TESTS IN RECOGNIZING A FALSE PROPHET
Matthew 7:15-20

Jesus has shared that false teachers were present in the midst of the people.  They are like wolves in sheep’s clothing.  They are like bad trees that only produce bad fruit.  So, how can a person learn to recognize a false teacher or prophet?

First, there is the test of his teaching.  False teachers have a distorted view of God.  This view centers around God’s love only.  They lull people to sleep by making them think that all is well with God.  But they fail to focus on God’s holiness.  Friends, you cannot have God’s love without His holiness. 

Secondly, in their teaching, they have a distorted view of salvation.  Listen to these words from the great Bible scholar of the last century, Dr. Arthur Pink:  False prophets are to be found in the circles of the most orthodox, and they pretend to have a fervent love for souls, yet they fatally delude multitudes concerning the way of salvation.  The pulpit, platform, and the pamphlet hucksters have wantonly lowered the standard of divine holiness, and so adulterated the Gospel in order to make it palatable to the carnal mind.  While Jesus said that only the narrow way led to God, the false prophets proclaim that both the broad and the narrow roads lead to God.  They state categorically that God doesn’t care what you believe as long as you believe something sincerely.  So, there is no need for repentance.  There is no teaching that Christ must be the Lord of your life. 

The result of their teaching is a religion based upon doing rather than being.  It is a religion based upon rules and regulations rather than upon relationships.  Again, please allow me to quote from Dr. Pink:  There is nothing in their preaching which searches the conscience and renders the empty professor uneasy; nothing which humbles and causes their hearers to mourn before God; but rather that which puffs up, makes them pleased with themselves and rest content in a false assurance.  This is a deadly teaching.

Finally, there is the test of their character.  You might ask yourselves concerning these false teachers:  What are their inner motives?  What are their standards?  What are their ambitions?  What are their attitudes?  The Bible gives us a clear picture of the character of a godly man, for we read in Galatians 5:22-23 these words:  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Is this person’s life characterized by love? by joy?  Does he receive glory for himself or does he reflect that glory back to God?  Does his life reflect a growing in the Lord?

Friends, we are not to accept every man or every teaching as being from God.  I often recall 1 John 4:1 where we read, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  We are to apply God’s Word to everything that is proclaimed.  We are to measure the life of the proclaimer by the standard of the Word of God.  We are to be like the Bereans, who after hearing the great Apostle Paul, went home to examine whether what he had said was biblically true. 

Father, I would ask that You would give us a spirit like those Bereans had.  We don’t want to be led astray.  We do want to know the truth.  Help us to be discerning as we listen and as we observe the attitudes and actions of those who proclaim the message. For this we give You thanks.  Amen.

 

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