I’ve entitled our message this morning, “Beware of False Prophets.” I watch a lot of Christian programming on YouTube; and YouTube, through its algorithms, tries to tailor a watch list that lines up with my own preferences. But instead of getting sound Christian programming, the algorithm keeps showing me a bunch of videos with titles like, “God showed me this today” or “Jesus told me this in a dream.” In other words, prophecy videos! It is apparent that prophecy sells, as these videos have hundreds of thousands of views each and every day. But these videos, the people making them, and the motivation they have to make money off their prophecies; it really bothers me. I actually watched some of the 2020 election prophecies, and I can tell you right now that not one of them came true.
The word “prophet” comes from the Greek word prophetes and means, “to speak for, to proclaim,” and “to foretell.” So, one meaning of a prophet is someone who brings a message from God about current or future situations. The Old Testament Hebrew word for prophet is nabi, which means, “one who is called.”(1) The word also means to “forth-tell,”(2) as in, to proclaim the word of God. So, a prophet is not just someone who sees the future; a prophet can also be someone who is preacher or proclaimer of God’s word.
Deuteronomy 18:15-22, which we’re going to be looking at today, deals with identifying a false prophet. There are many false prophets in the world today, and there are many false and crooked preachers. This passage is going to give us some insight into identifying those who are sharing false revelations and teaching false doctrine. These “false preachers” can be identified by comparing their teachings to those of the one true Prophet spoken of in verse 18 of our passage. But we first have to identify the one true Prophet before we can point out the false prophets and false preachers. So, let’s go ahead and get started with verses 15-18.
The One True Prophet Will Rise (vv. 15-18)
15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.” 17 And the LORD said to me: “What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.”
These words of instruction are just a small portion of what Moses shared with the Israelites as they were preparing to cross the Jordan River to possess the land of Canaan. Verses fifteen through eighteen speak of a Prophet that God would raise up. The Lord promised the Israelites that He would bring forth a Prophet from among them who would lead them. At first thought, this promise appears to be a reference to Joshua who would lead the Israelites into Canaan, but there is a strong messianic allusion contained in these verses. Matthew Henry spoke about this prophecy and its relation to Christ. He said, “We are sure that it is primarily intended as a promise of Christ, and it is the clearest promise of Him that is in all the Law of Moses. It is expressly applied to our Lord Jesus as the Messiah [who was] promised.”(3)
If we look over in the New Testament, at John chapter 6, we see how those who were present at the feeding of the five thousand realized that Jesus was the one predicted in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen. John 6:14 says, “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world’.” The apostle Peter also realized that Moses spoke of Jesus, because in preaching about Christ, he said in Acts 3:22, “Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you’.” And then Stephen said in his own testimony of Jesus, in Acts 7:37, “Moses . . . said to the children of Israel, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear’.” God’s promise of a coming Prophet was true, and His Son, Jesus Christ, fulfilled the prophecy.
False Prophets Will Also Rise (vv. 19-20)
19 “And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.”
Verses nineteen through twenty warn of the need to hear the one true Prophet. According to verse nineteen, if the people failed to heed the words of the Prophet whom the Lord would send into the world, then He would “require it of him,” or require it of an individual. That word “require” in Hebrew is darash, and means “to seek” or “to ask.”(4) This tells us that if a person fails to heed the words of Jesus, then God will ask that individual about it in the final Day of Judgment.
Matthew Henry shed some light on the phrase “require it of him.” He said, “The Chaldee (or Hebrew) paraphrase here reads, My Word shall require it of him, which can be no other than a divine person, Christ the eternal Word, to whom the Father has committed all judgment, and by whom He will at the last day judge the world.”(5) Jesus said in John 12:48, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”
Verse twenty mentions “the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak.” This type of prophet is what we call a “false prophet.” In addition to what we read here, there are many warnings against false prophets in the New Testament. These warnings relate to the time and season nearing the return of Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” In Matthew chapter 24, He stated, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many . . . Then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:4-5, 10-12).
Also, in Matthew 24:23-27, Jesus mentioned that false prophets may even lead astray the very elect of God. He stated, “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” The Scripture clearly states that false prophets do exist; and it seems more and more, each and every day, that the earth is hurling toward the endtimes; and so, we need to be vigilant and watchful for these false prophets.
How to Discern False Prophets (vv. 21-22)
21 “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’ – 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
The test of a true prophet is found right here; and the test seems somewhat simple. If someone speaks a word of prophecy and it does not come to pass, then he or she is a false prophet. But what if the thing that is predicted actually comes true, and the person making the prediction claims to follow some other god, or he speaks against Jesus as being the way to heaven? Well, there are a couple more Bible passages we can turn to that address this matter.
First of all, if we back up to Deuteronomy chapter 13, we read in verses 1-3, “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, [and he] say[s], ‘Let us go after other gods’ – which you have not known – ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” These verses tell us that if a person makes a prediction and it comes true, that if he tries to persuade people to serve anyone or anything other than God, that he is a false prophet.
Listen as I read from a New Testament passage. 1 John 4:1-3 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” It was in the flesh that Jesus died for our sins on the cross. So, if the one making a prediction does not confess Jesus as the one who died for the sins of all mankind and who rose from the grave; if he does not confess Jesus as Savior and Lord, then he is a false prophet.
Back in verse 20, we encountered a statement that might be hard for some to handle. We read, “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” But what if someone made a prediction that wasn’t supposed to happen until many years in the future? It would have been horrible to convict someone of being a false prophet when the time of the prophecy’s fulfillment had not yet arrived. Well, here’s a tip: If you can’t base an evaluation on fulfilled prophecy, then you have to base it on the prophet’s speech and behavior.
Notice the statement in verse twenty that says the person shall be put to death if they speak in the name of other gods. This agrees with what we just learned from Deuteronomy 13:1-3 and 1 John 4:1-3. First of all, if we evaluate a self-proclaimed prophet by his or her speech, we must ask, “Do they confess Jesus Christ and do they claim to worship the God of the Bible?” Remember, John said, “Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God” (John 4:2). Now, here’s something else that relates to speech. In John 8:31, we read that those who belong to God also value His Word. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” So, we must also ask about the self-proclaimed prophet, “Do they profess to believe the Bible?”
Secondly, if we evaluate a prophet by his or her behavior, Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another,” and in John 15:8, Jesus said “that [if] you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” So, we must also ask about a self-proclaimed prophet, “Do they demonstrate love and are they bearing fruit?” “Are their words seasoned with salt and edifying of others?” and “Are they leading the lost to Christ?”
Verse 20 says that a false prophet must be put to death. Today, that’s not up to us. Remember, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). A false prophet, as one who doesn’t know the Lord, is already sentenced to death by God; and they will experience “spiritual” death when they stand before the Lord in judgment. In our day and time, if we discover a false prophet in our midst, there is something that we can do personally. We can share the gospel with them. If they heed the Word of God, then they will be forgiven of their sins, but if they fail to heed God’s Word then they will die – they will die a spiritual death.
Time of Reflection
What we’ve seen this morning is that God promised He would raise up a Prophet (capital); and that messianic prophecy was fulfilled in His Son, Jesus – the one true Prophet. Anyone who fails to confess Jesus Christ as the source of their prophetic revelation – as the source of their preaching, teaching and inspiration – then that person is a false prophet and a false preacher. Such an individual will be put to death – spiritual death, that is – should they fail to repent and confess Jesus Christ. That person is in sin, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23); and that false prophet’s not going to be condemned by Christians, but by the Lord in the final Day of Judgment.
I must point out that a person does not have to be a false prophet to be in sin and suffer the penalty of sin. Anyone who fails to confess their faith in Christ is in danger of judgment. But you can escape death this very day by confessing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. What you must do is believe with all your heart that Jesus died for your sins on the cross, in order to save you from spiritual death, and then confess your faith in Him before others (Romans 10:9-10). The Bible says that if you do, you will be forgiven of your sins and receive eternal life.
NOTES
(1) William Lasor, David Hubbard, and Frederic Bush, Old Testament Survey (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), p. 222.
(2) Ibid., p. 221-222.
(3) Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers) 1991.
(4) James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody: Hendrickson), p. 31 in the Hebrew dictionary.
(5) Matthew Henry.
