Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In our age it is generally accepted that all Christians basically believe the same thing and all ministers basically teach the same thing as well. The assumption is that anything with the name “Christian” is actually Christian and anything calling itself “Biblical” is just that. Many assume that if someone is prophesying, that is, preaching, in Jesus’ name, casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and working miracles in Jesus’ name, then they’re a true prophet and preacher of God. In today’s gospel lesson Jesus demolishes the assumptions of our age. There are false prophets and they are ravenous wolves, leading people away from the will of God the Father, leading them to hell by their false teaching, and they do with a smile on their face the entire time. It is because false teachers are such a threat to the Christian that Jesus tells us, commands us even, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” What is the sheep’s clothing with which they disguise themselves? It’s scripture. False prophets use the scripture, they cite the scripture, but they don’t teach the whole counsel of God. They may leave out inconvenient parts of God’s word that are likely to offend. More often they mutilate the scriptures, twisting Scripture until it fits their unscriptural assumptions and beliefs.
Irenaeus of Lyon, who lived in the second century, that false prophets “endeavour to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions” (ANF 1:326). Irenaeus hits the nail squarely on the head. False prophets disregard the order and connection of Scripture. They separate things that God has joined together and join together things that God has kept separate, making a different teaching that God’s teaching by rearranging the different parts. We see this in those who separate faith from justification and insert human works into justification, disjointing God’s order that “a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal 2:16). Others separate faith from Christ’s death and merits and teach men to place their faith in a universal declaration of justification which absolves all men apart from faith. Others separate baptism from God’s grace and reimagine it as an act of obedience, a good work. Others spiritualize the Lord’s Body and Blood in His Sacrament so that it is no longer true body and true blood, but a memorial of a historical event only or a springboard for us so that our thoughts ascend to heaven. The list could go on. The point is that the false prophets wear scripture as their covering. Many wear it well.
So how do you recognize false prophets? “You will know them by their fruits.” If you approach what you think is a grapevine and see thorns, or you go to a what you think is a fig tree and see thistles, you know what kind of plant it truly is, and you will avoid it. So it is with preachers. Every preacher says He teaches scripture, but what does he teach about scripture? Every preacher says he teaches the Christian faith, but does he teach it as it is presented in scripture? It’s a copout to claim that we can’t know false teachers, or that there aren’t really any false teachers, because its all a matter of interpretation. Jesus tells us we will know them by their fruits. If we say we can’t know false prophets because its all a matter of interpretation, we make Jesus into a liar and align ourselves with Pontius Pilate, who asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Go back to Jesus’ parable. “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” Men know what grapes and figs look like, which is how they know the different between them and thornbushes and thistles. So it is with the fruit of a prophet. You must know the good fruit. St. Paul writes in Romans 12:7, “If a person has the gift of prophecy, let him use it in conformity with the faith,” or “in conformity with the analogy of faith,” which is the overall teaching of scripture: that penitent sinners are justified freely by God for the sake of Jesus’ death and merits by faith alone, and that God gives that forgiveness and righteousness through His Word, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper received in faith.
But there is another fruit by which you will know the false prophet: His life and how He teaches others to live. Doctrine is lived, after all. If a preacher preaches one way but lives another way, his fruit is no good. St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:2 that a bishop—that is, a pastor—is to be blameless. This means preachers must live godly lives so that no one can bring a just charge against them. The apostle tells Timothy in the same epistle, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim 4:12). Next to false teaching, nothing destroys the preaching of God’s word like preachers who do not live according to God’s word. Such hypocrisy destroys the preacher and offends his hearers so that they grow to doubt the Christian truth and even abandon it. Yes, the preacher is a sinner who daily prays, “Forgive us our trespasses” along with all Christians. But the preacher must live what He preaches, otherwise he tears down with his life what He builds with His words. If he doesn’t live according to God’s Word, he shows that he doesn’t really believe it himself or apply it himself. He may still prophesy, cast out demons, and work miracles in Christ’s name—that is, perform the public ministry—but in his heart, he lives in sin, practices lawlessness, and will hear a terrible verdict from Christ on the Last Day, “‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
This also comes out in how the prophet teaches others to live. If the preacher excuses sin in his parishioners, ignores it so that he refuses to confront them, or he allows them or expects them to keep living in their sins, then he shows his fruit is rotten. Many preachers today preach this very thing, that Christ forgives sins but does not expect anyone to fight against their sins and stop them by the power of His Holy Spirit. They say, “We’re all rotten sinners, and thank God for the gospel that forgives us rotten sinners. See you next week, rotten sinners!” They cringe at the idea of preaching sanctification, afraid that preaching the new life of the Spirit and the use of the law as guide to this life will make them a preacher of works rather than grace. But Christ, the prophets, and apostles have no qualms about preaching sanctification. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Any teaching that preaches Christ’s forgiveness by faith but does not teach that the Holy Spirit transforms us out of the old Adan into men, so that we daily die to sin and live to righteousness, is a tree that bears putrid fruit. St. Paul writes in today’s epistle, “Therefore, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if, through the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” If preachers fail to teach the new life of sanctification, they lead their hearers away from the true Christ who gives not only gives forgiveness and salvation but the Holy Spirit so that we begin to live a new life, which will grow throughout this life, and finally be perfected in the life of the world to come.
Why is all this so important? Your eternal life depends on it. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Calling yourself a Christian isn’t enough. Nor is it enough for a preacher to call Himself a Christian preacher, to prophesy, cast out demons, and work miracles in Jesus’ name. One must do the will of the Father. The will of God the Father is first that we believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the promise of the gospel for our forgiveness and salvation each day. The will of the Father is also our sanctification, that we lead holy lives according to God’s holy word because He has forgiven our sins and given us His Holy Spirit. As Paul said, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” As Christians we strive to do the Father’s will each day, repenting of our sins as the Holy Spirit convicts us of them, fleeing to the gospel for full forgiveness and perfect remission of our sins, and, in the joy the gospel brings, perfecting holiness in the fear of God by ordering our thoughts, our works, our deeds, —our entire lives—according to God’s Word. Living by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body, the Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together with him. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
