Beware of false Prophets
(Matthew 7: 15-20)
Introduction – If it Looks Like a Duck
There’s an old saying that says if it looks like a duck, and waddles like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck. But suppose I were to tell you that Jesus that’s not always true. Suppose I also told you that when he said that what he had in mind was religious people, people who held positions whereby they were seen to spoke out about God said or thought, what we would today call preachers. Not all preachers that look like preachers, they may look like preachers, and they may talk like preachers, but are they really messengers of God. This is why he tells us to beware of false prophets.
What I want us to do today is look at that message that Jesus gave at the end of the sermon on the mount because we really need to know about this if you listen to all the sort of stuff that claims to be Christians especially if the online world we live in today. You need to know about this even if you plan to read religious books, or if you go to different churches because we all need to be able to recognize a false prophet when we see one. How would you spot one, how would you know a false prophet if you saw one especially if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, how would you know if it’s not really a duck. The answers to those questions are found in the closing verses of Matthew Chapter 7.
You recall we’ve been going through the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus has come to the end of that sermon, and at the conclusion he gives us 3 challenges, three exhortations that form the conclusion of his sermon. The first exhortation that we looked at last week was the inner and narrow gate. The second one is the one we’re looking at today and it begins in verse 15 Matthew Chapter 7 verse 15
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a 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 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
(Matthew 7: 15-20)
Beware False Prophets
In this passage Jesus begins by giving us a description of a false prophet, a description I might add that’s a bit surprising. Secondly, he gives us the test of a false prophet, how you can tell whether a preacher is giving you God’s message. Then finally he talks about the destination awaiting these false prophets, so with that in mind, let’s see what Jesus had to say about false prophets. He begins by saying, “beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing”. Alright, he’s describing them and the first thing he tells us about them is that they come in sheep’s clothing, in other words they look like the real McCoy, but he just called them false, so, in other words, they are not as they appear. These false prophets might say things that resemble the truth, they may say things that sound plausible, but what they say won’t stand up to close biblical examination and it is that which will clearly identify them as false prophets.
Look again at verse 15 again, he says, “they come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are wolves’ ravenous wolves”. They’re not sheep, they are wolves, they may quack, but they are not ducks they’re a decoy. They are not the real deal, that’s the point. As a matter of fact, the Greek word that’s translated ravenous wolves can also means to be a swindler or an extortioner. Isn’t that interesting? These are people are really out for their own personal gain, and they don’t mind swindling or exhorting other people to get. That doesn’t necessarily mean their motives are always just financial, although sometimes they are. Often it is about building their own reputations and gaining influence. Someone has said false prophets are in the ministry for what they can get, not what they can give, they exploit people, they don’t build people up, they are dominated by self-interest, they speak for monetary gain prestige or to transmit their own ideas. They promote themselves instead of proclaiming Christ.
One comment I read on this matter said, and I thought this was particularly interesting, no man at one and the same time can prove that he is cleverer than everyone else yet at the same time say that Christ is number one. The whole idea here is that a true sense of Christian humility should mean that prestige is the last thing we would want. False prophets are usually in the business of promoting themselves rather than promoting the Lord.
I read a story once of a pastor in Scotland, he was a very well know academic and his books topped the Christin book charts in the 1960’s. He even did the epilogue of STV on a Sunday evening after the news. When he retired from his university job he could have pastored any number of churches in Britain because of his wisdom and his renowned speaking ability, but he chose to minister to a very small congregation in a tiny rural church of Scotland church. Sometime of an evening there was only 15 or 20 people there. After years of doing that two men who were visiting had a conversation about him and one of them said afterwards to his friend, because of this man’s humility and his service he will have a front row seat in the Kingdom of heaven. The other guy disagreed and said he would actually be miserable in the front seat. Anyway, that’s true humility and servitude and that’s the very thing that false prophets do not do. They are in it for themselves they are in it for their personal gain and not for what they can do for other people.
Alright I hope we can agree that is what false prophets look like.
But we need to know more than that when discerning this issue, but that’s just a trigger, a red warning light that suggest things on the surface don’t appear quite right.
Here's the big question, if they look like a duck but they’re a decoy how do you know the duck from the decoy? How do you know when a man or woman are claiming to be speaking from God, how do we know they are really speaking from God. In other words, how do you know a true prophet, from a false prophet.
Well Jesus gives us the litmus test, and it begins in verse 16 when he says.
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?Good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
(Matthew 7: 16)
What’s the test, the answer is, it’s the fruit. Is that obvious or what? it’s as clear as the nose on your face and it’s hard to miss. The plot thickens, let me point out a couple of things about this passage the word that’s translated know is a word that means to discern. I think that because false prophets often use deception, you’re going to have to exercise some discernment, you’re going to have to exercise some real perception.
A Problematic Verse.
Now there’s a problem with this verse, and the problem is this. If you ever heard this verse talked about before, is it normally used to suggest that you can know a true Christian from a fake Christian by their works. So, the fruit described here is believed by many to mean ‘good works’ and that’s what to look for, right. People often think this passage saying you can look at somebody’s life and tell whether or not they’re a Christian, is that correct, is that even a biblical idea, I mean some Christians can do some pretty bad things, right. Now there are passages that deal with this issue and us the term ‘fruit’ to refer to good works, but that is not what is being taught here. If I have taught, you anything about how to understand the Bible together over these years doing this podcast, the one thing I’ve tried to focus on when approaching a Bible verse is the context in which it is written. What is the subject matter being discussed in the surrounding verses. The key to understanding any Bible verse when looked at in isolation, is context.
Therefore, is the context of this passage talking about salvation, no the subject of this passage is recognizing, false prophets. It isn’t trying to help us know if someone is saved or not, it trying to help us discern truth from error and whether what someone is saying makes them a false prophet. What are we talking about here, well I can confirm we’re not talking about the salvation of Christians, we’re talking about false prophets. So, the subject is false prophets and the way you know a false prophet is by their fruits. So, what is the fruit of a prophet?
The word fruit can be applied differently to any given situation as to represent what should flourish out of that particular situation within the Christian context being discussed. For example, the fruit of a Christian individual is seen by the development of character. While the fruit of a true Christian life is good works, but that is foreign to what this passage is dealing with.
The point of this passage is to help us know a false prophet when we hear one, which means the fruit of any prophet or preacher is the words that come out of their mouth and for our prophet is prophecy. Now I assure you that’s the way Jesus is using the word fruit here in the Gospel of Matthew. Keep one, metaphorical finger in Matthew Chapter 7 and listen for a moment to what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 12.
Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.
(Matthew 12: 33)
Same idea as Matthew 7. I just want you to see that this verse is saying something about words that come out of people mouths and then Jesus uses the illustration of fruit. So, the fruit in verse 33 are the words spoken. Look at the verses that follow.
You brood of vipers how can you being evil speak good things, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (So what’s the fruit, it’s the words that come out of their mouths, we continue in verse 35) A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure of their heart brings forth evil things, but I say to you that everyone every idle word men may speak they will give an account for in the day of judgment, for your words will be justified and your words will be condemned.
False Prophet Equals False Words.
Get the message, fruit in this parable, is the words spoken by the supposed speaker. Don’t make the mistake either of thinking this just refers to people who are claiming to foretell the future, don’t even go there, that is way too narrow a definition of what a prophet is. This applies to anyone making utterances that in any way claim to be from the Lord or wish to apply God word into the everyday of our future lives. The true test of a false prophet is the same as it is for a preacher, and it is this. If a man or a woman is claiming to bring you a message from God then they are claiming to be a prophet of God, and then you simply test the words that come out of their mouth and see if they line up with the word of God. The test of a false prophet, it is, is the word of God coming out of their mouths. When you listen to a preacher in any situation, the question you need to ask is, are they saying what this book says.
When you read religious books, the test is, is it telling or explaining to you or helping you apply what this book plainly says. When you are listening to anyone speaking or preaching, including me today, the test is, am I telling you what that book says or am I just telling you what I think. Because this is not meant to be about me telling you what I think, this is about me telling you what this book says. So that’s the test of a false prophet.
I think this passage sometimes gets misunderstood in the hands of some preachers, some misapply it and, in the process, they miss the point. They can assume that Jesus is saying that we can identify good people by good deeds, and bad people by bad deeds, or even by the lives they live. But having studied the Sermon on the Mount we know that cannot be what Jesus is teaching in this context. In fact, some of those examples of good works are the very things that he signals out as being false. Thee scribes and the Pharisees and they kept religious rules and regulations, if fruit means just good works, the Pharisees would be the first to qualify for a medal, and that goes against everything Jesus is teaching here. So, this is not about your works, it’s about your words. One scholar has pointed out that in Palestine at the time Jesus spoke that a type of fig tree that closely resembled a thistle and what he was saying is beware, sometimes a thistle from a distance can looked like a little fig tree, so examine it closely. Perhaps in the illustration that Jesus is using here about the figs and the thistles he’s alluding to those plants that look like they were nutritious food but in the final analysis they were not.
Jesus is warning us here that there may be a superficial resemblance between the true and the false prophet, these false prophets may wear the right clothes, they may use the religious language, but the words they offer cannot give or sustain life
What Jesus will do next in this passage which is I find particularly interesting is he discusses their destiny. The future destiny of the false prophet and we will pick it up in verse 21, but we will discuss that next time.