Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits, Part 1

Driving home: What makes the false prophet so deceptive is that he is not what he appears to be. If he came at you with a scraggly beatnik beard and looking like the typical beatnik and he had a Bible in his hand and he flaunted it an…

Martin contrasts a beatnik flaunting a Bible as trash with a preacher in a suit holding a Bible, to show how the deceptive appearance of a false prophet makes them dangerous.

20, we have already covered the definition of a false prophet. A false prophet or a false teacher is one who is a false prophet. A false prophet is one who is a false teacher. A false teacher is one who is a false prophet. A false prophet is one who is a false teacher. A false teacher is one who speaks untruth in the name of God. One who stands as a conveyor of divine truth and conveys something less or something other than the truth of God. We looked at the deceptiveness of the false prophet. Our Lord says they come in sheep's clothing, the picture of innocency, but inwardly they are ravening...

2:56 - 4:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What makes the false prophet so deceptive is that he is not what he appears to be. If he came at you with a scraggly beatnik beard and looking like the typical beatnik and he had a Bible in his hand and he flaunted it an…

Used to vividly describe the biblical doctrine of sin as foul moral rebellion and pollution of the heart, which false prophets avoid to be popular.

He always comes holding the main substance of biblical revelation at one point or another. But it's the subtle additions or the glaring omissions that mark him as a false prophet. And we looked at five of those areas. In his doctrine of God.

5:16 - 5:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the 'discovery of the false prophet' from Matthew 7:16, explaining that this knowledge is decisive ('ye shall know them') but not infallible, warning against…

Illustrates the intensified Greek word for 'know' (epiginosko) by showing how people initially saw Jesus as a stranger but then 'had knowledge of Him' (knew Him thoroughly) and brought the diseased to Him.

Let me show you several illustrations in the Scripture where this same word in the original is used. Reading it in the English, you wouldn't know the difference, but it's an interesting word. Turn over to Matthew 14. Matthew 14 and verse 35.

9:44 - 9:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not plead ignorance about judging religious teachers; you have an obligation to discern.

Further illustrates the word 'know' by describing how the disciples on the road to Emmaus knew Jesus's presence but 'did not know Him' for who He truly was, until their eyes were opened.

There are these two walking on the road to Emmaus, and the Lord Jesus drew near to them and began to converse with them. And we read in verse 16, But their eyes...

11:08 - 11:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not assume infallibility in judging others; avoid quick, unsubstantiated conclusions about teachers.

Martin uses his personal stance on Oral Roberts and Billy Graham to illustrate the balance between avoiding gullibility and refraining from infallible judgment without sufficient evidence.

And the other extreme is that of infallibility, where without any real solid evidence, we come to conclusions either approving of a certain teacher or disapproving. I have people come to me often, and they say, What about so-and-so? I have people come to me, What about Oral Roberts? And I have to say, I've never talked with a man, I've never been able to question him on his theological conviction, on certain places where the Bible says, if a man doesn't believe this, he's none of his.

12:58 - 13:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize your need for the Holy Spirit's help and enablement to discern truth from error amidst many voices.

Compares listening to a sermon to watching a basketball game, arguing that a worthwhile sermon demands mental discipline and energy, unlike casual entertainment.

So like watching a basketball game, you can whisper sweet nothings into your wife's ear while you're there and talk about the weather and watch a guy put one through the hoop and then pretty well enjoy yourself. But it takes no real concentration. And if you miss a play, you haven't missed too much, there'll be a lot more. Now, sad to say, much of the pulpit ministry of our land is like that.

18:35 - 18:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize your need for the Holy Spirit's help and enablement to discern truth from error amidst many voices.

A conversation about getting religious instruction secondhand, like understanding Shakespeare through a teacher, is used to highlight the unique promise of the infallible Holy Spirit as the believer's teacher for the Bible.

I was talking to someone the other day who said, Well, I get most of my religious instruction secondhand. He said, When I was in college, I couldn't understand Shakespeare. There are parts that are hard to be understood. So I had a teacher who probably got her or his doctorate in some field of Shakespearean studies, and that person could open up Shakespeare, and it was so much easier getting it secondhand than firsthand.

20:58 - 21:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin delves into the meaning of 'fruit' as the expression of a plant's life and nature, applying this metaphor to false prophets. He asserts that both true and false prophets…

An extended analogy of an apple tree and its fruit is used to explain that fruit is the infallible, visible demonstration of a plant's life and nature, applying this to discerning false prophets.

What is fruit? When you go out in our backyard in a couple of months, you're going to see some apples on a tree back there. Well, what is that apple? Well, you say it's fruit.

30:42 - 30:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh, may God help us. We know it in the realm of nature, but we damn our souls when we don't see it in the realm of grace.

Two elders arguing whether a tree is a peach or apple tree, resolved by waiting for the fruit, illustrates how fruit infallibly reveals the nature of the tree, and by extension, the prophet.

In fact, it's the infallible and visible demonstration of the kind of tree that you have. There's two men standing out by that tree. Suppose we go out this morning and we see a couple of the elders out there, and they're red in the face and tight under the collar. Of course, they don't get that way ever, but just supposing they were.

31:13 - 31:31 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh, may God help us. We know it in the realm of nature, but we damn our souls when we don't see it in the realm of grace.

Illustrates that while one might hang an apple on a thorn or grapes on a thistle, the bush itself will never produce such fruit, signifying that a false prophet cannot naturally produce true spiritual fruit.

Notice what our Lord says. By their fruits ye shall know them. Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Sure, somebody may hang an apple on a thorn, but you won't go gather a crop of apples from a thorn bush.

32:25 - 32:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Evaluate the character of any professed teacher of truth by the Beatitudes: look for poverty of spirit, holy mourning, and meekness.

Martin recounts an encounter with a Jehovah's Witness woman who stiffened at the phrase 'hell-deserving wretch,' demonstrating how the first Beatitude (poverty of spirit) can expose a proud, unregenerate heart.

Is there any poverty of spirit? Does this man or woman or group or person gladly confess that he is nothing, has nothing, and can do nothing apart from the grace of God? Let me show you how effective this first principle can be. One time in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, my wife will remember this situation.

38:59 - 39:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon instructs listeners to evaluate a prophet's creed objectively, apart from their personality, as Satan himself can appear as an angel of light. It then moves to…

Examples of preachers like George Slavin and Vance Havner, who naturally possess humor, are used to distinguish genuine, Spirit-led humor from a preacher's deliberate attempt to be a 'clown' or make people giggle.

Now, that doesn't mean that there's something that naturally flows out and is humorous. That happens here. There are some men like George Slavin from the Philadelphia area who just has to keep a hundred-pound pressure on his humor. He's one of these that everything he sees is funny.

41:10 - 41:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Evaluate a prophet by the *quality* of his converts, not the quantity, using the Beatitudes as the test for genuine marks of grace.

The absurdity of a daughter giving birth to a calf is used to illustrate the spiritual law that 'we bear fruit after our kind,' emphasizing that true converts should reflect God's image, not 'wild beasts'.

I've had parents call me and tell me with joy that my daughter or my wife or so and so had a boy, a girl, but I've never had anyone call me and rejoice and say oh, my daughter gave birth to a calf. No, it doesn't work. No, it never happens. It doesn't happen.

43:24 - 43:43 Read in full sermon