Last time we looked at the narrow path to God. We saw
that even though it is hard to find, and is difficult to travel, yet it is sure and can
be trusted because Jesus Himself is
the Way. Now this time I want us to look
at another difficulty that Jesus warned us that we may face on our spiritual
journey. This is the issue of “false prophets.”
Matthew 7:15-23 has two paragraphs of material because there
are two facets to this warning. The second paragraph explains some of our
questions about the first. When the New
Testament was written, there were no paragraph markers or headings as your
Bible probably has. When we see those
little headings there it is easy to view the paragraph sections as random
little unrelated excerpts from a much longer sermon but a careful reading reveals that
this entire sermon holds together paragraph by paragraph and sentence by
sentence. Let’s look at these two
paragraphs.
The first paragraph warns us about “false prophets.” Prophets are mentioned throughout Scripture
and many of the books of the Bible were written by prophets. The writing prophets frequently made written
as well as spoken predictions about the future in order to encourage or warn or
even rebuke God’s people. Other prophets never wrote any books. There
is no canonical book of Elijah or Elisha, for instance. This is because the
primary role of the prophet was to speak
for God whether it concerned the future or not. Sometimes they introduced
God’s message with the formula: “Thus saith the Lord.” Prophets were very important to Israel and
later to the Church especially before the written record of God’s revelation was completed in the Bible.
There is some disagreement among Christians whether there
are true prophets at all today. Instead
of studying that question now, let me point out that we are actually discussing
“false prophets.” And instead of simply
dismissing anyone who presumes to speak for God on the basis that this is
impossible, let’s look at it the way Jesus did. His discussion of “false prophets” presumes that
there is such a thing as “true prophets.” I am not now debating whether they exist today
but just pointing out that certainly Jesus was a prophet and He still lives
today. Paul and John were prophets and their
words still live in the New Testament.
So true prophets (or their words) exist.
But there are also "false prophets." They are false because they only presume
to speak for God. This could be very
dangerous if someone were to take to heart the message of such a person. In our context of a spiritual journey looking
for the narrow way and not necessarily the popular path, a "false prophet" could
give false information about the way
to heaven or about Jesus. Let’s examine
this "false prophet" a little more closely.
How do they appear according to Jesus? They have “sheep’s clothing.” Who are
the sheep? These are the believers who have one true
Shepherd. "False prophets" try to look
just like the sheep! They try to talk like them, act like them,
dress like them. They are just like the Pharisees who looked very nice on the
outside—whose righteousness was considerable if you looked at their works. But God looks at the heart and He describes
these "false prophets" as being ravenous
wolves inwardly—the insides—where
only God can see! So how do we
detect these "false prophets?"
Jesus says you will know them by their fruits. A lot of people
quote this verse and apply it to evaluating everyone.
But remember that Jesus is talking about "false prophets" here.
Furthermore, what are these fruits? Well, in some places in the Bible "fruits" seems to refer to our works but
remember here that the "false prophet" looks just like the sheep on the
OUTSIDE. So, many people have come
across religious leaders who presume to speak for God but it turns out that they
are "false prophets" and I have heard people say, “Oh, but he seemed so
nice.” Some of these guys—not all of
them—may actually lead a very good life—something worth emulating even. So if their “fruits” are not their OUTWARD
works, what could it be?
Before we attempt to answer that question look at how Jesus
describes their "fruits." It is “bad.”
From the world of the farmer, Jesus
compares their fruit to that of a thistle or a thorn bush and contrasts it to
that of a fig tree or a grape vine. They
don’t produce anything worthwhile—in fact it is downright harmful. What does the false prophet produce? Let’s look at that second paragraph before
answering!
Jesus talks about that Day coming when the deeds of every
heart will be revealed—when our inner being will be revealed. The false prophets (and everyone of us) will
have to give an account and some will hear Jesus say, “Depart from Me.” “I never knew you.”
These will say, “But, Lord!
(False prophets wearing sheep’s clothing will call Him Lord!) Didn’t we do
all these great works in Your name?”
Some will have done deeds that everyone will think qualifies Him as a prophet
of the Lord. Even the false prophets
will have fooled themselves! But
miracles and power and mighty deeds are no substitute
for knowing the Lord and being known by Him.
So, looking at these two paragraphs together, it seems clear
that it is not for lack of good works or even powerful works but for
lack of knowing the Lord that they are sent away! The false prophets who presume to speak for
God were in actuality not speaking for God at all. So, their bad fruit was their message not their
works or their lifestyle necessarily.
You see the problem here is that the message of a false
prophet is not from God at all. It may
promote a false savior or a false way to heaven. But how will we know unless we listen to the
true prophet Jesus! We must know Him and
His message to discern a false message from a false prophet.
Now it is true that there are some other tests of a false
prophet in Scripture. If they fail any
one of these tests, they are false.
Deuteronomy 18:22 says if the prophet makes a prediction that fails,
they are false. Not all prophets can be
tested this way, but failed predictions are easily discerned. Isaiah 8:19-20 says if a prophet encourages
his followers to do something contrary to Scripture, they are false. These are both related to a false message that can be tested.
Some people would add this passage we just read and call it
the “fruit test.” They might say that if
anyone fails to have fruit they are probably not a follower of Jesus at
all. Once again, this passage is only
referring to false prophets.
Yes, a
lack of good works is certainly a grievous lack. According to our study a couple sessions ago,
we learned that we are to evaluate people who profess to be followers of Christ with a view to
restoring them if they exhibit evil instead of good. The problem with tying
the idea of a “fruit test” to this passage is that we all sin from time to time
and that doesn’t necessarily make us a false prophet nor does it necessarily mean
that we are going to hear Jesus tell us “Depart from me, evildoer.”
Nor can such a test refer to a Bible teacher or Pastor who
mistakenly teaches anything in the Bible wrongly! Look—with all the different views on when
Jesus is coming back that are preached from the pulpit—does that mean if you
are wrong on that (and not every one of those views can be right!), you are going to hear those fateful words? From the immediate
context, Jesus is pointing to people who presume to speak for God and steer
people onto the wrong path to heaven.
What Jesus' words mean is that some people will not only
deceive others but also themselves and may be quite sincere but if they don’t
know Jesus, they are in danger as well as those who are guided by them. We have to evaluate the message—not their outer "fruits." Their message reveals whether they know Jesus.
What does that mean for us?
Do you know Jesus? Where can you
learn to know Jesus more? Are your
spiritual leaders following Jesus? Do
they know Him? THAT is Jesus’
point here. Now of course as you get
to know Jesus you will be changed into His likeness and you will do good works
and you can truly be seen as a follower of Jesus but it is a process that may be difficult to see at times. But God sees the heart. We evaluate the messenger by the message.
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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