The Downfall and Doom of False Prophets

(Article for publication week of 2-4-2009 AD)

“Not everyone that sayeth unto me ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto 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.’ “ (Matthew 7:21-23).

We have been sounding the warning concerning false prophets because they tell people they may be saved without entering the difficult gate of conversion (Matthew 7:15) and lead people down to the ditch of hell (Matthew 15:14). A false preacher is a menace to society and should be shunned like the plague. Our Lord warns that false prophets are numerous , and their downfall and doom is great. In the day of judgment, many (get it now, MANY) professors of Christ will be discovered as false professors and hear their awful and eternal sentence, “depart from me”! Oh! I shudder to write it! My friend that will be the most awful thing you have ever heard when Christ says He never knew you and sends you to hell forever. I shudder to think how many of my readers will hear those awful words. And be sure you understand, among the false professors there will be a multitude (Jesus said “many”) of preachers. Many who claim to be preachers are lost people themselves.

The downfall of the false prophet is in that he is a lost man himself. Many vainly imagine that they are Christians because they can preach. Just because a person can craft a nice little sermon and charm his hearers with a fair speech is no sign that a person is a true minister or a true believer. A person may affirm his belief in a sound creed and still be unregenerate. The downfall of the false prophets will also be discovered in the awful Day of Judgment when many find out their supposed good works did not impress the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, and weep as you notice, their “good works “ included “miracles” like casting out devils. So heed the warning my friends, just because a person preaches some truth, does not mean he is a true man of God. And heed the warning, just because a person performs a “ miracle” does not mean he is a true preacher of the gospel. Paul warns us in Galatians that though an angel of heaven preach another gospel, let him be accursed. Sadly, many are sucked in by those who appear to be great workers of miracles. The downfall of false professors and false prophets lies in their thinking that religious activity will save them. What an awful down fall to miss the saving gospel of Christ and hold on to a flimsy substitute.

And see now the doom of the false prophets. The Lord will finally say “I never knew you.” You see my friends, salvation lies in Christ knowing you as His Own (Galatians 4:9; John 10:27; II Timothy 2:19).Salvation is not in preaching sermons and working miracles, salvation is in Christ Alone Who is acquainted with the objects of His saving grace. If the Lord Jesus Christ does not know you as His Own there will be no hope for you in the awful day of His wrath. The doom of false prophets is sure and certain. They are disowned by Christ and he will send them down to hell forever. And my dear ones if you follow their pernicious ways, you shall be doomed also. Poor lost sinner flee to Christ! Poor lost preacher, flee to Christ! Poor lost church member , flee to Christ. Don’t be so insane as to suppose that Christ will be impressed by your religious activity in the Day of Judgment. Throw yourself on His Sovereign Mercy today and be saved.

“The Blind Leading the Blind”

(Article for publication week of 1-28-2009 AD)


“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind , both shall fall into the ditch.” (Matthew 15:14).

In a previous article we sounded the warning of our Lord concerning false prophets (Matthew 7:15). It is a warning that must be sounded urgently, strongly and continually. Dear readers, if you value your never dying souls beware of false prophets who are blind and leading the blind to hell.

In the scriptures blindness is a vivid description of the unsaved (for example John 9:39-41). Unregenerate people are blind spiritually. In John 3:3 our Lord told Nicodemus ,”Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Unless the Lord shows you mercy and gives you spiritual sight you will remain blind to the truth of the saving gospel of Christ and you will go to hell. You will fall into the ditch and fall forever.

It is apparent that the vast majority of men in pulpits today are indeed blind leaders of the blind. We have men in pulpits today who do not call on sinners to repent. We have men who go as preachers who do not set forth Christ as the exclusive way of salvation. We have men who are pastors of churches that are unwilling to call sin what it is. This present generation of “preachers’ are worldly men who know how to “go along to get along.” There are very few men today who are true shepherds of souls. The great majority of religious leaders are butchers of souls. We have men who are religious leaders in great religious organizations who are filthy sodomites . We sadly have women in many pulpits today , a gross violation of God’s word (I Corinthians 14;34; I Timothy 2:12; I Timothy 3:2). We have ‘preachers “ nowadays who have studied psychology, but they are ignorant of the truth of scripture. We have men who call themselves preachers (for it is evident God did not call them), who can make up catchy little poems, but they do not preach “Christ and Him crucified.” We have men who draw good salaries and drive fancy cars who know what to keep silent about. False prophets, blind leaders of the blind often pride themselves in their “diplomacy” and they know how to “win friends and influence people”. We have so-called preachers who will get on a podium with Moslems , Jews, Hindus, Bhuddists and everything else. I could go on and on here.

I have just described for you many blind leaders of the blind. I say the worst devil there is on the top side of God’s earth is a lost preacher. He is headed for hell and he is dragging multitudes down with him. Some of you “preachers” better sit up and take notice. When a man is introduced to me as a “preacher” , I sometimes ask, “are you a Christian?”, for I believe the vast majority of men who go as preachers are unconverted themselves. They are blind leaders of the blind. Preachers as well as everyone else ought to do as Paul exhorts in II Corinthians 13:5 “examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” It is going to be an awful eternity in hell for most preachers as their former “parishioners” gnash their teeth and wail “why did you lead us into this awful place?”

May the Lord have mercy on lost preachers before it is everlastingly too late. And may the Lord spare you my dear readers form false prophets. Be sure you will fall into the ditch if you follow them.

Amazing Grace

(Article for publication week of 1-7-2009 AD)

“Enter ye in at the strait gate…” (Matthew 7:13). We have been declaring the truth of true conversion as the evidence of regeneration, and as illustrated by our Lord in Matthew 7:13. We noted previously that the word “strait” in our Authorised translation is an archaic word that means “difficult.” Our Lord is telling us here that conversion, salvation is a difficult thing. It is a simple thing but it is not an easy thing.

Did God save you in such a way that you are simply amazed that you are saved? To hear and observe most professed Christians in our day you get the impression that nothing very amazing happened to them when they were saved. Or we should say professed to be saved, for the majority of professors of religion in our day, here in our community give little or no evidence of the real thing. And this is one of the ways that many give the lie to their profession- nothing very amazing really happened to them.

You ask most professed Christians today how God saved them and they are likely to answer something along these lines: “well, the preacher gave an invitation and I walked forward and decided to accept Jesus.” Or some others may say, “ I was told four spiritual laws and I followed the directions and now I am saved.” Or perhaps someone told you of three easy steps to salvation. Or perhaps others were told that if they just prayed a certain prayer they would be saved, and they prayed the prayer and now they say they are saved. But dear friends that is nothing like what our Lord says about true conversion. He said true conversion was like getting through a little gate that is very hard to enter.

The way God saves sinners is such that those who are truly saved His way will always be amazed that they are saved. Do you think of your salvation in the terms of the extraordinary, or just something quite ordinary? Do you ever stop and just stand in complete amazement that you are a Christian? If you don’t , then I fear greatly that you are quite deceived in thinking you are saved.

The inspired writer of Hebrews said this in Chapter 2, verse 3, “So GREAT salvation”! There it is, salvation expressed as something truly great, truly extraordinary, something truly amazing. This is the reason John Newton could write such a hymn as “Amazing Grace”, he saw his salvation as something that was nothing less than miraculous. I wonder how many of you sing the hymn “Amazing Grace” , but nothing amazing has ever happened to you. You have always been quite good, maybe not as good as you should have been, but you have never really thought of yourself as a sinner. You joined the church; you got baptized; you were confirmed when you learned your catechism, but nothing has ever happened to you that has been truly extraordinary. You are not really surprised that you are really a Christian, because after all you did what you were told and so everything must be all right.

Well, everything may not be all right. You may have never entered in the strait gate. I beg you to really examine yourself whether you are truly in the faith. It would be far better to admit to the Church and your family and friends that you have lived a lie of false profession than to continue on in your self deception and end up in hell a nice little lost church member. Some of you are probably thinking, “I would look like a fool if I admitted I had been a lost church member.” Some of you may be lost preachers or lost Sunday School teachers. You would really look like a fool if you admitted you have been deceived and have been deceiving others. But you won’t look like a fool when you come to meet God! And that is the most important thing.

I pray that many of you may find out how amazing grace really is. I pray that God will truly save you in that miraculous way that he saves lost and ruined sinners.