“Beware of the false prophets”
[Matthew 7:15]
Last Monday, I was invited by a senior pastor to attend a pastor's seminar at the church he serves. The pastor, a lecturer from Korea, said that it was a diagnosis of the problems of the Korean church, which he made after his own research in the Korean church. He said three things, but I couldn't help but agree: (1) The belief (faith) of the Korean church members is not pure faith, but a mixture of Buddhism, Confucianism, and shamanism. (2) The Korean church members are leading a double life. Life inside the church is different from life outside the church. (3) It is that the gospel of Jesus Christ and the truth of God are not being preached in the Korean church pulpit. As a result, it is a diagnosis that the faith of Korean church members is not pure and they are leading a double life. What do you think of this diagnosis? When I think of this diagnosis, I meditate on Amos 8:11 again: “’Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.’” The hunger that is coming to us Christians now is not that we are hungry and thirsty because we do not have food or water, but that we cannot hear the word of God. We are spiritually hungry and thirsty now. Since the word of God is not being preached correctly from the church pulpit, but rather, sermons that scratch people's itching ears are pouring out like a flood, we do not receive sound doctrine and accumulate for ourselves teachers in accordance to our own desires ( 2 Tim.4:3). As a result, we now are easily exposed to the false teachings of false teachers. In other words, now we are all too easily exposed to the delusion of heresy. Last week, I received an e-mail from a sister in Christ who is living in Daejeon, Korea. She said that, thinking of her beloved daughter and son, she decided to become an example of faith and registered with a church she had been to three times in order to live a Christian life. It was really good news. But what made me a little puzzled was that she came home after receiving education as a new believer at the church he registered with and the beginning of that education was ‘What is heresy?’ The reason I was puzzled is because the main topic of new Christian education is to teach about who Jesus is, what He did, and basic and fundamental Christian truths such as faith, the Bible, and prayer, and etc.. But when I thought about why the church in Daejeon would teach new believers about heresy first, I thought it might be because the church won a victory in 2007 after about four years of legal battle over defamation with the Salvation Sect, Ock-soo Park. At that time, the head of the Daejeon Christian Federation's Heresy Countermeasures Committee was the senior pastor of the Daejeon Church, and it was probably the final victory in the Supreme Court after hard work. The church's website had a post that read: ‘The victory of the ______ church is not simply a victory for the local church. He proved the heresy of Ock-soo Park to the entire Korean church and showed how difficult it is to keep the truth. At the same time, he reminded me of the will to do and what to do in the Korean church, which is immersed in safety. Church history shows that the struggle against heresy is always a long and difficult road. … The General Assembly must stand firm in the fight against heresy and defend the truth’ (Internet).
We must defend the truth. To do this, we must grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only way, the truth, and the life (Jn. 14:6; 2 Pet. 3:18; Eph.4:13; Col. 1:10; Phil. 3:8). And as we learned last week in Matthew 7:13-14, we must enter through the narrow gate (v. 13). We must strive to enter through the narrow gate that leads to life (v. 14; Lk. 13:23). We must walk faithfully on that narrow road, where the gate is small and the road is narrow, and there are few who find it. Although there may be adversity, suffering, and persecution as we walk the path that Jesus walked, we must walk step by step with faith and courage, believing that the path is the path that leads to life. How can we boldly walk that path? The reason is that our Lord walks the path with us. So I sang this hymn in the car while driving the early Morning Prayer meeting on Wednesday last week and sang the song to God together with the saints I love during the early Morning Prayer meeting: (v. 1) Gently lead me all the way; I am safe when by Thy side, I would in Thy love abide. (v. 2) Thou the refuge of my soul, When life's stormy billows roll, I am safe when Thou art nigh, All my hopes on Thee rely. (v. 3) Saviour, lead me, then at last, When the storm of life is past, To the land of endless day, Where all tears are wiped away. (Chorus) Lead me, lead me, Saviour, lead me, lest I stray; Gently down the stream of time, Lead me, Saviour, all the way. I would like to meditate on today's text with the title of "Beware of the false prophets" based on verse 15, following Matthew 7:13-14 that I meditated on last week. I hope and pray that God will grant us grace so that we can hear the voice of God, and that we will be able to obey the voice we hear.
Last week we meditated on what Jesus said about “two gates” in verses 13-14. Those two gates were the narrow gate and the wide gate. Today Jesus is talking about “two animals” in verse 15 (Willmington). Those two animals are “sheep” and “wolves”. Look at Matthew 7:15 – “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” When Jesus told his disciples to “Beware of false prophets”, that is, ‘Beware, be careful, be on guard of the false prophets’ (Friberg), He spoke of “sheep” and “wolf.” Why was that? Why did Jesus speak of these two animals? When you hear the word “sheep,” what image of sheep do you think of? When we say “sheep”, doesn’t the image of “pure” come to mind? You can imagine a sheep of pure white, covered with flour-white hairs, without blemishes, spots, or dust. And when we say “sheep”, I think there is an image of ‘you are innocent, and we can’t find any evil even in their eyes.’ So the sheep is fundamentally separated from all the evil things in this world to such an extent that even if a sword comes into it, it does not rebel at all (Internet). But Jesus, who is the Passover Lamb, said in today's text Matthew 7:15, "Beware of the false prophets," and that false prophets come to us "in sheep's clothing." What that means is that the false prophets outwardly look like sheep. In other words, they put on the false prophets' sheep's clothing and act like sheep. So, on the surface, the false prophets seem like sheep and harmless us. But do the false prophets in sheep's clothing do any harm to us?
I still remember. 22-3 years ago, when I was in college, there was a sister in Christ who was in the same Christian club. And I remember that she fell into a cult and had a lot of trouble getting out of it. At that time, she seemed to have testified in a Christian club after breaking out of that heresy that the cult people were so nice to her at first. I heard that perhaps the heretics invited her to their house and treated her very well. But later she found out that the church to which those people belonged was a cult. I remember that the name of the heretical denomination to which the church belonged was the same as another denomination that was not a cult. Therefore, it was not easy for most Christians to tell whether the denomination or church was a cult or not. That's it. The false prophets Jesus is talking about in Matthew 7:15 come to us in sheep's clothing, so it is very difficult for us to tell whether they are sheep or goats. In particular, if the false pastors or the false teachers come to us in sheep's clothing and give us this and that when we are in need, do good to us and love us, there is a great risk that we will believe in them and follow them. That's why Jesus is saying, "Beware of the false prophets" in today's text (v. 15). In other words, Jesus is telling us to beware, be careful, and be on guard of the false prophets.
Why should we be on guard of the false prophets? It is because they outwardly come to us in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are plundering wolves (Mt. 7:15). What kind of animal is the wolf? The Bible describes it as a cruel animal that comes to harm precious sheep. For example, in Genesis 49:27 in the Old Testament, we can see that Jacob said this about his last son Benjamin while blessing his twelve sons: “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; In the morning he devours the prey, And in the evening he divides the spoil.” This is an expression of the cruelty of the tribe of Benjamin. In the New Testament, Jesus compared those who persecuted his disciples, his sheep, as wolves. In other words, Jesus said that the word “wolf” referred to an animal that gnaws at sheep. He pointed out that the false shepherd was the wolf (Mt. 7:15) (Internet). How do you distinguish a true shepherd from a false shepherd? In John 10:14-15, Jesus is speaking of himself, saying: “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” What does it mean? It means that Jesus is the good shepherd, that is, the true shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. But what of the false shepherd like a wolf? In John 10, Jesus describes the false shepherd as “a hired hand.” Look at John 10:12-13: “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. "He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.” The hired hand is not a shepherd. He doesn't take care of the sheep. When he sees a wolf coming, he abandons his sheep and runs away. As a result, the wolf bites the sheep and also ravages them. Rather, the false shepherd does not take care of the sheep, but only takes care of himself (Ezek. 34:2). And Zechariah 11:17 says that the false shepherd is the worthless shepherd who forsakes the flock. The Apostle Paul said in Acts 20:29-30: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” These words are part of the Apostle Paul's words from Miletus to Ephesus, to ask for the elders of the church (v. 17) and to tell them that after he left the church in Ephesus, “savage wolves” i.e., the false prophets, the false leaders, or the false prophets would come to them. The characteristic of the false shepherd is that he does not spare his flock. And that false shepherd leads the flock astray. In John 10:10, when Jesus describes the false shepherd as a “thief,” he is saying that the false shepherd only wants to steal, kill, and destroy.
Do you know why the false shepherd who spares no sheep steals? Today's text, Matthew 7:15, speaks of “ravenous,” and its Greek word meaning here is extremely (violently) greedy, like a robber or a deceiver (Friberg). Have you ever seen pictures of a 6-year-old disabled child who died on June 1 in the Internet JoongAng Ilbo newspaper last week after suffering from intestinal obstruction symptoms for 6 months at an orphanage in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, but without proper treatment? (Internet) I was surprised to see the picture. The figure of a lying child with nothing but bones left was very dry. After seeing the picture, while preparing for a sermon, I saw another newspaper article about the incident published on the 4th of June in the Maeil Business Newspaper, and the title of the article was ‘Bad Pastor in sheep’s clothing’ (Internet). As for why the title of the article is so, the person who runs the nursery where the dead child was living is Pastor Kim (52 years old), who left the dead 6-year-old disabled child who needed continuous hospital treatment for 6 months due to a congenital brain lesion disorder. This is because, by the time he was released, he collected 140 million won in childcare allowance (in the name of living allowance paid to 29 primary school students, disability allowance, labor cost, etc.) and used it for personal living expenses, etc. Specifically, he fabricated documents as if his daughter and Elder Baek (57 years old) were falsely working as childcare teachers and paid 11.85 million won in the name of salary, and even paid 11.8 million won to his daughter studying in the United States. However, it is said that Pastor Kim Mo was a “two-faced pastor”. In other words, it may have been a respected pastor in the front, but it seems that the hidden appearance was not so. He is said to have been a church pastor who had built a reputation for caring for homeless children for over 10 years (Internet). Why is this happening? Why are there news articles titled ‘The Two-Face Pastor’ and ‘The Bad Pastor in sheep’s clothing’? The reason is greed. Didn't this happen because he was greedy for money more than the life of the child in charge? As Jesus said, the false prophet (the false pastor) outwardly wears sheep's clothing, but inside is a ravenous wolf (Mt. 7:15). And as the Apostle Paul said, the false pastors like ferocious wolves do not spare God's flock (Acts 20:29). On the contrary, the false pastors steal even the money that the faithful donated (1 Cor. 6:10). The reason is because they are greedy (v. 10).
Jesus is telling us in Matthew 10:16a – “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves ….” Like those who were sent out among the wolves, we are living in the world where there are many false pastors who are outwardly clothed in sheep’s clothing, but on the inside is like predatory wolves who are full of greed. How should we beware, wary, and be on guard of false pastors? I found the answer in the second half of Matthew 10:16, the words of Jesus: “… so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” First, we must come as wise as serpents. We are wise as serpents to be on the lookout for people, to beware and to be on guard (v. 17). Why should we be wary, beware, and be on guard of people? This is because, as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:11, many false prophets have arisen now and are deceiving many people. Because now the false Christs and the false prophets have arisen and are performing signs and wonders, trying to deceive, if possible, the elect (13:22), we should be wise as serpents and be wary, beware, be on guard of the false Christs, the false prophets, the false pastors, and the false teachers. And we must be wise in what is good. Look at Romans 16:19 – “For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.” Although we must be wise in what is good, we must be innocent in what is evil. And we must be as innocent as doves (Mt. 10:16). The Greek literal meaning of the word “innocent” here is “unmixed, pure” (Walvoord). In other words, we must be as innocent as doves toward God (Park). To do this, we must purify our souls by obeying the pure Word of God (Ps. 12:6; 1 Pet. 1:22).
In the Bible 2 Peter 2:1, the Apostle Peter prophesied like this: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” Now, according to the words of this prophecy, there are false prophets and false teachers among us as well as in the early church age. And they are secretly introducing a heresy that leads us to destruction. The essence of this heresy is to deny the Lord. Even the sects leading the cult even claim to be the Messiah (Christ). Pastor Yong-sik Jin, president of the Korean Christian Heresy Counseling Center and a lecturer on the Joint Heresy Countermeasures Committee, said this at the ‘LA Cult Countermeasure Seminar’ at the Covenant Church in Los Angeles on May 27, 2011: ‘There are more than 40 Adventists in Korea with a few thousand followers. According to Statistics Korea statistics, there are 8.6 million Protestants, and 2 million of them are engaged in heresy cults. About 20 years ago, there were not many heretical churches with more than 100 members. But these days there are a lot of large heretical churches with more than 1,000 members. In the next 10 to 20 years, it is judged that there may be more heretical churches than orthodox churches in the Korean church’ (Internet). What should we do? We must guard against heresies. And we have to be careful and beware of those who follow these cults. We must listen to the words of 1 John 4:1 – “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.”