False Prophets, Dead Prophets

The False Prophets' Cry of Peace in Ezekiel 13 2:28

Well, spiritually speaking, today's scripture reading from Ezekiel 13, there's a lot of talk about peace. If you were to underline it, you'd see it on multiple occasions. In today's text, there's a lot of talk about peace, but the ones talking about peace are who? They're the false prophets.

They're ones who are looking about at all the same apostasy and horrors and abominations that God showed Ezekiel, and when they look at these things, they think everything's okay. The people thought that things were going well, that the future was bright even. The exiles would shortly return. Everything would get back to normal.

This was what the prophets were saying. They're saying the future is so bright, you have to wear shades there in Israel in order to apprehend it. The people are being given by the prophets the all clear. The people were being told the things are okay.

In fact, the future is very, very promising. The things that we're now doing, which involves a lot of gross idolatry, is actually virtuous, and the future couldn't be better. And meanwhile, the people were yielding to all that. They were listening to the false prophets telling them this stuff.

They're dancing what you would call the spiritual shallows right before the tidal surge would come in and wipe them away. And that's what we see in Ezekiel 13. The storm was coming, the people were unprepared, and the main reason they were unprepared is because the people who had been charged with speaking to them were not doing their jobs.

Prophesying Out of Their Own Hearts 3:48

“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, 'Hear the word of the LORD!”

— Ezekiel 13:2 (NKJV)

Let's see how God will redress them as we look at verses 1 and 2 of today's text. Verse 1: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, Hear the word of the Lord.

Have you ever during the night lost something, maybe a watch, glasses? I tend to lose them both, but in the dark of the night, have you ever misplaced something? You can't find what you're looking for. Well, what do you need to do in order to track it down?

Well, it's not hard. You need to turn on the light. If it's dark amongst you and you lost something that you need, be it your phone, your wallet, your watch, your keys, what have you, in order to find what you have lost, you need to turn on the light and give some transcendent illumination to your circumstances in order for you to discern the reality of the room around you.

And apart from some sort of transcendent illumination from overhead, you're just going to stumble around, just blindly grasping in the dark. In a sense, that's what the prophets were doing in Jerusalem and in the exile. These were prophets that had the option of looking to transcendent illumination to help and instruct them. And yet, what they were doing instead is what we see in verses 1 and 2.

They were looking within chambers of their own hearts for assistance, for help, for decrees, for how to act, how to prophesy. They were following their own hearts and not yielding to the light that comes from on high. And then they did something really ridiculous. After listening to what their own hearts were saying and then telling the people what their own hearts had decreed — after doing that, they had the gall to then append to their prophecy: These are the words of the Lord.

You see what they're doing? They prophesy of their own hearts. They look around and say, you know, what do the people want to hear? And whatever that is, I'll tell them that, because that will allow my life to go much better.

I'll look for cues within the fallen, darkened world and not from on high. And I'll tell them these things that come from the hearts of my neighbors and apply for myself. And then when I'm done telling them those things, then I will say, these are the words of the Lord. You start to wonder, you start to figure out why God was upset with these prophets.

These guys were making things up as they went along. And that's what God calls them out on here in verses 1 and 2. They're making up things as they went along. They were cooking up a prophecy in the kitchen of their own heart.

They served up a dish and said that God had prepared it. It wasn't going to turn out well for them.

Foxes in the Ruins: Prophets Who Failed to Build the Wall 6:29

“O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the LORD.”

— Ezekiel 13:4-5 (NKJV)

Let's look at verses 3 through 7 to see God's building response. Verse 3: Thus saith the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and yet who have seen nothing. O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. Some translations say ruins there.

You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the Lord. They've envisioned futility, false divination, then said, Thus say the Lord, but the Lord has not sent them. And they hope that the word may be still confirmed.

Have you not seen a futile vision? Have you not spoken false divination? You say, The Lord says, but I have not spoken. God's rebuking these false prophets for having the gall to tell people nonsense and lies and then attach His name to it.

You know, if you ever have a chance to visit Israel or the Middle East, really anywhere in the Middle East, what you'll notice there is there's archaeological sites everywhere. I've had a chance in Israel and Egypt, a few different areas, and because these are lands of antiquity, there's ruins just about everywhere you look.

There's all sorts of sites you can visit across the deserts. Now, if you were to visit really any one of these different sites, especially the ones in South Israel, especially the ones towards the south, towards the Dead Sea and the like, you'll find something. You'll find that there's these piles of rubble out in the desert, and about the only thing — outside of the tourists — but the only other thing that has any interest in these sites are things like foxes, jackals, things that can make dens and burrows in the ruins.

Outside of the tourists, that's about the only thing that has any interest in the ruins are the dens — or the jackals and the dens that they're forming there. In a sense, the prophets of Ezekiel's day, God is saying, you are like those jackals. The very ruins of a once vibrant faith are all around you.

But instead of patching up the walls, instead of speaking the truth, instead of helping the people and validating My word, instead of trying to firm up the wall to protect against people like the Babylonians, what are y'all doing? You are like the foxes in the ruins down the road, just going in and out, and finding dens, and making yourself comfortable.

Meanwhile, the city burns. Meanwhile, the people die, and you, you're just making yourself comfortable. And then you have the gall, as you're making yourselves comfortable, to continue to claim that you're speaking on My behalf.

Called by Men, Not Sent by God: Discerning a True Ministry 8:59

He says, that's not the way this is working. Now, these men, they were prophets by name, but not by calling, not by ordination, you might say. As a side note, just because someone's referred to as a prophet or even as a pastor does not mean that that individual has actually been called by God to that office.

That's what we see in verse 6. It says, the Lord had not sent them. They were called prophets by their peers, but God says, hey, I didn't send these guys. It was true in that age.

It's true in ours as well. Just because someone has the title, the pulpit, the sign on the door of their office does not necessarily mean that they're ordained of God to this work. So how in their day and how in our day can you discern those who are sent or called or ordained of God to the role and responsibility?

Well, the primary way, the primary means is to ask yourself: Is the individual who presumes to speak, speaking words that reflect what's in the book? That's the number one sign. Whether you're in this church or any church where God should take you down the road, the number one sign of a healthy church, a healthy pulpit ministry, is the degree to which this book is open and its words are repeated in the ears of the congregation.

And the degree to which anything else the pastor says reflects what's here. That's the first sign of a healthy pulpit ministry. It was the first sign of a healthy prophetic ministry. But these guys weren't doing that.

They were ministering out of their own hearts. And God says, no. He says, this is not the way that this works. This is a spiritual office, not a carnal one. It's a spiritual office.

You use spiritual means. You don't look inside the chambers of your own heart and declare what you find there to be true.

Preaching from the Heart vs. Preaching the Word 10:43

You point to the Word. There's a famous modern Baptist pastor. He said the most dangerous man in the world is the man who comes up to the pulpit, looks at the congregation, and says, Today, today I'm just going to preach from my heart. Why is that dangerous?

Because the heart is deceitfully wicked. Who can know it? You do not want what's in a man's heart. You want what's in this book.

Again, it was true in that day's age as well. This should be intuitive. Every culture of our age should say amen to this stuff. The problem is people have itchy ears, and we'll get to that in a few moments.

Whatever the case here, these people, these people, Ezekiel's contemporaries, they needed a word from the Lord.

God Sets Himself Against the False Prophets 11:28

“Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you, says the Lord GOD.”

— Ezekiel 13:8 (NKJV)

That's not what the false prophets were giving them. Let's see how things turn out for them. Let's look now at verses 8 and 9. Verse 8: Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you, says the Lord God.

My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies. They shall not be in the assembly of my people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel. They shall not enter in the land of Israel — speaking to those in exile at the time — and then you will know that I am the Lord.

You know, back when I was in seminary, I knew I was Reformed and I knew I was Presbyterian, but I was spending a lot of time taking a look at how other denominations approached ministry and trying to learn from these things. Well, one particular night — I don't remember the context, but I was up late.

I think my son was small and the child needed a diaper change or what have you. But I remember it was late night, about two o'clock in the morning. I turned on the TV. That was back when you change channels from one thing to the next.

I'm changing the channels there. And there's a televangelist, because I guess it's easy to buy time at two o'clock in the morning where there's a lot of hopeless, broken people watching the tube. So two o'clock in the morning, I sit there and I turn on the TV and there's a televangelist. And this televangelist at this particular day had this pile of handkerchiefs in front of him.

I didn't know what this was all about. What's going on here? And the guy began to talk and very quickly it got to money. And he said this, he says, If you would just sow your seed into this ministry, I will touch one of these cloths, these prayer cloths.

I will pray over it and I will send it to you as my gift that you might be blessed. Now, what was being conveyed here? Well, number one, send money. That was the number one thing was send money.

But number two was this idea that by virtue of touching this cloth with his sweaty, money-stained hands, he'd send it to you and somehow, somehow you'd be blessed as a result of wiping it around or touching it or just having it. It was like a relic. It was like the papacy, like Rome.

If he does touch this thing, somehow you're going to be blessed as a result. Now, this is one example of many. One example where the standards have slipped, where we've introduced pragmatism, just doing things that are right in our own eyes. What seems to make sense to us?

How should we minister? How should we preach? How should we lead the church? I don't know.

Whatever feels right to our own hearts. We see this time and time again throughout the greater church. We see this tendency people have to rely on their own thoughts about what's right and then to do their own thoughts or to apply their own views to the church, to ministry, to preaching. That's not the way that this is supposed to work.

And what we see in today's text in verses eight through nine is God says, therefore, because you did this — talking to the false prophets in Ezekiel's day — because you've done this repeatedly, time and time again, habitually, because that's the ministry you've chosen for yourself — therefore, you've made me your enemy.

What does it say here? Because you spoke nonsense, envisioned lies — therefore, I am against you. I don't know about you, but it's a bad idea to make an enemy of God. I wonder what's the power to smite you with a breath from His nostrils.

That's a bad plan. And God says to the false prophets, to guys who look religious in tall pointy hats and the like — he says, I'm against you. It didn't matter that they still had a temple. It didn't matter that they still had all the facade of religion that once was.

They still had the facade. From 10,000 feet up, if you were to look at that culture, you'd say, boy, they must be religious. There's sacrifices and the like. There's tall pointy hats.

They got the temple. They must be religious. Not so much. And God says, I'm going to turn first against the leaders, against the prophets.

And we saw last week the elders. It's the leaders who have led the people astray that I'm coming after initially. In our day and age, I would hate to be in the shoes of the televangelist who milks and squeezes broken people at two in the morning to fatten his coffers. In the case of the false prophets, God says that the names of these, they'll be written out.

They'll be written out of the record, out of Israel's history. And those who have prophesied while in exile, because there was guys in Tel Abib and elsewhere in Babylon that were also prophesying, saying, we're going to get to go home real soon. God says, not so much. You're not going to set foot in the land ever again.

The Whitewashed Wall: A False Peace That Cannot Stand 15:47

All right, let's look at verse 10 through 16. This is a little bit of a larger block of text. Verse 10. Because indeed, because they've seduced my people.

Listen to that word. Because they've seduced. Touch my prayer cloth, so to speak. Because they've seduced my people, saying peace when there is no peace.

And one builds a wall and they plaster it with whitewash or untempered mortar. Say to those who plaster it with the untempered mortar that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstone, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall tear it down. Surely where the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, where is the mortar with which you plastered it?

Therefore, says the Lord your God, I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in my fury, and there shall be a flooding rain in my anger, and great hailstones and fury to consume it. So I will break down the wall that you've plastered with untempered mortar and I will bring it to the ground.

So its foundation will be uncovered. It will fall and you will be consumed in the midst of it. Then you will know that I am the Lord. And thus will I accomplish my wrath on the wall and on those who plastered it with untempered mortar.

And I will say to you, the wall is no more, nor those who plastered it. That is, the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning of Jerusalem. We see visions of peace when there is no peace, says the Lord your God. You know, the security of a city in days of antiquity, the security of old cities back in the day, back in Ezekiel's time — you might think that the security was based on, you know, the size of the army, right?

How many men do they got? Or maybe the nature of their weapons — how kitted out, you know, what kind of weaponry they had to fit their army with. You might think that that was the basis of their security and their protection. Well, not so much.

The main thing that protected a city in ancient days was not the size of the army, and it wasn't their weaponry. It was what? It was their walls. You ever seen Masada?

The Romans tried to go against Masada. You can defend. Even the most ragtag bunch of farmers can defend a city, presuming that it's built in the right spot, presuming that its walls are strong enough to endure the enemy's attacks. Now, with that said, what if you got a city and — and it's got walls, but you know, the walls are kind of shoddy, kind of falling apart.

Maybe there's some gaps in the walls or broken in other places. And what if the guys who are charged with kind of fixing the walls — what if they took a whitewash, just kind of threw it on their untempered mortar, right? It's like the equivalent of taking bubble gum and patching walls. What if guys did that in a wall that you were hoping would protect you from the enemy?

How comfortable would you be for a wall that was assembled with paper mache and bubble gum and things like that? Well, probably not that much. You see, this isn't going to last long. This isn't going to go well for us.

The prophets of Israel, the spiritual walls had already come tumbling down. The people had given in to all manner of idolatrous practices, doing all manner of things wrong. And the prophets had the opportunity to build those walls back up by preaching the word, by telling people the truth. They had the opportunity to do that.

And instead, when they came up to the wall, they took their chewing gum out and spackled it on there and said, we're good. We're protected now. And God says, not in the least. And so he uses this analogy in verses 10 through 16, this idea of a city that's protected by bubble gum and says, it isn't going to fly.

It isn't going to work when my wrath comes. The people were saying, peace, peace, we're good. We're protected. God's on our side, and He says, I'm actually your enemy.

I'm actually your enemy based on what you've done. You can't bow down to Tammuz and think that I'm just going to go, hmm, that I'm just going to shrug my shoulders. And it's not just that you've done that. You bow down to the sun, Tammuz, every creepy thing on the globe you've done.

You of your own volition have made me your enemy, at least for a season. And it's going to be a hard season. And you are not protected in the least. While you're declaring peace, peace, I've declared war against you.

Again, it's not a small thing to make God your enemy.

Peace and Safety, Then Sudden Destruction 19:47

Now, this idea of peace, peace that the people are promoting, it's interesting. Remember at the outset we talked about the idea of a tsunami coming and everything seems peaceful for a season, or being in the eye of a hurricane and everything seems peaceful? Again, these people were in the eye of the hurricane, and they already had the signs that things had gone bad.

There had already been one exile. A batch of people had already been taken to Babylon. Now, they still had their city and they still had their temple. But they were in the eye of the storm.

The back wall of the eye was coming. Meanwhile, they were pretending they were in an entirely different circumstance. They were sitting in the eye of the hurricane, and they were presuming that this was the time for Jimmy Buffett and Margaritaville, that this is the restful time. Now this — in the New Testament, we see pictures of this as well.

1 Thessalonians 5 — listen to what Christ Himself, or what God predicts through Paul's writings of Christ's return. 1 Thessalonians 5, it says that you know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. In other words, when you're not prepared, when you think things are good, the day of the Lord is going to come.

For when you say peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon you as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. You shall not escape. Whether you're talking about the Old Testament or the New Testament, there's this idea that when people think, hey, everything's good, we're good. Never mind that we've short-sheeted the beds of doctrine.

Never mind that we don't do what we should be doing. Never mind that we water down theology, never mind that worship has become this silly, trivial thing to us. We're good, we're good. Peace and safety, peace and safety.

God says, no, at the very time that you get to that level of complacency, that's like the eye of the storm. It's gonna be bad. When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them. This is true in the Old Testament, it's true in the New as well.

Judgment on the False Prophetesses Who Hunt Souls 21:33

All right, let's look at verses 17 through 21. Verse 17, Likewise, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own heart, prophesy against them, and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their sleeves and make veils for the heads of people of every height to hunt souls.

Will you hunt the souls of my people and keep yourselves alive? Will you profane me amongst my people for handfuls of barley, for pieces of bread, killing people who should not die and keeping people alive who should not live? By lying to my people who listen to lies? Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against you.

I am against your magic charms by which you hunt souls. They're like the birds. I will tear them from your arms and let the souls go, the souls that you hunt like birds. I will also tear off your veils and deliver my people out of your hand, and there shall no longer be prey in your hand.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord. As you may already know, there were no women priests in Israel. However, throughout the Old Testament, there are many references, even in the New as well, but there's many references in the Old Testament to women who had certain prophetic giftings or roles. For example, Moses' own sister Miriam is referred to as a prophetess in Exodus 15.

Deborah the judge in Judges 4 verse 4, she's referred to as a prophetess. Even the prophet Isaiah, his own wife is referred to as a prophetess in Isaiah chapter 8. It would seem that there was a precedent for women prophets during the time of Ezekiel's own ministry. With that said, the women could be just as guilty and wicked as the men.

In verse 18, the women in question, whatever the role and office was, they were not occupying it in a good and godly way. They were basically witches, for lack of a better term. They relied on what's called magic charms, demonic works, to hunt souls of God's people, which is what He accused them of doing here.

And God has the same message for them that He had for the men. He says, behold, I'm coming for you. I'm not going to let you keep doing what you've been doing.

Grieving the Righteous and Strengthening the Wicked 23:36

All right, let's look at our last verses now, verses 22 and 23. Verse 22: Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, and you have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so he does not turn from his wicked way to save his life.

Therefore, you shall no longer envision futility, nor practice divination, for I will deliver my people from out of your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord. I wonder, what would you say if there was a doctor who deliberately withheld life-giving medicine to his patients? Well, you'd say such a doctor is cruel.

That's a wicked practice. You have a patient who's in dire need of your assistance, and you have the means, and you have the medicine that would assist, and yet you withhold it? That's cruel. That's wicked.

That's not the way it's supposed to be. Now, on the other hand, what if there's a man who was to push another man in front of a speeding train? What would we say then? We'd say, that's cruel.

That's wicked. You should not do such a thing. You see, it's wicked to both cause harm, to cause harm, like pushing someone in front of a train. It's also wicked to fail to prevent harm when you have the ability and opportunity to do so.

Causing harm and failing to prevent it are both bad things. In Ezekiel's day, the prophets and the prophetesses were doing both. Scripture says they were harming the righteous. They were taking people who didn't need to be sad and making them sad.

They're taking God's righteous ones, the few that were left, the remnant, and they were breaking their hearts. You want to know a guy who was sad at this time? Jeremiah. What was he called?

The weeping prophet. Righteous people, wonderful people were being made sad by these folks. Meanwhile, the wicked people, their hands were being strengthened by these same folks. In verse 23, God says, I'm done.

I'm not going to deal with this anymore. Everybody out of the pool. Judgment is coming. And in verse 23, he says, I will deliver my people.

I will deliver them from out of your hand. You who have made the righteous sad and who have strengthened the wicked, I'm going to deliver my people out of your hand. And when I do so, then you're going to know that I am the Lord.

Itching Ears: False Teaching in the Last Days 25:45

All right, let me offer a final exhortation as we wrap up this morning. As you probably know, false prophets, false teachers, they're not just a thing of the past. In fact, something interesting happens. The closer we get to the end, whenever that should be, the closer we get to Christ's return, Scripture says they become even more numerous.

There's even more the later you get into the pages of history. 2 Timothy 4 tells us this straightforwardly. 2 Timothy 4 says this — says, The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itchy ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers.

Just picture that, heaping up teachers and false prophets and the like. They will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and they will be turned aside unto fables. A day is going to come when things are going to get worse and worse to the point that my people, God says, they will have such itchy ears, they're going to turn away from the truth, and they are going to heap up people who tell them what they want to hear.

The State of Theology: Modern Apostasy in the Church 26:56

Now, some of you know Ligonier Ministries, a ministry that was founded by R.C. Sproul. Ligonier Ministries conducts something called the State of Theology. It's a survey study in order to assess basic evangelical understanding of essential matters of belief and practice.

And every year, they report on what's going on in the world around us, in the church world, not just the world world, but in the church world. And they say, hey, here's what the people are reporting back. Here's surveys on biblical faithfulness and fidelity and the like, and what people believe. And as these studies come forth, every year there's a common thread.

Every year, the numbers get worse. The numbers get worse every year that they do this. Historically confessed truths, things people have believed for centuries. Increasingly, by large margins, year in, year out, are replaced by heresy.

Now, I'm just going to give you three brief examples in our final minute or so. As of this year, as of this year, 2022, 56% of professing evangelicals, that means mainline Christians and whatever Protestant church they're in, 56% of professing evangelicals say this, that all religions lead to heaven. That doesn't really matter what you believe.

56%. The majority. Let me stop the presses. The majority of people in pews across our country, the majority, not a minority, the majority believe that you don't have to believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved.

Irrespective of what God's word says, which says that there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. 56% of modern evangelicals believe the opposite. As of 2022, 53% of professing evangelicals say that the Bible is not true in all things. They say that the Bible contains truth.

There's truth in this book, but we got to figure out what it is. It's not true everywhere. It can't be. You know, it was written so long ago and it's been translated and the like.

53% of professing evangelicals say the Bible is not true in all things. 56% of professing evangelicals say church membership or participation is not necessary or that's irrelevant for the modern believer. 56% of people think that the church is a thing that you can use and take advantage of if you'd like to, but it's not essential.

I could go on with the statistics here. Read them for yourself. Ligonier Ministries, State of Theology, you can find all this for yourself. Now, all that's dreadful.

Our eyebrows go up and our jaws drop to the ground. All of it's dreadful. But again, my point to you is this. These are not a study of what the secular the world is saying.

This is not a study of what pagans and people out there are saying. This is a study what people in professing churches are saying, at least those who profess the name of Jesus Christ.

How Apostasy Happens: When My People Love to Have It So 29:45

Now, as you let that sink in, let me ask you, how did things get that way? It wasn't always that way, so how did we get there? How did all this craziness happen? Well, it happened the same way that apostasy developed in Ezekiel's own day.

It happened because men who called themselves pastors or priests or prophets stood in pulpits just like this, and they preached from their hearts, not from the Word of God. Now, how did those men get in those positions? How did this happen? It wasn't overnight, but ultimately they got there because they said what people wanted to hear.

They said what people wanted to hear. You know, the prophet Ezekiel had a contemporary named Jeremiah we talked about a minute ago. He talked about the false prophets as well. I'm going to close with his words in Jeremiah 5.

Jeremiah said this, and it's a warning to the people in his age, and I assure you it is a warning to the people of our age as well. He said this. He said, An astonishing, horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power, and my people love to have it so.

A terrible thing has happened. The prophets, they're prophesying falsely. The priests are doing their job under their own power, and my people, that's the way they want it. My people love to have it so.

And then he asked this question, this rhetorical question. He says this. He says, But what will you do in the end? What will you do in the end?

Question for them, question for us. Let's pray.