Like the flies that gather around the dung,
so are the deceived that feed on false teaching.
What goes out of their lips are lies, boasts, and flattery of man with the design that they be caught, allured into a trance, rendered listless as they behold words falling from their lips, such as only their own soul delights in, and their own ears itch for.
Such ghastly poison smogs out of his grave-for-a-mouth that fouls up and contaminates the room and those in it. They are quarantined: away from the righteous, away from Scripture, away from all sanity, and away from Christ.
Their hatred is covered with deception, and yet to the assembly- the true church- their wickedness is exposed. Beware you be not caught by their enticements, with the lure of what seems to be the truth- but only so far as it masks Satan’s hook behind…
ready to reel in violently,
and then suffocate,
and then beat,
and then gut and debone,
and prepare for the Oven!
They lose sleep if they do not cause some to fall. Their eyes gleam and there is a spring to their step when the blind are cast headlong. They reward themselves when lies abound and the righteous say nothing. They wear a smart suit, but should be in a straightjacket! Must we wait for a speechless donkey to speak with a human voice in order to restrain their madness?
‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds. Your veils also I will tear off and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand as prey, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions and practice divinations. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the Lord.’ (Ezekiel 13:20-23)
Ah, saints! You righteous! You saved by grace! Make no conditions of peace with your enemies. We must love, even if without a prize here and now, but we who are ‘harmless as doves’ must at the same time be ‘wise as serpents’. We are ‘sheep in the midst of wolves’. ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.’
