The Very Words of Jesus* 

Who speaks for God today? Many people claim to speak for Him. Who really speaks for Him? Amid all the competing voices, who has the authoritative word of God?  Does the Ayatollah speak for God? Does the Dalai Lama speak for God?  The New Agers? Mohammed? The preachers who say that God no longer wants us to preach about sin, Hell, judgment, and only to preach gentle, loving, positive messages—do they speak for God?  Do the pastors of mega-churches, who water down the Gospel in order to fill their churches, speak for God? Today I hope to show you how you can tell if a preacher or teacher truly represents God. Turn with me to the Old Testament, to Deuteronomy, the fifth book of Moses, chapter 18. 

Deut. 18:14-15:  “The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”  

Notice the word “listen.” You’ll hear it a lot in this sermon. It means to pay attention to him (that Prophet), for he speaks for Me. Moses was the authoritative mediator of the Old Covenant. Moses went onto the mountain alone, and God gave him the Ten Commandments. He entered the tent of meeting alone, and there God spoke to Him and gave him the whole system of laws, rituals, sacrifices and precepts. And God told Moses that He was going to send “a prophet like him,” and that the people were to listen to that prophet as they listened to Moses. That prophet is Jesus Christ. Moses continues, in verses 16-17: 

“For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire any more, or we will die.’ 17 The LORD said to me: ‘What they say is good.” 

They were wise to say that, for if they had presumed to do what Moses did, God would surely have killed them; for God was not about to mediate words of His covenant directly to all the people. Moses was God’s chosen mediator of the covenant. In fact, when Miriam thought she ought to be equal to Moses, she said: “Does God speak only to Moses?” God told her and Aaron to stand at the entrance of the Tabernacle. His cloud came down and covered the tent of meeting, and when it lifted, Miriam had leprosy.  Moses had to pray for her healing.  

Only Moses spoke for God. But God would send another like Moses, who would also speak for God, Jesus Christ. 

18-19: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you [God told Moses] from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.”  

So this prophet would bring the authoritative Word [words] of God, and anyone who refused to listen to him, when he came, would be guilty of sin and rebellion. God communicates with His people primarily in WORDS. Whether to Moses or to the Prophet Who was to come, God gave them HIS WORDS. "In the beginning was the WORD," not narrative, not drama, not general principles, but word. The "Word became flesh and dwelt among us"; His disciples were allowed to handle and touch the Incarnate Word of God. But then they communicated their His teachings, their experience, their insights, their revelation, in the form of WORDS, the written Word of the Word-Become-Flesh, once and for all delivered in WORDS.

Another Mediator would come and would draw the boundaries of God’s will, would teach the only way of salvation. They MUST LISTEN TO HIM. 

Jesus says the same thing in John 12:47-48:  

“If anyone hears my sayings [rhemata] and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him. The word [logos] I spoke is what will judge him in the last day.”  

Jesus alone now speaks the words of God. To reject these words, not to obey these words, is to be in rebellion against God.   

Look at John 5:45-47.  To those in His day, who claimed to represent Moses Jesus said: 

“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. [Where? Deuteronomy 18] 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” 

Jesus says in effect, “If you had really listened to Moses and understood what He said, you would know that I am that prophet about Whom Moses wrote.” 

Look at Mark, chapter 9, verses 2-7, and the account of the Transfiguration.  

“After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) [In his confusion Peter only partly understood the significance of this event. He saw Jesus as equal to Moses and Elijah.] 7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘this is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!’” 

LISTEN TO HIM! There’s that word again. Listen, not to Moses or Elijah! Listen to Jesus! God’s own voice comes out of heaven and says, “The is the One Who speaks for me. Listen to Him!” God deliberately showed Jesus in the company with Moses and Elijah, the two great authoritative figures of the old covenant. The cloud came down on them, as it had on Mr. Sinai, and on the tent of meeting, and Moses and Elijah passed back to heaven. Now Jesus is the only one who speaks of God with authority 

I want us to see that God has revealed Himself in Words. Jesus Himself is the Word. Words mean something. They can be translated into different languages, but their meaning remains the same. Remember when Jesus had shocked his followers by saying that men must eat His flesh and drink His blood! That was too much for some of them, and they left Him. Jesus turned to the twelve and said, “Will you also go away.” Peter said, “Sir, to whom shall we go; You have the words of eternal life.” The very words of life! 

In His final prayer for the disciples before His Passion, Jesus said this, in John chapter 17, verse 5-8. 

5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. 6 I have revealed your name [As Your authoritative representative, I have revealed Your nature and Your will] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I FOR I GAVE THEM THE WORDS YOU GAVE ME, and they accepted them...” 

The very words. Not just general ideas or broad principles, but the very words. That’s why I prefer to do my Bible study with a translation that tries to convey the original words, not some human paraphrase. I use paraphrases, the way I use commentaries. I especially like the Living Bible and the New Living Translation, for even though they are paraphrases, they are quite faithful in most cases to the original. I despise the Message because it imports modern and unbiblical ideas into the text. The wording of the Scripture matters very much. 

Jesus has seen to it that the VERY WORDS OF THE FATHER have come down to us in the New Testament. Jesus is the only authoritative voice of God, and He has given God’s very words to the Disciples, and they (in turn) have given us the New Testament Scriptures. 

Heb. 1:1-2: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...” [Has spoken finally, definitively, with supreme authority] 

 But Jesus passed His authoritative Word to his Apostles and (guided by the Holy Spirit) they wrote down the very words of Jesus for us. 

Heb. 2:1-4:  “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message [Gr. word] spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” 

This is SALVATION we’re talking about! The way to heaven! The only way to be saved. If you neglect the words of Jesus, you are neglecting salvation. The way to have our sins forgiven! The way to heaven! Jesus alone has the right to define salvation, and the way to heaven. As we shall see, He alone can say how wide or how narrow the way to eternal life is. This great salvation, spoken first by Jesus, then passed to His disciples, who gave us the VERY WORDS of Jesus. The entire New Testament is, quite literally, the words of Jesus, which are the words of God. 

Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. In the New Testament He sets the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not. He defines sin; He tells the way to Heaven; He alone can define the terms by which man is acceptable to God. God had said of that Prophet He would send: “If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.”

What are we to think, then, of preachers and Bible teachers who take His words lightly? The Bible calls them LAWLESS. Lawlessness is not just violence, robbery, drunkenness, rape and murder. Lawlessness, as God sees it, is when man decides to set his own boundaries and limits and to disregard what He has said. Turn to Matthew 23:27-28: 

“Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness [Greek: lawlessness].” 

These respected religious leaders “lawless”? These men were not felons, robbers; they were not obvious lawbreakers. In fact, they prided themselves on keeping the law down to the smallest jot and tittle. Yet Jesus calls them “lawless.”  

They sat in Moses’ seat, representing Him to the people. Yet they didn’t recognize Jesus as the one of whom Moses wrote. And they misrepresented God to the people. They didn’t keep within the boundaries God had set; they set boundaries that God had not set; and they didn’t represent the values that God holds. They were lawless. Lawlessness is the refusal to allow God to define Himself, man, sin, and salvation.  

To say that homosexuality is not sin is lawlessness. To teach that God is more concerned with tithing mint, anise, and cumin than He is with “Justice, Mercy, and Faith” is lawlessness. When we misrepresent God, we are (in a sense) redefining God. In a sense we are creating a god in our own image. To teach that obeying the law can save man is lawlessness. But to suggest that one can be saved without obedience is also lawlessness. Lawlessness says, “I can do it as I see fit. I don’t have to go God’s way.” Lawlessness says that the way to life is broad and many will enter in thereby. Jesus, God’s final spokesman, says different. 

Now Back to Deuteronomy 18: 21-22: 

“You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?’ 22 I f  what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”  

Don’t be afraid of him. It’s no small thing to claim to speak for God. If someone comes saying, “Thus saith the Lord,” we have to decide if he really is speaking for God. It is sinful rebellion not to listen to him. That’s why false prophets and false teachers are so cruel. It’s a sin not to obey God, and when they make false claims and false promises in God’s name, they confuse the people, bring them into bondage, and lead them astray. We must be afraid to disobey God. But we must not listen to false prophets; we need not be afraid of them and their words. God says, “Don’t listen to them.”  

There are people today who claim to be prophets and to speak for God. But they don’t want to be judged by the Old Testament standards. Their prophecies are only 70% accurate, they admit. That’s the same degree of accuracy that the psychics claim. Moses said, DON’T LISTEN TO THEM.  

In Deuteronomy chapter 13 Moses gives another way to tell if a prophet is false. 

Deut. 13:1-2:  “If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, ‘Let us follow other gods’ (gods you have not known) ‘and let us worship them,’” 

All that we know about God is what He has revealed in the Bible. If someone comes and says, “God is like this, or like that,” and that person is not describing the God of the Bible, then he is speaking of another god, not the true God. He doesn’t necessarily have to say, “Let us follow Baal, or Ashteroth or Buddha or Allah.” If the god he is promoting is not the God of the Bible, it is another god. 

Moses goes on to say: 

3-4: “You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to Him.”

 More than once I’ve gone to the Lord with this complaint: “Lord, why do you let these men and women, who are teaching false doctrine, have miracles and healings?”  Moses says, “The Lord is testing you to see if you love Him.” You hear some teacher saying things you want to hear, but they go against the Bible. God is testing you. One of the chief marks of false prophets and false apostles is that they “will perform great signs and miracles” (Matt. 24:24). But if a healer or miracle-worker teaches false doctrine, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM OR HER. 

So the two ways we can know a false prophet are: 1) If what he says does not prove to be true or to come to pass; and 2) if he leads the people to follow another god than Jehovah. Even if he predicts accurately and works wonders, don’t follow him. God is testing you to see if you love Him and His revealed Word.  If they do not present God in the way He has revealed Himself in the Bible, they are false prophets and false teachers. 

Now we’ll leave Deuteronomy 18 and look at Matthew 7:13-27: 

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  

Who has the authority to say how wide and how narrow the gate to life is? Only God. Only Jesus. Man says all roads lead to heaven. Man says the way is wide and "generous." You can keep your sin and worldliness and still get to heaven. But God says that the way is narrow. The narrow way is the way God has established. The broad way is man’s way. 

15-20:  “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” 

Now, FINALLY we hear from Jesus’ own lips how we can recognize false prophets. By their fruit. But what fruit is Jesus talking about? When we look at and hear the various ministers, preachers, religious leaders claiming to speak for God, what do we look for? What is the fruit of a true prophet? 

1) Well, we’ve seen that the number of followers is not fruit. Jesus said that His way is narrow. The Pharisees had more followers than Jesus. Mohammed has around a billion followers. The Pope has another billion. When we look at some of these large, mega-churches, we’re impressed. Don’t tell me you aren’t. So when we hear strange, unscriptural things coming our of their mouths, we say, “But look how many followers they have!” But I tell you the number of followers is not fruit by which to judge true spokesmen for God. 

2) Niceness and Impressive appearance is not fruit. That’s what sheep’s clothing means--that they have a pleasant, harmless appearance. They seem to be good, respectable, maybe outstanding people. I understand that the Dalai Lama is a very nice man—gentle, amiable, well spoken. The new Pope is no doubt a nice man. Some of the worst false teachers around make a very good outward showing. But outward appearance is not fruit by which we can recognize truth speakers. 

3) Miracles are not fruit. Jesus continued: 

21-23:  “Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”  The literal translation here is “ones working lawlessness.” So signs and wonders are not fruit. 

Jesus doesn’t challenge their claim to miracles, exorcisms, and mighty works. Yet He says they are working lawlessness. Everything about them would win them high places in the religious world: They have many followers; they are nice people (with pretty sheep’s clothing), and their ministry is attended by many mighty works. Yet Jesus says, “I never knew you.”

So, then, what IS the fruit by which we can recognize one who is speaking for God? Who are the wise preachers and teachers who speak for God? 

7:24-27:  “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 

If one comes to you with the greatest charisma, the largest following, and the mightiest miracles, and does not teach and do what is taught in the New Testament, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM OR HER. God is testing us today.

Do we love Him and His Word more than anything else? Are we willing to stick to the Bible and follow Jesus in the face of great pressure to compromise and join the multitude. That’s my challenge to you and to me today. 

*This sermon draws heavily from a study by Bob DeWaay, of Twin City Fellowship, www.twincityfellowship.com/ entitled “Judging the Fruits of False Prophet.”