In this sermon, the speaker warns that false teachers manipulate Jesus' instruction to 'know them by their fruit' by redefining 'fruit' as measurable success—such as subscriber counts, book sales, large crowds, financial resources, or miraculous signs—rather than the biblical meaning of character and integrity. The speaker emphasizes that true fruit refers to a person's actions, moral conduct, and sincerity, not performance metrics or spiritual gifts. He illustrates how some individuals may display prophetic or healing abilities yet live double lives, distinguishing genuine believers from 'vicious wolves' who exploit others for personal gain. The core message is a call to discern false teachers by evaluating their character, not their popularity or apparent miracles.
Chapters
The devil deceives us into embracing false teachers, and often false teachers will use scriptures like this: Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit. That's the key part. That is, by the way they act. As you can identify a tree by its fruits, so you can identify people by their actions. So Jesus tells us very plainly that the way they live is a great indicator in terms of their sincerity. Yet false teachers will twist this And they'll focus on just that one portion: know them by their fruit. And of course, the enemy backs that claim because when they say, look at the fruit, they're not talking about character. They're not talking about integrity or the way they live. They'll say, look at the fruit, and they'll point to how many subscribers they have. They'll say, look at the fruit, and they point to book sales. They say, look at the fruit, and they point to the massive crowds that attend their events. Look at the fruit, and they point to how many resources are coming in to their ministries or even power demonstrations. They could prophesy. They can heal the sick. I've known a lot of individuals who could prophesy, who could pray for the sick, yet they were living double lives. Now, I'm not talking about Christians who struggle or who make mistakes. I'm talking about vicious, ravenous wolves who are out to destroy people, to consume only for their pleasure. And they hide behind portions of Scripture like this. So when we say look at the fruit, we shouldn't be talking about performance or metrics or numbers, because when Jesus said to identify them by their fruit, he was talking about character. So fruit is character and integrity, not ministry metrics or giftedness.
