Discerning Truth

INTRO/REVIEW

Good morning everyone! If you have a your Bible this morning you can turn to Ezekiel 13, or follow along on the screens. I think it is helpful to have your own Bible to really see what is going on and so you can turn back to it and look at how God spoke to you through the text. Before we get into today’s text, I want to congratulate you on making it this far, most people give up on Ezekiel in the first couple chapters! Way to go, and so, if you haven’t been with us through it all I am going to do a quick review so we can see where we have been and understand what is happening in today’s scripture.

SHORT REVIEW

Ezekiel 1: Ezekiel the priest is in exile and sees a glorious vision of God.

Ezekiel is a Hebrew who was training to be a priest, a highly esteemed position in the Jewish community. He would have been in charge of the temple worship on a daily basis. But we find out he is by the Chebar canal in the land of the Chaldeans, about 800 miles away from Jerusalem. And he is there with about 500 other major leaders of Israel because the Babylonian came and put a siege on their city Jerusalem. but ultimately, the hand of God was the one that brought them there because of their years and years of disobedience. So Ezekiel is pretty bummed out by this, but all of a sudden God shows up in a crazy way! We won’t get into the details, but a god mobile like throne shows up in the gentile nation!

Ezekiel 2-3: God calls Ezekiel to be a prophet, actor, and watchmen.

Then God commissions Ezekiel to be a prophet, an actor, and a watchmen to the rebellious house, Israel. His own family members. So Ezekiel has to do some crazy skit for almost a year and a half to show that their hope to return to Jerusalem, is going to be crushed.

Ezekiel 4-5 Ezekiel acts out the siege of Jerusalem that will happen and why it is happening.

Ezekiel 5-7: Ezekiel prophecies against the land of Israel because of their idolatry.

Ezekiel 8-11: Ezekiel has a vision/is transported to see the defilement of the Jersualem temple by it’s leaders. God’s presence leaves the temple, people are killed for their idolatry but God gives hope!

Then last week we looked at the really difficult vision/transportation moment of Ezekiel seeing all the defilement happening in the temple back in Jerusalem.

And then something more terrible than the exile happens, the presence of God leaves the temple. I don’t have a metaphor to describe the shock, dismay and horror that this would have caused Ezekiel to have. But there was hope despite all of this judgment. God was going to bring back the exiles and they would have a new heart, a new spirit, and they would finally be able to walk in God’s ways in obedience. Which is great, right! But when is that going to happen? When will they actually be brought back to Jerusalem from Babylon?

Well, there were some people that not only thought they knew when they were going back but also started saying their messages were God’s message. They are the false prophets in Jerusalem and in Babylon that were sharing message, like Ezekiel was, but they were not sent by God. So Ezekiel is told to tell these guys that they need to stop. So let’s read on how he is supposed to do that today.

SCRIPTURE

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, who are prophesying, and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts: ‘Hear the word of the LORD!’ 3 Thus says the Lord GOD, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! 4 Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. 5 You have not gone up into the breaches, or built up a wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in battle in the day of the LORD. 6 They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘Declares the LORD,’ when the LORD has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word. 7 Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination, whenever you have said, ‘Declares the LORD,’ although I have not spoken?”

So God is telling Ezekiel how these “prophets” are not true prophets. This will be helpful for us today too. You may think, do we really have false prophets today? Oh definitely, Jesus even talked about this in his sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:15), that you will have false prophets and you will know them by their fruit. So what is the fruit that Ezekiel sees in this text of these false prophets? There are four things that God tells Ezekiel that we should take note of too.

False Prophet Fruit

1.Prophesy from their own hearts/follow their own spirit.

We will get into what they were talking about in a couple minutes, but the biggest thing to know about these false prophets, and any false prophet, is that their message comes from them and it is not God sent. I like the way Daniel Block says in his commentary about what this looks like. He says,

“Their utterances were nothing more than their own concoctions, based on their own evaluation of the situation and their own judgment. Private opinions were being spouted off as divine pronouncements.”

Their opinions and their own judgments on the situation at hand, exile, was their own concoction to say God is going to bring us back to Jerusalem any day now. They were following their own spirit. Now put that in contrast to Ezekiel. Was he filled with His Spirit, or God’s spirit? Yes, God’s Spirit, and he was following what God wanted him to say, not just what he wanted to say about the situation.

2. They are like jackals/foxes among ruins.

The image here is like a fox coming in to scavage a desolated place. Picture a place that has been left along for a while, the foxes come in and find food and basically take over the place. So these false prophets capitalize on people pain, fear, and destruction. They come in during people’s hardest times and try to give message of hope and peace, like we will read in a moment here, and try to figure out the best way to get something out of other people’s loss and pain. They are not there to actually help, they are there for their own gain. Picture the person going down after a hurricane or a storm and telling people they will be fixing up for a really small price. All they have to do is sign this piece of paper with their credit card number on it. But they never show up. These prophets are always about themselves, they are not actually there for the people. the capitalize on people’s pain, problems and see how they can gain from it, rather than helping.

3.They don’t build up/help the problem

So the prophets are pointing out the issues at hand, like the wall of Jerusalem being torn down from the Babylonian invasion, but they don’t do anything about it. Remember, they are all about themselves, they are not able to speak in a way that actually brings edification or help. They share what’s wrong and then never pick up a brick to actually help solve the problem.

It makes me think that Paul had this text on his mind when he was talking to the Corinthians about spiritual gifts, including prophesying, in the church. He says this in 1 Corinthians 14

26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

The prophets of Ezekiel's days were causing confusion, they were not helping the situation at all. They are saying, Peace! God will bring salvation!” Ezekiel is not saying that, he is saying the opposite. he is telling the hard facts that they needed to hear to actually change. Now you can say, well Ezekiel’s messages are not very edifying, right? But sometimes the building up comes from pointing out what is actually wrong rather than just painting over the mold and thinking the problem is fixed. And that is what God tells Ezekiel that these prophets are doing, they are just acting like nothing is wrong and they can keep being a rebellious people. Let’s keep reading about the bad fruit of these false prophets.

8 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD. 9 My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord GOD. 10 Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, 11 say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out. 12 And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’ 13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end. 14 And I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD. 15 Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it, 16 the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her, when there was no peace, declares the Lord GOD.

So the message that these prophets were saying was, Peace. “Shalom” meaning salvation is coming! Don’t worry, Babylon will be taken out and we will be brought back to Jersualem in a couple months, maybe a year or so. And the wall that is being built up is not actually strong but they paint over it to make it look great. And God is like, you are a bunch of rebellious idiots. And he is going to bring a storm to show the reality of what is actually going on. He is ripping off the bandaid and saying, Hello! we need to take care of this issue and I’m willing to do the hard surgery rather than keep painting over the wound and calling it good.

Now the last section of this chapter we are not going to read through, you can on your own time but I will give an overview of the point and then we are going to talk about false prophets in our day. But to summarize what happens, God turns to women prophets who are turning to magic arts and other gods to “prophecy” God’s message to his people. Now, obviously this is foolish but it also it points out an important lesson for us to remember when it comes to false prophets and their messages.

God talks about in these verses how these women prophets are seeking souls through their divination. Which is important to know about the spiritual realm, divination, and false prophets.

A false prophet’s message is not just a wrong message, but it can affect your soul.

It’s not just a message that you should just be aware you need to make sure you don’t let affect your soul. It is a spiritual thing to embrace a false prophet. It can affect your soul and your spiritual life. So this should create a desire to live in a way that stays away from false prophets, right? I don’t think anyone wakes up and thinks, you know what i should do today, I’m going to start listening to a false prophet so I can be deceived and start losing my soul. No, it happens by us not knowing the truth so then we buy into every lie. When we don’t get into the word and know the truth, so we just buy whatever feels good, whatever looks right in our own eyes. So obviously, you know what I am going to say, read the word to know the truth. But as I promised, I want to list some false prophets today that you should not listen to. Now, you might get upset by some of these, because sometimes we really like the messages these false prophets give. We like the way we feel when we hear their voice. So are you ready to hear about some false prophets that all of us need to be aware of and stop listening to.

FALSE PROPHETS TODAY

-Fear

-Worry

-Anxiety

-Shame

-Condemnation

-Pride

-Selfishness

-Anti-Gospel messages

Are you disappointed? Were you hoping I was going to actually list people that are preachers? Sorry, I actually want you to be critical thinkers, because here is the reality, no preacher, teacher or pastor is perfect. Myself included. So I would rather have you all be bareans who are constantly studying the Word so you are able to test and prove that what is right.

If you don’t know what a barean is, don’t worry I didn’t just call you a name in greek, they are found in Acts 17 when Paul goes to Barea and these guys diligently studied the scriptures. And you know what happened when they did that with Paul preaching his messages? They believed! They grew in faith and devotion to Jesus! It was great!

So how do we know that these are false prophets? Because of the fruit that they bring. If the message of pride is being given to you, the fruit of it will not produce godliness, or have a hunger for the Lord. It will be complacency and apathy. Or if worry is the voice that you are listening to more, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there, but that is the one voice that you are obeying more than the voice of the Word of God, then the fruit of that life will be no faith, no trust, and a wrong view of God.

The key to all of this is discernment. It is being aware and growing in your discernment, like Hebrews 5 talks about. It says,

English Standard Version Chapter 5

13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So as you continue to get into the word and not just live off milk, but maturing by getting the full council of God you will be maturing and having the powers of discernment trained. So not only will you be able to recognize false prophets, whether it be in a sermon, podcast, song, or whatever you may be listening to.

But this key of discernment is also important for us to prophecy, which I know is a somewhat controversial subject, but let’s read God’s word to see what it says about prophesying in the church, which is very, very different than in the Old Testament.

English Standard Version (Chapter 14)

14 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

So Paul, writing to a church in Corinth, not to a seminary or a pastor’s conference, tells everyone to pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. Especially that you may prophesy. What is something that you earnestly desire? Do you earnestly desire the vikings to go the super bowl? To get that new car you have had your eye on? What is something your are really wanting? Paul says that should be our attitude towards the gift of prophecy. Have you ever had that before? Maybe this is anew topic or idea for you, but the fruit of you prophecying is clearly laid out in this text. People get scared of prophecy because of all the false prophets out there. But what does this text say happens when you prophecy?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE PROPHECY?

1. Upbuilding

2. Encouragement

3. Consolation

How many of you have ever had a conversation with someone and this happened? They built you up, they brought you comfort and encouragement? But not like cheap encouragement, but like a strengthening of your soul encouragement? That is the power of prophecy. Now, once again, this calls for discernment. Because can you prophecy for your own benefit? Out of your own Spirit? Definitely. So how do we know we have this gift of prophecy? How do we grow in this, if anyone wants to. Or do we want to just nestle away in our comfortable little corners of life and not be salt and light in the world like Jesus called us to? I think there are some in here who really want this. Here is the easy part, it is just inverting everything a false prophet is.

HOW TO NOT BE A FALSE PROPHET

1.Be filled with the Holy Spirit

The false prophet speaks out of his own spirit, we speak from a place of being filled with the Holy Spirit. How does that happen? Spending time in God’s word, prayer, worship. Asking for more of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think we need to make this complicated, we know when we are operating in our spirit or the Holy Spirit. Just looks at Galatians 5. Are you walking in that fruit of the Spirit of the Fruit of the flesh? If you are walking in the flesh, probably not a great time to try and prophecy over someone. But if you are filled with Him, walking in his fruit, and you can speak some encouragement over someone, don’t be surprised if God speaks through you to that person.

2. Be selfless

Remember the false prophets were like foxes trying to get some benefit from the people in their disaster. They were preaching a message that was easy to hear and tickled people’s ears. But when you are a selfless person you are not thinking things like, “How can I benefit from this person if I speak to them? How can I make sure they like me more when I prophecy over them” All you are thinking about is walking in love and speaking a verse or some kind of word that you think is from the Lord. You are not looking for an applause or people to make sure that everyone knows what you said was from the Lord. NO. You are just wanting to help people who need some building up, who need some encouragement, who need some comfort.

3. Your goal is to help/build up

The false prophets of Ezekiel’s day and even Jesus’ day were very opinionated. They had a quick mouth to point out things that were wrong, or messages that would bring quick hope with no substance behind it. But to actually stick with someone and build them up, could take time. Ezekiel is preaching a hard message to push away the facade so actual building up could happen. The more your desire is to actually help the person that you are prophesying over, not just give them a band-aid for the issue that is going on, the more you will be able to speak something that maybe they didn’t want to hear, but needed to hear.

So as we close today, are you growing in your discernment by getting into the Word so that you can perceive the false prophets of our day? They can come from anywhere at any time, so stay on your guard and have the lens of thinking biblically always before you. And as you do that, as you grow in discernment and God’s word earnestly desire to prophecy. That is not just for the pastors or the elders, this is for any believers who wants God’s church build up, encouraged, and comforted. Continue to walk in the Spirit, continue to be selfless, and continue to want to build others up. Who knows how God may speak through you to someone else!