's
free grace. I said to the men back in the
office, one figure with which this congregation is familiar,
Brother Wilbur Johnson, who passed it out in Wycliffe, Kentucky
for about all of his life. Brother Johnson, I preached with
him in a number of places. He preached here back years ago,
many, many times. And I never knew him to preach
anything except free grace. I never knew him to preach on
anything except election, predestination, and limited atonement. Did you?
I'd never heard him talk about any other subject. And I preached
with him a lot. But he was the most strict, landmark,
baddest bride, baddest I ever met in my life. Most strict one
I ever met in my life. But did he believe the gospel
of God's grace? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let us never be guilty
of labeling a man a false prophet simply because we strongly differ
with him in certain areas of doctrine and practice. When I
apply the words antichrist, deceiver, false prophet to a man, I do
so with great, great caution. I advise you to do the same.
That's not compromise. It's charity. that embraces a
brother as a brother with whom we have strong disagreements. The fact is the most theologically
sound man you ever meet walking on this earth embraces much error. The most theologically sound
man you'll ever meet walking on this earth embraces much error. Recognize that. Pastor, can you
give us an example in the Bible? I believe I can. Read the book
of Galatians. There was a fellow by the name
of Peter. I believe you'd call Peter an
apostle. I believe you'd call Peter a
faithful servant of God. He wrote the books of first and
second Peter. He was chief spokesman in the
early church. He was a man devoted to the cause
of Christ. But that man, Peter, led a dissimulation
at Antioch. leaving men back under law, and
Paul said, Peter, I can't be silent about this. He withstood
him to the face. He said, this is dead wrong.
They had a conflict. They locked horns. They locked
horns. Peter saw the error of his way,
but Peter had embraced that false Judaistic doctrine and was leading
others to embrace it until Paul corrected him. The fact is, God's
servants do greatly err in many things. May God the Holy Spirit
now be our teacher, as I now endeavor to teach you. Our Lord
said, take heed, therefore, how you hear, and take heed what
you hear. John said, beloved, believe not
every spirit. Don't believe every picture.
But try the spirits, whether they be of God, because many
false prophets are going out into the world. All right. Turn
back to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Here's my first
statement. John, the 10th chapter. Every preacher. Every preacher. who is rightly identified as
a hireling is a false prophet. Churches often use a horrible
term when they talk about calling a pastor. Well, they hired him
a preacher. The fact is I'm afraid most of
the time that's exactly what they did. They hired a hireling. Every preacher, who is rightly
identified as a hireling is a false prophet. You know well that every
true gospel preacher is rightly to be supported financially,
maintained in his livelihood by the generosity of God's people.
It is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth
of the ox that treadeth out the corn. And the inspired lesson
of that is this. The Lord ordained that they which
preach the gospel should live of the gospel. But the difference
between the hireling and the faithful shepherd is this. The
end for which the hireling labors is his hire. He just works for his hire. He
cares not for the sheep, but only for what he is able to get
from the sheep. Look at John chapter 10 verse
nine. The Lord Jesus says, I am the door by me. If any man entering
in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for
to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have
life, and they might have it more abundantly. I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. But he that isn't hireling, he's
another bird. Not the shepherd, whose own the
sheep are not. He seeth the wolf coming, and
leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them, and
scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth. because
he is an hireling and careth not for the sheep. The true shepherd
labors not for his hire, but for the sheep. You got that? A faithful man doesn't labor
for what he gets from the folks to whom he preaches, but rather
he labors for the folks to whom he preaches. Paul said, we sought
not yours, but you. The man who faithfully serves
the cause of Christ, his goal, his motive, his object in his
labor is the welfare of God's elect. Now throughout the history
of God's church, God's people had been ill served by mere hirelings. Isaiah describes them like this.
His watchmen are blind. They're ignorant. They're dumb
dogs. They cannot bark. But the most
useless thing on this earth is a dog who can't bark and warn
you of an intruder. They're dumb dogs that cannot
bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy
dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot
understand. They all look to their own way,
every one for his own gain. Jeremiah said, from the least
of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to
covetousness. Ezekiel spoke of highlings with
such worthless things as this. Woe be unto the shepherds that
do feed themselves. And Paul candidly warned the
Philippians of those who came among them, calling themselves
preachers, as self-seeking, self-serving preachers. He said, they seek
their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ. And he said,
such men are the enemies of the cross of Christ. This is the
black mark upon the false prophet. He labors for gain. He labors for gain. His only
interest is himself. I personally a doorman who was
convinced that God would have him to go somewhere and establish
a work, start a work. He had his family packed up,
moving, going to this city on the east, and it was just a new
struggling work. But the fellow who was undertaking
this thing with him had mega bucks, lots of money, lots of
money. And so he's going out there,
going to be a pastor and start this work. Left another group,
going to go do that. On his way, on his way, he got
a call from a large congregation. And suddenly, God changed his
mind. Now it's God's will for him to
go to the large congregation. He serves himself. He serves
himself. Any man, any man, who lives always with his ear
to the ground, knowing just what people he preaches to want to
hear. He may appear to tackle controversial
issues to keep up appearances, but he never deviates from the
accepted doctrines and customs of those who support him. When opinions change, he changes. Now, you listen carefully. I've
given this much consideration. Any man who begs for money in
the name of God has a beggar for a God. He's a hireling. He's not God's servant. Any man
who knows the truth of God but will not preach it for fear of
losing his pulpit is a hireling, a false shepherd. Any man who
alters or trims his message to suit his congregation is a hireling,
a false shepherd. They're not concerned for the
truth of God, the people of God, or the glory of God. Their only
concern is for themselves. They preach for what they can
get for themselves. No other reason. Number two,
turn to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter six. The false prophet is a man who
speaks peace to sinners when God has spoken no peace. These
are wicked men who labor for numbers, statistics, and success. They do what has to be done to
achieve their goal. Look at this, Jeremiah 6.14.
They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people
slightly saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. I have an ever deepening conviction
that the preachers of this age commit the greatest morally and
spiritually evil crimes of the age. They talk men and women
into making a profession of faith. accepting a proposition, saying
the sinner's prayer, and joining the church who never knew God. They encompassed land and sea
to make one disciple, and when they made him, they made him
twofold more the child of hell than he was before. God will
not hold that man guiltless who tells sinners they're saved when
they're not. God will not hold that man guiltless who speaks
peace and heals the wounds of perishing sinners slightly. There's
only one voice that can give peace to the sinner, and that's
God's voice. Bless God there is peace to be
had with God. Peace to be had by the blood
of the cross. But if a sinner needs me to convince
him that he's saved, needs me to convince him that he has peace,
he's not saved and he has no claim upon peace. Peace comes
not by the preacher's voice. but by the sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ on your conscience. When God, the Holy
Spirit, graciously takes the word of grace and applies the
finished work of Christ to you so that your conscience is at
peace with God, you have peace. And until God does that, you
can't have any rightful claim upon peace. Oh, weary, helpless,
heavy laden, guilty sinner. If you would have peace with
God, you've got to get it for yourself. You've got to get it for yourself.
You've got to do business personally with that man in glory, Jesus
Christ, the center substitute. You've got to personally confess
your sin, bow to him, believe him, trust him, seek him. It won't do you any good to seek
peace from this preacher or from any other, to seek peace at an
altar in front of a Baptist church or at a confessional booth in
a paper's chapel. Won't do you any good. You've
got to do business in heaven with God himself. You've got
to trust the Son of God. And if God's pleased to save
you, I assure you, I assure you, he'll do three things for you.
If God, if God speaks peace to your heart, I assure you, he'll
do three things for you. First, he will wound you, pierce
you, and break your heart with Holy Spirit conviction. When
the Comforter comes, the first thing he does is mess everything
up. When the comforter comes, first
thing he does is turns everything upside down. When the comforter
comes, he will break you and pierce you and strip you with
Holy Spirit conviction. Number two, he'll strip you of
all personal righteousness, self-worth and merit before God. Your comeliness
will wither before you. You will learn to loathe yourself. You will see that your righteousnesses
are just filthy rags. And number three, if God comes
to you and brings peace, he'll call you to come to Christ with
a willing, submissive, believing heart. Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power. If God gives you peace, you won't
need to get it from some priest, some preacher, or some soul winner. Trust Christ and you have peace. If you get peace anywhere else,
it's not just harmful, it's damning. Number three, the false prophet,
the false prophet makes salvation much easier. Much more simple
than the Lord does. Our Savior said, strive to enter
in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in and shall not be able. I know that people today have
heard so much religious nonsense and tomfoolery that most everybody
thinks a person's saved if they've made a profession of faith. if
they've agreed to certain propositions, if they've said the sinner's
prayer, if they went down the Roman's road to salvation with
somebody, and they've agreed to let poor little Jesus keep
them out of hell when they die. And as long as he doesn't interfere
too much with their lives, they won't cuss him anymore, get drunk
anymore, or go to the movies anymore. As long as it doesn't
cost them too much, they'll even go to church Now and then, give
God a little tip for being good and sing a little song and shake
hands with the preacher. According to the modern theory,
this is how things are. I've actually heard folks say
that. I've heard preachers say this in the pulpit. You've got
nothing to lose and everything to gain. Give Jesus a try. What blasphemy. What blasphemy. Men peddle religion like salesmen. I was in college, in high school,
I was a salesman. I'm going to tell you what, I
was a flat out good salesman. I was a good salesman. I used
to work with fellows and we had worked in stores where they had
things on display. We'd set the shoes and handbags
for the ladies on one side and men's shoes on the other side.
And it didn't work as well for men, but with women, they'd come
in and If I saw Celeste standing at the window there and it was
my turn to have a customer, I'd say to the fellow beside me,
I'm going to sell her that pair of red, white, and blue pumps
and the bag to match. And she comes in and says, I
don't see those sandals. You know what? Nine times out of
ten, she went out with red, white, and blue pumps and the bag to
match because I knew how to attract her interest. how to show the
product, how to convince her how good it made her look, and
how to close the deal. That's exactly what I was taught
when I was in Bible college about soul wedding. Peddling Jesus,
hawking him at whatever price you can get him. What a horrible
indictment to this religious world. If it's so easy, All you
have to do is say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. If that's
the case, why did our Savior say strive to enter in? Why did
Peter say the righteous are saved only with difficulty? I'll tell
you why. Because God has to do something
for himself before he can ever do anything for you. God must
do something for himself before he can do anything for the sinner.
The justice of God must be satisfied, and the law of God must be honored. That's what God did in sending
his son into this world. The Lord Jesus honored and magnified
God's holy law by his obedience in life, and he satisfied God's
justice by his obedience in death. And something else must be done.
If the sinner is to be saved, if you are to believe on the
son of God, If you want to have eternal salvation, you must be
made a new creature in Jesus Christ. You've got to be given
a holy new nature, a holy man created in righteousness and
in true holiness. And that, my friend, is not a
decision you make. That's a work God performs. You
cannot and will not come to Christ until God makes you willing to
come. And if God makes you willing to come, you will most assuredly
come. Until he calls you, not all the
preachers on earth or angels in heaven can persuade you to
believe the gospel. But once the Lord Jesus calls
you by his irresistible, invincible, almighty grace, not all the demons
of hell and all the corruptions of your depraved heart combined
can keep you from him if he calls you. The salvations of the Lord. Number four. We won't look at
these texts again tonight, we looked at them this morning.
Matthew chapter seven. False prophets always make the
way to heaven and eternal life much broader than the Lord Jesus
does. Broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction. Straight is the gate that leads
to life eternal. I'm telling you as plainly as
I know how, the gate is straight and the way is narrow. Far, far
more narrow than you ever imagined. It is the way of daily repentance,
daily faith, daily surrender, daily consecration to God. It
is not something you got sold up 20 years ago. It's not something
that, well, we're not taking care of that. I'm all right.
I'm all right. If you talk to folks in your family, you talk
to folks in your family who obviously have no interest in religion.
You talk to your neighbors who obviously haven't had any interest
in things regarding years and ask her about their soul's welfare. And they will answer you without
hesitancy. Oh, I know I'm saved. I've just
gotten away from the Lord. I was saved when I was a little
girl. I was saved when I was a little boy. The Lord saved
me when I was 17 years old. I had a fellow shot in my shoes
one time, a year or two ago, and got to talking, found out
he was a preacher. He said, oh, he said, the Lord saved me when
I was five years old. My daddy was a preacher. I didn't get
the Holy Ghost until last year, but I was saved when I was five
years old. Got it all fixed up, everything fixed up. No, not
hardly. The way of life, the way of faith
in Christ is a way of daily repentance, daily faith, daily surrender,
daily consecration to God. I could better put it, constant
faith. constant repentance, constant
surrender, constant consecration to God. If you walk in this way,
you'll take orders from King Jesus in all things. False prophets
today tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't cost anything. Our Savior said, cost you everything. Everything. Years ago, I was
reading a book I was sitting in the lobby of the hospital
down in Durham, North Carolina waiting to take Cobalt treatments
and the title of the book was Christianity and the fella looked
over at me who Looked like he had just about had all the treatments.
He could take him about to leave this world and he said Could
you tell me something? What does it take to be a Christian
And I began to answer his question this way. It takes nothing from
you, but all of you. Christ requires nothing from
you. You buy the truth and you buy it without money, without
price. You obtain salvation freely by the free gift of God. But
if you believe in the Son of God, you forsake father and mother,
brother and sister, your own life also and follow him. Otherwise, you can't be my disciple. Obedience to Christ is the inevitable
fruit of faith in Christ. To take up the banner of Christ
is to enlist in a warfare with sin and Satan and the world and
yourself. To take up the banner of Christ
is not entering into a life where everything is going to be lovey-dovey,
peaceful and happy and everything is going to go all right. You
take up the banner of Christ and you enter into a warfare
from which there is no dismissing until you've dismissed this body
of flesh and entered into glory. It is our privilege and responsibility
to be under the rule of King Jesus. Our Lord earned the right
to demand that I bring even my thoughts in captivity to him. and I beg for grace to do so.
Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. If you would have God's salvation,
give yourself whole and entire to the Son of God. Isaac McCoy,
I'm reading his biography right now, who was a Baptist preacher
from Shelby County, one of just half a dozen in this part of
the country back in the late 1700s. And he moved early 1800s
to the mid-1800s throughout what we call now the Midwest, working
as a missionary to the Indians. I heard Ralph Barnard tell this
story years ago about a missionary visiting some Indians and trying
to preach to them. And after preaching to them for
some time, finally the missionary sitting in his tent one night
and the chief of the tribe came. And he walked into the man's
tent and he said, missionary man, chief give him tomahawk
to Jesus. And that missionary looked up
at him and he said, chief, Jesus doesn't want your tomahawk. And
he walked out in a huff. A little while later, he sat
there waiting for him to come back, and he did. Chief came
back. He said, missionary man, chief
give him moccasins to Jesus. And the missionary looked up
at him, and he said, chief, Jesus doesn't want your moccasins.
After a while, the chief came back. And he took off his headdress,
that symbol of his authority and power and regalia among his
people. And he said, missionary man,
chief, give him headdress to Jesus. And the missionary looked
up at him and he said, chief, I don't know how to make you
understand this, but Jesus won't have your headdress. And he walked
out in a huff. After a little while, the chief
came back and he said, missionary man, Chief, give himself to Jesus. That's what he requires, your
whole self, your whole self. Anything less is just a pretense,
just a sham, just a show. What is faith in Christ? Nothing
less than the utter surrender of my life to Christ the Lord. trusting him for everything.
Number five, every false prophet tries to mix truth and error. Tries to mix the truth of God
with religious customs and traditions and doctrines. Like Balaam through
his deceitful words persuaded Israel to commit both fornication
and idolatry with the worshipers of Baal. False prophets are ever
mixing truth and error, grace and works, true worship with
religious ritualism. Balaam never told Israel to deny
the worship of God or to deny any aspect of divine truth. He
simply persuaded Israel. to mix the religion of their
idolatrous neighbors with the worship of Jehovah and call it
worshiping God. And thus, Balaam taught Israel
to go a-whoring from God. So it is with false prophets.
They cunningly mix law and grace, works and grace, free will and
free grace. They've got things so fixed up,
that everybody's saved and nobody's lost. I remember Brother Maurice
telling me over at the Lancaster Funeral Home one time, he asked
the old man who'd been there for years and years and years,
and he said, he said, did you ever hear a preacher preach a
funeral for anybody here who was lost? And the man responded,
he said to him, we've never had anybody here, according to the
preachers, to be buried who was lost. Everybody all right? Everybody all fixed up? You see,
things today, the religion today is such that folks would have
us to believe that Catholics and Jews and Baptists and Mormons
and Presbyterians and Adventists and Methodists and Pentecostals
and Calvinists and Armenians, all are right. None are wrong.
Black is white and white is black. All are going to heaven. Nobody's
going to hell. Somehow, error is really truth. And works is really grace. And
that which is honoring to the flesh is really honoring to God. By Joshua of old, I say to you, choose you this day whom you
will serve. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. If the Lord be God, serve Him. If all these things
that men call gods are gods, go join up with them and serve
them. Go join that family and save them. But I'm telling you,
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Number six. I've said this one way or another,
I guess, at least every seven or two for years, but I want
to repeat it because it needs repeating. False prophets will
always make salvation, ultimately dependent upon you. Your works
are your will, something you do, not dependent upon God, his
work and his will. False prophets will make salvation
to be determined ultimately not by God's will and God's purpose
and God's grace and God's work, but by your will. and your purpose
and your grace to God and your will. Salvation is of the Lord
from start to finish. Nothing about it hinges on you.
If anything about salvation hinged on you, you'd go to hell. The
determining factor in salvation is not your will, but God's will.
Salvation is not accomplished by what you do for God. but by
what God does for you and in you by his almighty grace. Now,
I've deliberately kept the seventh one to 2 John 7-11. I want you to see this seventh
thing and I'll come back to it again in a few weeks when I return
from California. If you ask me to give you one
sentence by which every false prophet in every age can be readily
identified, it would be this seventh mark. Every false prophet
denies the doctrine of Christ. Many deceivers are entered into
the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh. As I said in the beginning, They do not acknowledge, they
do not confess that Jesus of Nazareth actually accomplished
all that the law and prophets of God said the Christ would
accomplish. He didn't really bring in righteousness. He didn't
really accomplish redemption. He didn't really justify. He
didn't really put away sin. He just made all that possible.
This is a deceiver. This is a deceiver. Could language
be more pointed? could then be more decisive.
Any man who does not confess the accomplishments of Christ,
the Redeemer, this is a deceiver and anti-Christ. He's opposed
to Christ. He sets up another instead of
Christ. Look to yourselves. Look to yourself. Make sure you
don't pay any attention to them. Make sure you don't follow them.
That we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that
we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. But, now watch
this, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both
the Father and the Son. Every preacher who denies Christ's
eternal sovereignty, every preacher who denies the efficacy of Christ's
sin-atoning blood, every preacher who denies the omnipotent, irresistible
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving sinners, this is a
deceiver and an antichrist. Well, Brother Don, if what you're
saying so, that every preacher I know is
a deceiver, an antichrist. But I'll tell you what I'll do.
Tell you what I'll do. You show me in this book what
I've said is not so. And I'll quit preaching and go
join up with one of them. You just name him. But I've known Joe Blow for so
long. Boy, he's a good man. He used
to be a drunk, but he's a good man now. He's a preacher. Don't tell
me he's lost. Every objection, every objection,
that men have to what we had to say concerning this matter
of men preaching the gospel of God's grace and those who don't
wear it. Every objection comes from feeling and experience and
family and friend. I've never had one come from
this book. Not from preachers or anybody else. It always comes
from trying to defend somebody's religion. This is a deceiver. This is antichrist. How are we
to treat such men? Look at verse 10. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house. Don't
bring him into the church house or into your house. Neither bid
him Godspeed. Don't say to him, the Lord bless
you, God be with you. Don't pray for him. For he that
biddeth him Godspeed, helps him along his way, gives him a little
money, buys some gas. He's partaker of his evil deeds. John tells us exactly then what
our attitude and behavior ought to be toward these false prophets.
God's servants are not like them. Look at one text again, 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Here's an inspired description
of a faithful gospel preacher. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, this service, as we have received mercy, we faint
not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth, committing ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be
heard, It's not because we hid it, it's hid to them that are
lost, in whom the God of this world had blinded the minds of
them that believe not. That's the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God to shine unto them.
Now watch this. For we preach not ourselves. We don't preach from ourselves,
for ourselves, or about ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. from
him, by him, and for him, and about him. For God, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure, this
treasure of the gospel of the grace of God. This treasure of
redeeming blood and free salvation, this treasure. This treasure,
this pearl of great price, this treasure. This treasure by which
God gives sinners life eternal. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, in worthless, empty, broken clay pots. that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. Amen.