How To Spot A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing | Matthew 7:15-20
Sermon Transcript
Good morning again. Alright. Thank you so much for that song. Pamela enjoyed hearing that almost forgot I was still having to preach. She'll be back next week. So good to have you here. A few years ago, I was walking to the back room of my house where Annabeth, my daughter, used to used to be. We moved around since then. And as I was walking to her room, I thought I saw something in the floor, and it looked like a rope, or like a little piece of string. And I saw it, and I looked at it, I went, what is that? I was in the house alone, by the way, looked at it and looked at it. I thought that, what is that a rope? I got a little closer, and I looked at it, and I said, that's a snake. And then I backed up a little bit and looked at it again and said, No, that's not a snake. That's like a little rope or something. Looked at it again, and I said, No, that's a snake. And I couldn't tell. I looked at it again, and I said, I think that's a rope. I got closer, and then it started moving like a snake. So I called Deacon, Johnny Hill, and he came over and helped me with it. True story, little baby snake and its markings are different than a normal black snake. Is this a baby? Because I was a little concerned it was poisonous, but baby snakes have apparently had those markings. But anyway, it took me a long time to figure out what it was, if it was a rope or a snake, but the more I studied it, the more I watched it, the closer I inspected it, and the more I waited, it revealed what it was. Eventually, even though seeing a snake slither to you is not the best thing in the world today, we're looking at a passage of scripture as we continue to go through the Sermon on the Mount. We're looking at a passage that talks about false prophets, false teachers. The importance of listening, of discerning, of looking closely to what is preached, what is taught from pastors and teachers, just anyone we come across who who claim to know what God has said. Because when we look closely, we might have a hard time distinguishing exactly what it is, especially now with the internet, we're exposed to to preachers and pastors all over the world that we would never be exposed to, even on cable television. Still we we see preachers and people that we've never would come across. And so it's never been more important to know how to not be deceived. Matthew chapter seven, starting in verse 15, Jesus says in his sermon on the mount as it is, concluding in our last week. Next week will be our last Sunday in this series. He says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits, our grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 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, enthroned into the fire, thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Heavenly Father, as we continue to worship today, we thank you, as we just heard that that your eye is on us and that helps us, Lord. We, thank you for that. We, thank you that you protect us, and many of us, Lord, you've protected us from being deceived by false teachers, false prophets. We know many brethren are not and many people who believe they are Christians may not be because of teaching they are exposed to. So Lord, help us see more clearly today how we can differentiate between someone who's preaching and giving and and teaching and living out God's word, as opposed to someone who is not and Lord, these might not just be who we call pastors. It might just be everyday people that are giving advice to people that are trying to lead people in ways which are not your way. You that they claim to speak for you, but they don't. So give us discernment, Father, show us how to differentiate the truth as we go about our journey. Lord, I pray that as I preach this, that my words reflect your heart and its intended meaning, that you fill me with your Holy Spirit, and that those in here today receive your word. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. During the time of Jesus, false prophets were a common occurrence among the Jewish people, these were people who claimed to be speaking for God, but actually they were manipulating people. They were deceiving people for their own personal and financial gain. These false prophets often appeared to be righteous and immoral and in pious and good, but their true intentions were wicked. Their true intentions were evil. And the Jewish people at the time had a had a deep reverence for prophets, as they were considered to be messengers of God, and they should have had a reverence for God's prophets, but because of that, they were easily led astray by the false prophets. So it's no accident that Jesus mentions this in His Sermon on the Mount, as he's trying to differentiate between right and wrong, living as a whole. And so in this passage, Jesus gives us three traits of false teachers. Three traits of false teachers. Number one, false teachers are deceptive. False teachers are deceptive, just like a con man is never going to tell you, I'm a con man. I have every intention of stealing your money or taking advantage of you. A false prophet is never going to come out and say I'm a false prophet. False teachers lie. They lie about who they are, they lie about their intentions. They lie about their true motivations. So they are intentionally deceptive. So he says in verse 15, beware of false prophets. Beware means to take heed or to pay attention to. Now, the Greek word for profit here is transliterated as pseudo prophet. Is what he calls them. Watch out for the pseudo prophets. Just like pseudoscience is not real science, but it seems to be true. Pseudo prophets are not real prophets. They they seem to be true, but they can easily be proven wrong. True prophets are are called by God and and tell the things of God, but pseudo prophets do not but as long as God has had true prophets, Satan has raised up false ones. And one of the best ways that Satan can keep people out of coming into the kingdom of God is to think that they all are already in the kingdom of God. And that's what false prophets do. Look at first, Corinthians, 1119, Paul says, There must be factions among you. What? Why should why must there be factions in the body of Christ? He says, There must be now again. This is a book where, two chapters later, he's talking about love and everything like that. He says, There must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. So we see that God uses false teachers to keep his church pure, but be careful that you're not deceived as well. Because Jesus then says how they will appear. They will come to you. He says, in sheep's clothing, they appear to be the real deal, but they're not. They're dressed like God's people. They act like God's people. They look like God's people. They say all the Christian words. They have the Christian mugs, they have the Christian bumper stickers. They might even go to a Christian school. They claim to do all the Christian things, but they masquera. Made as God's people, but they are not God's people. False teachers are usually positive, nice. They appear it's sincere in their beliefs. They're usually really encouraging, really helpful, really positive, yet when they talk, they never talk about sin, or they excuse sin. They never talk about the truth of the gospel. They just tell the world what they want to hear. This is why they're dangerous. Satan masquerades as an angel of light, and so does his teachers, so does his prophets. It says that inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They look like Christians. They act like Christians. They seem like Christians, but underneath their sheep's clothing, they are wolves seeking to devour the sheep that they are supposedly serving. The wolf actually preys on the sheep, which is what these pseudo prophets do. They look for sheep that have strayed away from the flock so they can pounce on them and destroy them. And many false teachers have built churches on sheep who have strayed from the true flock of God. And so they are deceitful in their appearance and that they're smooth talkers, they have the gift of sounding true and they tell you good things that you like to hear. And naive people and new Christians, especially who do not think critically about these things, can be deceived. Even if you're intelligent, you can be deceived by it, because it's not an intelligence thing. It is a feeling thing. It's a appearance thing. Entire churches and cults are built around these winsome personalities and pep talks. And Paul predicted, such as he warned the Ephesian elders Look at Acts 20 verse 29 I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them, false prophet. Prophets try to draw true disciples away in order to feed their own agenda, their own fame, their own bank accounts. Look at first, Timothy six Paul tells Timothy a young pastor, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil, suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived in truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. He says here that the false teachers are the ones that stir up problems. They're the ones that create dissension. They're the ones who produce all the issues in the body of Christ. They create a kind of optical illusion. I got a couple pictures I want to show you. The first picture right here is something I want to see. Now, if you look at this photo, it looks like the man in the background is holding this woman's arm, right? But it's not actually, and that would be awkward, because she's hugging another man. That's actually the man she's hugging his hand. What you look at, it looks like some other man is holding her arm. You have to look closely enough to see that's actually not his hand. He's just not minding his own business. After all, praise the Lord. Next photo. This is someone who took a photo and they wrote on here, our dog's paw looks like a mini version of him. If you look closely, it does two eyes and a nose on the paw looks like a big dog and a little dog, but it's just the dogs, Paul, it's an illusion, and this next one looks like some type of alien eye, but what it really is is a standard sink, and it's obviously took a photo and a different type of color, negative, or something like that. And you see what's actually water circling a drain with suds around around it, if. Uh, now you see it, right? But you first look at it looks like a blue eyed something. I don't know what it is, but it's water circling a drain with suds around the sink. It's an illusion, thinking it's one thing. It's different. All these appear as one thing, but they're not false. Teachers are the same way. They appear as one thing, but they're not. They're deceptive. So some tips for us on how to avoid being deceived by false teachers. Number one, study and know the Bible. Again. This should go without saying, but we must know what the Bible says about it. The New Testament talks an awful lot, an awful lot about false teachers and what they're like. So this will help you. Number two, question and seek guidance. Question and seek guidance. If you come across a teacher or teaching that seems questionable, don't be afraid to ask questions, to seek advice from pastors or teachers or myself or someone that can give you insight and help you three. Be wary of excessive focus on money. Excessive focus on money, false teachers have a strong focus on it, and they pressure their followers to donate substantial amounts. So be cautious if there's an inordinate amount of emphasis on financial contribution as opposed to spiritual growth. And number four, pay attention to behavior and actions. True teachers lead by example. They embody what they preach. So any unethical behavior, any questionable behavior you've seen, it may be a red flag that they're not genuine, because false teachers are deceptive. Number two, false teachers are rotten. I'm not just speaking bad of them. It's Biblical, right? They're rotten. Verse 16, you will recognize them by their fruits. You know fruits get rotten. The word fruits is a metaphor for visible embodiment of a person's life, a false teacher will not display the fruit of the Spirit. They will not display love or joy or peace or patience or kindness or goodness or faithfulness or gentleness or self control, when examined closely, a false teacher will actually exhibit the opposites which the Bible calls the lust of the flesh. There will be sexual immorality, there will be impurity, there will be sensuality and idolatry and sorcery and rivalries and envy and drunkenness. The wolves may be very enthusiastic about their faith, but the fruit is rotten. Outward behavior is the distinguishing trait between true and false Christians, as well as true and false teachers, prophets and pastors, I want to read you a few facts that maybe you thought were true, but actually aren't. Number one, despite what your parents and grandparents have told you, you cannot get sick from simply being cold. Now, being cold can lower your immune system and make you sick, but the coldness will not make you sick, and running around in the cold rain will make you sick. Now, it can lower your immune system, but just by being cold can't make you sick. Secondly, you may have heard that Napoleon was short. Some say he was five foot two, but many historians have actually said, Actually, no, he wasn't. He's about five foot seven, which, for the time, was actually normal. So Napoleon did not have Napoleon syndrome. But why he took over the world? He just took over the world because he wanted to, or tried to. You may have heard that one human year is not is seven dog years. Well, now they say that's not the truth. They say that the general consensus that dogs do mature faster than humans, and by age two, they're already 21 and then they start slowing down to about to about four human years. Per year. You may have heard that George Washington had wooden teeth. Well, he did not have wooden teeth. He actually had four sets of dentures made from gold, hippopotamus ivory, lead and human and animal teeth. Horse and donkey teeth were common for the day, and the dentures had bolts to hold them together. Be thankful you are living. Then springs to help open them. And he did this so he could eat Mary Washington's Gingerbread, so he didn't have wooden teeth, but he had something that you would not want to have. So there are many things that are that are thrown out there is truths that are not if you follow politics for any length of time, you you realize it when I watched the debate a few weeks ago, one side said the other side was lying. The other side said the other side was lying. Well, they both not telling the truth. That's the case. Somebody somewhere is, is lying so if false teachers are, are are so deceptive, how can we identify a wolf? What does their fruit resemble? Well, the Didache, which is one of the earliest Christian writings, actually came up with three ways to distinguish a false teacher to the early church. Number one, he said that they exploit others. Now, what they actually wrote was this. They said, when they travel, they stay at a house more than just a couple of days because they do not have any real work to be done except to serve his own interests. We call that freeloading, right? But what are they getting at is, as they're traveling the circuits, they're exploiting people. They have nothing to do. They're not real prophets, and so they kind of wear out their welcome. So we don't really have that kind of set up now, but what we have is still of people who exploit others for what they can give them. Secondly, he says that they are money obsessed, that they constantly ask for money, even demand it. That adake said that the true prophet only asks for what they need to survive, bread and water. And third, the False Prophet is self interested that he goes into church work for himself, to pad his own pockets, to satisfy his own greed, to satisfy his own ego, for his own prestige, for his to gain his own power, to gain his own influence, to gain his own recognition that their ministry is all about themselves, self interested. So in summation, false teachers are all about themselves and not about Jesus. Not going to be difficult, because pastors were naturally going to, especially now, to promote the church and to even maybe self promote sermons and things like that. But there's a difference. There's a line, and that's what they're saying, that you have to look at the fruits. But the main distinguishing mark between a false teacher and one that's of God say do not preach Jesus Christ. There may be vague references to God and moral living, but nothing about the work of Jesus Christ. They may mention Jesus, but it's not the biblical Jesus. They don't talk about the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, how, how he went to the cross for the sins of mankind, how he was our propitiation for sins. How, how he made reconciliation to God through His death. That that you have to turn from your sins and place your faith in Him, that the God, that gospel is never talked about, is never preached, and you'll never hear a false teacher preach about false teachers. Yet they attract false believers, but their fruit, and the fruit of their followers, is rotten. Look at Second Peter, two, many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Second, John seven, For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, such a one as this is the deceiver and the Antichrist. So the spirit behind false teaching is ultimately of the devil. It is the Antichrist, Second Timothy four, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to soothe. Their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. You can find a teacher and a preacher for any lifestyle you want to live that goes with what you want to do, and that's what makes sense. Jesus says he continues are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. From afar, it may look like a grape is growing on a thorn bush, or a fig on a thistle, but they're merely stuck on it. If you were to come closer, you would see that it was stuck and not attached to the tree. That's what he means verse 17. So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can disease tree bear good fruit. The word bad is literally rotten or worthless, spiritual fruit, it seems correct, but it's not that these people who listen to this want encouragement, but they don't want correction. They want positive words, but they don't want truth. Every principle taught will be easy and attractive, and any person can say something that seems correct, and any preacher can say something that seems right, but it must adhere to Scripture, and it must fit the whole of the Bible's primary message, so they're rotten. And finally, number three, false teachers are doomed. They're doomed. Verse 19, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Here's the bottom line. With false teaching, it doesn't help you. It's worth nothing, and eventually it will be destroyed, and the teachers will be destroyed. You can have two types of people who are teaching falsely, one out of ignorance, and they realize their error and they turn or they get more education, or they get more understanding and they change. Or secondly, someone who does not know Jesus Christ, who is a con man, who is a false teacher that is doing it for their own accord, and those people Jesus, quite honestly, says, well, he says where they're going. They do not know Jesus, so they give you things that will destroy your faith and they'll be judged. Look at second, Peter, two, verse, 17 and 19. They are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. You know, waterless spring would be horrible. If you're thirsty and you go to a spring there's no water in it. That's what a false teaching is like, or a mist driven by storm. You want it to rain but but it never hits the ground, and it just goes on, just blows over. He says, For them, the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. They promised them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved, it says that God has reserved forth the gloom of utter darkness, and there's a special place of judgment for false teachers. So as you go about your life, as you come across things you're watching look closely. It might look like a rope, then it might look like a snake, if you watch it long enough, one thing I know is ropes don't Slither, but snakes do. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for giving us your word. Thank you so much for filling us with your truth. And as we close our time today, Lord that if we know people that are caught and following a false teacher, we're pretty sure they're false, that you would give us the wisdom on how to help them. Give us the wisdom on how to to lead them away from that. Lord, I thank you for those that are here today, that are here to worship you to grow, to learn more about how to be a believer, to what it looks like to follow you as a Christian, as a disciple. Full of Jesus Christ, Lord. We thank you for the grace you give us. We've all listened to things that's not true before Lord. We've probably all spoken things that aren't true at one time or another. But father. We thank you that for those that know Jesus Christ that their hearts are right with you, the Father, if there's one here today that's never placed their faith in you, that today would be the day they would turn from their sins and they would receive the gifts of salvation and reconciliation that you offer, that they would be made right with you, Father, Lord, we love you. We thank you for Jesus Christ, and it's in his name we pray amen.
