REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
TEACHING GOAL: To help the church spot both false teachers and false teaching.
To finish up his sermon, Jesus gives four powerful illustrations, all with a goal to pressing his listeners for a decision. All of the illustrations have within them a dire warning: destruction, fire, rejection, destruction.
Mt. 7:13-14 crystallizes our choices concerning the Sermon on the Mount, the previous 2 ½ chapters.
“What is immediately striking about these verses is the absolute nature of the choice before us.” (Stott, 193)
INTRODUCTION:
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but 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. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. (Mt. 7:15-20)
A Prophet in our text is not a fore-teller, but one who speaks in the name of God.
There are three kinds of false teachers in the Bible: HERETICS – They openly reject the Word of God and teach what is contrary to divine truth; APOSTATES – Those who once followed the faith, have turned away and encourage others to follow; DECEIVERS – Give an appearance as a follower of the truth, but is really the ‘false prophet’ of our text.
The problem with False Teachers is that people often prefer false teaching:
These are a rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction. They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel! (Isa. 30:9-11)
A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. (Jer. 5:30-31)
QUESTION: How does the wide gate / narrow gate relate to the false prophet?
There is a false gate and a false way and false teachers and false prophets standing in front of the false gate crying out, “This is the way.”
John Wesley speaking on this passage said over 200 years ago said: “Woe unto you, ye blind leaders of the blind! For ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men. Ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” Them that would “strive to enter in at the strait gate,” ye call back into the broad way. Them that have scarce gone one step in the ways of God, you devilishly caution against going too far. Them that just begin to “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” you warn not to “be righteous overmuch.” Thus you cause them to stumble at the very threshold; yea, to fall and rise no more.”
Remember the gate is narrow and somewhat difficult to find. And it is difficult to get through the gate (agonize to enter the kingdom of heaven). This being the case we must make sure our churches have true and faithful teachers and preachers who know how to point the way.
SO WHAT?
(1) Because most people do not prefer the truth and because in one sense it is not easy to get through the narrow gate, we need true teachers and leaders to point the way.
OUTLINE:
1. Warning Against False Prophets
2. Spotting a False Prophet
3. Character of a False Prophet
4. Spotting False Teaching
SPOTTING FALSE PROPHETS – (A)
I. WARNING AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS
“Watch out for false prophets.”
BEWARE
Our Savior does not give false warnings. He does not put up a wet paint sign if there is no wet paint. He doesn’t use a sign that says “Beware of the Dog!” if only cats are in the house.
“Watch out for false prophets” speaks of vigilance or constancy of being on spiritual guard. It suggests a life-focus of attentiveness that causes the Christian to be sensitive to false teaching. The same word is used in Mt. 16:11, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” i.e., be vigilant to guard yourselves against the influence of religious charlatans.” (From the Web – South Woods Baptist Church)
ILL: I was talking to a fine Christian a couple of weeks ago about false teaching that I feel is penetrating the mission movement, e.g. “The Insider Movement.” The individual responded, “Just let it be. If it is not of the Lord it will die out.”
Jesus did not deal with false teaching and false teachers like that. He commanded us to be vigilant against them.
BIBLICAL WARNINGS AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS
The word ‘pseudo’ is the Greek word for a lie. In the letters of the NT we read about ‘pseudo-prophets’ (claimed divine inspiration); ‘pseudo-apostles’ (claimed apostolic authority); ‘pseudo-teachers’ and even ‘pseudo-Christs’ (claiming to be the Messiah.) The church has had a dreary history of dealing with false teachers. (John Stott, 197)
CLASS EXERCISE: Lead the class to find each text and then have someone read the text.
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. (Acts 20:28-31)
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. (II Cor. 11:13-15)
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. (I Timothy 4:1-3)
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money . . . lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. (II Timothy 3:1-8)
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. (II Peter 2:1-3)
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 1:3-4)
This is certainly a valid exhortation for us now for our Lord said in Matthew 24:11 that “. . . many false prophets will appear and deceive many people” at the end of the age.
JESUS HAD HARSH LANGUAGE FOR FALSE PROPHETS
John MacArthur refers to false prophets as spiritual beasts which are immeasurably more deadly than the real beasts. (MacArthur, 464). John Wesley said that they were worse than murderers. Murderers only destroy the physical body. False prophets destroy the soul.
QUESTION: What language did Jesus use when referring to False Prophets?
“Ferocious wolves” (Mt. 7:15), “hypocrites” (Mt. 23:13), “blind guides” (Mt. 23:16, 24), and Herod as “that fox” (Lk. 13:32)
When a bottle of deadly poison is placed in a cabinet with food and medicines it needs to be plainly labeled.
SO WHAT?
(1) False prophets plagued the New Testament church, plagued the church through history, are with us today and will multiply in the end times.
(2) We must pay close attention to warnings our Lord gives us. He plainly warns us to beware of, be vigilant concerning false teachers. Are we vigilant?
II. SPOTTING A FALSE PROPHET
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but 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. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. (Mt. 7:15-20)
FALSE PROPHETS ARE HARD TO DETECT
Our Lord doesn’t mention that dogs and swine referred to in Matthew 7:6 as hard to detect. But he makes it very clear that that is not the fact with false prophets.
QUESTION: Why is it easier to detect someone who has the characteristics of a dog or swine than a false prophet?
READING: Chuck Swindoll tells the story about an unforgettable evening when a friend of his ate dog food. Contrary to what we might expect, he was not starving, nor was he being initiated into a fraternity. Rather, it happened at an elegant physician’s home near Miami. The dog food was served on delicate little crackers with a wedge of imported cheese, bacon chips, and an olive, topped with a sliver of pimento. Hors d’oeuvres a la Alpo! The deed was not perpetrated by an enemy but by a friend. (With friends like that, who needs enemies!) She had just graduated from a gourmet cooking course and decided she would put her skills to the ultimate test – – and did she ever. After doctoring up those miserable morsels, she placed them on a silver tray. With a sly grin she watched them disappear. Swindoll’s friend could not get enough. He kept coming back for more. Evidently the woman’s friends were a pretty laid-back group because everyone had a good laugh when she told them what they had been eating. To each his own. (Hughes, 247)
ILL: A group of students at Harvard once tried to fool Louis Agassiz, the famous Swiss professor of zoology. They took parts from a number of different bugs and with great skill attached them together to make a creation they were sure would baffle their teacher. On the chosen day they brought it to him and asked that he identify it. As he inspected it with great care, the students grew more and more sure they had tricked this genius. Finally, Professor Agassiz straightened up and said, “I have identified it.” Scarcely able to control their amusement, they asked its name. Agassiz replied, “It is a humbug.” Jesus tells us this evening that Christians should be able to detect the counterfeit, what Professor Agassiz calls a humbug. Christians should be able to detect false prophets. (Rev. Adrian Dieleman, Sermon on Mt. 7:15-20).
SO WHAT???
1. We can not be passive and easy going, complaisant and laid back about the warning about false prophets because they are very difficult to spot.
FALSE PROPHETS APPEAR HARMLESS
“There is nothing offensive about the false prophet. He is in sheep’s clothing, – – so attractive, so pleasant, so nice to look at. He has such a nice and comforting message. He pleases everybody and everybody speaks well of him. He is never persecuted for his preaching, he is never criticized severely.” (Rev. Adrian Dieleman, The Web)
John Wesley wrote: They come to you in ‘sheep’s clothing’; that is, with an appearance of harmlessness. They come in the most mild, inoffensive manner, without any mark or token of enmity. Who can imagine that these quiet creatures would do any hurt to any one? Perhaps they may not be so zealous and active in doing good as one would wish they were. However, you see no reason to suspect that they have even the desire to do any harm. (John Wesley Sermon, The Web)
“So you do not suspect that there is anything wrong at all; there is nothing that at once attracts your attention or arouses your suspicion, nothing glaringly wrong.” (The Sermon on the Mount, II, pg. 243)
THEY GIVE A POSITIVE APPEARANCE
They do not come as sheep but in sheep’s clothing. The shepherds of Palestine wore clothing made of sheep skin. This was the common clothing of their trade. They looked just like shepherds, like the real thing.
The false prophets come into the church looking exactly like bona fide shepherds and in fact most come in with theological degrees, often from very good schools.
READING: False teachers never announce themselves as false teachers. In fact they may not even see themselves as false teachers. They may see themselves as enlightened, as having learned something in the Word that is a key and of vast importance in understanding Scripture and the Christian life.
[They use] the language of Christianity, participating in Christian activities, and pretentious acts of helping Christianity progress in a community. [He/She] is very nice person and has a strong sense of morality. He may speak out on subjects of social justice. He may appear to be an expert in the growth of the church. He may talk about God, Christ, and even the cross of Christ. He may be a very motivating speaker that makes you feel good every time you hear him speak. He may speak of the Church as the Bride of Christ. Outwardly, there may be very little that will catch the attention of true believers that a wolf is in their midst. (South Woods Baptist Church, The Web)
READING: “There is someone standing by my side who looks just like a member of the Church. He is a prophet and a preacher. He looks like a Christian, he talks and acts like one. But dark powers are mysteriously at work; it was those who sent him into our midst . . . . He may even be unconscious himself of what he is doing. The devil can give him every encouragement and at the same time keeps him in the dark about his own motives.” (Hughes quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, page 249)
ILL: Men can preach well, write great hymns etc and still be false teachers. Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), a political economist, writer, hyper polyglot (claimed to know 200 languages), 4th Governor of Hong Kong, was a Unitarian who denied the deity of Christ and yet wrote the wonderful hymn:
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
ILL/ TESTIMONY: Quite a few years ago I participated on a couple of mission trips with a fellow that was a delight to be around. He spoke well, and seemed to show great concern for all that we were doing. He worked hard alongside others in the group. But there were dark issues arising in his soul that I never detected. As a matter of fact, I was shocked to learn that later he was involved in bilking millions of dollars out of Christian organizations and ministers while carrying on an immoral lifestyle. All the while he portrayed himself as having great concern for global missions and for the church and for biblical preaching. He was active in his church and appeared to be greatly concerned for others. He wore the clothes of a sheep but did not possess the heart of a sheep, but rather a wolf. He used Christians and his position to aggrandize himself. I fear that there are more wolves trying to devour flocks than we realize. We must not become slack in discerning the lifestyle and teaching of wolves among the flock. (South Woods Baptist Church)
SO WHAT???
1. Just because a person seems harmless and gives a positive appearance does not mean he is not a false prophet.
QUESTION: How do you spot false teachers? What should we be looking for?
Our Lord gives us some keys to use in spotting false prophets.
It seems that there are three keys to detecting a false prophet: (1) Their character; (2) Their Teaching; (3) the impact of their teaching on others.
CHRISTIANS NEED TO BECOME FRUIT INSPECTORS
The first question to ask is, is this individual a shepherd and a servant or is he a wolf, a predator. This will be determined by observation.
Note the change in metaphors from wolf to fruit trees.
The Greeks, the Jews and the Romans in ancient times all used the idea that a tree is to be judged by its fruit. Like root, life fruit was a common proverb. Seneca, the Roman rhetorician claimed that good cannot grow from evil any more than a fig tree can grow from an olive.
ILL: “Are grapes gathered from thorns?” asked Jesus. There was a certain thorn, the buckthorn, which had little black berries which closely resembles little grapes. “Or figs from thistles? There was a certain thistle, which had a flower, which, at least at a distance, might be taken for a fig. (William Barclay, 283)
The point is that once a person started making wine they would not confuse a buckthorn for a grape or when they sat down to eat they would not confuse a fig with a thistle.
A might mistake a wolf for a true shepherd, but if you are deceived in that situation remember that a tree can not for long hide its fruit.
SO WHAT???
1. Because most people do not prefer the truth and because in one sense it is not easy to get through the narrow gate, we need true teachers and leaders to point the way.
2. False prophets plagued the New Testament church, plagued the church through history and are with us today.
3. We must pay close attention to warnings our Lord gives us. He plainly warns us to beware of, be vigilant concerning false teachers. Are we vigilant?
4. We can not be passive and easy going, complaisant and laid back about the warning about false prophets because these people are very difficult to spot.
5. Just because a person seems harmless and gives a positive appearance does not mean he is not a false prophet.
6. Our Lord gives us some keys to detecting false prophets, keys that we need to use.