Wolves in Shepherds Clothing

Something can smell expensive and still be fake. We open with a wild example from the food world: “truffle oil” that’s marketed like luxury but contains zero truffles. Then we ask the harder question: what happens when Christian teaching works the same way, with the right vocabulary, the right tone, and the right platform, but without the substance of biblical truth?

We walk through Jesus’ warning about wolves in sheep’s clothing and then dig into 2 Peter 2, where Peter lists the markers of false teachers. We talk about why massive followings can be a danger, how sensual lifestyles and materialism spread from leaders to listeners, and how the prosperity gospel turns greed into a spiritual sales pitch. We also unpack Peter’s language about “false words,” comparing it to plastic: moldable, convincing, and prone to crack when real pressure hits.

Most importantly, we offer a simple, repeatable way to practice Christian discernment in a noisy media age: stop, look, and listen. Stop and judge everything by Scripture. Look at character and fruit, not hype. Listen for what’s emphasized and what’s consistently avoided. If you care about sound doctrine, spiritual maturity, and protecting the church from deception, this is a practical guide you can use right away.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s trying to grow in discernment, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one “red flag” you’ve learned to take seriously?

Transcript

When Truth Has A Fake Aroma

Wolves In Shepherds Clothing

Greed And Exploiting The Flock

Plastic Words That Sell Lies

Judgment Is Not Asleep

Stop Look And Listen

Checking Lifestyle And Fruit

Hearing What They Refuse To Say

Prayer And Final Charge

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I have read that nothing raises the price of a meal like the addition of hand-picked truffles. They're hard to find, evidently, cousins to the more common mushroom that grow on tree roots out of sight have to be found by trained animals, then individually picked. So they can't be mass-produced. It's a short season. Because of that, they're very expensive. I read that one truffle weighing more than three pounds was unearthed in Tuscany, Italy. A billionaire paid more than$300,000 to have it added to his meals. I don't get it. I mean, if they don't serve it a cracker barrel, I'm not interested, frankly. Here's a pop question for you. What do these brands of truffle oil have in common? Now I'm sure I'm going to slaughter it. They're all Italian names, I think, but here they are. Sold in the U.S. La Toringel truffle oil, Calavita truffle oil, Manini truffle oil, Urbani truffle oil, sabatino tartuffi truffle oil. Sounds expensive, doesn't it? And almost every bottle of truffle oil sold in grocery stores in this country. They all have in common. They're branded and labeled and marketed as truffle oil, but none of them contain truffles. Period. Not even a smidgen. They are synthetic productions that use olive oil or sunflower oil, but they add a chemical to thiopentane, which gives them the aroma of truffles. The chemical makes it smell like truffles. Can't you just smell that expensive truffle stuff? Whatever that is, they added there. When tested and analyzed, they contain absolutely zero truffle DNA. Still praised by average cooks, even famous chefs, all of them fooled by a label on a bottle. And the aroma of the contents. The article I read said, quote, one of the most remarkably successful scams on the foodie culture is truffle oil. How many of you are going to go home and look at the label on the bottle? You know, it's one thing to be fooled by food. It's another thing to be fooled by false teaching. How can you detect a false teacher when all the ingredients seem to be there? All their words have an aroma of truth. Their products smell like the leather cover of your Bible. Their ministries and their materials are praised by average Christians and renowned church leaders. How can they be wrong? When they say and teach a lot of things that are right, when they advertise themselves as being prophets and apostles of God, when they've apparently heard from God and they have a word from God for you, who are you to question? In reality, they might be wolves in sheep's clothing. This phrase comes directly from the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus said, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but are inwardly ravenous wolves. Matthew 7, 15. They look like sheep, they smell like sheep, they sound like sheep, but they are wolves with an agenda. They're covered with wool. Gives us the impression they're going to pull the wool over our eyes. And you get this added danger. Jesus isn't just talking about sheep in wolves' clothing. He's talking about wolves in shepherds' clothing. False prophets, false teachers who appear to be shepherds. They appear capable and concerned about leading the sheep, but inwardly they are wolves who will only harm and deceive and distort and distract and disunify the flock of God. The warning here isn't just about misleading believers. He's talking about false shepherds, false teachers, false scholars, false authors, false pastors, false professors, people of influence. Now, in our last study, as we began this uncovering the description of false teachers in 2 Peter chapter 2, I invite your attention back to that chapter with a pencil or pen ready to perhaps underline or circle a word or two. Peter began describing them for our protection. First, we notice in verse 1, false teachers develop massive followings. He writes in verse 2, and many will follow. They're dangerous, beloved, because they're popular. When a mass of people are following them, they must be right. They have television and radio and social media platforms, they have subscribers and best-selling books. They're national figures. Who are you to question them? That's the idea we have because of their following. I remember landing in Nairobi, Kenya a number of years ago to preach at a rally sponsored by Transworld Radio, the global media ministry. I soon learned that the Christian community was embroiled in controversy because of a week-long crusade that had just ended, led by Benny Hinn. Thousands of people had attended these meetings in this massive outdoor arena. He promised, I was told, that God had told him that Jesus would appear on the stage with him. I think it was on Thursday night. And so that night the place was packed and jammed with expectant people. He's preaching that night, and he suddenly acted as if Jesus just showed up on the platform next to him, and he goes, All his dramatic, you know, expressions of seeing Jesus lasted only a second. And Jesus evidently left. People fainted, they wept. I had a lunch meeting, this was a week later, with two leaders of major African denominations leading a number of churches within their association, and they told me that their churches were even now dividing over believers who believed that Jesus had appeared and believers who didn't believe that Jesus had appeared. It was wrecking their churches. They asked me what I thought they ought to do, and I told them it was a deeper problem. The question wasn't whether or not Benny Hinn saw Jesus. The concern was that thousands of people were already following him. So they needed to begin to teach the people theology, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, true gifts, and on and on. When you follow a false teacher, you are vulnerable to his or her false teaching. The sad reality in Nairobi was that these people desperately wanted to believe his version of prosperity gospel because they were suffering in such deep poverty. He's got to be telling us the truth. Second, Peter describes them further in verse 2 as defending their sinful lifestyles, he writes in verse 2, and many will follow their sensuality. We talked about this being a plural noun. It indicates a sensual lifestyle of excess, really. Not just morals, but materialism. And again, the warning isn't so much that these false teachers are living these kinds of lifestyles, it's that their followers are going to imitate them. Notice how Peter writes many will follow their sensualities. They're not just listening, they're adopting, they're imitating, they're following, they're implementing. In other words, if it's good enough for that leader, if it's good enough for the shepherd, what about the rest of the flock? We want that too. Why can't we have it? Then, third, false teachers destroy Christianity's reputation, Peter writes, because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. That word blaspheme means to ruin the reputation of another. An immoral, materialistic, sensual, vulgar leader ultimately ruins the reputation of Christ and his gospel, the reputation of the church, and that's true for all of us here. The reputation of this church is no better than your reputation at work, than my reputation in the neighborhood. The way is blasphemed, the reputation is ruined. People who know that kind of false leader, they're gonna say to themselves, the unbelieving world is gonna say, well, if that's what Christianity is all about, they're not offering anything unique to me. They look like me. They act like me. If that's what Christians are like, they're not any different than me. And the world says, you know, that that's we know deep down that we're leading empty lives, and Christianity must not be an answer after all. Because they're pursuing the same emptiness I am. Now, with that, as a reminder, especially for those who weren't here last Lord's day, let's move now into verse 3. Peter's going to give us three more descriptive phrases or words. It's only two sentences, but I'm going to pull three more characteristics from his inspired description. This would be number four, then, in the list. Number four, false teachers defraud their followers. Now Peter writes at the beginning of verse three, and in their greed they will exploit you. Stop there for a moment. This is this is the unvarnished truth here. This is the raw exposure of their motive. You know, there's a danger of assigning motive to anybody. He gives us their motive. And in their greed, they're greedy. That's the foundation of what they're doing. They want more. They want more money, they want more possessions, they want more followers, they want more fame, whatever it is. They're greedy for more, and their followers have what the leader needs to get more for him. They've got money. These false teachers don't want to feed the sheep, they want to fleece the sheep. So in Creflodhler says, and I quote, Jesus did not die to make us poor, he died to make us rich. He literally twists the purpose of the crucifixion of Christ to defend materialism, and then he goes on to ask his followers to help him buy a$65 million jet. He's distorting the cross of Christ. The trouble is, implied here in this passage, these sheep are led astray because they want the same things. The opening line in verse 1 just sort of sets the context. These followers are following their leaders' sensualities. They're adopting them. In other words, they're willingly deceived. They like the message they're hearing. Paul says it tickles their ears. They like the lifestyles of these false teachers. They like the promises of these false teachers. Why? Because they want them too. They really want the life of the leader. And he's my ticket there. So the false teacher and their followers are essentially driven by the same greed. And this is one of the ways the scam works. False teacher tells them he has a word of knowledge, he has a word from God, and he'll use some text that he's tortured in some manner to say what he wants it to say, but then he's going to tell them look, what you need to do is invest in me a seed gift, a sacrificial gift, and God's going to do what? God's going to double your money. So my ministry is better than any bank. God's going to be a better investment through me to you so that you can get more. But in the end, of course, if you watch, the people don't seem to get it. The false teachers do. They're like casinos. They keep most of the money and the people lose most of theirs. It's a great scam. It's a great con. False religion is one of the greatest scams on the planet. Now, down in verse 14, you might notice Peter describes them as experts in greed. He's going to mention greed two or three times. Trained in greed. You can understand it. They're masters in the art of greed. They can make their greed sound like God's will. Listen to them. They're going to convince the public that their lifestyles are proof of God's blessing. This is the way. These are the secrets. This is the truth. So religion is their con game and their skillful scam artists. This is the underlying corruption of their agenda. One author put it this way: they invite their followers to come to the master's table because of what's on the table, not because they love the master. Here's the fifth description. Now, false teachers disguise their shallow promises. Peter writes next to verse 3: they will exploit you with false words. They will exploit you. This is a verb that appears only here and in James chapter 5, where it's translated to do business or to trade. In other words, they're going to make a personal profit out of you. They're going to make a bargain out of you as they rip you off. They will, you could wouldily translate it, they will merchandise you. They're not interested in your life. They will exploit you. This is what they want to do. Now Peter says, this is how they're going to do it. They will exploit you with false words. False words is from plastas, which gives us our word, plastic, which I thought was insightful. They deliver plastic words. Plastic is moldable. It fits. The majority opinion. It's comfortable. It is the opposite of what Paul tells the believer. Don't be squeezed into the mold of the world. Romans 12, verse 2. False teaching fits comfortably into the mold of the world. It doesn't challenge culture, it conforms to culture. And even more dangerous, we've seen plastic now in our day used to look like something better, right? Plastic can be made to look like wood, like stone, like steel. I remember going up to a Hummer when they first came out. It was in the parking lot. Not at the church. Somewhere else. I thought, man, look at the steel grill on that thing. It's got to weigh 500 pounds. And I went up and I looked around first. And I and I kind of knocked on that. It was plastic. I got more steel in my Toyota minivan than in that Hummer. That's sad. That's very sad. Flimsy plastic. By the way, here's the danger. Plastic cracks under pressure. It can't stand the heat. It doesn't work well when things go wrong. When trouble comes. God's word never crumbles, never fades, Isaiah 40, verse 8. The word of God is without pretense, without deception. Hebrews 6, 17. And the wise believer Jesus taught in that parable, builds his house on that foundation of bedrock, that truth. And when the storms of life hurl against it, it stands. It stays. Now the final warning in this verse, number six, false teachers dismiss their future accountability. Peter warns here at the close of verse three their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. In other words, God hasn't dozed off. Just because Judgment Day hadn't arrived, and when you hear certain things and you think, man, lightning is going to strike that guy. And lightning never comes. Judgment. Where is it? Well, Peter's saying, just because Judgment Day hadn't arrived, that doesn't mean God took a nap. It doesn't mean that God forgot all about it. He's asleep at the wheel of the universe. He doesn't see it or he doesn't care. He's forgetful. I remember as a boy hearing those dreaded words. When we get home from church, you're going to get a spanking for misbehaving. I don't remember what I'd done in Sunday school or church. It's probably one of my brothers. It's a case of mistaken identity. The only thing I can remember, and I remember it because it only happened one time in my entire childhood. One time. By the time we left church and got home, they'd forgotten. Praise God from whom all blessings flow, the doxology, you know. They had forgotten. Evidently, my older brother hadn't heard the threat because he would. Been happy to remind them that they'd forgotten something. Lady in our prayer group that meets before the first service went to the same school. I was telling her this. She knew exactly what I was talking about. That was back in the dark ages, by the way, when the teacher was always what? Right. Yeah. Always right. Which was really tough on us as kids, you know. I was standing in the hallway waiting for my teacher to go get the paddle, and my older brother walked by. So on the way home on the bus, I begged, I pleaded, and then he agreed he would not tell. Because in our home, if you got a spanking at school, you got a spanking at home. You had the same happy childhood, didn't you? You had two that day, so please don't tell them. And he said, you know, he promised he wouldn't. In the middle of dinner. Suddenly he speaks up and he says, Stevie, that's what they used to call me, Stevie has something to share with you. So I started sharing my testimony. Didn't work. Judgment came. God doesn't forget. Unrepentant sin. He's aware of all the details. This is the only time this adverb is found in the entire New Testament. Their condemnation is, your translation might read, from of old, from long ago. What that means is the judgment of false teachers is not a new principle. This isn't something God has just come up with. It's not a new idea. A false teacher cannot say to God, well, you know, I didn't know that this was a problem. I didn't know that misleading people was that big of a deal. I mean, come on, they were gullible. They believed it, they shouldn't have believed it, should have known better. Why am I being judged for them? No, he says here the divine verdict of judgment on false teachers has been established from long ago. In fact, James writes in his letter that you really shouldn't be eager to be a teacher, because teachers will receive a stricter judgment. James chapter 3, verse 1. Those who influence others will be judged on the merit of their influence. For those who are believers and are teachers, that will be part of the Bhima seat judgment, well, you'll be rewarded for teaching the truth. For those who are false teachers, that will be the great white throne judgment, where that will add to their condemnation. You go all the way back to the Old Testament, and you find the same warning to those false teachers who were wolves in shepherds' clothing. Jeremiah delivered God's warning in chapter 23, one of the most terrifying chapters for any false teacher. God says this both prophet and priest are ungodly. Even in my house I have uncovered their evil, declares the Lord. Therefore, their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness into which they shall be driven and fall, for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their judgment. Might not be this year, but that year's coming. Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, who tell them, who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness. I did not send them, I did not commission them, therefore I will bring upon them everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall never be forgotten. You think God doesn't take seriously a wolf? The verdict of judgment is even today hanging over their heads from time past until that final judgment. The verdict is already in. They might sell one more book, they might get one more follower, they might bank one more dollar, they might tell one more word of knowledge and one more lying dream. But they're on a slippery path which will empty them, God says, into the pit of darkness where their shame will never be forgotten. Let me tell you what that means. That means God deeply loves you, the sheep. False teachers dismiss their future accountability. They disguise their shallow promises with plastic words, they defraud their followers to line their pockets. Let me ask a practical question at this point. How can I detect and avoid deception? Especially wolves in shepherds' clothing. Well, three little words you heard many times growing up. I'm just going to apply this in a way that my thoughts were provoked by one author who put these words into his commentary. Three words to help you. Here they are. Ready? Stop, look, and what? And listen. Stop. Stop and judge everything by scripture. Now the world is going to tell you you're judgmental. Stop judging. God said, this is the one verse they have memorized don't judge lest you be judged. People who don't know anything about the Bible know that verse. Don't judge lest you be judged. They take it out of context. Jesus is condemning the Pharisees who judge people for doing things that they're going and doing. Don't do that. That's hypocrisy. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2 that the spiritually minded believer, get this, judges everything. And you actually do it throughout the day. You constantly pause to make a judgment call on something that's right or wrong or good, but there's something better, maybe it's better, but there's something that's even better still, the best. Bring that pause, that critical thinking into your Christian walk. If some teacher's entire theology seems to revolve around financial blessing, alarms ought to be gone off in your mind and your little antenna ought to be zinging. If the application of virtually every message is somehow to get money out of you and to them, you need to lace your boots up and run. If their messages are all about how you can be happy and nothing about how we ought to be holy, don't stick around. Turn them off. One author wrote, and I love the way he put it, if what they teach has to do with positive declarations and self-serving desires run away so fast you leave skid marks. Stop. And secondly, look. Look at their lifestyle. Look at their character. I remember watching a news feature where Jesse Duplantis, he's a prosperity preacher in Louisiana, was, I mean, he's been to heaven, he's talked to Jesus and given Jesus advice. That alone ought to get you running. But anyhow, he's bragging about how he had the largest home. He has the largest home in the state of Louisiana. And it's big, it's 35,000 square feet. It's a lot of carpet. He claims it is the result of God's blessing. I would say that he has exploited his followers by greed. No doubt, Paul makes it clear as the church is developing that you can have vocational ministers in ministry who benefit, who make a living from their ministry. I certainly do. The flock is encouraged to provide for their spiritual leaders. But I love the way Chuck Swindoll commented on this when he wrote, Yes, he can make a living preaching the gospel, but he shouldn't make a killing. He can live in a house, but not a resort. He can drive a car, but not a limousine. Earlier I gave you the first part of a verse where Jesus spoke about false prophets. Let me give you the rest of the verse. Jesus said to his disciples, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are you looking? Look, recognize, observe the fruit of their lives, their past, their character, their choices, their faithfulness to their spouses, their fidelity, their commitment to their marriage vows. You have every right to look. I had a man come up to me a few years ago, distraught, with tears in his eyes after one of our services. I asked him what was wrong. And he said, I have lost my pastor, Mike Lee. I lost my church, and I lost my wife. I asked him, What are you talking about? And he said, My pastor started an affair with my wife. She's divorcing me. He's divorcing his wife. They've already moved in together, still teaching a Bible study, and I don't know where to go. I don't know what to do. And let me tell you, I didn't have a very good answer for that broken-hearted guy. You have every right to look. See, I have no idea in the job you have what the qualifications are. You have every right to look at mine. They're printed in inspired scripture. 25 qualifications to have the right to open the word to the flock of God. And at the very outset, it declares that there must be clear and public commitment to my wife. Look. She comes to the third hour, you can talk to her. I've prepped her, she'll be nice. Third, listen. Listen to what they're saying. And let me encourage you to listen to what they're not saying. Okay? What they skip. One of the best things that God ever directed me to do is to teach through books of the Bible. You just can't skip over stuff. Hard verses. Hard passages. There's some really tough ones in 2 Peter. It's easy to take a verse here and a phrase there, and this is going to be interesting and this will be attractive, and they're going to buy my CDs on this one. One author said, don't fall into the trap of judging something to be true because it makes you feel good. Often the truth feels like a slap in the face or a punch in the gut. Real truth often brings conviction and obligation to change. Spiritual deception and lies are often crafted to provide false security and freedom to sin. Part of the tragedy, beloved, of the false teachers and deceivers is that they not only deceive others, they are themselves deceived. This is why we pray for them too. Peter describes them here as being so deceived as to believe they will never be judged. They will never be held accountable. God either doesn't care or he's forgotten. I couldn't help but think of Paul Maxwell, who taught for years at Moody Bible Institute, a wonderful Bible college in Chicago, founded by the evangelist Dio Moody, a college closely related to the Moody Church, pastored by Erwin Lutzer, one of our friends before him, pastored by Warren Wearsby. Paul Maxwell taught at Moody Bible Institute, taught the Bible, and then abandoned everything. Like Bart Ehrman at UNC, who also had taught at Moody. His unbelief had been developing in his mind. It seems sudden to everybody else, but he talks about for years it was developing, percolating, until finally he becomes an example of what the New Testament describes as an apostate, somebody you never believed to begin with, but then came out and said, I don't believe any of it. He wrote to his followers and his subscribers these words. I think it's important to say that I'm just not a Christian anymore, and it feels good. I am really happy. I am in a really good spot, probably the best spot of my life. A deceiver who is self-deceited. What can you do to detect and avoid deception, especially wolves like these? Well, listen. Listen to what they're actually saying, listen to what they refuse to say, look at their lifestyles. Look at these signs that you intuitively want to ignore, and surely that can't be true. And maybe I didn't see it right. These glaring signs, these marginalizing of sins, these defenses of sinful decisions, the desire to avoid accountability. I remember nearly 30 years ago, a man in our church, who was one of our ABF teachers, was caught embezzling nearly a million dollars from his company. When I confronted him about the need to make restitution, I asked him, What's your plan to pay back? Your company. He looked at me and he said, Oh, it's all under the blood. No restitution, no consequences, no accountability. And he would be disciplined from our church. Stop. Judge everything you're being told by Scripture. See, from Peter's generation to our generation, it remains this warning. Be discerning, be careful, be a critical thinker, be saturated with scripture. Stop, look, and listen. Pray with me. Thank you for commending to our hearts, Father, the truth of your word. This severe warning. It is a severe warning to those who hear it. It is a severe warning to people like me to deliver it. We thank you that genuine repentance brings forgiveness and fellowship. So even today, if there is sin being kept hidden in any of our lives, give us the courage and the conviction to set aside our own personal happiness and comfort to pursue genuine holiness, integrity. Our world deserves, desperately needs Christians who act like you, Lord Jesus, our Savior. May we be those who do just that.