Imagine that you are walking along the sidewalk and under a huge piano. Suddenly, the rope lifting the piano begins to unravel and is about to snap. Someone walking behind you shouts, “Watch out!” What will you do? Look up at the piano and say, “Oh, that's OK, I see it.” And BOOM! It falls on you and you're dead? Of course not. If someone yells “Watch out!” you'll take a quick glance around and jump out of the way of danger. That's what it means to “watch out!” It doesn't just mean being aware of danger, but avoiding it. With that same exclamation, “Watch out!” our Lord warns us away from false prophets. Looking like true preachers of Christ, they are nevertheless false preachers through whom Satan himself seeks to draw you away from the promises given to you through the Gospel gifts of Christ. “Watch out!” says our Lord. So let's pay attention and do just that!
The problem with false preachers is that they look like true preachers. Christ even says they will prophesy and do miracles in His name. The very fact that the wolves are dressed like sheep means the sheep are meant to be fooled. So how can we watch out for such false prophets? “By their fruits you will know them.” What fruits? A good tree makes good fruit and a bad tree makes bad fruit. What is the best tree and best fruit? It is the tree of the cross upon which our Lord suffered for the sins of the world and from which flowed water and blood, the fruits of the tree: the pure Gospel of the forgiveness of sins and the holy sacraments that mark and identify the faithful preachers and the holy Christians church. The fruits of a preacher are his confession of Christ and His gifts. A faithful preacher of God's gifts will first of all have a call to preach. He won't just show up and say, “The Holy Spirit sent me.” Rather, he'll have a call from the Lord through a congregation of God's people. More than that, the fruit that the preacher bears is his confession, teaching and preaching. Preachers whom Christ has sent will, like the apostles, bear witness to Christ. They will testify that He is true God, the Son who has taken up human flesh in the womb of the virgin. The Christ who has answered for the sins of all people of all time by His death on the cross where the work of salvation was finished. But more than that, the true preacher will confess that God Himself comes to us and gives us His Spirit in NO OTHER WAY than the Holy Gospel and Sacraments. True preachers will extol the glorious gifts of the Holy Scriptures, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution and the Holy Supper as the only means whereby Christ saves sinners and delivers to them the fruits of His good tree, the cross.
Jesus says that the false preachers will line up on the Last Day and all be shouting, “Lord! Lord! Didn't we prophesy and preach in your name? And do miracles and cast out demons in your name?” And He will reply, “Away from Me, I never knew you!” Because not everyone who says, “Lord! Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Dear Christians, stop and ponder these words! Pause and reflect upon what Jesus is saying. Just going around with a lot of hootin' and hollerin' about Je-ee-zus doesn't save anyone! Having some notion about Jesus doesn't mean you are rescued from sin, death and the devil. Saying you are a Christian doesn't make it so. The fruits of the bad tree are the rotten fruits of the false preachers. You will know them by their fruits. Such preachers deny the very work of Christ. They make Christ into an example or a leader instead of a Savior who has taken our place. Such false preachers deny the saving gifts of Baptism and Absolution and Supper. They will tell you that Baptism and the Supper are just commands to be obeyed, rather than holy gifts given to you by God for your eternal salvation. False preachers will direct you away from Christ, away from Baptism, Word and Supper to find your hope and confidence and faith in Popes and saints and themselves and your own decisions and changes and improvements in life. False preachers will tell you that doctrine doesn't matter. What matters is that we all “believe in Jesus.” But you, listen up! Christ Himself says that such “believing in Jesus” such “Lord! Lord!” clamoring won't save anyone. And, dear Christians, we Lutherans needn't go looking for the faults in other denominations and church bodies. For our own leaders are teaching us today that doctrine is no big deal. What matters is your good intentions. What matters is the Synod's by-laws and interpretations and noble causes. Beware! Watch out! For all that talk won't save anyone! It's thistles and thorn bushes and rotten trees which produce rancid, rotting fruit! And if you eat such fruit, you will surely perish eternally! For such fruit brings us no Christ, but only sin and death.
Dear Christians, I know what the world and its churches want us to think. It's Rodney King theology: “Can't we all just get along?” Never mind the details. Don't anybody say that anybody else is wrong. As long as everyone believes in Jesus and loves Jesus. But Jesus says different so we must shut our ears to the chattering blah-blah-blah of the world. Christ's word to “watch out” for false prophets not only warns us that such wolves in sheep's clothing are out there, His words call us to repentance. Christ's words warn us to watch out and avoid any and all preachers who bear bad fruit. Whose confession denies Christ and His gifts. And Christ's word teaches us to repent. To repent and turn away from the so-pervasive and persuasive notion of today that what a preacher preaches doesn't do anything one way or another. Dear Christians: if you eat good fruit from a good tree, you will be healthy. If you eat rotten fruit from a rotten tree, then you will be sick. As the Lord warns us also through Jeremiah: those who hear the Lord's Word from a true and faithful prophet will turn from their evil ways. So Jesus' words call us away from an “I don't care” and “It doesn't matter” attitude to seek the good fruits from Christ's tree: the good fruits of forgiveness, life and salvation, blood and water and Word. Dear Christians, let us understand and believe that Christ would never warn us of false preachers and wolves if our very salvation were not at stake. Hear Christ's words and watch out for these false preachers.
The danger of this sermon about false preachers, however, is that your own preacher, in trying to preach Jesus' words, seems to make himself out at as a perfect preacher. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But you know what? You do have a preacher given to you by the Lord. Not a bunch of preachers or even two or three. One man is your pastor and he is jealous for you as the Lord is jealous for you. You know, when my wife is out late, I want her to call so that I know when she'll be home and that she's alright. When my children come to me and say, “So and so's parents let them do it,” I say to them, “I don't care what So and So's parents say. I'm your Dad, and I'm looking out for you.” Likewise, dear Christians, I am your pastor. The Lord has called me here to preach His Gospel and bear fruits. To confess Christ and lead you in confessing our finished salvation in Him. To extol and exalt and glorify your Baptism and the Absolution, and the Holy Scriptures, and the Supper—in short, do deliver the fruits of Christ's good tree for you to eat. Please, please, please, watch out! The Lord has given you a pastor, and as I love my wife and my kids, so I love you and I plead with you: Watch out! Stay away from those TV preachers. You don't need to watch them! Forget about the latest “Christian” bestseller on the rack at Sam's Club. Don't partake of that rotten fruit. Beware of any pastor who tells you that doctrine isn't that important and it doesn't matter what you believe (and who administers the sacrament that same way!) But also, don't take Jesus' words to “Watch out!” as a license to simply think everything your pastor says is right. Test the spirits! Learn the Word of God. Read and study and read the Holy Scriptures and learn your Catechism. Read the Lutheran Confessions where the godly men of the past have set down the warning signs to teach us, as Christ does, to avoid and beware of the false preachers out there. Dear Christian, do your job. Cling to your pastor's words and see to it that He clings to the Lord's Word and delivers it faithfully to you. And in that, you'll have the good fruit of Christ which saves you and in which you will find all of your hope and comfort and joy.
Brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord's words are serious: “Not everyone who says to me, Lord! Lord! will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he that does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” That will, the will of the Father, is that you don't' perish but have everlasting life. That no piano falls on your head on the Last Day. That everlasting life is given to you in the faithful preaching of the Gospel and the gifts of water and blood delivering it to you. Watch out for the wolves in sheep's clothing! Your Lord has saved you by warning you. Saved you by calling you to repentance. And saved you by giving you a preacher to deliver that Word to you: Christ and His gifts. It's all the fruit you need! Amen.