The Prophet's Burden: Accuracy

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Amen, I want to invite you to remain standing and open up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
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I realize in the notes it says verses 1 to 25, and we read verses 1 to 25 last week, but today we're going to just look primarily at verse 1, and so we're just going to read verse 1, since this is where the focus of our attention is going to be this morning.
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So as we stand together reading the word of God, 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 1.
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Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
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Let us pray.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the truth of the word, and I thank you that the truth of that word is one upon which we can stand.
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Your son told us that it is the fool who builds his house upon the sands, because when the winds come and the rains fall and beat against that house, that house will fall.
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But it is a wise man who builds his house upon the rock.
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The rock is the word of God.
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Christ himself is the rock.
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He is the word, and we come now to the scriptures to learn what Christ has to teach us.
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I pray, Lord, that you would keep me from error as I preach the word.
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Lord, the only perfect part of any of the sermons that are given here is when we read the word of God, and I know how fallible I am.
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So I pray that you would keep me from error for the sake of my conscience, for the sake of your people, for the sake of your name.
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I pray also, Lord, that when the word goes out today, that it will be received with joy, that believers would take this word and that it would be unto them life unto life.
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Father, for the one who has not yet bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, that this would be the day that they would hear the word of God proclaimed to them, and faith cometh by hearing, and so that they would hear the word of God and that they would be converted.
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And Father, for the one whose heart is hard against you, Lord, I pray that you would break that hard heart, open it wide, take out the heart of stone, give them a heart of flesh, for that is something that only you can do.
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Father, in the preaching of your word, I pray that you would be glorified, and I pray it in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Sometimes the most difficult thing to write when you're writing a message, when you're preparing a sermon, sometimes the most difficult part is the entry or the introduction, because I have a lot to say today.
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And don't let that scare you, because I know I kept you a lot longer last week than you probably expected.
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Last week, the sermon itself was almost an hour long, but we were dealing with a subject that I feel like is so misunderstood, miscommunicated and misused in the church that it warranted some extra attention.
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Last week, we looked at the gift of the tongues and we talked about seven observations on the tongues.
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And if you weren't here, we have the audio.
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I welcome you to go back and listen to it.
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I'm not going to rehearse the entire sermon again today.
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But the reason why we talked about the gift of tongues last week is because in this particular section of First Corinthians, which we have been studying now for well over a year, we've been in the book of First Corinthians now for many, many months.
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This particular section deals with two spiritual gifts that the Apostle Paul is contrasting with one another.
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He's contrasting the gift of tongues, which I argue was being misused in the Corinthian church.
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And we talked about that last week.
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He is contrasting the gift of tongues, which was being misused with the gift of prophecy.
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I actually think both of them could have been misused, but more specifically, I know the tongues were being misused based on what he said.
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So today, instead of going verse by verse, which you know we're going to do, because that's my custom is to go verse by verse through the text.
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Today, we're going to simply look at the subject of prophecy, because I think as much as we needed to know about what tongues are, I think we also need to understand what prophecy is and we need to understand how prophecy is supposed to be understood in the scripture and in the church today.
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Like I said last week, we looked at seven observations about speaking in tongues.
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And I said one of the observations was tongues can be confusing.
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It's a confusing subject, especially since 1906 when the Azusa Street revival happened out in California and the beginning of what was known as the ecstatic speech movement or the tongues movement.
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Ever since then, there's been a rise in confusion and kind of makes you wonder why God would say he's not the author of confusion in 1 Corinthians 14.
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But that we'll talk about that another time.
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But the point is, there's so much confusion about the gift of tongues.
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There's also confusion about the gift of prophecy.
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And so today may seem a little scholastic.
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As last week, it may even seem more of a lesson than a sermon.
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But understand, my job here is to teach the word of God.
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And sometimes that's going to sound like a prophet proclaiming and sometimes that's going to sound like a professor explaining.
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But at the same time, it's the word of God needs to be preached.
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And we need to understand what these words mean if we are to really understand what Paul is saying.
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And I think you would agree prophecy can be confusing just like tongues.
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And here's the thing about 1 Corinthians 14.
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You read 1 Corinthians 14 and you'll notice one thing.
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And I mentioned this last week.
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Paul does not explain the gift of tongues.
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He does not explain the gift of prophecy.
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He simply takes them as a given that they understand what they are because they were operating in the church.
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This is something that was happening.
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I mentioned last week, it's sort of like a debit card.
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I don't have to explain to you how a debit card works, but I might talk to you about the rules on how to use one.
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But you know how it works.
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In the same way, he didn't have to explain to them what tongues were because they were already happening.
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He didn't have to explain to them what prophecy was because it was already happening.
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But he did have to talk about the rules that were associated with it.
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But we have to step back and say, OK, what does it mean when we say pursue or earnestly desire that you may prophesy? What does that mean? Paul doesn't define it, he simply says it.
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Earnestly desire that you may prophesy.
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What does that mean? What does prophesy mean? What is what is prophecy? Well, the word prophecy, prophete in the Greek, it means, well, I'll give you a couple of definitions because I don't think any one definition gives it in its fullness.
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Laonita is a Greek commentary, it's actually a semantic, it's called a semantic lexicon.
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It helps understand the meaning of words and how they're used semantically or in the context of how they're being used.
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And this is what Laonita says about this particular word prophete.
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It says this, to speak under the influence of divine inspiration with or without reference to future events.
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So I'll say it again, to speak under the influence of divine inspiration with or without reference to future events.
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OK, so Laonita says this, it's it's prophecy is speaking under God's authority.
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Under the inspiration of almighty God, but it's not necessarily speaking the future.
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See, oftentimes people think of prophet and you think of somebody like Isaiah who talked about the coming of the destruction of the Jerusalem and the things that were happening.
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You think about Daniel who talked about the things that were happening and and the coming of the Persians and the coming of the Romans.
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And he gave this he gave these awesome prophecies about what was going to happen.
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And it happened just as he said it would.
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And so we think of prophecy, we often think of somebody who's speaking the future.
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In secular terms, people think about like Nostradamus, right? And he was called a prophet or a seer of the future, which he certainly was not.
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Or if he was, he was demonically influenced, certainly wasn't a biblical prophet in any way.
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But oftentimes we associate prophecy only with seeing the future or speaking the future.
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However, that is not the limit of prophecy.
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It doesn't always deal with speaking the future.
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Most of what the prophets, even Isaiah, Jeremiah and the others who are in the Old Testament, we go through the the major prophets and the minor prophets, most of what they said wasn't future prophecy.
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It was what was happening right now.
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You are rejecting your offerings.
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You are trampling God's name under your foot.
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You are doing this is not something you're going to.
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They're proclaiming the the statements about what was happening then.
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So the word of God and prophecy is not always this is going to happen.
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Sometimes it's a word of what's happening now.
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It's a proclamation of the current situation and God's view of it.
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God sees your offerings as a shame.
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You know, when the prophets come out and say your your offerings are not being received by God because of X, Y and Z.
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The United Bible Society also has a lexicon.
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They talk about the word prophecy.
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I like this definition more specifically, even than Laonita says this.
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Prophecy is proclaiming God's message, preaching prophecy and predicting or speaking God's message intelligibly.
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That's how it translates or how it how it defines the word prophecy.
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And I like that one because it includes the word preaching.
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And I think that that's true.
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I do believe that preaching is an example of the gift of prophecy.
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In fact, I would I believe that's how the gift functions today.
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Most often, men like John MacArthur, James White, Justin Peters, Paul Washer.
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If you've ever heard these men preach, these men are prophetic voices of God in the world.
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I can't get an amen, at least on that, I got to beg for one, but come on.
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These men are prophetic voices for God in the world.
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John MacArthur, when he preaches and when Paul Washer preaches, you're hearing the man of God proclaim the word of God to the people of God.
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That's a prophetic message.
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And so I want to clarify that when I talk about prophecy, I do talk about it in different ways, because I would say that the that the role that God's given to me in this church as the preaching elder is the is the role of prophesying, but not in the sense of speaking the future or even speaking under divine inspiration, because I do not believe that I am speaking divine inspiration to you.
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You say, why not? Because I can be wrong.
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And I have erred, and I'm certain that if the Lord lets me live, I will err again.
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I don't have the ability to say thus saith the Lord and then begin speaking.
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So I don't have that type of prophecy.
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You understand that the distinction I'm making, in fact, the only thing that I can ever say is perfect in my sermon is when I read the scripture.
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Everything else is subject to imperfection.
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When I read the Bible, that's perfect.
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And so I can proclaim to you, thus saith the Lord, chapter and verse.
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And that's where I have to go.
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Everything else is subject to incorrect.
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And that's why the pastor, you know, we have the responsibility of having to study.
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I don't just come up here and pray and say, God, give me what to say and then boom.
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I spend, you know, many, many hours in the week pouring over the word, studying the word, listening to commentaries and sermons and studying commentaries and things, trying to understand the languages, trying to understand the root and what's being said, understanding diagramming sentences.
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Oh, that's fun.
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You know, all the things that come with understanding the word.
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I've seen guys do this.
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They'll say they put the Bible on their head.
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And they'll pray and they'll say, this is how I learned the word of God.
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No, you don't learn it by osmosis.
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It doesn't just sink in through some kind of divine rain into your brain.
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Pastors have to study.
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They have to study to show themselves approved unto God as workmen who need not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
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Second Timothy two fifteen.
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So we know that's part of the preaching gift is you got a desire to study.
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And a man comes to me and says, I feel like God's calling me to preach.
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I say, is he calling you to study? No, then he ain't calling you to preach.
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That's a very easy answer.
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If God didn't call you to keep your knees under the desk for several hours a week, he didn't call you to preach.
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If you can't keep yourself tied to the word of God, you're not called to preach.
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I go off on a different subject.
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I won't do that.
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I have too much to say to chase that rabbit.
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But when we talk about prophecy in Scripture.
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The prophets were known to use the language, thus saith the Lord, and then they would speak God's word.
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By the way, Brother Andy, a few weeks ago, he preached on Wednesday night, the difference between the prophet, priest and the king.
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Those of you who were not here, just so you remind you, the priest speaks to God on behalf of the people.
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The prophet speaks to the people on behalf of God.
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And in Scripture, that is the inspiration of God because they didn't have the Scripture.
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They had the prophet.
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Now, at certain times they had certain scriptures, but they didn't have the full Scripture until the end of the apostolic age.
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And so what did they have? They had the prophets who spoke the word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.
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And thus they could say, thus saith the Lord.
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He was speaking directly from God to the people.
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But here's the question, and this is an important question.
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Can't anybody just say, thus saith the Lord? Yeah, OK, thank you.
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I got somebody to answer.
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Yes.
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Anybody can just say, thus saith the Lord, right? So how do we know if this person is a prophet who is truly speaking for God or if this person is what is called pseudo-prophete? Pseudo-prophete is false.
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Prophet, just like to think of a pseudonym, a name that's a false name given for a book or maybe an article or something, they write under a fake name.
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Well, the pseudo-prophete in Greek means a false prophet, a fake prophet.
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And that word is used in Matthew 7, 15.
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Jesus Christ himself says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
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They come to you and look like a prophet, they dress like a prophet, they got the nice suit, they got the nice tie, they got the nice microphone, they got the nice stage, they got the nice church, but they're preaching a false message.
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They are pseudo-prophete.
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But how do we know? How do you know if someone is a false prophet? I want to propose to you that in the Old Testament, Israel was given a very simple litmus test to determine whether or not somebody was a false prophet.
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It was a very, very simple litmus test to determine whether someone was a false prophet.
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Here's the test.
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They had to be right 100 percent of the time.
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That was the test.
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They didn't get to be right 90 percent of the time.
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They didn't get to be right 95 percent of the time.
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They didn't get to be right 99.99 percent.
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You see those? It kills 99.9 percent of the germs.
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I always wonder what's in that 0.1 percent that I'm still getting.
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And that's the same idea with these prophets, right? They're preaching, but something's wrong.
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Here's the thing, I want to show you just these passages because I think it's good to see this stuff.
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Go with me first to Deuteronomy 18.
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Hold your place.
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Well, go to Deuteronomy 18 and hold your place at verse 20.
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Deuteronomy 18, verse 20, this tells us if a man speaks for God, he has to have miraculous accuracy.
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Listen to what it says.
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Verse 20.
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I hear the Bible pages turning.
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I'll let you get there.
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Verse 20 says this.
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But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.
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By the way, that's the punishment for false prophecy.
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Capital punishment.
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If a man claimed to speak for God and he was a false prophet, he shall die.
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Verse 21.
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And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? How do we know if this guy is true or not? Verse 22.
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When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken.
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The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.
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You need not be afraid of him.
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That's 100 percent accuracy.
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If he says something and it don't be, then he be false.
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It's bad grammar, good theology, you know.
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If it don't be, he be false.
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It's got to be right.
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If he makes a prediction and it isn't right, then he's a false prophet.
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Now, I call that, by the way, this is a Keithism, not that you care, but I call that the prophet's burden.
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The prophet's burden, you have to be right in everything that you say or you're not a prophet.
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Now, turn a couple of pages over to Deuteronomy 13, because there's something even more profound than that.
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Not only if he says something's going to happen, does it have to happen, but also everything he says about God has to be right, too.
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Look with me at Deuteronomy 13, verses one through five.
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If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder.
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Notice, stop right there, he has the ability to do signs and wonders.
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That's important because this guy has the ability to do things enough to get people's attention.
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Verse two, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass.
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So not only did he say he could do it, but he did it and it happened.
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And if he says, let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
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You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
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But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery.
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You make to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk.
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So you shall purge the evil from among your midst.
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OK, so listen up.
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Not only if he says something is going to happen and it happens, is he a prophet? And if he says something is going to happen and it don't happen, is he not a prophet? But even if he gives you a miracle, even if he does say something is going to happen and it does happen and then he proclaims to you, let us now go after other gods.
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He is a false prophet.
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So let me say it this way, if you're not getting what I'm saying.
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They have to be 100 percent in their predictions.
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They have to be 100 percent in their theology to qualify to clarify as a prophet.
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Think about what Paul says in the book of Galatians.
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If I or anyone comes to you proclaiming a gospel that is different than what you have been taught, even if an angel from heaven comes and proclaims to you a different gospel, let him be accursed.
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So not only does he have to proclaim the truth about what's going to happen, he has to proclaim the truth about God.
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Prophets carried a heavy burden.
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But it wasn't a burden if you think about the fact that everything they were saying was from God.
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A true prophet had no burden.
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All he had to do is open his mouth and God spoke.
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It was the false prophet who had the burden because he knew at any minute when he got it wrong, he could be subject to the stoning of the people.
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Now, having said all that, I believe based on Deuteronomy 18, Deuteronomy 13, that prophets in the Old Testament were not allowed to get it wrong.
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Simple enough.
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And if they got it wrong, what did that mean? Pseudo prophet, they were false prophet.
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And you didn't have to listen to them anymore.
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You did not have to fear them anymore.
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In fact, if they followed through with it, they were dead.
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You didn't have to listen to them anyway.
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But there is a belief in Christian circles, particularly in charismatic circles.
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There is a belief that that standard for accuracy, which existed in the Old Testament, changed in the New Testament.
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They argue that the gift of prophecy that was active in the time of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the rest changed after the giving of the new covenant.
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Now, let me just stop right there and ask you, did some things change at the giving of the new covenant? Did many things change at the giving of the new covenant? So right now we can't just automatically say, OK, I don't want to listen, because at least we can we can say there are a lot of things that are different in the new covenant than in the old covenant.
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I mean, we we no longer circumcise.
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That's pretty big change.
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All right.
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We we are not bound to the laws of eating certain foods.
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That's pretty big change.
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Right.
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We're no longer bound to worshipping during several festivals throughout the year.
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We don't have to do those things to maintain our relationship with God.
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Those things are not we no longer under that conditional covenant that God gave to Moses at Sinai.
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Right.
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So things have changed.
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So here's the argument.
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The gift of prophecy changed.
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I'm not saying that I'm saying that's the argument.
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Just understand.
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Hear me.
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I hope I don't run off and leave anybody because this is important.
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I want to tell you what they're saying so I can respond.
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Because the argument is this many things changed Old Testament, New Testament.
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One of the things that changed was the gift of prophecy.
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How many of you ever heard of Wayne Grudem? OK, one of you, two of you.
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Wayne Grudem is a very popular theologian and I like him.
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So everything I'm about to say has to be understood with the idea that I'm not here to give Wayne Grudem a hard time.
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He's a very intelligent man.
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He wrote a very good systematic theology and a lot of people have used it to the glory of God.
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So forgive me if you think I'm beating up on Wayne Grudem.
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I'm not.
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But what I'm going to say is Wayne Grudem argues that prophecy in the New Testament is different than prophecy in the Old Testament because of three reasons.
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He says, number one, prophecy in the New Testament is subject to being judged.
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And he quotes 1 Corinthians 14, 29 and 1 Thessalonians 5.
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He says, because it's judged by the church and it's meant to be judged, then it's not the same.
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That's his first argument.
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Number two, he says there was a time when Paul disobeyed prophecy and he looks at Acts 21.4 and he said if it was if prophecy was the same, Paul wouldn't have disobeyed it.
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And number three, he says Agabus prophesied falsely and yet was still a true prophet.
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You might not know who I'm talking about, but Agabus is also in Acts 21.
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That's his three arguments.
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One, the prophecies were judged.
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Two, some of the prophecies were disobeyed.
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Three, Agabus's prophecy was wrong and therefore the New Testament prophets are not held to the same standards of the Old Testament prophets.
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Here's my response to Dr.
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Grudem.
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Number one, the fact that judging prophecies in the New Testament happens is not an indication that we expected them to be wrong.
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But I think it's more affirmation that they must be right because they were told to judge them in the Old Testament, too.
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If you go back to the Old Testament, the very point of Deuteronomy 13, the very point of Deuteronomy 18 is judge what you're hearing and if it's false, don't listen to it.
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So that didn't change in the New Testament.
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The fact that we're supposed to judge anybody who claims to be speaking for God according to God's word and what we know about his character, that didn't change.
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So I think his first argument is is incorrect.
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That's my that's my position.
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I think he's wrong.
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I don't think I'm smarter than him or am I am better educated or anything.
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I just think on this, I think he's leaning towards he wants it to be a certain way.
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So he tends to bias towards that position.
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Number two, he says Acts 21, Paul disobeyed a direct utterance.
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Well, let's look at that one, because I think it's important.
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We're going to spend a few minutes in Acts 21.
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So go over to the book of Acts.
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Let's see what we see here.
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Acts chapter 21, beginning of verse three.
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I'll give you a second to get there.
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Says in verse three, when we had come in sight to Cyrus, leaving it on the left, we sailed to Syria, landed at Tyre, for there the ship was unloaded, was to unload its cargo.
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And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days.
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And through the spirit, they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
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All right.
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That's that's the verse.
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Here's the argument.
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Through the spirit, they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
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Did Paul go to Jerusalem? Yes.
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Why did Paul go to Jerusalem? He had set his heart toward Jerusalem since the beginning of this particular missionary journey.
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This was the one that was going to take him to Rome.
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This is the one that's going to take him from Jerusalem to the capital where he could go and proclaim the gospel there in Rome.
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And I believe it was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that he was doing these things that I don't think his missionary journeys were an accident.
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And so you say, well, do you believe that the Holy Spirit is contradicting himself? He's telling these people, tell him not to go and telling him to go.
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No, I don't think that.
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In fact, I agree with F.F.
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Bruce here.
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F.F.
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Bruce is a commentator.
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He says this.
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It should not be concluded that this determination to go on was disobedience to the guidance of the spirit of God.
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It was actually under the constraint of the spirit that he was bound for Jerusalem with such determination.
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Paul was being moved to Jerusalem by the spirit.
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These people, in whatever way, received from the spirit what was going to happen to Paul.
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What's their response? Don't go.
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We know what's going to happen to you.
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Don't go.
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And that's the natural response.
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Don't go.
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But I think that the answer is in the question.
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Do we see a prophecy here that Paul is disobeying? I don't believe so, because I don't believe the Holy Spirit contradicts himself.
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And if we know the Holy Spirit's driving Paul to Jerusalem, I don't think that the Holy Spirit is driving Paul not to go through someone else.
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I don't think it's.
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I think that what's happening and we're going to see this in Agabus's prophecy.
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I think that what's happening is these people are being prepared for what's going to happen to Paul, because what's about to happen to Paul is going to be what leads to his death.
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And Paul was killed by beheading in Rome.
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Why was Paul beheaded? Because he was a Roman citizen.
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Peter was crucified upside down, according to church history, because he was not a Roman citizen, but you did not crucify Roman citizens.
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Paul was a Roman citizen.
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Thus, he died by beheading.
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It was considered a more honorable and quick death.
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But they knew what was going to happen.
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They saw what was going to happen by the spirit where they were understanding.
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And so don't go.
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And so Paul does go, not in disobedience to the spirit.
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At least, I don't believe it's in disobedience to the spirit.
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Either way, it doesn't prove that their prophecy was wrong.
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It doesn't prove that they were saying anything incorrect.
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And so the argument that this proves that New Testament prophecy can be wrong is not held to the same standard.
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I don't think that that even it doesn't even use the word prophecy here.
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It says they spoke in the spirit.
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It's not exactly the same thing, at least not language wise.
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But here's the big one.
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Go down to verse 10, because they'll say, this is where we know prophets can get it wrong, because Agabus got it wrong.
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Well, let's just see about that.
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Verse 10.
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And again, by the way, I have a really dear friend who believes that Agabus got it wrong.
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And he and I are we are brothers in Christ.
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So I'm not saying that if somebody says Agabus got it wrong, that they're heretic.
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I'm just saying, I think I disagree.
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And sometimes we have to disagree when we're searching the truth.
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I mean, if you come to me later, you say, I think Agabus got it wrong.
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I'm going to tell you, I disagree with you, but I'm not going to call you a heretic.
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I just think what it leads to is some dangerous ground.
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When you start seeing prophecy as something God can get wrong.
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Because ultimately, if Agabus is speaking for God, he's speaking for God and he got it wrong.
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That's a problem for me.
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But let's just see real quick what Agabus said.
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It says, while they were staying many days, verse 10, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and coming to us.
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He took Paul's belt and bound his feet in hands and said, Thus saith the Holy Spirit.
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This is how, by the way, thus saith the Holy Spirit.
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Get that, thus saith the Holy Spirit.
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Who's speaking? God through the Holy Spirit.
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This is important because Agabus is using the same language as the Old Testament prophets.
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He's not he's not using a different idea or formula.
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He's saying, thus saith the Lord, the Holy Spirit, God, Jesus, whatever it's, it's, it's, it's, thus saith God.
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And he says, this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver them and deliver him into the hand of the Gentiles.
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All right.
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That's that's the prophecy.
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That's it.
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That's all Agabus gets is that one little statement.
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This is how the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the hands of the man who owns this belt.
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And hand him over to the Gentiles.
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Now, here's the argument.
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If you follow the story down, they claim Paul was never bound with a belt.
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And guess what? That's kind of true.
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But here's my response to that.
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Is the analogy or picture that Agabus is giving meant to be understood with that type of exactness that it's going to be his belt that he's going to be tied up with? I don't think so.
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I don't think that was ever intended to be that type of accuracy.
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But, but, but let me argue even further, if I could look at me, look with me at verse 27, because this is when it actually happens.
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Verse 27.
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When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Masia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on them.
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Who's stirring up the crowd? The Jews.
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Who did Agabus say was going to be binding him and handing him over to the Romans? The Jews.
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Okay.
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That's important because they'll say it wasn't the Jews who bound him.
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Okay.
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Well, the Jews are the ones who stirred up the crowd.
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Now, verse 28.
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Crying out, men of Israel, help.
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This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law in this place.
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Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.
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For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
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Then all the city was stirred up and the people ran together and seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple.
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And at once the gates were shut.
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All right.
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Just right there.
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It goes on.
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And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
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He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them.
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And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
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Then the tribune came up, arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.
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He inquired who he was and what he was to be done.
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Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another.
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And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
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And it goes on to talk about what happened after that, which was his being carried by soldiers and taken away from the mob.
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So the argument goes like this.
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Agabus said Paul is going to be bound by the Jews and delivered to the Romans.
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The text says Paul was beaten by the Jews and bound by the Romans.
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Therefore, Agabus got it wrong.
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I don't believe so.
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I don't think that Agabus's prophecy is meant to be understood with that type of a crass literalism.
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You understand what crass literalism is, right? When you take something to the point of ridiculous and it's no longer to be understood in the spirit of what's being said.
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It's to be understood with a type of exactness that isn't even the way the Old Testament prophets would give their prophecies.
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But here's the here's the real thing I want to show you.
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Turn over to chapter 28, verse 17, because Paul talks about this situation.
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Paul talks about this situation.
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By the way, the other thing you got to remember, we don't have the whole story.
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We only have the bits and pieces Luke gives to us.
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We don't know everything the Jews did to him.
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It's very possible they took his belt off and tied him up while they were beating him.
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We don't know because it's not there.
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So we don't know it didn't happen.
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Saying it didn't happen is presumption because we don't know the whole story.
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But here's what Paul says in Acts 28, and this is key.
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Verse 17.
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After three days, he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.
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This is Paul explaining what happened in Jerusalem.
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And by the way, that word delivered that he says there, I was delivered as a prisoner into the hands of the Romans.
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Who's doing the delivering? Not the Romans, because they're the ones that's getting the delivery.
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The Jews are doing the delivery.
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But here's the point.
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That word delivered is the same word Agabus used when he said he will be delivered by the Jews.
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So Paul is, I believe, here in chapter 28, affirming, not denying, but affirming that Agabus got it right.
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In fact, I would argue this.
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I think the problem with this argument of New Testament prophecy not having the same burden as Old Testament prophecy is they want to have a scapegoat because they need that to be the way it is.
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And they use Agabus.
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I think they throw him under the Agabus is what they're doing.
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I didn't write that.
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That was an article I thought was funny.
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But but they're just throwing Agabus out.
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I don't think that there's a reason to read it as an error unless you're looking for something to find as an error.
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And you say, well, why would someone want to believe that New Testament prophets can err? Why would someone want to believe? And this is the heart of the message today, by the way.
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Why would somebody want to believe that the New Testament prophecy is not the same as Old Testament prophecy? Because within the charismatic movement, it has been proven time and time again that those who claim to have the gift of prophecy get it wrong.
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And to prove that getting it wrong is not a problem, they throw Agabus under the bus.
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You get my point? To prove that they can get it wrong, they try to find somebody in Scripture who got it wrong.
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And I think, honestly, they try and fail.
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I want to just use this as an example, and I rarely mention names from the pulpit, but this is one I have no fear.
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What did I say earlier? If a prophet is not a prophet of God, do not fear him.
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Here's here's one I don't fear mentioning.
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If this offends you, come see me.
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Don't just leave.
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It doesn't do you any good to leave.
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Doesn't do me any good either.
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Come talk to me if this offends you.
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But I want to mention one name, and that is the name of Benny Hinn.
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Benny Hinn has claimed over the years many prophecies from God.
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Thus saith the Lord, and spoken directly as having been a man of God, claiming to be a man of God.
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He claimed in the 90s God was going to destroy the homosexual community in America by the middle of the 90s.
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He missed it.
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Because that hasn't happened.
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He claimed Fidel Castro was going to die in the 90s, and Cuba was going to be visited of God.
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Fidel Castro lived until just a few years ago.
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I have audio of this, by the way.
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This isn't something I read in a book.
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I've heard him say these words.
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He said Jesus Christ was going to physically appear in one of his meetings and be recorded on tape.
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It's never been shown, never happened.
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Now based on this, we have one of two choices.
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Either the New Testament prophets not held to the same standard of the Old Testament prophet.
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Therefore, Benny Hinn could be a prophet and he just gets it wrong every once in a while.
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Or, the same standard applies both to the Old Testament and to the New Testament.
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And Benny Hinn is nothing but a charlatan.
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Now there's a lot of other reasons I could argue Benny Hinn is a charlatan.
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But, based on this alone, I would say he is pseudo prophete.
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False prophet.
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I am persuaded that if a man claims to speak for God and gets it wrong, he is simply not speaking for God.
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Again, I'm not saying a preacher can't get it wrong because I don't stand up and say, Thus saith the Lord.
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And if I do start saying that, feel free to hold me to the prophet's burden.
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You can see why folks want to believe the New Testament prophet isn't held to the same standard.
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Because then they can say anything they want and claim it's from God.
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And as a result today, and I know I'm going a little long, but listen.
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As a result today, churches are full of people who go around and say, Thus saith the Lord.
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Or they'll say, this is how they say, they don't say that because that's old school, that's King James.
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They say it like this, God told me.
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Won't they do that? You know, the other day God told me that you need to do thus and so.
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God told me you need to do X, Y, or Z.
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And guess what, if it doesn't happen, you know what they say? Ah, it's the New Testament, I don't have to be accurate.
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Really? So your standard is no standard? Your foundation is no foundation? Your word of God might not be a word from God? I take great issue with that.
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And most people give prophecies that are too vague to matter anyway.
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God's going to bless you.
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Jennifer and I were, years and years and years ago, before we had kids.
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I was invited to play music at a church.
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And there was another man going to preach.
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And at that particular church, if you played music, you stayed up on the chancel while the person preached.
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And I was the only one who played music.
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I had my guitar and I sang.
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When the song was over and the guy came up to preach, I had to sit behind him.
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So now I'm like, this face is not made to not show what it's thinking.
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And so this is going to be rough.
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But I said, I can do VPN.
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I can go viewpoint neutral for a little while and just sit here with my face.
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Because I knew that this guy had some awkward thoughts.
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And he came up to begin preaching.
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And it was Pentecostal church and he began to preach.
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But he started and he said this.
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He says, I was going to read from the word of God.
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But God's telling me right now that somebody here needs to be prayed for.
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So instead of preaching, we're just going to start praying over people.
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Come on down.
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And one lady screams and runs from the back.
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Now, my mother, God bless her.
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She had encouraged my wife to come forward.
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Because at that particular time, we didn't have any children.
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We've been married for several years, didn't have any children.
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And so my mom wanted my wife to be prayed over.
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I was not interested.
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Honest, I'm just being honest, sharing the true story.
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But I wasn't going to let my wife bear the burden alone.
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So I came down, stood beside my wife.
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The man walked over to me.
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He looked at me.
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And he goes, this man is going to have a wonderful youth ministry.
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That is going to go for years and years.
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So he prophesied over me.
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Little did he know.
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Well, what he did know is my mother told him I was a youth leader.
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But little did he know, I was just fixing to graduate seminary and become the pastor of the church.
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And I had no desire or intention to continue in youth ministry.
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So either God spoke to him and I'm wrong now.
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Or my mom talked to him and you be the judge.
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Now again, I'm not trying to be ugly.
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But here's the situation.
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When somebody says, thus saith the Lord, or God spoke to me.
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They are setting themselves up with a heavy burden.
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When Donald Trump became the president.
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One of the charismatic leaders came out.
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And he was very, very proud.
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And he said, I knew it was going to happen.
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Because brother so and so last week stood up in our church.
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Week before the election.
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He stood up in our church and he prophesied that Donald Trump was going to win the presidency.
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And my response to that was one, he had a 50-50 shot.
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I mean, it isn't like he got the lotto numbers.
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I mean, he really did have a 50-50 shot.
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But also, if he would have gotten it wrong.
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Thank God he didn't.
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But if he had.
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I probably shouldn't have said that.
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But had he gotten it wrong.
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Would that man have been so willing to stand up and say, you sir are a false prophet.
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I doubt he would.
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And that is why I take issue with anyone who stands up and says, thus saith the Lord.
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Without also being willing to be bound to the prophets burden.
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Let me drive to the end now.
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I want to say this last thing.
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If you came here today looking for a word from God.
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A prophetic word.
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Here it is to you.
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Look to Jesus.
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If you're a lost sinner, look to Christ.
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He is the only one who can save you.
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If you're a struggling saint, look to Christ.
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He is the only one who can help you.
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If you need to find answers to life's troubles, look to Christ.
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He is the answer.
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If you're living life fine and you don't think you need anything.
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I'm going to tell you, you still need Jesus.
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Because no one doesn't not need Jesus.
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There is no one in this room who doesn't need Jesus.
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If you're saved, he's the one who saved you and keeps you saved.
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And if you're lost, he's the only one who can save you.
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Christ is our prophet.
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The scripture says this.
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God spoke at various times and in various ways to our fathers through the prophets.
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But today he speaks to us through his son.
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If you came for a prophetic word, here it is.
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Look to Christ.
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He is our true prophet.
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Priest and king.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for the word.
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So much was said today.
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Lord, I hope it wasn't confusing because I know you're not the author of confusion.
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I pray that you would use this time and this study to be helpful to your people.
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And Lord God, I don't want to preach what's wrong.
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And if I have said something that's wrong, I pray that you'd blot it out of their minds.
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I don't claim any type of perfection except for the perfection of the word of God.
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And when we talk about prophecy in the weeks to come, we talk about tongues in the weeks to come.
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I thank you, Lord, that you've given us these weeks to simply break down what these things mean.
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And better understand them.
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Lord, oh God, we don't want to deny what you're doing.
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But we also don't want to listen to those who claim your name and are not coming in your name.
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So Father, give us eyes to see.
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Give us minds to understand.
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Give us the ability to discern truth from error.
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And Lord, for those who came today who know Christ, I pray that they would know him better.
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They would draw closer to him.
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They would see him as the great prophet of their souls.
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And Father, for those who came and don't know Christ, Lord, that they would understand that there is only one thing that awaits those who know not Christ.
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And that is the hell of fire.
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And that they would turn from their sins and trust in him.
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And know that that hell can be extinguished in their life in Christ and Christ alone.
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And we pray it in his name.
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Amen.