The Christian’s responsibility to judge Christian preachers

Sermon for Trinity 8

Romans 8:12-17  +  Matthew 7:15-23

Ask a random person, “What are the basic tasks Christians are to be performing?” You’ll hear lots of different answers: “Feeding the hungry. Helping the poor. Being kind to people.” The more religious might say, “Christians are supposed to be praying. Going to church. Reading their Bibles.” All good things. Very few, I think, even among Christians, would come up with the basic task that Jesus gives His disciples in today’s Gospel: Christians are to be judging Christian preachers. And I don’t mean, judging them by how charismatic they are, or how cool, or how engaging. I mean judging them, as in, watching out for false prophets.

Now, Lutherans tend to get this, more than some other churches do, who happily and even proudly celebrate the diversity of doctrines that are tolerated in their midst. We tend to focus on doctrine and on making absolutely sure that what we believe, teach, and confess is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We’ve always told people that, by far, the most important factor in choosing a church is the doctrine that is taught and practiced in that church, regardless of any external trappings. Why are we so concerned about doctrine? Because of whose doctrine it is. It’s Christ’s doctrine, Christ’s teaching.

Of course, if you’re hearing the Word of Christ directly from the mouth of Christ, then you don’t have to worry about judging the preacher, do you? But none of us has ever had that opportunity. Christ never intended to stay on earth and preach and teach until the end of time. It was always His intention, as we see already here in the Sermon on the Mount, to call His sheep, to feed His sheep, to convict and to convert sinners, through the preaching and teaching of ministers whom He would send to preach and teach in His name until He comes again. But He also knew that many, many preachers calling themselves Christians would go out into the world not having been sent by Him, or if sent by Him originally, would end up spreading lies in His name, and so He issues this stern warning to His disciples toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, as one of the most basic tasks we are to be doing: Watch out for false prophets.

Why? Because they won’t come to you with a big sign on their backs saying, “False prophet.” On the contrary, they will claim that they’re speaking to you in Jesus’ name, that they’re telling you the truth about God and about His Son Jesus Christ. That’s what it means to come in “sheep’s clothing.” But inwardly they are ravenous wolves. If they get you to believe lies about yourself, to believe lies about God, to believe lies about how anyone can be saved from death and from eternal condemnation, then they have devoured you. They have robbed you of salvation. They have led you to believe in a fake Jesus, and a fake Jesus cannot save anyone.

How do you watch out for them? You judge them. You don’t judge them by the way they look, or by how educated they are by worldly standards, or by their personality, or by their sense of humor. You don’t judge them by the mere fact that they claim Jesus as Lord or wave a Bible around. You judge them by examining their “fruits.” By their fruits you will know them, Jesus says. Two things are included in a preacher’s fruits: his doctrine, and his life. In other words, whether he does the will of my Father in heaven in what he teaches and in how he lives.

How do you judge a preacher’s doctrine? How do you “test the spirits,” as St. John writes in chapter 4 of his first epistle, “whether they are of God”? Well, there’s only one way. You have to do as the Bereans did in Acts 17. You have to “search the Scriptures” to find out if what a preacher says is true. You have to know your Bible, study your Bible. There’s no way around it. It’s the only infallible source of truth, unchanging, unwavering, the inspired Word of God that remains forever.

It’s a big book. We’ve broken down its teachings and summarized them in six chief parts, as you know if you’re familiar with Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, which is tremendously helpful for judging a Christian preacher’s doctrine.

Does his doctrine line up with the Ten Commandments? Does he point you to the Lord God alone as the only God and Savior, to fear Him, to love Him, and to trust in Him above all things? Does he teach you to honor God’s name and God’s Word? To honor your parents and those in authority over you? To guard your neighbor’s life, including the lives of the children waiting to be born? Does he teach you to honor marriage—the lifelong union between one man and one woman—and to keep the marriage bed pure? Does he teach you not to steal, not to give false testimony against your neighbor, not to covet what your neighbor has, but to be content with what God has given you? Does he show you that all have sinned against these commandments and have earned only God’s wrath and punishment? Or does he teach something else? You be the judge.

Does his doctrine line up with the Apostles’ Creed? Does he teach that God created all things in six days by His almighty Word, or does he teach the religion of evolution? Does he teach that Christ is true God from eternity and true Man, born of the virgin Mary? Does he teach that Christ has redeemed mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death? Does he teach that Christ rose bodily from the dead on the third day and lives and rules eternally at the right hand of God, and will return on the last day to raise all the dead and to give eternal life to all who have believed in Him? Does he teach that the Spirit of God is the one who, through the preaching of the Gospel, calls poor sinners from every race, tribe, language, and people, who brings people to faith through the message that is preached and justifies them by faith alone in Christ, that it is the Spirit who gathers His Church and preserves it through the means of grace—through preaching and the Sacraments? Or does he teach something else? You be the judge.

Does a preacher’s doctrine line up with the Lord’s Prayer, teaching you how to pray to our Father in heaven, to seek the glory of His name and His kingdom, and to look to Him as the Provider of all you need, from daily bread, to the forgiveness of sins, to strength to resist temptation, to deliverance from all evil? Or does he teach something else? You be the judge.

Does a preacher’s doctrine line up with the Bible’s teaching of Holy Baptism, that it is a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit, and that it works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this? Or does he teach something else? You be the judge.

Does a preacher’s doctrine line up with the Bible’s teaching about the office of the holy ministry? Does he teach that Christ calls men, through the call of the Church, to be His ministers, to use the keys of the kingdom of heaven in His name, to forgive sins to the penitent in the stead of Christ and to deny forgiveness to the impenitent in His name? Or does he teach something else? You be the judge.

Finally, does a preacher’s doctrine line up with the Bible’s teaching about the Sacrament of the Altar? (This has been a main sticking point separating Lutherans from most other non-Roman-Catholics for 500 years.) Does a preacher preach that the body and blood of Christ are truly present under the bread and wine of Holy Communion, and that Christ’s body and blood are truly received by all communicants—for the forgiveness of sins to those who believe, and for judgment to those who disbelieve? Or does he teach something else? You be the judge. If a preacher’s fruit—his doctrine—is good, if it lines up with, not just some, but all of these teachings of Scripture, then receive him and believe him. If it’s bad, then “avoid him,” as Paul writes to the Romans in chapter 16.

Then you also have the preacher’s life as part of his fruit, how he behaves, what he does. It’s important, but it’s secondary, because it’s knowing Christ rightly and trusting in Him that will save you, not the preacher’s life, and we know that every preacher is sinful, so don’t waste your time looking for a one who never sins. You won’t find one. But do look for someone who practices what he preaches, which includes repenting when he sins. Judge his life with mercy. Judge him with love. But do judge his life to see if he fulfills the requirements St. Paul set forth for preachers in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus chapter 1. For example, if he preaches that stealing is wrong, and yet regularly helps himself to a portion of the offerings, watch out! If he preaches that the doctrine of Christ is all-important, but runs away in fear when the wolf comes, watch out! Or if he practices open Communion, allowing people to commune together at the Lord’s altar, without first making sure that their confession of faith lines up entirely with the truth of God’s Word, watch out!

In the last part of today’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that none of this is a question of a preacher’s sincerity. These false prophets against whom Jesus warns think they’re serving the Lord Christ. They call Him, “Lord! Lord!” And they’re surprised on the last day when He rejects them, saying, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you evildoers! They thought they knew Jesus, and they preached the Jesus they thought they knew. Some even did miracles, (supposedly) in Jesus’ name. But it turns out they didn’t know Him, and so the Jesus they preached was a false one. They allowed themselves to be led away and deceived by Satan and his doctrines of demons, which they then echoed in their preaching. It was Satan’s power behind their miracles, even as Scripture says that in the last days the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.

So don’t judge a preacher by his sincerity or even by miracles he performs. Judge him by his fruit—by his doctrine and by his life. It’s one of the most basic tasks given to Christians by Christ. Because you don’t want to arrive at the day of your death or at judgment day and only then find out that you didn’t actually know the real Jesus. He doesn’t want that to happen, either! That’s why He has given you His Word, and His warning, but also His Holy Spirit in the Word to “guide you into all truth,” as He promised His disciples, to guide you and to teach you, and to keep you from being deceived. And when you have judged that a Christian preacher is actually bringing you the Word of Christ, then hear him, believe him, and put the Word of Christ that he preaches into practice. Then you will be, as Jesus says at the end of the sermon on the mount, like the wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Amen.