Sermon on the Mount - Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

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So, well, here's what we got. Here's what we've got today in, uh, Sermon on the Mount, uh, Matthew chapter 7, verses 5-23. So we've kind of got a collision of some things we've been talking about. Remember a few weeks ago, we did "Judge not, lest you be judged," right? And and then, of course, that's a very well-known saying, and so we dealt with that. But sort of you're pointing ahead to something that's coming. Well, now we're there. And and then last week, of course, we did the the the broad way and the narrow way, and and the broad way leads to destruction, and the narrow way leads to life. And so this is sort of a, um, a second part of that. And so these are all going to kind of come together today. And it's just remarkable the way you can read something for years and then you really sit down to study and you see, "I didn't, I didn't see that. I just did not see that." And what the Lord does here to open this concept up is remarkable.

So, anyway, let's get into it here. Uh, Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 through 23. Let's stand. We'll honor the reading of God's word. This is what the Bible says:

"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? So every good tree bears good fruit, 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 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?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'"

Let's pray. God, thank you for this truth and thank you for this day and the time we have together. Thank you for the rain and thank you for the truth of your word. Guard our hearts now as we look at it and learn from it. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you. Please be seated.

You know, I guess every good sermon should end with a decision opportunity. You know, you present the information, and then you give the opportunity for people to make a decision. I think when, when I look at a text, I always want to hit some main things. I want there to be information, argumentation, illustration, application. But it starts with information, and then what is the argument? What's going on? What's the, the story? And then you kind of lay it out from that. But then at the end of every sermon, there's got to be a time to make a decision. Here's the information. Now decide what you want to do. What you want to do with it. What Christ provides here is another opportunity for us to make a decision. He calls us and really forces us to make a decision. Just like with the narrow road and the broad road, there's a decision to be made, and they're completely opposite. Well, we'll see the same thing in the text today, and they may be a little bit more opposite than you thought, just from reading it.

There's three things I want you to see about this text that starts off with that sort of idea of the false prophet. The first thing is this: True believers must identify false prophets. True believers must identify false prophets. False prophets, by the way, are not lined up with the word of God. Prophets would speak what God told them to say. They were the instruments, and they were never wrong when they were speaking for God. If God said it through them, they were never wrong. If they were wrong, they were called false prophets. So what Jesus does here in this time is open up a new, will reopen this concept of false prophets in a time when it's not something the religious elite would have been talking about. For them, false prophets would have been back in the old days when the prophets were speaking, but there was no real need for the prophets to speak now because the religious elite had control of the faith. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, they didn't need anyone speaking against them, certainly. So there were no real false prophets, and there were no prophets anymore either. All that had been taken care of, and now the faith was in very good hands, they, they felt, with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. But Jesus says that you've got to look out, beware, look out for false prophets.

In Jeremiah chapter 14, verse 14, then the Lord said to me, "Jeremiah, Jeremiah," who delivered the bad news. In fact, it made him weep. The news he had to give was so bad, God was going to correct his people and punish his people. It was tough prophecy to deliver, so tough that other prophets, false prophets, rose up and spoke against Jeremiah to the point that some wanted to kill him. "Stop delivering bad news." The Lord then said to me, Jeremiah said, "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." They're wrong. What they're saying is wrong.

But now, in this new day, a more modern day for them, where there weren't false prophets out there, Christ brings this up. And also remember that this is before the establishment of the church. So the idea of false teachers that you hear so much about in the New Testament as the church is being established, there's no church yet. So who's he talking about? And why would he bring up the idea of prophecy anyway? What Christ does as he opens this back up is he places himself as the fulfillment of prophecy. He is God's word. John says, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." He is God. He's the manifestation. He's the incarnation. He is God in flesh. And what he says is true. What he says is the word of God. He is the fulfillment of the prophecy. He is the answer to God's law. And if you are against what Christ says, you are a false prophet. Not that there has to be some secret organization of prophets out there and false prophets. He is so true and so right and so perfect and so complete. Anything against Christ is false. And if you speak against Christ and the gospel of Christ, you are a false prophet.

But he does more in verse 15. Look at the way he describes them. They carry themselves in sheep's clothing. That is to say, they're actors. They're acting like somebody they're not. In the church world, we know what that's like, right? We see lots of church actors. And there was certainly a time in my life, I was a church actor. I could get up and go to church and look good and actually knew a lot about what was being said in the church. I'd been to church. I was really, kind of an actor. I was really committed to Christ and a relationship with Christ. But these actors, it goes another step. If you are counter to Christ, you are an actor covering up for your desire to be a destroyer because you are an actor who is actually a ravenous wolf.

You know, I, this is the kind of research I feel obligated to do for you folks. I don't know a lot about wolves. I don't know a lot about wolf attacks. I don't know a lot about how they do it. So I watched videos this week on wolf attacks. What do ravenous wolves look like? I've been to the mountains before, and it gets dark, and you start to hear that call out in the darkness. It's either a wolf or a coyote or a cat, for all I know. I don't know what it is, but it's out making noise, and I know I don't want to be near it because whatever it is, it knows how to get around the dark better than I do. But I found some things out about wolves and when they attack and how they attack. If, if a wolf starts to attack and moves like it's going to attack, there's one thing you're told to do first. That is, put your chin down to your chest. You know why? They go for the neck. They don't waste any time at all. They just go right for the jugular to take you out. If you're a small enough animal, wolves just go right for your face. They either get you right in the snout or they get you right in the neck. If you're a big animal, they'll surround you with a pack of wolves. They are then the ravenous wolves, and the ones in the front will keep them occupied while the ones in the back jump it and start to get the hindquarters. Then, as the animal starts to bend down a little bit and look a little bit back, they go right for the throat. I watched the whole video. It was that elk, man. That poor dude had a bad day. It's awful. It's disgusting. But it's, I mean, I should say it's disgusting. It's what wolves do to eat. And it turns out, as National Geographic says, it's great news for the birds because they go pick up leftover meat too, and it thins out the herd because, you know, when you get to be kind of a slick and slow animal, apparently, in the, in the world of nature, you're just as good dead. So it's okay. So these, I really don't have anything else to add. There's one other thing I have to add. So this extensive, exhaustive research here, one other thing to add. How do you defend yourself when a wolf comes at you? But it turns out you present yourself by standing as tall as you can, lifting your hands up as high as you can, and you do not move. Because now the wolf has a decision to make. Doesn't really know what you can do. Doesn't really know that you don't have claws, you don't really have great teeth. You're really scared, but you present yourself as a worthy opponent, and the wolf is very likely to walk away. Now, but before I get newspaper article on you getting killed in the woods because you took on a wolf, that's when they are moving to attack. The best thing to do is sort of bow down and try to look, get away. But, but if you ca, if you have to, that's what you do.

As the church was formed in Acts chapter 20, verses 27 through 30, look what the Apostle Paul says now about false teaching. He says, "For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. 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 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."

What Christ is talking about at a time when they don't think there are a lot of false prophets out there is present to what's going on, but also prophetic as to what would happen eventually. The church would have to be able to identify the false prophets. They had to know the gospel well enough to know what was fake, and they had to be able to stand on the gospel well enough that when the enemy came, they could present themselves in such a way that, "I will not move off of this. The church will stand on the gospel of Christ because we recognize what a false prophet is, and we know enough about who Christ is that we can stand on this." True believers must identify false prophets.

Here's the second thing we see: True believers must identify false production, verses 16 through 20. You know them by what they produce. You probably heard this passage before. "Every good tree bears good fruit, bad trees bear bad fruit. Good trees can't do bad fruit. Bad fruit can't come from good trees." An apple tree is an apple tree. It produces apples all the time. Doesn't produce oranges. It doesn't produce grapes. It doesn't produce tomatoes. It doesn't produce cantaloupe. It produces apples. If it doesn't produce apples, it's not an apple tree. It produces apples every time. So the tie-in here is a Christian produces like a Christian. A Christian doesn't kind of produce like a Christian. A Christian doesn't occasionally produce like a Christian. A Christian produces like a Christian all the time, or they're not a Christian. And as it says here, if it is not, every tree that is not producing, every tree that is not producing is thrown into the fire. So you better know them by their fruit.

Okay, now we get to the judgment part. Now, wait a second. Now we have to judge people as to whether or not. I'm going to say it twice in verses 16 through 20: "Know them by their fruit." So that means I've got to judge. But prior, remember, "Judge not, lest you be judged." Let's make sure we tie that together in case you weren't here then or you were a little confused then. When it says that before you take the speck out of your brother's eye, you take the plank out of your eye, there's a key word in that, and it's "brother." So I'm not being judgmental to a brother, but I can still judge that a brother has a speck in his eye. I just have to make sure I get the plank out of my eye, and I'm helping them because they're my brother. Now, I am making a judgment as to whether or not someone is my brother. And they may not be my brother, and they may not be a follower of Christ, and they may desire to steer me away from following Christ. They may not believe that Jesus is the only way to God the Father. They may believe he is one of the ways. They may believe there's another religion that's just as valuable as my religion, or just as right as my religion. And as that person tries to draw a connection with me, I've got to be able to understand whether or not they are my brother. And if they are not producing the fruits of Christians, then they're not my brother. That doesn't mean I have to be mean to them, but I have to be aware because they are promoting something that is a false gospel, and I've got to be careful how much I let that in to the camp, how much I let that end to my life, how much I can evangelize to them without adopting their ways and not exposing people in my family to a false gospel.

So many times, you guys know this is true. So many times, we are more likely to get after one of our brothers than someone who's not one of our brothers. It is, it is oddly more fashionable in our country today for Christians to bash other Christians. It's, it's far more fashionable for us to judge other Christians who are our brothers and sisters than to judge those who are not. And the folks who come to your door and say, "Hey, we're on the same team. We're on the same team. Worship in the same way. Same God." And then you ask that key question, "Do you believe in your faith practices that Jesus Christ is divine and the Son of God and God?" Well, "No, we don't." But we're really close to each other. No, we're not. We couldn't be further apart. If we don't establish the divinity of Christ as a central part of our gathering together, we are not brothers. And we're not jerks, but we're not brothers. Those are people we have to evangelize, not placate.

Here's how you can see whether or not someone has good fruit. Here's how you can be a good fruit inspector. By the way, I know a little bit about apple trees. I grew up in Ohio. We had an apple tree in the backyard. I played in it. I never climbed it. I never took an apple off the tree and ate it because it just seemed gross. It seemed like it needed to be picked up from the grocery store where it's sanitized before you eat it. But one thing about the apple tree is when the apples got disconnected from the tree and fell to the ground, you could go look and see if one might be okay, or if the worms were in it or whatever. But when it started to rot, you could really tell when an apple was rotting, right? It's off the tree. It's disconnected from the tree. It's on the ground. It's getting soaked up by, I don't know, ground juices, and it's starting to rot. And you get a couple good rotten apples, they, they, we would take them and go throw them at sheds and telephone poles because the splatter factor is incredible on a rotten apple. Great. Anyway, back to the good fruit. Is the graphic up? Yeah, okay. Back to the good fruit.

Here's how you'll know good fruit. Well, Warren Wiersbe gives us five things. First is this: Fruit of the Spirit. This is Galatians 5:22 and 23. Okay, so if you want to know if you are producing well as a Christian, this is a pretty good place to start. How about how's your love producing love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control? Are you doing that? Because those are the fruits of the Spirit. Spirit is in you, then these things come out of you. Love and patience and joy and peace and kindness and gentleness and self-control. How you doing in those areas?

Number two: Testimony and praise to God. In Hebrews chapter 13, verse 15. Look, when I talk about testimony, let me make sure that we've got this settled out. You have a testimony of faith that will point to a few things. God is holy. I mean, he is perfect, and we are not. And that gap couldn't be wider. God has given us his law. This is what it takes to be with a holy God. We can't keep it. We broke it. We can't do it. So God, who is perfectly holy, we are perfectly not holy. How do we bridge the gap between our sin and God's perfection? Well, God had to come do the work for us. The finished work on the cross. Christ came and he lived perfectly. He died sacrificially. He took our sin upon himself as our perfect sacrifice. Now, through Christ, we can be in a right relationship with a holy God. Now, in order for you to have a testimony, somewhere along the la, along the way for you, you had an encounter with Christ. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is going to wake you up to this idea that you need a savior. And then by faith alone, you trust Christ alone, because of his grace alone, to the glory of God alone, that we see in the scriptures alone. And you have that encounter with Christ. You may not remember the exact date. You may not remember the exact time, but you know, and you can point to a time in your life when you had an encounter with Christ and his salvation. You, by faith, trusted Christ, repented of your sins, turned from those sins, and he made your life new. You were never the same after that. Not that you were a perfect Christian. You were a baby Christian. You stumbled a lot. You made mistakes. You said, but you were now on a new path because of the Holy Spirit's indwelling you. You now have a testimony of faith. Praise God. And that needs to be evident in your life. If you have good fruit, I see good things that happen. I want to talk about good things that happen. I like to talk about how my kids are doing. When I have grandkids, I'm going to be insufferable talking about my grandkids. In the meantime, since I don't have grandkids, I'll have to be insufferable on this other thing. I like to talk about the college football season started yesterday. So we finally had a game that counted, and Ohio State won. And isn't that awesome, man? I can tell by your joy that that's Clemson fans. I know, I know. We can't beat you guys. I'm not talking to you. I'm going to act like you. Thanks for holding up a Clemson hat, sir. Thank you, Coach. I appreciate that. Trying to celebrate my good, good day yesterday. But that's good for you all too. Testimony, testimony, praise God. You got, by the way, you got to have that, right? You got to have that. If I, if I go to you and say, "Hey, are you, are you a Christian?" "Yeah." "Oh, great. Tell me your testimony." "Um, I went to church a lot." So, you know, there you go.

Number three: Holy living. Romans chapter 6, verse 22. Holy living.

Number four: I gotta speed up. Number four: Good works. Now, remember Colossians 1:10. You're not working to get saved, but because you're saved, you do good works. It's just a fruit of, of someone who's been changed by Christ. And then here's the last one: Number five: Evangelism. Romans chapter 1, verse 13. It's one thing to have this remarkable experience with holy God. It's another thing to validate it through telling somebody else. Do you know most Christians will never see someone come to faith in Christ? Like the vast majority. And I'm so sorry because it is so cool when it happens. When you can actually be there to see the light come on and see it happen, it is so remarkably cool. And I'm sorry that most Christians won't see it. But you know what I'm even more sorry about? Is most Christians won't pursue it. You won't ask anybody. They have a relationship with Christ. Most of you won't. You want as smart as you are, you won't be strategic enough to try to find a way to open a door to have a conversation with somebody about the greatest thing that's ever happened in your life for the, for the Lord.

If people are not bearing good fruit, how can they be Christian? Now, again, I'm not talking, you be a baby Christian. And for you, maybe the good fruit is, man, you just, you made it through a day without cussing somebody out. Day one, baby Christian, good job. Day two, baby Christian, let's be better. And then as you kind of move on up the ladder, my bigger fear is that people have been in the church 30 years or so, and what, what kind? You have any sort of evangelism experience? Have you shared Christ? Have you shared your testimony? Because guys, if we believe hell is real, why wouldn't we share the way out of hell with people? Why do we keep such close good friends who don't trust Christ, and we don't care enough to tell them? Because if that's the case, if hell is real, but if it's not real, why did Jesus have to die? If we could have got ourselves to heaven, why did Jesus have to die?

Number three: True believers must identify with Christ, verses 21 through 23 are just really tough. I like, I like to think of Christ in his great grace and mercy and sacrificial love because all those things are wonderful characteristics. I, I have to recognize, and it's also wonderful, I have to recognize his great righteous judgment. And verse 21 says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven." Just knowing who he is as a historical figure is not enough. Just knowing his name is not enough. Just thinking he was one of the possible options to get to heaven is not enough. "Not everyone who gets there and says, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven." In fact, verse 22, many people, many people will stand before him and say, "We did these incredible things in your name. Did these incredible things in your name." Then in verse 23, Jesus will say with no apology because he doesn't offer when he doesn't need to, "I will declare to them, 'I never knew you.'" But I'm a member at Lee Park. "I never knew you." But I did really good things in the community. "I never knew you." I was a super nice guy. "I never knew you." Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness, because you are still, you have not been saved to the grace of Christ, and now you are guilty under the law, and you practiced in that. You can make all sorts of claims. You can make all sorts of claims, but Jesus knows the truth. You can fool maybe lots of people if you don't get to know him real well, but you can't fool him.

And if we know that's true, right? If we know that's true, if we know there's a hell, if we know there's a time because Jesus says it, "I will say to them, 'Depart from me, I never knew you.'" Many people. And here we've got this opportunity now that we can share Christ with other people. And when we don't do it, we are stepping out of the way and not blocking their path to hell because we didn't want to be inconvenienced. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope that the Holy Spirit convicts you that in these days when people feel like the world is going to fall apart, that you will share with them, there is someone who has overcome the world. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope that given the opportunity, no matter what happens, whoever is your next senator, congressman, president, mayor, whatever, and you think the world is never going to be the same again, I hope you'll just go to the Bible and read it and say, "It's going to get a whole lot worse than this." And as we're traveling on that trajectory, why don't you take advantage of the opportunity to tell people about Jesus? Why don't you believe and live as a Christian who truly believes hell is real, and some people will be, many people will be sent there, and let's do what we can in the meantime.

Would you stand with me? Let's close in a word of prayer.

See, now is the time to make the decision. So I presented the information, and it may have been uncomfortable. You may totally agree, but now is the time to make the decision. And no one's going to make the decision for you. You're going to make the decision. So here's the decision: Are you today ready to, by faith, receive Christ as your savior? Because you, you would say, "You know what? I don't have that in my testimony. My testimony, I came to church, and my parents are Christian. Aren't I a Christian? I'm a church member." But you don't have a moment in time where you recognize the separation that exists between you and a holy God. You sort of kind of covered up a little bit with church attendance and things like that. But you today are ready to ask Christ to save you, to forgive you of your sins, you turn from those sins, and that he would change your life and make you new? Maybe today is that day. You're ready to make that decision.

Or maybe you're ready to make the decision to actually produce. You're not a baby Christian anymore, and maybe it's time for you to produce. Maybe it's time for you to start to show the fruits of the Spirit. Maybe that's right. Maybe in this time, those of you who have been faithful and sharing Christ, sharing Christ, living such a good Christian life, you know what? I hope you do. I hope that you live in the joy of your salvation in this time. I hope, I hope you live in the joy of your salvation because most people have, maybe have not experienced things that you have in sharing your faith and seeing people come to Christ. Maybe right now you are with all of your kids, and every one of them has made a public profession of faith. Man, I mean, look, you can get them into a great college, hope you do. You can get them a really cool car, hope you do. You give them Jesus. Good job, Mom and Dad. Good job. And if they don't know Christ, you've got something to do.

God, thank you for the opportunity we have to make a decision now. What will we do with the information that has been provided? What about the friends that we have that we don't share Christ with because we're a little uncomfortable with it? What about the family conversations we don't have because we're a little uncomfortable with it? What about the people we know that we can share Christ with? What about the testimony that we can have and share with other people? God, as you'll do things now, only you can do. My job is finished. The information has been presented. Your word is true. Your Holy Spirit is active. And so, God, I am thankful for what you are doing. And I pray that these, your people, would right now choose life. They would choose life in Christ to your praise and honor and glory. And as we respond now in the decisions that we've made, we do so for the glory of God. We love you. We thank you that you love us. And that's why we pray to you now and ask you to come in and do remarkable things. In Jesus' name, amen.