The Danger Of False Prophets

Here is another excerpt from J.C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, this time warning us about false teachers and showing us how we are to guard ourselves from the "wolves in sheep's clothing"

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?"

Matthew 7:15-16

Of these verses J.C. Ryle writes:

We are to "beware of false prophets." The connection between this passage and the preceding one (Matthew 7:12-14)) is striking. Would we keep clear of this "broad way?" We must beware of false prophets. They will arise. They began in the days of the apostles. Even then the seeds of error were sown. They have appeared continually ever since. We must be prepared for them, and be on our guard.

 

This is a warning which is much needed. There are thousands who seem ready to believe anything in religion if they hear it from an ordained minister. They forget that clergymen may err as much as laymen. They are not infallible. Their teaching must be weighed in the balance of Holy Scripture. They are to be followed and believed, so long as their doctrine agrees with the Bible, but not a minute longer. We are to try them "by their fruits." Sound doctrine and holy living are the marks of true prophets. Let us remember this. Our minister's mistakes will not excuse our own. "If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch."

What is the best safe-guard against false teaching? Beyond all doubt the regular study of the word of God, with prayer for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Bible was given to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. (Psalm. 119:105.) The man who reads it aright will never be allowed greatly to err. It is neglect of the Bible which makes so many a prey to the first false teacher whom they hear. They would have us believe that "they are not learned, and do not pretend to have decided opinions." The plain truth is that they are lazy and idle about reading the Bible, and do not like the trouble of thinking for themselves. Nothing supplies false prophets with followers so much as spiritual sloth under a cloak of humility.

May we all bear in mind our Lord's warning! The world, the devil, and the flesh, are not the only dangers in the way of the Christian. There remains another yet, and that is the "false prophet," the wolf in sheep's clothing. Happy is he who prays over his Bible and knows the difference between truth and error in religion! There is a difference, and we are meant to know it, and use our knowledge.

J.C. Ryle

We would do well to remember this warning and we should always pray for the Holy Spirit's guidance whenever we open our Bibles or sit under the preaching of the Word. After all, Jesus warned us that we are to be aware of the false teachers, and if we are led astray by them it is as much our own fault as it is theirs.

I Am Sin

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 

James 1:14-15

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 5:12

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

In 1741 Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon that many feel is the greatest sermon ever preached - Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. While I take some time to study and write some new posts I encourage you to take some time and read the outline to this great sermon below, and if you have a few minutes click on the link at the bottom of the page and give it a listen.

Sinners in the hands of an angry God!

Jonathan Edwards

"Vengeance belongs to Me--I will repay! Their foot shall slide in due time, for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly!" Deuteronomy 32:35

OBSERVATION: There is nothing which keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell--but the mere pleasure of God.

 1. There is no lack of power in God, to cast wicked men into hell at any moment.

 2. They deserve to be cast into hell.

 3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell.

 4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell.

 5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them--and seize them as his own--at whatever moment God shall permit him!

 6. There are those hellish principles reigning in the souls of wicked men, which would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire--if it were not for God's restraints.

 7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment--that there are no visible means of death at hand.

 8. Unsaved men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives--do not secure them from death for a single moment!

 9. All wicked men's pains and contrivances which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ--do not secure them from hell for one moment!

10. God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise--to keep any unsaved man out of hell, for one moment!

APPLICATIONS:

1. Consider more particularly--WHOSE wrath it is!

2. Consider--that is the fierceness of God's wrath, which you are exposed to!

3.  Consider--that the misery you are exposed to, is that which God will inflict to that end--that He might show what His almighty wrath is!

4. Consider--that it is EVERLASTING wrath!

The Puritans (Part 7) - The Wrath To Come

Yesterday I finished up the post on 1 John 2:2 and this morning I opened my email to find this from Grace Gems. If you have any question about what it was that Jesus saved us from, or why it is that we need a Savior, just read this.

"Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come!" 1 Thessalonians 1:10

By "the wrath to come" we are to understand the infinite wrath of the sin-avenging God—in comparison with which, the wrath of all other creatures in the world is mild, and not in the least to be regarded.

This wrath which is to come, will be most bitter—beyond any gall or wormwood to the taste. This wrath will be most pure—without any allay or mixture of any comfortable ingredients. This wrath will be most plentiful—the treasury of which will be opened in hell, and all the damned will be filled with it abundantly. This wrath will be most weighty—beyond any mountain of lead, to sink sinners down into the bottomless pit. This wrath will be most fierce—and so powerful that all the powers of men and devils shall not be able to make the least resistance. This wrath will be intolerable—and yet must be borne; it will be implacable—so as never to be appeased; and it will be eternal—so as never to be ended!

This wrath will include the punishment of loss—will consist of the loss of the crown, glory, and happiness of heaven, where the righteous shall be admitted to the immediate vision and full fruition of God the chief good, which will fill them with soul-ravishing, inconceivable, and eternal joy. But from this, all the wicked will be eternally shut out, and wholly denied any share in the least of that happiness which, when they come to understand the worth and excellency of it—will above all things be most vexing to them!

This wrath will include the punishment of sense—will consist in the horrible pains and tortures which shall in extreme measure be inflicted upon every part of the bodies of all the wicked, by the most dreadful and unquenchable fire into which they shall be thrown; and the horrible anguish which, through the immediate impressions of God's wrath, shall be inflicted upon every faculty of their souls in hell, where they shall have no ease or release forever! Matthew 25:41, "Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!" Revelation 14:10-11, "They shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night."

The wicked are vessels fitted by sin for destruction, and prepared for wrath; and therefore they shall be filled with it! God has treasured up wrath for the wicked—as they have treasured up sin! God will give them that which they have so much deserved, and which He has prepared for them. However sinners may vainly hope to flee or hide themselves from the stroke of God's vengeance, yet God's right hand will find all those who hate Him; and He will make them as a fiery oven in the time of His anger, swallow them up in His wrath, and devour them with the fire of His indignation! (Psalm 21:8-9).

The souls of the wicked, as soon as they are loosened by death from the ruinous habitation of their bodies, presently appear before God, are condemned to hell, and are dragged by the devil, hell's jailer, into that prison where they are bound in chains of darkness, filled with horror and anguish until the day of eternal judgment!

Oh, the dread and confusion which the wicked then shall be filled with—when they are summoned and dragged to the tribunal seat of Christ—and there have the books opened before them, where all their sins are written, and which will then be made manifest to the whole world; and when the sentence "Depart, you who are cursed, into everlasting fire!" shall be passed upon them; and when the Lord shall open the treasury of wrath to them, and give them that portion thereof, which is their due; and when they shall see the mouth of hell open beneath them, and a horrible flame issuing forth from there, giving notice of a more horrible fire within which is prepared for them!

Oh, the dread! Oh, the shrieks! Who can dwell with such devouring fire! Who can inhabit such everlasting burnings! How welcome would a great rock or mountain be—if they could find any that would fall upon them, and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, and keep off the strokes of God's vengeance, which then will be inflicted upon them!

But, the sentence being pronounced—the execution will follow—and none can escape it! From Christ's tribunal seat, the wicked will be thrown into the fiery prison of hell, where they will be shut down and shut in, and that forever! There they will lie; there they will fry, and there they will cry! Though always dying—they will never die! The fire there will burn most dreadfully and continually, yet will never be extinguished! The wicked will be tormented there, in every part and in extreme measure—and their torment will never be ended!

Thomas Vincent (1670)

Remember, it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4), and what could be more kind than being saved from this? Take some time today to thank God for sending Jesus to redeem us and thank Jesus for the salvation that He provided.

What an awesome God we serve!