Beware of False Prophets, Part 2
Matthew 7:15-20
Let me read the text for our message this evening:
Matthew 7:15-20
The thrust of the text is found in the first line, "Beware of false prophets."
In our lifetime, the most vivid illustration of a false prophet would have to be Jim Jones because in him we see the character, the teaching, the lifestyle, the approach of a false prophet.
As you will remember or perhaps have learned in history class, on November 18, 1978, 918 people drank purple Kool-Aid laced with cyanide at the instruction of their spiritual leader, Jim Jones.
He preached a message of what he called “Apostolic Socialism”. There message was that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism.”
Their success is mind-boggling. Tim Stean was once the second most powerful man in People's Temple. Tim has a law degree from Stanford University and served as an Assistant District Attorney for San Francisco until he resigned to go to Jonestown in 1977.
He was raised in a Christian home. His parents were members of The General Association of Regular Baptists. He went to Sunday school.
He attended Wheaton College, a leading evangelical Christian college in Illinois and was involved in student leadership. When he moved to California he joined and attended The First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. For two years he was the president of their Corinthians, a business and professional young adult group.
But while attending First Presbyterian, he was also attending The People's Temple, and eventually joined Jim Jones staff. He defected, but his six year old son, John-John’s body was found next to Jim Jones.
Gene Mills, another victim was for seven years a member of The Temple, one of Jones writers and a member of his planning commission. He attended or taught in his church's Christian education program from his childhood. When he was 18 years old he was the leader of the Path Finders Club which had over 50 kids in it.
He had 22 adults working under me, and said, “I could give you an answer from the Bible for any question. I knew the Bible backward and forward. At one point in my life the minister tried to send me to college to become his Bible worker and I was very dedicated to the church.”
Wayne Patilla who was Jones private body guard and driver grew up in a Nazarene Sunday School. His wife and long time member of the cult grew up in a Charismatic church and attended Sunday School and church regularly.
Bonnie Thielman for 6 years a member of The Temple was the daughter of Assembly of God missionaries to Brazil and attended Bethany College, a Lutheran school in Minnesota.
Carolyn Moore was president of her Methodist youth fellowship group and she and her sister, Annie were children of a Methodist minister and both served as intimate Jones aides and both died in Guyana."
That's a sample out of the lives of people who were deceived. These people were raised in a Christian environment and yet the subtlety of the man deceived even them. Such is the deceitfulness of false prophets, and such is the reason why our Lord says, "Beware."
And let me add this: The tragedy of Jonestown is not that nearly a thousand people; everybody dies anyway. The tragedy is that many died and went to hell thinking they were serving God and on their way to heaven. That's the tragedy. The tragedy is not an untimely death, the tragedy is a timeless eternity.
And the tragedy of the false prophet is they dupe people into thinking that they represent God and Christ. And they actually believed they were serving the kingdom of God only to wake up in hell.
Jim Jones isn't the only one and he isn't the last one.
So Jesus gives us the warning. But now that we are warned, what are we looking for, how do I know one when I see one? What are the marks of a false prophet?
Well, I’m glad God He doesn't give us an instruction without the tools to deal with it. He doesn't say, watch out for false prophets and good luck in figuring out who they are. I mean if they are this serious and this dangerous then God is going to help us to understand who they are.
And so in verse 15 we read this, "You shall know." That is not a command that is an assurance, that is a confidence.
And how are we going to know? "By their (what?) fruits."
Verse 20
Everybody views trees and fruit in this same way. A tree is judged by its fruit. If you want to know what the prophet is like look at what he produces.
And you've got to be careful, because Christians get sucked in by false prophets. How does that happen? Look at verse 16
There are grapes and figs stuck on the thorns and thistles. Did you know that grapes don't grow on thorns? And figs don't grow on thistles? But you can stick them there. But if you look closely you will see that the thorn didn't produce that grape and the thistle didn't produce that fig.
In like manner, there are people who will attach themselves, unwittingly, they'll get stuck on some false teacher who appears to be a Christian. After all, He talks about Jesus and reads the Bible.
But if you look closely there's a simple principle in verses 17 and 18, good trees make good fruit, bad trees make bad fruit. Not too tough, right? You got a bad tree you're going to get bad fruit.
And the idea isn't a rotten, stinking, wretched looking tree with a bunch of crummy shriveled up fruit. No, they both look alike it's just that when you bite into it one's good and one's bad, you've had that experience. Pick up a piece of-boy that looks good, and one bite and it is not good. You have been deceived.
That's why the Bible says, "Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart." So sometimes when you go up there you might see a false prophet and there's a real grape and a real fig, real fruit but it's stuck on a thorn and a thistle, because when you look at the stuff that he produces it's going to be bad stuff no matter what it looks like on the outside.
Now how are you going to decide? What are you looking for when you see the fruit? It's easy in the fruit world. You can tell an apple from an orange from a banana. But if you are looking at the life of a prophet, what do you look for?
Well let me give you four words, again under this second term, watching, that will help you.
1. Fruit is Character
What kind of character, what kind of personality, what's his attitude and his motive and his thinking, perspective toward life? What kind of actions, what kind of lifestyle, what kind of pattern?
All that character involves, from what I think to what I do. That's the first element that manifests fruit. You see the Bible tells us that. When you look in the Bible and you want to find out about fruit you'll find that fruit is several things. For the sake of our discussion, let’s think about this one: fruit is what we do.
That’s our Actions
For example, look at Luke 3 verse 8.
John the Baptist says, "Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance," he says to the scribes and Pharisees, all right you, you say you've repented, you say you've committed yourselves to God, let's see the fruit. Now what is the fruit?
Verse 10
"The people asked him, What shall we do, then?" I mean what kind of fruit are you looking for J.B.? What is it you want?
Verse 11, He answered, and said to them, If you have two coats, give it to one who doesn't have any; if ye have some food, give it to one who doesn't have any. And then a tax collector came to be baptized, and said, Teacher, what do you want us to do? And he said, don't take any more than you're supposed to."
In other words he is saying, the fruit of repentance is giving something to somebody in need, is not taking anymore than you deserve, it's an action.
Fruit is the way you live, fruit is a lifestyle.
So the first test of a false prophet are his actions, his character as it becomes manifest. You can’t get true righteousness from a rotten tree. Check his character, check his lifestyle, because whatever he is in his heart is going to come out.
Character is not only what we do, but who we are: So a prophet is to be judged not only by action, but
Attitude
How do they think and what's their attitude? Let me give you an illustration.
2 Peter 1:4
I want you to notice a contrast here. It's talking about true believers, and we are told down about the middle of the verse, "that we are partakers of the divine nature." True Christians have received the very nature of God. "We are partakers of the divine nature," watch this, "having escaped," watch this word, "the corruption that is in the world through lust."
Now, a true believer has escaped the corruption, that's a deep down word ah, that's the internal rottenness, we've escaped that, we have escaped corruption.
Now go to 2 Peter 2:19. Here are the false prophets, now listen to this, "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of (what?) corruption."
They have not escaped corruption. But watch this one, "they have escaped (verse 20 what?) pollution."
Do you know what Peter is doing? He is differentiating between internal corruption and external pollution, he is saying they've never been changed on the inside but they've had the ashes of the world washed off the outside. You see they've, they've gotten rid of the external pollution but they have never done anything about the internal corruption, see? That's what he's saying.
And there are many false prophets who deal with the pollution on the outside. They get the pollution off, they look really good, and how are you going to tell them? I mean you've looked for their action and they look so good, and you can't find any moral skeletons in their closet, you can't find any problems outwardly it all looks kind of nice. Then you start going behind that, behind that covering where the pollution has been washed and start looking for the corruption, and where do you go? You go to the motive, you go to the inside, the attitude.
Unless their motive is genuine desire to glorify God, unless their motive is holiness, unless their motive is to overcome the offensiveness of sin, unless their motive is to magnify Christ, unless their motive is humility and selflessness then all of their goodness is the filthy rags of which Isaiah speaks. In one who appears washed on the outside, the test is the inside.
See Jesus went to the Pharisees and He said, on the outside you're whitewashed, right? You're washed, on the inside you're full of dead men's bones.
Now that's, that's the whole Sermon on the Mount frankly, that's what Jesus is saying in the whole sermon.
The Pharisees had managed to get the pollution off the outside and they had to be dealt with on the inside.
In fact, a part of the conclusion of this sermon was to point out that the scribes and Pharisees did not have a Beatitude attitude.
Do they cower poor in spirit, deep humility, mourning over sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, longing for mercy, peacemakers, willing to be persecuted and reviled and despised and hated for the sake of Christ? Not on your life.
False prophets are guided by pride, power, prestige, personality, promotion, they want to be famous, loved, they're not interested in anybody persecuting them, they want to be popular.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones has a good word on this, "A Christian can generally be known by his very appearance, the man who really believes in the holiness of God and who knows his own sinfulness and the blackness of his own heart the man who believes in the judgment of God and the possibility of hell and torment, the man who really believes that he himself is so vile and helpless that nothing but the coming of the Son of God from heaven to earth and His going to the bitter shame and agony and cruelty of the cross could ever save him and reconcile him to God, that man is going to show all of that in his personality. He is a man who is bound to give the impression of meekness, he is bound to be humble and our Lord reminds us here that if a man is not humble we are to be wary of him, he can put on a kind of sheep's clothing but that is not true humility that is not true meekness.
If a man's doctrine is wrong it will generally show itself at this point, he will be affable and pleasant, he will appeal to the natural man and to the things that are physical and carnal but he will never give the impression of being a man who is seeing himself as a hell bound sinner, been saved by the grace of God alone."
You know what I've found? False prophets attract the unbelievers just as much as the believers, because they appeal to carnality and the natural man. They look good, they appeal to the flesh. Physical needs are priority: money and healing.
So what is the character of the prophet? In attitude and action, does he reveal the character of Christ?
Jesus said in John 7:18 you can know that I'm the Son of God because I seek not mine own but I seek the things the Father gave Me to do.
If Jesus set that as the standard for His own identity, certainly that test should be given to any man.
Secondly, the second area of the fruit of the false prophet is their
2. Creed
This refers to their actual teaching. Not only what they teach, but what they leave out. Look at it closely, not only will their teaching go wrong at some points, but secondly here's the subtle one they'll leave out certain things. What they say sounds good. It's what they don't say that's really the issue.
Listen to what they're really saying. Do they speak the Bible? Do they give the whole counsel of God from the beginning to the end? Do they withhold nothing? Discharging their duty so that as Paul said, "I am free from the blood of all men; For I have not failed to declare unto you the whole counsel of God."
You show me a man who does not teach from the Word of God or who teaches error from the Word of God and I'll show you a false prophet. Sometimes they talk about the Bible, they just don't talk out of it. If a man doesn't teach what the Scripture teaches then he's a false prophet.
Now what sound doctrine does our Lord particularly have in mind?
Notice here in Matthew 7 the thrust of this: What is the issue here? You can always tell a false prophet because they have a twisted view of Christ. In particular, His person and His work.
And what is His work? Salvation. So when you get into dealing with a false prophet you want to look at what they teach in regard to the doctrine of salvation. This is where it all gets mixed up.
Now the Lord has just said this, to be saved is not easy, right? You go through a what? Narrow gate to a narrow way. "Few there be that find it." And you must what? Strive, agonize, to enter in.
Let me tell you something about the doctrine of salvation of a false prophet: It isn't going to teach that kind of salvation.
It's going to be a great big wide broad doctrine that includes everybody, and they may say, all you have to do is believe in Jesus and they may talk about that He died and He rose again and they may give you what sounds like the Gospel but when it comes to who gets in, it's everybody.
Arthur Pink said, "False prophets are to be found in the circles of the most orthodox, and they pretend to have a fervent love for souls yet they fatally delude multitudes concerning the way of salvation. The pulpit, platform and pamphlet hucksters (and I'm sure he would have added radio and TV if held lived today) have so wantonly lowered the standard of divine holiness and so adulterated the Gospel in order to make it palatable to the carnal mind."
They have a cheap doctrine of salvation. Sign a card, walk an aisle, stick a hand up, love Jesus and you're in. Doesn't matter what your life is because everybody's included.
So I would say point number one in their doctrine is there is no narrow gate, there's no narrow gate. Their creed has no narrow gate.
And the lie is in what they don't say. He says nothing offensive, they want to please everybody, their message is comfortable and comforting and happy and they will be praised by liberals and evangelicals. And there's no offense in the cross, oh they may present Christ as the way, the truth, the life, but it's not a narrow gate. Their message is a message of easy salvation, come down the aisle, get baptized, whatever. Their message is the message of health, happiness, positive thinking, easy salvation. They are the compromisers.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was exactly right when he said, "Inevitably false prophets are characterized by an almost entire absence of doctrine."
It's just not there, you never hear them talk about it, they don't want to talk doctrine, they don't want to talk theology, we just all get together. They never particularize anything. Everything's very vague and very foggy with no message of holiness, obedience, righteousness, justice, or judgment. It's just a lot of happy feelings, health, happiness, positive thinking thoughts, easy believism, get saved, jump on the bandwagon. There's never a call for repentance.
Do you know when John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress also wrote sort of a biography called Grace Abounding, and in that he says, "I endured at the time of my salvation an agony of repentance that lasted eighteen months." Eighteen months, he agonized over his sin.
The false prophets don't preach it that way. They're vague about everything. We better listen to the true prophets and not the false.
How do you know them? By their fruits. What are their fruits? Character and creed.
3. Converts
You can tell them by who's following. You want to know about a leader, look at his followers, look at their lives. "Many shall follow their sensual ways." Said Peter.
Their fruit is their converts.
Do you see humility in their lives, do you see a striving after holiness, do you see a hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Or are they just the bandwagon gang, just on the bandwagon. Do you see real virtue, real godliness?
There's a fourth term, you can tell them by their
4. Consummation
verse 19
Ultimately you can tell a false prophet by his condemnation, his consummation.
And I want to close with the truth here that I want you to get. Listen, God has ordained that false prophets exist. Have you ever thought about why? I didn’t, until I understood a principle in Scripture.
Listen to this:
1 Corinthians 11:19
You see God says if you have a heresy then that heresy becomes a magnet that pulls away the false disciples and leaves manifest the genuine ones. It's like the wind that blows the chaff away.
In other words He is saying they will have converts who will identify with them. Error separates the chaff and the wheat. By means of true and false prophets God reveals who's genuine. Oh, I know some of the genuine fruit's over there stuck on those thorns, and some of the tares are sown among the wheat.
But generally speaking false prophets are ordained of God to become the attractors or the magnets that draw the ungodly to themselves and in so doing they damn them. It's a part of God's judgment.
In Second Thessalonians 2:11 listen to this, "For God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie." God actually allows the delusion to happen, why? "In order that they all might be judged who believe not." God wants that delusion because it becomes the point of attachment for those who reject Jesus Christ and it obviously separates them from the wheat. And so they're ordained for judgment.
So be warned beloved and be watching. Many of these false prophets are going to look like the real thing, they're going to be very pleasant, very sincere people, talk about Jesus, talk about the Bible, talk about salvation, completely inoffensive, anxious to please everybody, accommodating to other people's viewpoints, rarely critical of others, praised by many, condemned by few, large crowds will gather around them and listen to them and think they're great, and they'll be shoving those large crowds on the broad way that leads to destruction.
But listen carefully and you'll find they have little time for narrowness. They are just sure that God's mind is bigger than many of those who talk about a narrow way. They talk about the love of God and not the wrath of God, they talk about people being deprived and not being depraved, talk about God the Father of everybody, full of love and understanding and nothing about a holy God whose only children are those of faith in Christ.
Their message is a message of gaps that just leaves out the truth that saves. So "Beware."
I close with Acts, the warning of Paul to the Ephesian elders, he said this, "I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples to themselves. Therefore, watch, and remember, that for the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears."
There's those two words, watch and warn. They're going to be there, they're going to be right in the midst of us.
"And now, brethren," Paul says, here's the answer, "I" get this, "commend you to the word of his grace." Our only protection.
Let's pray.
