Sunday, January 31, 2021
Matthew 7:15-22 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
Jesus here is warning about false prophets, which He does many times during His earthly ministry.
His Apostles also warned of them repeatedly.
So He gives one simple, powerful and accurate test to use to detect false teachers—Check their fruit!
Now remember, a “false prophet” is not just someone who falsely predicts future events, but also one who, in God’s name, teaches what is false.
In the NT, Peter warned the church, “But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them” (2 Pet. 2:1 NLT).
So first, to protect us from deception, the Lord Jesus:
- Calls the church to judge a tree’s fruit before eating from it
ILLUS: Woman in fruit section testing the quality of the fruit—she examined it for bruises, for decay, and for ripeness before buying it.
This woman is wiser than a lot of Christians!
According to Jesus, if someone comes to you claiming to be a prophet—a spokesman for God—you should look past the pretty leaves on their tree and check out their fruit before taking a bite!
You say, No, Jeff! Jesus said “Judge not, lest you be judged.”
True, but non-judgmental does not mean non-discerning.
Jesus was talking about a HYPOCRITICAL kind of judgment, not ALL judgment.
He said, “Why do you notice the small piece of dust that is in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood that is in your own? 4 Why do you say to your friend, ‘Let me take that piece of dust out of your eye’? Look at yourself first! You still have that big piece of wood in your own eye. 5 You are a hypocrite! First, take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to get the dust out of your friend’s eye” (Matt. 7:3-5 ERV).
But in another place Jesus said, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly” (John 7:24 NIV).
So there is a wrong and a right kind of judgment.
Listen closely to Paul the Apostle’s words to the Thessalonian church:
“Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil” (1 Thes. 5:19-22 NIV).
“TEST” means examine!—We’re to “test, examine them all.”
Listen to the Apostle John saying the same thing:
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test (examine) the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1 NIV).
NOTICE: There is a ‘spirit’ upon false prophets and teachers, a spirit that masquerades as the Holy Spirit, but it isn’t!
A false prophet will proclaim, “This is what the Spirit says,” when it’s not what the Spirit of God is saying at all.
So don’t be gullible; don’t believe every spirit that comes to you claiming to be from God.
So how do you examine the prophetic fruit? FIRST:
- Predictions that don’t come true
We’ve covered this extensively the last couple of weeks, but let me give a couple of quick examples of what real prophecy looks like from the greatest Prophet of all time—the Lord Jesus Christ!
Jesus made both short range and long range predictions with 100% accuracy.
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is about to make His grand entrance into Jerusalem for the first Palm Sunday—the Bible records:
“As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”
Jesus foresaw EXACTLY what would take place—exactly where a colt would be tied, that the owner would approach, and exactly what the owner would say.
Then in another place, His disciple’s pointed out the beauty of the Temple, and Jesus predicted:
“As for what you see here (the Temple), the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down” (Lk. 21:6 NIV).
When they asked Him when this would happen, Jesus prophesied:
“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near” (Lk. 21:20 NIV).
Approximately 37 years later, the Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem, just as Jesus had said.
They breached the walls, flooded in, and slaughtered over a million Jews.
And they destroyed the Temple with fire, leaving not one stone on top of another, exactly like Jesus predicted.
Jesus’s future predictions came to pass PERFECTLY, and this is what genuine, God-given prophecy always looks like!
Conversely, God vividly describes false prophets through Jeremiah:
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds’” (Jeremiah 14:14 NIV).
So FIRST—take the time and trouble to examine a person’s prophetic track record.
SECOND and last:
- Pick the fruit of their teaching
Here’s what you look for in false teaching:
- A DIFFERENT SOURCE
Many false prophets are gifted communicators but poor teachers.
The requirement of a pastor is not gifted communication, but the ability to teach the word of God ACCURATELY!
- True teachers will reach for the Bible first, second, and always.
The foundation of their message is always built upon the “Thus says the Lord” in God’s Word.
The Apostle Paul told young pastor Timothy:
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15 NIV).
And again: “Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not” (2 Tim. 4:2 NLT).
But the defining mark of a false prophet or teacher is the twisting of Scripture to mean something other than its intended meaning.
False teachers begin with, “This is what the Lord has shown me—in a vision, a dream, a word in my heart,”—INSTEAD OF:
“Turn with me to such and such a passage and let’s see what God is telling us out of His Word.”
So you find a DIFFERENT SOURCE.
Then they bring a:
- DIFFERENT CHRIST
True teachers and preachers will first and always magnify the Christ of the Bible.
False teachers, on the other hand, will diminish or redefine Him to fit their own theology.
The Mormons teach that Christ was the brother of Lucifer.
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus was not God, but was a created being.
One very popular charismatic preacher with a national platform teaches that when Jesus Christ came to earth, He laid aside His divinity and performed miracles only as a man in right relationship with God, and not as God.
But this is an ancient heresy that the church dealt with long ago.
Yet tens of thousands of professing Christians follow this man and buy his books!
False teachers use a different source and present a different Christ:
SUMMARY: For your own protection—so that you don’t eat bad fruit, or drink from a polluted fountain, inspect the fruit of ANYONE presented to you as a PROPHET!