Book of morning to everyone.
If you care to open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 23.
Matthew chapter 23. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this, another opportunity that you've given us to meet
together and to worship your precious name, to worship Christ
our Savior. Father, I pray that you'd bless
us this morning as we look into your word, that you'd send your
spirit upon us, that you'd give us the ear and a heart of faith
to hear and believe the things of our Lord Jesus Christ that
we here preach this morning. Let us look into your word and
see Christ. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for our children's classes that are going on right now,
Father, that you'd bless in a special way, bless our teachers, We bless
our children that this might be a time that you're pleased
to plant the seeds of faith in their heart. In your time, you
may cause it to grow to faith and love in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for all
the many blessings of this life, how richly you have blessed this
congregation. You've blessed us with every
spiritual blessing. You've given us everything in
Christ. You've kept the gospel here for
so many years. And on top of that, how you've
blessed us materially and with the jobs and families. Father,
we are so humbled and we thank you, knowing that everything
we have has come from my goodness, not because of one thing that
we've earned. And Father, we do thank you. Father, we pray
for the sick and the afflicted, those who are hurting, those
who are heartbroken. Those who are in difficult strains,
Father, we pray you deliver, heal, and comfort according to
thy will. All these things we ask in that
name which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior,
amen. I have a difficult subject and
task this morning. I've titled the lesson True Prophets
and False Prophets. And I really, really hate to
spend much time talking to false prophets. I hate to give them
any press. But I would not be a faithful pastor if I did not
warn us about false prophets. I have to be able to teach us
how to identify false prophets so that we stay away from them.
And let me warn you not to allow a false prophet to have any quarter,
any quarter, in your mind or your heart for even a minute.
They look and they sound very religious, but they're false
prophets, and their message is a danger to your soul. It takes
more than just using the name Jesus, using the name Christ,
using religious words like grace, sovereign grace even, these different
things, in order to be a prophet of God. Without any fear of contradiction,
I can tell you that anyone, I don't care who they are, I don't care
if you like them, if you dislike them, I don't care who they are,
anyone who preaches man's free will, anyone who preaches man's
decision as being the deciding factor, the deciding role in
salvation is a false prophet. And anyone who believes that
message will go to hell. I have absolutely no joy in saying
that whatsoever, none. but it's so. And it is incumbent
upon me to teach that to you. If you hold your finger there,
Matthew, look over at second Timothy chapter three, the apostle
Paul gives us a description of these men and women in a nutshell
here in second Timothy chapter three verse five, having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof. from such turn away. Now they
have a form of godliness. They have a form of religion.
They have a form of worship, but they deny the power thereof.
They have the form, but not the person. They say, Christ died
for you. Christ died for everybody. But
now you've got to live a righteous life in order to be saved, in
order to keep that salvation. You've got to make a decision
in order for that, uh, that sacrifice to apply to you. Now that's denying
the power thereof. That's denying the power of the
blood of Christ to cleanse us from all sin. Does Christ cleanse
me from my sin or do I gotta, you know, start sinning less?
It denies the power of the obedience of Christ to make his people
righteous. Brethren, we're righteous by
the obedience of Christ, not our obedience. That's denying
the power. It's denying the power of the
death of Christ to be all that it takes to satisfy God's justice
and save my soul from condemnation. And Paul says, turn away from
him. Turn away from him. Don't have
fellowship with him. Don't bid him Godspeed. Don't
give them place. Just don't do it. These false
prophets take the law. God gave the law to drive us
to Christ, to show us how guilty we are, to show us how sinful
we are, and to drive us to Christ. And they take the law and they
twist it. They twist it to put a burden on you. They make the
law something that you can do to make God happy with you. And
it puts an impossible burden on people. Now, when they do
that, when they say, you can keep this law in order to make
God happy with you, they're denying the word of God. They deny our
total depravity. They deny our fall in sin by
saying, well, as it turns out, we actually can keep part of
the law. Saying that you can keep some of the law to make
God happy with you, that's denying our need of Christ. It's denying
the power of Christ to save him by himself. Now, does he need
my help or is he going to do it all by himself, which is it?
From such, turn away. Avoid them. I mean, avoid them
at all costs. Because nothing is more offensive
to God than self-righteousness. Righteousness that we earn by
our works of the law or by our ceremonies of religion. You've
got to watch people who can be pretty subtle about this. They're
not actually taking the law, the Ten Commandments, the Mosaic
law, the dietary laws, those things. They substitute their
religious ceremonies for those things and say, you've got to
keep that. You've got to do this. All that is is substituting one
law for another. That self-righteousness, what
you can earn by your obedience to the law, by your obedience
to the ceremonies of religion, is offensive to God because it
denies our need of Christ to be our righteousness. We're just
saying, I don't need God's son. What could be more offensive
to the father than that? Self-righteousness said, God
wasted his time sending his son to this earth to humiliate himself
to be clothed in human flesh. And then the father slaughtered
him on Calvary's tree. But all that was a waste of time
because as it turns out, there are actually things men can sinful
men can do to improve their, their situation. Self-righteousness
is saying, I don't need Christ to be everything to me. I can contribute to this matter.
And that denies everything that the word of God says about me.
And it tramples underfoot the holy blood of God, the blood
of God's Son, and nothing can be more offensive to the Father.
The sin that will damn souls is the refusal to believe on
Christ, the refusal to trust on Christ. That's the only sin
that will damn a soul. And they don't trust Christ because
they think they can do something themselves. And self-righteousness
is at the heart of every message of every false prophet in some
form or fashion. Now, I don't want to just talk
about false prophets this morning. I also want to point out ways
that you can recognize a true prophet as compared to a false
prophet so that you're able to do what Peter said and try the
spirits, whether they be of God and know the difference between
a true prophet and a false prophet. And this is what our Lord is
talking about now. Matthew chapter 23. Verse one inspect Jesus to
the multitude and to his disciples saying the scribes and Pharisee
sit in Moses seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe
that observe and do but do not after their works for they say
and do not. Now it seems like the Lord is
kind of saying this and maybe tongue in cheek. He's saying
whatever the Pharisees tell you to do from the word of God, Observe
and do that, whatever comes from the scriptures, but don't do
as they do. And here's the reason I said
that the Thorpe, you know, maybe saying this, this tongue and
cheek, since the Pharisees are using the law in a way that God
did not intend for it to be used. And they're saying that the law
is a way you can earn your own righteousness. Well, they're
not preaching the true meaning of the scriptures, are they?
I mean, when do they ever give you the true meaning of scriptures?
So, you know, when they're not giving you the true meaning of
scriptures, don't do what they tell you and don't follow their
example either. I'm sure that's what the Lord
is saying here because read on, look what he says next. The Lord
gives us six ways to identify false prophets. And I also want
to take that and then draw the contrast between that false prophet
and a true prophet. So we'll know the difference.
Number one, the false prophet says, but doesn't do. Verse four. For they bind heavy
burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders,
but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. They won't lift a finger to do
it. The false prophet lays heavy burdens of the law upon people. They focus all on the outward,
outward conduct. And it seems to me like that
they always have some sort of process in place to judge people. They judge people. They encourage
the congregation to watch one another, judge one another. And
if that's not bad enough, laying these heavy burdens of the law
upon people. You remember Peter said, brother,
neither we nor our fathers could bear this burden of the law.
And why are we going to put it on other people? We couldn't
bear it. Our fathers couldn't bear it.
Putting these burdens on people, if that's not bad enough, These
false prophets are hypocrites. They don't do what they command
other people to do. I mean, think about the big things,
you know, that they command people to do. One of the big things
is giving, isn't it? They say, now you give till it
hurts. You look at your giving, you
know, as planting a seed. You just keep planting a seed.
And the way you plant seeds is put more money in the offering
plate. Put more money in the offering plate. Plant a seed,
and the more you give, the more God will bless you. And you'll
notice the ones getting rich in this equation is the false
prophet. They command people to be more.
They command people to be purer, to have all this outward self-righteous. I mean, it's
just hard to be around people like that. But behind closed
doors, They're the most immoral people that I know. Just this
week, there was another sexual scheme in one of these mega churches.
Two weeks ago, there was a pastor found and suddenly he's shot. He's stolen several hundred thousand
dollars from the coffers. The Catholic Church makes itself
out to be the moral pillar of the world, don't they? I mean,
just want to find out what's going on in the world? Want to
get some commentary on it? Let's go talk to the pope. You
want to find out about this war in Ukraine? Let's talk to the
pope. You want to find out? And just look at the tens of
thousands of child abuse cases that they're dealing with from
their own ranks. They put burdens on people, and they don't lift
a finger to do them. I mean, what a hypocrite. Well,
true prophets aren't going to put burdens on you like that.
No, he won't. His goal is to take burdens off
of you, to tell you you're free from the law if you trust Christ. His goal is for you to go to
Christ and find rest. And let me tell you this, God's
preachers practice what they preach. We are far from sinless
men, but we preach, quit your works and trust Christ. That's
our message, isn't it? And God certainly knows what
he's talking about because he trusts Christ as his own. He's
trusted Christ and he wants you to trust Christ. He's tasted
the sweetness of forgiveness of sin in Christ. He's tasted
the sweetness of freedom from the law and he wants you to have
that too. Big difference. I mean, it's
just polar opposites. All right. Number two, the false
prophets message is a legalistic message. They bind heavy burdens
and grievous to be born. It's all a message. of the law.
It focuses on the law and outward obedience to the law. Not inward,
outward. And they always use the carrot
they hang out in front of people of material blessings. It's all
the outward blessings, you know, that God will give you. He'll
make your children happy and get your children off drugs,
make you have a raise at work, have more friends and people
just like you and all this stuff. It's all the outward. You'll
have all that if you just conform to their outward standard of
morality. As if the requirements of the law aren't good enough,
they're just like these Pharisees of old, they had their own commandments. You know, these Pharisees, they
have the traditions of the elders and today they're no different.
They got their own traditions and standards and things that
you got to do. And when you follow those traditions,
you'll find that the person that benefits from that is not you.
It's false prophet. That message, That legalistic
message never gives any rest. Buddy, you better get busy and
stay busy. Just don't give people time to
rest. You know, if they got time to rest, they're gonna stop and
think a minute about what you're preaching. They want you to feel
bad about yourself so that you'll do more. That's the way they
motivate you. They want you to feel bad about
yourself. Well, the message of God's preacher is not legalistic.
It's just the opposite. Our message is free from the
law, oh happy condition. Our message is you are free from
the requirements of the law in Christ. You're free from worrying
about condemnation of the law in Christ because of what Christ
has done for his people. Come to Christ and rest. Come
to Christ and take that heavy burden off. The Savior said,
if you're weary, come unto me. My yoke is easy. My burden's
on, I'll give you rest. Somebody's message not giving
you rest, something's wrong in it. It's not matching what the
Savior said. Now here's something that is similar about the true
prophet and the false prophet. The motivation is the opposite,
but they both do this. Both the false prophet and the
true prophet want you to feel bad about yourself. The false
prophet, so that you'll do more, the true prophet, so that you'll
quit trusting yourself and you'll trust Christ and you'll find
your joy and your peace and your rest in Him. Totally different. All right, number three, the
message of the false prophet is all outward. Verse five, but
all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad
their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments.
They have all this clothing and and things they just want everybody
to know, no matter where they go, how religious they are. They're a religious leader now.
But their focus is all on the outward. And just like I talked
about a minute ago, it's outward obedience and outward blessings
that they say you'll get from that obedience. They always want
to make a big, big show of outward religion. It may be the clothes
that they wear. Their day it was making their
factories broad and wearing, you know, having scriptures,
you know, pasted on their clothes or whatever, you know. Today
it's religious costumes, you know, that they wear. Maybe it's
jewelry, big old crosses that they wear around their neck or
whatever it is, you know. The way they wear their hair
or whatever. They just want to make a show. They want to make
a big show, how many people that they have, how big their budget
is. When this work first started, somebody was telling me, I don't
think God's in that. You just got about 20, 25 people
there. And this is what John Chapman said. He said, well,
I saw Billy Graham fill a stadium last night. Who's preaching the
gospel? But this is what they're looking
at, the outward. They make a big show. of praying
in public. I don't know that they ever pray
in their closet, but boy, they make a big show of having a national
day of prayer. They make a big show, oh, there's
certain places, now I won't go there, because if I go there,
that'll defile me. Well, go someplace holy, and
you defiled it. They miss that. It's all a big
outward show of piety, so everybody know how religious that they
are. They want people to know I'm
on a higher spiritual plane, than you so you'll be impressed
with them and I think what's behind all of that is if you
are impressed with them, you think they're on a higher spiritual
plane than you, they'll let you tell, you'll let them tell you
what to do, what to do and how to do it. I'll get to that in
just a minute. But here's why they focus on the outward. It's
the only thing they know about. The outward is the only thing
they know about. You know why they don't talk
about an inward Work of grace? I don't know. They haven't. You
can't tell. Well, Brother Henry, you say
you can't tell what you don't know anymore. You come back from where
you ain't been. They can't tell you about the inward work of
grace because they haven't experienced it. God's preacher focuses on
an inward work of grace. This thing of salvation is an
inward work. It's a heart matter. It's an
inward work of grace that only God can do. That's why he's not
trying to get you to do something. Because this is an inward work
of grace only God can do. And I promise you this, when
there's grace in the heart, the outward will take care of itself.
And it won't be perfect. Now, please understand me, I'm
not saying after there's an inward work of grace in the heart, the
outward will be perfect, because it won't be. Lot, David, Abraham,
Solomon, Peter, they all showed us that, didn't they? But you
know the difference? Salvation is not lost. when the
outward goes awry, because salvation is an inward work of the heart.
And we can make a mess of things, and we will, and we can cry before
the Lord in prayer, same thing Peter did. Lord, you know I love
you. My friends might not be able
to see it right now, but Lord, you do, because you look on the
heart. And this is where this matter
is dealt with. It's in the heart. And again, I'm telling you, God's
preacher knows what he's talking about. When he's practicing what
he preaches, he needs that inward work of grace. That's why he
preaches it to you. He knows you need it because
he needs it. He doesn't pretend to be on a higher spiritual plane
than anybody else. He's a sinner too. He's a sinner,
not on a higher spiritual plane. Yes, God's called him to preach.
Yes, God's gifted him to preach, but that doesn't put him on a
higher spiritual plane than you. All he is is one beggar. Tell
another beggar where he found bread. We're both beggars. The
message is the bread. That's the difference, isn't
it? All right, here's the fourth thing. The message and the actions
of false prophet all seeks recognition for the flesh. Verse six, And
they love the uppermost rooms at the feast, and the chief seats
in the synagogues, and greetings in the market, and to be called
of men, rabbi, rabbi. Now false prophets, and all people
in false religion, they're focusing on the outward show of religion. And when you're focusing on that,
buddy, you want recognition for it. They want recognition for
this. They want high-sounding religious
titles. because they want people to be
impressed with them. A man got into a, he tried to
start a tiff with me on the internet, because when I post articles
and so forth, you know, from our bulletin, if a man is currently
a pastor, I'd say, Pastor, you know, whatever, Todd Niber, Pastor
Donny Bell, when I put an article like that, you know, in the bulletin,
And, um, if, if they're not a pastor anymore, you know, I just, just
put your name. He was telling me how awful it
was. I was given these men, you know, accused me of this verse,
you know, let me call rabbi rabbi. I just do that. So, you know,
you'll know that there are pastors. Um, it's a, it's a, it's a pretty
simple title, but it's not to seek recognition for the flesh.
God's preacher. He is not interested in recognition
for the flesh. He's not. Just not. By God's
grace, I can honestly tell you this is true. I'm not seeking
something for me in this ministry. I'm seeking it for you. You just don't know how bad I
want you to know Christ. I'm seeking God's glory and for
you to know Him. That's the honest truth. The
goal for God's preacher and for those that listen to him is not
that we be seen of men, not that we get recognition from men.
It's that we be seen of God in Christ. My goal, my goal for
myself and my goal for you is that we win Christ and be found
in him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. That's the goal. That's the goal. That's the goal
of this ministry, is to glorify God, is to tell the truth about
who God is and how God saves sinners. And as a consequence,
is to see God's elect saved and for them to come to Christ and
for them to stay in Christ. I'm not interested in trying
to talk somebody into a decision. I want God to save you and for
God to keep you in Christ so that we're seen in Christ, not
of the flesh, but in Christ. All right. Number five, I touched
on this a minute ago. False prophets seek to rule over
the lives of people. Verse eight, but be not ye called
rabbi for one is your master, even Christ and all your brethren
and call no man your father upon earth for one is your father,
which is in heaven. Neither be called master for
one is your master, even Christ. Since the false prophet is concerned
exclusively with the outward, they have ways now of checking
up on people and enforcing these things. I've talked to people. They were in some sort of a reformed
religion, and their pet thing was the family, how the family
is run. It seems pretty oppressive to
women, to me, but whatever. This is their thing. and they
were subject to surprise inspections from the elders of the church.
You know, come in at dinner time and see his mom cooking dinner
and all the kids sitting at dinner right and using the table manners
right and saying yes sir and yes ma'am. Sounds like the no fun place
to me, don't you? They get some sort of sick pleasure
from finding out about people's sin and exposing it. That's contrary
to this book now. God's preacher is not interested
in running your life. I mean, I just got enough to
do to my own self to tell you how to do everything, you know.
I just have no interest in trying to herd goats. I got no interest
in trying to get goats to act like sheep. My goal was not to get people
to act a certain way. My desire is to preach Christ. To preach Christ. To preach Him
over and over and over again. So that the Holy Spirit will
apply that to your heart. So that the Spirit will give
you a love for Christ and give you faith in Christ. And from
what I read in this book, the best way that God's going to
do that is through the preaching of Christ. So preach Christ. And like I said a minute ago,
you'll be just fine. You'll be just fine. Knowing
how to You know, the thing is, is you already know right from
wrong. I mean, you already know that. Your mama taught you that
when you were little. Really, you're born in this world with
the law of God in your heart, knowing you ought not lie, you
ought not steal, you ought not kill. You already know that.
You'll be just fine if the Lord will give you a love for Him
and give you faith in Christ. You'll be just fine. You'll be
just fine. That's what I want for you, and
that's what I want for me. All right, here's the sixth thing. The false prophet does not seek
to humbly serve God's people. Now they want people to serve
them. False prophet does not seek to humbly serve God's people. Verse 11, but he that is greatest
among you, would you be the greatest in the kingdom of God? Would
you be of the greatest service? He that is the greatest among
you should be your servant and whosoever shall exalt himself
should be abased and he that humbled himself should be exalted. Now, you just don't see humility
in false prophets. You know, that's just hard to
do, isn't it? If you're seeking the outward, you're seeking recognition
for the outward and seeking recognition for the flesh and seeking benefits
for the flesh, it's hard to be humble, isn't it? I mean, it's
hard to do both at the same time. God's preachers are not like
that. Now, listen. God's pastors, they're the leaders. in the church. It is given to
them to lead and to govern the church, to be the rulers of the
church on earth. But don't be mistaken into thinking
that that's telling everybody what to do and how to do it and
being involved in that kind of thing. I guess that's how you
do it in business. I was in business a long time.
I was a supervisor in those kinds of leadership roles. And that's
what you had to do. You had to tell people what to do and when
to do it. You got to schedule. But God's church is not like
that. You know, brethren, we're not running a business here.
Leading in God's church is done by being a servant. You want
to lead in God's church? You want to be a leader in God's
church? There's not just one. You want to be a leader in God's
church? Wash one another's feet. Look for a way to be a blessing
to one another. Help one another out. Serving
the Lord and serving God's people That's the greatest. That's being
a servant. It's just feeding the sheep. I used to love, I guess I still
do, watching cowboy shows. And cowboys get up real early
in the morning and go out and feed animals. And I guess the
guy that's lowest on the rung has to get up the earliest. So
you're feeding the horses and the cows and all these things.
That's pretty humble work, isn't it? I get much recognition, not
much praise for that. But that's the leader in God's
church. He's the servant feeding the
sheep. The pastor is unquestionably the leader. But you know what
the Apostle Paul called us? Servants for Jesus' sake. Not
as lords over God's heritage, but servants. And God's preacher
will humble himself to preach Christ to you and get out of
the way. It doesn't much matter to me
if you remember my name, as long as you know Christ's name. God's
preacher will humble himself to preach Christ to you and leave
you alone with God. Not trying to get a decision
from you, he'll leave you alone with God. Because listen, if
you belong to God, this is why he promised you. God's going
to reveal himself to you. He will. He will. God's servant
will humble himself to be right with you. I mean, just right
with you. Not above you, but right with you. Knowing this,
the only difference between true prophet and a false prophet is
the same difference between believer and unbeliever. It's God's electing,
distinguishing, saving, keeping grace. That's the grace that
he preaches. I sure hope you and I remember
that. Don't you? All right. Lord bless
you.