Latest / Reformed Thinking / “Known by Their Fruit”: Christ’s Warning Against False Prophets (Matthew 7:15–20)

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“Known by Their Fruit”: Christ’s Warning Against False Prophets (Matthew 7:15–20) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We take a stack of sources and
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really try to extract what you need to be well informed and
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well spiritually vigilant. We do approach this material
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through the lens of Reformed thinking.
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Which for us just means a focus on clarity on scriptures, final
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say, and, you know, systematic theology.
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Today our source material centers on a really crucial
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warning from Christ Himself. It's delivered right at the
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close of the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew
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Chapter 7, verses 15 through 20. We're going straight to this
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core issue of how to recognize false prophets.
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It's a command for every believer.
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Right. But it's so often misused.
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Sometimes it's an excuse for just being cynical about
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everyone. And other times it's ignored
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completely out of this sort of misplaced sense of niceness.
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That tension, that's really what we're getting at today, the
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tension between biblical vigilance and just unrighteous
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suspicion. Right.
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And the text gives us a way out of that anxiety.
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Our material today is a deep theological analysis of this one
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passage. So our mission really is to pull
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out the clear, objective test. Christ provides what he calls
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the fruit. The idea is to equip you, the
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listener, with a proper scripture governed alertness.
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Exactly. We'll look at the context that
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makes this warning so necessary. The command itself, the
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objective test, and then the well, the very were implications
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for the Church today. OK, so let's unpack this.
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We can't just jump into verse 15.
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We have to understand why it lands right here in the sermon.
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This warning isn't some random footnote.
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No, it's a structural necessity, the.
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Sermon on the Mount People often think of it as this beautiful
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collection of ethics to be attitudes.
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But when you hit that final movement in Matthew 7 verse 13,
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right up to the end, Jesus just changes the tone completely.
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He does. It stops being descriptive and
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becomes this demanding, almost aggressive call for a decision.
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Like a funnel narrowing everything down.
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It forces absolute separation. After defining this
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righteousness that goes way beyond just external actions or
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righteousness of the heart, he then says choose a side. 2
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gates, one wide, 1 narrow. Two roads, 1 broad and easy,
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leading to destruction, the other hard, constricted, leading
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to life. It's a stark choice, isn't it?
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There's no middle ground, no third option for the, you know,
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mostly good person. Not at all.
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And right after he establishes that the way to life is hard and
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found by few, he immediately pivots.
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He names the single greatest danger to anyone on that narrow
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path. And this is what's so telling
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about the placement. You'd think the biggest danger
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would be persecution from the outside world.
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Ridicule. Maybe.
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Physical danger? That's the logical assumption.
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But Christ points inward. The danger is religious
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deception. So it's not the world trying to
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shut you down, but a counterfeit guide trying to lead you through
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the wrong gate. That's it.
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This means the warning Beware of false prophets isn't just a side
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topic, it's there to protect the integrity of the whole Sermon on
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the Mount. Because the sermon calls for
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this genuine radical righteousness.
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And the False Prophet offers a watered down version, a
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compromise that avoids the real cost.
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It really exposes who has truly entered that narrow gate versus
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who is just kind of admiring it from a distance, still holding
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onto their own self-made religion.
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If you miss this warning, you miss the urgency of the entire
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end of the sermon. Jesus is telling us that one of
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the hardest parts of being on the narrow Rd. is figuring out
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who you should actually be listening to.
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And if we connect this to the larger picture of spiritual
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warfare, it makes kind of chilling sense.
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This isn't a new strategy. It's the oldest strategy.
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If people can't be kept away from religion altogether, then
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keep them in a religion that's safe for their unrepentant sin.
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So counterfeit guidance is the tool used to dull the sharp edge
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of God's Word. Exactly.
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Gives the appearance of piety, but it's really a spiritual
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anesthetic. It sounds like fate that uses
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all the grace language. But it makes sure the heart
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never actually has to bow to Christ's difficult commands.
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It lets people hear all the Kingdom vocabulary, blessing,
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peace, faith, but it's all filtered.
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Filtered through a lens that never demands the real work of
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killing sin or pursuing holiness, the message is just
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tweaked enough so it never really makes anyone
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uncomfortable. This also sheds light on that
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tragic link between the false prophets and the false
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professors he talks about just a few verses later.
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They absolutely belong together. Deceptive teachers will reliably
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produce deceptive disciples. Corrupt doctrine leaves to a
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corrupt assurance, yes. It creates people who are
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totally convinced they're doing God's will when they aren't, and
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the connection is deeply sobering.
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You can have an impressive religious resume.
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You can boast about ministry success and seem totally
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credible. And still be firmly on the broad
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road to destruction. Because you've been guided by a
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wolf who taught you about a Christ that doesn't actually
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exist in Scripture. That just raises the stakes
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incredibly high. The narrow Rd.
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Is endangered not because it's hidden, but because we're so
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easily taken in by guidance that steers us away from what's hard.
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Away from repentance. Away from the true sovereign
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Christ. Away from holiness.
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It's the ultimate spiritual sabotage.
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The modern world tells you follow your heart.
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Choose your truth. And Christ says the exact
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opposite. He says beware of those claiming
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to speak for me because counterfeits will try to walk
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you right through the wide gate while calling it grace.
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They offer a cheap pass. It's a pass that avoids the true
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cost of discipleship that the narrow Rd.
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Demands, and that guidance is by its very nature corrupt.
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So let's turn to the command itself in verse 15.
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Jesus doesn't suggest this. It's a bracing imperative.
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Beware of false prophets. It's a standing order for every
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single disciple. This isn't an elective class for
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the theologians. It's mandatory obedience, and
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this command immediately pushes back against that common error
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of naive credulity. Which people often mistake for
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humility, right? Who am I to question someone who
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says they're speaking for God? But Christ is saying that real
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spiritual love protects, and protection requires vigilance.
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The shepherd is commanding his sheep to use discernment.
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So if you refuse to test what claims to be from God, if you
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avoid the hard work of discernment because it feels, I
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don't know, unkind or judgmental?
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That niceness actually becomes disobedience.
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You're refusing to guard the very way Christ opened.
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You are, and notice the subtlety of their approach.
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False prophets come to you. They don't usually set up shop
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on the fringe. You know they seek proximity.
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They want access to the flock, to consciences, to influence
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inside existing churches. They get comfortable, which
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makes them so hard to start. That proximity is a real
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challenge means we have to be vigilant even in circles we've
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learned to trust. We have to ask hard questions.
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About accountability. About the consistent patterns of
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a teacher, even if they've been around for decades.
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Now the core of the deception is the disguise who come to you in
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sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
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They don't advertise their agenda.
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They borrow the wardrobe. They learn the dialect of piety.
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They adopt the posture, the vocabulary, all the mannerisms
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of someone who is devout. They'll definitely talk about
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Jesus and grace and the Spirit, but they become experts at
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hollowing out those words, turning them into empty shells.
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So the words sound religious, but they carry a completely
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different corrosive gospel. Using Orthodox phrases without
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the Orthodox meaning. That's the key.
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And this appearance of safety is what makes them so persuasive.
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The sheep's clothing. It can be eloquence, a winsome
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personality, a huge platform. Impressive public charity.
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The danger isn't that they seem hostile, it's that they seem
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completely familiar, completely safe.
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They look like part of the furniture in the church.
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Which makes questioning them feel almost inappropriate.
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But Christ forces us to look past that polished surface.
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He exposes the sharp contrast inside.
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Inwardly, they are ravenous wolves.
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They're not just mistaken, they are predatory.
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Their goal is consumption. They devour attention, money,
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power, the admiration of their followers.
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They exploit the vulnerable and manipulate the unstable for
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their own game. That ravenous aim, the wolfish
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purpose, that's the real key to discernment, isn't it?
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It has to be. Their goal is not to lead the
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sheep to the chief shepherd, it's to gather the sheep around
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themselves. They present themselves as
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special, uniquely anointed, too important to be questioned.
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And operating outside the normal, inconvenient bounds of
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accountability, This pattern is just tragically consistent all
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through the New Testament. Paul warned the Ephesian elders
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in Acts 20. That men would arise from among
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their own selves, speaking twisted things, not to build the
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flock, but to draw away the disciples after them.
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And Peter and Jude describe teachers who exploit people for
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money while indulging their own appetites.
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So false prophecy is rarely just intellectual mistake.
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It's a spiritual invasion that uses religious camouflage for
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predatory, self-serving purposes.
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And if we're going to obey this command to beware, it requires
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more than just spotting the threat.
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It means we have to repent of the things in us that make us
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easy. Pray.
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We have to identify some common sins that are almost celebrated
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in Christian culture today. Like the craving for novelty.
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Yes, repenting of always chasing a new word or a fresh move of
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the spirit or some big emotional experience.
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When God has already spoken completely in Scripture, that
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craving for sensation over substance makes us vulnerable.
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And we have to repent of celebrity Christianity, the kind
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that confuses charisma with biblical credibility.
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Assuming that a huge church or a massive online following is an
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automatic sign of God's approval.
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We also have to repent of what you could call religious
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pragmatism. The mindset that measures truth
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by what works. Or what gets results?
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Numbers alone cannot make an error Holy.
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If a message draws huge crowds but it waters down the gospel or
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ignores holiness, those numbers are just irrelevant to the fruit
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test. Jesus says the narrow Rd. is
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found by few, so popularity is actually a terrible metric for
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truth. And finally, we have to repent
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of the pride that makes us think I could never be deceived.
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That self assurance is the very opening a wolf needs.
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Christ calls us back to a humble dependence on Scripture as the
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final judge of all claims. The sheep don't survive by
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ignoring wolves. They survive by knowing and
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submitting to the unique voice of the True Shepherd.
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So Christ gives us this Cortez. He says you will recognize them
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by their fruits, and in doing so he performs this radical shift
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of our attention. He moves us away from the
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misleading evidence, the costume, the eloquence, the
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platform, and points us toward the one thing that overtime
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cannot be faked, the produce. This should really be a relief
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to the cautious believer. It means we're not commanded to
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be cynical mind readers. No, you don't have to decipher
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secret motives or rely on rumors.
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Christ gives us an objective, observable test that works in
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any generation, any culture. Absolutely.
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And the word you use for recognize here, it's not about a
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quick impression, is it? No.
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It implies a real, settled knowledge, a deep discernment
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that grows through patient observation over seasons.
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A counterfeit can mimic the clothing for a while.
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What they can't do is indefinitely mimic the fruit of
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a good tree. So the test is wisdom, not
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suspicion. It takes time.
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It does, and that time element is so critical it cuts through
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all the fog created by hype and self promotion.
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The world values speed, immediate success.
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But Christ demands patience because fruit needs a growing
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season. The genius here is that he's
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teaching us to evaluate teachers not by what they claim, but by
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what their life and ministry consistently yield.
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To understand this test, then, we have to know what fruit
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actually means here. It's not just one thing.
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Especially not in the context of profits or teachers.
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It involves at least three inseparable dimensions that have
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to be evaluated together. Doctrine, character, and the
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produce in others discipleship. Doctrine is the root of the
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message. What is being taught?
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Character is the integrity of the messenger.
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Does his life contradict his words?
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And discipleship is the yield. What kind of believers are being
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formed here? And you can't isolate them,
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right? A teacher could have great
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character but teach corrupt doctrine.
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Or have seemingly great doctrine but a rotten character.
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The whole tree has to be sound. OK.
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Let's break those three down, because the specific content of
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this fruit is what really equips us.
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Since prophets deal in words, the 1st and most immediate fruit
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is doctrinal, and this is where sincerity doesn't help.
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Sincerity doesn't purify error. A teacher can weep over the
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lost, be intense, have total personal confidence, but if his
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doctor is crooked, if he's teaching a false gospel, the
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fruit is by definition rotten. But how do we spot that
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corruption when the false prophet is using Christian
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language? What's the subtle reframing we
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should look for? The reframing usually targets 2
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things, the object of our faith, which is Christ, and the
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mechanism of salvation, which is grace.
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We have to ask what Christ is being presented here?
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A wolf can say the name Jesus. But present a version of him
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who's just a good moral teacher, or a psychological crutch, or a
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cosmic vending machine for health and wealth.
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They failed to present the Christ of Scripture.
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The eternal Son, the substitutionary Lamb, the
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sovereign Lord who commands absolute repentance.
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This is where our reform standards are so helpful.
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The central question has to be, does this teaching preserve
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justification by faith alone in Christ alone?
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Is it grounded solely and his finished work on the cross?
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Using the language of the Westminster Standards, we're
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looking for a teacher who preserves the sufficiency of the
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Gospel. Right, so if a teacher sneaks in
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human merit or self help techniques or moral performance.
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Or even giving a big offering or getting to a certain level of
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emotional intensity. As the hidden basis for being
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right with God, that is bad doctrinal fruit.
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It's a subtle but deadly shift from grace to works.
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But sometimes it's not an outright denial.
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You mentioned detection by omission.
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How does leaving things out corrupt the Doctor?
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It creates a false picture of God in reality.
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Think about what consistently gets minimized or ignored in
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some ministries. The seriousness of sin.
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God's holiness. The necessity of God's wrath
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against that sin. The demands of repentance.
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The non negotiable nature of holiness.
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When those are constantly dismissed or mocked as legalism.
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The spiritual diet becomes imbalanced.
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It becomes poisonous. By leaving out the full scope of
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God's character, they create a safeguard for the unrepentant
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heart. So the standard is always the
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word. Like the Bereans in Acts 17 who
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searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true.
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Where the gospel is truly preached, the doctrinal fruit is
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clear. Christ is central, His grace is
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sovereign, sin is treated seriously, and Scripture is
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supreme. Any teaching that elevates into
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tuition or personal experience above the written word is
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inherently rotten fruit. OK, second, we move to the
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character of the messenger, the correspondence between the life
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they live and the message they proclaim.
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But how do we judge character when so many are so polished?
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We have to look past the performance and assess the
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patterns of the heart that Scripture demands we look for.
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A person can be a captivating speaker.
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They can move crowds but still be morally disqualified.
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Giftedness is not godliness. It's never equivalent.
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The scriptural qualifications for elders above reproach,
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self-control, not greedy faithful and his family.
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They exist because this correspondence is mandatory.
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A shepherd has to live what he preaches, even in the quiet
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moments. We look for the visible fruit of
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the Spirit, the internal evidence of a new nature,
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humility, purity, integrity, gentleness, a transparent fear
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of God, and we contrast that with the classic wolfish
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pattern. Self promotion manipulation.
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Uncontrolled indulgence and a huge hunger for public applause
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and visibility. Let's talk about that issue of
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manipulation. What if a teacher is publicly
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giving away millions running big charities, but privately he's a
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tyrant to his staff or his family?
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How do we weigh that public good work against private
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wolfishness? We have to go back to the
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principle of nature. A good tree cannot bear bad
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fruit as its characteristic yield.
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That apparent public benevolence might be a very effective part
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of the disguise, a way to build immunity from criticism.
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But if that wolfish pattern of manipulation or financial
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secrecy or dominating control persists over time?
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Then the private rot invalidates the public appearance, the fruit
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of the spirit. Things like humility and
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gentleness have to permeate the whole life, not just the public
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facing part. Time really is the great
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revealer here. What patterns should we look for
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over the long haul? How is money handled?
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Is there transparency or is there self enrichment?
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How are critics treated? Is there humility and dialogue
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or is the platform uses as a weapon to silence people?
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And does the teacher welcome accountability from respected
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peers, or do they constantly evade it?
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Claiming they're uniquely anointed and above correction?
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That's a huge red flag. The wolf's characteristic fruit
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is refusing to submit to ordinary means of oversight.
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So if a man is teaching the right things, but his life shows
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a settled pattern of corruption or manipulation, that life
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itself is bad fruit and Christ's warning applies.
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We have to heed it, even when it's painful.
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And the third check is the discipleship fruit, the yield in
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others. Yes, the ultimate validation of
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a ministry is not noise or numbers or emotional intensity.
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It's sanctification. We know from the verses that
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follow that people can make huge religious claims and still be
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unknown to Christ. The real question is what kind
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of people are being formed? Are they growing in reverent
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worship, sober mindedness, repentance, and obedience to the
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Christ of Scripture? Or are they just growing in
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worldliness or entitlement, or a factionalism that's centered on
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the leader's personality? Or an addiction to emotional
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highs. False teaching seems to produce
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2 dangerous trajectories in a church, often at the same time.
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One is spiritual pride, the sense that we are the
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enlightened ones, the special ones with the secret knowledge
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or the true anointing. It creates an elitism.
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Yes, and often condemnation of other Christians.
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The other trajectory is spiritual looseness
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antinomianism. This is where grace is preached,
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but it's stripped of its holy demands.
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And it leads to the false conclusion that God doesn't
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really care how we live. This happens when a teacher
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offers assurance without demanding a real characteristic.
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Fight against known sin it. Lets people walk the wide Rd.
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while carrying the vocabulary of the narrow Rd.
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And both pride and looseness are rotten fruit.
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They diminish the full demand of Christ's Kingdom.
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The true cut of genuine teaching is that even when it brings
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comfort, it also cuts the ego. It humbles you before it heals
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you. It brings people low in
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repentance so that Christ can be truly exalted as Savior.
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When a ministry consistently raises the status of the leader
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while lowering the weight of God's commands, that fruit is
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sending a clear, dangerous message.
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Jesus then moves from the command to the underlying
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principle, and he uses these simple proofs from nature.
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Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
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It's such a decisive question. It relies on common sense.
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He's pointing to the stubborn honesty of creation.
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Outputs correspond to their sources.
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It's a point of moral certainty. You can dress up a briar Bush,
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put a fancy robe on it. Perfume the Thistle with
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theological jargon. But when you reach for spiritual
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nourishment, you're only going to find thorns.
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A thing can't endlessly pretend to be what it isn't.
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Which brings us back to the need for patience and clarity.
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This test doesn't require a PhD. It requires moral clarity and
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the patience to watch for patterns.
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The clothing can trick the eye, but the fruit tells the absolute
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truth about the root. It's an encouragement to be
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sane, to refuse to call what is spiritually bittersweet just
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because it's delivered with charm or high production values.
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The content has to matter more than the delivery.
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Then Jesus tightens the principle into an absolute law
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in verse 18. A healthy tree cannot bear bad
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fruit. Or can a diseased tree bear good
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fruit? The strength of that language is
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key. He's asserting an inner
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necessity. What a thing is determines what
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it produces, he says. Cannot on purpose.
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This is really the theological heart of the test.
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If the root is rotten, the fruit will be rotten in kind.
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A false prophet can't indefinitely manufacture the
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real harvest of Christ exulting truth and self denying holiness.
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Because his message and his life flow from an unrenewed,
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self-serving nature. This reaches right into the core
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doctrine of regeneration. It does.
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The bad tree can't produce good fruit because it is inherently
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bad. The problem is internal
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corruption, not a lack of technique.
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This is why moralistic Christianity, which tries to
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reform the outside without an inner renewal from God, is
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completely futile. It's just changing the costume.
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The tree is still diseased. God has to give a new heart.
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And this logic is essential for protecting the gospel from being
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turned upside down. Jesus is not teaching.
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Staple some fruit onto yourself so you can become a good tree.
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No, the fruit doesn't create the new nature.
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It shows what the tree already is by grace.
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It's the perfect balance you see in the Reformed confessions.
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Good works or fruit are the fruits and evidences of a true
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and lively faith. They are not the merit by which
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we are accepted by God. If you say fruit is the basis of
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acceptance, that's legalism. And if you say true saving grace
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doesn't have to produce any fruit, that's antinomianism.
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Christ rejects both errors. He says fruit flows from the
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living nature God provides. We do need to be careful here,
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though. When Christ has a good tree
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cannot bear bad fruit, He's not teaching sinless perfection.
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No, of course not. Genuine believers still sin.
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Faithful teachers still stumble. We all have remaining
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corruption. He's speaking about the
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characteristic produce, the settled, dominating direction of
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a life. Right.
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A good tree cannot live in a sustained consistent pattern of
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corruption, of greed, manipulation, doctrinal error,
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and still be a good tree. And a rotten tree, conversely,
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cannot produce genuine fruit as its characteristic life defining
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harvest. The subtlety is that a false
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prophet might have these occasional flashes of orthodox
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language or these big public acts of benevolence that look
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like good fruit. But the underlying settled
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trajectory of their teaching and their life will always drift
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toward what their nature loves. Self exultation, diluting the
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seriousness of sin. Using Ministry for personal
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gain. Their fruit might look
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impressive by the world standards, big crowds, lots of
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energy, claimed miracles, but be completely rotten by God's
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standards. The enduring fruit Christ is
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talking about aligns with His Word, truth that exalts Him,
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holiness that kills sin, and obedience that flows from humble
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faith. And when the seasons of pressure
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or quiet oversight arrive, that rotten root is always exposed.
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Which brings us to verse 19. It takes this warning from
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diagnosis to a terrifying declaration of destiny.
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Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and
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thrown into the fire. The word every is so striking.
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Every tree. This is a comprehensive rule of
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divine judgment. It's not just for the most
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obvious heretics. And notice how it's framed.
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It's not just about bearing bad fruit, but also does not bear
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good fruit. The absence of real gospel
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fruit, the lack of a life in keeping with repentance, already
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exposes a tree as unfit. There's no safe neutral category
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of just being. Sterility is a sign of spiritual
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death. That's a piercing warning for
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our time, which celebrates so much religious activity without
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looking at its actual nature. A leader can have a huge
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platform seem tireless. But if the enduring fruit God
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requires a sound doctrine, holy character, reverent obedience is
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fundamentally missing. That tree is standing under the
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sentence of verse 19. The imagery is so final.
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The tree is cut down. That's not gentle pruning.
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That's decisive removal by a divine hand.
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And the axe doesn't care about large numbers or charisma.
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The tree isn't just left to rot, it's thrown into the fire.
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This is unambiguous language pointing to eschatological
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judgement. Christ is teaching that
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deception isn't a harmless mistake, it's destructive.
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Because it opposes God's truth and ruin souls.
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Verse 19 really acts as a bridge to the warning about false
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professors that comes right after.
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The ones who say Lord, Lord And did we not do many mighty works
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in your? And Christ's responses.
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I never knew you. The message is unmistakable.
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External religious performance, even dramatic claims of success,
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can exist right alongside inward spiritual ruin.
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The final assessment belongs to Christ, who sees the root, not
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just the fruit people staple to the outside.
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This knowledge requires a strange mix of courage and
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humility from us. Courage because we have to
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refuse to call a teacher safe just because they're popular or
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successful. We have to fear God more than we
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fear man's disapproval. And humility, because we don't
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pronounce the final sentence. We heed the test, we warn where
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Scripture warns, and we entrust the final verdict to the Lord.
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And the warning itself is a mercy.
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It's meant to stop sinners before they reach that end.
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If we see sterility or rot in ourselves, the remedy isn't to
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try and staple on good works. It's to come to Christ for the
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new life. That alone produces real fruit.
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The judge is also the Savior. And then Christ repeats the mark
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in verse 20 for absolute emphasis.
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Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
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He knows how easily we're distracted by appearances.
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How prone we are to drift toward easier metrics like winsomeness
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or visibility or an emotional payoff.
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By repeating the test fruit not claims, Christ is demanding that
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the Church grounds its evaluation in what is visible,
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tangible, and examinable according to Scripture.
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He's cutting through the fog of modern religious marketing and
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hype. Which means the Church has to
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cultivate theological seriousness in its members.
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We have to know the Gospel, know the Scriptures well enough to
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spot the difference when the real message is being replaced
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by a counterfeit. When moralism replaces grace or
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antinomianism trivializes sin. Or when mystical novelty that
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elevates God told me over what God has written, the alarm bells
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have to ring. If a teacher consistently
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downplays the personal nature of sin or sidelines Christ's
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substitutionary atonement, or acts like Scripture can be
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revised. We have to be able to say with
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meekness, but with firmness. That pattern shows rotten fruit,
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that theological clarity is the best defense.
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This also requires practical habits from us, habits that
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respect the slow, deliberate work of God.
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We have to resist canonizing people based on a single sound
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bite or a viral video clip. Fruit is assessed over time.
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We have to patiently look at the patterns.
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What do they repeatedly emphasize?
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What essential truths do they omit?
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What sins do they excuse? Do they handle biblical texts
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honestly in context, or do they just use scripture as a prop for
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their own agenda? This demands slow, careful
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listening. Churches also have to be
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relentlessly alert to that modern confusion of giftedness
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with godliness. Eloquence isn't sanctification.
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Platform size does not signal spiritual authority.
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The Bible's warnings assume false teachers will be
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persuasive and charismatic. That's what makes them so
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dangerous. And we have to look at how a
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teacher responds to correction and accountability.
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Do they welcome it with humility, or do they use their
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platform to silence critics and evade oversight?
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True Shepherd, though they are sinners, show the marks of
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fearing God more than man. Transparency, teachability, a
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readiness to repent publicly when they're wrong.
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That distinction between gifting and godliness is so crucial.
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A man could preach a brilliant sermon on humility, but if he
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consistently destroys anyone who challenges his authority, the
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bad fruit of pride is visible, and the character should be the
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governing test, no matter how good the sermon was.
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The moment a teacher isolates themselves from real biblical
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accountability, they've already taken on the posture of a wolf.
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And we have to stress that discernment isn't just an
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individual hobby, it's a corporate, institutional
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responsibility. Christ gives under shepherd's
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elders specifically to guard the flock.
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We see this in texts like Acts 20, where Paul warns the elders
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about the wolves who will arise. This means churches have to take
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the biblical qualifications for leadership seriously,
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prioritizing doctrinal soundness and character over business
28:29
skill or just being likable. When leaders are chosen for
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those secondary things, the church is essentially inviting
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predation. The defenses are lowered.
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And when something like biblical church discipline is treated as
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scandalous or a thing of the past, wolves learn very quickly
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that the pasture is unguarded. And when deep theological
28:46
training is mocked as mere head knowledge.
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The sheep are left dependent on unstable personalities instead
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of being anchored in the Word of God.
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The corporate remedy for the Church is just ordinary
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faithfulness. Robust expository preaching that
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explains scripture. Systematic catechesis that forms
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solid doctrinal instincts and a church culture where holiness is
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expected and repentance is normal.
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When the sheep really know the unique voice of the true
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shepherd. The wolves find a lot less
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traction. Their disguise fails much more
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quickly. So we've completed this deep
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dive into Matthew 7.1520. Christ gives us a shepherd's
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warning and a shepherd's objective test.
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Look at the fruit in their doctrine, their character, and
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the discipleship they produce. This guidance guards us from
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both that spiritual naivete that refuses to evaluate and the
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legalism that thinks fruit earns our acceptance with Rod.
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Fruit doesn't purchase new life, it reveals whether that life is
29:42
truly there. So the proper outcome of
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studying this isn't cynical suspicion of everyone.
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It's humble dependence. Dependence on Scripture as the
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standard, and dependence on Christ himself, the true prophet
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who warned us, and the judge who holds the final verdict.
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Jesus says the true Shepherd supplies what he commands.
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We know the world's measure of success is always spectacle,
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visibility, and immediate numbers.
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So here's a thought for you to consider.
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How might you, starting tomorrow, intentionally shift
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your own personal metrics for evaluating faithfulness in your
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local church to align with God's slow, ordinary metrics,
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humility, obedience, and endurance, which are the truest
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and safest forms of fruit? That's something substantial to
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consider. Thank you for joining us on The
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Deep Dive.