But where of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves? You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistle. Are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and yet it did not fall where it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against that house, and it fell. And great was it's fall. The word of the Lord. This morning's message is pretty much topical. I will be referring to the passage that was read earlier in the service, but we're in a series shepherding and the care of souls, primarily taken from Ezekiel 34, which seems to be pretty much a hub passage. It has a lot to say, kind of summing up the Old Testament from Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want through the words of Jeremiah, the prophet, acknowledging the problems at the time of the Babylonian captivity that the shepherds of Israel had not done well, and promising the faithful servant of the Lord, the Messiah, the son of David, who would be God, the Messiah shepherding as people. So it's the springboard from which Jesus would say, I am the good shepherd and is a significant passage. So we've been looking at that. We've looked at the woes that God has pronounced on the shepherd. We have looked at God's pledge and promised to shepherd the sheep. We have looked at the aim or the goal in shepherding, the peace that God would set up, a covenant of peace with his people. And he plays that out in terms of the security that we would have in this Messiah, the son of David. And today I want to talk to us as sheep. Now, I had originally wanted to talk a little bit about who are the shepherds. And as I studied that, I got to tell you, it just was too much and be too technical to try and preach. So I punted on that. I put it in your bulletin. I've got a couple, I'm just going to make kind of some summary statements about it. If you want to study it further, I only printed a few copies of like study notes on that. There's a daily devotional on the back table and you should feel free to. But if you'll just take my word on the shepherding, what I have to say about that, that should be good enough. If you don't, that's fine. I've got notes back there for you to study it out and to see that, indeed, what I'm saying is from the scriptures. So let's take a peek. First we'll look, who are the shepherds? Again, I hope to cover this rather quickly and then we'll spend our time on the topic, being faithful sheep in God's flock. So who are the shepherds? What I did, just so you know, is I would say Google, but it's my concordance on the computer. The word shepherds, shepherds, shepherding, shepherded, etc. and just read through them and then looked at some other words and filled them then and this is what I come up with. The shepherds are the kings and as kings, kings govern with justice and righteousness. I put that in there just so you can think about this, where we do have the role of shepherd, part of it is this ruling, this pursuing justice and righteousness as God defines it in his word. So kings, that's probably the primary idea everyone understood, kings ruled. Prophets, prophets speak forth God's word, they were God's spokesman, they are God's spokesman. The preaching ministry is a prophetic role, a prophetic office where the words thus say at the Lord come and that is the job of the prophet. That's part of the shepherding role is to say, hey, God speaks and you need to listen to it. Priests represent the people of God. They're part of the shepherds. The priests brought the sacrifices, not only the sacrifices for sin and made a tomen on behalf of the people, but they also brought the thank offerings, the fellowship offerings, they were the peoples represented before God and they went into God's local presence if you will at the temple or tabernacle into the holy place and once a year into the holy of holies where God was to represent the people of God in the altar of incense with the prayers. They were to present the prayers of God's people, much like Dave Weldon did for us this morning in the service of worship. These were the main shepherds, but to be honest with you appointed leaders, the officials, the cabinet of the king, if you will, the lawmakers, the local elders within the community, and thus we see even when we move to the New Testament that the elders in the churches are called shepherds and are called upon to shepherd the flock which Christ has purchased with his own blood. These are the shepherds. Now, if it's true that it's kings and prophets and priests and leaders then we can't make and I encourage you to make wide application, a broad application that all those who have a leadership position have a shepherding responsibility and they don't always go together. In other words, a king mostly rules, right, seeks to administer justice and righteousness and a prophet mostly prophesies. If you have a bad king who rules unjustly and doesn't pursue righteousness or lead the people to do that, but you have a faithful prophet who is speaking the word of God, the one shepherd king is bad and the one prophet speaking the word of the Lord saying, hey, that's the word we're supposed to be seeking justice and righteousness and so are the people. He's a good shepherd and we all have that role. So, so teachers, parents, elders in the church, bosses, you who have a level of authority, you are shepherds of God's people and you should take that role seriously and know the aim of God's shepherding the peace of this people. But the scripture speaks to the sheep as well and that's where I want us to spend most of our time this morning just to show you from Ezekiel saying, so that's kind of the hub for this series. The Lord God speaks in verse 17 as for you, my flock thus says the Lord and he goes on to speak through verse 22 specifically to the sheep and then again at the very end of the chapter he says and you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture and I am your God. He clears the Lord. God. So, he does speak to the sheep and in Ezekiel's passage he is bringing judgment much like he was upon the shepherds of Israel of his day. So, as I address you as the sheep, the sheep of God's flock, I want to talk to you about how to be faithful sheep, right? And I know that we could do a series on this as well as the series on shepherding but we'll look at these three things. I think there are three key things and they really do flow from Ezekiel but some of them are more, the first two are more implied than stated clearly and so I thought I would give you some passages that stated clearly and then the third point we'll see comes from the text. Anyway, here's the first point. Be submissive to God's appointed leaders. Be submissive to God's appointed leaders. You know, Jesus in John chapter 10 says he's the fulfillment. He says, I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep and in verse 27, this is what he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So, as sheep, you hear the voice of God. You hear the voice of our Lord Jesus. There's the ring of truth when the preacher preaches the word of God or there should be. You should be able to hear the voice of Christ as you read the scriptures and your devotions. You should hear him and you should follow, right? Jesus says my sheep will follow me and so we follow him. And then specifically to this idea of obeying and submitting, you see Hebrews 13 and I wanted these scriptures before you. There's the only ones I'm putting on the screen for you this morning, but look at these words, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your soul as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, but that would be of no advantage to you. First, let me point out the shepherding nature of the passage, the word shepherd is not used, but when he says for they keep watch over your souls, that's shepherding language, right? And the very context of Ezekiel 34 is God holding the shepherd's accountable. The sinner sheep will be held accountable for their sin. There's no doubt about that, but the shepherd's too. So again, if you put on your shepherd hat for just a moment, the way you husband's the way you love your wife, parents the way you love your children, the way you bring them up, elders in the church, the way you care for the flock, you need to know, God will hold each person accountable for their sin. And that's not you, but your job to shepherd, your job to care for the souls, it's upon you. And coming back to the sheep now, notice it says, obey your leaders and submit to your leaders, obey and submit the two most popular words in our culture today, right? Okay, maybe not. Maybe not at all. We like this egalitarian idea that's not taught in the scriptures. This idea that there are leaders, that there are, you know, God, the most high, the sovereign overall. And he appoints leaders, he appoints Moses, he appoints David, he appoints elders in the church, he appoints a structure so that the husband is head of the wife and the parents are the head or have rule over the children and so on. These are clearly taught in the scriptures. And we need to accept them and see that there they are. It's interesting. Obey is the translation in the RSV, the ESV, the NIV, the new American standard, the new King James. It's obey, obey, obey, obey in all the words, but it's not a word for word literal translation. The idea behind it is to be persuaded, to come alongside in a sense, to listen to and be persuaded by it, be persuaded by what is said. That's that's kind of an amazing thing when you think about it.
It's to resist no longer, but to give way. That's what's behind the submit. There's a sense where our obedience and our submission to God-appointed leaders needs to be in no way kind of a bridging submission, but instead a desire for their welfare. I've seen it more than once. I've told people, individuals more than once, your success is bound up in your leader's success. Want it? Work hard for it. You will do well as you follow their way. Often what happens is there's always, well not always, but there's often more than one way to skin a cat, right? And you have a way that seems right to you and another person has a right that seems to them. And your leader has a way that seems right and they want to lead in that way. And you say, well, but there's a better way. Well, even if there is, if they're the leader, you will do well getting behind their leadership and making their programs succeed. You will do well when you make your leaders look good. So the passage talks about that. It tells us to in the context that this is true when it says, let them do this with joy and not with grief. Don't let it be a burden to them. That's the idea. The kind of obedience that children should give their parents the kind of submission we should give our leadership as the kind that makes it easy for them. And it doesn't come natural, right? It's not just the children that we have to train to obey and define what obedience is and require it from them and train them and train them and train them because it doesn't come natural. It's all of us, isn't it? But if it's what our Lord calls for, it will help with good shepherding.
Think about it. Let them do this with joy. Good leaders. I'll give you some examples. Second John and third John gave some great verses for this. Second John one four. There's only one chapter. It says, I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth. You know, godly leaders, godly parents, godly elders, godly leaders are going to delight in you walking in the truth. And if they're leading, that should be their goal, their aim, right? Because walking in the truth brings peace. It brings serenity to this all. It's an important thing. John says it again in third John verses three and four. He says, I rejoice greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth. As indeed, you are walking in the truth. He says this in verse four, I have no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in the truth. Every parent here can say amen. Every other here can say amen. It is a good way to go. And it's the main point, right? Obey your leaders and submit to them. It's just a biblical way to go. But there is a question, right? I mean, it's like, okay, so not all leaders are good. And I mean, even David, the great shepherd of the Old Testament, we looked at his life this summer. We saw that some of his mistakes hurt the sheep. So what about leaders like that? And what about worst leaders? What about the leader that David had to follow? What about Saul? Well, okay. We do have to think a little bit about that, but and we'll talk about it some, but remember David's attitude toward him. Remember the time in the cave or the time in the field when God had let Saul fall into David's hands. You remember? David said, I will not lift my hand against God's anointed. First Samuel 26, this is in the in the field. He said to Abishai, the guy who sneaked up into the place where Saul was sleeping and his spear was in the ground. He said to Abishai, do not destroy him, or who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless. Saul was God's anointed. Evil man, pursuing an evil agenda. And David says, the Lord's anointed, Yahweh's anointed. And he tells Abishai, let the Lord strike him. His day of death will come. But as for me, the Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. And if you look at how David submitted to Saul, when Saul said, play the harp, he played the harp. When he said, bleed the forces to fight, he led the forces to fight. Now when he in effect said submit to death because I'm afraid of you, he ran. He wouldn't obey Saul in doing evil. And either when Saul commanded his men to kill the priest at knob, none of them would do it. Just one evil doe. So you don't obey the authority who commands you to sin, right? You don't commit murder in the name of the king. God will hold you accountable to this. And you get the point. And this is true not only with David and Saul, but the same principle is practiced by the apostles. Let me just give just a simple word of application. And then I want to move on. And I'll make it toward young women who are single and interested in marriage. I haven't encouraged you when you're looking for that man. And you're attracted to a fellow. See that he submits to authority. Look to see if he submits to authority because I tell you, if he submits to the authorities over him, you'll be able to trust you're submitting to him. He will not rule harshly over you. Hardly ever. There's one who submit to authority rule harshly on the other side. If he pays no regard to the authorities over him, run from him. It doesn't matter how good looking he is. It doesn't matter if he's got a good job. It doesn't matter. Run. He's not going to be a good husband. And I would tell you, you know, February 15 through March 15 is when we nominate officers for our church. And I would say the same thing. Look in their lives and see. Look to see how they live. Well, I'm going on beyond. I'm getting into point two because the first point kind of bleeds right into second point. And the second point is this, be discerning about your shepherds. Be discerning about your shepherds. And here we have what was read to us earlier from Matthew's gospel. It's the sermon on the mount. It's the seventh chapter, the third of three chapters. Interesting. This is the chapter that starts off. Judge not, lest you be judged. And then he talks about how to judge, right? Don't stop at verse one and say, oh, see, Jesus says judge, not lest you be judged because he goes on to talk about how to judge. And if we see it right here in this passage, look at what he says, beware of the false prophets. False prophets, prophets are shepherds. There's false shepherds. If a prophet is a shepherd and there's false prophets, there's false shepherds. Beware of the false prophets who come to you and sheep's clothing. There's shepherding language, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Be discerning. Beware. And he tells us how you will know them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thornbushes nor figs from thistles. Are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce good fruit, a bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. By the way, Ezekiel talks plenty about false prophets and being against the prophets who see false visions and give blind definitions. And it speaks about the priests as well. If you're to follow the king's way and the king tells you to worship bail, you don't worship bail. If you have a king who allows certain things that God disallows and the prophets say, peace, you have peace, enjoy what God has given. And don't warn you to turn from the wicked thing. Don't listen to them. Beware. Be discerning. Don't just blindly follow what you're told. And don't let them satisfy your fleshly desires by saying it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Be ware. Be discerning. Let me give you first some very obvious examples. It is legal in our country to get an abortion. It's legal. You can have one. There's no law against it. There are plenty of health places that will say, oh, this is an unwanted pregnancy. Oh, it's this. Oh, it's that. But God says you are to honor life. You are made in the image of God. You cannot take the life of another and be held guiltless. Don't listen to false prophets, false kings, false people, and authority. Another obvious example would be homosexuality. It is now legal to be married in a homosexual relationship in various states and whatever state commonwealth you're living in to have that recognized at least when you're paying your taxes, your federal taxes. So you have freedom. You have the teaching of our of our society that this is good, this is right, this is natural, but that's not what God said. You're not free to follow your leaders in doing sin. God will hold them accountable for their sin in this area and they're being bad kings and false prophets and wicked priests. But if you think you can do it and get away and blame it on them, no. No God holds a sheep accountable for their behavior. So be discerning. Beware. You're not free to use weegee boards, though you can buy them at Walmart or Toys or Us or whatever. You cannot go to fortune tellers or practice any form of witchcraft. God forbids these things and whether they're legal or not makes no difference whatsoever. God has spoken and you are his sheep, the flock of his pasture and you need to follow and obey him. Now these are right on the surface. I know they're big issues in our society today, but they're right on the surface. A cursory reading through the Bible makes this abundantly clear. Let me go to something that's just as important. If your leaders gossip, you're not free to gossip. If your leaders love, gain and live for financial wealth and prosperity and squeeze every penny, you're not free to be greedy. You must be generous. God calls you as his people to be generous. If your leaders do not demonstrate self-control if they abuse food and drink, you're not free to do that. God calls you to live a sober, careful, self-discipline food of the spirit self-controlled life. And so never, never, never follow your leaders. Whether an elder in the church or a parent or the president or anyone else, do not follow them in doing what God forbids. Instead, continue to pray, I will be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And give me, O Lord, a heart to what? That. Third point, sheep should be humble toward one another. Now, this really does come right out of Ezekiel 34. As for you, verses 17 to 22, as for you, my flock thus says the Lord God behold, I will judge between one sheep and another and between the rams and the male goats. Is it too slight a thing for you that you should feed on the good pasture? Must you tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or should you drink the clear waters and must you foul the rest with your feet? As for my flock, they must eat what you tread down with your feet and drink what you foul with your feet. Therefore thus says the Lord God to them, behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you push with side and with shoulder and thrust at all the weak with your horns until you have scattered them abroad and he goes on, therefore I will deliver my flock and they will not be a prey. Now, there's the metaphor, right? And a lot could be said, you almost have to get the historical context by studying the violence of the day, the oppression in the workplace, you know, Isaiah 58 and passages like that. Let me just give you one new testament passage that sums up this idea very well. And first Peter chapter five, the first four verses talk about elders shepherd the flock and tells us a little bit about how. And then he says in verse five, likewise, you who are younger, be subject to your elders, point one, clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another. For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. What does that look like? I think Paul gives us a beautiful picture of that in Philippians chapter two, which also ties it in. He says, if there's any consolation of Christ, if any affection, any encouragement in Christ, he says, make my joy complete, right? Like follow me in this one, okay? And then he says do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mine, there's that humility, with humility of mine that you regard one another is more important than himself. Just think about it. If you took on 10 people and said, I am going to care for these 10 people and make their life better than it could possibly be. And I won't worry about myself. And if we all did that, we would all be ten times better off, right? Okay, so I don't know, better not try a pyramid scheme in the church, but you get the point. Maybe we should. We'll start with me. Who wants to vote? No. That's humility. You care for one another. You care for their soul. You care that they have peace with God, knowing that from that flow of peace within the soul, and ultimately peace with one another. It's the attitude of our Lord Jesus. That's where Paul takes it, right? Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, giving his life even to death on the cross, servant leadership. It's not just the leaders. It's the sheep. Because Jesus, while he does fulfill all the offices, right? He is the chief shepherd of the sheep, the great shepherd of the sheep, he is the priest, he is the prophet, he is the king, he is the apostle, he is the leader, while he is the great shepherd, he is also the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. He is the lamb, he is the one who assumes a human nature, and though he is God dwells as a human being and gives himself to the service of God. What does it look like? This attitude that says, I love my sheep, I will give my life for them. I will serve them. We have it in the gospel. We know it a book. That is the example. They are saints, the faithful sheep in God's flock. Submit to your leaders, not just in the church, but all the leaders that God has given to you. But be discerning about your shepherds and be humble toward one another. And trust that God, the God of the universe, the creator of all things, does indeed, even through these commands, have your soul's feet in his mind. He will bring you safely through it. We have the taste of it now. We have the taste of it now, and the day will come when we have it fully, when we too are raised from the dead, even as the lamb of God and the great shepherd of the sheep. Amen. Let's pray. We thank you, O Lamb of God, that you take away the sins of the world, that you model perfectly, every one of these points. You submitted first and foremost to the Father and to His will completely. And yet you lived a humble life on earth, submitting to all the leaders that were legitimate and all their lawful command, and yet refusing to sit, or to do anything evil, or offensive to your Father. And thank you, O Lord Jesus, that you humbled yourself to serve us, that you would wash the disciple's feet, that you would give them bread and wine, that you would make promises not only about this life, but about the life to come. Thank you. Thank you.