Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits, Part 1

Introduction: The Warning Against False Prophets

0:05 come, the part which we might call in a very special way, application and conclusion of the characteristics of the members of his kingdom, of the attitudes to them, who hate them, persecute them. He has expounded the law of righteousness by which they will seek to walk. He has dealt with their problem of food and clothing and how they are to conduct themselves in a world in which they have physical and material needs. He has warned them of the terrible danger of being censorious and the equally terrible danger of being spiritually gullible and seeking to cast pearls before swine. And then, as though his people cry out, who is sufficient for a life like this? He has given that gracious promise of grace. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Climaxed in that glorious promise

1:05 of grace. If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall the Father in heaven give good things to those that ask him? Then, after summarizing the whole area of our human relationships in verse 12, he now moves into the realm beginning with verse 13 where he is urging upon his hearers that they be not content to merely know the characteristics of the members of his kingdom, the standards of his kingdom, the rules by which the people within his kingdom be governed. But he urges upon them, in terms of these words, enter ye in. And the only way that our Lord says men may enter this kingdom is by the narrow gate of a true conversion. And so we looked at verses 13 and 14 under a contrast. True conversion? Difficult and rare. It's a narrow gate. Few there be that find it. Spurious

2:04 or counterfeit conversion. It's a narrow gate. Few there be that find it. Spurious or counterfeit conversion. It's a narrow gate. Few there be that find it. Spurious or counterfeit conversion.

2:05 And easy and a common thing. It's a wide gate. It's in the broad way. And many there be which enter in thereat. And having urged upon us to enter, our Lord immediately pronounces a warning. 13 is an imperative. Enter ye in. The next imperative is verse 15. Beware of false prophets. For all who are serious about entering into the gate of true conversion, must face the fact that there are many voices clamoring to be the voice of God telling us how we may enter in. And so the same Lord who says enter in gives us this warning. Beware of false prophets. In our study of this section dealing with false prophets, verses 15 to

Defining and Discerning False Prophets: Deceptiveness and Doctrine

2:56 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 wolves, the picture of a devouring animal. And so this is why we are talking about a false prophet. A false prophet is a false teacher. 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 and threw it on the ground and said it's religious trash, now I've got new revelation why you tune that guy out pretty quick. But he comes dressed in a preacher's suit and speaking with preacher's tones and holding a Bible before him. And that's what makes him so deceptive. For he comes in sheep's

4:11 clothing but inwardly is a ravening wolf. And then we considered for two Lord's Day mornings, and this completes our review, the doctrine of the false prophet. And the doctrines of the false prophet are known, if we were to summarize the whole matter, by their glaring omissions and their subtle additions to the substance of the Word of God. If we were to summarize the whole matter by their glaring omissions and their subtle additions to the substance of the Word of God.

4:36 You remember I read from Revelation 22, verses 18 and 19, some of the last words of the Bible. And they go like this. I'm paraphrasing. If any man adds to the words of this book, the plagues of this book shall be added to him.

4:57 And if any man takes away from the words of this book, his part shall be taken out of the book of life. You see, the false prophet keeps the main substance of the book. It's what he takes away and what he adds that makes him a false prophet. And that's what makes it so subtle, dear ones.

5:16 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.

5:34 He's got a God who's all love and no justice and wrath and holiness. Sin is just a vague word. It isn't laid out and spelled out in its biblical terms as foul moral rebellion against God. As the pollution of the heart so that the most cultured, refined, nice, kind man or woman on earth has a heart that is a veil of a cesspool of iniquity in the sight of a holy God.

6:01 The false prophet is careful not to offend people. By that jagged biblical doctrine of sin. For cultured people will go to the psychiatrist and talk freely about guilt complexes. But they will not go before the Lord of glory and confess, My heart is a cesspool of iniquity.

6:21 And so the false prophet is one whose doctrine is always popular. Jesus said, Woe unto you when all men speak well of you. For so spake they of the false prophets that were before you. You see, the false prophet.

6:34 The false prophet's doctrine of God and of sin is palatable to unregenerate nature. Whereas the true doctrine of God and of sin cuts across the grain of human nature and until the Holy Ghost performs a miracle, no man will ever accept the God of the Bible as he presents himself. No man will accept the doctrine of human sin. That it's not only foul revolt that brings upon me guilt, but it's terrible pollution arising out of my depraved nature.

7:04 The false prophet is known by his glaring omissions in these areas. His doctrine of Christ. The conditions of acceptance before God. The necessity of pressing on continuance in the faith.

The Nature of Discovery: Decisive but Not Infallible, Personal not Ecclesiastical

7:18 Now this morning, we come to another aspect of the teaching in this section. And I'm calling it the discovery of the false prophet. And if we have time, the destiny of the false prophet. We've had the definition of the false prophet.

7:32 The deceptiveness of the false prophet. The doctrine of the false prophet. And now this morning, the discovery of a false prophet. Notice our Lord's words, beginning with verse 16.

7:45 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither.

8:05 Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits, ye shall know them.

8:20 How are we to discover the false prophet? The same Lord who's told us what a false prophet is and the deceptiveness of that prophet has also given us very clear directions as to how we may discover it. How are you going to discover whether or not I'm a false prophet? You ought to be concerned.

8:42 I could be.

8:45 How are you going to discover whether any man who stands in this pulpit or comes to your door, or a neighbor, or a friend, or when you go to another assembly, how are you going to discover if a man is a true teacher of the Word of God? Our Lord has told us right here. And first of all, let's look at the nature of this discovery, and then we're going to consider the means of this discovery. What is the nature of this discovery?

9:07 Notice our Lord's words. Ye shall know them by their fruits. The nature of this discovery, first of all, is that it is decisive, though not infallible. Ye shall know them.

9:24 And I'm emphasizing the word know. And it's interesting that our Lord uses here the intensified word for know. There are two words basically coming from the same stem. One means to know in a general sense, and the other means to know thoroughly, or to see a thing for what it really is.

9:44 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.

10:04 Our Lord had come into a certain country, and it says, 1435, And when the men of that place had knowledge of Him, they sent out into all the country round about, and brought unto Him all that were diseased. Now when they saw this stranger come into their coast, they knew a man had come into their coast. But it says, when they had knowledge of Him, when they began to discover who He really was, and saw Him for what He was, then they sent the word abroad. This is just not a common stranger.

10:38 This is the great prophet, the teacher out of Galilee. And they sent and brought all the people to come, that He might heal them, and they might hear His voice. So you see, the word know here means to know with a true understanding of that which we are looking upon. You find the same thing in Luke chapter 24 and verse 16.

10:59 Luke chapter 24 and verse 16.

11:08 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...

11:20 Their eyes were held that they should not know Him. While they knew there was a man walking with them, and they knew what He looked like, and they knew what His voice sounded like, but they didn't know Him for who He really was. Now our Lord says, By their fruits you'll know them. You'll know the false prophet for what He really is.

11:40 You'll know with an understanding that is thorough. Now this is stated as a general rule. It is not an infallible rule. Now there are two...

11:50 There are two areas of extreme as with most truths. One is the extreme of pleading ignorance, and the other is the extreme of pleading infallibility. Many of God's people say, Who am I? I'm just a layman, or I'm just a housewife.

12:06 Who am I to be the judge of religious teachers? If a man stands or speaks over the radio, or somebody comes to my door and can quote more verses in three minutes than I could quote in three days if my life depended upon it, who in the world am I to question them? That's the plea of ignorance. People say, I'm just not in any position.

12:26 Wait a minute. The Lord says, By their fruits you shall know them. You shall know them. The other extreme is what I'd call infallibility, where people feel that they're going to take the place of God.

12:40 And everybody they meet, within three minutes, they've got them labeled true prophet, false prophet, see? Now may God keep us from both of those extremes. The one is the plea of ignorance, where we just swallow everything and anything because we say, Who important me? I can't know anything. I can't judge.

12:58 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.

13:24 So I have to say, there's much about his method, and there are inadequacies in his message that I cannot embrace his whole concept that God's a good God. Therefore, he always wants everybody well, and if you're driving old beat-up Fords, he wants you to drive Cadillacs, and especially if you'll give to support his work, God will bless you. I have reservations. But I would never do what some have done and label the man a false prophet.

13:51 I haven't spent enough time with a man, or sat under his ministry enough, to have enough facts upon which to base such a judgment. So I can't pass a sentence upon Oral Roberts. I have reservations. I wouldn't have him in my pulpit.

14:05 But you see, I've got no right to label him as a false prophet. People come to me all the time, What about Billy Graham? And I say, Well, I thank God for areas where his message is pure, he preaches repentance, and certainly he preaches the Bible. He's not a faith or a phony.

14:22 There are areas of his methodology, some of his associations with liberals. But I can't label a man a false prophet. You see, if I were to set myself up, as some of God's servants have done, and they write off this one and that one, we're going beyond what our Lord is telling us here. But there's that other side of complete gullibility and an unwillingness to face principles.

14:44 So from both may God deliver us, for the nature of this discovery is, it is decisive. Ye shall know them. You'll see them for what they are. It is decisive, but not infallible.

14:56 The second thing about this discovery of the false prophet, in its nature, it is personal and not ecclesiastical. I'll explain what I mean. Notice what Jesus said, By their fruits ye shall know them. Well, who's the ye?

15:13 Well, the same ye that he's been talking to in the preceding verses. So let's back up. Let's see who he's talking to. Back to verse 13.

15:21 Enter ye in at the strait gate, ye shall know them by their fruits. You see, this is not some command just for the elite, the ecclesiastical leaders, the preachers or the elders or the bishops and the archbishops and the presidents of societies and the district superintendents. No, no. The Lord says to every person who's interested in entering the narrow gate, you have a right to be discerning about those who give you advice on how to enter.

15:58 You not only have a right, you have an obligation. Are you concerned about entering the narrow gate? Then you should be concerned about discovering a man as to whether or not he's a false prophet or a true prophet. This is not an ecclesiastical command, it's a personal command to every single one of us.

16:17 All of God's children, those who are subject to this kingdom, are to be discerning in the matters of the truth of God. Doesn't God say in 1 Thessalonians 5.21, Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good? God says in Hebrews 5.11-14, He speaks of people who are spiritual babies and He says the time you ought to be teaching, you have need that somebody teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God. And there becomes such as have need of milk instead of meat, for strong meat belongs to those who are mature, even to those who by reason of youth have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. What is spiritual maturity? It's ability to discern.

17:10 That's maturity. That's one of the aspects. He said those who are full age are those who by reason of youth they've learned how to discern. They've exercised themselves in terms of this command, beware of false prophets, ye shall know them.

17:29 Ye shall know them. Now I trust you see the application of this is very clear. You as an individual professing Christian or even if you're not saved and you're concerned about being saved, you are responsible to become articulate in the truth of God. To know when you're getting 16 ounces to the pound of Bible truth.

17:52 And if somebody hands you something and says that's a pound of Bible truth, you better be able to know what's a pound and what's 14 ounces. You have that responsibility. And if you're concerned about being saved or you're a child of God, then this responsibility is yours and no one can assume it for you. You're not only to be articulate in understanding what is truth and what is not, you're to be discerning as you listen to truth.

The Means of Discovery: The Holy Spirit's Enablement and the Church's Function

18:21 You know some people get the idea that listening to sermons is an easy thing. It isn't. If the sermon's worth anything, it'll cost you something to listen to. Now there's some sermons that aren't worth much and they don't cost much to listen to.

18:35 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.

18:58 But there is some that is not like that. And to listen to a sermon rightly will cost you something. It'll cost an exercise of mental discipline. It'll cost the expenditure of mental energy.

19:14 It'll cost you the price of reflecting upon the truth in the light of what you know and in the light of other passages. And that's all bound up in what our Lord says, Ye shall know them by their fruits. If I'm to know, if I'm to see for what they are, I must discern. And if I'm to discern, I must learn how to listen with a critical mind.

19:38 In the truest sense, when I say critical, I don't mean hypercritical or with an attitude of nastiness, but critical in the sense that I'm going to evaluate what I hear in the light of what God has taught me. And the second thing, by way of application, if you take this passage seriously, by their fruits, ye shall know them, you'll see increasingly your need of the health and enablement of God the Holy Spirit. With so many voices clamoring to be the voice of God, how can poor little you and me ever make it? Huh?

20:15 With so many voices claiming to be the voice of God, so many voices coming over the airwaves, people banging on our doors, literature coming through the mail, how can we ever hope to know what's truth and what's error? Our Lord has given us a gracious promise. He has said in John 16, 13, When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into the truth. He has said in 1 John 2, 27, But ye need not that any man teach you but the anointing ye have received teacheth you all things.

20:58 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.

21:19 I said, Yes, but there was no infallible teacher of Shakespeare ever promised. But I said there's an infallible teacher promised when you take this book into your hands. That's God the Holy Ghost. Isn't that our Lord's promise?

21:33 He shall lead you into the truth. But you see, I can't have the teaching ministry of the Spirit if I'm grieving and quenching the Spirit in His sanctifying hand. That's why when you allow unconfessed sin in your life, that's the first step to becoming prey to false teaching. Now follow me closely.

21:58 Men and women do not fall prey to false teaching primarily because of kinks in the head, but because they've got kinks in the heart. Chapter and verse, all right? 1 Timothy 1 and verse 19. It speaks of certain people who've made shipwreck concerning the faith.

22:21 And when did it start? Listen, this is what the Word of God says. They cast aside faith, and the good conscience, and have made shipwreck concerning the faith. For it's when you allow unconfessed sin in your life as a Christian, you've got a controversy with God.

22:40 And you say, oh, it's just a little thing. And by refusing to face that issue, you grieve and quench the Spirit in His sanctifying ministry. And when you grieve and quench Him in His sanctifying ministry, you make yourself to be cut off from His illuminating ministry. Now, I am not saying the Holy Spirit leaves us and we become lost.

23:03 Don't anyone run off half-cocked with a weird statement like that. I'm saying that a grieved spirit becomes an inoperative spirit. That's why men who've gone on, some of them no doubt saved, and are in a period of spiritual conflict, others never born again, but who've gone on and gotten degree after degree have made shipwreck concerning the faith. With all their knowledge of Greek and Hebrew and church history, they still follow false prophets.

23:39 My little Sophie the scrub woman, she knows God and knows the truth of God and can explain and defend that truth with deep conviction. Why? Because she's walked in the experience of an ungrieved Holy Spirit. Whereas perhaps that fellow who went on for his degrees became a place when God the Holy Ghost began to deal with him and said, look, are you willing to die to human applause?

24:07 Are you willing to serve me without the letters of the world and without the smile and the approval of the academic world? And the fellow entered a conflict where it was the praise of men or the praise of God. And he said, I'll take the praise of men. And just like that, the Spirit's ministry of illumination would check and he became praised.

24:29 I'm not against letters as they come in the will of God, but I know how real this is, for I will no doubt carry to my grave the intellectual stigma of being a Bible college graduate. But I've told God that that's what he wants. I want the seal of the Holy Ghost upon my ministry. If I can't have further letters and that, it's not even an open question.

25:00 I say this to you young men in school, planning for more schools, this could be a real area of danger. Say to you young ladies, the Spirit of God begins to press the issue of his plan and call for your life. And perhaps the last issue to die in the normal young woman is this matter. I'm made for a family.

25:25 I'm made to be someone's wife. I'm reminded of it constantly. The will of God comes, the pressure of the Spirit. God says, I want you for this particular work.

25:36 You may mean following me alone. You know the struggle. You quench the Spirit in an area of the pressure of his own indwelling concerning some matter of service. You may end up a heretic.

25:53 The problems in your head started with the problems in the heart. And so the application of this principle is so obvious, I'm sure, to all of us. We need the Spirit's help. And the only assurance I can have that with so many voices claiming to be the voice of God, that I can discern what is and what isn't, is that day by day I keep short accounts with God.

26:18 That I seek to walk in the presence of an ungrieved spirit. That I feed my soul upon the truth of God. And that I can claim His promise that the Spirit will lead me in the truth. And then a third application that I see in our Lord's words is that you and I need to understand the function of the church.

26:39 You say, how do you get that out of those words? Ye shall know them by their fruits. Well, if all those that are interested in the narrow gate have got to cultivate discernment, where are they going to get it? Our Lord has ordained that people who are interested in the narrow gate and the narrow way be gathered together in local churches.

26:58 Hasn't it? And what is the church? 1 Timothy 3.15 says, The church of the living God is the pillar and the ground of the truth.

27:09 Now here's the way a lot of people would read it. The church of the living God, which is the pillar and the ground of multitudes of activities. What God the Holy Ghost says. Others would read it this way.

27:24 The church of God, which is the pillar and ground of social intercourse between the people of God. And so you've got a social-minded church. That isn't what the Holy Ghost says. Others would read it that the church is the pillar and ground of experience.

27:42 And people come together and talk about their experiences and have wonderful exhilarating experiences. But that isn't what God the Holy Ghost says. He said the church is the pillar and the ground of truth. And do you see what the main function of the local assembly is?

27:58 It's to be a place where the truth is disseminated, the truth is embraced, the truth is understood, and the truth is lived out in the lives of its members. How does the body of Christ come to spiritual maturity? The answer is given in Ephesians 4. Speaking the truth, the truth in love may grow up into Christ in all things, that ye henceforth be no more little children.

28:26 And what's the mark of the little child? What's the next verse? Verse 13. Be tossed to and from by every wind of doctrine and by the sleight of man, wherein they lie to deceive.

28:42 Now could anything be more obvious than that? The mark of spiritual babyhood is immaturity with respect to the truth. And so somebody comes along and says, ah, I've got this new insight and off you run. And somebody else comes along and says, I've got this new insight and off they run.

28:59 That's the picture of little children. Everybody that blows a balloon and pricks it, they're willing to run. And everybody can stand up and twirl around his crepe paper and make noise while little kids run. Wherever there's activity in that which attracts the eye, hither, yon, here, there, folks, it don't be like little children.

29:14 How am I going to come to maturity? Through the instrumentality of the truth. Oh, I say to you future preachers and missionaries here today, don't forget what you heard this morning. If you have this high and holy privilege of instructing people in the Word of God, remember that you are to aim at nothing less than the assembly of believers articulate and clear in their understanding of divine truth who will be able to obey what Jesus said when He said, ye who believe in the Holy Spirit shall be free from all evil and shall be free from all evil and shall be free from all evil ye shall know them, ye shall know them, ye shall know them.

The Means of Discovery: Evaluating 'Fruit' – Creed, Character, Converts

29:53 Now, may we hurry to cover the means by which the false prophets to be discovered. What does our Lord say? He said, ye shall know them by their fruits by their fruits. And then he asked the question, do men gather grapes of thorns and으면 gather grapes of thorns or figs of pittles?

30:11 And then He makes an affirmation, positive, a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth evil fruit. Then he makes, verse 19, this warning. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Then he repeats the principle, wherefore by their fruit she shall know.

30:33 Now, how are we to discover the false prophet? Well, our Lord said we're to discover him by his fruits. Now, what does the word fruit mean? Well, let's stop and think this morning.

30:42 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.

30:51 All right, then, what is fruit?

30:54 Well, you say fruit's fruit. Yeah, but what is it? When you boil it all down, what have you got? Well, you say if you boil apples down, you get applesauce.

31:00 Now, speaking about fruit in general, what is fruit? Well, fruit is the expression of the life and nature of a given plant or tree. Isn't that what fruit is?

31:13 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.

31:31 And they're going at it, and you come over and you say, well, what's all this fuss about? Well, they're having an argument. One fellow says, that thing's a peach tree. No, it isn't.

31:38 That thing's an apple tree. No, that's a peach tree. I know it's a peach tree. And so they're going at it hot and heavy.

31:43 Well, we say, fellows, we want to settle this. Now, how are we going to settle it? Well, you say we could go get a book that shows the type of leaves on an apple tree. Now, I know a much simpler way.

31:51 I say, now, look, let's just declare a moratorium on this argument, and we'll all wait and come back in two months, and we'll settle the argument. All right? So in two months' time, we come back, and we see some fruit hanging on there, and they're either going to be peaches or apples, and that's settled. Why?

32:05 Because the fruit will be an infallible revelation of the nature of that tree. Well, you say, everybody knows that. 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.

32:25 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.

32:42 Someone may take a cluster of grapes and hang it on a thistle bush, but that thistle bush will never produce grapes as the expression of its life. And so the false prophet may have something that looks like truth, hung on him contrary to his nature, but the general drift and issue and product of his life will not be any different than what he is. Notice how our Lord affirms the principle positively in verse 17. Every good tree brings forth good fruit, a corrupt tree evil fruit.

33:21 Then he affirms it negatively, verse 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. And then he reaffirms the whole thing in verse 20. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them.

33:37 Now, will you take notice of something that's gripped me in the past three or four weeks? In fact, I've just been itching for this morning. It was hard for me to stand by last week and not be able to preach because this truth had just so gripped my own heart. It is not the presence or absence of fruit, that is a revelation of a false or a true prophet.

34:01 It is not the presence or absence of fruit, it is the what? The quality of the fruit borne. Will you notice? Look carefully.

34:09 Our Lord says both trees are bringing fruit. A good tree is bringing fruit, a corrupt tree brings forth fruit. But the difference is found in the quality. One is bringing good fruit, and the other is bringing forth evil fruit.

34:27 That is the difference. That is the difference. That is the difference. That is the difference.

34:28 That is the difference. That is the difference. Now, do you see the application of the principle? How do I discover the prophet, whether he be true or false?

34:36 By that which he produces naturally and in abundance.

34:43 Now, in what areas, then, is the fruit to be evaluated? A. W. Pink suggests three areas, and I'm convinced they're right.

34:52 I didn't have him alliterated. He just said what I was going to say in three words that will help your memory. The prophet is to be described and discerned by the fruit of his creed, his character, and his converts.

35:09 For what a man is will come out in what he believes,

35:14 what he does, and what he produces. For there's an inseparable connection between what a man is and the fruit of his life, just as there's an inseparable connection between the substance of an apple tree and the apple that hangs there, and this reveals what this is. So as we view the prophet's creed, his character and his converts will know whether he's a true man or a false man. Now, we've looked at the creed, so we won't go into that this morning, except to say these two words.

Evaluating the Prophet's Creed and Character

35:47 We've looked at the creed under the doctrines of the false prophet, but I remind you that the creed of the false prophet must be evaluated apart from the person of the false prophet. Paul recognized this when he said in 2 Corinthians 11, Satan himself is transgressive. He's formed into an angel of light. He says in Romans 16, 18, of certain people that by fair speeches they beguile the innocent.

36:18 And then Paul, even of himself, says in Galatians 1, though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that which you've received, let him be accursed. Oh, I urge upon you this morning, dear ones, if you want to obey this command, by their fruits you'll know them. When you evaluate the creed of a man or woman who comes to you saying, I am speaking the truth of God, let that person be a faceless person. Don't look at what's in his hand against the backdrop of his face.

36:57 Isolate what he hands you as the truth. Weigh it on its own merit and not in terms of his personality. For Paul says, the devil himself will come as an angel of light. And if you're so enamored with the glowing face of the angel that you take anything from his hands, Paul says you may be damned.

37:20 You get the principle?

37:23 Isolate the creed and evaluate it in the light of the word of God. That's why Paul said in Acts 20, verses 29 to 31, he said, I've warned you day and night with tears, for I know that after my departure there shall rise up from among you men men, who will draw away others after themselves. And they'll say, well, Mr. So-and-so is such a lovely person.

37:49 How could I doubt what he believes?

37:53 In a way, isolate the creed. Secondly,

37:58 evaluate their character. Since fruit is an expression of what a man truly is, so a false prophet being a false person will manifest it by a false life.

38:11 What I believe is a reflection of what I am and what I am not. What I am is rooted in what I believe. The two are inseparably united. Now, it's hard for us to really get hold of that in a day that says, well, just believe anything as long as you're sincere, it's all right.

38:25 No. The false prophet, not believing right, will not live right. Now, he may have some things that are cheap imitations of the real thing, but you and I evaluate the prophet in terms of his character, and where do I discern that character? Just go back to the Beatitudes.

38:46 Just go back. You ask yourself this question. You have a right to ask it of me. You have a right to ask it of anyone who comes professing to teach you the truth of God.

38:59 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.

39:19 A woman came and was talking with her at the door, Jehovah's Witness woman. My wife came up and said to me, if I remember the details right, she said, Honey, this woman seems willing to talk. Why don't you go down and talk with her? So I went down and she was very willing to talk.

39:32 But we hadn't talked for several minutes when her boss came up. See, she was a newcomer and one of these old hardened ones came along. We've been in this for years. And she came up and she began to enter into the conversation.

39:43 And there was such a proud, haughty spirit in this woman. And finally, after getting nowhere, she said, as you do when people don't really want the truth. I turned to her and I said, ma'am, may I ask you a question? She said, yes.

39:57 I said, have you ever taken the place of a poor, helpless, hell-deserving wretch before God, pleading for mercy? And she stiffened up and looked at me and said, where do you get words like that? Hell-deserving wretch! I said, I get them from my Bible.

40:17 She grabbed her cohort and said, let's get out of here. No poverty of spirit. She got hung up on the first beatitude. She got hung up on the first beatitude.

40:29 See, all the talk about the Word isn't Jesus and a God and Christ is not God. That's all a cover-up for a proud, unregenerate, unbroken heart that never has seen its end. You evaluate the character of the prophet in terms of the beatitude. Is there any holy mourning?

40:50 Frankly, any man who stands up and says he's a preacher of divine truth and sets out to prove to the audience that he's a nice, good clown, he's suspect in my book.

41:01 Any man who stands behind the sacred desk and sets out to attempt to make me giggle, he's suspect in my book.

41:10 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.

41:26 He's made that way. And God uses his humor. Vance Havner is one of these. So I'm not, don't anyone go out and say I'm against, but listen.

41:34 If that humor is under the spirit or within the spirit of a true prophet, you'll sense even in the midst of that that this man knows what it is to mourn over his own sin and to yearn over the hearts and lives of the sinful men to whom he preaches. You apply the beatitudes. Is there meekness? What is meekness?

41:58 It's not constitutional diffidence. A man's not a true prophet if he stands up here and is afraid to look at you and say anything. You see? He just may be a false prophet trying to impress you with how humble he is.

42:10 But what is meekness? It's the absence of self-will to God and ill-will to my fellow man. That's what meekness is. The prophet who says I'm the voice of God, I'm a teacher sent from God, I'm expounding the way of God, but there's that spirit of ill-will that wants to cut and wound and leave the sore open and pleading that wants to castigate and instead of being a surgeon to be a butcher with the truth and be suspect.

42:40 And so you go down through and evaluate the light, the character and the light of the beatitudes.

Evaluating the Prophet's Converts: Quality, Not Quantity

42:50 And then the third area in which this I close this morning. Ye shall know them by their fruits, their creed, their character, their converts. Their converts. Now will you listen carefully?

43:04 It's a law of religion. It's a law of reproduction in the physical world and also in the spiritual. We bear fruit after our kind. Don't you read that again and again in Genesis?

43:18 And this thing brought forth after its kind.

43:24 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.

43:43 Why? Because we bear fruit after our kind. Now we giggle at that. But I tell you, dear ones, it's sad when in the professing church of Jesus Christ we're giving birth to every form of wild beast that claims to be a child of God.

44:07 Whereas my Bible says we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works and the new man is out. Consciousness and holiness after the image of Him that made Him. God bears children in His own life, not in the likeness of wild, sensual, rebellious beast of the field.

44:34 And when our Lord said by their fruit you'll know them, He said you're to evaluate the prophet in terms of his converts. Not the quantity. Notice, He doesn't say the evil tree doesn't bear any fruit. He says it bears fruit, but it's evil.

44:51 And my spirit is grieved in a way that I cannot express. Whenever I come together with my ministering brethren and speak to people of different assemblies, and when one begins to try to discuss the work of God, I could scream when people say everything's going fine. We've got so many in Sunday school, so many in church, so many in any service. What does it prove?

45:19 It proves you've got fruit, that's all. But it doesn't tell me a thing about what kind. That evil tree is hanging loose, but pick it off and take a penknife and cut it through and lay it open. Instead of a juicy, solid apple, we've got nothing but pulp and mush.

45:38 It's bad fruit. Our Lord said the prophet is known not by the presence or absence of fruit, but by the quality of the fruit that he bears.

45:49 Oh, may God make it real to me. I cried to him last night and this morning, Lord, teach our people this principle. For you won't have a clue of how to evaluate what's going on in this church unless you get this. How are you going to evaluate whether God is smiling upon us as a church?

46:07 Don't you want to smile? You members of this church, don't you long to know that the living God is smiling upon us, blessing us with his presence? How are we going to evaluate it?

46:19 I'll tell you how. By the quality of the fruit. Well, what's the test of quality? The Beatitudes.

46:25 Go on back to the Beatitudes. For these are the distinguishing marks of a work of grace in the soul. Who are the people that are blessed of God? Well, he tells you.

46:35 The blessed people are those that are poor in spirit, those that mourn, those that are meek, those that hunger and thirst, those that are merciful, those that are pure in heart, those that are peacemakers, those that are persecuted. They're the blessed people. And I say to myself, Oh God, are you blessing this assembly? He says, Well, why don't you see if I am?

46:56 And so I say, I've got to say, Lord, have I seen you in the past six months make anybody poor in spirit? Have I heard anybody pray in a prayer meeting? Oh God, you've shown me my sin. Oh God, you've shown me the wickedness of my heart.

47:15 Oh God, thank you, you've stripped me down and you've shut me up to Christ. Thank God I've heard that a few times in the past few months. Give me a little hope.

47:29 Is the ministry of the prophet, bringing people to see the destitution of their heart by nature, is it bringing any holy mourning?

47:40 Is it bringing people to groan over their sins, not with the affectation of the actor, but with the spontaneity that comes from a man who, like the publican, sees the holiness of God and beats upon his breast and says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

48:01 Is the ministry of the prophet, a professed prophet, producing meekness in those who sit under his ministry? Are they increasingly submissive to God and increasingly cordial with their fellow man? The absence of ill will to God and self-will to God and ill will to their brethren, here's the test. Is it making them hungry and thirsty to be holy?

48:25 Is it making them hungry after righteousness? Is it producing them a sense that their sins are blotted out or that a coast of glory, after conformity to Christ? No burning passion to be like it.

48:48 Is it producing a merciful people who are hard on themselves and gentle with others? Is it producing a people pure in heart who are not content that they don't do this and don't do that and don't go here and don't go there, but a heart full of pollution? Or is it producing a people who realize that the not going here and the don't doing this, is but the kindergarten of Christian experience and long for heart purity? Purity from envy and jealousy and pride and lust?

49:23 Is that what it's producing? Is it producing a people so different from the world that the world can't stand them and begins to persecute them?

49:34 Or is it producing a people who are so much like the world that the world just embraces them and says, well, you've got a little more religion than the rest of us, but we kind of like you.

Personal Application and Concluding Exhortation

49:43 Beloved, that's the test. And when I apply that to my own life in ministry, it sends me down on my face before God. And frankly, that's the test I continually apply to this assembly.

49:54 I've got a hand in an annual report every year that evaluates my ministry in terms of numbers. To thank God in the judgment seat of Christ, my Lord's not going to evaluate it from that annual report. He's going to evaluate it in terms of this right here. Oh, will God help us as a church to face this?

50:18 Say, Pastor, are you against numbers? No. There's good to God that the Holy Ghost would come and conviction fall upon this place until the walls were burst with people groaning under the sense of sin, crying to God for mercy, being put on the road of holiness and righteousness.

50:40 Beloved, I refuse to lower the standards of God to get some food that isn't His food.

50:46 Until the Holy Ghost is poured out upon us and they come by the multitudes, I bless God for the ones and twos and threes that He's bringing.

50:59 Again, I feel so constrained as I close this morning. Urge upon you young men and women facing a whole life of ministry. Don't you forget what you heard this morning. It's not the quantity but the quality of the fruit that will be the evidence of the genuineness of your life and your ministry.

51:21 By their fruits, ye shall know them. The nature of that discovery, it's incisive, it's real. Ye shall know them. Not infallible.

51:34 It's personal. The means of that discovery, fruit, creed, character, converse.

51:45 May God give us ears to hear. The Lord willing, next week we shall consider the destiny of the false prophet and by implication of everyone who embraces his teaching, every tree, false prophet or the person listening that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, and cast into the fire. The love of the proof of what you are is not the profession you made 20 years ago. It's what flows out of your life right now, May 29, 1966.

52:20 And if the Beatitudes aren't at least a feeble, a description of you, you're not bringing forth good fruit, God says you'll be hewn down and cast into the fire. May God help us to take seriously the teaching of his own precious word. Let us bow together in prayer. Amen.

52:41 Our Lord, we have faced again sobering, searching worlds. Oh Father, what can we do but pray that you'd have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon your church that values its success by every other standard but that which you have given. Help us as a people, forgive us when we've been slaves to numerical factors.

53:14 Lord Jesus, produce here what only grace can produce. Bless this word to our hearts. And now may your grace and the loved presence of Jesus Christ by the Spirit rest upon each one of us through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.