We're going to be reading in two different places, Matthew the 7th chapter and the 15th verse. It says, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits, ye shall know them. Not every one that saith 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 to 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. Then we're going to turn on over to Romans in the 14th chapter. In the 13th verse it says, Let us not therefore judge one another any more. but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, Now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died? Let not then your good be evil spoken of. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We was thinking about of that thought. We live in a day and an age that we've preached I don't know how many messages in all my years of preaching, I don't know how many messages that I've touched on the fact that we are to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. But we live in a culture today that People don't even pay it no mind. As a matter of fact, there are those that genuinely believe, I think, that sheep can be in wolves' clothing. I'd like to tell you, beware of sheep in wolves' clothing. Now you say, Darryl, there ain't no such a thing. And I'd have to agree with you. But yet there are those that by all appearances, they're not even making the attempt as it were to be one of the sheep or one of the children of God. And yet inwardly they're a wolf. But it's all out there in the open. Yet they profess or they proclaim as it were that I that I am a sheep, but by all attributes, as old as what was said, Little Red Riding Hood said, why the big teeth? Why the hairy coat? We live in a world today that there's so many people that are so far from the things of God. When they get up in the morning, they don't even bother, as it were, to put on a sheet. I'm getting accused of making some comment that they can just go looking like a wolf, smelling like a wolf, eating flesh like a wolf. As long as they tell you they're them, then I reckon you're going to have to believe it. But not so. The Bible tells us, as we already read, that I'm not to judge you, or you not to judge me, rather, but judge this one thing, that we, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way, that we have a responsibility, and that the Bible says it's unclean. Now I can have my personal conviction and you can have yours, but if the Bible says it's unclean, well then it's unclean, and you can't be doing it, no matter whether you say you're a lamb, or whether you say you're a born again wolf. I don't care, but I'm telling you this, that when Jesus comes into your heart, it's gonna change your life. There's a woman, we've seen it, I don't know, She is somewhere in North Carolina. She is talking about all the destruction at the Hurricane Bond. And she begin to think about, she said, and then read some songs. I'm telling you what, that's your good Christian today. By the world standards, they got all their bases covered. But I'm telling you, beware of sheep that are dressed in wolves clothing. We ain't got enough sins. wide open. They can tell you I love you. They can tell you I'm a Christian. But you better watch your deeds. Let not your good be evil spoken of. What does it mean to her? It means we ought to be careful. You better abstain from those that take the righteousness of God. Did you see what it said here? Oh, and it said what it did. It says we're the kingdom of God. not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Wouldn't it be nice that we could just say, hey, don't take my good and speak evil of it. What it's saying is it wants us to be careful that the good deeds that we do is not undone by our conduct. or by the conduct, not becoming, as it were, of a Christian, but be an offense to one that is a weaker or younger or newer convert, as it was speaking about here, meet being offered to idols. But I'm telling you, what is it then? What is offending a brother? As it were, and I say that in air quotes, because there ain't your brother. There's sheep and wolves clothing, or there are wolves in sheep clothing. It don't matter in this world today. You can be a man when you're a woman, and you can be a woman when you're a man, according to the world standards. Where'd they get such nonsense? Well, because there's Christians, so-called Christians, I'm using their quotes again, that are, you can be a Christian when you live like the world, and you can be godly when you're godless, you can be full of faith when you're faithless, and it's utter foolishness, and the sodomized, and the transvestite, got it right out out of the doctrines of men, and not the Bible. It's filthiness, and I want you to know, don't let your good be evil spoken of. And when men are grieved by the righteousness of God and the peace and joy in the Holy Ghost that's in your life, there's some things I just don't tell those folks, not because I live in secrets, because we are to live our life of God and they speak of it as evil. Well, then you're wasting your breath when you're doing yourself and your church a disservice because the Lord says, let not then your good be evil spoken of. And if the way I tie my shoes or the way I comb my hair offends my brother, the Bible tells me that I need to assess the situation. And I need to make sure that these things, that are of no significance whatsoever, that these things are not clean around here. but it's the opinions of men. But if it is offending somebody, well, then the Bible says I ought to consider my ways. I ought to look into it as if I'm grieving my brother, is it worth it? Though it says here, let no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. That's how careful a church member ought to be with the congregation. But when it comes to the things of God, when God says it's unclean, like for instance the Ten Commandments, then Darrell's got an obligation. that his good not be evil spoken of. And that they would speak evil of me because I withstand liars and adulterers and fornicators and murderers. Well then, they need to take that up with Jesus. But I'm not going to carry on conversations with such, no matter what they say. Because a wolf will tell you coming to my parlor. I want to have you for supper. And they want to have you for supper. It's not as it were. They're serving lasagna or biscuits and gravy. They're serving lamb. And you're the lamb they're going to serve. And that's why me and you need to understand that it doesn't matter. The Word of God says clearly, and then we can know them by the words that they speak. Is that what it said? And now how do we know them? By the deeds that they do. Of the fruit. And then the Bible says, a good tree bears not forth evil fruit, and an evil tree doesn't bear forth good fruit. And what are we to do then? Well, we will make sure that me and you are bringing forth good fruit and that we are good trees. But listen, it says every tree that bringeth forth, but every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Listen to me. Because me and you walk amongst each other. Trees are rooted in the ground. But if you're not bringing forth good fruit, there is judgment coming. If you don't repent of your sin, you're going to be thrown into the fire. But listen to me now. There is no point in a Christian dwelling in an orchard with a bunch of dead trees. There ain't no point in a Christian Can you be a witness when the Bible says, let not your good be evil spoken of? And we want to extrapolate a thought here that when it is the righteousness of God, His joy, love and peace, that brings Him discomfort and makes Him speak evil of you. What good can you do? There was a blight that come through. And if there was a tree that was found in the orchard with it, in the attempt to stop it, they destroyed the whole orchard. Why? Because there's this one tree, and it's dying. And what it has is contagious. But in the tent, the other trees in other orchards, they fume all down. What's the ideal about that? The ideal is that this blight and this disease is so deadly and so corrosive that there would be those men who profess to know God, who aren't false prophets, who aren't wolves in sheep's clothing, but are genuine preachers of God, that they preach us so close, and the fire gets so hot from the trees that are dead, from the trees that aren't bringing forth good fruit, that we could stop it before it spread to the other congregations, but we see, don't we? The receiver of that blight and that disease and that stinking thinking and that false teaching and that genuine lies straight from hell goes from one church to another. And nobody wants to accept a church discipline anymore because they can resign before their discipline. They'll go right down the road to the next church. And they'll open up their arms to them. Oh, and they'll show them much love and not realize that that tree is blighted. That tree is full of disease. And that tree won't bring forth a good fruit. Oh, but they'll not even look that direction. They'll not even pay attention. They'll say everything's going to be all right. We'll love them into heaven, but the problem is you can't love people into heaven. God is love, and His children are to reflect His love. But you know what? The Bible says, let not your good be evil. evil, not of you, but the good you do through Christ Jesus. Then you're to withdraw yourself. Why? Because the sin that so easily besets a man is a genuine disease that will not only destroy him, but will destroy his family if it goes unchecked. if we are no longer responsible for our deeds, if our deeds are not a measurement of who we are, then I can preach one day and become a fornicator the next, and a child molester the next, and a murderer the next, and then where do we go? It could go on until Sunday rolls around. Then I'm a preacher again. I'm telling you, it's a fool that would believe that a sheep would go around in wolf's clothing. It's just as much a fool as one that would believe that a wolf in sheep's clothing can do anything but destroy, kill, maim, and set afire the very thing that God He's trying to build, but the beauty of it is, is God's in control. Aren't you glad? Oh, and he has a way of revealing himself, because it don't matter. It don't matter how kind I'm to you on Monday, or on Tuesday, or on Wednesday. If old Daryl's not born again, if Daryl's not one of the sheep in the fold of Christ Jesus, I can be I can be nasty, but that don't make me kind. I can be, I can show restraint, but that don't make me moral. I can tell the truth and that don't make me honest. The point being is, every one of us needs Jesus on the inside. And Daryl wasn't nothing but a wolf. But Jesus Christ came and he performed a miracle. And he changed who Daryl was. And so Daryl no longer preys on the weak. Daryl defends the weak. Why? Because Daryl's wonderful? No, because Daryl's been born again. And if you've been born again, well then you're not only gonna declare it to the world, But if you've been born again, you don't have to declare it to the world, but the world will be declaring it to others. And a lot of times how they do that is to speak evil of the good you do. Yet the Bible says, let no man speak evil of the good. How was it now? I'll tell you what's awful getting old, but it says here, it says let not. Let not then your good be evil spoken of. Now that's exactly what the world does. That's also what young Christians might do. That's also those that are weak in the faith. And that's also those that would see things as being unclean. But the Bible don't call unclean. And yet I'm to be very careful. My friend, it is the very function of the church that people are offended by. It's the very function of the body of Christ and His work that people are offended by. Well, I'm telling you, how do you reach out to them? I don't know. I really don't know. If every good deed you do wasn't good enough, wasn't soon enough, wasn't thorough enough, was motivated by a sin of some sort, whether it be greed or jealousy or, I don't know what you do. Outside of saying that the Bible tells me and you that we're not to let, let not then your good be evil spoken of. So if I speak of good and all you can do is leave and speak evil about it, well then can I speak to you at all? Outside of how you doing? Somebody said, boy, I'm glad to see you. I wish I could say the same. But you know what? Their life is so riddled in sin. And they're such a, I mean, it is unbelievable what we've heard them say about those that fear God. And yet, it's, I mean, it's right in the court documents, right? And they want to act like they're your buddy and they're chummy with you, right? And just a few weeks ago or a month ago, they was accusing you of stalking them. I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what. And they're not even sheep. And they're not even wolves in sheep's clothing. I'm about to broadcast to the world. I'm a wolf. Praise God. Look at me. I bear the marks of a canine. And I'm going to hell. The problem with that is, it's a lie that every one of us is going to have to come under the blood of the lamb. And it is a transforming, cleansing, purifying miracle that still takes place even today. We need to think about that, right? What shall a person think of us? One minute we say pray for my loss and the next minute we're worshiping with them and getting up and singing with them. What is it? Who is it? What's going on? If we sin openly, we need to confess openly. Because if we don't, let me ask you something. Did you get up here and sing with me that Darryl was caught in some terrible scandal? And you know it to be true. And I never said it and never made no outward confession. And I ran off with a piano player. We ain't got a playing player. I ran off with a piano player, only to come back and reconcile with my wife, but I make no reconciliation with the church. Could you support me? Would you support me? Am I even a wolf in sheep's clothing at that point? Am I not just a wolf proclaiming, hey, follow me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what wolves do. But come on, you gotta cut me some slack. and having a land every now and then. Cut me some slack, folks. And that's where we're at. And we got not only the blind leading the blind, but we got a wolf leading the sheep that are blind. And the problem is, is all but one of them will be cast into the fire. Because sheep being led by wolves bear not good fruit. And they're just sheep because That's the title we use. And words don't matter no more. Righteousness don't matter. I use it to my advantage. And I tell somebody I'm this one moment. Don't even tell the body of Christ. Who is the body of Christ? Is this church? I believe it is. Now, it's not the only body of Christ. We all are all part of the... This church is not the only church, but the true church encompasses many churches. But this church is where every one of us worship, right? And so therefore, this is where we come together. And if Darryl, for instance, has cancer outside of his immediate family, maybe, well, that would be the church you would think would know the soonest. Would that be something I'd keep from you? If I had confidence in you? And if I don't have confidence in you, well then are you attending a church that isn't the true church? And then if it is not the true church, you're being led by a wolf. Whether he's dressed up like a sheep or whether he is all out in the open, right? I mean, I see, and I know what we do in sin, God forgives us of, and there are certain sins that mark us that we can't, we can't escape from, but we surely shouldn't wear them like a badge of honor, right? So when I'm out in the world, and I get pagan symbols tattooed on my body, is that my connection to the lost? Is that how I witness to them? I wear me an athlete t-shirt, and I show them the pagan symbols I got on my body and then tell them how Jesus can save them? Or then should we not be ashamed of the paganism that we was once in? Or should we not, as it were, let the blood of Jesus Christ wash us clean and then proclaim that Jesus will save you even from the paganism you might have been in? We do not wear that as a badge of honor. I hear some people testify of the things they've done. There's one man that I don't have contact with him anymore, but he used to talk about all he'd done in sin, and you could just tell he was bragging. It made me sick to my stomach to think of all the heartache, how many women he abused. There's more than one way of abusing a human being, ain't there? I'm not talking about physically abusing. But I'm talking about abusing women to get what you want, only to leave them, and you use deception to get what you had. And talk about it like he was some great lover or something. Well, he weren't. And you know why he wasn't? Because that ain't love. But to a wolf. To a wolf it is. To a wolf, that's bragging rights. And we see it, but we can't make the connection. Right? And we can't make that connection because we have been so accustomed to the fact that we really don't know what a sheep Can you imagine? We had a play so many years ago, and we had the little children dressed up, and they looked so cute, and they had cotton balls glued all over this outfit they was wearing. And then somebody had blowed up a surgical glove, and that was the rudder. And it was really cute. And I had a little black I don't remember what that was, but I don't know if they just colored her nose black or if they actually put something on there. And I knew they were supposed to be sheep. It was a nativity scene. And they looked really sweet. But you know what? If you'd never seen a sheep before, you'd say, what on earth is that? And what would somebody do? Or what would somebody say? Oh, that's a sheep. And you would leave thinking that sheep were little children in fluffy cotton outfits with black noses and surgical gloves blowed up on their belly button. And that's the problem. God-fearing Christians are a rarity anymore. And so odd, it's like Dwight Baker, my wife's father. He was back from the war before he seen his very first deer that he ever seen in his entire life. And they were rabbit hunting, him and his uncle, I think it was. And they was in this draw and they was rabbit hunting. And he said, there was this big, beautiful animal. He said, we were there, and we were looking for rabbits in this brush thicket, kind of this draw, you know, and there's fields around it. But it was kind of this deep cut in the ground, and the dogs were working it. And he said, out of nowhere, there's this big, beautiful, brown animal. And he said, and it was prancing. It was just jumping. He said, I couldn't believe it. I'd only heard about it. And I looked at my uncle, and I said, do you see that? He said, yeah, it's a deer. Kill it. And he shot it. The very first deer he ever seen, he was in his 20s over there at Stoutland. And they killed it. Because he'd heard about them. I reckon he'd probably seen pictures of them. I mean, that picture won't do with it. Have you ever seen a deer when she throws her tail up? Oh, it's a beautiful thing to behold. I'm afraid a lot of the world is just like Dwight Baker was, right? It's just essential. If you're a wolf, and you've been living on rabbit, and you see your first deer, It's only instinctual that you're going to kill it. And that's why me and you as sheep need a shepherd. And Jesus Christ is him. I'm telling you, if you're hanging out with the wrong crowd, beware. It does come with consequences. And your good will be evil spoken of until you no more have any good to speak about. Let's get some song to sing. If I tell them over there, and I don't tell the church I belong to, what's going on there? What are we doing? Who are we? Is this the body of Christ? Or is it not? Are we not members of the same body? Or are we not? Because that's the conduct of a wolf in sheep's clothing. That's the conduct of a wolf, or as it were, a sheep in wolf's clothing, right? Oh man, he's just trying to be relevant. He's just trying to be hip. I know that's not a proper, proper lingo today. I don't know how to talk cool today, but you know what? There are so many Christians trying to be relevant. The relevant church. And all they are is sheep dressed up like wolves. And they think they can win somebody to Jesus. Well, guess what? They'll win you to hell. It happens every time. Because sheep don't wear wolves' clothing. Sheep are redeemed. Sheep are proud of the shepherd. Sheep declare the truth, even in a cave full of wolves. But don't dwell there, don't live there, because your life will be very short as a living, breathing sheep. Go ahead. Search me and try to master today. Wider than snow, Lord, wash me just now, as in Thy presence only I am. All that wood, let's come gather around the altar.