Beware False Prophets

The coach

What makes a good sporting coach?

Many of you will have played a team sport in your younger years.

Coaches can vary a lot in their philosophy of how they approach the game, particularly when where talking about the less serious side of sport.

Some coaches bow to the loudest parent. Just pacify the loudest complaints and then we’ll go from there. Or perhaps the coach has some favourites. Those favourites get the most time and the play are centred around them.

For some coaches, it’s about equal time for all people - after all, we’re here to have some fun aren’t we?

Some teams barely have a coach. Maybe a parent will be there to choose who gets subbed off and when, but other than that, the players do what they want.

And then there’s the serious coach. The one who will get them in line. The one that will insist everyone makes it to training. Will run drills to keep everyone sharp. Will reward hard work and a good sporting ethic.

Now, which one is the best to play under. Unless you were the coaches favourite, you can probably rule out the coach who play favourites.

Now, sometimes the easy going coach might actually be our preference. And if you’re not very serious about it, then why not? Have a run around… a bit of a giggle with your friends.

The serious coach - well that’s not fun. That’s going to require a lot of hard work. Those hours that coach is making you run around for training, well… that could be spent on any number of things that are a lot more fun. Having to sit out the first half of the game because you missed training - that just feels cruel.

Of course, for those who love the sport… it’s not cruel. Sure it’s hard, but then you see the result, and it’s exhilarating.

It may not be a perfect analogy, but in our Christian journey the people we listen to are like coaches, and these coaches try to guide us on a Christian journey.

Today, more than at any other point in history, you have the ability to listen to whoever you want. You’re not stuck listening to me, the one who stands behind this pulpit most weeks. Many of you will jump on YouTube or find a podcast, or come across something on Facebook, and listen to whatever style of preacher you like.

If you want someone who’s going to take you in depth with the Greek or Hebrew words, you’ll find someone. If you want a charismatic preacher who’ll fire you up and motivate you to do great things, you’ll find that person too. If you want someone who’s going to focus on end times, or on social justice issues, or on spiritual warfare, or whatever it is you fancy, you’ll find that person too.

Is this a good thing that we have so much choice?

Possibly it is, but it does come with dangers.

Not all of the voices are as helpful as they should be.

The big question is which voices are worth listening to, and which ones are unhelpful?

Indeed, you can even ask this question of me… by what measure do you use to determine if what I’m saying is worth listening to or not?

Now, if we’re being honest, the measure we use essentially comes down to the one thing - does the speaker align with my worldview?

You know, we often have our own little thing that we see as important, and if the speaker we are listening to agrees with that our persepctive, well, there are probably worth listening to.

Perhaps they lean a certain way politically. Maybe they have a certain passion for that social justice issue you support.

Now, this is natural and understandable. You have those views for a reason.

But could this be the coach that let’s us play our fun games but doesn’t actually help us achieve the task that we’re meant to be focussed on?

Even if that social justice issue is a good one, could it be that you’re missing something so much bigger?

Jeremiah

Well, today as we continue our series through Jeremiah, I want to help us think about a good way to determine who we listen to.

In the section we’re going to look at, Jeremiah is going to talk about the false prophets of his time.

The prophet is someone who speaks the word of God. Now, I’m going to be drawing a link this morning between the work of a prophet and the modern concept of preaching. There is a debate about how direct a link we can make in this regard, a debate I’m not going to get into. But I will conclude that there is at least some link between prophecy and modern preaching, in that both are attempting to speak God’s Word into the world.

So the big question for us to answer this morning, is how do we discern the various Christian voices as to which ones are worth listening to? They may be the voices of those in the pulpit (including me), or even the voices of other Christians who may be speaking into our lives.

Context

So let’s start with the background…

If you’ve been following the series, Jeremiah’s speaking to a nation that’s heading in a bad direction.

Israel had a bit of a high point under the kingship of David, but ever since then, while there might have been a few high points, things have tended to go down hill.

The kingdom split, and the Northern section had already been taken into exile by the Assyrians, and a big part of Jeremiah’s message to the remaining southern kingdom is that they’re about to follow suit.

The message that Jeremiah was giving to the people of Judah (that is, the southern kingdom of Israel), was one of devastation.

If you want a sample of the types of things he was saying, let’s just go back to the previous chapter, Jeremiah 22:24-26

Jeremiah 22:24–26 NIVUK

‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians. I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die.

In other words he’s saying, you know that big super power that starting to grow in the east - well, they are going to come, and they are going to capture you, and no matter how much you claim your special privilege with me, well… it’s still going to happen.

That’s the message from Jeremiah.

Now let’s contrast that with some of the other voices giving their prophecies.

In our passage for the day, that is, chapter 23, I want you to turn to verse 17:

These so-called prophets are saying: “The Lord says: you will have peace”.

They also say: “No harm will come to you”.

So, imagine you’re just an everyday Jew living in Jerusalem during this time. You hear the two message - one of an upcoming defeat, the other of peace and security - which one do you want to listen to.

I’m not asking which one you should listen to… I’m saying, if we’re honest, our natural inclination is to listen to the good news.

This is the situation into which Jeremiah is going to try and bring some clarity. And he’s not going to say you just need to all become pessimistic. Sometimes it can seem the only way to be realistic in our outlook of the world is to reject anything positive, and always assume the worst. That is not the message Jeremiah is going to give. He is going to give us a much better framework.

Testing false prophets

So, how do we test false prophets?

When one person says everything is going to be okay… that you are going to overcome that problem you are currently facing?

And then the next person says, actually you are going to endure further trials…

How do you know who to listen to?

Well, I’m going to draw a test from the passage we have before us, but before I do, I want to suggest two tests that we get from other parts of scripture.

Scripture test

The first one I’m going to call the scripture test.

The test: does what the person say align with what the bible says.

In 1 Timothy 6, Paul is instructing the young Timothy about sound doctrine, and in verse 3 he warns against those who teach against this sound doctrine.

In 1 John 4:1-3 we are instructed to test the spirits we hear from people, and see, is it pointing us to God.

This test does assume you have a good understanding of scripture, but while it is an important test, it might not always result in a clear answer for us.

Result test

The second test in one sense is simpler, although perhaps only in hindsight. It’s what I’m going to call the result test.

It’s simply this, if what the so-called prophet said does not come true, then it wasn’t from God.

Moses gives us this test in Deuteronomy 18.

Deuteronomy 18:21–22 NIVUK

You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

You might recall in the lead up to the 2020 US presidential election, many people were prophesying that Donald Trump would win. What they said did not come to pass. They were wrong.

Character test

We could spend more time exploring those ideas, but I want to focus this morning on what we see in Jeremiah 23.

The first thing we can note in this passage is that the Jeremiah notes the poor character of those giving false prophecies.

In verse 10 we read: “the prophets follow and evil course and use their power unjustly”.

Down in verse 14, Jeremiah says that among the prophets of Jerusalem, he found people commiting adultery and living a lie.

These so-called prophets were living a life that was not consistent with the character of God.

This should always be a red flag.

Now just to be clear, God can use anyone, even wicked people to achieve his purposes. So this is not to say that just because someone is acted in a way contrary to God’s character they can’t be used by God - but if you are looking for a message to trust, then I would be very cautious about what you accept as a message from God coming through them.

Council of the Lord

Now, there is this interesting little phrase that we find in the verse 18 that I want to briefly draw your attention to.

Jeremiah asks the rhetorical question of the so-called prophets: “which of them has stood in the council of the Lord?”

It’s interesting to ponder what this “council of the Lord” is.

What comes to mind is a sort of gathering of the high Spiritual authorities, maybe the chief angels and so forth.

Does such a gathering exist, or is it just a turn of phrase used to make a point? Well, I’ll leave that up to you to think about. The point, however, is clear, there so-called prophets are far from the inner workings of God - they’re not doing what they should be doing.

If they had stood in this council of the Lord, (and I’m effectively quoting from verse 22 here), they would have proclaimed God’s words to his people and would have turned them from their evil way and from their evil deeds.

Godly instruction test

And this brings us to the fourth of the tests I want to make. I’m going to call it the godly instruction test.

You see, prophecy has a purpose. When God speaks, he’s not just giving us random bits of trivia about the world. When he speaks about the future, he’s not doing it because he wants to show off his ability to know the future. He speaks because he wants us to act… he wants us to respond in a certain way.

This is what verse 22 says. If these people really knew what God was saying, then the people they speak to would turn from their evil ways.

Now, possibly your initial thought might be that most of the time, this test is redundant. After all, of course we’re not going to listen to someone who pushes us towards evil ways.

But let me give some examples. Now, before I do, I just want to say how these examples start with something that can be good, but in such a way that leads to something bad.

So my first example is some teaching on male headship.

This is the idea that the wife submits to the husband and that authority in the church should be a male thing.

My point is not to debate the rights or wrongs of such an idea, but what is wrong and would fail the godly instruction test of verse 22 is when this teaching turns a blind eye to domestic violence. When it is taught that women should just accept abuse as their act of submission, we have something seriously wrong.

Again, I want to reiterate that it is possible to have a healthy view of male headship, but we need to be very careful when we start moving towards it because it suits what we want to hear.

Or let me give another example - teaching on homosexuality.

Now, let me just state upfront. I hold to a traditional view of marriage. That is, that marriage is between and man and a woman for life. I also believe that sex outside the confines of a marriage relationship goes against the design God has for sex.

Unfortunately, what sometimes happens is that modern prophets or preachers have spoken with such force on the matter that the treatment of people in the LGBTQ community has been shameful.

If the teaching you are listening to causes you to hate other people, or to mistreat them, or to turn a blind eye to their mistreatment, can I suggest you question that teaching.

Sometimes you might find that it’s not the whole concept that needs to be rejected. The is often a truth that needs to be kept. But how can I live out that truth in a way that is consistent with all of scripture?

Applying it

For Jeremiah, the false prophets should have been clear to spot.

The ones promising peace were of bad character. But what’s more, they were minimising the bad behaviour of everyone, and suggesting that God wouldn’t mind if they acted the way they did.

For us, being discerning about the Christian voices we hear can be difficult.

I want you to step back and don’t just do the automatic thing were you pre-judge the veracity of what someone is saying based on whether they are part of your tribe or not.

Because, more likely than not, some of the people you like listening to will be saying something problematic, and some of the people you would normally reject are actually saying some really godly words.

It’s not always easy to let down our automatic filter, but lets apply some of the filters that we see Jeremiah suggesting. Are they or good character?

And are they urging you to love God and love all people?

Some times we become so desperate to have someone say: everything’s going to start working out better - that when we hear it, we just so want it to be true, that we just believe it.

But, maybe what we need to hear instead is that even though you are about to go through more trials, God is going to stay with you, and he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Maybe what we need to hear is that you just need to honour God with your words and your actions, repent of your wrong doing and just let God be God.

Conclusion

You see, listening to the voice that says everything is going to work out great, is like playing with the sporting coach that lets you do what you want.

It sounds good, and initially it feels good. But in the end, your team keeps on losing because the tean plays with no discipline. Everyone’s doing their own thing. It felt like fun in the beginning, but now it just feels terrible.

It can be so easy to listen to the voices that make us feel good. To listen to the voices that say, hey look at how good we are and look at how bad those people out there are.

It’s a lot harder to listen to the voices that say, look how far we have fallen.

Scriptures give us some good ways to help us be discerning.

We’ve seen from elsewhere in scipture.

First, the scripture test: does it align with what the bible says.

Second, the result test: has what has been said come true.

And then from Jeremiah 23 we see...

Third, the character test: is the speaker living in line with Christian character

And fourth, the godly instruction test: is this urging me to live in a God honouring way?

As I said, it might not always be easy to be discerning like this, but it is important.

Let me pray...