Jan. 8, 2017 Afternoon Service Beatitudes Part 24 by Pastor Josh Sheldon

False Prophets in Sheep’s Clothing

The title that we give it, and it is a good title as he stood on a mount giving the law even as Moses went on top of a mount and received the law. Important difference as Moses received and transmitted and Jesus gives.

But our text this morning is there in Matthew chapter 7 verses 15 -20 Lord Jesus coming to the close of this sermon beginning to wrap things up. He says beginning at verse 15 Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Of course we can tell by the emphasis in the volume of text given to the various parts of this warning.

Beware of false prophets and he tells us how they come. They come dressed like us but inwardly they are the opposite. Lord willing the opposite. They come dressed as sheep. By sheep we mean true believers in Jesus Christ.

They come dressed outwardly that way, inwardly they are something different. That's one verse. And then verses 16 -20 you recognize them by their fruits. The rest of verse 16 all the way down to 19 describing that fruit for us.

And then verse 20 back to the idea of fruits. You will recognize them by their fruits which is how we began in verse 16. So those two verses bracket it. One warning that you have false prophets pretending to be sheep when in fact they are ravenous wolves.

And then the rest of the passage having to do with fruits. You know the movie Catch Me If You Can was a biography of a man named Frank Abagnale. And he was one of the most successful and notorious con artists of all time.

He stole a fortune with these superb check forgeries so good that he later became a consultant to the FBI in spotting bad checks and forgeries and such. He had no formal education or teacher training and yet he successfully posed as a Pan Am pilot a doctor even as a lawyer.

He was able to disguise himself with clothes, with demeanor, with language, with talk, with vernacular that made him appear to be just what he purported. He fit in with whatever crowd he was trying to get to.

The pilots on the Pan Am plane where he hitched a ride as a Pan Am pilot thought he was one of them. He at one point impersonated a doctor and as he was hanging around with other doctors he picked up the language and all the terms so well that they thought he was one of them.

But he was actually and in fact none of them. It was all an act, a very convincing act, but an act nonetheless. And so are the false prophets that Jesus speaks to us of here in this passage and warns us so carefully about.

They are clothed outwardly to look like us, like sheep, and they will look like us. They will use the right words. They will use whatever allows them to fit in with us. If they are at a Pentecostal church then they're going to shout out vehemently with their hands raised and shaking in some way, Hallelujah, praise God!

And do so loudly and vociferously and enthusiastically. If a ravenous wolf is a false prophet were for example at a Catholic church he would know how to speak Latin and he would speak the Latin in dramatic and reverent tones and convince everybody that he was actually like them.

In the Reformed church, in a church like ours, this is someone who would learn the multi-syllabic words that we use like sanctification, hypostatic union, or eschatological inauguration, and all these things to impress us and make us think wow, this person really is one of us and should be put in a position of influence.

Jesus says two things here that are of immense importance to us. The first is beware. Beware, not just a proverbial warning, but an alert to a clear and present danger. There will always be those who wish to mislead God's people into the error of Balaam.

They are clever where we are innocent. They are wise as serpents where we are gentle as doves. And we, and I know this in this place from experience, including myself, we, when someone claims to love our Lord Jesus Christ, we're anxious to believe them.

We're anxious to believe them. Aren't we? We want to believe them. We want to know that this person is saved. We want to believe that this person is coming to us because they love Jesus Christ and because they love Him and they see us preaching a living, the true gospel.

They love us. We want to believe that. And so we are, in that sense, naive, innocent, over-reliant, over-trusting, perhaps over-gentle. I would hope we would stay that way at some level. There's one aspect of my heart for this church as the pastor that would like to see us remain innocent and gullible in that sense when somebody says they love Jesus Christ that we would just be so anxious for that to be true, ready to believe.

But there are those that Jesus warns us about here and we dare not ignore the severity of this warning and the severity of their description, ravenous wolves. So I want to talk about this morning before we take the Lord's table.

I think the first question we have to answer is just what is a false prophet? I mean, this word prophet is a new one in this whole Sermon on the Mount. We haven't come across this before. Well, a prophet is one, at its most basic, it's one who purports to speak for God.

Now, in this context, it doesn't have to be one who predicts what's going to happen tomorrow or in the next age, though prophets traditionally did some of that. But in this context, it doesn't have to be one like that.

It's one who's claiming to speak for God. It doesn't have to mean directly for God, but we'll cover that in a few moments. Speak for God in His Word, that sort of thing. Some do so. Some make that claim by claiming that God has done what I said a moment ago, personally revealed to them by this Spirit in an audible voice, if you will, some new revelation.

So they claim to be a prophet. Others claim fidelity to God's Word. And so they speak the Word of God from the Word of God. But this false prophet, this ravenous wolf that Jesus speaks of here is one who's going to change it ever so slightly.

He's going to twist the words just a bit and modify the trajectory they take, modify, change actually the target that they hit. And if it's a false prophet, that target is not Jesus. So they lead us astray.

That's why Jesus warns us so carefully and so specifically. He warns us so severely about them. What's in view here is not so much the foundation from which the false prophet proceeds. Is he claiming to speak God's Word from the revealed scripture?

Is he claiming to speak God's Word because he has revelation coming to him from God? Those are really other questions than what we have before us here from Jesus. What Jesus is telling us here, how do we find out the false prophet against whom He warns us?

He tells us to beware. He tells us to be careful. It's His character. It's His character that we're to watch for. And that's why I was pointing out at the beginning that you have one verse that says beware of them and the whole rest of this.

Jesus talks about the fruits, the fruits that they produce. False prophets say all the right things. They attend all the right functions. They pray with solemnity and passion. They have that aha moment over and over again as they show us their knowledge of God's Word.

Now man can make mistakes. I mean I've made plenty of mistakes. One of our favorite guest preachers, a dedicated man of God, a true under shepherd of Christ, right here at this very pulpit, he actually said that we're not polytheists, which is true.

We worship one true living God. And he went home to drive the point. He got a little excited. He said something like we worship God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Three gods in truth and spirit.

Well we all know he didn't mean that we worship three gods. He meant three persons, one God. And we knew this man so well. Nobody even stopped because we knew exactly what he meant. He just got tongue tied.

He just got a little excited and made an error. There's a difference between an error and falsehood. I once heard Charles Stanley on the radio say that we ought not to have poor self-esteem. It's not God's will for you to have bad self-esteem.

You're supposed to feel good about yourself. This really pricked my ear. I said what on earth is he talking about here? So I turned up a little bit and he said something that I never forgotten. He repeated again a moment later so I know I got it right.

He said you're supposed to have good self-esteem. You should not feel badly about yourself. And if you want to have godly and right self-esteem, here's the cure. Here's what you do to get your self-esteem where God wants it to be.

Look at the cross, he said. Look at the cross and know that you were worth dying for. I was dumbfounded and I had to ask myself and I don't really know the answer. Is he mistaken? I mean is that just an error or is that one of these that Jesus might be warning us about here?

But see a false prophet is not one who's mistaken. He didn't make an error like my friend here who said three gods and we all know he meant persons. A false prophet is ravenous. He is a ravenous wolf.

Now it's not a word that comes up very much in our New Testament. It's used in Luke 18 .11 where the Pharisee calls that tax collector on the other side of the temple from him in Jesus' parable. He calls him an extortioner.

He uses the same word that Jesus uses for ravenous. Paul uses it three times in 1 Corinthians for swindler. It's translated as swindler. The idea though with this word for ravenous, the idea is someone who's greedy and ill-intentioned and looking only for personal gain of which he cannot get enough.

Now whether they swindle money or maneuver themselves into fellowship for influence, either way the word fits. Feed their wallet or feed their ego. So ravenous wolves are false lying prophets. Now in Jeremiah's day, actually in the book of Jeremiah we actually get one of the longest descriptions of false prophets both historically and doctrinally.

In his day when he was telling people that thus saith the Lord, get out of Jerusalem. Surrender yourselves to Babylon. Babylon's coming. God has sent them. There is no peace. The temple's going to be sacked and you're going to go to exile.

The false prophets during all this time were calling out peace. Peace when God through the true prophets prophesying quite the opposite. In our day we have men like Rob Bell. I don't know if he's still influential but I remember when he first came out with this book and said that men of all stripes, men of all manner of belief and faith have peace with God.

He denies hell and everlasting torment. He preaches peace where God's word proclaims the worst kind of danger for those who don't have faith in Jesus Christ. He preaches peace with God absent faith in Christ making him a false prophet of the worst sort.

What he would do with Romans 5 where it says therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We could spend a lot of time exposing all kinds of examples of false prophets throughout all ages including our own.

I just want us to have in mind though without naming a lot more names which we could do that it's a risk. It's a danger. It's something we need to be on the alert for. Jesus, remember he's closing this first major sermon, this first public proclamation that he's made with this warning.

So it's a strong one. It's an important warning. The second thing he says after talking about ravenous and describing for you what ravenous is the second thing he says is we can know them. You can know them.

He says that twice in verses 16 and 20 at the beginning and end of that part of the message about the fruit that they produce. He says that we can recognize them. The word he uses you will recognize them.

It's a compound of the word to know. And it indicates full knowledge. Nothing left out. Their character will be revealed by their fruit. Their persona will either be confirmed or stripped away by the evidence of their lives.

All this by the fruit. Fruit in the Bible of course is used metaphorically. It means the result of something. The result of a course of life is what we're looking at here. Now the thing produced by a tree, good fruit or bad fruit indicates the nature of the tree and it indicates the nature of the foundation.

What kind of tree is it? How deep is the root? How healthy is the soil? And all that controls the fruit that comes out of it. Our Lord speaks here in proverbial terms when he asks about grapes coming from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.

He means that what comes out in word and deed will reveal what was behind those words and those deeds. Verse 18 makes this absolute. The healthy tree cannot produce bad fruit and the good tree or excuse me a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

You see there's a principle at work here with this fruit. By their fruit you will know them. You can have all the facts. You can ascertain what's behind the words that they speak. Numbers 32 23 says, gives us a principle that your sin will find you out.

Now this was the tribe of Israel who said no we don't want to go into Canaan. We want to stay on this side of the Jordan, on the east side of the Jordan. This looks good to us. And Moses said well you can have this but remember you still have to come over and fight and help your brethren free the land and when it's all done then you can go back.

And they said okay we'll do this. And Moses warned them and said but if you don't your sin will find you out. And that's a general principle. In God's providence circumstances will be so arranged that the tree will put forth its true produce.

The false prophets desires be it for money, be it for domineering authority, for reputation, even abuse of the sheep. It will all be revealed ultimately in their actions and in the results that they are able to produce.

Jesus said in Matthew 15 19, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. And these will always find a way to seep out. He brings forth bad fruit.

Now the word for bad is found only eight times in our New Testament. And Matthew and Luke is seven times as we have it here. Bad fruit. And then Paul uses it once in Ephesians 4 29 where he says let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths.

No corrupting, no bad, no rotten, no unprofitable talk. So what fruit do we look for? Jesus is talking about those who presume to take a role of influence in the church as a pastor, possibly a deacon, a teacher of some kind.

What are we looking for? Well obviously good fruit. I mean that goes without saying. Good fruit. What are we going to call good fruit? How much scripture do we have to examine to understand Jesus' warning here?

The Beatitudes as a Test of Good Fruit

Well I think we can stay right here in the Sermon on the Mount. I think we can stay right here and be focused just on what Jesus has taught us in these few chapters. What do we look for? Let's start with the Beatitudes.

Let's start with the Beatitudes. Our Lord's description of true citizens of the kingdom of God. I'm going to go through these quickly for you. Blessed are, who? The poor in spirit. So a ravenous wolf cannot maintain a humble exterior, nor can he credibly preach our need for and dependence on God for everything.

So Jesus says beware or listen for any hint of self-sufficiency. Because the poor in spirit, we went through this months ago when we started in this series. The poor in spirit are those who, among other characteristics, confess their own insufficiency and need for God and dependent upon Him for every breath and every blessing coming from God.

So beware, I would say, look at the poor in spirit and look at this as a measure of the fruit he produces. Is there a hint of self-sufficiency? Do they proclaim that you add anything to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross?

Do they preach to you that you have anything in you that so impresses God that he might reach down and say this one must be saved on their own merit? Ever so slightly. Mourning over sin. Blessed are those who mourn.

John Spong, for one, I pick on him a lot. I know that. He denies the whole idea of sin. It's a superstition from a bygone era according to him. Rob Bell, who I mentioned a moment ago, he makes sin inconsequential by denying that it has any punishment, that God's at all concerned with it.

We need to adhere to the holiness of God. I mean, our view of sin is linked to our view of God's holiness. It is God's holiness that brings forth His wrath in our sin. And our understanding of our sin is best presented to us by expanding our understanding of God's holiness.

So blessed are those who mourn. Here's good fruit. Do they help you to mourn over your sin? Do they expand God's holiness and by that expand your detestment of your own iniquity? Does he teach us to mourn over our sin or to make light of it?

Blessed are the meek. Are others' needs thought of as more important? Does his teaching engender a quality of fellowship that seeks the good of others? Hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We're going to go through all of these.

Do you see this desire in his life? Does he teach you to yearn for and strive after the image of God as it is in Christ Jesus? Blessed are the merciful. Sometimes mercy requires what today we call tough love.

In theological terms, grace is giving what is not deserved. For by grace you have been saved. And mercy is withholding what is deserved. For example, he, Jesus, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed. God in his mercy withheld what we deserve for our sins and placed it all on him. So mercy. Blessed are the merciful. What has this to do with a false prophet, a ravenous wolf?

A false prophet can fake mercy for only so long. Eventually a meanness of spirit, a desire to punish, a glee in others' iniquity will come forth. Your sin will find you out. Their sin will find them out.

Pure in heart, a spirit dedicated to the Lord, what the psalmist calls a united heart. Unite my heart, O Lord, to worship you. It is one that doesn't waver from devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ. Peacemaker.

Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called sons of God. How are controversies handled? How is the world handled? Has this one stepped in and brokered peace? Does this one have his heart broken when there's a lack of unity between any of the brethren?

The persecuted. Blessed are the persecuted. What is he willing to endure for the sake of the kingdom, for the sake of the sheep? Is he the coward that Jesus speaks of in John 10 who runs at the first sign of trouble?

Or does he stand in front of the sheep and take the blows for them and defend them? You know, you can read about fruit, Galatians 5 .22 in that whole surrounding context, and all of that would be valid.

For simplicity's sake, I stay right here with just the Beatitudes. We have enough right there to identify what Jesus is warning us here. The false wolf, the false prophet, the ravenous wolf can only pretend for so long to match up if we trust God's word and his spirit to expose and to protect us by his spirit, by that exposing of them.

Now we look at the fruit of the spirit, we look at the Beatitudes, we should all be like this. That's for all of us, isn't it? But the one who is raised to a position of influence and authority, and I think today it's mainly pastors, but radio and TV preachers and teachers, they could also fall into this orbit.

That one who is presumed to take, in Jesus' name, influence and authority over the sheep has exposed himself to a higher scrutiny. It is the flock purchased by the blood of God's own son that he watches over.

That's Acts 20 .28. He has taken the pulpit knowing he'll be held to a stricter judgment. That's James 3 .1. One becomes a member of the church by having a credible profession of Christ and at the common suffrage of the local assembly.

The officers, pastors and deacons are not so much held to a higher standard of holiness but to a more thorough review of the truth of their profession and their calling. Well, it's been pretty obvious in the way I've preached this passage.

But I want to note especially that while I as your pastor am charged to protect you from savage wolves, and God willing I have and God willing I will continue to, the command to beware is given to all of us.

It's not just me. I have a particular species, if you will, of that responsibility. But it's to all of us who fellowship together in the name of Jesus Christ. We do have to be what is sometimes derisively called fruit inspectors.

Jesus makes this plain. It doesn't mean we're judgmental. It means we're exercising judgment and there's a very different thing between those two. Not being sanctimonious, not being judgmental, but using judgment as given to us by Jesus Christ in his word and as we're led by his spirit.

This duty is given to all of us together. We are a congregational church here. This means that membership is considered an office in this church. And it inheres as much responsibility to members as it does the pastor.

So when our Lord says beware, he speaks to us all. It's the duty of all of us to watch out for the false prophets. He's given us his word here directly from his own lips and later through the apostles.

We have in the scripture all that we need and by his Holy Spirit we will and God willing we'll remain well guarded. But Jesus does warn us about that here in such a small fellowship where we know each other so well and frankly we get so few visitors.

It seems like something that we don't have to pay that much attention to. Beware of false prophets and we look around and go, nope, we're good. I know this guy, this guy, this woman. We all know each other.

We're in each other's house. We're part of each other's lives. We know. But let us always have Jesus' words at least in our minds, not at the forefront. I think we'd become a little paranoid if we did that.

But keep it constant. Beware of false prophets. Beware of one who might come in here and too quickly try to presume to stand and teach. Here's one reason that we don't have itinerant preachers in this place.

We have men who've been trusted at other places. We have men who've qualified themselves by their life, by their reputation, by their studies, by the word they proclaim, by the word that they live. In other words, when we stand at this pulpit, it's men that we know particularly, and in my case, self-consciously to protect us in this exact way that Jesus says.

Lord willing, that duty of mine has been well executed. But for all of us, we're to be on the watch. We all make mistakes. Several of you have come to me over the years I've preached here and pointed out a few of mine.

But not once have I been told that I preach something blasphemous or heretical. And even the mistakes have been known as just that, mistakes. God willing, that will always be the case. The false prophet, the one Jesus warns us about is very different because it's intentional.

Let's remember though that Jesus Christ has promised to be here among us. His spirit binds us together and gives us wisdom as we look to his word. And by following God's word, we can be wiser than all our teachers because we follow the wisdom of God.

We don't need to be scared. We need to be alert. We don't need to be paranoid. We need to be wise. We just need to be watchful as Jesus here tells us. Let me just close with a couple of verses from Jude.

But you, beloved, build yourselves up in the most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Amen?