Beware of false Teachers (Matthew 7:15-20)

this passage right here, 15 -20, are not some of the more well -known or popular words of Jesus within our culture.

They're not popular because it doesn't fit the narrative of our modern day sensitivities, does it?

It's in sharp contrast really to our day's interpretation of a verse that we looked at a few weeks ago at the beginning of chapter 7 and verse 1 if you remember what were

Jesus' words, judge not that you not be judged. And if you were here a few weeks ago, you heard

Brother Keith speak about this passage and you were given an explanation of the meaning of what

Jesus is really getting at in that text. However, very few people today have the privilege of having it explained to them.

And so the vast majority of people, and let's be honest including people outside of the church, I heard

Votie Bauckham speak about this passage a few weeks ago and he pointed the fact, he said decades ago the most well -known passage in all of America would be

John 3 .16. You talk to a lost person and they could give you a general idea of the passage of John 3 .16,

but nowadays that's no more. Very few people can actually quote John 3 .16. The new verse that even the world holds on to and knows so well is this passage by Jesus, judge not.

You walk up to any of your lost friends and say, judge not, and most of them are going to be able to say, right, the rest of the passage?

Yeah, most of them can. So the world, the vast majority of people know this verse and they see these words of Jesus isolated in an echo chamber of their 21st century worldview, don't they?

They see Jesus speaking within the perspective that they have within this culture.

And because of this preconceived idea that we are to never judge, we're never to judge anyone's intent, you're never to judge anyone outwardly, we're not supposed to judge within our culture, and because of this preconceived idea, words like these in our passage today in 15 -20, they must be ignored, even within the church.

They get skimmed over. As a matter of fact, because the fact is, if you read these words of Jesus, you start to sound a little bit, once you catch what

Jesus is saying, you start to sound like an Ego Montoya, right? You keep using this word.

I do not think it means what you think it means. There's my cultural reference quote for the day, a 30 year old movie quote, right?

I just aged myself. But you realize that Jesus could not have been telling us never to judge, because 14 verses later from Judge Not, he tells us to do that very thing, doesn't he?

Beware of false prophets. But again, today's cultural

Christianity, when it comes to this, I think most of the churches would, if they did read this passage, very few, most of the listeners probably, no, no, no, no, no, no, let's not hear that.

I don't want to hear that. Or they try and explain it away. They ignore the very words of Jesus here.

Or even worse, you know what most of them will do if they actually come to this passage? They infer intention that Jesus never intended, which is far worse than not listening to him at all, isn't it?

Adding to the words of Christ. But they do this by saying that Jesus only meant this passage here for the specific religious leaders of that day.

And of course he, of course he meant them. Of course he's speaking of the religious leaders of that day, but not exclusively.

And we're going to see that through the way he phrases the rest of this text. This is a warning for the saints across the board of every day, because we have false teachers even today, and he's telling us to beware.

But these, this other worldview, they will either try and show that or they'll show their own inconsistency.

Legalism and unbiblical worldviews are always inconsistent, aren't they?

And you can see the inconsistency in them, because they say, oh, we are to never judge. You never judge anyone ever, right?

Unless you're judging someone that judges. You get the inconsistency there?

I can judge someone, but the only person you're allowed to judge in our culture is the person that judges.

It doesn't fit the narrative, does it? So it's inconsistent in their worldview, because judging others is, according to today, the only unpardonable sin, isn't it?

So you see, the opponents of Jesus' words here have no leg to stand on when seeking to explain away this passage.

They have no way of getting around. They either have to ignore it, or they have to add

Jesus' words or intention. So all of that being said, why is Jesus once again calling his people to use discernment and proper judgment here within the closing statements of this sermon of all sermons?

As he gets to the end, he has so many things that he could say to wrap up this great sermon that he has just preached on the side of the mountain here.

He has so many things that he could say, and he chooses here to once again call his people to discernment and proper judgment.

Well, as I said at the beginning, he has just called us to choose the narrow gate. And once a person chooses the narrow gate, which, by the way, if you were with us last week, what was the narrow gate?

What's the narrow gate? Jesus, right? Once you choose that narrow gate, it places you on a trajectory of the way.

And the way is the way that leads to life, right? This is the direction. The way is what

Jesus is pointing us to. And now Jesus deems it of utmost importance to warn us to be careful, to be watchful of dangers along the way.

That's why Jesus is choosing to say this here. So let's look at our passage in greater detail and see why

Jesus is warning us of this danger. In verse 15, he starts out with, beware of false prophets.

This is very similar to the way he phrases the beginning of verse 13, when he says, enter by the narrow gate.

Jesus uses an emphatic imperative here with enter and with beware.

Jesus is telling us right up front at the beginning of the thought, he's saying exactly what you're to do.

He is saying, beware, just as he said, you must enter. The Greek word here used for beware simply means to be in a state of alert.

That seems logical, right? Okay, yeah, that's what beware means. But I want you to really see and grasp what

Jesus is getting at. Jesus is not telling us, hey, by the way, you know, you're going to be on the way and you're going to see some false prophets.

When you come in contact with them, I'll give you some directive as to how to deal with them.

Just when you come in contact with them. That's not what Jesus is saying here in this verse. Now he is saying to the saints that are on the way, be alert, stand at the tower, be watchful.

You know, Jude gives us a very similar warning. As a matter of fact, flip over to Jude. I would say

Jude chapter one, verses three to four, but there is the only one chapter. So Jude verses three and four.

I want us to look at very similar language that is used in scripture for what

Jesus is getting at here. Jude, starting in verse three says, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation.

What's he saying here? He's saying, I long to write about our common salvation. I just want to talk about the gospel.

That's what I want to talk about. I want to talk about what's good. I want to talk about what's right. I want to talk about our Savior.

That's what I want to talk about. I wanted to, I was eager to write this. And then he goes on and he says, I found it necessary to write appealing to you.

I found it necessary. It's essential. It is absolutely essential to your

Christian life, people that I'm writing to, that I write and appeal to you to contend.

The word that he uses there, epagonizomai. Am I saying it? That's Pastor Jeremiah's favorite

Greek word, isn't it? He says it all the time. And I don't say it as cool as he does. Epagonizomai, you know, it's almost, it's almost like an angst in the midst of it.

That what, what Jude is saying by using this word is he's saying agonize, combat, fight, stand, watch.

You must combat this. And I wanted to talk about the gospel with you. That's all I wanted to talk about.

I want to talk about good things. I want to talk about how Jesus is working in our lives, but I find it necessary to appeal to you.

Combat, epagonizomai, anguish for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

That gospel that I want to talk about so greatly, you're going to have to fight for it.

You're going to have to agonize. You're going to have to combat. Well, what's, what are they combating?

Why is Jude giving us such an aggressive command here? Look at verse four. He says, for, he gives us the directive.

This is why I have to write this to you. For certain people have crept in unnoticed.

Sounds to me like that church wasn't be wearing worthy. They've crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.

Is Jude talking about people coming in who openly deny Christ? People who openly live sensual lives?

They're just, they're just totally lost pagans. Just walking in the building going,

I'm a lost pagan. Live like me. Of course he's not talking about that.

Otherwise they wouldn't have been unnoticed because that's what he told us in the first, that first verse. He said that, Hey, they've crept in.

They've come in unnoticed because the others would have stood out like a sore thumb. And this is why very similarly back in our passage in Matthew, Jesus, he says there, beware of false prophets who come to you.

You catch that? False prophets who come to you.

There's no neutrality here. Talk about Jesus judging their intent.

They're coming to you. They're coming to you. They're coming in. They intentionally are coming in.

This is an act on their part who come to you in sheep's clothing.

They come in unnoticed just as Jude is pointing out to these saints.

Now sheep's clothing, I think we all understand the imagery here, don't we? These false prophets intentionally disguise themselves with the intent of infiltration within the church.

You hear that? They disguise themselves with the intent.

Talk about judging here, right? Now I have to say, does this mean that every single one of these false teachers, false prophets, these wolves in sheep's clothing, does this mean that every one of them know exactly what they're doing and have a detailed plan of destruction?

Are they? Do you think that every false teacher that comes along is going, ah, I have a lie and I'm going to feed it to them?

I just don't think that's the case. I think that many of them are deceived.

They're deceived by their own sin. They're deceived by the evil one. I think many times, many of these false prophets, many of these false teachers, they really think that they're doing the right thing.

It's not an intention thing from that perspective, because when we realize that and when we see false teachers, we've all come in contact with it.

We kind of know instinctively, that person's not teaching right, but I know them personally and their intentions aren't evil.

Their intentions are good and it makes it harder to judge them, doesn't it?

It makes it difficult to judge. However, Jesus does not distinguish between false prophets.

He simply tells us to beware of them. Why does he say to beware of them?

Because inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. I suppose you're walking out in the woods out here today.

You're like Karen, roaming around looking for special plants that she can use with all of her stuff.

You're roaming out in the woods today and you come across a pack of wild wolves.

Would you stand there and go, I wonder what their intentions are? Well, of course she wouldn't.

It doesn't matter what their intentions are. They're wolves. Their nature, their instinct is that of a wolf.

It doesn't matter if they like you personally. That wolf may be looking at you out there in the woods and go, that's a nice looking person.

It doesn't matter though if they're hungry because if they're hungry, what are you? Your food.

And that's what Jesus is saying. He says they are ravenous. They're not just wolves. They're ravenous wolves.

They're hungry. They're starving for prey. They're seeking to devour you.

They're not just coming in contact with you and indifferent to you and like your outfit so they're not going to devour you.

No, they're ravenous is what Jesus is saying. And of course they're ravenous. They are of their father, the devil, aren't they?

Who just as Peter says in 1 Peter 5 8, he says your adversary, the devil, he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Actively looking for someone to devour. And these prophets are seeking to do the will of their father, aren't they?

That throws out the intent, doesn't it? They may not know what their intentions are. That's because they're just acting upon their own nature.

I know it's not popular to say this, what I'm about to say, but as overseers, me and Pastor Jeremiah, Paul says that it's our job.

It's our job to point out false teachers and to rebuke them and even publicly when necessary.

As a matter of fact, I've come to the conviction that if I don't, I'm not qualified.

And so the next thing I'm going to tell you, I'm telling you with a heavy but obedient heart. We have recently encountered one of these wolves.

This is a man, you're not going to hear this in many pulpits naming names are you? This is a man by the name of Michael Sullivan.

A gentleman who is a professing believer from Tennessee who is deceiving those within the church.

And how is he deceiving you might ask? He's deceiving by proclaiming that Christ has already returned.

And not only has Christ already returned, he's claiming that Christ's return was only a spiritual one and that he's not returning again and we are currently in the new heavens and new earth.

That should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, shouldn't it? Because it undermines our blessed hope.

Every confession that we hold to as believers that is seeking to be true to scripture proclaims a coming, a physical coming of Christ.

A return of Christ. And we may hold to the fact that we are in the already and not yet kingdom of heaven.

We talk about that often here. That's not what he's getting at. And I'm telling you this because he's already deceived others outside of this church.

Praise God he's not made into these walls just yet. But there are people in this community that we care deeply about.

Even, um, even some professing pastors in this very community who have unfortunately shown themselves either outside of the faith or at best weak and vulnerable saints.

Either way they're not qualified to this office. So I don't share this information to slander anyone.

The opposite actually. I'm sharing it as a warning. I'm sharing it as a call to prayer.

A prayer for those who have fallen prey to this wolf. Because what this gentleman is doing is he's seeking friends of friends on Facebook and he's befriending you.

And then he's sending information. We know this because the words of Jesus ring true.

This wolf truly is in sheep's clothing. He aggressively sought after our very own Pastor Jeremiah.

Sought after him and really tried to butter you up, didn't he? Very heavily.

Telling him what a great ministry he has. Which by the way we all know that. He's not saying something we don't know.

What a great ministry he has. Telling him how grateful he is for him. Calling him brother.

And then while sending him books and resources that subtly undermine the truth of the gospel and orthodox truth.

Now thankfully I think everyone in this room knows good and well Pastor Jeremiah. Didn't fall for it.

This guy was not successful in his sneaky plan was he? But we're warning because he could do it to any of us.

And he will find the weakest link. Because he's a ravenous wolf. Pastor Jeremiah's discernment, his false teacher detector was pinging wasn't it?

All through their very first conversation. And I hope you don't mind me saying this but as a matter of fact once he was done having a conversation

I remember him calling me and he wasn't even aware, you weren't even aware of his theology yet were you?

But you told me that there was something purely evil present in that conversation. Something was pinging.

That's what we need right? Discernment. Pastor Jeremiah had discernment because he knew the counterfeit.

I don't have this in my notes I want to share an analogy. I've shared it before some of you all have heard me say it. My mother who's in town now.

My mother worked in a bank while dad was going to seminary right? Or college? Which one? Seminary.

Worked in a bank and hopefully I get this story right. I've shared it before. You may call me a liar and I may be.

We'll clarify it. But back then when you worked at a bank to identify a counterfeit bill wasn't easy.

It never is easy. Now they have machines or they have the markers that do it. But back then it wasn't easy. And so what they were told was the only way you know a counterfeit was how it felt.

Because by looking at it it was indistinguishable. The artist went into great detail to mask the counterfeit and make it look like the true bill.

And mom shares the story that they would have you during down times just pull the bills out and just start flipping through them and counting them.

And that's what you do during your off time. And the reason was is because they were training all of their cashiers to get a feel for the real thing.

Am I telling the story right? Alright. Get a feel for the real thing so that the moment that that counterfeit hit their thumb and index finger they felt it.

They may not be able to see it exactly but they felt it. They knew that counterfeit was wrong.

Because they were so accustomed to the real thing. And that is why essentially you need qualified overseers who immerse themselves in the word.

That they're flipping through the bills all the time. But it also means that you as a people of God need to be the people flipping through the pages all the time.

You know it. You know the word so well that the moment it hits your ears something's wrong.

The spirit is off here. That's why we must be prepared for this.

Now we must be careful in the process of this not to become the heresy police.

That's not what we're asking here. That's not what we're seeking to do. That's not our job as a church.

It's not our job to attack every theological difference within our community or even outside of our community.

Yet when it seeks to undermine the gospel and when it gets this close to home we are called to beware.

We are called to warn. We're called to pray. We are called to combat. Amen? Because we desire unity with all the brothers and sisters.

That's why we pray for other churches in this community every single week. We long for the unity within the body.

We want unity, but only within the realms of orthodox doctrine.

Orthodox truth, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean that we only have unity with our

Calvinist brothers and sisters or our Arminian brothers and sisters. We don't care about that.

If you've been here very long you know Calvinism is not something we're pushing around here. We have members here that are not

Calvinist and that's great. Praise God. We're okay with that. That's not a problem for us.

We want unity outside of this. We're not concerned about differences about baptism.

Now if baptism saves you we have a problem with that. But modes of baptism? We love our

Presbyterian brothers don't we? Pato Baptist, Credo Baptist, immersion sprinkling.

We can have differences. We desire unity. But this is one of those issues here just like faith alone and Christ alone where we will stand our ground and divide if need be.

And why is that? Because light has no fellowship with darkness. We have no unity outside of the gospel.

We have unity within secondary and tertiary theological opinions, but we do not have unity outside of the gospel.

And Jesus himself told us to beware in this passage. As a matter of fact Paul even tells us. You can jot this verse down.

Ephesians 5, 6 -11. The apostle Paul tells us. He says, let no one deceive you with empty words.

What's he talking about? He's talking about words that don't align with truth. If it doesn't align with God's word it's empty.

It means nothing. Those are just words. That person can talk all he wants. He can share every verse out of context he could ever dream to share, but it's empty.

That's what Paul is saying. He says, therefore do not become partners with them. We have no unity with them.

They are not brothers. For at one time you were in darkness, but now you are light in the

Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

What is good and right and true? Christ. The gospel.

Our God. The word. The truth of the word. And try to discern. There it is again.

That discernment is what Paul is saying. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in unfruitful works of darkness, but instead,

Paul says, expose them. Don't let them hide under that rock.

Don't let them hide in the shadows. Don't let them come into this building and sneak around as a wolf in sheep's clothing, seeking who he can devour because he is seeking to be obedient to his father, the devil.

No, we have to expose that. It has unfortunately hit our shores here in Jonesboro.

So pray for them. Thankfully Jesus doesn't just tell us to be aware of certain people and leave it at that.

He goes on and shows us the contrast that we should be looking for to achieve right judgment. Look at verse 16 in our passage of Matthew.

He says, you will recognize them by their fruits.

See God has given us tangible ways to discern those who are in the faith, hasn't he? Tangible ways to discern those who are in the faith.

We all know of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. What are those? What does Paul say the fruit of the Spirit is?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Let's be honest with ourselves. Oftentimes not all of these things listed there in Galatians are overtly evident in our lives at the same time, are they?

Because we still war against the flesh. But the principle here is that the fruit of the

Spirit is the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit.

That's why Paul says they are the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruits of the Spirit. The fruit of the

Spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is his fruit working within us, meaning that this fruit will be what marks the life of a believer.

The fruit of the Spirit will mark the life of a believer. Now I have to say this, it may not be the whole of a believer's life.

Again, we don't always feel like that is present in our lives, that we're showing it, that it's coming out from us the way it should be at all times, at least every single one of those.

It may not be the whole of a believer's life, but it will be the habit. It will be the pattern of a believer's life.

And Jesus tells us this. He says there in the next section of that verse, are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?

See, the fruit that you see in these false prophets is produced from a completely different root, from a different source.

Jesus said in John, he said, I am the vine, and you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

And apart from me he can do nothing. That fruit of the Spirit is evidence of a branch connected to the vine.

The lack of true fruit, good fruit, can only be produced by a branch that is attached to the vine.

Anything else is a counterfeit. Sometimes it's hard to see those, isn't it?

Those thorn bushes and thistles that are growing in the midst of that vine, they creep up and they grow right next to it, seeking to disguise themselves, seeking to overpower those branches, seeking to choke out the fruit.

Jesus gives us even further contrasting imagery in verses 17 and 18. He says, 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.

Some professing Christians we see, they seem to possess a fruit of the

Spirit. They seem to possess the outward appearance of the fruit of the Spirit, don't they? And we see some that it seems as though love and joy and patience and peace and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and longsuffering, all of that is present in their lives outwardly.

So how are we to judge? Because sometimes we see that and we say, oh well there's the evidence, that's what

Jesus said, that's the fruit of the Spirit. We see outward actions playing out in their lives, but all the while at the same time are contradicting fundamental

Orthodox doctrine. I've seen it.

As a matter of fact, some of the more outwardly seemingly loving and patient and kind and longsuffering churches that I've ever come in contact with sometimes happen to be the ones that are denying some basic fundamental truths about Scripture.

So how do we judge? How do we judge this group of people that are in this category?

Let me give you another extreme example. Let's go to the other end. You know me, I like to talk in the context of extremes.

Let's go to the other end. Maybe this one's a little closer to home for us. We have those professing

Christians who hold tightly to fundamental Orthodox truth and we hang on to it. That group hangs on to this fundamental truth.

They're like, ah, these are truths. These are foundational and these are the primary doctrines and we hold tightly to them while at the same time showing no outward evidence of the fruit of the

Spirit. So how do we judge?

Well Jesus is saying that both of these are proving to be a diseased tree and a diseased tree cannot.

A diseased fruit, it can't. We see it's obviously diseased. There's a deficiency in it.

We can't just judge it based upon one thing. We can't just say, oh, the fruit of the Spirit seems to be present in their lives and that's all we can see because we can't see into the heart, can we?

But then they deny truths that we know are solid in Scripture like Jesus' second coming, physical coming.

They deny this or on the flip side hold to those truths that the evidence is never in their lives.

We have these two extremes but the point that Jesus is making is you look at that tree, a diseased tree, it can't bear good fruit.

Look for the fruit. Look at verse 19. It says, and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus is speaking about that eternal destruction that he mentioned in verse 13, right? The wide gate that leads to destruction and as we mentioned not annihilation but eternal destruction.

I say that and I remind you of this to point to the fact that these false prophets that Jesus is referring to are not brothers.

As much as you want to say their intentions, maybe they're deceived and maybe at some level someone is deceived.

I'm wondering about some of these professing believers in town that have been deceived by this wolf.

I wonder about them if they've just been deceived for a moment. We prayed for them, right? Pray that God would reveal that truth to them.

But when we see a false teacher we cannot assume he is a believer because Jesus says all false prophets are producing bad fruit.

They are not a part of me. They are not of the vine. Hence they are not your brother. They are headed to eternal damnation.

Again we must pray for them. We must pray for their repentance. Pray for an awakening in their lives but we cannot tolerate them.

We cannot accept it in our midst. And if all of this wasn't clear enough,

Jesus doubles down on his statement in verse 20. He says, thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

You will recognize them by their fruits. You can see it evident in their lives and you must beware of them.

Now just like with any truth, it's easy for us to swing a pendulum. Fall to the other side of that truth.

It's far easier than staying on the tight rope of truth. Truth by nature is a fine point, isn't it?

So it's easy for us to swing that pendulum. And what happens sometimes with churches like this that are seeking to be obedient to Jesus' words, to beware of the false prophet, sometimes we take it to a sinful place and we swing that pendulum and we become too judgmental.

I've seen that before. Like I said earlier, the heresy police always watching.

Everybody that walks in the door, we're like evaluating trying to lift the sheep skin off of the wolf.

And we're freaking out and we're just always on guard and we're always judging everyone.

We're so quick to call another brother a false prophet. It's like, ah! At extreme we have to watch this.

This is why we must know the word of God. It's why it's so important to know the word of God.

This is why it's so important to trust the Holy Spirit within us. This is why we must follow the example of our

Savior. This is why we must know our Father God and love his image.

We must be in community, accountable to the saints.

There's wisdom in a multitude of counselors, isn't there? That's how God has prescribed it for us.

We must be walking with the saints, fighting for the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because that's what it all boils down to. Are we guarding the gospel?

Are we contending? Are we bewaring?

Are we standing at the tower of the altar? Are we watching? Are we doing this out of love?

Or are we doing this out of fear? I can tell you right now,

I have a propensity to do it out of fear. I want to make sure that everyone's safe.

Those wolves don't make it in. That's not honoring to God. I trust

God. I trust his providence. I trust his working.

I trust his sovereign hand. I trust his hand. I trust his hand. I trust his hand. That's why we must. That's why we need each other. I need you to keep me accountable in this, so I don't become so judgmental out of fear.

Then I have to ask also, because I would be a fool to think that everyone in this room is truly regenerate.

I have to ask, what's the fruit in your life? Are you a part of the vine?

Do you bear good fruit? Are you that disease tree that bears bad fruit?

There's a benefit to no one. Are you the wolf in sheep's clothing, seeking to hide amongst the sheep?

Because you may say, well, I don't feel like I want to devour the sheep. I like these sheep. If you're a wolf underneath that clothing, your nature is to devour those sheep and you can't help it.

I don't care how much you love those sheep. You're going to be hungry and you will devour.

That time will come. Are you a part of the vine?

If you're not, if you have fear, trepidation, or you have concerns on that matter, come speak to me or Pastor Jeremiah.

After service, we would love to talk with you about this. But if you look at your life and you say, my

Savior has redeemed me. He has placed me as a branch on the vine and I produce fruit.

Thank God. It's not my fruit that I'm producing. He's producing it. I'm just the branch.

Praise God. Now be prayerful. Be watchful. I hope these words of Jesus have been encouraging to you this day as they have been for me this week as a reminder.

It has come at an appropriate time. As I have already warned, be prayerful.

Please pray for this other church. There's two other churches that have now been sucked into this.

Our hearts are broken for it. As a matter of fact, can we pray now for them?

I'm not going to call them by name because I think they are deceived at the moment. Let's pray together.

Let's pray that God will work in them and work in us to guard us. Oh dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you humbly and ask that you would please, please work in these other two churches and in their leadership.

I do not know their state, Lord, but I do know that they have fallen prey to false doctrine, to false truth that undermines your gospel.

Oh Father, I pray that you bring them to repentance. God, I pray that you bring them to the truth, that they would turn from this.

Lord, that they would look to you. God, for those that are not truly saved, that you would awaken them, that you would save them,

Father. We pray that you work, that these other two churches would then become sister churches with us because they hold firm to the truth.

Oh God, we ask, we beg of you that you work. Please, Father. Your will be done.

We trust you. But Lord, guard us. Do not allow this false doctrine to come into our midst that would pull us away from our blessed hope.

Father, guard our people. Help us to be on guard. Help us to beware. But in beware and help us to love.

Father, do not let us swing that pendulum too far and become overly judgmental. Father, do not let us become the heresy police.

Father, do not let us to just become indifferent and allow heresies to come in and wreak havoc and toss us to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

Father, help us. Strengthen us. Guard us up as only you can.

You have set us apart as a people and we trust you. We trust your sovereign hand of working in our lives.

Lord, I pray for Michael Sullivan. I pray for repentance. I pray that he would turn from this wicked belief and trust in the truth of the one true gospel.

Father, I pray that you work in his life, that you guard him, that you set your affection upon him and awaken him and that he would seek to work for your kingdom or be with us today as we prepare to go to the table.

Set our hearts towards you. Help us to trust in your finished work at the cross and the oneness that we have in you through your blood and your body,

Lord. This is but a taste of that great feast that we will share in and it will never end.

God, help us as we worship you through this ordinance, that you would be honored in us.

Search our hearts. There is unrepentant sin in any of us. I pray that you would reveal it to us and let us lay it at your feet knowing that our gracious Savior has already paid the price for it,

Father. And that we can worship you without fear, that we can come before you in your presence and all of you knowing that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Lord, if anyone has anything against his brother or sister, he would lay that aside, get that right as he comes to this table.

We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Now as we prepare to go to the table.