Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 7-5] Beware of False Prophets Who Are Only after Your Money (Matthew 7:13-27)
(Matthew 7:13-27)
“Enter
by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that
leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow
is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are
few who find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by
their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from
thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree
bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree
bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say
to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name,
cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And
then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!’ Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine,
and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the
rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and
beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them,
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain
descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house;
and it fell. And great was its fall.”
With
the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our
Lord has given us the ability to discern true prophets from false ones,
and His true Church from false churches. In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus said,
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so,
every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good
tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every
tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
Our
Lord told us to beware of false prophets. And just as He warned us, we
must indeed be wary of false prophets. When a pastor fails to preach the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, to his
congregation, then he is not fulfilling his proper ministry. How can
such a pastor call himself a true minister of God, when he does not even
solve his congregation’s problem of sin with the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, the Word of God?
Such
liars are only interested in how they appear on the outside,
hypocritically pretending to be serious and holy when they preach, and
ultimately, all that they preach to their congregations is for them to
abide by the ethics and morals of the world. Morals and ethics, of
course, should not be ignored. But what pastors must do is not to just
emphasize ethical life, but they must preach the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. The reason for this is because people need to be washed
clean from all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, for they sin everyday.
‘False
prophets’ here are all those who stand opposite to the truth. Pastors
themselves must have been remitted from all their sins by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Anyone who ministers as a pastor
or a preacher without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit
and without being born again are all pitiful false prophets. The Bible
calls such people ‘false prophets.’
Our
Lord said to us, “Beware of false prophets.” We must indeed beware of
such people. You must all stay away from these liars in this world who
are not able to solve the problem of your sins.
The
Bible tells us in Titus 3:10-11, “Reject a divisive man after the first
and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and
sinning, being self-condemned.” This passage refers to those who still
have their sin intact with them even as they claim to believe in Jesus.
Their faith advocates that it is right for them to remain sinful even
though they believe in Jesus; they are, as such, actually committing a
grave sin against the Lord. How can they still be sinners when they
claim to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior? By professing this
kind of faith, all that they are doing is sinning against the Lord on
their own.
When
they say that their sins are with them before the Lord, this only shows
their mistaken belief that they are still to be condemned for their
sins. Yet they think that considering themselves as sinners before the
Lord is the right way to believe. Such believers, however, are not the
true saints before God, but they are no more than liars. Jesus told us
to beware of such false prophets and their followers.
We
must keep in mind always anything of which the Bible warns us: to watch
out for all such people as false prophets, false pastors, and false
preachers.
Jesus Said That We Can Discern False Prophets by Their Fruits
Referring
to false prophets, our Lord said, “You will know them by their fruits.”
It is by their fruits that we can discern false prophets. What kind of
fruits, then, reveals false prophets? Our Lord rhetorically asked, “Do
men gather grapes from thornbushes?” Just as thornbushes cannot bear
good fruits, the pastors who have not been remitted from their sins and
therefore still remain sinful cannot possibly lead people to be born
again. They bear only sinful Christians, while the born-again workers
bear sinless saints and nourish them. If a pastor cannot turn sinners
into sinless saints through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he
is clearly, then, a false prophet.
Just
as the Lord said that a tree is known by its fruits, if his fruits of
faith are all far removed from those of the righteous who have received
the remission of sin, then we can know that they are liars and false
prophets. False pastors put on sheep’s clothing and mislead their
followers, deceiving them with their smooth words. Many are deceived by
such false prophets, for outwardly they look as if they are very holy.
Therefore, the Bible warns us not to be deceived by such liars, saying,
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms
himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).
Faithful
enough to their calling as false prophets, they only teach their
congregations to live virtuously, not to commit sin, and to be kind to
others. But inwardly, they are like ravenous wolves who exploit their
congregations for their money. Their sermons invariably reach the same
conclusion, telling their congregation to live virtuously, and that all
that they have to bring to God is just money. They may give many
different sermons to their congregation, but in the end, all their
sermons boil down to telling their followers to offer lots of money to
God. They give such sermons for what is a patently obvious reason: they
themselves want to get paid more. They don’t care about their
congregations’ salvation. They don’t care what will happen to their
Christian sinners including them at the last day. They don’t want to
listen to us no matter how earnestly we have tried to share the true
gospel of the water and the Spirit with them. Such pastors are
invariably the false prophets without any exception.
The
Bible tells us that we can know false prophets by their fruits. We can
discern them by seeing whether or not they preach the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit, the Word of God, and by examining whether there
is anyone among their followers who came to believe in the gospel Word
of the water and the Spirit and receive the remission of sin through
them. Of course, they preach the Word of God apparently, but no work of
salvation arises out of what they preach. By believing in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit, we not only can know whether they are
true prophets or false prophets by their faith, but also cannot be
deceived by such liars. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the
barometer that sets apart false prophets. Therefore, we, the born-again
of water and the Spirit (John 3:1-10) are God’s own people and His
servants who can discern bad trees from good trees.
Let
us now examine the characteristics of false prophets in more detail.
The first characteristic of a false prophet is that each one of them has
sin before God. Therefore, if a certain minister is a sinner before
God, then he is a false prophet. Such one would no doubt tell his
congregation day after day to come out to God only with money. And he
would not be interested in the gospel of the water and the Spirit at
all, nor would he believe in it. Such a pastor is a false prophet. Such
prophets see their congregations merely as the source of their wealth.
Whether their followers are born again or not is of no interest to them,
and all that they are interested is in money.
I
am not sure if you have heard such a sermon before, but every sermon
given by false prophets has something to do with money in one way or
another. Their sermons might go like this: “Brothers and sisters, we
must live according to the Word of God. In Deuteronomy 28, God said that
if you honor your parents and keep the Law, He will give you such and
such blessings.” But even as they open their sermons like this, in the
end, they are all bound to say that God’s blessings are conditioned on
how much money we offer.
But
this is not the way for us to receive heavenly and earthly blessings
from God. On the contrary, all blessings come from the faith that
believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of
God. It is to those who hear and believe in this gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit that God gives His blessing of salvation, as well
as all the blessings of the earth. However, the conclusion of the false
prophet’s sermon invariably revolves around money. They may speak of the
Law, but when they say, “Serve God well; give offerings to your church;
and respect your pastor,” what they are really saying is, “Bring a lot
of money; if you offer wads of money to God, you will be blessed.” This
is how they try to deceive you. And all their purposes in ministry lie
in money. They teach people to give even greater offerings, saying, “The
more offerings you give, the more you get blessed and the faster your
faith grow.” But those who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit and understand its message are not deceived by such liars.
We Must Escape from the Deception of False Prophets
Jesus
said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” False prophets are like wolves.
They stand before the flock in sheep’s clothing, but their hearts are
that of a wolf, revealing sharp teeth that are ready to devour the
flock, as they are obsessed with money. According to the Bible, all
false prophets are no more than wolves. Far from spreading the gospel of
new life to their flock, they lead their followers to believe in
something other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And by
doing so, they only exploit their congregation who are dying covered by
sins in their hearts. Those who do these things are none other than
false prophets.
Not
everyone realizes that false prophets are good for nothings. But,
because the false prophets of this world are so skilled at deception,
and because people are prone to be deceived so easily by such false
prophets, they can easily seduce many people into a wrong faith with
their slick tongues. Nowadays, confusion reigns in many people’s mind,
as there are too many lairs encircling potential saints. But the fact of
the matter is that liars exert nothing but bad influence on everyone.
Even
the things of this world have imitations. For instance, some meat shops
put up plastic imitation meat on their window display. At first look,
you may think it is real meat, since it looks so fresh and nice and
appeals to your appetite. But once you look at it more closely, you can
realize that this is not real meat, but only an imitation. You may then
feel like you had been duped. The same goes for bread: as there is real
bread baked with flour, so is there imitation bread made of plastic. Can
any of you eat this imitation bread? Of course not. It’s simply
uneatable, as it was actually made with plastic only to look like real
bread. But no matter how really good it looks, eating plastic can only
cause serious health problems or even death. This false bread is exactly
like everything that false prophets preach.
Brothers
and sisters, no matter how appealing the leaders of your churches are,
no matter how much they love you, and no matter how nicely they treat
you, if they fail to preach to you the gospel Word of the remission of
sin that enables you be born again of water and the Spirit, you must all
realize that they belong to false prophets. All such people are false
prophets who are no more than spiritual wage earners. The Bible tells us
clearly to beware of these people.
Our
Lord described false prophets as ravenous wolves. Are you still under
the care of such false prophets? These people are not only exploiting
your money, but even more gravely, they are also stealing your souls.
All that such false prophets want is to extract as much money out of you
as possible, to build a bigger and better church building, while
whether your souls are heading toward the fire of hell or not is of no
interest to them whatsoever. What, then, now, should you do? You must
know a tree by its fruits. Anyone who speaks of only money whenever he
opens his mouth, whose words inevitably revolve around his greed for
money, is no more than a wage earner and a false prophet.
As
such, we can know false prophets by their fruits. What, then, are the
fruits of these prophets? They are the fruits of deception that defraud
people’s souls. Their fruits, in other words, are bad in and of
themselves. False prophets are willing to say that you are sinless, and
that everything is fine, so long as you would only give them money. And
they say that all is okay if you would just give your prayers of
repentance, be sanctified, and, of course, bring a lot of money to
church. All these are the fruits of the false prophets.
How
do their bad fruits appear then? The fruits of their wicked ministries
appear as ceaselessly trying to enlarge their congregations only in
number when they run their churches as if they are running a business.
What schemes do they employ to draw more people to their churches? Among
others, one of the most egregious schemes is offering worldly prizes
and rewards as an incentive for their followers to bring more people
into their churches. For instance, they would offer the prize of a large
refrigerator for someone who brings in 20 new members a year to the
church; a high efficiency air-conditioner for someone who brings in 30
new members; a subcompact car for someone who brings in 50 new members;
and a family sedan for someone who brings in 200 new members a year.
Offering prizes in this way, false prophets extort their followers to
bring in ever more members into their fold. You may think this is all
too unbelievable, but I am not, here, making up this story, but it is
what is actually happening in some Christian communities around the
world.
Just
how wicked is this? Is God’s Church no more than a shopping mall or a
bank? And having thus drawn them into church membership, what do the
false prophets then do to them? God would approve them were they to
preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit and help their followers
to receive the remission of sin, but we can see all too clearly that
money is their only interest.
So
now that false prophets have drawn in souls into their churches, how do
they then preach to them? “Jesus loves you. Incidentally, for those who
came to our church for the first time, we will give you a luxurious,
premium parasol to each sister, and to each brother, an extra large
umbrella so that you can use it with your girlfriends.” They figure that
if these new members come to their churches for such prizes, eventually
becoming deacons and elders—even as they do not know the gospel of the
water and the Spirit—and fill the church coffers with all kinds of
offerings—from tithes to offering of thanksgiving, to this offering and
that offering—until the day they die, then all in all, it would be an
extraordinarily profitable venture.
For
such false prophets, today’s small investment effectively translates
into tomorrow’s immense profit. This is why false prophets hold such
gatherings with prizes; were they otherwise to suffer a loss, there is
no way that they would do this. Of, say, 500 such new members, even if
just 10% of them stick around, then it’s still quite profitable, given
how these 50 members would be filling the church coffers for their
entire lifetime. None other than these are the fruits of the false
prophets.
In
Korea, such commercialization of Christianity has been so rampant that a
while ago, there was even a song that poked fun at this. Its lines went
something like this: “They told us to come to their church; and they
told us to believe in Jesus; then they asked for money, money, and more
money.” All that false prophets ever speak about is money, money, and
even more money. One of them might say, “So let us build a holy temple
and dedicate it to our God. Brothers and sisters, God wants to bless us
here. In the Book of Haggai, God told the Prophet Haggai to build His
Temple. And God also said that those who do not unite their effort to
this endeavor will all be cursed. The passage also tells us that to
those gave much to build the Temple, God also gave great blessings. You
should pay attention to this passage from the Book of Haggai!” So he
writes the passage from Haggai on a banner and puts it up high, brings
in a revivalist preacher to stir up emotions, and passes around
collection dishes. He then tells deacons that they should pay for around
300 square feet of land each; elders to pay for at least 1,500 square
feet; and ordinary members to pay for 5,000 bricks. Forming a
construction committee, he starts to squeeze out money from his
congregation like there is no tomorrow.
Brothers
and sisters, if a larger church building is indeed necessary before
God, then it must be built. I am not saying that this in itself is
wrong. But if there is no real need for this, if the current church
building is big enough to accommodate all the congregation, must a
larger one still be built? False prophets are so keen with money that
they find every excuse to extract more and more money from their
congregations, and the drive for this unnecessary and gratuitous church
expansion is no more than such an excuse. They keep saying that we must
offer them loads of money to serve the Lord well, and if someone indeed
does their bidding, they declare without delay that his faith is great.
Some of them even put up a graphical chart to record everything, showing
which deacon gave how much offering and how much tithe. They make it
impossible for those without money to even come to their churches. This
is the very faith of false prophets, and this is none other than their
fruits.
We Must Do the Will of the Father God
We
want to do the will of God the Father. We must not carry out our own
will obstinately, but do every good work according to the will of the
Father. Who can do the will of the Father God? Only His children can.
Who is willing to do the will of the other one’s father? The ones who
are willing to follow their Father’s will are His sons only. Therefore,
only the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can follow
the will of the Father. And, because we have received the remission of
sin by thus believing, and become His sons, we are following the very
will of the Father God. To do the will of the Father is for us to
receive the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, and to let all people be delivered from all their sins.
This is what ‘doing the will of the Father in Heaven’ means.
However,
there are so many false prophets in today’s Christian community. They
practice lawlessness instead of doing the will of God. God will surely
reject all such liars on the last day. These false prophets will then
protest to Him when they are rejected, “But Lord, why are You rejecting
us, when we have worked tirelessly for You? Have we not prophesied so
much for you? Have we not prophesied so that everyone would believe in
You? We cast out demons in Your name, healed the sick, and we built and
dedicated the largest church all to You! And we sent out thousands of
missionaries from our denomination, and we planted thousands of churches
all around the world! How can You then say that You do not know me when
I did all these things for You? Isn’t something wrong here? Isn’t this
just too unfair? Aren’t you doing something gravely wrong to me? Are You
suffering from Alzheimer’s disease?” Saying to the Lord, “Have we not
prophesied, cast out demons, and done many wonders?” they will advertise
themselves as God’s faithful workers, and protest to God.
But
our Lord will say to them, “Who told you to serve Me, you who practice
lawlessness? Who told you to spread My name? Who told you to teach the
Word? Did I tell you to build churches? Did I tell you to cast out
demons? Who told you to work by stealing My name, you who practice
lawlessness? Who told you to labor? Who told you to devote yourselves?
Depart from Me you evil-doers, for I have nothing to do with you! Had
you not done all these things, it would have been much easier for My
real servants to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but all
that you have done is to hinder their efforts. You ended up doing the
works of Satan as the servants of the Devil. Now together with the
Devil, be cast into the everlasting fire of hell, you the servants of
Satan! Listen, angels! Let these Satan’s servants be thrown into
darkness!”
What
we must realize here is that these false prophets and those who are not
born again will all be forsaken by our Lord. Their final end is to be
cast into the everlasting fire of hell. We need to recognize that among
today’s religious people, there are many who will be thrown into this
place.
“We’ll
know for sure only when we are actually in hell! But I heard that hell
was already all filled up. Will there be room for me? Perhaps God will
send me to Heaven instead, since there is no vacancy in hell!” There are
many who say such audacious, reckless and foolish things. They need not
worry, for though there are countless people bound to hell, hell itself
is wide enough to accommodate all of them and yet still have some room
left.
Take
a look at the stars of the sky. It is more than likely that some stars
we see now had actually existed billions of years ago and already
disappeared. Do you know just how big this galaxy really is? When we
look up the galaxy in the night sky, for many of its stars, it took them
billions of light years for its light to reach us and be seen by our
eyes. And just how many stars are there? When this is the case, would
there not be enough room in hell to receive you?
God
is everlasting, and His omnipotent divinity abides in the endless
universe. Our Lord is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. There is
no place in the universe where He is not, and there is nothing that He
cannot do. Do you then still think that our God would be forced to let
sinners come into Heaven because He could not find enough room in hell
to put all sinners and false prophets? If someone only thinks twice
about God when he looks up the sky or the wonderful phenomena of nature,
he will give up his unbelief, saying, “Oh my God, there is nothing else
to do but believe.” God said in His Word, “For since the creation of
the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by
the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that
they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
We
must know false prophets, and by what lies the misled are deceived. If
we just follow them blindly, we will all end up in hell. Our Lord said,
“Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to
a wise man who built his house on the rock.” As Jesus said that whoever
hears the Word of God and does it is one who built his house on the
rock, there is no one else who hears and does the Word of God apart from
the born-again. Only those who have been washed from their sins by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can do the will of
the Father.
Only
the born-again build the house of faith in the Kingdom of Heaven. By
believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and standing
firmly on the Word, with this faith we are all building our house of
faith. Such a house that is built with faith never flounders. Later on,
even when floods overwhelm this world, hurricanes rage on, and we are
hit by tidal waves, because we have built our houses on the rock, and
because this rock protects us from all the waves, these houses will
never fall down. In contrast, those who believe in Jesus without being
born again have built their houses on sand, on their own thoughts, and
therefore when the Day of Judgment comes, their houses will collapse,
and great will be their fall. No matter how well they might have built
their houses, because they had built them on sand, when the floods come
and water seeps in, their foundation will be swept away and the houses
will collapse spectacularly.
Brothers
and sisters, all of you must beware of the false prophets who do not
know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and therefore have not
been born again, and who lead people to the wide way of destruction.
A Good Tree Bears Good Fruits
A
truly good tree bears good fruits. Since the tree itself is good, it is
bound to bear good fruits. The born-again are like trees planted by a
river, always bearing good fruits according to the season, no matter how
insufficient they might be. A good tree, if it is nurtured with
fertilizers and water by the farmer, bears good fruits without fail. It
is not so much because the righteous want to bear good fruits, but it is
because they hear the Word of God and believe in it that they bear the
fruits of His righteousness. It is only from the righteous that the good
fruits come. Every good tree bears good fruits.
What
about you then? Are you spiritually good trees? Have you become the
people of God who have received the remission of sin by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit? Have you been saved from your sins
by believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit, and have you
thereby become righteous? It is only the righteous who are true saints
before God. Only the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit
can become God’s servants.
Just
as Jesus said that a tree is known by its spiritual fruits, all those
who keep talking about only money are false prophets. But those who
preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit and bear the fruits of
righteousness are true prophets. When pastors are obsessed only with
money and raise all kind of racket to build their churches even as many
of their congregation have been laid off and are struggling to meet
their ends, how could we describe them as good trees? Is God really
pleased when they complete their scandalous and needlessly big churches?
Is He pleased with the blind Christians who fill the huge churches?
Brothers
and sisters, of all people, at least you must believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, and spread it to everyone. For all of us, our
lives on this earth is only ephemeral, and in no time we will all find
ourselves standing before God. A life that is spent spreading the gospel
of the water and the Spirit so that others would receive the remission
of their sins is the right life to live before God. Those who guide
others so that they would reach the righteousness of God by hearing the
gospel of the water and the Spirit with their ears, understanding it
with their heads, and believing in it with their hearts, and so that
they would be saved from their sins by confessing it with their
mouths—none other than these are the good trees that bear good fruits.
In
this age and time, all of us must spread the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, the Word of God, to everyone in this world. We must teach
others who the false prophets really are. Lately, we have been
distributing our gospel newspapers, and we have frequently been getting
phone calls from our readers, asking us to teach them who the false
prophets are.
For
us to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit is like delivering
them to God from the exploits of liars. We must teach everyone who the
liars are and what is the correct faith, and preach the true gospel of
the water and the Spirit to them, so that all who believe would be saved
from their sins.
What
we must realize is that the narrow way, the difficult way, is the way
that leads us to life. Yet there aren’t that many people who knock on
the narrow gate of life and seek it. Still, we must continue to spread
the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit to everyone. And we must
alert all those who are heading toward their destruction that they are
now being deceived by false prophets. This is what you and I who believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must do. Our Lord said, “I am
the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness,
but have the light of life” (John 8:12). And our Lord said that we, the
righteous, are also the light of the world. He also said, “No one, when
he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but
sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light” (Luke
8:16). We must shine the light of faith that knows and believes in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, so that all would see this light,
come to it, and have this light also.
In
conclusion, let me reiterate the key admonition that I have made to all
of you. In these end times, we must fulfill our duty to spread the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must do the will of God the
Father continuously, no matter how difficult our circumstances are. The
darker this world is, the more we must spread this gospel, for it is
during these end times when there are even more people who must be
delivered from the sins of the world and its false prophets. Let all of
us, then, keep on planting the seed of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit with even greater determination and devotion.
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