Eighth Sunday after Trinity – August 10, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus said, Beware of false prophets, you will recognize them by their fruits.

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.

Here ends our text.

There were two trees in the Garden of Eden. One was a tree of life,

and the other one was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life was a good tree, and it bore good fruit.

It could not bear bad fruit.

So when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of life, they were blessed.

They were blessed because it was a tree of life.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, however, was a bad tree, and it bore bad fruit.

It could not bear good fruit.

It looked like a normal tree, but it bore bad fruit.

God gave Adam the command, You shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.

It is as if God said, Beware of that tree.

It looks like a normal tree, but it is a bad tree and it bears bad fruit.

Do not eat from it.

Its fruits will bring death.

So when Adam and Eve listened to God and ate from the tree of life and did not

eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

they showed forth their love and their respect for God.

You might say that that was their place of worship, when they did one thing and not the other.

So also today, in this place,

this is our place of worship, and so we show forth our love and our faith toward

God when we hear his word,

receive his gospel, and when we partake of the fruit of the cross,

namely the body and blood of Christ.

Well, along comes Satan. He was not dressed in sheep's clothing.

Rather, he disguised himself as a serpent.

Inwardly, he was bad. He was full of lies and deception. He could not bear good fruits.

He wanted Adam and Eve to sin. And the book of Revelation identifies Satan as,

quote, that ancient serpent called the devil who leads the whole world astray.

The same thing happens today.

False prophets disguise themselves.

Outwardly, they look like they belong to Jesus, but they do not.

Outwardly, they look like they are following Jesus, but they do not.

They look pious and holy, but they are not.

They are dressed up like a pastor and preach and churches, but inwardly they're

full of lies and deception.

Don't be deceived by outward appearances.

First John chapter 4 says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit,

1 John 4 · chapter mention

but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets

have gone into the world.

Well, Satan asked Eve, did God really say that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?

Notice that Satan was challenging what God said.

Satan was challenging God's word, and he wanted Eve to doubt God's word.

And the same thing happens today. False prophets attack God's word.

They want us to think that the Bible is full of fables and myths.

They want us to doubt God and his many promises.

They want us to think that the culture determines truth and not God's word.

Furthermore, what God says regarding life and marriage and family are under attack.

And many people don't care what God's word says on these or other matters.

And so they want to do whatever their sinful flesh desires.

They don't want God or anyone to restrict them.

Don't listen to Satan or to the false prophets. God's word is trustworthy and reliable.

God's order of life and marriage and family is good and healthy for you and our society.

God's law is good for us. It teaches us what is right and what's wrong.

God's word points us to Jesus, our one and only Savior who died for our sins and rose again.

He is our light and our salvation.

And Jesus said, if you continue in my word, you will be my disciples and you know the truth.

And the truth will set you free.

Satan said to Eve. Eve, if you will eat this fruit, you will not die.

That's a flat out lie. And Satan knew it.

Jesus once said that Satan is a murder from the beginning, not holding to the

truth, where there is no truth in him.

And Jesus goes on to identify Satan as the father of lies.

Satan is the father of all lies and Satan is the father of all false prophets.

For false prophets today spread lies and deception attempting to destroy God's

word, the church, and family.

They twist scripture and make it say the opposite.

They want the church to be less concerned about the truth and more tolerant

toward other world religions. They want everyone to agree to disagree.

They want the Christian to compromise with the ways of the world.

During the days of Jeremiah, the people despised the Lord and they committed evil deeds.

And God was angry at them for their unbelief and their lawless ways.

But the false prophets basically said to the people, don't worry, it will be well with you.

They should have preached a message of law against sin and unbelief.

They should have preached a message of repentance with faith in God's promises.

Instead, they preached a message of peace when there was no peace between God and them.

God said, how long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies?

They failed to speak the truth of God's word in love.

The same thing happens today. False prophets lie.

They fail to speak the truth. They seek to destroy God's word and the precious

gospel that's found in Christ.

Jesus said in our Holy Gospel for today that you will know the false prophets by their fruits.

In other words, you will know them by the message that they teach and preach.

Listen closely. In their message, the gospel will not be central.

There is no mention of sin or God's grace. There's no mention of repentance

and faith in the forgiveness of sins.

There's no mention of the cross or the open tomb. The sacraments are belittled.

The message and teaching of the false prophet is not based on God's word,

but it's based on cultural trends and on people's feelings.

It is based on stories and statistics and surveys. It is based on earning God's

favor by what we do rather than on the blood of Christ.

Dearly beloved in the Lord, in order for you to identify a false prophet and

false doctrine, you need to know the word of God and the small catechism,

confessing the truth of scriptures.

It is good for you to know that Satan does exist and that he is our enemy.

It's good for the sheep to judge their pastor, to hold him accountable to the

word of God. It's good for us to identify false doctrine and to avoid it.

For if one lets false doctrine grow, it becomes like a cancer that eventually

hurts the soul and our salvation.

So Jesus' words, beware of false prophets, is good advice and should be heeded.

Jesus is saying this out of love for us.

He's saying beware the prophets because he cares about us. He cares about the

precious gospel He says this in order to protect us Because salvation could be at stake.

Satan basically said, Eve, eat this fruit, and she ate it, and she gave some

to her husband, and he also ate.

They ate the fruit from a bad tree.

And as a result of eating this tree, death came upon them, and death comes upon us as well.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, sinful parents give birth to sinful children, and so forth and so on.

If a bad tree cannot bear bad fruit, then we who are sinful by nature cannot

but, unfortunately, sin in thought, word, and deed.

Sins of unbelief, doubt, hatred, adultery, lust, lies, and the list goes on and on.

Inwardly, our old Adam loves the new fads in religion.

Old Adam in us wants to do away with the one true God. The old Adam in us loves false doctrine.

The old Adam wants to do something in order to make himself look good.

So it's very important for us to humble ourselves before God,

to confess our sins of what we have said or done wrong.

And it's important for us to seek the forgiveness of sins in Christ.

And we should always live a life of repentance with faith in the forgiveness

of sins on account of Christ.

And the good news is that Jesus came to our rescue for our sake and for our salvation.

Jesus, the Son of God, looked like us. He had a body like us,

but he was also the Son of God, holy and without sin.

He was divine. John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes

away the sin of the world.

Right after Jesus was baptized, he was led up into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And through this battle, Satan misquoted scripture and he took it out of context.

And Jesus corrected Satan.

And Jesus did not give in to Satan's temptations there in the wilderness.

Jesus remained faithful. Every good tree bears good fruit.

Jesus is a good tree, and he bore good fruit.

Jesus never lied. He always spoke the truth. He cast out demons.

He gave healing to the sick and the blind and the lepers, and he even raised the dead.

The tree of life in the middle of the garden, the tree of life was in the middle

of the garden, but the cross was also in the middle on Mount Calvary between two other crosses.

The tree of life was a live tree, but the tree of Mount Calvary was a dead tree made into a cross.

In the middle of the forbidden tree was Satan bringing death into our world,

and in the middle of the cross was Jesus bringing life and salvation into our world.

Every tree bears good fruit.

The cross bore the Son of God as a sacrifice for our sin, and on the cross was

the perfect payment for sin.

The cross is our tree of life.

If Adam and Eve were to eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die.

And sure enough, they did. But when we eat from the fruit of the cross,

the body and blood of Christ, we will live.

And so the result of the cross and the resurrection is that there is now the forgiveness of sins.

You are declared righteous because of what Jesus has done for you.

And the death and resurrection of Christ is open heaven for you and me and for all who believe.

Every tree bears, good tree bears good fruit.

Christ is the vine and you are the branches grafted into Christ.

When you are baptized, inwardly you are sinful, but on the outside you are covered

with the righteousness of Christ.

Every good tree bears good fruit. In Christ, you are a good tree,

and you bear fruits of love, joy, peace,

patience, goodness, and mercy toward others.

And you do this not in order to be saved, but you do this willingly and freely

out of love for neighbor and family and those here within the church.

May the precious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ continue to be taught and preached

in its truth and purity for the sake of our salvation in Christ.

May baptism in the Lord's Supper continue to be administered according to our

Lord's institution for the forgiveness of sins.

And may God give us the ability to identify false doctrine and to avoid it.

May God help us to be faithful toward his precious word.

Jesus once said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and

I give them eternal life.

There are many voices out there, but Jesus's voice is the voice of peace and

comfort and forgiveness.

His words are words of eternal life.

Christ is your good shepherd and you are his dear lamb he loves you he protects

you and he cares for you thanks be to God Amen.