Sermon Tone Analysis

*By Their Fruit*

*Utawala Baptist Church*

*March 09, 2009*

*Matthew 7:15-20*

*V.

The Warning about False Prophets, 7:15-20 *

(7:15-20) *Introduction— False Prophets*: note what Christ is talking about in this passage.

He is talking about prophets, men who proclaim and teach the gospel.

There are some who are false prophets, men who proclaim and teach a false gospel.

Christ says seven things about false prophets.

(Cp.

Galatians 1:6-9.)

 

1.

Their presence: beware (v.15).

2. Their chief trait: they appear as sheep, but inwardly they are wolves (v.15).

3. Their revealing mark: the fruit they gather (v.16).

4. Their true nature: it is not good, but corrupt and evil (v.17).

5. Their hopeless fruit: they cannot bear good fruit, but only corrupt and evil fruit (v.18).

6.

Their terrible future: judgment (v.19).

7. Their fruit: exposes them (v.20).

*1.

*(7:15) *False Prophets*: false prophets are present.

They are among us.

Note two emphases.

1.

Christ says: “Beware” The word means to take heed, guard, and watch, keep yourself.

The word is emphatic; the warning is clear and strong.

2.Christ warns us: one of the major things that keeps us from seeking the right gate and the right way (salvation and heaven) is false teachers.

*“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim.

4:3-4).

*

 

*2.

*(7:15) *False Prophets*: the chief trait of false prophets is that they “come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

 

1.

Sheep’s clothing:/ outwardly/ they appear as all ministers and sheep of God in \\ profession, behavior, call, position, and message (2 Cor.

11:12-15).

2.

Ravening wolves: /inwardly/, false teachers are anything but sheep.

a.

Some false teachers are just like wolves in that they may not be aware that they are /not/ what they should be.

They go about doing what they know to do, not knowing that what they do is corrupt and evil (Matthew 7:17).

They appear as sheep, but consume all they can in order to fill whatever appetite—personal conviction or doctrine—they have.

b.

Some false teachers are just like wolves in that they are out for self and \\ personal gain: ego, recognition, fame, prestige, position, livelihood, career, and comfort.

They are concerned primarily with realizing their own motives and purposes and with pushing their own thoughts and formulas for succeeding in life.

c.

Some false teachers are just like wolves in that they want a pack in which to move and with which to identify.

*Thought 1*.

False teachers are in sheep’s clothing.

They can easily deceive.

 

1) They appear as sheep or messengers of light (2 Cor.

11:13-15).

They appear harmless, innocent, and good.

They start out as excellent examples of society, but they lack two things: a life and a testimony changed by the Word of God.

 

*“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming \\ themselves into the apostles of Christ?

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Cor.

11:13-15).

*

* *

2) They secretly and deceivingly preach heresies.

They proclaim justice, morality, righteousness, and good.

They teach mental and emotional and physical strength—all the high ideals and commendable ideas of men.

But they never preach the true gospel of the living Lord.

*“Beloved, believes not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:1-3).

*

 

*Thought 2*.

Inwardly false prophets are wolves, real wolves, knowingly or \\ unknowingly.

They may appear as sheep, but they are wolves.

1) They have not confessed the /Lord Jesus/: that God has raised Him from the dead.

*“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and \\ shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” \\ (Romans 10:9-10).

*

 

2) They have not “put off the old man” of the world.

*“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” (Ephes.

4:22).

*

 

3) They have not been “renewed in the spirit of their mind” nor “put on the new man.”

*“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephes.

4:23-24).

*

 

4) They have not been put into the ministry by God.

(Note esp. 1 Tim.

1:12: the fact that God counts the men whom He chooses as /trustworthy/.

*“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for \\ that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry” (1 Tim.

\\ 1:12).

*

 

*Thought 3*.

A false prophet sometimes does not know he is false.

He is /deceiving/ because he is /being deceived/.

*“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim.

3:13).

*

 

*3.

*(7:16) *False Prophets*: how can we tell if a prophet is false?

There is one revealing mark: the fruit he gathers.

A false prophet is known by the fruit he feeds upon and the fruit he feeds to others (see outlines—John 15:1-8 and notes—John 15:1-8).

If he /feeds himself/ on thorns and thistles and not on grapes and figs, that is one way to tell.

If what he /feeds to others/ are thorns and thistles instead of grapes and figs, that is another way to tell.

Thorns and thistles are false food, worldliness (see Deeper Study #3—Matthew 13:7, 22).

Grapes and figs are true food.

There is only one true food for the soul of man: the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.

3.)

A *prophet* must feed upon the truth of the Lord and His Word, and he must feed the same food to others.

Any other source of food for the human soul is false food: it is thorns and thistles (worldliness).

If eaten or served to others, it will choke the life out of the soul

 

A person knows false prophets by their fruits.

*Thought 1**.

“Ye shall know them by their fruit.”

*

*1) “Try [test] the spirits,” the prophets (1 John 4:1).

*

*2) “Prove [examine] all things,” the prophet’s fruit (1 Thes.

5:21).

*

* *

*Thought 2**.

We cannot always tell a tree by its appearance (bark and leaves), but \\ we can always tell it by its fruit.

*

* *

*Thought 3**.

Fruit has to do with two things.

*

*1) What a person bears in his own life.

*

*2) What a person bears in the lives of others.

*

* *

A prophet is to be measured by the fruit borne in his own life and the fruit borne by him in other lives.

*4.

*(7:17) *Prophets, False*: What is the true nature of a prophet?

Note something critically important: a tree is not judged by a bad piece of fruit here and there, but by the good fruit it bears.

Every tree produces some bad fruit, yet the tree is not cast away.

A tree is not rejected unless it /leans toward/ bearing bad fruit.

In testing and examining prophets we must observe not single acts here and there; but the tenor, the lean, the whole behavior of their lives.

How important!