Don't Accept Any Substitute
Matthew 7:15-23

May 25, 2008
Second Sunday after Pentecost

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Today we have substitutes for just about everything. There are substitute sugar products to help those who can't eat sugar or want to avoid its calories. There are substitute medications called generic for consumers who don't want to pay full price for the bran-name product. There are substitute cereals so that you can eat the wonderful fruit rings without paying for Fruit Loops. Some years past the generics were no where near their brand-name counterparts. One could buy a box of fruit rings but after tasting them would rather eat the box with a sugar substitute on it than the cereal. But today, generics can be a low cost high quality substitute for the real thing. Nothing has changed however with substitutes to God's true and pure Word. Jesus warns against accepting substitutes who come preaching and teaching the Word of God. Jesus warns us against these substitutes by telling us not to accept any substitutes regardless of the packaging and regardless of the product of their ministry.

Jesus is wrapping up the sermon on the mount in which he has warned his disciples to watch out for the Pharisees. Many things which they were teaching are not in agreement with God's will and Word. As Jesus closes, he takes another opportunity to warn against false prophets who come preaching and teaching.

The dangerous thing about these substitute prophets is their packaging. No false prophet comes with a warning label attached to the outside which reads "false prophet." Instead Jesus tells us that they come dressed like a sheep. In other words, false prophets look like they are supposed to belong. They are sincere loving people. They are convinced in their own mind that what they are teaching is true based on God's Word.

No matter what they look like on the outside, Jesus tells us that on the inside they are ferocious wolves. Just picture for yourself a small flock of sheep with a hungry pack of wolves all around it. Now imagine what those wolves will do to those sheep. Now you get the idea of what false prophets can do to God's people. Just like the lives of those sheep are at stake, so the eternal life of God's people is at stake. The false prophets come saying, "This is what the Lord says," when he hasn't said that. They come bringing teachings that can destroy faith and doom people to eternal death in hell.

It is easy to get fooled by a package. How many times haven't you bought a product because the packaging made it look good, only to find out that the company must have spent more money on the packaging than the product itself? Jesus gives us a sure way to make sure we are receiving the Word of God from the real deal and not a false prophet. He tells us that we will know by the fruit they produce.

Jesus illustration is amazingly simple. A bad tree will produce bad fruit. Just like that lousy apple tree in your back yard that gets full of apples, but every time you pick one and take a bite, the inside of the apple is rotten and full of worms. You know that tree is bad. In the same way, we must look at the teachings or the doctrine that a teacher of the Word produces. If their doctrines do not agree with God's Word. If the person is adding to what God's Word says or subtracting from it, they are a false prophet. If we compare their teachings with God's Word and they do not agree, then we know that person is a false prophet. Jesus says that judgment in the fires of hell awaits such a person.

In the same way, a teacher of the Word whose message is from God's Word and agrees with God's Word then that person is a true teacher of the Word. His message is nourishing to faith.

I wish I could say that there weren't any false teachers out there in the world, but there are. Jesus told us that there would be. His words sound a warning for us to be on our guard. One of the real dangers is that our sinful nature is always within us and it doesn't like the truth of God's Word. It wants to decide what God's Word should say or mean. Paul warned that false prophets would preach messages that people's itching ears want to hear, instead of what God's Word says to us. Our sinful nature doesn't like the idea of sin, so we find appealing the false prophets who literally argue away what God calls sin in his Word. Our mind can't understand some things that God tells us in his Word and so we find appealing those false prophets who fabricate explanations where God has not given us one. Soon before we know it our faith is being devoured by the ferocious false prophets and instead of being on the narrow way to eternal life, we join the masses on the wide and easy way to hell.

So we understand false prophets. We understand that we need to watch out for them. But what Jesus says next is extremely shocking. He says, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." That's right, not everyone who calls him Lord will enter eternal life!

A pastor may even say, "I believe in God the Father almighty." But he doesn't believe that God created the heavens and the earth. Someone may say, "I believe in God the Father almighty," but he doesn't believe that the flood actually happened as God revealed in his Word. This person does not worship the true God. The person who does not believe the clear teachings of Scripture has branded himself a false prophet.

It is the same way with Jesus Christ. A person who says, "I believe in Jesus Christ," yet does not believe that Jesus actually, physically rose from the dead is a false prophet. A person that says I believe that I am saved by Jesus death for me on the cross and then adds things that we must do also to be saved is a false prophet. For this person does not believe in Jesus Christ as God has revealed him to us in Scripture.

These false prophets may even be able to point to their successful ministries as proof that they are a true prophet from God. Again Jesus refutes this by saying, "Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

Sometimes it is easy to look at a mega church and think they must have it all down right. They have ministries to every group one could imagine. They have lively worship. They have multiple pastors. They are growing by leaps and bounds. That minister must really know what he is doing. I know of one like that here in the Twin Cities. I also know what the pastor believes by reading his writings on his website. I know that he doesn't believe in the true God of the Bible. He is a false prophet, even though every appearance on the outside says otherwise. This man can stand before God's throne and recount all the ministries he has done and all the amazing things he was able to accomplish, but Jesus who knows the heart will say to him, "I never knew you, away from me you evildoer."

Jesus' packaging wasn't impressive. He didn't come in glory, nor did he carry out his ministry in glory. His method of saving us wasn't attractive. He bled, he died. Yet he is the genuine article. He is the reason we have hope and confidence. We can bring before God all kinds of reasons to open the gates to eternal life. What we really need is Christ. He strips off the filthy rags of our sins and gently wraps a clean white robe of righteousness on us. He brings us before the Father and says, "This one is mine, you can let him in."

There are many finely dressed wolves out there in the world. They would like to eat your faith for dinner. Watch out for them and accept no substitute to Christ. Test their fruit by God's true and faithful Word, and you will have nothing to fear.