Romans chapter 12 we have begun
to take up the nature and character of the gifts that Paul has described
over in verse 6 through 8 I'm going to read these and then
I'm going to Take us back to the top of the list and we are
going to answer some questions that were Posed to us in our
outline from last week. I'm at verse 6 Having been gifts
you need a Bible. Are you okay? You need a Bible?
Okay having been gifts and differing according to the grace that is
given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to
the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministry,
or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation,
he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth
with diligence, and he that showeth mercy, Let him do that with cheerfulness. Now, the apostle Paul is instructing
the church as to the character and nature of the operation of
the gifts. And that's just as important
in his line of thinking right now, as is the gifts themselves. But we will take a moment and
look at these gifts. in their category and sort of
understand the underlying reason why Paul would state or delineate
these gifts. If you know your Bible, you know
that these are not all the gifts that were given to the church,
but these are what would be considered fundamental gifts in any local
church that's going to be sound in its execution of the ministry
and its expression of Christ's likeness to the culture. Last week, we were dealing with
the first portion of our verse where we were addressing this
issue of prophecy in relationship to the analogy of faith, the
analogy of faith. In that portion of scripture,
it says if a man or a woman or whoever it is prophesies, let
them do it in relationship to or in proportion. That's what
some Bibles would say Others would say in relationship to
or in accordance with faith. And last week when I shared with
you what the Apostle Paul meant was that when an individual alleged
to have a word from the Lord, a prophetic word, whatever that
was, particularly in the first century, that that word was to
be subject to the scriptures. That word was to be brought under
the authority and the scrutiny of the scriptures, which means
that no individual in the first century in the apostolic era
had the freedom to run around like a maverick telling people
thus saith the Lord without being ready to be critiqued as to whether
or not that word was from God, from the devil, or from the flesh. And that type of atmosphere is
critical because in this day, Much of Christianity is dominated
by a pagan type of Existential rhetoric that is thus saith the
Lord and it has nothing to do with sound doctrine whatsoever
and when people allow themselves to be in an atmosphere where
they are subject to people saying the Lord gave me a word and They
don't take that so-called word and weigh it over against what
the Bible teaches first about the nature of that type of assumption. I'll talk about that here in
a little bit. The assumption that it's all right to be in
an atmosphere where people say to you, the Lord told me to tell
you. See, that's an assumption. Now,
that assumption comes with a whole lot of unintended consequences,
whether you know it or not. Once you put yourself in an atmosphere
where you are subject to someone's hypothetical word, now you've
got to go through a whole lot of changes as to whether or not
you're going to buy into what they say. If you don't dwell
in that realm where people talk about, thus saith the Lord, you
never have that problem. So in the category of those folks
who abide in that realm where they are frequently under the
influence of individuals who say, I have a word from the Lord,
you've got a lot to deal with because you've got to ask the
question, is this a safe environment for me? Is this an environment
where I can grow and be sound in God's word? And is this really
an edifying context? That's a question that should
have been asked before you went into that kind of environment.
We're going to see this here in Jeremiah chapter 28. But since
many of our folks are in that environment, they have now become
subject to a set of assumptions by virtue of association. So now that you're there, you're
hearing people receive a word and And people are accepting
that word and the whole thing is going on. And unless you come
to find out that there are some radical negative consequences
that take place in that environment, you think everything's okay.
You haven't asked the question, is that really a biblical premise
upon which the church should be operating? You haven't asked
the question, are we really in a dispensation where God is talking
to people through people to me, as opposed to God talking to
me through his word by his spirit. See, when you are in that dimension,
you don't ask these very critical and discerning questions. And
so you are susceptible to a whole lot of vulnerable actions on
the part of people who are naive and ignorant and ungrounded.
or just dealing with my brother. He told me just recently about
a catastrophic event that just recently happened with one of
his children, where a so-called group of people who are part
of a church that's local. Y'all know this church. They
told her that she was delivered. She was delivered from a certain
affliction. It wasn't nothing but a lie. She almost died. And you know what people will
do? They will go on in these kinds of assumptions. But we're getting ready to find
out about this here in Jeremiah chapter 28. We're going to learn
some things. And as we read Jeremiah 28 and
see the case scenario which God gives for us, then we will come
back and raise several questions around this idea of the prophetic
word. Is that okay? That, you know,
for those of you who are new, welcome to Grace Bible Church. I'm in Jeremiah chapter 28. Are
you there? If it wasn't so serious, I'd
be laughing too. But see what we don't understand
is, is that whenever anyone says, thus saith the Lord and God was
not in it, they have committed the greatest crime on planet
earth. I'm in Jeremiah chapter 28. We're
going to read verses one through 17. I think it will be explicit
and then we will develop it. Are we there? And it came to
pass that same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king
of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that
Hananiah, the son of Azar, the prophet, which was of Gibeon,
spake unto me, this is Jeremiah speaking, in the house of the
Lord. So they're in church now. And
he spake unto me in the presence of the priest and of all the
people. So here's Hananiah, I want you
to see it. There are two prophets here, two prophets. You'll get
a chance here in a moment to determine which one was true
and which one was false. But they are both in the same
context. They are in the house of the Lord. This is not behind
closed doors. This is not a secret prophecy.
This is not pulling a sister or brother over in the corner,
laying hands on them and telling them they got a word from the
Lord. This is public. So this individual that's speaking
now, he's rather bold. because he's in front of authorities.
And if you don't know anything about these authorities, let
me give you some context. These authorities operated the
same way your Islamist folks in the Middle East operate when
they don't like heresy. They just take you out. Okay? Because this is the type
of mentality and mindset that existed in the first century,
in the seventh century before Christ, and is present there
in those cultures today. Heresy was met with death, or
what was perceived as heresy. So when an individual brought
a word, they understood that they were on the line. So Hananiah
rises up and he speaks before Jeremiah, all the priests and
the people saying, now listen to what he says. Thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts the God of Israel saying I have broken the
yoke of the king of Babylon Do you know what Hananiah just said?
He just said God said I Have broken the yoke of Babylon Within
two four years. Will I bring again this in this
place all the vessels of the Lord's house? That Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon took away from the place and carried them to
Babylon You know what? He just said and God said in two years
will be restored you guys got that now what he has done was
not only uttered a proclamation that he said he received from
heaven he has now given a timeline so he's locked himself into a
timeline very impressive and I will bring again to this
place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah with all of the
captains of Judah that went into Babylon saith the Lord for I
will break the yoke of the king of Babylon do you know what he
just did are you ready he prophesied peace he prophesied peace i didn't
want to really actually do any kind of exposition on this because
i thought it speak for itself but here's what i will say this
man understands the psychology of the human makeup he also understood
the sociological uh dynamics of his own culture false prophets
are always psychologists first and then preaches second They understand the vulnerable
disposition of the human maker and they always attack it. Verse five, then the prophet
Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah, so here we go, we got
two prophets talking now, I like this. All right, I like this,
a good atmosphere because you know in most churches that you
can't talk to the prophet, you just got to listen to him. You
know, you can't talk back to him. Because if you get to talk
back, you might have an opportunity for some critical analysis, if
not some self-critical analysis, some objective critical analysis,
and then maybe some lights might get cut on. Because you know
what the proverb says, he that is first in his own cause, he
always appears to be just. But when his neighbor comes,
he searches him out, and now all of a sudden, he's exposed
to have flaws in his logic. Isn't that true? So here we go. Then the prophet
Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hannah and I and the presence
of the priest and the presence of the people that stood in the
house of the Lord. I like the way the Holy Ghost
did that. He reaffirmed the atmosphere
and Jeremiah is responding in light fashion. Subtly what's
taking place here is a conflict. You guys got that? Now the word
has come to Jeremiah by another colleague preacher. Jeremiah
has to respond because the colleague preacher for whatever reason
spoke in the first sense to Jeremiah in the presence of the people
so Jeremiah knows I obliged to respond isn't he is Jeremiah
God's man and Jeremiah has just received a word from this prophet
and Jeremiah has received in the presence of the people if
Jeremiah has any qualms or concerns about what this man said and
doesn't respond to the people their blood is on his hand Do you believe that? Listen to
what it says. Even the prophet Jeremiah said,
amen. The Lord do so. The Lord perform
your words which you have prophesied to bring again the vessels of
the Lord's house and all that is carried away captive from
Babylon unto this place. You know what Jeremiah just did?
He responded in kind. You know what he said? He said,
I am not going to immediately begin to contend with this man's
prophecy because on the surface of his prophecy, it is inclined
to speak well of the people. If I begin to challenge his prophecy
on the surface of it, the conclusion might be drawn. It would be a
faulty conclusion that I have no love for the people of God.
So if I go to challenging the prophecy on the merits of the
emotional content, the idea that God's going to do good to his
people, then immediately his opponents can say, well, you
see, Jeremiah doesn't have the people of God's best interest
in mind. He's speaking against a good word. So what does Jeremiah
do? He says, hey, I want the best
for the people of God, too. I want God's people to be blessed,
too. If God has spoken through you to bless the people, amen. See? So now he can proceed since
he's already let everybody know I want the best for you too.
Go ahead on. Listen to what he says in verse
7. Nevertheless, do you see that? That's one of those strong words
that puts a halt on the tenor and agenda of the present thought. It arrests the present thought
and says, hear thou now this word that I speak in your ears
and in the ears of all the people. See, he's contending now. See
it? Now listen to what he does. I'm
gonna explain this. I'm gonna decipher this here in a moment.
What we are actually looking at is the outworking of Romans
chapter 12 verse 6 where a prophecy goes forth and That prophecy
now is being brought into subjection to the analogy of faith One man
is uttering the prophecy the other man is bringing it into
subjection to the proportion of faith Got it Now listen to
what he says The he said nevertheless here thou now the word that I
speak in your ears and in the ears of all the people the prophets
that have been Before me, you know what Jeremiah just did he
beckoned all the preachers of God all the way back to Abel
He just called on all of God's servants all the way back to
Abel. He says nevertheless every preacher
of the gospel Before me going all the way back to Abel Operated
according to the analogy of faith Now we talked about the analogy
of faith for those of you who are new the concept of the analogy
of faith Which is the proportion of faith and he in Romans chapter
12 verse 6 is that? throughout the scriptures God
has operated in a consistent pattern of setting forth his
revelation of precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little,
there a little, by this prophet, the next prophet, the next prophet,
the next prophet, the next prophet, and you ladies and gentlemen,
you guys remember when we were dealing with that second hand
of theological doctrine, and that is systematic theology,
how that we learn by Jesus the scriptures cannot be broken?
The scriptures cannot be broken, they are a continuum, they are
a whole, true? That Abel is not going to contradict
Moses and Moses is not going to contradict Joshua and Joshua
is not going to contradict the prophets. They all are going
to be speaking in harmony and continuity because it's one shepherd
giving them all their instructions. Are you hearing me? So what Jeremiah
has done was beckoned the analogy of faith, the continuity of the
history of redemption, and the prophets that God has always
worked through, those men who have been confirmed in their
calling and authentically recognized by the people of God as true
prophets. And here's what he says, every
one of them, look at the text. He says the prophets which prophesied
of peace, I'm sorry back at verse 8 the
prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied
both against many countries and Against great kingdoms of what
war and of what evil and of what pestilence. Is that true? from
the beginning of time all of God's servants have declared
wars and rumors of wars and evils and judgments because the the
situation in our world is that man is is at war with God. Man is under the wrath of God. Man is not in a right relationship
with the true and the living God man does not come out of
the womb in favor with God man comes out of the womb speaking
lies man comes out of the womb going astray with his fist in
God's faith man is under the wrath of God and the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and all ungodliness
against the truth for those who hold the truth and unrighteousness
that is the tenor of scripture So the prophets of God have always
said, because God is angry with the wicked every day, while he
gives them time to repent, what they do is they fill up the cup
of God's wrath. And eventually God turns that
cup over and pours out his wrath upon the nations. Is that true?
Now that is the continuity of prophetic truth that was running
through the mouths of the prophets from Abel all the way to Jeremiah. And what Jeremiah learned by
reading the scriptures was that all the preachers that went before
him, they preached in this tenor. And when God called Jeremiah
in Jeremiah chapter one, Jeremiah took right up where the prophets
that were before him preached, and he preached the same thing,
judgment. It's appointed unto men once
to die and after this to judgment. And so when he hears a word that
is out of sync with the analogy of faith, with the proportion
of faith, with that which God has laid down in the scriptures
called the faith, our Bible is the faith once delivered unto
the saints, for which we have to what? Contend. Once he hears
something that's out of sync with that, he has to apprehend
it, doesn't he? Because this is a different word. This is a radically different
word. And here's what he says. Now, I've already told you, Hananiah,
that all of God's faithful servants spoke of judgment. Verse 9, here's
what he says now. I want you to see this because
we're going to go to some Bible verses to substantiate this mode
of analysis and critique on the part of Jeremiah with regards
to Hananiah's prophecy. Verse 9, the prophet which prophesies
of peace. When the word of that prophet
shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known that the
Lord has truly sent him." See it? Now where is he coming from? Can I tell you where he's coming
from? Deuteronomy chapter 13 and Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy
chapter 13 and Deuteronomy chapter 18. In Deuteronomy chapter 13,
that's why I asked you guys to look up all the verses that you
have under according to the proportion of analogy of faith in your outline,
the rule, the pattern, the tenor, the doctrine, the standard. You
see all those verses from Isaiah 820 all the way through Revelation
22, 18 and 19. Those are just a handful of verses
that I picked out to share with you to give you a sense of what
the scriptures teach about prophecy. Now, I can tell you, Jeremiah,
with the exception of the New Testament, was well aware of
all of the writings of the Old Testament in relationship to
this subject, so he could reach back into the book of Deuteronomy. And remember when God told Israel,
now, when the prophet comes along, and he gives you a dream, or
he gives you a vision, and he tells you that a certain thing
is gonna come to pass, even if it actually comes to pass, But
it's designed to turn your heart away from the true and the living
God You shall not hear him because I the Lord your God am testing
you To see whether you love me or not. Are you love things?
Which is the reason why most preachers prophesy To tell you
the Lord's gonna give you something Now notice what God does. Notice
what He does. In Deuteronomy 13, God says,
I'm letting these guys preach to you to test you. Have you ever been tested by
a false preacher? Has a false preacher come to you and told
you, I got a word from the Lord from you, or a so-called Christian? Because we're dominated by that
in this culture. Do you recall how you felt when
that whole experience took place? Were you vulnerable? Did you
find yourself discombobulated by that kind of dynamic and confrontation? Because again, these are psychological
and emotional tactics on the part of people who have learned
how to bring vulnerable people into subjection to their apparent
authority. I'm telling you the truth. You
notice I didn't ask you, well, am I telling you the truth or
not? I'm thinking about my daughter
who almost died by this, these fools who just told her that
she was healed and she wasn't. I tell you, paganism has dominated
the Christian church and our folks are ignorant. So Jeremiah
says, I'm, I'm, I'm telling you Hananiah that your prophecy,
if it comes to pass, we will rejoice. But I can tell you,
you're on a bad line because what the scriptures say seem
to explicitly warn us against a person like you. You guys got
that? Now notice how it goes on. Verse
10. Then Hananiah the prophet took
the yoke from the prophet Jeremiah's neck and broke it. Now, why did
he take that yoke? Because Jeremiah was using what
was called in the Old Testament a simile or a metaphor in conjunction
with his prophecy to give the people an image of what God had
told Jeremiah was going to happen to the people of God. And that
is they were going to be brought into bondage to Babylon for 70
years. They would be under the yoke
of Nebuchadnezzar for 70 years. Just as a horse is under the
yoke, or an ox is under the yoke, or an ass is under the yoke,
Israel would become a slave and a servant to Babylon for 70 years. Now that's not a good word emotionally. Is that true? That's not a good
word emotionally. But I want to ask you something.
Do you really love God? And do you really love his word? Are you really subject to his
word? And have you lived long enough to know that sometimes
God says things to us we just don't like? But whether we like
it or not, it doesn't matter. So the people of God were told
by Jeremiah, by the 28th chapter, do you know the imperial leaders
of Israel had already conspired to kill Jeremiah? Because his
prophecies were constantly judgment prophecies. They were already
marshaled together and in a position to kill Jeremiah. So here Jeremiah
is in the midst of worship and God has just thrown him in the
heart of it because a prophet is coming now compounding Jeremiah's
mission with more difficulty by telling the people, Jeremiah's
prophecy is not going to come to pass. You're not going to
be in bondage to the Babylonians for 70 years. It won't be but
two years. Now, tell me, which prophecy
would you naturally want to embrace? The two year prophecy with interest? or a 70 year bondage which means
the majority of the people hearing him would die in Babylon. Are
you hearing me? So Jeremiah realizes that he
is actually dealing with doctrines of devils because this is a very
strategic and very well thought prophecy that's coming at him
and the people. The preacher Hananiah made sure
he said this prophecy in the midst of all the people so that,
like leaven does, it would spread no matter what. Remember when
we were dealing with the book of Nehemiah just recently and
Sam Ballard and Tobiah were arguing with Nehemiah We saw this over
in the sixth chapter that they publicly openly had a letter
sent around that Nehemiah was building the wall so he can take
over the kingdom Nehemiah knew at this point he had to speak
up because Lies they spread quickly and he had to deal with it because
it was public now in private you deal with things in private
public you have to deal with things in public so Jeremiah's
put on the spot because he understands that the people Desperately want
this prophecy to come to pass so he he doesn't fight with this
man tit-for-tat He brings this man's prophecy into subjection
to the analogy of faith and notice what he goes on to say I want
you to see this as we work our way through and then we will
enter into our own subjective study for a moment he says over
in verse 11 and Hannah and I spoke of After that, he took the yoke
and broke it off of Jeremiah's neck. Every time I read this
portion of scripture, you know what I'm just bewildered at is
the obstinance, the arrogance, and the impetuousness of Hananiah
to persist in his rebellion when he was already graciously, ladies
and gentlemen, graciously checked by the prophet. But see, when
you are led by the spirit of error, the spirit of error will
lead you all the way to a point of shame. There's no aborting
when you're led by the spirit of error. There's no aborting
when you're led by the spirit of error. The spirit of error
doesn't stop with you until you are brought to shame. Now notice
what it goes on to say, and Hannah and I spoke in the presence of
all the people saying, thus said the Lord, even so will I break
the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. king of Babylon from the neck
of all the nations within the space of two full years all the
nation boy if those nations could hear that prophecy they'd be
happy to let's make Hannah not one of our cabinet members let's
take Hannah nine make him Secretary of State of seven because that's
a good word isn't it this is all the nations around this is
Syria this is Egypt this year is Greece this year is Rome this
year is India they all get this good word He's gonna make a lot
of money let him go on a book tour. He can really make some
dough Now watch this after this second
response is rebuttal on the part of Hananah It tells us in the
latter part of verse 11 and the prophet Jeremiah went his way It probably doesn't have to sit
there and argue with this fool Now watch this verse 13 Go, I'm
sorry, verse 12. Then the word of the Lord came
to Jeremiah, the prophet, after that Hananiah, the prophet had
broken the yoke from off of the neck of the prophet Jeremiah
saying, this is what God said to Jeremiah. Now, Jeremiah, go
tell Hananiah and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, you have
broken the yokes of wood, but you make for them yokes of iron. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all
these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, and they shall serve him. And I have given him the beast
of the field also. So it's amazing because what
God said to Jeremiah is, Hananiah is fighting against me, not you.
Hananiah's inspired by the devil, and the devil was my adversary.
And this is working itself out incarnate. The two men that's
in view is Jeremiah and Hananiah. The largest spiritual warfare
is the spirit of error versus the spirit of truth. Go back
and tell him I'm sovereign. You know what sovereign is? I control
everything. And my will be done in heaven
and in earth. I do whatsoever I please, and nobody can stop
me. As I have thought, so shall it come to pass. What I have
spoken shall be fulfilled. I will perform all my pleasure. Now that's the God of the Bible.
Now listen to it. Verse 14, I'm sorry, verse 15. Then said the prophet Jeremiah
unto Hananiah, the prophet, hear now Hananiah, the Lord did not
send you. See? The Lord did not send you. If you really want a commentary
on this, read Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23 is a
full warped indictment against the prophets that run, but God
didn't send them. Against the prophets that said,
thus said the Lord, but the Lord had not said thus. And if you
want to even a more fuller development and indictment of it, read Ezekiel
chapter 13 and 14, where God says the same thing. And in Ezekiel
14, God says, I will deal with those prophets. I will deal with
those prophets. And so Jeremiah has come to understand
that Hananiah has just perpetrated a fraud on the whole people group.
Sometimes I get the question from some of you. These guys
who are false prophets and false teachers, men and women, who
utter these prophecies, do they know what they're doing? Did
Hananiah know what he was doing? Hold on, hold on. Did he know
what he was doing? Of course he did. Of course he did. Of
course he did. He knew precisely what he was
doing. He was under the spirit of error. He believed what he
was saying was right. But he had no relationship with
the true and the living God. The word is called being deceived. You guys got that? Deceived. And when you are in that place,
the Greek term deceived is the Greek word planeo, planeo. And it's the term from which
we get the term stars, planets and it's the idea of losing your
place in the hemisphere and you begin to fall so when Jude says
they are like wandering stars to whom the mist of darkness
is reserved forever false prophets don't have a foundation they
are falling constantly and in their falling they carry with
them ignorant people who are unstable and unlearned and they
fall along with them Are you guys hearing me? Verse 16. Verse 15, listen to
it. Then said the prophet Jeremiah
to Hananiah the prophet, hear now Hananiah, the Lord has not
sent you, but you make this people to trust in a lie. Got it? Therefore, thus said the Lord,
behold, I will cast you from off the face of the earth. God
doesn't do that. God doesn't do that. God's a
God of love. You shouldn't even be talking
like that. God's tolerant with people. He just made a little
error. That's what they say about these false prophets. His prophecy
was just off a little bit. And it destroys whole homes.
They destroy whole families. It puts husbands and wives at
odds with one another. It ticks off the children. It
increases the level of incredulity in the hearts of the children.
The children say, why on earth should I believe that foolishness?
I can see clearly through this stuff. This is nothing but tricanery.
This is nothing but manipulation. This is nothing but a scam. I'm
slick enough to see through this. Why my mama can't see through
this. Why my daddy can't see through this. And they never
believe it. Ask your children, some of you
who are part of these churches. They laugh at this stuff behind
closed doors. Because God gives them enough
innocency to see through it. and here you are deluded by it
because you're not grounded in the word. You have a misinterpretation
of the concept of faith. Your faith is pagan. It's a leap
in the dark. It's not grounded in the truth
of the word. You just holding on for dear
life, hoping the man or the woman is right because you're trying
to trust God. That's not faith. Faith is always
reliance upon God's word. Properly interpret it Faith is not mysticism. I'm just
hold on hold it on my back. That's paganism The distinct
difference between the true and the Living God and all of these
pagan false gods out there Is that the true and the Living
God has given us a given us a faithful word by which we can stand on And so this case scenario was
designed for me to help you understand the significance of the concept
of prophecy, which is the reason that Paul, in dealing with prophecy,
because prophecy was something that was frequent in the first
century for a lot of reasons, he said, whatever prophecy goes
forth in the worship service or in the fellowship, bring it
into subjection to the analogy of scripture, to the analogy
of faith. You guys got that? And so let's establish the atmosphere
once more. Go with me now back to Romans
chapter 12. Let's see if we can develop this a little bit while
we have time. Let's establish the atmosphere. Ostensibly, if in fact, We are
in a time where prophetic utterances, divine flow, winds of divine
illumination are taking place by God through the hearts of
individuals qualified to speak for God. If ostensibly we are
in those environments, what the Bible tells us is that every
prophecy uttered must be tested. You guys do believe that, right?
So watch this. Anytime a local church has in
it so-called prophets, And if you sense my sort of satirical,
sort of cynical disposition, you sensed whale. If we are in
that era, what you must understand is that there are some strong
and stringent regulatory principles that should be operating. The
man or the woman that has the unction to think that they can
speak like that must now come under the serious criticism of
God's word by individuals who are qualified to test it so that
this stuff doesn't run roughshod over the members of the church.
Which means if you have a healthy church, where you are allowing
this stuff to go on. I don't necessarily advise it.
I'll talk about it in a moment. But if you do, you should have
strong men in the church with the book open, looking to see
whether or not what that individual is saying corresponds in a silhouette
fashion with what Scripture plainly teaches. And if he has spoken presumptuously,
that's Deuteronomy 13 and Deuteronomy 18, He is to be completely disregarded
from the ministry forever. Do you believe that? You may
not. Go with me in your Bible to Deuteronomy.
I just want you to see it yourself, help you. Deuteronomy chapter
13, Deuteronomy 18. I'm in Deuteronomy 13. I want to read it for those of
you who didn't bring your Bible so you can hear it, just in case
you never show up to grace again. I'm in verses 1 through I'm gonna
read verses 1 through 5 and then I'm gonna read verse 9. Okay
If there rise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and gives
you a sign and a wonder And the sign or the wonder come to pass
whereof he spake unto you saying let us go after other gods Which
thou has not known and let us serve them I'd love to unpack
that down the line because I can hear right now in the heads of
some people Well, as long as they're preaching in the name
of Jesus, we're okay. That's not true What Jesus? Verse three. Thou shalt hearken unto the word,
thou shalt not hearken unto the word of that prophet or that
dreamer of dreams. So the Lord your God tests you to know whether
you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and
strength. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him
and keep his commandments and obey his voice. and you shall
serve him and cleave to him. And that prophet or that dreamer
of dreams shall be put to death. Got it? Because he has spoken. He has spoken to turn you away
from the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of
Egypt and redeemed you Out of the house of bondage to thrust
you out of the way which the Lord your God commands you to
walk in So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of you.
Well pastor. That was the Old Testament They
don't do that in the New Testament read 2nd Corinthians chapter
5 Paul told the same thing to the church of Corinth He says
a little leaven leavens the whole lot cut that little leaven out
get rid of it. Put it away from you That's what
he said Put it away from you. He said the same thing to the
Galatian church put it away from you This warning is subtle, but
it's true Ladies and gentlemen, if you tolerate a little bit
of error, it will contaminate your whole church Now I want you to see some this
is quite interesting because God is seeking to protect the
whole of At the whole the whole kingdom every aspect of the nation
down to the family starts in verse 6 if your brother You know
your brother wake up with a revelation the son of your mother or your
son or your daughter or your wife of Your bosom and all of
a sudden now she preaching and your friend which you have in
your own soul See, that's that's a close fella I'm talking about
the person that's closest to you. You see what God is doing?
You see what he's saying? He's saying that blood, physical
blood has nothing to do with divine truth. That you and I
don't get to determine whether or not the word that's coming
out of this individual's mouth is credible or not based upon
our proximity of relationship. That we don't get to exercise
what the scriptures would call a respective person, because
after all, we're relations. And yet, this is a methodology
that the enemy has used for the longest to build false churches.
They get you through relatives or close friends. Because again,
the devil is a psychologist before he's a preacher. Now listen to it. Saying secretly, let us go and
serve other gods which you have not known. nor your father, namely
of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto
you, are far from you, from the one end of the earth even to
the other end of the earth." I didn't look at this at length
at all, but now I see what's going on here. God is just absolutely
awesome in his warning of his people. He said, you're in the
land now, the land of Canaan. And in the land of Canaan, idolatry
was rampant and prolific. And you are a unique people of
God. You worship the true and the living god and you follow
god according to his word But daily you're going to be challenged
with the idols of the land daily You're going to be challenged
with the methods and schemes and machinations of the people
you work with daily You're going to be assaulted with the temptation
of starting to be inclined to do it the way they do it You
know what? God is warning about here. We
call this syncretism You know what syncretism is? It's the
embracing of the pagan methodology of worship into your own worship. So what you say is you actually
believe in Jehovah, but you kind of like the way they worship.
So you start embracing their worship methodology into your
church, but you tell everybody, we still now are calling on the
name of the Lord Jesus, But we're going to start practicing some
of these things that they engage in because it seems exciting
and it seems like it has some benefit for us. After all, you
know, we get a little tired of just hymns and scripture reading
and a little word. We want some exciting. And God told Israel before they
got into the land. That that other stuff is exciting.
He says, if you don't go in with a mindset to oppose it, they
will bring you into bondage. Because you won't be operating
on the principle of faith and obedience to God. Without faith,
it's impossible what? So now you are outside of pleasing
God, so God might let the door open. And you see, if you break
the head, you get bitten by the serpent. So because in your presumption,
you thought, OK, we'll just sort of engage in this in terms of
an experiment. Because you thought somehow you
had the ability to pull out if it didn't work out right. The
reality is God knows better. And so he gives you over to it
if you think you can handle it. And before you know it, you're
influenced completely by their methodology. This stuff has crept
into the church over the last 2,000 years continually. It's a battle we're fighting
all the time. So while you hear me frequently, you probably don't
get it, but I'll say it again. You need to understand what paganism
is, because paganism is in your church. Listen to what it says
over in verse seven, verse eight, thou shalt not consent unto him,
nor hearken unto him, neither shall your eye pity him, neither
shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him. You know what
that means? That means when he sets forth
the prophecy, that you don't just shut it and say, you know,
my brother tripping, my sister tripping, and allow him to go
spread that leaven elsewhere. Cause that very brother or sister
that you say tripping, that you conceal, he'll end up having
a church with 10,000 people in it. And you was the one that left
the door open. Cause you didn't say that's wrong. And I'm telling
everybody you being wrong. Because I fear God and not man.
See? You want to read about a mom
and pop ministry? I think it's in Judges chapter
17. Micah and his mama. It's called a mom and pop ministry.
Read it. Micah, Micah and his mama. Micah and his mama. Micah's mama was rich and Micah
had an idol, an image, and they set up a worship service. It's
called Mom and Pop's Worship Service. Go ahead on and read
it back cuz see God's Word is right and he's telling us all
the time what's going on We just don't see it cuz we're not in
God's Word Verse 9, but you shall surely
kill him And your hands shall be first upon him to put him
to death and afterwards the hand of all the people You know what he just said You
are obligated, let's bring it into the 21st century vernacular.
You are obligated to say that what this individual is teaching
is a lie and that this individual is not from God and this individual
is not to be heard. When you do that, you have metaphorically
killed him. You guys got that? And then those
who know the truth should come behind you and confirm you. He's
not telling the truth. She's not telling the truth.
They are not from God. They are speaking lies. They
are not to be heard. Don't pay any attention to him.
And when the whole church does that, their business is done
for that church. What happens out there is his
business, his own blood or her own blood is on their own hand.
Now, you guys got that. Do you believe churches would
operate like that in the 21st century? Do you see it? Go to Deuteronomy chapter 18.
I just want to make sure we get
it. We will get off of it when it's time. Are you there? In Deuteronomy 15, the same thing
sets forth. I'm in Deuteronomy 18. I'm going
to start at verse I'll start at verse 18 this year is a word
concerning we dealt with this on Thursday of the the that great
prophet the Lord Jesus Christ it 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 and it shall come to pass that whosoever will
not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will
required of him who is he talking about that's right Verse 20,
but there it is that contrasting conjunction again, the prophet,
which shall presume to speak a word in my name, see it, the
prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name. Now
this prophet is slightly different than the prophet in chapter 13,
because the prophet in chapter 13 is speaking a word in the
name of another God openly. This one here is using the name
of Jesus. Got it. which I have not commanded him
to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even
that prophet shall die. You guys see that? And if you
shall say in your heart, how shall we know the word which
the Lord hath not spoken? Verse 22, 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 hath not spoken. But
the prophet had spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him.
What do you mean be afraid of him? Don't be afraid to pick
up stones and kill it. Got it. Don't be afraid to pick
up stones and kill it. That's what he's saying. I mean,
if you're going to stone that other prophet, you stone this
one too. The only way to deal with error
is to kill it. The only way to deal with error
is to kill it. Personally, that's what I liked
about, you know, the first four or five centuries, six centuries
of the Christian era, when heretics were found out, they got rid
of heretics. We live in a day where people
are in love with false prophets. Go with me to Romans chapter
12. Let's go on and work this through now. We love false prophets
today. We love them. We support them,
we send them our money, we receive their tapes, we replicate their
words. We love false prophets today.
Now what's interesting about the concept of prophecy, in contrast
to what God calls for you and me to do, and that is to study
to show ourselves approved unto God, what's interesting In relationship
to that, the contrast is that sitting around listening to a
prophet utter prophecy is for lazy people. Lazy people enjoy
that because lazy people don't study their Bibles. See what
I'm saying? And again, I told you the false
prophet is a psychologist and he understands sociology. He
realizes most people just don't study. He knows a sucker is born
every minute. and and the false prophets that
exist in our culture today are so bold and embracing they will
actually say things that are explicitly diametrically opposed
to the scripture and they will dare anybody to challenge them
on it and once they have done that
this will move move me into uh the application that i want to
make with regards to this context it's called discerning doctrine
When a preacher has been able to successfully give you a word
that is explicitly contrary to the scriptures and you sit there
and go, amen, he has done three things. He has first and foremost
undermined it, the scriptures. He has completely, he has completely
devastated the scripture of any authority. Now the scripture
has no authority in your life. Once you allow somebody to say
something to you that you know is diametrically opposed to what
the scriptures teach, he has just divested you of the influence
and authority of scripture. You have no authority now. Am
I telling the truth? Because you have just allowed
God's word, which is forever settled in heaven, to be now
brought into subjection to a lie. You just allow that man to bring
you into bondage. You have just discovered that
you are not grounded in the truth. You just discovered that you
didn't know it, but now you know it because you're sitting there
and you know one part of your mind said, but that's not lining
up with this, that and the other thing. But you know, he's the
man of God. And then 10 other people confirm
that same type of illogical, irrational thinking predicated
upon slothfulness. The slothful believes every word,
the simple believes every word, but the prudent look well to
his going. Isn't that what the Proverbs says? The simple say,
ah, that's a word from the Lord, I like that, I want that. Yeah,
but what does the Bible say? But this is the man of God, God
gave him a special word. Now you have just divested yourself
of any authoritative relationship to God's Word now, you're not
kept Because the people of God are kept by the power of God
through faith according to the truth of the scriptures Sanctify
them in your truth. Your word is true Now you might as well throw your
Bible out the window That's the reason why folks don't take their Bible
to church to those kind of churches. They don't need them They've got a priest now speaking
at the cathedral. You guys got that? He has just
taken a Bible from you. Second thing he has done, he
has stepped outside of the bounds of what we're dealing with, the
analogy of faith. Go with me to 1 Peter chapter
4, 11. I want you to see it again. 1 Peter 4. Are we there? We've heard this
three or four times, but I want you to hear it again in this
context is going to illumine itself a little bit more for
your affirmation. Now, are we there? If any man
speak, that's what we've been talking about, right? If any
man speak, watch this, let him speak as of the what? Oracles
of God. If any man minister, let him
minister according to the ability which God give it. That in all
things, That in all things that god may in all things be glorified
through jesus christ to whom be praise and dominion forever
and ever What peter just said is if any man is going to speak
let his speaking be subject to the written word You guys got
that that's what the term oracle means logos. It's the root word
is logos Logos and it means the written word that which has been
written down already expressly set forth as truth. Let him speak
accordingly The the elliptical comment our statement is or let
him hold his peace Isn't that true? So then you guys know other
Bible verses 1st John chapter 4 verse 1 Try the Spirit Did
that what it said? Everybody that's saying that
they are the Lord and not of the Lord Test the spirits, whether
they be of God or not. Isn't that what it says? Try
the spirit. The word spirit there is a synonym
for the preacher. It's not a synonym. It's not
a word that's referring to angelic beings, non-corporeal beings.
It's not saying try demons. You and I are spirits. It's saying
try the preacher. Try the gift. Because that person
is calling himself spiritual or she's calling herself spiritual. Try that so-called spiritual
person, whether they be of God or not. You guys got that? Which brings me back to our previous
proposition. If an individual alleges to have
a word and they are in a church that's quick to open the book,
to examine it with consequences, they will think before they open
their mouth and say, thus saith the Lord. Right? Instead of being inclined to
send your children to hell see the individual that That would
just came to me before the study and burden about their child
had been under the truth for a while, but Inclined in relationships
with younger people decided to branch out and this other place
where they were going is a It's a jazzy place. The music is happening
and going on And they do a lot of signs and wonders and laying
on hip hands and speaking words. Yeah, you know them. And the
individual stepped off the foundation that they had learned years ago
concerning the truth and was led by feelings. Like a lot of
folk, what they do, they go looking for a church because they want
a church to make them feel good. I want a church that caters to
my emotional needs. I want a church that actually
meets my emotional disposition. Well, now you're telling God
what you want instead of asking God what he wants. And this is
how you get jacked up because they'll give you something on
the front end. That's how they do it. Get the smoke and mirrors
going, get the music going, get them pumped up. We live in a
culture of dumbed-down ignorant individuals who are operating
out of their emotions and when a person gets emotionally charged
they are already altered in their reality. Your reality has been
altered. Your reality has been totally
altered and unless somebody outside of that sphere come in and arrest
you and deliver you from that, you are a slave to that. So Peter says, if any men speak,
let them speak as of the oracles of God. Going back to our text. The third thing that I see what
happens when these types of atmospheres are developed, where there is
a so-called prophetic word going forth, not only do they undermine
the authority of scripture, not only are they out of bounds when
it comes to the analogy of faith, and I'll tell you why. The the
issue of being out of bounds according to the analogy of faith
is so critical and Being out of balance means that they say
things that are plainly contradictory Descriptor plainly contradictory
descriptor and once you are allowing yourself to be subject to prophecies
that are plainly contradictory Descriptor you lose every sense
of equilibrium but the The third and very important point here
is this, and it's in conjunction with the analogy of faith, is
this. In these atmospheres where this
type of stuff goes on, Christ is not preached. Christ is not preached. Christ is not exalted. Christ does not have preeminence. Christ is not the whole counsel
of God. Christ is not the Alpha and the
Omega. Christ is not the sum and substance
of their message. Christ is not the revelation
of the people. The preacher is. And as a consequence, inadvertently,
you don't know it, but that preacher has stepped in front of Christ
and eclipsed Christ from you so that you're stuck on him or
her and their word and you never see Jesus. Who is the sum and
substance of divine revelation? Are you guys hearing me? If you had a proper foundation
of hermeneutics, Whenever you go to church, you would go in
the church saying what the Gentiles said when they came to Jerusalem
on that great day of the feast, sirs, we would see Jesus. If you were sound in your hermeneutics,
you would go in there sitting down with your Bible open, waiting
for them to open and allege from the scriptures that this is the
Christ. If you were sound in your hermeneutics,
you would know that from Genesis to Revelation, all this book
is about is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If you were sound
in your hermeneutics, you would know that the reason you come
to church is to hear from Christ, to hear about Christ, to see
His glory, and to worship in His presence. If you really understood
what Christian worship was about, you would understand that Christian
worship is about the heart being launched into the heavens to
behold the Son of God, and that it's not about you, it's about
Him. And that when you leave church,
you can say, I have seen the glory of God once again in the
face of Jesus Christ. This man, this person preached
the gospel. And if you were sounding your
hermeneutics, if you were sound, you would know what Paul meant
when he said in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 around verse 16. Woe unto me if I preach not the
gospel. I can put it this way as we wrap
this up. Woe unto you if you can sit there and hear anything
else but the gospel. You have not been taught of God.
Got it? Father, we thank you for this
time. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth as
it is in Jesus. We know your word offends. We
know it divides. We know it challenges. We know
it tests. I ask you as I asked you earlier today, Lord, that
you would correct us and that you would hedge us in. If we're
lost, save us. If we're blind, open our eyes.
If we're hard in our heart, soften our hearts, Lord. Don't let us
go to hell. Deliver us from every delusion.
May you be glorified in everything we do, everything we say, everything
we think. May Christ be everything to us
as he is to you. Spirit of God, make it so in
our life. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies. As we prepare on Sunday to worship you, grant that we
may truly worship you in spirit and in truth and according to
the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless
you.