Wolves In Wool - [Matthew 7:15-20]

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I looked this week and I found many slogans that begin with or contain the word beware.
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I don't know, maybe you can think of a few. Beware. Beware of the dog.
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Beware the Ides of March. Let the buyer beware.
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Let the reader beware. This will bring some memories back. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
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I don't mean currently, that's why I... Let the traveler beware.
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Councils of the Roman Senate beware. But in searching through dictionaries online, looking at Google and everything else,
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I could not find the most famous, the most important beware of all the
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Bible. In all the world, what's the most important phrase that starts with beware?
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And it's Christ Jesus' words that we know very well. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
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Why don't we turn our Bibles to Matthew 7, verse 15 today. And we want to look at this text, not as a catchphrase, not as a slogan, but as something critical for you to understand, that you might grasp what
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Jesus says. The Bible is literally sprinkled with, or punctuated with, false teachers.
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They're everywhere. And we might put our head in the sand and say, we don't want to deal with that. We'll deal with that another day.
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Maybe some kind of watchman group, some kind of theological beware group can take care of it.
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We want to just kind of love each other and be united. But Jesus won't let that happen.
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If you believe in Jesus Christ, and therefore you believe in his word, you will see that he very emphatically states, beware of false teachers.
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Not just to the church leaders, not just to the apostles, not just to elders, but you ought to beware.
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When you hear these descriptions that I'm going to read of the false teachers, the word in the background
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I want you to think of after every one of my descriptions is the word beware. I'm going to give you the resume or the
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CV of the damned. And these damned people want to damn others as well.
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They want them to say, I'm going to hell as well, and I'm going to take as many people with me as I can.
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And the Bible describes them in many ways. And let me just read you a few of these, beginning with Acts and ending with Jude.
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Savage wolves, Acts 20. Romans 16, slaves of their own appetites.
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2 Corinthians 11, deceitful workers. Philippians 3, dogs, evil workers, enemies of the cross of Christ.
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1 Timothy 4, apostates, liars. 1
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Timothy 6, conceited, depraved of mind, depraved of truth.
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Titus 1, rebellious men, empty talkers, and deceivers.
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Titus 3, factious, perverted. I don't know about you, but already
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I'm saying I get the point enough already. 2 Peter 2, unreasoning animals, stains and blemishes, accursed children, springs without water, and mists driven by a storm.
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2 Peter 3, mockers, unprincipled, untaught, and unstable.
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1 John 2, liars. 1 John 4, from the world, they have the spirit of error.
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2 John 7, deceivers. And then finally, Jude, hidden reefs, clouds without water, trees without fruit, wild waves of the sea, wandering stars, grumbles, grumblers, arrogant, natural.
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I won't see the movie, but I've seen the ads. There's a new movie out called what? Take Me to Hell?
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Or Taken to Hell? I don't know the name of it. But that's exactly what these false teachers are trying to do.
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And what would Jesus' words be? Beware! Watch out!
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Now we're in the Sermon on the Mount, and we just looked last week at the first warning.
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At the very end of the sermon, and you can see if you have a red -letter Bible, Jesus' words in chapter 5, chapter 6, and chapter 7.
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He's coming to the end of His sermon, and now He wants the application to stand out. He wants you to ask the question,
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I must respond to Jesus' words. I have to do something about it. I can't just listen, but I must obey.
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When Moses said to the people of Israel, listen to these words, he didn't just say listen, he meant listen and obey.
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And Jesus gives four kind of short machine gun warnings at the end of the book, beginning in chapter 7, verse 13.
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At the end of the sermon, rather. And remember, last week, the first warning is found in verse 13 and 14.
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And here's the basic warning. You just don't float into heaven. You don't just kind of coast into the narrow gate.
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You just don't one day wake up and say, oh, I made it. My father used to say, son, clean your room.
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That room needs to be cleaned now. It won't be cleaned by osmosis.
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Jesus lays out righteousness of the kingdom. He lays out the Father's plan. But then
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He says you just don't somehow float into it. You have to enter. When I do funerals, or when
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I attend funerals, rather, I'm amazed to sit and watch and listen. And I think this, the people here in this room believe, because of their own self -deceit and because of this false teacher who stands up and says, this person basically is in heaven because they died.
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It is salvation by death. It is salvation by baptism. It is salvation by something. And Jesus is saying on the sermon, there's some kind of personal response and conversion.
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Yes, salvation is all of God. It's all of God's grace. But there is a response to salvation. And that response should be enter.
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He could have said believe, repent, follow, forsake. You just can't hear these words and go,
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I'm in. Dad's a Christian. Mom's, I almost said mom's a pastor. You'd be in more trouble.
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He gives a second warning now. And He says there's a compounding problem.
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Here's the narrow gate. Here's the wide gate. And there are spiritually false teachers standing at these gates as carnival barkers.
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You don't need to go in the small gate here. You just need to go in the broad gate. I've seen lots of people go in the broad gate.
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They can bring their sin in. They can bring the girlfriend that they live with. They can bring all these other things in.
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They're good to go. Just come on this narrow gate. Forget it. You can almost think of kind of Pilgrim's Progress background.
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Next week, we'll see in verses 21 through 23, the third warning that basically shows us that you can say you're a
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Christian, but you might not be. All talk doesn't prove anything.
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And then finally, He gives in verses 24 and following, the final warning. And that's basically
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Jesus' words are super important. But today, Matthew 7, verses 15 through 20, the second warning.
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You cannot, if you are thinking about spiritual truths, go find any teacher.
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I know. I'll just go get my iPod. I'll just turn on any channel, and I'll just go, all right.
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I'm supposed to enter the gate, and I'll just, I need religion. I need to be spiritual. I just need to find a teacher. And Jesus is going to say, watch out, because not every teacher is a good teacher.
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There are lots of false teachers. They're everywhere. They're real. They're satanic. And we need to be careful.
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Let's read the passage, verses 15 through 19. The main word last week was enter.
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The main word this week is beware. And I'll put the focus on that as I read it, Matthew 7, 15 to 20. Beware of the false prophets who came to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
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You'll know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
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So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
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A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown to the fire.
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So then, verse 20, you will know them by their fruits. There are two doors, two gates, two destinies, and you ought to be careful.
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Now, if you look back in chapter 6, verse 1, you see the exact same word. Chapter 6, verse 1, it says,
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Beware of practicing your righteousness before men. Exact same word we have here.
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The word beware, before we get into our outline, I think it's very fascinating, but more importantly, biblical and important for you to know.
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There's kind of three nuances to this biblical word, beware. First nuance, you want to turn your mind to something.
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It's used of a ship, and you're going to try to bring the ship in to dock the ship. I'll never forget the first time
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I turned 14. We had a little John boat, a little Joe boat kind of thing, and we were on the Missouri River.
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There's a current, and my father was explaining everything, and he basically said, You want to go upstream, up against the current, and then slowly come over to the dock.
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Yeah, yeah, Dad, that's right. Then my sister said, Dad, could I ride with Mike? Sure. So my sister sat in the front with one of those big orange kind of old life jackets, you know.
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And so I thought, I don't really want to go downstream and then back upstream. I'll just kind of come downstream a little bit and just turn off the engine at the last minute.
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And I was not aware. I was not bewaring. I was not turning my mind to this. And so I just come down the
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Missouri River, turned off the engine. We coast in way too fast, compounded with the streams, the river's current, and we slammed into that thing.
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And my sister, I could see it today, just went flying forward onto the dock. When you bring a ship to land, you have to pay attention.
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So the first nuance of this word is to pay attention. You do well to pay attention to a lamp shining in a dark place, 2
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Peter 1, verse 19. There's another nuance that means to devote yourself to, to occupy yourself with.
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For instance, 1 Timothy chapter 4, until I come, give attention to public reading. Paul says,
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Timothy, when you read the scripture, you want to make sure that's a key thing that you do in a worship service.
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You really want to make sure you apply yourself in that area. But then the third nuance, which Jesus gives in Matthew chapter 7, verse 15 of beware, it's to watch out, to be on your guard, to stand with heightened awareness.
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You might think of walking through a place that has landmines. How gingerly might you walk through such a place?
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If you're looking for some kind of old booby traps in the jungle at Vietnam that have little strings and little kind of markers that you might be able to figure out, that could be a booby trap.
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Just how carefully would you look down when you walked? That's the scrutiny that's used here.
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That's the intensity here, beware. If you're walking through Africa and there are 28 kinds of snakes that can kill you,
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I think you don't look up at the stars all the time. I think you look down carefully to see what's around.
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Acts chapter 20, verse 28, be on your guard. And that's the idea here. This is a state of alert.
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You should be careful about this. You should watch out and be on your guard. And basically,
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Jesus says, it's incumbent upon you as a kingdom citizen to do that. It's a present imperative, always, an ongoing, not just suggestion, but I command you to watch out.
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And again, it's not the elders take care of that. The elders may take care of that, but this is for kingdom citizens.
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You go, you know, this is kind of an exaggeration. Everything's, you know, factor of 10 and everything's supposed to be so important.
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Well, I think I'm not exaggerating today because these are from the lips of Jesus. And if he says you ought to be careful, then you should be careful.
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Let me give you five bewares so that you'll be properly cautious regarding false teachers.
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Marching orders, if you will, for the church today for you so that you'll see these people for who they are.
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Before I get into number one, P .S., Jesus was not a postmodern.
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Jesus believed in black and white truth, propositional truth. This is the way to enter.
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This is not the way. These are the good teachers. These are the false teachers. Antithetical, propositional truth.
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A .W. Tozer said, great saints have always been dogmatic. We need to return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the word of God that lives and abides forever.
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You don't do yourself any good to say, well, it's live and let live, and everybody just kind of, oh, it's not that big a deal.
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That's your truth, Jesus. Jesus, that's good for you, and it applies to you.
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But no, this is a universal truth from the Creator. Five bewares. Beware number one.
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Beware there are many false teachers. Plural false teachers. It'd be one thing if there was only one.
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Let's mark that guy. Let's kind of do the sketch like that FBI sketch and fax it around so we all know what this person looks like.
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But there are what? Many. Do you see the text? Beware of the false prophet?
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No. Beware of the false prophets. It's plural.
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We don't know which particular false prophets Jesus was talking about in this case. It could have been the
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Pharisees, certainly, or the Sadducees. But he's given it generally, I believe, for all the church, for all the ages.
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Jesus says there's an antichrist. He has an infantry, and you need to be careful to watch. Now, when you say prophet, you might think, what's a prophet?
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When I think of prophet, I think of, oh, he gives predictions. He tells the future. But if you were a
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Jew or if you're reading your Old Testament and someone says, I'm a prophet, what would you think? He may be telling something about the future, but he's mainly a spokesperson for God.
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A prophet does this. Thus saith what? The Lord. The canon wasn't put together back in those days.
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We didn't have the entire revealed word of God from Genesis to Revelation. And I bet it was probably pretty tempting for people to go, yeah,
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I know a good way to get people to follow me, give money to me, do things for me. I think I'll go to them and say, thus saith the
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Lord. Well, how am I going to check? I can't really check necessarily. I don't have the full canon.
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I have Moses. I can check some of there. But Jesus said, there are going to be people that come to you, and they're going to say,
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I speak for God. False prophets use seven times in the New Testament. Why don't you move with me to Matthew chapter 24.
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Let me give you another example of this. If you think, well, Jesus only said it once, so it's not that big a deal. It's over and over and over.
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False prophet. By the way, you'll know the Greek word when I say it. Pseudo prophetates.
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Pseudo. False prophets. There's your Greek word. Pseudo prophetates. Ever been to one of those churches?
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They say, okay, congregation. Now, I'll repeat after me. Pseudo prophetates. Matthew 24, 23.
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Again, the focus here is there's not just one. There are many. Matthew 24, 23.
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Then if anyone says to you, behold, here's the Christ. Or there he is. What?
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Do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders.
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So as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. It can't be done. But Jesus is saying, it's almost that bad.
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Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, behold, he's in the wilderness. Do not go out.
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Or behold, he's in the inner rooms. Do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west.
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So will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
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There are many. The Bible says there are false apostles, false brethren, false circumcision, false
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Christs. All you have to do is turn on your TV and you can see one after another, after another, after another.
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You have to discern. You can't just say to yourself, I have to love. And love has to accept.
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No, love has to discern. Love says in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, I'm going to rejoice with the what?
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Love rejoices with the truth. You say, well, you know,
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I don't really like negative preaching. I don't like it when the pastor names names. It kind of makes me feel uncomfortable.
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I want to be known what we're for. It's a little bit different for Jesus. I don't see
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Jesus saying, by the way, some of those false prophets, they're against abortion.
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They don't like the poor people having no food. So let's unite with them. Let's all get ecumenical.
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Let's just get together. We have a common cause. It's good to be pro -life. It's good to be pro -feeding the poor.
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So let's get together with all them. I think we could learn from Spurgeon. Spurgeon said, it's easy to cry a confederacy.
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But that union is not based on truth of God. It's rather based on a conspiracy than a communion.
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Charity by all means, but honesty also. Love, of course, but love to God as well as love to men.
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And love of truth as well as love of union. There are so many people saying, listen, here is the narrow gate.
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Here is the broad gate. Let's just stand here. I almost imagine some kind of guy selling programs at a football game or a basketball game.
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You ever seen those guys that sell programs? By the way, if you ever are a program seller, let me give you the line of all lines as a salesman or a saleswoman to sell programs.
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Don't just say programs, you know, $19. Be useful today and, you know, tomorrow they're no good.
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Here's what you say. You look them in the eyes and you say, you've got to have.
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You've got to have a program. And here are these false teachers, many of them false prophets. Thus saith the
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Lord. Narrow gate. No big deal. Compression can't come in with your sin and yourself.
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Forget all that. You have a wide gate. It's OK. And here's what they end up doing. These false teachers, they say this.
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Do you know what? It's not salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. It's salvation. Plus a little bit of works.
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That'll get you in. That'll get you in. It's no problem. You don't need to do this salvation by grace alone.
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Salvation is of the Lord. I'm the Lord your God and I'm the one who'll only save. You just, you know, you don't have to do all that.
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Kind of just trusting in the work of another and relying upon this risen Savior. Just add a little baptism.
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Add a little confirmation. Just add something. It's just so much better. And there's lots of them. They're all there.
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It's kind of nice because it's just not one person saying it. One of the reasons why we sell books out here is because I don't want you to think
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I'm the weird person. You know, the only one, you know, seems like in a desert calling you out.
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No, there are other people who say the same things. On the flip side, here's all these false teachers. Let's see.
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You don't really like to put some works together, so we'll say this. Salvation by faith, but you don't need any works afterwards.
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You're saved by grace, but no works follow. You can just live the way you want when you're done. Good to go.
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Take Jesus as your hell insurance. You have to be careful, Jesus says. Beware.
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Beware number two. Number one, beware there are many false teachers. The second, be on your guard.
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Beware false teachers do not promote themselves as false teachers. They don't promote themselves as false teachers.
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Hi, my name's Mr. Spiritual Cyanide, and come right over here, and you can imagine the kind of, I have my wares here.
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They'll all damn you and send you to hell today. Come one, come all. They don't have horns.
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They don't have teeth and fangs and blood. Pitchforks.
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Angels of death with sickles. You know what they do? They look nice.
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I mean, if a sheep ever comes up to you, you go, I think across the street there's two sheep in that land over there for sale.
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If you somehow walked out of church this morning, and those sheep got loose, and those sheep were in the front, what would you do?
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Ah, call the policemen who are ushers at BBC and get the guns out. Get the clocks out. The sheep.
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I mean, just about three days ago, we got the phone call, and it went around our neighborhood like wildfire. There's a bear in the cul -de -sac.
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A brown bear. Get the dogs in. A real bear. And there was a real bear in the neighborhood. One person called the police, and they said,
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I don't know what to do, but there's a bear in the area. Okay. There's a bear. If there was a bear out here, you would run.
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If there was a wild dog out here, you would run. If there was a wild hog out here, you would run.
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But if there was a nice little fluffy sheep, what would you do? I know what my kids would be doing, and they'd come running up to me with those eyes, and before they even asked one question,
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I would say, no. Read your minds. No. These false teachers look like sheep.
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Nobody's going to go, let me get the stick out to get rid of these sheep. They present themselves as one of us.
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Harmless. A church father, Irenaeus, said, error indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity.
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Lest being thus exposed, it should be at once detected. But it is craftily decked out in attractive dress, so as by its outward form to make it appear to the inexperienced more true than truth itself.
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I mean, wouldn't it be one thing if a heretic came to the door and said, Jesus isn't
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God. Believe me, and you're going to go to heaven. We would recognize heretics very quickly.
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Wouldn't we also easily detect someone who came and said, I used to be a Christian. I used to be a pastor.
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I used to be a preacher, but I'm not one anymore. I'm an apostate. Believe me, there's no God. They would be very easy to detect.
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But these aren't heretics. These aren't apostates. These are people in sheep's clothing. Now think about it a little bit.
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It's not that they're trying to dress up and act like one of the lay people necessarily. Clergy back in the
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Bible days, Levites back in the Bible days, leaders back in the Bible days, wore what kind of clothes?
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It was made out of what? Polyester, of course. It was made out of wool. These leaders wear clothes that's made by sheep wool.
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Now turn with me, if you would, to Jeremiah 23. If you'd like some homework, I'd like you to read all of Jeremiah sometime in the next couple weeks, and you can see how often the drumbeat, the consistent drumbeat,
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God has Jeremiah expose. He'll have him expose these false teachers.
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Just put it in your memory banks, Jeremiah 23. When you want to think of these false teachers as sheep and what they say and how they contradict
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God, just remember Jeremiah 23. You may remember Jeremiah 1, that God knows children from the womb.
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You may remember some other chapter. But I want you to remember now Jeremiah 23. If you ever want to be ordained one day or sit on an ordination fellowship committee,
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Jeremiah 23 is what you want to go to. And it is one of the most fascinating passages, I think, of all of Jeremiah.
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Verse 16, thus says the Lord of hosts, Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.
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Well, that's interesting. They're leading you into futility. They speak a vision. Now we get a little insight.
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They speak a vision of their own what? Imagination. Not from the mouth of God.
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Show me somebody that doesn't speak for God. I'll show you somebody that says this all the time, because it's hard to get a big following if you don't say this.
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How do you get a compact center in Houston filled to the brim with people? You say this. They keep saying to those who despise me,
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The Lord has said, now remember this is a false teacher saying, The Lord has said, you will have peace.
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And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, they say to the people as a false prophet,
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Calamity will not come upon you. Jeremiah 23, 18. But who has stood in the counsel of the
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Lord, that he should see and hear his word? Who has given heed to his word and listened? Behold, the storm of the
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Lord has gone forth in wrath, even as a whirling tempest will swirl down on the head of the wicked.
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Oh, would you dare say, oh, peace, prosperity, safety, everything's going to be great.
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God's not just love. He's a loving God who's also holy. Verse 20, the anger of the
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Lord will not turn back until he's performed and carried out the purposes of his heart. In the last days, you will clearly understand it.
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I did, verse 21, not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied.
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What would a prophet really say if he did stand before God? Here's the prophet standing before the great king, and the king says,
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I'm going to discharge you into my realm. Here's how I want you to speak. Verse 22, but if they had stood in my counsel, then they would have announced my words to my people, and they would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their hands.
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Am I a God who is near, declares the Lord, and not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him, declares the
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Lord? Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? And this isn't for comfort. Sometimes, omnipresence is for comfort.
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Here, it's not. It's for conviction. Verse 25, I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in my name, saying,
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I had a dream. I had a dream. I went to heaven and wrote a book about it.
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Oh, sorry, that's not in the text, but that's in Walmart. How long?
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Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart?
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Who intend to make my people forget my name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal?
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Verse 28, the prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has my word speak my word in truth.
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What does straw have in common with grain, declares the Lord? Is not my word like fire, declares the
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Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the
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Lord, who steal my words from each other. You want to have a prophet who always says, thus saith the
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Lord, thus saith the Lord. Now, when God's speaking, notice how many times in this text, declares the Lord, declares the
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Lord, declares the Lord. Verse 32, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams, declares the
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Lord, related them and led my people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting, that I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit.
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Just like Peter says, they are like clouds without water, declares the Lord. Friends, there are many, but they don't act like sheep.
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They sneak in. They're deceitful workers. What does 2 Peter 2, verse 1 say?
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They smuggle things in. It's like crossing the border. They pack things up underneath the tour bus so the people don't see them, and they just sneak them in in a cunning, covert way to lead, no, to mislead.
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They bewitch people like the Galatians. And the bad news is,
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I think they look fine. You meet one of these false teachers on TV, and if you met him at the supermarket, you wouldn't go.
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You'd go, oh, well -mannered, seems to be true to God, seems to talk about God.
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But let me give you something that's very, very important. It's not necessarily what the false teachers say.
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It's what they don't say. It's what they don't say that'll get you.
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You have to be careful. Sometimes if you ever go to a church and you want to visit a church, say to yourself as you discern the church, be a
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Berean in the church, you say, here's what they said, but also I need to pay attention to what they didn't say, what they did and what they didn't do.
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And here, what do they not talk about? I'll tell you what they don't talk about. They won't talk about unless you're righteous and succeeds.
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That inscribes the Pharisees. They won't talk about Matthew chapter 5, 48. You have to be perfect to get into heaven.
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They won't say it's entered by the narrow gate or else. They don't say those kind of things. They want to please everybody.
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I mean, I can't believe everybody showed back up after last week's sermon. I was ready for just the front row, a few folks.
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Who can build a church like that if there aren't real Christians there? So how do you build a fake church?
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You have to say nice things. You know, you should just sit down in your room and just have a little contemplation this week.
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And here's what you should say to yourself. You know, I just can't get my arms wrapped around God. You're just so crazy about me.
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That'll fill a church. What is offensive to a sinner isn't spouted by the false teacher.
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They'll say, God, Jesus is God, Jesus is going to come back. But it's what they don't say.
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There is a standard, and you, listeners of the false teachers, are wicked.
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You're depraved. You have no ability to turn and repent on your own. When was the last time you heard a false teacher talk about depravity?
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When was the last time you heard a false teacher talk about God determined by His infinite wisdom that when Adam fell, you were in Adam, and what
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Adam did, you got credit for as well? People don't want to talk about that. Nobody's going to criticize someone that's all love and all
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Jesus. What's wrong with this? The only thing we can learn from the cross of Christ is
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God's great demonstration of love. Now, was it a demonstration of love?
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It was a wonderful demonstration. The demonstration of love. But that is not the only point learned from the cross.
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You have to realize that not just God loves His people and sent His Son, but God hates sin, and He is willing to punish
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His own Son. There's substitution involved. A penalty involved. It's not what they say.
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It's what they don't say half the time. No repentance. No examining your own soul. I got an email from my friend this week, and he is a neat guy, and he's a lawyer, and I said, would you please listen to my sermon last week in Matthew 7, 13 and 14 about the narrow road?
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Because I wanted him to listen to it and get saved. And he said, what did your congregation think when you said there are probably many people in this congregation who aren't
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Christians? How did they respond? I guess
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I can say now most of them came back. Christians came back. Maybe some unbelievers came back.
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But my point is this, you don't say that if you want to get a lot of people to follow you. I don't want people to follow me, by the way, and that's the nice thing about preaching the
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Bible. I want to have you follow Christ Jesus and His Word. Oh, it's not really sin.
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It's kind of sickness. Satan is not really real. Kind of a myth, but we get kind of a general, you know, he's bad.
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True prophets stand on the corner and say what? I'm going to raise my voice just for attention. I'm burning up in here.
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It's hot. I've got to wake up. If I'm getting tired, you must be getting tired. Here's what a true prophet says.
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Wake up. Why would God send the prophet if everybody's doing the right thing?
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He sends prophets to say, listen, you're doing this. You're going that way. I'm telling you stop it.
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Turn the other way. When I used to teach our kids repentance, how do you teach an abstract thought of repentance to little tiny kids that are three years old?
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So I said, everybody stand up from the kitchen table, all single file line, begin to walk and keep walking until you hear me say something.
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When you hear me say this word, any word, the first word that I say, you turn around like this and begin to walk the other way.
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And you keep walking until I say the word again. And off we go. So, you know, the kids are like, you know, really dad?
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You mean it? Yeah. Okay. Walking. Repent. Repent.
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To turn the other way. God sends prophets to say you're walking that way towards bail, towards universalism, towards Unitarianism.
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Turn. Paul said to the church of Corinth, they thought that they were following good people.
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He says, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
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No wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Back to Matthew 7, 15, number three, the third, beware the third.
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Watch out. Beware. There are many false teachers. Beware. False teachers don't look like false teachers.
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Number three, beware. False teachers are like vicious wolves.
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Verse 15, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
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When you think of wolf, what do you think of? You should think of ferocity, aggressiveness.
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That's what you should think of. I think we've seen too many wolves in zoos, frankly. Too many some kind of half -wolf sled team dog.
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I did a little research on wolves, and here's what I'm going to try to do. I'm going to try to make you be convinced that wolves are wicked and evil, and if you saw a wolf, you would run and run from a wolf.
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And I'm purposely going to shock, but not at the beginning. We'll lead up to that.
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Wolves are apex predators in whatever ecosystem they're in. Top dogs.
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Some up to 85 pounds. Wolves have scent glands between their toes, which leave chemical markers behind so other wolves know where they are and how they can help navigate them.
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Wolves have long canine teeth capable of delivering.
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I don't even know what these words, these synonyms stand for, but I'm going to read it as is. Capable of delivering up to 10 ,000 kpa's of pressure.
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They use their teeth for weapons, and they've got twice the bite of a dog in terms of pressure.
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Wolves are so ferocious, so ravenous, so horrible, that if a wolf has a litter and there's some epileptic pups there, they'll thrash those pups to death right away.
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If there's another wolf that's been trapped in a trap or wounded by a gunshot, they'll immediately try to kill those other members of their own pack.
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When a wolf sees a moose, it chases it, and it wants to bite or tear the haunches or perineum.
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It wants it to bleed there. Three bites will usually down a moose or a large deer. But they like sheep the best, and they can kill a sheep by either severing the windpipe or the jugular.
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They like to grab the sheep by the neck, bring the sheep off to a secluded place, and then tear open the abdominal cavity while eating the sheep alive.
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Most especially, though, wolves like to attack pregnant sheep to eat the sheep fetuses while they leave the mother uneaten.
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Jesus now says, these false teachers are wolves. Not some kind of zoo animal.
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They're wolves. More dangerous than dogs. More dangerous than hogs. They are thieves, and they want to try to kill.
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God has His sheep. The wolves come. It's nothing new. Ezekiel says in chapter 22, her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey.
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They shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Zephaniah 3, her officials are roaring lions.
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Her rules are evening wolves. And sadly, it's worse than just a wolf trying to get you because you can die physically.
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There's something worse than this. This is talking about spiritual death. How about this? Acts chapter 20.
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Paul said, Be on your guard for yourselves and all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to the shepherd of the church which he purchased with his own blood.
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I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
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And from among your own selves, people will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.
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Therefore, be on the alert. Ravenous means in this context in Matthew 7, greedy.
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They just can't get enough. How much is enough? I don't know. It's not enough. More. They're violent.
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And these wolves literally roam the hills and valleys around Israel and so too do the false teachers roam.
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That's why on a side note, if you think you're, and I don't think you are today because you wouldn't be here. Solo Christians get eaten to first.
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Well, I'll have my TV church today and I'll have my TV fellowship and I'll give online and I'll do all that other stuff.
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You are wolf bait is what you are. Pirates don't look for the armada to attack.
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They look for the stragglers. Number four.
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Fourth, beware. Number one, there are many false teachers. Number two, they look anything but like false teachers.
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Number three, they're like vicious wolves. Number four, you can discern them if you look at their fruit.
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Beware. You'll need to be discerning so that you can recognize them. You need to be a fruit inspector.
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People all the time, oh, you shouldn't be a fruit inspector. Well, I don't know what religion that is, but it's not
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Christianity because Jesus says be fruit inspectors. It's tricky. They deceive, but you can see what they're like when you look at their conduct, when you look at their creed, when you look at their characteristics,
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A .W. Pink says. And look at verse 16. You will almost know them.
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No. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles.
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Are they? He says, you know, when you go up to a plant, the best way to figure out what kind of plant it is is not to look at the roots.
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I think I'll look at the roots and I can tell what kind of thing that might be. I'll look at the flowers. I'll look at the leaves. I'll look at the bark.
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I'll look at what kind of birds sit up in those trees. What kind of animals eat those berries? No. The best thing to do if you want to figure out what kind of tree that is,
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I guarantee you, if you look at the fruit, you'll know what kind of tree it is. Now, I found it fascinating to see the passage there in verse 16, grapes from thorn bushes.
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Who would ever do that? Is this just metaphorical by Jesus? But many commentators say that there were certain kind of thorn bushes back in those days that had small, dark berries.
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And if you were far away, you'd look at them and you'd go, hmm, they look pretty good to eat. But they weren't good to eat.
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And if you were far enough away, maybe a certain thistle bush thistle plant might look like it had something good to eat, like a fig, but when you got close, you'd realize it has nothing to do with something good to eat.
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Jesus says you can see their fruit. Fruit is just figurative for their life, for their manner of being.
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What a person does, who he is. King James would call it conversation. Look at their character.
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Don't be tricked by their false words. You're getting very sleepy with what I say.
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I don't know if you ever played basketball or football, but one thing I learned when I was a kid, early on from the coaches, if you want to try to tackle somebody with the football, or if you want to try to guard somebody who's got the basketball, you don't look at their eyes.
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You don't look at the ball, kind of yo -yo around. Sometimes if I'm going to get the kids,
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I'll put one hand up here and do this, they look up and then it's easy tickling. It's just distracting. When you want to try to be a good defensive player, you look at the midsection, because it's kind of hard to duck and jive this.
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Some harder for others. Some easier for others. Jesus is saying, don't buy into their words, because the words are going to be nice.
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They might not be total, they might not say everything about the word, but they're going to be good, so watch what they say, of course.
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But Jesus says, watch who they are. Watch their lives. It is a fact, it is a maxim, that what you are on the inside will come out on the outside.
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True? Who you are will be manifest in time by what you say or what you do.
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By the way, that's another reason why you should have long -term pastors and long -term pastorates.
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Because anybody can just come in for a year or two and just blow smoke. What's the person's life like?
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I can't judge their eloquence. I can't judge their persuasiveness. I can't judge their acumen. I have to judge, is it biblical?
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And what kind of fruit is the Spirit of God producing in their life? Jesus gives a positive in verse 17 and then a negative in verse 18.
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The principle is found in verse 16 and now he gives a positive illustration of that principle, verse 17.
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Positively, so every good tree bears good fruit, the bad tree bears bad fruit.
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This is just that Hebrew way again of saying there's two choices, two roads, two destinies, two kinds of teachers, two kinds of fruit.
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John Calvin said, nothing is more difficult than to counterfeit virtue. Eventually that volcano of false teacher has to blow its top and let the lava come out and then you see what's on the inside.
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Oh, you can hide it for a while, but eventually. And then Jesus says on the flip side, verse 18, a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor a bad tree produce good fruit.
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It's impossible. It's just a statement of fact. Some of the bad fruit we're going to look into, but we've run out of time.
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People twist Scripture, some of their bad fruit. They try to say Jesus isn't going to come back in 2
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Peter, that's bad fruit. They're greedy, 2 Peter 2, in their greed they will exploit you.
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Over time you can watch. I watch this false teacher and what comes out of his life?
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He's legalistic, he's controlling, he's manipulative, he's sexually immoral, he's greedy, and you just watch it.
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Just watch. Because unbelievers cannot restrain the flesh.
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Eventually their divisiveness comes out. Eventually their factiousness comes out. Eventually their arrogance comes out.
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And Jesus says, you of course listen to what they say, but you also watch who they are and what their people become.
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Well, congregation, that means you should probably not just watch what I say, but watch what I do. J .C.
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Ryle said, there are thousands who seem to believe anything in religion if they hear it from an ordained minister.
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Similarly, Spurgeon said, I charge you, examine every statement you hear from Christian pulpits and platforms.
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You can't just take my word for it, and more than that, you can't just say, well this is what Mike says, but this is how
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Mike acts. Number five, lastly, quickly. Fifth, beware.
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Beware, but also be encouraged. The false teachers will get their due one day. They'll be judged one day.
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So we need to watch out, but you don't have to try to get them all the time. Jesus is going to take care of that.
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And he says, verse 19, still language of agriculture, still language everybody would understand. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is what?
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Just discarded, put to the side for maybe another day. It is what?
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Cut down, and if that's not enough, it's thrown into the fire. It's one thing if you just, you know, back in the
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Old Testament days, what'd you do if you didn't really like someone? Well, you'd say, well, we'll bury them not in their home country, and then we'll also put an outhouse on top of their grave.
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It's like that double whammy thing here. Cut them down and throw them into the fire. That's all they're good for.
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They're worthless. They're rotten. Cut them down. God did not spare angels when they sinned.
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God did not spare the ancient world when they sinned. God did not, if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, what will he do to false teachers?
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And then he says in verse 20, so then you will know them by their fruits. What they say, what they do, how they act.
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The best thing you can do if you're a Christian to find a false teacher is to know this book.
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I never say to myself, and it's not based on pride, it's not based on that at all. I say to myself, the
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Lord has let me know this book well enough that I will never be deceived by a false teacher's words again.
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And I'll show you that in 1 John 2. Last passage, please turn there. 1 John 2.
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I want to encourage you to know this book. And when you know this book, you will easily spot satanic error.
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All kinds of error. The error that we saw today in the text is when people say, oh, salvation's not narrow, it's wide.
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But there's all kinds of other false teachers. 1 John 2. There are degrees of maturation for the
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Christian. Yes, every Christian's justified. Yes, every Christian will be glorified. But as we learn in Christ, and as we grow, there are levels to maturity.
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And John uses three. There are babies, they don't know anything. They know their dad.
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They know their mom. There are young men, they are skilled in the Word, and they know right from wrong.
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And then there are fathers who just have known God for so long, it's a very first -name basis, it's very personal, and you can know the
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Word. When I first read this, I was given so much encouragement, so much hope, I thought, I can know.
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1 John 2. I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven for His namesake.
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If you're a Christian, even if you're an immature Christian, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. You're a day -old
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Christian. And my sins are forgiven. The thief on the cross, my sins are forgiven. I'm writing to you, fathers, verse 13, because you know
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Him, this deep abiding knowledge and fellowship, because you've known Him throughout the years. He's been from the beginning.
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I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I've written to you, children, because you know the
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Father. I've written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. How do you know that you can overcome the evil one, verse 13?
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The last part of verse 14. I have written to you, young men, and certainly young women as well, but here's the text, is young men, because you are strong.
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How can you be strong when it comes to overcoming the evil one? Because the Word of God, what?
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Abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
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We, at this church, have been blessed. We don't want to hear only smooth things. We want to hear from the
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Word of God. Be careful when somebody comes to you and begins to tell you what you want to hear.
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It's like the New York City couple mailed two tickets to the smash Broadway hit.
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No sender's information, no address, no explanation, no identification. They went to the show.
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They thought it was a wonderful gift. They loved the show. They came home that night, and they found that their home had been totally ransacked, looted.
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Furs gone, jewelry gone, money gone, everything gone. On the pillow was a little note. Now you know.
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False teachers are just like that person. They give the people what they want to hear so they can extract from those people what they want to get.
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Beware. Let's pray. Thank you,
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Father, for these words. Thank you that we can come to you and now ask that your
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Spirit may generously and liberally apply these truths to our heart.
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You've taught us from your Word that we are unable, physically unable, spiritually, to somehow try harder or to work these things out on our own.
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We know we've been saved by grace, and we know we have the promise of sanctification by grace through the
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Spirit of God. So we would ask that you'd help us to do that. We'd ask for Bethlehem Bible Church.
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The leadership levels, that there would be never a false prophet or false teacher. We ask for the lay people as well, that we might be very discerning when someone comes in and they want to learn the truth, that we're kind and generous, but when they want to somehow talk about our
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Savior in a way that's demeaning or the Word in a demeaning way, that you would help us be young men, young women, who are mature in the
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Word and we understand right from wrong. And we're thankful, Father, that at the end, we don't have to guard ourselves, we don't have to keep ourselves, we don't have to preserve ourselves.
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We have a Great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, and that Good Shepherd, Jesus, has laid down His life for the sheep.
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How different than the wolves, how different from the dogs. Thank you that that Great Shepherd is our Shepherd, the
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Shepherd of the flock, and how He's purchased us with His own blood and was raised from the dead. In Jesus' name, amen.