We must always cultivate a spiritual-mindedness, because only then will we rightly comprehend the incredible danger in the church. Even though there are unspeakable atrocities that occur through the hands of so-called pastors and priests in the physical realm, most often the sheep are harmed in the spiritual realm. Jesus taught this same concept in the Sermon on the Mount—Matt. 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Let’s make sure we are defining fruit how Jesus is defining fruit. This fruit has nothing to do with acts of power or any other ministry successes. How can we know that? Let’s just continue reading the passage…21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
False teachers have seared consciences and thus are deceived and deceivers.
If they are wolves in sheep’s clothing, how can we recognize false teachers or wolves? They are in love with money, power, and fame and are merely using the name of Jesus to obtain those things. False teachers will never exhibit real fruit, namely the fruit of the Spirit; they are not interested in any fruit that does not lead to immediate earthly reward.
The other way you can spot them is that they don’t promote godliness, because the people who are following them are all about the same things they are after. Consider 2 Pet. 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them [or better translated, denying the one who bought them as master], bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
That text matches the blood-earnest language of Acts 20:30 and affirms as well, the gravitational pull false teachers possess. Therefore, do we rightly categorize bonified false teachers as self-inflated, satanically-charged, apostasy-driven haters of the truth? That’s how God sees them according to what his word says. Beware!