Although I don't consider any of this morning in this church to be the enemy of Christ, it does behoove us to learn from what He called His enemies and learn of the dangers that they presented. And this morning we now come to our fourth name that Jesus gave to a group of people in His day, and it still fits, those who are His enemies. I don't know whether you read the same story I did, but I read in one of the last week's papers of a man who posed as a Playboy photographer. And he went to a flower store, and he claimed he was on vacation to this lady clerk. And he said he was from Playboy magazine and that she was a very attractive lady. He felt that he could get her pictures placed in Playboy magazine, so he asked her if she would allow him to take her pictures in the news. She went and called Playboy. Now, I don't know how she had the number, but she went and called Playboy. And they said that there's no such person on vacation, we don't have any such person on our staff. And she called the police. The police came out and arrested him and they discovered that he was the associate pastor of a local church. The associate pastor of a local church. Now to say the least, I would imagine that that man's church was quite surprised when that hit the headlines. And some of them would say, wow, we've got ourselves a hypocrite preacher. We have ourselves a fraud. We have ourselves a phony imposter. What are we going to do with him? I don't know what they'd do with him. But anyway, that's what they would say. Now Christ had another name for a fellow like that. In Matthew 7, verse 15. Have your Bible turned with me now. Matthew 7, verse 15. Jesus said, beware of false prophets. which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves, or savage wolves. The new name that I'm going to preach on this morning that Jesus calls His enemies is, they are wolves in sheep's clothing. That will be our fourth title now. I want to say the Bible speaks about two kinds of false prophets, or false teachers, or false preachers. One, there is the obvious kind. That would be wolves in wolves clothing. You can spot them a mile away. You can spot them by what they teach. When this philosophy came out that said God is dead, it doesn't take a genius to say, man, that's a false prophet. Or I think when you have a man who did as this man I first talked about, they went to the flower store. It doesn't take a genius to say here's a false preacher. are a false teacher. Now that's the first kind of false prophets the Bible talks about, the obvious ones that anybody could spot. But now Jesus is talking about a second group here. I call them the disguised false teachers. They are the wolves in sheep's clothing. They are very difficult to spot. And they may easily fool some of the most trained and learned Christians. It is to this second group that Jesus refers in Matthew 7-15 when He says, Beware of false prophets who are wolves in sheep's clothes. Now before I take up how to identify a tricky teacher, a tricky deceiver. Let's see why Jesus called them wolves. Look in Jeremiah 23.1. We'll get started with Jeremiah 23.1 because it does give us an insight into why Christ referred to these people as wolves. Woe unto the pastors. Now notice that destroy, that's what a wolf does to a sheepfold. He destroys the sheep. Woe unto those pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. And then Isaiah 9.16. Let's back up one book. Isaiah 9.16. The leader of my people, that is the teachers, cause my people the sheep to err. And they that are led astray of them are destroyed. It is through the leading of these false teachers that people are misled. And in being misled, they end up destroyed. They could even end up lost. If that's the only kind of teacher or preacher they ever meet, chances are they will end up a lost person. They'll be victimized by sin, and their life will be deprived of them. That is, the life that God wants to give them, they will never know. In other words, a false teacher will set somebody up for ruin. And if someone does not come along and set them straight, they don't have a chance. to be spared from destruction. Now that's the purpose of a wolf, to destroy the life of a sheep. Now again, may I say, it's important for us to understand that Jesus calls this group of false prophets sheep, or at least wolves who dress themselves as sheep. That is, they're going to look like real sheep. Secondly, they're going to speak like real sheep, and that's what makes them so dangerous. They will be able to pass among the real sheep without being easily detected. I find too many sheep today don't care what their teacher is, or their leader is, or their prophet is. or their preachers. They don't care. There's a church loyalty, a denominational loyalty, a personal loyalty, or a family clan loyalty that forgets about what's being taught. And Jesus is saying here, beware. Now he tells his own people, you better look out. Don't trust everything that calls itself a spiritual teacher. You're going to come across some that are obvious frauds, but you're going to come across some that will fool you, and they're going to mislead you, and they're going to destroy you spiritually. Now, if they look like sheep and they talk like sheep, how will you ever recognize them? That seemingly is the key question that I want to deal with this morning. Jesus tells you in Matthew 7, verse 16, the answer. You will know them Now verse 15 he says, beware of the false prophets. Verse 16 says, you'll know them, you'll be able to spot them, how? By their fruits. I don't mind saying to you, I really wrestle with this text. Last night, I don't know, maybe it was 11 o'clock, I went in and I said, I'm Mary Lou, and I said, what do you think this means? Man, I thought and I thought and I really had a hard time with this. Jesus said, you spot them by their fruits. And yet, he also says, by their fruit, they're going to look like sheep. And by their fruit, they're going to talk like sheep. That makes it bad. Or if you say, well, by their fruits you'll recognize them. Meaning, if they commit gross, open sins, sure, that's obvious. But when he says, their fruit's going to make them look like sheep and their fruit's going to make them talk like sheep. Well, how am I going to recognize the fruit? That made it hard. Again, I want to say, in this connection, that word fruit does not mean obvious, gross sins. It does not mean obvious and gross teachings that anyone could recognize. Jesus here is now speaking of fruits that are not going to be easy to detect as fruits. I don't think anybody can go out and spot for you a watermelon. I don't know whether that's a fruit or not, but for an illustration, you can go out and spot yourself a watermelon, but let me ask you this this morning. If I took 30 varieties of mushrooms and told you one of those is edible and the rest of them will kill you. Now pick out the one that's healthy and eat it. How many of you would go at it? I couldn't. Now we eat mushrooms. Y'all do, I don't like it. Anyway, somebody eats mushrooms. What I'm saying is, it's going to be that kind of fruit. You really have to be a fruit inspector to know the right mushroom from the wrong mushroom. It's not like picking out watermelons and cantaloupes and tomatoes and peaches and plums. It's not that easy. It's like picking out the right mushroom from the wrong mushroom. You really have to know what you're doing. And that's the kind of fruit we're dealing with this morning as we study this kind of wolf that's dressed in sheep's clothing. You're going to have to know more about your Bible than the average Christian knows. Secondly, you're going to have to ask more questions of that teacher than normally anyone would ever ask him. You're going to have to pin a man down, get him alone, and put a lot of questions to him if you're going to find out if a man is this kind of teacher. It's not going to be easy. Now I want to say there are some clues that will maybe give them away to you. There are some common denominator trails that all wolves in sheep's clothing follow. There are a few. There is some likeness in the way they destroy the sheep. And that I can deal on this morning with you. Now here is the key thing that we must remember in trying to decide whether or not a person is a wolf in sheep's clothing, whether or not he is a disguised false teacher. Now here is the key ingredient, right here. It's not what you see that should bother you, but what you don't see. It's not what you hear that should bother you, but what you don't hear. Now there's the key to deciding whether or not a man is a false teacher who is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Now with the obvious false teacher, it's what he says and what he does that convinces you he's false. But with the disguised teacher, it's what he does not say and what he does not do that really makes you question whether or not he's a true Bible-believing teacher and teacher. It's what he leaves undone and leaves unsaid. It's what he does not say that'll destroy you. It's what he does not say that never will tell you that will bring harm to your life and will destroy the life of God that could blossom within you, that could turn you from the path of the Lord to the path of unrighteousness. It's what He does not tell you. Let me give an illustration this morning. Let us say that you were traveling on an unfamiliar road. You're not sure that you're on the right road, so you see a road crew working on the side of the road. So you decide to stop, and since they are in the area, They should know about the roads and where they go. And so you stop and you ask the foreman of the road crew, is this the road to such and such town? He says, yes, it sure is. You're on the right road. And he leaves. or as you leave and you go on down the road, you come around a curb and immediately you see ahead of you the bridge is out. Now you see what that road foreman said was not an untruth. It's what he didn't say that got you in trouble. He didn't tell you the bridge was out. He just told you that that was the road that went to that town you asked about. And you hope that you can stop your car before it goes off the road and down to the ravine. He didn't tell you a lie. It's just that he didn't tell you everything he ought to have told you. He didn't tell you what really mattered. He didn't tell you what could cost you your life. He just didn't do that. Now again, remember, the false teachers are wolves disguised by wearing sheep's clothing. I think you have to study two areas of fruit, their teachings and their conduct. both teachings and conduct. Regarding his teaching, he wears the garb of gentleness. We say he is gentle as a lamb. This is very important, you understand this. He wears the garb of gentleness. You'll not find a sweeter person than this false teacher. And his conduct, he wears the garb of innocence. Innocent as a lamb, we say. He wears the garb of innocence. I want to look real quickly this morning with you at these two areas of his life. First of all, as a teacher, and he's wearing the garb of gentleness, quickly in life he learns that He must be gentle with all people, and there's nothing wrong with that trait. But there'll come a point, folks, when you can't be gentle. He won't tell you that. He won't do that either. He'll be gentle in all he says, in all he preaches, in all he teaches. As he deals with other people, gentleness is his key principle of activity and guidance. If you want to learn how to influence people and win friends, He'll tell you how to do it. You'll not find anyone that will dislike Him. You'll find everyone thinks He's the most charming, wonderful individual that's on the face of the earth. He is fantastic. Everybody will love Him. From the super saint to the super sinner, everybody loves him because he's gentle. Now, how does the Bible speak of this man? I'm not going to have time to look these verses up with you. If you'd like to jot them down and look them up yourself, I encourage you to do so. But I am going to read you the text and then make some comments about those texts. And if you want to, you may write them down. But I want to show you how God speaks about the false prophet. in the sense as being a charmer, as a man who does only what he knows will make other people happy. First of all, there is Lamentations 2.14. Now that's a book most of us don't go to very often. Lamentations 2.14. It says, thy prophets, thy prophets have seen foolish things. And then he goes on to say, and they have not revealed your iniquities. They have not revealed your iniquities. Aw, they've pulled the punches. They've told you some things, but they have not told you about your iniquities. We talk about people, well, he sure steps on your toes. Aw, not Mr. Charmer. He's gentle on your toes. He'll never identify any of your sins. He'll never cause you to be guilty. He'll never caution you or expose you to any possible wrongs in your life. He'll be careful not to offend your conscience or activate it. He'll erase the word sinner from his vocabulary. He will not say anything that would upset or offend or disgrace, or shame, or bother you in the realm of sin, he'll stay off that subject completely. Because he cannot be gentle if he gets on that subject. He cannot be likable if he gets on that subject. God says you have not discovered or you have not revealed to the people their sins. He says he's a foolish prophet. And Jeremiah 8, 10 through 11, God says, the prophet has dealt falsely. For they healed, now notice this, they have healed the hurt of my people slightly. Notice that word slightly. They have healed the hurt of my people a little bit. They have touched on the problems of my people a little bit. They have dealt with the sickness of my people a little bit. And they have said to my people, peace, peace. And God says, there is no peace. In other words, they keep reassuring the people, all is well with you people. God is fond of you people. God is pleased with you people. And God will bless you people. There is peace between you and heaven. Yet God says there is no peace. between heaven and me. The prophets are saying, oh, there is an illness in our land and there is problem in our land, but it's not due to us. It's not due to sin. And to them, the cure is worse than the problem. If the cure has to be operation and surgery and removing the sins of the people from them, they keep saying Peace, mercy, grace, kindness. That's what they dwell on. The peace of God, the love of God, the kindness of God, the grace of God, the generosity of God, the mercy of God. God says there's no peace. There's no peace. They don't tell the whole story. You see, they tell a half-truth. God is love, and God is merciful, and God is kind, and God is considerate, and God is good, and God is love. But they don't tell the whole story. They didn't say God was not at peace. They said He was. Jeremiah 23, 16. Harken not to the words of prophets that make you vain. That make you vain. That is, they are gentle on your ego. Everybody has an ego. I have one. You have one. Everybody has one. I know of nothing that can cut a man's ego asunder like the Word of God can. The Bible calls it a two-edged sword. Yet a man knows that if he dwells on what God tells him to, A person can no longer feel proud of themselves. They can no longer have a superego. So he pleads and he seeks to make men feel good, make men feel important, make men feel successful, qualified, acceptable, outstanding, much flattery. We all like to hear it. There are times when it should be said. But the man who is gentle will only say that and nothing more. He will never say what needs to be said to straighten your life out. He'll just tell you you're fantastic, you're wonderful, you're great. He'll paint an image of you that, though it's a lie, you'll love. He'll make you vain. He'll make you arrogant. He'll make you proud. He'll make you think you're something you're not. No wonder everybody likes him. I mean, he is a slick salesman, and we're all gullible for it. He's gentle on your reputation and your esteem and your honor, which all of us are really proud of. Jeremiah 32, or 23-32, I'm sorry. God said, I'm against them that cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness. By their lightness. Keep the message light, preacher. I mean, don't get too deep now. And don't meddle. Don't get too serious. Don't get too hard. Keep it light, keep it soft. Not too many demands, not too many restraints. Just keep it light. Make it short and sweet and hard to beat. You'll like it. Keep it light. And most preachers you see in this category would keep it very light. They wouldn't offend anybody, but they don't say anything either. They don't say anything either. Or what they say, we don't have anything. But it makes you feel good, sounds good, and encourages you to stay just like you are. And there's the great danger of it. It encourages you to stay like you are. If that's the case, how can you grow in grace? How can you grow in perfection? How can you be more Christ-like? If you are to be satisfied with yourself as you are, how can you grow in sanctification? How can you be more like the Lord every day? Ezekiel 13.22 God said, with lies you have strengthened by hands of the wicked. He'll not repent now. You've talked him out of it. You've sold him a bill of goods. You've told him he's fantastic. And then he closes this verse of Ezekiel 13 by saying, and you clinched it by promising him life. You promised him life. You're gentle on their mind. You tell them they have nothing to fear. They're going to be heaven bound no matter what they do. Nothing that they can do will ever stand in their way of God's grace and love. Oh, you're very gentle and you guarantee them they're on their way to heaven. A gentle man at a funeral will send anybody to heaven. Even the devil himself would get there if he preached it. 7 I 3 4 The prophets are like. There we go, that same word again. The prophets are like. And they're treacherous persons. They do violence to the law. They're gentle to your conscience. How? They never mention God's laws to you. If they do, they'll pick one they know you love. You shall not be a child beater. Everybody, amen. We like that one. Do not drag your wife to the house by her hair. Amen. Nobody's against that. Thou shall not print pornography. Amen. Ah, but boy, don't get too deep now. Leave it light. See, they cancel out the law. They skip the law. They ignore the law. They redefine the law. Jesus said in this seventh chapter of Matthew, there's the broad way and the narrow way. They don't preach about the narrow way. They don't talk about the narrow road. They don't talk about the restrictions that are placed upon the life of a Christian by the laws of God. To them, there's no world to shun. To them, the narrow road is as broad as the world's road. There's no striving for perfection. There's no hunger and thirst after righteousness. There's no delighting in the law. And there are no holy demands that must be met. You do your own thing, that's fine with me. Oh, they don't mind saying, thou shalt not kill. That doesn't bother you. Thou shalt not steal sometimes gets a little bit edgy around income tax time. But I mean, most silly people, they'll buy that. The prophets do balance with the law of God. You see, being gentle, he gives the people what they want. What he knows they want. How does he know? Because they've told him. Because they've told him. Isaiah 58-1. Isaiah 58-1. They do what pleases the people, not what pleases God. What pleases God? Here's what God tells the teachers. Cry aloud. Spare not the feelings. Do not forget to lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions and their sins. Not the wolf in sheep's clothing. No, no, no, no, no. That's the way to lose 90% of your congregation. That's the way to lose friends and have no influence over people. That's the way to get yourself in hot water. That's the way to ruin yourself. But that's the wolf in sheep's clothing. It's not what he tells you that's true. It's what he doesn't tell you. It begins to reveal to you he's not the man of God. He's too gentle. Jesus was not that gentle. That's why they crucified him. In 1 John 4, 5 and Isaiah 39 through 10, Jeremiah 5, 30 and 31, the Bible says that the ungodly tell the preacher, you preach unto us falsehood and things that set well with us. I mean, they're blatant to tell you. That's in Isaiah 39-10, in Jeremiah 5, 30 and 31. The Bible reveals the unsaved, those that live in sin, tell the prophets, don't tell us the truth. I mean, one of them verses says it. Don't tell us the truth. But you tell us what we want to hear. And you make it smooth, and you make it palatable, and you make it comforting, And don't you say anything that'll antagonize and upset and offend and bring guilt to my mind. Don't do it. And I'll think you're a fantastic fellow. You be pleasing, you be pleasant, and you be gentle, and everybody in this congregation will love you. Well, God, they didn't love Jesus. They didn't love Jesus because he wasn't gentle with everybody. I don't have time, but to say this, that this kind of teacher does not give Christ his rightful place. What is that? The Lordship. The Lordship. Because you see, if I preach the Lordship, that means that you have no options but to obey. And that hurts. That throws obligations upon you to be self-denial, which we don't want. You see, he cannot really do justly by the Lordship of Christ. Or he may preach Christ as Lord. He'll never ask you to do it. He'll never ask you to bow down to him. and give in to him as he wants. He'll never do that to you. He does not give God his rightful place either in his character. You talk about God's love and peace, mercy, kindness, and that's true. But he'll not tell you the other parts of God's character, his holiness, His righteousness, His justice, and His wrath. I'll tell you that. Also, He'll never put man in his rightful place. The Bible says he's a fallen creature. And the Bible says he's wicked. He'll never say that. The Bible says he's lost. He'll never say that. He'll not put the cross in a proper perspective. He'll say it shows the love of God. And that alone. He'll not talk about the blood of Christ. He'll not talk about the death of Christ being a substitution and justification. That God will never forgive you unless you accept Christ as Lord and Savior. He'll not put that way to you. He'll not put salvation in its proper place either. That you are saved, but you are saved to become a saint. You are born again and you're a new man and to live like one. He'll not tell you that either. Because you see, that puts obligations on you. He'll dodge everything about the gospel that might offend you. He'll sound right and he'll be right in everything he does say, but it's what he doesn't say that'll get you in trouble. You can live like the devil under a preacher like this, and he won't say a thing to you. Real quickly at the last part, his conduct. He's going to be above reproach. You're not going to catch him in some florist shop posing as a playboy photographer. No siree. Not him. He might even condemn that. Because everybody else would, you see. He's going to wear the garb of innocence. What he preaches is going to affect his own life. Because he's not going to expose himself either. If he says you're all right, he's all right. And what you're going to have to look for to see if he is false in his conduct is not for false activities, but to see if he has the attitude, it's going to be an attitude now in this man, the attitude of pride rather than that of humility. He'll not claim perfection. He dare not do that. He won't ask perfection of you. Don't you ask it of him either. But he'll be a good fellow. He'll go a long ways as the record goes of being somewhat perfect. But I want to ask you, all right, preacher, you say you sin. What's your attitude towards your sin? I'm going to get him now. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it. It's not important. I'm still a fantastic man. I'm still a good guy. Everything's all right, me and the Lord. There's peace, peace. Oh, I know this thing in my life, but it's not a big thing. It's all right. You see, he is not humble. He's proud of his accomplished life. He'll ignore his sins. And don't you point him out to me. He may preach to you, love is fantastic. You want to see if he's got any love or not? You come to him and you expose his sins to him. I'll see how much love he's got. The Bible says inside he's a wolf. You want to make him snarl. You correct him. And you point out to him that he's out of the will of God. And you point out to him in the Bible that he's a sinner. And he ought to repent and be ashamed of himself. You see what attitude he has. A false teacher. will snarl at you and get mad and condone his sin and excuse his sin and tell you to go bump a stump. The true saint, the true preacher will hang his head in shame and he'll say, you're right. And there'll be godly mournfulness in his life. He'll hang his head in tears and say, I wish I could quit it. It disturbs me night and day. And I have cried out that I could have victory in my life. I'm ashamed of it. But not to see the false teacher in his pride and arrogance, he'll say, there's nothing wrong with me. Yet the Bible condemns him for what he's done. And yet he'll be defensive and justifying of his lying. How does he see himself? You ask him, he'll tell you, I'm Mr. Fantastic. Well, though he sins, he's still proud of himself. Though he sins, he's still pleased with his accomplishments. He still flatters himself, just like he does his people. And he still thinks very highly of himself. just like he does everybody else. He has no plans to quit his sin. He has no plans to repent. He has no plans to change. He has no plans to separate himself from the world. He has no plans to crucify the flesh. He has arrived and he's willing to leave you alone and you better be willing to leave him alone. To him, the narrow road is too narrow, and he'll widen it out to suit himself, and then that's where he'll travel. His aim is applause and fame, not perfection. He's interested in being accepted and acceptable and not being Christ-like. He will see himself as innocent of the charge of sin. He'll admit he sins, but he'll say, I am innocent. of being a sinner. I sin, but it does not make me a sinner. That's a nice twist of words. He'll never tell you that in a pulpit, but you'll pin him down and he'll let you see in his character that he's not a true sinner of God. Father, this morning as we consider the Word, may we realize that it's the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth that we must be taught. We must not divorce ourselves from those things that do comfort and cheer and encourage. We must not dwell only on one and not the other. And yet may we not neglect the other side, that there is the will of God and the plan of God and the law of God and the path of God. and the will of God and the commands of God. God, may we have a balanced life where both are in operation. May we preach and teach and listen for the whole gospel. May we be aware that there could be people who are wolves in sheep's clothing. It's not so much that they say anything bad, it's what they never say. It may be ought to make us wonder. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.