Trust Me
(Read Ad pages from TV Guide on psychics.)
Now, what I want to know is, if these people know, then why, when you call them,
do they ask your name? Hey, you’re the psychic, you tell me. I mean, you’re the
ones who can tell the future, who can read the tarot cards and tell me what’s going
to happen to me, whether my relationship will work out, if I’ll get that promotion at
work, yadda, yadda, yadda. And they will share their wisdom with us for the low,
low price of $3.99 per minute ($3.50 if you use a charge card).
These people are prophesying, you might say. They claim to be prophets. The word
prophet means “a person who speaks for God or by divine inspiration.”. A false
prophet is one who is a false teacher. These people are false prophets. They cannot
tell the future. And if they could, they would be the richest people in the world
because they would know the Powerball numbers every week and who to bet on in
the Super Bowl, World Series, etc., etc.
When it comes to these psychics, some people will believe anything! Christians
aren’t exempt from this mindset, either. They see someone on TV preaching and
they think they must be of God. They see a book in a Christian bookstore and
assume it must be okay.
Matthew here is warning us to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in
sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Jesus said that these false prophets would come to you in sheep’s clothing. Think
about it. If a wolf wanted a lamb chop for dinner, and had the ability to wear a
sheep suit, what better way to sneak into the flock and get it. He might look like a
sheep, but on the inside he would still be a hungry, vicious wolf. You see, the old
saying that "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck" is
not necessarily true. In fact, we all walk like and quack like a lot of things we
aren’t. The strategy of Satan is not to show up in a red suit and horns, pointed tail,
and a pitchfork. That’s not how he works. His strategy is to appear to be something
he is not.
I remember as a kid playing with the 8-ball like I used in the children’s chat. I
would ask a question, then keep asking till I got the answer I wanted. I remember
playing with a ouija board, asking questions like: Who killed Kennedy, what will I
do for a living, and so on. I often thought my sisters were moving the little plastic
thing you were supposed to lightly rest your fingers on. Even accused them of it. I
used to read my horoscope to see what the future held for me. Now, these may be
harmless things, maybe just games. Then again, maybe not. You’ll have to decide.
Read 1 John 4:1 We need to test these psychics, these games. Are they from God?
A false prophet is too good to be true, too perfect. They appear to be thoroughly
Christian and say all the right things. The terminology is just what it should be. They
talk about God, Jesus, the cross. They quote from the Bible. Nothing in their speech
betrays their true identity.
The difference between genuine and counterfeit is never obvious. Nobody at a store
would be fooled if I handed them a $20 bill from a Monopoly game. But what if the
20 I handed them was perfectly shaped, green, had the marks of currency, felt like a
twenty, and had Andrew Jackson’s picture on it. Then they might be fooled.
Compared to counterfeit money, religious counterfeits are even more difficult to tell
apart.
So if a false prophet appears to be a true prophet and a true prophet appears to be a
true prophet, how can we tell the difference? If we can’t depend on outward
appearances, how do we know what is true and what is false? How do we determine
whether a religious leader or a group is really from God? Well, we have to dig
deeper, see past the outward appearance. The key is to unzip the sheep’s suit.
Some listen for the name Jesus or a few Bible verses, and if the person does that it
must be okay. Yet there are lots of false belief systems that will make you feel good,
that look good, and that use the name Jesus. A friend of mine was telling me about
his Aunt & Uncle who emptied their bank account and sent every penny to Jim &
Tammy Faye Bakker. They were even ready to sign over their houses when the
scandal broke. David Koresh and the Branch Davidians talked about Jesus and
quoted Bible verses, yet his followers ended up setting themselves on fire. Jim Jones
was ordained by a prominent Protestant denomination, he quoted his Bible
frequently, he talked about Jesus, then he led hundreds of people into the biggest
mass suicide in history. There is a book called The Divine Principle. You can buy it
from members of the Unification Church, also known as Moonies. They quote the
Bible and talk about Jesus, yet when you dig deeper you find that they believe that
Jesus failed in his attempt to be our Savior, and that the Rev. Sun Yung Moon is the
second coming of Christ for us today.
Why would people fall for a David Koresh? How could people be taken in by a Jim
Jones? One writer observed, "The greater tragedy of Jonestown was not that nearly
a thousand people died, but that they died believing they were serving God."
Matt. 24:5,24 For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ, and will
deceive many. Beware of false prophets - Who in their preaching describe a broad
way to heaven: it is their prophesying, their teaching the broad way, rather than their
walking in it themselves, that is here chiefly spoken of.
So we know we must, as it tells us in 1 John, “test the spirits”. That word "test"
means "to try to learn the genuineness of something by close examination" That
means read the fine print. If a store makes an offer too good to be true or a company
makes a claim about it’s product that sounds outrageous, read the fine print! That’s
what this word is describing, that ability to look beyond the surface, to dig deeply
into the claim to see what’s underneath. John is telling us that before we trust any
spiritual experience, any religious leader, or any religious group we must first test
them, dig beneath the surface, look closely, to determine whether it’s a snow job or
the real thing.
You see me in this role as the spiritual leader of your church. But what if you saw
me spending all day down at the bar drinking, or if I started spreading rumors about
some of you, or if I had a dog and some of you drove by and saw me out in the yard
beating that dog, or you saw me throwing rocks at the trains that go by? I’ll tell you
what you would do, should do. You should dig deeper and see what kind of person I
am, what kind of fruit do you see?
Read Matthew 7:16 If I walked into an orchard now, and did not know what
kind of trees were in the orchard, I would be able to tell when the trees bore
fruit. An apple tree would bear apples, etc.
Matthew clearly illustrates what he is concerned about. He asks the question,
“Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Matthew is
saying that the false prophet will display in some way the wrong kind of
behavior. The ‘fruit’ of his life will show in some sort of badness.
We guard ourselves against false prophets by looking at their “fruits”. One fruit
is their manner of living: do they show righteousness, humility and faithfulness in
the way they live? Another fruit would be their teaching: is it a true fruit from
God’s Word, or is it man-centered, saying only what people want to hear? Finally
the effect: are people growing in Jesus or merely being entertained, and
eventually falling away?
We can know people by their fruits, their words and actions. If you would know
whether they be right or not, observe how they live; their works will testify for them
or against them. Because, you see, our fruit is the inevitable result of who we are;
eventually the fruit, good or bad becomes evident, revealing what sort of "tree" we
are. When you can see what sort of tree someone is, when they show themselves to
be living a trustworthy life, then you can start to develop a trust in that person.
This point was driven home to me this past week. We’re doing some remodeling on
our house this year and one of the things we’re doing is having a water softener
installed. After going to a place in Michigan City and getting a quote, we went to
see Tom at Dye Plumbing. They sell the same brand as the place in Michigan City.
We asked Tom the same questions we asked the dealer in M.C. We got the same
answers from Tom that we got from the dealer in M.C. We bought the softener, as
well as other kitchen and bathroom stuff, from Tom. You see, Tom lives across
from Wendy’s Mom and Dad and I’ve known him for 20 years. His fruit has shown
through many times and he has earned my trust. I knew he wasn’t concerned with
just “making a sale”. He gave us many tips on what to look for when trying to make
decisions on what brand or model to buy. And if we had gone somewhere else to
purchase these things, Tom wouldn’t have treated us any differently. I’m not saying
that the salesman at that other dealer was not that type of person. The point I’m
making here is that I’ve seen Tom’s fruits. He has demonstrated what type of “tree”
he is and I don’t have to be concerned with discerning truth from falsehoods in
dealing with Tom.
As Christians we must learn to distinguish true from false, sheep from a wolf in
sheepskin. We do that by digging deeper, looking closely, determining what kind of
fruit they are producing. We need to check out the teacher and his teaching.
We know the test of good and bad trees, good and bad people, good and bad
systems. Yet, sometimes we still just can’t tell. So God makes a final, unequivocal
answer apparent to us. Verse 19 says, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire.” Pretty straightforward, if you ask me. If you
have bad fruit, you won’t last. You will answer to God. Where is Jim Jones? What
about David Koresh? Has anyone heard much about Rev. Moon lately? They may
have fooled humans, but they flunked the test of God.
So don’t put your trust in a plastic ball filled with fluid or some phone number you
find in an ad from the TV guide. Don’t read the horoscopes, read the Bible. Place
your trust in the one, true God who will never lead you astray. Take time to talk to
God and I guarantee He won’t charge you $3.99 a minute.
