Truth
St. Matthew 7:15-23
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Matthew 7:15-16 [Jesus said] “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… In Jeremiah 23:16 Yahweh, speaking through Jeremiah, warns of “false prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of Yahweh.” Clearly not all who claim to speak for the one true God actually do; some speak for and about themselves. God wanted His people to be well aware of that fact and be on guard against it.
In Act 20, St. Paul warns the New Testament church with these words: “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Vv. 29-30). Here again we see a warning about those who point to themselves and not to Christ.
And in 2 Tim 4:3, St. Paul writes, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
And, of course, Jesus’ warning about false prophets is just as clear in Matthew 7:15 when He says emphatically, “Beware of false prophets.”
These aren’t the only warnings of their kind in Scripture; there are many more like them. So, since God has chosen to record and preserve these kinds of warnings for His church, it seems only right that we take His warnings seriously.
One of the worst things a person can do is to cause someone to doubt God’s Word and His Sacraments. The Lord’s Word and His Sacraments are the very foundation of saving faith and the delivery of His forgiveness. This much is clear in Scripture and especially our Lutheran Confessions. The Lord’s Word and His Sacraments are the very Gospel itself. They are not just things that remind us or tell us about God’s mercy and love, they actually deliver that very mercy and love. And that is how Jesus’ forgiveness is delivered to us – only and always by Gospel and the Sacraments. That is how we are rescued from death and the devil. That is how we are brought safely through this life to the life of the world to come.
Simply speaking, where there is no true preaching and no true and faithful administration of the Sacraments, there is no true salvation or true comfort from God or true hope in Christ. Period. That is what the Christian Church has consistently taught for more than 2000 years, and that is what every Christian must believe in order to be safe and secure in the one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church.
The proclamation of the Lord’s mercy in faithful preaching, the delivery of our Lord’s own flesh-and-blood forgiveness in the Sacrament of the Altar, the speaking of Holy Absolution – God’s own forgiveness into our ears – and the water and Word of Holy Baptism, those are the only means of grace and salvation; those are the only things to which true Christian faith clings.
And whoever calls those things into question, whoever causes someone to doubt these words and gifts of God, whoever says they are not valid or certain or beneficial or that they do not matter; whoever causes even the littlest child who believes in Christ to question his faith – it would be better for that person, says our Lord, “if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea” (Mt 18:6). That is how serious our Lord is about His Word and Sacraments. That is how serious our Lord is about how His Word and Sacraments are preached and administered. And we must take our Lord seriously.
Anyone who does these things – anyone who causes the faithful to question their faith in the Lord and His promises tied to preaching and the Sacraments and ultimately leads them away from the one true faith – that person is a false prophet in whatever way he or she goes about his or her business.
False prophets are not easily identified as fanatics or raving lunatics although some most definitely are. Neither are false prohpets people who openly urge you to worship Satan. No, the Devil is much more subtle than that. A false prophet is anyone who says “’peace, peace’ when there is no peace’” (Jer 6:14). A false prophet is anyone who lures and entices you to believe in yourself. A false prophet is anyone who points you anywhere but to Christ and His Holy Word and Sacraments for certainty, hope, and comfort. A false prophet is anyone who undermines your confidence in the Lord Jesus as He gives Himself to you in the context of the Divine Service through faithful preaching and faithful administration of the Sacraments.
It is exactly these false prophets that God warns us about in all of today’s readings. It is these false prophets our Lord urges us to avoid. “Beware of them,” says our Lord. Basically, He warns us of them because they can come to you all pretty and nice, speaking soothing and kind words, promising help from God and giving you what seems so comforting. And that is one of the devil’s most effective methods, because it gives people a false sense of security by the smoothness and friendliness of the speaker.
But unless they point you to Christ, they are nothing but wolves in sheep’s clothing, offering little more than pablum and false comfort. They ultimately seek only their own gain and comfort. They speak only their own fantasies of their own minds, thereby puffing themselves up and pointing you to them. They tell lies – either purposefully or unintentionally – or, at the very least, they skirt the truth. And their desire is not to comfort you, but to control you. And so they offer a false hope based not on God’s Word but their own words, merits, and all too often, their personality. Beware of them, for they do not wish to harm your body, but to rob you of your soul and give it a one-way ticket to hell.
And, of course, this begs the question, “What is truth?” Truth, dear people, is our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not just that He tells the truth; our Lord Jesus Christ IS truth in the flesh. He said of Himself in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Simply speaking, no one can claim to know God or even claim to be a Christian without first and foremost acknowledging and believing in Jesus; it’s just that simple. And everything that does not come from Him is a lie; it’s an empty dream, a puff of smoke.
The only and ultimate truth that matters is Jesus Christ. He fights for you against every evil of body and soul. He truly delivers you from your past sins and failings. He truly helps you in every life-threatening need.
For He Himself, the truest Truth above all other truths, has gone to the cross and suffered your suffering and death for every single one of your sins. Christ Jesus, fully God and fully man, chose willingly and uncompromisingly to be your Savior. He deliberately allowed Himself to be mocked, ridiculed, scorned, hated, savagely beaten, and ultimately hung on a cross FOR YOU. He took every single one of your sins upon Himself and died for them all because you could never pay for your own sins. Your good works cannot save you; your good intentions cannot save you; not even your good looks can save you. Only Christ can save you.
And not only did Christ die on that cross for all your sins, He has come back to life, rising from the grave on that third day to defeat even death itself for you. Christ alone truly brings you through death to life.
And whoever causes you to look anywhere else and to anything or anyone else for that comfort and hope and peace – that person perverts the truth and replaces it with falsehood and emptiness.
Jesus says, “Beware of them.” Take note of them. Watch out for them.
But don’t simply watch out. It does no good to engage in a witch-hunt for false prophets. Instead, spend your time and energy clinging by faith to the truth. Take Jesus at His Word. Believe Him when He says to you, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn 14:6). Believe the Scriptures when they declare, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). Believe God’s Word which delivers this truth: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (I Tim 2:5). Believe Jesus when He preaches into your ears this wonderful news: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16).
Everything else will fade away. All other truths and all other kinds of preaching will fail you.
Ask yourself: what will I hold on to when I face death? What will sustain me throughout all the terrors and trials of my earthly life? Only the Word of the Lord is sure. Only His promises will never fail. He will always come through for you. His promises are for you to take and believe and grasp and hang onto for dear life with God-given faith.
So, dear fellow redeemed, what is our prayer? Is it that we get the wisdom to pick out the truth from the lies? Is it to isolate ourselves from others in fear that they may be false? Is it our prayer to become gullible fanatics who cling to conniving and mesmerizing preachers? Is it that we get the ability to discern all sorts of signs and wonders? No, for all of that focuses not on Christ but on ourselves.
Our prayer, dear friends, is that the Lord would continue to grant us His Spirit – the Spirit who brings to your remembrance everything Christ said, the Spirit who leads you into all truth. For only by the Holy Spirit who comes by right preaching and right administration of the Sacraments – only by this Holy Spirit do you come to believe the Lord’s holy Word.
Without the Lord you can do no good thing. And that is why we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” with the sure confidence that God’s kingdom comes by His Spirit whenever we hear His holy Word and receive His blessed Sacraments as He gives them to us by His ordained ministers.
Then we rightly and confidently rely on these truthful Sacraments and truthful Gospel knowing that in them we both receive Christ and live in Him. By them we are strengthened and sustained throughout this life until our Lord calls us to the life of the world to come.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
