INTRO.- ILL.- It is my understanding that many years ago (1979) Bradley, Automotive Division of Thor Corporation, sold a fiberglass body that fit perfectly onto a VW bug chassis. The body was very modern in style and design, giving the impression it was an expensive sports car. On the outside it looked expensive, showy, modern but on the inside it was still just a VW bug.
That sounds like some people, does it not? Showy on the outside, but not so hot on the inside. That sounds like Hollywood all over. And doesn’t this also sound very much like hypocrisy?
ILL.- The story is told about a good citizen who was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy street. Suddenly, the light at the intersection just in front of them turned yellow. The good citizen did the right thing by stopping at the crosswalk – even though he could have beaten the red light by gunning it through the intersection.
The tailgating woman hit the roof – and her horn. She was screaming in frustration because she had missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was still in mid-rant – alternately pounding the steering wheel and gesturing to the fellow in front of her – she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.
The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He put handcuffs on her. He took her to the police station, where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a police captain approached the cell and opened the door.
The woman was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.
He said, “I’m very sorry for my mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cursing a blue streak. Then I noticed the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ bumper sticker, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday School’ bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.” Ouch!
Sometimes there is a difference between the inside and the outside of a person. It could be called hypocrisy and it could be called falsehood.
PROP.- In this text about false prophets and false disciples we must both recognize something and realize something in order to avoid false people.
1- Recognition of fruit
2- Realization of Lordship
I. RECOGNITION OF FRUIT
Matthew 7:15-20 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Watch out for false prophets because they can look pretty good on outside, but inwardly they are wolves.
ILL.- Chicago: The US Episcopal Church said on Sunday, June 18th, it had elected its first woman presiding bishop, a breakthrough after years of resistance in a church already driven by the election of a gay bishop.
Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Nevada, was elected to serve as the US Anglican church’s chief pastor and primate at its general convention in Columbus, Ohio.
“I am awed and honored and deeply privileged to be elected,” Jefferts Schori said. “May this great and greatly blessed church of ours be the vehicle and leader in building the reign of God in our day.”
Jefferts Schori, 52, has a doctorate in oceanography and has worked with the US National Marine Fisheries Service. She is married to a professor of topology and has one daughter who is an officer in the US Air Force, according to a biography. (I thought, “What does oceanography have to do with preaching the gospel?”)
Now here’s what gets me about Bishop Jefferts. She was interviewed on CNN and was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual.
She said, "I don’t believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us.”
"Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender."
DIFFERENT GIFTS?! She sees homosexuality as a gift from God! I don’t think so! I don’t think for a minute that God hates people but He certainly hates our sins.
ILL.- A rather vivid example is the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Everyone wanted to stone her but Jesus loved the woman. In fact, he loved her out of her sin or at least, loved her enough to ask her to leave her sin behind.
Jude 22-23 “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
Jude is saying that we must demonstrate mercy to those whom we consider to be in sin, but at the same time hate their sin. Love the sinner – hate the sin.
Brothers and sisters, I didn’t say that this Bishop Jefferts is a false prophet but I would say that her stand on homosexuality is clearly false! At least, according to God’s Word!
By their fruit you will recognize them. That is, false prophets.
What’s your fruit? What’s the fruit of your life?
ILL.- Let me name some famous people and you tell me what is obvious about them. Tom Cruise – Nicole Kidman – Brad Pitt – Jennifer Aniston – Taylor Hicks – Briteny Spears – Madonna – Simon Cowell.
You get the idea. What about your life? My life? We are to be in the fruit inspection business. We are to be discerning in life.
Heb. 13:9 “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.”
I John 2:22-23 “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist – he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
I John 4:2-3 “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
II John 7-8 “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.”
ILL.- Some things appear rather harmless at first, but may not be at all. For example, when the previews for the award-winning movie, “Brokeback Mountain” first came out, the movie appeared to be something of an old-fashioned cowboy movie. But it was soon discovered that this was a gay cowboy movie even though Hollywood portrayed it as a great love story. YOU CAN’T TRUST HOLLYWOOD! And you can’t trust a false prophet with your life either!
We all need to protect ourselves from the false prophets of this world and one way is by being a fruit inspector. We must constantly discern people. And another way is by examining everything with the Word of God. We all must keep our eyes open and our eyes on the Word of God! This is the only way to be safe in this world false prophets and false people.
II. REALIZATION OF LORDSHIP
Matt. 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
ILL.- A Bishop Warren A. Candler of Atlanta enjoyed telling about the time he went to have a haircut in an old-fashioned local barber shop.
“Mornin’, General,” said the barber as he seated the bishop in a chair.
“I’m not a general,” the bishop explained. “Well, —’scuse me, Colonel,” the barber said. “But I’m not a colonel.”
“I beg your pardon, Captain.” “ I’m not a captain, either,” the bishop responded.
“Well, what is you?” the barber inquired. The barber took a few snips at his hair.
Then he said, “Well, suh, the minute I laid eyes on you I didn’t know what you wuz, but whatever it wuz, I knowed you wuz the head of it.”
Some people have the appearance of royalty but they are not. Some people give the impression of sincerity but they are not. Some people say Jesus is Lord, but may not truly follow Him in life. Some people are not what they appear to be.
ILL.- SAN JOSE, Calif. Jun 23, 2006 (AP)— Mayor Ron Gonzales rejected calls to step down after he was booked on fraud, bribery and conspiracy charges following a grand jury probe into a secretly negotiated garbage contract.
Gonzales, 55, was released on a $50,000 bond after being indicted on six counts for allegedly brokering a backroom deal that cost taxpayers more than $11 million. He continued to deny any wrongdoing in the scandal that has dogged him for nearly two years.
Apparently, Mayor Ron Gonzales is not so mayoralty!
ILL.- I have read that it was the practice of Charlemagne to force all those he conquered to become Christians.
Into the rivers and lakes near the battlefield he drove his defeated enemies to be baptized. Thus thousands of Saxons were made to profess the Christian faith. Naturally it did them little good for they did not know what they were pledging and they had no desire to accept it. One scheme Charlemagne hit upon to persuade the Saxons to be baptized peacefully was to give every convert a clean, white shirt.
So numerous were the requests for these shirts that the supply ran out, and the newly-baptized began receiving instead a coarse yellow shirt. This was not so attractive, as we gather from the disdainful remark of a Saxon chieftain who was offered a yellow shirt: “I have been baptized already twenty times and received white shirts. I refuse to be baptized any more and will have nothing to do with a religion that is so stingy with its clothes.”
Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…
It sounds like Charlemagne arm-twisted people into confessing Christ and being baptized. DO YOU THINK IT DID THEM ANY GOOD? Of course not. Forcing people to decide for Christ and to confess Christ will do no good. It will not change their lives or their standing with God.
Could it be that some people have confessed Christ but do not really belong to Him? That’s a very good possibility.
Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
CONCLUSION------------------------
Watching out for falsehood. Watching out for falsehood in others and in us! It’s called hypocrisy. The Pharisees of old were guilty of it and we are often guilty of it as well.
If so, is there any hope for any of us? Yes, it’s called the grace of God. Repentance and the grace of God.
The prodigal son had to turn back. We have to turn back. But the Father is always waiting, always loving and always forgiving. He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, and does not treat us as our sins deserve.
