Wed Bible Study 7/15/2020
Notes
Transcript
Passage
Passage
“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 thornbushes, 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.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Bethel Video
Bethel Video
https://twitter.com/thebereanmillen/status/1282477294037209089?s=20
False Prophets
False Prophets
Beware of false prophets, beware of the people who look like they’re harmless but are actually incredibly dangerous. You will recognize them by their fruits. What does that mean? Well if I give you an apple, is there any doubt in your mind what kind of tree I got it from? If I hand you cherry, what kind of tree did it come from?
Trees don’t have a choice in what fruit they bear. Trees can do all kinds of crazy things, maybe not be conscious will but in order to survive. Everyone has seen crazy trees that grew in amazing ways to survive and thrive, but who has ever seen an apple tree give you a coconut?
What are the fruits of false prophets? Or rather, what do their fruits lack? What are the fruits we should expect from someone truly sharing God’s Word among his people? If we can identify these, we will know the difference when a false prophet bears different fruits!
What are the fruits of a godly person or ministry? Give time to list fruits, encourage them to use the context of the sermon on the mount
Peace, not anxiety (Matthew 6:25)
Humility (Matthew 6:5-6)
Generosity (Matthew 6:2-4)
Love their enemies (Matthew 5:43)
Keep their word simply (Matthew 5:37)
Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12)
Hunger and thirst for righteousness
Pure in heart
Peacemakers
Persecuted for righteousness sake
Obedience to the will of God
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Previous False Prophets
Previous False Prophets
False prophets will not be a new phenomenon to the people of God
In the prophets of Samaria
I saw an unsavory thing:
they prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel astray.
But in the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen a horrible thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies;
they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns from his evil;
all of them have become like Sodom to me,
and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
“Behold, I will feed them with bitter food
and give them poisoned water to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”
Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the Lord and say,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.”
The word of the Lord came to me: “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!’ Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. 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. 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. Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination, whenever you have said, ‘Declares the Lord,’ although I have not spoken?”
Future False Prophets
Future False Prophets
And the church would certainly face false prophets again, as Jesus warned.
I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Paul commends the church in Ephesus “To God and to the word of his grace”. We always have our word with which to weigh the words of those who wish to speak for God, and should be able to confirm all that they teach with Scripture. Just like the Bereans did when Paul and Silas taught in the synagogue:
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
Most of all, though, Jesus tells us that we will know these false prophets by their fruits. If their actions contradict their message, then be wary of the message.
Does this mean that all teachers must be perfect? Absolutely not, if that were so this would be a pretty quiet lesson tonight I can tell you that for certain. So what is the difference between the teacher who bears bad fruit and the sinful person doing their best to teach truth?
I Never Knew You
I Never Knew You
Notice that when we talk about fruits, many are coming to Jesus in verses 22 through 23 that there are those who made prophesies and cast out demons in His name are not sure of their place in heaven. We see it all the time today with the shock and awe evangelists, “faith healing ministries” and more that try to demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit in all the wrong ways.
What leads us to try and demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit in the wrong way?
Personal glory
Self-importance
Wanting “our side” to “win”
How is it possible to do things in Jesus’s name but not know Christ?
It’s a sham! No one is truly getting healed by a man on a stage waving a sport coat around and beating people with it. And God sees right through these false demonstrations.
I had a friend once lend me a DVD that “changed their life”. It was all about these guys “demonstrating” the Holy Spirit by grabbing people on the street and explaining that there would be “a great movement of healing energy” going through them and they’d hold their hand and mutter “come holy spirit, holy spirit move now, move now” and basically through the hoax of sensory suggestion would convince these people they could “feel” the spirit moving in them. God is not fooled by street magic or mass hypnosis or the power of suggestion. God moves through us in His own way, and He cannot be fooled by charletons.
Must Be Vigilant
Must Be Vigilant
But we must be wary because we do not have the omniscience of God. We do now know everything that He knows, we cannot see the heart of man.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
That sounds scary! I mean it honestly sounds like we might not be able to see the difference between ministers of the truth and ministers of Satan. So how do we see it?
Well the truth is, it’s only difficult because we tend to focus on the wrong things. When we focus on what makes us feel good or what makes us feel most comfortable or what affirms us the most, we aren’t focusing on what is scripturally sound, what produces good fruit.
It’s when we let our flawed view of a person influence our analysis of their fruit that we get in trouble. You see it all too often in these abuse cases in the church, leaders get protected when their congregation thinks too highly of them to accept the fruit that they bear. We see it happen.
Be good?
Be good?
So what’s our plan then? How will we protect ourselves against false teachers?