From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, you'll learn how to spot a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Speaker 2

You know, the Bible is very explicit about warning us about false prophets. False prophets aren't something new. They've been around for a long time. The Old Testament talks a lot about false prophets.

Hey, you were to test the prophets to make sure that they were real. And a prophet in the Old Testament, if he told you something and it didn't come to pass, he was a false prophet and you were supposed to speak.

Stone him with stones. Why? Because he is trying to lead the people astray. It's a major thing for the people to beware the false prophets.

Speaker 1

The devil desires nothing more than to deceive us at every turn with lies and false teachings. False prophets are among us for sure, and they're not always easy to detect.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. And on this edition of From His Heart, he asks important questions that we need to answer in order to be able to identify the wolves in sheep's clothing. In our lives, in leadership roles in Christian organizations, and especially in our churches, today's message is called Wolves among the Sheep.

It's from Pastor Jeff's five lesson series, Discernment in the Days of Deception. It's also our gift of thanks to you for your support this month. You can go to fromhisheart.org for details.

Right now, open your Bible to Matthew chapter 7 and learn how to spot the wolves among the sheep.

Speaker 2

**Matthew, chapter seven. I'll begin reading.** In verse 13, Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and fewer those who find it."

"Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits."

"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. Many will say to me on that day, on Judgment Day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons? And in your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'"

Such a warning from the lips of Jesus at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He tells us very clearly in verse 15 to beware of the false prophets. Beware. That word "beware" literally means to hold the mind towards. That means you don't give yourself over; you're cautious of, you're paying very close attention to. You know, we have signs that people will put up: "Beware of dog," and they put it in their yard. Some people don't even have a dog, but they know the sign is good for scaring people off.

Beware. When we see a sign that says "beware," the wise person takes a step back and says, "Okay, what am I supposed to beware of? What am I supposed to be cautious of?" Beware of the false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves. You need to beware because some of those who are among you are not like you. They're not true sheep; they are really wolves, and they disguise themselves as sheep. A wolf in sheep's clothing.

Now, anyone who knows farming and knows anything about sheep knows that sheep have a natural enemy in the wolf. The wolf looks at the sheep as a meal. If you're a sheep, you're going to be really, really nervous whenever a wolf comes by because a wolf is not your friend. It helps us to see a picture of what a wolf really is and what a wolf really does. Beware. Because they are out there. They don't look like that on the outside, but that's what they're like on the inside.

When it comes to the subject of false prophets, there are questions that we have. The Bible is very explicit about warning us about false prophets. False prophets aren't something new; they've been around for a long time. The Old Testament talks a lot about false prophets. You were to test the prophets to make sure that they were real. A prophet in the Old Testament, if he told you something and it didn't come to pass, he was a false prophet, and you were supposed to stone him with stones. Why? Because he is trying to lead the people astray. It's a major thing for the people to beware of false prophets.

Did you know? Very interesting. The last book, the second to the last book in the Bible, Revelation is the last book. That's the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. It talks about his wonderful second coming, the tribulation period, and the wonderful second coming of Jesus. The book right before the last book of the Bible is the Book of Jude. It's a short little book, just one chapter, and it's dedicated to the issue of false prophets and false teachers.

Jesus said in Matthew 24, speaking of the last days, "Many false prophets will come in the last days." John says this in First John, chapter four: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Why? Because many false prophets have gone out into the world." False prophets are around, and they are wolves in sheep's clothing, which means that they're not easy to detect. The devil doesn't come to a party unless it's a masquerade party. He's never going to show you his true colors because he's a deceiver and he's a liar and the father of lies.

When it comes to the subject of false prophets, it really fits in with our series "Discernment in a Day of Deception." It's important to ask some questions and answer those questions. So, four questions I want to hit you with today.

**Question number one. Why are there false prophets?** I mean, what's the deal? Why do we even have these in the world? The answer is in verses 13 and 14. Look at it again. Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, that leads to perishing, that leads to eternal damnation. And many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. And few are those who find it."

Why are there false prophets? It's because the stakes couldn't be higher. Eternity weighs in the balance. There are two roads, only two roads in life. There's the broad road that leads to hell and the narrow road that leads to life. The narrow road has a narrow gate, has a small gate. The broad road has a wide gate. The stakes couldn't be higher, and the devil wants his desire to deceive you and me and us and to see us end up in hell. That's very straightforward. But that's what he wants. The devil hates God.

The devil wants to do anything he can to hurt God, to get at God. Now, the devil can't get at God directly. The devil can't kick sand in God's face and come after him and say, "Let's duke it out, you and me," because he knows he would lose. So what the devil does, and evil people have always known this: If you can't hurt the person you hate directly, hurt someone they love, and you've hurt them indirectly.

So the devil goes after the ones that God loves, and he tries to deceive those whom God loves so that they would believe a lie, so that they would stay on the broad road, and so they would end up in hell. The Apostle Paul spent a year and a half in Corinth. He founded the church there in Corinth. He invested in those people in Corinth, and many came to faith in Christ in Corinth. But anytime, just like all of Paul's ministry, when he left a place, then the false teachers would come in behind him, and the devil would send in his emissaries, and they would try and deceive the people.

Paul said this to the Corinthians: "But I am afraid." This is Second Corinthians, chapter 11. "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches, watch what they preach, another Jesus whom we have not preached. Hey, there's the true Jesus, and then there's the other Jesus. Another Jesus whom we have not preached. Or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted. You bear this beautifully."

He's saying, "What in the world? Why do you listen to these guys who come in with another Jesus, who have a different gospel, who talk about a different spirit? Don't receive them beautifully; reject them. Beware. Those guys are wolves in sheep's clothing." He goes on to say this: "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness whose end shall be according to their deeds."

Hey, the devil is at work. He's at work to deceive. He never is going to hit you head-on and show you his true colors. He's going to hide his true colors. He's not coming into the sheep pen as a wolf; he's coming into the sheep pen dressed like a sheep, but inwardly a ravenous wolf.

Now, I want you to remember in verses 13 and 14, two key words: the word "many" and "few." Many are on the broad road that leads to destruction. Few are on the narrow road that leads to life. That's from the lips of the Lord Jesus. You know, we have a false doctrine in our world today. It's called universalism. Universalism says, "Well, in the end, everybody goes to heaven." Even the devil is going to go to heaven in the end because God is love, and love's going to win, and that's the way it's going to work out.

That's not the way it works out. The Bible is crystal clear on that. Many are going to end up in destruction and end up in a horrible place called hell. Few are going to find life. And it's not because God doesn't want people to be saved. Jesus died so that people could be saved. It's that people won't come his way; they want to come their own way. As it says in the book of Jude, "Woe unto them. They've gone the way of Cain." The way of Cain is the way of woe. The way of Cain, Genesis chapter four, is he tries to come his own way in religion and tell God, "This is the way it's going to be."

Listen, God, when it comes to salvation, is not playing "let's make a deal." He's saying, "This is the deal. There is one way to salvation, and it's God's way." If you try and come any other way, that's the broad road that leads to destruction. So why are there false prophets? Because there's so much hanging in the balance. Eternity hangs in the balance.

You're here today; you're watching livestream. Your eternity, if you're not sure about where you're going when you die, I want you to be sure before you leave today. Because eternity weighs in the balance.

**Second question: What is a false prophet?** Let's get specific here. When we say many false prophets have gone out into the world, let's really define what this is. This is what the Lord says in Jeremiah 14:14: "Then the Lord said to me, to Jeremiah, 'The prophets are prophesying falsehood in my name. I have neither sent them, nor commanded them, nor spoken to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own minds.'"

Now, Old Testament prophets would foretell the future. God would give them a message; they would preach to the people, but they would also tell them, "Thus says the Lord, this is going to happen." The people could then tell if this guy was true or not. If those things came to pass, then, hey, he gave us a message from God. If those things didn't come to pass, then you knew he was a false prophet. What he said is not true; that didn't come to pass.

Now we have the Scripture. God has given us his word. We don't have people today foretelling the future and saying, "Well, God has given me." I don't believe God gives people gifts like that. But I do believe God still has prophets in his church. In the New Testament Church, we don't foretell the future; we forth tell what God has said. We take the book and we speak it to your hearts, and we say, "This is what the Lord has said. This is the way of the Lord. Walk in it."

God has men that are specially assigned that task to speak to the church. He has teachers in the church. He has pastors and prophets in the church. I believe that that's one of the ways that the Lord has gifted me and wired me to speak the truth, to hit you in the heart, to grab you by the lapel, so to speak, and say, "Wake up and make sure that your heart is right with God."

Now, he says in Jeremiah 14:14 that he had neither sent them, nor commanded them, nor spoken to them. So you jot this down: A true prophet is one who is sent from God to speak for God. He's sent from God to speak God. He has a call on his life. Scripture says about Samuel, in 1st Samuel, chapter 3: "Thus Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord."

Everybody knew that Samuel was a prophet of the Lord. In the New Testament, John the Baptist, everybody knew that's a prophet of the Lord. He's a forerunner for Jesus. What does the prophet of the Lord say to the people? "Behold the Lamb of God," pointing to Jesus, "who takes away the sin of the world." He came to set the table, so to speak, for the sinless Son of God.

A true prophet is sent from God to speak for God. A false prophet is not. He sins himself and speaks not the words that God gives him; he speaks what sounds good to him and tries to build a following.

When you talk about a false prophet, they come in various forms. A false prophet is kind of a big category; it's a big catch-all. But when you break down false prophets a little tighter, you can put them into some other categories that are a little more defined.

**First category:** A false prophet is a heretic. Some are heretics; they make up a category of false prophets, but they're heretics. A heretic is somebody who's out in left field on core issues of Christianity. Most of the time, what you find with heretics is they're off when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ. They will deny, typically, the deity of Jesus Christ. Cult members or cult leaders, what do they have in common? They all deny the deity of Christ. Whether they're Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons or whatever, they deny the deity of Christ.

Now you can spot a heretic because he's going to be off in his doctrine big time. Victor Paul Wierwille was a heretic, and he wrote a book that said Jesus Christ is not God. He had a cult called the Way International. Well, it's not hard to spot him because that is a departure big time from the faith. True Christianity says Jesus Christ is both God and man. He's the God-man. You have to know who Jesus is. Jesus said, "Unless you believe I am he, I am the great I am. Unless you believe that, you will all die in your sins; you won't recognize who I am."

So heretics, obviously, false prophets. Jim Jones, a heretic, false prophet. David Koresh, a heretic, a false prophet. Both those guys claim to be Jesus. Charles Manson, who had the killed Sharon Tate and other people, heretic. Joseph Smith, who started the Mormon Church, denies the deity of Christ; he's a heretic. Those are easy to spot.

John said this in 1 John chapter 4: "By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that is coming and now is already in the world." In John's day, the heresy was that Jesus Christ wasn't really a man; he just appeared to be a man. Jesus Christ is the God-man, as much God as though he were not man at all, as much man as though he were not God at all.

Some people would attack his humanity, and then in our day, people don't attack his humanity; they attack his deity. Now we have people today that say, "You know, Jesus, we're not attacking his humanity or his deity; we're just saying he's a legend; he never even existed." Well, how foolish is that? Well, that's the spirit and the false prophet who is a heretic.

**Some are apostates.** You say, "What's an apostate?" Well, apostasy means to fall away from the faith. Apostates are people who seem like they're part of the family. They seem like they're really into everything. As John said, "They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out in order that it might be shown that they are all not of us."

The major apostate in the Bible is Judas. Judas, one of the 12. None of the other guys knew that Judas was false. They trusted Judas. They trusted him so much that of the 12, they made him the treasurer. They didn't know that about Judas. They were blown away when they found out that Judas was the betrayer. Judas is an apostate. He's there, and he's soaking it all in, so to speak. I mean, he's around it, but he doesn't ever receive it.

Let me tell you something about Judas. Judas was given power by the Lord to heal in his name, to cast out demons. He was sent out along with the 12, but it was never true; it was never genuine in his heart. The big famous apostate today is a man named Rob Bell. Rob Bell, who came to Christ, supposedly. He went to seminary, Fuller Seminary, got a Master of Divinity degree. He started a church, Mars Hill Church in Michigan. The church grew under his leadership to a church of 11,000.

I remember hearing a sermon by Rob Bell. I thought, "Man, that is a great sermon." He really knew how to speak and how to communicate well. He wrote a book called "Love Wins." The book "Love Wins" was all about, it was kind of a soft sell of universalism and how everybody goes to heaven. You don't have to think that there are many and few. No, everybody. God's love is just going to overwhelm everybody, and everybody is going to go to heaven.

Well, that got him into a lot of trouble with his church, and he had to leave his church. Now he pretty much questions and argues with most everything in the Christian faith, in the Christian life, an apostate.

**Some are subtle deceivers.** See, it's not hard to spot a heretic. It's not hard to spot an apostate because they fall away from the faith. The heretics deny the faith. Matthew, chapter 7, verse 6. Jesus said, "Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine." It's not hard to spot a dog; it's not hard to spot a hog. What's harder to spot are the subtle deceivers. Those are the ones that come to you in sheep's clothing, but inward

Speaker 1

What helpful warnings these are from the pages of Scripture in today's message from Pastor Jeff Shreve on From His Heart, part one of the lesson called "Wolves among the Sheep" from his series "Discernment in the Days of Deception." We are learning in this part one of the lesson that proper discernment is so, so, so very important. Do you know how to discern good from evil? Are your senses trained to know the difference? Can you spot a heretic? Great. Can you spot an apostate? Good. But can you spot a wolf in sheep's clothing? You can easily be tricked if your discerning spirit is repressed or underdeveloped.

You see, as we're learning in this lesson, spiritual discernment is the ability and the skill to understand and apply God's word for the purpose of separating the right from the wrong, good from bad, truth from error. This fundamental truth is the cornerstone of Pastor Jeff's five-message series, "Discernment in the Days of Deception." It will help you separate the truth from a lie and stay faithful in these dangerous days.

This practical and timely series is our gift of thanks to you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount, as we endeavor to teach listeners to this great station and to the people around the world that Jesus is Lord and is coming again. Would you consider a helpful gift to From His Heart this month, joining us in this outreach—a gift that truly matters? Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry; he is strictly a volunteer.

This series is available in the format of your choice when you call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org. Thanks for praying about what God would have you do to join with us to help the world gain discernment in these days of deception.

A big thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to make sure that you're right back here for the blessing that you'll get tomorrow on part two of "Wolves among the Sheep." That's on Wednesday when we'll again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

Speaker 2

There is truth there is hope that you always dream Love. He can heal every scar cell with real truth, real love, real hope from his.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shrieve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

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