Host of THE SERMON dissects Matthew 7:15-23 and Luke 10:41-42, warning that false prophets mimic sheep while harboring wolfish intent. He distinguishes secondary debates like baptism modes from grave errors such as denying Christ's divinity, noting Satan intensifies deception during spiritual revivals. Analyzing "Martha, Martha" and "Lord, Lord," the speaker clarifies that verbal intimacy or miraculous works do not guarantee salvation if one fails to do the Father's will. Ultimately, true belonging is evidenced by repentant fruit, assuring believers that those truly given to Christ will never be forsaken despite superficial claims of closeness. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Discerning False Prophets by Their Fruit00:15:01
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We are continuing our series through the Gospel according to Matthew.
Our text for today is Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 through 23.
Again, that's Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 through 23.
I'll read our text in its entirety.
When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
One final time, our text for today is the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 through 23.
The Bible says this.
Beware false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will recognize them by their fruits.
Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?
And then will I declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, You workers of lawlessness.
This is the word of the Lord.
All right, please be seated.
By way of introduction, I've written the following.
It's in your notes.
Feel free to follow along.
This passage warns against false prophets and advises us to be careful not to be misled by them.
Prophets are typically people who predict future events.
And in the Old Testament, some falsely claim to be prophets without any real authority, without having been commissioned.
By God.
And their predictions were ultimately proven wrong.
However, prophets, in addition to making a foretelling, predictive statement, prophets also taught people how to live righteously.
Not just foretelling, but forthtelling, instruction, instructing the people in how to live righteously.
So, in our context today, primarily false prophets is referring actually to false teachers.
Since Christ is both a prophet and a teacher who was sent by God, and he intended to send out other teachers as well in his name, Jesus warns us to beware of imposters who, instead of guiding souls with true teachings, would ultimately lead them astray.
That's the big idea of our text today.
Now, what Jesus says right off the bat in our text is that the determining factor.
For discerning whether or not somebody is in fact a false prophet or a false teacher, is their fruit.
You will know them or recognize them by their fruit.
Verse 15, he gives the warning Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
So, right off of the very beginning of our text, there's the warning Beware, there are such a thing as false prophets or false teachers, and they're dangerous.
They're ravenous wolves.
Secondly, be extra cautious because they're not just dangerous.
But they're deceptive.
They're deceitful.
So it's not just that they're ravenous wolves, but it's two things, two descriptions that are listed here.
They're ravenous wolves, inwardly, that's who they truly are, and that is ultimately their purpose to devour you.
Now, notice real quick, ravenous wolves, it's not just that they want to kill and destroy, but they want to eat.
They want to devour you.
The false teacher doesn't just want to destroy the body of Christ, he wants to use, ultimately, the body of Christ.
So he doesn't just want to hurt Christians, he ultimately wants to benefit from Christians at their expense, but to his own gain.
The ravenous wolf is not just going around killing sheep, he's eating and devouring sheep.
That's the image here.
So, a ravenous wolf.
So, one, they're dangerous.
They have teeth.
And they're also selfish.
It's not just that they have a bloodlust without, you know, it's arbitrary, it's capricious, it's without any design.
Now, they are bloodthirsty.
There is a bloodlust.
They do wish to do harm, but not arbitrarily.
They wish to do harm with the purpose.
What they have in mind is their own gain.
But, secondly, that's one description.
They want to harm the flock by using the flock, but secondly, they look outwardly like sheep.
They wear sheep's clothing.
So, two descriptors right off the bat, we get the warning beware of false prophets.
In that, I'm including also false teachers.
So, beware of false prophets, false teachers, and what should you look for?
What are some descriptions of them?
Well, they're wolves that seek to do harm for self gain.
Also, outwardly, they dress as sheep.
And so they are deceptive.
They are harmful, but they appear innocent.
Okay, that's verse 15.
Verse 16, this is where we get the deciphering code, if you will, the way of discerning and distinguishing who, in fact, is a false prophet or a false teacher.
Verse 16 says, You will recognize them by their fruits.
Their fruits.
Now, that's important.
And then Jesus goes on to describe this in more detail.
Grapes, are they gathered from thorn bushes?
No, they're gathered from grapevines.
And he goes and says, Figs, are they gathered from thistles?
No.
So every healthy tree, if it's a good tree, it has good fruit.
If it's a bad tree, it has bad fruit.
And so, how do you know, how can you distinguish and label properly, accurately, the tree?
How can you say this is definitively, it actually is a good tree?
Well, it's not just looking to the stem and the bark and the leaf, but it's ultimately looking at the fruit.
If the tree is producing good fruit, then it is, in fact, a healthy tree.
Producing bad fruit, then it is in fact an unhealthy, rotten tree.
So Jesus gives us the warning watch out for false prophets, false teachers.
Why?
Why should we watch out?
What's so bad about them?
They're wolves.
They seek to harm for their own benefit.
And they're not just wolves, they're not just dangerous, but they're also crafty.
They're shrewd.
They're disguised.
They're deceptive.
So they're wolves inwardly that seek to do harm for their own benefit.
They're also sheep.
Outwardly, they look like sheep.
They dress up as sheep.
They appear innocent, but inwardly are ravenous wolves, seeking harm to the people of God for their own gain.
Okay, so if they're dressed as sheep and they're hard to spot, then what can we look for?
Number one thing that Jesus gives, now verse 16 again, to look for their fruit.
So he's saying, look past the tree itself.
Don't just look at the trunk of the tree, the branches of the tree.
The leaves of the tree, the bark, and these kinds of things, but ultimately you need to look at the fruit.
If the fruit is good, then the tree is good.
If the fruit is bad, then the tree is ultimately bad.
Now I want to use a quote here from Matthew Henry.
He's one of the primary commentators that we've been using throughout this series through the gospel according to Matthew.
Matthew Henry for the Apostle Matthew and his gospel.
It seems fitting.
Two names.
Matthew Henry, for those who don't know, he's a late great Puritan.
Matthew Henry, in commentating on trying to identify a false prophet or false teacher by looking at their fruit, he says the following The illustration of this comparison of the fruits being the discovery of the tree.
You cannot always distinguish them by their bark and leaves, that's what I was saying earlier, nor by the spreading of their boughs, but by their fruits ye shall know them.
The fruit according to the tree.
Men may, this is key, men may in their professions put a force upon their nature and contradict their inward principles, but the stream and bent of their practices will ultimately agree with them.
I'll go back and kind of break that down.
Going on, he says, Christ insists upon this the agreeableness between the fruit and the tree.
Fruit and root.
Ultimately, there will be an agreeableness.
Good fruit, good root.
Bad fruit, bad root.
An apple, Matthew Henry continues, an apple may be stuck, or a bunch of grapes may hang upon a thorn.
So may a good truth, a good word, or a good deed, an action, be found in a bad man, a bad tree.
But you may be sure that it never grew there.
So it is possible to take a dead tree, a bad tree, and hang good fruit upon it.
So you can find, there are times, I would say that it's somewhat frequent and common, that you will find good fruit on a bad tree.
There are times that you can find, I'll say again, good fruit on a bad tree.
The difference though is that only a good tree can actually grow and produce good fruit.
Good fruit can hang on a bad tree, but it can't grow it.
Good fruit can be found on a bad tree occasionally, but a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.
It can hold that good fruit temporarily on one particular branch and one particular arena, but it can't ultimately produce and grow good fruit.
That's what Matthew Henry is saying.
Now, I wanted to back up, as I said a moment ago, right there in the middle of this quote.
He says, Men may in their professions, that is, in their words, Verbally, and what they say, what they communicate, what they profess to believe.
In their professions, in their word, they may put a force upon their nature and contradict their inward principles.
Let me stop there for a moment.
Put a force upon their nature.
What he's saying is this that there's such a thing as a person simply being a bad person, that their root, the root of that person, their core, Is bad, it is unhealthy, it's poison.
And what he's saying is that they may be able to put a force upon their nature and contradict their inward principles.
What he's saying is that there are false teachers, there are false prophets, that their inward principles accord with their true inward nature, meaning they have bad principles.
Under the surface, they may not always admit it, it might not always be apparent, it might not always be conspicuous.
Elsewhere in the scripture, it says some sins are conspicuous, going ahead before judgment.
Other sins are inconspicuous, right?
They're less visible.
They're less noticeable.
And they ultimately don't get revealed until the final judgment day when God Himself reveals the thought and intent of every heart of every man.
So there's a principle here in Scripture that some sins are more conspicuous, that is obvious.
They're easy to spot.
And some sins are more inconspicuous, they're more hidden.
They're more veiled.
And so, what Matthew and Henry is saying is that some men may, in their professions, with their words, they put a force upon their nature and contradict their inward principles, meaning that their nature is actually rotten.
It's bad.
And therefore, because their nature is bad, their inward true principles of their heart, what they truly believe in, their actual convictions, their actual goals, are bad.
Bad nature, bad aim, bad aims, bad principles, bad virtues.
What they really consider.
They don't always say it, but what they really consider to be a virtue is something that, according to the word of God, would actually be a vice.
It's not really virtue.
And so there are men like this, but even these men, although by nature, at their core, they're bad, and therefore what they deem as virtuous is actually a vice, it's actually bad.
Even these men, in terms of their words, that is their professions, they can put a force upon their nature, at least in some degree, in some area.
And at some times, in some moments or seasons, they can, by their words, professions, force their nature, their true nature, which is evil.
They can suppress it, hide it, veil it, at least in part, or at least in an area, or at least for a time, and therefore contradict their true principles, which are bad and wicked and evil, in order to appear positive.
In order to appear virtuous.
And then he continues, second half of that sentence.
But the stream and bent, that's key.
The stream and bent of their practices, notice he's changing words here.
At first it was professions.
So the professions, they can say the right thing, but the stream and bent of their actions, now it's their practices, their actions, their behaviors will agree with them, meaning agree with who they really are, which in this case would be negative.
Wicked, sinful.
So he's saying their practices, the stream, that is the pattern.
The Danger of Rotten Fruit in Healthy Trees00:03:23
The pattern.
It's funny, but it's biblical and it's good and it's right.
And if anybody has a problem with it, then you've got to play the Donald Trump card.
It says, who cares?
Who cares?
The Bible tells us that we should be noticers, that we should notice patterns.
It's a biblical principle.
That's what discernment is, guys.
And the reason why I say this, this is why it matters.
You should notice.
But here's the key you should notice patterns.
Going back to Matthew Henry's words here, look at the two words he uses.
And this is intentional, but the stream and bent.
What he means by that is not just noticing an isolated failure.
No, he's saying stream and bent, meaning, no, you're noticing a continual failure.
A pattern.
So everybody, because here's the deal everybody's a sinner, right?
We know this.
Everyone's a sinner.
So the same thing that Matthew Henry said a moment ago about how good fruit, right?
You can take a bunch of grapes.
I want to say a bushel of grapes, but that's not a thing, right?
That's not a thing.
Mike, is that a thing, a bushel of grapes?
No.
A bunch, what do you call it?
A bunch?
Yeah, there we go.
A bunch of grapes.
Mike and Kez, they know.
A bunch of grapes, you could take that, right?
And you could go and find a dead tree and hang it on a limb, right?
I mean, theoretically, I'm pretty sure that that's possible.
It's within the realm of physics to hang fruit on a dead tree.
But hanging good fruit on a dead tree is not the same.
In fact, it's quite different than that fruit being produced.
By a dead tree, being grown by a dead tree.
It wasn't produced, it's just hanging there.
Well, we already covered that, but it's important that we recognize that the inverse of that principle is also true.
What do I mean by that?
You can have a living tree, a good tree that's overall healthy, and that good tree can also have rotten fruit.
And we've seen this, right?
This literally occurs in nature, right?
That you can go and if the fruit isn't harvested at the proper time, Then eventually, some of it falls off the vine, but the branches, whatever, trees I guess don't really have vines, but branches.
Let's say we're using grapes, let's use an orange tree, apple tree, apple tree, right?
It's very American, it seems right.
Apple tree.
You can have a true apple tree, it really is an apple tree, and it's actually not dead, it's a living tree.
It's a living, good tree, and yet it's filled with apples, and its stream and bent, meaning its pattern, its overall mark, is good apples, but there's still some bad ones.
Right, there's still some apples hanging there that ultimately aren't healthy, they're not good.
Whether they're infected with, I don't know, like maybe it's got worms or something like that, whatever.
I don't know.
I'm not a farmer, that's becoming painfully obvious throughout the course of this sermon, you know.
But I'm pretty sure, I think this is basic, you know, basic science.
Trust the science, guys, you know.
But I'm pretty sure that you can have a good tree that mostly has good fruit, but some of the fruit is still bad.
New Hearts and the Presence of Sin00:04:50
In other words, you can have a Christian.
Who genuinely is, by the grace of God, a born again regenerate Christian?
They're a good tree.
They have a good root.
Why?
What is the good root ultimately?
It's Christ, right?
He's the vine, we're the branches.
You're rooted in Christ.
He's the root, and you're stemming ultimately from Him.
You're growing out of Him.
You have union with Christ.
He's the substance, He's the root.
And therefore, the root is good because Christ is good.
If you're a Christian, you have union with Christ.
You have union with Christ.
He becomes the root, and Christ is always a good root.
However, Christians sin.
All of them.
All of them.
And so, because Christians sin, then what you have is you have good root, who is Christ, the Christian has union with him, and then the Christian producing, on the one hand, fruit of the Spirit, because if you're in Christ and Christ is your root, then also, per 1 Corinthians 6, your body now is a temple of the Holy Spirit who has been given to you by God, who dwells in you.
And therefore, the fruit of the Spirit, that is the manifestations and outward characteristics, visible signs of the Spirit, are apparent in your life.
So, you're going to have love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self control.
These things will be apparent in your life, but they're not the only things that will be apparent in your life.
Because for the Christian, the penalty of sin has been paid in full.
It's done.
The power of sin, being a slave to sin, the power of sin has been broken.
Penalty paid.
Power broken.
You're no longer a slave to sin, but rather now you've been freed from sin.
You're a slave to Christ.
But the presence of sin, the presence of sin in this life still remains.
This is what 1 John speaks of when it says, When we see him, we'll be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
As he is, in what context?
In what regard?
Sinless.
It's not as when we see him, we'll be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
And the is, what is he?
He's divine, deity.
And so when we see Jesus, when we're in heaven, we'll become gods.
No.
We'll always eternally be creatures, glorified creatures, albeit, but still creaturely.
Never omniscient, never omnipotent.
We will never have the marks and characteristics of the divine because we will never be divine.
So when we see him, we're not going to be like him as he is and speaking of every aspect of what he is his omniscience, his omnipotence, his divinity but we will be like him in context, reading scripture in context.
1 John is speaking of one particular trait, one particular characteristic of Christ, which is his sinlessness.
So when we see him, that is, when this life ends and we enter into the life to come.
And we see Jesus now face to face.
We will be like him in what regard?
In regard to his sinlessness, which means at that moment, and not a moment before, but at that moment, the mere presence of sin will be no more.
That even the presence of sin will be done and gone away with.
But until that moment, so long as we are in this life, even with regeneration, even with the fruit of the Spirit, Even with the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead Himself dwelling within us, even with new hearts,
hearts of flesh that have replaced the heart of stone, that are softened and malleable and receptive to the things of God, even with the law of God being written on our hearts, with God sovereignly in His providence and by the Spirit causing us to walk in His ways and be careful to obey His statutes, with all these benefits that come by the new birth, with all these promises that come by virtue of being a child of God post conversion.
With all these things, the presence of sin will remain in this life.
That won't end, not entirely, until the life to come when we see Him, we'll be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Speaking of what?
His sinlessness.
So long as we're in this life, even though we're born again by grace through faith in Christ alone, we are new creatures in Christ Jesus with new hearts and with the Spirit of God dwelling within us, the presence of sin will still remain.
Penalty paid, power broken, presence.
Remaining.
Which means, if that's true, and I believe that that's biblically true, or I wouldn't say it, if that's true, and the presence of sin remains even for the Christian in this life, even for a mature and sanctified Christian in this life, then what that means is that you can have a good tree because it has a good root.
True Fathers and Bad Roots00:09:18
The root is Christ, union with Him, that still has some, not all, but some bad fruit, namely sin.
Plenty of good fruit, namely the works of the Spirit and obedience to the law of God.
It comes by faith, but also bad fruit, namely sin.
So, a false teacher is a bad tree that has a bad root, right?
He doesn't have Christ as the root.
Ultimately, the root is his true father, which is the devil.
This is what Jesus teaches.
You're not trying to be.
Hyperbolic or bombastic, you know, just to get a rise out of it.
But this is Christian doctrine.
Jesus says in John chapter 8, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they're all trying to trap him, ultimately, so they can arrest him, do a kangaroo court, a mock trial in the middle of the night, so that they can wrongly crucify an innocent man, not just an innocent man, but the very Son of God.
And Jesus says of these people, he says, you know, because they claim, well, we're children of Abraham.
He says, nah, not really.
Not really.
Why?
Why?
Why are you not children of Abraham?
The argument that he makes is not.
Some pure genetic argument.
The argument that he makes is you're not children of Abraham, not in the true sense, the ultimate sense, the spiritual sense, because Abraham was a prophet who saw my day.
He looked down the quarters of time in the prophetic messianic sense.
He saw the promise of my arrival and he received me with gladness.
And you now, here I actually am.
Abraham only had the prophecy of my coming and he rejoiced.
You have the fulfillment of that prophecy.
I'm standing in your midst and you hate me.
In other words, True children of their genuine, authentic father are going to bear a likeness, a resemblance to their father.
But you who are claiming Abraham as your father have no resemblance because the key characteristic of Abraham is not his DNA.
And the key characteristic of Abraham is not that he teamed up with giants to fight people, you know, in the middle of the desert.
I think it's a really cool characteristic and I believe it in my bones.
But that's not the key characteristic.
The key characteristic of Abraham is that he loved Jesus.
He loved Jesus.
He had faith in Jesus, and you don't.
And therefore, because you don't, you're not his children.
So then, of course, they appeal to a higher authority.
Okay, well, maybe we're not children of Abraham, but, but, well, we can appeal even higher.
We're children of God.
Our true father is God.
And Jesus says, sure about that?
No, no, no.
The principle remains the same.
You're not children of Abraham because you don't look like him.
Children look like their father.
You don't look like Abraham.
Well, what did Abraham look like?
He looked like someone who loves Jesus.
You don't look like that.
Well, we're children of God.
No, no, no.
He's not your father either.
Why?
Because you don't look like him.
Because God, like Abraham, also is a big fan of Jesus.
God the Father loves me.
I am his beloved son.
This is my only begotten son in whom I am well pleased, and you hate me.
So you don't have any marking characteristic of God as your father either.
But there is a father who exists in the created world who you bear a stark resemblance to.
He's a liar from the very beginning.
He's a murderer from the very beginning.
You guys lie constantly.
You slander.
You produce false witness, and you're seeking to murder me just like your true father.
You look just like him.
Who is it?
The devil.
That's your daddy.
The devil is your daddy.
That's your father.
And yet, with all that being true, these people still were able to do some things that accorded.
With the word of God.
They were.
To the point where Jesus actually says in one of his sermons, he says, Do not do as the Pharisees do and the Sadducees and the lawyers and religious leaders of this day, but even Jesus says, But do as they say.
He says, Do as they say, but do not do as they practice.
So even Jesus acknowledges a lot of their teaching, a lot of their doctrine.
A lot of their profession, back to the Matthew Henry quote, a lot of their profession, they actually, by sheer grit, right?
Sola bootstrapia, right?
You're just pulling yourself up by your bootstraps with enough effort, with enough intentionality, with enough deliberation, by their mere force, they have forced upon their nature, not in deed, not in practice, but in profession, in word, they have spoken, verbally spoken, things that are true, that accord with godliness, that accord with the law of God, to such a degree that Jesus actually feels comfortable.
The sinless Son of God, who would never lead anyone astray, he, Jesus Christ, even feels comfortable saying, You can listen to their teachings.
And he doesn't just say it's permissible, he actually puts in a commandment, an obligatory statement do and obey what they teach.
They say the right thing, but do not follow their example.
Do not follow them in deed, in practice.
Because Their words conflict with their nature.
By deliberation, they have, in words, in profession, they have bent their profession in accordance, at least to some degree, relatively a high degree, in accordance with what is true.
But their life, their actions betray them.
And so, what Jesus is saying is these people, number one, Children of the devil, right?
I'm building a theological argument here.
Work with me.
It's a big thing.
Let me cook.
It's a big thing.
All right?
Number one.
Number one, their root is not Christ.
They don't have union with Christ.
Their daddy is the devil.
Okay?
So the root is satanic.
It really is satanic.
That's their root.
So bad root, therefore bad tree.
Bad root, the devil, their daddy.
Bad tree, the person, their actions, their practices.
But still, some good fruit, not all, but some good fruit in terms of word, professions, do as they say.
But not as they do.
That reality, that set of circumstances is a legitimate biblical category.
The root's bad, it's the devil, not Christ.
The tree, therefore, is bad.
And the tree being bad, ultimately it produces bad fruit because fruit and root go hand in hand.
Ultimately, bad fruit, but still, even though the overall bent and stream, meaning the pattern, I'm noticing patterns here, the overall pattern is bad, bad fruit.
That accords with a bad tree, and it's a bad tree because it has a bad root, satanic root, not Christ.
And yet, still, the pattern, the overall bent of the fruit is bad, predominantly in practices, actions.
But some of the fruit might be still good, even on a bad tree, in terms of not so much actions or practices, but their speech, their professions.
That exists.
Likewise, the opposite also exists.
Theological argument I was making previously, where I was going to 1 John and saying the presence of sin until the life to come, until we see him as he is, we will not be ultimately and perfectly like him in regards to his sinlessness.
Which means, for the Christian, here and now, from the moment of your conversion, the penalty of your sin has been paid in full, the power of sin has been broken, you're no longer a slave to it, but rather a slave to Christ, a slave to righteousness.
You are actually freed to obey, you don't have to sin, and yet you will still sin.
The presence still remains.
Penalty paid, power of sin broken, presence of sin still remaining so long as we're in this life until we reach the life to come and we see Christ face to face, which means in the inverse.
You can have a good tree.
Why is it good?
Good root, union with Christ.
Christ is the root, and because it's a good tree, it therefore has as its pattern, its overall stream and bent, its general characteristic is good fruit.
Good fruit.
But still, because sin remains, not perfect, exclusive good fruit, there will still be some bad fruit, namely sin.
Namely sin.
This is how we should understand this text.
So, you will know them by their fruit.
Claiming False Divine Authority00:15:10
False teachers.
So, what is some of the bad fruit?
I'll give a couple examples.
False teachers claim false authority.
Pretty much always.
Pretty much always.
They claim false authority.
See, these individuals who claim to have direct instructions from God to be prophets and to teach authoritatively, but they have not received divine revelation.
Even if their teachings may seem true, we should still be wary of anyone who claims to speak directly for God.
Okay, that's one example of a false teacher.
So there is, we could call it, I don't know, for lack of a better word, we could call it the word of faith type of false teacher.
The charismatic type of false teacher.
Not that all charismatics would fall into this category because they don't.
But some, especially in the word of faith kind of wing of the charismatic larger umbrella, they do.
Right?
Not all charismatics are claiming apostolic divine revelation and authority.
That would be an unfair generalization.
But some literally do.
Okay?
And that's on the charismatic side of the equation.
But let's be fair here to our charismatic, especially those who are Christians, our charismatic brothers and sisters, they don't have a monopoly on this problem.
Catholics, my goodness, don't get me started on the Catholics.
You want to talk about a false claim to some kind of divine authority?
The charismatic does it through.
You know, divine spontaneous revelation.
Well, I had a dream, I had a vision, I heard the audible voice of God, and therefore you have to do whatever I say.
Right?
That's how the charismatic does it.
Not all charismatics, but some, especially in the word of faith wing.
The Catholics, they do it through apostolic succession.
So they seem a little bit less mystical, right?
The charismatic, it's easy to make fun of him, right?
Because his, you know, intellectual, you know, theological study is Jesus calling.
You know, like it's like, Like books that are like, you know, the kind of book that I would write, like a 90 page book, you know, and it's written by, I don't know, some woman, you know, a couple years ago who has terrible theology.
And that's like, you know, so it's easy.
It's like, you know, your theological camp within the larger body of Christ is not serious.
And we, you know, so we're going to poke fun at you.
And then we sometimes kind of give the Catholic a break because, It's like, well, but he has, you know, study and study and all these dissertations and all these volumes and books, and he's quoting the church fathers, and he has this and he has that, and so it must be legit.
It's kind of like one of those scenarios where it's like corporate needs you to tell the difference between these two pictures charismatic, Catholic.
It's the same picture.
Both, both are making a human claim to divine authority that's not legitimate.
The charismatic says, Well, I have authority.
You have to do what I said.
Why?
Because I had a dream last night.
And the Catholic says, Well, you have to do what I said because there's a perfect, unbroken line of apostolic succession all the way from Jesus to Peter.
But what about the time when there were three popes simultaneously?
Well, we don't talk about that.
What about your current pope who's literally contradicting the Word of God with every public statement he makes?
And that ultimately it's pretty easy to see what his reigning authority is.
It's not the Word of God, it's just the post liberal order.
He doesn't look and say, Well, what does the Scripture say?
He just puts his finger in the wind and says, Hating immigrants is bad.
Why?
Because liberal white women don't like it.
And I want them to like me.
And that's my theological basis.
It's the same thing, it's the same picture.
Lighten up on the charismatics.
I had a dream.
Yeah, the other group has a pope, and he's gay.
He's a very effeminate, liberal pope.
He's not a great guy.
Even Catholics, to be fair, even Catholics are like, yeah, it's kind of an embarrassing time right now for us.
It's a hard time to be a Catholic.
We do not have a great Pope.
But here's the point.
That's just two examples.
We could go to other wings of Christianity, and we can even broaden to things that are clearly not Christian at all, like Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, Christian science, right?
All of them, what do they have in common?
This is what they all have in common.
They all have some kind of claim, and it's always a claim of authority.
It's some kind of divine authority.
You have to listen to us.
We have the infallible truth.
How come?
Well, because once upon a time, a guy put his head in a hat, you know, in a sack, and he saw two golden plates, and they were illuminated, and angels spoke to him.
Okay?
And why do you have authority?
Well, because, you know, that's ridiculous, you know, Joseph Smith and blah, blah, blah.
My claim for authority is that it wasn't, you know, 150, you know, 200 years ago.
My claim for authority is it happened two weeks ago, actually.
There was gold dust that came out of the air ducts in our worship gathering.
And our female pastor got on stage and said that she had a word from God.
Okay, that's better.
You're telling me that's better than.
And then why do you have authority?
Well, because there's a broken line of perfect apostolic succession that gave us this gay Pope.
Example after example after example after example.
But that is one of the marks.
If you're looking for how do I discern, that's the whole point of our passage today is discernment.
How do I discern if somebody is a false teacher?
One of the things the false teacher does is he claims a high degree of authority where no one's allowed to disagree with him, no one's allowed to think that he's wrong, and he does it with some kind of divine mechanism.
He pulls on some kind of divine lever, whether it's sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, revelatory gifts like prophecy functioning today in an infallible way, or whether it's apostolic succession, or whether it's Joseph Smith, or whether it's this, or whether it's that.
It's always some kind of claim to divine authority.
Some kind of claim to divine authority.
And that is one of the telltale signs that this person is, in fact, a false teacher or a false prophet.
Here's a second indicator false teachers spread false doctrines.
So, not just that they claim false authority for themselves, but they also spread false teachings, false doctrines.
I've written this.
These people teach ideas that go against the core truths of the Christian faith.
That's important.
They teach ideas that go against the core truths of the Christian faith.
So it's not just, well, this guy, he teaches that you should baptize babies.
And therefore, he's a false teacher.
He's a child of Satan.
He's going to hell, and so are all his babies.
No, I don't think what Jesus has in mind here when he's talking about bad fruit is mode of baptism.
I get in trouble with this all the time because I'm supposed to care.
And people are like, Joel, you should care.
You should care.
It's like nothing is more important, right?
When the orcs are on your doorstep and they're murdering babies and transing kids, there's nothing more vital and urgent than for Christians to have debates about baptism, right?
That's what I'm told.
But I haven't been able to bring myself to care, frankly.
I'm not a relativist.
Somebody's right, somebody's wrong.
Of course.
And I could be wrong.
On my epitaph, right?
That'd be a good thing.
Here lies Joel Webbin.
I could be wrong.
I've been wrong about plenty of things.
So, certainly, that's a possibility.
But in terms of importance, there is such a thing, you've heard me say it before, but I'll say it again because I think that it's relevant with this particular sermon and this text.
There is something to be said for theological triage and mode of baptism.
And notice I'm saying that intentionally mode, because it's not even an argument of whether or not we should baptize, it's not even an argument in terms of the nature of baptism.
It's not an argument about the nature of baptism and why it's significant, whether or not it should be done, what it means, what it entails.
You're literally talking about the mode of baptism.
Is it immersion or is it sprinkling?
Is it immersion?
Yeah, of course it is.
It's baptismal.
The word literally means immersion.
So, yeah, I have a position.
I'm not saying I don't have a position.
But I'm having a hard time in this current juncture when the West, all of Western civilization, is apostatizing and crumbling before our very eyes in the year of our Lord 2025 to make this.
A big mark of my public ministry.
So, mode of baptism, not baptism itself, but mode of baptism, sprinkling versus immersion, infant versus profession.
Somebody's right.
Again, we're not relativists.
Hear me.
I'm not saying tomato, tomato.
I'm not saying that.
Somebody's right, somebody's wrong.
But whoever's wrong on that issue, that does not qualify them for being the false prophet or the false teacher that Jesus is speaking of in our text today.
Does that make sense?
That's not what Jesus is talking about.
He's not saying, in the last days, be careful.
Be very careful.
Because one of the most pernicious and dangerous things that you will find is there will be some people, some people, and they'll probably be wearing robes.
That's how you know.
They'll be wearing robes and a weird white collar, and they will sprinkle a baby on stage at the end of their Sunday worship gathering.
I don't think that's what he's talking about.
I don't think he's saying that's his big concern.
Is it wrong?
Yeah, I think it's wrong.
I'm a Baptist.
But there are degrees of things that are wrong.
Baptizing the children of believers, baptizing the children of believers, is not the biggest problem in the body of Christ right now.
It's not.
There's a difference of that problem, of that position, which again, I'm a credo Baptist, right?
So just humor me.
So I'm going to say it's wrong.
So there's a difference with that falsehood.
If it's not true, it's false.
That falsehood versus the mode of baptism versus Jesus is the bastard son of an adulterous woman.
Okay, well, can we all agree that's another level?
That's another level.
That guy is a ravenous wolf.
That guy is a false teacher that meets the standards of our text today.
That's a really, really, really big deal because that guy, if you believe what he says, He's going to hell and he'll drag you there with him.
If you get baptism wrong, mode of baptism to be more particular, no, this is not a heaven or hell issue.
The scripture speaks to it, it matters.
There is a right position, a wrong position.
We shouldn't be relativists.
And yet, it is not a heaven versus hell issue.
There is such a thing as theological triage.
There are primary issues, secondary issues, tertiary issues.
So that's what I'm covering here.
False teachers, they claim false authority.
That's one mark.
False teachers spread false doctrines.
And here is how I got on this topic.
These people teach ideas that go against core truths of the Christian faith.
Continuing out, in your notes, we should be cautious, question their teachings, and once we identify their falsehood, times of spiritual.
No, once we identify their falsehood, we should avoid them completely.
And then I like this.
This is actually paraphrasing Matthew Henry here.
He says, We must be on guard against these types of temptations.
Especially during times of spiritual revival.
I think this is insightful.
Especially during times of spiritual revival or reform, reformation, when God's work seems to be being renewed in our time, in our generation.
It's during these times that Satan and his followers are most active, trying to deceive people, as many people as possible.
I think that that's a good word.
I think that's generally true, that's a good instinct.
To think that there are always false teachers at any moment throughout all of church history, the last 2,000 years, there's always been, in some place, in some number, right, whether it be greater or lesser, there's always been some presence of false teachers throughout all of Christendom.
But to think, say, I think that there may be a pattern here, formula of sorts, that in moments throughout church history where you're on the cusp of something, like God is really doing something.
Marvelous and unique moments like the Reformation with Luther, or these kinds of moments where there's massive, miraculous reform and renewal and revival that's taking place by God's providence and His sovereignty in a particular culture at a particular time.
That in that context, there would actually be a rise, there'd be a spike on your false teacher readings.
False teacher readings are off the chart.
There's a spike of false teachers.
I think that's probably, I think that's generally true.
And that being said, I do think that we're in one of those times.
I do.
Now, I don't think all those times are the same.
So I'm not saying that our time is equivalent to the Reformation 500 years ago.
I'm not saying that.
But I do think that God is doing something in our generation, in our time, in our place that is unique.
And I think there's a pattern here as well.
We're noticing patterns.
Here's another one.
Historians have argued that there's typically history works in kind of 80 year cycles.
Have you ever heard that?
It's kind of like 80 year cycles from the war for independence.
If we're looking at American history, war for independence, and then Civil War.
And then you have World War I and World War II.
Eighty-Year Cycles of Spiritual Awakening00:03:05
And now we're right at that 80 year mark again, which is a little frightening.
It could be great, it could be like something awesome is about to happen, or it could be something really bad is about to happen.
And we don't know.
God's in charge.
We trust in Him.
We should sleep.
Like the children of God, you know, with security and safety and ease, peace, and joy.
But we should also be vigilant and be awake, be spiritually awake.
War for independence, civil war, World War II, and here we are today, about 80 years after that.
But the point is that history tends to follow cycles because, in some sense, it follows generations, right?
You have a generation, they learn a lesson, and then a couple generations.
You find the same thing in biblical history with Israel.
Right, God would do something good, and then a couple generations would go by, and you know, then the present generation at that time would not really care about what God had done in the past the memorials that their fathers, ancestors, had built to the Lord and His faithfulness, and this truth that they recognize and realize that God had taught them.
And then, you know, the grandkids or great grandkids they're kind of like, eh, I don't know, but have we ever, like, you know, has communism really been tried, though?
Has it ever really been tried, you know, like that?
And we kind of got that.
I feel like that's kind of what we got.
It's about 80 years, and then you got all the liberal young people in their Marxist colleges saying, has communism ever really been tried?
And then the thing that's kind of unique, though, is that a bunch of sane, normal people in America said, they kind of all at the same time said, shut up.
No.
And also, your school's defunded.
And also, the school in Pakistan that's teaching alphabet soup.
And also, this over here, and also that over here, and also Russell Moore.
You know, you're done with Christianity today, you lose your $1.8 million.
Like, it's all done, all at the same time, which is really amazing.
Really amazing.
But the point is, there are times where God is always faithful, He's always moving, but there are times where it seems as though the Holy Spirit sprints, right?
There's a marathon, He's always faithful, He's always doing something, but every now and then it's like, and it seems like every 80 years, He sprints.
It feels as though we're in a sprinting moment.
And if we are, the point is this if we're in a sprinting moment, if the Spirit of God is sprinting, then you are a fool if you think that the devil won't sprint with him.
If the Spirit is moving quicker, then the devil's going to try to match it.
If the Holy Spirit is doing something unique and stirring reformation and renewal, then Satan will not say, oh, well, I guess I'll just have to sit this out for the next 10, 20 years and let God just send revival and reformation in a wonderful way that's.
Intimacy with a Good Leader00:09:38
Unencumbered by me, you know, and then I'll get back to work, you know, a little later.
No, if God is doing something good, Satan's going to work overtime to try to ruin it.
I think that's what Matthew Henry's getting at.
All right, lastly, kids are telling me that we're done.
Lastly, appreciate it.
Last couple verses starting in verse 21.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, right?
You're all familiar with this.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Not just anybody who says, hey, Jesus is my homeboy.
I'm a Christian.
No.
Lord, Lord, He's my Father.
This makes me think that this is the best thing I can say about this.
Lord, Lord, the doubling of a name was a claim to intimacy in biblical times.
So think of what Jesus says to Martha, right?
So she's mad, you know, Mary, my sister, she's being a deadbeat.
She's just sitting at your feet, you know, and having a good time.
Meanwhile, I'm, you know, playing the host.
I'm the hostess of the mostest.
I'm doing everything, you know, and cooking the meal and doing all these different things, and she's being lazy.
You should rebuke my sister.
And Jesus, instead, he says, Martha, Martha, you are busy about many things, but one thing matters.
Mary has chosen the better portion and it will not be taken from her.
But notice right there at the beginning, Martha, Martha.
It's Jesus is rebuking her.
She tried to rebuke Jesus or get Jesus to rebuke her sister.
And Jesus instead is rebuking her and saying, Your sister actually made the better choice here.
But even in his rebuke of Martha, he does it with a claim, a title of affection.
Martha, Martha.
The doubling of a name in that culture was.
A sign of intimacy, a sign of love.
So he's saying, Martha, Martha.
It would be the equivalent of us saying, you know, so and so, you know that I love you.
But you're being a little crazy right now.
You need to chill out.
Right?
It would be like whenever we're about to give some kind of critique to someone that we love and we remind them ahead of time, you know, you know that I love you.
You know that I'm not trying to.
You know, we make those kind of qualifications, which are good and right, to remind the person, to reaffirm our affection for that person, our devotion to that person.
I'm not against you.
I'm for you.
However, in this case, I actually do think that X, Y, and Z. You could work on this, maybe improve in that.
That's what Jesus is doing.
Martha, I've got a rebuke for you, but first, Martha, Martha, Martha, you know, I'm your guy.
I'm 40.
I love you.
However, the casserole can wait.
I'm Jesus.
I'm teaching.
Take a seat.
Take off your coat.
Take off your oven mitt.
Stay a while.
Listen up.
So, all that being said, now we see this kind of language, a title, a claim of intimacy.
It's an intimacy thing, close.
It's a claim of I'm close to him.
He's my guy.
I'm his guy.
I have union with him.
I definitely do.
Why?
Because I called him Lord twice.
The doubling of a name, Martha, Martha, meaning I love you.
You know me.
I know you.
Lord, Lord, you love me.
I love you.
You know me.
Lord, Lord.
It's the best equipment that I could think of, and I'm not trying to feel bad because it's another charismatic example, but the best example I could think of in modern times would be Daddy God.
Like, he is God and he is your father, and I get it, but I don't know.
It was cool for a little bit.
I don't know if you guys were, I don't know, maybe it was just me, but there were some circles for a little bit where, for a hot minute, where it was pretty popular for people, and every time the guys did it, It's just like, whoa.
It's cringe when the girls are doing it, but it's really cringe when the guys are.
But every public prayer meeting, it's like, Daddy God, we just love you.
And Daddy God, we just.
It's like, ugh.
And I remember thinking, even all the way back then, I was thinking, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord.
Lord, Lord, it's not just a claim of I'm submitted to your authority, it's a claim of intimate closeness and love.
He's not just God for me, he's Daddy God.
He's not just Lord for me, he's Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Daddy God.
And yet, I will say to them, even those who called me Daddy God, depart from me, for I never knew you.
Now, here's the last thing I want to do.
So, there's a claim to intimacy.
That doesn't infallibly mean that Jesus actually knows you.
You can claim to intimately know him, Lord, Lord, Daddy, God, but he may not know you.
Also, what's the other marker here?
We did mighty works in your names.
We cast out devils in your names.
We did this, we did that.
So, claims to miraculous power do not guarantee that you're a Christian.
And claims to intimate affection and love and relationship with Jesus do not guarantee that you are a Christian.
But the last thing is this Jesus will say on that day to these individuals who are not really his.
Who were ultimately goats, regardless of their claims.
They may have had works of the Spirit, but they did not have the fruit of the Spirit.
They may have claimed intimacy with Christ, but Christ had no real intimacy with them.
And of these people, Jesus does not say, Depart from me, I knew you for a time, but I know you no longer.
No, church, Covenant Bible Church, what does he say?
I used to know you, but I don't anymore.
No, he says, Depart from me, I never knew you.
These are not people who were saved and then somehow lost it.
These are people who thought they were saved, but never had it.
So we'll end with this.
1 John 2, verse 19.
They went out from us because they used to be with us, but aren't any longer.
No, they went out from us, but they were never of us.
If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.
But they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
A person does not lose salvation, but ultimately, a bad tree eventually will produce enough bad fruit to.
Prove not that they lost salvation, but that they never had salvation.
Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.
Lo, I will be with you always, even to the ends of the age.
If you belong to Christ, you will always belong to Christ.
And you will never lose Christ, not because you and your ability to follow him, but because of him and his perfect faithfulness to never let go of you.
It's not because you're a good follower of Jesus that salvation will not ultimately be lost.
It's because Jesus is a good leader.
And he's such a perfectly good leader.
That he has promised not to lose one of those whom the Father has given to him.
John chapter 6 of all that the Father has given to me, I will raise them up on the last day.
Whoever God elects unto salvation and gives to his son Jesus, they will not be lost, not because of their faithfulness, but because of Christ's faithfulness.
You are not just Christ's follower, you're his possession.
He owns you, you're his slave.
Well, that sounds demeaning.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, he's the master, you're the slave.
But also, it's encouraging.
And what's encouraging about it?
By being his possession, it means that ultimately the responsibility of stewardship falls upon the one who owns the possession and not the possession itself to be able to keep itself.
It is Jesus who takes the responsibility to steward and keep all that he possesses.
And if you are a possession of Christ, then you will never be lost.
Never, ever, ever be lost.
But you can claim to be intimate with Christ.
And he has no intimacy with you.
You can do works of the Spirit and yet not bear fruit of the Spirit.
You can, in the end, ultimately prove to have never belonged to Christ, but you will never lose Christ if Christ has ever possessed you.
And like Hebrews would say in Hebrews chapter 6, you know, there's a point in which repentance becomes impossible for those who have once tasted of the heavenly gift, once been enlightened, once this, once that.
Hebrews 6 is a scary text, but remember that it's followed up.
By the apostles saying, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but of you, we are hopeful of better things.
And so, likewise, there are many that Jesus will say, depart from me on that final day.
But of you, Covenant Bible Church, but of you, brothers and sisters, we are hopeful of better things.
Things belonging to salvation.
That your claims of intimacy with Christ are not mere platitudes, but rather substantive.
And that you, as you bear fruit in keeping with repentance, That it's not just taping the apple onto the dead tree or hanging the bunch of grapes on the thorn or the thistle, but it's actually your bent.
It is your stream.
There's bad fruit too because sin still remains, but your overall bent, your overall trajectory, your stream, the mark of you as a man, as a woman, is that you belong to Christ.
And because you belong to him, he will never leave you or forsake you.
He will be with you always to the ends of the age.