Okay, turn in your Bibles to
1 Thessalonians. Paul begins and finishes his
letter with significant words, and we've just looked at them
over the last few weeks about being, I'll read from verse 16
down, it says, Rejoice evermore Pray without ceasing, in everything
give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Quench not the spirit, despise
not prophesying, prove all things, hold fast that which is good,
abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace
sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless. unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet
all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord
Jesus, this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. And so tonight we've
come to that admonition, encouragement in a sense, it says, despise
not proper signs. Prove all things, hold fast to
that which is good. It's interesting how he says,
quench not the spirit, which means honour the things that the Spirit
has brought and the Spirit does in your lives, and then he says,
despise not prophesying, which means to respect, regard, carefully
consider, give careful thought to prophesying, prophesyings. Of course the thing that's interesting
for us as we have our complete scriptures, all 66 books, and
all of the New Testament, is that when this was written, Those
people he was writing to had the Old Testament scriptures
and nothing else. In fact, when the apostles were
evangelising, they just had two fundamental things, didn't they?
They had the testimony, the witness of the Lord Jesus, and they had
the Old Testament prophets. And so did the Thessalonians.
What did they have? They just had the Old Testament
prophecies about the Lord Jesus and they had the witness of Paul. And as we read in Acts, he actually
takes the book, takes the book of the Word of God in Acts 17.
He takes that scroll, he takes the Word of God And he opens,
he explains and he alleges, he demonstrates that Christ must
need to have suffered and risen again from the dead and that
this Jesus, this particular Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. So prophecy, there's so much
talk about prophecy, it's a good thing to ponder for a little
while. Prophecy is really just speaking the words which are
God's. As 2 Peter says, the Old Testament
was written by people In 2 Peter he says, knowing this
first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation,
for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It's declaring, generally prophecy
is declaring what will come to pass, isn't it? Declaring what
the future holds, declaring with certainty from God. And I looked
up on my computer and the number of times in the Old Testament
the words will and shall and must, and there are a number
of other words that indicate things that will come to pass,
but it's nearly 12,000 times. I haven't checked them all, but
so many of them, yes. So many of them. are predictions
and prophecies from the Lord about what's going to happen,
and particularly, of course, the Lord Jesus who is the Prophet,
the Lord Jesus who is God Himself. The Lord Jesus is the focus of
all of those prophecies. He is the Yes and Amen, and all
the promises of God So it's a declaration, isn't it? It's declaring what
will come to pass. And the declarations are in accord
with the Old Testament prophecies. Declarations in accord with the
glory of God. Declarations declaring God's
purposes. Declarations declaring in the
name of the Lord who He is and what He's doing, revealing things
that are hidden, revealing the secret things of God, reproving
the wicked and comforting the afflicted, and promising God's
judgment on people who reject His Word and reject His Son. So prophecy The prophecy continues
into the New Testament era. It's a gift in Old Testament
times. And it's remarkable, isn't it? When you're reading the Old Testament,
it's remarkable what the Lord Jesus said. He says, for all
the prophets and the law prophesied until John. The law prophesied. The Old Testament prophets all
prophesied until John. And John came as that forerunner
of the Lord Jesus. And the first words after 350
to 400 years of silence, the first words of proclamation in
the New Testament in Luke chapter 1 is a declaration by Zacharias. of the providence and mercy and
grace of God. The first Christian sermon of
that era, as it were, the first public declaration, was Zechariah
describing his God, Zechariah describing his God's Messiah,
Zechariah describing his Son's activities. And John the Baptist
is described by the Lord Jesus as the greatest born of woman,
the greatest of them all. All of them from Adam through
to Malachi could say this is what Messiah is like. This is
a description of His work, His worth and His achievements. John
the Baptist was different to all of them. John the Baptist
said, there, behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him. Here He is. All the other prophets,
Isaiah and the others and Jeremiah and Daniel, they all spoke of
Him and spoke of Him. And as we go through the Old
Testament, we get a clearer and more detailed picture of Messiah. And John says, Here He is. But the Lord Jesus says something
else, doesn't He? He says, He that is least greater than him, greater than
John. What a remarkable privilege to
be in the Kingdom of Heaven. So it's a gift in New Testament
time, the gift of prophecy comes on people. They have gifts that
differ according to the grace given us. And let's use them,
says Romans 4 or 6, if prophecy in proportion to our faith. And it came upon people in extraordinary
ways. It came upon them for a limited
time and for particular purposes. It came upon people to bear witness
to what the Old Testament said, to bear witness to the Lord Jesus
to bear witness to his gifts of grace. Timothy was prophesied
over. The gift that he had was a gift
that was given by the prophecy, the laying on of hands and prophecy
of the elders. And it was limited in these New
Testament times. It was limited as 1 Corinthians
says, who we know in part and we prophesy in part. And so there
were real prophets in the New Testament time, people like Agabus
who warns Paul of the fact that he's going to be bound, and Paul
confirms it in Acts 26, the Holy Spirit witnesses in every city
saying that bonds and afflictions abide me, that he's heading for
a place where he's going to be bound and he's going to be afflicted. And those words came to him from
the words of men like Agabus and others. Obviously the focus
of all the scriptures and the focus of the New Testament, real
New Testament prophets, is the Lord Jesus. He is the prophet. He is, as Revelation 22.6 describes
Him, He is the Lord God of the prophets. And he was tested,
wasn't he? He was tested as a prophet. They
tested him when they mocked him. Who hit you? Who hit you? They
kept saying. And they tested him, the Pharisees
tested him in his dealings with other people. The Pharisees in
that Pharisee's house, the Pharisee said, if this man were a prophet,
He would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is
touching him, for she is a sinner. Remarkable. He was the prophet. Moses promised the people, and
they were looking forward to this day, this Messiah who is
coming, but also he was going to be a prophet. Moses promised,
he said, a prophet. Deuteronomy 8.15 says, The Lord
thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee,
of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him you shall hearken. Unto him you will hearken. In verse 18, the same chapter,
he says, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren
like unto thee and I will put my words in his mouth and he
shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. All that I shall command him. He came and he didn't speak his
own words, he spoke the words of God. He came in fulfilment
of Daniel's prophecy and Daniel says gives this great declaration
in Daniel 9 of the work and the worth of our Lord Jesus. 70 weeks
are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish
transgression, to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation
for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and
to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. He came as the prophet. He came
in response to all those prophecies. He came as God and all of these
prophecies concern His person, His coming, His work, the fulfilment
of all that was promised, His crucifixion, His death, His burial,
His resurrection, His exaltation, His reign and His return. They all spoke of those things
about the Lord Jesus. He is the prophet. He is the
one who's prophesied of. He is the one who brings prophecy. And all true prophets speak the
truth about the prophet. The Holy Spirit comes upon them
at a time and for a specific purpose, to write the scriptures
and to bear testimony to their truth. And it comes for a time. And the New Testament era was
a particular time, wasn't it? In Hebrews, we are given pause
to think deeply and seriously about The whole role of prophets
in this day is extraordinary. I watched a thing on the internet
a few weeks ago in response to a question from one of our students
in Hebron and she asked me to check out this website and there
was this organisation that was founded on the basis of prophecy
and it rates the prophets. It rates the profits within the
organisation as to how accurate they are in their prophecy. And
so there are some that are sort of 60% and some that are 80%
and some that are 90%. The true prophets, the true prophets
of God are getting it 100% right, 100% of the time, all their false
prophets. There is just none of this nonsense
that goes around today. But in Hebrews 2 it says that
God bore them witness with signs and wonders. He bore witness
to this Word. this great salvation, this word
that was spoken, and it was confirmed by them that heard Him, God bearing
them witness, both with signs and wonders and diverse miracles
and gift to the Holy Ghost according to His own will. In Hebrews 2
verse 4 that verse is, And so it stands to reason that
once their testimony has been established and once the New
Testament has been written, we have no need to look for those
sorts of things. We have no need. We have all
that is there. But what's remarkable in this
passage before us is that we have the witness here of someone
who was a prophet. And the thing that's remarkable
about it is, isn't it, he says, despise not prophesying. So Paul
came and brought prophetic words. He came preaching is another
word for prophesying. It's to speak forth, to make
known, to announce. But Paul spoke forth. But also
Paul knew that in the midst of this world that the Thessalonians
lived in is going to be all sorts of false prophets. And the thing
that's amazing, the thing that is remarkable and the thing that
I'd like you to take a hold of from this is that even in that
short time of three weeks with them and having the Old Testament,
He then says to them, you're not to despise prophesying, but
then you do it to prove all things and hold fast to that which is
good. Just these fledgling Christians
in a world of turmoil and opposition from all around them, they actually
had the resources within their midst to be able to prove all
the prophets, prove all the prophesying, and they had the resources to
know which was good and which was bad, who was true and who
was false, just after three weeks. Such is the power of the Gospel,
isn't it? And that's why Paul comes in
this letter to remind these Thessalonians of the Gospel he preached to
them. He brings them to remember. See, prophesying and preaching
is the same word in so many contexts, isn't it? And Paul was a prophet. a real prophet. He actually came
and declared the Old Testament prophecies about the Christ.
He came to these people and he declared what was going to happen
to them. He was a true prophet. He was
one who came from God and all true prophets speak God's words
and are not much interested in anything else other than speaking
God's words. In 2 verse 4 he says that we
were allowed of God to speak the Gospel of God to you, to
speak unto you the Gospel of God. And in Galatians he says
he wasn't sent from man and he wasn't sent by man, he wasn't
raised up by an institution, he didn't come out of any human
activities, as he goes on to say in 2 verse 4 of 1 Thessalonians,
but pleasing God who tries our hearts. God is witness. See the true prophet, is called
by God, he lives before God, he lives for God, and he lives
for God's people. A true prophet. suffers affliction
because this world is going to treat God's prophets as it did
the true prophet, the Lord Jesus. And he was anxious for those
he loved and he sent Timothy to see how they fared. He suffered
the frailties of other men, didn't he? He didn't know what was going
on and he didn't pretend to these Thessalonians that he had some
magical, mystical way of knowing what was going on, even though
he was in the same country and he was only a province or so
away from them. But he was faithful, wasn't he?
In verse 3 of chapter 3, he warns them that the afflictions that
they are suffering, these afflictions shouldn't move them. because
he tells them that they were appointed thereunto. He says, for verily when we're
with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation
even as it came to pass as you know. He was an honest, an honest
man, Paul. I love the description in chapter
2 that he gives of himself. He didn't seek glory. He didn't
use flattering words. He didn't pretend to be something
so he could have a cloak for covetousness. He laboured amongst
them. He lived wholly and justly and
unblameably before them. He was gentle. He was desirous
of them. He didn't come as a deceitful
worker. He wasn't unclean before them
and he didn't come to catch them in guile, to catch them with
a bait. You just declared to them that you come to the Lord
Jesus and you come in this world, we'll reject you and hate you
and you will suffer affliction and you will suffer Tribulation. The Lord Jesus did exactly the
same in the Upper Room Discourse. He says, the world will hate
you, but when it hates you, it hated me first. And the religious
world especially will turn against God's people, and they will hate
them, and they will believe that even in killing the apostles,
they're actually serving God. Such is the deceitfulness of
religion without Christ. When Paul was called, in Acts
9, verse 16, the Lord Jesus said to Ananias, He says, For I will
show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Paul was honest about the nature
of what it is to live as a Christian in this world, and he prophesied
to these people, didn't he? He told them what was going to
come to pass in their lives, and as they lived it out, they
could see that this man told them the truth. But more than
that, He tells them about the greatness of the glory of God. He tells them about the grace
of God in the Lord Jesus. He exalts the God of grace and
He exalts God's grace. I love what 3 verse 13 says,
to the end. The Lord make you increase and
abound in love towards one another to the end that he may establish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before God. What a promise, what
a prophecy, what a declaration of the glory of God. Imagine
that. your heart unblameable in the presence of God, even
our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul preached
the grace of God, he preached the glory of God, he preached
Christ as risen He preached Christ as reigning. He preached Christ
as ruling. He preached the grace of God
which works effectively in people. He preached a God who teaches
and cares and nurtures for his people. I love what verse 9 of
chapter 4 says. He says, But as touching brotherly
love you need not that I write unto you, for you yourselves
are taught of God. I want to be taught of God. What a thing to be taught of
God, to be taught of God to love one another. What a promise,
what a prophecy. Paul, of course in this letter,
knows that he'd love to be back. amongst these Thessalonians.
And even though he writes and finishes this letter asking them
to test all things, test the prophecies, test the character
of the prophets and test the words of the prophets. And he
knows that even though, as he says, that there are things in
3 verse 10 that are lacking in their faith, they have all that's
needed. that I have all that's needed
to test and to prove and to hold on to. Paul, from 4 verse 13
to 5.10 speaks as a prophet about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying
nothing new, but he's declaring what's coming to pass. He's declaring
what will happen to believers who die, die in the Lord Jesus. They just are asleep and they
will come back with Him. He's declaring what will happen
when the Lord Jesus returns. And he's a prophet who warns
about the false teachers again and again throughout the New
Testament. It's hard to find a page where
there isn't warnings about false teachers. And he summarises So
much of what they say in chapter 5 verse 3, we've looked at it
in the past, but when they say, peace and safety, sudden destruction
cometh upon them as prevailed upon a woman with child, and
they shall not escape. So he was a prophet, Paul, who
warned about the false teachers, but also he was a prophet. who
sought the protection of his people and the greatest protection
that God's people can have and the greatest safety and the greatest
place of refuge and the greatest way to prove all things is by
the Gospel itself. Declaring the Gospel is the greatest
way for you to be able to prove all things, to prove the person
who is speaking to you, to test what they are saying. Are they
speaking on God's behalf about God's Son, about what He does? Are they speaking the truth?
about who people are, people in their natural state of Adam's
flesh. Are they speaking about a God
who saves by sovereign grace? Are they speaking about a Lord
Jesus who reigns and rules supremely? Are they bringing a Gospel which
reveals the true character of God? God is revealed in the Gospel. God is revealed in all of the
glory of His character in the person of the Lord Jesus, and
God is most revealed in all of the wonders of His character
in the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. had left these people, he'd come
there with one purpose, wasn't he? To preach Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. In Corinth he just had one message,
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Throughout his ministry he had
one message, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Gospel, who
he is, who He was in eternity, who He was as prophesied, who
He was when He came in the flesh and fulfilled all of those prophecies,
who He was as our representative and our substitute, who He was
as our glorious propitiation when He died upon that cross,
bearing the sins of His people and bearing them away such that
God is gracious to us. not on the basis of what we do,
but on the basis of what the Lord Jesus has done. He's brought
grace and He's brought peace. I love how He finishes in verse
23 of chapter 5, "...and the very God of peace." sanctify you wholly." Even the
sanctification, which is where so many people get caught up
and they want to add our activities to the finished work of the Lord
Jesus. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, sanctify
you completely. sanctify you in such a way that
you are unblameable in holiness before God right now through
the Lord Jesus. Sanctify you wholly and I pray
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
until the coming of our Lord Jesus. What a great description
of our God in the next verse. Faithful is He that calls you,
and He will also do it. Faithful is He that calls you,
and He will also do it. Reality is brothers and sisters, that we
live in a world where the promise of God is that this gospel that
we find such delight in is a gospel that won't be believed by many.
It's a gospel that's going to be attacked by false prophets. The false prophets abound in
the scriptures, don't they? And we are warned again and again
We are warned to take heed to these lying and deceiving prophets. And the only way we can hold
on to what is good, the only way we can test, is by the Word
of God. Taking the Word of God and taking
the Word of these people to the Gospel and testing it. It's not
complicated. I think for me it gets simpler
and simpler and simpler. I just want to know what they
say about the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. I want them to
tell me what they believe. 1 Corinthians 1.30, which we
have on the front of our bulletins, really means. What a glorious,
glorious promise of our Lord Jesus. This is where the attack
is, isn't it? On His person and on His Word. He says, But of Him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. All of our wisdom is made all
of our righteousness, all of our sanctification, all of our
redemption. And the purpose of it all is
that there will be a glory in God, that we will look to Him
and see Him as glorious. The list of the false teachers
and their characteristics throughout scripture is just so revealing,
isn't it? Ultimately, there are just so
many warnings. Can they prophesy and it be true? They can. They can. If there arise among you, this
is Deuteronomy 13, a prophet or a dreamer of dreams that give
you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder come to pass. Whereof he spoke unto you saying,
so let us go. after other gods which thou hast
known, and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken to the
words of that prophet. His prophecy came true. The things
that he spoke about came true. You are not to hearken unto him,
the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the
Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You might
remember that Saul was a prophet. Saul had a spirit from God come
upon him and he prophesied. Saul finished his days as an
enemy of God in the hands of the witch of Endor. In 1 Kings 22 there is a remarkable
passage of scripture about God sending a lying spirit. There was Jehoshaphat, just to
summarise the story briefly. Jehoshaphat had gone down. gone down to the King of Israel.
He had no right having anything to do with the King of Israel.
He was an enemy of God and Jehoshaphat had no right. And then I had
this meeting to work out whether they'll go to war together. And all of these prophets, these
prophets of King Ahab. They all prophesied as one man,
saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord shall
deliver it into your hands. And someone made horns of iron
to show them how powerful Ahab was, and the message was gone. Jehoshaphat says there must be
someone else. Is there another prophet here?
You have all of these prophets. Is there another one? He says
there is one in verse 8. He says there is one called Micaiah,
but I hate him for he does not prophesy good concerning me but
evil. Jehoshaphat rebuked him. And
the messenger was called to bring Micaiah in, in verse 13, and
spoke to him. And this is what the messenger
said, Micaiah, all the others, the words of the prophets declare
good unto the king with one mouth. Let thy word, I pray thee, be
like the word of one of them that speak which is good. And Micaiah said, As the Lord
lives, what the Lord says unto me, that will I speak. So he came to the king, and the
king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramos Gilead to
battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered, Go and prosper,
for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And
the king said unto him, Now how many times shall I adjure you
that you shall tell me nothing but that which is true in the
name of the Lord? And he said, These are the words
of the Lord. He said, I saw all Israel scattered
upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the
Lord said, these have no master. Let them return every man to
his house in peace. And the King of Israel said to
Jehoshaphat, did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good
concerning me but evil? And he said, hear thou therefore
the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord. sitting on his
throne and all the hosts of heaven standing by him, on his right
hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall
persuade Ahab that he may go up? and fall at Ramoth Gilead. And one said on this matter and
another said on that matter, and there came forth a spirit
and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith?
And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit
in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade
him, and prevail also. Go forth and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord
has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets,
and the Lord has spoken evil concerning thee. But Zedekiah
the son of Jinnah went near and smote Micaiah on the cheek and
said, Which way did the spirit of the Lord from me, which way
went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee." You see,
in Deuteronomy 13, they prophesy and proclaim and things come
true and miracles come to pass. Here are these men who claim
that the Spirit of the Lord is on them. They are bold. They
are bold in the face of God's one lone prophet in that court. Micaiah said, and behold, you
shall see. And of course you know the rest
of the story. They put him in prison. Ahab said, just feed
him on bread and water until I return. And Micaiah said, if
you come back, I'm not a prophet of God. I'm not a prophet of
God at all. And you might remember the story
that a man later in that chapter just picks up an arrow, just
fires an arrow in a random way and it pierces between the shields
of Ahab, and he died exactly as the prophets had said, and
the dogs licked up his blood exactly as the prophets of God.
God's prophets are right 100% of the time. God's prophets are rife, even
if they are like Micaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah, in the
midst of a mass of others who are saying other things and speaking
words of peace. Peace and safety, they say, don't
they? Peace and safety in numbers,
and they reject the word of God. People can be prophets and successful
prophets all the way through this life and all the way to
the judgement seat of God. In Matthew 7 there's a verse
that we quote often and it's just such a sobering, sobering
verse. The passage of scripture. Not
everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Many will say to him that day, Lord, Lord. So they're proclaiming him as
Lord. emphatically, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in thy name? And he doesn't deny their prophecies,
and in thy name cast out devils, and he doesn't deny the exorcism,
and in thy name done many wonderful works, and he doesn't deny the
wonderful works. And then I will profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. The false prophets and those
who are led by them can go through this world surrounded by people
who will support them and save peace and safety. They can go
and perform miracles and the miracles come to pass. They can
do signs and wonders. They can even get with confidence
to the Day of Judgement on the basis of their activities. Look what we have done. Not so, God's prophets. Test all of them. Test everything you hear and
assume nothing. Test what you hear from this
pulpit. Test it all the time. Take what
we say back to the Word of God and prove it. Prove it for your
soul's sake. That's why the New Testament
is just full, full of encouragement, isn't it? To test all things. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits whether they have God. For many false prophets
have gone out into the world. But the wonderful thing about
the Gospel is that God's children in the Gospel have a means to
prove it against. The only way you can find out
whether something is crooked is to hold it up against something
which is perfectly straight. God says that he lays justice
to the line and righteousness to the plummet. God is holy, he must be just,
he must be perfectly righteous. Only the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus, only the Gospel that declares a perfectly successful
finished work and a reigning saviour and a ruling saviour
as we read in 1 Thessalonians, one that rules not just in heaven
but rules on this earth and rules in the hearts of his people.
That God says in Philippians 1.6, He says, if I have begun
a good work, if I have begun a good work in you, if I have
begun a good work among you, I will continue that work until
the day of salvation, which is why the day of His return, which
is why Paul begins his letter by reminding them of the glory
of God. He speaks of this church, a church
which is in. in a union with God and in a
union with the Lord Jesus. And he begins by telling them
that grace has come, and if grace has come, peace has come. And then he goes on to talk about
what's happened. This Gospel comes with power
and assurance. This Gospel tells them of a saviour
who's done his work, he's delivered his people, He's delivered us
completely and perfectly and forever. And now God's people
find rest. We wait. We wait in confident
expectation that all of the words of this great prophet and all
of the words of the prophets that he has inspired will be
true. Yes and Amen are all the promises
of God in our great Lord Jesus. Let's pray.