The Sin of the False Prophets

I. Introduction
A. We end this series next week with the sin of Nebuchadnezzar. Then 2Cor.10, then Luke 1-2.
B. Jeremiah 23:13-14, 16-17, 21, 28-32
1. 13 In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. 14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
2. 16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’ ”
3. 21 “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
4. 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. 29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the LORD.’ 32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD.
C. Interestingly, the OT never uses the term “false prophet.” though the concept is very much present. In fact, there are ten times in the OT where the word “prophet” so clearly means “false prophet,” that the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT, actually translates it “false prophet” (Jer. 6:13; 26:7–8, 11, 16; 27:9; 28:1; 29:1, 8; Zech. 13:2).
1. And so, the wording was picked up in the NT and used frequently.
II. (The false prophets)
A. Before we talk about the FALSE prophets, let’s talk about the real prophets in the OT.
1. The prophets were people God called to receive and then proclaim His message to His people.
a. Sometimes it was to give direction to His people, or to promise a future messiah, but often it was to confront and correct his people, and declare that calamities were coming.
b. So, it was significantly negative, telling the people things they didn’t want to hear.
2. So, the prophets often weren’t very well-received.
a. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 5:11–12 “Blessed are you when others revile you & persecute you & utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
3. We also see this in Is.6:8–12: Isaiah hears God say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
a. And Isaiah volunteers, “Here I am! Send me.” And then God gives him his assignment: “Go, and say to this people: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
b. In other words, God was sending him out to preach to people who weren’t going to listen to him.
c. No wonder Isaiah responded, “How long, Lord?”
4. Because the prophets were sent with messages the people didn’t want to hear, it opened up a tremendous business opportunity.
B. And the false prophets filled the need.
1. You see, people who were tired of prophets castigating them and rebuking them and forecasting doom on them were willing to pay good money for prophets who would affirm them and commend them and tell them that they were destined for good things. And thus began the institution of the false prophets.
2. "You want prophecies which make you feel good about yourself just the way you are? We can do that. ‘Thus saith the Lord...’"
3. The false prophets whitewashed every situation (Ezek. 13:10–12, 14–15; 22:28). They promised peace when there was no peace (Jer. 6:14; 14:3; 23:17; 28:2, 11; Ezek. 13:10; Mic. 3:5).
4. They were counterfeiters. They were forgers, forging God’s signature. They made up prophecies the people wanted to hear and then declared that they were from God.
5. You see, when what God said through the true prophets was too disturbing, the false prophets came up with alternative prophecies which were more pleasant. “Don’t worry! Everything’s going to be fine! This isn’t going to last! God isn’t going to let the bad guys win!”
6. The false prophets often appealed to national pride.
a. Because the true prophets like Micaiah, Amos and Jeremiah were often called to proclaim messages which rebuked the people of God, the people took those messages as unpatriotic.
b. We see an example of this when Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, accuses the prophet Amos of conspiring against Israel (Amos 7:10–13). ?(Later, Amos was proved right when the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. and the Jews were taken into exile.)
c. The false prophets took advantage of this wounded national pride, appealing to the people’s love of country by predicting protection and victory and only positive things to happen.
d. “This is David’s dynasty of promise! This is Zion, God’s holy city! This is God’s holy temple! We are God’s chosen people! We are invincible!”
e. So, when God says, “There will be war, and you be conquered,” “They say, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” – Jeremiah 6:14
C. Though the concept of the false prophet is introduced Deut.18:22: ?“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him,” the two mountain peaks of false prophets in the OT story are in the story of King Ahab and the book of Jeremiah.
D. Ahab and his wife Jezebel hired an army of false prophets - 400 of them (1Kings 22:6).
1. They prophesied in the name of the Lord – they were paid to do so – but not according to the word of the Lord. They prophesied, rather, according to the desires of the king.
2. Why would they have 400 prophets? Why would a wicked king and queen, who cared nothing about God, have prophets at all, much less 400 of them?
a. Ahab had prophets because he was a smooth politician. He wanted to be able to deceive people into thinking he was serious about wanting to know the Lord’s will, to justify what he wanted to do to those who did believe in the Lord. (Sound familiar? – like some politicians today)
b. And he had so many, it would seem, because there were many true prophets at the time (this was during the days of Elijah), and he wanted to have more prophets than the other side in order to dupe people more effectively. (How can 400 prophets be wrong?) In fact, his wife Jezebel conducted a killing campaign to try to wipe out as many true prophets as possible (1Kings18:3-4).
c. Ahab was willing to pay dearly to be able to do what he wanted and have others think he was serving the Lord.
E. But the false prophets we’re going to talk about most this morning lived during the day of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who both prophesied simultaneously, Jeremiah from Judah and Ezekiel from Babylon, where some of the people of Judah had already been taken into exile.
1. Before God brought the Israelites into the promised land, He had warned them that if they were not faithful to His covenant, but went after other gods, He would send a foreign power to drive them out of the land He was giving them (Deut.28:47-67; 32:19-21).
2. And that’s exactly what happened. In response to Israel’s unfaithfulness and idolatry, God sent Babylon as His tool to punish His people.
3. Jeremiah lived and prophesied during the time when Babylon assaulted Judah.
4. And the message God gave Jeremiah for the people was that Babylon was going to be victorious and they should not resist. Talk about a message the people didn’t want to hear! (Imagine a prophet in America announcing that God was going to use China or Russia or some other country to conquer the USA, and they we should not resist. How would that go over?)
5. Well, as you might expect, Jeremiah’s prophecies were not well-received.
6. And so, it was the perfect time for false prophets. “There’s nothing to worry about!” “We’re not going to get attacked!” “God will protect us and deliver us from Babylon!”
7. So, God sends Jeremiah to prophesy against the false prophets.
8. Listen to his critique of them in Jer.6:14 “They have healed the wound of my people lightly.”
a. The people of God were badly wounded. They had life-threatening injuries. And so God sent His prophets to perform radical surgery.
b. But surgery is scary. So, the false prophets came along with a 2nd opinion, an alternate diagnosis. “You’re not so bad! All you need is a little Band-aid – and a kiss!”
c. “They have healed the wound of my people lightly.”
III. But the fullest treatment of the subject of false prophets is Jer.23:9-39. Let me point out a few things:
A. The false prophets of Judah were actually worse than the idolatrous prophets of Israel.
1. Jer.23:13-14a “In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies.”
2. They commit adultery like those of Samaria, but they lie about it. They say they’re being faithful.
B. The false prophets strengthened people in their sin instead of helping the people escape it.
1. Jer.23:14b “They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil.”
2. No one turned from his evil because no one confronted them about it. Instead they reinforced it.
C. The false prophets were very positive, very hopeful, very upbeat. But it was all empty.
1. 16a ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.’
2. They were always saying, “Everything is going to be OK,” and, “You don’t have to be afraid of anything.” What’s the problem with that! We can see what’s wrong with it in v.17. And it has to do with who they say these things to: “They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”
3. People who need to hear God’s warnings and rebukes are hearing God’s consolations instead.
4. Instead of being called to repentance, they’re being reassured that they’re doing just great.
D. Unlike the words of the false prophets, God’s word doesn’t reinforce the status quo. Like a fire it brings about change. Like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, it has a powerful effect.
1. 29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
E. God is against false prophets!
1. 30 Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD...
2. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD
3. 32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them.
4. Why was God against them? Not because they weren’t doing enough good. They weren’t doing ANY good. They were doing harm.’They do not profit this people at all,’ declares the Lord (32b).
IV. Application
A. We have much to learn from the sin of the false prophets.
1. The NT makes it very clear that false prophets are still around today:
a. Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
b. Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
c. 1John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (Cf.2Pet.2:1)
d. Acts 20:29–30 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
2. This is something every Christian must be concerned about.
a. We need to be watchful and alert. You can’t evaluate a message based on how it made you feel.
(1) Some lies are very pleasant. Some lies are soothing! Some lies are quite appealing.
b. We need to be concerned about knowing the Bible well enough to spot a false prophet.
c. We need to work together in the body of Christ to expose false prophets and uphold God’s word.
B. God tells us hard things, things which are painful to hear. His word is like fire, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.
1. We want a Jesus who is like an old shoe, one that slips on easily, without any effort or discomfort. But a Jesus who does not squeeze you and disturb you and erect barriers between you and many of your desires is not the true Jesus.
a. The true Jesus doesn’t celebrates us as we are; He doesn’t affirm whatever we want to do.
b. Because God is love, He wants to get us away from (& keep us away from) what will destroy us.
2. Sometimes we need to be disturbed. We are asleep in a burning building, we are sailing in the dark right toward a rocky coast line. We need to be alerted! We need for someone to shout at us.
a. If you have cancer which will kill us if not addressed, we need someone to tell us so we can act.
3. As a result, many view Christianity as stern and gloomy and restrictive.
a. That's exactly what evil King Ahab said about the great prophet Micaiah's prophecies: "I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad." (2Chron 18:7)
b. But the fact is that Jesus is the One who loves us enough to tell us what we need to hear.
4. Jesus is our friend and not our enemy. If we know He’s our friend, we know He tells us what He tells us not because He is trying to hurt us but because He loves us.
a. God’s truth is not something to be feared; the truth is our friend, not our enemy – like a smoke alarm which stirs you from your sleep to alert you to the fact that your house is on fire!
b. “Twas grace which taught my heart to fear.”
5. We should be lovers of the truth! If we were wise, we would love correction.
a. The wise man wants to see things as they really are, including himself. He wants to see his sin for what it is, that he might be ashamed of it, repent of it, be forgiven for it and get rid of it!
b. Pro.9:7-9 "Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you.”
6. There is great comfort in the word of God, and all true believers know they only survive by clinging to God’s precious words of consolation and salvation and grace.
a. But the comforts of God's word can only truly be owned if we also receive its painful truths.
C. But we don’t want to hear. There’s a mocker in us which wants to close our ears to what God says.
1. It is not only the false prophets who are guilty. It is also those who do not want to hear the truth.
a. Listen to how Isaiah describes them in 30:9–11: They are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, ...let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
2. People like to think of themselves as seekers of truth, it makes them feel good about themselves, but actually, left to ourselves, we all hate the truth.
a. John 3:19–20 “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
3. Even in believers there remains a remnant of this distaste for the light of God's truth.
a. It is hard for us to admit our sin to others, but it is ever so much harder for us to have others admit our sins to us.
b. We don’t like being confronted with sin; we don’t like hearing the painful truth. We prefer the comfortable illusion. We would rather be blindly disengaged from reality rather than face the painful truth.
c. It is very painful to see ourselves as we really are. We’d rather think that the problem is our criticizer rather than the criticizee. We prefer thinking of ourselves as victims rather than facing the possibility that we are victimizers. The problem is always out there and never in here.
D. One of the favorite ways to avoid the fire and the shattering hammer of God's truth is to drown it out by a multitude of affirming voices. So, people surround themselves with those who will support their errors.
1. If everyone agrees with us, we must be right, right? Wrong!
a. There’s only one Opinion that matters. Everyone else can think we’re just great. It means nothing.
2. But we live in the day predicted in 2Timothy 4:3 “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”
3. They may go to seminaries & earn theological degrees & have all the right letters after their name.
a. But they preach what people want to hear instead of what God says in His word.
b. They won’t correct or challenge people because people don’t want to be corrected or challenged.
c. They are false prophets.
E. This leads every church and every preacher to a powerful temptation. We all need to know this.
1. Wherever you go, you can know that the church you go to is being tested as to what is their aim.
2. Will we adapt our message in order to be more successful and popular, or will we be faithful to God’s word even though it’s unpopular?
3. Will we tell people the whole truth even though they’d prefer the watered-down version?
4. No church calls itself The Church of False Prophecy, but many churches fit that description.
5. The popular path is such an easy trap to fall into; people’s displeasure is hard to withstand.
a. It’s not fun to tell people what they don’t want to hear.
b. It’s not fun declaring things to people that disturb them and anger them.
c. And they’ll punish you if you don’t give them what they want.
6. This is why we must always be suspicious of popularity. Our Lord said, “Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” – Luke 6:26
7. Popularity is not one of the marks of a true church.
8. Friends, there is nothing better than the good news of Christ. And any way people try to improve it just diminishes it. Sin is ugly and needs to be faced in its ugliness.
F. This temptation doesn’t only face the church, it faces every Christian.
1. Will we share Christ or choose the comfortable, non-controversial path?
2. Will we give people what they need or give them what they want?
3. Will we really love people or just love their approval?
4. Will we be true prophets or false prophets?
5. Jer.23:28 “Let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.”