2nd December 2024

2nd December 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Matthew 7:15-8:1 focus v15-20)


Message (Alan Burke) 


Do you believe everything you read? Do you believe everything you’re told? Do you believe everything the BBC tells you? Do you believe everything you watch on YouTube or Facebook or TikTok? Discerning truth isn’t easy especially when we are bombarded with so many messages, so many voices shouting at us to be heard. Here Jesus gives us a warning about who we listen to, how we respond and tells us that what we choose to build our life upon matters. 


Think back to where we ended off last week, Jesus taught how there are two roads one that leads to life and one that leads to destruction. Likewise there are two kinds of prophets, there are true prophets and there are false prophets. One will help us on the road that leads to life the other will help us on our way to destruction, one will lead us in the truth the other for whom the truth does not matter and they lead many astray. So important is this Jesus warns us to watch out for false prophets. 


But what is a prophet? At the most basic level a prophet is one who speaks on behalf of another, one who declares, one who announces, a prophet explains and applies God's truth to the life of his people. A false prophet is one who speaks falsely, it can be blatant as well as subtly, twisting the meaning of what God's word teaches. We might think to ourselves that it is easy for us to recognise a false prophet, but Jesus here as he says they come to you in sheep's clothing makes it clear that it is not always easy to identify false profit. So what does a false prophet look like today? 


Well they come in sheep’s clothing, they identify themselves among the sheep of the flock, they blend in. Jesus didn’t mince his words when he gave this warning to his disciples and He wants us to hear and listen. False prophets might blend in but Jesus, give us a way to identify them and that is by their fruit. False prophets are not sheep, they are ferocious wolves, they are characterised by a different type of behaviour than the sheep. For every good tree produces good fruit, every bad tree produces bad fruit, there's no exceptions. 


We should all test what people say that also includes testing what Scott and I say against the word of God. We will do all that we can to direct you in the truth but I may inadvertently fall in some way into error, I may stray for a time and we need to test all that we hear. Today we still have prophets, it is not those who claim to have a prophetic word from the Lord by some direct revelation, who claim to tell the future, but Christ in laying the foundation of the church gave prophets. They are no more apostles, there is no more new revelation from God so there are no new prophets, the office of a prophet is closed. But the prophetic responsibility to speaks on behalf of God, declaring, announcing, a prophet explains and applies God's truth to the life of his people is placed upon those who teach. Those who teach ie, ministers, minister are prophets for they preach speaks on behalf of God, declaring, announcing, a prophet explains and applies God's truth to the life of his people. The task of a one who preaches the word is not to speak their own views, desires or wishes, instead to speak as God’s representative declaring his truth. 


Each and everyone of us, me in the study, you in the pew have a responsibility to examine what we are believing taught, what we read to see if it is in accordance with the teaching of scripture. The Christian faith requires more than just our emotions it requires our intellect and we are to test what we hear and what we believe to see whether they are from God. The scripture is the yardstick, the measure we test everything by, and we will see the bad fruit of the false prophets, their lives and character for true prophets seek to live according to the will of Christ and their conduct should be an example.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q50. What is required in the second commandment?
A. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his Word.
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