August 7, 2022 Trinity 8 The Sunday Warning Against False Prophets
(no audio available this week)
Trinity 8
Matthew 7:15-23
August 7, 2022
“How to Beware of False Prophets & Stand on Him Who’s Most Certainly True”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here’s what Jesus says to you this morning. “Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they’re ravenous wolves.” But this is hard work, guys, keeping on guard of false teaching in this world and the truth is most of us are scared of the hard work.
Here are some things you might find yourself saying to Jesus about this. “Well, Jesus, that sounds good and I don’t want people teaching lies but I just hate confrontation. I just want everyone to get along and I want to be kind above all so I really don’t want to deal with false prophets and false teaching. It’s too hard, Jesus.”
Or you might say, “Jesus, I know you’re right, but how do I know that I believe what’s right? How do I know that my pastor knows what he’s talking about? How am I sure my Church teaches the right thing? Isn’t it arrogant to think I’m right and others are wrong? I’d rather just play dumb than try to figure this all out.”
Or you might say, “Jesus, you’re right about the false teachers but how in the world am I supposed to protect my children and grandchildren in the world today? It’s too much. It’s overwhelming with internet, social media, phones, and so forth. What can I possibly do?”
Or you might say, “Jesus, I know you’re right but my husband just doesn’t believe. Or my wife doesn’t believe. Or my sister or brother or my best friend just doesn’t believe. Jesus, they believe a lie from false prophets. What do I do?”
So I think probably all of you easily hear Jesus’ words this morning that you should beware and guard against false prophets and false teaching. But then come the buts. Either you don’t like confrontation or think we should just be kind to everyone first and foremost or you’re full of uncertainty whether you’re right in the first place or you’re just flat out overwhelmed with all of it and don’t know what to do.
Jesus has words of answer for you this morning in this text. He’s the answer. He does it all as you’re going to see. He confronts. He identifies. He gives certainty. He is the Rock for us to stand on. You can do this in Christ.
First point. He tells us to not be overwhelmed but just expect false prophets to come and expect them to look and sound very good. Don’t think there is some golden age of America where there weren’t false prophets. Never has been. This is nothing new at all. So just take comfort in that alone. That Jesus isn’t surprised by this at all. He knows how Satan works. And you should just expect that lies and false teaching will be all over the place. Expect to hear lies from pulpits, in books, in colleges and universities, in your home, on your TV, and everywhere on your phone. Don’t be surprised. Rather, be ready.
He also tells you to expect false prophets to look and sound very good. They will be in sheep’s clothing. In other words, you won’t be able to spot a false teacher just by their appearance and by first impressions. Let me give you a scenario. You grow up in this Church and we tell you to beware of the false teaching of atheists who say there’s no god. And you get the wrong idea that all atheists are going to be rude, evil people who do bad things. Then you meet an atheist at school or work and find out he’s a really nice guy. Well, yes, of course. Jesus never, ever said that false teaching will always come in rude, obnoxious, and scary people. You can have one of the nicest people in the world and yet he believes and teaches something that’s false and harmful. And you can be very good friends with him but you must still recognize that his teaching is wrong.
I can tell you to beware of those that teach wrong about Baptism. Beware of those who teach that Baptism doesn’t really save or that babies shouldn’t be baptized or that Baptism is just an outward sign and profession of faith. But you should never then get the idea that those who teach those things are going to be mean and evil-spirited. Of course not. False teaching can come from some of the nicest people in the world—including even you and me. That’s why we must beware. Remember, it will come in sheep’s clothing.
Many people are being taken in today by the devil’s lies just because it sounds so good and right. We actually get two very precise examples from Jeremiah’s reading today. The false prophets were saying to people who were doing evil and wrong things, “Don’t worry about it. Everything will be fine. All is well.” Does that not sound exactly like today. In the Church we’re sounding all the alarms about all kinds of evils and the world is telling you, “Don’t worry about it. Everything’ll be fine. Nothing bad will happen to you.” Wake up, people. You can’t hide from God.
If you’re one of these who have believed this lie that teaching and doctrine don’t matter at all and you should just live and let live, then you’re not going to like the ending of this story. God will come on the Last Day and if you’re not in Christ you’re in trouble. There won’t be anymore, “Everything will be just fine.”
Jeremiah gives us another specific false teaching that sounds so good today as it did back then. Here’s how Jeremiah describes these false prophets, “To everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, “No disaster shall come upon you.” In other words, let me translate that for you in today’s language, “As long as you follow your heart, everything will be great.” But that’s just not true! Even though it’s taught now in every little kids show that you should just follow your heart—God says that’s wrong. God says if you follow your heart you’ll end up in a big mess. Just imagine if you followed your heart all the time. For one, you’d eat way too much and eat all the wrong stuff. If you followed your heart, you’d probably never work but be a lazy bum who shirks all his responsibilities. Following our heart sounds and looks good on TV shows, but inwardly it’s a destroying wolf who will send you to hell.
So all of this is the first point. Don’t be surprised or overwhelmed at all by false teachers. Expect them and expect them to look and sound good.
Point two, then. If they look and sound good, how you will you judge them? Jesus answers, “You will recognize them by their fruits.” You don’t judge their appearance, you judge their fruit. Their teachings. It’s this simple. Does their teaching, their fruit, agree with Holy Scripture? They may be a super nice person and you like them a lot and everything they say sounds good—but look at the fruit. Are they saying what Holy Scripture says? Because if not, then it’s false teaching.
But here come all those objections about you being uncertain and not confrontational and overwhelmed because there’s just too much out there to deal with. Well, do I have the answer for you! You are far more prepared and far stronger than this that you might realize.
The Church, long before any of us, has taken Jesus’s words very seriously and has put together books that tell you exactly what the Scriptures teach so that there’s no guesswork involved here at all. That’s exactly what a confession of faith is—it’s a confession of what the Bible says. So we have the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed. And then in the 16th century when some of this was being questioned, our Lutheran fathers gave us the Catechisms and the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, and the Smalcald Articles and the Formula of Concord. And they wrapped it all up for us in a nice book called the Book of Concord or the Lutheran Confessions. Now many of you are most familiar with the Small Catechism. That’s good. That’s in here. So look here what you’ve got. You will recognize false prophets by their fruits and you have the fruit handbooks right here in the Scripture and in the Confessions of the Church. (Holding one in each hand.)
Now, look here, I’ve been trying to go to the gym a lot more lately. You know, I’m in my 40s now and that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? Start thinking about your health more, right? Anyway, you all know you can go to the gym and see some very strong guys and gals. I mean, these guys are prepared. Their muscles are flexing. They’re lifting hundreds of pounds. Well, that’s what I’m trying to get you to see about the Church. Look at the strength of her. Look at her flex her muscles. This stuff wasn’t thrown together in a day. This isn’t just somebody’s opinion on Facebook or a video short on TikTok. This is pure, solid muscle.
So have some confidence and some certainty. Take our your Scripture and your Catechism and your Confessions and flex the Church’s muscles. You have everything you need to see when the fruit is rotten. To judge the teaching of false prophets.
Point three. There are many false prophets but ultimately one True Prophet. If you’re overwhelmed by all the false teaching out there, then let this bring you eternal comfort. Ultimately, it’s this simple—does this teaching agree with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior? Does this teaching give Jesus all glory and bring us the true comfort of His salvation?
It’s right after these words in Matthew 7 that Jesus tells the parable of the wise man who built his house on the rock. The floods came and his house stood firm on the rock. Jesus is that Rock. He is the Rock of our Salvation. Now I want to play on that word slightly because we have a word in English—touchstone. A touchstone was once a stone that you would use to test if metals were genuine and pure. Today we use the word to mean any kind of standard or rule that you use to test things by.
Jesus is our Touchstone. He’s the stone and rock that we stand on and also the stone and stone and rock by which we test all teachings. Now you can always question teaching by this standard, this touchstone. Does this teaching give glory to God and lead us to the comfort of salvation in Christ?
Take Baptism, which I mentioned earlier. If I say Baptism is my outward profession of faith, does that give God all the glory? No, it makes Baptism something I do. It gives me glory. And does it give the comfort of Christ’s salvation? No, it leaves me in doubt because I never know if I was truly believing when I was baptized. But the true teaching of Baptism says that it’s God’s work and He saves us in Baptism through our dying and rising with Christ. So we stand strong on Christ.
In our Small Catechism, we learned a phrase, “This is most certainly true.” Those are words which apply directly to Jesus Christ and all teaching that proclaims Him Lord. He’s most certainly true. If you know Jesus and He knows you through faith—then you’re standing on most certainly true.
To bring this to a conclusion—let’s hear Jesus words again and see how we might respond. He says, “Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” And we might say thus: “Jesus, I know you’re right and I will beware and be on guard for false prophets. Thank you for all the faithful men and women of the Church before us who have taken the truth of your Scriptures and put them down in creeds and catechisms and confessions. Help me to stand on them and follow their example. And, Jesus, keep me always standing on you, the Rock, and my Touchstone. Then none of it’s on me. It’s all on you and your strength. You and your Word will confront the lies. You and Your Word will protect my children and grandchildren and convict my family and friends. Jesus, You and Your Word will be my certainty.”
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.