It needs to be stated and stated
emphatically and understood clearly that there is no such thing as
a prophet or an apostle in the strict sense of those words in
this generation. The last of them died with the
apostles at the end of the apostolic era. Now that needs to be understood. Because those men who wrote the
scriptures as they were carried along, directed, moved, and inspired
by God the Holy Ghost, when they wrote for us the Word of God,
they spoke as the very oracle of God. So that what you have
here is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible Word. No man today,
be he Papist, Pentecostal, or Baptist, speaks as the oracle
of God. Even those men, the apostles
and prophets chosen and ordained of God in the Old Testament and
in our Lord's earthly ministry in the early age of the New Testament,
Those men, God clearly demonstrated, spoke as the oracle of God only
as they wrote the words of inspiration. When Peter was in Pilate's judgment
hall, he didn't speak as the oracle of God. When Moses was
angry and smote the rock the second time, he didn't speak
as the oracle of God. But as they wrote the words of
inspiration, they spoke the very word of God given to us here
on paper and ink. And yet the words prophet and
apostle, in their basic meaning, simply mean messenger. Messenger. A prophet is a messenger from
God. An apostle is a messenger from
God. The word prophet, the root Hebrew
word from which it comes, means to bubble up like a fountain,
to bubble forth like a fountain. A man comes and speaks as the
voice of God to his people. And as he does, the word of God
bubbles up in him and burst out from him because it must be delivered. The apostle Paul uses another
term that maybe could be interchangeable, ambassador. We then as ambassadors
for God, as ambassadors of Jesus Christ, pray you in Christ's
stead, be you reconciled to God. An ambassador is not a man who
develops a message, who writes a letter. Rather, he is a man
who carries a message delivered to him by the one he represents,
a message he is responsible to deliver. And the ambassador's
business begins, is executed, and ends with him delivering
the message. That's his business, to deliver
the message given him. We read about prophets like Abraham
and David and Enoch and Elijah and Elisha and Isaiah and Amos
and Jeremiah. And we don't pay much attention
to another prophet by the name of Agabus, who doesn't appear
to us till we get into the 21st chapter of the book of Acts.
So there are men today, as in every age, who speak as God's
prophets. Men who are given a message from
God, given wisdom and understanding from God to know the times and
to know the word of God and to declare God's message. That does not mean that I speak
to you with infallibility or any other man does. I am just
a man like you. And I urge you always to weigh
what I have to say with the Word of God. and that which is true
to the scriptures you bow to. And if you have a different understanding
of things, doesn't involve the gospel of God's grace, we're
not gonna lock horns and fight over it. That's all right. I
too am a man just like you. I too am a sinful man just like
you. But I come to you to speak forth
God's message to you. Turn with me if you will to Isaiah
chapter 13. God's prophets of old referred
to the message God gave them as the burden of the Lord, the
burden of the word of the Lord. The prophet is God's messenger
to man. What an honor, what a responsibility,
what a burden. Those men who are sent of God
as his messengers to your soul. Those men who truly are called,
gifted, and sent of God as his messengers to your souls are
never triflers about their business. As I read through the gospel
of Isaiah again this week, there was one word that kept popping
out right in the middle chapters of this book. Nine times, Isaiah
referred to his message as the burden God had given him. Look at chapter 13, verse 1.
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah, the son of Amos, did
see. And he describes that burden in chapter 13, verse 19. He says,
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldees' excellency
shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. The last
line of verse 22, her time is near to come. and her days shall
not be prolonged. Now, as you read these prophecies
in Isaiah 13 through 24, and you read about specific nations
and specific cities and specific people, as you read carefully
the prophecies, you will see that obviously Isaiah was inspired
of God to speak of something more than just those physical
kingdoms. those physical cities and those
individual people but rather he speaks of the judgment of
God upon the wicked and the ultimate consummation of God's purpose
in the destruction of the wicked and salvation of his people here's
the reason for it all chapter 14 verse 1 for the Lord will
have mercy on Jacob he will yet choose Israel and set them in
their own land And the strangers shall be joined with them. And
they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall
take them and bring them to their place. And the house of Israel
shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and
handmaids. And they shall take them captives
whose captives they were. And they shall rule over their
oppressors. And it shall come to pass in that day that the
Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear,
and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve. that
thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and
say, how hath the oppressor ceased? The golden city has ceased. You find those words expressed
over and over in Revelation 17 and 18, as the Lord God describes
the judgment of the great whore and all the wicked with her.
Look at verse 26 of chapter 14. God says, this is the purpose
that is purposed upon the whole earth. And this is the hand that
is stretched out upon all nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed,
and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out,
and who shall turn it back? Then in chapter 15, he gives
us the burden of Moab. Chapter 17, the burden of Damascus. Chapter 19, the burden of Egypt. Chapter 21, the burden of the
desert of the sea. Again, in verse 11 of chapter
21, the burden of Duma. In verse 13, the burden of Arabia. In chapter 22, the burden of
the Valley of Vision. And then in chapter 23, the burden
of Tyre. And it speaks of the overthrow
of Lucifer. the destruction of Satan and
all his influence in the world, declaring that God has chosen
Jacob. He will save his Israel and you
who are gods shall crush Satan beneath your heels shortly. Isaiah carried with him the burden
of the word of the Lord. And he felt the weight of the
burden. As you read these chapters, Understand
that Isaiah did not rejoice in the everlasting destruction of
immortal souls. And I pitied the man who does.
How hard must our hearts be if we're unmoved at the thoughts
of multitudes being damned. how hard our hearts must be if
we're unmoved, even at the thought of our most base, implacable
enemies being forever overthrown by the hand of God in judgment.
Isaiah was burdened with the message of judgment. Burdened. He carried a heavy, heavy weight. He comes to declare the sure
judgment of God. But he does this not with delight,
but rather to persuade sinners to be reconciled to God. In Isaiah
24, verse 22. And they, that is Babylon, Satan,
God's enemies, shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered
in the pit. and shall be shut up in the prisons
and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall
be confounded and the sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall
reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his ancients gloriously. Today, would to God that every
eye here would weep continually for the judgment of God upon
men. How we ought to carry the heavy
burden in our hearts for sinners who are under the burden of divine
judgment. I'm told that when George Whitefield
would preach, he would often preach weeping. And he would
say to the folks to whom he preached, I weep for you. because you will
not weep for yourselves. So we ought always to be concerned
for the souls of men. While men walk on this earth,
it is our privilege and responsibility to warn them of judgment and
point them to Christ the Redeemer. But blessed be God when redemption
is fully accomplished, and the sun is darkened, and the moon
turned into blood, and the earth is burned up, and God makes all
things new, there will be no more burden, and no more sorrow,
and no more weeping for God's people. But rather we will rejoice
in that which Isaiah here prophesies. the overthrow of Babylon, of
all false religion, the overthrow of Lucifer, and the salvation
of God's elect. I repeat, these nations were
representative of all the nations of the earth. God's judgments
that fell upon them stand as warnings to the whole world of
that day when God will judge the earth in righteousness by
that man whom he's appointed, Jesus Christ, the Lord. The burden
Isaiah had to deliver reached his climax in chapter 24, look
at verse one. Behold, the Lord maketh the earth
empty and maketh it waste. and turneth it upside down, and
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. Let me call your attention
to two or three things, and I pray that God will speak by me to
you. Number one, God's prophets are
men with a burden. Men with a burden. They have
no supernatural gifts. No supernatural abilities, no
supernatural powers. They're men with a message from
God that must be delivered. The prophet has a burden on his
heart that bubbles up inside him and erupts. There's a message
from God that burns like fire in his soul. And that message
consumes every other concern. I don't know that I could ever
describe a prophet but if you ever hear one, you'll know it.
He's a man who can't be controlled by custom, influenced by favor,
bribed with money or pressured to compromise. He's a man who
has seen God and heard God and speaks for God with the authority
of God. He's a man who's seen God and
heard God and speaks for God with the authority of God. Isaiah
was such a man. You remember back in chapter
six, He said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord
high and lifted up. I saw Christ crucified, just
as Paul described it for us this morning in Romans 14, 9. Christ
crucified, arisen, and crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. And he sent one of his angels,
one of his messengers, and he took a some tongs took a live
coal from off the altar of Christ's sacrifice and it touched my lips
and he said your iniquity is purged and Isaiah went forth
to declare God's mercy and grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. Jeremiah
was such a prophet. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter
eight if you will. Jeremiah the eighth chapter. Verse 18, Jeremiah said, When
I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in
me. Verse 19, Behold the voice of
the cry of the daughter of my people, because of them that
dwell in a far country. Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not
her king in her? Verse 20, The harvest is past,
the summer is ended, and we're not saved. For the hurt of the
daughter of my people and my hurt, I'm black. Astonishment
hath taken hold on me. Lindsay, those aren't the words
of a man to whom nothing mattered. He looked to what was going on
in his day with people who professed to be God's people. And he's
overwhelmed, overwhelmed. He said, my heart is black. I'm astonished. Is there no balm
in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Look at chapter nine, verse one. Oh, that my head were waters,
and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people. Look at chapter
20, chapter 20. Verse 18, or verse eight. Jeremiah said, since I speak,
I cried out. I cried violence and spoil because
the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me and a derision
daily. Everywhere I spoke for God, men
laughed in my face. Everywhere I warned men of God's
righteousness and judgment, men laughed in my face. Everywhere
I exposed man's sin, men laughed in my face. Verse nine, then
I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in
his name. I've had enough of this. But
his word was in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and
I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. The end
of verse 10. Read the whole thing, verse 10,
verse 10. For I heard the defaming of many,
fear on every side. Report say they, and we will
report it. All my familiar friends watched
for my haunting. Every eye was watching. They
said peradventure he will be enticed, and we will prevail
against him. and we will take our revenge
on him. But the Lord is with me as a
mighty and terrible one. Therefore, my persecutors shall
stumble and they shall not prevail. Ezekiel was the same kind of
man. He said, God showed me a role. And he said, son of man, eat
this role. And being a man, obviously Ezekiel
was reluctant to do as God said. And so he opened his mouth and
God calls me to eat that roll. God put his word in me. And he said, go, get thee to
them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak
unto them, and tell them thus saith the Lord God. and the Spirit
of God lifted me up and took me away. Paul was such a man. He said, I'm a debtor to all
men. So as much as in me is, I'm ready
to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. He said, I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth. Let's look at another text in
the Old Testament. Turn to 1 Kings 18. 1 Kings 18. Like Elijah before the prophets
of Baal, the prophet of God, when he's in the Spirit of God,
fears nothing and no one but God. He's motivated by nothing
but the will of God and the glory of God. Look at Isaiah's prayer
here in 1 Kings 18. one of the shortest prayers you'll
read in the Old Testament. He's praying as he's confronting
the prophets of Baal. Verse 36, he said, it came to
pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. Mark
that as you read through the Old Testament. So many things
took place at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice.
That is, at precisely the hour when God, before the world was
made, ordained that Jesus Christ, our Savior, be crucified as our
substitute. Give up the ghost and cry, it
is finished. At this time, obviously Isaiah
has his eye fixed upon the Redeemer. Elijah rather, and Elijah the
prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of
Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel. Thou art God in Israel. These prophets carried a heavy,
heavy burden. As God's ambassador, Paul said,
We then, as ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. God's prophet is a man who carries
the burden of God's word on his heart. don't know whether I can
convey what I want to or not. I hear a lot of preaching. Often I hear men preach as though
they're just giving a lecture informing folks of facts. And as I And as I prepare to
preach to you and wherever I go, I beg God, God, don't let me waste the time
of these immortal souls, just instructing them in facts they
can learn anywhere, but rather give me a message they must hear. When I hear a man preach, I want
to hear a man preach from his heart. And when I preach, I want
to preach from my heart. Let no one misunderstand me.
I do not in any way make a secondary thing of doctrinal truth. Gospel
doctrine is vital. But the gospel must be preached
from the heart passionately, passionately. 200 years ago,
a fellow by the name of John Rusk wrote these words. I want
an experimental preacher. One who, when he's had one meal,
has tried how he shall get the next. One who's tormented with
devils, fit to tear him limb from limb. One who feels hell
inside himself and every corruption in his nature stirred up to oppose
God's work. One who feels so weak that every
day he gets over, he views it as next to a mirror. Oh God make
me such a preacher. One who constantly, constantly
seeks a message from God for his people. Paul said, I was
made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God.
And only God can do that. But that man who is called of
God to preach the gospel, has the direct commission and call
from the Lord Jesus. And it's unmistakably clear.
So he knows that he's been sent by God. Such men preach with
urgency because they had experienced in their hearts the message God
sends them to preach. They carry the burden of the
word of the Lord. after Paul described in 2 Corinthians
5. All the arguments and reasons
why men should be reconciled to God. Consider eternity. Consider
the immortality of your soul. Consider the judgments that you
must face. We therefore persuade men, understand
what it is to be a new creature in Christ. Understand how Christ
was made sin for us. And then he said, we then, as
workers together with God, beseech you, we pray you, that you receive
not the grace of God in vain and receive it right now. For
behold, today is the day of salvation. God's prophets and apostles of
old came before people to whom they preached as men sent from
God with a message that must be declared and must be delivered. Oh, we read in the scriptures
there was a man sent from God whose name was John. A man sent
from God. God make me such a man every
time I stand to speak in your name. Christmas Evans, blind
in one eye as a Welsh preacher, well known in his day, well known
today by men who know anything about the history of the gospel
and the church of God. One night, Evans was scheduled
to preach. And as was common when he preached,
a large group of people had gathered in the chapel where Evans was
scheduled to preach. And he got time to preach and
nobody could find Mr. Evans. And so one of the men
said to the other one said, let's go see if we can find the preacher.
And they went one this way, one that. A little while, they met
again in the lobby of the church building and one of them said
to his brother, said, did you find him? He said, oh yes, I
found him. Where is he? He's downstairs praying. He said,
well go tell him it's time to preach. He said, no, I believe
I'll leave him alone. He said, I heard that man on
his face before God with his heart open to heaven crying,
oh God, I've gone to the pulpit by myself for the last time. Except you go with me, I cannot
again stand to speak for you. Brother Mahan and I traveled
a good bit together for better than 20 years. About every week
we went somewhere preaching together. You get to know a fella in that
amount of time traveling in a car. Probably at least dozens of times,
I heard him make these two statements. He said, the loneliest place
in the world is standing in that pulpit by yourself. That's the loneliest place in
the world. And the most glorious place in the world is standing
in that pulpit when God's with you and God speaks by you. I
pray as you send me around the world to preach the gospel, send
me with your earnest prayers that God will give me a message
fresh from the heart of God to my heart, to the hearts of those
he opens before me. God's prophet knows the message
he preaches. If he speaks by God, has eternal
consequence. We are to all men a saver of
life unto life or of death unto death, one of the two. Nobody
will ever hear the gospel preached in the power of God's spirit
with no consequence. It will either be to your everlasting
salvation or to your everlasting misery. Here's the second thing. The prophet's burden is a twofold
message. And you can mark this down. Every
man who speaks for God has the same message. God's prophets
all see eye to eye. They all carry the same burden.
I don't mean by that they believe every point of doctrine equally
or believe every point of doctrine alike. They don't. They don't.
I have a lot of friends, we differ about whether y'all have open
communion or closed communion, we differ about various things. But with regard to the message
of God's grace, God's prophets see eye to eye. They are messengers
with a twofold message. The first is judgment. Isaiah described the whole world
in chapter 19 verse 18 as the city of destruction. This world
is marked for destruction. The sooner we learn that the
better. Marked for destruction. Marked
for the burning. We will be wise not to build
our nest in any of the trees of this world. Not only this
world, but every man in it because of sin by nature is under the
judgment of God. Brother Rex mentioned it just
a little bit ago, as he always does, and most of us do when
we lead the congregation in prayer, praying for our children, and
it's difficult to do so in private or in public without weeping. We ought to have the same concern
for everyone under the wrath of God Almighty. We live in a generation marked
for destruction. The thought of Christless souls
marching to hell is the sound of men walking our streets because
of sin. God's wrath is just. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. God will send none to everlasting
damnation who do not fully deserve it. And that wrath of God is
sure, irresistible, and eternal. But blessed be God, our message
doesn't end there. You don't have to die. You don't
have to go to hell. Behold your God, sovereign, holy,
just, and true. Look at chapter 14 of Isaiah,
verse 24. God says, surely, as I thought,
so shall it come to pass. As I purposed, so shall it stand. All flesh is grass, worthless,
withered, sure to be burned, but God is gracious, and his
purposed grace he will accomplish. Look at chapter 19, verse 18.
In that day shall five cities in the land of Judah, or the
land of Egypt, speak the language of Canaan. The Egyptians will
speak the language of the Canaanites, and swear to the Lord of hosts,
one shall be called the city of destruction. In that day shall
there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt.
He said back in chapter 13, he said, in that day I'll make a
man more precious than a wedge of gold. There shall be an altar
to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt among the pagans,
the ungodly, the idolaters, and a pillar at the border thereof
to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and
for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For
they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and
he shall send them a savior and a great one. He shall deliver
them. In the midst of this generation under the judgment
of God, God sends his servants to declare there is a way to
God, that way is Christ. There is a pillar of hope, that's
the gospel of God's dear son. There is a throne of grace, there
is a savior for sinners, Christ the great one, more precious
than a wedge of gold. And he who is our God makes this
way of salvation because he who is just and true, altogether
righteous and holy, he who must punish sin, delighteth in mercy. He delighteth in mercy. One more thing, God's prophet
will deliver the burden of the Word of the Lord. Look at chapter
20 and verse 2, At that time spake the Lord by
Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from
off thy loins, And put thy shoe from off thy foot, and it did
so, walking naked and barefoot. Now I can't tell you how much
time I've spent in the last several weeks trying to figure out how
to deal with that. Maybe I'll find out before I
have to deal with it much. But I'll tell you this, Isaiah
appeared in stark contrast to every other
prophet around him. Everybody knew this fellow is
not just exactly like the prophets we know down the road. He walked
naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, like as my
servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for
a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia. So shall the
king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners. and the
Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, just
like Isaiah prophesied, even with their buttocks uncovered
to the shame of Egypt. Isaiah prophesied in such a way
that he became the butt of every joke, the object of all mockery
and scorn. yet he spoke the Word of God
and spoke it faithfully. You see, the responsibility of
God's prophet is to faithfully deliver the Word of God. It ends right there. It ends right there. To faithfully
declare, thus saith the Lord, he has no other responsibility. The consequences are not his
responsibility. They're not his work. The consequences
are God's work. The prophet's responsibility
is that he faithfully declare the burden of the word of the
Lord God's put in him, not holding back anything. Being turned neither
to the right hand nor the left, in no way by no means deterred
or hindered, faithfully declaring the Word of God to the generation
in which he lives. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 1 and
I'll be done. Jeremiah chapter 1. Verse five. God says to Jeremiah, before
I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest
forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Then Jeremiah said exactly what
every other man called of God has said, every one of them.
Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak. For I'm a child. Lord, I can do most other things,
but I can't do this. I'm a child. But the Lord said
unto me, say not, I'm a child. For thou shalt go to all that
I shall send thee. And whatsoever I command thee,
thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces,
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the
Lord put forth his hand and touched by mouth And the Lord said unto
me, behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. I set thee this
day over nations and kingdoms to root up and to pull down and
to destroy and to throw down and to build and to plant. It
is my responsibility to deliver God's message and I know what
it is all the time. Ruined by the fall. redemption
by the blood, regeneration by the Holy Ghost. As a watchman,
sit on the walls of Zion. That's my responsibility. Whether
you're here or forbear, that's my responsibility. Wherever I
go, Whether men hear or refuse to hear, that's my responsibility. And the responsibility of every
man in the world who pretends to speak for God. God says, if
you don't do it, I'll require their blood at your hand. If
you do it, you've delivered your soul. And every man to whom the
gospel is preached shall be judged in that great day by my gospel. So you bow to Christ. You turn
to God in repentance. You believe on the Son of God
and you commit yourself to him. God make us faithful in this
generation to declare the gospel of his free grace to a generation
marked for destruction. Who can tell? Maybe God will
do here what he did in Nineveh and be merciful. Amen.