Description of Christ's Prophetic Function

Review and Introduction to the Timeline Approach

0:04 In our Lord's Day morning meditations we are considering some of the most basic truths of the Word of God under the general theme, Here We Stand. This series of studies is meant to be, as it were, a manifesto of what we believe as the people of God, what we understand the scriptures to teach concerning the great issues of life. And in the unfolding of that series of studies, we are presently in a section entitled, The Salvation We Receive and Proclaim. And it takes only a surface examination of the Word of God to arrive at the conclusion that the central figure in the salvation taught in the Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ. Having examined what the Scriptures tell us concerning the mystery of His person,

0:57 We are now concerned to arrive at an accurate conception of what I have entitled the majesty of his offices. As the only mediator between God and men, as the only redeemer of sinners, the only savior, our Lord accomplishes his work while officially functioning as a prophet, as a priest, and as a king.

1:25 Since we as sinners are guilty, ignorant, rebellious, and helpless, Christ's work as prophet, priest, and king answers specifically to our need. Because we are guilty, we need him as our priest to forgive us. Because we are ignorant, we need him as our prophet to teach us.

1:50 Because we are rebellious and helpless, we need him as our king to subdue us and then to protect and preserve us and bring us safely home at last to his everlasting kingdom. However, I must give this word of caution. Though we separate the offices for study and though the scriptures warrant our contemplating Christ in his various offices, both

2:19 for our comfort and for His praise, we must never think that He ever exercises any one of these offices in a saving way without the other attendant offices. When He ministers to us as our priest, He does so as our prophet and king as well. And when He ministers to us as king, it is as the king-priest and the king-prophet. It is the one great office of Redeemer,

2:48 within which he functions as prophet, as priest, and as king. Having spent a number of weeks examining some of the pivotal passages in the Word of God with respect to his office and ministry as priest, we began last Lord's Day to contemplate our Lord in his office as the great prophet. And we sought to do two very simple things last Lord's Day, and I shall take the two minutes to review, and then we'll take up the new material this morning. First of all, we tried to arrive at some understanding of the biblical concept of a prophet. What is a prophet in the biblical concept of that office? And by considering three key passages, Exodus 4, Deuteronomy 18, and Jeremiah 1,

3:39 we came to the conclusion that a prophet is a person supernaturally instructed in the will of God and commissioned by God to make known that will to men in the very words of God. So the two ideas dominate in the biblical concept of a prophet. On the one hand, the prophet is passive in receiving his message. The prophet is not a man who worked upward and penetrated into the mind of God. The prophet is one who in one sense was passive as a receiver of the word of God. So again and again we read in the scriptures concerning the prophets, the word of the Lord came. The word came. The prophet was passive. God takes the initiative supernaturally to instruct a prophet concerning his mind and will.

4:34 But then with respect to his activity, the prophet then is both accurate and authoritative in conveying that message which he has received. He is accurate in conveying it. God says, I will put my words in thy mouth. So again and again the prophets could say, Thus saith the Lord. My words are Jehovah's words. But not only the note of accuracy, but the note of authority. Thus saith the Lord.

5:01 The prophet did not come and say, Thus saith Jeremiah, speaking the words of the Lord. It is as though the prophet's personality, though engaged in the ministry, is put into the background as far as the authority and the accuracy, and the spotlight falls in prophetic utterance upon the passive reception of that word, and then the accurate and authoritative proclamation of that word. And then having said, sought to arrive at this biblical concept of a prophet, we then looked at the biblical basis for asserting that Christ is a prophet, and we know that he's a prophet because he is explicitly called such, Acts chapter 3, quoting the passage from Deuteronomy 18, and then he is repeatedly described as exercising the functions of a prophet. Now today we proceed to examine this question.

5:58 When did Christ exercise his office as a prophet or the biblical description of his prophetic function? Now you see the progression of thought. We have in our minds now the biblical notion of a prophet. He receives the word of God. He conveys it accurately and authoritatively. We know that Christ is a prophet because he's called such and he is described as functioning in the role of a prophet. Now then...

6:28 precisely how did his prophetic office express itself? Or we might change the question, precisely how does his prophetic office express itself? Now my method of instruction in trying to pull together many lines of biblical truth, and I confess to you and my wife has witnessed to my frustration that hours have been spent in in trying to organize the material in a way that will be simple and clear and yet accurate. And I hope I've chosen the wisest course in attaining those goals. But we're going to examine the biblical materials concerning Christ as prophet in the timeline. We did this once before in a previous study. We're going to consider Christ's function as a prophet as that function unfolds to us in the Word of God.

7:21 And since the Scriptures unfold to us in a historical timeline, they begin with creation, then you have the fall, then you have the period before the flood, and after the flood, the calling of Abraham, the establishment of the nation, the development of the nation, the judgment upon the nation, then the coming of Christ, then the coming of the apostles, and then the close of the New Testament age. The Bible comes to us in this timeline, Well, we want to examine Christ's prophetic ministry as we see it unfolding in that timeline. Now, let me give a word of caution. This morning's study will be primarily instructive. There will be very little of a hortatory nature. That's just a big fancy word for screwing the word into the conscience, as Baxter would say. There will be very little in the way of exhortation, very little in the way of application,

8:16 But may I remind you that exhortation and application, if valid, can only be built upon teaching. The Word of God is profitable, Paul says, for teaching first, then for reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness. And though we never teach or preach in this place without some application, of necessity there are times when the applicatory element must be minimal and And the instructional element must be maximal. Well, that's what you're going to get this morning. And if you go to sleep, it's your own fault. It shows either that you didn't use good sense in getting to bed when you ought to have gotten to bed last night, or you have no appetite to behold your Savior. And I hope that will not be true of any of us. All right? Christ as prophet, how does he exercise his prophetic office? Well, let's consider him in the period of preparation.

Period of Preparation: Theophanies and the Angel of Jehovah

9:11 As far as God is concerned, all of history centers around two great historical events. What are they? Do you have them firmly fixed in your mind? As far as God is concerned, there are two events which form the focal points of all history. Well, obviously the first is the coming of Christ in time, the first advent of Paul says in Galatians 4, when the fullness of the times was come, God sent forth His Son. Well, the second great pivot, of course, is the consummation of the age, when Christ will come again. Lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age. Therefore, all of the Old Testament history is a period of preparation for that first great event of

10:05 the coming of Messiah in the flesh. So when we talk about the period of preparation, we're talking about the period from the fall to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to the manger in Bethlehem. Now the priestly office of Christ could not be exercised apart from suffering. Therefore there is no true priestly function in our Lord until the Incarnation.

10:35 Hebrews 9, 24-26 makes this abundantly clear. The writer to the Hebrews, speaking of Christ as our priest, says, For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place, year by year, with blood not his own. Now notice, else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Here the writer says that until Christ comes in a condition in which he can suffer, there is no priestly sacrifice. Now in the mind of God,

11:32 He was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But there was no true priestly function until he is in a sufferable condition. But not so with his prophetic ministry. And though I would not be dogmatic, I would say in very guarded language, there is much biblical evidence to indicate that Jesus Christ was the great prophet of his church, during the entire period of preparation. Now I did not say the evidence is conclusive, but it is strong and I find it quite compelling that as God would instruct His church in the entire period of preparation, He instructs His church through the second person of the Godhead, the eternal Word, the one who ultimately

12:26 takes to himself a true humanity, and then is visibly and publicly declared to be God's final prophet. How then did Christ act as a prophet, function as a prophet in that period of preparation? Well, it could well be that all of those theophanies, that's just another big word for those appearances of God in the Old Testament, when God appeared in visible form and communicated the mind and will of God to men, right from the Garden of Eden, when God comes walking in the garden in the cool of the day, to those other appearances of Himself that we find at the burning bush and throughout the Old Testament, they could well be pre-incarnate manifestations of the Son of God, revealing the mind and the will of God,

13:19 To the people of God. But we can be a bit more certain with respect to this strange personage called the angel of Jehovah. This strange being who comes to us in the pages of the Old Testament. Who bears in himself the name of Jehovah. Jehovah says my name is in him. He receives worship. He receives sacrifices. He in some senses seems to be Jehovah and yet distinct from Jehovah.

13:49 this strange personage? Well, most careful reverent students of the Word of God say that this is none other than the second person of the Godhead. These are pre-incarnate manifestations of the Lord Jesus. And again and again, what do you find the angel of Jehovah doing? Revealing the mind and the will of God to men. But where we can only speak with guarded language, concerning Christ as the prophet in the period of preparation in the Theophanies, in the angel of Jehovah visitations, we have chapter and verse to assert that it was Christ as the great prophet of God who was ministering to the Old Testament church through the prophets that God raised up. And the two passages in the New Testament which state this unequivocally are found in Peter's letter, 1 Peter chapter 1.

Period of Preparation: The Spirit of Christ in the Prophets

14:48 1 Peter chapter 1. Peter, having spoken of the wonderful salvation that the people of God have received, a salvation which enables them to rejoice in the midst of suffering, goes on to speak further of that salvation in 1 Peter 1.10, concerning which salvation

15:11 The prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them. Here the teaching of the passage is clear.

15:41 that when an Old Testament prophet spoke, when Isaiah proclaimed that the servant of Jehovah would come, that he should startle many nations, that his visage would be more marred than any of the sons of men, that he would be as a root out of a dry ground, he would have no form nor comeliness, and when we should see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He would be despised and rejected of men. And yet that same suffering servant, Isaiah goes on to say, He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his gaze. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Peter says it was the very Spirit of Christ in Isaiah enabling him to foretell the sufferings and the glories that should follow. So Christ in that sense is the very prophet who prophesies of his own coming and describes his sufferings and the glories that should follow.

16:40 He was the great prophet in the Old Testament, people of God, speaking through the prophet, small p, whom God raised up to minister to his people. Then in chapter 3, Peter brings this perspective to bear upon a time that goes back beyond the institution of the prophetic ministry in the nation. He goes back to the pre-flood days. And notice what he says.

17:10 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, in which also, that is, in which Spirit, He also went and preached unto the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient to

17:37 When the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing. Now all kinds of ridiculous teaching have grown out of this passage about Jesus Christ between His death and resurrection, preaching to the people that had been condemned in the days of Noah. No, no. The phrase, when the long-suffering of God awaited, tells us when Christ went in the Spirit and preached.

18:06 It was during the days of Noah. During that period in which God says, My spirit shall not always strive with men. His gear shall be a hundred and twenty. And Noah as a prophet of God is saying, Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. He's preaching judgment and righteousness. Peter says, It was the very Spirit of Christ that was preaching. Christ was acting as prophet.

18:36 Speaking to that generation, how? Through the lips of his servant Noah. And so we must never think of Christ in his prophetic office as being bound by the days of his flesh. As we look at that prophetic office unfolding on the biblical timeline, he is active as a prophet in the days of preparation. This is why the wise theologians who frame the Westminster Confession framed the answer to question 43 in the larger catechism in this way. How does Christ execute the office of a prophet? The answer, Christ executes the office of a prophet in His revealing to the church in all ages, by His Spirit and Word, in diverse ways of administration, the whole will of God in all things concerning their edification and salvation.

Period of Manifestation: The Incarnation and John's Testimony

19:35 He reveals in all ages. Christ is the great prophet of His people in the period of preparation. But now we move to the next segment of the timeline, the period of manifestation. In about seven or eight minutes we covered all those centuries, and now we come to the fullness of the times. And it is at this point that there again is no guesswork, no tentative conclusions, Nothing but authoritative, glad announcement in the language of Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1. God, having of old times spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by diverse portions and diverse manners, God has not been silent. He has communicated His mind supernaturally to the fathers.

20:31 He's done it primarily in the person of the prophets. He did it in various portions. He did it in various ways. But now, all the disclosure of His mind, all the unfolding of His will, comes to culmination how He has at the end of these days spoken unto us in a sight.

20:59 It's as though the writer to the Hebrews says that every prophetic utterance in the period of preparation is just a finger pointing to the time when in the period of manifestation God would speak supremely, God would speak climactically, God would speak comprehensively, God would speak finally in the person of His own dear Son.

21:26 And it is for this reason that we have the record in the Gospels of our Lord when He comes to years of maturity, not beginning His ministry until in Jordan's river, the Spirit of God comes upon Him in this visible form to clothe Him and empower Him, officially and visibly as it were, to manifest that He is the Messiah, the Anointed One. And there from that moment on,

21:54 John the Baptist could say of him. A verse we looked at briefly last week. John chapter 3 and verse 34. John 3 and verse 34. Perhaps we should back up to verse 31 to catch the entire thread of thought. John the Baptist having spoken of the necessity of the increase of Christ and the decrease of himself.

22:23 He that comes from above is above all. He that is of the earth is of the earth, and of the earth he speaketh. He that cometh from heaven is above all. What he hath seen and heard of that he beareth witness, and no man receiveth his witness. He that hath received his witness hath set his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God hath sent

22:52 Speaketh the words of God, for he giveth not the Spirit by measure. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. And in the context, you see, the all things are the all things of the revelation of his mind. And what is it that ensures that the God-man Christ Jesus, of whom John is speaking, will fully disclose the mind of God? Two things.

23:21 On the one hand, the mystery of his divine nature. He is from above. He knows and has access to all the counsels of God. He is God himself. And as to his human nature, he is clothed with the Spirit without measure, so that all that he speaks is the words of the living God. And so John sets him before his hearers as God's great and final

23:51 and infallible prophet who will reveal all of the mind of God. Then we have that other attestation that is so clear, and in the providence of God it came to us in our reading this morning. I trust some of you have already made the connection. There on the Mount of Transfiguration, Luke chapter 9, who appears in glory with our Lord.

Period of Manifestation: Transfiguration and Christ's Own Teaching

24:17 Why, it is Moses who stands as the head of the theocracy, who was the greatest of all the prophets, the one with whom God spoke face to face. He did not speak to him in dream or in vision, but spoke to him face to face as man with man. Then there is Elijah, under whose ministry the theocracy was restored when, as it were, God was about to utterly cast off His people because they had gone a-whoring after other gods. He stands, as it were, at the head of the whole school of the prophets who became the instruments to maintain some semblance of true religion in Israel. Now these two mighty giants of the prophetic school are standing. Jesus is standing in the midst. And Peter says, in essence, let us capture all three and let us maintain this relationship together.

25:13 The Scripture says, a voice from heaven says, this is my beloved Son. Listen to Him. All that Moses ever said points to Him. All that Elijah ever said points to Him. And now that He has come, He's done with Moses and done with Elijah. And embrace Him who is the fulfillment. Hear Him. And then the Scripture eloquently says, they saw no man save Jesus.

25:44 only. What do we learn from this? We learn that in the period of manifestation, Jesus Christ is indeed God's final prophet. John the Baptist points to him as such. The Father speaks from heaven, declaring him to be such. Then as we behold our Lord and listen to him speak, There is that node of prophetic authority and finality that is almost at times breathtaking. We can't imagine what it would be like to see someone who appeared in the common garb of a young rabbi, saying in the face of all of the great learned doctors of the law, you people have heard what this bunch have said, but I say unto you, my word takes precedence over all their word.

26:38 To hear him say, My words are spirit and my words are life. He that rejects my words shall be damned. My words are the arbiters of the destinies of men. No wonder the crowd said, Never man spake like this man spake. They nudged one another and said, He appears in the garden.

27:19 with authority. And so our Lord is seen again and again throughout the period of manifestation, exercising that prophetic role. He prophesies His own death. Everything comes to pass as He declares. And then after His resurrection, in this period of manifestation, He's still fulfilling the role of a prophet, the infallible interpreter of the mind of God. And in Luke 24, we have the record of our Lord still functioning as a prophet,

27:49 We read in verse 44 of Luke 24, And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, And here the great prophet, who by his Spirit moved the former prophets to write what they wrote, the one who moved them to write the words, himself now exegetes them and interprets them with the finality of God's final prophet. And we turn to the book of Acts and we have this thread of thought picked up in the opening words. Notice how careful Luke is to underscore this.

28:46 The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus, notice now, began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was received up, after that he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God. Here the great prophet, who speaks the words of God, himself is unfolding the mind and will of God with respect to his own kingdom. Well, we've come through the period of preparation. Now we've seen in the period of manifestation, he is prophet, attested so by John the Baptist, by the Father from heaven, by his own words, by his own act,

Period of Explanation: The Apostolic Writings

29:43 What about the period now of explanation, the period of the apostles, when our Lord goes back to heaven and the concerns of the church are resting in the hands of the apostles? These especially equipped messengers, these with peculiar authority, who form foundation stones in the very church of Christ, as we read in Ephesians 2.

30:07 Well, Acts 1, 1 and 2, as we just read, intimates that Jesus was not done teaching. He says the former treatise, referring to the Gospel of Luke, is a record of all that Jesus began to do and to teach. Well, where is the record of what He continued to teach? Well, that record is what we have in the apostolic writings. In those writings which come to us by the inspired penman of the New Testament, For our Lord promised this extension of the prophetic ministry in John chapter 16. Notice carefully the language of verses 13 and 14. John 16 verses 13 and 14. Perhaps we should back up to verse 12. I have many things to say unto you. The infallible final prophet has not fully disclosed the mind of God to his people.

31:01 He said, there are many more things I would disclose to you. Many more of the words of God I would make known to you. But you cannot bear them now. Well, does that mean the church forever forfeits those words? No. Listen. How be it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth. I have given you some. There is much more. I am withholding it now, but I will not withhold it forever.

31:31 The Spirit will come, and when His work is complete, you will be brought into the orbit of all the truth. This is a word of peculiar promise, focusing upon a special ministry that would be performed by the apostles. For He shall not speak from Himself, but what things whoever He shall hear, these shall He speak. And he shall declare unto you the things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and declare it unto you. What is the Spirit conveying? He's conveying the mind of the great prophet. He shall take of mine. He shall not speak of himself. He shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you. With the result that the people of God would have fulfilled for them the promise that they would have all

32:24 why the apostles, when they wrote, were self-conscious that they spoke the very words of Christ. Very quickly, I give you some of those indications. Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 2, 12, and 13, concerning the great mysteries of the gospel, which things we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but in words which the Spirit teacheth. Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 14, 37, if any man is a prophet and spiritual, he Let him acknowledge that the things that I say unto you are the very commandments of the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 2.13 God be thanked that when you received the message from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. 1 Timothy 6.3 Paul has been giving some very practical directions and he says, If anyone consenteth not to wholesome words, even to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says his instructions are the

33:23 are the very words of Christ. You say, Pastor Martin, why are you getting excited, cold and all? My friends, this is something to be excited about. Christ did not leave us with an incomplete revelation. He did not allow the dullness of His disciples to be a permanent barrier to the full disclosure of the mind of God. I have many things to say. You cannot bear them, but you shall eventually have them.

33:52 prophet has disclosed his mind. And then we have it in that final expression in Revelation 1 and verse 1. What is the focus in that final book of the Scriptures? The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show to His servants the things which must shortly come to pass. Here is Jesus Christ exercising His prophetic ministry This is the revelation of Christ which God gave Him to show to His servants so that when we come to the final words of this book, we are told whoever adds to this book shall have the plagues added. Whoever subtracts, his name shall be subtracted from the book of life. My friends, it is no convenient little Protestant cop-out to talk about the finality of

34:52 See if the Word is not there.

35:21 intertwining of the offices, Ephesians 5 says, Jesus Christ nourishes the church. And one of the expressions of His loving, nourishing concern is that He did not cease to be a prophet when He went back to the right hand of the Father. From that posture of exaltation and power, He sent the Spirit. And among the many offices and functions of the Spirit, He this marvelous function, the Spirit becomes in the consciousness of the apostolic writers, He becomes the very mouthpiece of our great prophet, so that their words are His words. And in opening up the Scriptures, we are confronting our blessed Lord Himself speaking to us as our prophet. Well, then the apostles are dead.

Period of Expansion to Culmination: Scriptures and Preaching

36:21 We've seen he was a prophet in the period of preparation, in the period of manifestation, in the period of explanation. But now the last of the prophets is gone. Did Christ cease to be a prophet except in terms of his words being in the Bible? My friends, in the period of expansion to the culmination, and that's where we live. After the death of the apostles, we may call the timeline the period of the church's expansion until the culmination.

36:51 He is still a prophet. And how does he exercise that prophetic office? He exercises it by wonderfully giving to men the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments, preserving in a marvelous way the integrity of the Word of God, and secondly, by securing and maintaining a standing office of the ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ, Ephesians chapter 4. When he ascended on high, he gave gifts to men. And one of those gifts is the pastor-teacher function. And it's in this very area that Christ, this prophet, continues his mighty work. Listen to his words. Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. Now, he says, they're actually going to hear my voice. They shall hear my voice.

37:50 There shall be one foe, one shepherd. Romans 10, verse 14. How shall they call on him whom they have not heard? How do we hear the voice of Christ in this day? We hear the voice of Christ when those who are sent by the authority of Christ speak the word of Christ. My friends, listen to bring it right down home to where we live. When anyone stands in this place and opens up this word, and accurately expounds that word in your hearing, Jesus Christ is present, exercising His office of a prophet. As I said last week, no preacher dare claim to be a prophet in this sense. No, no, the preacher in that sense is a teacher, an expounder of the mind and will of God as given in the Scriptures. But listen, Christ exercises His prophetic ministry through the standing ministry that is in the church

38:53 To despise the preaching of the Word is to despise the great prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. To be indifferent to that Word is to be indifferent to our great and ever-blessed prophet. So let us say in summary, we behold our Lord in the majesty of His office as a prophet, God's final prophet from the period of preparation, manifestation,

Summary and Application

39:23 the period of explanation and now expansion and culmination? Who is it that has unfolded the mind of God to the church, providing in the language of the old confession all that is necessary, all things concerning the church's edification and salvation? It is the great prophet himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. dear Christians, may I urge you this morning to worship and love Him as your prophet. Is not that the very thing that Peter did when the Lord, having spoken as God's final prophet, some things that were hard upon the ears, and multitudes now reject Him as a prophet. They say, as long as He speaks

40:18 begins to speak hard things, it says in John 6, they went back and walked with him no more. And he turns and he says to Peter and the others, will ye also go away? They say, Lord, to whom else shall we go? Thou, thou, thou hast the words of eternal life. There is no other prophet.

40:46 Is that the attitude of your heart to your blessed Lord? Not only when you read those passages that are easy to be understood, that are precious and sweet to your taste, but when you come to the hard saying, such as we read in Luke 9 this morning,

41:21 you, Lord, Lord. To whom else can I go? If I reject that word, the only consistent thing is to reject the other words, those words which say, come unto me. All ye that labor, him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again. You see, you can't

41:50 no prophet to you at all. When he talks about hell, when he talks about outer darkness, when he talks about the pains of the damned, he is God's prophet. Do not question his word. But God says, he that does not hearken to all that he says shall be cut off. That's serious business, my friends. Don't you toy with him. He's God. Christian worshipped

42:22 him as God's final prophet. And I say to the unbelievers sitting amongst us, remember the words of Acts 2.23, It shall come to pass that whosoever shall not hearken to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed. My friend, Christ is not here in the flesh, but when his word, his commands, his invitations are given by his servants, Christ

42:50 as the final prophet is addressing you, and he says to you, Repent, believe the gospel, forsake your sins, turn from self-will and self-righteousness, take up a cross and follow me. My friend, you are not dealing with us. I speak to some of you dear young people. You have become so accustomed to my voice and the voice of Pastor Fisher and others that you have learned a trifle with these things.

43:27 I read to you that solemn word, it shall come to pass that whosoever will not harken to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Jesus Christ will be glorified in your obedience to His word of mercy or your obedience to His word of damnation.

43:54 If you will not hearken to his words of grace, come! You will hearken to his words of judgment, depart from me, ye cursed! Oh, my friend, don't trifle with this great prophet. What a wonderful thing it is to know that my prophet who tells me nothing but truth is my priest who forgives, who cleanses, and intercedes for me.

Closing Prayer

44:24 O God grant that you will hearken to Him today. Him who is God's final prophet. Who speaks to you in the word. Even in this place. Let us pray. Our Father.

44:52 What thanks can we render to you that in grace and mercy you would ever disclose your mind to us? We remember your word which says, Who knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, no man knoweth the things of God save the spirit of God. Lord, we know that we could never have penetrated your thoughts by searching for but we thank You that You've disclosed them to us. We thank You supremely for that final and complete disclosure of Your heart in the person of Your dear Son. O God, we thank You that He has exegeted all that You are. We have heard of Him that You are light. We have heard of Him that You are love.

45:47 And though the thought of your burning holiness fills us with dread, the thought that you have sent your Son to be the propitiation for our sins fills us with hope. We pray that all of us will come to a new appreciation of Him who is your final prophet. We pray that as a congregation we may love Him as our prophet. We may honor His word, that we may obey that word.

46:16 We pray for impenitent sinners who sit here this morning, who will not hearken to that prophet. O God, don't allow them to destroy themselves in their impenitence and their unbelief. Deal mercifully with them and bring them broken to the foot of Your Son. Thank You now for Your presence with us, for the privilege of contemplating our Lord Jesus Christ in the glory of His prophetic office.

46:45 Receive then our praise.