Alliance Christian Church
April 6 2025
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  • False Prophets

    Jeremiah 23:9–40 “Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: “My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed. I tremble all over. I am like a drunk person, like a person who has had too much wine, because of the way the Lord and his holy word are being mistreated. For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. They live wicked lives and they misuse their power. So the land is dried up because it is under his curse. The pastures in the wilderness are withered.” Moreover, the Lord says, “Both the prophets and priests are godless. I have even found them doing evil in my temple. So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery. They will stumble and fall headlong. For I will bring disaster on them. A day of reckoning is coming for them.” The Lord affirms it! The Lord says, “I saw the prophets of Samaria doing something that was disgusting. They prophesied in the name of the god Baal and led my people Israel astray. But I see the prophets of Jerusalem doing something just as shocking. They…”
    Introduction
    Introduction, Pump the breaks, story about slowing down on the highway to see a yard sale.
    Transition
    We’re going to be slowing way way down in the Book of Jeremiah,
    Because the topic at hand in chapters 23 all the way through 29 is Jeremiah’s interactions with False Prophets.
    And it’s really hard to explain what a ‘false’ prophet is, if you don’t have a working understanding of what a true ‘prophet’ is.
    And if you learn nothing else today, hear me on this, because this will clarify so much about how you read and understand the Bible.
    99% of what Prophets did in Biblical times was NOT predicting the future.
    By in large the role of the prophets in the Bible was NOT to predict the future.
    And you might be thinking to yourself, self, that doesn’t make any sense. I thought the whole point of having a prophet was so that they could prophesy. So that they could predict what was going to happen.
    And to that I would say.… kind of, but not really. There are times in the Bible where prophets predict that something is going to happen.
    Jeremiah makes some pretty keen predictions about the exile.
    But 99% of the job of the prophet was to apply God’s word to the lives of the people.
    The vast majority of what the prophets did was look at what was ALREADY written in scripture, and then look around at the people, and to tell them, “hey, you’re not following what Scripture says”
    In other words, they were a lot more like preachers than they were fortune tellers. Because most of what they did was to relay the written word, to remind the people of what had already been written in Scripture.
    and we actually have a perfect example of this in the Book of Jeremiah.
    Because the message that Jeremiah has been preaching this whole time is, “Turn back to God, Babylon is coming, you’re going into exile, turn back to God”
    But that message, that the people were going to be exiled if they didn’t turn back to God, that wasn’t a new revelation to Jeremiah.
    In fact the message, if you don’t turn back to God you’re going to be conquered and exiled,
    By the Time that Nebuchadnezzar's armys were at the gates, that message was already over 800 years old.
    All the way back in the book of Deuteronomy.
    All the way back, before the people of israel even entered in to the promised land
    When they were still wandering around in the desert for 40 years.
    Moses told the people of Israel this:

    Deuteronomy 4:25-31

    Deuteronomy 4:25–31 NET 2nd ed.
    After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him, I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated. Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you among the nations where the Lord will drive you. There you will worship gods made by human hands—wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. In your distress when all these things happen to you in the future days, if you return to the Lord your God and obey him (for he is a merciful God), he will not let you down or destroy you, for he cannot forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.
    So not only was the exile predicted in Scripture long before Jeremiah ever came around, but their return back to israel after the exile was already predicted in Scripture.
    Now to be clear, God did give Jeremiah special instructions about the details and the logistics. Jeremiah was able to predict how long they would be in exile, and details like that.
    But the general message, hey obey God or you’re going to get exiled, that was the sort of thing that anybody who was able to read their Bible or go to the temple and have someone read the Bible to them, could have and should have picked up on.
    When you think about it, If you’re reading through the Bible and it says, “Hey, Nation of Israel, if you commit idolatry, some mighty empire is going to come along and destroy you and scatter you from your homes.
    And then you look around and, sure enough everyone is committing idolatry.
    And then you look to the north and there’s a mighty empire that is conquering all of your neighboring countries, and sending them into exile.
    It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out, gee, I bet we’re going to be next on the chopping block.
    I say all of this, to drive home the point, that more than anything else, the prophets of the old testament were beholden to God’s written word. First and foremost.
    Because if you think about it, at the time that Jeremiah was proclaiming all of these things the “book of Jeremiah” as we know it today was not written. The Bible, for them, was Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
    That was their Bible. And above all else, if a prophet said something that went against the written word, they were a false prophet.
    Roadmap
    And so as we dive into our study today, we’re going to look at some Characteristics of False prophets as described by Jeremiah chapter 23.
    And all of these categories still apply today. Today we don’t talk about having “prophets” But we do talk about “pastors, evangelists, preachers” These are all people who have the same primary role as the prophets in the old testament, which is to apply the written word of God to the lives of the people.
    And so as you’re turning to Jeremiah Chapter 23, we’re going to talk about how
    False prophets mistake God’s authority for their own authority
    False prophets choose to say what is comfortable over what is true,
    False prophets give their own word instead of the word of God.
    Point
    Explanation
    Jeremiah 23:9–12 NET 2nd ed.
    Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: “My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed. I tremble all over. I am like a drunk person, like a person who has had too much wine, because of the way the Lord and his holy word are being mistreated. For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. They live wicked lives and they misuse their power. So the land is dried up because it is under his curse. The pastures in the wilderness are withered.” Moreover, the Lord says, “Both the prophets and priests are godless. I have even found them doing evil in my temple. So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery. They will stumble and fall headlong. For I will bring disaster on them. A day of reckoning is coming for them.” The Lord affirms it!
    Statement
    False prophets lives lives that are not in accordance with Scripture
    Explanation
    See what was happening was that the prophets somehow Got this idea in their head that because God’s word has authority, that somehow means that the prophets himself has authority
    It says they “Live wicked lives, and misuse their power”
    Argumentation
    And this has been a very real problem from the time of the Old Testament all the way to today
    I believe that this book has real authority, I believe it is the perfect word of God, and I believe that the words written in this book are meant to be a source of authority in our lives
    But just because my job is to read this authoritative book to you, that doesn’t mean that the authority of the book somehow transfers over to the one reading the book.
    It doesn’t work that way.
    And yet it’s a problem that we see again and again and again.
    There is no transitive property of authority. The authority lies with God and his word, and it stops there.
    Illustration
    And even the disciples of jesus thought this way
    In mark 10, it says

    Mark 10:35-45

    Mark 10:35–45 NET 2nd ed.
    Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Permit one of us to sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I experience?” They said to him, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I experience, but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give. It is for those for whom it has been prepared.” Now when the other ten heard this, they became angry with James and John. Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. But it is not this way among you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
    Application
    Luckily for them, they had Jesus himself to correct their error
    But you have a responsibility to guard yourself against false teachers who claim to have authority above and beyond the authority of Scripture.
    Don’t mistake administrative authority in the church for the actual true authority that comes from the perfect word of God.
    Transition
    Our second point
    Point
    Statement
    False prophets choose to say what is comfortable over what is true
    Explanation

    Jeremiah 23:13-24

    Jeremiah 23:13–24 NET 2nd ed.
    The Lord says, “I saw the prophets of Samaria doing something that was disgusting. They prophesied in the name of the god Baal and led my people Israel astray. But I see the prophets of Jerusalem doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. So then I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason that ungodliness has spread throughout the land.’ ” The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to the people of Jerusalem: “Do not listen to what those prophets are saying to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They are reporting visions of their own imaginations, not something the Lord has given them to say. They continually say to those who reject what the Lord has said, ‘Things will go well for you!’ They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’ Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord’s inner circle so they could see and hear what he has to say? Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said? But just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm! Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. In future days you people will come to understand this clearly. I did not send those prophets. Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. I did not tell them anything. Yet they prophesied anyway. But if they had stood in my inner circle, they would have proclaimed my message to my people. They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways and stop doing the evil things they are doing. Do you people think that I am some local deity and not the transcendent God?” the Lord asks. “Do you really think anyone can hide himself where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. “Do you not know that I am everywhere?” the Lord asks.
    In Jeremiah’s case, what was going on was that the prophets were going around saying what the people wanted to hear
    Jeremiah was preaching a message straight from Scripture, straight from the book of Deuteronomy, straight from God himself
    But the false prophets were too uncomfortable with that message, and so rather than preach something that was true, they chose to preach something comfortable.
    Something that wouldn’t ruffle any feathers.
    Argumentation
    And look, there is a place for using tact.
    There is real merit in not being a jerk, and just banging your fist preaching hell fire and damnation without any concern for showing love to people
    But to just straight up deny the truth of what God has said, that’s a whole other issue
    God said, look if you break the covenant of the Lord, I’m going to send you into exile
    And the false prophets were like, no, surely you won’t be punished
    Surely God won’t make good on his promise
    Illustration
    And ironically, that’s exactly the same message that the serpent in the Garden of Eden said.
    Did God really say that if you eat of the fruit you will die? No, surely you won’t die.
    And look, full disclosure, preaching about the difficult parts of the Bible is my least favorite thing to do\
    I don’t like it.
    I don’t think most people like to talk about sin, and judgement.
    Because it’s not fun. It’s not comfortable
    Application
    But if we’re to be true to the word of God, we have to be willing to read and apply the entire Bible. Not just the parts that we agree with, or the parts that make us feel good.
    Transition
    Because as soon as you start to pick and choose which parts of the Bible are useful for teaching rebuking and training in righteousness and which parts aren’t then you’re not talking about the word of God anymore
    Then all you’re doing is giving your own opinion
    Point
    Statement
    False prophets preach opinions over the word of God.
    Explanation

    Jeremiah 23:25-32

    Jeremiah 23:25–32 NET 2nd ed.
    The Lord says, “I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’ Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. How long will they go on plotting to make my people forget who I am through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal. Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! I, the Lord, affirm it! My message is like a fire that purges dross. It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. I, the Lord, so affirm it! So I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me. I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. I, the Lord, affirm it!”
    This is why I made such a big deal at the beginning to say that the primary role of the prophet was first and foremost a responsibility to the written word
    For them it was the Torah, the first five books of the Bible
    And for us, it’s the entire inspired word of God
    Because if you believe that the role of the prophet is primarily to predict the future, not apply God’s word, then all of a sudden anybody can have an opinion, anybody can have a dream or “say” that God came to them in a vision,
    And you have no way of knowing what’s true or not.
    If what we taught in the church was based on dreams and direct revelation from God then you end up with a scenario in which anybody can say anything, and you have no idea if it’s true or not
    At least until after it’s too late
    I don’t know about you, but if one prophet is saying “you’re going to be exiled into Babylon if you don’t repent” and the other is saying “no you’re going to be fine, just keep doing what you’re doing”
    I would kind of want to have some way to know who’s telling the truth BEFORE having to wait to see which prediction came true.
    Argumentation
    I don’t believe that God “can’t” speak directly to his people, even today
    Because I’m not in the business of telling God what He can and Can’t do
    I absolutely believe God CAN give direct revelation to people
    However. If I have one statement from God that I verifiably know is true, his written word
    And one statement that someone CLAIMS is coming from God, which one do you think is the more reliable source??
    And it was the exact same for the prophets in Jeremiah’s time, and the exact same for the people all the way through the Bible.
    Illustration
    Paul in the book of Galatians goes so far to tell the church, look:
    Galatians 1:8 NET 2nd ed.
    But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell!
    Paul puts his money where his mouth is. He’s like even if I, Paul, even if I came to you
    Heck, even if the angel Gabriel himself comes in to your room in the middle of the night
    If it’s not in line with the Word of God, if it’s not in line with the word’s of Christ, it’s not from God
    Application
    You have a responsibility to test everything you hear, and everything you read, and everything you feel through the lens of the written word
    And I know, this is a big book.
    but I can promise you, you can sort out a lot of falsehoods simply by comparing them to this book.
    And that’s part of why I’m here
    You’re free to come to me and say, “hey, I read this book, I saw this thing on TV, I heard this preacher say this one thing one time. Is this true?”
    And I promise you the very next thing out of my mouth won’t be, “well in my opinion”
    It’s going to be, well let’s look in the Bible and see if what you heard lines up with Scripture.
    Transition
    As we transition into our last section of Scripture about false prophets here in Jeremiah 23, before we get too deep into it, we have a translation issue that we need to work through.
    Two Views:
    In any language, we have plenty of words that can mean different things in different contexts.
    Take the English word “run” for example
    You can “run” to the store, and in that context the word “run” means drive in your car
    You can “run” up a credit card bill, and the word run means “spend”
    You can eat “runny” eggs, and the word means liquid. (By the way, that’s the only proper way to eat eggs.
    And those sorts of things happen in the Bible too. And most of the time by looking at the context of the passage, and comparing it with the whole rest of the Bible, it’s pretty easy to figure out what meaning goes to the word.
    But sometimes, it’s not that easy.
    We have one of those cases here in Jer 23:33.
    And rather than me tell you which one I think is correct, I’m going to give you both versions. And we’ll talk about what the passage means depending on which understanding we use
    Because lots of smart teams of people work countess hours translating the Bible into English, and when they disagree, I try not to pretend to be an expert when I’m clearly not.
    So, if you read Jeremiah 23:33 and following and you’re reading out of the New International Version, the New American Standard Bible, or the New King James, Verse 33 looks something like this:
    Jeremiah 23:33 NIV
    “When these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, ‘What is the message from the Lord?’ say to them, ‘What message? I will forsake you, declares the Lord.’
    If you’re reading in the English Standard Version, the New Revised Standard, the Christian Standard, or the Old king James, it looks like
    Jeremiah 23:33 ESV
    “When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’
    The word, here in the Hebrew is “masa” and at the core of it it means “something you carry”
    And it can mean “burden” as in “carrying a heavy burden” or being burdened by something.
    Or it can mean “message” as in “carrying a message from the Lord”
    And so if we read in the NIV, we read
    Jeremiah 23:34–40 NIV
    If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ I will punish them and their household. This is what each of you keeps saying to your friends and other Israelites: ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ But you must not mention ‘a message from the Lord’ again, because each one’s word becomes their own message. So you distort the words of the living God, the Lord Almighty, our God. This is what you keep saying to a prophet: ‘What is the Lord’s answer to you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ Although you claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ this is what the Lord says: You used the words, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ even though I told you that you must not claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord.’ Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your ancestors. I will bring on you everlasting disgrace—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”
    Basically, the point God is making here if: if you’re a false prophet, stop going around claiming to have a message from God.
    Stop saying the phrase “message from the Lord” because you’re just a liar.
    So stop trying to claim something that’s just not true.
    Now, let’s read the same verse in the ESV, we read:
    Jeremiah 23:33–40 ESV
    “When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’ And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ I will punish that man and his household. Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the Lord,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ ” therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ”
    In this reading, the basic takeaway is, the false prophets were going around claiming that God’s message to Israel, the message that God wanted them to repent of their sins and turn back to him,
    That was burdensome.
    It was troublesome, it was too uncomfortable of a thing to say
    And so the prophets were going around claiming that any revelation from God was a “Burden”
    What burden from God are you receiving now.
    Both of these readings of text make perfect sense in the context of what Jeremiah is saying.
    Both of these readings of the text are perfectly in line with everything else in Scripture.
    And you can find wisdom in either one.
    Because god’s word is true. And it’s not ok for anyone to claim “thus says the lord” if it’s not indeed coming from God
    And God’s word is not a burden. It’s the most life-giving thing that we could ever have. And for any of us to go around and talk about the life-giving word of God as if it’s some sort of burden on us, well we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

    Jeremiah 23

    Conclusion
    Either way you shake it, it doesn’t change the core point.
    God’s word reigns supreme over all things.
    There’s no book you can read, no sermon you can hear, no feeling you can feel, nothing in all creation can compare to the power and truth in the written word of God.
    It has the power to change lives, mend hearts, demolish sin. This book always has been and always will be the supreme source of authority until Christ himself comes back.
    So be on your guard for false prophets.
    Be like the Bereans in the book of acts. When they heard something new, they didn’t just take to it right away, the y searched the scriptures daily until they were certain that what they had heard was in line with God’s word.
    Because anything else, is just false prophecy .
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