They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God,
and the song of the Lamb (Rev 15:3).
Faith Alone
Rom 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
What is the law? It is the only standard of righteousness. It is the law of God. It is called the Law of Moses. It is divided into three parts: the moral, the civil, and the ceremonial. There is only one law of God and it emanates out of the heart of God. Sin is described as the transgression of that law (1 John 3:4). Sin is lawlessness. If there is no law there is no sin. But if we say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us.
Who is under it? All sinners are under the law and its condemnation. Only those who are under grace are not under the law.
What is the purpose of the law? According to this text in Romans 3, the purpose of the law is to indict us sinners. It says, “… that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:24). “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20). “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:28).
Those who attempt to justify themselves are still trusting in their own righteousness. Those who think God judges on the curve by comparing themselves with other humans have not had their mouths stopped. Those who think God can be just and simply forgive them without due process have not seen the truth about themselves and God. They have made and image of a non-existent god.
We are saved by faith alone. Sola fide. But it is impossible to come to saving faith unless the law convinces us of sin and shuts our mouths. Jesus promised He would send the Holy Spirit to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Until a person is convinced of those things, he will not see the need for the work of Christ. Until his mouth is stopped and he quits trusting in his own righteousness and quits seeking to justify himself, he is no candidate for salvation. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. The purpose of the law is to slay us. “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died” (Rom 7:9).
Thus we see that the true convert to Christ has a romance with the law because it brought him to Christ. It could not save him because of his sin, but with the help of the Holy Spirit it showed him his need for a Savior. It convinced him that faith in Christ alone could save him. He sings with the psalmist, “O how I love Thy law. It is my meditation all the day” (Psa 119:97). The true convert to Christ has a love affair with God’s law because it is not longer on tablets of stone condemning him. It is now in his heart by means of the Holy Spirit (Jer 31:33). He now sings the song of both Moses AND the Lamb.
We are not saved by faith PLUS works. But according to Scripture, true faith results in obedience. That is why on judgment day we will not be judged by our faith. It says we will be judged by our works (Rev 20:12). True faith is not just mental ascent. It involves recumbence and total surrender. We are saved by grace through faith; and that faith is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. We become a new creation, and all things become new. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Our old proclivity to sin has been replaced with a bias toward righteousness (not sinless perfection).
The offspring of the church are called those “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:17). And in Rev 14:12-13, the saints are described as those who keep BOTH the commandments of God AND the faith of Jesus.
Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them” (Rev 14:12-13).
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience (Heb 4:9-11).
Notice that “they may rest from their [own] labors” but “their works follow them.” “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb 3:18-19). In this passage, unbelief is synonymous with “those who did not obey.” True faith always results in obedience.
Blessed are those who have heard the joyful sound and can sing both the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Notice how they walk.
Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!
They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance (Ps 89:15).
God’s servants always preach repentance from dead works AND faith toward Christ. Paul was constantly “testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).
No-one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God (1 John 3:9 NIV).
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven (Mt 7:21).
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven (Mat 5:17-20).
This is the gospel preached by our spiritual fathers like Whitefield, John Bunyan, Spurgeon, Edwards and the Puritans. This is the gospel that saves and changes cultures. This is the gospel of the Bible.
Churchofthekingmcallen.com
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The Gift of Prophecy
TEXT: 1 Thess 5:20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Intro: God commands us to not look down on prophecies because there is a natural tendency for rational people to do that. When someone says God is speaking, we tend to despise it and say it is only another human opinion. Also, when prophets do strange things it seems a little crazy. Agabus bound himself with Paul’s belt and used that as an illustration that Paul would be bound when he went to Jerusalem. A prophet in the Old Testament commanded a man to hit him as another illustration. Isaiah walked through the streets naked as an illustration of how God would carry His people away naked as captives. When God sent a prophet to anoint Jehu as king, “Then Jehu came out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, ‘Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?’ And he said to them, “You know the man and his babble” (2Kings 9:11). This illustrates the normal attitude of humans to “speak evil of whatever they do not know” (Jude 10). (Jude, however, was speaking of false teachers.)
We should not despise prophecies, but on the other hand Paul tells us not to be gullible in receiving just anything. He says we should “test all things” and “hold fast what is good.” How can we test all things? What is the standard? Since the Old Testament prophets had been tried and tested, it seems to me that they should be the standard. And since the Apostles had been tried and tested with signs, wonders and the personal teaching of Christ Himself, and were proven to be in accord with the Old Testament prophets, they too should be the standard. Anything that contradicts what the prophets and apostles said and taught should be rejected.
Some claim that the gift of prophecy ceased when the canon was completed. The first Reformers, however, knew of no such doctrine. John Knox made several prophesies that were shortly fulfilled. See my tract on that where I document from The Life of John Knox by Thomas M’Crie.
"Being conveyed to the pulpit [in his old age], and summoning up the remainder of his strength, he thundered the vengeance of Heaven against that cruel murderer and false traitor, the King of France, and desired Le Croc, the French ambassador, to tell his master, that sentence was pronounced against him in Scotland, that the divine vengeance would never depart from him, nor from his house, if repentance did not ensue; but his name would remain an execration to posterity, and none proceeding from his loins would enjoy that kingdom in peace."
That prophecy was fulfilled two years later. This was just one example of several in the ministry of John Knox. His son-in-law, John Welch also prophesied, as did scores of the Scottish Covenanters. (Read The Scots Worthies.) Current denials of the gifts of the Spirit are due to the humanist enlightenment. Man’s intelligence is supposedly more enlightened than to believe such things. The Scripture used to prove that the gifts have ceased is 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.
"Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether
there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has
come, then that which is in part will be done away."
They say “that which is perfect” is the completion of the New Testament. Did knowledge pass away with the completion of the New Testament? It says, “whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” Paul says two verses later, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” Do we now see face to face? Do we now know just as we are known? That seems like heaven to me. Only when we arrive with new bodies will we “put away childish things.”
There seems to be a presupposition, a prejudice, a despising of prophecy that is based on the enlightenment. I know of so-called Reformed men who know nothing of the heritage from which they came. What do they do with the fulfilled prophecies of the reformer Savonarola? They probably have not even read about them. How about Columba (600 AD) and his 50 miracles and prophecies? Do they just deny them? On what basis? PREJUDICE AND UNBELIEF! Despise not prophesies!
Proposition: How can we prove all things?
There are three areas I would like us to consider. 1. How to know a false prophet. 2. How prophets are still human. 3. How the prophet still has self-control.
I. How Can We Recognize False Prophets?
God tells us through Moses in Dt. 18
20 ‘But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who
speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’
21 “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’--
22 “when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing
which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
False prophets can sometimes make a true prophecy; but not 100% of the time. True prophets never miss. Thus we have Edgar Casey, Jean Dixon, and many others who dazzle the people and tickle their fancies. But when they miss, they just dismiss it and forget it. The same is true with all the prophecy books and their misses. They rake in the money and the people just forget.
In front of the congregation, a traveling prophet told a sick man that he would be healed and he died. The pastor was left with the dilemma of how to explain this to the people. He told them that the promise was conditioned on faith and the man who died did not believe. The fact is the prophet was false, according to Moses. “You shall not be afraid of him.”
Prophecy is not learned or conjured up. It comes from God. God initiates it. God has no trouble communicating when He wants to. Only the pagans like the prophets of Baal need to work themselves into a frenzy to hear from God. Anyone that says, “I missed God that time” is not a prophet of God according to Moses.
I hear both non-charismatic and charismatic people say, “God told me this” or “God told me that.” These people seem to hear from God more than the prophet Elijah did! It strikes me as blasphemous. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Our Reformed forefathers would not dare to make such statements.
II. The Human Aspect of Prophets
According to Peter, the Old Testament prophets did not always clearly understand what they were saying.
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow (1 Pet 1:10-11).
Paul said the mystery had been hidden from the ages but is now revealed through Christ and His apostles (Col 1:26). Psalm 102:18 says it would be written for the generation to come. Prophets spoke in enigmas, visions, and dreams. God spoke to Moses plainly and face to face, but to the prophets in riddles (Numbers 12).
When Agabus told Paul he would be taken captive at Jerusalem, his friends begged him not to go. Prophecy can be mis-interpreted by jumping to unfounded conclusions. Paul responded that he was not only willing for captivity, but also to lay down his life.
III. How The Prophet Has Self-control
True prophets do not work themselves up into “Dervish” frenzies. They do not conjure up or work up a message from God. They simply pray as Elijah a short fervent prayer. Prophecy does not come by the will of man. Holy men of God speak as they are moved by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:21).
Someone said, “I could not control myself. I just had to speak…” But Paul says, “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Cor 14:32).
When the High Priest prophesied that someone must die for the nation, he was probably not even aware that he was prophesying. He willfully spoke out of what he saw in his own mind. God made him see it and he spoke.
When Saul lay naked all night prophesying, he was not out of control. His carnal nature added that part. The First Great Awakening in Kentucky witnessed people falling and barking like dogs. Why? Like Saul, it was their own rebelliousness added to the powerful sense of God’s Presence. God did not do it. They did. God does not possess men like demons do.
Conclusion:
1Co 14:39 Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues.
It is up to God to speak through us. He does it when He wants to and not when we “confure” it. But we can pray for inspiration and the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. Several times God has inspired me to speak things that came to pass - usually through dreams and sometimes not. But I have no control over that. We must submit to the sovereign will of God and not be seeking thrills. Everything, like the prophets of old, must be related to the covenant.
One can prophesy like King Saul and not have any character at all.
Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and
done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness” (Mat 7:22-23)!
Intro: God commands us to not look down on prophecies because there is a natural tendency for rational people to do that. When someone says God is speaking, we tend to despise it and say it is only another human opinion. Also, when prophets do strange things it seems a little crazy. Agabus bound himself with Paul’s belt and used that as an illustration that Paul would be bound when he went to Jerusalem. A prophet in the Old Testament commanded a man to hit him as another illustration. Isaiah walked through the streets naked as an illustration of how God would carry His people away naked as captives. When God sent a prophet to anoint Jehu as king, “Then Jehu came out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, ‘Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?’ And he said to them, “You know the man and his babble” (2Kings 9:11). This illustrates the normal attitude of humans to “speak evil of whatever they do not know” (Jude 10). (Jude, however, was speaking of false teachers.)
We should not despise prophecies, but on the other hand Paul tells us not to be gullible in receiving just anything. He says we should “test all things” and “hold fast what is good.” How can we test all things? What is the standard? Since the Old Testament prophets had been tried and tested, it seems to me that they should be the standard. And since the Apostles had been tried and tested with signs, wonders and the personal teaching of Christ Himself, and were proven to be in accord with the Old Testament prophets, they too should be the standard. Anything that contradicts what the prophets and apostles said and taught should be rejected.
Some claim that the gift of prophecy ceased when the canon was completed. The first Reformers, however, knew of no such doctrine. John Knox made several prophesies that were shortly fulfilled. See my tract on that where I document from The Life of John Knox by Thomas M’Crie.
"Being conveyed to the pulpit [in his old age], and summoning up the remainder of his strength, he thundered the vengeance of Heaven against that cruel murderer and false traitor, the King of France, and desired Le Croc, the French ambassador, to tell his master, that sentence was pronounced against him in Scotland, that the divine vengeance would never depart from him, nor from his house, if repentance did not ensue; but his name would remain an execration to posterity, and none proceeding from his loins would enjoy that kingdom in peace."
That prophecy was fulfilled two years later. This was just one example of several in the ministry of John Knox. His son-in-law, John Welch also prophesied, as did scores of the Scottish Covenanters. (Read The Scots Worthies.) Current denials of the gifts of the Spirit are due to the humanist enlightenment. Man’s intelligence is supposedly more enlightened than to believe such things. The Scripture used to prove that the gifts have ceased is 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.
"Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether
there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has
come, then that which is in part will be done away."
They say “that which is perfect” is the completion of the New Testament. Did knowledge pass away with the completion of the New Testament? It says, “whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” Paul says two verses later, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” Do we now see face to face? Do we now know just as we are known? That seems like heaven to me. Only when we arrive with new bodies will we “put away childish things.”
There seems to be a presupposition, a prejudice, a despising of prophecy that is based on the enlightenment. I know of so-called Reformed men who know nothing of the heritage from which they came. What do they do with the fulfilled prophecies of the reformer Savonarola? They probably have not even read about them. How about Columba (600 AD) and his 50 miracles and prophecies? Do they just deny them? On what basis? PREJUDICE AND UNBELIEF! Despise not prophesies!
Proposition: How can we prove all things?
There are three areas I would like us to consider. 1. How to know a false prophet. 2. How prophets are still human. 3. How the prophet still has self-control.
I. How Can We Recognize False Prophets?
God tells us through Moses in Dt. 18
20 ‘But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who
speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’
21 “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’--
22 “when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing
which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
False prophets can sometimes make a true prophecy; but not 100% of the time. True prophets never miss. Thus we have Edgar Casey, Jean Dixon, and many others who dazzle the people and tickle their fancies. But when they miss, they just dismiss it and forget it. The same is true with all the prophecy books and their misses. They rake in the money and the people just forget.
In front of the congregation, a traveling prophet told a sick man that he would be healed and he died. The pastor was left with the dilemma of how to explain this to the people. He told them that the promise was conditioned on faith and the man who died did not believe. The fact is the prophet was false, according to Moses. “You shall not be afraid of him.”
Prophecy is not learned or conjured up. It comes from God. God initiates it. God has no trouble communicating when He wants to. Only the pagans like the prophets of Baal need to work themselves into a frenzy to hear from God. Anyone that says, “I missed God that time” is not a prophet of God according to Moses.
I hear both non-charismatic and charismatic people say, “God told me this” or “God told me that.” These people seem to hear from God more than the prophet Elijah did! It strikes me as blasphemous. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Our Reformed forefathers would not dare to make such statements.
II. The Human Aspect of Prophets
According to Peter, the Old Testament prophets did not always clearly understand what they were saying.
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow (1 Pet 1:10-11).
Paul said the mystery had been hidden from the ages but is now revealed through Christ and His apostles (Col 1:26). Psalm 102:18 says it would be written for the generation to come. Prophets spoke in enigmas, visions, and dreams. God spoke to Moses plainly and face to face, but to the prophets in riddles (Numbers 12).
When Agabus told Paul he would be taken captive at Jerusalem, his friends begged him not to go. Prophecy can be mis-interpreted by jumping to unfounded conclusions. Paul responded that he was not only willing for captivity, but also to lay down his life.
III. How The Prophet Has Self-control
True prophets do not work themselves up into “Dervish” frenzies. They do not conjure up or work up a message from God. They simply pray as Elijah a short fervent prayer. Prophecy does not come by the will of man. Holy men of God speak as they are moved by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:21).
Someone said, “I could not control myself. I just had to speak…” But Paul says, “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Cor 14:32).
When the High Priest prophesied that someone must die for the nation, he was probably not even aware that he was prophesying. He willfully spoke out of what he saw in his own mind. God made him see it and he spoke.
When Saul lay naked all night prophesying, he was not out of control. His carnal nature added that part. The First Great Awakening in Kentucky witnessed people falling and barking like dogs. Why? Like Saul, it was their own rebelliousness added to the powerful sense of God’s Presence. God did not do it. They did. God does not possess men like demons do.
Conclusion:
1Co 14:39 Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues.
It is up to God to speak through us. He does it when He wants to and not when we “confure” it. But we can pray for inspiration and the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. Several times God has inspired me to speak things that came to pass - usually through dreams and sometimes not. But I have no control over that. We must submit to the sovereign will of God and not be seeking thrills. Everything, like the prophets of old, must be related to the covenant.
One can prophesy like King Saul and not have any character at all.
Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and
done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness” (Mat 7:22-23)!
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