Identifying False Prophets

[0:00] We've talked for the last couple of weeks how the theme for the last portion of the Sermon on the Mount is judgment.

[0:20] We've seen that as we've worked through the first 15 verses. Last week we covered verses 13 and 14 of Matthew chapter 7. In those verses Jesus challenged us to evaluate whether our faith is real.

[0:34] So let's look at those verses again. Jesus said, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

[0:45] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. The sobering thought is that we know Jesus spoke those words to those who professed to follow him.

[0:58] He is warning them that they think they are saved, but some of them may actually be still lost. And even after we follow Jesus' command to determine whether our faith is real, we have to realize that we will face some obstacles that could divert us from the narrow way and the hard way that leads to life.

[1:19] Tonight we'll see the first obstacle that can threaten to throw us off the proper path. That obstacle is a false prophet. We know that when we're truly saved, we're saved forever.

[1:31] We can never lose that salvation. However, false prophets temporarily can sidetrack us, or at the very least cause us to lose the joy of our salvation. So let's read tonight's text and then look at the warning Jesus gives.

[1:46] So tonight's text will be Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 through 20. And in Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 through 20, Jesus said these words. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

[2:03] You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

[2:16] A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.

[2:30] Jesus emphatically tells us something very important in these verses. That is that judging by a teacher's fruits, we are to evaluate whether that person is a false teacher.

[2:41] That's the main idea for tonight. Judging by a teacher's fruits, we are to evaluate whether that person is a false teacher. Putting it in more common English, we are to evaluate whether a teacher walks the talk.

[2:56] We are to evaluate whether the person's teaching squares with the Bible and his way of life squares with what the Bible says it should be. The Bible has a lot to say about false prophets or false teachers.

[3:10] And the Bible also uses several terms that are mostly synonymous with each other. So let's look at a few of those terms before we dig into tonight's verses. 1 John 4.1 refers to false teachers as false prophets, just like Jesus did.

[3:26] 1 John 4.1 says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

[3:38] In 2 Corinthians 11.13 and then 11.26, Paul refers to them as false prophets and false brothers. So here's what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11.13.

[3:54] He said, For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And here's what Paul said a few verses later in 2 Corinthians 11.25 and then into verse 26.

[4:10] You will hear that he calls out false brothers. And here are 2 Corinthians 11.25b all the way through 26. Paul said, Peter referred to them as both false teachers and false prophets in 2 Peter 2.1.

[4:46] And here is 2 Peter 2.1. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

[5:06] Speaking about false teachers, Paul calls them liars in 1 Timothy 4.2. And here are 1 Timothy 4.1 and 2. Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.

[5:31] Then in Matthew 24.24, Jesus pairs the false prophets with false Christ. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 24.24. For false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

[5:51] We read all those verses to show that even when we are on the narrow road and the hard way that leads to life, we need to be alert for false teachers or false prophets. They like to hang out along that road.

[6:03] As we've seen, that warning is repeated throughout the New Testament. Because false prophets and false teachers are a reality, let's dive into tonight's verses to see how to identify them.

[6:16] In Matthew 7.15-20, Jesus gives us three characteristics of false teachers. And in verse 15, we see the false teachers' facade.

[6:28] Their facade. And one of the definitions of facade is a deceptive outward appearance. And that's exactly what Jesus says the false teachers have.

[6:40] Look at verse 15 again. Jesus says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Identifying false teachers would be easy if the false teachers announced themselves, but they're too clever for that.

[6:59] Instead, the false teachers pretend like they are a member of the true flock. We read 2 Corinthians 11.13 by itself earlier. Listen to that verse again along with the two verses that follow it.

[7:12] Here are 2 Corinthians 11.13-15 this time. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

[7:26] And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

[7:37] Their end will correspond to their deeds. We've already looked at several New Testament references that warn about false prophets. The Jewish followers of Christ listening to his sermon would have been familiar with Old Testament warnings about false prophets.

[7:54] Satan will always have false prophets ready to deceive anybody that they can. Since the beginning of Israel, the Israelites had been warned about false prophets.

[8:07] Moses even told the people that God sometimes uses false prophets to test the people. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 1 through 5. Moses said there,

[9:16] What are the false prophets today if the Old Testament penalty for a false prophet was still in effect? However, today as in Israel's day, false prophets can easily find a listening audience because they tell the people what they want to hear.

[9:31] Listen to what God said through Isaiah about the Israelites. Here are Isaiah 30 verses 9 through 11. For they are rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord, who say to the seers, do not see, and to the prophets, do not prophesy to us what is right.

[9:55] Speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel. Does that not sound like it could be said today?

[10:11] True prophets are a blessing from God because they speak God's message and only God's message. False prophets try to make themselves seem like real prophets by also claiming to speak for God.

[10:24] The Old Testament has several warnings about that too. Here's what God said through Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 5 verses 30 and 31.

[10:36] An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule at their direction. My people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

[10:50] Present day people are the same way. Think about the warning from Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 3 and 4. Here are 2 Timothy 4 verses 3 and 4.

[11:04] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

[11:19] Listen to this description about a religious leader who reached the top of his influence in the 1970s. Here's the description about him.

[11:31] He knew how to inspire hope. He was committed to people in need. He counseled prisoners and juvenile delinquents. He started a job placement center.

[11:42] He opened rest homes and homes for the retarded. He had a health clinic. He organized a vocational training center. He provided free legal aid.

[11:54] He founded a community center. And he preached about God. The problem was that the person I just described was a false teacher who knew how to pass himself off as one of the sheep.

[12:08] The excerpt I just read was from a book about Jim Jones, founder of the People's Temple Christian Church. Many of you will remember Jim Jones. Jones convinced many of his followers to move to South America.

[12:22] And some of you know what happened after that. Even in Guyana, the cult came under more scrutiny. A U.S. congressman went to visit the settlement and he was killed.

[12:34] Shortly after that, in November 1978, Jones convinced many of his followers to commit mass suicide by drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. Some children and those who refused to comply were forced to drink the Kool-Aid.

[12:49] And more than 900 people died. And we know that event now as the Jonestown Massacre. But here's what makes that event such a telling example of verse 15 that we're looking at tonight.

[13:04] That same book said, So he was an example of someone who could lead people down the wrong road.

[13:30] Many people in Jim Jones' cult thought that they were on the hard and narrow road that leads to life. Instead, they were in the hands of a ravenous wolf who preyed upon them and led them to their destruction.

[13:41] So now that Jesus has warned us about how the false prophets operate, recognizing the false prophets becomes even more critical. In verses 16 through 18 of Matthew 7 and also in verse 20, we see the second characteristic of false prophets.

[14:01] And that characteristic is the main way to recognize false prophets. That characteristic is their fruit. So their fruit is your second blink. Look at verses 16 through 18.

[14:17] Jesus said, You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

[14:31] The healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. And then skip down to verse 20. Jesus reemphasized this point to close the section.

[14:43] He said, Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Hopefully you're not too worried about us taking the verses out of order. It fits better to do it this way.

[14:53] That's not a sign of a false prophet as long as the teaching is still accurate. Before we get into the verses themselves, you need to know that some prominent Christian theologians throughout history have disagreed about what Jesus meant by a false prophet's fruits.

[15:11] Some say that Jesus was referring only to their teaching. And some say that Jesus was referring to people who appeared to be solid teachers, but who had a lifestyle that failed to match their teaching.

[15:23] The reality likely is that both sides are partially right and partially wrong. Said another way, Jesus is likely telling us to judge both their teachings and their lifestyles to determine whether everything lines up with scripture.

[15:39] Martin Lloyd-Jones put it this way. He said, Remember again that Jesus spoke this message to his followers, and most of his true followers can easily recognize true heretical teaching.

[16:04] Most of Jesus' true followers also can recognize a lifestyle that fails to match how a true teacher should live. The tone of this passage, though, implies that recognizing a false teacher can be difficult.

[16:18] So here's why, and here's how we're to recognize false prophets who seem to say and do the right things. Martin Lloyd-Jones said that for many false prophets, we should pay as much attention to what they avoid saying as we do to their actual words.

[16:34] Listen to this description from Martin Lloyd-Jones. It was written in the 1970s, but it could have been written today about Joel Osteen and many others. Lloyd-Jones said, The most dangerous person of all is the one who does not emphasize the right things.

[16:52] The false prophet is a man who has no straight gate or narrow way in his gospel. He has nothing which is offensive to the natural man. He pleases all.

[17:02] He is in sheep's clothing, so attractive, so pleasant, so nice to look at. He has such a nice and comfortable and comforting message. He pleases everybody, and everybody speaks well of him.

[17:15] He is never persecuted for his preaching. He is never severely criticized. He is praised by the liberals and modernists. He's praised by the angelicals.

[17:26] He's praised by everybody. He is all thanks to all men in that sense. There is no straight gate about him. There is no narrow way in his message. There is none of the offense of the cross.

[17:39] And then Lloyd-Jones continues, In what way does this show itself in practice? I suggest that it does so generally by an almost entire absence of doctrine.

[17:51] It always talks vaguely and generally. It never gets down to particularizing about doctrine. It does not like doctrinal preaching. It is always so vague. The false prophet very rarely tells you anything about the holiness, the righteousness, the justice, and the wrath of God.

[18:09] He always preaches about the love of God. But those other things he never mentions. He never makes anyone tremble as he thinks of this holy and august God.

[18:20] He does not say that he does say anything about them. He said, no, that's the difficulty. The difficulty with him is that he says nothing about these truths.

[18:31] He does not say that he doesn't believe these truths. He just does not mention them at all. He generally emphasizes one truth about God, and that is love. Thinking about that description, here's a statement from Joel Osteen.

[18:47] It came from a CNN interview in 2012, and Osteen said, I think part of my, if you want to call it success, I've stayed in my lane, and my lane is lifting people's spirits.

[19:04] So how does it lift people's spirits if you fail to confront them with their sin? It's only temporary. That's one reason why, if you listen to Joel Osteen, you'll have your best life now, because what comes next certainly won't be your best life.

[19:20] Listen to this other quote from Lloyd-Jones. He said, To conceal the truth is as reprehensible and as damnable as to proclaim an utter heresy, and that is why the effect of such teaching is that of a ravening wolf.

[19:35] It is so pleasing, but it can lead men to destruction, because it has never confronted them with the holiness and righteousness and the justice and wrath of God.

[19:49] In verses 7, 16 through 18 and 20, Jesus uses the examples of trees and fruit to illustrate how to identify wolves in sheep's clothing. Look at verses 16 through 18 again.

[20:02] Jesus said, You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

[20:17] A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Think about a fruit tree. A fruit tree can be beautiful, decorative, and even offer pleasant shade in the summer.

[20:32] But its primary purpose is to bear fruit. Ultimately, it's judged by what it produces, not by how it looks. Similarly, a prophet used in this passage in the broadest sense of someone who speaks for God is judged by his life, not simply by his appearance or his words.

[20:52] The kind of person he really is will be revealed. And some conceal their true nature with remarkable skill, and only careful observation will expose them for what they are.

[21:04] But there is a true assurance in the statement that we will know them. There's no need to be deceived if we look closely. So let's look at Jesus' illustrations.

[21:15] The first illustration deals with grapes and thorn bushes. So the picture here is somebody sticking bunches of grapes on a thorn bush so that from a distance, it looks like a grape vine.

[21:28] Closer inspection, though, will reveal the deception. Eventually, you'll find out that those grapes are just stuck on there. The second illustration deals with figs and thistles.

[21:40] And from a distance, we might be fooled into thinking that figs similarly stuck on the thistles are actually growing there. But when we look closely again, we see the deception. And the third illustration then talks about trees that bear good and bad fruit.

[21:56] A tree can bear fruit that's colorful, well-formed, and attractive, but it can be bitter, distasteful, and sometimes even poisonous. That kind of bad tree with its bad fruit is much harder to judge than thorn bushes that have grapes on them or thistles that have figs stuck on them.

[22:14] Both the tree and the fruit appear to be genuine, but what the tree bears must be examined carefully to determine if it is good fruit or bad fruit. A mature believer has developed discernment, and that true believer should be able to spot the bad tree and the bad fruit.

[22:31] Listen to Hebrews 5.14. Hebrews 5.14 said, So we have to constantly practice discernment so that we know how to distinguish good from evil.

[22:54] Judging the fruit of a false teacher is more difficult than spotting grapes attached to thorn bushes or figs attached to thistles. Judging the fruit of a false teacher is even more difficult than distinguishing between a tree's fruit.

[23:10] And that's why we need to spend some time considering how we judge the fruit of a false prophet. A.W. Pink, Martin Lloyd-Jones, and John MacArthur all give the same three ways to identify whether a teacher is genuine.

[23:24] The ways to identify whether a teacher is genuine are his character, his creed, and his converts. So again, his character, his creed, and his converts.

[23:35] And for true teachers, all three line up with the teaching of scripture. False teachers have at least one deviation, and more often than not, they have more than one deviation.

[23:48] So let's consider each of these three attributes in a little more detail. A person's basic character, which means his inner motives, standards, loyalties, attitudes, and ambitions, will eventually show through in what he does and how he acts.

[24:03] So if you watch a person long enough and see what he does and acts, that person will eventually reveal his character. Listen to how John the Baptist taught about the character of the godly and the ungodly in Luke chapter 3, verses 7 through 14.

[24:22] John the Baptist said, He said, therefore, to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

[24:32] Bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

[24:46] Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And the crowds asked him, What then shall we do?

[24:57] And he answered them, Whoever has two tunics to share with him who has none, and whoever has food, do likewise. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, Teacher, what shall we do?

[25:13] And he said to them, Collect no more than you are authorized to do. Soldiers also asked him, And we, what shall we do? And he said to them, Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.

[25:32] This is where we have to be careful to remind ourselves that we are never saved by works. Instead, genuine works done for the proper reasons are the evidence that we are truly saved.

[25:43] As with everything that is godly and righteous, true fruit bearing begins on the inside in the heart, listen to what Paul tells the Philippians in Philippians 1, verses 9 through 11.

[25:58] Here are Philippians 1, verses 9 through 11. Paul said, And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

[26:24] For tonight's purposes, the fruit we really need to notice in the Philippians reference is in Philippians 1, 11. That verse tells us the source of genuine fruit. Again, Paul says that the fruit of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

[26:42] That is why true believers never should take credit for their fruit. Even that fruit comes from Jesus, and it comes from God's glory, never our own. False prophets can disguise and hide their bad fruit for a while with church-like trappings or biblical knowledge and even evangelical vocabulary.

[27:02] They can cover it by belonging to Christian organizations and by associating with Christian leaders and by talking about divine things. But how they talk, act, and react when not in the view of Christians will eventually expose their true loyalty and convictions.

[27:19] What is in their heart will emerge, and corrupt theology will result in a corrupt life. False teaching and perverted living are inseparable and eventually will become evident.

[27:30] Listen to how Peter described the false teachers in 2 Peter 2, verses 18 and 19. Peter said, For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.

[27:49] They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. Think about how many false teachers such as Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, and others have been caught up in sexual sin.

[28:06] The man who really believes in the holiness of God and who knows his own sinfulness and the blackness of his own heart. The man who believes in the judgment of God and the possibility of hell and torment.

[28:19] The man who really believes that he himself is so vile and helpless that nothing but the Son of God coming from heaven to earth and his going to the bitter shame and agony and cruelty of the cross could ever save him and reconcile him to God.

[28:33] That man is going to show that in his whole personality. He's a man who is bound to give the impression of meekness. He's bound to be humble. And Jesus reminds us here that if a man is not humble, we are to be very wary of him.

[28:49] Somebody can put on a sheep's clothing, but that's not true humility. That's not true meekness. And if a man's doctrine is wrong, it will generally show itself at this point.

[29:00] He will be affable and pleasant. He will appeal to the natural man and to the things that are physical and carnal. But he will not give the impression of being a man who has seen himself as a hell-bound sinner and who has not been saved by the grace of God alone.

[29:15] And that was another quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones. No person, no matter how clever and deceitful, can indefinitely hide a character that is rotten and out of tune with God.

[29:29] I like this quote from John Calvin. He said, So we've talked about looking at a person's character.

[29:41] The second way to judge whether a teacher is true or false is by his creed, or put another way, his doctrine. All false prophets will have an incomplete, distorted, or perverted view of Christ.

[29:54] Think about the reason why. If Satan can confuse and mislead people about the person and work of Christ, he has confused and misled them at the very heart of the gospel.

[30:07] Jesus' placement of the warning to identify false prophets right here in the Sermon on the Mount is clearly intentional. Think about the position again. He's just warned us about the absolute necessity of finding the straight and narrow way.

[30:21] Now he warns us about false teachers here because those false teachers can confuse people about which way is the correct way. A.W. Pink says, False prophets are to be found in the circles of the most orthodox, and they pretend to have a fervent love for souls, yet they fatally delude multitudes concerning the way of salvation.

[30:44] The pulpit, platform, and pamphlet huskers have wantonly lowered the standard of divine holiness and so adulterated the gospel to make it palatable to the carnal mind.

[30:57] After using that pink quote himself, John MacArthur said this about false prophets. MacArthur said, Their message will always rest on the foundation of man's works and will therefore always be accomplishable by man's own effort.

[31:12] They never reveal the depth or anger of sin and depravity, the need for repentance, forgiveness, and submission to the Lord, or the destiny of judgment, condemnation, and eternal destruction apart from those who are aside from God.

[31:28] There is no brokenness over sin and no longing after righteousness. And here's another quote from A.W. Pink. He said, Any preacher who rejects God's law, who denies repentance to be a condition of salvation, who assures the giddy and godless that they are loved by God, who declares that saving faith is nothing more than an act of the will which every person has the power to perform, is a false prophet and should be shunned as a deadly plague.

[31:58] I thought it was interesting that he described people who follow false prophets as the giddy and godless. So a third way to identify whether a teacher is true or false is by his converts.

[32:13] False prophets will attract to themselves people who have the same superficial, self-centered, and unscriptural orientation as they do. Their followers will be like them.

[32:24] So most often their followers will be egotistical, proud, self-centered, self-indulgent, self-willed, self-satisfied, while still thinking that they are religious.

[32:35] They will be self-oriented and group-oriented, but never God-oriented or scripture-oriented. Listen to this chilling cross-reference from 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 9-12.

[32:48] 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 9-12 says, The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deceptions for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

[33:07] Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

[33:20] So far we've talked about the false prophets' facade and their future. We initially skipped over verse 19, because verse 20 reemphasizes the point about knowing false teachers by their fruits.

[33:33] So in our last section tonight, we'll back up to look at verse 19. And verse 19 gives us the third characteristic that's common to false prophets, that characteristic is their future.

[33:45] Their future is your last blink. So look at what Jesus said in Matthew 7-19. We heard John the Baptist say a similar quote earlier, Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

[34:04] God is consistent. We know that. We see that consistency throughout the Old and New Testaments. Listen to this exchange between God and Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 14, verses 13 through 16.

[34:19] Again, this is Jeremiah chapter 14, verses 13 through 16, and Jeremiah is the one speaking first. Jeremiah said, Then I said, All Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them, You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.

[34:41] And then Jeremiah says, And the Lord said to me, The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them.

[34:52] They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, although I did not send them, and who say, Sword and famine shall not come upon this land.

[35:10] By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed, and the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters.

[35:27] For I will pour out their evil upon them. Here's another quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones. He said, We must remember that whatever we may think of these things, and however wrongly we may judge, and however much we may be deceived by false prophets, God is the final judge, and God is never deceived.

[35:50] Every tree, therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. Then he says, God have mercy upon us. May he awaken us to these vital principles, and enable us to exercise this discrimination with regard to ourselves, and with regard to all others who may be a danger to our souls, and who are grievously misrepresenting the cause of our blessed Lord in this sinful and needy world.

[36:17] Let us concentrate upon being certain that we have the divine nature, that we are partakers of that divine nature, that the tree is good, because if the tree is good, the fruit also must of necessity be good.

[36:34] We can take comfort that regardless of whether we judge false teachers and false prophets correctly, God will judge them correctly. However, we should never rejoice that they are facing God's judgment.

[36:47] Instead, we should pray that false teachers, like any other sinners, will be enlightened by the Holy Spirit so that the false teachers will repent and believe the true gospel. God's mercy upon true believers is the only reason why we have found the narrow gate, and that is why we should pray that God's mercy also will lead others to that narrow gate too.

[37:09] Remember the main idea. Judging by a teacher's fruits, we are to evaluate whether that person is a true and false teacher. The main idea, along with Jesus' warnings to beware of false teachers, should drive us to the Bible more and more.

[37:26] As we've heard Tom Holland say many times, the best way to identify a counterfeit is to know what the real thing looks like. Conversely, we are most at risk of being deceived by false teachers when we neglect godly disciplines.

[37:42] When believers are careless about the study of and obedience to the word, lazy about prayer and uncritical about the things of God, it's easy for them to be deceived by someone who pretends to be orthodox, especially if he is pleasant, positive, and permissive.

[38:02] Here's another quote from John Stott. He said, The warning of Jesus gives us no encouragement, however, either to become suspicious of everybody or to take up as our hobby the disreputable sport known as heresy hunting.

[38:16] Rather, it is a solemn reminder that there are false teachers in the church and that we are to be on guard. Truth matters, for it's God's truth, and it builds up God's church, whereas error is devilish and destructive.

[38:31] If we care for God's truth and for God's church, we must take Christ's warning seriously. He and his apostles placed the responsibility for the church's doctrinal purity partly upon the shoulders of Christian leaders, whether bishops or other chief pastors, but also and especially upon each congregation.

[38:51] The local church has more power than it often realizes or uses in deciding which teachers it will listen to. Then he concludes by saying, Jesus Christ, beware of false prophets, is addressed to us all.

[39:04] I like that line where he said, the local church has more power than it often realizes or uses in deciding which teachers it will listen to.

[39:16] So, with that in mind, here's Jesus' warning one more time, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Let's pray.

[39:27] Thank you.