Thursday, July 26 ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Isaiah 40-43.

Today's scripture focus is Matthew 7:15-20.

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

These verses are so straight-forward and clear-cut, I wasn't even sure what I was going to say about them.  Then I looked up John MacArthur's sermons on these verses and there is a LONG two-part sermon on just these five verses!  As I read it, there were a couple of things I was interested to learn.  I didn't know there were three types of false prophets.  

There are three kinds of false prophets, I see in the Bible, three kinds, and this is a definitive statement that might help you in understanding it. Three kinds, number one, is a heretic, this is somebody who comes along and says, that's not true, that's a lie, I don't believe the Bible and teaches heresy. Or even says I believe the Bible but teaches a heretical doctrine by twisting it, somebody whose doctrine is obviously, openly heretical.

Secondly is an apostate who denies the faith, who denies Christianity, who apostatizes, departs from it. The first two aren't tough to spot, it's easy to spot false doctrine, isn't it? Just take your Bible and check it, it's easy to spot apostasy because they're denying it. You see the first two kinds of prophets, false prophets the heretics and the apostates are made manifest.

It is the third kind of false prophet, I call the deceiver, that is the one Jesus is referring to here, this is the one you don't see, this is the one who comes with the cloak of the shepherd. This is not the cultist, this is not the Mormon or the Jehovah's Witness or, or somebody who belongs to Christian Science who, who openly and flagrantly teaches false doctrine, those are apostates or heretics. This is the one who talks about Jesus and he talks about the cross and he talks about God and he talks about the Bible and he talks about the church and the Holy Spirit and he hangs around with people that are true Christians and he mingles within the framework of evangelicalism, and he's on the radio and he's on television and he's in the pulpit and he's on the platform and he writes the books, and he always looks like a Christian. That's the one Jesus refers to. Not heretics, heretics are obvious. Apostates are obvious too because they've denied the faith. But these are subtle. The Lord is not warning us against heretics, He's not warning us against apostates, He's warning us against people who sound like they teach the Gospel, who sound like Christians, who use the speech of the Bible, the speech of the Gospel, but it's only a guise. They express orthodox terminology.

I always thought that false prophets KNEW that what they were teaching was false, and probably some of them do, but many are probably deceived into thinking that they are actually speaking the truth.  These are the ones to fear the most, because they are SINCERE.  They truly believe that they are living good Christian lives and trying to help others do the same.  But how do you tell those who speak the truth from those who are false?

Now that we are warned, what are we looking for, how do I know one when I see one? And bless God He doesn't give us an instruction without the tools to deal with it, He doesn't say, watch out for false prophets and good luck in figuring out who they are. 

And how are we going to know? "By their (what?) fruits." Verse 20, "Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them." "Like root like fruit." Said the old proverb. The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans and everybody else views trees and fruit in this same way. A tree is judged by its fruit. If you want to know what the prophet is like look at what he produces, simple enough look at what he produces.

And you've got to be careful, a little bit careful, you might look at a false prophet and you say, but, but I know so and so and they go there, and, and they're Christians I know they're Christians. Well that's right, do you know something? Christians get sucked in by false prophets, Christians line up with false prophets. You know who they are? They're in verse 16, they're the grapes stuck on the thorns and the figs stuck on the thistles. Did you know that grapes don't grow on thorns? And figs don't grow on thistles? But you can stick them there. But if you look closely you will see that the thorn didn't produce that grape and the thistle didn't produce that fig. But there are people who will attach themselves, unwittingly, they'll get stuck on some false teacher who appears to be a Christian.

Now how are you going to decide? What are you looking for when you see the fruit? Number one, fruit is character, fruit is character. What kind of character, what kind of personality, what's his attitude and his motive and his thinking, perspective toward life? What kind of actions, what kind of lifestyle, what kind of pattern? All that character involves, from what I think to what I do. That's the first element that manifests fruit. You see the Bible tells us that. When you look in the Bible and you want to find out about fruit you'll find that fruit is several things, first of all for our discussion fruit is what we do, it's what we do.

A man may appear to be preaching the Gospel, he may appear to even be living it. But truthfully he isn't at all. And maybe sometimes you can't tell on the outside, you can't tell from the action because the action looks good, like the Pharisees it looked good, didn't it? I mean they didn't murder and they didn't commit adultery, you know. And they didn't do those other things and it looked really good and they fasted and they prayed and they gave and it all looked good. But if you check out the action, do that first you might find that it isn't all good, I mean if you do some examination of some of the false prophets you're going to find out there's a lot of skeletons in their moral closet. 


But maybe you can't find that, where do you go secondly? You go to attitude and you start looking for how they think and what's their attitude? Because very often they can suppress the outward visibility of their vile and evil insides. Their lifestyle may not be manifest.


Now go to Second Peter 2 verse 19 and here are the false prophets, now listen to this, "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of (what?) corruption." They have not escaped corruption. But watch this one, "they have escaped (verse 20 what?) pollution." Do you know what Peter is doing? He is differentiating between internal corruption and external pollution, he is saying they've never been changed on the inside but they've had the ashes of the world washed off the outside. You see they've, they've gotten rid of the external pollution but they have never done anything about the internal corruption, see? That's what he's saying.


And you know what to look for in a false prophet? Very simple, look for a Beatitude attitude, that's the evidence of an internal transformation. Do they cower poor in spirit, deep humility, mourning over sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, longing for mercy, peacemakers, willing to be persecuted and reviled and des­pised and hated for the sake of Christ. Not on your life. False prophets are guided by pride, power, prestige, personality, promotion, they want to be famous, loved, they're not interested in anybody persecuting them, they want to be popular. They're in it, Second Peter 2:3, "for filthy lucre." Money. And for that says Peter, "They make merchandise of you." They are the Christemporos, the Christ merchants, they are what Second Corinthians 2:17 calls the hucksters of the Word of God who are not sincere but are selling Jesus, like cheap glass instead of diamonds. They're not mourning over their sin, they're not meek before God, they're not seeking the back places, they're not standing as the beloved Apostle Paul in weakness and fear and in much trembling.


So be warned beloved and be watching. Many of these false prophets are going to look like the real thing, they're going to be very pleasant, very sincere people, talk about Jesus, talk about the Bible, talk about salvation, completely inoffensive, anxious to please everybody, accommodating to other people's viewpoints, rarely critical of others, praised by many, condemned by few, large crowds will gather around them and listen to them and think they're great, and they'll be shoving those large crowds on the broad way that leads to destruction. You listen carefully you'll find they have little time for narrowness, they, they are just sure that God's mind is bigger than many of those who talk about a narrow way. They talk about the love of God and not the wrath of God, they talk about people being deprived and not being depraved, talk about God the Father of everybody, full of love and understanding and nothing about a holy God whose only children are those of faith in Christ. Their message is a message of gaps that just leaves out the truth that saves. So "Beware."

Pretty scary, huh?  As I read this I was reminded once again how important it is for us to read, read, read our Bibles.  It is ONLY by knowing, really knowing, what is in our Bibles that we will be able to discern truth from deceit.  And if you hear something or read something that your unsure of, compare it with what the Bible has to say.  Anyone who is speaking or writing the truth with have no problem with you checking their words against what the Bible says.  Don't take something at face value just because it comes from a pastor or a respected church member, Christian writer, or other seemingly reliable source.  The Bible is the only ruler against which EVERYTHING else should be measured.

Tomorrow's Scripture Focus: Matthew 7:21-23
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  Isaiah 44-48.