Beware Of False Prophets

Deception rarely kicks the door down wearing a warning label. More often, it walks in sounding spiritual, quoting Bible verses, and blending into the crowd like a sheep while carrying the heart of a wolf. We sit with Jesus’ sobering words from Matthew 7 and ask a question that matters more than ever: how do we recognize false prophets and false teachers when they look so convincing?

We talk through the “fruit test” Jesus gives us, why fruit reveals roots, and how discernment protects believers from manipulation, greed, control, and teaching that comforts the flesh while avoiding repentance, sin, and judgment. We also share practical ways to compare every message with Scripture so we don’t confuse charisma with character or gifting with godliness. If you care about sound doctrine, Bible study, and staying steady when the internet is full of confident voices, you’ll find clear guardrails here.

Then we move to the most chilling part of the passage: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’…” Religious activity isn’t the same as knowing Jesus Christ, and performance can never replace relationship. We end with a direct call to examine ourselves, align our words with our lives, and refuse to be among the “many” who are shocked on that day.

If this helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find Bible-centered truth. What “fruit” do you look for before you trust someone’s teaching?

Transcript

Welcome And Ways To Support

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I woke up morning with mama. I woke up on mama. I woke up morning with mama.

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Welcome, you're listening to Bible Talk with Sister Deb Osburn. If you'd like to give thanks to all the supporters and listeners, hey, go visit our website at HOR421 Show.bussprout.com. Always keep us in your prayers as we spread the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you'd like to contact Sister Deb, you can email her at Osbranddeburk at gmail.com. If you'd like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal slash HOR421 or go through our website at HOR421 Show.busprout.com. Now I'll give you your host, Sister Deb.

Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing

Discernment And The Fruit Test

Checking Teaching Against Scripture

Not Everyone Who Says Lord

Relationship Over Religious Performance

Final Plea And Closing Prayer

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Praise the Lord. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Praise the Lord. We thank you for being here. Welcome to Bible Talk. I do want to say one little subject, one little sentence before I get started. Jesus Christ is coming soon. I want you to let that sink in for just a moment. Let those words sink in. Okay. Okay, anyway. So today we are going to talk about, we're going to get into some a very serious and necessary word from Jesus Himself. What I've got today is Matthew chapter 7. And I'm not going to go over all of it because I have a method to my madness with that. I don't like to go over every single thing, and I won't quote everything and I won't read everything. Because I want this to intrigue you enough that you will sit back someday and think, wow, I'm going to go and see what Sister Deb is talking about and read it all. Read the whole story. But what I do have today is in Matthew chapter 7, there is one, two, three, four, there's five verses that I want to talk about and concentrate on today. So in other words, there's really probably two different subjects here, okay? So these words are from Jesus Himself. He, this is the very last part, this is, I think, the very last part of the Sermon on the Mount, okay? And so I want you to hear these words. And I hope you open up your ears and let these words and these stories that I'm talking about here let them sink in. And I and I felt that I it was I felt that I needed to do it like this because of all of the craziness that's going on in the world around us. I mean, you know, now they're saying they're they're really aliens when they haven't been all these years. I mean, you know, uh people, it's called deception. And that's what I want to talk about today. So we are living in a time when people are searching for the truth. People are listening to the news things, and they're listening to they're watching Facebook and they're watching videos and they're watching reels, and they want to know they're searching for the truth. But while they are searching for the truth, there is also at the same time, deception is increasing all around us. I mean, now they're trying to tell us that you know they've known about these aliens all the all these years. And I'm not kicking nobody's belief on that stuff. I mean, that's that's your belief. And I I'm just saying, people, that deception is increasing. And there's so many people out there today that says, God sent me. So many people out the other day, well, God told me to come and tell you this, and God said this, and and and God has not even been, they've not even been sent by God. You know, everybody that says Lord doesn't belong to God. Everybody that you see walking up and down the road carrying a Bible hasn't even surrendered to God. Everybody that's preaching truth isn't even living truth, you know, and that's deception. And I that's what I want to talk about today. Jesus warns each and every one of us plainly. He says, Beware. Beware. You know, he says in in chapter 7, verse 15, he says, beware of the false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are raving lions. Jesus tells us plainly to beware. He says, He don't tell us to beware of the world. He don't say beware of sinners. He tells us to beware of the woods, wolves dressed up in sheep's clothing. So the danger is not in what looks evil, the danger is in what looks holy. What looks holy, but it's actually rotten underneath. Amen. Matthew 7, 15 and 16. Beware of the false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are raving wolves. You know, Jesus is warning his followers against false prophets and false teachers. Here he uses the illustration of a sheep and wolves. He says the false prophets pretend to be the most harmless of all animals. Would you get that harmless, the most harmless of all animals? A sheep. But see, in reality, they're wolves. And false prophets don't just come around and announce themselves. And they don't just say, okay, here I am, what I'm false, not telling a true story, but everybody listen. They don't do that. They wear sheep's clothing because sheep trust other sheep, sheep follow other sheep, and they feel safe around other sheep. And so that's where these these wolves place themselves in amongst the sheep's. You know? Now, some people, okay, some people, they know church language, they can quote big time scripture, they sing worship songs, and actually shout the loudest around, probably. They actually associate with the right groups, but are they real? They still have hearts far from God, you know. My friends, trust me, you can stand behind a pulpit and still not know Jesus Christ personally. You can stand behind a pulpit and holler that this is you're preaching the word of God and still not know him personally. Now listen at this Acts chapter 20, verses 29 through 31. When the apostle Paul was saying his goodbyes to his friends at the church of Ephesus, he warned them, and this is what he said, he says, Savage wolves will come among you, and not sparing the flock, and from your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Paul warns these people that these dangers are going to arise from not only the outside of the church, but from the inside, from yourselves, from the inside of the church. Not just the outside, where we know there's raven wolves, but the inside, where these people are professing to be the children of God. You know, they're going to come in amongst the leadership, trying to draw believers away from sound doctrine. They're not gonna, they're not gonna want the truth being preached. They're not gonna want you to hear the truth. And this passage here, Acts 20, is telling people, you know what, this passage is to call for leaders and believers to remain alert, to guard themselves, and to stand firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul spent three years training and teaching these people this. Because Paul knew the potential dangers of false prophets and false teachers. Because, my friends, it's coming. We see it every day. It's coming. You know what I'm saying? So if on the outside they look like sheep, but on the inside they're wolves, how do we know the difference? Glad you asked that question. My friends, Matthew 7, verse 16 says, and you shall know them by their fruits. Fruit never lies. It doesn't say you'll know them by their gifts or by their charisma or by whatever kind of clothes they're wearing or by popularity or by however many followers they have or their titles or emotional performances, no matter how much they get up there and scream and cry and go on. The Bible says we will know them by their fruit. Because there's good fruit. Good fruit. There's love, there's humility, there's repentance, there's holiness, forgiveness, obedience, and it goes on and on and on. You see, friends, fruit reveals roots. Amen. Now, of course, we know all the bad fruits. There's pride, there's greed, uh, control, hypocrisy, manipulation. A big one is division. They want to sow a cord in the church. Division, hidden sin. I mean, you know, the fruit they bear, the fruit that people bear is a test of true prophets or teachers. And Jesus said, We'll know. He said we won't have to guess, we won't have to ask anybody. He said we will know. And I'm gonna tell you how we'll know. Because God gave us, stick here with me now. God gave us, and this is what it says, the mental ability to perceive, understand, and judge things clearly, and it is called discernment. Amen. Amen. We will know them, we will feel this. The Holy Spirit will tell us who among us is not real. See, they're these these false teachers and prophets, they're not easy to recognize. Jesus warned us that they're gonna they're gonna look harmless, they're gonna sound convincing, and they will even appear spiritual. But see, they have hidden motives. You know what I mean? And the biggest a biggest the biggest the most of the time, the false prophets and teachers, many are motivated by money, by fame, by control over the group, or influence. It's not even about the love of God or his people. It's about controlling. You know, it's about money. And I'm telling you now, friends, when ministry becomes more about profit than people, then you better pull your discernment up. Because false teachers often preach messages that comfort the flesh, but they ignore words like repentance, they ignore words like sin, judgment, hail, surrender. They don't want you to know these. 2 Timothy 4 and 3 says, For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. They don't want to know the truth. There's prosperity preachers out there right now that wants to tell you that everything's gonna be all right. They don't want to tell you about repentance. They don't want to tell you about laying the things down of the world and coming out from among the world. They don't want to tell you about hell is hot and it's coming. They don't want to tell you that stuff. If we're not gonna preach about sin and repentance, then what's the purpose? What's the purpose of salvation? Amen. But see, these people that preach this and that teach this, these false teachers and prophets, their lives don't match up to their words. Their lives don't match up to some of the words that they're saying. Amen. And we will know them by their fruit. We will know them by their fruit. Because trust me, a gifted speaker is not always automatically a godly speaker. Amen. Friends, I'm telling you now, understand this, God never called us to follow personalities blindly. Okay? We're called to test every spirit and compare every teaching with scripture. And I want to tell you a little short story about me. When I gave my life to the Lord, uh, first years ago, I was a teenager. All right. And so I had a preacher here. I was I was probably well, I was in high school, and I stayed in my Bible. I loved reading the Bible. I still have that Bible to this day that I read. It's all it's got all kinds of marks in it. But I was in this little church and I heard a preacher saying this is what he said. He said really loudly that he said, in the word of God, the word for another word for pews is asses. A-S-S-E-S, asses. That's what he said. That's another word for pews. And so he looks over the congregation and he puts his hands all up and he's he's hollering, he's pointing at people all across the congregation, and this is how he said it. So if some of you people would get up, if some of you so-called Christians would get up off of your asses, and that's how he said it. Well, that just something about that I did not believe. And me, my little teenage person, I went home, I searched the word of God as much as I could. You know, I was just learning the word. I searched as word as much as I could, and I never, ever come across anything that said that pews, another word for pews in the Bible is asses. And this preacher screamed it out loud. If all of you Christians would get up off of your asses and look, you know, and search, that's not even what that meant. I just could not believe that, and I didn't have it either. But see, that's why people, that is one of the reasons why we need to stay rooted in the word of God. That's why we need to take this word of God. We need to read as much of it as we can. We need to put it on, like it said, on the tables of our heart, put it in our minds, keep it in our minds, keep it in our hearts. That's why we need to stay rooted in the word of God. Because the more you know the truth, the easier it is to recognize an error when it happens. The more you know the word of God and the true word of God, the easier it's gonna be to recognize when someone is telling you what's not the word of God. And I'm gonna tell you what, I heard a story one time, and this has been recently. This has been a few months ago, three or four months ago, maybe five months ago. I know this man, I'm not gonna mention any names. He was preaching the word of God. I wasn't there that night, but one of the sisters of the church came up to me and she said, she said, Sister Deb, this man was preaching a false doctrine. And I'm like, Really? Really? And she said, Yeah. And she said, we kept asking this gentleman, where did you get what you're preaching? And she didn't elaborate on everything that he was preaching. She just said, where she said, we asked him, where did you get in the word of God what you were preaching? And he couldn't tell her, he couldn't show her. She kept asking him, she said, and this is a story that I got from another another sister of the church that I was going to. And so he said, she said, eventually, they kept on, and eventually, he said, Well, I watched a movie. I watched a Christian movie on TV the other night, and that's where I got it from. My friends, I'm here to tell you that is false doctrine. That is false teachings. And you can run, you can, you can lead somebody astray. Maybe he didn't mean for it to be that way, but that's exactly what I feel in my heart that it was. And apparently that's what other people felt because other people complained about it too. See, people, the more you know the truth, the more you get into the word of God, the real true word of God, the easier it is to recognize when somebody is not telling you the true word of God. False prophets, friends, false teachers, they're out there. They're out there in droves. And the enemy is fighting through deception. The Bible says they will he they will deceive the very elect if possible. They would try to deceive everybody. And you know what? He's gaining followers every day. They're out there. But I'm telling you right now, friends, God is rising up believers who know the voice of God, who stand on his word, and who refuse to compromise on the word of God. If it ain't in here, I'm not going to take it. I don't care who cool you are. See, these days are too serious. The days right now, all this stuff is going on around us, it's too serious to follow blind leaders. Friends, eternity is too important to play games with the gospel. So we know these false people are out there. They're out there. But listen to what the Lord says in verse 21, Matthew chapter 7. I'm going to move on down now to verse 21. He says, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Wow. Not everyone that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Okay, you know what? And that's sad. The sad, sad truth of that is that there will be people. There's going to be many people. My friends, listen to me. There's going to be many people who will spend the biggest part of their lives thinking that they will spend eternity in heaven with the Lord only to wake up to an all-around different reality when death takes them from this life. My friends, not everybody that says, Lord, Lord. Not everybody. Wow. Listen at this, friends. If you don't take nothing from what I'm saying here today, please remember these words. False teachers produce false followers. Because there's going to be a lot of people who's going to claim that Jesus is their Lord. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he is. Just because someone claims to know Jesus doesn't mean that he's going to automatically enter into the kingdom of heaven. According to the word of God, that's what it says. You know what? 1 John 1 and 6 says, if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. That's like me saying, Jesus is my Lord, but am I living like he is? That's like me saying, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, but does my life is the way I'm living? Is it proving that Jesus Christ is my Savior? Have I come out of among the world? Have I let the world go and set stuff aside and set the ungodly stuff aside? And am I living the way that I'm supposed to be living to show people, to let my light shine, to let people know Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. You see, friends, on the outside, people appear to be pretty good people, right? I know a lot of pretty good people. They pretend, they they they appear to be pretty good people. They they're on the A-list when it comes to being a Christian, right? I mean, they're prophesying in Jesus' name, casting out demons in his name, doing other mighty things in Jesus' name. But this is what he said in verse 22. He said, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. Have I not done all this stuff in your name? And that's what people are gonna tell him. I did all this in your name. You can see people now standing before the throne of Jesus Christ, and saying, Well, you know now, God, in your name, they're gonna come up with excuses. Trust me, excuses. He said, Many. But Jesus, you know what he's gonna say to those many? He's gonna say to those many, depart from me. I never knew you. And why? Because even though they done things in the name of Jesus, they never got to know Jesus Christ themselves as their real and true Lord and Savior. Now listen to me. I'm gonna tell you another little bitty story. It's actually in the Bible. My boy, it's Acts 19, verses 13 through 16. And this tells a dramatic event that happened in Ephesus, Ephesius. I can't really say that. When there were seven signs of a Jewish high priest, and they attempted to exercise an evil spirit in the name of Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus. But when they get up here and they start exercising this spirit, and I didn't read the whole story, and I ask you to go read it yourself. It's Acts 19. This spirit tells them, you know what? Paul, I recognize. Of course, I'm paraphrasing. It's different words. They said, Paul, I recognize Jesus we know, but we don't know you all. They didn't even have enough Jesus in them that these spirits even knew them. Those guys were fake. The spirits wasn't scared. Those men were trying to use Jesus Christ and didn't even know Jesus. Him we know. Him we know. We know Jesus. We don't know you. Who are you? And from what I can understand, I believe that spirit wore them men out. I think it even caused them to run out of the house naked or something about that. Go read that, please. But I didn't read read on all of it. But what I'm trying to get across today is, friends, is it was going on then. It was going on then of false prophets. And it's going on now still, today. You know, the thread of false prophets is nothing new to God's people. See, we were prophesying false visions then, and they're still doing it on our on in our own day. But but but verse 22 is what gets me. Many. I mean, that's a scary word. That's a lot of people. These people in this verse, uh, they're claiming to have done all these great things in Jesus' name. They think they really know Jesus. Or better yet, Jesus knows them. Okay, so you know what? Let's let's look at Judas. And Matthew 10, verses 7 and 8. At the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sent the twelve disciples out. Okay. Judas included. And Jesus told these guys, you go preach, saying that the kingdom of God is at hand, you go heal the sick, you go cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, and raise the dead, you go do all of these things. But see, there's Judas. He's going out, he was sent out with all the rest, but we know where his heart was, right? We know the outcome of that, right? And that lets you know how Judas, he Judas really didn't know Jesus. He didn't even support Jesus. We know what Judas had in his heart. And can you imagine, can you imagine Judas standing at the throne saying, But Jesus, in your name, didn't I? My friends, Judas was one of the many in verse 22. Judas walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus every day. And all the while he was a false person. He was a wolf in lamb's clothing. He was exactly what Jesus Christ is telling us in his word that's coming on, that's happening. And Jesus tells the many, I never knew you. The many in verse 22, in verse 23, he says, Depart from me. But see, in all reality, he did know them. He knew them well. Probably knew him better than anyone standing around there. Just like us, he knows our hearts. He knows us. He knows our minds. And Jesus spoke to those, to the many there. Those bone-chilling words, depart from me. I don't believe there could ever be any worse words that we could ever hear. Those words should wake each and everybody up to reality. And the reality of that is don't say, don't just say that Jesus is your Lord. You need to make sure that he is. Amen. Don't just say Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. You need to make sure that he is. 2 Corinthians 13 and 5 tells us, examine yourself whether ye be in faith. People listen to me today. I need to tell you, please make certain in your life that what comes out of your mouth and what you are living are hand in hand. Make sure all that's on the same page. Friends, don't be one of the many that Jesus Christ says, Depart from me. You know? Don't be one of the many. Ask yourself, is Jesus Christ your Lord? Is Jesus Christ in how you walk, how you talk, how you live, the things you watch, the conversations you have? Friends, listen to me. Listen to this reality right now. Please hear me. Somebody hear me today. How horrible would it be to stand before Jesus Christ and hear the King of Kings say to you, Depart from me, I never knew you. Depart. Go away. I don't know who you are. See these the meaning in these words, these people will be the most heartbreaking, tragic figures ever. Because you know why? They're going to arrive on that day, fully expecting to begin their eternal reign with Jesus Christ in heaven. Fully expecting to enter eternal bliss and paradise. Fully expecting to walk on the streets of gold. Only to their horror and shock, be sent into everlasting fire and punishment. Friends, that's reality. That's reality. And listen to me today, Christian people. Jesus is sitting, he isn't addressing just the pagans or the atheists in the way there. He is talking about highly religious people who will stand before his throne on judgment day. Prophesying, casting out demons, performing miracles. All this spiritual activity is not a substitute for a true relationship with Jesus Christ. My friends, it is possible to work for God without actually knowing him. Trust me, I've seen it. Listen, I need to tell somebody today, friends, listen to me, please. I implore you to listen. There will be people who call Jesus Lord who will not enter into the gates of heaven. There will be people walking right around you every single day. There will be people who sat beside you in church. There will be people who've come over and anointed you. There will be people who stood up in the church and sung songs to Jesus Christ and worshiped the Lord and held their hand up and closed their eyes and even shouted and spoke. There's going to be people that will call Jesus Lord right around you every day that's not going to enter into heaven. Now, does that scare you? Because I think it should. Listen to me. The most terrifying sentence in the Sermon on the Mount is, I never knew you. Depart from me. And my friends here today, I can tell you what you can do all the Christianity things that you like. You can preach, you can sing, and you can serve him, and you can still do all of that and not know him. You can sit in church every Sunday and still not know him. Because Christianity, it's not a performance before Jesus. It's not getting up and running the pews. It's not putting your guitar on and playing two or three hours of worship music. No. Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Now the tragedy, I'm gonna close. The tragedy, I'm closing with this right now. The tragedy of Matthew 7 isn't that people wanted heaven and were rejected. The tragedy in Matthew 7. Verses 21, 22, and 23, the tragedy is that they built their entire spiritual life without truly knowing our Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, I'm telling you, in that day, the only thing that will matter on that day is whether the Lamb of God knows your name. Titles won't matter, social standing won't matter, money won't matter, none of that's gonna matter. What kind of house you live in, what kind of clothes you wear, or what kind of car you drive, none of that, what kind of job you have, none of that stuff is going to matter. However many podcasts you sit here and do, none of that is going to matter. The only thing that's going to matter is do you have a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Friends, I'm telling you, Matthew 7, 23, it's not, it isn't just a warning. It's an invitation. It's an invitation to move past your routine religion and into a real relationship with Jesus Christ. Because trust me, friend, one day, listen to me. One day, every knee will bow, every every excuse you could ever come up with will fall silent, and every single heart will stand before Jesus Christ alone, and you will give an account. Please don't be one of the many. Friends, I beg you today, don't be one of the many. Don't be one of the ones that he says, depart from me. You don't want to hear those words. Don't be one of those. You need to set yourself down somewhere right now and make sure the profession of Jesus Christ is true. Make sure he is your Lord and Savior. Not just proclaiming it. Make sure you live it every day, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Make sure you're living it. Because you see right there what he says happens to the ones who does things in his name. I beg you please don't be one of the many. Now I hope this has blessed you as much as it's blessed me to bring it to you. I hope and pray that you open up your ears and your and your heart, and I hope and pray you get into the Word of God and you let that word lead you. Because, friends, I'm telling you, false prophets and false teachers are out there. It's coming. They're out there already. It started, and it's only going to get worse. Anyway, thank you very much for listening. I'm going to close this with a prayer. Our Father God in heaven, I ask you, Lord, to let each and everyone that heard these words, let each and everybody that's listening to this, when they hear it, let them open up their hearts and their minds to you. Let them open up their hearts and realize and really get to know, Lord, get to know you as their Lord and Savior. That not just not just in voice, but to get to know, to live it. Lord, bless these people that's hearing this. Just let it go to the hearts that need to hear it. But we thank you for this word. And we thank you for each and every blessing. We know, Lord, you said this word won't come back void, and we know it won't, Lord. Let this word go to the ones that needs to hear it, wherever they may be, wherever they are. But we ask you to go with us and ladies and guidance, Lord, through this evening and this day. We thank you, we praise you. We ask you to forgive us for all of our sins. And go with us and ladies and guidance. In Jesus' holy sweet name we pray. Amen and amen. God bless everybody.

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I'm singing and writing with my