Beware of False Prophets

Greetings to each one, in Jesus' name. Good to be here again today. Blessing to just have our hearts encouraged in the Word of God and fellowship and worship.

Seems like when days are extra busy, it makes gathering with the brothers and sisters in the Church an extra special blessing. Could we stand together for prayer before we get started? Father, we thank you this morning for the blessing and the privilege we have of coming into your presence, coming into the house of the Lord to worship you and to study your Word and to be instructed and fellowship together. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us.

Pray, Lord, that you would be with me here as I open up your Word. Pray that I could be true to it and say that which you have me to say and refrain from that which I shouldn't say. Pray, Lord, you bless those who couldn't be with us today, whether due to traveling or sickness.

Pray that you would grant safety to those who are traveling, grant healing to those who are sick or weak, Lord. Pray that they could all join us again soon. Father, we just look to you, we commit the rest of this service to your hands.

May you be glorified, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

This week I made a phone call to the electric company to arrange for service at the new place that we are purchasing. As part of that process, they asked if there was a dog at the property. Well, why did they ask if there was a dog there? What does that have to do with electric service? Well, I think we all know that sometimes you need to beware of the dog.

We see that sign sometimes. Dogs can cause a lot of pain and destruction if they don't like you on the property and if they're loose. So, if you have any doubts about that, ask Brother Ken sometime.

He had a personal experience with a dog at someone else's property. You know, even the Bible says, beware of dogs. But there is something else that God's word warns us to beware of that is far more dangerous than dogs.

And that's what I'd like to speak about this morning. I invite you to turn with me to 2 Peter 2. And our text today is the first three verses of 2 Peter 2. Jesus said in Matthew 7.15, And that's the title I've chosen for the sermon this morning. Beware of false prophets.

Let's read our text in 2 Peter 2 verses 1-3. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

The last time I preached was from the last few verses of chapter 1. And there we see how we have a more sure word of prophecy. And this talks about how there's many prophets and prophecies in the Old Testament that came not by the will of man, but holy men of God, it says, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And that is a very clear reason we have to believe the Bible as being the word of God.

Because of all the prophecies that we have that already have been fulfilled, many of them have been fulfilled in Christ, and there's more prophecies to be fulfilled in the future. But these prophets were moved by the Holy Ghost. But now today, we're looking at prophets who were not moved by the Holy Ghost.

They are false prophets. I want to make note of a word, a Greek word, that is used four times in these three verses. Twice in verse 1 is the Greek word apolia, which means ruin or loss, utter destruction.

That word is translated as damnable in the middle of verse 1, where it says damnable heresies, which basically means destructive heresies. And then the last word there in that verse is destruction, the same word. Verse 2, many shall follow their pernicious ways, again the same word, destructive ways.

And then the end of verse 3, their damnation or their destruction slumbereth not. That shows us that there's much danger with false prophets. They will be destroyed eventually, but not only they, but those who listen to them.

So we need to be aware. Beware of false prophets. Peter here, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, warns us that there were false prophets among the people back there in the Old Testament, and there will be false prophets among you.

So this is relevant to us. A false prophet is one who acts the part of a divinely inspired prophet, but he utters falsehoods, the things he says are not inspired by God. And that is what makes a false prophet so dangerous, because he claims to be speaking for God, he maybe even sounds like he's speaking for God, maybe it even makes sense.

He appears to be the real thing, but he's not. They're deceptive, they deceive people into believing that they are being led by God when they're not. Let's look at some examples in the Old Testament of these false prophets that he's referring to.

And I think we'll only look at a few examples, there's probably a lot more. But let's turn back to 1 Kings chapter 18 for an example of false prophets. Now we could read the whole chapter, I think I will just basically tell the story, maybe read a few verses.

I think we're probably all familiar with it. It's the story of Elijah, who was a true prophet of God. In chapter 17 we find him coming to the king of Israel, Ahab, who was a wicked ruler.

And because of Ahab's wickedness, and the wickedness of the nation of Israel, not just the wicked king, God sent judgment upon the land of Israel through famine. And Elijah, by the word of God, came to Ahab and told him, there shall not be dew nor rain except for at my word. He said, dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

Doesn't say how many years, but it's going to be a long time, years. Ahab, I don't think, paid much attention to it at first. But as day after day went by and there was no rain, he began to realize, this man was a true prophet.

What he's saying is coming to pass, there's no dew and there's no rain, and we're in trouble. So he searched through all the land, he searched through neighboring countries, trying to find this Elijah, to no avail. Until God spoke to Elijah and said, go, meet Ahab.

So he went and found a servant of Ahab and said, go and tell Ahab I'm here. Obadiah, the servant, was not excited about this. He was sure that Elijah was going to disappear just as soon as he left.

But Elijah promised him, no, I'm going to see Elijah today. So Ahab came and said, art thou he that troubeth Israel? Elijah responds to Ahab and says, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal, 450, and the prophets of the groves, 400, which eat at Jezebel's table.

So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. So here all the nation of Israel, I'm not sure all of them, but a large number of people, came and gathered together on this mountain. And the prophets of Baal, who were false prophets, and the prophets of the grove, that's 450 plus 400.

Can one of you children tell me how many that is? That's a lot of people. Anybody brave enough to raise their hand and say what 400 plus 450 is? 850. A big number of people.

That would fill this room up quite well, if we had 850 prophets in this room. So Elijah gave them a challenge, and he said, gave a challenge to all the people, he said, how long are you going to hope between two opinions? If Baal was God, then follow him. But if the Lord be God, then follow him.

People did not answer a word. So Elijah says, let's have a contest here. And you prophets of Baal, you take a bullock, and we're up an altar to Baal here, prepare a sacrifice, and I'll do the same.

You make your sacrifice to Balaam, I'll make a sacrifice to Jehovah. And the God who answers by fire, he is the true God. And the people said, so be it.

I don't know if the prophets of Baal started quaking in their shoes at that point or not. But I would not be surprised if they thought that was a worthy challenge. Because Baal was a false god, but behind a false god, there is a God of this world.

And the God of this world does have power. And I expect they had seen some of that power. Those who are involved in the occult today know that there's power besides God's power.

Well, Elijah said, you go first. So they prepared their sacrifice, and they called upon the name of Baal, and nothing happened. No answer.

Elijah began to mock them. Cry louder. Maybe he's traveling.

Maybe he's on vacation. Maybe he's sleeping. You need to wake him up.

So they cried louder. They even cut themselves with knives. Blood gushed out upon them.

They were serious. They were earnest. Finally, Elijah said, okay, it's my turn.

And he gathered the people together. Come near. He called them near to him.

He prepared the altar of the Lord that was broken down. He arranged the wood. He laid out the sacrifice, the bolak.

And then he called for water to be poured upon this altar. So that it would be clear. There was no trickery involved.

No way that there could be any spark hidden underneath there that would light by his doings. He did that three times. He just prayed a simple prayer.

Oh, Lord God, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word. Hear me, oh Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that Thou hast turned their hearts back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

There was no question where that fire came from. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. And they said, the Lord, He is the God.

The Lord, He is the God. And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, and let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook of Kishon and slew them there.

And so it seemed like a great victory. And it was. And yet, we find in the next chapter, Elijah was running for his life.

Here were 450 prophets of Baal, plus 400 others, and they were wrong. They were the majority. How could so many be so wrong? But they were.

If you go a couple more chapters later, to chapter 22, we have another account. This still includes Ahab. Ahab is still in the scene here.

It's approximately nine years later. And we have 400 prophets that are here at this scene. I'm not sure if these were the 400 prophets of the grove from the previous time, or if these were another 400 prophets that got raised up.

It's not clear. But here we have Ahab wanting to go to battle against the nation of Syria. And he had the king of Judah come join him, Jehoshaphat.

And Jehoshaphat was a Gandhi king. At least to some extent, he feared the Lord. And he wanted to make sure that the Lord was blessing this effort to go and fight the Syrians.

So, he said, let's inquire at the word of the Lord. And so the king of Israel, he gathers his prophets together. And there were about 400 men, verse 6. And he says, should I go up against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

Something about these 400 men didn't sit right with Jehoshaphat. And he says, is there not yet a prophet of the Lord? Besides him? Besides these that we might inquire of him? Well, the king of Israel said, there is yet one man that I know about. His name is Micaiah, the son of Imla.

By whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so. Verse 9, then the king of Israel called an officer and said, hasten hither, Micaiah, the son of Imla.

And down to verse 13, the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth. Let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. And Micaiah said, as the Lord liveth, what the Lord sayeth unto me, that will I speak.

So he came to the king, and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. I think he probably took on the same tone and demeanor as his other 400 prophets. And Ahab knew that he was just putting on an act.

And he said, how many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord? And then he told him what God had shown him. I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master.

Let them return every man to his house in peace. And he went on to explain the vision that he had seen, where the Lord was sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of heaven were around. And he said, who shall persuade Ahab to go up against Ramoth Gilead, that he might be destroyed in battle? And various of the spirits there answered one thing, one another.

And then one came forth and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said unto him, verse 22, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade him and prevail also.

Go forth and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord has spoken evil concerning thee. Well, one of those, by the name of Zedekiah, came up and hit him on the cheek and said, which way did the spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you? Well, Micaiah said, behold, thou shalt see in that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself.

Well, the king said, put this fellow in prison. Feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, if thou return it all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me.

And he said, hearken, O people, every one of you. Notice here what Micaiah said. If I come back in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.

He didn't make a big deal about it. He just simply said, you will know the truth by what comes to pass. We'll get back to that later.

Now, in both of these cases, the false prophets were the vast majority. There was one man who was the true prophet and spoke the truth. The others were false.

We see here that the way of truth is unpopular. If you wonder what is truth, most likely it will not be found in the crowd. It will be found with those who are willing to take a stand alone.

Those who are maybe the voice crying in the wilderness. One's off to the side. The way of truth is not popular.

Jesus said, enter ye in at the straight gate, which is narrow, restricted. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.

And few there be that find it. It's easy to miss. Few find it.

Beware of the false prophets. They're the popular ones. It's easy to hear them.

I'd like to look at one more example in the Old Testament of a false prophet. And like I said, I think there's probably many more. But let's turn over to Jeremiah, chapter 27.

And we could read both chapter 27 and 28. But I think for the sake of time, we'll just maybe tell most of it and pick out a few verses here. The context here is that Jeremiah was prophesying concerning what the children of Israel should do in regards to relating to the king that had come and was oppressing them, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

He had already come and taken captive a good number of the people. He had carried away a lot of the vessels from the temple. And basically had put them under tribute and made those who were left his servants.

Let's read verse 2 of Jeremiah 27. And thus saith the Lord to me, make the bonds and yokes and put them upon thy neck and send them to the king of Edom and to the king of Moab and to the king of the Ammonites and to the king of Tyrus and to the king of Zidon by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah. And so Jeremiah made these bonds and yokes and he sent them to the king surrounding the nation of Israel as a sign that they along with the kingdom of Israel should accept these yokes and the yoke of the king of Babylon and submit to him.

If you do that, he said that God would bless them but if they would not submit to that they would be destroyed. Verse 7, all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son until the very time of his land come and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence until I have consumed them by his hand.

Verse 9, therefore hearken not ye to your prophets nor to your diviners nor to your dreamers nor to your enchanters nor to your sorcerers which speak unto you saying ye shall not serve the king of Babylon for they prophesy a lie unto you to remove you far from your land and that I should drive you out and you should perish. But the nations that will bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him those who I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord and they shall till it and dwell therein. Now do you think that was a popular message? I doubt it.

Try telling that to the people of Ukraine today. Is it popular there? And I'm not saying that this is God's message to them, don't get me wrong but I'm just trying to bring it down home to our own context. You know, if a nation started trying to conquer us, would we say we should just submit to them? It wouldn't be a popular message.

But that was God's message to the people of Israel and to the nations surrounding them that if they would do that, they would have it much better than if they would rebel. And so, that was not a popular message. Let's go over to chapter 28.

We have another prophet, not Jeremiah, beginning in verse 1. It came to pass the same year in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year and in the fifth month that Hananiah, the son of Azar the prophet, which was of Gibeon spake unto me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and of all the people singing Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place and carried them to Babylon and I will bring again to this place Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah with all the captives of Judah that went into Babylon, saith the Lord for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the Lord even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen Then the Lord do so the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied to bring again the vessels of the Lord's house and all that is carried away captive from Babylon into this place I think Jeremiah sincerely wished that would be true I think that's what he was saying Nevertheless, hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears and in the ears of all the people The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms of war and of evil and of pestilence The prophet which prophesieth of peace when the word of the prophet shall come to pass then shall the prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him Again, we see the criteria by how we know whether a prophet is true or not If it comes to pass, he's a true prophet But if it doesn't, he's false Well, Hananiah went up to Jeremiah took the yoke off his neck and broke it and said, Thus saith the Lord even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within a space of two full years And Jeremiah just went his way And then the word of the Lord came to him And again, God brought out the same message to him Tell him, you've broken the yoke of wood but I will make a yoke of iron God's word is going to stand Which of these two prophets do you think was most popular with the people? They both said, Thus saith the Lord One of them said the message they wanted to hear One of them gave a message they didn't want to hear Just as it was in that day, so it is today The preachers, the teachers that say what we want to hear are more popular We enjoy listening to them We are warned in 2 Timothy chapter 4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables That time is today And I would say that time has been throughout history It's human nature We like to hear what we like to hear And so we tend to listen to those that we like to hear But we need to beware of false prophets Beware of listening to speakers that make you feel good A close relative of mine, some years ago was telling me how he had been at church that morning at a local megachurch and the comment he made just really stuck with me He said, the messages there are just so inspirational And there's nothing wrong with an inspirational message We need those at times But if a preacher or a teacher is only giving inspirational messages Is he really a man of God? Or is he just one of those teachers that pleases our ears? Note again here in this passage But the word of the prophet that comes to pass That's how you'll know that the Lord has truly sent him Well, as a result of Hananiah's false prophecies here down to the end of the chapter Here came Jeremiah The word of the Lord by Jeremiah to him Verse 16 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month Today, we have the book of Jeremiah We don't have the book of Hananiah We know who was the true prophet Even as there were false prophets among the people So there shall be false prophets among you God's word tells us So there shall be false teachers among you A teacher may not claim to be prophesying But he teaches erroneous doctrine He says things that aren't true The apostle Paul, when he was returning to Jerusalem After his third missionary journey He met with the elders from the church at Ephesus And he says this in Acts 20, beginning of verse 28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock Over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers To feed the church of God Which he hath purchased with his own blood For I know this, that after my departing Shall grievous wolves enter in among you Not sparing the flock Also of your own selves shall men arise Speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Paul was warning the elders There's danger of false teachers coming in among you Undetected, they come in sneakily Privately Like wolves They cause much damage There's danger of some of us even Today Listening to false doctrine And liking it And then accepting it It says there in Acts that Even of your own selves shall some arise Speaking perverse things There may be some here among us Who will eventually rise up and speak perverse things God forbid, I hope it doesn't happen But it can happen There are some who once sat in these pews Who today are teaching false doctrine They're heavily influenced by men And movements that have emphasized The spiritual gifts To the point that It's no longer biblical They've been influenced By false prophets It can happen to us, brothers and sisters We must be on guard In 2 Peter here it says that They will privily bring in damnable Or destructive heresies Privily is Craftily, sneakily It's not apparent We have to be careful They bring in these heresies That's something that's different from sound Established interpretation of the word of God It's damnable, it's destructive It leads to ruin and loss Many who follow their teachings End up being disillusioned Some reject Christianity altogether There are those who Teach the prosperity gospel That if you follow God He's going to bless you He's going to provide Riches for you He's going to provide Everything's going to go well for you That's not what the word of God teaches And then when they find out That it's not working out that way They give up on Christianity And say, that's not for me It's not true Why should I believe it? Well, it's not true It says that some even deny the Lord That bought them They deny the Lord in their teachings They lose their eternal reward False prophets deceive many And this is one of the characteristics of the last times Matthew 24, 11 Jesus warns us He says, many false prophets shall rise And shall deceive many I do believe, and I think we all believe That we are living in the last times And thus we must be extra cautious It's one of the signs of the last times It's been an issue throughout history But in the end times It's going to increase I believe exponentially Deception is going to abound We must beware of false prophets As a result, many will speak evil Of the way of truth Maybe because of the crazy things that are done In the name of Christ How many people Have you heard scoff at Christianity today Because of things that have been done By professing Christians That are obviously wrong How many have been turned off At the scandals that have plagued Popular Christian leaders By them the way of truth Is evil spoken of Verse 3 says, and through covetousness Shall they with feigned words Make merchandise of you Covetousness is the greedy desire To have more And we see this today In many of the popular Televangelists And preachers That are well known They live opulent lifestyles Lavish lifestyles Fly private jets Live in mansions Or several of them Many of them teach a prosperity gospel As I was stating earlier If you follow the Lord, he will bless you with health and wealth And you will have your best life now But Jesus says Those who follow me Will suffer You can't be a follower of me Unless you are willing to take up your cross And deny yourself Our best life is to come In heaven I'd like to read some quotes From the gotquestions.org website Where they give some examples Of what I've been talking about Promoters of the false Prosperity gospel And word of faith movement Often like to talk about Seeding Or seed faith offerings And hundredfold returns A seed faith offering Is money Given in faith That God will multiply it And return it to the giver The more money you give And the more faith you have The more money you get in return Prosperity preachers Often solicit gifts To their ministries by promising Such in kind returns Send me ten dollars And trust God to give you back One thousand dollars The late Oral Roberts was highly influential In spreading the concept of seed faith offerings And he taught people To expect a miracle When they sow a seed from their need He wrote To realize Your potential To overcome life's problems To see your life become fruitful Multiply and provide Abundance I.e. health, prosperity Spiritual renewal In the family or one's self You should decide to follow The divine law of the sower And the harvest Sow the seed of his promise In the ground of your need Richard Roberts, Oral's son Says on his website Give God something to work with No matter how little you think you have Sow it in joy and faith Knowing in your heart That you are sowing seed So you may reap miracles Then start expecting all kinds of miracles In May 2016 Roberts' newsletter Appealed for monetary gifts With this statement Sow a special $100 seed If you will plant this seed Out of your need And go into a holy agreement with me Then together You and I will expect A mighty miracle from God Now you might say Well that sure sounds fishy But there's many people who fall for that And they believe that if they will give To this ministry Then God will bless them And so Bible does say Or Jesus said Give and it shall be given unto you Good measure, pressed down And shaken together and running over Shall men give unto your bosom For with the same measure that ye meet withal Shall men give unto your bosom Is that what Jesus was saying? Give so that you get No he wasn't That verse is taken out of context Right prior to that Jesus was talking about Forgiving Give forgiveness and you will be forgiven He wasn't talking About financial aid Now he did promise that those who serve him And give up their Houses and lands And fathers and mothers Brothers and sisters For my sake and the gospels They shall be blessed in this life Even a hundredfold So there we get that idea A hundredfold Return But was Jesus saying that You give up your land And you'll get A hundredfold back of land And so he wasn't speaking In a literal sense, I don't believe Rather that God provides And we as a Brotherhood We share together and we Have all things in common to a certain extent I'm not saying we necessarily live according to What they did there At the beginning there in the book of Acts But God does provide For our needs, he did promise seek first the kingdom Of God and his righteousness And all these things Again he was just talking about the necessities of life Food and raiment shall be added to you He's not talking about wealth Things have been taken out of context And as a result, these men Are using these things To prey upon the covetousness Of the people And they're using their own And they're fulfilling their own covetousness Saying send me money, God will bless you It says through Covetousness shall they with faint words Make merchandise of you Jesus told the rich young ruler Sell that thou hast and give to the poor And thou shalt have treasure In heaven He didn't promise them any treasure here in this life Beware of those Who are using their ministry for financial advantage After Exhorting servants To honor and serve their masters Paul writes in 1st Timothy 6 If any man Teach otherwise In other words it says You don't have to obey your masters If they consent not to wholesome words Even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ And to the doctrine which is According to godliness He is proud Knowing nothing But doting about questions and strifes of words Whereof cometh envy Strife Railings Evil surmisings Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds And destitute of the truth Supposing that gain is godliness From such withdraw thyself We're specifically warned Don't equate gain with godliness He goes on to say But godliness with contentment is great gain Don't let These false prophets Make merchandise of you With their faint words He goes on to say here Whose judgment now of a long time Lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not These prophets will be judged by God David testified in Psalm 37 I have seen the wicked In great power and spreading Himself like a green bay tree And yet he passed away And though he was not Yea I saw him but he could not be found In Psalm 73 we have the testimony of Asaph Who saw the prosperity Of the wicked Maybe he even saw that These people were professing to be godly But they were In reality wicked And he almost lost his way He says as for me My feet were almost gone My steps and well now I slipped For I was envious of the foolish When I saw the prosperity of the wicked He saw how they were They had many things They had all they could wish for Behold these are the ungodly Who prosper in the world They increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain And washed my hands in innocency For all the day long Have I been plagued and chastened every morning Verse 16 When I thought to know this it was too painful For me until I went into the Sanctuary of God and then I understood their end Surely thou didst set them in slippery places Thou castest them Down into destruction So even if they prosper in this world These false prophets Will be condemned in the next Their damnation slumbers not Peter says here Jesus Stated in the Sermon on the Mount After warning us about false Prophets he said Many will say to me not everyone that Sayeth unto me Lord Lord shall enter into The kingdom of heaven but he that doeth The will of my father which is In heaven many will say to me In that day Lord Lord Have we not prophesied In thy name and in thy name Have cast out devils and in thy Name have done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto Them I never knew you depart From me ye that work iniquity These are men that were professing Godliness they were prophesying in Christ Name they were even working miracles casting Out devils and Jesus Says in the day of judgment I never knew You you're false You're not real well I like to look at six Biblical marks of false prophets As Given by a Dave Hunt In the March 1997 Edition of the Berean Call And just to expound on that a little bit here The first one we have Is found in Deuteronomy 13 1 to 3 Deuteronomy 13 A mark, the first mark of a false prophet If there arise Among you a prophet or A dreamer of dreams then giveth thee A sign or a wonder And the sign or the wonder come to pass Whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other gods Which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken Unto the words of that prophet Or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God Proveth you to know Whether ye love the Lord your God With all your heart and with all your soul So we see here that this prophet He gives a sign or a wonder False prophets, false teachers Deceive with miracles Matthew 24 Verse 24 Jesus says Regarding the last days There shall arise false christs And false prophets and shall show Great signs and wonders In so much that if it were Possible They shall deceive the very elect Now God can work miracles I believe that God can do wonders We've seen many in scripture I think we've witnessed even some Miracles that God maybe has done In our own lives or in people we know But signs and wonders Can easily Be used to lead people astray And Jesus warns us That in the last times they're going to be used To deceive many Signs and wonders are not proof That something is from God There are many who lead others to Worship false gods through miracles Like is described here I think of the story that Darrell Champlin told many years ago I believe it was in his sermon Love With Shoes On Where he was there in Suriname, South Africa In South America Where the witch doctor was Showing his power to prove That his power was Greater than the missionaries God's power And he had this Demonic ritual going There was a fire burning There was broken glass on the ground And he Danced in the fire And danced on the broken glass And came out unscathed Is there power there? Yes, there's power there I think Brother Harold could probably testify To demonstrations Of power there in the mountains of Haiti By the witch doctors There's signs and there's wonders But it's not the real Power that comes from God I think of the many different Reports Of the Virgin Mary having appeared To different people At various times and places Throughout history People have gone to the shrines that have been Erected at these places And they claim they have been healed Is there power there? I believe there's power there But it's leading to a false Worship Worship of Mary, not of Christ Paul warns us in Galatians 1.8 Though we or an angel from heaven Preach any other gospel unto you Than that which we have preached unto you Let him be accursed In the last days the Antichrist Will come, God's word tells us And his false prophet and they're going to work Miracles and those miracles are going to Deceive many 2 Thessalonians 2.8-9 Then shall that wicked be revealed Whom the Lord shall consume With the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy With the brightness of his coming Even him Whose coming is after The working of Satan With all power and signs And lying wonders So the first mark of a false prophet Is that they lead people astray Through signs And lying wonders The second mark we have in Deuteronomy 18 Verses 20-22 I alluded to this earlier The prophet which shall presume To speak a word in my name Which I have not commanded him to speak Or that shall speak in the name Of other gods Even that prophet shall die And if thou say in thine heart How shall we know the word which the Lord Hath not spoken When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord If the thing follow not Nor come to pass That is the thing Which the Lord hath not spoken But the prophet hath spoken it Presumptuously Thou shalt not be afraid of him The true prophet is revealed By his prophecies Coming to pass Remember the account there of Jeremiah and Hananiah Whose word came to pass It was Jeremiah's He was the true prophet Even though his was not the popular word Even though the people wanted to hear What Hananiah had to say Hananiah died The people did not come back from captivity In two years like he claimed Unfortunately there are many False prophets today Who are making specific prophecies About what's going to happen About the great work that God's going to do And they say that this is going to happen In such and such a time And it doesn't happen That means they're a false prophet There are many groups that acclaim Prophetic revelation today An example of this is What is known as the Kansas City Fellowship And the Kansas City Prophets I'd like to read a quote here From the book Heaven Can't Wait By William M. Allanor He says Some of the main prophets and or leaders In the movement included Paul Cain Mike Bickle Bob Jones, Rick Joyner John Paul Jackson Francis Frangipane and others Bob Jones Who is no relation to the Bob Jones Of Bob Jones University, he's a different one But he was quoted as saying That the general level of prophetic Revelation in their movement's Prophets had an accuracy Level of about 65% Some prophets Were as low as 10% accurate he said With some of the most Mature prophets having a rating Approaching 85% to 95% Keith Gibson Who wrote the book Wandering Stars Contending For the Faith with the New Apostles Some prophets stated this They all know they can't Meet that standard The standard of Deuteronomy 18.22 Where if what he says Comes to pass then you know he's true If he's not, he's not And so then they have all these Rationalizations for why it is They miss and it's Well they're baby prophets And babies make messes and so they're growing Into their prophetic gifting Or that New Testament Prophecy is different And not subject to the same standard Or all of these Things We only have to get 66% Keith goes on to say I'd like to meet the modern prophet That is 66% accurate Because I've read over 9,000 prophecies so far in my research I've never run into that person They're not even remotely close They're not 50-50 They're not as good as a carnival act It's a horrific amount Of false prophecy So if you do the research you'll find that Many of these men have made specific Prophecies that have never come to pass God's word clearly says They are a false prophet There's nothing in the scripture that says Baby prophets can prophesy false man It's okay You have to take God's word for what it says Third point That indicates someone's A false prophet They speak things that contradict God's word Isaiah chapter 8 19 and 20 And when they shall say unto you Seek unto them that have familiar spirits And unto wizards that peep and that mutter Should not a people Seek unto their God For the living to the dead To the law and to the testimony If they speak not according to this word It is because there is no light in them False prophets Contradict the word of God God's word Is sure And steadfast Psalm 119.89 says Forever oh Lord thy word Is settled in heaven It endures Jesus said Maybe you quoted Isaiah Where he says The grass witherth the flower fadeth But the word of our God shall stand Forever God's word gives us understanding It helps us to Avoid deception If we read God's word And we believe it And we study it It is one of the best antidotes to Falling prey to False prophets Psalm 119.104 Through thy precepts I get understanding Therefore I hate Every false way We must learn To love God's word If we love God's word And we love it's truth It will be A safeguard for us Psalm 119.97 Psalmist wrote Oh how love I thy law It is my meditation all the day Brothers Sisters Read God's word daily Study it Memorize it Spend much time with it Fourthly False prophets bear bad fruit Jesus tells us In Matthew chapter 7 on the Sermon on the Mount Beware of false prophets Which come to you in sheep's clothing They look good They look like a sheep But inwardly they are ravening wolves You shall know them by their fruit Do men gather grapes of thorns Or figs of thistles Even so every good tree Bringeth forth good fruit But a corrupt tree Bringeth forth evil fruit A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit Is hewn down and cast into the fire Wherefore by their fruits You shall know them What is the outworking of their lives? When you find yourself impressed with a preacher Or a teacher Investigate his life Is it godly? Does his life Match his teachings? We can think Of many high profile Christian leaders and teachers Who have been exposed As living double lives Living in secret sin While they preach the word of God Any true Christian leader Should be open to scrutiny in his life In his personal life 1 Thessalonians 5.12 Paul wrote We beseech you brethren to know them Which labor among you and are over you in the Lord And admonish you Any one of us Who stands behind this pulpit Should be subject to your scrutiny Are we living? Or we preach? Is the person you're listening to On that podcast, is he living what they preach? Do some research Find out, is this person Really Bearing good fruit? Is his church producing good fruit? Fifthly, all men Speak well of false prophets Jesus said in Luke 26 Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you For so did their fathers To the false prophets A true prophet is willing to be slandered He's willing to be Spoken ill of for Christ's sake Those Old Testament prophets were lonely men Many people hated them Because they spoke the truth But it wasn't popular Jesus was reviled And as his followers We can expect to be as well He said The disciple is not above his master Nor the servant above his lord It is enough for the disciple That he be as his master And the servant as his lord If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub How much more shall they call them Of his household Jesus was reviled Yes, he was popular at times And other times he was hated But if all men speak well of us That is Or if all men speak well of the Person that you admire Consider I'm not saying that everyone is always Spoken ill of That is a That is a true Follower of God But yet we have to be willing to do that Because the world will hate us And if we're going to speak the truth And if that word gets out there It's not going to be popular In the world today Lastly They that deny Jesus The one and only Christ That he has come once and for all in the flesh That is another mark Of a false prophet 1 John 4, the Apostle John writes Beloved, believe not every spirit But try the spirits Whether they are of God Because many false prophets are going out into the world Every spirit that confesseth That Jesus Christ is come in the flesh Is of God And every spirit that confesseth not That Jesus Christ is come in the flesh Is not of God And this is that spirit of Antichrist Whereof ye have heard that it should come And even now already Is it in the world Believe not every spirit Dear brothers and sisters If that spirit Questions Denies The deity of Christ Does not exalt Christ to his rightful place That's an indication He's a false teacher So as we have seen today We have an enemy who is seeking to destroy us And he is using false teachers False prophets to do that Just as there were false prophets Throughout history who deceived people So there are false prophets today And there will abound More and more as we draw near To the end of time These false prophets are seeking to influence us Their books are in the bookstores Around us Their teachings are readily available To us on the internet We must be alert And aware Of this danger God's word warns us that false prophets Will arise in the last days And we see that happening in our time So be careful who you listen to Be careful what you read Many of these men are seeking To take advantage of us For their own personal gain Following them leads not only to financial loss But much worse To spiritual loss and ruin As we've seen here God's word gives us The indicators, the marks of a false prophet We don't have to be led astray We have the truth in our hands The word of God The best way To spot The counterfeit Is to study the genuine They say that those who Who work in the banks And handle large amounts of money Are taught to study The genuine bills Very carefully And it is easy to spot the counterfeit So it is with the word of God If we study God's word The genuine, the real thing We can spot the counterfeit We need to love the truth And if we will love the truth And our hearts cry is To the law of God And to his testimony Then God will bless us and keep us And protect us from the false prophet May God bless each one of us To that end Thank you Brother Nathan Thank you Brother Nathan For being the voice This morning of the beware You know I was thinking False prophets and false teachers Maybe we look at that this morning And we feel well that's out there somewhere We're here There's safety here And that's out there for someone else And in reality I understand that thinking But I also had to think You know deception Can come in all kinds of subtle ways And what causes Individuals to go So far off the rails at times Into deception and then I thought of my own brother I have a brother who It's been reality They're unfortunate And I was thinking about him this morning As he was sharing and what is the cause And I'm sure there's different causes There's many different stories of those that That end up way off somewhere You know Brother Nathan exhorted us To know God And to know His word And to be close to God And to be close in fellowship Incredible security In that I thought of my own brother And just a brief little bit of his story And of course I don't know all that was going on In his heart but he was a young boy A young man who grew up In what I'm going to call a solid home And compared to a lot of homes The home I grew up in And you know in his youth And then into his early married life He began to slowly One step at a time Go on a course And go on a course Where he ended up into the alcohol And drugs And left his wife and all that And ended up in his Drunken condition stumbled into A church For help one day And I believe he found help And I believe even may have found God But it was in a situation Where there was a lot of deception And He got cleaned up of his wicked life But He ended up divorcing His wife and Marrying another and today he's an ordained evangelist And what is the message he's preaching Well anyway not to go Far into that but the answer Is stay close to God Let's stay close to God Deception is very real So thank you brother Nathan Thank you for sharing I appreciate it What are your added thoughts raise your hand And wave the mic to you Yes thank you and I would add My affirmation to what was heard And This is something I have to think about Very directly Partly it's just simply as a matter of being a Diligent Christian you have to think About it and you have to give it Consideration but also Especially in my studies and addressing Islam these things Come up and they're Plainly addressed also in the Course of course work I have a couple thoughts I just wrote down As Nathan was speaking The reference in First John 4 that A false teacher prophet Whatever false Christian Will deny that Christ Has come in the flesh one of the things we've had to Go through in some of my classes A couple of the classes I've been in Has been the heresies that Emerged especially in early Christianity And it's not that they've stopped With the passage of the early Church But incredible And sometimes it's a matter Of they try to Weaken What actually happened With Christ the resurrection You know Muhammad denies that he died Islam denies that he Rose again You know but sometimes they try to weaken it Sometimes they try and go the other way And they try to Over strengthen things beyond what They should be For instance Islam's Emphasis on monotheism And that there's only one God And that's it And there's no allowance for trinity Just to give one example I'm not one to drag everybody through all that stuff But just as one Example that's probably Fairly well known Nathan also Cited Deuteronomy 13 The first couple verses I believe it is And how False Prophets teachers whatever can come And can be teaching And give signs and wonders And the caution Is well made about Watching out for that And recognizing And to sort out if a sign Or a wonder Is from the Lord or not But it's also Interesting the other thing that's in that Scripture I believe Is that a false prophet Will lead you to other gods Either intentionally and overtly Or subliminally But that factor Of leading to other gods Is somehow weakening what you have You know and just Starting to erode it Maybe not doing an all out frontal assault But just that erosion process And starting that That there's some pretty serious stuff going on there Nathan also Mentioned Matthew 7 15 And I hope this is a positive Extension to what he said Sometimes I pity The people who preach They've got one hour And they ain't going to fit it all in But one of the things I often think about with the thing There on the sermon amount Is by their fruit You shall know them It's not Yes you need to be discerning about the doctrine But often we get so wrapped up On the doctrinal and intellectual Part of it We fail To give it the final test That really needs to happen Just test the fruit The doctrine will wash out Either for better or for worse And lastly I appreciate too what he said And just to Give a big amen to this thing Go into the house of God And there I saw their end You know We can engage these things And oh who's such a bad man Hey you might know who all the bad prophets are in town But are you yourself Going into the house of the Lord And spending the time there And really drawing close to the Lord Are you doing that Are you soaking up God's word Is it saturating you You know apart from any doctrine Good or bad just simply God's word at face value Do you know What it says So for what it's worth Amen Nathan thank you for your work And again I pity the people who have to preach Because there's so much that has to be left Unsaid but hopefully this helps Dot a couple more i's And cross some t's Thank you Thank you brother for your input Anyone else Yes Carl Picking up right there where Galen left off What we develop When we go into God's house And spend time with him Spend time in scripture Is love Love and loyalty And I was intrigued also in that scripture In Deuteronomy 13 that Nathan read The last words there in verse 3 Says for the Lord God Proveth you And this is in you know having to discern Whether this These signs and wonders are A false prophet or a true prophet Because it's leading us away from our love for God Says the Lord God proveth you To know whether ye love the Lord Your God With all your heart and with all your soul And I had to think of So a big test Of Of understanding a false prophet Versus a true prophet Is if they're drawing us away From a complete surrendered committed Loyal love for the Lord Jesus that results in Obedience complete and full Obedience to him And now we're back to the first message And I would say That love is the biggest Thing that shifts us From duty to privilege When we love God Wholeheartedly It's not hard to obey And if we're finding our obedience A duty we should go look At what we need to do to spark The fires of love in our heart And when we go to Calvary And we look at the price that was paid For our freedom The ability for us to walk in victory When we look at the faithfulness Of God in the past And all the promises that are in Scripture And we start to fix our hearts On those things A love builds That produces a fire within us That makes it very easy to do What God calls us to do And it's not that there's never Pain to the flesh But the zeal of the Spirit overcomes that And so love moves us From duty to privilege And love also, love for God That is without Unfeigned Love Is what will help us to discern The false prophets when they show up So God give each of us that Amen Thank 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