False Prophets and the Fruit of Truth (Matthew 7:15-20)

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for those words and they

would be true of us. Maybe they true for us.

We could come now to you. By your grace and mercy that we

could Seek You. Hit and knock and come into your

presence because of your grace and mercy.

So we pray Lord that you would meet us now as we open up your

word. I pray that your word would be a

feast for us. That would be a place of rest

for us. That it would be a place of

delight and joy for us and as we come to your word into your

words for us Jesus. That would be shown once again

the true gospel and the good fruit that you are producing in

us and through Us by its power. So, give us eyes to see.

Give us ears to hear this morning and help us to seek you.

As you seek us out, we pray this in Jesus name.

Amen. Would you please stand for

reading of God's word? We're working our way through

the Sermon on the Mount might have just a few weeks left in

this amazing sermon that our Lord Jesus Christ has preached

for us this morning. I'll be reading from Matthew 7,

beginning in verse 15. These are Jesus words for us.

Jesus said, Beware of false prophets who come to you in

sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Moves. You will recognize them by their

fruits. Our Graves 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'll

recognize them by their fruits. This Word of the Lord.

You may be seated. Here in these final verses of

the sermon of the mount. Jesus warned his disciples to

beware to beware of false prophets.

And as we hear these words of Jesus this morning, I think if

we're honest, our modern ears hear them and we think does

these words really mean anything to me?

It seems strange to us, beware of false prophets as if somehow

there are false prophets everywhere, lurking in our

midst, these words still matter. this morning, I want to show you

why they matter and why Jesus is sober warning is just as

relevant for us today as it was when he preached some 2,000

years ago You see you and I we live in an increasingly secular

age where truth is questioned. Not simply that truths are

questioned but even the concept of Truth itself it's called into

question and people will hurl insults and accusations and lies

that say, there's no such thing as absolute truth.

Not only that but the truth of the Bible and its promises and

all that we believe as Christians is debated,

questioned to the question for us this morning is, how do we

tell the difference between what is true?

And what is false? And a time when there is so much

confusion around us and so many messages, Has being proclaimed

to us from false prophets and false Gospels.

The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that the answer has

something to do with fruit. And so this morning, I want you

to see what it means to hold fast to the truth that God has

given to us in his word. And why good fruit only comes

through abiding in him and him alone.

The first thing I want you to know is I want you to know that

we must be aware of the false prophets Among Us.

I want you to look with me at The Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 7, verse 15, you can find it in your bulletin or your

Matthew 7:15

own Bible or the bloop you Bible in front of us.

If you don't have a Bible this morning, that's our gift to you.

Once you take it with you so that you would have God's word.

Matthew 7, verse 15, Now, before we get into it, I want you to

Matthew 7:15

know where this this verse In this passage finds itself in

Jesus. Sermon, this is towards the end.

This is at Jesus's conclusion. This is his application to all

that. He has taught us and the

Beatitudes and what it means to live in the kingdom of God.

It's like any good preacher. Jesus has been teaching us about

the kingdom and now he gives us this sober warning in conclusion

after he invites us to ask and seek and knock.

After he gives us the Golden Rule after he calls us to enter

through the narrow gate. He says beware In other words,

pay attention. Don't be deceived because there

are false prophets Among Us. And again, as we hear those

words, they might seem strange to us.

But I want you to know these words, this warning is nothing

new to the Bible. And the Old Testament, the

Prophet Jeremiah warn. The people of God against false

prophets. This is what he said, Jeremiah

23 16, Jeremiah said do not listen to the words of the

prophets who prophesied to you, filling you with vain hopes.

This is what false prophets do. They proclaim a message that

gives false hope built on empty promises but Jeremiah continues

and he says they speak visions of Their Own.

Own minds. Not from the mouth of the Lord.

According to Jeremiah these false prophets proclaimed, false

hopes, and they speak not for the Lord, but they're speaking

out of their own minds but their own words, one of my favorite

stories. The Old Testament tells the

story of Elijah as the last and final Prophet, the people of God

confronting the prophets of Baal and First Kings 18, he asked the

people of Israel. This question, he says, how long

will you go limping between two? Two opinions.

That's a question that I think we need to hear this morning as

people who live in a world where there's so much confusion and so

many contrary messages other than the Gospel of Jesus we must

ask ourselves how long we go on limping between two opinions.

Either, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.

Or it's not. As you go on to the New

Testament. Jesus and the apostles also

warned against false teachers and false prophets.

The Apostle Paul in second Corinthians warn against false

Apostles, deceitful, workmen, who he said would disguise

themselves as Apostles of Christ, they would look like

Christ Representatives. But it's just an act.

It's just a disguise. Peter warned against false

prophets and false teachers who had secretly bring false

heresies into the church and later in the gospel of Matthew.

Matthew, 24, verse 24, Jesus warned against false, christs,

Matthew 24:24

and false gospels saying that there would be those who would

present themselves as false christs.

So to lead God's people. People astray.

That is why it's at this point in at The Sermon on the Mount

that Jesus says beware. Beware beware of the false

prophets among you. And so as we hear these words,

we think they are strange. We think they might be archaic

an Antiquated, something that was meant for a Time long ago

but no longer matters today. We need to hear Jesus words.

As we hear these words to beware of false prophets, we also might

be tempted to think. Well, maybe Jesus is just

talking about extremists and cult leaders.

Maybe, as you hear the idea of a false prophet, you think of Jim

Jones, a Charles Manson For me, as a kid who grew up in Waco

Texas. I can't help, but not think of

David koresh and I can still remember what it was like as an

elementary student. hearing about what had happened and then

even seeing on the news, This tragic thing or 70, people lost

their lives because they followed the words of a false

prophet. We hear about these stories,

these extreme examples, we think.

Well, I would never follow someone like that and that might

be true. But that's not who Jesus is

talking about. Jesus is not simply talking

about extremists and cult leaders.

But he's talking about the false prophets Among Us who are far

more commonplace and harder to identify.

Again, look with me. Matthew 7 verse 15, Jesus

Matthew 7:15

continues. He says, beware of false

prophets, beware of false prophets who come to you in

sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

And other words, the false prophets that we need to be wary

of look like sheep. They look like you.

They look like me. They wear the part of being

followers of Jesus, but inwardly.

So Jesus says, they're like ravenous wolves the Apostle

Paul, in Acts 20, put it this way.

He says, I know, after my departure Fierce wolves will

come in among you. You notice what he says?

Where do these false prophets? These Fierce wolves come from,

not outside the church. Paul says, but with within it.

He says these Fierce wolves will come among you not sparing the

flock and from among your own selves will arise men speaking

Twisted things to draw away disciples after them.

False prophet. It's like a wolf in sheep's

clothing. Looking like a follower of Jesus

and even saying things that might sort of sound like the

truth all the while they're leading us astray.

A true prophet in the Bible. Was one who had been called by

God to speak truth in his name. A false prophet is someone who

is speaking false things and the name of Jesus.

Not only is that blasphemy but it's incredibly dangerous and

destructive to the church hermitian and her Witness.

And you don't have to be a historian to know that this has

happened time and time again throughout the history of the

church. So many have come and gone.

Proclaiming false things about God and doing horrific and

heinous things in his name that his lead people astray.

Maybe, you know, someone like that.

Maybe you know, someone who is actually rejected Christianity,

not because of Jesus but because what people who claim to be

Christians said about him. If that describes you this

morning, here's my question. Have you rejected the true

Jesus? Or have you rejected a Jesus

that's been made in our image? Others of you have also given

into the lies of false prophets and you have no idea.

So this morning, I want to ask you, are you following the real

Jesus? are all you following some

caricature, but as lead, you away from the truth, So, how do

you know? How are we to live in this age

of confusion? How we supposed to tell the

difference between what is true? And what is false?

If a false prophet is like a wolf dressed in sheep's

clothing, how we able to spot them.

Jesus tells us the answer has to do with fruit.

So, second thing I want you to know I want, you know, that we

must recognize the false gospels that are being preached, false

prophets, preach, false gospels. And Jesus says it that we can

recognize them by their fruits. Look with me in verse 16.

Jesus says you will recognize them by their fruits and then

you ask this question. He says, are grapes gathered

from thornbushes or figs from I'm thistles.

What is he saying? Well, I want you to imagine you

go to the nursery later this afternoon and you decide, it's

time that you want to buy a fruit tree.

And you know anything about fruit trees.

If you don't know a lot and know something you know that they're

just trees, right? And until they actually bear

fruit, you might have a hard time telling the difference

between one fruit tree and another And so you go and you

buy what you think is an orange tree and then finally, you've

been nursing this tree along after you've planted it and

you've watered it and you've grown it, you've taken care of

it. You are excited for the oranges

that are going to come. And then finally, after months,

You don't have oranges, you have lemons.

What's Jesus is point he saying, fruit doesn't lie?

An orange tree makes oranges. A lemon tree makes lemons.

If you want to be able to tell the difference between what is

true and false, if you want to be able to be wary of and to

spot the false prophets Among Us, you must look at the fruit

of the false gospels that they preach.

Because false gospels powerless, and the messages of false

prophets proclaimed will always lead to Decay and disease in

spiritual atrophy. Jesus says, you can recognize

them by their fruit. Look with me.

He goes on verse 17 every healthy tree, Bears.

Good fruit. But the disease tree Bears.

Bad fruit a healthy tree cannot bear.

Bad fruit. Nor can a diseased tree bear.

Good fruit. There's only two kinds of fruit.

There's bad and there's good and only the gospel Bears, good

fruit. How do we tell the difference?

How do we tell the difference between what is good fruit and

bad fruit? Well, bad fruit comes from a

false gospel. A gospel that offers hope and

salvation in something other than Christ Alone.

His death and Resurrection for our Salvation, these false

gospels are so deceiving to us because often they come to us

looking and sounding like the gospel but there's something in

them. That's either added to the

gospel are taken away. something that says, you are saved through

Jesus Plus Or something that says, we're going to take

something away from what Jesus has done.

The Apostle Paul described it this way in the book of

Galatians have a Bible, you can turn to Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

Once you to hear what Paul says about false Gospels, Paul wrote

Galatians. He was writing to a church that

believed in Jesus and they believe that we are saved in

Jesus but they didn't stop there.

They believed in Jesus. Plus we're saved through belief

in Christ and what he's done for us and our good works and this

false gospel had begin to seep into their Church.

So much. So that the Apostle Paul said

it's no longer the gospel. Listen to his words.

Galatians 1, verse 6. Paul says, I am astonished that

Galatians 1:6

you are so quickly deserting him, who called you in the grace

of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one but there are some who trouble

you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

It goes on in verse 9 and says we have said before.

So now I say, again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel,

contrary contrary to the one that you received, let him be

accursed. For the Apostle, Paul.

This is incredibly serious. A false gospel had began to seep

into the galatian church, and he's calling his church back to

the one true salvation that is found and grace alone through

Christ Alone by his finished work on the cross alone.

And saying you've been deceived. Brothers and sisters.

We need to hear these words again.

I wonder how many of us have been deceived?

Because each and every day we are inundated with false gospels

being proclaimed To Us by false prophets, these false prophets

are everywhere. So often it's hard to really

know what they really look like. and just how contrary to the

true gospel, their messages really are What do these false

gospels look like today? Least false gospels, basically,

like four different categories, there's probably more than that,

but let me just simply give you four.

The first is this the Prosperity Gospel?

Perhaps, one of the most common false gospels proclaimed all

over the world. It's a false gospel that says,

if you work hard enough and you are a good person, then God will

bless you, with health, wealth and prosperity.

It's a popular false gospel because it's the message we all

want to hear. You're telling me I can just try

to be good and work hard and God has to bless me.

The problem is, it's not true. Not only, is it not true

experientially it's not what the Bible says. because as we saw

last week, Jesus calls us to walk down the hard pass.

Not the easy one. Prosperity Gospel.

Invites us to walk down the easy path.

A path away from the cross away from suffering.

But the true gospel says that Jesus has actually entered into

our suffering. We're not promised health,

wealth and prosperity. We are promised a savior who

knows our every sin, our every Temptation in our, every need

and paid for it on the cross. And before you say, well I would

never believe the Prosperity Gospel.

I don't need to be worried about that one.

I want you to answer this question.

Have you ever asked why do bad things happen to good people?

That question comes from Prosperity, theology.

We re assume that if we are good, good things should happen.

But if you read the Bible, you see that this life, This Side of

Heaven is filled with suffering and hardship.

And yet that is exactly where Jesus is entered into our

stories. That's the Prosperity Gospel.

There's another gospel in America, that's kind of like it

and sociologists have called moralistic therapeutic deism.

The gospel that says that God just wants us to be moral.

He wants us to be good people, to be kind to us.

And that's really what the human life under God is about.

It's a gospel that says that God just wants us to be happy.

It's therapeutic. He just wants you to be happy

and pleased with yourself. That's a false gospel, that's D

aesthetic and that it says that God is actually not very

interested in your life and what you do every day.

He's really only there. When you need them, you can go

to them and get what you need and then put them back on the

Shelf. But that's not the true gospel.

The true gospel says that actually God is so interested

with every single part of our lives that he sent his son to be

incarnate in our flesh. To know what it truly means to

understand what it's like for us as human beings and to die for

us in our place on the cross. A third kind of feisty false

gospel, is the gospel of legalism.

A gospel of perfectionism, a false gospel that says believe

in Jesus and be perfect. Yes, we are saved and justified

by Grace, but now we are Sanctified by works and you

better earn it. You better live a life that is

deserving and sinless. Otherwise, how could you truly

be one of Christ's disciples? And last kindness is exact

opposite side. Gospel of antinomianism, a

gospel of cheap Grace. A gospel that says you don't

need to be holy gospel that says, don't worry, we all sin

and Jesus died in your forgiving anyways.

So don't even try. About cheap Grace Dietrich

Bonhoeffer. He said that it is Grace without

the cross. And this is what I want you to

see about every false gospel, everyone promises hope and offer

salvation by some way, other than the Cross of Christ Alone.

What false gospel are you most prone to listen to?

What false gospel has seeped into your soul and distorted

your understanding of the true gospel.

Because you see this is what false gospels do, they mix in

and they cause us to see a false picture of God and a false

understanding of the cross. He's false Gospels.

Come to us from false prophets to lead us astray.

So, how do we know the difference?

How can we walk through this life, knowing the difference

between true and false? Good fruit, and bad fruit?

How can we recognize the false gospels and our own hearts and

turn back? It's the joy of Salvation that

is found in Jesus. Jesus says, it has to do with

fruit and at the end of this section of The Sermon, on the

Mount once again, he says this in verse 20, thus you will

recognize them by their fruits. So, the third and final thing I

want you to know. I want, you know, that we must

abide in the truth of God's word.

How do we tell the difference between the fruit of a false

gospel and the truth fruit of the Gospel of Jesus?

We must know that good fruit only comes when we abide in

Jesus alone. The Gospel of John, Jesus tells

us what this looks like. John 15 verse 5, Jesus said, I

John 15:5

am the vine and you are the branches, whoever abides in me

and I in him he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you

can do nothing. This verse means so much to us

as a church that we actually had engraved on a piece of stone and

put it in the courtyard. Did you know that?

Because here we believe that we can do nothing apart from Jesus.

False gospels lead us away from that.

And they feed us this lie that says we can do it on our own.

But Jesus says, no good fruit only comes when you abide in me.

So what does it mean to abide in?

Jesus Will earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us John 8,

John 8:31

verse 31 Jesus said if you abide in my word, you are truly my

disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you

free. How do we abide in Jesus and so

bear? Good fruit, true gospel fruit.

Did you hear it? Jesus said, abide in my word and

if you abide in my word, you will truly be one of my

disciples. If you're truly one of my

disciples, you will know the truth and the truth will set you

free. So, in this world of confusion

was so many conflicting messages being preached to us.

How do we know the difference? We can only know the difference

if we know the truth. I put it to you this way.

I want you to imagine that later this afternoon.

You get an email from me. and one of those emails that says,

greetings, greetings. Pastor, Paul is here and I am in

real trouble. I'm in the middle of sub-Saharan

Africa and have run out of money.

And I need you to send me money through this link.

If you'll only give me your bank account and your Social Security

number, Now, other than that, you've had enough of those to

know that that's laughable. I want you to go there for just

a second. You would probably listen to the

words the email and say that that doesn't really sound like

Paul. Why don't think he says,

greetings, it's kind of strange, and I don't think he'd be asking

me for money. You might even if you thought

that maybe it sounded enough. Like Paul, you might be tempted

to say, well, you know what, I want you to prove that you are

who you say you are, would you please send me a picture of

yourself. And you get a picture of my old

picture from the internet, which does not have a beard like this.

It's a little bit more clean shaven, that's old pole you

think? Well that's not what it looks

like. Now not the least of which is

your here on Sunday morning and it's impossible for me to get to

sub-Saharan Africa in a day. What's the point?

Well, the more that, you know me And been around me and have

heard me speak and talk. You can easily tell the

difference between me and an imposter.

How are we to tell the difference between the false

gospels that are being preached to us?

Only when we deeply know the real thing.

And Jesus is calling us as his people to abide in his word.

The most famous verse about the Bible in the Bible is probably

second Timothy 3:16. As we end, I want you to turn

2 Timothy 3:16

there and you can find it. Actually in your bulletin, we

used it as our profession of Faith this morning.

Second Timothy, 3:16 Says, this all scripture is breathed out by

God and profitable for teaching, for reproof for correction, and

for training in righteousness, as for a Paul is telling us the

importance of the Bible, the importance of scripture, the

importance of God's word that all of its been breathed out by

God and in other words it's a Grace for us, it's a gift that's

been given to us to teach us and train us and grow.

And if you've grown up in the Bible Belt, you've probably

heard this verse before. But do you know where it comes

from and why Paul wrote it? Context matters.

Just a few verses before this one and second, Timothy 3 verse

1, this is what Paul said. Understand this, that, in the

last days, there will come times of difficulty for people.

Will be lovers of self. Lovers of money proud, arrogant,

abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful, Unholy

heartless, unappeasable slanderous without self-control

brutal. Not loving good treacherous.

Reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than

lovers of God. Now, listen to this, having

appearance of godliness but Denying its power.

And other words in the last days, there will be people

proclaiming false gospels. They will have the appearance of

godliness but they will deny his power.

They will be lovers of self and lovers of money.

They will be abusive and arrogant and prideful and

slanderous. And so then Paul writes that's

why it matters that all scripture is god-breathed.

But I want you to see this morning is, this is why the

Bible matters and why it's such a gift to us.

It's why we need it. We need the Bible because we

need to know deeply, the one true story of redemption.

We need the Bible because we need to know deeply.

The one true message of Salvation.

We need to Bible because we need to know deeply the true gospel.

And we need to know what. So intimately that we can spot a

false gospel immediately. And be able to call a false

prophet and expose them for what they really are.

We cannot do that. Unless we abide and the word And

so, what message are you listening to the most?

Do you find yourself tempted to listen to all the messages that

we are completely flooded with? This afternoon as you go back

home, what will you turn on the television?

As you get out your phone and listen to a podcast, what will

you listen to? As you get on the internet and

read some article? What will you read?

Because over and over again. My guess is there are false

messages of false gospels working in and through every

single one of those channels. Are you abiding in God's word?

More than those things. So to train yourself to not only

spot the false gospels Among Us. But to see God's word for what

it really is. It's a love letter.

A place of rest. An invitation to come and feast.

It's a story that tells the one true story of redemption and a

world proclaims that you are not loved.

And you don't matter, unless you make enough or look the right

way in a world that says, you can make yourself better and

save yourself. A world that says that this is

all that there is. And so, just live it up now

because there's nothing to come to that world this stories.

Is you are loved. That we have a Creator who made

all things in it. He is Made You and Me In His

Image that though. Actually, we are far more broken

and far more sinful than we could ever know.

God loved us so much that he sent his only son to know our

pain and our sorrow and to Bear our sin on the cross.

He died in our place on the third day, he rose again and one

day he is going to Come back to make all things new.

Do you know that story? More than that.

Do you live every day out of that story?

Do you rest in that story and are you so deeply and intimately

acquainted with that story? That there is no false message

that could ever compare? Jesus says you will recognize

them by their fruits. We can only do that when we see

the goodness and the grace of the fruit that he has given us

in his word and that salvation that he has given us in his son.

Let's pray. Father in heaven.

We pray that you would make us people who love your word.

It's so easy to see it as something we have to do.

Or something we fail to do. Oh, but Lord, as we come back to

it, maybe even today. Help us to see that you.

Welcome us back to yourself. And as we abide and your word

help us to live out of it and just taste and see that you are

who you say, you are, and that you're gospel.

And your story of Salvation is the only one that bears.

Good and true fruit in our hearts.

We ask this in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen. Let's stay and let's sing

together.