False Prophets and Good Pastors
Matthew 7:15-28
August 11, 2019 anno Domini – Redeemer
We are weak and easy prey for the Devil. How do I know? Because some of you check your phones during the sermon. Because we would rather listen to the world than the Word. Which would you rather hear (and do)? Marriage requires sacrifice or if you’re not happy get a divorce? Take up your cross or seek your pleasure? Trust in God’s Word or trust your feelings.
We are weak and easy prey. We’re addicted to entertainment, to the quick fix, to ease. Everything is instantly here and instantly gone – a tweet, a post, a snap chat. And if that’s all the time we have for each other, whom we can see and touch and love, how easy for the Devil to take us away from Him who is Eternal, whom we do not see, but only believe?
Repent! You are soft and weak and your enemy is strong. You are looking at the next hour or day or week. The Devil wants you for all eternity. You’re seeking your next pleasure. The Devil has something far more valuable in mind – your life, your soul.
Repent, but do not despair. Because even before you pray for help God sends help. He sent the prophets to His Israel. He sent the Apostles to His newborn Church. He sends His pastors to His bride the church. But, sad to say, in this sinful world your pastor cannot be trusted, that means I cannot be trusted. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15, ESV) I am a sinner and that means I am easy prey. For which is easier for me to say, “We practice closed communion” or “All are welcome to the Table?” “Christ Jesus is the only way of salvation” or “We all worship the same god?” “God created them male and female” or “Whatever you feel is true.”
Jesus tells us what we are to trust, not our feelings, not our thoughts, not our pastors, not our beloved Missouri Synod, not Redeemer, but His Word. He sends His men with His Word and His Word brings us Jesus. So the Devil always goes after the Word. God’s Word tells us that the Devil comes disguised as an angel of light. That is what the word Lucifer means – Light Bearer. The Devil will quote Scripture. He’ll make sense. You’ll like His sermons. He has already won the world. He doesn’t even disguise Himself out there, but in here he’ll try to wear robes and a chasuble. For what better way to tear you from Christ than to come in Shepherd’s clothing?
So you must judge the words of your pastor against the Word of God. This is what Jesus tells His disciples, “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16, ESV)
If you are a gardener you are enjoying the fruits of your labor by now. You have been checking and looking and are now harvesting. You kept your eyes out for bugs and rot and blight. You identified weeds and pulled them. You kept vigil until the fruit was ripe and ready. You tested what you see against what you know and have learned to be true – bugs, weeds, blight, rot are bad. Potatoes, tomatoes, sweet corn good.
Pastor Johann Gerhard who lived in the generation after Martin Luther – early 1600s, gave some simple advice to his congregation for testing and judging the fruit of their preachers.
Test number one – check everything against the catechism. If some old sin is no longer called a sin, check it against the commandments. If you start hearing prayers to other gods or for strange new ideas look at the Lord’s Prayer. If the church is changing its purpose and mission look once again at the Third Article of the Creed – the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian church, the communion of saints. The Catechism is a true, simple and thorough confession of Christianity. It teaches us that the Christian life is the life of repentance for our sins, of receiving the forgiveness Christ Jesus won for us, of living in faith toward God and love toward our neighbor. Judge by that.
Test number two – Does your Pastor’s word give glory to God? The glory of God is Jesus Christ. If you are not hearing a lot of Jesus in the preaching and teaching – run, do not walk away from that false prophet. But it is not enough merely to hear the name of Jesus. You need everything that goes along with that name. Jesus is the tree of life. He is the good tree and by His life He bore good fruit. In the mystery of the Gospel Jesus is also the bad tree, for on His limbs were hung the sin of the world. Your sin was taken into His flesh, and on the cross He was cut down. Then, from a garden tomb, that dead stump of Jesus, sprang to life and bore fruit – in Mary Magdalene, in Peter and John, in Thomas. To God alone be the glory. He sent His Son. He sacrificed His Son. He raised His Son. He adopted us rebellious orphans in baptism. He speaks to us with grace and mercy. He feeds us life in the body and blood of His Son. He loves and forgives us our sins for Christ’s sake. The glory isn’t mine – I simply preach His Word. The glory isn’t yours – you simply receive His gifts. To God alone be the glory.
The third test – does the word of your pastor bear fruit among God’s people? The primary fruit of God’s Word is hope and consolation. In the midst of evil we are comforted that God is with us and for us. Last weekend, in the midst of two mass shootings, people once again asked – where is God? I’ll tell you where He was – in the police officers who responded to the scene, in the ordinary men and women who protected others from harm. He was in those who cared for the wounded and consoled the families of those killed. But above all God is with us in Christ Jesus, who came into this world to face evil and destroy it for us.
Repent because that evil is in each one of us – we may not pull triggers, but we shoot people down with our words and deeds. Jesus says that name calling is murder. Jesus came to deliver you from evil. The Devil thought Jesus was easy prey, but Jesus never sinned. Death sunk its teeth into Jesus, but His perfect life was poison to death and death died. When Jesus rose from the dead life arose again for us and so also did good. Peter went from coward to courageous confessor. Paul went from murderer to messenger of the Gospel. When you believe that Christ died for your sins God declares you a saint. That’s why you wrestle with sin. That’s why doubt troubles you. That’s why you want to be a better Christian. The fruit of forgiveness has sprung to life in you and it is good.
You can trust the Word of Jesus. He is risen from the dead never to die again. He is the tree of life from whom the good fruit of forgiveness comes so beware of false prophets. Judge your pastors. Their words may please you, but their word cannot save you. They might be wolves in sheep’s clothing and the deadly fruit they serve might look delightful to your eyes. Test the fruit. You won’t find grapes on thornbushes or figs on thistles. The only fruit of life comes through the forgiveness of sins preaching in the name of Jesus. Amen.