You have a duty to watch out

Sermon for Trinity 8

Romans 8:12-17  +  Matthew 7:15-23

You know the Ten Commandments. You know your duties not only as human beings but as those who have been born again through Holy Baptism as the people of God, who believe in the true God and who call Him Lord. The Ten Commandments are very useful for summarizing and laying out the responsibilities you have as God’s holy people, to love the Lord your God above all things and to love your neighbor as yourself.

In the Third Commandment (as the Church has traditionally numbered them), we are commanded to Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. The New Testament that Christ instituted no longer has a “Sabbath Day” of 24 hours set aside in which to do no work. What we do have is the ongoing command to honor the ministry of God’s Word, to gladly hear and learn His Word and not to despise the preaching of it.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus highlights an aspect of gladly hearing and learning God’s Word that many people fail to take to heart. It’s not even on their radar, so to speak. And yet, it’s a vital warning, because implied in the hearing and learning of God’s Word, as it’s preached and taught, is the one who preaches and teaches it. But not everyone who claims to preach and teach God’s Word actually preaches the truth in all things. Many preach false things about God, about His commandments, and about the way to salvation. And so, in our Gospel, Jesus issues a stern warning: Watch out for false prophets!

Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You know, I think for a lot of people, when they’re going around looking for a church to call their own, it’s not false prophets they’re watching out for, just as it’s not true doctrine they’re desperately searching for. It’s usually other things, earthly things—a preacher’s style, an atmosphere, a kind of music, or a “right fit” that makes them feel either good or bad. But that’s not keeping Jesus’ command at all. It’s actually just another way of living according to the flesh, which St. Paul warned against in today’s Epistle.

But Jesus commands: Watch out for false prophets. Why? What makes them so dangerous? It’s that they dress like sheep—like innocent, reliable Christian preachers—but end up tearing people’s souls apart like wolves with their false teaching.

What is false teaching? It’s any teaching that doesn’t agree with the whole Word of God. When preachers tell you things about God that aren’t true, or things about His commandments that aren’t true; when they don’t tell the truth about sin, or about God’s plan of salvation, or about the Sacraments God has instituted, or about the Church and its ministry, or about the Christian life—how Christians are to do as St. Paul said in today’s Epistle, putting to death the deeds of the sinful flesh and living according to the Spirit. The preacher may be very nice. His sermons may be very engaging. And the church itself may be fun and dynamic and welcoming. But Jesus commands His disciples to look past all that and compare the teaching of the teacher with the Word of God. If you’re not willing to do that, to take the time and put in the effort necessary, then you are ignoring the warning of the One whom you call Lord. And that will go very badly for you.

“But it all comes down to a matter of interpretation, doesn’t it? Who’s to say who is right or wrong in all those denominations out there? We can’t actually know who’s a false prophet and who isn’t, can we?” Oh, but Jesus says that you can. By their fruits you will know them. You will know them, He says. You don’t think He’s lying to you, do you? Sure, it will take effort. It will take actually examining the preacher’s fruit. But with the Holy Spirit’s help, with earnest prayer and study of God’s Word, you can do it. And when you do, Jesus says, you will know the false prophet. Do people gather grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree bears good fruit; but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Now, who qualifies as a prophet? Technically, a prophet is anyone who claims to speak for God, who claims to be teaching you the truth, leading you along the right way, the way of salvation. These days, it seems like there are prophets everywhere, whether they claim the title or not. TV shows, movies, songs on the radio—the writers of those things are constantly preaching at you, subtly indoctrinating people with their way of thinking. There are Facebook prophets, too. Politician prophets. Talk-show prophets. Classroom-teacher prophets. And, of course, all the actual preachers and church leaders out there.

What are the fruits a prophet bears? First of all, it’s his doctrine, his teaching. And not just what he happens to teach on a given Sunday morning, but his teaching as a whole. Every preacher who claims to be Christian will teach you that Jesus is Lord. That’s certainly true. But what does he mean by it, and what else does he teach? Does he teach in line with the ancient Christian Creeds or has he gone off on his own? Does he teach a six-day creation according to Scripture or does he teach millions-of-years-molecules-to-man evolution? Does he teach that all people are sinners and are justified solely by faith in Christ crucified (as he should), or does he minimize sin, or tolerate sin, or teach justification by works, or by faith plus works, or not by faith at all? Does he teach Baptism as the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (as he should) or as the sign of a person’s own decision to follow Christ? Does he teach the real presence of the Lord’s body and blood in the Sacrament (as he should) or does he teach that Christ’s body and blood are not truly received by communicants? The list goes on. And the only way to fulfill Christ’s command is to know His Word well and to use it to evaluate the teachings of a pastor and of the church that he shepherds and of the church body to which he willingly belongs.

But a preacher’s doctrine isn’t the only fruit he bears. His life, his behavior is also part of his fruit, and that you have to evaluate, too. You shouldn’t expect him to be sinless. But you should expect him to be “blameless,” as Paul writes to Timothy concerning bishops (that is, pastors). Blameless means that he can’t be accused of grave public sin or vice. He can’t justly be accused of having a shady or dishonest character. A pastor who regularly sets a bad example for believers is showing you that his fruit is rotten. A pastor who preaches the truth but then backs away from it when challenged, or who won’t stand up for it, is showing you that his fruit is bad. Now, personality flaws can be overlooked in love, or corrected with love, if necessary. That’s not necessarily “bad fruit.” Actual sins against God’s commandments must be addressed, though, and where there is no repentance, again, he’s showing you his fruit, that it’s rotten and bad.

It’s the Christian’s duty, according to the Third Commandment, to be watching out for false prophets as you walk through this life, just as you should watch out for rattlesnakes as you walk through the desert. If you find a rattlesnake along your path, you don’t sit and play with it. You avoid it. So you must do with false prophets, who are far more dangerous than rattlesnakes, because a snake bite can only harm your body, while false teaching can jeopardize your place in heaven, even as that preacher who is a bad tree will be cut down in the end and cast into the fire.

The last part of today’s Gospel makes the necessity of this “watching out” all the more urgent. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in your name did we not prophesy? And in your name did we not cast out demons? And in your name did we not perform many miracles?’ And then I will confess to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness! Calling oneself a Christian preacher—calling oneself a Christian!—is not a guarantee of being allowed into Christ’s kingdom in the end. Even prophesying, even casting out demons, even performing miracles is no guarantee that a person was a genuine preacher sent by Christ, or that a person was a genuine Christian at all.

What is the guarantee, then, that one will not hear those terrible words from the Lord Jesus on the Last Day, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness! It’s as Paul said in today’s Epistle: If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if, through the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God. Being led by the Spirit of God begins with repentance and faith in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, not because you’ve earned it, but because Christ earned it for you by His righteous life lived in your place and by His innocent death suffered in your place. But being led by the Spirit continues with daily contrition and repentance, putting to death the deeds of the body, being determined not to live in sin any longer but to live for God, to live a life of love. That’s where the Spirit always leads. The Spirit leads you to prayer, too. And, of course, the Spirit leads you always to God’s Word, by which He continues to guide the people of God through all the murkiness and darkness of all the false prophets and false teachers of this world to see the light of Christ, our Redeemer. So, with the Spirit’s help, do your duty according to the Third Commandments, not just to treasure preaching of His Word and to hear and learn His Word gladly, but also to heed Christ’s warning and to carry out His command to watch out for false prophets, wherever they may be—and also to recognize and give thanks for those who are true. Amen.