Jude saw them and called them deluded dreamers who defile the flesh. And Paul may have summed it up well when he said they are wolves whose desire is to enter in, not sparing the flock. They’re always present and they’re always eager to counterfeit the work of God. In the second coming of Jesus Christ, as the great event unfolds, we see the false prophets amass and congregate that’s portrayed for us in those apocalyptic visions of Scripture that look to that future time.

And it seems to us that that may be the time when they flourish as it were in their heyday, but if there is a time equal to that time for the working of false prophets, it must have been in Palestine during the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. For in His first coming, all hell amassed its forces for a three-year assault on Him and His truth. Therefore, false spiritual leaders take a very high profile, a very great visibility in the gospel record. And in this particular chapter, we hear the Lord Jesus Christ confront them with a denunciation that blisters and burns as it comes from His lips. 

This is the last public speech, and it is a denunciation of these false religious leaders and a warning for the people to stay away from them. It is a very severe, a very serious presentation but a very necessary one. They are false shepherds, they are wolves in sheep’s clothing, they damn people, and they must be avoided, and our Lord pulls no punches in making that abundantly clear.

Now, it isn’t the first time that He has denounced them. A year earlier He had and a few months before, as recorded in Luke 11, He had said some very similar things to what He says now. So He’s already confronted them and called them what they truly were, but now he warns the people particularly to stay away from them because they damn men’s souls.  

And it is essential that the people be warned to stay away from the false religious leaders and to be turned toward the true spiritual leaders. And He knows that the true spiritual leaders will be His disciples who, after His ascent to heaven, will be filled with the Spirit of God and will go everywhere preaching the gospel. And He wants the people to be ready to listen to them.

And so He warns the people about the false spiritual leaders so that their hearts will be open to the true ones. And in a sense, He’s setting us His disciples for their ministry. That’s why down in verses 8 to 12, He calls His disciples to be distinctly different than these false spiritual leaders are. So it isn’t just a denunciation of the leaders, it isn’t just a warning of the people, it is both of those with a purpose, that the people might listen to those who are true spiritual leaders, who manifest in fact the very opposite kind of characteristics to the ones that He will denounce in the false leaders.

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