God's Prophet

Who do you trust? Why do you trust them? As we think about our passage, and if you haven't noticed, we're going to think about truth, prophecy, Christ the prophet. Who do we trust when it comes to really important decisions? Who do you turn to? How do you determine if and when someone is speaking the truth? We all have tests. What are your tests? How do you test truth? Another way of thinking about this, what does it take to convince you of something? What do you require to be convinced that something is true? Are you a seeing is believing kind of person? You need to be able to hold it and examine it or else you can't believe it. Maybe you're more of an intuition. It's that gut feeling. I know truth because of my gut. Maybe you're reason. I have to be able to understand it once I can wrap my hand around it. We all fit one of these categories as we think about truth. One of the real questions, what outside source, what outside of you do you trust? As Christians, we're gathering as Christians. If you're not a Christian, we're so thankful you're here. We're thankful that you can see that we are looking to God's word with confidence. And I pray that you will hear about Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior for all sinners and every kind of sin. But as Christians, when we gather, we're called to only trust one thing. Absolutely, with complete confidence. Everything else is actually questionable. We're called to trust God's Word, that it's true, it's right, it's just, it's perfect. This is God's Word. He has spoken. Everything else should be questioned underneath this Word. Yes, this Word, it engages our reason. It stirs our affections. It excites our emotions. It explains our experiences. But it, above everything else, is trustworthy. We must hold firm in confidence to trust it. Now our culture tells us that truth is being tolerant. That that is being pressed in upon all of us as we're walking and talking throughout our world, truth is being tolerant. But by tolerant I mean, can you really know something for sure? We want to be tolerant that, can you really ever be certain to the point that you would say this is absolutely clearly truth? In our culture, truth is something you search for but you never find. I recall an interview over the radio and a celebrity who was spiritual, he described Hollywood like this. It's cool to be searching for something spiritual, but if you ever find it, it makes you weird. You're ostracized. In the church, we have to be certain. Or else, why are we gathering? Why are you listening? We have to be certain that God has spoken, that His Word is knowable, that it is trustworthy. We have to be on guard against the lie that we should suspend judgment where God has spoken clearly. We as a church, we depend upon the truth of Christ. We must be listeners. We must be students. We must be speakers. What we're doing right now is active. Alright, I realize I'm the one using the most energy because of my words are the ones coming out. But we have to be active, actively engaged. God could be speaking. God is speaking when we open His Word and we ask Him, speak O Lord. Are we listening so that we're students, so that we might actually speak God's Word to one another? That's what every Christian is called to do. Echo, reverberate the Word of God. As members of the church, we must depend upon one another to speak truth and love. We're committed to speak this truth and love. This means we must agree on what we believe together. We must agree on a final authority. Ultimately, what we're gonna see today is we must agree who our prophet is. This is important because one of the things that really surprised me in my study this week was how prevalent false prophets are throughout scripture. We have to determine who our prophet is because of the amazing danger that's always lurking in false teaching. We have to be confident that Jesus Christ, the great prophet, He has spoken. He has said everything we need to say. We must trust Him. There's two actions from this morning. Trust Christ, be watchful of everybody who corrupts what He says. Trust Christ, be watchful. Trust the great true prophet. Be watchful for the false prophets. We're in Deuteronomy chapter 18. If you're using a pew Bible, if you don't have a Bible, there's a pew Bible in front of you. That'll be found on page 161. If you would like to take that Bible home with you, we would love to give you that as a gift, because we believe it is the Word of God. We believe it contains the words of life. Hear the warning against false teachers. Hear the proclamation that a prophet is coming. I'm in Deuteronomy 18, beginning in verse 9. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, this is speaking of Israel who's been wandering for 40 years, they're about to enter into the promised land. Moses is going to die before going into the promised land. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his sons or his daughter as a sacrifice, as an offering. Anyone who practices divination, or tells fortunes, or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or of a necromancer. That was a new word for me. Whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. Because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune tellers and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see the great fire anymore lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. and I'll put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Whoever will not listen to my words, that he shall speak in my name. I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have spoken. We trust you continue to speak because we have your word. You've given us your spirit so that we can discern and understand and appreciate and affirm the things you've spoken in your word. Gloria asks that you speak. Help us to listen. Give us the grace we need to listen. Help us to hear your word, to trust it, to place our confidence in Christ your prophet, our savior. In his name we pray, amen. As we look to our passage, there are two basic points. You need to make sure you don't listen to a certain kind of teaching. You need to make sure you listen for the prophet. It is to him you shall listen. Moses is making it very clear, this is comforting. Israel, they keep going astray over and over and over again. Moses is gonna die, what's gonna happen when they go to the Promised Land? It's comforting. They know that he's going to raise one other prophet, and the most immediate fulfillment of this is Joshua. He's at the final fulfillment. The most immediate fulfillment of this is Joshua, who will be like Moses. He will continue to say the things like Moses, but we know he's at the final fulfillment. It's actually another Yeshua, Jesus Christ, Yahweh, who saves, who is the final fulfillment of this prophecy. But what I want you to see first is the great warning. The promise of a prophet is bookended. A warning of false prophets, a warning of false prophets. It's almost as if this is really important. As you look at this passage, there's one truth of God and there's so many different ways you can fall into the teaching of false prophets. It's prevalent. Again, this was one of the things that surprised me and actually startled me. Because I decided I'll do a very brief, I thought, New Testament study on false prophecy. Here from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus in Matthew 7. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Now the first thing that's helpful here, false prophets don't come with name tag false prophet. You won't recognize them immediately. They're going to come in sheep's clothing. They're going to pretend to be humble sheep, but they're seeking to devour. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire, thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Beware. They exist. Beware, they're prevalent. Beware, they're in seclusion. They're hidden. They're deceptive. That's the very nature of the false prophet. They're deceptive. You know them by their fruits. And one of the things I've tried to share a number of times is that every epistle is written to a problem. Every church in the New Testament had a specific problem that Paul or James or John or Peter, they're trying to fix a problem. So every one of these epistles is confronting a false teaching and therefore a false teacher. That's how prevalent false teachers and false prophets are. Romans. The whole problem is the confusion over if Gentiles need to be circumcised. The whole problem is a confusion about who God's people are. Listen to Romans 16, beginning in verse 17. I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ. but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent, as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan, the great false prophet, under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Brothers, church, be watchful. Be careful. Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles, who are controlled by their appetites, not promoting peace and unity according to sound doctrine. First Corinthians. This is interesting because Paul starts out pointing out, and for the Corinthians, there's division among you. Some of you like this guy, and some of you like this guy, and some of you like this guy. He corrects them, but he doesn't condemn them. But the man who's sleeping with his father's wife, he's condemned. because his life is proclaiming a lie, that it doesn't matter how you live while you profess Christ as your savior. He corrects those Christians with foolish controversy, but he condemns the false teacher. In 2 Corinthians, Paul, in chapter 10, he talks about the false teaching. He tears down those strongholds, the false teaching. He destroys the arguments with the knowledge of God by taking them captive to the truth of Christ. Second Corinthians 11, 13. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, their end will correspond to their deeds. Galatians. This is the harshest book in the New Testament. He starts out, how could you? How could you forsake the gospel that you received? Anathema, condemnation for those who forsake the gospel. And that issue again are those who are coming in and declaring that Gentiles need to be circumcised. You'll notice a pattern. The false teacher either wants to add some work to complete your salvation or says your salvation does not require of you to live according to Christ's law. Those are the two false teachings. You need to work for your salvation. Your salvation does not then call you to good works. In Ephesians, he writes that the church would be united under Christ so that it would not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. In Acts 20, he's writing to the Ephesians. Tell the elders to watch themselves and the flock, for wolves will come in, speaking twisted things, drawing the flock away. Philippians is also helpful. Paul sees that some people are preaching the gospel at a rivalry. He says, you know what, praise God. God can use every kind of broken instrument. If the gospel's being proclaimed, I'm gonna rejoice. Praise God. But for the false prophet, he says this. Watch out for those dogs. Those false teachers who deny the gospel by telling you to work, to add to the salvation, your works to complete it. Colossians declares, watch out so that no one take you captive by empty deceit. In Thessalonians, false teachers are telling people, Oh, the resurrection of Christ, it didn't happen. Or the day of the Lord, it's already happened. If you want to see false teaching, go to 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy and Titus. Timothy is charged to protect his church from false teachers. There are insincere liars who spread deceit, the deceit of demons. Listen to 1 Timothy 6.3. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy. dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. In 2 Timothy 2.16, he names two false teachers who have swerved from the truth. In 2 Timothy 4.3, for the time has come when people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears. They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off in the midst. Now that one's different. That's warning a pastor that the people of God will have a difficult time enduring sound teaching. It's not just a be careful church of false teachers, it's actually wanting a pastor. The people, that's a very strong word there. The church can have a difficult time enduring sound doctrine. Titus three, avoid controversies and quarrels, Paul tells Titus. First John 2.18, many antichrists have come Some will go out from you, and their leaving demonstrates they were not of you. That's 1 John 2.18. 1 John 4, false teachers. You have to test the spirits. If they cannot confess Christ, they're a false spirit. If they are not a accord with what the apostles have taught, they are of the spirit of error. I want to point out especially 2 John and 3 John. They're really short letters. Each of them are less than 20 verses, and they both address false teachers. That's how important it was. Those who reject authority, talking wicked nonsense in 3 John 9. Jude calls out the false teachers. He calls them blemishes on the love feast. That's referring to the Lord's Supper. We're supposed to gather under Christ, to gather as members of his body to remind one another, remember together, Christ purchased us with that precious blood. Their blemishes on the love feast, their hidden reefs, they will take down the ship if you don't identify them. That's almost two pages of notes hitting just the highlights of false teaching in the New Testament. I even skipped a few. That's how prevalent it is. We have to be on guard. False teachers and false prophets, that wasn't just for the Old Testament. Battling Elijah, a false prophet doesn't always have a cane. They're everywhere. We must be watchful. Satan is seeking to devour the church, and the best way to do that is to divide it. So let's look to our passage. Keep yourselves from false prophets. Keep yourselves from false prophets. This is the first main point. Moses warns the Israelites here. against false teachers. And there's two, there's nine through 14. It's according to their practice. You can identify a false teacher according to the practices of divination and sorcery and charmers. The second one we'll see in chapter 18, verse 20 and 22, it's based upon the fruit of their work. Now, I think this section is actually tied back to chapter 12. If you were with us, you remember chapter 12 was a transition. One through 11 was all the theology, all the doctrine, all the truth, and now he's actually telling us, now this is the law, this is how you're gonna live. And if you notice chapter 12, verse 32, everything that I commanded you, you shall be careful to do, you should not add to it or take away from it. The word of the Lord is sufficient. And then, we're gonna go back and look at this, chapter 13. He then warns them of all the different ways someone's going to try to deceive you as a false teacher, a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams. Your own brother, verse six. Someone in another city, verse 12. This is important. Do not swerve from the word of God. Do not add to it. Do not subtract to it. So the first thing we want to ask is, what is the source of a teaching? The second, is it sound? The third, is it successful? To keep yourself from false prophets, ask, what is its source? Is it sound? Is it successful? Verses nine through 14 tell us about the source. Now let's look at these folks. God is going to take Israel and he's going to put them into a new land that already has cities. They're pre-built. They already have vineyards. They're mature, they're producing fruit. God is going to remove the people who have built them, wipe them out, not remove, not displace, they're going to be destroyed so that Israel can have what they have built. And we may say, how can God be just in this? But if we look here, we can see that these people were an abomination. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters. They committed murder for the purpose of trying to produce better crops with their own children. That's the kind of wickedness that these people practiced. You say, well, isn't God merciful? If you go back to Genesis 15, well, actually, see, God was patiently waiting for these people to repent of their practices for 430 years. God patiently waited, mercifully waited for 430 years, and they remained sinful in their practices. These practices of these people, they burn their children, they practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, they're sorcerers, they're charmers, they're mediums, they're wizards, the necromancer, that's speaking of magic or speaking to the dead. I don't think what Moses is giving here is an exhaustive list. I think he's pointing out the different practices that all have the one thing in common. that we should be speaking to the supernatural outside of God's means, that man and the supernatural, man and God have numerous ways to communicate, speaking to the dead, hearing the dead, reading signs. I want you to notice something that's frightening. Moses, he does not say that these practices are impossible. He says they're impermissible. Moses doesn't say there's not spirits who are going to talk to you. Moses does not say these things are impossible. He says for the people of God, they are impermissible. Why? Why would Moses, why would God say they're impermissible? Well, big picture, to be as clear as possible, God has graciously spoken. What more do we need than what He has already said? To want to go outside of what God has said is to say, you haven't said enough. These practices are impermissible, and they assume this. They assume some things. They assume that there's a cooperation between the natural and the supernatural. They assume that the supernatural can be harnessed for personal well-being. They assume that the outcome of events can be affected by our harnessing that power. They assume that magic is a science that can be taught and learned. So what is wrong? It's man seeking to hear something beyond or more or better than what God has already said. It's saying your gracious word that we're not going to add to, we're not going to subtract to, we're not going to subtract from, we're not going to swerve from. It's saying it's not enough. What's wrong is just like when God said, man, I'm going to make you my image. You get to know me, to talk to me, to love me, to know my love, to know me. Don't make it idle. And for man then to say, you know what, I think God deserves an idol. What he told me to do in worship, it wasn't right, it wasn't good enough, I'm gonna really please God and I'm gonna make an idol. It's taking what he clearly said and perverting it and corrupting it. To accept one of these practices to say, you know what, I don't like the way you're talking, God, I'm gonna improve it. I'm gonna learn something more, something better. Look at verse 12. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. These things are opposed to God. They're against God, and therefore God hates them. Contrary to the psalmist, day and night I delight in the law of God. These abominations delight in our wisdom rather than the truth of God. Verse 12, it's because of these things, these people are being driven out. The nations were being driven out so that God's people could go in. They can't be like the nations. That's the very point of why God saved them, to not be like the nations, but to be God's people. God has delivered you. Look at verse 13. You shall be blameless. before the Lord your God. Not like the nations. Not practicing idolatry. Not seeking revelation like them. You're to listen. Look at verse 14. For these nations which you're about to dispossess, listen to fortune tellers and diviners. Hear the contrast. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. It's not impossible, it's impermissible. When someone claims to speak on behalf of God, what's your test? Is it permitted in scripture? Does it align with it? The source of who is speaking and why they're speaking and what they're speaking from, it matters. God's truth coming from God's mouth through God's prophets, ultimately God's son, that's what we align ourselves with. Let's look at the second test. Is it successful? Is it a little more clear, a little more focused? Verse 20 through 22. The prophet, if he presumes to speak, if he thinks he's heard something and he presumes, you just need to look and say, does it happen? You know God's prophet because the word is fulfilled. The promise is fulfilled. If someone makes a promise in the name of another God, or presumes to make a teaching in the name of God that God did not permit, he's gonna be put to death. Why? Because words are powerful. People can be persuaded. And God's people need to be pure. And so we're to purge the evil. So one is just simply the success. That's fairly easy. That goes along with what Jesus said in many ways. Judge a tree by its fruit. It's not just if the promise comes to fulfillment, it's does the prophet's life exemplify what he's teaching? The third way to keep yourself from false prophets is to judge its soundness. This is where we're gonna go back to Deuteronomy 13. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, now that's different, right? What if it actually happens? If it comes to pass, and he says, let us go to other gods which you have not known, and let us not serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you. to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. The problem with this false prophet is that his teaching is not sound. Now, false teachers, they're awfully not that obvious. They come in wearing clothes like sheep. False teachers and prophets usually are enticing, they're intriguing. They're usually close enough to the truth to twist it. They want to lead you to question God's truth rather than to have certainty about it. There's something very important. The truths of God require us to ask questions about them without questioning them. It's very important. If you think about the virgin birth, you should have some questions. If you think about Jesus dying on the cross in our place, Almighty God, the Father forsaking His Son, that should bring up some questions, but we do not question it. We do not doubt it. We have to know how to ask the right question, to know it more, to have more certainty without doubting it. It's a sound doctrine. First, when someone's teaching and you want to test the soundness of their doctrine, Does their teaching point you to trust that God speaks with authority and clarity? If you want to know if something is sound, true, does the teaching make you feel more confident that God speaks? That what he says is true and right, sufficient and noble? Secondly, sound teaching points us to understand and to know what God has said. Again, 2 Timothy 3.7, there's false teachers that are gonna creep into households and capture weak women burdened with sin, always learning and never able to arrive at knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3.7, always learning, never able to arrive at the knowledge of truth. That's a false teacher. God's spoken. there's truth to be arrived at. We must have a confidence in sound teaching of what God has said. Sound teaching, it will be difficult. Sound teaching will be difficult because it's the righteous words of God confronting our unrighteousness. Sound teaching will be difficult. If you're never being corrected, you could be an error false teacher. I realize I'm the one speaking. If you're not being corrected and confronted, find someone who will speak the truth into your life so that you will be conformed to the image of Christ. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, the people will not endure sound doctrine because they have itching ears. They're going to accumulate others who are going to teach them according to what suits their own passions. It's a warning, church. When we're confronted, we have a choice to repent or remain in our sin. And usually if it's a weighty confrontation and we refuse to repent, we're going to flee. We're going to run away because it's uncomfortable. We're going to go find somebody who will be more accommodating to our passions. This is why that covenant is so important. We don't want people fleeing to find other teachers that's going to accommodate their passions. We either want to correct the teaching or let them be corrected by it. First John warns us, when people wander off, it's usually to fulfill their own passions. We desire myths that entice us. And oftentimes, we're the creator of our own myth. When I say we, we oftentimes are our own worst false prophet because we have a sin and we want to justify it, so we create this whole story that will help justify it. And usually what happens is we don't want to think about how our sin is causing us suffering. That would actually mean we're at fault. We don't want to think our sin causes suffering, so we've got to figure out who's the bad guy. Who is causing me suffering for their unrighteousness? This is usually what happens. We want folks to help us think that we're victims. We want to victimize ourselves and have people come and tell that itching ear, no, I'm suffering because of somebody else's unrighteousness, not mine. This is what it looks like. We want someone to hear how strict and how unreasonable our parents are and not hold us accountable to honor them. I'm sorry, let me get the attention of the children and the youth. We want someone to hear how strict and unreasonable our parents are rather than hold us accountable to honor them. This is lying. This is lying about the people, your mom and dad, that God has put over you. You're lying to somebody to tell them your parents are too strict or unreasonable. We want people to hear how bad our children are without holding us accountable for how we raised them. Our children are reflections of us. If we want to see our sins, see how the children act. Three, we want someone to hear how horrible and bullheaded our spouse is, but not hold us accountable for our call to respect him or to love her sacrificially. We want to gather people who are going to think we're victims of a horrible spouse without actually saying no. What is your responsibility in this marriage? Wives, you're supposed to submit to your husband as to the Lord, not as to how good he is. That's Ephesians 5. Men, you're supposed to love your wives like Christ loved the church, not like she deserves. Like Christ has commanded. If you find yourself telling a story about you being a victim, you're in great danger. You're accumulating for yourself, folks, for your itching ears. If you find yourself listening to one of these stories, tell them to pray for them. Go talk to the other person. Do not, do not scratch those ears. Notice the call to Timothy is to endure suffering for sound doctrine. I want to say this is a sign of a true prophet. If you're aspiring to be an elder, do you want to preach the word and teach the word and apply the word in a way that will bring suffering, slander and misrepresentation. Are you willing to endure it? Sound doctrine emphasizes what the Bible speaks of. Sound doctrine leads us to love God more. Matthew 7.15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Now listen to the prophet God appoints. What's amazing about God is he speaks. We've said that a lot in Deuteronomy. Don't let that just pass over. He speaks. The fact that you and I can communicate with one another, I assume you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth and I'm not talking too fast. We can speak to one another. God's better at communicating than we are. He's perfect. What He says is perfect. When He speaks is perfect. If we're not hearing Him, we're not listening. If we're not hearing Him, it's probably the sin that's put covers over our ears. He spoke the world into existence. He spoke to the man of the garden. He spoke to give us a promise in the midst of our sin. He spoke to Abraham and gave him a promise, you'll be the father of many nations. He spoke to Moses and gave him a law. He speaks. We must be listening. Moses was left on the wrong side of the promised land. He was not the final prophet. He was not the perfect prophet. God says, I will raise up a prophet like Moses. Moses is important because those first five books of the Bible, they are the foundation. Everything else echoes throughout the Old Testament. In the New Testament, everything is fulfilling. He is the prophet of the Old Covenant. But what we have in Christ is greater, greater than Moses. If we go to chapter, Acts 3, as we already read, the apostles are saying Jesus is the fulfillment of this. Yeah, there are other little prophets, but Jesus is the final and true fulfillment. If we go to John 1.18, John contrasts Jesus with Moses. Moses could not see God. Jesus has made him known. The law came from Moses, grace and truth from Jesus Christ. John 5. Jesus says, I only say what my Father says. John 14, when you see me, you see the Father. Hebrews are called to worship. Many times prophets spoke. Who you get to hear from now is God himself. He has spoken. There are three offices that we have sung about this morning. There's the King, promised in Deuteronomy 17. There's a priest, promised in Exodus 22-30. There's a prophet, promised in our passage. These are the three offices that Christ has fulfilled for us. This is important. Because in Genesis 3, in Genesis 3, our minds were darkened. We became fools. We rejected the word of God. And so God now has sent his son to bring wisdom into our world of foolishness. He has come to bring light into our darkness. He's come to proclaim the word of truth in the midst of our lives so that we can trust God and we can know what he says about us. What he says about us is very important. In our sin, He says we're condemned. In our sin, He says we will face a judgment and a wrath. That's why Jesus came, so that He could speak a different word about us. So that if we believe in Jesus, the perfect man, the God-man who died on the cross for sins He didn't commit, if we believe in Him, we are condemned. can be declared by the Word of God, innocent, forgiven, no longer a child of God, but a child of wrath. What Jesus will say about us on that last day is the only thing that really matters. Will Jesus say to the Father, this one's mine? I purchased him with my precious blood. Or will He say, depart, I never knew you. Friends, Jesus is the prophet who has proclaimed the true word of God. We now have it in these scriptures because the Holy Spirit has provided the word of Christ in these scriptures. What He says about us, based upon our belief in Him, our rejection of Him, is what matters. Do not resist Christ. Now a question, I think my last question I'll ask today. Are there prophets today? Jesus is the final perfect fulfillment of this. Are there prophets today? No and yes. No, there are not prophets who are speaking new revelation today. This is called the closed canon. It is the rule of faith. It is what God has provided for His church at all times. There is no more revelation than this. for the church we're built upon. In Ephesians 2 too, the church is built on the apostles and prophets. What they have said is what we're built upon. So no, there are no prophets like Moses, like David. There are no apostles like Paul, Matthew, Luke. Now an implication of this is that we need to realize this is the one true revelation for the church. There are those who claim to be prophets after Jesus. One of them is Muhammad. This is how you know somebody's a false prophet. They make their prophecy greater than Jesus' prophecy. He says he's the final prophet of God. Jesus said he was the final prophet of God. They can't both be right. Either Muhammad is the prophet, or Jesus is the Son, that is what we have to recognize. Muhammad must be a false prophet if we believe Jesus is the Son. The same goes for Joseph Smith of the Church of Latter-day Saints or Charles Russell of Jehovah's Witnesses. These are different religions that have a different foundation. They know their foundation church. You know the number one feeder for Mormons in the 90s? Southern Baptist. That's terrifying. The denomination we belong to, the church affiliation we have, the number one feeder for a false prophet was a church like us. That's terrifying. We need to be careful. We need to be careful to know the Word of God because that is the one true way you're going to identify false prophets. Because they're probably not gonna be like Muhammad. They're probably gonna be like Joseph Smith. They're probably not gonna be like Charles Russell. They're not gonna show up at your door with a name tag. What I'm actually afraid of is how many there might actually be in this room right now. That's a real possibility we have to ask. One of the things that was startling about the communist agenda to overthrow America during the Cold War is that you had the real leaders putting forth propaganda, and then the communists had another group of people that they called useful idiots. It's the last thing I don't want to be called, a useful idiot. I've been called, well, never mind. They called them useful idiots because they did not know what they were doing, but they were useful because they were saying the propaganda of the communists. They did not realize that what they were proposing on TV, in the radio, in the writing, was actually what the communists wanted them to do. Americans promoting communism to other Americans unknowingly, but wholeheartedly. I fear that is the kind of false teaching that we usually have among us. Useful for the purposes of Satan, unknowingly promoting the purposes of Satan. Murmuring, grumbling, slandering, these are lies. It's false teaching. We're all guilty. No. There are no prophets like Jesus, like the apostles, like Moses. But yes, there are prophets, little p. There are supposed to be people everywhere speaking the truth of God, and we actually call them Christians. Every Christian is supposed to be a beacon of light in the darkness. Every Christian should be so consumed by the Word of God that they are echoing, and the Word of God is reverberating throughout the world. This is what every single one of us is called to because we're all saved for the glory of Christ, and we're supposed to be reflecting His glory. The pastors, the elders, we're called to equip you so that you can speak the truth. Pretty clear in Ephesians 4. We're all called to speak the truth. God's word must be at the center. In order to be a prophet, we must be teachable so that we can teach. We must be listening so that we can speak the good word. Somebody accurately described our age. Everyone's talking, no one's listening. I realize the irony that I'm talking. But think about it. Ask yourself, who has permission to speak truth into your life? If you're not teachable, I fear you're in the most danger of being useful for the purposes of the enemy. We must be teachable. We need to be taught. Truth needs to bubble up from inside of us. Truth doesn't need to bubble up from inside of us, it needs to come down upon us. We need to cling to Christ, the true prophet. We need to be careful who we listen to. Be watchful. And finally, we need someone watching out for us. Yes, the Bible usually calls out pastors to be watching out for the sheep, but the pastors are sheep too that watch out for one another. We are all sheep who can easily go astray. We all must. Be watchful for the enemy, watchful for one another. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you and we thank you for your word that it gives us light, it gives us truth. We thank you that it is clear, that we don't have to pretend to know, we can have certainty. Protect us from suspending judgment on the truth that you have clearly said. Help us to trust your word. Help us promote the proclamation of your word. Help us to trust Jesus, our prophet, to keep his word. We thank you. We thank you that you have given us a new identity in Christ. We thank you for that call that we're all to be teaching so that we all are observing everything Jesus has said. Give us the grace to do this, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.