False Prophets, False Fruit, False Peace Pt.1

Introduction

This morning I am going to try to get through two of three sections of Jesus’ conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. The goal was to be able to finish the Sermon on the Mount studies by the end of this month, but it looks like it is going to carry us over into the first week of June.

We remember that at this point in His sermon, Jesus is concluding the Sermon on the Mount. We have already begun to look at His application when we looked at the example of the broad and the narrow gates, and now we find three other examples that Jesus’ uses as a warning in His application portion of this sermon.

Let’s begin by reading the text, Matthew 7:15-23

Matthew 7:15–23 KJV 1900

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The title of today’s study is False Prophets, False Fruit, False Peace.

False Prophets, False Fruit, False Peace

Jesus has emphasized, right before these verses that we just read, the importance of entering through the strait gate, the narrow gate. He has spoken to His followers that those that would be truly called His disciples are to enter in through that narrow gate and continue through the narrow and difficult path beyond.

We saw that this means that when we enter through that narrow gate, we can take nothing with us, not even the drive of our own will and ambitions. We leave everything behind, we die to ourselves, and we go through that narrow gate that only a few find. There are many Christians that are following the broad path, the path of lest resistance. They have added Jesus to their lives instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to conform them into the image of Jesus.

Every Christian is faced with that decision - to enter in through the narrow gate or continue down the broad path. The way Jesus illustrated it is amazing. It truly evokes a picture in one’s mind similar to the graphic before you now.

Can you imagine Jesus at that wall in the center saying, “Look for the narrow gate and go through there. Follow the narrow path. It will be difficult, but that is where you will find Me. That is where you will find true fulfillment and joy and peace, and at the end, rewards. Don’t go through the broad gate. Take the narrow gate.”

Last session there were many that responded to that invitation, that command of Jesus to go through the strait gate. I dare say that that decision has been challenged nearly every day since. But now, in the verses that we just read, Jesus warns of other voices that are not His own.

False Prophets

Finding the narrow gate is difficult not only because most people will be going through the broad gate, but because there are voices that are telling us not to go through the narrow gate, but that the broad gate will lead to reward and satisfaction. And this is where we see the need for righteous judgment, spiritual discrimination.

Notice how Jesus says it:

Matthew 7:15 KJV 1900

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Beware, be careful, watch out for false prophets.

Here we find ourselves, standing outside a narrow gate and a broad gate. We have heard the Sermon, we have listened to Christ’s command to enter into the narrow gate, “And now,” says Jesus, “you must watch out for false prophets. Don’t listen to them. They will try to persuade you to enter through the broad gate.” And these false prophets are always around.

Before we jump into their message, first we must analyze what a false prophet is, and how we are to recognize them. It is not as simple as it may sound. Note that Jesus described these false prophets as ones that look like sheep, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves. They dress like sheep, they look like sheep, but they are not.

It is fairly easy to detect a heretic, someone who is teaching things that are completely against the Bible. In his epistles, the apostle John warned that anyone that did not recognize Jesus as the Son of God is a liar and not to be believed. It is a fairly easy thing to take what someone says and compare it to the Bible and see if they are, in fact, preaching or teaching something that is true or not. If someone were to come and preach here and say that Jesus was not God, that Christ did not do any miracles, and that he never resurrected from the dead, we would easily be able to mark him as a heretic.

But notice that what Jesus is warning us about is something that is very subtle. These people appear as sheep. They look like sheep. They sound like sheep. The thing about false prophets is that at first, you do not know or imagine that they would be a false prophet. As Jude puts it, these people creep into churches unawares.

So, though this is and can be taken as a warning against outright heresy, it is a warning mainly about the subtle corruption of God’s word.

Characteristics of False Prophets

Both the Old and New Testaments reveal the characteristics of false prophets.

Obvious False Teachings

The first is obvious false teachings. But again, Jesus is focusing on the subtly of false prophets. So let’s focus on those characteristics right now.

He Seems Perfect

Or nearly so. The false prophet is someone who comes to us, and, at first, has the appearance of everything that could be desired. He is nice, and pleasing, and pleasant, and appears to be very Christian. He says the right things, sings the right songs, and his teaching is, in general, alright. He talks about God and Jesus. He talks about the cross, and he emphasizes the love of God. His way of living corresponds to his teaching, and because of that there is no suspicion. But if this person truly is a false prophet, then there will be some subtleties concerning his teaching and his way of life.

They Have No Narrow Gate

Though they may have much going for them in what they do say, false prophets are more easily detected by analyzing what they do not teach. Any Christian can detect the person that says outrageously wrong things, but many are incapable of detecting when key and vital doctrines have been left out.

The most dangerous kind of teacher is the one who does not emphasize the right things.

The false prophet is a person who has no ‘narrow gate’ or ‘narrow path.’ Nothing he says is offensive to the natural man. He pleases everyone. His sheep’s clothing is the comforting message that he has for everyone. He doesn’t speak of sin very much, and when he does, it is just “a mistake.” Sin is never grievous to the false prophet. It is never something that hurts the heart of God. Sin does not seem to be that big of a deal, and more often than not, the topic of sin just doesn’t even get brought up.

Jeremiah recorded what God had to say about the false prophets of Judah. When Jeremiah preached to the Jews that they ought to repent, that God’s punishment was at hand, that the destruction of Jerusalem was approaching because of their idolatry and pride, false prophets arose and ridiculed Jeremiah. They prophesied to the king that everything was alright. While Jeremiah prophesied coming destruction, the false prophets cried out, “Peace, peace!”

Jeremiah 6:14 KJV 1900

14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Notice that God says, “They have healed the hurt slightly. Just a little. They made them feel not-so-bad about their sin. The enemy was amassing, the Jews were nervous, but the false prophets helped them feel better by saying, “Peace! Don’t worry. Nothing bad is going to happen.” Yes, it may have calmed them for a season, but it did not stop the destruction that eventually came.

The false prophet says that the true prophets are too narrow-minded. They say that sin is not that big of a deal.

They Focus Solely on God’s Love

Because they do not talk of sin much, there is little talk of holiness and righteousness. There is little talk of God’s wrath and His justice. False prophets tend to only focus on God’s love.

The false prophet will not say that he doesn’t believe in holiness or righteousness, he just tends to leave those things out altogether. Again, he does not say things that are obviously wrong, but he does not teach of things that are obviously right and true. The false prophet will not lead you to verses like 1 John 2:15–16 “15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

“But isn’t love a major characteristic of God?” you might ask? And the answer is a resounding “YES!” However, it is not the only characteristic of God. If you have been here long, you will recognize this next passage as one that I reference every once in a while as God’s self-description. We find it in Exodus 34:6-7

Exodus 34:6–7 KJV 1900

6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin [And we love how that sounds. The thing is, a false prophet will stop there and not read the rest of the verse that tells us some very important things about God.], and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

That part does not sound good. We do not like to think of a God who will not clear the guilty and who punishes sin and visits the consequences of sin onto following generations. And the false prophet does not like to point that out either.

Another doctrine that the false prophets do not emphasize is the final judgment and eternal destiny of the lost.

Because of that, salvation, when it is spoken of, is watered down to something ineffective. There is no preaching that we must see our sin as despicable. There is no teaching that leads a person to realize that they deserve hell and do not deserve God’s love. There is only the teachings that say, “Come to Jesus, pray to Jesus. Simply believe and receive his love.”

But that is not the manner of salvation. The Bible teaches us that we are to repent. To repent, we must confess, agree with God, exactly what our sin is. Sin is a stain upon our soul that is blacker than night. It is an afront to a most holy God. We need to understand that sin corrupts everything we do, even the good deeds that we do, to a point that nothing we do can ever be pleasing and acceptable to God.

Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty and vile sinner, that you deserve God’s wrath. It means that you want to get rid of this horrible cursed thing called sin. Repentance is understanding that there is nothing that you in your own power can do to get rid of that sin, so you turn to Jesus, the only one who can cleanse you, and fall upon His mercy and grace and receive the gift of salvation that cost Him His life.

But the false prophet just says, “Pray and tell Jesus that you want to be a Christian. Say ‘yes’ to Jesus.”

“To conceal the truth,” says D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “is as reprehensible as to proclaim utter heresy.” The effect is the same- it is misleading and destructive and this is why Jesus says that they are ravening wolves.

The false prophet dislikes the notion of self-examination. John Fletcher, a Swiss theologian, asked himself twelve questions each night before going to bed as a way to examine himself. Few Christians will even stop to ask one question. The list is in the notes app if you are wondering what those questions are.

For the false prophet, Christian living is easy. He knows nothing about fighting the good fight of faith, he knows nothing about wrestling against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness of this world. And as such, he has no need for the armor of God because as he sees it, the Christian life is easy.

These are the voices that call to Christians. “You don’t have to worry about sin, you don’t have to worry about anything. Live life. Be you. God wants you to be happy, so do what makes you happy.”

False Fruit

Jesus then tells us that we can recognize the false prophets by their fruits. Matthew 7:16

Matthew 7:16–17 KJV 1900

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

Jesus now switches over to a different analogy so that we can understand how to detect false prophets

We will know them by their fruit. Jesus is calling attention here to the fact that there are trees that resemble each other. They look perfectly similar, but do not produce the same fruit. One will produce good fruit that tastes good, and the other will not.

Understanding the words “corrupt” and “evil” in this verse is important.

A corrupt tree will not be completely decayed or rotten, because a decayed and rotten tree cannot bring forth any fruit. This tree that looks similar to the good tree, is corrupt in that it has veiled itself, disguised itself to look like the good tree. The only way to tell is to look at the fruit. The fruit that it produces is evil. Again, this is not to say that it is outright and noticeable heresy, but once the fruit is examined, one is found to be good, the other unprofitable. It is poor in quality; it isn’t good.

The trees may look identical, but the fruit will tell us the truth.

We have discussed the matter of the doctrine of False Prophets, and now we come to the matter of behavior and conduct.

To be a Christian, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, one of His followers is something that is central to one’s personality. A true disciple has not “added” Jesus to their life. They have fully disposed of everything and their life now revolves around Jesus.

Though appearances may be misleading, we must use good spiritual discernment and discrimination to judge the fruit. Someone who’s life revolves around Jesus will inevitably produce a very different kind of fruit that cannot be counterfeited. A true Christian does not just add practices to his life, he becomes something new entirely. 2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV 1900

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

This principle is obvious from the very first phrases of the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes cannot be lived out unless we have been truly born again and are being empowered by the Holy Spirit. To be a Christian is to have a brand new nature.

Christianity is primarily concerned with the state of the heart, not how many things you checked off your to-do list today. The heart, the personality of a person, will be revealed in their fruit.

The fruit of a false prophet will eventually become apparent, because we are what we believe. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. As a man believes, so he eventually behaves. Nature must express itself, and those with the nature of Jesus Christ will produce good fruit, but those without it will produce evil fruit. Fruit that is just not good.

What a man truly is is bound to show.

So how can we test the fruit? There is a lot to say on this subject, but I think we can ask three questions that will help us examine the fruit.

Does the person exhibit the Beatitudes? Moreover, does the person live out the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety?

Does the person exhibit the fruit of the Spirit?

The Beatitudes we find in Matthew 5:3–12

Poor in spirit

Mourn (over sin)

Meek

Hunger and thirst after righteousness

Merciful

Pure in heart

Peacemakers

Endure persecution for Christ’s sake

The fruit of the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:22-23

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Gentleness

Goodness

Faith

Meekness

Temperance (self-control)

We are probably familiar with the verses that tell us that, but here is the next test

Galatians 5:24–26 KJV 1900

24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

The third question stems from these verses: Are they driven by Jesus or driven by the flesh?

Those that are driven by the flesh give into the lusts of the flesh. The flesh desires glory for itself. It is prideful. It irritates others on purpose. This is not being offensive because of the message of the gospel, but it finds a sick joy in bugging others. And lastly, it is envious of others. It is jealous. The false prophet does not rejoice when others are recognized if he is not. The false prophet craves recognition and cannot abide someone getting more accolades, more compliments, or more of the spotlight.

Counterfeit Christianity is so dangerous, and this is why the fruit is evil. It is destructive. How many people have bought into the lie that all you have to do to be saved is repeat some prayer? Let me tell you, there has not been a single prayer anywhere at any time that has saved anybody.

False prophets focus their teaching on a type of faith that is intangible and un-testable. However, the true disciples faith, the book of James tells us, is measured by what we do and in which spirit we do it. The real Christian’s fruit is tested by how willing he is to undergo self-examination by the light of God’s word and then how willing he is to correct those things that God points out to him.

A true Christian, a true follower of Jesus is evidenced by the Beatitudes; he is evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit, and he is evidenced by his willingness and his practice of dying to self and following Jesus through the narrow gate.

Invitation

Now comes the time for self-examination. Are you listening to the false prophets of the world? Are you being a false prophet by omitting key teachings from your life, from your family’s, or coworker’s? Don’t be afraid to tell others exactly what it means to be saved and what it means to be a Christian.

How is your fruit? Is your fruit good? Do you live out the Beatitudes? Is the fruit of the Spirit present in your life? Are you humble, teachable, and are you mortifying the flesh, dying to yourself daily?

For those that are not saved:

You can’t pretend to be a Christian and think everything is going to be ok. Don’t try to be a fake Christian. In the end, you may fool everyone, but God sees the heart.