Beware of False Prophets, Part 1
Matthew 7:15-20
We are almost at the conclusion of our lengthy study of the Sermon on the Mount. Three or four more studies will wind it up. Tonight, we will look at Chapter 7:15-20
Now in climaxing this sermon, Jesus brings His hearers to a choice. Now as we saw last time the Lord brings a choice, forces a decision. The response to The Sermon on The Mount is to make a decision, to either go through the narrow gate on to the narrow way that leads to life or to go through the wide gate onto the wide way which leads to destruction. Those are the only two alternatives there are.
You either have the religion of divine accomplishment, where you recognize your own sinfulness and accept what Christ has done, or the religion of human achievement where you believe you're good enough. And every person has to make a decision when they come to that crossroads. In fact, more than a crossroads, we come to understand one day that we are born on the broad road, and we must make a decision to either remain there or change our direction.
And so that is the choice: Enter in at the strait gate.
Now to further illustrate the choice, let me give you two words from the text. The first is Warnig, the second is Watching. I want to deal with them individually, so tonight, we’ll look at the warning, and next week the watching.
Warning
Verse 15
Now the Lord is very clear here, He doesn't leave any doubt in our minds about whom He is speaking. We know He is talking about false prophets.
That is a consistent warning given throughout Scripture. All the way back to the book of Deuteronomy 13, God warned about the dangers of false prophets. In fact, the law provided for killing a false prophet.
That’s repeated in Isaiah 30, again in Jeremiah 23
Warning after warning after warning after warning.
And then you come to the New Testament, and in the New Testament Matthew chapter 24 for example verse 11, "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many."
They try to present themselves as if they were Christ, shams, phonies and liars they are.
Romans 16:17, "I beseech you, brethren, mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own body, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the innocent."
And Paul says to Timothy, "They speak doctrines of devils." And to Peter the Spirit of God said, "They have damnable heresy."
And John says, "You'd better test the spirits."
First John 4:1.
And so the Bible warns us over and over and over about false prophets, they're going to be around, they always have been around, there have been many false prophets and there shall be false prophets, as long as we live on this earth, till Jesus comes they're going to be here.
Now I want you to think this through with me so I want to give you four words that'll explain the warning in verse 15.
1. Definition
What is a false prophet? Who are we really dealing with in this verse?
Ever since the fall of man it is apparent that man is hopelessly lost, man turns his back on God, runs from God. Romans 3 says “No man seeks God.” Instead men run from God, and they run to hell as fast as they can.
So what is God’s solution? He picks out certain people, redeems them, and sends them as messengers. These are God’s prophets.
And you find in the Old Testament and the New that a true prophet was known by two things, he had a divine commission and he had a divine message. He was called by God and he was given his content by God. God selected men for this very strategic function. A true prophet was God's voice.
Think back to Moses for example in Exodus 4.
Moses was worried about his speech problems, the Lord says to Moses, Moses, don't worry about what you're going to say. Moses, I will put my words in your mouth.
Prior to that God had actually called Moses out of a burning bush into his prophetic office. And so there was the commission of God and there was the content of God and that consummated the role of a prophet, he was God's man who spoke God's message.
Now no sooner did God have His true prophets to speak the true message, to be the true shepherds drawing the wayward sheep back to God than Satan began to counterfeit. And as you study the Old Testament you find over and over and over and over the trouble of false prophets, they are every place, they are all over the Old Testament.
They are every place today, and they will be there in the future, until ultimately God destroys the earth.
We could look at example after example from every age; let me give you some examples.
Jeremiah 14:14 it says, "Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name."
They wear the garment of God, they say they represent God, they say they speak God's Word but they are lies, for he says, "I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them;" I didn't commission them and I didn't give them the message. False prophets.
The New Testament calls them by many things like false prophets, false brothers, false apostles, false teachers, false Christs. False, pseudo means sham, lie, false, phony.
Jesus said in John 8:45 for example, "Because I speak the truth, you hear me not." You can't hear the truth, you listen for lies. "Because You're of your father the devil, who is the father of lies."
In Colossians chapter 2 and verse 8, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy (the wisdom of men) and vain deceit."
So the warning begins with a definition, a false prophet is one who does not have a commission from God and he does not have a message from God.
What about right now? Any false prophets among us?
We could talk about Kathryn Kulman or Reverend Ike or Oral Roberts or any number who are dead. But a little more up-to-date,
How about Robert Schuller: Conversation with Perry Sanders, “People just don’t want to hear it”
How about T.D. Jakes?
Dallas Pastor T.D. Jakes who had the following to say in a May 2 National Public Radio show, answering a Muslim woman's question about heaven:
CALLER: I'm a Muslim here in Portland. I'm part of a Shiite community. And we had a wonderful interface dialogue last weekend with a local Unitarian church.
And I'd like to ask you . . .do you feel that only Christians could hope to enter Heaven?
JAKES: When it comes to Heaven, I try to leave that up to God. I certainly believe that Christianity is right, but when it comes down to the final test--who goes and who doesn't go--Jesus said, Other sheep have I who are not of this fold. Them also must I bring. I'll let Him identify who those sheep are and I stay out of the conversation.
Sounds like he and Joel Osteen are comparing notes:
Larry King Live back in October 2005:
KING: We've had ministers on who said, You either believe in Christ or you don't. If you believe in Christ, you are, you are going to heaven. And if you don't no matter what you've done in your life, you ain't.
OSTEEN: Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance between. I believe you have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're a believer in God, you're going to have some good works. I think it's a cop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything ...
KING: What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?
OSTEEN: You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know ...
KING: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren't they?
OSTEEN: Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here's what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe. But I just think that only God will judge a person's heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don't know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.
And I won’t even get started on men like Paul Crouch and Benny Hinn. . .
Let's go to a second word, because those that I’ve just mentioned underline its significance:
2. Danger
"Beware". If Jesus uses that word, that word alone ought to let you know they're dangerous. Whenever I see a sign that says beware I stop. I'm afraid I'm going to see some gorilla, some huge dog, fall off something or get electrocuted, beware, and I stop. I don't want to go any farther. It's a severe word, literally in the Greek it means, hold your mind back from. Don't ever expose your mind to the influence of a false prophet. Don't pay attention to, give heed to, follow, notice, devote yourself, don't even put your mind in his vicinity, they're dangerous, they pervert the mind, they poison the soul.
You see, we see the results of what they do in Second Peter, "Many people follow their pernicious ways." Many people. Suckered along the broad road thinking they're religious following this pied piper who leads them to damnation. And Peter calls them by these terms and these terms speak of how dangerous they are, he calls them natural brute beasts, he calls them filthy spots and scabs, he calls them beguilers of unstable souls, he says they allure through the lusts of the flesh.
And Jude calls them brute beasts, spots or scars or scabs on your love feasts, and says that they are flatterers who flatter people to gain a personal advantage. They are dangerous, they are clever.
You'd be better off to embrace a cobra, you'd be better off to crawl in bed with a hungry lion, you'd be better off to drink a bottle of poison than to come near a false prophet. Those things touch the body, false prophets violate and pervert the mind.
Now why are they so dangerous? The end of verse 15, because "inwardly" that is in reality, truthfully, on the inside not what appears but what is, "they are ravenous wolves." In Ezekiel 22 verses 27 and 28 Ezekiel uses that same term, and so
Let me talk about this for a minute because we see that word not only in the New Testament but in the Old Testament.. The number one enemy of the sheep in Palestine was the wolf, a natural enemy, roaming the hills, seeing a flock and at the precise right moment as it trailed the flock coming out of its hidden place and snatching that sheep and ripping it to shreds and a sheep utterly, totally defenseless against a wolf, defenseless.
Now a good shepherd according to John 10 as Jesus delineates for us the pattern and principle of operating as a good shepherd, a good shepherd is always on the alert for the wolf, a good shepherd cares for his sheep so he watches, he's awake, he's alert.
Now connected in John 10 with the flock you have three kinds of individuals, you have the good shepherd, cares for his sheep, he'll give his life for his sheep, he'll do anything he has to do to keep them from the wolf.
Then you have the hired laborer, the hireling, as soon as he sees the wolf, what does he do? He runs, man this is only a job to me I'm getting out of here. As soon as the going gets tough he is gone, this is the paid, this is the paid Christian professional who doesn't want any of the heat, just wants the glamour, just collects his check, and we've got those kind of people too.
Hired laborers are bad, but there's something worse than them and that's wolves, hired laborers just run.
Wolves eat the sheep. The wolves are the worst enemies. The good shepherd protects the flock, the laborer, you might call him the time serving professional, he just abandons the flock, but the false prophet tears and shreds and destroys the flock.
Why are they the worst? Because they are ravenous, and that word means just what it says. The Greek word, literally the verb form means to snatch or to seize, and you can see the picture as the wolf sinks its teeth into the sheep and is gone.
They're ferocious, people, they are merciless, they are devouring and thus they are extremely dangerous, that's what He's saying.
Now stay with me. They are so dangerous, false prophets, that we're to be wily and wary as we ever even come near their presence. For one thing even if they didn't influence us, if we got involved with them somebody might think we were condoning them and somebody with less discernment than us would get eaten up. They are very, very dangerous. Let me show you why I say that.
In Jude, that wonderful little book on apostasy at the end of the book we have a section and I want to read it to you out of the N.A.S. I think it really illustrates the point.
Verse 21 of Jude says, "Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life."
Now he says to Christians, get your life straightened out, get yourself in the circle where God blesses, in the circle where God's love is manifest, be blessed, get your life straight. Then, once you've gotten yourself taken care of, reach out to to others. Verses 22 and 23 talk about winning people to Christ.
And so there are three categories given of the people we're going to reach, number one, "Have mercy on some who are doubting." That's what the proper text says. Now when you find somebody who's doubting, go along with them and put your arms around them and love them and be merciful to them.
Oh, they say, I think I believe and I, I think it's really true but I don't know and I, I just want to be sure and be merciful to those.
There's a second group, not just the doubters but we call these the endangered disbelievers, verse 23, "Save others, snatching them out of the fire." These are the ones who don't believe and they're on their way to hell and you just have to grab them out.' These are just the unbelievers, the, the people who are indifferent, the outsider totally.
Then there's a third category, I call these the confirmed false religions, and when you go to these people it says in verse 23, "Have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh."
When you go after somebody to win them to Christ and they are engulfed under the influence of a false prophet you better go in the fear of God lest your own garment be spotted by even getting in, in the influence of the false prophet.
You see what Jude is saying is this, this is so serious that in your attempting to rescue somebody under them you can be defiled by their influence. They are vile, dangerous, brute beasts, false prophets.
That's pretty important stuff folks. It's a leprosy you don't want to be near because of it's terrible influence. And when you even try to rescue somebody from under their influence you'll find yourself near to being polluted with the evil, vile flesh.
So let me say this to you, don't think false prophets are good well meaning misguided folks. They are dangerous, devouring wolves who endeavor to shove people onto the broad road to hell. Sometimes they know what they're doing and sometimes they are duped just like the people who follow them.
And that’s why I’ll do all I kind to protect you from the evil of their influence.
That brings me to the third word, and this is the key. Definition, danger and
3. Deception
See this is why they're so dangerous. Inwardly they are ravenous wolves but they come to you in what? Sheep's clothing.
Now, in the Old Testament and even in the New in the case of John the Baptist, a prophet was known by what he wore.
Elijah for example wore a very rough, hairy, rugged, burlap, uncomfortable garment, and it was a statement to society that he was foregoing creature comforts for the cause of God, calling His people to obedience.
John the Baptist came as one in the wilderness, he had a camel's hair coat and he ate locusts and wild honey. Again he wore the garment of a prophet, the rough, raw, hair of a camel is not anything like you think of when you think of camel hair wool type things today, very rough, very uncomfortable.
But again a statement of coming aside from the system, from creature comforts, the rough garment designated the prophet.
And when the prophet came he came with no worldly goods, he came with no worldly wardrobe, he came in rough, rugged fashion as if he had come out of the wilderness of communing with God.
Therefore, when anybody wanted to play the part of a prophet he went out and got a prophet costume. He got a rough, rugged, burlap garment and he played the role.
In fact in Zechariah 13:4 it says of the false prophets, "They wear a rough garment in order to deceive." "They wear a rough garment in order to deceive." That was their whole approach.
Now listen to me, in the case of the sheep's clothing, what you have here is not some guy crawling on all fours into the flock with a sheep's head hanging over his head.
Shepherds for the most part, wore cloaks made of the wool of the sheep. The wool of the sheep when it was sheared was made into cloth for garments and so the mark of a shepherd was he wore a wool cloak.
The idea is not that he comes dressed like a sheep, the idea is that he comes dressed like a shepherd, wearing the garment made from the sheep. Sheep's clothing is just another term for wool, And so as the false prophet wore the garment of the prophet, the false shepherd wears the garment of the shepherd.
It isn't that we're dealing with a sheep who's infiltrated. We're dealing with a shepherd who has infiltrated. And we find out that though he looks to be a shepherd he is a wolf, and he's very subtle.
Now there are three kinds of false prophets, I see in the Bible.
1. The first is a heretic. This is somebody who comes along and says, that's not true, that's a lie, I don't believe the Bible and teaches heresy. Or even says I believe the Bible but teaches a heretical doctrine by twisting it, somebody whose doctrine is obviously, openly heretical.
2. Secondly is an apostate who denies the faith, who denies Christianity, who apostatizes, departs from it.
The first two aren't tough to spot. It's easy to spot false doctrine. Just take your Bible and check it out. It's easy to spot apostasy because they're denying it. And beloved may I hasten to add to you that both of these are dealt with in verse 6 of chapter 7, they are the hogs and the dogs. It says, "Don't cast your pearls before swine or before dogs, giving that which is holy." It's easy to see the hogs and the dogs, they're in the vomit and the mire. You see the first two kinds of prophets, false prophets the heretics and the apostates are made manifest.
But the third kind is the most dangerous of all because he is
3. The Deceiver
That is the one Jesus is referring to here. This is the one you don’t see coming. This is the one who comes with the cloak of the shepherd. This is not the cultist, this is not the Mormon or the Jehovah's Witness or, or somebody who belongs to Christian Science who, who openly and flagrantly teaches false doctrine, those are apostates or heretics.
This is the one who talks about Jesus and the cross and God and the Bible and the church and the Holy Spirit and he hangs around with people that are true Christians and he mingles within the framework of evangelicalism, and he's on the radio and he's on television and he's in the pulpit and he's on the platform and he writes the books, and he always looks like a Christian. That's the one Jesus refers to. Not heretics, heretics are obvious. Apostates are obvious too because they've denied the faith. But these are subtle. The Lord is warning us against people who sound like they teach the Gospel, who sound like Christians, who use the speech of the Bible, the speech of the Gospel, but it's only a guise.
Jude 4 says, "They creep in unawares." They're all over the place folks. I don't know how you're doing on recognizing them but they're everywhere. And I'll tell you, if I recognize them the best I can by the discernment of the Word of God and the Spirit of God and point them out among other Christians usually other Christians get very upset. They say, him? Why no. But all of the criteria need to be examined.
Let me tell you what they look like.
First of all they're pleasant and they're nice, they smile a lot, they seem positive, they seem affirming, they seem Christian, they hang around with Christians, they appear to be thoroughly Christian, they talk Christian talk, they seem to say the right things.
And you know what I've learned? It isn't what they say. It's what they don't say. They talk about Jesus and the cross and heaven and Christianity, not sin and hell and mourning and meekness and humility and brokenness.
They talk about how to be happy and how to be healed and how to be this and how to be that. They're pleasant, they're nice, they seem thoroughly Christian, they say the right things and their, their lives even appear clean, but they deceive..
In the year 100 A.D. we have the earliest of the Christian writings that we know about and it's called the Didachē. And by the year 100 the church had been formed and it was beginning to try to help itself to, to stay away from false prophets, and so in the Didachē there's a section where the church instructed itself as to how to deal with false prophets.
It uses a term to describe them and the term I think is interesting. It's Christemporos, and that Greek word means Christ merchants. They use Christ, they trade in Christ, they sell Christ for personal gain, they pad their pockets, they build their empires. They are the happy Holy Spirit healers and they are the positive thinkers and they are the people who just wind up on the gravy train end of it, sucking it all up, the Christ merchants.
And I'm telling you there are so many people in the world today and even in our own country who are using Jesus Christ as a product to pad their pockets, it's unbelievable, unbelievable. And every area from books to music to preaching in churches and television and radio it's on and on ad infinitum ad nauseam.
T.D. Jakes refers to Jesus as the “Product”
Go hear Joel Osteen in his road show, and it’ll cost you $10 to get in the door.
But you know that the early church was so worried about this that they had in the Didachēa few little rules to help them. Now these are not written by God but these are written by some folks at that time who wanted to have some criteria to judge a true prophet.
So they said, "A true prophet is to be held in the highest honor; he is to be welcomed; and his word must never be disregarded, and his freedom must never be curtailed: but He shall remain in your house one day, and, if necessary, another day also; but if he remains three days, he is a false prophet."
Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac said, "Fish and visitors smell in three days." Now we're not denying hospitality and we're not saying that you shouldn't keep somebody, but when a man comes along and says he's a prophet of God, they assume that if he was a prophet he was on a mission, and if he was really on a mission of God he would be busy about getting on to his mission not hanging around taking in all the freebies he could get at your house.
Now it says, "He must never ask for anything but bread. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet." Ho-ho, how about that one? If he asks for money he's a false prophet.
Boy with a category like that you could sure stuff a lot of folks in. "False prophets claim to speak in the Spirit, but there's one acid test: By their character a true and a false prophet shall be known. Every prophet that teaches the truth, if he does not what he teaches, is a false prophet." If he wants ease, staying around your house, if he wants money or if he doesn't live up to his teaching. "If he claims to speak in the Spirit, but he sits down and orders a table and a meal to be set before him he is a false prophet. Whosoever shall say in the Spirit: Give me money or any other things, don't hear him; but if he tell you to give in the matter of others who have need, then he's a true prophet.
If a wanderer comes to a congregation, and wants to settle there, and if he has a trade, let him work and eat. If he has no trade, consider in your wisdom how he may not live with you as a Christian in idleness ... And if he will not do this, he is a trafficker in Christ. Beware of him."
Well a false prophet's always in it for himself, pad his own pocket, fill his own greed, prestige, power, importance, money, the whole thing. Be aware, because they're out there. And listen people, I'll say it again they're not the apostates and the heretics they're the ones that most people think are Christians.
There's a fourth word, and that's the word
4. Damnation
The false prophets have an end.
Verse 22
But when you come to the end the false prophets are all going to pile up and say, We've been proclaiming in Your name and preaching in Your name and doing all of these things, "And I'll profess unto them, I never knew you; depart."
Depart, and youpick up the same word later on and you're going to find that they departed into everlasting fire, destruction, damnation. The great tragedy is that they don't go alone beloved, they don't go alone. It's tragic they go at all, it's infinitely more tragic that according to verse 13, "Many there be who go with them." "Many follow their pernicious ways." Many buy the lie. And where does it all end? It all ends in destruction and damnation, false prophets are going to be judged.
So we stand warned beloved. That's the first word in Matthew 7:15 warning, "Beware." You understand the definition, you understand the danger and the deception and the damnation, then you ought to be on the lookout for these people. They come and they are dangerous and they are doubly dangerous because they are deceptive and their deception leads to damnation.
Now how do you recognize them, how do you know who they are?
That's in verses 16 to 20, and that's for next time.
And it is very clear and I just feel so badly in one sense that I can't give it to you now cause I want you to know who they are between now and next week, but I'll wait and I'll promise you after next week you'll have right out of the mouth of the Lord Himself the criteria to know who is a true and a false prophet.
And if ever there was anything we need today in the church of Jesus Christ it's the ability to separate the true from the false. I have never seen a time in my life when Christian people have been so vague doctrinally, so utterly gullible to everybody that comes down the pipe talking about Jesus. We have a myriad of these pied pipers and we need to understand how to determine who is of God and who is not, and we'll do that next Lord's Day.
Let's pray.
