This study was first taught on July 26, 2011

Topic: Beware of False Prophets: How to Identify Them (1)

No audio available for this study.

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Background
Last week, we saw the reasons why we should take the Lord’s counsel to “Beware of false prophets” seriously. We saw that when people come to us claiming to be prophets or ministers of God, we should exercise caution and investigate them because:
1. The Lord, Jesus Christ, Who appoints people ministers, is the One who asks us to investigate all claims to ministry.
2. The Holy Spirit has warned that in the last days (which we are in now), many false ministers shall arise with seducing spirits.
3. God, through His word, warns us to prove or try every spirit.
4. False prophets are not easy to identify: they may indeed prophecy correctly sometimes, and may even work ‘miracles’ (albeit, lying wonders).
5. You cannot tell a false prophet by merely looking at the external, for they sometimes appear as ministers of righteousness, and may even look more presentable than the true prophets of God.
6. Many, who we would have thought could not be misled by false prophets, have indeed been misled.
7. Not everyone who claims to be who they say they are, are who they say they are.
8. False prophets/ministers are usually in the majority, and the tendency is to go with the majority.
9. False prophets/ministers are usually well connected with the high and mighty in society, and seek to legitimize their ministry by such associations, such that many people may get entrapped by such society figures introducing these false prophets to them as ‘men of God’.
10. False prophets/ministers aim to turn God’s children away from the faith and unto fables, fornication, idolatry, and vanity.
11. Those who continue to accommodate false prophets/ministers, soon find that they are deluded into believing what is obviously a lie, and end up in hell.
12. It was so important to Jude, one of the early Church leaders, that he left off writing about the matter of faith to warn the then Church of the influx of these false ministers.

We concluded by noting that our responsibility to investigate and avoid false prophets must also include our exposure of these people for who they really are!

Scripture Text(s)
Matthew 7:15
Tonight, we begin the challenging journey to identifying false prophets/ministers. It is our prayer that the Holy Spirit will help us to discover such identifiers, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
The first thing the Lord tells us is that false prophets come wearing sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves. In other words, merely looking at them will not reveal who they really are. Hence, we need to probe deeper into their private lives and tactics.
Deuteronomy 25:17-18; John 10:12; Acts 20:28-30; 2 Timothy 3:5-8; 2 Corinthians 5:17; John 10:1, 7-10; 1 Corinthians 5:9-11; 2 Timothy 3:2-4; 1 Timothy 6:1-10; Ephesians 4:11-14; Hebrews 5:12-13; Matthew 13:19; Luke 8:12; 2 Peter 2:1-3a; Micah 3:5; 1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22; Matthew 23:4-28; 1 Peter 5:1-3; 3:1-7.

Conclusion
Our focus tonight has been on the first comment of the Lord Jesus, that the false prophets “come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves”. With this comment in mind, we have seen that false prophets search or seek out their victims—the spiritually weak, those who are unwilling to grow in the things of God, those who want excuses to be made for their immaturity though they have been ‘born again’ for a long time. False prophets may seem to be concerned for souls, but their purpose is to make such souls children of the devil permanently, so they carefully plan their disguise and approach those who want to know God, but are never able to come to the knowledge of Christ.

False prophets appear to be spiritual, but really, they are not interested in what can make them so—they emphasize every spirit, except the Holy Spirit, and they downgrade the word of God, while upgrading prophecy, dreams, visions, etc. They always have a new revelation, which is purportedly from a ‘special source’ like an angel. In most cases such ‘revelations’ do not agree with the word of God, or are ‘forced’ to agree with their private interpretation of scripture. False prophets are not just masters of disguise and deception; they also are good at worming their way into people’s hearts. They act like they are concerned for your spiritual wellbeing; but really, they are out to destroy your faith and to consign you permanently to hell!

False prophets can also be identified by their display of ostentation (flamboyance and announcement effects) and worldly living. They are ravenous wolves who seek to scatter the flock of God, and may be very high in the church hierarchy. They are hypocrites, showing more concern for their public image, than anything else. They are title conscious, and do not care much for the work of ministry. They are interested essentially in benefits of spiritual office, but definitely not in doing the work of ministry. False prophets’ messages are of earthly things, sowing, money, tithing, and getting everything you can here on earth. They are more for outward appearance than on the state of the inner man; more for what you can get on earth, than what you can become in heaven. They talk about Christians being heavenly conscious, but earthly useless!

Let us beware of these men and women!

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