In the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy,
jump down to verse 9, and then let's read all the way through
the 22nd verse. Here's a passage with a primary
and a secondary application also. We'll see that as we go along.
Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 9 through verse 22. Moses is
speaking unto the people. He gave some long discourses
in the end of this book, and he's speaking, and he said in
verse 9, "'When thou art come into the land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abomination
of those nations. There shall not be found among
you anyone that makes his son or his daughter to pass through
the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an
enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar
spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things
are an abomination unto the Lord, and because of these abominations
the Lord thy God that drive them out from before you. Thou shalt
be perfect with the Lord thy God, for these nations which
thou shalt possess hearken unto observers of time and unto diviners. But as for thee, the Lord thy
God shall not suffer you to do so. The Lord thy God will raise
up unto thee a prophet from the midst of you. of thy brethren,
like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken. According to all that
thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb, in the day of the
assembly, saying, Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my
God, neither let me see his great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me," that
is to Moses, they have well spoken which they have spoken. I will
raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto
thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass
that whatsoever, whosoever, will not hearken unto my words, which
he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet
which I 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. And if thou say in thine
heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not
spoken?" And the answer is, when a prophet speaketh in the name
of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is
the thing which the Lord has not spoken, but the prophet has
spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him. bear in mind that what I want
to impress is the institution of prophets in Israel. In the very beginning of our
study this evening, let us set it in our minds in this way,
that it is a very important epoch or event in the nation of Israel,
very important portion of the scripture. Not just because and
only, we have a promise and prophecy of that great prophet that was
to be raised up in a later day in the midst of them, which,
of course, is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself. For he
is the one that Moses said he would send forth into the world,
and when he is come, will tell us all things, as the Samaritan
woman said in John 4 and verse 25. Now, the New Testament confirms
to us that Christ is that prophet. Such places as Acts, the third
chapter, and verse twenty-two and twenty-three. Again, in Acts
seven and verse thirty-seven, there is reference made to this
prophecy made unto Moses. Now, the Jews expected a special
prophet. and they expected it based upon
the prediction of the Scripture. That's why in John 1.21, the
Jews asked John, are you that prophet? In Luke 7.12-16, when
the Lord restored life to the widow of Nain's one son, they
said unto him, a prophet is risen up in the midst of us. We'll
have more about that later. But the passage in Deuteronomy
18 is very important, and it deserves our special attention,
and that upon another reason or another account. And that is, when we put it in
its historical context, in that here we have the promise that
I mentioned in the title, we have the promise here of the
institution of the gift of prophecy among the people of Israel. For if you notice, their guidance
and direction depends upon that. Moses will soon be gone from
them. And I agree with Matthew Henry
that the rule here given was adopted chiefly and foremost
to that state of the people of God more later. But first, let's
get our contextual bearing by setting the passage in relation
to the dealing of God with the people at that particular time. First of all, we are in the book
of Deuteronomy, and that literally means the second giving of the
law. And so, numbers and Leviticus
and Exodus are important because of their name. But Deuteronomy
is the word meaning the second giving of the law, the repeating
of the law, for it was given again, recorded in Deuteronomy
a second time. Now, there are those major addresses
that are given by Moses in the end of the book of Deuteronomy. I think that there are three
of them and that they are lengthy. And some expositors say that
these three great speeches of Moses were delivered within the
space of a month and no more than two. And he prepares the
people for his death. Moses knows that he is about
to die and about to leave the people. And he binds them, therefore,
to the way of the Lord their God, as in Exodus 34, verse 5
and verse 6. Moses died. Moses was buried. Remember? in a secret place by
God, no doubt, to prevent Israel from making an idol out of his
body. But in our text in Deuteronomy
18, verses 1 through 8, concern the maintenance of the Levite,
those who served as the priests. Verse 9 through 14 commands them
not to adopt the way of the people in the land whether he will take
them. They were in no wise to use such
things as fortune-telling, and Ouija board, and divination,
and all sorts of things of that nature. These were an abomination
unto God, and He would not have them to do it. We no want any
tarot cards as we have our modern one. And we don't want anybody
removing bad luck by some portion that they have boiled up or made.
They were forbidden to make use of any of this, not even to use
this to find out the will and the way of God. None of these
things were allowable unto them to know or to pry into the future
or to seek out the Lord's will. Coming to the section in verse
15 through verse 22, twice in this section, in verse 15 and
again in verse 18, the statement is clearly made, God will raise
up a prophet out of your midst like unto me." A prophet resembling
Moses, out of their midst. God would put His words in the
mouth of this prophet to be given unto them, and they were to hear
it, they were to listen to it, and they were to be obedient. Now, for the time being, let's
leave the thought and return to it later. Coming to verse
16 and verse 17 in Deuteronomy. First, we notice with John Gill
that the whole nation here is personified as one person or
one voice as it uses the expression, me and I. Let me not hear the
voice of God again, neither let me see the great fire anymore
lest I die. They have reference to that glorious
event at Mount Sinai when God gave unto them the law." Now,
notice the two words, again and anymore. They would not have
a repetition of that. But notice something that might
at first be a surprise unto us and perhaps unto them, verse
17, God tells Moses that he approves their request. Do you remember
what they had said? Oh, don't let God speak with
us anymore. We are afraid lest we die. You remember, if a man touched
the mountain, he died. If an animal touched the mountain,
it died. And so the people were so uprighted
that they cried out, Oh, don't let God speak with us anymore
in that fashion. You go, Moses, and receive the
Word of God and bring it down unto us. Let's just don't let
God speak to us directly in that heavenly voice again, lest it
mean death unto us. It occurred at both the giving
of the law, you can see it in Exodus chapter 20 verse 18 and
19. What did they see and what did
they hear? Smoke, fire, the mountains shook,
Deuteronomy 5.25, the great fire, Deuteronomy 18.16, this great
fire that they saw as God gave the law. They were afraid that
they were about to die. And it's in Exodus 20, where
they supplanted the Lord not to do so again. Deuteronomy 5.25,
if we hear the voice of God anymore, then we shall die. Deuteronomy
4.33, did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of
the midst of the fire as you have and live? So the conclusion
is this, the majesty and the awe of Mount Sinai so terrified
the people that they were afraid, that they actually were going
to die. So glorious was the manifestation
of God's power and wonder that they thought surely that it would
mean their death. And so, of course, they desired
that the Lord would not speak to them directly anymore, but
use Moses as an intermediary between them. Now, perhaps this
is a place to make a very good application about it, and the
point not to be missed, which is this. There were two times
when God did totally and completely cast Israel into awesome, when
he terrified them as a nation. One was the giving of the law,
the second was the crucifixion of our Lord, the shakings and
the earthquakes and the rocks raining and the darkness and
such things as that. But concerning the giving of
the law, why such an awesome display of majesty? Why give the law in such a mighty,
a frightening and a fearful way? Why give it to the extent that
it terrifies the people to make them think that they might die? Well, in Exodus 19 and 9, the
Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud that
the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. that they might know that Moses
is a spokesman of God and that they might hold that in memory. Again, in Deuteronomy chapter
4 and verse 36, out of heaven he made you to hear his voice.
that he might instruct you, and you might know what to do. Exodus
20, 20, Moses said, Fear not, for God has come down to prove
you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin
not. He had given them that awesome
display of power, majesty, and might. that it might stay within
their memory through the course of their history, remembering
the awesomeness of God. In other words, God gave them
these awesome manifestations to put the fear of God in their
heart, and as they remembered what God had done, it would cause
them to be restrained from sinning. God wanted it to make a lasting
impression upon them. so great and to the extent that
they actually thought that they would die. But back in Deuteronomy
18 and how verse 18 follows so easily upon verse 17. Now the question comes, if God
no more speaks with the nation, How will they know the will of
God? Moses will be gone. He has always
gone to the presence of God and received writings and messages
for us and brought them back unto us. With Moses gone, God
no longer speaking in the way of Sinai. How will we know that
which the Lord has spoken? Here we must consider there was
a great change instituted in this place, for God no more will
speak to them in the fashion of Sinai, no more instruct them
by a voice out of heaven. So let us remember, if you believe
the Scripture, God did speak to people in earlier time. He spoke to Adam and Eve, Genesis
3, 9 through 19. He spoke to Cain, Genesis 4 and
verse 6. He spoke to Noah, Genesis 6.
He spoke to Abraham in chapter 12. He spoke to Moses in Exodus
chapter 3. In some way, God spoke directly
by some audible voice unto them. But in that seventeenth and eighteenth
verse, Moses, as I've said, will soon be removed from their company. God then, in addition to that,
will no longer speak to them by an oral voice out of heaven. How will they know? the will
of God. How will they know that which
is of God? They will soon not have Moses
to bring them the message of God anymore, but in the eighteenth
verse, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like
unto thee, will put my words in his mouth, he shall speak
unto them that I command them. Now, I much admire John Gill,
highly regard him as a theologian, and I quote him on verse 18,
that this promise or prophecy was first made at Mount Sinai,
but now renewed and repeated unto them, and which is nowhere
else recorded, says Gill. And such is Matthew, Henry, Kyle,
and Daly. Lang's commentary, all hold out
the possibility that here is foretold not only the great prophet
that would come, which is Christ, who would reveal all things,
but from that time also the gift of prophecy would be operative
in Israel, that God would speak to them by a man like themselves. that God would raise up one out
of their number and would inspire and speak to them by him. And this would especially be
from the period from Moses unto the appearance of Christ in the
flesh. Matthew Henry made this observation
on verse 18, quote, Some think it is the promise of a succession
of prophets that should for many ages be kept up in Israel, end
quote. These were in addition now to
the priests and the Levites who ministered about the things of
God and taught the law, gave the sacrifices and such things
as that, but these prophets are to be raised up by God, they
are to be sent out among the people, to instruct the people,
to announce judgment, to rebuke the sins of the people, even
unto the king himself, to say unto the people, thus saith the
Lord God, to deliver the mind of God to the people, and to
foretell the future and future events. Now, that was the assurance
that God gave unto them. that he would yet make a revelation
unto them, making revelation, and Gil called that a further
discovery of his mind and of his will. He would not do so
in the same awesome manner as he had done before at Sinai and
at other times. But a man like themselves, not
an angel, though at times God sent angels as messengers, but
a person in flesh and in blood." We might be justified making
the distinction here between 1. the oral prophets and 2. the written prophet who spoke
under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Looking at verse
18 and verse 19, I will raise up a prophet from among their
brethren like unto you, Moses, that is, I will put my words
in his mouth, he shall speak words that are from me, and deliver
them unto the people, and they shall hear." Now, this is a wonderful
new time or beginning in the history of Israel. Instances
of this can be found in the scripture. The word of God coming to so-and-so. The word of the Lord came to
me, Jeremiah would say, and Ezekiel would say. And he went out and
he gave that word of the Lord unto the people. But in the 19th
verse, Those who hear not the words of the prophet which God
puts in his mouth, I will require it of him, that is, of that person,
cause him to bear the consequences and to suffer the penalty. Now,
as an example, consider the punishment of the Jewish nation for rejecting
God's great prophet, the anointed one, Christ Jesus. They lost
their nation, they lost their city, they lost their temple,
and they lost their priest. Because this one came from God
and in the name of God, and they refused and disbelieved the Lord
to their very own peril. But in the twentieth to the twenty-second
verse of our text, first verse twenty-one, in a very important
question, as if Moses anticipated what they might say. And, by
the way, it is a very good question, for the people of God must have
some protection from the claims and heresies of false prophets
who speak unto them. Is not this the word from God,
they might say? How shall their words be tried? How shall they know them to be
false, and therefore disregard them? How to try the prophecies
that came by these men that God would raise up? Now, this was
necessary when we consider that they were not to resort to those
things that the heathen used, trying to find out the will of
God and the future. But they were to hear and obey
the prophet of God, for if not, it would be required of them,
and the consequences would not be well. They were not to give
heed to false prophets. They were not to seek the will
of God at the heathen prophet, but him that while sin of God
might make the things of God known unto them." Actually, Moses
gives the people two means of discerning between the true and
the false prophet. First of all, if you look at
Deuteronomy chapter 13. verses one through five, they
were to judge them theologically. And even if he works a sign,
even if he works a miracle or a wonder, yet if he seeks to
draw them away from the worship of the true God unto some false
god, He was a false prophet and was to be put to death. But secondly,
in Deuteronomy 18 and 22, when his predictions failed, when
he foretold things that did not come to pass, this proved him
to be a false prophet. He might run among them and say,
yea, the Lord God had told me to say this and this and that,
and the other. God told me this. I had a revelation. Jesus stood by my bed last night
and said thus and so unto me. I was called up into the third
heaven and I received a message from the Lord for you. Some mighty
tall tales have been told in the name of the Lord our God,
have they not? But they speak presumptuously,
they speak of themselves, they are daring and impudent mannered
as if they were from God. And to paraphrase the old writer
Luther, who said the people were to say, we slap your prophecies
on the snout. They were not to reverence them
as prophet. They were not to fear the judgments
that these people announced upon them and that they predicted.
They were not to support them with money or monetary help in
any way. Their failed prediction disgraced
them as being a prophet of God in the first place. Then on the
other hand, consider the testimony of God unto Samuel, 1 Samuel
3, 19 and 20, that God let none of his words fall to the ground. None of God's words fall out
without being fulfilled. And all Israel knew that Samuel
was established to be a prophet of the Lord there among the people. And how blessed, for in 1 Samuel
3 and verse 1, the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. again of 1 Samuel 9, 6. He is
an honorable man, and all he says comes to pass. Consider
the prophecy of Micaiah, 1 Kings chapter 22, that Ahab would be
killed in battle. And certainly he was. All of
the other prophets predicted that he would go and be victorious
and come home as a victor. Moses said that God would visit
the people in the land of Egypt, and he delivered them and visited
them. Elijah said that God would answer
by fire, and God did. The great prophet said he would
rise again from the dead on the third day, and he did, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God sent him, God raised him
up, God put words in his mouth, God confirmed him as coming from
God by signs and wonders and miracles. Every word that our
Lord spoke came exactly to pass, and yet his own nation, received
him not, and it was required of them, was it not?" There is
another aspect of this subject, and it concerns the days in which
we live. Let's go from their day unto
our day, from the apostles' days until now. There are warnings
against false teachers again and again in the Scripture, by
Christ, by the apostles, and by all of those that wrote the
New Testament epistle. Many would come claiming to speak
in the name of God. They pass themselves off, if
they can, as servants of the Most High God. Or they even claim
new revelations, something that has never been known before.
How shall we know who they are? We too are warned in 1 John 4,
Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they
are of God. For many false prophets are gone
out into the world. The Ephesian church is commended
in Revelation 2.2 for trying them which said they were apostles
and are not. and has proved them to be liars. We have Paul saying, be no more
tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, Ephesians 4 and
14. What is the main litmus test
then for a preacher sent from God? Is it not soundness theologically
on the person of Christ? First of all, we judge a man
by his views of Christ and the things that he said about Christ. In 1 John 4, 1 through 3, as
Israel was not to follow any prophet, who preached unto them
any other God, neither are the churches to hear of any other
Jesus. And the Scriptures are our guide,
and they are our rule. Beware the one who claims revelation
beyond and outside of the holy word of God. Beware of those
who pervert the Scripture to their own destruction. We, brothers
and sisters, have the settled Scripture, the Word of God. What
need have we of supernaturally inspired prophets anymore when
we have the supernaturally inspired Word of God? We do not need dreams
and vision. We do not need those sort of
things because the Lord has given us His precious Word that it
might guide us into all things, that we might know the truth.
that we might know the gospel that is according to righteousness,
that we might understand our Lord, His work, and His work. Now, there are many false prophets
gone out into the world, but you'll never hear one of them
say, beware of me, I'm a false prophet, I'm a wolf in sheep's
clothing. No, they all come claiming to
be coming in the name of Christ and the name of God. But when
they pervert our Lord, when they pervert the doctrine of our Lord,
then they have proven themselves not to be of God. A Jehovah Witness
came to the door, said, Hi, oh, we're here to give you this book.
And I said, I've got one question for you. What do you think about
Jesus? What's your doctrine of Christ?
Oh, he's one of the first created angels and so forth. I said goodbye. Because you see, Jesus Christ
and his doctrine is the telling litmus test for those who claim
to preach Christ and the gospel. What think ye of Christ? And the answer is, he is the
Christ, the Son of the living God. He hath the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that he has come from God. That's our belief concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. So, God has given us a way to
put to test those who would come among us and claim to be preachers
and teachers of the Lord's message. All right, thank you. Let's bow
our heads together, please, for a word of prayer.