“God's Word Is Our Great Heritage” Matthew 7:15-29
Vicar Peter Zaferos Pentecost 2 June 26, 2011
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come! Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This morning I want to take you back to your days in a classroom. Especially those days in particular when you were taking tests. And there were all sorts of different tests, weren’t there? Sometimes you felt like you were doing nothing but writing the entire test period—essay after essay after essay. Then there were those other types of tests, with all the different kinds of questions! Short answer questions, fill in the blank, problem solving, multiple choice were all pretty common. And then there was my favorite, the “True or False” question. Whether you knew the answer or not, you had a 50/50 shot at getting it right. The answer was either “true” or “false.” It doesn’t really get a whole lot simpler than that, does it? And when you really think about a “True or False” question there really isn’t a whole lot of wiggle room. Let’s say a student is asked to respond to the phrase, “The earth is square...true or false?” If they respond, “True,” they got the answer wrong! There isn’t a whole lot of room for argument! When something is true, it’s can’t be false! When something is false, it can’t be true! In the world of test taking, it doesn’t get a whole lot simpler than “True? or False?”
A few weeks ago we stressed how this book, the Bible, is 100% God’s Word, 100% true. And thank God, that through careful study of the Bible, God has convinced you and me of that fact! We believe that every word written in the Bible is God’s Word, placed there by God Himself, for you and me to read. Anyone who denies that God created the heavens and the earth by the almighty power of his Word is denying the truth. Anyone who denies that Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, but then lost that image when they fell into sin denies the truth. Anyone who denies that there was a worldwide flood at the time of Noah or that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and lived to tell about it denies the truth. Anyone who denies that Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin mother, or that He healed the sick, or calmed horrific storms, or raised the dead or that he himself rose from the dead denies the truth. Anyone who denies any of the clear teachings of the Bible is denying the truth. And this morning, Jesus warns you and me about people just like this. He warns us about people who deny the truth written in Scripture.
Our sermon text begins with Jesus saying, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them.” There is a reason Jesus takes the time to warn you and me about false prophets. They are really dangerous! To explain how dangerous false prophets are, Jesus takes a page out of His familiar “Shepherd/Sheep” illustration. Jesus often refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd, and to His followers as His sheep. So by referring to false prophets as wolves in sheep’s clothing He’s painting a very vivid picture for us. Jesus is showing us why false prophets are so dangerous, even today! They blend right in with the sheep! They blend right in with Christians! They don’t walk right up to you and introduce themselves as “the new false prophet in town.” They come disguised in sheep’s clothing. Yet Jesus says we will be able to recognize them—he say’s we’ll be able to recognize them by their fruit.
Let’s break that down a bit. To begin very simply, even though Jesus clearly says false prophets will blend right into Christian churches on this earth, Jesus also clearly says we will be able to recognize them by their fruit. You could take that in a couple of different ways. First of all, their fruit could be something visible to the human eye—something like the visible successes of their ministry. But, another way we could understand the word “fruit” would be in connection with their teachings. If a person teaches and preaches only truths found clearly in God’s Word that person will always be delivering a true message, won’t they? Because God’s Word is true! But if anything a person teaches or preaches is contrary to the clear truths of Scripture, by definition, the message that person delivers is false. So Jesus is saying to us, “you’ll recognize them by what they teach and preach! Just as you and I can go to the store and recognize a good piece of fruit and a bad piece of fruit, Jesus promises you will recognize true teaching and you will recognize false teaching!”
That being said, in making that promise, Jesus is assuming something, isn’t he? He’s assuming we know the standard. He’s assuming we know the true teachings of His Word! If we don’t know what’s in here (the Bible), how will we know the difference between false teaching and the truth?
I recently read a book written by one of our Pastor’s in Texas, and he told the story of a young Lutheran man who got engaged to a young woman who wasn’t Christian, but who decided she wanted to take the Bible instruction class at his church. And while they were talking about the next class that would be starting up, the woman stopped him and said, “You know Pastor, I do have one concern. You see I haven’t learned that much of the Bible from anyone. So you could teach me anything you wanted and I wouldn’t know enough to be able to tell if what you are saying is the truth or not!” That young woman was wiser than she knew! If we never study the Bible for ourselves, and only take the word of the Pastor at church, how would we ever recognize false teaching? We wouldn’t! If we leave the Bible on the shelf at home and never crack it open, how well will we know the truth’s it contains?
You see Bible study is incredibly important! Each and every time we open up God’s Word we are becoming more and more familiar with the truth. And as our familiarity with the truths found in God’s Word grows, we will recognize the fruit of those wolves prowling around in sheep’s clothing. As Jesus promises, we will recognize false teaching that flies from the mouth of false prophets, because we will see the obvious contradictions with the truths we find in God’s Word! Truths like desperate situation our sinfulness puts us in! We deserve hell! When we study the Bible we quickly learn that we have no chance of living up to God’s perfect standards on our own. But when we study the Bible, we don’t see a God who wants to punish every person on the face of the earth, but instead, we see a God who wants to save each and every man, woman and child to ever live! That’s the truth! But unless you read it for yourselves, you’re just taking my word for it.
It’s our responsibility as sheep in the Christian Church to be on the lookout for wolves prowling among us. If you think about it, it’s kind of like taking a test full of “True and False” questions. It’s our responsibility to take the message we hear from our Pastors and teachers and put it to the test. We are to weigh the messages we hear against the truths of Scripture and ask ourselves, “True or False?”
In the second half of our sermon text for this morning, Jesus uses an illustration to teach us another lesson about the importance of His Word. We used that picture in our children’s devotion this morning. The illustration compares the stability of sand with the stability of rock. And it’s not even close, is it? A house built on sand is nowhere near as stable as a house built on rock. A few years back, in the summer of 2008, that principle was made very clear to a few families who owned homes on the shores Lake Delton in central Wisconsin. After a series of heavy rains, the sandy earth beneath their homes became completely saturated with water and the earth beneath their homes was swept away. The entire lake emptied into the nearby Wisconsin River in only two hours. $500,000 homes built on this sandy earth crumbled to pieces and were swept away.
This picture couldn’t be any more clear. Jesus is reminding us that the Word of God is the rock upon which the Holy Spirit builds our faith. The person who removes the portions of Scripture which do not seem reasonable to them removes chunks of the very foundation God has provided for us. When the wind, rain, and storms of this life bear down on us, we want a firm foundation holding us up!
In this book (the Bible), we have that foundation. We have been given the very words of God Himself. We are reminded of our sinfulness. We are reminded of the times when we would rather entertain ourselves with worthless distractions instead of feeding our souls with the nourishment that only God can give in His word. We are reminded of the arrogance and pride that leads each and every one of us to want to believe that we are good enough to earn our way to heaven. But we are also reminded of the plan God made, and the plan God implemented, to save his fallen creation from their sinfulness. After Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised to send a Savior from sin. He kept that promise by sending Jesus. We have been cleansed by His blood. Our sinfulness has been washed away from God’s sight by Jesus Himself, and He has left us with His very own words, upon which we stand. A reading, from those very words, upon which we stand, found in Matthew chapter 7.
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. 21 “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. 22 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?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7:15-29 NIV) Amen!!