A few weeks ago, a UPS driver came up to my door to drop off a package. As usual, my dog Napoleon started barking and going nuts. (He’s my mailman alarm system) So, when he started barking, I went into the front room and opened the door just enough to let myself out to receive the package, when all of a sudden, Napoleon burst through my legs, almost knocking me down, and charged toward the driver.
I’m telling you folks, I had never known Napoleon to act like this before, and it was scary. The driver kept the package between him and Napoleon, but Napoleon did bite him on the arm. I frantically got hold of my dog and got him inside the house, and then I immediately began apologizing and doctoring the driver’s wound. Thankfully, the bite wasn’t too bad to bleed, but it did break the skin and the driver wasn’t too upset, but he did have to report the incident to his superiors who then called me to check on Napoleon’s shot status.
Folks, I was terrified that the cops were going to show up to put Napoleon down, or at the very least that I might be called into court to answer for what he had done. But to my knowledge, it never went any further than my conversation with the driver’s supervisor. If he reported the incident to the local Sheriff’s office, all I know is that no one has come by to talk to me about it yet.
Now, I’m really sorry for what my dog did to that driver, and we’ve taken precautions to put him outside or in the bedroom before we open the door for deliveries. I’ve even thought about getting a “Beware of Dog” sign to put at the entrance of our driveway and in the window by the front door so we can make sure everyone is warned.
Beware signs are a good thing to have because I know that whenever I see one, I immediately pause, look around, and then proceed with caution and on the alert for possible danger. We all probably do the same thing or should, and so, that’s why I’ve titled this sermon “Beware the Wolves.” There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there who love to take advantage of people. They’ll lie in wait and pounce on you as soon as they see an opening. They’ll call you on the phone and pretend to be a niece or a nephew who had an accident and need money sent to them to stay out of jail, or they’ll use any number of other scams to steal your money.
But you know, there are also wicked people who pretend to be faithful ministers of Jesus Christ. Jesus called them “wolves” and He warned us against them in our text today.
Mat 7:15-23 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. (16) You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? (17) Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. (18) A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. (19) Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (20) Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (21) "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. (22) Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' (23) And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
They are ravenous wolves. Several years ago, we went up to Colorado for an Evans family reunion. All of Terri’s family showed up and we had a good time catching up with her brother’s and sister’s, niece’s and nephew’s. One day, we all drove way back into the mountains around Walsenburg and visited a place called Mission Wolf. It was a place where some hippies created a natural zoo of sorts for helping wolves recover from illness or injury. They also helped to relocate some wolves, and they took in several hybrid’s that people discovered don’t actually make good pets.
We learned a lot about wolves at Mission Wolf, and we even got to sit in an enclosure and let an unchained, unleashed, unmuzzled Ambassador pack walk all around us, and get up close and personal with us. Folks, if you have never let a wild, full blood wolf come nose to nose with you to smell your breath, then you’ve really missed out on an experience of a lifetime!
Wolves are fierce animals, and they will attack with boldness and cunning, trying to separate and single out their prey for the kill. They are dreaded by cattlemen and shepherds alike, and when our Lord likened false prophets and phony preachers to wolves, He told us to “Beware!” They’re dangerous. They’re deceptive. They are wolves wearing sheep’s clothing, so beware! Use caution around them. Pay close attention and fine tune your situational awareness because they will eat you alive. Friends, we still need to heed the Lord’s warning today.
Don’t be like Captain Smith who was the captain of the Titanic. On that fateful voyage, Captain Smith received an alert that they were heading into iceberg-laden waters. He took the message, crumpled it up, and stuffed it into his pocket. Not long after, that ship sank and 1,490 people drowned in the icy North Atlantic.
Don’t be like Sergeant Joseph Lockhart’s commanding officer who when he received Lockhart’s report of a squadron of unidentified airplanes heading toward Pearl Harbor on the radar screen, told the radarman to “forget it.”
Fools pay little attention to warnings, but the wise take heed. They know that even in this day and age, there are false prophets and phony preachers who seek to devour widows, deceive the faithful, dupe the innocent, and delude God’s children any way they can.
Our great enemy, Satan, continues to come against the Church. He comes against the Church in 2 primary ways, through persecution and through infiltration. Now persecution might work a little, but the devil learned a long time ago that persecution tends to cause the spread and growth of the church rather than its demise. He discovered that Tertullian was right when he said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
But the other method in his arsenal against the Church is infiltration. He will bring unbelievers in among the church in order to cause division and strife, but he will lure others away from the faith by tickling their ears with false teachers and phony preachers. He’ll disguise them by making them look just like everyone else. He’ll change…
I. Their Fleece
Jesus said they’ll Mat 7:15 …come to you in sheep's clothing, and I know that all of you probably have a picture in your mind like we all have seen on cartoons through the years, of a wolve wearing a sheep’s skin costume. But what he’s actually speaking of is the type of clothing they’ll wear.
You see, in biblical times, the clothing a person wore was an indicator of not only a person’s status in life, but it also indicated their profession. Kings and princes wore fine linen and silks, the wealthy would wear similar but not quite as regal clothing, priests of the Lord were commanded in the law as to what to wear and what it should be made of and what it should look like. The Pharisees and Sadducees also had their own particular outfits they wore in public, while the Lord’s prophets tended to be more austere like Elijah, and wore rough, hairy, and uncomfortable clothing as a symbol of forgoing the normal comforts of life for the cause of God. Think also of John the Baptist who wore camel’s hair garments, a leather belt, and ate locusts and wild honey.
Well, in the same way, shepherds tended to wear woolen clothing which would have been made from the wool of the sheep they tended. That is the sheep’s clothing that Jesus is speaking of, and the false prophets would come among the flock impersonating the shepherds by wearing the same woolen clothing they wore. Just as the ancient false prophets wore the garments of the true prophets, so also the false shepherds would disguise themselves as true shepherds by wearing their clothing.
And these false shepherds would come in 3 basic categories. There are 3 kinds of false prophets that we find described in that little epistle right in front of Revelation called Jude. When speaking of the false prophets who crept in among them unaware (v-4), he said that they Jud 1:11 …have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Now, those false prophets who have gone in the way of Cain are those who pervert the gospel. You see, that’s what Cain did. God had already shown them that Heb 9:22 …without shedding of blood there is no remission, when He slaughtered those innocent animals to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. So, when Cain brought the fruit of his own labor to the altar, he was perverting God’s truth by seeking forgiveness through his own works, the sweat of his brow and the labor of his hands. And friend, Gal 2:16 …by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
The false prophets who copied Balaam’s error are those who prostitute the gospel for their own ends, their own purpose and enrichment. Balaam was prophet who truly had a connection with God, but he used that connection to profit by it. When Balak bribed him to curse the Israelites, Balaam told him he couldn’t do that. But Balak tried to change his mind, again and again, increasing the amount his bribe every time until it got to the point that Balaam gave in.
He still couldn’t curse Israel, but he showed Balak how he could get Israel to curse themselves; He showed him how he could get the young ladies of Moab to flirt with the young men of Israel and entice them into adultery, fornication, and other wickedness. Friends, the very same things that caused God to curse Israel and kill 24,000 young men is going to cause God to curse America as well. When men and women of God refuse to stand up for purity and righteousness, then our youth will be drawn into a sensual feast with the daughters of Moab, or unbelievers, by these false prophets just like Israel was.
And now, the false prophets who follow Korah in rebellion are those who protest the gospel, who want to change God’s way to their own way. Korah was a cousin of Moses. He was a Levite and a prince of Israel, but he thought higher of himself than he should, and so he led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron because he wanted to be in charge.
Now, he didn’t pervert the gospel. He didn’t prostitute the gospel. He fought the gospel. He hated the gospel. He thought it didn’t line up with his own designs, and so he rose up in rebellion and tried to usurp power for himself. And friends, we have Korah’s today who are stealing power and changing the gospel to fit their passions. We just disaffiliated from another denomination that is treading down that very path!
We still have those who despise the blood bought way, who prostitute the blood bought way, and pervert the blood bought way. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and we will know them by…
II. Their Fruit
Jesus said Mat 7:16 You will know them by their fruits. So, He’s switched from saying that false prophets are like animals to saying they’re like trees. As animals, the wolves, the devil can use these false prophets by covering up their wicked intentions with sheep’s clothing, but friend, he can’t cover up a tree because the fruit is there for everyone to see.
Now first of all, what you need to know about trees is that the root will determine the fruit. That’s why you don’t get figs from thistles or grapes from thorn bushes, because the root of the fig tree can only produce figs, and the root of the grape vine will only produce grapes. So, it’s the root that determines the fruit.
But if the fruit that’s produced is bad, then how do you take care of that? Do you prune it? No, because pruning strengthens the root so it could produce more bad fruit. You could try transplanting it, but that would only be putting a bad root into good soil somewhere else. You know, that’s kind of what people do when they go church hopping. In many cases they’re only transplanting a bad tree.
Cultivating the bad tree won’t work either. That would be like fertilizing weeds. Why would you want to do that? You could also try to rename the tree, but that won’t have any affect on the fruit. Some might even try to decorate the tree, and maybe tie on some apples or oranges to make it look good, but it doesn’t matter what you do, it is still the root that determines the fruit.
Now, the second thing is that the fruit also reveals the root. The root will determine the fruit, but the fruit reveals the root. Now, I don’t know about you, but I know for a fact that if you were to put a basket of different kinds of roots in front of me, there’s no way I’d be able to tell you what any of those roots would produce. It’s only after the root has been planted and the tree begins to grow that I would know what kind of tree it is, but it’s when that tree begins to produce its fruit, that’s when I’d know whether or not that root was any good.
And the third thing is that it’s the seed that determines both the root and the fruit. The root determines the fruit, but the fruit reveals the root, but get this…it’s the seed that determines both the root and the fruit. You’re simply not going to have the right kind of root or fruit if you don’t start out with the right kind of seed. And Jesus tells us that the seed is the Word of God!
In the parable of the soils, the Lord said Mar 4:14 The sower sows the word. And then in Matthew we find that Mat 13:37 …He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. So, the Lord is sowing the Word of God throughout the world, which is His field, and it’s growing and producing fruit, but the devil has also sown his tares in God’s field. So the devil’s tares are growing right along with God’s good fruit, and those tares have also infiltrated His Church in the form of false prophets and phony preachers, and you will know them by their fruit!
They will try to hide from you by changing their fleece, but the fruit they produce will reveal their character and…
III. Their Fate
Oh friends, do not be deceived, whatsoever a man sows, that is what he will reap. False prophets sow deceit, create division, aggravate strife, and fester discord. They are not infiltrating to the Church to grow the Church or build up the Body of Christ, they are only concerned for themselves and what they can gain from their deceptions and falsehoods. Their great concern isn’t you, the Lord, the Holy Spirit, or the Church of God; their great concern is themselves and fulfilling the desires of their flesh, satisfying the lust of their eyes, and filling up the pride of their lives.
The fate that they share with all phonies, posers, and pretenders is Mat 7:23 …'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' The scariest words in all the Bible, “I never knew you; depart from me!” Despite all their false professions, when they say “Lord, Lord”; despite all their false preaching, when they say “We prophesied in Your name”; despite the false power they demonstrated, when the say “We cast out devils in Your name”; despite their false performances, when they say “In Your name we did many wonderful works”; despite all of this their fate is to hear “I never knew you; depart from me!”
Folks, these are not people who lost their salvation—they never had it. Jesus said, “I never knew you.” They may have sung in the choir. They may have taken up the offering. They may have greeted people at the door. They may have taught Sunday School. They may even have preached in the pulpit, but they were never saved because Jesus never knew them!
And you might wonder yourself now, and be asking yourself, “Well, sometimes I doubt, so how can I know that I am saved?” Well brother, sister, you need to get into God’s word and study it and stand on it.
Study it in faith because without faith it is impossible to please God.
Show the faith because there is no better argument for Christianity than the faithful life of the Christian.
Stand for the faith because if you’re not with the Lord, then you’re against Him.
Support the faith because the laborer is worthy of his hire, and you should never muzzle the ox while he’s treading out the grain.
And finally, Share the faith because we have been commanded to make disciples.
If after all these things you still aren’t sure, then maybe you should repent, believe in Jesus Christ, and give your life to Him all over again because it could be that you’ve lost sight of that day way back when you did it at first, or maybe you never actually did it to begin with.
Repent and believe the gospel. Give your life to Jesus, and you can do that today if you wish.
