God is love. Love needs an object. So God created man to be the object of His love. God revealed His love to man in the world He created for him, which He Himself, after completing His creation, described as “very good.” He also showed His love in the way He made man—creating him “in His own image,” with an immortal soul and a righteousness that found its greatest joy in obeying God’s holy decrees. Additionally, God created a special garden where man could meet his Creator and enjoy close fellowship with Him in blessed communion.

All this God did, even though He knew man would rebel against Him, fall into sin, and become hostile toward Him. Believe me, God was not caught off guard by this tragic turn of events. He knew from all eternity that it would happen. Because of this foreknowledge, His plan for man’s salvation was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. From eternity, God chose His only begotten Son—the Word who was with God in the beginning, because He is God—to take on human flesh, suffer sin’s curse in our place, and redeem us from the fiery pit of hell by His holy, precious blood.

God did this not because He saw something good in us that made us worth saving, but for the same reason He created us: love. St. John expressed it well when he wrote, inspired by the Holy Spirit, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

In love, Christ Jesus made the tree of the cross a tree of life for you. There, the sinless died for the sinful. In so doing, He reconciled you to God by obtaining God’s full and free forgiveness of all your sins. And He who is holy can forgive you because He punished His Son, who bore those sins in His flesh for you.

To ensure that the forgiveness won by the shedding of His holy, precious blood might be given and applied to you, He who is love instituted the Holy Sacraments—Baptism, Absolution, and the Feast of His Body and Blood—as the means by which He comes to you with this blood-bought gift. Whoever believes this will seek Christ in these holy mysteries for salvation and life.

“But how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?… For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” It is for this very reason that Love, personified in Christ Jesus, instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry. Into this office, He places certain chosen men to be His voice—voices through which He proclaims sin and grace, law and Gospel, salvation for sinners who renounce their sin and sinfulness and turn to Him in true repentance. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.”

But they are not the only ones preaching to God’s people. Satan, who loves to mimic God, also sends prophets into the world to be his voice—the voice through which he spreads his damning lies. Now, it is true that the ministers Christ sends are as different from Satan’s prophets as night is from day. They are shepherds of the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers. Their responsibility is not only to lead Christ’s sheep to the green pastures and still waters of Word and Sacrament, but also to guard and protect them from the life-destroying errors Satan spreads through his voices. Doing the latter, while not always popular with the sheep, is just as important as doing the former. As a now-sainted Lutheran seminary professor once said, “To preach only the truth and not also to point out and condemn error wherever it exists is to fatten the sheep for the wolf.”

In sharp contrast to these under-shepherds of the Good Shepherd, false prophets seek to devour souls. That may not be their intent—they may very well believe they are doing God’s will. But remember what Jesus said: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” It is not the Father’s will to insert man’s efforts into the act of salvation, as false prophets, well-intentioned or not, inevitably do. This only leads souls away from Christ and into the jaws of the ravenous wolf.

But as great as the difference is between Christ’s ministers and false prophets, it’s not easily visible to the naked eye—and that’s what makes them so dangerous. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They look like Christians, act like Christians, and often sound like Christians as they cloak their satanic lies in the words of Scripture.

The conservative Protestant, who believes the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, will teach many truths from Scripture, but not in a way that testifies to Him who is the Truth. And that, ultimately, is the purpose of Scripture: “to make one wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The liberal, believing that human understanding constantly changes, insists that Scripture must change too. What was once regarded as sinful no longer is and thus should no longer be condemned. Repentance is turned into tolerance in the name of what is mistakenly believed to be love. Many modern liturgical churches, while beautifully preserving ancient practices, view their observances as good works that merit grace, rather than outward confessions of Christ’s presence. And the Evangelical often finds assurance of salvation not in God’s promises, but in their emotional or subjective response to God’s love—rather than in the objective promises God has attached to His Means of Grace.

Beware of false prophets! They may look like sheep, but they are wolves that seek to devour your soul. Their lies lead you away from Him who is your life. “You will know them by their fruits,” Jesus says—that is, by comparing what they preach to what He teaches in His Word.

“But,” you say, “you don’t know Scripture well enough to identify the bad fruit these bad trees are producing.” To that, dear Christian, I say: Now you know what Bible Class is for.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.