Wolves in Sheep's Clothing - Trinity 8

Trinity 8 – Beware of False Prophets

KJV Romans 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

KJV Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

TLH Hymns
387 - Dear Christians One and All
260 – O Lord, Look Down
259 – Flung to the heedless winds
264 – Preserve thy Word

This passage from the Sermon on the Mount only makes sense if people believe in the efficacy of God’s Word. If they do not think God’s Word alone is effective, then this passage is just a place-holder in the Scriptures.

God’s Word belongs to Him and to Him alone. There is no franchise that allows people to change and water down what He has always taught. Therefore, the fruit of His Word belongs only to God. Only God can be glorified for what He has done through the Word. Any variation or departure from this is blasphemy against God, no matter how it might be expressed.

I heard some Lutherans discuss a new mission for the LCMS. They were in Southern Baptist territory, and I mean Baptist with a b – Babtist. One person expressed certainty in the failure of this mission. I decided to remain silent for once, but I thought:
1. The Sower and the Seed parable?
2. Luther’s admonition to go where there is opposition?
3. The implanted Word in James?
4. Isaiah 55?

Most people would not think of Blacks being Lutheran, but the old Missouri Synod did not know better. They had an extensive Black mission. The leaders were so foolish then that they thought the congregations should use the traditional liturgy, learn traditional Lutheran doctrine, and so forth. The end result was that Missouri had a powerful witness to Blacks long before the liberals thought of doing the same. I even found a booklet on the Black mission, printed in German, published by the old LCMS. How times have changed. Now these people have no trust in the Word and no results, except for shameful ones.

The work is not God-pleasing unless it is persecuted, according to Luther. Proof of that comes from the “conservative Lutherans” who hate, despise, and persecute Luther’s doctrine today while glorifying marketing methods, even while they fail.

The first effort in defending false teachers has always been, in my experience, “But he is a nice guy.” That is consistent with Matthew 7 and Romans 16. False teachers always wear several layers of fleece to hide the claws and slavering fangs. No matter how thick the woolies, the claws and fangs come out sooner or later. The nice guys are only nice on the surface. No one is more vicious behind the scenes, more deceptive, more manipulative. The fruits come from the tree. Someone who is not rooted in Christ through the Word is going to use the methods of his Father Below. The methods are deception and murder, constant lying and killing of souls. I often wonder how many atheists these clever men have created while glorifying themselves. One boy did not go to seminary after finding out that his pastor was an adulterer. His district president also covered up for the adulterous pastor, who was his friend.

Before we ask how God could allow those wolves to thrive, we have to ask why man has fed these wolves so dutifully while starving the faithful pastors. (No, I am not starving or in need of help.) The wolves are God’s judgment against man for allowing false doctrine to grow and prevail.

Missouri, WELS, and the ELS are parrots of ELCA now, eagerly working with ELCA because the giant, dying church body is so rich and powerful in comparison. ELCA requires an Episcopalian bishop be present to make an ordination valid. That alone is crazy enough, but even crazier is the lust for Missouri and WELS (and the Little Sect on the Prairie) to go along by cooperating in religious activities – now carefully hidden from view. Once they were exposed by Team Jackson (my wife and I working through the LB/AAL archives) the publications went silent on joint religious work.

God is saying – and I paraphrase Luther – you would not listen to Christ, so now you will listen to Satan. You would not give Jesus a penny, so now you will give Satan 10 dollars. You hated the “burden” of the Gospel, so now Satan’s disciples will flail you to the bone. And these false teachers are really obnoxious, self-centered peacocks, bright and showy, covering up their feet of clay with their fine feathers.

My friends and I sometimes discuss how seldom the “conservatives” will deal with doctrinal issues. The “conservatives” want to have political campaigns and fight over schools and budgets. That is because they know doctrinal agreement is lacking. The easy route is working to elect a “savior” - like Gurgel was when he was elected to be synodical president, WELS. This approach also shows a lack of trust in God’s Word. Besides, there is fear of the Satanic hatred unleashed when God’s Word is applied.

Although this fierce anger is intimidating at first, Satanic methods cannot work against God’s Word. Great blessings follow the application of the Word to problems. This effect is well known in Lutheran history, but forgotten today.

The right tree (sound doctrine) will bear fruit, and the wrong tree (false doctrine) will overproduce but with nothing of value.

One person asked why I was against the church growing. Apparently he thinks Church Growth theories increase the size of the invisible church. Their own Church Growth statistics prove otherwise. Statistics do not matter, but since the Church Growth Enthusiasts trust in them, they are condemned by their own measuring standards.

I am in favor of God’s Word bearing fruit according to His will, not mine. If we thought God wanted the visible church to be constantly growing, we would have to ignore church history and the plain witness of the Scriptures.

The Pietists/Church Growth salesmen claim that disciples make the church grow. Therefore, the falsely claim, Jesus commanded us to “make disciples.” In fact, He said “Disciple all nations” or “Teach all nations.”

If disciples are the answer and Jesus knew something about disciples, then He did something wrong in teaching the Word. According to John, Jesus taught some hard sayings, and disciples left Him for good.

KJV John 6:58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. 59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. 60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? 61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? 62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. 66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

The issue here is whether they believed or not. Those who no longer believed went back and no longer followed Jesus.

I wish I could show all the star-struck naïve people the temples built in honor of man but in the name of God. Time after time great monuments to ego have been piled up. A few decades later they are not even religious on the surface. They began as glamorous Christian buildings and ended up as secular mausoleums with Unitarian ministers. The sowing of weed seed will bring results, but the results will not be God-pleasing. Eventually the sterility of the weeds will become most evident.

Someone may say “Lord, Lord” but Jesus will likely say, “Depart from me, workers of iniquity.”

No matter what the apparent results may be, God will accomplish His will through His Word. The false teachers will be used by God to cull out the false followers and to punish them. But the Holy Spirit is so powerful that He can accomplish good from evil. In the Apostolic Era, the persecution of the Gospel led to the spreading of the Christian faith. The murder of Christians in the arena helped Christianize (to some extent) the Roman Empire. The roads helped the persecuted escape across the known world and populate new missions (without a mission board and an annul once-in-a-lifetime-giving-opportunity).

When we get smacked around for doing the right thing, we join with the Apostles and Jesus in bearing the cross.