We've been studying Jesus's Sermon on the Mount over the past few months here at Lamar's Bible Church. Here's an outline of it as we've been walking through it. The Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached by any man. Obviously Jesus, the greatest preacher. What he's doing in this sermon is he's explaining for us who have trusted in him, for those who had repented. were there listening to him that day, how those who already belong to the kingdom should live while they wait for Jesus to establish it. So he started off by talking about the kind of people Jesus delights in, you remember that, the Beatitudes, Jesus says that he delights in those that are poor in spirit, people who just admit before him that they cannot do it, that they need him, they come to him as beggars. He delights in those who mourn over their own sin, who are gentle rather than self-promoting, who long to live righteous lives, who are merciful, helping other people that are in trouble, those who walk in purity and heart, those who strive to live at peace, those who are persecuted for his sake. These are those who we delight in. Then Jesus talked about how to live as a kingdom heir. And Jesus is our king and thus we should live by his laws. And so we walked through that really what he's looking for is our heartfelt obedience to the heart of the laws, not just something external. And he talked about worshiping God rightly. And there too, it's about the heart that I offer to God and not what people see. He talked about embracing our king's perspective. And the big picture there that he talked about was, well, what's really important? What matters? It's what's going to last beyond this life. It's not the things that we can see. And then we come to the conclusion. And as Jesus is concluding his sermon, he knows that there's some in the crowd that have repented and they have the kingdom. And there's others that are still just listening and they are not decided yet. And so in this conclusion, Jesus... tells us there's only two ways to go. And he's going to say that we, each of us, must make a choice, that there's only two possible responses to his words, where he says that he is the way to life. There's two possible responses. And so last week we saw the two gates and the two ways. Jesus says we should enter the narrow gate. Our only hope of life is to come to him and walk on that narrow road of obedience. Next week we'll look, verses 21 to 23, we'll look at the two destinies that Jesus lays out. There are some who will enter the kingdom and there are many who will be told, no, depart from me. And then verses 24 to 29, Jesus will say there's two builders. There's a man who hears Jesus's words and builds his life on it. That man, Jesus says, is like a man who's built on a rock. And then there's another man who hears Jesus's words walks away and is unchanged and doesn't do anything with it, that man, Jesus said, is set up for destruction. So there's these two ways you can go. Either I embrace Jesus and all that he says, or I don't. And that makes all the difference now and in eternity. Interestingly, in Jesus's conclusion to his sermon, when he's telling us what we need to do, in this whole conclusion, There's only two commands that he gives. The first one we looked at last week, enter through the narrow gate. He tells us, which is essentially saying, come to me and be saved, right? There's no more. If we understand what he's talking about, that there is no more significant command that Jesus, that you will find in the Bible, enter through the narrow gate. Then, in Jesus's conclusion, there's only one other command that he gives. There's other illustrations and things, but only one other command, and we find that in the verses we're going to look at today. His first command, in the conclusion, entered through the narrow gate. His second command, beware of false prophets. Beware of the false prophets. Beware of the wolves. So look here, Matthew 7, verse 15. Jesus says, beware of the false prophets. who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. It may be that the greatest threat to mankind today is false prophecy. Jesus certainly gives us a significant place in his sermon when he's coming down to the end and what must I do? He says, enter through the narrow gate and beware of false prophets. Why is this so significant? Let me try to summarize Jesus's point for you on my handout here. Here's what Jesus is saying to each of us today. We must watch out for those who claim to speak for God, but lie. We must watch out for those who speak, they claim to speak for God, but they lie to you. Because for each of us, our eternal destiny depends upon who we choose to believe. Satan's greatest strategy to keep people from heaven is to lie to them. What Satan will do is he will send someone to you who will tell you what God thinks. Here's what God has to say. Satan will send them their false prophets. They will lie to you in God's name. One way or another, every false prophet does the same thing. They distract you from your urgent need to enter the narrow gate and then to walk on the narrow way. Do you know that every religion in the world, except for one, is the invention of Satan? Except for this truth that Jesus shares with us, that you must come to Him empty and trust all in what He has done for you on the cross if you want to be saved. Other than that religion that's built around Jesus and His words, all the rest of them are lies of Satan. 1 Timothy 4 says that all other doctrines are doctrines of demons. Jesus says it this way, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. If the only way to be saved is to come to Christ, then Satan's way to stop people from getting to eternity is just to lie to them. Whatever lie they'll believe is fine as long as they don't come to Christ. And so Jesus, after saying, enter the narrow gate, he points out the big threat to that. The big threat to it is the false prophets. And so he says, beware, beware of false prophets who will come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves. Now we should stop here. What's a prophet? A prophet is a man or a woman who receives a message from God and then passes it on to the people. If you look in scripture, A prophet is someone who receives a message directly from God and then passes it on to people. I wouldn't claim to be a prophet today, a prophet of one kind or another, because I don't receive any of my messages straight from God. The messages came straight from God to the prophets. I'm a teacher. I just speak to you and I say, hey, listen to what the prophets have said, the true prophets. I don't have any authority to you. If I come to you and I say something, this is what God says, and I don't have it in Scripture, then I don't have any authority beyond that, right? So I wouldn't call myself a prophet. I'd call myself a teacher. But I don't think Jesus here is trying to make distinctions between, find distinctions between prophets and teachers. Essentially, Jesus is saying, look, there's going to be people that come to you and they're going to be claimed to be telling you what I think, right? So I would fit in that. I think this warning that Jesus gives about prophets, we should apply to anyone who teaches us based, and saying this is what God has to say, right? So what's a prophet? It's someone who receives a message from God and passes it on. And Jesus says, look, you gotta watch out, because there's gonna be people that are gonna say they're talking for me, but they're lying to you. There, Jesus says, they're like ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing. And so Jesus says, beware of wolves in disguise. Two characteristics we'll see of these wolves, these false prophets. First, letter A on your sheets, false prophets are deceptive. False prophets are deceptive, Jesus says. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. Now, sheep's clothing, What's the picture there? Jesus calls Himself throughout Scripture, He calls Himself the Good Shepherd, and when He's talking about believers, the people that follow Him, He refers to us as sheep. We are His flock. So, if a false prophet is dressing himself up like a sheep, what he's doing is he's pretending to be a follower of Jesus. He's pretending to be a true Christian that loves and follows Jesus. These men and women, these false prophets, may be pastors of local churches, They may be ordained ministers of the gospel of Christ. They come dressed up as Christians, but it's not because they really follow Jesus. It's because they or Satan behind them have designs on your soul. They want to destroy you. And so they speak to you, for God, I am a Christian pastor, listen to me, they say. They lie and they lead you to hell. If you listen, Acts 20 verse 28, a few years later, Paul gave the same warning in scripture to the elders in Ephesus. He says, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Did you notice in those verses, where do the false prophets come from? Where do the savage wolves come from? Well, they're coming from among your own selves. These false teachers that you watch that you need to watch out for. They're not just the ones outside the church. The most dangerous false teachers are those who have become respected Christians and people look up to them there. They've risen to a position where they can speak and people trust them as Christian leaders. These are the most dangerous. Listen, you, you need to always be on guard. We're gonna be talking here about the test that you should apply to those who speak for God. Apply those tests to me, to anyone who will speak to you, right? Jesus is saying you just can't trust him just because he's in that position. He might be dressed up as a sheep, but really he's a wolf. You gotta watch out. This is what false prophets do. They lie to you, but they try to make themselves look like they're representing Jesus. We actually have so many examples. This week, I went to a Mormon website. Mormons are teaching a gospel that leads away from Christ, not a gospel that gives eternal life. So, the Mormon website that I went to this week, comeontochrist.org. I just copied this off of there yesterday. And what stood out to me is that this is intentionally, it's intentionally packaged so that if you're a follower of Jesus, you think, oh, this is all right. This is pretty close to what I believe, what we believe. As Christians, right, they don't say, as Mormons, as Christians, we believe in learning all we can about Jesus. The greatest happiness in life comes from following the Savior. You will feel his love for you as you seek to understand his life and teachings. Like, well, sure, yeah. Over here, following Jesus. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, they say. Because of him, we can live with God again. By learning and following his example, we can discover the blessings God has for us. Over here about the Bible, they say the Bible is the word of God. It leads us to Jesus and shows us how to follow his perfect example. Find out how biblical teachings help us to find joy, meaning, and direction in life. When I'm reading those things, you have to look pretty closely to find things that are awry in that. Now, I think you do. You notice here, by learning and following his example, it was over there too, how to follow his perfect example. How is it that I get eternal life? Is it by following Jesus' example that I'm forgiven? No, because I can't, right? I'm gonna fail. So to find eternal life, it isn't a matter of I follow His example. It's I come to Christ and I trust in Him and I receive His forgiveness. Then, once I've been saved, Now I have him living within me, and I do follow his example. So it's subtle, but that kind of raises a red flag for me. Well, obviously this part we don't agree with. The Book of Mormon, like the Bible, the Book of Mormon is a book of Scripture that teaches about Jesus. Like the Bible, the Book of Mormon is a book of Scripture. That's a lie. Boy, if you haven't seen it, there's a video we have in the church library. It's called the Bible versus the Book of Mormon. And it just contrasts the Bible with the Book of Mormon and even like some of the details of it. The Bible says this about its... history, the history that it describes, and you go and you find, well, all the things that it's saying are true. The Book of Mormon says this, and none of those things can be confirmed. It's a made-up story and just shows itself to be. Those things are not on the same level. You've got to watch that. It's called the Bible, the book versus the Book of Mormon. But what I'm trying to show you here, so the false prophets, what did Jesus say they're going to do? They're going to come dressed up as sheep. Well, OK, now, so do the Mormons just teach like we do that? They just follow the Bible and they say, hey, come to Christ and be saved. No, that's that's not what they say. What do Mormons teach? Well, actually, it's nothing close to what we believe at all. You know, the Mormons believe that the God that we worship is just one of many gods. And that you, too, can become a god if you are really good. Mormons believe that you, just like our God, can get your own planet to populate with your spiritual children. If you will be good, you too can be God, like Jesus. And so it's a totally different message, but they don't start with that. They don't say, reject Jesus, believe us. But ultimately that's what it comes down to. They come dressed as sheep. But you're not just going to find false prophets with labels like that Church of Latter-day Saints that maybe could alert you that this is a cult, but you're going to find false prophets that have the label Bible church pastor. And we need to be aware of them as well, right? We don't just trust, well, it looks like a sheep, so it must be good. No, that's, Jesus says, beware. of false prophets, they come to you dressed like sheep, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves. Boy, if you listen to a false prophet, you believe what he says, you're not going to be in heaven. That's what's on the line here. That's why Jesus puts this warning right where he does, in the middle of his appeal to come to him. Come to me, don't listen to the false prophets. Beware of wolves. False prophets are deceptive. Many of them have fooled even themselves. We'll see that a little bit next week. Okay, false prophets are dangerous. Secondly, false prophets are dangerous. Jesus says, and really they are ravenous wolves. Well, what do wolves do to sheep? They destroy them. Okay. So if this is such a big deal, Jesus is in the middle of his conclusion to his sermon. He's going to say, watch out for false prophets. They're so deceptive. They come to you looking like sheep, but they're wolves. So what we need to think from there, well, how do I know? How do I know if the guy's a false prophet or if he's a real teacher of the word of God? Like, how do I make the distinction? And Jesus is gonna help with that. And so he's gonna give us a test that we can apply to those who claim to speak for God. Here's Jesus's test, number two on your sheets. Their fruit will tell you the truth about them. Their fruit will tell you the truth about them. Twice Jesus says this, look at verse 16, Matthew 7, 16. Jesus says, you will know them by their fruits. Then look at verse 20, as he concludes this, Jesus says, so then you will know them by their fruits. So what a prophet produces shows what he really is, right? There's your blank, what a prophet produces, shows what he really is. Okay, and then in between these two things where he says it, look, you'll know them by their fruits. Now he's gonna give us an illustration. What do you mean, I'll know them by their fruits? Jesus says, prophets are like fruit trees. Prophets are like fruit trees. Well, how so? Look at verse 16 again. Matthew 7, 16. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Jesus is saying to produce grapes, you have to have grapevines, not thorn bushes. To produce figs, you have to have fig trees, not thistles. Good fruit only grows on good teachers and not on false prophets, Jesus says. Here's a test for you. We're testing fruit, all right? One of these pictures is a thorn bush. It's called the buckthorn. One of them is a grapevine. Can you tell the difference? Okay, class, which one? Is it the one on the right or the one on the left? That's grapes. Right, yes. Grapes are on the right. But this is a buckthorn. They would have had this kind of thorn bush even in Israel then. Sometimes, to be able to tell the fruit, you might not see it from a distance. You might have to kind of learn what do I look for to be able to distinguish the fruit, right? You might have to look closely. You might have to look for a while But Jesus is saying the way you can tell the difference between a true teacher of mine and a false prophet is the fruit. So watch the fruit, Jesus says. Good fruit only grows on true prophets. Okay. Here's, I will follow Jesus's illustration through this. Okay. So letter a on your sheets there under number three, like trees, prophets produce fruit that matches their true character. So like a tree, a prophet will produce a fruit that matches its true character. Jesus says that in verse 17. He says, so every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. Right? The second thing Jesus says, let her be like trees. Prophets can not produce fruit that does not match their character. Like a tree prophets can't produce fruit that doesn't match their character. He says that in verse 18, right? Look there, Jesus says a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Or if we go back to Jesus's wolf and sheep clothing illustration, a wolf can put on sheep's clothing, right? But he can't grow wool. So if you're watching for a while, is this guy, is it a wolf or is it a sheep? If it's a sheep, you'll be able to tell by what's growing, what he's producing. You might have to watch closely, you might have to watch for a while. Third thing Jesus says, letter C, like bad trees, prophets without good fruit are on their way to fire. Like bad trees, prophets that don't produce good fruit are on their way to the fire. Look at verse 19, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Jesus is talking about these prophets. And so essentially he's saying, look, at the end of time, those who claim to speak before me, like everyone, are gonna stand before me. And here at the end of time is prophets and teachers, and they come and they stand before Jesus, He's gonna evaluate them by their fruit, and he's gonna know, right? And so if he looks at a false prophet, he's gonna see this man has not borne good fruit, and so he's going to cut him down and burn him, and cast him into the literal fire of hell. Judgment is coming for false teachers. The only hope a false teacher has for eternal life is the same hope that we do, is to abandon that, and to run to the narrow gate, and to cast himself upon Jesus, who will forgive him, if he turns to him before it's too late, right, before his life is over. So this is what Jesus says, beware of wolves. Watch out for those who claim to speak for God, but lie to you. Then Jesus says, look, their fruit will tell you the truth about them. Now this is obviously super important in the eyes of Jesus. I wanna try to make it a little bit more practical, help us to think this through. Okay, so we're gonna move to our fourth point here, which is application. The obvious application of this is this. If someone claims to speak to you on behalf of God, check his fruit before you believe him. Right? Someone says, this is what God says, boy, check his fruit first before you believe what he has to say. But what kind of fruit should I be looking for? What would be an example of good fruit that would say, yeah, this guy's a good teacher or a bad fruit that would say, hey, I'm not going to listen to him. He might be a false prophet. What kind of fruit should I look for? Let's say three things here. First, letter A, do not be wowed by the teacher's accomplishments. Do not be wowed by the teacher's accomplishments. Success does not count as good fruit that proves he's a true teacher. Look down with me at verses 21 to 23. Daryl read this. We'll look at these verses more next week. But notice all the spiritual success that this guy has. So many people, I think they might look at these things that this guy has accomplished and say, now there is a prophet of God. Look, Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? I mean, that's quite the resume. I haven't done any of those things. I haven't gotten direct information from God. I haven't cast out demons. I haven't performed any miracles. This is impressive. If I knew somebody was doing all these things, wow, right? And they're convinced they're doing it. They're saying, Lord, you know, we prophesied in your name. We did these miracles. We cast out demons. But look at what Jesus says to them. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Once a while back, I was talking to a relative and he'd been to a healing crusade. He was all excited about it. And so I was telling him, Well, look, I believe in God. I believe that God can heal and he does and I've seen him do it. But I think that some of these things that happen at these healing crusades are fake. And he was shocked. I'm a pastor. He was expecting me to just be like all on board with this. And he's like, well, look, if something miraculous is going on, then God must be behind it, right? Well, no, not necessarily. Satan has miraculous power too. And some people are just real tricky. Right? Just because this teacher has an impressive list of accomplishments doesn't mean that he's telling you the truth about God. And so you might go to a church or watch on TV or something and there's a guy, he's got this, you know, he looks great and all these people respect him. You've heard people talk about him. He's got thousands of people that are listening to him in his church and he's written books and he's got recommendations from people. That man may still be false. Success, spiritual accomplishments, are not the spiritual fruit that we're supposed to be looking for. So don't be wowed by that and say, well, he must be telling the truth. That's not the fruit we're to look for. So what should we look for? We're saying if someone claims to speak to you on behalf of God, check his fruit. Well, we're not saying look and see what he's done, what he's accomplished. That's not what we're trying to do. But these two things, letter B, do this. Check the character of his life. If a man claims to speak to you on behalf of God, what do you do? Start with this, check the character of his life. Does he display the fruit of the Spirit? Boy, brothers and sisters, I just, do you know that there's many pastors all across America that don't know God? They don't know Him, and they're speaking. We just can't automatically trust them. If a man does know God, what will he look like? Well, if he knows God, the Spirit has come to live inside of him, and so it makes a difference, right? Well, what difference does it make? Well, Galatians 5.22 says this, the fruit of the Spirit. Check his fruit. What's the fruit of the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Now, even us Bible teachers, we're not perfect. I'm still not Jesus, right? So I look at this list this week, I'm telling them to check me for this fruit, and I'm not perfect in this. But if the man's truly from God, you're going to see these things in his life in an increasing way, in a real way, that it's flowing out of who he is. It's this kind of character that the Spirit of God produces in a Christian, no less a Christian who's saying he's speaking for God. So if you say, well, I'm looking at this guy's life and these things, that's not true, that's not who he is, then here's what you do. Don't listen to him. Don't base your life on what he says, because he doesn't have the fruit to back up his claim to be a teacher of God. We talked about Mormonism earlier. Mormonism was founded by Joseph Smith. Now, I've known Mormons. When we lived out in California, we had a lot of friends that were Mormons. There were a bunch of them out there on the West Coast. And they were such nice people, such moral people, like the kind of people I'd want my family to hang out with. We just shared a lot of the same values. But look back to Joseph Smith. He's the prophet of Mormonism, the founder of it. You can read about Joseph Smith in this book. Have you ever seen it? It's called The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin. It's like super thick, but it's fascinating. There's a chapter in there about Mormonism. Here's what it says about Joseph Smith and his growing up years, his character. There's a man who interviewed Joseph Smith's neighbors and acquaintances, and he said that Joseph Smith was known for his habits of exaggeration and untruthfulness. He said, by reason of his extravagances of statement, his word was received with the least confidence by those who knew him best. He could utter the most obvious exaggeration or marvelous absurdity with the utmost apparent gravity. Well, if you're asking, should I believe this guy, what he says to me about God and the people that know him best, they know don't trust him. some of the Mormon holy books, there are statements in them that are just blatantly racist. Is that the kind of fruit that would come from God? Joseph Smith was known in his youth as an immoral man. And to make that seem okay, he said that he received a revelation from God that it's allowable to have more than one woman at a time. Right? Polygamy. Now, the Mormon church later changed their policy on polygamy because the U.S. government threatened them that if they didn't, they wouldn't let Utah become a state. So they changed their belief, they don't promote it anymore. Joseph Smith used to live in this town of Palmyra. After he moved out of town, lots of people were following him and the people in this town were like, what in the world? They don't know what they're doing. And so 62 residents of the town signed this statement saying that Joseph Smith was considered entirely destitute of moral character and addicted to vicious habits. So were Joseph Smith a true prophet, he would have passed the test of character, but he did not. And now look what he's done. Boy, the same thing could be said of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Jesus says, beware. Beware of false prophets. You know them by their fruits. One of their fruits is just their character. I was thinking about this in relation to some of the trends in America, and I think that some of the things that are popular in the American church maybe set us up to be susceptible to false teachers. For instance, one of the trends that's happening, and some of it's, I think, well-motivated, so I'm not trying to cast aspersions, I'm just saying Maybe we should think about this. Okay, so one of the trends that's current now is multi-site churches, and there's a great preacher, a famous preacher, and he preaches in one place, and then all the people in these other sites, they listen to him on the screen in the other places. Some of them, you know, hundreds of miles away, but he's the preacher, and they're all listening, because he's the best preacher. If you're going to one of those multi-site churches, right, and you're listening on a screen and the pastor lives hundreds of miles away, how are you going to check his fruit? Because Jesus said, hey, don't believe the guy unless you can check his fruit. Or even worse would be just people who say, you know what, I don't need to go to church. I can just, I'll just listen on the, I'll watch YouTube and there's lots of great preachers. And so I'm going to get the truth taught to me there. But boy, if I'm just listening to the guy on TV, I don't know him. I don't know his wife. I haven't seen his kids. I don't have any opportunity to check his fruit. And Jesus says, beware of false prophets. You'll know them by their fruits. We have to be close enough to be able to see the fruit. So beware of false prophets. What should we check? We should check the character of his life. A second thing we should do, we should check the content of his message. Check the content of his message. And I know that Jesus means this, when he says, check his fruits, he's not just talking about character, but he's talking about content, because over in Luke, Jesus himself says, part of the fruit is what he says. Look here, Luke 6, 44. Jesus said, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth what is good, and the evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth what is evil, for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. And so where should you expect bad fruit in a false teacher? Well, it'll come out in what he teaches. You know, we have a standard that we're to compare everything that a person says to, right? If he gets up there and he says, I'm speaking to you from God, then here's the standard you can apply, right? Isaiah 8.20 says this, to the law and to the testimony. to the Bible, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. If they don't speak according to God's written word that came to the true prophets, if they don't speak according to this, it's because they have no light, it's because they have no future. They're false prophets. So there's a standard. This is what everyone ought to be doing. Now this puts quite a bit of responsibility on you pews too, right? Because you have to know God's Word to be able to compare what the guy is saying to it. Well, we ought to listen to teachers. I'm not arguing against it. Jesus isn't arguing against it. He's just saying there are some that are false. Don't listen to those. Take your Bibles with me and turn back, if you would, to Ezekiel 13. I'll give you an example of the the kind of thing you get from false prophets. Okay, we're going to Ezekiel in the Old Testament, so if you're flipping around kind of in the middle, a little past the middle, you get to find Isaiah. This is Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel. We're looking for Ezekiel. We're going to Ezekiel chapter 13. Here's an example, and you'll find many of these in the Old Testament. Here's an example of the kind of false prophets they had even before Jesus came. Ezekiel 13, I'm gonna read this whole section because I think the picture that it gives us of what a false teacher is like is helpful to us. Okay, Ezekiel 13, I'll start at verse two. All right, Ezekiel 13, look at verse two. Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy. And say to those who prophesy from their own inspiration, listen to the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing. Oh, Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. You did. You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the Lord. They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying the Lord declares when the Lord has not sent them. Yet they hope for the fulfillment of their word. Did you not see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said the Lord declares, but it is not I who have spoken. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you have spoken falsehood and seen a lie. Therefore, behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God. So my hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will have no place in the council of my people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel that you may know that I am the Lord God. It is definitely because they have misled my people by saying peace when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash. So tell those who plaster it over with whitewash that it will fall. A flooding rain has come, and you, O hailstones, will fall, and a violent wind will break out. Behold, when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked, where is the plaster with which you have plastered it? Therefore thus says the Lord, I will make a violent wind break out of my wrath. There will also be in my anger a flooding rain and hailstones that consume it in wrath. Did you notice back in verse 10 the false prophet's message? Obviously the Lord is angry because these men are claiming to represent Him and they're lying. But did you notice their message in verse 10? This is what false prophets do. Do you see it? What do the false prophets say? They say peace when there is no peace. This is what false prophets always do. It's what they did in the Old Testament. It's what they do now. A false prophet will go to the people that are walking on the broad road that leads to destruction, right? They're on their way to hell. They're sinning. They're going against what God has for them. And the false prophets will go to them and they'll say, peace. They'll talk about Jesus in a general way. They'll say, Jesus loves you. Jesus cares for you. You know Jesus? Trust in Jesus. They'll talk about Jesus in a general sense. He'll help you with your problems. They'll point to the word of God in some way. They'll say, you know, you should try to do better, but God loves you. You're doing all right. The false prophets say peace when there is no peace between these people and God. And what does that make them do? They don't run for the narrow gate. They don't run for Jesus because they're like, well, I guess I'm OK. This guy's telling me God's OK with me. They say peace when there is no peace. A true teacher would come and say, oh brother, friend, look, you're lost. You're on your way to destruction. What you're doing is rebelling against God. You've got to stop. You've got to turn from that and go to Jesus. If you cast yourself on him, he will forgive you. But if not, you're under his wrath. Right? A false teacher will never say that. False teachers say peace when there is no peace. They just try to keep this Satan's ploy to keep people going on this road to destruction, make them feel good. So a false prophet is more fun to listen to, because he's just going to say, you're good. Keep it up. Try a little harder. True man is going to say, no, no, there is no peace, but there can be. You've got to run to Christ. Enter the narrow gate. He'll forgive you. So this is Jesus' warning to us. In the conclusion to his grand sermon, here's the thing to watch out for, he says. Watch out. Watch out for those who claim to speak for God, but they lie to you. So, before you listen, before you listen to someone that teaches the word, check his fruit. Don't look at his accomplishments. Check his character. Check the content of his message. This is what Christ calls us to. Let's pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for your word that you've given to us and the guidance it gives us. You tell us about the way to go and you warn us against the threats. This is a serious threat. I pray that you protect, Lord, will you protect each of us that's in this room from false teaching, that we might know you and walk on your narrow way, know your smile, head to life, help other people on that road to life, keep us away from the error that would turn us off that path. I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.