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15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. ~ Matthew 7:15-20
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 7 where we find the Lord Jesus teaching His disciples and the thousands who had gathered on a mountain over-looking the Sea of Galilee. For three chapters now the Lord Jesus had been juxtaposing His teaching with that of the religious leaders of Israel. Sadly, the religious leaders missed the truth because even though they taught some truth they failed to teach the importance of the involvement of the heart in the process. This is why the Lord Jesus said to His hearers the words in today's passage.
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."
In the previous verse, the Lord Jesus introduced two gates, the narrow gate and the broad gate. The first leads to eternal life while the latter leads to destruction. The first is the Savior's gate and the second is the gate of the self life. In this verse, the Lord Jesus established the link between the broad gate and the false teachers of Israel. These "false prophets" always appeared to be good but in reality they were bad just like all sinful humans. These false prophets are noted by the Lord Jesus as wolves come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they were extremely greedy.
There is a huge difference between sheep and wolves. Sheep offer us wool, meat, companionship, milk, and even more. Wolves offer us nothing. In fact, wolves take everything. They take livestock, safety, crops, and sometimes even our children. They steal and destroy. There’s nothing really positive about a wolf. Wolves seem to be trustworthy but they are actually animals not to be trusted. Like wolves, false prophets seem to be those who should be trusted, but in reality, they are ravenous or strikingly greedy.
The manual for recognizing false prophets is the Bible. God’s Word is ultimate truth because God is the ultimate reality. The concept of truth depends on the concept of what is real. For something to be true something behind it must be real. And the truth is telling us what is real. God alone is the ultimate reality. That is, no reality was before Him. He doesn’t depend on any other reality. All other reality was created by Him. God is the One who has determined and defined what is real. And since what makes something true is that which corresponds to what is real, God determines and defines all truth.
In v.16-17 of today's passage we read, "16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."
The Lord Jesus referenced those who produce fruit. In context, He referred to the religious leaders of Israel. Religion is always faithful to require of us the production of good behavior, but sinful man is unable to produce good fruit. You will note that the Lord said the real believer will bear or yield fruit. Right after the Lord Jesus said, "Enter into the narrow gate," He said, "beware of false prophets?" There is one common characteristic of all false prophets, they always make things sound better than they actually are. In the Old Testament, false prophets proclaimed peace and safety when that wasn’t the case at all.
In v.18-20 of today's passage we read, "18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Today's teaching is not contradictory with that which the Lord Jesus said in v.1 of this very same chapter. There, the Lord Jesus said, "Judge not, that you be not judged." Here, in today's passage the Lord Jesus tells us to make a judgement to determine if someone is a false prophet. This isn't a contradiction because unless we are willing to make a critical evaluation of a person's teaching, we can't determine whether what they are propagating is false or not. Instead of condemning them, we must be careful to take note of their fruit. This chapter is the fruitiest passage in all of the Bible! The Lord Jesus mentioned fruit seven times in five verses. His point? Healthy trees bear good fruit and diseased trees produce bad fruit.
I find it most interesting that the Lord Jesus said of the real believer that he cannot bear or yield bad fruit. If you are anything like me, you will quickly admit that I produce a lot of bad fruit. But, as the Lord Jesus said, we bear or yield good fruit. Of course, He is the One who produces the good fruit because it is of Him. We bear or yield good fruit, yet we produce bad fruit at times.
So here, the Lord Jesus gave us a test for false prophets that requires relationship and time. This is the venue where I have discovered that deepest ministry happens. True ministry where God's culture is being forged within us most deeply is in those everyday moments with Him and with one another over a period of time. We minister one to another as we walk with God and follow the Lord Jesus for ourselves. We have to know each other to really speak truth into one another's lives. Eventually, as we relate we will see fruit. The Lord Jesus began this teaching by warning us against people who deceive us. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, it has been our default mode to deceive. But, when we trusted in the Lord Jesus, we acquired another nature, the nature of God. This explains how we sometimes bear or yield good fruit and we sometimes produce bad fruit. The false prophets always produce bad fruit because they have not God's nature within.
In order to determine a prophet as being false, we must look at their fruit to determine that they are false. As we examine the fruit, we must first recognize that the fruit of the tree is not its accomplishment. It is clear here in context, God does not use us because we are productive. He has always looked for followers who bear His image. The fruit that a tree yields is yielded slowly over time, naturally and organically. Our fruit is what grows out of our lives naturally over time. It’s how our life spills out into the world around us. We do well to remember that we produce bad fruit sometimes and we yield good fruit sometimes. The bad fruit ultimately is the expression of the deceiver in and through our lives. The good fruit that we yield is the expression of the Holy Spirit living in and through our lives. The key is that we are yielding to the Lord.
