Christ as Prophet Art. 15&16

Alright, so as promised, if you have your confessions, we're going to read Article 15 and Article 16 from my portion, and it really has to deal with Christ as prophet.

So I'll read these two articles.

I'm not going to read the note, because the note really, it's too much.

I want to try to stay within the two articles as Christ as prophet.

So on page 10, if you're in the confession, it states this as prophet.

And then under the thought of, and remember, these are added subtitles as complete prophet, it says that he might be a prophet every way complete, it was necessary that he should be God and that he also should be man.

For unless he had been God, he could never have perfectly understood the will of God.

Unless he had been man, he could not have suitably unfolded it in his own person to men.

So if you remember the last time we looked at the confession, which was several weeks ago, we began to deal with this whole idea of Christ as the mediator, and when we talked about that, we said that the next number of articles, actually all the way to, if I remember, article 20, it will deal with the specific ways in which Christ acts on our behalf as the mediator.

And one of the great themes was that the Lord Jesus Christ acts as a mediator in three great offices, and remember, anybody remember what those three offices are? To which he really, we can look at and see him in his action of being our mediator.

It was prophet, priest, and king.

Prophet, priest, and king.

And so the next group of articles is now going to focus in on each one of those individual offices, and as I said to you, and as Brother Keith also mentioned to you, when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ as the mediator and as prophet, priest, and king, we ought not to think of it as, well, he acts as prophet now and then he acts as priest at another time and then he acts as king at another time, but it's all together.

He is prophet, priest, and king to us in completeness.

And I just wanted to read a comment from one author before we dive a little bit further into this idea of prophet, and what he did was he made this statement about why we need a prophet, a priest, and a king.

And that's exactly what we're going to work through as we go through this, but he made this statement.

He said, we need a prophet to deliver us from the ignorance of sin, we need a priest to deliver us from the guilt of sin, and we need a king to deliver us from the dominion of sin.

And I thought that was an excellent way of putting it, that as we see these offices that the Lord Jesus Christ takes on in our behalf, that we understand that they're not just titles, there's a necessity for each one of those great offices, and again as we're dealing now, specifically in the idea of prophet, that we need a prophet because of our ignorance of sin.

And I wanted to just, so if you had to define a prophet, how would you define a prophet? Just, any thought that comes to your mind, it doesn't have to be that elaborate, but when you, sister, okay, yeah, someone who speaks for God, right, and someone who speaks to us on God's behalf, right.

So really if you think about it, that's the way in which the prophet was to be, was used by God, that he would speak for God, and he also would speak for God to us, and when you think about that, and you think about it, you know, some people think of a prophet merely in the sense of someone who foretells the future, who looks ahead and is able, and certainly there were many instances of how God used the prophets to do that, to speak of things that had not yet taken place.

But there's a lot more involved in a prophet if you take it from the standpoint that the prophet speaks for God, and then the God, the prophet speaks for God to us, and again, with that thought in mind, it becomes much more pointed and much more specific, and so when you think of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the confession lays out, concerning the prophecy of Christ, it is where he has revealed the will of God, whatever is needful for his servants to know and obey.

There again is, apart from a prophet, because of sin, because of the deadness of our souls, because we are alienated, as Paul says, in our minds, right, separated from God, how could we ever be able to overcome our own ignorance of sin unless we had someone who spoke for God, and also not only spoke for God, but spoke for God to us, to help to remove that ignorance of sin.

And so there's many scriptures that we could look at, I just want to focus in on a couple of them, and perhaps that will give us a better thought as far as how the Lord Jesus Christ stands in the gap for us, specifically now, in the office of the prophet.

So a couple of scriptures, but the first one, and I think this one should be well known by us, but nevertheless, let's look at it together, is in Deuteronomy, and so if you can, and you would, go to Deuteronomy chapter 18, probably one of the more familiar scriptures to go to as you consider a prophet, but as we read this, I think you'll see a couple of things, one is the preeminence of the prophet that's being spoke of here, versus other prophets that are spoke of.

So in Deuteronomy chapter 18, in verse 15, we read this, the Lord your God will raise for you a prophet like me, this is Moses speaking, the Lord will raise up a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire any more lest I die.

And the Lord said to me, what you have spoken is good, and I will raise for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, now here it is, I will put my words in his mouth, okay, he speaks for God, God puts his words in the prophet's mouth, and then, and he shall speak unto them all that I command him, and there it is, the prophet now not only speaks for God, but he speaks for God to who, to us, right, and then it doesn't leave it at that, and it shall be in verse 19 that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him.

And that's what, you know, and I say things often, but that's why I always try to tell people be careful what you do with Jesus.

Be careful what you do with the Son of God, it's not a light thing, and so many people just look at Jesus as a teacher, or as a martyr, or as a radical, or as a good example, he is the prophet of God, he is the one who speaks for God to us, and as God continually says many times even in the New Testament, in the Gospels, how often God says, this is my, what, beloved son whom I am well pleased, and then he adds, hear you him, right, and so certainly that doesn't diminish the fact that any prophet that God sent would speak God's words, and that God would require of them if they would disobey the prophet's words, but here we have someone who's going to be raised up, and God makes a very specific command in it, and then if you look at it in verse 20, but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die, and if you say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken, when the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the things that has not happened or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

So there we see an instance of prophecy of a prophet that was to come, and as we consider this, and as the brothers lay this out in the confession, it's exactly what they're doing, and it's so important for us to understand that there is none like Jesus, because there is no one who speaks not only for God, but all that God speaks, and not only for God to us, but the authority that's behind it.

Again, the reality is there could be no one, and even as I read to you in the beginning, and even as it says here, he had to have been, if you think about it, fully God, and fully man, in order to accomplish what God had sent him to do, which was to speak for God, and also to speak to man.

Again, under the great title of mediator, he functions as the one who is to be the spokesman for God, and the spokesman to us, and again, let me just make this side comment.

If we do not understand the person of Christ, that he is fully God, and fully man, then we can never really come to a right understanding of the offices which he holds.

In other words, as soon as you move away from the deity of Christ or the humanity of Christ, you're going to find yourself in a position where you cannot make the scriptures, they just don't work, for lack of a better term.

So when you think about that, that's why they make a separate point of saying, and even though it's added in, as a complete prophet, he had to have been fully God, and fully man.

And it says that he could never have perfectly understood the will of God, had he not been God, and unless he had been a man, he could not suitably have unfolded it in his own person.

Here's another thought.

So we established that a prophet could be one who speaks of a future event.

We also established that a prophet is, in truth, one who speaks for God, and to us, for God.

But there's a couple other things, if you think about how the prophets wrote, let's say, in the Old Testament.

There was more than just prophetic statements, although they were there.

There were also statements, what other functions did the prophets serve as you read through the narratives in the Old Testament? Chastisement.

Chastisement, right.

They were set by God to warn people and to tell them that disobedience would not just be forgotten, or pushed aside, or winked at.

So the prophet had more than just speaking in a prophetic way, he was to warn, he was to command, he was to encourage, he was to teach, he was to exhort, he was to be, in that sense, the mouthpiece for God.

And now you start to think about it in the person of Christ.

You see why, if you get the person of Christ wrong, it just doesn't, you can't make it work.

It just won't work.

And that's why many people say, well, I follow the prophet Muhammad, or I follow Ali Baba in the 40 Thieves, or whatever it is, the genie in the bottle, or whatever it is, of what use is it if he's not speaking for the true God? Right? Then it serves no purpose.

I don't know why I always say Ali Baba in the 40 Thieves.

That's okay.

But anyway, when you think about it, so when you think about how Christ, and if you read the narratives in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ certainly did all those things, right? He warned, he encouraged, he exhorted, he chastised.

Certainly his dealings with the Jews and the Pharisees and the ruling class, there was much in there that was chastisement and actually condemnation.

Certainly as we go into Matthew and he talks about one, one, two, you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites.

And it wasn't just his words, it was the words that the Father had given to the Son, and now the Son gives them to man, in that sense, on behalf of the Father.

So let me just close it with a couple of scriptures in the New Testament.

I'll just take a few from the Gospel of John.

If you want, you can go to John chapter 8.

I'm just going to read a couple of verses.

And again, the brothers, as they wrote the confession, they used many different verses, but I just picked out a couple of them that I thought were worth mentioning because they speak directly to what I have hopefully said to you.

So, in John chapter 8, and I don't have time to set all the context up and everything, but as you look at verse 26, Jesus says this.

He says, I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard, what, from him.

There it is, right? God spoke to the Son, the Son speaks to us.

And the authority is there.

It cannot be forsaken, and it has to be considered in the person and the word of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you can continue reading on, especially in this section, and you will see the emphasis on the prophet.

Let me ask you to turn, and just see while you're in Gospel of John, just go to John chapter 12 for a minute, and you can go back and read these verses on your own.

I think it would be helpful.

But in John chapter 12, again, all I'm trying to do is show that Jesus did not speak in and of his own self, although he could have, could he not have? Right? Because the Old Testament prophets, what did they say? Thus says the Lord, right? And that was a test, that he spoke God's words.

Then we come and we see the Lord Jesus Christ as he walked through in his ministry, and what does he not only say? He says, I say unto you.

Thus claiming the same authority, that he not only speaks for God, but in fact he is God himself.

And yet he submitted himself as the servant of the Lord to receive those words.

But in John chapter 12, just read verse 49, and again, the Lord Jesus Christ says this, for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me gave me a command that I should say of what I should say and what I should speak.

And I know that his commands is everlasting life.

Therefore, whatsoever I speak, just as the father has told me, so I speak.

Again, as the prophet, as the prophet, as the only prophet that is both God and man, he says that to us, and he says, and he puts himself in subjection, he says I'm not speaking on my own authority, although he could have, couldn't he? He certainly could have.

Alright, and then one more in John chapter 14, and again, you, if you really want to see at how highlighted, I mean the gospel of John is so, so full of the authority of the son of God, and how he speaks for God, and he speaks to us, and he is the fulfillment of what was written way back when Moses said, the Lord shall raise up a prophet in that day.

But in John chapter 14, Jesus said this, well I'll end it, pick it up in verse 7, if you had known me, you would have known my father also.

And from now on you know him, and have seen him, and Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father, and it is sufficient for us.

Jesus said unto him, have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip.

He who has seen me has seen the father, so how can you say, show us the father? And then look at verse 10, do you not believe that I am in the father, and the father in me, and the words that I speak to you, I do not speak of my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does the work.

Believe me that I am in the father, and the father is in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.

And again, the Lord Jesus Christ presents himself as not only a prophet, but the prophet.

And so when we look at it, and again, if we will just remember those three offices, prophet, priest, and king, if you, as you study your Bible, if you look for the prophet, the priest, and the king, I assure you, you will find him in places that you never thought you would find him before, because that's what the scriptures are.

The scriptures are really the revelation of the unfolding of the coming of the person of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I will end it with, as God has said to us in the area of the prophet, this is my beloved son, in whom I am all pleased, and that warning, which is one of the most troubling and yet comforting statements in the Bible, where it says, hear ye him.

So may God help us as we continually unfold this in prophet, and as brother Keith will bring priest, and then we'll go as king, and where would we be without such a one as Christ, right? So amen.

Okay brother.