In some of the outlying areas of British Columbia, Canada, farmers have been plagued with wolves killing their livestock. Meetings have been held with farmers, environmentalists and concerned citizens in a move to solve the problem. The majority of the local people favored shooting or poisoning the marauding wolves. At one meeting a woman strode to the microphone, listed her impressive credentials and explained her solution. “Vasectomy is the answer,” she thundered. “Simply trap the wolves humanely, neuter the males and release them.” One grizzled old sheep farmer rose to his feet. “Ma’am,” he said in a gruff voice, “no disrespect meant, you bein’ an expert, but them wolves is killin’ my sheep, not makin’ love to ‘em.” ¹ As funny as this story is, two-legged wolves in the church are a serious problem. Jesus addressed this problem and gave us some clues in how to recognize their potentially damaging threats.

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The Great Cover-Up

Revelation 20:3 (NLT)
3 The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward he would be released again for a little while.

• If Satan is a deceiver of nations, he is certainly a deceiver of individual people.
• The great cover-up is on.
• Satan the Chameleon is loose on planet earth masquerading and deceiving.
• The chameleon brings to mind an accurate picture of the activities of the enemy.

Leviticus 11:29–30 (KJV)
29 These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind, 30 And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.

• No lizards and no escargot for the children of Israel.
• Why would we say Satan is a chameleon?
• Chameleons have the ability to change colors in response outward situations.
• What they look like is based on what’s going on externally.
• They fluctuate based on light and heat conditions,
• They change when socially interacting (including courtship) with other chameleons,
• They become different depending on their emotional state.
• Chameleons often show dark colors when they are angry, for example when captured.
• Satan acts just like a chameleon.
• He is a completely changeable being.
• Whatever he tells you today will change tomorrow.
• His version of the truth can never be depended on.
• You will never be able to say concerning a word from Satan, ‘Yes but you said.’
• You can do God that way but you can’t do Satan that way.
• He has no integrity.
• He does not keep his word.
• He is a liar and the father of it.
• Every word which comes out of his mouth is a bold-faced flat lie.
• Even the little bit of truth that you think you might hear in some of his conversation is laced and mixed with enough poisonous venom to bring down a bull elephant.
• You cannot stake your life on any piece of information he brings your way.
• He has no guiding standards.
• He has no moral compass or principles.
• He has no value system.
• He is completely unlike God the Father in this regard.
• Satan always changes.
• And, he always lies.
• God the Father never changes and never lies.

[Tweet “Satan is changeable. His version of the truth can never be depended on.”]

Malachi 3:6 (KJV)
6 For I am the Lord, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Numbers 23:19 (KJV)
19 God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? ‎

• Satan plays a constant game of dance, disguise and deception.
• He’ll do anything he can to fool you.
• You love hearing from the Holy Spirit?
• He will try to invade that realm and disguise his voice to sound like the Holy Spirit’s.
• You love hearing the Word of God through godly men?
• Satan will camouflage his voice through men so as to appear to be godly.

Jeremiah 23:16 (TNIV)
16 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.

• False prophets, false teachers have abounded throughout the human eons of man.
• You think you are hearing the voice of God but in reality it’s the voice of Satan.
• How do you recognize false prophets?
• How can you tell if a message is coming from the voice of God?

The Hidden Gutters of Human Guidance: False Prophets

• False prophets are one of the mediums Satan use to dispense deceit.
• They are changelings just like their father the devil.
• They are demons who appear as angels.
• Their dark hearts are camouflaged with the flower pretty words.
• The Book of Jude speaks of false prophets and teachers in the sternest manner.

Jude 1:3-4 (NKJV)
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

• What can we learn about teachers from these verses in Jude?

False Teachers Creep In

• False prophets slip in unnoticed among the fellowship of God’s people.
• False teachers are not just found in cults.
• The words ‘have crept in unnoticed’ is all one word in the Greek.
• It means to slip or to sneak into an area secretly.
• What these words imply is that ‘false ones’ become actors.
• Their performance is so compelling, you don’t really know they are acting.
• They say Amen every place you say Amen.
• They’re hard to spot just by what they say.
• These people have an agenda.
• They carry out Satan’s to-do-list against a body of believers.
• They are not just people who happen to see a verse of scripture a bit different.
• You will always have that.
• We will never one hundred percent agree on everything.
• Some don’t believe in divine healing.
• Some don’t believe in the pre-tribulation Rapture of the church.
• Some believe in sprinkling instead of immersive water baptism.
• I believe all of the above but just because you may not doesn’t mean you’re a false prophet and it doesn’t mean I’m one because I do.
• We just don’t see it the same.
• That’s okay when you get to heaven, you’ll find out I was right 🙂
• These false disciples pursue an agenda of stealth.
• They are Satan’s undercover agents.
• Their real purpose is camouflaged, cloaked, and concealed.
• Some of the greatest attacks against Christianity come from these false ones.
• Some of the most potentially damaging assaults come from within not from without.

False Prophets and Teachers Are Ungodly

• They are…
  • Rebellious
  • Unbelieving
  • Irreverent
  • Have no fear of God
  • And, they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.
• Lasciviousness is not a commonly used word for our day.
• The word means no restraint. It means shameless greediness, bestial pleasure and pure self-gratification and enjoyment.
• This is a person completely strung out and out of control in their personal life.
• God wants you to enjoy life within the boundaries of balance.
• Balance is the key.
• Some people think it’s a sin to enjoy anything. That’s out of line with scripture.

1 Timothy 6:17 (KJV)
17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

• Then, there are those on the other side of the cliff who do nothing but live for the moment.

1 Corinthians 7:31 (NLT)
31 Those in frequent contact with the things of the world should make good use of them without becoming attached to them, for this world and all it contains will pass away.

Holy leisure refers to a sense of balance in the life, an ability to be at peace through the activities of the day, an ability to rest and take time to enjoy beauty, an ability to pace ourselves. – Richard Foster

• Take the time and smell the flowers but become captive to no one and nothing.
• You should be able to put down anything by the command of the Lord which you have picked up.

1 Timothy 6:7 (KJV)
7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

[Tweet “Take the time and smell the flowers but become captive to no one and nothing.”]

False Prophets Fate Have Been Sealed

• They have already been judged by God (vs. 4).
• God is highly aware if every ‘ism’ and schism out there.

“There are only two kinds of religion in the world. You can list every “ism,” every cult, every religion in southern California under one category. They all say, “Do, do, do.” Only Christianity says, “Done.” Christ has done it all. – J Vernon McGee

• False prophets have been judged.
• They have been marked out for condemnation.
• The word ‘marked out’ means designated beforehand.
• God who knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) has already made up His mind concerning these fakers.
• The Lord knows them that are His (2 Timothy 2:19).

Three Examples of Judged Beings

Jude 5–7 (KJV)
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Israelites

• Israel experienced miracles no human had ever seen up to that point.
• After having seen them, they refused to believe.
• God spent years getting the Israelite deliverance from Egypt plan lined up.
  • He took 80 years to prepare Moses.
  • God prepped the Egyptian dynasty in order to get Moses the best education and empire could buy.
  • Then God tutored Moses on the backside of the desert as he tended sheep.
  • Then God destroyed the number one nation on the planet with ten miracles and stunned the entire world with the wonder of splitting the Red Sea.
• God was heavily vested in Israel’s deliverance.
• Despite the time, effort and the resources, He destroyed the Israelites He had invested in.
• Why?
• They refused to believe Him (Numbers 14:22–23).
• Two cannot walk together except they agree, that’s a Bible fact (Amos 3:3).

Angels Who Were Disobedient

• The angels, as God’s creation, also saw and witnessed things that no human has ever seen.
• They sat physically in the presence of the Most High God.
• The Holy One created them.
• He made them just like he wanted them.
• Angels are magnificent creations. Robed in glory and splendor.
• Despite their magnificence, God judged them also.

Unbelievers

• It’s easy to see why God would judge unbelievers.
• But, then what does all of this have to do with false prophets and teachers?
• If God judged, His own people Israel and He judged His own creation the angels and he judged the unbelieving believers of Sodom and Gomorrah, do you think that false prophets and teachers are going to slide by?
• No they won’t.
• Intentional distributors of error will experience the same fate as these three groups Jude mentions.
• False religion is a serious sin business
• It is much worse to have a false idea of God than intentionally peddling a false idea knowing it’s false.

Recognizing the Voice of the False?

• How are you going to tell the truth from the lie and the fake from the real?
• With their ability to mix truth with error and package it in such a way as to seem godly, false prophets can be difficult to detect on your own.

Jude 8 (AMP)
8 Nevertheless in like manner, these dreamers also corrupt the body, scorn and reject authority and government, and revile and libel and scoff at [heavenly] glories (the glorious ones).

• False prophets and teachers defile the flesh. In other words, they are full of lust.
• They reject authority. In other words, they are full of pride.
• They revile and libel heavenly beings.
• It’s not how false teachers teach; it’s how they live.
• It’s not what they prophesy; it’s how they walk.
• It’s never how you jump and shout; it’s how straight you walk when your feet hit the ground.
• How will you know a false prophet of the devil from a real prophet of God?
• You’ll know them by how they live. Never by what they teach.

Matthew 7:15 (TNIV)
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

• That’s that whole creeping in business.

Matthew 7:16 (TNIV)
16 By their fruit you will recognize them.

• Their fruit, their life is how you can tell the voice of Satan the chameleon coming through a false teacher.
• It’s easy to teach something, to say something which others have said.
• It’s easy to copy and emulate.
• It’s a whole another thing to live it first.
• To live it requires godliness, dedication, discipleship, faithfulness, and truth-telling.
• It requires real born again experience with God.

Call to Action:

Watch how they live. The Greek word ‘watch’ in the phrase ‘Watch out for false prophets’ in Matthew 7:15 means to be on guard, to be cautious alert or wary. Meaning, don’t be so quick to swallow everything you hear. Mark the life, then check the truth.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of Authority see the following posts by clicking on the links.

1. Are You Flowing In God Given Authority?
2. Exercising Authority Over Demonic Influences
3. Terrorizing the Terrorist Encore [Podcast]
4. How to Stop Satan from Pushing You Around [Podcast]
5. How You Can Overcome the Tools of Satan’ [Podcast]
6. ‘What Is the Greatest Tool in Satan’s Toolbox?’ [Podcast]

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If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at energized1@outlook.com.

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Question: What did you observe about a false which helped you avoid the error of their ways? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.

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