To some who know neither their own deceitfulness and hypocrisy, nor the awful delusions of the devil as an angel of light, I may appear harsh, bitter, severe, bigoted, narrow-minded, and to deserve every other term of reproach which self-seekers and flesh-pleasers heap upon those who fearlessly hunt out their refuge of lies. To preach the gospel in our days is to preach to PLEASE EVERYBODY AND OFFEND NOBODY, to starve the real children, and feed the illegitimate, to beat the heir, and caress the dog, to call the children of God antinomians, and to call empty formalists decided Christians; to style opening up Satin’s delusions “preaching in a bad spirit;” and wrapping up hypocrites, impostors, Pharisees, and self-deceivers in their delusions, “not preaching in the spirit of the gospel.” This turning of things upside down, this calling good evil and evil good, and putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter… J.C. Philpot
When men under the guise of being a minister comfort unbelivers by telling them that they are believers, there is an enormous amount of damage done to the souls of those encouraged unto damnation and the professing “church” at the same time. Jesus warned all who would care to listen to His words that there were many false prophets. He warned that there was truly a narrow gate and a narrow road and that but few would find their way, and then in that same context He told people that there were false prophets and that many would cry out “Lord, Lord” to Him and would be sent into the everlasting flames.
The damage that false prophets do is beyond the ability of man to calculate. Jesus said that the whole world is not worth losing one soul over, so how are we to calculate the damage that one false prophet can do to thousands of souls? Even if the false prophet “only” deceives a few people, can we set a value to that? No, false prophets are working an incredible amount of damage in the professing “churches” and in our nation today. False prophets cause damage to the souls of men and women by encouraging them that they are on the path to leads to heaven, but in fact those people are on the path that leads to hell. False prophets cause great damage when they confidently assert that formalists are Christians and encourage people in their formalism.
False prophets don’t usually know that they are false prophets, but that does not mean that they are less dangerous. These are the ones that will cry out “Lord, Lord” on judgment day and are amazed that they are not converted because they prophesied in His name. It would appear that these men will have great confidence in life because of the wrong things and are simply shocked on judgment day as well. This makes them very dangerous because people can be deceived by the great confidence of these lost prophets. These men can also be very dangerous because they to cast out demons and perform miracles (Matthew 7:15-23). The danger that they pose to others is that the apparent (perhaps real) casting out of demons and the performing of miracles impress others and make them think that the man is real, but we should be very careful at this point. Even the Egyptian magicians could do things that looked like they were of God and the work was supernatural. The real work of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit in working true humility and true love is far, far greater than all the miracles that can be done.
False prophets preach and teach using the Bible and try to show that how people are Christians rather than how people are deceived about being Christians. They will state how awful are those people who tell others that apart from the true Gospel and true holiness a person is not converted. They will state how awful and deceitful are those men who preach that settling for formalism or some form of being moral or a Pharisee is not enough. False prophets can be some of the nicest people in appearance and also be quite orthodox. In appearance, and perhaps in personality, it would appear that they are far kinder and more concerned about people than the orthodox are. But a major problem with that is that their kindness and concern is not about spiritual things in reality and as such this is one way that a wolf can hide in sheep’s clothing.
External things are simply that, external things. Self-love will always want to hear a preacher that is in accordance with self (whether outwardly kind or legalistic) rather than the preacher that preaches that one must die to self. The wolf may actually be concerned about people, but the wolf is only concerned about the outward aspects of morality and religion. Jesus told the Pharisees that God made the inside as well and that it needed to be clean. For those who are focused on the outer man, they are greatly deceived by others and themselves in terms of the outside. But God is not deceived and those inward things will come into the light on judgment day.
God Loves... Himself 
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