Matthew 7 15 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 from thorns or figs
from 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 not good
fruit is hewn down and is cast into
the fire Wherefore by their fruits ye shall
know them Let's pray and then we'll look
at it Lord.
We do.
Thank you for your word and Lord is
tonight we look at this subject here you
bring up of false prophets And Lord if
the world has ever really been plagued by
anything terribly, I suppose it's false prophets through
its history the untold millions Of people that
have been led astray Brought into entire religious
systems brought into all sorts of cults Christian
cults Many people diverted away from truly loving
and walking and serving you by the cunning
devices Lord of these false prophets and Lord
as we look at it tonight, we ask
that you would just open this up to
us Give us an understanding of the simplicity
and yet importance of this text That our
lives Lord that none of us would ever
fear this in Matter of fact, we may
be able to train and touch and teach
many others that can get into trouble So
Lord, we ask that you'd open it to
us and minister to us in Jesus name.
Amen Here in this section of the Sermon
the Mount The issue is pretty much always
the same I suppose in many places in
the Bible and that is context Context is
always important But it's very it's very critical
here as well to kind of put things
into focus a little bit For as we
left things off in our last study Jesus
has been teaching on entering in at the
straight gate straight as the gate narrows the
way as Jesus had to sit had there
and to teach earlier and brought as the
way that leadeth unto destruction many there be
that go in there at and Jesus there
he says there are two ways that people
essentially live their life There's a very narrow
gate a very narrow way and narrow it
It's beginning stays narrow and then there is
a broad way that goes You know that
many that there that be that go in
there at and here is Jesus now brings
up the subject of false prophets it's with
that thought in mind right after those people
going into one gate or another and Here
as we look at these false prophets, I
suppose a couple things just to comment about
them.
Is that essentially there they They all have
something in common I suppose in the Senate
senses is that they're usually there to draw
people away from the fundamentals of daily living
In Christ, that's what the Sermon on the
Mount of course is really all about and
here in the context as Jesus is speaking
about this As he's been going through so
much that we'll look at in a moment
Here right as somebody is now about to
embark on this wonderful Sermon on the Mount
sort of a life that they look at
all the values that they have been taught
they look at the message of it the
the Centrality of it the focus of it
and they find themselves wanting to go that
way and yet right there next to them
They'll always be these false prophets always there
was some distraction always there was some diversion
away from the true historic, you know Christian
life in Christ and Taking them away from
the fundamentals of what Christianity is all about
And for I suppose that the most fundamental
message in all the Bible if I had
to pick one it would be the Sermon
on the Mount It's a sermon that I
believe I said a long time ago when
we start on this thing There's really nothing
new in the Sermon on the Mount.
It's all elsewhere in the Bible to be
found But it's as if Jesus has taken
unbelievably masterfully out of this entire 66 books
that he of course authored and he is
Condensing truths from the whole of the Bible
that he has been teaching through all of
history and now the author of the great
book Is now giving a great message out
of the great book as he is kind
of condensed the greatest truths down to a
single message And here the Sermon on the
Mount and it's just verse after verse step
after step one that only maybe a you
know sometimes you can spend entire, you know
months as we have on a verse or
two and Because that's how much the Bible
has to say about everything that is in
this.
This is no new message It's all there
But they're the master of all masters himself
now came and he is condensed and given
us this sermon.
So wonderfully It's so concise.
It is so clear takes all the Bible
to understand it, but I suppose it is
the most central message in all of the
Bible and There when somebody begins to grasp
it and begins to want to enter into
it There'll always be somebody there to say
you don't need to do it Some prophet
that'll come along with another way to go
Now just briefly the you know here if
I can be the sermon began, of course
with the Beatitudes they're Acknowledging and in the
Beatitudes the sinfulness the hopelessness of man poor
in spirit mourning and becoming meek and there
with the hopelessness of man Though the hope
that is in that is in Christ there
as we can be filled with his righteousness
filled with his spirit Transferring, you know our
life over to him And then when we
allow him to fill us and we begin
to learn to walk in the spirit his
attributes Begin to fill us his mercy his
purity of heart his nature of being the
great peacemaker As he is enthroned as King
and as Lord of our heart He then
goes on after there in the Beatitudes and
talking there of course You're the salt of
the earth and you're the light of the
world and so that our lives are there
to be lived before God But then he
goes on from there To deal with now
our own internal aspects of our nature after
we've given our life to Christ He is
the Lord We want to be filled with
him But then we come into the the
the battle that goes on with ever with
all of us over our own internal nature
our own anger Our own lust as we
looked at those things our own Inability to
keep our word to keep vows to hold
on to relationships to fulfill commitments And and
so the rest of chapter 5 he goes
there into these things Whether it is, you
know learning to turn the other cheek walk
the second mile there to Learning to love
our enemies and as he looks at these
things, this is Jesus says this is the
great project of all of life This is
what man lost when he sinned But what
Christ wants to restore within us and here
this in the in the Sermon the mount
is also beautifully put When he gets into
chapter 6 he goes on and howling how
to learn to live and apply our life
spiritually he gets into prayer and Learning to
pray, of course the Lord's Prayer so wonderfully
laid out there But but learning to pray
learning to fast there with our life learning
there to seek God Denying ourself opening up
our heart to him Learning there to not
to seek treasures in heaven and not on
earth To give our lives over to him
fully in there He says there if your
I be single your life will be full
of light He says just keep your focus
on the things of the kingdom of heaven
on These issues in your own heart and
in your own life and in your own
walk Jesus is saying these is the these
this is the focus of what is it
all about?
he says learn and so he goes on
telling us in chapter 6 to trust God
fully and To seek first his kingdom and
he'll add everything else and don't worry about
our food and our clothing and our shelter
for after these things To the heathen those
that don't have a heavenly father They have
to sweat these things, but you don't because
you have one when he get in gets
into chapter 7 He tells us he says
don't judge others Don't hold other people accountable
for your life for the problems and the
difficulties and the struggles that go on The
people guard themselves can just be a diversion,
you know Yeah, sometimes many of our problems
is because we think too highly of people
Almost they're the ones that Make our life
happy or sad rich or poor full or
empty or whatever else and that isn't the
case If anything that chapter 5 and 6
have taught us is that all things come
from God All he is the source of
all of life and everything that we need.
God says you come to me Let people
go And trust in me I'm gonna take
care of you and don't Worry about things
just come and ask me seek of me
knock of me It'll be opened unto you
everything that you need and here is Jesus
His soul has been reviewing essentially all the
priorities the fundamentals the great values of the
Christian life How to live a blessed life
a happy life a rich life a full
wonderful life Focusing on these things that he's
condensed there into these last few chapters Don't
know how much we realize it.
Basically are the great disasters of life Simply
come out of not living the Sermon on
the Mount And by not trusting God in
the way that we ought not relying upon
him not loving the Lord as we and
as we ought not Loving others as we
ought not being merciful or pure in heart
not being a peacemaker How much of life
has changed?
How much you know, you know for us
because we we get ourselves in trouble looking
at other people instead of God You're everything
here's what that's what he's saying here He
also, you know deals with dealing with our
own personal things As I said under our
own skin our own anger or lust or
mistrust or deceit not keeping the word How
many problems do we have right now?
Maybe yourself maybe other people, you know Last
night.
I was just on the phone.
My wife is up north helping son and
daughter-in-law pack up or moving and
and but there was a couple that we
were talking about on the phone and it
is So simple some of the things that
they're going through and yet to them their
whole world is in chaos But it's such
a simple thing.
They're not trusting God And in their stress
and in their difficulties and in the problems
that they've got going on around, you know
They find themselves they're going through all sorts
of things, but the real issue is very
simple But it is just to come and
to sit before God and open a heart
and let him fully work But many times
we don't do it And aren't all of
our trials the same?
We have to violate, you know, these things
of the Sermon the Mount somehow or another
and here Jesus He's simply in the Sermon
the Mount.
He says if you're doing this straight is
the gate Narrow is the way Here in
the Sermon the Mount Jesus live this way
take these values sermon if there's any you
know thing that somebody ought to do that
I think is a wonderful thing to do
is to take the Sermon the mountain determine
you want to memorize it.
It's a wonderful sermon the greatest message I
believe in all the world if you ever
gonna memorize anything I suppose this is certainly
worth it and I suggest anybody that they
do it But because as somebody knows it
straight is the gate it narrows the way
the sermon and the mount is the way
to live But as soon as Jesus gives
it he's not even done with it and
he has to say now listen Beware of
false prophets He now turns to him as
he says there in verse 15 beware of
false prophets which come unto you in sheep's
clothing Inwardly, they're ravening wolves Here now he
has to give a warning There's these wonderful
innocent sheep that want to follow the shepherd
straight as the gate narrow is the way
we want to walk the straight And narrow
we want to keep you at the center
of it We want you to be king
and Lord and master ruling our heart in
our life and changing our relationships Making this
pure giving this love for others walking the
second mile turning the other cheek Dealing with
our own anger our own covetous lustful hard
God.
These are the issues of the Christian life
These are the fundamentals that I want to
deal with all of the rest of my
life I don't want to get off on
some little dog and pony show I don't
want to divert as we see people so
often get themselves in trouble and here when
Jesus says you want to do this He
then goes on though.
He says but beware of false prophets Now,
I suppose the first thing there and even
being able to beware of a false prophet
I suppose the best way is maybe you've
heard because I know Chuck uses this as
an illustration or as in years past But
the best way to determine anything if it's
counterfeit is by just inspecting the genuine Many
banks the way that they actually train their
people on how to handle, you know to
find counterfeit money is that they Just have
them handle genuine money all day counting it
working with it Doing all these things is
holding it But you know in in and
no sooner have they done this for a
long time than one day with their eyes
shut They can just put a counterfeit bill
in there and they'll be going through it
And they'll grasp it and immediately because they
know the genuine they'll know the counterfeit And
I suppose the greatest way that there is
to know a false prophet is to know
the true prophet To know the Lord number
one so well and to know his message
what Jesus is all about what his values
are all about and You see false prophets.
They're gonna counterfeit They want to divert us
away and they've got all their different ways
of counterfeiting I suppose But the best way
to know counterfeit is to know the genuine
Have you noticed yourself as through the years
as you have grown in the word?
Maybe when you were a young Christian, you
didn't know the word very well And people
would say things and you could oh, wow,
that's wonderful Or you could be you know
channeled off here and there and somebody so
no no No, that's crazy.
And they show you the Bible.
So I didn't know that was there And
you're in you're constantly being drawn back.
But as you get to know the word
the next thing, you know, you're out there
Somebody says something and you look at that
for a moment.
So wait a minute No, no, no, no,
no, no, no, you know, it's counterfeit.
Why?
Because you know the word You've gotten to
know the word well within your life And
when somebody handles that to me the Sermon
on the Mount when somebody takes this message,
and you know, this is rock-solid Fundamental
Christianity this is the Christian life and when
somebody comes on and says here's another path
and you realize that that isn't it at
all you see and And here these unfortunately
the false prophets.
They're always around the straight and the narrow
They're always around somebody that's that's wanting to
follow the Lord wanting to serve the Lord
and when they're there They're interesting.
They all have the verbiage.
They've all got the lingo.
They all know Christian ease really really well
They can quote extensively oftentimes from the Bible
and in the process of it They can
talk a lot about Jesus and about God
and about the Holy Spirit they can talk
about the you know the Bible and Christianity
and and everything that they say and do
and their emblems and their identity and it's
Christianity all over it It's this this is
all by from the Bible and it's all
from God, but essentially They have another message
In a sense they have another Emphasis that
comes along and it isn't they look here
at the Sermon the mount and they may
look at something like this Oh, that's nice.
But I'll tell you I've got something better
than the Sermon the mount.
I had something better than living like this
I've got a better way to go than
been dealing with being poor in spirit mourning
over your sin becoming meek before God Hungry
and thirsting after righteousness and being filled as
if they've got some new truth some little
secret truth He kind of and they've always
got something deeper you go this way We've
got great revelations from God You know so
often and there's there's they're so amazing their
ability to do it Sometimes you'll turn on,
you know Christian TV and here I've been
a Christian now No 40 years almost not
that long close to it But you can
still turn the other turn them on and
somebody looks there and they look straight into
the TV right At you like you're in
your room and they point at you and
they talk to you and they say God
is telling me to tell you Something and
you sit there Tell me He wants you
to send me your money, you know Or
whatever else it is that they want to
say and they'll give you a verse for
it.
And if you do it At least one
of us will be blessed, you know or
something.
But anyway, or that they're gonna do with
it, but It's so often they've always got
these things But you'll notice though and whenever
you get around a false prophet They'll there
was a little ever to be said about
the atonement about the blood of Christ About
the sinfulness of man about the need to
be born again in Christ About the need
to be filled with the spirit and to
walk in the spirit The little there's usually
very little about the the hopelessness of life
without personal salvation There's little about being filled
and walking in the spirit.
There's little about real growth in in maturity
dealing with sin and you know in our
carnal nature and and Our own personal surrender
to Christ It seems like these false prophets
when you kind of look at many of
them there's a little about holy living or
straight is the gate and narrow is the
way and or things about eternal judgment or
the destiny of Souls eternally they usually don't
speak about those things Sometimes you can find
out a lot about a false prophet by
what they don't say They usually don't talk
about a lot of the main themes of
the Bible they don't get into sin and
Adam and Eve or Cain and Abel or
you know Moses in his faith or Joseph
and or Isaac and Jacob and David and
Elijah and Elisha and their walk and God
dealing with their sin and helping them grow
and mature and their faith grows so often
That you'll find very little Bible exposition You
won't usually find many of your false prophets.
They just want to take you through the
Word of God from one end to another
Just want to take you from one book
to another from one truth to another from
one chapter to another One of the distinguishing
factors about them oftentimes.
They got a lot of scripture, but then
but what they do It's all Bible maybe
but it's a piece from here and a
piece from here and a piece from here
and a piece from there And they put
it together and you can make the Bible
say virtually anything you wanted to say if
you're willing to just look for A verse
to put one, you know in front and
behind another you can find it But the
thing is is that when you put them
together in the sequence in which they're written
and teach them expositionally Now you're going to
stay in good shape So often the false
prophets they don't get into the Old Testament
Prophets so much and telling the people to
repent over and over again in their message
to come and surrender and to get right
with God They don't speak much.
Maybe John the Baptist telling the you know,
repent come and turn your life around give
it back to God they don't speak, you
know if Christ is right to real lordship
within our life and The message that is
going on through the book of Acts and
the In the early church there of the
message of salvation oftentimes all this is strangely
missing Usually they have a doctrine or they
have a theology or they've got some secret
some truth that Historical Christians never really saw
until they kind of came along and all
of a sudden they've got it and What
what you're missing?
I've found it and you come here and
I'll tell it to you and This you'll
see all around.
You don't have to be a Christian very
long to realize.
This is something there to divert us away
Another thing you might notice about the false
prophet.
Is that just essentially their nature here?
Jesus says about him they come to you
in sheep's clothing But inwardly they are ravenous
or raving wolves and here when you look
at this on one hand They come looking
with all the appearance sheep's clothing.
They look like one of us One of
the body of Christ one of God's sheep,
you know they they dress in walk and
talk and look every way they possibly can
they quote scripture and No, King James or
whatever else and it's all there.
But here Jesus says it's not the external
things It's so much as it's inwardly inwardly
He says there there are ravenous or there
are raving wolves and it's interesting the word
ravenous or raving The word literally in the
English it means extorting They're extorting wolves Then
it's from the word extortion, of course and
the word extortion is simply means to obtain
from a person by force threat intimidation or
abuse of authority to elicit by cunning or
Persuasiveness when see a ravenous wolves, they are
somebody they're extorting they are taking from people
something That they want and they'll do it
whether you know by force or threat or
fear or intimidation abuse of authority cunning or
Some form of persuasion that they'll use but
essentially what they're doing is you've got something
they want And they're going to get it
Essentially there what is happening unlike their Jesus,
you know said I didn't come to be
minister to I came to minister I came
to minister and Here though these false prophets.
They came to be ministered to all under
the suggestion that they're actually ministering to you
is All is the way that they're doing
but ultimately they are extorting from the people
Something that they're looking that's what it means
there when Jesus calls them a ravenous wolves
They're under the form of extortion now, we're
used to extortion Whether we know it or
not Politicians they're great extorters Constantly, they'll use
anything to extort your vote They'll use anything
to put fear you better vote for me
or the cut that though If the country
is going to hell in a handbasket, I
tell you we can't turn it around.
I'm the last guy You know or something
you last hope that idiot over there that
clown is gonna send us into the pit
We'll never recover, you know, that's extortion You
know with their people are constantly trying to
extort advertisers extorting your money Persuasively they want
your money You know sort of a thing
there and they and here they know how
to get your money They you turn on
the TV and why do all these people,
you know, I mean With all these diet
plans The what do they really care whether
you and I are fat or not?
I don't think so.
They care whether they're fat You know sort
of a thing with our money And they
know they will extort to get it And
that's what advertising fundamentally is all about legal
extortion How if you better get this product
because your neighbor is going to get it
before you and if he gets it first
Then there may not be any left for
you and then you'll be a copycat when
you get it Which will be okay because
we'll still have another one for you But
I mean all the things that they do
to try to persuade to extort your money
But I suppose that the worst form of
extortion that there is in all the world
is religious when people come and they know
that because I think that the biggest stick
that there is to beat anybody with is
God I May sit here and want to
tell you about the country and why you
better vote for so-and-so and not
for so-and-so or I may Better
tell you you you ought to buy this
product and not this product and build this
one up and destroy this one and try
To extort you to do something and but
you can still sit there and say I
don't care that much about it but I
think if there's one thing that every human
being has a conscious about a Consciousness, it's
about our debt to God Every human being
knows he needs God in one way or
another even the ones that want to say
that don't Every human being knows that it's
somehow or another I've got to get right
with him and I've got to follow him
and I've got to please him And if
there's any way to extort people I suppose
the greatest or the easiest with the stick
to beat over anybody with the head over
the head with is is religion God God
wants this for you God Expects this for
you.
You'd better do this or you're gonna miss
God's plan Yet how easily the human soul
at that point there Jesus he's well aware
He says of all the extortioners you're gonna
find in the world Perhaps the number one
will be the false prophets those are gonna
find a way to extort something out of
you I mean what they what they were
extorting may be different Some of them they
may just they may literally want your money
Personally, I think a lot of a lot
of false prophets.
That's probably would be number one.
They want your money They want you to
buy their course.
They want you to come to their, you
know 60 80 hundred two hundred dollar seminar
that they're gonna sell you to come and
and to Live the Christian life more victoriously
or whatever else it is that they're gonna
do or how to discover more power with
God and power with men or something that
you better go and hear him and be
there because if you're not There you're gonna
miss out and in it they get your
money Some of them just want importance.
I suppose just want to be a leader
they're extorting just a place in people's lives
and but they did as they're doing it
though, essentially, they're just ravenous and They're just
wanting to extort in Matthew 23 25.
Jesus said woe unto you scribes and Pharisees
hypocrites For you make clean the outside of
the cup and of the platter But within
they are full of extortion and Excess he
looks there and he says you you're just
taking from the people now what through what
their motive is, you know personally it's not
important upon the issue is is that they
are there for it and essentially, they aren't
feeding the people as much as they're they're
feeding on the people and Whether it's the
need for recognition or they want to be
a prophet or they want to be admired
or whatever else Now essentially that's one of
the fundamentals of them now their methodology in
many ways.
It's very different in many ways I suppose
but it's always Usually the same in the
sense they have they'll pick a theme or
they'll pick a topic or they'll pick a
doctrine or some Theological persuasion some great spiritual
truth that has never fully quite been understood
until now Yeah, somehow another Peter and Paul
they were just too busy getting the church
up and going to learn it, you know
Or something they had a lot of books
to write people to see sermons to preach
churches to plant They didn't have the time
to sit in really even though they were
writing these things They never put their own
Epistles together quite like these guys could do
it And we got a new truth that
when you look at what Peter and James
and Paul and these guys had to say
and then a little bit of Luke over
man, we got a hot new thing and
Essentially, you know, they're they come along and
they find a way to masterfully put together
something ten steps Something to this, you know
and in one way or another some great
key to blessing some way of spiritual life,
it's now unveiled and You've got to go
to them to get it and Amazingly the
Bible never really spoke of it very clearly
You can usually go through you look at
all the Old Testament prophets.
They didn't get it They just talked about
repenting from sin coming and giving your life
to God putting your life back on the
altar Sacrificing yourself afresh into him turning away
from sin letting God rule your life Well,
it gets boring to them Well, they look
at what Jesus had to say all the
way through the Gospels or what?
You know Peter had to say at Pentecost
of being saved and being identifying with the
church you know getting together in the Apostles
doctrine the fellowship the breaking of bread and
in prayers and Just becoming to have part
of a healthy body and growing and fellowshipping
and loving the Lord and worshiping and ministering
to one to another They don't see those
things.
They are not the great critical issues They've
got something greater than all of that sort
of thing some wonderful truth that Everybody else
missed but now it's just in these last
days Been on been revealed sometimes even an
angel gives it to him like Joseph Smith,
you know if somebody comes along in here
literally Joseph Smith comes along and Diverted many
Protestants away from historic, you know biblical Christianity
just because he says an angel appeared to
him and Moroni with a Pile of bologna,
you know, but anyway came and you're hungry
you can have it But I mean essentially
came along even though it's if somebody had
read the Bible and if they knew the
Bible They would have been able to look
right away and realize that the Apostle Paul
himself said if I or an angel of
light Came and gave you any other gospel
than that which has been delivered unto you.
It's a lie I mean Athena Isn't true
and sure enough a bunch of people that
never read the Bible an angel appears I
you know, I said I have no idea
whether they were a real angel or a
fallen angel.
He came along Very well may have been
Bible says Satan is able to appear as
an angel of light He can come all
sorts of ways and he very well may
have And I have no idea But to
me it's immaterial The only thing I know
is that what this angel had to say
was contrary to all of the message of
the Bible Taking people away from it all
of a sudden Jesus and Adam and the
devil and they're all a bunch of buddies
at one point I'm gonna be again and
you start looking at all these foolish things
Far far from biblical truth and you realize
that you get yourself into terrible trouble, but
here essentially That's what they do Instead of
they they they violate something that the church
basically historically is already always had and what
they call the law of hermeneutics and In
in Bible how to study the Bible how
to interpret the Bible one of the things
that basically all the way through church history
When church leaders and the Bible interpreters have
sat down there essentially in fact, you might
even think about him write them down I
don't ask people to write things down often
But you might write this if there are
four things that line up if you ever
want to know if you have a truth
That's in the Bible And it's really a
truth.
There were four ducks.
You might say that'll all line up and
if you don't have them You're in trouble.
The first one is is that the Old
Testament prophesied?
Is there something that are the Old Testament
prophets that said this is a truth and
it either is or it's going to come
Secondly did Jesus speak about it?
Did he elaborate on it?
What was already spoken?
Did he add to it or clarify it?
thirdly Did the Apostles in the book of
Acts into the church there in the book
of Acts in the early church?
Experience it and teach it and then fourthly
Did the epistles elaborate on it and teach
it?
And if you if you've got those four
things you got something worth All the history
and when it's going to be said and
this was prophesied That'll be said and then
it happens and then it's spoken of and
then it's experienced in the church and then
it's instructed Those things are important if you
don't have those things and you got somebody
that's got a little verse over here and
a little thing Well, it's really in prophesied,
but there's you know, there's a lot of
stuff that wasn't prophesied They're not important stuff
But when somebody realizes and they look do
they have these things But here Jesus he
looked and he realized this is a huge
thing He says I just want you to
go straight deal with your personal life your
personal walk your own growth in me That's
what the Sermon on the Mount is all
about and he said when you start to
walk down this path There'll be all sorts
of other people that say you don't need
to do that You don't need to be
poor in spirit mourn over your sin become
meek before God to be filled with him
To desire that he would come along and
fill you with his mercy and with a
purity of heart and take out your wretched
You know carnal black heart and give you
a heart filled with God and a love
for him You know in and he says
you don't have to go that way.
That's what a false prophet So we got
other things to talk about more important than
your own, you know issues Well, Jesus said
the real issues are my anger my lust
My not keeping my word my not keeping
relationships keeping commitments These are the great battles
of life and the person that says I've
got so much in the Sermon on the
Mount I haven't done I haven't got time
for the other stuff.
I Just ought to keep growing Doing these
things staying on the straight and on the
narrow Paul said in Acts 20 29 when
he's actually talking to the elders of the
church at Ephesus He says for I know
this that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you not sparing the flock
He says I know as soon as I
go And I'm out of here you that
there's gonna be those wolves will come along
and they won't spare you They'll just trounce
down on these innocent little sheep that just
love God and want to grow Galatians 3
1 through 3 Paul says Oh foolish Galatians
who hath bewitched you that you should not
obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ
has been evidently shed Set forth crucified among
you.
This is only what I learn of you
Received either spirit by the works of the
law or by the hearing of faith In
the areas, he's rebuking them, but he's saying
whatever happened to the centrality of just Jesus.
I Think it was Billy Graham.
I heard first who said it did keeping
the main thing the main thing That Jesus
Christ is the main thing you never get
away from Paul's the first one to say
it I guess That's essentially what he's saying
there in Colossians 2 4 He says in
this I say lest any man beguile you
with enticing words when Paul is trying to
minister and teach people He wants to keep
them on track and second Thessalonians 2 3
He says let no man deceive you by
any means for that day shall not come
except there come a falling away first Paul
said as the days go on and that
we come towards the end There'll be more
and more falling away.
There'll be more and more false prophets out
and around Paul says the same things to
Timothy Peter says the same thing in 2nd
Peter 2 1 It says but these were
false prophets among the people even as there
shall be false teachers among you who privately
shall bring Indamnable heresies and he says and
many shall follow their pernicious ways and he
says and through covetousness shall they be feigned
words make Merchandise of you here.
He looks there and he says as he's
looking at the church.
He says keep the main thing the main
thing Keep your eye on the Lord and
Jude It says woe unto them for they
have gone the way of Cain They have
ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for
reward and perished in the gainsane of core
But here is As he writes there in
Jude as you does he tells us there.
He says these people that Balaam who came
along and you know the story of Balaam
in numbers 22 around there three into where
Balak who was the king of Moab he
sees there the children of Israel coming into
the You know across the land and as
they're coming in and he's watching them and
he's realizing they have a powerful God and
they just They move across the land and
they just lap it up as an animal
does the grass of the field They're so
powerful and he realized we need to stop
them.
And so he goes and he hires a
guy Balaam Hires him.
He says you've got to pronounce a curse
on those people Well, he couldn't curse him.
God wouldn't let him and besides he ended
up coming to Balaam and telling him.
Hey, listen You can't curse them Won't work
But you can Seduce them away from their
God and For money here Jude tells us
Balaam came along greedily He took there the
money from Balak and he said here's what
you do You just go down there send
some gals down into their camp your young
girls your daughters down into the the children
of Israel's camp and Get them you dance
before him entice them and have them go
in and sleep with them Bring out their
idols bring him into idol worship and then
their God Will judge them for you you
can't stop them, but you can get them
to stop themselves and Essentially, that's what's happening
with false prophets.
You realize nobody can stop you in Growing
in the Christian life But they can get
you to stop yourself By getting away from
keeping Jesus Lord every day Asking him to
work within your heart and when you're within
your life every day But here's the Lord
goes on here as he tells us Matthew
He says a good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit.
Neither.
Can a corrupt free bring forth tree bring
forth good fruit Every tree that bringeth forth
good fruit is hewn down for the That
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast in the fire Wherefore by their
fruits he shall know them here Essentially he
looks there and he says and we'll just
close here with this But one of the
things about false prophets He said just look
at the fruit of what it is that
they have to say Does it work?
Does it work?
And you know, I think one of the
things I don't know that I've been here
around here since 1971 But I remember when
I first came here There was actually a
thing going on called beaming blessings.
I Because nobody could figure out a way
to make money on it I think probably
but there was this weird thing going on
called beaming blessings I remember when I first
kind of came around I'm on staff and
I'd walk you know I'd say hi How
are you and they say fine and they
say God bless you and they look at
me and say and God bless you brother
You too But but there was something he
said no, no No, don't you know the
power of the spoken word?
This was a for this was something came
along before positive confession.
He's saying there that you have the power
to bless people and That you just don't
just say hello.
God bless you like somebody just like hi
How are you or goodbye and citizen, you
know say God bless you It's it's a
powerful word And so when you look at
somebody and you bless them you bless them
You say God bless you and you pronounce
a blessing on their life And I'm Sarah
said wow That's interesting never really quite heard
that before and they were going around doing
that God bless you and I go well
Would you do it again?
I didn't get it Can you know take
a couple more but it was something there
as if they you know The but it
was a precursor almost to positive confession that
later came on But as I said, there
wasn't any money in it, so it didn't
seem to go very far didn't last but
soon after that There was a shepherding doctrine
Maybe some of you around maybe some of
you if you've been a Christian on time
You're affected by it or you maybe knew
somebody did and that was is that God's
will was known not necessarily by you But
God's established the body and that there are
shepherds over everybody And there are shepherds in
the church and they know the will of
God for you And if you want to
know if you're supposed to take this job
or marry this person or do this or
do that They'll know it.
They'll confirm it.
You're just a young little lamb.
You don't know what you're doing and You
do silly things.
That's why your life's at you mess, but
they're smart Yes, sir, II and so you
go and you ask your shepherds and they
will have the will of God for you
Now the fact the Bible says there's one
God and one mediator between God man didn't
seem to bother them But there was something
where the shepherding doctrine and literally many hundreds
of thousands of people Married somebody because the
shepherd said you're supposed to marry him.
I am yes, and they may get married
You'd take this job.
You do this you go out on the
mission field And so they were just doing
it because their shepherds told them Rather than
wait a minute a shepherd's job is to
bring somebody into a close relationship with Jesus
Christ because there's one God and one mediator
Jesus Christ he's the one that'll tell them
who they marry and where they go and
where they move to but that was a
Doctrine that went around for a while a
lot of people got messed up in it
a lot of people swept across the country
during the 70s and there are 60s and
70s and Crippled a lot of Christians And
by the time we're kind of realized what's
going on shoving it out the door getting
the scriptures for it trying to get the
body You know stabilized again.
The next thing you know is there's the
manifested sons of God coming along and In
the manifested sons of God at the time
There's this wonderful message that Christ is coming
and it's coming true soon And there was
this wonderful outpouring the spirit with a sense
of expectancy And a great revival in the
country of preparing our hearts and lives, you
know For Christ, but in that the doctrine
came the manifested sons of God that said,
you know, Jesus wants to come He really
wants to come really really bad, but his
bride is all dirty his bride's guys the
were waiting for the adoption to with the
redemption of our body and that is the
Manifested sons of God must appear out of
Romans And so they took a piece of
a verse that says you see Jesus wants
to come but he can't come until his
bride is Prepared and she's all good and
pure and clean.
He can't come for a dirty woman You
know, he can't do that.
Well, then you got to get your life
together And then along came the perfection of
the Saints Because now we've all got to
be perfect.
And as soon as we're all perfect Jesus
is gonna come and so everybody's trying to
get perfect But when you couldn't get perfect
and you're trying to deal with that along
came, you know The doctrine of Christians being
demon-possessed and people are coming along teaching
this and others You know just the false
prophets were just lining up at the doors
it seemed and if you had any problem
if you weren't perfect to tell you why
you're not perfect you're possessed a Demon is
doing this to you You know why you
hate it's because the demon hates in you
and you got to get that net hateful
demon out of you And if you're you
know, if you know why it is that
you that you lust it's because the demon
of lust is in you And the Indian
is a naughty naughty demon and you got
to get him out of you and here
But then somebody will man I'm lusting and
well then here they you know Lay hands
on you and prophesy and pray and in
K, you know and cast these things out
Then you walk out of here You know
all of a sudden a very pretty girl
walks by and seven more demons come and
take the other one's place You know or
something because it isn't a demon.
It's the flesh.
I always used to look say why don't
we just Would you just please cast out
the demon of the flesh and just live
one big package get it all out of
here But the thing is is these are
things that people get caught up in can
you imagine how Destabilizing that is for a
Christian the thought that a demon might be
in me Then a child of God born
of his spirit and here I'm not saying
they're not great spiritual battles But they don't
go on under our skin.
The Bible makes it clear but when you
see these things come along and then the
next thing, you know, the you know, the
Positive confession the theology that you have whatever
you say, whatever you confess you have And
God has given us authority We are the
sons of the Living God and because God
has the power to create with his words
we create for ourselves You want to be
rich?
Confess it You want to be healed?
Confess it people went off medication People went
I had guy new people right here body
here in other places took all their money
Invested it, you know back when Jimmy Carter
was the president and in prime rate was
17% and they put it into some
building project And we're gonna one dear friend
Craziest time in all the world is just
God's gonna sell all these houses Well, why
are you gonna why are you gonna build
houses when there's already 200 around you for
sale?
Because God's gonna sell mine because I confessed
it He lost everything and that was just
one of many stories because false prophets came
and listened to him and the all these
things happen you know in one way or
another but the But when somebody just looks
and realizes the issue in the Christian life
is just putting my eyes on Jesus You
realize tonight everything you need is in the
Sermon the Mount.
I Did defy you find something in your
life that isn't discussed in that sermon To
me I don't know I have all the
other Wonderful truths that somebody else think they
have out there I'll tell you if I
could have half the Sermon the Mount true
in my life This life I know I
never will but but how I long to
To have issues in my heart in my
thoughts and my trust in my prayer in
my seeking of God in my letting him
fill me lead me guide me give me
a merciful heart a pure heart a Peacemakers
heart a servant's heart a surrender heart These
are the issues we need and people are
always coming along and sliding a little book
Saying here.
This is what you need.
This will bless and transform your life But
what we need is the word to stay
in it and then to find ourselves saying
now Lord by your word Whatever problems you
have tonight When you stop and realize meditate
in the Sermon the Mount, maybe some of
you hear you're having difficulty in your marriage
Right now it's you're absolutely positive.
It's your wife You would be a very
very happy person right this moment if it
wasn't for your wife Let me show me
your hands.
How many of you know?
And how many times that's exactly what it
is I could be so happy it's the
woman thou gave us me The Adam already
tried that when it didn't work But you
can try it if you want to or
else you can say God, maybe My joy
isn't supposed to come from my wife Maybe
it's supposed to come from God Or it's
my husband or it's my children But when
we look and say Lord, I need you
to be King Jesus you to be on
the throne and when I got that down
pat When my heart in my life when
my thoughts when my mercy when my grace
when my love When I find myself being
able to turn the other cheek walk the
second mile Give to him that ask I
can just give it to him when I
love and and I do unto others as
I would have them Do unto me when
I got that all down pat, maybe I'll
look for something else But I got a
little ways to go.
I Suppose we all do and when we
say Lord, this is the Christian life Teach
me these things Then we're on the right
route Amen Father we thank you for your
word And Lord, I pray that you would
Have us understand it and realize Lord all
the way through our life The enemy is
constantly coming along and saying to God say
You can't eat that And even when we
say well, yes he did He's got this
sneaky way of saying do you know why
Because if you will you'll be like him
Wouldn't you like to be like him?
And he is so good with other things
than taking us into taking us away from
Jesus And Lord tonight, may we just come
before you and just say Jesus take me
afresh Lord I want you to be the
main thing the only thing no other thing
just you You being King and Lord you
getting under my skin You teaching me to
trust you and to walk with you and
obey you You teaching me to let you
fill me with your mercy and your grace
and your peace and making me the salt
of the earth and the light of the
world You taking my angry heart and making
it loving my covetous lustful heart and making
it caring and pure Taking in my lips
which make commitments that can't fulfill you can
do these things Lord teach us to pray
and to trust and to seek Lord, may
you take this sermon and may it be
something we long to have written in the
tablet of our heart No other message we
need no other we'll need the rest of
the Bible all the rest of our lives
But when we get in the center of
the course of being a child of God,
may you keep us there the straight and
the narrow Where you are King and you
are Lord and tonight Maybe some of us
just need to come and say Lord forgive
me.
I Need a work of you.
I Need you to write the sermon in
my heart I'm being taken away.
I'm being distracted maybe by other things and
even false prophets.
I I'm listening to them.
I'm reading them I'm Giving them my ear
Lord.
May we just turn from us.
I don't need that.
I Need Jesus and so Lord, may you
take your word and may you minister it
to us?
And may we be sharp enough and mature
enough in our life as a Christian that
when something comes along and the next The
heresy the next false prophet comes with his
new invention Even though it may be absolutely
new to us May as soon as we
touch it.
May we look and say Oh Counterfeit Already,
no, I don't know why yet.
I'll have to listen maybe a little more
to find out exactly what it is But
I know it's not Christ And Lord may
that be because we are so familiar with
you and with your word So take it
and feed us and teach us Jesus be
King and Lord of our lives.
We ask it in your wonderful name Amen