"Known by Your Lord" Eighth Sunday after Trinity Commemoration of Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr August 10, 2014 Matthew 7:15–23
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus warns against false prophets. But the Gospel reading is not about false prophets. It is about you. There’s no doubt that are plenty of warnings in the Bible given to false prophets. The warning in today’s Gospel reading, though, is to you. It is a warning to those who hear the prophets, those sent by God or who claim to be sent by God. Beware of those who appear as good, godly, faithful men of God but are in fact false, deceitful, and unfaithful prophets. They come in sheep’s clothing but inside they are ravenous wolves. Many pastors in the Christian Church claim to be sent from God. They claim that they speak the truth and are faithful to God and His Word. You need to be on the lookout. You need to be aware that some who come in God’s name and appear as sheep are actually coming in Satan’s name and are ravenous wolves. How do you know? How do you know whether they are speaking the truth? How can you determine whether they are really sent from God? This is what Jesus is teaching you in the Gospel reading so that you don’t end up being deceived. Jesus says you will know them by their fruits. You cannot know what is in the heart of these evil men. On the outside a false prophet appears as a godly prophet, but inside they profane God. You cannot see what is inside them and you should not look for it. So you must look on the outside. You must look at the fruits the prophets exhibit. What is the fruit that prophets exhibit? This is extremely difficult, because as Jesus says, outwardly they appear as sheep. You can’t readily tell that inwardly they are ravenous wolves. On the outside, they seem to be godly men. They are kind, they do great acts of service. They speak well and they know the Bible well. They talk about God a lot and speak against many things that are evil. If you go by appearances, you will be deceived by evil men who are speaking on behalf of Satan. If you go by appearances, you may very well discount faithful, godly pastors. Since God has chosen in His mercy to call sinful men to be servants of His Word. Sometimes people are offended by men who are truly sent from God because they may have a gruff exterior. They at times are not so kind. They can be impatient. They can be lazy. So often these kinds of fruits they bear are the very same ones that all Christians do as we all continue to be wrapped up in our sinful flesh. Jesus says you will know them by their fruits. Although God commands pastors to live in a godly way, the fruits of those God has sent to deliver His Gospel and His Sacraments to the people of God are his teaching, his preaching, his holding fast to God’s Word and nothing else in eternal matters. Certainly if a pastor is in manifest and unrepentant sin he must be removed from the ministry. But the one who is a false prophet is known because he will be speaking of God and of many good spiritual things but add to God’s Word, or take away from God’s Word, or alter God’s Word, or simply disregard it altogether. But this isn’t about them. It’s about you. It’s about you because you must know what to look for. You must be able to discern their teaching. It’s easy to notice when a pastor sins. It’s much harder to determine whether if he is teaching false doctrine. It may sound good but if it’s doctrine that is not faithful to God’s Word then it will deceive you and will harm you eternally. In order to see the fruits of the men called by God you must know the Word of God yourself. You must be able to separate truth from error. You, just like those God calls to shepherd His flock, must also believe what the Bible teaches and not base your beliefs on anything beyond the Bible. You must be in the Word yourself. As the Collect we will pray in a little bit says it, you must read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest God’s Holy Word. Be in the Word. Read it. Study it. Don’t just read it and study it on your own. Study it with your brother and sister Christians where iron sharpens iron. Where you are not left to wonder what the Bible is teaching in those places that are difficult to understand. Continue to be here in God’s House where He delivers to you His Gospel in the proclamation of it and the administering of His Sacraments. You cannot determine true doctrine from false doctrine if you are not confessing your sins and being forgiven of your sins and hearing and receiving the Gospel on a continual basis. Pray for those God has called to preach and teach the Gospel. Pray that they remain faithful and seek to be faithful to God and His Word rather than what their sinful flesh tempts them to teach. Jesus says in the Gospel reading, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Whenever a faithful pastor goes astray it’s always disheartening. Whenever a false teacher continues in his false teaching and believes he is doing God’s will, it is always discouraging. Jesus says, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Appearances can deceive. They can deceive the people of God, they can deceive the false prophet himself. One who acts in the stead of God must not simply speak flowery, spiritual, godly-sounding things. He must speak the truth. Speaking and acting in the name of Christ is not simply saying you do things in His name but actually doing it in accordance to His call and command. You will know the false prophets if ultimately they point you to someone or something other than Christ alone for your salvation. You will know them by their fruits. If the fruits they bear in their teaching and preaching and ministry are fruits pointing you to yourself for comfort of God loving you and knowing you, they are ravenous wolves. If the fruits they bear exhort you to trust in what you do for your confidence of having faith and being a child of God, they are ministers of Satan. If the fruits they bear lead you to ignore the clear Law and will of God and do not call sin sin, then they are false prophets and leading you astray. If the fruits they bear tell you about what Christ has done for you but then teach you that what He has done is not enough, that you must complete the work, then you are not listening to the voice of a man sent by God but a man who is a worker of lawlessness. Those sent by God will sin. They will fall short. They won’t always act in godly ways. They may not be everything we would like them to be. But the faithful men God calls will by God’s grace teach that salvation is in Christ alone, and no one and nothing else. This is what Jesus says in the Gospel reading, “the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” This is how you know whether the fruits they bear are the ones God brings forth. The will of Christ's Father in heaven is simply this, to send His Son to bear the sin of the world. It is what prompted Paul to say that in the Church Christ and Him crucified is what is preached. It is what brought Peter to say of his Lord, “To whom shall we go, You have the words of eternal life?” It is what brought James to say that this very Word of God is what saves your soul. It is what brought John to say that by this we know love, Christ laid down His life for sinners. It is what brought John the Baptist to point to Christ and declare, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” It is what brought Moses and David and Isaiah and Abraham and Elijah and countless other prophets to point to the very same Lord, the Son of David, the Son of God, the one born of the virgin and who suffered and died on the cross for the sin of the world and rose from the grave and now lives and reigns forever. This is how you know. If when the Gospel is preached you are directed for comfort, consolation, forgiveness, confidence in your salvation to anyone or anything other than Christ alone, the Gospel is not being preached. A false prophet is speaking the words of the deceiver. But if the Gospel is preached and you hear the Good News that God has accomplished your salvation in His Son alone, then you can be assured that just as He used many bumbling, sinful men like the prophets and apostles, He will continue to do so in our day. To the false prophets, He will cast them out, declaring, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” You, however, know the Gospel. You hear it proclaimed. You know that on the Last Day, your Lord will declare to you, “Welcome into the eternal Home of My Father.” For you are known by your Lord. You are Baptized. You Feast at His Table. You hear with delight His forgiveness and consolation. The Gospel, what Christ has done for you, will continue to be what gets you through. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
