“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So
every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree
cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew
7:15–19, NASB95)
A large portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was
distinguishing between those who are encouraged to follow after God with their
whole hearts and doing what they do with that same sincerity of heart by faith,
and those who do so for their own gain. There have been numerous illustrations
to this point of those who are hypocrites or people with false motives and
hopes of immediate recognition and gain. In this portion of His message Jesus
tells His hearers to be on the alert, and be on the alert specifically for
those who are false prophets coming in disguise as the real deal.
Twisting God’s truth for personal benefit was not a new
practice. It stems back to man first sinning, and it has been practiced ever
since. Genesis chapter 3 starts off with, “Now the serpent was more crafty than
any beast of the field which the Lord
God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not
eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1, NASB95) Satan asked about a
broad web of restriction, I’m sure, knowing that the woman would respond with
her understanding of the actual instruction to which she said, “From the fruit
of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is
in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch
it, or you will die.’” (Genesis 3:2–3, NASB95)
What God actually told Adam is recorded for us in Genesis
2:16-17, where we read, “The Lord
God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in
the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”” (Genesis 2:16–17, NASB95) It
sounded like Eve had the instruction of God correct, but going back to the
actual instruction we find that she had added something that God did not say
and missed something that He did say. Satan, being crafty as he is, responded
to the core of the punishment which Eve had stated, telling her that she surely
would not die, but that God was trying to keep her from eating so that she
would not gain something more enticing—“For God knows that in the day you eat
from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil.” (Genesis 3:5, NASB95)
Assured in the deception, Eve looked at the tree and found it
very appealing, so she took of the fruit and ate it herself and then gave it to
Adam who was with her at the time and he ate it also. Then things immediately changed
and the fruit of the deception of Eve and the knowing disobedience of Adam were
becoming more evident and leading to swift judgment. When God asked her what
she had done, Eve responded, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
This is the danger of wolves who teach distortions of the
truth. In speaking to the elders in the Ephesian churches Paul wrote, “Be on
guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His
own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you,
not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking
perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the
alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not
cease to admonish each one with tears.” (Acts 20:28–31, NASB95) The apostle
Paul had spent a great deal of time teaching truth to these men of God, and he
was exhorting them to hold onto with great tenacity the truths that they had
learned and to be careful to protect the church from those who would even rise
up among them to twist it in some way. He said what they all knew that good
fruit comes from good trees and bad fruit from bad ones.
It is pretty easy to distinguish glaring error once you have
a basic understanding of truth, but the subtle things can slip in so easily and
before you know it there might be a situation like the frog in the pot of cold
water unaware that the temperature was slowing rising and the frog was slowly
being cooked. A wolf does not come in appearing as a wolf, but as one who is
like the rest and welcomed, but over time his wolf-ness begins to show and one
of the obvious ways is through the destruction that comes along. His deceptive
work will lead to destructive results and rotten fruit.
Jesus gives several illustrations to make the point clear.
In an agrarian society it was a well-known fact that you don’t go pick grapes
among thorns or figs from thistles. The simple truth is that good fruit does
not come from a bad source. If you are seeing bad fruit—stop, look, and
consider the source. And if you find that it is coming from wrong teaching—seek
to instruct and correct the source. And if that source won’t be corrected get
rid of it.
Jesus did not here speak of the part of correction, but He
did elsewhere in passages such as Matthew “If your brother sins, go and show
him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But
if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every
fact may be confirmed. If he
refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen
even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
(Matthew 18:15–17, NASB95) We see here this process of trying to correct, but
in the event that correction is not received, and especially when it is known by
more than just the one, then something more drastic has to happen leading to
the individual even being cut out of the fellowship. The apostle Paul had to do
this from a distance with one of the men in the Corinthian church who was
arrogant in his sin (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). But then in 2 Corinthians 2 we read
Paul writing to these same believers of a man who had repented and was to be
received back into their fellowship (2 Corinthians 2:5-11).
While the situation of Corinthians might have been over something
that we see as kind of obvious, the spiritual maturity of the Corinthian
believers was so stinted that they did not respond to his open and blatantly
flaunted sin as well as a number of other issues. Paul said to them that he
would rather he had not to deal with them as he did in this first letter, but
there was an even deeper issue which they had not dealt with that opened the
door for all of the other issues. We read, “And I, brethren, could not speak to
you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I
gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive
it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since
there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not
walking like mere men?” (1 Corinthians 3:1–3, NASB95) This group of believers
not only did not spot the wolves, they were not looking to their own maturity
and seeking to follow after God and His truths. We can rejoice in having the
letter of 2 Corinthians where we read that progress had happened and while they
still had a ways to go, his content of this letter was more instructive of a
church in need of growth and not of a group of people in need of rebuke and
correction.
But in this Paul was still very concerned of the lack of
maturity among the Corinthian believers and their lack of discernment
concerning the potential for deceptive teaching. Paul wrote in chapter 11, “I
wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are
bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I
betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure
virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to
Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached,
or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different
gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.” (2 Corinthians
11:1–4, NASB95) Paul even pointed in verses 7-9 that during his ministry to
them he did so without depending on them for financial gain. In fact, his
support came from other means. Clearly he was not there to pad his pockets, but
ministered to them because of His love for them and His love for God. “Why?
Because I do not love you? God knows I do!” (2 Corinthians 11:11, NASB95) Paul
demonstrated to them the difference between a wolf and a sheep by his life and
conduct, and he encouraged them to be on the watch for those who come with
others motives knowing that they will indeed come.
Today things are not much different. There are a number of
churches which have set aside the firm belief in the Word of God. They have
turned from a statement of faith on the Scriptures such as, “The Scriptures,
both Old and New Testaments, are the inspired Word of God without error in the
original writings, the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of
mankind, and the divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.”
and have adopted ones such as, XXX Church “takes the Bible seriously, but not
literally.” What kind of a stand is this second one? Who is man to determine
what part of God’s Word is to be adhered to and what part isn’t? The simple
reality of a statement such as this is to say (1) that either God’s Word is not
really His Word or (2) that He does not have the desire or ability to defend
it. This kind of view of Scripture denies the integrity of Scripture and opens
the door for any form of belief which man might wish to adopt. In doing this
there is no difference between those Jews who took the Scriptures and redrew
their own lines.
The Word of God is either His Word which He is able to
protect, or it isn’t. The apostle Peter took a very strong stand on this issue,
writing, “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved
by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:21, NASB95) And the apostle Paul
wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;” (2 Timothy 3:16,
NASB95). This word “inspired” is the Greek word ‘theopneustos’ which means ‘God-breathed,’
In Acts 17 we read of a group of Jews who knew and understood
God’s Scriptures in this way. They were marked by taking what they heard back
to the Scriptures (our Old Testament), and judging things according to their
accuracy. Having established this practice we find that when many of them heard
the news of the Messiah, finding it to match what God had said would happen, they
then believed and were saved. “The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas
away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of
the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they
received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see
whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a
number of prominent Greek women and men.” (Acts 17:10–12, NASB95) In searching for
the truth they knew it when it was presented, and trusting they believed and
were saved.
In Psalm 119 we read, “How blessed are those whose way
is blameless, Who walk in the law of the Lord.
How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their
heart. They also do no unrighteousness; They walk in His ways. You have
ordained Your precepts, That we should keep them diligently. Oh that my ways
may be established To keep Your statutes!” (Psalm 119:1–5, NASB95) To this the
psalmist added, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin
against You.” (Psalm 119:11, NASB95) His protection against the wolves was to learn
and know the voice of the Shepherd.
No comments:
Post a Comment