8TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus.

The main reason for the lamentable condition of religion and Christianity in our country lies without a doubt in the preachers themselves. Wicked shepherds, wicked flock! Indeed, at no time and in no country is the office of the ministry so despised as now in our new homeland, nor has it ever or in any place made itself so contemptible. Things have come to such a pass that, if a minister does not want to be considered and treated with suspicion and contempt, he would rather not mention the fact any place that he is a minister.

But who can be surprised at that? What kind of men are they who here seek and accept the holy office which preaches the reconciliation? Sad to say, only too little is done to educate qualified ministers for our German people in this

land, whilst every year a great host of new congregations are formed who feel the need for a pastor. What happens? Unbelieving and ignorant men come who could not advance in Germany; here they set themselves up as preachers, let themselves be hired by the people for money for one year, and preach to the people what they gladly hear just to keep on their good side and earn their daily bread. What else can such blind leaders of the blind do but that they both fall into the ditch, I mean, that they lead their congregations with them into hell? These unbelieving and ignorant preachers who creep in everywhere are truly a curse of the German people today.

There is another class of ministers in this land which are better than those mentioned. Many are not ministers merely to earn a living by preaching; they would gladly preach the Gospel; many of them not only lack the true knowledge of the true, pure doctrine of the Gospel, but they often knowingly depart from it, either because they would rather follow their own reason and heart,or because they are afraid of repelling their hearers. So here and there they somewhat dull the sharpness of God's Word; they would like to preach it to their hearers, so that all would gladly hear it, and so they are silent about that which could offend and anger their hearers; they do not earnestly reprimand sins which are rampant; they do not teach how every person who wants to be saved must repent and honestly turn to God. So what do they also do? They merely mislead themselves and the souls entrusted to them; securely and without a care their hearers remain in their sins; they never rightly learn to be frightened nor to apply to:themselves lasting comfort; they never rightly learn either their corruption or God's grace and thus are certainly lost mostly because of the fault of their lukewarm, "half-lost" ministers who are afraid of men. For if a minister leaves that out of God's Word which attacks man and clearly presents his misery, then the minister uses the sword of the Spirit only for show; he himself breaks off the point and all his preaching is actually shadow boxing, completely in vain.

A third class of preachers in our new homeland are the enthusiastic sectarian preachers. They pretend to preach nothing but God's Word; yes, they pretend to be true Lutherans as long as possible in order to entice the inexperienced German people into their sectarian net; they also have the appearance of being concerned only about the salvation of their hearers, but they, as all false prophets, come running though they were not called, as Jeremiah says, "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran," Jer 23:21; first they try to bring only anxiety and terror upon their hearers and then they mislead them into spiritual pride and enthusiasm and, sad to say, by all their enthusiastic efforts they load upon themselves the great guilt of causing the unbelievers to think that they are right when they view all religion and piety as enthusiasm and hypocrisy pure and simple.

In the midst of these false prophets there are very few who preach the saving Word of God in its purity, so that everyone can know how he can receive God's grace, live a Christian life, suffer in a God-pleasing way, and die a blessed death. In this country there is, therefore, great danger of being misled and being lost. If ever anyone had need of Christ's warning, "Beware of false prophets!" we certainly are the ones. In our today's Gospel we hear Christ speaking that way; let us, therefore, ponder this warning somewhat more closely.

The text. Matthew 7:15-23.

CHRIST'S WARNING AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS

Christ shows us three things:

I. That False Teachers are Extremely Dangerous and Harmful.

II. That We Dare not let Ourselves be Deceived by the Good APPEARANCE Which False Prophets have, and finally,

III. That We Should Know Them by Their FRUITS.

I.

Nothing gives an enemy more power over us, and nothing makes him more dangerous to us than when we feel secure, pay no attention to him, and believe that he cannot harm us. This is also true of false prophets; they would never gain admittance so repeatedly and cause such great harm, if one were not so indifferent toward .matters of religion, if one would not think that not much depends upon whether a teacher teaches the pure doctrine or not.

This indifference is nowadays almost universal. We Germans particularly divide ourselves into two great groups; the first consists of those who have fallen away completely from the old faith, who live on in contempt of God and his holy Word, consider all divine revelations as fables, often deny even the existence of God and the hope of a future resurrection, and, therefore, also depart at last like animals.

The other consists of those who still consider the Bible as true, recognize religion and divine worship as being necessary, and do not want to fall from the faith, but who suppose that one must, not be so particular about doctrine; just as long as a teacher considers the Bible as God's Word, Christ as the Son of God, and faith in Christ as the way of salvation, that is enough; one must then be satisfied; one must-then not fight over other points in which one does not agree but let everyone live his faith.

This indifference toward the pure doctrine, in our old fatherland resulted in a union, that is, a church union between the orthodox, heterodox, and unbelievers, which was given the beautiful name of the Evangelical Church. The name is good and wonderful, but of what value is the name without the deed? Is that an evangelical church when a confusion greater than the Babylonian confusion is the rule, when everyone believes what he wants to, when one member of this church accepts the Bible and the other rejects it? Does not the apostle say, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all"? Eph 4:5,6a. That should be the form of the evangelical church.

With this indifference toward matters of religion which we Germans, I would like to say, have drunk in with our mother's milk, we come over to America; most then become out and out despisers of all divine worship because of the freedom here, or they are soon the booty of a false teacher. Just as long as a preacher reads the text from the Bible, though he may not preach the. Biblical truth, if he has a little eloquence, if he has the gift of entertaining his hearers, he is not examined oh the basis of his Bible and catechism, but one immediately hears, My, he is really a preacher! It was all God's Word. And if a hundred false doctrines are presented, that is not known or even considered.

But I ask you, my dear hearers, what does Jesus Christ say? He says, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." V. 15. That is Christ's judgment upon all false teachers; le calls them ravening wolves; he calls them the most dangerous and harmful of men before whom we should flee as from ravening animals, because they tear and murder not our body but our soul and lead it into eternal ruin.

And so it is. False doctrine indeed seems to be something exceedingly

small, weak, and harmless, yet it is a poison which kills the soul. False doctrine is a false signpost on the way to heaven; anyone who guides his ways by such a signpost will travel the wrong way and finally will fall into the abyss of eternal death. It does not depend upon whether a preacher has very much false doctrine; one is enough to overthrow the whole foundation. Who would eat a loaf of bread which has only one little dram of arsenic? "A little leaven," says St. Paul, "leaventh the whole lump." Gal 5:9. The apostle means to say to the Galatians who had accepted one false teacher: Just that one false teacher whom you have accepted is enough to cause you to lose your soul and salvation; that is why he adds, "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." Gal 5:4.

False doctrine is no joking matter; each false doctrine is dangerous to the soul. If a minister gives his hearers false comfort, they become secure and thus are lost; if, on the other hand, a minister withdraws all comfort, if he tries to keep them only in fear and does not direct them to Christ and his Word of grace, his hearers never have any rest nor the true faith and thus are lost.

So you see: it is extremely foolish to say: One must let love rule, not be so strict, and not immediately repudiate a teacher because of one false doctrine and not end fellowship with him. But I ask you: Would you out of love purchase and eat bread which you know is poisoned? Certainly not. Therefore, a Christian should not listen to a teacher who distributes the poison of false doctrine with the bread of life. A Christian should indeed always show love toward all men, even toward heretics, unbelievers, and heterodox, help them in all trouble whenever he can, and try to help them from their error in a friendly way; however, he should not have church and altar fellowship with them but rather die than let his soul be torn by one of such wolves.

The great danger in our former homeland simply comes from the. false teachers who gradually instilled false doctrine in school and church in the hearts of young and old. In Germany anyone who let himself be compelled knowingly to hear and accept a false teacher committed the sin of denial and hurled himself and his children into great danger of soul; but if anyone should even choose a false teacher here where we are free, he doubles, yes, increases ten-fold the greatness of this sin.

Had Luther permitted love and not the truth to rule in matters of doctrine, we would indeed all still be papists and would still let ourselves be led to hell by the pope and his hypocritical priests with their false doctrine.

II.

And now many will perhaps say: Yes, it is true we must guard ourselves against such godless seducers, but are we to avoid those as false prophets who have much good in themselves, but who waver here and there in doctrine? Yes, my dear hearers, if a teacher persists in his teaching, even though he is convinced of his error, if he does not acknowledge the truth of the clear Word of God, if he perseveres in his adding to and subtracting from, he is a false prophet whom you must avoid. For Christ says, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." In the second place we hear clearly from Christ's own mouth that we are not to let ourselves be deceived by holy airs which the false teachers have.

Really, false prophets are only those who pretend to be the prophets of God and of Christ and are not; those who do not once wear this sheep's cloth-

ing, who do not want to be Christ's apostles are plainly the messengers of the devil and the prophets of the unbelieving world. There are many such in our new homeland. Many use their freedom to revile all holy things publicly and ridicule God's Word, the holy sacraments, Christ, and all his institutions of grace. Those unfortunate people are sold by hell to serve it; their tongue is inflamed by hell to speak for it; their pen is guided by the evil spirit to write for his kingdom. Anyone who likes such wicked blasphemers of the Most High God is not first seduced, he is already seduced; only he who has renounced God will listen to such apostles so that they can lull their slumbering conscience into a sleep from which it should not awaken even in the hour of death.

Our today's Gospel does not speak of such. It rather says, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in SHEEP'S CLOTHING." This, my friends, is what we must take to heart especially in our times. Sad to say, we are accustomed from our former homeland to hear such preachers who seek their office just to have a good income, who as much as possible seek good days, faithlessly carry out the duties of their office, on every hand show greed, vanity, and love of the world, act proud toward the lowly and poor, speak and act as respecters of one's person, who scarcely preach the semblance of God's Word but only the dry teaching of ethics. Sad to say, we are accustomed to such preachers because they were forced upon us. Now if a German comes over, if he sees and hears preachers who pretend that nothing but love toward souls moves them, who also show great earnestness and zeal in their office, who are friendly toward everyone, are not greedy for money, at the same time preach powerfully, much of which is from God's Word, admonishes the people to repent, and frightens and moves their heart - if a German hears such a preacher in this country, Yes, he immediately thinks, I have never heard that; he is really a preacher; he is a teacher of the pure Gospel.

Yet my friends, all the good things which one sees in a minister is not enough in asking whether he is a true prophet, whether he teaches the pure truth. A preacher can have a wonderful air, he can preach a powerful sermon, he can awaken many souls from their sleep of sin, and still be a false prophet whom one must avoid. For how does Christ speak at the close of our Gospel? He says, "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? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Vv. 22,23.

What an earnest warning this is! According to these words, though a preacher may have prophesied in Christ's name, yes, in this name have driven out devils and done many great deeds, so that everyone would have thought him Christ's worker, we still should not let ourselves be deceived by that; he can still be a false prophet who under the best of appearances leads his hearers upon false ways on which he will miss his heavenly goal.

Oh, how foolishly those congregations act who accept the first best person as their minister just as long as he looks good on the outside! How foolish to think: If only we had a preacher! Ah, in no other matter is such great foresight, such earnest examination necessary as in the selection of a minister. If he teaches us falsely, if he guides us upon a false way, it does not result in temporal but eternal harm; he does not ruin our body but our dearly bought immortal soul; he does not cause us to lose temporal things but heaven.

What a great inexpressible blessing it is when a congregation hears the pure saving Word of God, even though it is from the most humble, least gifted, and weakest minister; we will not be able to thank God enough for this in all eternity; what a great calamity it is for a congregation if they have a minister who

does not clearly show the true way to salvation, even if he can preach with the tongue of an angel. For the more ostensible the gifts o.f a false teacher are, the more dangerous he is, and the more all his work tends toward ruin.

III.

And this leads us to our third and chief question: How can one recognize the false as well as the true prophets? Christ answers this in his warning and says, "Ye shall know them bv their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring for evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Vv.16-20.

Christ means to say: if a person finds corrupt fruit on a tree, he should never let himself be persuaded that it is a good tree; if instead of grapes and figs he finds thorns and thistles, he would never consider the plant a vine or a fig tree; on the other hand, if he finds good fruit on a tree, he knows definitely that it must be a good tree, for a corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit. We are to test prophets or preachers according to the same principles; if they produce good fruits, then they certainly are good prophets; if they produce evil fruit, then they certainly are false prophets.

Now which are these fruits? Are they perhaps works which outwardly seem good? is it the appearance of a holy, pious life? are they great deeds and works? No, Christ says: even a false prophet can do all this; this can be his sheep's clothing, whereby he deceives himself and others. Which are the fruits whereby true and false prophets are to be recognized? Above all, they are the fruits of doctrine. If the doctrine is true and pure, then the prophet is also true and pure; if the doctrine is false and impure, then the prophet is also false. To be sure, a Christian minister, should be pious, an example to his flock in words and deeds; a godless minister with his pure doctrine always tears down by his life what he has built up in his hearers with his doctrine; for the hearers think: if the minister's doctrine were true, he himself would live accordingly. Yet my friends, though it is true that a true preacher should also be pious and that a godless preacher will also soon lose the pure doctrine again, this is also certain that the pious life of a preacher cannot save his hearers; the chief fruits which one seeks in a minister are the fruits of doctrine. Even the Prophet Malachi says this, "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Mai 2:7.

And if you will ask, Which is the true, pure doctrine? I will answer as follows: It is that which one takes only from God's Word, from the writings of the apostles and prophets, changes nothing in it, subtracts nothing from it nor adds anything to it; for thus says St. Paul to the Galatians, "Though we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Gal 1:8.

I have repeatedly told you: in all of Christian doctrine there is one basic doctrine which enlightens every other one like the sun, and without which all other doctrines become dark and useless, upon which every other one depends: that is the doctrine of Christ, or the doctrine of the justification of a poor sinner before God through faith. Where this doctrine is pure, wherever a minister preaches the pure Christ, shows them how they can be righteous before God only through faith and be saved, if he adds nothing to that and sub-

tracts nothing from it, so that all terrified sinners have a lasting comfort in all trouble, in temptation, and even in death, that, is certainly the true pure doctrine; for the pure doctrine of justification permits no error, and if error should arise, it will soon be recognized; where this sun shines everything must be light; for that is the real content, the heart and center of the Gospel.

On the other hand, wherever the teaching about Christ is not pure, wherever additions to this teaching are made, Christ with his righteousness obscured, his help and grace placed into a shadow, there the doctrine is false, no matter how holy and spiritual and heavenly it seems to be so that it would seem to bring all hearers into the spirituality of the angels.

Well now, on this basis examine all doctrine and you will not be misled by false prophets. If you notice that he has left the letter of God's Word when he, for example, does not believe Christ who says, "This is my body, this is my blood;" if you see especially that the Gospel is preached in such a way that Christ is obscured by it, that works, practises, and the like are laid upon men if they are to be saved, if not all poor sinners are immediately directed to Christ and his righteousness, if frightened souls are still kept from Christ, then the preacher is a false prophet and not a faithful servant of Christ and the Gospel; and woe to him who knows this and listens to him!

On the other hand, if you hear that God's Word is preached without additions or subtractions, if Christ particularly is preached in truth and purity and your souls are led upon the sweet pasture of his Gospel, then also perceive how great the grace is which you enjoy. Bear in mind, that God will some day demand a strict accounting for his precious Word. Therefore, do not disdain it, do not despise it, listen to it with diligence and heartfelt devotion, not with sleeping ears and hearts, receive it rather with a whole heart and bring forth fruit in patience. For where God's Word is preached in its truth and purity Christ says, "He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me." Lk 10:16. May our dear heavenly, Father preserve you from that for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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