If you would go back to that
passage that Joe just read to us, let me talk to you a little
bit tonight about God's prophet. Within the nation of Israel,
there were three very high offices which were held by various men
over the course of the history of Israel. They were vital to
the Jewish nation. First of all, the prophet. He
spoke to the people for God. And then there was the priest.
He ministered to God on behalf of the people. And then there
was the king, and he ruled over the people typifying that rule
of our Lord Jesus Christ over his chosen people. I want to
focus tonight on this word, prophet. It literally means an interpreter
of or a receiver of the hidden things of God. the receiver of
the hidden things of God, who communicated those things to
the people. A prophet would speak that which
God had spoken unto him. It's interesting, the New Testament
word for prophet comes from a couple of original words which mean
to make known one's thoughts which come from above. And the perfect example, actually
the prophet of God, is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who
came from above. He came from above with the message
of God. He said on numerous occasions
that the words that I speak are not my words but the Father's
words. He was the appointed messenger
of God to man as being the prophet of God. He was the mouthpiece
of God. No wonder then that John said
of him, in the beginning was the Word. Word, the Word of God,
the communication from God. He's the A to Z of all that God
has to say to us. Turn back to Deuteronomy 5. Let
me show you something that Moses said, and this is a good identifying
mark of a prophet of God. Look back in Hebrews chapter
five and I'll read it verse four. The Lord talked with you face
to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire. And then he
parentheses, I stood between the Lord and you at that time. I stood between the Lord and
you at that time to show or manifest to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid by reason
of the fire and went not up into the mount. And the Lord was saying,
I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land
of Egypt from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods
before me." Moses said, I was God's prophet to you. I stood between you and God. And I received the message from
God and then I communicated the message of God to you. Because
remember, God will not speak to nor be spoken to by anybody
except through a mediator. And Moses was the mediator. between God and men, between
God and Israel. He communicated to the Israelites
the very word of God. And of course, later then Aaron
became the high priest and he ministered to God on behalf of
Israel. He was the mediator going the
other way. You see, Moses, the mediator,
receiving the Word, giving it to the people, and then Aaron
was the mediator who interceded for Israel. He prayed for Israel,
and he offered to Israel the sacrifice that covered their
sins. He was the mediator, the great
high priest of Israel, ministering to God on behalf of the people. Now, in our text here in chapter
18, the Lord spoke of another prophet, that prophet. And when we get to the New Testament,
and I'll have you turn with me to the gospel of John chapter
one, John chapter one. When we get over here to the
Gospel of John, we find that our Lord Jesus is that prophet,
and people recognize that he was the prophet, at least some
of them did. Look in John chapter one in verses
19 and 28, through 28. And this is the record concerning
John the Baptist. And this is the record of John
when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him, who art thou? And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, well, what
then, art thou Elijah? And he said, I am not. And then they asked him, Art
thou that prophet? You see, they had been looking
for that prophet. Israel through hundreds of years
had been looking for that prophet who would come forth from God
with God's own word, God's communication to Israel. And so now they asked
John the Baptist, Are you that prophet? Are you that one Moses
spoke of? Are you that one who's gonna
communicate the mind of God, the will of God, the purpose
of God to us? Are you that prophet? And he
answered unequivocally, no, no, I'm not. And they said unto him,
well, who art thou? If you're not Elijah, and if
you're not the prophet, that we may give an answer to
them who sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?"
And John the Baptist said, I'm just the voice. I'm just the
voice. I'm not the prophet. I'm not
that one that Moses spoke of. I'm not that one who came from
heaven to communicate to you the will of God. I'm not the
Redeemer. I'm not the Messiah. I'm not
the Savior. I'm the forerunner of Him. Well,
they say, well, who are you then? He says, I'm just a voice. That's
all I am. And that's all any preacher of
the gospel is. He's just a voice. You don't
need to know the voice. You need to know the one of whom
the voice speaks. And this is what John is saying.
I'm not Him. I'm not Him. Look at verse, let me read verse
23 again. He said, I'm the voice of one
crying in the wilderness, not in Jerusalem. That's interesting
you put it that way. I'm the voice of one crying in
the wilderness. If you wanted to hear John preach,
you went out in the wilderness. If you wanted to hear the Lord
Jesus preach, you could hear him in the temple. You could
hear him in one of the synagogues, but if you want to hear John
the Baptist, he wasn't in the temple. He wasn't in one of the
synagogues. He was out in the wilderness
preaching. He said, make straight the way
of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah, and they that were sent
were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said,
well, why baptizes thou then if thou be not that Christ? That is that Messiah, that sent
one. If you're not that prophet, well,
why do you baptize? And if you're not Elias, neither
that prophet. If you're not him, why do you
do these things? John answered saying, I baptize
with water. in water, but there standeth
one among you whom ye know not. He it is, he it is who coming
after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latched I'm not
worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara
beyond Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day John
seeth Jesus that prophet, sees Him coming unto him, and he said,
Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
Another passage. Look over in John chapter 6. And you'll recognize this passage
of Scripture because our Lord has just fed all these thousands
of people with a young lad's lunch. When the people saw this miracle
as our Lord Jesus who is himself, that bread come down from heaven,
that one who is the manna from heaven, the true manna. when
they saw him just multiplying the food as it came out of his
hands to go to the disciples and the disciples distributed
it, that those two fish and five barley loaves just kept on multiplying
as it came forth right out of his hands. And that's not surprising
that he could do that. He spoke the world into existence
out of nothing. And he maintains everything in
the order in which it is. Don't pay any attention to the
doomsdayers who talk about the earth's gonna fall out of orbit
or the sun's gonna stop shining and all stuff like it. The natural
man worries about stuff over which he has no control and he
has no knowledge that the hand who upholds all of those things
is the hand of the Son of God himself. You need not worry about
those things. Concern yourselves with the gospel
of Christ Jesus. Concern yourself with spiritual
matters, eternal matters, having everlasting life in the Lord
Jesus Christ through his doing and through his dying. Well,
he performed this miracle and of course they were obviously
taken back by it. And we get down here in verse
13. Therefore, the disciples gathered
them together, and they filled 12 baskets full of the fragments
of five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto
them that had eaten. Then those men, the Jews, when
they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, the miracle that he
did, said, this is of a truth, that prophet, that prophet. that Moses spoke of that should
come forth into the world. And they weren't correct. This is that prophet. But as
he began to reveal himself to them, at least in word, as he
began to speak of the fact the next day that he's the true bread
that came down from heaven, As he began to set forth to them,
he's the bread that must be broken, his blood must be shed, and we
must eat his flesh and drink his blood. That is, we must believe
on him as the scriptures said, for salvation is only found in
him. These people who are ready to
anoint him as the prophet and even crown him a king, All of
a sudden they were offended at his sayings when he talked about
election. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. When he began to talk about the
effectual call of the gospel, no man can come unto me except
the Father which hath sent me. I'll draw him and I'll raise
him up at the last day. And then all of these people
must be taught of God. They must be instructed by God
in order to come to Christ and empowered to come to Christ.
When these things began to reach their understanding, at least
to some degree, they were offended at the things that he said. And
this is the one they said, is this the prophet? Well, it is
the very prophet of God, but guess what? They weren't interested
in what he had to say. The communication of our Lord
Jesus speaking the word of the father, the word that he came
to declare, because all things the father told him to say is
exactly what he said. And when he began to unveil or
to reveal on a, at least by words, He didn't give them spiritual
understanding. They were offended by the words that he had to say.
That communication from God was rejected. Turn back to John chapter
three, John three. Notice what it says here in verse
34. For he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. For God giveth not the spirit
by measure unto him. He was the full revelation of
the mind and will and purpose of God. They were listening to
the voice of God when they listened to the voice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is, he was that prophet come
to communicate the will of God. And Moses wrote of him back here
in Deuteronomy chapter 18, hundreds of years, hundreds of years before
he ever came. And back here in the text in
Deuteronomy chapter 18, where our Lord Jesus is spoken
of as being the prophet of God, God's prophet. In this passage
that Joe read to us a few moments ago, the children of Israel,
in addition to being instructed concerning that true prophet
who would come from God and speak the word of God, this one whom
we know laid down his life for the sheep, in between, The words concerning our Lord
Jesus being the prophet are spoken right in between warnings of
false prophets. It's a sad truth, but a necessary
truth that people have to be warned not to listen to every
voice, but to only the voice of that prophet. He speaks the
Word of God. And those preachers who preach
His Word, today, we are not prophets. You're not a prophet. I'm not
a prophet. But we receive our message from
the prophet. That's the message we deliver.
We're not speaking our thoughts. our words, words that originated
with us. We're preaching the Word of Christ
Himself. We're preaching Him who is the
message of God. You see, it isn't that the Gospel
is the message about Jesus Christ. Rather, He is the Gospel Himself. He is the fullness of God's communication
to us. And everything you need to know
about God, everything you need to know about the Father, everything
you need to know about the Son, everything you need to know about
the Holy Spirit, and the magnificent work of God's salvation in and
through this glorious Godhead, we learn from Christ Jesus, who
himself is that prophet of God, that one who communicates to
us the Word of God. And here in this passage of Scripture,
in that first part of the words that Joe read to us a while ago,
we're warned of the false prophets concerning natural things. You
see, the children of Israel were not long, it's not gonna be long
before they cross the River Jordan and go into the Promised Land.
going to the land of Canaan, where they will face seven heathen
countries. And these seven heathen countries
were strangers to the gospel. They did not know the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Did they offer sacrifices? Yes,
they did. But they didn't offer sacrifices
unto God. They offered sacrifices unto
their gods. So the first thing Moses is instructed
by God to warn them of is the false religion that they're gonna
run into once they get into the land of promise. And then, after
he says a few words about that great prophet who's going to
come, then they receive words of warning concerning false prophets
that base what they say biblical words that are taken
out of context. Let me show you what it's talking
about. Look at verse 9. When thou art come into the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to
do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not
be found among you anyone that maketh his son or daughter to
pass through the fire, the fire of Molech. That was one of their
gods. And whenever they had bad things
happen to them, they believed that in order to merit the favor
of Molech, like in controlling the weather and causing their
gardens to grow, things like that, whenever they wanted to
impress him or to appease him, or if he sent storms and floods
and things of that nature, in order to satisfy his anger, they
had to offer one of their children to the God Moloch, put him in
the fire to appease the anger or else to earn the pleasure
of their God. You see, they did offer sacrifice, but it was a human sacrifice. That's pagan. You see, even false
religion back then in a heathen country, they knew enough that
there had to be some kind of sacrifice offered, but they had
no idea who the true God was. and they had no idea what the
sacrifice had to be. But they offered a sacrifice
because they believed that by sacrifice of the living, it would
appease and satisfy the anger and the judgment of their gods.
There is an element of truth in that, but really that's false
religion. The element of truth is this,
in order for the God of the Bible, for His justice to be appeased,
for His wrath to be satisfied, there has to be a live person
who meets all the qualifications that God demands for a sacrifice. And that sacrifice, that person
must lay down his life willingly to satisfy God. It's called propitiation. The satisfaction of divine justice. But you see these heathens, they
presented their offspring to Moloch. Couldn't help it. Keep going. Or one that uses
divination. Divination, the root word is
divine. They said they received messages
from their gods. And I'm not gonna spend much
time on this, but let's just keep on going down. Or an observer
of times. Special days to honor the dead. Special days to honor the ancestors. Even today there are people like
this. They have special days. You know who they honor? Dead
saints. That's who they honor. The Lord
said, I hate those things. You want to honor somebody who
died? You honor the Son of God. He died for our sins. He died
to satisfy God. He's the one to be worshiped.
And then in verse 11, a charmer, one who uses, well, let me back
up, or an enchanter, I skipped over that one. That's people
who see signs everywhere. Obans, black cat crosses your
path. Oh, that's bad luck. Don't walk
under a ladder. Don't put an umbrella up inside.
That's an enchanter. If you see an owl, that's a bad
omen. Pay no attention. That kind of
stuff's heathen. Pay no attention to that. And
then he said, or a witch. Somebody who claims they can
cast a good spell or a bad spell upon you that will determine
something good for you or something bad for you. We know that only our God controls
things. He's the one who predestinated
all things from before the foundation of the world. Anything that happens to you
is not beyond His control, but according to His purpose and
control. And then a witch. A witch who
claims it can cast a good spell or a bad spell. A charmer. Use charms to heal diseases or
cast out evil spirits. A consulter with familiar spirits
might use religious symbols to cure you of your diseases or
protect you. A consulter of a familiar spirit
calls you to hear a voice. It's an interesting thing here.
I found it interesting studying it out a little bit, a consulter
with familiar spirits. The original word comes from
the word belly. And what they did, they would
make their voice almost like a ventriloquist, make their voice
sound that it came from an object or from your belly button. And
they'd say, that's a message come from the spirits. And God
said, I detest that kind of stuff. And you know, a lot of this stuff's
still being practiced today. It's an abomination to God. A
charmer, a consultant with familiar spirits, a wizard, a wizard, or a necromancer. Dealing with
the dead. Man, there's big money in that.
People want to communicate with the dead. I want to know what
my grandfather thought of me. So you go to one of these people
and give them money and say, well, I got a message from your
grandfather to you. And the Lord says in verse 12,
for all that do these things are an abomination. And because of these abominations,
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. God said,
I'm gonna clear them out. And he said, now don't you pick
up those bad habits. And he says in verse 13, do not
miss this. Thou shalt be perfect with the
Lord thy God. That still stands today. You're going to have to find
out how to be perfect before the Lord thy God. It's not good enough to avoid
all this witchcraft and junk like that. You need to avoid
that. But on top of those things, you've
got to learn how to be perfect with the Lord thy God. How can
I, a sinner, one who drinks iniquity like water, how can I ever be
perfect before a holy God? And the only answer is through
the Lord Jesus Christ, through His bloody death. He is my righteousness
and He is my sanctification. In Him, I'm perfect. Outside
of Him, I'm anything but perfect. I'm imperfect in every sense
of the word. The Lord says in verse 14, for
these nations which thou shalt possess, hearken unto observers
of times, they observe special days, and these diviners, the
root word is divine, they consulted their gods, the little Gs, but
as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to
do. Hang on a minute. Look at that
again. But as for thee, the Lord thy
God hath not suffered thee so to do." They would have done
it already, but he wouldn't let them. See that? That's what it's saying. He suffered
them. He hath not suffered thee to
do so. And you see, if you have not
run after all of this foolishness, the only reason you haven't been,
you haven't fallen for this stuff, as we say, hook, line, and sinker,
is because God suffered you not to be taken in by this. He purposed
you not to fall for the lies, for the tricks of Satan. The
only reason you don't fall into error, the only reason you don't
embrace right now Arminianism, freewillism, salvation by your
work, salvation by morality, the only reason that you believe
the truth is because God is keeping you from untruth. That's the only, there's nothing
in you. What's in you to cause you to
believe the truth? What's in you to cause you to
go away from evil, go away from false doctrine? The Lord keeps
you. The Lord keeps you. Well, Jim,
do you deny the existence of these things? No, I don't deny
their existence. I deny their value. And they have no part whatsoever
in the gospel of the grace of God. Stay away from all this
stuff. It's unhealthy. Don't seek out fortune tellers
and things like that. Why would you want to give your
money to somebody who hates God and gonna lie to you? Or it could
be they do have some power of the devil. Why would you ever
give money to somebody like that? And then, Moses immediately says,
the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet. Somebody
who will communicate to you the truth. And if you know the truth
as it's found in the Lord Jesus Christ, that has been communicated
to you by that prophet. He has made the truth known to
you. He revealed himself to you. You
see, the gospel is the declaration of what God has already done
for sinners in, through, and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that gospel is made known unto us in the heart. by divine revelation. Thank God he didn't leave us
in our error, and he didn't leave us believing lies of false religion. So he speaks about the true prophet
of God. But then he speaks about another
kind of false prophet. The first false prophets were,
I would say kind of false prophets along the lines of nature. things
of that nature. But then in verses 20, 21, and
22, he warns us of false prophets, which say they speak in the name
of our God, and these are the most dangerous. Because they can be a very clever
counterfeit. Verse 20, but the prophet, which
shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not
commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other
gods, even that prophet shall die. Every once in a while I'll
listen to some television preacher, he'll say, I'm a prophet of God.
Really? I know the prophet. And there
are no prophets of God today, not really. Ever see one of these
false preachers and he'll be preaching and say, just a minute.
Yes, Lord, okay. And then he supposedly just received
a message from God, communicating that to us. All God has to say to you is
in this book right here. This is his word. And he makes
known his word to us by the spirit of understanding who reveals
to us that all of the word of God that we need to know is in
Christ Jesus himself. He is that living word. He's
the full mind of our God. The Lord warns false prophets.
And in the New Testament, look over in Matthew chapter seven.
And these are the men, and women too, because you got women preachers
today too, who say they speak for God. They say they speak
for God. Our Lord Jesus warned of these,
Matthew chapter seven. He says in verse 15, beware of
false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they're greedy, destructive wolves. But Jim, they're so nice. That's
because they're wearing the cloak of a sheep. They act like a sheep. They dress like sheep. They try
to talk like sheep. But they're a wolf ready to kill
and destroy. Says you shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore
by their fruits you shall know them, by their converts and by
their doctrine. Hear what they have to say. Listen
to their words and take what they say and compare it to the
scriptures. And if they speak not according
to this book, there's no light in them. We're covered up today
with men who say they're prophets of God, but they're anything
but a prophet of God. They're false prophets because
there is but one prophet from God, and that's our Lord Jesus
Christ. And preachers of the gospel preach
Him and His work of redemption. Be warned. Let me give you another
reference. 1 John. 1 John chapter four. Our Lord warned us about false
prophets and John does too. 1 John chapter four, the first
epistle of John. Chapter four. Verse one, Believe not every
spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God. Because
many, many false, not true, but false prophets are gone out into
the world. Not just a few, many. Hereby know you the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come, in the flesh is of God. And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist
wherever you have heard that it should come and even now already
is in the world. Throughout this world right now,
ever since our Lord was here, there have been a multitude of
antichrist preachers. You see, anybody who isn't for
Christ is anti-Christ, right? Any preacher that doesn't preach
Christ, crucified, buried, risen again, Christ the substitute
of sinners, Christ the satisfaction of divine justice, any man who
doesn't preach that, he's preaching falsehoods. I jotted down several things
here and I'll give them to you real quick. And I tell you, let me take you
to this passage. I jotted this down. Look at Jeremiah
23. Bear with me just a little bit
longer. Jeremiah chapter 23. False prophets. Here's our Lord rebuking false
prophets, Jeremiah 23. The false prophets of Israel,
He rebukes them. Jeremiah 23, 23. Jeremiah 23,
23. Am I a God at hand or near? saith the Lord, and not of God
far off. Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill
heaven and earth, saith the Lord? I have heard what the prophets
say that prophesy lies in my name. So that's the people Moses
is warning the folks about over there in Deuteronomy chapter
18, those last three verses. They say they come in God's name. They say, I've dreamed and I've
dreamed. How long shall this be in the
heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they're prophets of
the deceit of their own heart, which think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to
his neighbor as the fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. The
prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream. And he that
hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the
chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Is not my word like a fire? saith the Lord, and like a hammer
that breaketh the rock in pieces. Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words, every one
from his neighbor. I'm against the prophets, saith
the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he saith, and that's
exactly what false prophets are doing today. He saith, God saith, And I jotted these things down because most preachers are prophets
of the deceitfulness of their own hearts. Any man who proclaims
the free will of men prophesies lies and sets forth the deceitfulness
of his own heart. He's deceived and he's going
to deceive others. Any man who announces that by
our works we earn salvation, he prophesies lies. And he sets
forth the deceitfulness of his own heart. Any man who puts the
burden of a person's salvation upon man and not Christ Jesus
and his blood and righteousness, he prophesies lies. He sets forth the deceitfulness
of his own heart. Any man who denies the accomplished
work of Jesus Christ and requires that men add their faith to what
Christ did, they prophesy lies. They set forth the deceitfulness
of their own heart. Any man who puts salvate or righteousness
of a person in competition with the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, righteousness accomplished by his obedience unto death and
the death of the cross, righteousness which is made known to the sinner
through the power of the regenerating grace of God, he prophesies lies
and speaks from the deceitfulness of his own heart. In short, Any
man who makes salvation in any way, shape, or form, ultimately
dependent upon the sinner, he's a prophet of lies. And it comes forth from the deceitfulness
of his own heart, he's not sin of God. And their goal is this,
to steal God's glory. That's their goal. God says, my glory will I not
give to another. Not gonna happen. And God said,
I'm gonna destroy the false prophets. And he will one of these days.
Don't support them, don't give them any money. Say, well, they
can say some good things. Yeah, but they don't say the
good things. They don't know the gospel of
God's grace, and therefore they can't preach the gospel of God's
grace. Avoid them. The Savior said,
he said, take heed how you hear, and take heed what you hear.
Be like the Bereans. They searched the scriptures
daily, see if those things are so. If what comes forth from
this pulpit is so, you have a responsibility to believe the truth. If what
comes forth from this pulpit is not the truth, you have a
responsibility to toss me out on my ears and get somebody in
here that does preach the truth. But you do hear the truth from
this pulpit, just like you've heard for Ever since you've been
coming here, ever since the door's ever opened in this place, the
truth goes forth from this pulpit. And God has not suffered us to
fall prey to false religion. Oh, God, keep us. Keep us in
the truth. Turn to 1A.