Wandering Stars (Part 1)

Sermon Transcript

I would like to thank Pastor Stucky and Brother Christian again for the opportunity to preach God's word. This morning I would like to look at the false prophets and what we can learn from the Bible about them. The title of my sermon is Wandering Stars, because as we just read, Jude calls them wandering stars.

Now you might ask yourself — why bring up this topic? Why address this subject? Why not just preach God is love, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya together? Why go after all the doctrines of the Bible? Well, I will give you two reasons.

First of all, just like we saw in the verse on the front of the bulletin, the Bible says: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." I would like to paint a little picture. Imagine you are on a field and there is a hill up in the distance. On that hill are your family, your friends, your loved ones — just sitting around. And then they see a group of sheep coming towards them. But you yourself can see that one of those sheep is a lot bigger than the others. One of those sheep is actually a ravening wolf hiding behind sheep's clothing. You can see it, but your family up on that hill cannot. Your little children look at that wolf in sheep's clothing and they start running towards it. What are you supposed to do as the person who can see the danger? Our job is to expose it. Our job is to mark them — as it says in Romans 16, mark and avoid those that preach a doctrine contrary to the one that you have been given. When we see a ravening wolf, it is our job to call it out and shout it at the top of our lungs to try to save the people being deceived.

The second reason is that in the New Testament alone, 22 out of the 27 books speak about false prophets. That really tells you something. It is not something that comes up once or twice and then the rest of the word of God is just God is love. It comes up in 22 of the 27 books — that is over 80% of the New Testament. That should tell us it is something important that we really need to look into and be prepared for, both to observe and mark these false prophets and to warn the people around us.

Now before I get into my first point, I want to look at the parallel passage to Jude, which is found in 2 Peter chapter 2. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2.

Both of these passages mention a lot of different attributes of a false prophet. I do not believe it is speaking about one person doing all of these things, but rather that any false prophet can have any one or more of those attributes applied to them. You do not have to be looking for someone that is ticking every box — they can just tick one box and they are considered a false prophet.

2 Peter 2:1–2: "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." And verse 12: "But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption."

Is it not true that these false prophets speak evil of the only way to get to heaven? The only way to heaven — through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, resting in the work of Christ alone. They come up and speak evil about this. They slander the gospel. And notice what it says — they speak evil of the things they understand not. They do not even understand the gospel we are preaching. But they will slander us. How many of you have heard that we have been slanderously reported as telling people to murder, telling people to commit suicide? People speak to others and that is what they think, because these ravening wolves and wandering stars are telling everybody that is what we preach. That could not be further from the truth. I strongly believe we are a church that preaches against sin more than any other church. But unfortunately that is what these people do.

One accusation that comes to mind is the accusation of cheap grace. That is what they accuse us of. Cheap grace. And they say this because they have no clue what the gospel is. They have no clue what we preach. So they have to make things up and say oh yeah, these guys are preaching cheap grace. And that is something I would like to address right now.

Point 1: Wandering Stars Are Wrong on the Gospel

Let us look at what the Bible says about God's gift of salvation through grace, and see if it is cheap or costly. I am going to rapid fire some Bible verses and I want you to just listen and see if you can find the word cheap or costly in what we read.

Matthew 10:8: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." John 8:32: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:36: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Romans 3:24: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Romans 5:18: "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The gift is always free. Romans 8:2: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:32: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" 1 Corinthians 2:12: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Galatians 5:1: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." 1 Peter 2:16: "As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God." Revelation 21:6: "And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." And Revelation 22:17: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

Praise God that salvation is a free gift. Praise God that his grace is free. It is not costly. It is not cheap. It is free.

Unfortunately because of wandering stars, that is what we are accused of. And because of these wandering stars and damnable heresies, there are family members and friends and so many people we would love to see come to the true knowledge of Christ — but they are being taught all of these damnable heresies. Our duty as Christians who have the truth is to preach it. Our duty is to go out and preach the gospel. Our job is to take a stand for Jesus and preach the gospel no matter what.

To these wandering stars, grace, gift, rest, free, and costly are all synonyms. I do not know how they are reading the Bible, but that is unfortunately what they believe. Let us look at what Jesus himself said. Matthew 11:28–30: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Praise God that Jesus Christ came to offer salvation as a burden that is light, a yoke that is easy, and he came to offer us rest.

Now, what is a yoke and what does he mean? When Jesus says come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, he is referring to people under the law — those who are sitting there trying to accomplish the law of God on their own. That is the heavy burden they were putting on themselves. And if we look at Acts 15:10, the disciples said: "Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" That is the reality — nobody in the Old Testament could bear the yoke and burden of the law, and nobody today or tomorrow will be able to bear it either. There was only one person who could bear the yoke of the law and that was Jesus Christ, and only because he was God in the flesh. And yet these wandering stars come and preach to us and to our loved ones that we need to bear that yoke, bear that burden. They are doing exactly what the disciples in Acts 15 were warning against — saying it is not enough to believe in Jesus, you also have to put the yoke of bondage back on people. How evil is that?

So what is Jesus talking about when he talks about his burden being light and his yoke being easy? Let us look at Matthew 5:27–28. According to the wandering stars, we need to keep the law and do what Jesus says. And Jesus says: "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." So according to them, we need to fulfil the law. And Jesus came along and gave a law that was already hard and condemned everybody even further — if you look at a woman with lust you have already committed adultery in your heart. That is what Jesus came to do. If Jesus taught a costly grace meaning following his commands in order to be saved or prove you are saved, his yoke would be hard and his burden would be heavy. The Old Testament laws were already impossible to keep, and Jesus came and showed even more clearly that nobody can keep the law.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4:10: "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." The person who has entered into Jesus's rest has ceased from his own works. The same way God stopped working on the seventh day of creation — he rested. That is the rest Jesus is talking about when he tells people to come to him. He is showing them the law they cannot keep, the law they will never keep. He expounded it and showed them that even if you try to keep this law there is no way of doing it. The only way is to put your faith in the only person who could do it.

And still there are people that think they keep all the laws of God. I know a person who believes in his heart that in the 25 to 30 years since he came to God, he has only sinned once. I am talking to this person and I am thinking, God, I do not even have words. The only thing I can say is they do not know the word of God. Proverbs 24:9 says: "The thought of foolishness is sin." If you think about something foolish, you have committed sin. And 1 John 1:8 says: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." If you hear somebody saying they do not sin, you can tell them the truth is not in them.

How can you help someone that thinks they are good? You cannot. There is no point explaining the gospel to a person who thinks they are not a sinner. Why would you show a saviour to someone who does not think they are drowning? To someone who thinks they can swim perfectly well — they do not need any help. Jesus has no effect on these people.

Romans 3:10–12: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." The Bible condemns everybody and tells everybody they are not good enough.

Isaiah 64:6: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Modern translations of filthy rags use the words menstrual rags. I am pretty sure we all know what that means. That is how God views our righteousnesses — not our life in general, the good and the bad, but specifically the good things that we do as humans before God. They are as filthy rags. And some of these people — the ones who believe they are good enough — they think they are going to come before God one day with a truckload of menstrual rags and say, look God, look at all the things I did, surely you are letting me into heaven. Some people have five truckloads of menstrual rags, some have fifty. They are all filthy rags before God. The only work that counts is Jesus's work.

I recently spoke with someone who also thinks they are sinless and I showed him Matthew 5:20: "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." I showed him that verse and said what do you think about this? He said yeah, I reckon I do more good works than the Pharisees. That is the attitude these people have. They think they are more righteous than the scribes and the Pharisees. It is so heartbreaking to see.

Jesus says in Mark 2:17: "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." The only people who come to repentance are the people who see their fallen state — who understand there is nothing they can do to bring themselves salvation, that they are a sinner in the same boat as everybody else. They are not better than the murderer because they are not murdering, not better than the adulterer because they are not sleeping around. In God's eyes we are all condemned to hell.

Anyway, I went off on a bit of a tangent because I was talking about grace and the fact that it is free. Not cheap, not costly — free. It is offered to all that believe on Jesus Christ and call upon him.

Let me just quickly look at what some of these terms mean. Grace is unmerited and undeserved favour. Rest, in the New Testament, takes on a deeply redemptive meaning — it represents a peaceful confidence that comes from trusting in Jesus rather than trying to earn salvation through human effort. And free means being at liberty, not being under necessity or restraint, physical or moral.

You know, we often use the example of the Bible when we go out soul-winning. If I was going to give you this Bible as a gift and I said you can have it, but you just need to come and cut my grass once a week — would that be a free gift? Absolutely not. What if I said you can have this Bible, I paid $20,000 for it but I am going to give it to you for a dollar? It is a great deal, but it is not a free gift. What if I told people you can have this Bible, you do not have to give me anything, but you need to make sure you come to church every single Sunday, otherwise I am going to take it back? Is that a free gift? It is not a free gift. A free gift has no conditions attached. It cannot be taken away. If there are conditions, it is not a gift anymore. And we just saw clearly in the Bible that salvation is a free gift by grace — undeserved and unmerited. Whether you are trying to live godly or wasting your life away in sin, both of those people are undeserving before God. That is the only way we can be saved.

Unfortunately, because of wandering stars and their damnable heresies, they teach that in order to be saved you need to follow Jesus and be his disciple. People confuse and combine salvation and discipleship. They think salvation is not just believing in Jesus but also doing everything he says, following his commands. I would like to look at two examples in the Bible of people who were not disciples of Jesus — who did not follow him — but who still believed and were still saved.

Turn to Matthew 5:19.

"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." The person breaking God's commandments and teaching people to break them — what does it say? He shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Not in hell. In the kingdom of heaven. You see the difference — someone who chooses to believe in God and follow his commandments and live according to the instructions of Jesus Christ will be called great in heaven. And someone who believes in Jesus Christ for salvation but chooses to waste their life away in sin will still end up in heaven — but they will be called the least. They will not have rewards. They will come before God in shame. Still before God — but in shame, not with their head up. And I pray that each and every one of us will end our lives in heaven with our head up, thankful for the life we have lived.

The second verse I would like to look at is John 12:42–43.

"Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." Here we see chief rulers believing on Jesus Christ, but saying hey, we are going to keep quiet, we do not want to ruin our lives or face any persecution. Did these rulers follow Jesus? No. Were they saved? Yes. They put their faith in Jesus Christ. "Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

What a terrible way to live, though — scared of what people are going to say, constantly thinking about every decision and what that person will say or what that church will think. Who cares what people are going to think? All that matters is what Jesus Christ thinks. All that matters is what God thinks and what the word of God says.

Psalm 118:6: "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?" If the Lord is on your side, you should not fear what man can do unto you. Proverbs 29:25: "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." If you are scared of man, if you are scared of what someone or something will do, you are putting yourself in a snare — a trap. You cannot live a Christian godly life and have fear of man without eventually falling into that trap. You cannot do both without stumbling and losing your footing. The only way is to put aside that fear of man.

Let me tell you something. If I was to trust my own emotions I would not be right here this morning. I would be at home curled up in a corner. Do not for one second think that the people standing up here have no fears. They do not stand up here because they do not struggle with these things. Brother Chris would not have opened up this church with the help of Brother Stucky if he let his emotions get in the way. I am sure his emotions came and told him, sit down, stay at the church you are at, do not do anything with your life. Praise God that we have people who will stand up in spite of all their fear, in spite of what people think, because they know what is more important. And what is more important than fear and emotion and slander is what God wants you to do. And what God wants each and every one of us to do is preach the word of God as it is. Take a stand for Jesus Christ.

Think about those chief rulers. They were not just your average layman that nobody was going to listen to. They were chief rulers with real influence. I am sure that if they had put their emotions aside and fought against that fear of man, their names would have been written in the Bible and we would be reading about them today because of the influence they would have had and the great rewards they would have earned in heaven. And yet we do not even know their names — all we know is the phrase chief rulers. If they were not chief rulers we would not even have read about them at all. How many people have we not read about in the Bible because they were laymen who just kept their mouths closed, who did not say anything, did not do anything, did not want to step out of line and put themselves in the firing line of these evil wandering stars?

2 Timothy 3:12: "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." All that will live godly — notice it does not say all Christians. It says all that will live godly. And you know what? If lordship salvation and perseverance of the saints were true, there would be no need to specify which type of Christian would suffer persecution. It would just be all Christians. Because they believe everybody who believes automatically does good works, automatically perseveres. You would not have this verse written the way it is. But there is a distinct separation here — there are Christians who live godly and Christians who choose not to live godly. And it is the Christians who live godly that will suffer persecution.

That is why those chief rulers could sit there and continue doing what they were doing. I know quite a few people who believe on Jesus Christ and stay at their churches with leaders who are damnable heretics, just because that is the comfortable thing to do. You know what is going to happen to these people? They are going to get to the end of their lives and look back and think — what a waste. I kept quiet. I chased after vanity. I did nothing for God. I did not even take a stand for God. I saw ravening wolves every single Sunday stand up and preach their damnable heresies and I said nothing. What a shame.

Another way to spot a wandering star is when you hear one teach the possibility of loss of salvation. That is another way you can point at someone and say this false teacher is preaching something that is not scriptural. This is a doctrine that has not a single clear Bible verse to back it up. You would think that if something so crucial as losing your salvation were a possibility, you would have it written clearly throughout the Bible, or at least in one verse. At least one clear verse saying stop doing this or you are going to lose your salvation. But they do not have one. There is not one. That is why they have to twist scripture, change things, and slander us. You know, last year some of these people thought we were Calvinists. They got up and preached against Calvinism thinking they were preaching against us. I met up with one of their leaders and he had a massive slideshow presentation just deconstructing the Calvinist doctrines of perseverance. We sat there thinking, man, we agree with you. But these people have no clue. That is what wandering stars are — people who have no clue but will open their mouths anyway. Proverbs says these people are fools. You are a fool if you speak without knowing.

Let us look at how someone can receive salvation according to the scriptures and see if we can find any loss of salvation teaching in them.

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 4:14: "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John 5:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."

John 6:35–40: "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." These are the promises of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

John 10:28–29: "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."

And in spite of scripture after scripture saying you will never perish, you will not be condemned, you will never hunger, no man shall pluck you out — they come and say yeah but you can lose your salvation. It is found nowhere in the Bible. Notice there are no other conditions to eternal life. What we have instead of conditions are promises that come with eternal life — and that promise is found in the negative words no, not, and never. They shall not perish. Never thirst. Not come into condemnation. Never hunger. No man shall pluck them out. Those are the conditions God gave and said my people are always going to be my people, my children will always be my children. Praise God for that.

What is eternal life? It is forever. Everlasting life lasts forever. The Bible teaches that we receive eternal life the moment we believe. We still have our fleshly body, but our soul has been born again and is forever sanctified through the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

The Bible also teaches that salvation is the work of Christ and not our own works. Ephesians 2:8–9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Galatians 2:16: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Nobody is going to be justified before God by their deeds, by the good things they do every single day, by the life they live. Nobody.

Romans 4:5: "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." It is the faith that gives you righteousness and standing before God — not the works. To him that worketh not — that is a really good verse because it is pointing to somebody who is not doing anything, and his faith is still counted for righteousness.

Romans 11:6: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." Romans 11:6 really just separates what they try to combine. They try to say it is faith plus works — you get saved by faith but then you have to do the works. And Paul comes and says no. It is either all of grace or it is all of works. It is not a combination of the two. It is one or the other. And the Bible is clear that it is by faith, through his grace which he freely gave to us.

Salvation cannot be lost. Eternal security is preached throughout the whole Bible. Romans 11:29: "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." That means God is not going to take back his word. The gift of salvation — God says he is not going to change his mind about that. If he has given it to you, he is not going to later say you are not doing enough, I am taking that back. Titus 1:2: "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." He promised us eternal life and he cannot lie. God cannot tell you that you are saved and give you eternal life in the present tense and then take it away — otherwise he is a liar. Philippians 1:6: "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Jesus is going to make sure that you are before God as a perfect person who will enter into his rest once and for all.

And even in Jude, look at verse 1: "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ." You do not have in the Bible the perseverance of the saints. In the Bible you have the preservation of the saints. We are preserved. That does not mean we are going to be doing good works our whole life or that we automatically do a 180 degree turn and no longer sin. We are preserved by Jesus Christ because Jesus does the work.

And then Jude verse 24: "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." It is the exceeding joy of Jesus Christ to present you and me before God faultless. Not because of the life that we live — because there is none righteous, there is none that seeketh after God, there is none that doeth good. And the good that we do is filthy rags before God. But thank God we have a mediator that presents us faultless before him.

All of this is summed up in 1 John chapter 5. Turn to 1 John chapter 5, verses 9–12.

"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." This is the witness of God — that we have in the present tense eternal life. That is the testimony that God gives and the testimony we need to believe to be saved. We need to believe that we have received eternal life.

But unfortunately these wandering stars are not telling you that you have eternal life. They are telling you that you have temporary life, probationary life — you had better walk the way the Bible says and fulfil all the commandments otherwise you are lost. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches eternal life, and that is what we have to believe.

The people who think they can lose their salvation do not believe the witness of God. That is what it says there. They do not believe they have eternal life. So they do not believe the witness of God, which means they have made God a liar. When you say to someone hey, that person is a liar, you are saying I do not believe him. They do not believe the record that God gave of his Son. They believe a false gospel, a false Jesus, and they have made God a liar.

Matthew 7:22–23: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." These people came before God with all their wonderful works and their filthy rags. They were not praying to Buddha — they were praying to Jesus. They were doing wonderful works in Jesus' name. This is not talking about Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists. This is talking about Christians who proclaimed Jesus, coming before God and saying Lord, Lord, look at all these things we did in your name. And Jesus said he never knew them.

It is not that they did those works and then worked iniquity and therefore lost their salvation. The Bible is very clear — he never knew them. They were never saved. Because until you accept the testimony of God — that God gives to people who believe on him eternal life — you are not saved. You will come before God with all your good works and your whole life going to church week after week trying to do all these good deeds, and God is going to say get away from here, I never knew you. Because you never believed the witness of God. You never believed it is eternal life.

Romans 1:16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." The power of God unto salvation is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not your testimony. It is not your changed life. The power of God to salvation is exactly what it says in the Bible — the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what has the power to save a rotten sinner.

Evil, unsaved people turn over a new leaf every single day. Every single New Year's Day, millions of unsaved people say this year I am not going to drink, this year I am not going to smoke, this year I am not going to fornicate, this year I am going to love the people around me more. Every day evil people do these things. Every day people are changing their lives and turning 180 degrees. Is that getting them saved? Not at all. Because that is not the power of salvation. The power of salvation is the gospel of Jesus Christ — his death, burial, and resurrection. That is where it is all at.

You know what these false prophets love to do? They look at you and me and the people around them and say oh yeah, that guy is saved because he is not smoking, that guy is saved because he is not drinking. And the verse they all love to bring up is Matthew 7:15–20.

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 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; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither 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."

Oops, I just shot myself in the foot reading that one. But the evil interpretation of this verse is turning all these wandering stars into fruit inspectors — going around and looking to see if someone has enough good deeds in their life to be considered a Christian or not. That is not what this verse is saying.

Look at verse 17 — every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Verse 18 — a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. So according to their interpretation, a saved person cannot produce evil fruit — meaning a saved person cannot sin. But we just looked at 1 John 1:8 where it says he that says he has no sin does not have the truth in him. We all sin. And then the opposite — they think that a bad person cannot do good deeds. Is that true? We have bad people doing good deeds every single day. Unsaved people stopping drugs, stopping alcohol, stopping smoking. Not only that — there are evil people with massive charities giving to the poor and helping the needy. That alone should make you question your interpretation of this verse. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You cannot even rightly divide that verse and you are using it to come at me and say you can tell someone is saved by their fruit? They have no clue what that verse is even saying.

What the verse is saying is that you will know them by their spiritual fruit. A saved person who preaches the true saving gospel of Jesus Christ is not going to produce a disciple that goes around preaching you have to work to get saved — that is never going to happen. And the opposite — somebody preaching a works-based salvation saying you need to keep all of God's commandments to get into heaven will never produce one single saved person that comes from him who turns around and says yeah it is just by faith alone. You will never get that. And that is what this Bible verse is saying.

It is so unfortunate that these false prophets have corrupted the word of God. Like it says in Jude, they have turned the grace of God — they have changed it and said it is not actually grace, it is grace plus works. They are not just sticking to what the word of God says. They have to bring out all these crazy interpretations and pull single verses out of context to try to make it align with their beliefs.

One other verse I want to address before moving on is John 15, verses 1–11. It is another one that keeps getting brought up by these wandering stars.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."

We have all heard this brought up — if you want to be saved you have to abide in Christ, and if you do not abide, according to their interpretation, you are cut down and thrown into the fire, meaning hell. These are the two main verses they love: Matthew 7 and John 15.

But this could not be further from the truth. John is using a metaphor to help us understand what happens to a Christian when he abides in Christ. All it is saying is that a branch that comes out from the vine will produce fruit if it abides. Verse 10 explains what it means to abide in Christ — it is to keep his commandments. So a person who abides in Christ will keep God's commandments. But are we saved by the commandments of God? Are we saved by the law? No. Romans 3:28: "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." So this verse is not talking about salvation in the metaphor of the tree and the branches.

What happens after a tree is pruned? Some of you do gardening — every season you prune the tree. The branches that are not producing anything get cut down. They are gathered and tossed in the fire by men because they are not producing any fruit. But before jumping to an interpretation, what is John actually trying to say? And John clearly tells us in verse 11 — why did he say all those things? He said these things that your joy might be full. Before jumping to your own interpretation of a Bible verse, read a little bit further and see what the writer is actually trying to tell you. He is not writing this to say you are going to lose your salvation. He is saying these things so that your joy might be full in the Lord.

That is why he wants you to abide — meaning keeping God's commandments, staying close to God, listening to the teachings of Jesus, walking in the spirit. That is going to produce fruit in your life. And while you are producing fruit, you will have joy. Your joy will be full in God.

Just think about David. After all the evil things David did — sleeping with Bathsheba, killing Uriah — what was his prayer? Was it, Lord, I lost my salvation, please give it back to me? No. David knew once saved, always saved. Psalm 51:12–13: "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." David asked God to restore his joy. Look at the similarities with John 15. David wants his joy to be full in the Lord that he might be fruitful and be a light to others. That is what John 15 is saying. Abide in him and you will produce good fruit that will help other people. Do not get fixated on the little metaphor about branches being tossed in the fire — men are not going to throw people into hell, so do not take the metaphor literally. It is a metaphor. He is saying if you are not producing fruit, you are useful for nothing. That is all that verse is saying.

Conclusion

I will wrap it up here as we have already gone well over time — point 2 about the false doctrines of the Pentecostal and charismatic churches will have to be part two.

In conclusion, Matthew 7:15: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." The Bible is really insistent on this topic. It is clear there is a stance we should take. It is clear from Romans 16 that we are commanded to mark and avoid them. Marking them means identifying them — that person is a ravening wolf, that person is a wandering star to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

How scary is it that a false prophet is likened in Jude and 2 Peter to a sodomite? Unfortunately the wandering stars are not the whole congregation of these churches — it is the false prophets and the teachers, the leadership. As it says in 2 Peter 2, having come to the knowledge of Christ, they have rejected it. They rejected the holy commandment given unto them — to believe in Jesus Christ. And so like a dog returning to its vomit, they go back to their works salvation and continue preaching it. It is so unfortunate.

1 John 5:13: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." Jesus wants us to know that we have eternal life. That is what the Bible says. And everyone preaching these false doctrines does not know they have eternal life. The best you hear from them is I hope so. From the majority it is I do not think so. From the majority of people going to these churches, they will tell you man, I think I am going to hell, I have not been good enough. How sad is that? How sad is it that there are so many ravening wolves dressed in sheep's clothing deceiving the multitude.

Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the commandments you give us. Thank you for making us aware to beware of false prophets. Lord I pray that you help us dive into your word deeper every single day, rightly dividing the word of truth, and being able to rightly see and mark and avoid the false prophets that are in and among us. And at the same time, call out to the lost sheep, call out to the people being deceived, and I pray Lord that you will have your way in their hearts and bring them to the saving knowledge of Christ. Bless us the rest of this afternoon and evening. Bless the soul-winning that is going to happen. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.