Known By Their Fruits | Frank Brancato

It's great to be here with all of you today to worship God in

spirit and in truth. As Terry brought out in our

introduction before we had our introductory prayer, it's good

to be assembled, it's good to worship, and I've enjoyed so far

worshiping with all of you. I want to talk on a subject

found in the great Sermon on the Mount as we continue our series

and we've now down to Matthew Chapter 7 and verse 16.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

When Jesus said these words, He said you will know them by their

fruits. Now you know that I'm all about

context and trying to emphasize the context.

The context of verse 16 goes on the heels of the context of

verse 15. So let's begin in verse #15

Jesus says beware of false prophets who come to you in

sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

If you go back to Matthew chapter 6, just a just a by way

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

of introduction and very, very brief review.

In Matthew chapter 6 in about verses 19 through 21, Jesus said

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

that man, our existence will go beyond this life.

And I don't know about you. I am so thankful that this life

is not it, that our existence will go beyond this life

eternally. Then in Matthew Chapter 7,

Matthew 7:13

verses 13 and 14, Jesus said that that existence or man's

eternal existence, it will be in one of two places.

That's why Jesus emphasized the importance of staying on the

straight path or the narrow path, or as some translations

render it, the difficult path that leads to life.

That's one way. The other way is the easy, easy

path that leads to destruction. OK, remember what we said last

time, We're emphasizing the fact there's only one way and that's

Jesus Christ. As Jesus said himself, no one

comes under the Father except by or through me.

So we got to stay on the path. We are the sheep, He is our

shepherd. And may I just suggest, even

though the Bible says it's difficult and Jesus says few

there be that find it, meaning few people are going to make the

choice to choose the difficult path as opposed to the easy

path. That's understandable in our

life. But as I said at the end of that

lesson, I'm going to say it again by way of encouragement.

There's room on that path for every Christian, provided every

Christian follows the shepherd as one of his sheep in a single

file manner. So Jesus emphasizes, you got to

stay on the path. Now he says this while we're on

the path, we got to be careful. We got to be watchful for what

he calls false prophets because false prophets are going to do

their very best to lead us off the path and away from God.

That's why he emphatically stated beware of false prophets.

Hang on one second. This happened last time.

I think we can fix it. We didn't fix it.

Still didn't fix it. OK, this is scheduled to

restart. OK, hang on.

It's it's this Terry. It's let me try it now.

Hit it. Let's try it now.

There we go. It was trying to back up or

restart or something. So we're good.

That's why Jesus emphatically stated beware of false prophets.

And may I suggest too, false prophets are always a problem

for God's people. And here's why.

And also for the furtherance of the cause of Christ.

And here's why. We know that God sends his

people to preach the truth. He sends preachers out into the

world to preach the truth. And I'm not just talking about

evangelist. I'm talking about every

Christian to preach the truth. But at the very same time, the

devil dispatches his servants to try to pervert or change the

truth. I'm going to make a bold

statement here that's very general and we can really sum up

everything we're going to talk about with this general

statement. Here it is.

Remember this, anything or anyone that teaches anything

that is contradictory to the Word of God, and I'm talking

about the word that has been revealed and confirmed.

It's been established. It's the Bible.

If it contradicts that, it has to be rejected.

If a man preaches something else other than that, he has to be

rejected. I think we can understand that,

right? We got to stick to the standard.

That's the Word of God. But I'm going to give you a

Bible for that. In Galatians chapter 1,

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 8, Paul said this.

But even if we or an Angel from heaven preach any other gospel

to you than what we have preached to you, let him be

accursed. As we said before, so say I now

again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what

you have received, let him be accursed.

OK, couple of things here. I thought about this the other

day. Now I am now actually old enough

to make this statement. And I never thought I'd actually

get old enough to make this statement back in my day or back

in my time, or I remember days gone by or things like that.

I never thought I'd actually get old enough to say those words.

I'm now old enough to say those words, and I'm going to use that

with reference to something very specific.

I remember back in my day or as a young person in my life, I

remember this, that people in our society knew something about

the Bible. They did.

It seemed as though their moral fabric was built upon the

establishment or the principles found in the Word of God.

We lived in a different time, a long time ago.

People actually made decisions based upon the word of God.

And I remember this too, that people that didn't even profess

anything knew something about the Bible, even had their

favorite Bible passage and they would quote it from time to

time. There was a time when that was

prevalent in our society, in this country.

But you know what happened? There came a time when people

got away from the Bible, People departed from the Bible.

And at the end of our lesson, we're going to talk about kind

of when all that stuff kind of happened, but people actually

started to depart from the Bible.

And then you've heard me say this over the years, many times

I said because of those things, we truly live in a Bible

illiterate society because people really don't know the

word of God. OK, I got something to say

that's a little encouraging. Now though, I think the times

are changing. I really do.

And what I've seen in my life, the tide is turning and the

things are changing in life a little bit and people are trying

to get back to the Bible. They are, I know people in my

life, they don't profess anything, but they're studying

the Bible, They're having Bible studies, they're getting

together, They're trying to figure out what God wants for

their life. And they're doing a great thing

by getting back to the Bible. And that's a wonderful thing.

So don't say this, by the way, don't say this.

Please don't ever say this. Don't say this.

Don't say people don't care about the Bible.

It's not true. Times are changing and people

are doing their best or at least making an effort or an attempt

to get back to the Bible. Here's the problem though, to in

order to understand the Bible properly, it has to be with two

things #1 context and #2 application.

And in our life, if we don't understand the context of the

passage, then we can very sadly miss apply the passage and form

beliefs based upon misapplication.

And we can twist it all around. You know what?

That's as bad as not knowing it at all.

OK, so it's got to be about context and application.

Because without proper Bible knowledge, and that's knowledge

that is properly comprehended, understood and applied, we can

be LED astray by amazing events. We can be LED astray by

unexplained phenomena or even emotional encounters, and we can

fall victim to these things as they're called, lying wonders of

false prophets. You know, Jesus warned about

these things. Oh the Lord was brilliant going

back to 803337 years before the destruction of Jerusalem.

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus said this was going to happen as

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

one of the remote signs that would happen before AD 70.

And by the way, this is still prevalent today.

OK, notice Matthew 24 verse 24 For false Christ and false

Matthew 24:24

prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to

deceive. But please get this.

Notice these last two words, if possible, last three words, even

the elect. Now we understand that a false

prophet or a false teacher can deceive people that are not

Christians. Absolutely.

But he never stopped to consider that even Jesus said be very

careful going all the way back to 8033.

He spoke these words and he said that these false prophets will

rise and show great signs and great wonders and deceive.

Notice even the elect. Who's that?

Who's the elect? The elect is talking about a

Christian. The elect is talking about one

of God's children. Now people get election all out

of whack today. They really do.

Let me just explain what it does not mean very briefly.

It does not mean, as Calvinistic teaching says, that God

predetermines or pre selects individuals to be saved.

In other words, divine election that is unconditional, that is

unscriptural. In other words, God picked this

guy, you're in, this guy you're out, and if God chose you,

there's nothing you can do. It doesn't make any difference

at all. You're in.

And if God didn't choose you, it doesn't matter how bad you want

in, you can't get in. I'm so grateful that that is not

scriptural and that is not true. We believe in divine election.

We just believe in conditional divine election, and the

condition is our obedience. What did Jesus say?

He said you go to the streets and the lanes and the hedges and

you bid anyone that will come. And what's the criteria?

All that will, anybody that will, can come to Christ.

Remember in Acts chapter 2 when the gospel was being preached

Acts 2 · chapter mention

for the very first time with the opportunity to respond to it,

they said you, you, you crucified Jesus, the one that

God made Lord in Christ. They said, what do we do?

They said repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of

Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will receive

the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you and

to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the

Lord our God shall call later on in the chapter.

Do you remember what Peter said and the apostle said they said

this save yourself. That is conditional election

based on obedience. In other words, obey the gospel

and live a Christian life. Save yourself and the blood of

Christ washes our sins away. You know Paul talked about some

of these signs as well in Second Thessalonians chapter 2 and

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

verse 9. He said the coming of the

lawless 1 is according to the working of Satan with all power

signs and lying wonders. Just remember, please get this

the test for truth has to be based upon doctrine and not

experience, OK? What's doctrine?

What is it? In Second Timothy 316 and 17,

Paul tells us what doctrine is. All Scripture is given by

inspiration of God. And then he said, and it's

profitable for doctrine. I said that because I want to

talk about the word itself. There's two Greek words for

doctrine. OK, Number one Greek word is the

word that means simple teaching, OK.

But in Second Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, when it's

2 Timothy 3:16

talking about the scriptures, all scripture given by

inspiration of God, it's talking about a different Greek word.

That Greek word actually means that which is authorized to be

taught. So what is authorized to be

taught? All Scripture in context and

application. So truth has to be based upon

doctrine and not experience. Because the problem with all of

that, our senses can be deceived into thinking that we're safe.

But in reality, as Jesus says, there are wolves among us, there

are wolves around us. OK, the New Testament actually

constantly warned against false prophets.

Paul warned the Ephesians that savage wolves would enter the

flock. Acts 20 and verse 29 For I know

this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among

you, not sparing the flock. Notice a few other passages.

Galatians one and seven. He warned the Galatians of those

that would pervert the gospel of Christ.

He said in Romans chapter 16 that he told those at Rome to

Romans 16 · chapter mention

mark those that cause division and offense among them.

John said that false prophets have gone out into the world.

Many false prophets have gone out into the world.

OK, my point is this apostasy and error folks is not only

possible, but apostasy and error is also extremely probable

because of false teachers. That's why Paul said this Second

Timothy 2 and verse 2, and the things which you have heard from

me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will

be able to teach others also. What's the criteria for

preaching the Word of God? What's the criteria for teaching

the Word of God? Here it is faithful men who are

able to teach. That means the faithful part

that deals with your life and able to teach, deals with

knowledge that is properly comprehended, understood and

applied and able to be taught. OK, what did Jesus say in verse

15 though? He says beware of false

prophets. And then I want to look at this

phrase right here. He said they come to you in

sheep's clothing. First of all, please understand

it's about deceit and it's about imitation.

It's opposition by imitation. The subtleness, by the way, of

these prophets or false prophets is seen by the fact that they

wear sheep's clothing. And there's actually two

different interpretations about wearing sheep's clothing.

OK, who's doing the imitating? Remember what I said?

It's opposition and it's imitation.

OK, So what is it? Well, first of all, it could be

one thing. It could be, as some scholars

say, that the imitation is a man that is imitating the sheep.

In other words, somebody that is among us, even any Christian

that is among us, that is imitating the sheep.

On the outside they they appear pious.

On the outside they appear to be one way, but inside they're not.

They have ulterior motives, as one scholar put it this way.

Inconspicuously they mingle with the sheep, taking note of the

young, the weak and the discontent.

They faint piety as they commune at the table and give lip

service of the shepherd. Even though they're woolish

soft, their hearts are hard. Few suspect they are ferocious

beasts, waiting for spring from cloaks of deceit and hungrily

devour. OK, do you remember very

important here, Remember when Jesus gave the parable of the

sower? And then right after that he

gave the parable of the tares? When he gave the parable the

sower, he talked about a farmer that takes seed in his hand and

broadcast the seed out on the soil.

And he said that seed will fall into one of four kinds of soil.

Only one's any good, The one that produces 30 fold, 60 fold,

100 fold. OK, that's the good soil.

You know what the soil represents the heart, right?

We know that. But then in the very next

parable, Jesus says, let me tell you another story about the

tares. And he said while the man went

out and did everything right, he prepared the soil right.

He planted the good seed in the soil, and here comes wheat.

But then the man goes home and he sleeps.

You know why he slept? He went home and he slept.

The sleep that Solomon talks about, the sleep of a working

man, He did everything right. And then he goes home and he

sleeps right. Then what happens?

He said the enemy comes and he sows tares in the same field.

And tares, by the way, are noxious weed seeds.

And when they come up, they look like they're good.

They look like they're innocent. They look like they're like

everything else. They look like the wheat, right?

But in time they're not. Jesus says the enemy does that,

and then he says who the enemy is, and that's the devil.

Now I'll tell you this. It's true that the devil can use

tares out in the world because the Bible says the field is the

world. I get that, and that is true.

But it can also be true that the tares are actually among God's

people. And when that happens, remember,

these are sheep that pluck the ones that are on the outskirts.

Chris Reed's not here this morning.

They had a accident. Somebody drove into the side of

their house and the police are there and he's got to make a

report and all that. That's where Chris is today.

But in a Bible study we're having this last week, he, he

was we're talking about the wolves and the sheep.

And he said, yeah, Frankie said, you ever noticed that wolves

never go into the pack? They never go into the pack

where everybody's strong. They just pluck the ones that

are on the outside. And I said, brother, that'll

preach plucks, the weak ones that are on the sidelines or on

the outskirts, the ones that are struggling, those that imitate

the sheep can do just that. Jesus calls them sheep, wolves

in sheep's clothing. But there's a second

interpretation and that is that the those that are impersonating

here are not impersonating the sheep, they're impersonating the

shepherd. I don't mean the Good Shepherd.

I don't mean Jesus. I mean, preachers in the Old

Testament, shepherds traditionally wore sheepskin

that had their skin on the outside and the fleece on the

inside, and that was to distinguish them from other men.

Elijah, for example, wore a type of hairy mantle.

In First Kings 19 and 13, John the Baptizer wore a garment of

camel's hair. So they can be identified as

prophets and be identified in their plain, coarse attire.

Zechariah, another example, by the way, alluded to the type of

dress when you spoke about those who put on a hairy robe in order

to deceive. Zechariah. 13 verses four and

five. OK, according to this

interpretation, the Lord is not talking about necessarily sheep.

He's talking about shepherds. And please understand, not all

men that call themselves from God are really from God.

Just because you call yourself from God or a man of God does

not mean that you are. This illustration depicts a

false preacher, a false teacher who pretends perhaps to care for

the sheep. He may learn their names and

even do things in a superficial fashion to them.

But here's the problem. There's no concern.

He doesn't sacrifice for them, He sacrifices the sheep.

Notice how in Matthew 7 and verse 15 in this passage, they

come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous

wolves. The word ravenous, by the way,

conveys greed. The same root word is translated

in other passages in the Bible, like the word extortioner.

Do you remember in Luke chapter 18?

Luke 18 · chapter mention

In Luke chapter 18, when that man was praying to God, remember

Luke 18 · chapter mention

that he's praying thus with himself.

It was the Pharisee and the tax collector member, and they

prayed. I'm not going to go into that

story, but remember what he said.

He talked about this word right here, the word that's considered

ravenous. It conveys greed and it means

extortioner and it means that in Luke chapter 18 and verse 11,

Luke 18 · chapter mention

the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.

God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners,

unjust adulterers, or even this tax collector, OK?

The idea is this that the false teacher or false prophet will be

greedy, will be power hungry, self-centered, who are

interested only in personal gain.

They give you a Bible for that though.

First Timothy chapter 6 and verse 5.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

Useless wranglings of men, of corrupt minds and destitute of

truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain

from such, withdraw yourself. Have you ever known or heard of

a preacher that made a lot of money?

Chris pointed out a couple of them last Sunday.

Preachers on TV, false people doing fake miracles on TV, and

people are sending them all kinds of money.

They're getting wealthy beyond belief.

That's a false shepherd sacrificing the sheep.

My dad used to say this from the pulpit.

He used to quote this song, this old country song, and it says

there are some preachers on TV with a suit and a tie and a

vest. They want you to give their

money to the Lord, your money to the Lord, but they give you

their address. Now all of your donations are

completely tax free. And then it says God bless you

all. But most of all, send your

money. There's a lot of people that are

reaping the benefit of good, honest people that think they're

doing good by sending them money and they're becoming extremely

wealthy. They are men like Paul told

Timothy that suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

OK. In verses 13 and 14, like I said

in my introduction, Jesus says stay on the path.

And while we're on the path, we got to be aware of false

teachers and false prophets. How are we going to know who

they are? Jesus says you're going to know

who they are right there by their fruits.

You know, I realized that sometimes it takes a while to

really know what somebody really is.

Have you ever known that? Have you ever known that

sometimes people fooled you for a while?

There are people that thought, man, you really thought this was

one kind of a person. But in time, and here's the

phrase that we often use, in time, people see their true

colors. You know why that is?

Because sometimes determining a person's fruit is to wait until

the fruit is manifested. In other words, you got the

tree. Is a tree any good?

I don't know. You got to wait till the fruit

grows and then you'll know. And Jesus says by their fruits

you will know them. One scholar said it this way.

Deception is temporary. Wolves may wear wool for a

while, but because they're not sheep, eventually their coats

will wear thin or RIP, and their ugly forms will then protrude.

OK, the Lord's switching now the analogy to fruit to help us

better understand. And the point is this, we got to

be able to inspect the fruit. The real test of a prophet is

not how flashy they dressed is, not what a good speaker they

are, not how popular they are. Because I tell you this too, you

can even be a person that speaks the truth and still lead people

astray because your life is not what it should be.

May I just say this? I'm going to do everything that

I possibly can to preach the word of God, as I always say in

context and application. And I'm going to always do my

best to give book, chapter, and verse for what I believe.

And all of that's great to do. But if my life is not conducive

to the life that a preacher should be, don't follow me.

Do not follow me. It's important to follow those

who are following Christ. And by the way, that's how we

imitate Christ. We do so by following their

example. Chris pointed out last Sunday

we're never going to be perfect like Jesus.

He's absolutely right. We cannot imitate perfection.

That's true. But when the Bible tells us to

be imitators of Christ or imitators of me, Paul says as I

imitate Christ, it means this. Follow my example.

So we need to follow the Lord's example.

If I'm not doing that, don't follow me.

First Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12.

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Let no one despise your youth. This is what Paul said to

Timothy. But be an example to the

believers. Notice in Word, in conduct, in

love, in spirit, in faith and in purity.

That's what's necessary. That's what's needed in our

life. So the true test of genuine

prophets is the good fruit that they bear.

If a person is morally upright, if they shed abroad the love of

Christ, if they are #3 spiritually minded and all of

that, and this, and have words and works in accordance with

God's will, then guess what? We can follow them.

If, on the other hand, a man spreads dissension or has

unrepentant sin, is carnally minded, follows after his own

lust, and teaches false doctrine, he must be branded a

false prophet. He must be rejected.

Romans chapters 16 and 17, Paul says.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and

offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned

and avoid them. OK?

You know the apostle Paul foretold of those who would do

just that in a very familiar passage, and it's found in

Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse one.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Want to spend a little time on this Second Timothy chapter 3

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

and verse 1? He said, But know this, that in

the last days, perilous times will come.

Talk about last days for just a moment.

Last days does not mean the last few days of life.

And it doesn't mean, you see, look at the signs.

We're in the last days. There's only a few left.

The Lord's coming back real soon.

That's not what that means either.

Last days here in this passage means last dispensation of time.

And the word dispensation, by the way, means spiritual

arrangement, right? We've been under three.

Number one, there was the patriarchal age where God dealt

with the heads of families. It was the family arrangement.

God would deal with the heads of families and part His will, and

then the heads of families would pass down that will to those

that were under or beneath them or subordinate to them.

Then came the Mosaic age where God dealt with the nation.

It was the national arrangement. Glad we're not under that

anymore. The Bible says in the book of

Colossians that Jesus took that old law and he nailed it to the

cross, and we no longer are under the old law of Moses.

Great stuff, right? Well, guess what?

There's a third spiritual arrangement and that's the one

that we are in now, and it's the one called the Last Days.

It is the Christian dispensation.

It began in AD 33 on the day of Pentecost when the church was

born and Christianity began and we are in the last days.

It started then. We're in the last days now and

we will be in the last days until Jesus comes back.

That is the last days. So what was Paul telling

Timothy? Paul was telling Timothy that in

this last dispensation or in the Christian dispensation, guess

what's going to happen. Perilous times will come here at

the word perilous means. It means dangerous, it means

difficult, and it can also be translated as savage.

That's pretty brutal, isn't it? Savage times will come.

The word times, though, means epics or movements.

You've heard me say this before. I'm not preaching an old sermon

here. You've heard me say this before.

I'll say it again. When dangerous movements come in

among us, one of the great dangers about it is those

movements don't come and leave. Those movements come and they

stay. They come and stay.

In fact, Paul said it would in Second Timothy chapter 3 and

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

verse 13. But evil men and imposters will

grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

It will get worse. OK?

I have a sermon. It's very old.

I preached it so many times throughout the country.

I don't preach anymore. Got tired of it.

I got several like that. They're just, I'm just shelving

those, you know. But you've heard it and it's

been years. And it was on Five reasons to

Preach the Word. And in that sermon, you remember

what I did. If you remember that sermon, I

go back and I talk about all the dangerous seasons or dangerous

epics or dangerous movements that go all the way back to the

4th century. I'm not going to do that today,

but I thought something might be interesting to all of us.

What about 5 movements? Only 5?

I'm eliminate a lot of that information and just talk about

5. What about 5 movements that have

come in in your lifetime? And when I say your lifetime,

I'm talking about older folks and I'm talking about those that

are maybe intermediate folks. The problem is, every one of

these movements that came in a long time ago, they still exist,

and the lives of our young people have to deal with these

very same movements. They did not come and go, they

came and they stayed. Let me suggest these to you.

You might remember this. This was the generation, first

of all, before me, and it was in the 1950s, and it was the

doctrine of acumenism. What's that?

Acumenism, The doctrine of acumenism actually was this

theory right here. Hey, I got an idea.

Let's not divide over doctrine. Doesn't really matter, right?

We just talked about doctrine, how important doctrine was,

right? In the 50s, all of a sudden it

came up. Let's not divide over doctrine.

Fact. What we're going to do is we're

going to get sentimental. And sentimentality became the

issue. And they brought in what was

known as the Jesus ethic. You know what the Jesus ethic

is? Here it is.

Jesus is nice. Is Jesus nice?

Oh, yes, he's nice. Died for your sins.

Oh yeah, he's nice. But the Jesus Jesus ethics said

this because Jesus is nice. Let's remove all the negative

stuff in the Bible, all the judgment, all the retribution.

Let's get rid of all of that. You know what the end result of

that was? The lack of discernment and the

lack of understanding began in the 1950s.

You know what? It still exists today.

How about this? How about the era where I was

born? How about this?

How about the 60s? It came the dangerous movement

of experientialism, where truth comes from intuition, truth

comes from experience. And do you know what happened?

I said I was going to get back to this.

People left the Word of God as a standard for what they believed.

You know what else happened? Let's Fast forward.

Oh, there's a lot of other things I could talk about, but

I'm talking about the prevalent ones that still exist today.

How about this? How about the years where I was

in high school and I was in college, the age of big hair?

How about the 80s? Subjectivism.

Subjectivism kicked in in the 80s.

You know what happened? That's when psychology, by the

way, captured the religious world.

You know what man said? We need man based religion.

We need needs based religion. In other words, we're going to

find out what really is good for our own personal comfort and

personal comfort became the issue.

See where this is leading. How about the years?

Where are they? The 10 year period in that

period where my kids were born? How about the 90s about this?

You know, what happened in the 90s came pragmatism.

You know, pragmatism is appropriate means for preaching

the gospel are determined by the people.

All you got to do is give them a survey.

They'll tell you exactly what you want they want and give them

exactly what they want. Wow, you know what else happened

in the 90s? Syncretism.

Syncretism basically is a, is a very fancy word.

You know what it means? It means this.

It is the doctrine that all religions, no matter where they

came from, all religions that are monotheistic are going to

heaven. And by the way, monotheistic

means you recognize only one God, doesn't matter who that God

is, even though we all know there's only one Jehovah God in

heaven. But if a person recognizes only

one God, whatever idle God that is, if it's only one, he's

monotheistic. And there come a belief in the

90s that if you're monotheistic, you're going to heaven because

you worship only one God. And a guy actually wrote a book

about it. He wrote a book that he took a

trip to heaven. I don't want to be rude or

sarcastic, but yeah, he was tripping, all right.

He said he took a trip to heaven and when he was there, you've

heard me say this years ago, he found Confucius, he found

Buddha, he found Muhammad. He looked around and he found

Orthodox Jews that had rejected Jesus.

Even though Jesus said, even though Jesus said I am the way,

the truth and the life, no one comes under the Father except

through me. This guy says Orthodox Jews that

rejected Jesus were there too. You know what else he said?

Were there atheists? Atheists.

But then he clarified it. He said atheists that were

seeking truth. Here was his rationale.

Since God is ultimate truth, and the atheist was actually in some

way seeking truth, then in a roundabout way, because God is

ultimate truth and he was looking for truth, therefore in

a roundabout way he was seeking God.

Therefore he was monotheistic, therefore he is in heaven.

Come on now, one final thing. Notice how they all flowed

together as a result, one from the other dangerous movements.

It all began with saying let's not worry about doctrine, let's

get sentimental. Let's let's cast aside judgment

and retribution. Let's just cast aside doctrine.

It led to finding truth by way of experiences and intuition.

Bible went right out the window. What did it do?

It led to subjectivism, where psychology took over and capture

the religious world and man only cared about himself and his own

personal comfort. What that lead to, hey, by the

way, let's just tell people what they want.

Let's give them exactly what they want to hear.

What does all that lead to? It doesn't matter what you do,

everybody's going to heaven anyway.

See where they lead. See where they lead.

Dangerous movements don't come and leave.

Dangerous movements come and they stay.

Paul summed it up like this about folks that are involved in

dangerous movements, beginning in verse five of Second Timothy

3, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, and from

such people turn away. For of this sort are those who

creep into households and make captives of gullible women,

loaded down with sins, LED away by various lusts, always

learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now, as Janice and Jambreeze rejected, resisted Moses, so do

these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapproved

concerning the faith. And by the way, because of all

those reasons, because of all of those dangerous movements that

Paul said was going to happen. Yeah, in their lifetime,

beginning with the 4th century, and in our lifetime too, he said

preach the Word. I know that we say that a lot.

Oh, we got to preach the Word. Yeah, we do, but don't just mean

that in a general sense. Preach doctrine, which is that

which is authorized to be taught.

How you going to do it? You're going to teach it in

context and application so that we don't miss apply what the

Word of God says. Paul says preach the Word, be

ready in season and out of season.

That means this, preach the Word when it's convenient and preach

the Word when it's inconvenient. Then he says, reprove, rebuke

and exhort with all long-suffering and teaching.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,

but according to their own desires, because they have

itching ears. They will heap up for themselves

teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth

and be turned aside. The fables, You know what, those

are some really harsh words and I'm so glad I didn't come up

with those, man, I'm glad about that.

All I got to do is just read it because somebody else said that

divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, it was the apostle Paul.

I'm glad I didn't say that. OK, so when you go back to our

text now, Jesus said you'll know them by your fruits, and then he

said this. Even so, every good tree bears

good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear

good fruit. Every tree that does not bear

good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I want to make a point about what we are, OK?

The Bible says Jesus says that a good tree is going to bear good

fruit and a bad tree is going to bear bad fruit.

OK, I have a saying that I've said for years, you've heard it,

and that is we are what we are. I remember when our kids, my

kids were little. I'd say if you don't like the

reality, change the reality. But we are what we are.

You are what you are. You can't separate your behavior

from what you are. You can change what you are.

You can't. Everybody can.

It's wonderful to change what you are.

And that's the beauty of being a Christian.

If you're going down the wrong path and you're a certain person

from days gone by, you don't have to be that person for the

rest of your life. You can change.

Paul did. Paul changed.

Everybody can change. But make no mistake about it, we

are what we are at the time. And Jesus says a good tree is

going to bear good fruit and a bad tree is going to bear bad

fruit. Give you a little example.

There was a guy that used to live.

We, I have great, we have T and I, we have great neighbors now.

We really do. We had a guy behind us that was

a real creep. This guy, I don't know what it

was. I don't know why, but he seemed

to take pleasure in yelling at women and children.

And I have no respect for that. None of us do.

And one day he was ball. He balled out Tina and then

balled out my kids over something that I did and I

wasn't even there. I'll tell you what I did.

I hit some of those foam golf balls over the fence on accident

and he got in his backyard and he got mad.

He made him so mad that he came over and he starts yelling at

Tina. He starts yelling at my kids.

Awful. The same guy had a tree that was

growing over our fence and we I talked to him and he said, yeah.

He said, I'll if you want to have it removed, go ahead.

So I hire a guy to cut the tree. The guy's there to cut the tree.

He starts yelling at the guy and runs him off.

So I cut the tree myself. And about two days later his

wife comes over and knocks on the door.

And, you know, wonderful person, the wife.

And she comes over and she says, oh, please excuse my husband.

He's really a wonderful man. I said, no, he's not.

You are what you are. If you don't like the reality,

change the reality. But you are what you are.

He repeatedly does what he does. You can't change that unless you

change that. You are what you are.

You know what Jesus says. By their fruits you shall know

them. We are what we are.

That's how we're going to know. Jesus sums it up like this.

By their fruits you will know them.

This concluding passage in this section is a is words of comfort

and it's also words of warning. God doesn't leave us to wonder

about teachers that come our way.

He gives us the key. What do we got to do?

We got to inspect the fruit and listen carefully to the words.

Simple as that. OK, in conclusion, this morning,

a false teacher. What is a description of a false

teacher? I'm going to give you one verse,

Romans 16 and 18. For those who are such do not

serve the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth

words and flattering speech deceive their heart, The hearts

of the simple. These are those that we have to

avoid. A trusted and true teacher, one

that we can follow and have confidence in.

Paul said this about Timothy in Second Timothy chapter 3 and

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

verse 10. He said, but you have carefully

followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,

long-suffering, love and perseverance.

Like Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ.

And that's exactly what Timothy did.

OK, in summary, what do we learn today?

We got to learn to stay on the path.

We got to learn to avoid and be careful about false teachers and

false prophets because they're going to try to pluck us off and

lead us astray. They lead us astray when they do

so by their lives that they live or by the words that they speak,

or both. So we know them by their fruits.

So we must be inspectors of that and listen to their words

closely. And one final thing, it's

imperative that we have a knowledge of the Word of God so

we can know the difference because often times there's

wonderful people that are being LED astray because they know

that there are voids in their life.

There's empty places in their life.

They know that. But in the absence of the Word

of God, because they don't know any different, they're being

offered dangerous substitutes that don't help.

So we got to do our part to preach the Word and be

strengthened by the Word of God and stick to it.

Thus saith the Lord and all that we do.

I'm finished this morning. Thank you for your kind

listening. I hope something was said that

was encouraging and edifying and helpful to you in some way.

We never close a time when we teach from the Word of God

without extending an invitation. It's the greatest invitation in

all the world. It's the invitation that'll put

a person on the path that Jesus talked about in Matthew Chapter

Matthew 7:13

7, verses 13 and 14, and that's to become a child of God.

That's to become a Christian. The steps of obedience are

simple. First you got to hear the word

of God. Romans 10/17 So faith comes by

hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

After you hear the word of God, you have a choice to make.

You got to believe with all your heart.

Hebrews 11 and 6. Without faith it's impossible to

please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and

that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Then what we got to repent of our sins.

All that means is this I got to change my ways.

I've been going to One Direction.

I got to change my direction starts off with a change of

mind, which is your heart leads to a change of life and the best

part is it'll lead to a change of relationship with the Lord.

Repent of our sins. Truly, these times of ignorance

got overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.

And then if we're willing to do that, we're willing to say the

greatest thing we will ever say and confess Jesus Christ as the

Son of God. Acts 837 then feel upset if you

believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. Upon taking these steps, now

there's one act. It's the act of salvation.

It's the point of salvation. It's the time you contact the

blood of Jesus. This is the point that you're

saved. You got to be baptized for the

remission of your sins. Mark 1616, He who believes and

is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be

condemned. If you've never taken these

steps of obedience, we would love to assist you in doing that

today. We're ready and willing to help

you in that. Maybe you have taken those

steps. Maybe there's something in your

life that is not what it should be.

Then just repent of those things.

Confess those things. We'll pray with you and for you,

and God will forgive and restore.