Text: Matt 7:15-23 (Jer 23:16-29, Acts 20:27-38)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Our blessed Lord is warning us today about false prophets. He says we can tell them by the fruits of their teaching. Rosebushes don’t yield grapes, thistles don’t produce figs, and those who teach an alien gospel do not bring forth repentant sinners living in the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
How often today we hear people pompously decry so-called “organized religion” while claiming to be “spiritual” as opposed to “religious.” Oh how convenient! One can declare himself aloof and above those who cling to Christ in His church – the same church that was given the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Sacraments, the Office of the Keys to forgive sins, which is the Office of preaching to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth. “No thanks, I’m ‘spiritual.’” “Spiritual” people are free to sleep in on Sunday, to ignore Scripture, to gainsay the forgiveness of sin, and are above the need to hear a sermon.
Such people deserve our pity and our prayers. For they are captivated by the very false prophets our Lord warns us about.
In Jeremiah’s day, the false prophets kept preaching that “The Lord has said, ‘You shall have peace’, and to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’” And who would not like to receive this kind of preaching: fluffy, upbeat, so-called “relevant”, no mention of sin and repentance, all glory and all happy. Who wouldn’t want his pastor to say: “No evil shall come upon you”? Or “in this life, you will never have to contend with sickness, disease, death, doubt, fear, loneliness, depression, hurricanes, floods, accidents, birth defects, temptation, hurt, anxiety, or anything unpleasant. Name it and claim it. If you have enough faith, you will be rich and happy, healthy and wealthy. Follow these seven steps (and buy my book) and you will always prosper.” Who doesn’t want to hear that?
Of course, the only downside to this upbeat message is that it isn’t true. It is an evasion of the reality of the fallen world. It is a repudiation of God’s Word of judgment that began in Genesis 3, and also of God’s final Word of victory over death and the devil when our Lord breathed out His triumphant cry from the cross: “It is finished!”
Just as in Jeremiah’s day, just as
But those who speak falsehoods instead of the reality that God has given us in His holy Word are setting themselves up for failure. “Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury – a violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.”
These are the “ravenous wolves” spoken of by our Lord in the gospel reading, the “savage wolves” according to
By their fruits you will know them.
What makes a prophet false is not necessarily the piety of his life, the size of his congregation, or even his wealth. Rather what makes a prophet false is what he is teaching. A false prophet has exchanged the truth for a lie. And the father of lies is Satan. But a true prophet preaches the truth. His Word is God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures, the norm of our faith and life. False prophets may strut around with a well-worn Bible in their hands – and they may even be able to impressively quote large passages. But in the end, they distort God’s Word, they turn the grace of God into a human work, they debase the promises of God’s eternal reward of everlasting life into mere trinkets of jewelry and gaudy material possessions – things which our Lord warns us are only destined to be destroyed by rust and moth. A glittering Rolex watch may look beautiful and cause envious heads to turn, but once the whirlwind of the Lord falls violently, it is only so much twisted metal fit for the junk-heap.
The Lord says: “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.” They are liars and frauds. They are the devil’s puppets. The Lord warns: “But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.”
This, dear friends, is the difference between a false prophet and a faithful preacher: the proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
The false prophet may have a TV network and a
The true prophet addresses sin and proclaims its cure – repeating the holy words of Scripture. But instead, the false prophet says: “I have dreamed, I have dreamed.” And the Lord says of such as these: “Indeed, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart.” For the true prophet will tell you things you don’t want to hear. A faithful preacher speaks God’s Word, which is “like a fire,” like a “hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.” For this hammer of God is what brings about repentance, what induces the sinner to confess – so that he can be brought to eternal glory through the forgiveness of sins. He declares the “whole counsel of God” – the things we like and the things we don’t like.
The true preacher has the Holy Spirit, given to him at ordination as a bishop and pastor of the church “which He purchased with His own blood.” Like
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