We're going to continue looking to the teaching of our Lord at Matthew chapter 23 and verse 34. So we backtrack a little back to Matthew 23 and verse 34. And it is in this passage where the Lord is condemning with extreme severity the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. And nowhere in the Lord's teaching do we have so severe, so uncompromising a denunciation, a condemnation of hypocrisy and the people who live under this kind of hypocrisy.
And so we come to verse 34. "Therefore I say, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogue and persecute from town to town. And upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barakaya, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, all this will come upon this generation." We will center our intention on the Lord's words in verse 34. "Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes." Some will be killed, some scourged, some fleeing from town to town.
Now, I would like you particularly to notice three categories of people that the Lord says he will send in these last days. Notice it is the Lord Jesus who will send prophets, wise men and scribes. Today our whole concentration will be on prophets. These prophets are of course New Testament prophets. "I will send" — not "the prophets I sent before," but "I am sending to you" — a present continuous tense. "I will continue to send to you prophets, wise men and scribes." They will come in a continual stream to preach God's word to you, to rebuke you at every turn for your hypocrisy just as I am doing now, to challenge you with a message of repentance.
Now, first notice the three parts: prophets, wise men and scribes. The thing is that all these three — prophets, wise men and scribes — we associate with offices or functions in the Old Testament. That is the first surprising thing about it. We thought that prophets, wise men and scribes don't exist in the New Testament anymore. They belong to the Old Testament age. And to our surprise, the Lord says, "No, I will be sending them to you — the prophets, the wise men and the scribes."
Now, the Bible in Hebrew is called Tanakh. Tanakh is made up of three parts: Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. When you take the first letters of these three Hebrew words, you get Tanakh, Bible. What does Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim mean? Torah means the law. Nevi'im, the prophets. Ketuvim, the writings. Ketuvim — katav means literally "to write." Ketuvim, the writings. So what happens is that the Bible is made up of three parts in the Old Testament. And so even by the Hebrew word for Bible, there's simply a shortened form of these three words: law, prophets, and writings.
The law, of course, are the first five books of Moses. The writings are the books, the historical books, plus the books of Job, the poetical books as they are called — the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Psalms. These are called the writings. And the prophets, of course, we all know. From Isaiah right to Malachi, these are the great and the minor prophets. Great and minor, not because some are more important than others, but simply because the great prophets are the ones who have written the long books, the long prophetical books. The minor prophets are called minor simply because their books are very short. Some only down to one or two chapters.
So now, the Lord is saying — and here is the second surprising thing about it — not only that these offices are not limited to the Old Testament, but the Lord transfers them into the New Testament, but the second surprising thing is that he has reversed the order. Notice: Torah, the law comes first in the Jewish thinking. The law, the prophets, and the writings. The Lord reverses the order and puts prophets first. "I will send to you prophets." Now, the writings, of course, are called the books of wisdom — the wise men here. And therefore, the book of Proverbs is called the book of wisdom, so is Ecclesiastes. These were called the wisdom writings. And so, the Lord puts these second, and the law, the Torah, he puts third.
Now, why does he put the prophets first? Why has he reversed the order? Very important for us to grasp these things. And today I would like to deal with some vitally important point, which, if we implement, will change the whole faith of the Church. And this I do not mean to make as an overstatement. In no way is there an exaggeration that if we implement the Lord's teaching, we will utterly revolutionize the faith, the appearance, and indeed the very structure of the Church. And this indeed we aim to do — to revolutionize the Church. Revolutionize, that is, from what it is today, back to what the Lord meant it to be.
Now, let us continue for just a brief moment to look at these three parts. On the meaning of the scribes, I expounded quite some time ago in detail. And this I will not spend much more time talking about the scribes, but simply that you see clearly, the Lord has inverted the order and placed prophets first, as of the primary importance.
Now let me read to you a verse in Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 18, verse 18. And in this passage we see again the three parts, so that we see that the three parts are not at all something that the Lord Jesus has made up. Jeremiah 18 and verse 18. Here we see the fierce opposition against the prophets. Notice — against the prophets. There was no category of people in Israel who faced greater opposition than the prophets. The law was unopposed. The wisdom writings were unopposed. But the prophets met the fiercest resistance.
And chapter 18, verse 18, here we read: there's the plot against Jeremiah. In fact, to kill him. Many times they were trying to kill Jeremiah, that great prophet of the Lord. Then they said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, and the word from the prophets. Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not heed any of his words." Let's not listen to Jeremiah. He is a crank. He is a nutcase. And we have no use for the likes of Jeremiah. No, the prophets are on our side.
Now if you read the Old Testament, you will see that the majority of the prophets sided against the great prophets. And Jeremiah was constantly in contention with the multitude of prophets. He was one against the crowd — the crowd of prophets. You need only read Jeremiah, and you will see this constant struggle going on. Particularly focused, for example, in chapter 28 of Jeremiah — the great struggle between the true and the false prophets. But the true prophets were always in the minority. Outnumbered not by five to ten, but by one against all, virtually. That was the kind of statistics against them.
Now, the point I'd like you to see is the threefold division in this verse, in the Jewish mind. The law associated with the priest, counsel associated with the wise, and the word — the word of God — associated with the prophet. Now this is very interesting, because here we have the three parts, exactly as the Lord put it. But again, notice that the prophet is placed last — exactly the reverse order from the Lord's teaching. The Lord has put the prophet first. And here it puts the law first, and the Lord Jesus has put the law last. Exactly the reverse order, as stated here.
But now notice again the three parts. The law is associated with the priest. Counsel is associated with the rulers, or elders of the people, with kings. And it is interesting that the books of wisdom are generally written by the king. Psalms by David, Proverbs said to be by David or Solomon, Ecclesiastes by Solomon, and so forth. The kings are concerned with wisdom, because without wisdom, the kings cannot reign. And you remember that when Solomon ascended his throne, the first thing he asked for, above all else, was for wisdom. He got the wisdom. The problem was he didn't live by it.
So now, here we find then that the Lord's teaching is saying, "I will send you" — let's remember again — prophets, wise men (this must refer then to the elders or leaders of the churches, because wisdom is most essential for leadership in the churches), and law (to do with the priesthood, as we see, as associated in the Old Testament). And of course, we are a nation of priests, as we know from the New Testament. We have been ordained to the priesthood of the living God. Not only we — that is, not just pastors and preachers — but every Christian, everyone is a priest.
One of the great doctrines of the Reformation, for which the Reformation fought, was to remove the Catholic priesthood as a distinct entity, on the basis that the Bible taught the priesthood of all believers. Priests are not to be a special class of people going around in black gowns, but every Christian is a priest. And this was one of the cardinal doctrines for which the Reformation fought — to bring back into the church the biblical teaching that every Christian is a priest of God. We do not need someone to mediate between God and us, because we all have access to God. And so here we find these three parts.
We can see that also in Ezekiel 7 and verse 26. Let me read for you Ezekiel 7 and verse 26. "Disaster comes upon disaster. Rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, but the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders. Wisdom has passed from the elders." Here again you see that wisdom, counsel is associated with elders. The elders, of course, were the leaders of the people. But Ezekiel is saying that the prophet has difficulty getting a vision. They are seeking a vision. The priest doesn't know the law anymore, and the elders have no wisdom, have no counsel. So again we find this threefold part, this threefold division.
And so we find — and the point of it is this — that the Lord Jesus is saying that in the church there will be prophets, there will be leaders, spiritual men of God, equipped with spiritual wisdom from above, very distinct from human wisdom, and there will be the new law, the law of God, taught by and kept by the entire priesthood of God's people.
Now all this then is just as by way of introduction. I want to come quickly to the matter of prophets. Where are the prophets today? How come the Lord says, "I will be sending you prophets" and we can't find prophets? Maybe we manage to find some elders. Maybe we manage to find even some Christians who behave like priests, and these are hard to come by. But what happened to the prophets? Do you see any prophets around? Can you name me a prophet in this generation? Or in the last generation? Or the generation before that? Or the generation still before that? Who? Where are the prophets of God? How desperately we need to consider.
Now if there are no more prophets, then exactly who is the Lord going to send to the people of Israel? Who is he going to send to the world? Where are the prophets that he is going to send — those that he has placed first in category? The prophets above all are the ones he will send. And where are the prophets?
In Numbers chapter 11, verse 29, a verse that I have quoted before, the people came to Moses and said to Moses, "You know, these 70 elders that have been appointed, they are also prophesying. You are not the only prophet anymore. You know, these people have dared to prophesy and taken the mantle of prophecy upon themselves so that you, Moses, are not the only prophet in Israel anymore." They thought that having so many prophets really downgraded Moses, that the office of prophet should have been reserved only for the great servant of God, Moses. And now you have these bunch of elders all mumbling away in prophecy, and this worries a lot of people because it seemed to devalue the status of Moses.
And in Numbers 11:29, we have this wonderful answer from Moses. "Would that all Yahweh's people were prophets." There you see the thinking of a great servant of God. Not only is he not jealous that other people are prophesying, he would that every one of God's people would prophesy. That they would all be prophets. That we would be a whole community of prophets.
When I look into the New Testament, I see the same vision in the New Testament. I see it, in fact, stated in so many words. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 1, Paul exhorts the Corinthians that every one of them seek the gift of prophecy. "Let you all be prophets." Every one of you become prophets. Everyone seeks the gift of prophecy. And then he repeats this in verse 39 of the same chapter. He says, "I want you earnestly, earnestly, zealously to desire the gift of prophecy." Not only that you can take it or leave it. He says, "No, no, pursue this gift of prophecy with all earnestness."
You know, why is it then? Why is it that prophecy has disappeared from the church? It's an interesting question. Very interesting question. What happened to prophecy? Let me ask you this question. Where would the Bible be? What would we have in this Bible today if it were not all full of prophets? The first prophet — the first one to be called a prophet — was Abraham. From Abraham in Genesis to Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, we have a continuing stream of prophets. And in every generation, the Bible testified that God has his servants, the prophets, to speak to every generation.
But where are the prophets today? The voice of the Lord — has it become silent? Does he speak no more to us through his servants? That we must listen to a bunch of people without vision? A bunch of people totally conformed to the thinking of this world that some of us were discussing last night? What has happened to the prophets in this generation? I want you to answer me. Where are the prophets?
Since the second century — yes, we had prophets in the first century, New Testament prophets — but since the second century they have become an extinct race. They have been wiped out from the church. What has become of them? The only prophets left by the second century were heretical prophets. There were no more true prophets to be found. What happened to the prophets of God? Where have they gone to?
And yet, the apostle Paul saw this gift of prophecy and so important that he instructed the Corinthians — everyone, every single Christian — to seek prophecy, because he shared the same vision with Moses, that all God's people were prophets. And let me tell you this — I share that vision, that all God's people would be prophets, that every one of you would be prophets, every one seeking forth the word of God in this generation.
And I will make no secret of it. The reason we are having training programs — lay training and lay training and more training — is simply systematically moving towards this goal, that all God's people would be prophets. Because as we see, you cannot be a prophet without some training either. How can you just stand up and talk? Indeed, it is a gift from the Spirit, but there are steps and procedures. That is why Paul had to instruct the Corinthians of how to gain the gift of prophecy. "I show you a better way," and he begins to instruct them in the nature of love as the most essential step, as we shall come to and see in a moment.
But another thing is this. When you look at the spiritual history of God's people in the Bible, you will notice that prophecy always declines with the decline of the spiritual life of God's people. After Malachi, there were no more prophets for 400 years. You read that in the book of the Maccabees. It says that prophecy had ceased in Israel. There was no more prophecy in Israel for 400 years. There were no more prophets. They couldn't find a prophet anywhere. Darkness had come upon the people of God. God's voice was heard no more through the prophets in Israel. With spiritual decline, there immediately sets in the disappearance of the prophets.
But with spiritual revival, there come the prophets again. It is remarkable that with the coming of the Lord Jesus, there was suddenly a great burst of prophetic activity as you can see in the New Testament. Suddenly, there were many prophets appearing immediately prior to the Lord's coming. There was Anna, there was Simeon. Even Zechariah, who was a priest, began to prophesy, as you remember, as he prophesied in the temple. There was John the Baptist. Suddenly, a whole group of prophets appeared before the coming of the Lord. And of course, the Lord himself is called a prophet in the New Testament. In fact, he accepted the title for himself. He claimed the title for himself. He said that a prophet is not without honor when they persecuted him, except in his own country and among his own people. It is always his own people that don't want to listen to him.
And so, notice this important principle: where spiritual decline sets in, prophecy disappears. And by this mark, we would say immediately that by the second century of the history of the Church, spiritual decline came in like a cloud into the Christian Church, and prophecy became extinct.
What happened? What happened in the history of the Church? By the second century, the leaders of the churches were who? They were the scholars. The scholars came in and took over the Church and pushed the prophets out, and prophecy disappeared. Very dangerous. By the second century, it became a tradition that all the leaders of the churches were scholars. Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and on and on the list goes. All scholars trained in the Greek way of thinking. They were basically philosophers, theologians. They came in and dominated the life of the Church. They set up their own kind of school. The school of Clement in Alexandria was famous for a long time. Most influential in the churches. Gradually, the scholars took over.
And by scholars, we mean the people who were trained in Greek philosophy, because in those days, scholarship meant philosophy, and it meant specifically Greek philosophy. And you need only read the history of the Church to see what happened. They began to take hold of the Gospel and began to conform it to Greek ways of thinking, as early as Justin Martyr in the first century. Justin Martyr was, of course, a philosopher, a Greek philosopher. This does not mean that these people didn't love the Lord. Don't get me wrong. They did love the Lord. It did not mean that they were unfaithful in terms of their heart to the Lord. But it was this kind of people who were put on a pedestal by the Church.
Justin Martyr, as his name indicates, was a martyr who died in his defense of the Gospel. The problem was he took the first step in interpreting the Gospel in terms of Greek philosophy. And soon, generation after generation, right on from the second century, what do we see? The scholars became the leaders of the churches. They dominated the Church with their Greek thinking and their Greek philosophy. They took the Gospel and interpreted it in Greek language to the Greek people who performed some kind of service. There is no doubt that he performed the service. But what happened was the world came in. The categories of worldly thinking began to dominate the Church.
And by the time you get to the Middle Ages, there was nothing very Christian left about the Church. You just look at the conduct and behavior of what are now called the Dark Ages, and rightly so — the Middle Ages. There again, the scholars dominated everything. Right up to the time of the Reformation, who were those dominating the scenes? Erasmus, a Greek scholar. Luther, a Greek scholar. So it goes on. They were all trained in Greek philosophy. All dominated by this type of thinking.
How — this does not mean that they intentionally deviated from the Word of God. Not at all. There is no judgment brought against them. It was the Church who put them on the pedestal. It was the Church who wanted this kind of people to run the Church for them. And we are doing the same thing today.
I get lots of magazines, Christian magazines of all sorts. And in them you have advertisements for pastors, ministers — every issue. There is a shortage of pastors. There is a shortage of ministers everywhere. Now, what do they require? The pastor must have this or that degree. Always degree, degree, degree. You see, they want scholars. Or at least some sort of scholar. I mean, having a degree doesn't really make you a scholar. But at least, I mean, they think that you have been some sort of intellectual. They want intellectuals to be pastors.
They don't ask the question: is this man godly or not godly? That is not part of the question. We want recommendations from men of God to make sure that this pastor is a man of God. No recommendations required. All they want to see is your degree. And from which college? Now, if the college is good and your degree is okay, no problem. What are we doing? We don't want prophets. We want academics in the churches.
That is, of course, if the church can afford it. There are some churches who are too small to afford a pastor with a degree because they have to pay him a salary that's too high. They can't afford this. And so, there are also churches which say no degree would be required. And usually, that's a church that cannot afford to pay a pastor with a degree. Therefore, they have to settle for somebody with no degree. But the church is the big one. Let me assure you, there is no big church in this country that I know of — unless it is exceptionally spiritual, and in such a case, I would like to know where that church is so that I may have fellowship with them — there is no big church in this country that will not look at your degree. You don't put your degree on the table, no pastorate for you. Put the degree down here first. Then we'll start talking about your salary as the next step.
And then the pastor will say, "Well, look, in view of my degree, your pay is too low. I mean, raise the pay and then maybe I will consider being the pastor of your church." And if you sit in this kind of a meeting, you are wondering whether you are talking about a church or a business meeting. You really forgot which kind of meeting you are in, because the bargaining begins. So the church will say, "Okay, we offer you, say, $2,000." "Too little. My degree — $2,500." "Okay, okay, make it $2,300 then." And so the bargaining goes on. Finally settle for $2,300. "Okay, finished. Good. Now we can get on with the matter of the church."
This is Christianity today. Why? Because we want this kind of person. You want this kind of person? Degrees have to be paid according to a certain scale. That is important. And the more degrees, the higher the scale. And your honorary doctorate may not be worth too much, but actually it might be worth a few dollars more. So in this way the bargaining goes on. No wonder we have a church in which the voice of God cannot be heard.
Am I speaking truthfully or not? Go out there and ask the churches. Am I exaggerating or not? So let you be judged. You go out there and ask the churches. How did you invite your pastor? What were your requirements for your pastor? You ask them and see whether I speak the truth or not. I am concerned not to ridicule the churches. It grieves me too much to do this. We must come back to the biblical pattern if we are to survive in this day.
Why is prophecy so important? Just ask the apostle Paul. Why does he want everyone in the church to prophesy? Because he explains himself very clearly in 1 Corinthians 14. Let us read 1 Corinthians 14 and see why Paul put such a value on prophecy. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 3 and 4, verse 1. Let us read verse 1: "Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy." By all means get all the gifts, but if you don't get other ones, he says, never mind the other ones — prophesy. That is the most important thing, that you may all be prophets.
Why? Verse 3 tells us. On the other hand — he is contrasting it with the people who speak in tongues — on the other hand, he who prophesies speaks to men for their building up and encouragement and consolation. Verse 4: "He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies" — that is, builds up — "the church." So he says, "I want you all to prophesy." Why? Because only through prophecy will you be able to build up the church. But we haven't had prophecy for nearly 2,000 years. How is the church supposed to be built up, I ask you?
Because Paul tells us it is prophecy that builds up the church, and we think that today it is the scholars that build up the church, and just look what they have built for us. Prophecy, Paul tells us in verse 3, builds up, encourages, consoles — three things that it does. Put in a reverse way, without prophecy you will have a hard time — not to say that only prophecy builds up, but without prophecy, which is the chief means referred to here — you have lost the chief means. And I say again, the chief means listed by the Lord Jesus as number one — you have lost the chief means of building up, of consoling (exhorting, which the word means — exhort, console, instruct), and thirdly, of comforting people. You have lost — with me? Little. Thank you.
# Would That All Yahweh's People Were Prophets (Part 2)
Every generation, the mighty servants of God — Elijah and Elisha — pulled back Israel for a moment from the brink of utter destruction, until finally the great prophets from Isaiah to Malachi denounced Israel because they would not listen, as we saw in the words spoken to Jeremiah — they wouldn't listen to him.
Now this being the case, I'd like you also to note verse 6 of this chapter. "Now brethren," Paul is referring to himself, "if I come to you or anyone else speaking in tongues, how shall I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation, some knowledge, some prophecy, some teaching?" But revelation, of course, is associated to what? Prophecy. In the previous chapter, knowledge and revelation are closely connected, as you will see in chapter 13 and verse 8. Tongues will cease, knowledge will pass away, prophecies will pass away. Prophecy, knowledge — they're all connected together. Prophecy.
So now, if then I come to you, Paul is saying, how can I build you up? How can I give you something of spiritual value unless I bring a revelation? How else? But through prophecy. Or some knowledge, spiritual knowledge. How does that come? And he specifically again mentions prophecy, teaching. But remember again, for 2,000 years, the church has gone without prophecy. And look at the dismal history of the church in consequence. Look at the history. See what happened when we put the churches in the hands of scholars. Look what happened.
And today the church is not only in the hands of scholars, it's in the hands of businessmen. Oh, look at the board of directors of your average church. They are all businessmen, accountants, managers. Because today the church owns so much property that you can't run the thing without businessmen. And so instead of prophets, we have scholars and businessmen running the churches. How can we carry on in this fashion?
And yet, not only is the church blind to this reality — not only is it blind to this reality that there have been no more prophets in the church since the second century — it even justifies the lack of prophets. I was reading an article in a Westminster Theological Seminary journal. Westminster Theological Seminary. Notice carefully. One of the leading North American seminaries. And there was an article in there that tells us that prophecy is no more because we don't need it anymore. Oh boy, the scholars are doing us a great service. They have not only kicked out prophecy, they tell us that they don't need prophecy because, thanks be to God, they got the scholars. Who needs prophets? You got the likes of us. You got the theologians from Westminster Theological Seminary and all these other seminaries. Who needs prophets? Anyway, prophets are a bunch of unbalanced fanatics, quacks and the like. And you got scholars — balanced gentlemen — who speak in monotone voice with all their distinctive learning. Never mind if you don't know what they say, because the less you can understand, the more you admire their scholarship. They are so learned, you don't know what they are talking about.
But the distinctive feature of the prophet in the Old Testament was that they communicated. You could understand what they were saying. Well, maybe you can't understand, but let me tell you, the people who heard them understood very well what they were saying. That's why they persecuted them so hard. There is nothing in the prophet that the ordinary man in the street could not understand. Let me tell you this. Because they knew what the prophets were talking about. They knew the circumstances. When I first read Ezekiel, I didn't know what Ezekiel was talking about until I read the historical background of Ezekiel. And then when I read Ezekiel again, I could understand it perfectly. It was so easy to understand. Because once I read the historical background of Ezekiel, I put myself into the historical circumstances of Ezekiel's listeners. And Ezekiel's listeners understood perfectly what Ezekiel was saying. Don't get the impression that the prophet spoke mumbo-jumbo like some scholars did. Not at all. The prophets were superb communicators, superb preachers, who made sure that their hearers understood every word they said. That was the great significance of the prophets. They even used symbols, prophetic parables, to make sure that the people understood perfectly and remembered perfectly what they said. They were the finest communicators, unlike our scholar-pastors of today.
Now then, let me show you. What was the argument? Westminster Theological Seminary — and I don't single them out by name simply for this, but because all seminaries would virtually have endorsed what Westminster was saying in there. The argument is based exactly in our passage here, 1 Corinthians 13. And here is what our scholars tell us.
1 Corinthians 13, verse 8. "Love," they say, "never ends." And who could agree with them more? If only they did more loving. And then verse 8: "As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease." There you are. "As for prophecies, they will pass away." There you are. That's why it's passed away, because they will pass away. It says here they will pass away. See? Therefore, prophecies have passed away. And what is more, we don't need them.
Why? Because it says here, verse 9: "For our knowledge is imperfect, and our prophecy is imperfect." See? Prophecy is imperfect. "But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away." When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. Now, presumably, if you are an average man like me, a very ordinary person, you would understand that when the perfect comes, the perfect will come in the future. Because Paul goes on to tell us, in verse 12: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see" — and that day the perfect comes — "we will see face to face. Now I know in part; then on that day I shall know fully, even as I have been fully understood." I will know on that day fully.
But the scholars know better than Paul. The perfect has already come. So you say, "Pardon me, I think I have lost your connection here." They say, "Well, it's because you are not intellectual like me. So you are rather stupid. Now, if you slow down, I will explain the situation to you. You see, the Bible is perfect." You say, "Yes." "Therefore, the perfect has come. Because, you see, the Bible is complete. It is perfect. And when the Bible canon was completed, with the writing of Revelation, we don't need prophecy anymore. The perfect has come. Therefore, the imperfect has passed away." Oh, you see, such perception I never had. Pardon me for my stupidity. I never realized. You say, "Is the Bible perfect?" "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Bible is perfect. There — the perfect has come. Therefore, the imperfect has passed away." Oh, with such logic, you cannot argue. You go away with your tail between your legs, and wonder how you ever managed to be so stupid and didn't have this marvelous insight of the scholar.
Now, of course, your question then is: what about the Old Testament? Is it perfect too? Oh, yeah, the Old Testament is also perfect, is it? Well, in what sense do you mean perfect? In what sense are you talking about perfect? If you mean that this is the word of God, and this is the inspired word of God in the Old Testament, of course it's perfect. But was the Old Testament present when Paul was writing this? Of course it was. Therefore, the perfect was already present when Paul was writing this. And why did we have prophets in the first century? And strangest of all, it was prophets who composed most of that word which is perfect.
Oh, I think of Paul in 1 Corinthians 3: "The Lord has caught the wisdom of the wise in their own snare." The wise have been caught in their own snare. What is the context of this passage, I beg of you? We have lost exegesis today. We have scholars without exegesis. But surely anyone who looks at this passage, who knows the basics of exegesis, knows that the perfect and the imperfect in this passage, in its context, refers to the future revelation, when we shall see him as he is, as Paul says, face to face. But of course, the scholars have not bothered with exegesis. I mean, this kind of exegesis we don't need, because we have clever argumentation. With the completion of the New Testament canon, we don't need prophecy anymore. We don't need tongues anymore.
Let me ask you: are tongues still in the world today or not? Is it a reality that tongues still exist today? We have people in our church who have spoken in tongues. Were they daydreaming? If so, then tongues have not passed away even today, as any Pentecostal can testify to you. In saying this, I am not saying that I agree with all Pentecostals, but the fact is that we all know that tongues exist today. People still speak in tongues today. Tongues have not passed away.
But let me show you the foolishness of this argument that they have used — this fellow who was writing this thing in the Westminster journal, this so-called scholar. Look at this passage again. See what it says. It says not only that prophecies will pass away, and tongues will pass away, but you need only read the next line, what it says: "And knowledge will also pass away." Is he trying to tell me that knowledge has also passed away? If so, then what do we need the Bible for? That when the completion of the New Testament canon came, we could have thrown the Bible in the garbage bin as well, because knowledge has also passed away.
And you don't have to be an expert in New Testament exegesis to see that when Paul speaks of knowledge here, he's talking about knowledge of the Lord, spiritual knowledge. He makes that very plain in 2 Corinthians, that he is speaking about knowledge of the Lord. Now, and this knowledge is — 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14: "We give forth a knowledge of Him. We proclaim the knowledge of Him." Of course, our proclamation of the knowledge, our knowledge of Christ is imperfect, true, but it is not less valid for being imperfect. Paul does not mean to say, because we see in part, it's not worth seeing at all. Because we see in a glass darkly, that we don't have to see at all. It is still seeing, even if it is not as perfect as when we see Him face to face.
Knowledge has not passed away. Then who claims that tongues have passed away? Who claims that prophecy has passed away? Where is the logic of these so-called scholars? But I am not through with them yet. Paul, having said that, goes right on to the next verse and says, "How can I" — in 14:6 as we read — "how can I impart any benefit to you, unless I bring you some revelation, or some knowledge?" Knowledge is imparted now. It is still imperfect, but it's not thrown away because it's imperfect. Nor because the Bible comes — so that Paul himself writes the New Testament — that he can therefore dispense with knowledge. This kind of reasoning is too absurd even to imagine. That having thrown out prophecy, we even justify our throwing it out.
Let me tell you another reason why prophecy was thrown out. In any average church today, if anyone starts prophesying, you are going to make the pastor very, very nervous. Because he is not like Moses. Moses would be happy that everyone prophesies, but the average pastor would think, "Hey, wait a minute, I am the only one talking God's word here. What are you doing?" I have been in the administration of enough churches to know that if in any church you had two or three prophets, the pastor would really start sweating, because his authority is going to be challenged. Someone else is claiming to speak God's word beside himself.
And the prophet speaks not simply expounding the Bible, because that he wouldn't mind, but a prophet speaks to the actual situation in the church. He might even start telling the pastor, "You know, this and that you are doing is not right," because one of the prophetic functions is in fact to challenge where there is error. When David the king sinned, it was the prophet Nathan who came to David the king. He doesn't care if you are the king or whatever you are. He came to the king and said, "You are the man. You are the sinner." A prophet dares to challenge even the king. He challenges anybody.
And therefore you can see that a pastor will start getting nervous if he has three or four people challenging his word every time he speaks. Or when he does something wrong, the guy says, "Pastor, I am sorry, you are sinning." "Oh, hey, wait a minute. I am the guy who decides who sins in this place." If you don't believe me, try it sometimes. When you go forth from here, and you go to a church, you start prophesying, and see what the pastor will do to you. I guarantee you that before too long he will sit on you. He will silence you.
That's the state of the church today. We live in the generation when the scholars are to speak, when everybody takes off their hats to the scholars. We are not in a generation of prophets. And if you start prophesying, he will say, "What are you doing?" He doesn't even know what you are doing. If you say, "I am prophesying, I am speaking the word of God," he will say, "Shut up, I am the guy who shall speak. There is no more prophecy today. Don't you read that? Don't you read the Westminster journal? Huh? Don't you see the article in there?" If you haven't seen that, there were lots of other similar articles saying the same thing.
So I answer these scholars: your exegesis is wrong, point one. Secondly, I would like to answer more. Are we to understand that the offices God appointed for the upbuilding of the church are also abolished? Let's read 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 28 — the previous chapter, chapter 13, chapter 12, verse 28. "And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues." God has appointed.
When you look at this, which office still exists today? We've got no more apostles. We've got no more prophets. We might still have teachers. But the problem is this: if prophets are abolished according to their reasoning, shouldn't we also abolish the teachers? I mean, if you follow consistently your logic, if you abolish the prophets, you should also abolish the teachers. And not to say that we have already abolished healers and helpers and speakers in various tongues and the like — but this kind of people we have no time for.
So if we're going to throw out the apostles — or not throw them out, with all due respect, they don't exist anymore — and prophets also don't exist anymore because we don't need them — I mean, we can't do much about apostles because the 12 have already died, and according to modern understanding, only 12 apostles exist. So seeing they have died, they're also finished. And then we have prophets which we don't need, and so we are left with teachers, and we don't need workers of miracles. So out of this whole list, we are left only with teachers. But I would like to know why, if we abolish the others, we shouldn't also abolish the teachers. Maybe because this will not stand in good stead with our scholar friends.
Let's read another passage, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11. And by now you'll begin to see why I am so concerned and getting so heated up about this — heated up physically as well as spiritually. Ephesians chapter 4, and verse 11. Let me read this all the way to verse 14. "And God's gifts of the Spirit were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip" — what for? What do we need all these people for? — "to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for upbuilding the body of Christ." What for? "Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness and deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ."
Notice that again, like the passage in 1 Corinthians 12, we see that these officers, all of them, are vital to the upbuilding of the church. Who are the apostles? Now you will recall why I preached the other time about apostles — that those who were sent forth (the word apostle means "sent forth"), those who went forth to preach elsewhere, to carry the word of God elsewhere with his authority, with his power — the church builders — these are the apostles in every generation. The first training team are apostles. The second training team are apostles. These are apostles of the New Testament church. These are the people who build the churches up, who may bring churches into being, otherwise they wouldn't even exist. They're apostles.
And then we have prophets. There we are again — prophets. Paul lists them again. Are prophets only for the first 50 years of the church's life, and the next 2,000 years we don't need prophets anymore? That's what the scholars want us to believe, but not what the Bible tells us here. These are all vital, each one, because if we do away with prophets, we might as well throw out the evangelists, we might as well throw out the pastors and teachers as well. You cannot throw one out without throwing the others out. All these offices are vital to the upbuilding of the church until we attain the fullness of the stature of Christ. No wonder we cannot attain the fullness of the stature of Christ, because today we don't have these ministries.
Now then, a third thing I want to say of the Lord's teaching here is this. When we return to Matthew 23, verse 34, I'd like you again to notice the tense. "I am continuously sending to you prophets, wise men, and scribes" — experts in the law, scribes; experts in wisdom, in practical, spiritual wisdom, the wise men; but first and foremost the prophets, those who speak forth God's word.
A fourth point I want to mention is this. If these scholars are right that prophecy has finished with the close of the New Testament, then maybe they haven't read Revelation chapter 11, because Revelation 11 is undeniably referring to the last days, the days when the Antichrist arrives, the beast appears on the scene. And in Revelation 11 we read of the two great prophets of God who challenged the authority of the beast, who preached God's word in the last days. So are these not prophets? Revelation 11 tells us that they are prophets. There again the falsity of this exegesis is shown.
But most importantly, let me come to the fifth point. What was the characteristic mark of the New Testament that in the very opening chapters of Acts we read? In Acts chapter 2, verses 17 to 21, when the apostle Peter has to explain what is happening at Pentecost — what happened when the Spirit came down at Pentecost? He explained this thing in terms of Joel chapter 2 and verse 28. What does Joel chapter 2, verse 28 say? Let me read it to you in Joel chapter 2 and verse 28. And this is what we read: "And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. My Spirit will be poured out on all flesh." And what will happen? "Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." Now dreams and visions in the Old Testament are always connected with prophecy. The prophets saw visions; they dreamed dreams. And now the Spirit will be poured out on all flesh. Notice this — on everybody. "All flesh" simply means everybody. So that everyone will prophesy — men and women alike. "Your sons and your daughters." Men and women. Everybody will prophesy.
That was the point of the New Testament. The point of the New Testament — the coming of the Holy Spirit — what was it for? Peter tells us in Acts chapter 2, verse 17: it is the fulfillment of Joel chapter 2, and that is what's happening. The Spirit is poured out on everybody. Everyone. Not only the apostles who were speaking there in tongues at the time and prophesying. But everyone in the New Testament age were to be prophets. Fulfilling Moses' desire and dream. Fulfilling Paul's desire and dream. That's why he says to them, "Pursue the gift of prophecy," because the Spirit has now been poured out on all flesh. You can all prophesy.
In fact, in his detailed instructions in 1 Corinthians 14, he tells them that they may all prophesy one by one. Give everyone in the church a chance to prophesy, because you are all prophets if you but seek the gift of prophecy.
Can you catch this vision, brothers and sisters? Can you catch this vision? Can you catch the vision of a church in which everyone is a prophet or prophetess? What is the value of this? Today the upbuilding of the church is dependent usually upon one person, namely the pastor. He is supposed to have the whole responsibility of building up the church. If he can't manage this, he might get what is called a "Christian education" — notice the word — "Christian education director." Wonderful. We are back to the intellectuals again. We are back to education again. Everything is education. Wonderful. We have thrown away the apostles and prophets, and now we have Christian education directors. We have done a wonderful job of God's church, haven't we?
What is the reason that Paul wants them to do this? Because as you read on you will see: he wants a ministry in which everyone participates in building up each other. You don't depend on me to build you up. Because if you have the gift of prophecy, which I earnestly desire that you have, you will be able to build each other up much faster. How much quicker can we build up the church of Christ when everyone is active and not just passively sitting there to be fed.
And this is what Paul says in the same chapter, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 23. He says, let two or three speak, and let the other people listen to what these two or three prophets are saying, and weigh in their minds, evaluate what they are saying, use discernment, insight — just as you must do with what I am saying. You must ask yourself: is what he is saying scriptural, or is he just going around to bash the church again, when people think I have nothing better to do but a hobby called church bashing?
My intense and burning desire is to rebuild the church of Christ until it is what the Lord Jesus died to make it. When he poured out his Spirit after his crucifixion and resurrection, when he poured out his Spirit, it was that all his sons and his daughters might prophesy. That is what I aim to accomplish. Scholars or no scholars, let the church say what it may — I shall aim to build that church until my latest and last breath. If I were not aiming to fulfill God's word, I would not be in this ministry. I would find myself some other job to do. But so long as God has given me this task, so help me God, I will see it be done, until every one of his people, every one of you, become his prophet and speak his word with power and authority in this age.
I don't want to have a spiritual kindergarten which I am going to nurse for the rest of my life — spiritual babies who forever I have to stick the bottle in this mouth and the bottle in that mouth, and this one starts yelling, so I have to stick the bottle in that mouth, and change the nappies whenever they commit sin and do some mess. I have to clean up.
Seeing that we have seen the importance of this, let me quickly, in the remaining time, talk about how we raise these prophets — exactly how. Well, I have just hinted that prophets need training too. In the Old Testament there were schools of prophets. We read of one of these in 1 Samuel chapter 19, verse 10 — one school that was headed by the great prophet Samuel, that great man of God. Another under Elijah, another mighty man of God. You see, one of the important reasons for this, for prophecy, is that it is itself designed in the form of discipleship. In the Old Testament, the only place you can see discipleship is always in the schools of the prophets. And the Lord Jesus deliberately modeled the New Testament pattern on the patterns of the prophets. That is why you have disciples. The prophets had disciples, and the Lord Jesus himself trained up those who were in their turn to become the mouthpieces of the Lord.
Let me quickly deal with a number of points concerning the marks of a prophet, and I would like you all to determine and judge, in listening to this, whether what we say — and I stress again, whether what I am saying is the word of God or not. For whether I stand or fall, I wish to be judged on one point alone: whether I am a true prophet of God or not. If not, your responsibility is not to listen to a word I say, for then I am a false prophet. Whether in my life and in my words I bear the mark of a prophet or not is to me the most vital thing. And whether you in time will also bear the marks of a prophet or not is for me the most vital thing. For if you do not, and I have failed of my ministry, I would have done better in some other job. I have wasted my time. For as Paul said, "I have labored in vain" when he was concerned about the Galatians.
The mark of a prophet — the first mark of a prophet above all things, of course, is that he is filled with the Spirit. The Spirit of God clothes him, as we saw last week when I expounded on being endued, clothed with power from on high. But that's what he wanted all his apostles to be — to be clothed with power from on high. There you see that in the Lord's own teaching to his disciples, he was training them as prophets, because to be endued with the Spirit, to be clothed with the Spirit and with the power from on high, was the first mark of the prophet in the Old Testament. We see that in 1 Samuel chapter 10, verse 6, or 2 Samuel chapter 23 — you are no longer the person who is talking; it is God speaking through you. You speak no more your own ideas. No more your own thoughts. You must learn, in becoming servants of God, to speak no more your own opinions. Your own ideas count for nothing. You speak God's word. Is that not what every Christian should learn to do? But in so doing, you are learning to be a prophet.
The prophet speaks God's word, not his own word, not his own ideas. He may have his own ideas, but he puts them aside that he may speak God's word. Remarkably, in Matthew chapter 10, verse 20, the Lord told his disciples that this is exactly what would happen. Matthew 10, verse 20: "When you stand before kings, when you are judged and tried," the Lord said to his disciples, "don't worry" — meaning you are all prophets — "it is the Spirit of God speaking through you." That was exactly the mark of the prophet. All his disciples would be prophets. And when you are questioned, when you are tried, you stand there and don't worry what you will say. Open your heart to God, commune with him, and he will speak through you.
The second mark of a prophet — most important thing — what does he do? He proclaims the good news of God. He proclaims the good news. Isaiah chapter 61, verse 1. But who does he proclaim it to? He proclaims it to the poor and the needy. Oh, would to God the church will return to a respect for the poor and the needy. Love the poor, love the needy. Despise the rich. I said it. God's word said it. Despise the rich. Speak hard to the rich. Speak gently to the poor. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor" — Isaiah 61, verse 1. Today the church wants to speak to the rich. They want to glory in the rich. The elder of the church — look at him — he is the director of this and that, and this elder of the church, what is he? He is professor of this and that, and here this one and that — all the great men of the world we honor. Where are the poor?
The prophet of God, let me tell you, proclaims God's good news to the poor. Jesus quoted these very words in Luke 4, verse 18, when he opened his own ministry. Do you love the poor? Do you love the despised? Do you love the humble? Then you have the mark of a prophet. The prophet had no patience with the rich, no patience with the mighty. He loved the poor. The Lord Jesus always loved the weak, the nobody. When Herod the king wanted to talk to him, he would not speak one word to Herod. Herod could not get one word out of him. He would not dignify Herod with one word. He didn't answer his questions, you remember that. But there was one poor woman by the well of Samaria — a non-entity of this world, a sinner — and the Lord Jesus sat down by the well and talked to her. We don't know how long. Maybe one hour, maybe two hours. He just talked with this nobody. He loved the nobody, the poor, the despised. Those are the people he loved. That is the mark of a prophet.
But those people who consort with the great, who love to be in the company of the rich — these are no prophets. Turn your backs upon them. I don't mean to say we shouldn't talk to these people, but I have always made it a point — and so been greatly disliked in the churches — that when I speak to a church of rich people, I speak hard to them. When I speak to the poor, I speak gently. My heart is with them. I speak in these ways to walk with the Lord.
The third mark of a prophet: he condemns sin. He does not compromise against sin. He will not tolerate sin. Read the prophets of the Old Testament. Look in there and see the prophets denounce sin. I denounce it too. I denounce sin in the church. And then they say, "Ha ha, you are judging. You are very judgmental," they say. Thanks be to God, I shall not be muzzled. If there is sin in the church, if the church will not live according to the word of God, so help me God, I shall not cease to denounce it. And let any man try to sin in the church and he shall not escape the words of rebuke.
Now that is the mark of a prophet. In the Old Testament you see this again and again, happening all the time. Let me read to you Micah chapter 3, verse 8 — the mark of a prophet. Micah chapter 3, verse 8. Lest you think that I am inventing all this thing, I want you to be sure that you understand that I speak the word of God. And what does Micah chapter 3, verse 8 say? "But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of Yahweh, and with justice and might." What for? Why am I filled with the Spirit? Why am I filled with justice and might? Notice these words: "to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin." That's why I am filled with the Spirit of God — to declare sin against the people of God.
And they refuse to be silenced. You remember when Amaziah tried to silence the prophet Amos: "Don't talk anymore about the sins of Israel. Be quiet about the sins of Israel. You must not speak against Israel. You must not speak against God's people." Amos said, "Let me tell you something. I will not only speak against God's people — I will tell you this: God's people will be utterly destroyed." That's the response he got from Amos. Read it carefully in the mighty prophets of God, and then they will talk to you.
But the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, verse 1, "You must not judge." We do not judge. It is God who judges. The prophet, remember, does not speak his own opinion. He speaks God's word. "I do not judge any man." I have no right to judge any man. The Lord is saying you personally must not judge. No servant of God makes a personal judgment. But when there is violation of the word of God, that is not a question of personal judgment. It is a violation of his word. That is the point. And there we cannot be silenced. Let no man misquote Matthew 7:1 to you. This has nothing to do with personal judgment. When these great prophets denounced the sins of Israel and individuals also within Israel — they often mentioned individuals by name and condemned them by name — it was not because they had a personal animosity against them. They had no feeling against these people themselves. They were not passing personal judgment. They were speaking God's word when God's word was violated.
If you are not satisfied with Micah 3:8, let me read to you Isaiah 58, verse 1. The great prophet Isaiah says exactly the same thing. The ministry of a prophet: "Cry aloud, fear not." Notice the word "fear not." Don't tone it down. "Lift up your voice like a trumpet" — that is how loud it should be — "declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins." That's the prophetic task: to denounce sin wherever it appears. And I would be grateful to you if you see sin in my life, kindly denounce it to me. Because never would you do me a greater favor. If you see pride in me, come to me and say, "I see pride in you, and I don't like what I see." I will thank you. I will thank you from the depth of my heart. If I love righteousness, if I love holiness, denounce me for my sins, I beg of you, that I may know my error and straighten out my path by the mercies of God. Never say, "Oh, I must not judge." I beg of you to judge me. I beg of you to denounce my sins. Only so may I be preserved in the grace of God from falling into destruction.
The marks of the prophet. The next mark of the prophet: holiness. Holiness. How can I denounce sin if I am unholy? Holiness is the central mark of the prophet. The word "holy," "righteous" — look in the prophets. Get a concordance and look under "holy," "righteous," and see it there. The prophets are forever speaking about justice, about steadfast love. All these things have to do with holiness and righteousness. That is why the apostle Peter was able to say in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 2, he speaks of God's "holy prophets." That's the mark of the prophet — that they are holy. 2 Peter 3:2.
The next mark of the prophet: close communion with God. That is why they were called "men of God," because they stood in a close relationship to God. They were constantly called "men of God," "servants of God." And because of their close communion with God, Amos makes a remarkable statement, Amos chapter 3, verses 7 and 8. What does Amos chapter 3 and verse 7 say? Amos says that God does nothing without revealing his will to the prophets. That is the glory of it. When you walk close to God, you will know his will, so you will be able to instruct the people. That is why you are able to build up the church. How can you build up the church when you don't even know what God's will is? How can you build up one another when you don't know what God's will is? Close communion with God. Prophecy, in fact, is often spoken of as an answer to prayer.
Now this point I would like to connect to the next point. The prophets were holy, but they were men of great love. Love. If you had met the prophet of God, you would see his love. He loved God above all else. He loved God's people. That's why he's condemning their sin, because he doesn't want them to perish. That's why a father chastens his child. "Spare the rod," Proverb says, "and you will destroy the child." You must not spare the rod. It hurts you to beat the child, but if you don't beat that child, that child will think that sinning is okay. Sinning is alright.
Love is a characteristic mark of the prophet. Oh, how they wept over Israel. They condemned their sins because they loved them. And when Israel would not hear, they wept. Look at the book of Lamentation. Look how Jeremiah wept over Israel. "My heart is broken," he says. "My heart has become a fountain of tears when I see Israel destroyed. I prophesied their destruction. They wouldn't listen. They wouldn't repent." The whole book of Lamentation touches one's heart. The prophet wept his eyes out because Israel wouldn't listen.
We do not denounce sin because we dislike a person. That we may not do. No prophet of God may do this. He must speak God's word, and he must speak it motivated by love. This is one of the most essential things for anyone to understand. That is why Paul says, "I show you a better way," because unless you're consumed with love, why do you care whether you build up the other guy or not? And if you don't care about building him up, why should you worry about prophecy? Because prophecy is for building other people up. That's what Paul tells us. And if you don't care about the next person, you don't care about prophecy either. No use for prophecy.