The Character of God- Part 7

Subtitle:  God is Faithful Truth

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 19, 2025.

Today, we will look at the fifth description of God’s character.  God is faithful truth!

With this sermon, we will bring this series that looks at the character of God to a close.

God is faithful truth in the Old Testament

The Hebrew word used here is emeth (em’ eth).  Modern Hebrew says emet.  It means truth, but by extension, it means the dependability and trustworthy nature of that which is truth.  Thus, it is sometimes translated as faithfulness.  At its root, the concept is one of stability or firmness.  You might picture the old hymn, My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less.  It speaks of Christ as the “Solid Rock” and states that all other ground is “sinking sand.”  That is a very biblical picture and is at the heart of this word today.  Are you building your life on Christ the solid rock, or are you building on anything else, which is sinking sand?

Truth is a foundational concept.  To believe that something is true when it isn’t true is to discover many unexpected ways in which your underlying beliefs do not uphold your actions and steps.  I might believe that I am a 7 foot 2 inch all-star basketball player.  However, that will not change the reality of what would happen if I tried to play against NBA players.  The reality of what I actually am will be crushed by the reality of what those NBA players can do.

Our thinking is powerful, but it doesn’t change the truth; it doesn’t change reality.  It can, however, change how I respond to reality.  My thinking can powerfully change me, if I properly respond to truth.

On the other hand, to believe that something is false when it is actually true isn’t much better.  I pretty much doom myself to trying a bunch of ways that don’t work.  Of course, many a scientific discovery happened because someone tested false assumptions about what is the truth.

Foundational truths do not conform to our desires.  It is what it is, and a wise human will quickly see through the lies that they are basing their life upon.

Of course, we are not always able to properly discern truth through a scientific discovery, whether in science or God’s work in our life.  We can praise God that He hasn’t left us alone to only discover truth by our senses.  God has revealed many truths to humanity through the years, things that we would have never discovered without His revelation.

The word Amen also comes from this same root and essentially means, “that is true” or “that is trustworthy; you can stand on it.”  A double amen intensifies the meaning.  The Gospel of John has 25 occurrences of the double amen.  The King James Version translated this as “verily, verily.”  For a Hebrew person to use this double Amen, a perfectly trustworthy thing will follow.

In the Bible, people who have emeth have stable character and can be trusted by others.  They keep their word.  This doesn’t mean they are never late for an appointment.  It is not a statement about perfect performance of what they say, i.e., they are never stuck in traffic.  Rather, it is a statement about their character.  They mean what they say and do everything they can to back it up.  If you have ever crossed a creek by stepping from rock to rock, you have probably found that some rocks look stable, but they are not.  You can confidently step on them and then they wobble, often sending you into the water.  A person of emeth doesn’t wobble when you trust them or lean on them. 

This brings us to some of the occurrences of this word in the Old Testament.

Moses would sit and judge the disputes of the people when they were in the wilderness.  In Exodus 18:21-22, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, recognizes that it is too much for him.  The multitude of problems will where him out.  He then counsels Moses to select “men of emeth (truth/faithfulness)” who will be able to decide the smaller problems and only send the hard issues to Moses.

A man of emeth is not just someone who tells the truth.  Rather, they are men who live life by truth.  It is part of their character.  They do not see their position of authority as a way for gain.  Instead, they know the truth that lies behind their position.  The position is not for enriching them, but for the help of the people.  God talks a lot about authority, but notice this one thing throughout Scriptures.  Leaders are always supposed to be for the purpose of serving the people, not serving themselves.  Positions of authority do not exist because some people are just better than other and deserve to rule over the people.  They don’t deserve a better life with the people buying off their favor.  God cares about the people.  He only cares about those in authority in as much as they help or hurt the people.

The truth is that two people committed to honoring God may not always agree, but they should be able to come to an agreement without someone else judging their case.  The problem isn’t about wisdom, but about our sinful unwillingness to honor God in our disputes.

Abram demonstrated the verb form of this word in Genesis 15.  When emeth is in a verb form it takes on the idea of believing or putting your trust in something or someone.  This is what lies behind the famous verse in Genesis 15:6.  “[Abram] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (NASB).  This believing is not talking about a mere intellectual belief in God’s existence.  It is talking about all the actions that Abram did because he believed that God was trustworthy.  Thus, Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans and traveled to Canaan.  There, he lived in tents, awaiting God’s promise. He was more than a trustworthy man, but also a man who saw God as trustworthy.  In the Bible, God is the greatest One at being faithful truth, trustworthy.

Believe it or not, we even have a verse in which it says that Israel believed God.  In Exodus 14:31, Pharaoh’s army had just been drowned in the Red Sea.  This caused Israel to believe in God.  Yet, as they travelled with God through the wilderness and to the Promise Land, their faith in God was tested.  Each test begs the question, “Do you trust God now?”  It is not that God is purposefully causing all of these things, though He can surely test how trusting we are.  But, as things happen in life, He is watching to see what we will do.  Will we believe in Him, or put our trust in something else?

We know that Israel failed very often.  Yet, God helped them (even helps us) because He is faithful truth.  It is His character.  This means that God is not simply a truth-teller, or One who wants truth from others.  He is the foundation of all truth itself.  He is the only being in the universe that is absolutely dependable.

Jacob coming back to Canaan, with his 2 wives, 12 kids and many herds of animals, stopped at the border and confessed to God that he was unworthy of all the faithful truth that God had shown to him (Genesis 32:10).  When Jacob had left for northeastern Syria, God had spoken promises to him.  Over the last 20 years, God had proven to be trustworthy and had shown Jacob faithful truth, not because Jacob deserved it, but because God keeps His word.

This brings us to Moses and his rock metaphor for God.  Deuteronomy 32:31-32 points out that the fallen spiritual beings that the nations worshiped as gods were not trustworthy.  Their rock is not like the Rock of Israel.  Their gods wobbled whenever they put their trust in them, but Yahweh was an absolute stable rock.  This is another way of speaking about God’s emeth, faithful truth.

We should recognize that there is a parallel between Israel running from the giants and David fighting Goliath.  In Numbers 14, Israel balked at fighting the giants.  They decided to kill Moses, pick a new leader and go back to Egypt.  However, God steps in and that doesn’t happen.  Still, they are told that they will stay in the wilderness for 40 years as a punishment for their unbelief towards God. 

Thus, later when David comes to check on the battle his brothers and Israel were fighting against the Philistines, he finds a giant challenging Israel and everyone trembling in their tents.  They were not believing God again.  They were essentially on a spiritual trajectory back to Egypt, back to the wilderness.  Yet, God steps in.  This time He raises up a “man of emeth” who will face the giant and give Israel victory over the Philistines.  Solomon recognizes this in 1 Kings 3:6.  “You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You…”

You may see the pattern now that a trustworthy person is someone who is trusting the truth of God in their life, their decisions and actions.  David lived out the truth of God even when it looked like it could get him killed.  Of course, David would later fall woefully short of this during the event in which he commits adultery with Uriah’s wife and then has him killed in an attempt to cover it up.  David fell short, but the pattern of salvation coming through a man of perfect emeth is made clear in the Old Testament.

People are not born with trustworthy genes.  Trustworthiness comes from a life of putting your trust in God.  It comes from the experience of life in which we discover that God is the only One who can uphold our trust perfectly.

Thus, God promised David that one from his offspring would be that perfect Psalm 1 picture of a man who fully trusts God and thus becomes a tree of life to all who will eat of his fruit.  This offspring would be the Anointed One of Psalm 2 who would inherit dominion over all of the earth, bringing salvation to those who bow to him in allegiance.  This Messiah would not fall short.  This was revealed to David and he spoke of it (sang of it) in his psalms.  This would be a forever kingdom because the king is a man of perfect emeth.  He is stable, unfailing and trustworthy, and so, his kingdom is a kingdom of emeth.  He would stand up to the giant, spiritual forces that were dominating humanity and fully trust God.

This is why the Bible speaks of the kingdoms of this world falling before the Messiah.  They definitely will not be able to stand against his return as Revelation 19 declares.  However, over the last 2,000 years, nations have risen and fallen at his command.  The united States of America is falling apart even now before Jesus has come back.  We could even cease to exist as we currently do, whether split apart or taken over by a foreign power.  Regardless, the problem is always our lack of trusting God.  America is not trusting God, and it is destroying our country.  Yet, He gives times of opportunity for repentance.  Perhaps, the US still has time to repent and be restored before Him.

In 2 Samuel 7:16, we are told of a prophecy from God through the prophet Nathan to David.  David’s throne would be “established” forever.  This is the verb form of emeth, but it is in a passive form.  It is the idea that something will be made trustworthy, faithful truth.  His kingdom will be like a rock because The Rock of Israel, the Stone of Israel (Genesis 49:24), will arise.  A kingdom can be no stronger than the one upon whom it is built.  The Messianic Kingdom will last forever because it is built upon The Rock.  All other kingdoms are built on sinking sand.  Only Messiah’s kingdom can go through the fire of God’s wrath (a day when He judges all the nations on earth) and survive.  All other kingdoms will not survive.  At least, not in their current forms.

This brings us to the catastrophe of the exile.  There was a civil war in Israel in the days of Solomon’s son.  The nation was divided into ten tribes in the north called Israel and 2 tribes around Jerusalem called Judah, or Judea later.  The northern tribes were wicked and eventually God used the Assyrians to conquer them and cast them out of the land.  This happened circa 722 BC.  This left Judah feeling vindicated, but they were not any more righteous.  They were exiled by the Babylonians around 136 years later (586 BC).  The northern tribes never really returned from exile.  Whereas, as many as desired of Judah, came back from Babylon 70 years later.  In this environment, there was a question on the minds of Israel.  Is it over?  Is it possible that God will not keep His word because we have failed so badly?  Did we misunderstand the promises and they were always conditional on our obedience?

Psalm 89 is a treatise of this crisis.  It starts out praising the promises of God to David.  Verse one sings of God’s emeth (faithful truth) and praises Him.  Yet, at verse 38, we have this.  “But You have cast off and rejected, You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.” Seven more verses detail the reality of being cast off by God. 

Verse 46 begins a series of questions.  “How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire?”  Verse 49, “Where are Your former lovingkindnesses, O Lord, which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?  God had sworn an oath to David in His emeth, faithful truth.  Yes, Israel has sinned greatly, and the house of David has sinned just as greatly.  Yet, God is faithful even when we are faithless.

Jesus is the faithful truth of God

The questions above were answered throughout the Old Testament prophetic books.  God would cast Israel out of the land, but He would still be faithful to send the Messiah and save humanity.  Still, from 400 BC to the time of Jesus, there were 400 years of silence from God.  They had heard enough.  They had enough truth to weather the years and wait for Messiah, if they could but trust God.

This is why Matthew 1:1 is so powerful.  Whenever we find the Gospels together in antiquity, it is always Matthew first.  Matthew opens his Gospel, and the New Testament, with a bold declaration that Messiah had come in the person of Jesus.  God had finally kept His promise and sent the One who would save Israel and the nations.  The name Jesus in Hebrew basically means “Yahweh is salvation” or “the salvation of Yahweh.”  Notice that Matthew emphasizes that he is from the line of David and Abraham.  The names of the fathers in between are important and Matthew goes on to give the full genealogy.  However, don’t miss the main point.  In Jesus, God was fulfilling His promises to David, and His promises to Abraham.  He could have even added Adam.  Messiah had come and God’s faithful truth, His emeth, was on full display in the face of the failures of Israel and the failures of the Gentile world.

The presence and work of Jesus was a confirmation of the promises and faithfulness of God.  We see this in Romans 15:8-9.  “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, ‘Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.’”

The Incarnation of The Word of God into the man Jesus is God keeping His word, but Jesus is also the very truth of God itself.  Nothing that has been made was made without him.  He is the effective cause of creation.  He is the absolute bedrock truth of all reality.  In Jesus, the Truth of the world stepped down into it, but men loved darkness rather than the light.  To put your faith in Jesus is of a greater nature than putting your faith in man’s scientific understanding.  Yes, you can follow the science (our current understanding), or you can follow the One who is the mind behind how all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.  Science rightly understood can only point back to its Creator.

A believer in Jesus doesn’t just become more trustworthy.  They even become like the Rock that they are building upon.  They are more stable, enduring, than all the “wise” people of this world who refuse to stand upon Jesus, who refuse to believe and trust God.  They are both on quicksand themselves and a quicksand to those who trust in them.

We are not Israel going against giants in the Promised Land literally.  However, we metaphorically face the same thing.  The big obstacles in front of us challenge us and are akin to the giants of old.  Will we trust Jesus and take hold of our personal inheritance and the inheritance of our people?  Or, will we tremble at the powers flexing in front of us?  Will we shrink back from trusting God’s word, standing with Jesus and his ways?

Jesus went through death and then God raised him up.  He is forever a testimony to those who would dare to follow him that God will uphold them as well.  He is also a testimony to those who shrink back that there is no other way to salvation.  As a Christian, if I really believe God, then I have no excuse to quit in the face of scary, big people, fallen spirits, or circumstances.  Most of us will not face the threat of death like Jesus and his apostles.  But, we can face even that with complete trust in God.  We can choose to honor Jesus by walking into it.  We can look into the face of tormentors and tell them to go ahead and do what they want, but I am going to stand with Jesus because that is your only hope of salvation.

Those who think they are so powerful, who are pounding on those nails or wielding those weapons of annihilation, who are so following the science of their own wisdom, they are going to be flat on their face before Jesus in the future.

It doesn’t matter if I live long enough to see that or not.  That is not my hope.  My hope is Jesus!

The giant ideologies and giant people, of fame, power and fortune that we face, try to intimidate us.  “How dare you stand against the great and powerful Oz!”  But, I’d rather stand with Jesus, the slain lamb, than with all the smoke and mirrors of this world.  I’d rather stand with Jesus than any empire that this world tries to establish without Jesus!

Faithful Truth audio

The Character of God- Part 1

Subtitle:  Introduction

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 8, 2024.

Structure of the verses

As we approach these verses today, we find a scene where God is declaring his character before Moses on Mt. Sinai.  He refers to Himself as Yahweh, which is often written in English as “LORD” or “Lord.” Some older English versions brought it across as “Jehovah.”  Regardless, this is the name that God reveals to Moses at the burning bush.  It is often recognized as the special name that God uses in making covenant with Israel.  It essentially means, “I am that I am” and is a declaration of being the essence of existence itself, “The One Who Is Existence Itself” or “The Eternally Existent One.”

We will look at these verses in more detail in the weeks ahead, but let me point out a few notes on these verses.  In verse six, we have a five-part description of God’s character.  It is poetically designed to have two sets of two character traits surrounding one.  It looks like this.

• “A God compassionate and gracious
  • Slow to anger,
• And abounding in lovingkindness and faithful truth.”

This has an effect of surrounding a central character trait and bringing focus to it.  This is not to say that God’s slowness to anger is the most important one, but that it sticks out.  This will make more sense when we look at the structure of verse seven.

Verse seven picks up character trait number four, lovingkindness, and comments upon it.  This second verse has a bracketing structure, or bookended one.  This bracketing helps to highlight a central point in this verse similar to verse six.  It looks like this.

• “Who keeps lovingkindness
  • For thousands [of generations]
    • Who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin;
      • Yet, He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
    • Visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren
  • To the third and the fourth generations.”

As  you can see, the numbers (“thousands” versus “third and fourth”) correspond to one another.  Also, the next indents correspond as well (“Who forgives iniquity” versus “visiting the iniquity…”).  These contrasting brackets surround a central point that God will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.  Thus, these two verses highlight that God is slow to anger (because of His compassion, Grace, Lovingkindness, and Faithful Truth), and yet, He will not let the guilty go free.  He is merciful, but He is no pushover.

A way to highlight why this is so important is to look at how this tension, between God’s mercy and His ultimate judgment, affects people from different parts of the world.  In the West, we tend to be uneasy about God’s judgment.  We read the second part of verse seven and we think that it has turned bad.  Whereas, people in the Middle East would look at the same verses and think it is the first verse that is problematic.  It makes God sound like He is too merciful.

If you still don’t understand, then think of it as a tension within God’s love.  He will be compassionate, but He must hold the wicked accountable for the sake of those they hurt.  Of course, God perfectly satisfies this tension.  Yes, He is slow to anger, but He can eventually get there.  When He does, He is not like us, losing control and choosing to go down the path of overkill.

We should also notice the contrast of ratio.  God keeps lovingkindness to a 1,000 generations, but only visits the iniquity of the fathers to the 3^rd and 4^th generation.  We see this kind of ratio in Isaiah 61:2.  There the prophet proclaims the “acceptable year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of the LORD our God.”  Here the ratio is roughly 365 days of favor to 1 day of vengeance.  I don’t believe this is intended to emphasize the ratio, but rather the magnitudes of difference.  God’s character requires Him to eventually judge, but He is not “Vengeful.”  His character is about doing what is good to His creation.  However, what do you do when a particular created being seeks the harm of many others?  Eventually the goodness of God requires that creature to be held accountable.  Yet, God does so quickly without relishing in it. 

You could say that it is harder to get into the “doghouse” with God than it is to get out.  This is very different than people.  In fact, some people who are very judgmental of the “God of the Old Testament” will never let others out of the doghouse.  They will hold a grudge against you until they die.  God is not this way.  God’s wrath is intended to be quick, surgical, and a warning to others that they should repent before they end up in that situation.

The Message of Genesis

This revelation to Moses is not in a vacuum.  The context leading up to this passage is the books of Genesis and Exodus.  Let’s look at Genesis first.

Genesis essentially presents the problem with the world and then explains God’s solution to that problem.  Have you ever asked this question, “What in the world is God doing?”  Chapters 1 and 2 establish that the problem is not God’s fault.  He made the creation “very good.”  See Genesis 1:31.  God made the heavens, both the material stars and galaxies as well as the immaterial angels and spirit-realm.  He also made the earth where humans dwell.  All of it was made very good.  Whatever you do, don’t think you are going to get far blaming God for the evil in the world.  What we see today is not what God made.

Chapter 3 then describes how everything went bad.  It has two important aspects.  Adam and Eve (humanity) have a breakdown in their relationship with God.  They had no reason to doubt God, and every reason to trust Him.  Yet, they chose to reject His wisdom and do their own thing.  Fractured relationship with God is at the heart of this world’s problems. 

However, a second issue is highlighted, there has been spiritual interference in that relationship.  The serpent lied to Eve and deceived her into distrusting God.  Revelation 12:9 makes it clear that this ancient serpent is the devil, satan, the dragon.  Regardless of whether you think this is a literal snake that is possessed of the devil or a serpentine manifestation of the devil, the end-result is the same.  The devil meddled in the relationship between humans and God.  He talked them into trusting him rather than trusting God, Who had never failed them before.  What is at question in Genesis 3?  It is God’s character.  Does He speak the truth?  Can He be trusted?  Is He actually holding us back so that we do not become as great as He or greater?  These are the aspersions satan stirs up in their minds.  Humanity has broken faith with God, but a crafty, spiritual meddler took advantage of their youthful innocence.

This sets up Genesis 3:14-15.  God curses the serpent, but gives a promise to mankind through the woman.  First, there will be hostility between the woman’s seed and the serpent’s seed (the devil’s).  Second, a particular seed, “he,” will crush the serpent’s head while having his heel injured.    If you look closely at those verses, you see that this is a powerful promise from God that their enemy would one day be dealt with through a mortal blow.  Though satan is a spiritual being, he will eventually die like a man. 

This sets up a promise or hope that humanity can hold onto, even when it seems bleak.  God particularly emphasizes the seed of the woman.  The serpent attacked through her, and so God’s counter-attack will come through her.  Yet, it will be a man who crushes the serpent’s head “he.”  God’s solution is a particular man who will be the serpent-crusher.

Genesis 4 becomes important because it shows us what the hostility between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent would essentially look like.  Cain and Abel are both seed of the woman in a biological sense.  Note: if you have listened to YouTube videos or documentaries that try to make Cain the offspring of a physical union between the serpent and Eve (or even Yahweh), then know that this unequivocally cannot be so.  Genesis 4:1 tells us that Adam had sex with his wife and she gave birth to Cain.  She then “gave birth again,” and it was Abel.  There is no room to insert a physical serpent offspring here.  The point of the passage is that Cain is making a spiritual choice to follow (to image) the serpent, rather than God, which is what Abel did.  There is even a scene where God talks to Cain in a Fatherly way, warning him that sin sought to master him.  The two seeds are spiritual dynamics between the sons of righteousness and the sons of wickedness.  The sons of wickedness are hostile to the sons of righteousness and choose to persecute and kill them.  However, Cain didn’t have to choose to be a son of wickedness.  God truly did put a door of hope in front of Him.  He had no reason to break faith with God and follow the path of the serpent (who was a murderer from the beginning, John 8:44).

Eve’s next son is called Seth, “Appointed One,” because God had appointed another seed for her, one to take Abel’s place.  He is not just taking his place physically, but as one appointed for the chosen line, the line from which the Serpent Crusher would come.  We see this chosen line of Appointed, spiritual men who personally represent, and have faith in the promise of God to crush the serpent’s head through a particular seed of the woman. This is revealed through prophecy, which Eve does here with Seth.  We see it several more times with Enoch and Noah.  These men are prophets who hear from God.

Thus, Genesis builds off of the First Rebellion of Genesis 3, presenting two more rebellions.  The Second Rebellion is seen in Genesis 6 as rebel Sons of God come down and create a wicked race of beings.  Regardless of how you interpret this passage, the overall point is that this speeds up wickedness until it fills the whole earth.  Noah and his family are the only ones left faithful in all the earth.  The wickedness threatens the Chosen Line and the possibility of bringing forth the Serpent Crusher.  God sends a flood to cleanse the earth and allow humanity a fresh start.

The Third Rebellion is after the flood in Genesis 11.  At the Tower of Babel, Nimrod leads a rebellion against the purposes of God.  As God confuses the languages, He also casts the nations out of relationship with Him, like Adam and Eve.  They want to worship fallen angels, and so He hands them over to these beings.    From now on, God would not deal with humanity as a whole, but only through the man Abram and the nation of Israel that would come forth from him.  Through Abraham, the chosen line, and later through Israel, a chosen nation, God would bring forth the ultimate Chosen One who would crush the serpent’s head and then bless those people and nations who would bless him.

The book of Genesis ends with Jacob prophesying over his sons in chapter 49.  There he prophesies that the tribe of Judah would hold the kingship, until Shiloh comes.  Shiloh can be translated as “The One To Whom It Belongs,” which in the context of Genesis is clearly the promised Seed of the Woman who would crush the devil’s head.

This book would serve to help an ancient Israelite understand their part in the world and what God was doing.  Things were not hopeless.  God had a particular man that He would bring forward at just the right time.  It was their job (and it is our job) to keep faith in God’s plan and His Man.  They must wait for God’s Serpent Crusher.

But, one might complain with this question.  How will that help me when I am dead?  Yes, that is the question that is eventually answered through the prophets.  Even Job believed that he would see God with his own eyes at the last day, even though he would die (see Job 19:26).

The Message of Exodus

This brings us to the next book.  We find God’s chosen nation in bondage in Egypt, making bricks for the power of this world, Pharaoh.  This is partially because the Egyptians had betrayed them, but also partially because they had begun to worship the God’s of Egypt.  In fact, the Egyptian’s betrayal follows the earlier story of Joseph’s betrayal by his own brothers.  Joseph was then sent on ahead of his brothers to become the one in charge of Egypt in order to save them from a famine.  What happened in this family of Jacob was a picture of what would happen in the family of nations.

You see, you can be the chosen line, the chosen one, the chosen nation, but if you aren’t careful, you can end up in a cast out position, serving the gods of this world.   You can end up as a metaphorical slave in Egypt (your life of bondage to sin) in meaningless work for the false gods of this world.  In that condition, you can cry out, “God, where are you?”  Of course, His response would be something on the order of, “That was my question for you along time ago!”

The chosen line, and chosen nation, are not shown as perfect.  The Serpent Crusher is not a genetic experiment to breed a champion.  It is a miracle of God, despite their (our) failures.  Yet, Abraham believed God; Jacob came to believe God; Joshua, David, Isaiah, Joseph and Mary, all of them believed God.

What does Adam do following the Genesis 3 punishment?  He has a choice.  He can either walk in his own wisdom in further rebellion against God, or, he can go to work in the sweat of his brow.  He can labor to feed his wife and kids.  He can bear that punishment in the hope that God will keep his promise and crush the head of his enemy, the devil.

The message of Exodus is that no matter how chosen we are, and how much God has promised to work through us, we all end up in slavery (personally, nationally, globally).  Salvation can only come by a supernatural work of God.  God must redeem us by His own Right Hand!

Exodus is the template of God’s salvation.  He will come to us in our slavery and powerfully show up the false gods we have been serving.  He will then lift us out of bondage and cause us to inherit what we had lost.  Of course, we must simply trust Him and follow Him.  Jesus Christ is the supernatural intervention of God, and we would do well to put our trust in Him and follow Him at this juncture.

Exodus 1-18 is all about God bringing Israel out of Egypt and to Mt. Sinai, where a covenant He will cut a covenant with them.

Chapters 19 to 40 is all about the covenant.  Yet, the people are afraid of God, so they have Moses be their intermediary.  Moses goes up on the mountain for 40 days (chapters 20 to 32).  As God gives to him the details of the covenant, Israel gets tired of waiting for Moses to come back.  They make a golden calf and worship it as the god who brought them out of Egypt.  This is akin to a person cheating on their marriage partner during the ceremony!  They couldn’t even give God 40 days of faithfulness before they were going astray from Him.

What happens in a case like this?  Does a man simply say that this kind of thing sometimes happens, and then, continue to marry the woman?  God even gives Moses an offer.  He would destroy Israel and make a nation from Moses.  However, Moses points out that this will only make God look weak to the nations.  It would appear that He couldn’t really save these people. 

I believe that God is actually provoking Moses to see and give voice to what God was going to do all along.  God would have mercy on Israel.  He would continue into this covenant with them.  For better or worse, He would be their God and they would be His people.  God doesn’t just want to give us the answers to the test.  He wants us to come to the realization for ourselves that His way really is the better way.  If we listen to God and pay attention, we can come to understand the God who became human and died on a cross for our sins.

Perhaps, we might understand Him enough to follow Him and lay our own lives down in such a way that others may be saved.  How many of us haven’t found ourselves trying to follow God, but then falling short and missing the mark?  Of course, we all have.

How can God put up with Israel?  Their story is our story.  God’s character is such that He helps us, forgives us, is slow to anger.  Yet, He will judge in the end.  This is the backdrop to the event in Exodus 34, where Moses goes back up the mountain after confronting Israel with their sin.  There, God reveals His amazing character to Moses.  This is what we will be looking at for the next 5 weeks.

Character of God 1 audio

The Afflicted One

Matthew 27:45-54.  Psalm 22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 20, 2024.

We are going to take a break from the book of Acts this week and look at Jesus, the Afflicted One.

Isaiah 53:4 says, “We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.”

Also, Psalm 22:24 says, “He [God] has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted [one].”  It is worth noting that “afflicted” is singular.  It could be referring to all who are afflicted as a singular group.  However, in light of the rest of the psalm, it is more likely that it is speaking of the particular afflicted one that David presented earlier in the psalm. 

Before we go to Psalm 22 though, let’s start in Matthew 27.

The cry of Jesus and the silence of God (Mt. 27:45-54)

Our passage picks up with Jesus having been on the cross for three hours. Verse 45 uses Roman time terminology.  The hours of the day are counted from 6 AM forward.  Thus, the sixth hour until ninth hour would equal noon to 3 PM.  To remind ourselves, Jesus is first put on the cross at 9 AM.

There is an interesting change that happens at noon.  For the first three hours that Jesus was on the cross, everything seemed natural.  A man is dying.  It is day time, and the world is going on like normal.  However, at noon, a darkness comes over the land.  This cannot be a solar eclipse because Passover is during the full moon.  This would put the moon on the opposite side of earth from the sun.  There are conjectures on the mechanism that God used to “turn off the lights” for three hours.  A common one is to link it to a large volcanic explosion.  Regardless of how it was done, this ominous situation continues until the death of Jesus.  In fact, after the death of Jesus, a large earthquake hits Jerusalem.  The darkness followed by an earthquake coinciding with the execution of Jesus would leave the average person watching freaked out.  Anyone watching this would think that something really bad had just happened.  For the first three hours, a guy like Caiaphas, the high priest, would feel justified.  But from noon to 3 PM, it would leave one with a strange sensation.

We see this with the Roman soldier mentioned in verse 54.  He has seen a lot of men crucified.  He is shocked and states, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

The death of Jesus is accompanied by a sense of God’s apparent silence.    How could God let this happen?

This is where we should remind ourselves of the hopes of the populace of Israel.  Jesus had healed people and taught them in a way that amazed the multitudes.  They had come to believe that he must be Messiah.  However, the leaders of Israel figured out very quickly that Jesus was calling them to repent too.  This provoked them to despise him and to work to kill him.

The populace hoped that Jesus, who must be messiah, would begin removing the yoke of the Romans, and  yet now, he has been publicly executed.  Think of it.  If you have put all your hopes in a man, and then, he is killed, it shocks you to your core.  On top of this, they heard Jesus crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  It could appear to some that Jesus himself expected God to stop his execution and is now in the throes of disillusionment.

This idea is quite common today.  The average person who doesn’t believe in Jesus will point to some bad thing that happened, or simply that there is evil in the world, and ask, “How could God let that happen?”  If God exists and really is all-good, then surely He would stop all the evil that is happening on this planet.

Jesus at the cross fundamentally challenges this contention.  We think we understand, and we think that God should stop evil.  Our tendency is to talk about these things as if we really understand all the repercussions.  However, these things really are greater than we understand.  This is probably why God designed humans to become parents.  This way, we too can learn what it is like to bend over backwards for the good of a young person who will give you flak for your choices, at some point.  I think parenting is God inviting us to know Him just a little more than we did before we became parents and can have every one of our decisions second-guessed.  There is a certain wisdom to the circle of life.  We generally do not understand these things until we grow old.

The reality on the ground at the crucifixion of Jesus says, there is no way that this man can be Messiah.  Otherwise, God would have stopped it.  So, what about this question that Jesus cried out about God forsaking him?

I mentioned earlier that the first thought of skeptics is the cynical angle.  Jesus realizes that he is going to die, and somehow he thought God would deliver him.  He is no messiah, and he was wrong.

There are good reasons to completely reject this idea.  First, throughout the Gospels, Jesus warned his disciples over and over again that he was going to Jerusalem and he would be killed there.  Of course, the cynic will believe that the disciples made this up after the fact.

Before we look at the next reason to reject this idea, I do want to say this.  I believe that a part of the reason that Jesus cries out this question from the cross is to let us know that he gets it.  For every time we have felt that God has abandoned us while something evil, something bad, does its thing, here is God in the flesh telling us that He gets it.  It is hard, and our flesh doesn’t like it.  The weight of God’s silence in the face of such injustice can be crushing.

We can place ultimatums on God, challenging Him to do such and such by this time, or we are going to cast our faith aside (whether in a rejection of His existence, or of His goodness).  Of course, Jesus knows better than that.  Still, he lets us hear these words from his mouth.

I believe that there is a spiritually immature part of all of us that wants God “to fix” our problems and the bad things in our life.  We typically pray for God to take away anything bad.  We want Him to bail us out of any nightmares that come our way.  Of course, wise parents know that it is often better to help kids through their problems and through their consequences, rather than taking them away.  A wise parent will come alongside their kids and help them through the problem, rather than completely removing it for them.

I think that God is doing this in the Garden of Eden.  He is not judging Adam and Eve because He is hurt and wants to make them pay.  He definitely doesn’t give the decree and make their sin and its consequences just go away.  Rather, He chooses to walk with them down this tough road they have chosen, and He gives them aid against an enemy that is far to strong for them.

The cross causes us to shout, “Take it away, God!”  “Remove the wicked people, and remove all injustice!”  However, Jesus tells us, “Pick up your cross and follow me!”

This leads us to the second reason why this cry in verse 46 is not a cry of disillusionment.  This was a time when books were not divided into chapters and verses.  Though the Psalms are small units within a collection, they were not known by a number.  Jews would not say, “Let’s read Psalm 22.”  Instead, they would use the first line, the first sentence, to refer to it.  Thus, Jesus is not just telling us that he knows our pain of feeling forsaken by God.  He is actually telling us to read Psalm 22 and pay attention to it.  He is connecting that Psalm to his current situation.  Of course, there were some people who couldn’t quite hear what he was saying.  Jesus was also in agonizing pain, making it harder to enunciate his words.  The Aramaic word “Eli” means my God.  However, some thought he might be calling out for Elijah (it was prophesied that Elijah would show up to help Messiah).  However, some would have wondered why Jesus was quoting from this psalm (what we call Psalm 22).

The prophecy of David in Psalm 22

David wrote this psalm roughly 1,000 years before Jesus.  David wrote many psalms.  However, he was more than a musician.  David was also a prophet.  In 2 Samuel 23:2, David says, “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue.”  He goes on to tell what God had told him.  God had told him that the one who rules men should be just.  He should be like the rising of the sun and the coming of the dew in the morning.  These are beautiful images of something that is a blessing.  Yet, David also says that his family was not so.  He had fallen short, and his family would fall short too.  Remember, that David had two sons try to take the kingdom from him while he was alive.  Yet, God also told David that He would still cause the promise of an Anointed King to “shoot forth,” or “branch out.”  Isaiah (chapter 4) and Zechariah (chapters 3 and 6) both picked up this verb and turned it into a title for Messiah, The Branch, or The Shoot.

What I am getting at is this.  David is not just writing a psalm about something bad that happened to him.  This is a prophetic psalm that looked forward to something that God showed David.

Jesus and his apostles also quoted and spoke of David’s psalms as prophecy.  So, why did Jesus point out this psalm?

Psalm 22 is a strange psalm.  It has two different types of psalms stitched together.  It starts off as a lament psalm.  A lament psalm basically cries out to God about a suffering situation.  Often, wicked people are involved, causing the pain.  Or, they at least pile on with condemnation.  Lament psalms typically plead to God for help and will end with a statement of faith in God’s character.  Verses 1 through 21a of Psalm 22 are exactly this.

Yet, in the second half of verse 21, something happens that changes the whole character of the psalm.  Verses 21b through the end of the psalm (verse 31) switch to a psalm of Thanksgiving.  This is somewhat odd.  It would be like a song that starts out singing the blues, and then turns into Pharrell Williams singing, Happy.  More than this, it is not quite clear what exactly happened to change a scene where someone is being put to death by wicked men, into a scene that is praising God and calling everyone to join him.

God showed David something about Messiah through his own affliction.  King Saul and Israel had rejected God’s anointing of David.  Yet, Messiah would also be rejected and afflicted by his own people.

Who is this afflicted one in the first part of Psalm 22?  It cannot be David.  David’s descriptions of the afflicted on do not fit him.  Yes, some of the things fit him.  David was afflicted.  Look at verses 7-8.  This description could fit David.  He had become a hunted man by King Saul under a false charge of treason.  This had him always on the run.  It was common for people to despise and ridicule David at this point in his life. 

How about verses 12 to 13.  The bulls and the lions here are symbolic of people who had power within Israel’s society.  King Saul had power and position.  David often felt like he had no where to turn to and was being encircled like a prey hiding in a thicket from predators.

Still, there are too many other descriptions that cannot be about David.  Verse 14 pictures the afflicted one of being poured out like water and having all of his bones out of joint.  Verse 16 speaks of dogs (more animal imagery for people) piercing the afflicted one’s feet and hands.  Verse 17 has the afflicted one being so emaciated that he can count his bones and people are staring at him.  Lastly, verse 18 has his garments being divvied up while he looks on.

This does not describe David.  It describes someone who is being put to death, someone who is not going to need his clothes anymore because he is headed to the grave.

I imagine that David wrestled with God over why He seemed so silent during David’s affliction.  Yet, God showed David that what he went through would be nothing compared to what King Messiah would go through.  David is the little-“a” afflicted one, but Messiah would be the capital-“A” Afflicted One. 

This Afflicted One would come to remove all injustice.  However, God is also a God of grace who doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed.  In the Affliction of the Afflicted One, God is giving space and giving time for us to repent by putting our faith in Jesus.  We could respond to the horrible truth that is displayed at the cross of Jesus: this is what even the best of us do to God.  If it wasn’t for His grace, we would have been destroyed along time ago.

It is easy to miss this message from David.  Yes, they were excited about Messiah removing injustice because that is clearly the Gentiles.  However, they missed the rejected aspect of the Messiah (well, he will be rejected by Messiah, but not us!).

All along this part of Psalm 22 is the idea that God is silent.  God doesn’t do anything about this horrible affliction from the wicked.  At least, up until we reach verse 21.

“Save me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen!  You have answered me!”  No matter how you translate this verse, two things stick out that cannot change.  The first verb “save me” is a form of the verb that makes it clear that the person is still praying.  There is no question about this.  However the last verb “answered me” is not in this form.  It is a form that says the action of the verb has been completed.  Somehow the afflicted one goes from crying out for salvation to declaring that God has heard him, answered him.  This is the hinge point of the psalm.  God has answered His Afflicted One, but it will not be explained just exactly what God did.  Yet, it must be something really big to change the scene from a righteous man being put to death, to him praising God.

Even if you were being killed, pierced, emaciated, and your bones were out of joint, and God answered you, you would not be in a condition to be praising God.  You would be in a hospital for a very long time asking why God didn’t intervene sooner.

There is not only a switch of genre in this psalm (lament to thanksgiving), but there is a switch in who is narrating the scene.  All throughout the lament, it is first-person narration of what is happening to him.  Even the praise in verse 21 begins by the afflicted one.  “You have answered me!”  Verses 22 and 23 continue the praise, but in verse 24 we see that the narrator has either began to speak of himself in the third-person, or David has taken over and is prophetically calling Israel to pay attention to this amazing thing that God is going to do.  All of Israel are called to praise the Lord because the Lord delivered (will deliver) this Afflicted One.  David will go on to recount how this amazing deliverance will even cause the Gentiles to praise God (verse 27).  What could happen that would cause the ends of the earth and the nations to give praise and worship to God, remembering what God did for His Afflicted One and “turning to the LORD”?  What could cause “all the families of the nations” to worship before him?  Then, verse 28 clearly ties into the Messianic prophecies that picture the Anointed King that God sends to rule over all the nations.  “The Kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations!”  This Afflicted One is that King!  Nothing in David’s life, or Israel’s history, even comes close to something like this, except for one person.  It is Jesus.

However, there is more.  In verse 29, the David employs language of “all those who go down to the dust.”  They will bow before the Afflicted One.  This language of going into the dust is language that speaks of people who have died (can’t keep themselves alive).  They are mortals who go into the grave.  It appears to say that even those who have gone into the grave will bow before him.  How can that be?  Of course, the New Testament testimony of what the Apostles came to know about Jesus shows us that the death of the Afflicted One was overturned by Resurrection.

Jesus is pointing us to this passage.  He is not saying that he has been forsaken by God.  He is saying exactly the opposite.  He is making the declaration of truth in the face of all the devils of hell and what they are unleashing upon him.  It may look like He is, but the Father will not abandon me!

Where are we today?  The Gospel of who Jesus is has gone to the ends of the earth, and many people of every tribe, language, and nation, have bowed before Jesus and worshipped him.  Yet, the powers of the world are not choosing Jesus as Lord of lords and King of kings.

The challenge for us is to believe what Scriptures says, what the Spirit says, about Messiah, even when it appears that it will never happen.  He will be afflicted to death, but God will answer him, has answered him!

Perhaps you are in the middle of affliction right now.  Perhaps you feel that God doesn’t care about you and has forsaken you.  His testimony is that He does love you and won’t abandon you.  You just need to put your faith in Him and trust Jesus. 

Why would Jesus go through all that affliction?  He was paying the price for your sins and for mine.  He was making a way for us to repent of our sins and believe in him so that we can be forgiven by God the Father.

Fatherly wisdom in the Scriptures tells us that God has come down and gone through the fire with us.  He has helped us and will bring us to the other side of this difficult affliction.  We will come out the other side more like Him.

Friend, our weak mortal state is not the final word.  God has promised something beyond this.  Let’s choose to identify with the Afflicted One who chose to identify with us!

Afflicted One audio

The Sermon on the Mount XIX

Subtitle:  Conclusion-False Prophets and Pretenders

Matthew 7:15-23.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 28, 2024.

We continue looking at the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus gave.  He warned them to take the narrow gate with a difficult way because it leads to life.

Now, he warns us against false prophets and pretenders who could mislead us in some ways.  Like the serpent with Eve, people who are pretenders can mislead the gullible.  They are a threat to the true disciple.  Thus, Jesus gives us apt warning.

False prophets do not call themselves “False Prophet So-And-So.”  They always call themselves a true prophet.  This was a problem in the Old Testament, and Jesus is telling us that it will continue to be a problem during the Church Age.

Of course, we are well aware of many examples of false prophets through the years.  The most obvious are men like Jim Jones who talked hundreds of people to follow him to Guyana and a erect a self-sufficient compound.  When it was all done, almost over 900 people died from drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, from which comes the phrase, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.  How many family members pleaded with those who followed Jim Jones, recognizing him for the false teacher and false prophet that he was? 

You would like to believe that there would cease to be false prophets when Messiah Jesus had come.  This will be true at his second coming, but during this period following his first coming, he is commanding believers to recognize false prophets and bring them to account.  Yet, Jesus recognizes that they will be successful with a certain amount of people, and thus, he warns those who would be his disciples.

Let’s look at our passage.

Beware false prophets and pretenders by discerning them (v. 15-20)

In this passage Jesus only uses the term false prophet.  However, elsewhere he talks about false christs and false witnesses.  The apostles also warned against false teachers, false apostles, and false brethren (i.e., false christians).  Basically, any real work of God can be falsely mimicked by pretenders.

This is not just a message to the Jews who were rejecting Jesus.  A well known case of a false christ, or false messiah, happened around 135 A.D. (one hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus).  This is the case of Simon bar Kochba (also Koziba).  He was backed by Rabbi Akiva as being the Messiah.  They expected him to lead Israel in casting out the Romans, but instead, his forces were crushed and he was killed.

Such a man was not working for the God of Israel, but for something else.  These pretenders lead to many others being killed because of putting their trust in them.  Yet, Jesus is speaking to his followers.  They are not “Christians” so to speak, just yet, but they are those who would choose to be his disciples.  False teachers and false prophets will come, and the disciples of Jesus will need to discern what they are so that they are not deceived.  Since Christ will come back (the second coming), false christs (messiahs) have often come claiming to be him.  Of course, false prophets are usually predicting the second coming, or the rapture, or claiming some special knowledge.

In verses 15-20 Jesus makes the point that we need to discern false prophets, which means that we can do so.  In verses 21-23, he makes the point that those false prophets and pretenders will not fair well when they stand in judgment before him “in that day.”

The word translated in the NKJV as “beware” emphasizes keeping this area of deception in front of you, thus keeping it in mind and giving it your focus.  Yet, this does not mean it is the only thing, or even the primary thing. 

Still, it is easy for us to think that this doesn’t happen to us.  When John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan, Matthew 3:7-10 tells of a interaction between him and the religious leaders.  They had come out to see what he was doing, perhaps to see if they could find something with which to pin the label of false prophet on him.  They would have felt strongly that they were vigilant against false prophets and false teachers.  Yet, they were the false teachers of their day.

John actually calls them a brood of vipers.  This would be loaded with spiritual connotation that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden and the offspring (spiritual imagers) of the serpent.  They needed to do works “worthy of repentance,” if they wanted to enter the Kingdom of Messiah.

This helps us to see some of the problems of false prophets.  We are easily swayed by institutions and men of power who are always ready to train us in their ways of power.  When this is done in the name of God, it can disarm people who say they are being vigilant. 

Satan himself is the first false prophet, false teacher.  He teaches Eve to disobey God and follow his advice, even imaging him as they assert their will over God’s.  So, we should all ask the question, “Am I gullible?”  The answer is that you are to certain types of false prophets.  We can all be deceived if we are not walking in real relationship with God.  We can follow that which has the proper form, and yet lacks the true substance underneath, i.e., lacks power (2 Timothy 3:5).  In fact, because the religious leaders of the first century lacked true substance underneath the accretion of proper forms, they were hostile to the presence of true substance within Jesus.  Some of the greatest “heresy hunters” can be guilty of the same.

Jesus gives a metaphor that helps us to see how false prophets operate.  They come in sheep’s clothing, but in their inner man, they are ravenous wolves.  The reference to sheep denotates the flock of God, which was supposed to be a description of Israel.  These false prophets pretend to be a good Israelite who is worshiping Yahweh, but inwardly, they are not. 

The sheep’s clothing upon their wolfish being may not be a very good costume, easily seen through.  However, it may also be on the same level as Hollywood costume designers, which makes it much harder to know for sure if that is really a wolf under there.  Of course, this is a spiritual metaphor, so we have to make the connection to what that looks like.  They may be very skilled at playing the role of a follower of God (1^st century Jew or 21^st century Christian).  It may take some time for even mature believers to discern that a person has no substance.

Think about your favorite actor or actress.  Why are they your favorite?  It most likely has nothing to do with what they actually are like in their day to day relationships.  It is probably because they act out roles that you like extremely well.  Yet, remember this.  An actor is good when they can make you think that they are something that they are definitely not.  They are good pretenders, good posers.  They are very skilled at the external matters of being a Christian.

However, being a disciple of Jesus, and a sheep in the flock of God, is not simply a matter of certain externals.  Christians say certain things, and use certain lingo.  Christians go to church and meet with other believers.  Christians do certain rituals like communion or water baptism.  Now, it is good that we do these things, but no one is saved by doing these things.  These things are supposed to be a witness of a real relationship of faith in Jesus.  They are supposed to be the fruit of a heart that loves the LORD their God with everything and their neighbor as themselves.

God is looking for a deeper transformation than these things.  He wants our heart. 

The false prophets are actually ravenous wolves underneath all that costume.  This is what they are really.  The look religious, sound like they love God, but they are hungry predators focused on their own base desires.  How long can a hungry wolf pretend to be a sheep when he is surrounded by a bunch of yummy sheep?  They are putting on a show because they expect to get something, some things, out of it.  Like a wolf will eat a sheep, so they will use the sheep to satisfy their desires.  It may be the pride of life that is satisfied by a large following of devotees.  It may be a lust for power that is satisfied by people who unwisely obey their every word.  It may be some disordered sexuality that is satisfied when people do not hold them accountable.  Cult leaders often talk people into letting them take their wives, even their daughters, for sexual pleasure.  Of course, there is no end of the debasement in these categories.  It may simply be the lust of wealth, greed, and any manner of other things.  Generally, the false prophet has hangups in multiple of these categories.  They do not live on the proper grass that God provides for the sheep.  They are sensual beasts that only say no to their flesh for a moment in order to keep up their costume.  They will satisfy their lusts in the end, and many unwitting people will have helped them to do it too!  To be clear, wolves are never good around the sheep, even when they dress like them.

Now, some might say that religion itself is the problem.  If you never involved yourself with religion, then you would never be suckered by a false prophet.  This is a lovely fiction that is imagined because we tend to think of religion as something to do with a belief in a “god.”  However, atheism has all the hallmarks of a religion.

Atheists put their trust, their faith, in the idea that all things have a material cause and explanation.  They refuse to believe that there can be a God who operates in this world.  Yet, this is not something they can prove.  Generally, they only require “proof” from God, but what is the proof that all things only have material causes and explanations?  They would probably retreat to the idea of probabilities, but this is no safe haven for the atheist either.  Which is more probable, nothing created everything, or an all-powerful, all-wise Mind created everything? They believe this proposition so much that they exercise faith and order their life around it.  This is a religion which exchanges God for the material creation itself.

We might recognize that Karl Marx, Chuckie Darwin, Mao Zedong (Tse Tung), and all the others were false prophets speaking to those who were tired of Christianity.

Jesus tells us that you will know them (discern them) by their fruit.  This is an analogy from the area of fruit trees versus trees that do not bear good fruit.  If a tree grows a particular fruit, then you are assured of its true nature at the cellular level. 

Since we are talking about hypocrites, let’s picture the difference between a Christmas Tree and an Apple Tree.  We might decorate a Christmas tree with real apples, but we would have to tie them to the branches, or tape them.  No matter how much we decorated the tree, if you pay close attention to the fruit you will see if it naturally grows out of the tree, or is unnaturally, even synthetically, connected.

This powerful metaphor lies in the fact that an untrained eye may not be able to tell the difference between a good fruit tree and a tree that is not such before it begins to fruit. However, once it begins to fruit (or not) even a child would recognize that it is not what it purports to be.  If you saw a tree with apples tied to its branches, you would know that something was wrong in this “orchard.” 

A false prophet and false teacher is incapable of producing good fruit because of the truth, the reality, of who they are.  Of course, they could repent (do works worthy of repentance) and be changed by God, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

In verse 19, Jesus warns those who might be tempted to follow such trees, because parts of their flesh enjoy the wicked fruit of these false teachers.  These trees, false prophets et. al., are destined to be cut down and cast into the fire.  This refers to their judgment after death.  God may not judge a false prophet quickly (of course, He can), and they may make a long living at it.  However, in the end, they will die and be punished.

If you agree with such people, you will join in their reward, which is no reward at all.  Adam and Eve participated in the wickedness of the devil that day in the Garden.  As such, they would join in his lot, unless they found room for repentance in their hearts.  We musts turn away from easy deceptions that play on the lusts of our heart and mind. 

Sometimes we are drawn by the way that personal prophecies buoy are ego.  We may like having the “inside knowledge” that such men may purportedly proffer.  Our flesh loves having secret knowledge that others do not have.  Sometimes our flesh loves having a religious leader tell us that our sin is acceptable in God’s eyes, and we don’t have to change.  Whatever it is, we must beware of letting the lusts of our heart lead us into the sin of following a false prophet and false teacher.

They will not be able to fool Jesus at their judgment (v. 21-23)

Jesus moves forward in time when these false prophets and false teachers will be judged.  It pictures them standing before Jesus “in that day.”  This pictures a judgment of these individuals.  Not only will they never truly enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the daily operation of the true Church, they also will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that will be brought in at the Second Coming of Jesus.  They are shut out by the Spirit presently, and will be shut out by Jesus in the future.

Verse 21 gives a general statement up front.  Entering the Kingdom of Heaven is not a matter of declaring Jesus is your lord, even twice.  It is a matter of truly putting your faith in Jesus and following him.  This verse doesn’t just apply to false prophets.  It also applies to false brethren, i.e., false christians, who are not truly believing in Christ, they have a false conversion.  They are not trusting Jesus to fill them with His Spirit and empower them to walk out His righteousness.  They profess Christ, but they do not possess Christ.  If he actually were their Lord, then they would do the things that he commands.  They would be serving Him rather than themselves.

Verse 22 pictures them protesting their coming judgment.  Didn’t we do these things in your name?  This question is a lie, just like their sheep clothing was a lie.  They used Jesus as a cover, but in the end, they did everything for the lusts of their flesh.  Now that they stand before him, they seek to pull the wool over his eyes as they were so successful in doing to people during their life.  They are making a case, but we might think of it as a protest.  They see that they were wrong and are going to pay, and yet they make a protest against the righteous judgment.

Some people are bothered by the list of works that they refer to in verse 22.  First, I would point out that the list is clearly meant to tie back to the false prophets in the earlier section.  Yes, there are false christians, but this pictures the false prophets and false apostles.  They prophesied in the name of Jesus.  They cast out demons in the name of Jesus.  And, they did many wonders in the name of Jesus.  How could a false prophet do these things?

We need to understand a several things about this.  These false prophets represent a broad range of people and intentions.  There are some people who have been misled by a false prophet and are merely continuing a false way that they were taught.  They don’t know any better.  They think they are right.  Others are charlatans who are merely seeking to fleece the sheep.  However, some are in league with the devil and are knowingly undermining the teachings of Jesus. 

When the charlatan does something amazing, it is generally a trick.  Peter Popoff pretended to hear personal details of people’s life and needs from God, but in truth, he had an earpiece and was hearing from his wife reading from prayer requests they had filled out earlier.  I think that God may sometimes grant someone a healing because of their faith, despite the lack of character of the minister.

However, some people are in league with spirits and are using occult arts to wow people.  The devil does have a certain level of power.  We are warned that the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:9), comes forth according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders.  The False Prophet of Revelation 13 is said to be able to call fire down from heaven.  We are warned in Scripture not to follow people solely because of powerful signs.  We are to discern the fruit of the life that they live.

For those who are somewhat fearful at the idea that Satan may have some kind of real power, we must always remember that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).  Don’t be a person running around trying to find the person who appears to be ministering powerfully.  Instead, look at the fruit of their life, if they will even let you close enough to know what that is.

Jesus will not be deceived by these people, no matter how good they are with humans.  Jesus knows what they really did.  You may be a good lawyer that is able to get the best of people to question what their lying eyes are seeing, but your lawyer tricks won’t work with Jesus.  He sees right through your costume to the sinful heart that lies beneath.  Jesus says, “I never knew you!”

They may have done a lot of things in the name of Jesus, but they never had a real living relationship with him.  If they had, then he would know them.  The word “know” speaks of an intimate experience of life together.  What kind of people do things in the name of others, with whom they have no relationship?  They are called thieves and robbers.

We need to rely upon Jesus more than just the lust of our flesh in order to determine who is a prophet, or teacher, of God.  We need the written Word of God, but we also need true relationship with the Lord Jesus who is the Living Word of God.  Nothing helps against deception as good as having a living and growing relationship with Jesus.

In such a relationship, you will have the Spirit of God calling you away from the sins of pride, lust for power, lust for things, etc.  You will come to recognize that these people are wearing a mask and not responding to the Holy Spirit.  You will develop a good sniffer for false people.  Of course, we should be careful of developing a pride in our ability to “spot a fake.”  Like the person who is proud of their great humility, we can always fall into sin and error when we think too highly of ourselves.  This is a classic error of false prophets and false teachers.  They lack the very basic lessons that the Holy Spirit is faithful to correct everyone of God’s disciples with.

We are called to know Christ and be known by him.  This is a life of prayer, reading the word, wrestling with Christ over wisdom and needs, hearing from His Spirit the things we need to do, and correction when we neglect to follow through.  Learning to say no to sin in our life and being empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk out the righteousness of Jesus is the hallmark of life in the Spirit of Jesus.

In the end, they were doing the works of lawlessness.  “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness!”  They flaunted the Word of God and the Son of God for their own lusts.  They did not see the Church as a holy bride of Christ, but instead, raped her at every turn.  The lawless always cover themselves with the appearance of lawfulness, but they resist and rebel against the truth of God.

God loves you.  Your relationship with Him may be broken, but He is still calling out to you.  It is not His intention for you to be abused by false religious people.  Instead, He wants to fill your heart and mind with the truth of His love, enabling you to see through those who would make merchandise of your soul.  May God help us all!

False Prophets audio