The Difference Between True and False Christians | Matthew 7:15-23
Brian Hedges | May 31, 2026
Let me invite you to turn in Scripture this morning to Matthew 7, as we continue in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, a series we’ve called “Matthew: Heirs of the Kingdom.”
Let me begin with a story that I’m sure most of you are familiar with, the story of the Trojan Horse. You may remember that after ten years of war, the Greeks appeared to abandon the siege of the city Troy. They sailed away, and they left behind a gift for the inhabitants of the city, a huge wooden horse. The Trojans were glad that finally the war was over; they dragged the horse inside the city walls and they celebrated, not realizing that the danger had not left, but now was within the city gates, because hidden within the horse were Greek soldiers, who emerged during the night, opened the gates, let in the armies, and destroyed the city.
Ever since that story has been told, the story of the Trojan Horse parallels or exemplifies for us the danger that is often within the ranks, danger within the city, and it’s true within the church as well, that there’s a danger within the church. There’s not just dangers on the outside, there’s dangers on the inside.
I think this story is a good parable for what Jesus talks about in the passage we’re going to look at this morning, where Jesus warns against false prophets. It’s a warning about a threat that is not external to the church but internal to the church.
It is interesting that Jesus, in this final segment of the Sermon on the Mount (really his conclusion to this sermon), as he presses the claims of his teaching with urgency on his hearers, it’s interesting that Jesus includes a warning, a warning about false prophets or false teachers. We find that warning in verses 15-23, and it is both a warning about false teachers, but it’s also, I think, one of the most searching passages in Scripture that calls all of us to some degree of self-examination.
It’s a part of this conclusion where Jesus shows the distinction between two ways of living. We saw last week the two gates, the two roads, and the two destinations, and today he’s going to talk about two different kinds of people. He’s going to talk about two trees that bear two different kinds of fruits, and then two kinds of people who will stand before God in final judgment.
So this is another serious and sober, searching passage of Scripture, but it is God’s word, it’s the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to hear it and respond to it today. So let’s read the passage, Matthew 7:15-23. Jesus is speaking.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
“Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ’I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
This is God’s Word.
I want us to see three things in this passage:
1. The Danger
2. The Diagnosis
3. The Division
1. The Danger: The Warning Jesus Gives
First of all, the danger. Notice here the warning that Jesus gives. You find it in verse 15: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Jesus here is warning about a perpetual threat to the wellbeing of his people, the wellbeing of the church and of the kingdom of God, the threat of the Trojan horse, the threat of false teachers.
Notice that these people are counterfeit. They are false prophets. They appear to be true, but they are in reality false; they are counterfeit.
They are also camouflaged. He says, “They come to you in sheep’s clothing.” So this is the danger. Their appearance at first glance seems to be genuine, but they’re camouflaged. The true nature of these false prophets is not seen readily.
Instead, they are inwardly ravenous wolves. So sticking with the C words, we could say they are carnivorous, they are ravenous. These are those who will devour the flock. They are predatory; they prey upon God’s people. And the command that governs this verse is beware. “Beware of these false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” This is Jesus’ warning.
This is a warning that he essentially repeats a few chapters later in Matthew 24, and it’s a command, a warning that is repeated by the apostles. You find it in the apostle Paul, in his farewell address to the elders of the church of Ephesus in Acts 20:29-30. Notice here how he follows Jesus’ warning with the same language, the same imagery. He says,
“I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
Once again, fierce wolves; they come in from among you. These are Trojan horses in the church.
There are similar warnings in the writings of Peter—read 2 Peter—Jude in his letter, and John, especially in 1 John. Beware of false prophets, beware of false teachers.
Why do the Scriptures warn so strongly against false prophets and false teachers? I think there are several reasons.
One reason is because the deception is so subtle. It’s not obvious, at first glance, that false teachers are indeed wolves in sheep’s clothing. Again, they’re camouflaged. So Jesus warns. He’s calling us to pay attention. He’s calling us to exercise discernment and to understand what this threat is. The deception is subtle.
It leads people astray. He is concerned about the flock. Jesus gives us this warning for our wellbeing, because he wants us to be careful, because he wants us to not be deceived, to not be led astray.
This warning is given so strongly because it does come from within the church. Again, Paul says these fierce wolves will come in among you, “and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things.” He’s talking to elders. He’s talking to pastors. He’s talking to leaders in the church, and he says, “From your own ranks there’s going to be false teaching.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that in every local church there are false teachers among the leaders. It doesn’t mean that. But it certainly does mean that within the history of the Christian church there have often arisen people within leadership who look genuine on the surface, but they are actually in camouflage and turn out to be wolves that prey upon the flock. And there have been false teachings, false teachers, heresies that have plagued the church all the way down through history. If you know anything of church history, you’ll know what some of those false teachings are. We just need to be warned.
Some writers have compared false teaching to rat poison. Some of you have probably used rat poison or mouse poison in your house. And of course, the problem with rat poison is that it’s not all poison. That’s what makes it so dangerous. If it was all poison, the rat wouldn’t eat it. But it’s usually a mixture of grain and other things that the rats or the mice will eat. You have to keep it away from your pets so that they don’t eat it. It’s dangerous because so much of it is good, but it’s got just a little bit of poison mixed in.
That’s the way false teaching often comes. It sounds Christian. It sounds orthodox. Listen, sometimes it even quotes the Bible. You can be sure that there are preachers and teachers on the Internet and on TV and publishing books, and they talk about Jesus and they quote Scripture and they say some things that are true, but mixed in there is error. Sometimes that error is so deadly that it’s poison to the soul, and it leads people astray, it leads people away from Christ and away from the gospel, and that’s what makes false teaching so dangerous.
So Jesus gives this warning: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
So that raises a question, doesn’t it? How can we discern the true from the false? How can you tell if someone is a false prophet? How can you detect false teaching? How can we examine ourselves to be sure that we’re also genuine and not counterfeit?
2. Diagnosis: The Test Jesus Provides
That leads us to the second point, diagnosis. And here I want you to notice the test that Jesus provides (verses 16-20). He says, “You will recognize them by their fruits.” There’s the basic principle. There’s the test.
“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
There’s the principle: you will recognize them by their fruits.
Jesus is giving us diagnostic tests. And it just raises a question. What does Jesus mean by the healthy tree and healthy fruits? What does Jesus mean by the diseased tree and the bad fruit? Because that’s the contrast.
So what is good fruit? Let’s ask that question. What is good fruit? And we don’t have to guess what this fruit looks like, because Jesus has spent three chapters telling us. All you have to do is look at the Sermon on the Mount, for starters.
So in the context, this good fruit includes the Beatitudes. It includes the very things that Jesus began his sermon with when he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled…” and the pure in heart, for they shall see God; and the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy; and the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”
Right? It includes those things. These are the fruits. These are describing the virtues that are characteristic of the citizens of the kingdom. And as we’ve seen in this series, these virtues are upside-down to the way the world thinks. It’s the humble, it’s the meek, it’s the needy, it’s those who recognize their spiritual poverty, who mourn over their sins. That’s upside down from the way the world thinks. You don’t know whether someone is blessed by God by looking at their outward circumstances, by their material wealth, by whether they have power and influence. It’s not those things that show whether someone is a citizen of the kingdom or is really true. It’s these inside-out, upside-down virtues that are foolish to the world, but they reflect the wisdom and the values of God’s kingdom.
This good fruit also includes the greater righteousness of the kingdom that Jesus has spoken of in the Sermon on the Mount, when he says in chapter 5, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” He goes on to describe what that righteousness is in terms of our ethics, Matthew 5, where he goes after not just external behaviors but the inward desires and attitudes of the heart. So, we’re dealing not just with murder but with anger, not just with adultery but with lust, and so on.
He describes this greater righteousness in terms of the practice of righteousness when he talks about things like prayer and fasting and practicing our righteousness not to be seen by men but to be seen by our Father who is in heaven.
We could say that this good fruit is allegiance to Jesus and his teaching, and in the broader biblical context, of course, this fruit would be the fruit of the Spirit. Paul uses the language of fruit as well. In this well-known passage from Galatians 5:22-23 he gives us this ninefold fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Again, these are qualities of character that reflect a transformed heart and life.
Now, don’t mistake this. These fruits are not works by which we gain entrance into God’s kingdom. Fruits are something that are produced by a tree, right? They are evidence of life, not the conditions of life. We need to understand that. But they are evidences that something has happened in a person’s heart and life, that they have been born again, that they have been changed by the grace of God, and where those fruits are lacking, there should be concern. So that’s the healthy fruit or the good fruit.
The diseased fruit would just be the opposite of this. The diseased fruit, the bad fruit that comes from the diseased tree, would be the external, hypocritical self-righteousness of the Pharisees in context; and in the broader biblical context, it would be the works of the flesh that Paul lists in Galatians 5.
Now, notice here what happens to such trees. Jesus then says, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” That’s judgment language. That is language very similar to the language of John the Baptist, and this is language that we find Jesus using often.
Once again, we’re just confronted with the real Jesus in this passage. And I appreciate the comment from one commentator, who said, “A Jesus without judgment, a Jesus who does not care about the content of people’s lives, does not exist.” There is no Jesus who doesn’t care about judgment. This is the Jesus of the Bible. Even in the Sermon on the Mount, this is the Jesus of the Bible.
I think the application for us is pretty obvious. It is, first of all, a diagnostic for discerning false prophets, false teachers. We apply these tests—know them by their fruits. But it’s also a diagnostic for us, isn’t it? For us to look at our own lives and see, are we healthy trees that are bearing good fruit or are we diseased trees that are bearing bad fruit?
We can summarize these tests using the two-fold test from Frederick Dale Bruner in his commentary. I found this helpful. He ties this back to Matthew 7:13-14, what he calls the gate test and the road test.
So, first of all, you have the gate, the doctrinal test. Do they encourage faith in Christ alone, the narrow gate, or do they lead others astray? This is what John does in his first epistle when he says that “every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is the Christ is the spirit of antichrist.” And he says, “Test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” So we begin with this test: the doctrinal test, the faith test, the gate test. Are teachers genuinely pointing to Christ, the person and the work of Jesus Christ?
Then secondly, there is the road test, the ethical test. Do they teach or ignore, make important or unimportant, live or evade the road of Jesus’ hard commands? The first is the test of faith, the second is the test of love; the first is the test of doctrine, the second is the test of morals.
Bruner continues, “The church’s two millennia test of gate and road, of doctrine and ethics, faith and love, solus Christus and of costly discipleship are the tests that can see through all sheep’s clothing and all good appearances.”
We need to apply those tests to our own hearts and to our own lives, and we need to do that now, so that when we come to the final day of judgment we have already searched our hearts and our lives and we know that we have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.
3. Division: The Verdict that Jesus Declares
You see the importance of that in the third point, in verses 21 through 23, which have been called the saddest words in the Bible. They’re certainly some of the most searching words in the Bible. Here we have division. We have the verdict that Jesus declares. Look at Matthew 7:21-23.
“Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ’I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Notice the setting here, verse 22—“on that day.” That phrase, “that day,” often in Scripture is a phrase that signals the day of judgment. Jesus said, “But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven or the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36). Or Paul in Romans 2 talks about “that day when according to my gospel God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” That day. He’s talking about the day of judgment.
Notice here what these people say when they appear before Christ on that day. Notice what they say and notice what they have, what they say and what they claim. They say, “Lord, Lord.” In other words, there is a profession of faith. They’re calling Jesus Lord. They’re saying, “Lord, Lord.” And notice what they claim. “Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?” Here are people who have the right confession. They’re saying, “Lord, Lord.” They have the right words. They have religious activity; they prophesy in the name of Christ. And they even have power—they’ve cast out demons and done many mighty works in the name of Christ.
Bruner points out these people are highly conscious of their devotion and highly conscious of their accomplishments. “Did we not do…?” And they list all the things they’ve done for Jesus. “Lord, Lord, did we not do all these things?” Their attention is fixed on what they have done, but Jesus’ attention is fixed somewhere else. Notice what’s missing. And you see this in verse 23. “Then I will declare to them, ’I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
“I never knew you.” That does not mean that Jesus does not know who they are. The word “know” in Scripture is a word that carries the ideas of personal, intimate, covenant relationship. That’s the way this language is used. So when Jesus says, “I never knew you,” what he means is that he had no covenant relationship with them and they had no relationship with him.
Brothers and sisters, this is the defining issue. This is the defining issue. Do I have a real relationship with Jesus Christ? That’s the issue. It’s not works, it’s certainly not religious activity, it’s, “Do I know Christ?”
Jesus said in another passage, John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
There’s a story told about Sir Christopher Wren, who was the famous architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral, who was also commissioned to design a town hall in Windsor, England. The plans called for a number of large columns or pillars to support the ceiling, and when the officials reviewed the plans they were unhappy with the number of the columns and they insisted—even against Christopher Wren’s protest—they insisted that he include more, that he had more. And so he complied. He added four additional columns, and the building was completed.
Later generations discovered that those columns actually had no load-bearing capacity whatsoever. They were simply ornamental. They were columns, they looked like real columns, but they were not supporting any weight.
It is an illustration of what Jesus is talking about here—those who have the appearance of Christianity, but no load-bearing weight can be placed upon them because they’re missing the essential thing. They’re missing a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Listen, the issue is not appearance. The issue is reality, whether we really know Christ.
Last year I read John Meacham’s biography of Thomas Jefferson, who was the third president of the United States. Jefferson was undoubtedly a great man in many ways. He was articulate, he was a predominant author of the Declaration of Independence, he was moral and principled in many ways, and he was religious to a certain extent. And there’s a chapter in this book where Meacham discussed Jefferson’s religious views. He points out that Jefferson believed in God, he believed in one God, he believed in an afterlife, he attended church, carried the Book of Common Prayer, he admired the moral teachings of Jesus. Here’s a quote. Meacham says,
“At heart, he believed the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the happiness of man, writing [this is kind of his threefold creed], number one, that there is only one God and he all perfect; number two, that there is a future state of rewards and punishments; number three, that to love God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself is the sum of religion.”
Now, all of that’s orthodox. You read that, that’s all orthodox. So here’s the question: was Thomas Jefferson a true Christian? At first glance, you might think yes. But listen to something else he wrote. This is not on the screen, but listen. This is a quotation from Jefferson. He said, “My fundamental principle would be that we are to be saved by our good works which are within our power and not by our faith which is not within our power.”
More than that, Jefferson actually denied and did not believe in any of the supernatural elements in the Bible. He denied the virgin birth, he denied the deity of Christ, he denied the resurrection of Christ, and he produced two books that were essentially his edited versions of the teachings of Jesus and of the New Testament, where he just cut out all of the supernatural stuff that he didn’t want. What he wanted to do was keep the teaching, the ethical teaching of Jesus, but without Jesus himself.
You see how subtle this is. You can read a statement like this on screen and think, “Oh, this president was a wonderful Christian,” but the reality was he was missing the most important thing, a relationship with Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Friends, it’s possible to have religion and not have Jesus. It is possible to have good works and not know Jesus. It is possible to have the right words to say—“Lord, Lord”—and yet not enter into the kingdom of heaven. It’s possible to have the profession without the possession, the profession of Christianity without the possession of eternal life, because eternal life is not something we earn by our works, it’s not something we secure by saying the right words; eternal life comes down to this: Do I know Jesus Christ, the son of God, and do I trust him and his work on my behalf?
“This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
I want to conclude in this way. Someone once said that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And I do think we need to apply Jesus’ words in both of those ways. Let me take them in reverse.
First of all, Jesus’ words afflict the comfortable. It may be some of us this morning who are basically comfortable with an appearance of Christianity while having never really done the heart work of turning from our sins and trusting in Christ, recognizing our need for Christ. If we are satisfied with church attendance, satisfied with Christian activity, satisfied with a certain amount of religious knowledge, with a profession of faith made years ago, but there is no living and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, Jesus came to upset that.
This warning is here partly so that it will awaken us to our need for Christ. It’s not enough to say, “Lord, Lord.” We need to know Jesus Christ in saving faith. Jesus’ words afflict the comfortable.
My guess this morning is that many of you feel very uncomfortable when you hear sermons like this, because it searches your conscience, it makes you search your heart, you’re conscious of your sins, you read about good fruit and bad fruit, and immediately you think about all the bad things that you’ve done and all the bad things in your life.
If so, I want to encourage you this morning that Jesus’ words also comfort the afflicted, because Jesus speaks consistently to those who feel their need. He begins his sermon by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
What is he talking about? Well, in part, he’s talking about those who have seen their spiritual need; to those who cry out in their spiritual bankruptcy, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”; to those who mourn over their sins, who recognize their need for grace. Jesus’ words constantly push us back to that place. He says, “Blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness.”
These are people who don’t feel like they’ve got it all together. They are people who are hungry and thirsty for something they don’t yet have. Jesus says they shall be filled.
In essence, Jesus is saying, “Blessed are those who feel unworthy, for I will make them worthy. I will bring them into my Father’s kingdom.”
The Beatitudes describe this kind of person, the person who knows their need and in this knowledge of their deep need for Christ, looks to him in faith.
The very awareness of spiritual need is an evidence that God’s Spirit has begun to do something in our hearts and lives. He’s drawing us or maybe has drawn us to himself. Listen, healthy people don’t need a physician. The sick people do. This is exactly what Jesus said when he was criticized for calling sinners to himself, for hanging out with sinners, for building his kingdom with sinners. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
You see how Jesus’ words comfort the afflicted? Those who are afflicted in their hearts because they recognize their spiritual poverty, they recognize their sin, they recognize their need for Christ.
Here’s the big difference: the false prophet and the false disciple point to their works. “Lord, look at what I’ve done.” The true Christian says something like this:
“Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling.
Naked, come to thee for dress;
Helpless, look to thee for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.”
Yes, the evidence of genuine salvation is fruit. That fruit, first of all, is the humility that recognizes your need for grace and calls out to God for mercy. The evidence of salvation is fruit; the basis of salvation is Christ, and it’s knowing him and trusting him. If you’ve never trusted in Christ, I want to invite you today to declare yourself a spiritual bankrupt, poverty-stricken sinner who needs Jesus. Abandon trust in your own works and trust in Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
Gracious, merciful God, we thank you that there is grace and mercy to be found through your Son, Jesus Christ, who came to live the perfect life of obedience that we should have lived and haven’t and who came to bear the penalty of our sins as he took your wrath and judgment on the cross on our behalf. Jesus Christ, the one who knew no sin, was made sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God.
Father, we pray this morning that as we consider these words of Jesus, these heart-searching words of Jesus, that you would give each one of us the grace to examine ourselves today. But help us, Lord, to look deeper than our religious activity and to instead ask this fundamental question: “Do I know Jesus? Do I have a personal relationship with Jesus characterized by faith and repentance?” Lord, may all of our hope be found in him, for he is our only hope in life and death.
As we come to the Lord’s table this morning, having been searched in our hearts by your Spirit and by your word, may we now be comforted and encouraged by the good word of the gospel, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, that Christ has given his body and shed his blood for us, and that as we receive the elements of the bread and the juice, that we are by faith partaking in Christ, trusting in Christ and his death and resurrection for us. Lord, may the table and the words of Scripture and the truth of the gospel bring assurance and comfort to our convicted, inflicted hearts. Help us this morning to take refuge in Christ and in Christ alone. We pray this in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.
Brian G. Hedges
