|
INJ
St Matthew 7:15-23
'Beware of False Teachers'
Divine Service
The 8th Sunday after Trinity Sunday | 28 July 2007
Dear Saints,
It is good to be here, in the Lord's house, to hear His Word, to sit, as Mary did, at the Lord's feet and hear Him as He teaches us, His church. This morning we hear the teaching of the Lord regarding teachers in His church, and especially His warning against false prophets. I wonder, sometimes, if this is not the command of the Lord which is most often broken in the church today: “Beware of false prophets.”
Modern theology today, and this goes for almost every church around us, is, in its core, unionistic. In the best cases this means that is enough to have a unity of teaching on the “essentials”, while we can over-look the so-called “minor” teachings of the Bible. “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” This type of thinking, which is so fantastically popular, ends up in not caring about doctrine and teaching.
“What is important is that we love one-another,” a friend of mine once told me, “not arguing about doctrine.” And this seems very nice, friendly, but doctrine, teaching, is what Jesus is concerned about, and it is what He commands us to be concerned about in the Gospel text. This is a command from our Lord, not an option. “Beware of false prophets.”
You all know, don't you, that the devil never lets up on the Christian. He is constantly working and striving and fighting and plotting and scheming and devising and lying and killing and deceiving and accusing and preaching to us and against us, all so that, in the end, we would join him in hell. He doesn't want us to have life; he is our enemy.
But how does the devil fight against us? What does he look like? What kind of temptations does he put in front of us? Really, the devil would have us sin in any way possible, and he knows our weaknesses, where we are most likely to slip and fall. But in the end the devil wants us to lose our faith, to trust in something other than Jesus and His cross, to believe a lie.
If it is by knowing and believing the truth of Jesus' word that we have salvation, then the devil will be constantly attacking that word of truth, and he attacks by sending the false prophets.
What this means, dear Christians, is that the fieriest fight against the devil, the fieriest fight in the Christian life is the fight for truth, the fight against lies, the fight against false teachers and their false theology. For if the devil can slip false teaching into the heart of a Christian, a false trust in their own works, or a despair of God's grace, then he has won that person and destroyed them.
You see that this is no laughing matter. False teaching is like poison. It's deadly, and so it is not to be treated lightly in the Lord's church.
This is why, by the way, whenever we see one of the Lord's saints in the Scripture getting angry, their anger is almost always directed toward a false teacher. Remember Moses and the thousands that worshiped the golden calf, 3000 died that day, all that refused to repent and turn from their false worship. Or remember Elijah and the 400 prophets of Baal that were put to the sword. Remember Jesus in the temple with the money changers, or His woes to the Pharisees. And St Paul, O how Paul fought against the false teachers. His epistles testify to that. “Even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be anathama,” [Galatians 1:8] that is, “accursed, eternally condemned.”
St Paul is breathing fire here, for he knows that a different Gospel is no Gospel at all, and that eternal life is on the line; there are no higher stakes. “As we said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than that which you have received, let him be accursed.” [Galatians 1:9]
So, in obedience to the Lord's command, we devote ourselves to being ware of false prophets and false teachers. “Beware of false prophets.” Lord, help us to keep this, Your command. Amen.
But this is not just an important task, but it is a very difficult one, for, says Jesus, the false teachers “come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” [Matthew 7:15] Ravenous, this means that they are so hungry that they will do anything to kill and eat. But look, these wolves are disguised. They don't look like crazed wolves with sharp teeth and horrible growl. No, they are dressed like sheep.
The devil, says St Paul, “transforms himself into an angel of light.” [2 Corinthians 11:14] So the outward appearance of the devil and his false teachers is not obvious, but disguised. We recognize them, says Jesus, by their fruit [Matthew 7:16], and the fruit of a false teacher is false doctrine.
And how do we recognize false doctrine? By being absolutely certain about what is true. I have heard it said that the way FBI agents are trained to recognize counterfeit bills in not by studying each and every different type of counterfeit; that knowledge is only good until someone comes up with a new counterfeit. No, the agents study the true money so closely that they recognize any deviation, and counterfeit, any lie.
May God give us His Holy Spirit, that we would do the same, that we would study the Lord's teaching so that we would see the devil's lies for what they are, and reject them. Dear Saints, when the Lord commands His church to beware of false prophets, He would have all of His people to be theologians, to be constant and diligent students of His Scriptures and His teaching. Yes, that's you. The Lord wants each of us to be students of the Bible.
So let me ask you a question: when is the last time you studied your Bible? Do you read it daily? Listen to the Psalmist, “Blessed is the man... [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.” [Psalms 1:2] If you do study your Bible daily, that's wonderful. If you don't, why not?
The Lord has also provided opportunities for us to study the Bible together. Sunday School, Bible class, Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning we meet and open our Bibles and study the Lord's Word. If you go to Bible class, that's wonderful. If you don't, why not?
And when we are listening to someone teaching the Bible, on the radio, on T.V., in a book or devotional, or even from this pulpit, we must ask, “Where is that in the Scriptures?” St John commanded us, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” [1 John 4:1] We test the spirits, question the teaching that we hear, we are beware of false prophets, all for the purpose of throwing off the false teaching, the false doctrine and the lies of the devil.
And with the devil silenced and the false prophets cast aside, we hear the pure teaching of Jesus. We hear His thundering against sin, and then we hear of what He has done to rescue us from sin. We hear of His incarnation, His life, His cross, His blood, His suffering, His death, His love and His rising to life, His ascension and sending the Holy Spirit. His promise of the forgiveness of all of your sin. This is the truth that the Lord puts into the mouth of His true prophets and teachers, into our mouths and hearts, for our comfort and life.
May the Lord keep us steadfast in this, His Word of life, until He calls us to Himself. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
+ + +
Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
