I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The title for today's message is Beware of False Prophets. Our text is taken from Matthew chapter 7, verse 15 to 20. We're looking at three sub-headings this morning. The first one is how do false prophets come? The second one is how do we detect them? And the third one is a true prophet of God. Let's go to the text, Matthew chapter seven, verse 15 to 20. I read, it says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their foot, Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 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. Therefore, by their fruit you will know them. Last week on the Sermon on the Mount, we looked at the narrow gate and the broad way. The narrow gate is full of difficulty, challenges, for the Bible says that through many tribulations, we shall enter into the kingdom of God. And if anyone want to live a righteous life, he must be ready to be persecuted. On the other hand, the broad way is very easy. It's broad. It appeals to the flesh. And so, therefore, many are deceived into it and find themselves in the path of destruction. When Jesus confronted the scribes and Pharisees, the scribes and Pharisees were on the broad way. And they were disputing with the Lord Jesus Christ. They condemned him. They spoke against him. They retaliated against him. And they did all manner of evil plans and conspired with the Roman authorities Crucify him and on the Salmon on the Mount Which is a series that we have been looking at for the past couple of weeks Today we are on The area of the false prophet After Jesus concluded his teaching on the Salmon on the Mount He told his disciples that We have the narrow gate and the broad gate, the broad road. And so therefore, those of you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those of you who mourn for your sins and the sins of other people, those of you who are going to be persecuted for righteousness sake, this is the way that leads to eternal life. And this way is narrow. It's not broad, and therefore, as you go along this way, you have to be careful of false prophets. They will come into your midst, and they will tell you that the broad way is the best way, and that the narrow way is not a way at all that Christians are called to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is all. All you need to do is to believe in Christ. Easy believism. You are not going to be sanctified. You don't need to be holy. You don't need to be prayerful. You just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will have an easy life. Everything would work out for you. You'd have a perfect marriage. You would have plenty of money and cars. Just believe. You have power within you to create your own reality, to form your own world, and to make things happen for you. They will tell you, if you believe in Jesus, everything is going to be okay with you. Jesus knew, just like the Pharisees confronted him, they told the people during the time of Jesus Christ, that if you want, you can divorce a woman for any flimsy reason, such as breaking a glass cup or burning the dinner. But Jesus said, no, divorce is only permitted for the sake of immorality. They said to the people that you can make an oath, you can swear, as long as the name of God is not involved in it, you can go free. Jesus said to them, no, let your yes be yes and your no be no. And as we have seen throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had been contrasting from one doctrine to the other. The false view of the scribes and Pharisees. He confronted them. He did not back out. He did not say, well, let me just leave them to go ahead with their heresy. He spoke out. So therefore, Jesus said, that you and I will be persecuted for righteousness sake. When we speak the gospel, when we say to people the truth about the gospel, we will persecute us. So he warned the church. He said, beware of these people. The likes of the scribes and Pharisees will come into our midst and they will pervert the word of God. They will mix it with their tradition. They will tell you our tradition is more important than what the Bible says. You should beware of them. Beware of them. They will try to water down the message of the gospel and give you a perverted gospel. Now to our fourth subheading. How do they come? How do false prophets come? Let's go to verse 15, read it again. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They come to us in sheep's clothing, First of all, a false prophet is someone who speak lies, proclaims falsehood while claiming to speak God's word. One of the things that is prevalent with them is that they will come with the Bible. The same Bible that the true prophet of God uses to declare the whole counsel of God. That is the Bible that they will bring to you with deception. Imagine someone coming into your midst, deceiving you with God's word, telling you what is not meant by the scriptures. The Bible says they come in sheep's clothing. Imagine a wolf coming in the midst of lambs. What do you expect the wolves to do? Is to look for opportunity to tear down the lamb. with his fans and use that lamp for lunch. They come in sheep's clothing. Some of them will dress flamboyantly with luxurious cars, bodyguards. They seem to be very nice people. Most of them have big mega churches. And because you see the crowd, you may think that, well, these people are majority. Look at the crowds that are following them. They must be true. They must curate themselves as angel of light. And their ministers must curate themselves as servants of righteousness. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 14, No wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. They appear innocent, not guilty of anything whatsoever But within them, they are wolves. They have the nature of a wolf. No matter what, you cannot mingle a wolf with a lamb. No matter what, his intention will be to devour the lamb, to suck the blood of the lamb, to use his fangs and to tear the lamb into pieces. And they come among us in that manner. ferociously looking for opportunity to devour and to destroy. Because they have the nature of wolves. No wonder their stories are full in the internet, the media. Pastor so-and-so slept with so-and-so. Pastor so-and-so did this awful thing. No wonder their names are in the newspapers all over the world. They are wrecking havoc of the church and the precious lives of people because they have the nature of wolves. These are unconverted people. They rip them off with their teeth and use them for lunch. You will not know when the ripping off is taking place until you begin to feel the pains. I tell you, most of us here must have gone through the reaping effects of this false prophet and teacher with painful, painful, sour providences. But we found out that today we are here listening to the old counsel of God's word. I was told of this particular false teacher that told a poor, struggling widow to give him all her savings. The preacher said, go, take all your savings and bring it to me. That's the only way that you are going to be healed. And this poor, struggling widow took all her savings and gave to this pastor. But the woman was not healed. She continued in her awful predicament. When the pastor was asked, she said, the woman does not have enough faith. But where was the God who spoke to you to collect the savings of this woman? But now that your faith prophecy has not come to pass, you decide to put the blame and a poor soul that is looking for salvation. This terrible effect of these false pastors and preachers is all over the internet, all over the world. They are devouring souls in the name of Christ. What an awful predicament. May God save us from this man and this woman. The woman did exactly what the pastor told her, told him, but nothing came out of it. Nothing. She became impoverished by this pastor. That is when she began to realize it was all lies. The lies became evident, evidently clear. The teeth of deception has already eaten deep into her body and soul, leaving this woman with wounds and scars. Biblical illiteracy has eaten deep into the life of the church, and the majority of Christians cannot discern a false prophet. They have this nature of wolves in them. They destroy faith. causing spiritual carnage in the church, and are bent on enriching themselves. 2 Peter 2.1-3 The Bible says, But there are also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. even denying the Lord who brought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By conventiousness, they will exploit you with deceptive, deceitful words. For a long time, their judgment has been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. End of scripture. You see how scripture describes them. They secretly bring in destruction. They hide under the cover of darkness. If you are poor, they tell you to give them money so that you can be rich. So the poor people are gravitating towards these churches. They tell them, give me money. And when you give them money, sow a seed into my life, sow into my ministry, and your business will prosper. Is that the way people get along with their businesses? They will even encourage you to give them more. You spend all of your time in the church, from morning to afternoon to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and you pay little attention to the business. from which this pastor has been prophesying about. So many, many Africans have been brought to poverty because they think that the church is a shrine, the church is magic, that people come and all of a sudden they become rich and wealthy. God does not have a problem to bless his children with riches. Then he looks at the heart and he blesses you according to the capacity. What you can maintain is not a derelict father that will give you a million only for you to become a scavenger or to waste it in carnal and frivolous living. He gives us what we need and not what we want. Sometimes he's pleased to raise up millionaires in the church, but when he does, he gives them the heart of giving to help the poor, the needy, those who are going through troubled times and challenging circumstances. not to live in luxury and buy expensive jewelry while others are languishing in poverty. Gives you a heart to be merciful. Gives you a heart to be kind, compassionate. So they take isolated events in the Bible, which were incidents of special revelation that were meant for that time and period only. And they applied to everyone in the church. I remember in one of those instances, this false preacher came and announced to the church that God wants to make all of you millionaires. The congregation was about 15 members, all of which are languishing in poverty. And this man came up to the podium and told the members to give $15,000 each. People that cannot come up with $500, he said the Lord told him that everybody in the congregation to give $15,000. The next day I saw this man, I pity him. Nobody in the church came out to give 15,000. He called the people to pledge. Nobody came up to pledge. An embarrassment for the pastor. Embarrassment for the people. You can see the embarrassment written in all of our faces. They take isolated events in the Bible that were meant for certain time and period in the history of the church and they generalize it to the whole congregation. They come to scriptures like 1 Kings chapter 17. For example, they take the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and apply it to everyone in the church. In this chapter, God withholds reign from Israel because of his judgment upon Israel, who had engaged in rampant idolatry, led by the evil practices of Ahab and Jezebel, the king and queen. God led the prophet Elijah to go to this woman and provide food for him. Elijah did not wake up one morning and decided that I was going to a widow at Zarephath. Elijah said to this woman, bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink and bring me muscle of bread in your hand. But the woman responded, I have nothing, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And I am going to prepare it with my son that we may eat and die. Because it was a time of severe farming, she expected to die of starvation. And Elijah said to the woman, thus says the Lord, meaning these are not my words. They are the works of God. The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. 1 Kings chapter 17 verse 14. The Bible says in verse 15 to 16 that God was faithful to his promise. The widow and her household eat for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil became empty, according to the word of the Lord that is spoke by Elijah. A false preacher will replicate this unique story in the Bible. and use it as play acting. With all seriousness, he will take the place of Elijah and prophesy to you. This is a narrative, a story narrated for us in the Bible. And most of the time when these false preachers come to these narratives, which is meant to be a story, a narration of a story in the Bible, they will take it as a norm. They go to the narratives in the gospel. They go to the episodes, they look at them. They go to the book of Acts. They go to these narratives and they turn them into normative. In other words, they say, well, this is a story that I'm going to act upon. I am going to be Elijah, and all of you are going to be the widow of Zarephath. And today, you must do like that widow. All of you must come to the podium and empty your possess. False preacher one day came to the podium and told all the members of the church, whatever is in your purse, bring it to the podium and empty it. And make sure you don't take back anything. If your mobile phone is there, bring it on. If your passport is there, bring it on. Just empty everything. And these gullible men and women came before the podium and emptied everything before the pastor. They picked the money and all that they wanted and maybe returned the passport to them. They said, this is the widow of Zarephath. She gave everything to the man of God and God blessed him tremendously. But when you look at shelter congregation, you will see that 90% of, five of those people are still languishing in poverty. Look at the African continent today, we go to Nigeria. We are predominantly Ghana and all these nations, you have these prophets, siphoning money from people. But today these nations are the poorest of the poor. Vegas is the poorest capital in the world. Where are all these prophecies of health, wealth, and prosperity? But you have on the other side of the continent people who are sober-minded, who take their work seriously. They go to school, they learn engineering, they learn carpentry, they make sure they do it well. God blesses the works of their hand. The work ethic has been abandoned in Africa. Most people not go to these churches for miracles, but turn their lives around. And the Bible says, the book of Genesis, that we should till the ground. We should walk. God promises to bless the works of our hands. He did not promise us to come before a man of God to prophesy riches upon our lives. or to prophesy a marriage that is going to work, or to decree or declare something that is going to change our lives when we sit down in laziness, procrastination, lackadaisical attitudes, nonchalant behaviors, and not wanting to walk with our hands. Let us look at the punishment that is specified to false prophets in Deuteronomy chapter 18. It says, but the prophet, 1820-21, it says, but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken. When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come, does not come or happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. No pastor or preacher should call himself Elijah or take the role of Elijah in this day and time. Because prophecy during this time period is strictly guarded by God. Elijah never said anything in his entire lifetime that did not come to pass. He never said anything that did not come to pass. In fact, the prophets were guarded under strict restrictions in the Old Testament. If you prophesied something and it did not come to pass, they cut off your head. So all the so-called prophets of the New Age, prophets, have prophesied lies. And they still go on to claim that they are true prophets of God. True biblical prophets prophesy with 100% accuracy throughout their lifetime. Throughout their lifetime. There is no prophet in the Old Testament and the New Testament who spoke something that did not come to pass. There is no true prophet of God that ever said something and did not come to pass. And when they say things, they don't blame it on your faith. The authenticity of their prophecy and their ministry does not depend on the recipient. When they say, God save the Lord, it is final, authoritative. and it comes to pass with 100% accuracy in the time in which the prophecy is meant to be fulfilled. So if you cannot fulfill that criteria, you should never step into the prophetic ministry. Because I tell you, there is no prophet in this our age and time, all over the world. that can claim this kind of authenticity or boast that I have never said something that did not come to pass. None of them. Except those in the village somewhere in Africa where they can hide themselves. But if you are someone who read books and familiar with what is happening in the world, you know that even the most so-called powerful prophets in the West and in the world will tell you that their prophecy is never 100% accurate. From their mouth, they will tell you that. So a ministry like that was not passed on to anybody in this day and time. It ended during the time of the apostolic age. And that is why we have gross failure, misconduct, and abominable practices taking place with the so-called apostle or prophet of God. They are messing up the church. Wrecking havoc and destroying the lives of people in the name of Christianity. In Jeremiah chapter 14, it says, therefore, thus says the Lord, the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, who I did not send, and who say sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine, those prophets shall be consumed. If you know Jeremiah very well, you will know that this is a man of God that preached the gospel in his entire lifetime and did not get one convert. Nobody responded to his message. If it was in this day and time, they would say, well, you are a failure. But faithfulness in ministry is not counted by the amount of people in your church, but by faithfully declaring and teaching the doctrines of the Bible. Jeremiah spoke that the Babylonians were coming to invade the children of Israel, they are going to destroy Jerusalem, they are going to take the Jews captive into Babylon. The prophets of doom came to the king and prophesied to the king that, no, what Jeremiah is saying is a lie. You know what they did to Jeremiah? They took him, put him in a ditch, dumped him there, put him in a hole, abandoned him. Even members of his own family persecuted him. They threw him out. They said, you don't belong to us. We don't want to hear. Jeremiah was begging them, he said, please, when the Babylonians come, surrender to them. Surrender to them. I don't want to see you, my beloved nation, being killed and ravaged by these people. Surrender to them. He said, no, keep quiet, you are false. Get away from this place. And indeed, the Babylonians came, destroyed Jerusalem, took the children of Israel captive, send them to Babylon. Killed some of them. Sadly, what Jeremiah said came to pass with 100% accuracy. Not a stone was left unturned. That is a true prophet of God. But today, our prophets will tell you something, and if it does not come to pass, they say you don't have enough faith. They blame you for their lies and deception. That is what they do. No prophet can live up to these standards in this day and time. And if our so-called prophets and apostles today will rate themselves with this standard, all of them will have been dead and gone long ago. Because most of you know what I'm talking about. When Tinubu was standing for the presidential election in Nigeria, most of these so-called prophets came to the media and prophesied that good luck, Jonathan, was going to win. I could name so many of them. I could give you the names of their ministry. But I will not do that. Because I know most of you already know. Once you have WhatsApp, you have Facebook. It's all over. So in the time of Elijah and the time of the New Testament prophet, that would have been the death penalty. Your ministry would have ended. so you don't go in shorted direction anymore for the rest of your life. That is the strict regulation that was given to the Old Testament and New Testament prophets. And their ministry was not passed on to anybody after the apostolic age. They were not passed on to anybody. And so they come to you, this prophet, use the Bible to deceive you. They mix truth with falsehood. They give you half-truths. They put on sheep's clothing so that they mingle with you without suspicion, mixing some truth with falsehood, and they follow their own ungodly desires. Now to our second subheading. How do we detect them? Verse 16 to 18. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from torn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Jesus tells us how to identify these false prophets. and that is we recognize them by their fruits. They follow ungodly desires. In Jude chapter one, verse 17 to 18, the Bible says, that you will be loved. Remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there will be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lust. They walk according to their own ungodly lust. They always have this Eden agenda which is very dangerous and contrary to the will of God. They are greedy men who seduce the unstable and never stop sinning. In 2 Peter 2 verse 14, the Bible says, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sinning, enticing unstable souls, they have a heart trained in conventious practices and are accost children. They deny Jesus as Lord. 1 John 4 verse 1 to 3. since anyone who denies Jesus as Lord is a false prophet. Many religions deny Jesus as Lord. The Jehovah's Witnesses said that Jesus is not God. He's not the Godman Redeemer. They said he's just one of those highest created beings. They said Jesus is Angel Michael. They refer to Jesus Christ as a small God. They deny the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they say that the death of Jesus was a ransom payment for Adam's sin only. They reject the doctrine of the Trinity. and they forbid people from getting into the military. So if you're a member of a Jehovah's Witness, they don't want you to become a member of the military to serve your nation. If we don't have military men, when there is war, who is going to fight for us? And one day they told their members, that Jesus Christ is coming at a particular day and time. They told their members the day which the Bible says no one knows. But the leader of the group told the members that Jesus was coming at a particular day and time. And they told the members to sell all their property. They sold their lands, they sold their houses, they went to their banks and collected all their monies and brought into the church. Lo and behold, the day came when the prophet, the so-called prophet, had prophesied. The day came and Jesus did not come. And he did not return the money back to the people. For decades, this story had become history. And they now gathered the people together again and told them, you know what? We are going to use your money for evangelism. That is why you see the Jehovah's Witness in every nook and cranny. They have siphoned money from the people, and they are using it now for evangelism. Go to Gambia College, you will see them at the gate. You come to Brikama Market, you will see them. You go to Druma Column, you will see them. They did not return the money back. That's what the Bible says. You know them by their fruits. They will say something and it will not come to pass. And when you look at the history of those people, if you have read well, you will discover there's so many lies that they have told people in the name of prophecy and they never come to pass. One day a pastor told me that if Jesus Christ did not come in the year 2000, he would never preach the gospel again. The year 2000 came, he came to Gambia, 10 years later we met. I was ashamed to ask him what he said. Anytime I remember the whole scenario, I begin to laugh in my heart. I said this is how this man would have deceived us. Some of us would have sold our property. Because this was a man we believed in. And Jesus never came. Bible says no one knows the time. No one knows the day. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19, To 21, the Bible says the foundation of the church has been laid by the apostles and the prophet, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. Can God lay a foundation and still go and relay it again? It's late. Even in heaven, the names of these apostles were written. Even towards the end of the apostolic era, Paul was not even performing miracles anymore. He told Timothy, go. and take wine for your stomach's sake. Paul left Trofimus sick towards the end of the apostolic era. So if he was a man rigging with power, he would have healed Trofimus Timothy. and the other disciple that he left sick. He would have healed him, but he left them. He did not say, come, let me pray for you so that your sickness will go. He said, go and take a little wine for your stomach sick. And he left Trophimus sick in Miletus. Their gifts were not transferred. I believe when we come, before we finish the Gospel of Matthew, we're going to learn a lot of things. because we are going verse by verse. Started in chapter one, now we're in chapter seven. Before we finish the whole book, you'll learn a lot of things. There are no prophets today. There are no apostles today. The ministry was not transferred to anybody. We are the foundation layers of the church. If you want to hear God speak, read the Bible. If you want to hear him speak louder, read the Bible louder. No one exercises the gift of prophecy as the prophets and apostles of the whole. Our only responsibility as pastors is to explain the word of God. That in itself is called prophesying, preaching. These good fruits also involve purity of character and life, conformity to Christ, not perfection. 1 Timothy chapter six, verse two to five. The fruits of their teaching and life must correlate because we know them by their fruits. To spot a counterfeit, you have to study the original. Bankers are trained to detect false currency by studying the original. When a fake currency is placed before them, they know it. If you study the word of God accurately, you will detect false preachers. 2 Timothy 2 verse 15, it says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Study and judge the teaching by what the scripture says. They deny Jesus Christ and his work of redemption. They downplay the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. 1 John 2, verse 22, who is a liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ, he is the antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. And these false preachers, they don't preach the gospel. which is about the substitutionary atonement of Christ on behalf of his people, his death, his burial, and resurrection, as it is put in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse one to four. It is not about health, wealth, and prosperity. Paul warns in Galatians chapter one, verse eight, 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 accost. False teachers take the way of Cain. They are known for their pride, for their greed, for their rebellion. They come up with new revelation. 2 Timothy 3.16, Bible says, all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness. The word inspired is theonipteous. in Greek, which means God's breath, the very breath of God. So when the Bible speaks, God speaks. They tell you about new revelation. Bible says in Jude chapter three, that we should contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The faith is a body of divine truth that is passed down from one generation to the other. So as I'm here preaching, I am not telling you something new. It is what St. Augustine, the church father preached. It is what Calvin preached that I'm preaching. It's what John Knox of Scotland preached that I'm preaching. There are no new revelations. The canon is closed. I don't follow teachings or doctrines that are from the 19th century upwards. If they are not from the first century, I don't follow them. The faith is a body of divine truths, doctrine, teaching that have survived the time. By the grace of God, I've just completed a book in which I wrote over 25,000 words, quoting over 40 authors. But I went back to these people who believed in the history of Christianity. If it is biblical, it has to be historic. If it is new, it is false. And so it is called true biblical historic Christianity. Someone in the UK downloaded one of my sermons on divorce. In this same chapter that we are looking at, She said to me, this kind of message, we don't hear it at all. This is all we hear in this place, it's about health, it's this kind of message you preach, we don't hear it at all. So today, anytime I send her one of my psalms, she will listen to it, she's eager to listen. because we are not here proclaiming new truths or new revelation. You can hold me accountable to my preaching if I go astray because you know the doctrines. But a church, a ministry that is not doctrinally centered, you can come up with anything. And you can easily concoct a sermon and preach. I remember those days when I was in the charismatic church. I would just prepare a sermon on Saturday to go and preach on Sunday. Very easy, because I'm using, I see Jesus. I don't want to know what is in the text, I just want to know what I can bring into the text. So I can prepare a sermon for you Saturday to preach Sunday. Even if you wake me up in the sleep and told me, Pastor, go and preach. When I come to the text, Elijah prophesied. Oh, I begin to prophesy. Elijah walked upon the water. You can walk upon the water. Jesus raised the dead. You can raise the dead. That is our preaching. But today, if you don't give me a whole week, I will not preach for you. Because I start my study from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then come to the podium on Sunday. We are digging, studying, reading books, putting everything together. What I'm bringing to you is not new. But in the charismatic church, they can wake you up. Any hour of the day, you just go and preach. You don't want to know the original intention of the authors of the books of the Bible. When they were writing these letters, what was in their mind? What is the culture of the people? The syntax, the grammar, exegesis of the text. Amenotics. We don't care about those things. No proper study and digging of the word of God. That is how you know a false prophet. He does not take the Bible seriously. If he comes to the podium, he does drama, gimmicks. Tells you God loves you, despite your sin. God wants to build a house for you. He wants you to get a new car. He wants you to prosper. I come here to declare for you that all is going to be well with you in 2003, 2019. Nobody will die in your family the next minute somebody dies there. Why would we continue to believe these people? When their prophecies never come to pass. One day I invited one of those prophets While I was in the charismatic church, he came to our school in Caliphate and started prophesying that God is going to bless this school. Everything is going to work for this school. God is going to do this for you. God is going to do this for you. He left us with an handkerchief that we hang on the wall there. He was selling the handkerchief. Selling it for money. selling the gift for money, the false gift. And when he left the school, that was the time they gave us notice to back out. We lost it and we never got it back. It's like the landlord was waiting for this pastor to go and prophesy. False prophets claim they have more anointing than other Christians. So that you come to them for special prayers and special anointing. In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, the Bible says, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. We are all the called of God. We have the spirit of God. I am not more anointed than you. Being a preacher does not make me more anointed than you. We are all anointed as long as you are a true believer in Christ. We have the same anointing. We are called, all of us are called from darkness to light. We have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We are tied into one body. We are all the cold of God. Paul describes every believer in Christ as drinking of one's spirit. Pictures the spirit coming into Christians and empowering them. Every true believer in Christ has the spirit of God. He or she is anointed as everybody else. Romans chapter 8 verse 9, but you are not of the flesh but of the spirit if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ is none of ease We are all called according to the purpose of God in Romans chapter 8 verse 28 first Peter chapter 5 verse 10, but May the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus We are all the called of God First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9 God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord You know, they like to make themselves special False teachers, they like to make themselves special so that they would tell you you cannot survive without them You need breakthrough come to me you need healing come to me You need deliverance, come to me. And so everything is gravitating towards the pastor. The pastor becomes the oracle and the church becomes the shrine. Now to our final subedding, a true prophet of God. Verse 18 to 20. 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. Therefore, by their fruit, you will know them. Preachers, a true prophet preaches and teaches God's word fully. Deuteronomy chapter 18. verse 17 to 18. And the Lord said to them, what they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. In Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 to 20, the commander-in-chief of the army, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was sending out the disciples, he says, go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, not going there and teaching them falsehood. He said, that's why you must study. Study so that you will know these teachings. But what teaching is doctrine? Study to know them. Study the Bible. Don't follow a 21st century preacher who has nothing to do with the historicity of the Bible. Study. A true The prophet of God is driven when he comes to the text by the meaning of the text from what the original audience would have understood the text to be, the meaning at the time when the text was written. They go to the text of the Bible and they interpret the meaning of that text as it would have been interpreted the time when Paul was writing it, when the apostles were inspired to write the scriptures. They study hard to show themselves approved unto God. And they pass through the narrow road, which is suffering, challenges, hardship. No true prophets have ever been popular in the Bible. But today you see these prophets, when they want to enter the church, they put carpets for them. They have bodyguards, they are honoring them. Some of them I see, they carry them. In a hammock. Just to celebrate them that they are more powerful. They are superhero Christians. There is no superhero Christians. We are just beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. We are beggars of grace. And without him, we can do nothing. But today, most of our preachers today, they tell you, you can do something. You have all that it takes. You have the power to create your own reality. When the Bible says, without him, you can do nothing. They say, no, with you, yourself, you can do something. So they give you this self-confidence and pride. So you walk around, you think that you can create your own reality. They say God speak the world into existence. So go ahead and speak things into existence. If that is how it works, Africa would have been the richest continent because we have more people with that ideology here than most parts of the world. You could have just gone to the shop in the morning and begin to speak the customers into existence. But you would tell that some of our businessmen and women are seated here. They know that sometimes the market is dry. We don't have customers. In life, we go through both sweet and sour providences. God never promises to make you healthy, wealthy, and rich. It's not nowhere in the Bible. God makes people rich, whom he wants to make rich. Because he answers prayer according to his will. Ask God to bless the work of your hands, to be fruitful. God wants that for you. But to make you rich, he can do it if it pleases him. But it's not a promise in the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation. They pass through the narrow road. They know what it means to suffer. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, 26, he says, in journeys, often in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. They shouted Hosanna for Jesus. The next time they shouted, crucify him. Paul received 39 lashes, five times from the Jews, through many tribulations. True biblical preachers call us to repent, leave assault and light, No, we cannot keep God's law in and of ourselves in our own strength. But we must look to Christ daily for salvation. The moment you stop looking to Christ, sin will capture you. It will tell you that. That is why we pray every day. We seek God every day. We come before him because we know that in and of ourselves, we don't have the power and the strength to save ourselves from the loss of the flesh, the pride of life, and the deceitfulness of the riches. From the temptations in this world, we don't have the power to save ourselves. So we come daily into the throne of grace, asking for mercy and strength to overcome in time of need. True biblical preachers depend on God. They set a good example for God's people by their holy conduct. They are not perfect, because no one can be perfect, but they set a good example. They do not preach to you for your money. They are concerned about your eternal salvation. 2 Peter 2 verse 5, And did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly. True prophets are motivated by loyalty to God above all else. While Jeremiah foretold the coming invasion of Babylonia, of the Babylonians, destruction of Jerusalem, and the taking into captivity his own people, the false prophets were promising the people peace, peace, peace. But Jeremiah was true to his word, true to the Bible. He spoke the word of God accurately. True prophets tell the truth. They don't tell you nice things, what you want to hear. To conclude this message this morning, Discernment starts with conversion. You cannot be able to discern truth from lies if, first of all, you are not converted. So I implore you this morning, if you are a sinner that is on the broad way that leads to destruction, I implore you to repent of your sins. Turn away from them. and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and lived a perfect life so that he can take the reward of his righteousness and credit it into your account, so that he can appease the wrath of a holy God that is upon the lives of those who refuse to repent, so that he can bring peaceful reconciliation between you and God, thereby giving you a new life and a new way of living that is characterized by love and obedience. so that he will say to you, well done, thou faithful servant. But if you don't have spiritual life in you, you cannot discern between true and false. You cannot put your flesh under the subjection of the Holy Spirit. You cannot fight the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and all the temptation that comes with the evil one. You will be overcome by sin. Sin will have dominion over you. And at the end, you will die and go to hell, where the warm never dies, where the fire is never quenched. Therefore, I implore you this morning, repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our most gracious and everlasting Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We ask for grace to take heed of all your commandments, warnings, promises, and good examples to follow. Give us today our daily spiritual bread, and give us grace to forgive at all times. Give us grace to discern between good and evil, to flee from this false prophet who has come to wreck our spiritual lives and destroy our fellowship with you. May we disown them and run away from them. Give us grace to know the truth and the truth shall set us free. These and many other masses we ask through your son's name and for his sake. Amen.