In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of preaching the Word of God. He shares a personal testimony of how he came to experience salvation through the preaching of the Word. Despite the current lack of interest and tolerance for preaching, the preacher believes that it is still crucial in bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ. He then focuses on the topic of Christ as our prophet and encourages the audience to be patient and open-minded, as there may be more to learn and be blessed by in this seemingly dull subject.

Well, thank you, Dan and Wanda and Sylvia, for leading us in this time of praise. And, my, it's been a good time of praise. And isn't it good to sing that hymn, There Is a Redeemer. Now, I gather from our singing that we're not very familiar with that, but it's a good, good song, and I think, Dan, that we need to sing that again before long so we can get familiar with it. But, my, what a blessing, what a message. How wonderful it is to be able just to confess that truth. There is a Redeemer. There is a Redeemer. Where would you be if there were not a Redeemer? Well, since you ask, I'll just tell you where you'd be. You'd be without any hope at all. You would be bound for eternal condemnation. You would be under the just judgment of a holy God. So, let your heart sing tonight. Even if your mouth can't sing because you're not familiar with that hymn, let your heart sing that there is a Redeemer, because if it weren't for that, there'd be absolutely no hope for any of us. We would be, as Paul says there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we would be of all men most miserable. And so, how blessed we are to be able to confess that and to sing that, and how blessed we are to have a Redeemer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a perfect lead-in for my sermon tonight. This will surprise some of you. I want to preach about the Lord Jesus tonight. Well, I hope it doesn't surprise you, because in the months that I've been here, I trust that this has been my great, great theme. I remember the Apostle Paul saying, I'm determined to know nothing among you except the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. There are lots of preachers preaching lots of things these days. I think that many of them, when they stand before the Lord, they're going to stand there with great embarrassment, because they're going to realize that they really had one theme, and they failed to preach that one theme. And I hope that I shall not be embarrassed and ashamed. I'm going to have plenty to be embarrassed and ashamed about when I meet the Lord. But I hope that I will not be embarrassed at that point. I hope that I will be able to say, I preached the theme that I was assigned to preach. I preached the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to talk with you about the Lord Jesus tonight. And in particular, I want to talk with you about Christ as our prophet, Christ as our prophet. Now, you may be saying, well, I'm not sure this has been worth my time to come tonight, because that sounds like a terribly dull subject. Christ is our prophet. Well, there may be more here than you think. So be patient with me and listen, and we'll see if we can't find something here tonight to bless our hearts. Now we're in the series, Here We Stand. This is the series that we began several weeks ago now on Sunday evenings, and we still have good ways to go with this particular series. And I'm trying in that title, Here We Stand, just to convey to you that God's people believe certain truths so strongly that they stand on those truths. They're not going to budge from them. Here We Stand. And so we're talking about the doctrines of the Christian faith, the great doctrines. Now, we don't have time to cover every doctrine, but we're trying to cover the main doctrines. And we have covered a lot of ground, and we are in that part of the Christian doctrine or the Christian faith that deals with our salvation. And this is, of course, the best of all grounds to be on. And some Sunday evenings ago now, I preached to you about Christ, our mediator. And I told you at that time that a mediator is one who comes between parties in conflict, and he makes peace. And I talked to you about the conflict between us and God. It could not be any other way after we fell into sin. I mean, our fall into sin made it inescapable that we should be in conflict with God. God is holy. And our sin, of course, meant that we were anything but holy. So there is conflict between sinful man and holy God. And the need was for someone to step in between the parties in conflict and to bring peace. And the Bible says there's one mediator. Now, somebody may say, well, why is it you Christians are always insisting that there's only one way of salvation? Well, it's because there's one mediator, Jesus. Paul says there's one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. And it's because the Lord Jesus did the work that was necessary, that had to be done. He did the work that was necessary. That's the reason we say there's only one way of salvation. Only Jesus did what was necessary. And Jesus stepped into the conflict. And we talked about how that he added to his deity, our humanity. So now he's able to represent both parties in the conflict. He's able to represent God because he's always been God. But now because he has our humanity, he's able to represent us as well. Now, with that little review in place, I want to carry this work of mediation a little farther tonight. And I want to tell you that the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus required him to do three things. It required him, we might say, to fulfill three other offices. We might call these sub-offices of the office of mediation. He came to be our mediator, but that work of mediation required him to also fulfill three other offices. And one is prophet, and that's what we're talking about tonight. And a second is priest, and the third is king. Now, I grew up hearing about this. I grew up in a little country Baptist church near Vandalia, Illinois. And if that name sounds familiar to you, it could be that it's because Vandalia was the first state capital of the state of Illinois. And Abraham Lincoln actually walked in the capital building there in Vandalia. So we have our claim to fame. And I grew up in a little old country Baptist church near Vandalia, Illinois. And we used to sing these great old hymns that we have sung about tonight. And I remember some of our hymns using these three words, prophet, priest, and king. I wonder if you can think of any of our great hymns that use those three words, prophet, priest, and king. So I grew up hearing about Jesus as our prophet, Jesus as our priest, and Jesus as our king. I'm sad to say that I'm under the impression that many of God's people today aren't as familiar with these things as we used to be. Many are not as familiar with them as they ought to be. I know that's not true of any of you here. I know that you're familiar with these things, and I'm glad that you are. But a little bit of review won't do us any harm, will it? And so we're talking tonight about the Lord Jesus as our prophet. And this was an essential work for him to do in this business of making peace between sinners and God. Now the bulletin has the scripture passage as Hebrews chapter 1, and I want to end with that passage, but would you find, please, Matthew, the gospel of Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21, and we're going to look at verse 11, and then we're going to go to Luke chapter 24 and look at verse 19, and then we'll go into the gospel of John and notice a couple of verses, and then we'll end with Hebrews chapter 1. So if you've bought a new Bible, this is a good night to be in church because we're going to break in your Bible for you, all right? Matthew chapter 21 and verse 11, and notice this, the multitude said, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. We're just interested in verses that identify Jesus as prophet, and I am selecting some of those verses. I don't think that the verses I'm reading to you tonight are all of the verses. Look now at Luke chapter 24 and verse 19, Luke chapter 24 verse 19, and here we find Jesus walking with his two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the day of his resurrection, and they were talking about this stranger. They were talking about asking him if he was a stranger in Jerusalem, and because he was a stranger in Jerusalem, was unfamiliar with all the things that had transpired there in recent days, and Jesus said to him in verse 19, what things? And so they said to him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, notice it, who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people. Now go to John chapter 6, John chapter 6, and we're going to look at verse 14, and there we find that those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, and the sign here was the feeding of the 5,000, they said, this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world, and John chapter 7 now, and verse 40, and here we read many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, and you can read the saying back in verses 37 and 38, but when they heard this saying said, they said of Jesus, truly this is the prophet, and so there are some verses from the gospels that identify Jesus as a prophet, and now let's wrap up the reading with Hebrews chapter 1 and verses 1 and 2, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, and the author of Hebrews says, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, and even though Jesus is not specifically called a prophet in those two verses of scripture, you will see as you look at them that that's what's being talked about here, because the prophets spoke for God, and God spoke through the prophets, and in verse 2, the author says, God has spoken to us by his son, and so Jesus is the prophet. Now you know the job of the prophet, the prophet is to speak the truth of God to men, he represents men, he represents God before men, the the job of the prophet is to speak God's truth to men, he represents God to men. Now next Sunday evening, the Lord willing, we'll take the next step and we'll look at Christ as our priest, and I'll just go ahead and give you the definition for the priest. The priest is not one who represents God to men, that's what the prophet does, the priest is one who represents men to God, he makes sacrifices for people, makes sacrifices for their sins, and presents those sacrifices to God, and so he represents men to God. But the prophet represents God to men, he stands on behalf of God, and he declares the truth of God. Now may I simply tell you tonight, church family, that this is an indispensable part of the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus, and again, when I talk about the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus, I'm talking about Jesus, our mediator, making peace between holy God and sinful men and women, and I'm telling you now that in order for the Lord Jesus to make peace between God and man, he had to function as a prophet. Let me put it to you like this, there can be absolutely no peace between God and sinners until sinners hear the truth of God and submit to that truth. Did you get that? That is absolutely vital for everything that I'm saying tonight. There can be no peace between God and sinners until sinners hear the truth of God and submit to it. Now my friends, this is exactly the reason that so many tonight right here in our own community are not in the house of God. It's because they have not heard the truth of God, they've not submitted to the truth of God. You can't be saved until you hear the truth of God and you submit to that truth. In other words, in order to be saved, you have to benefit from the prophetic work of the Lord Jesus. You have to benefit from him as your prophet. Now you may be saying, well, pastor, I don't believe that I've ever heard the Lord Jesus speak to me. You talk about the Lord Jesus speaking to sinners on behalf of God. You have a Bible here in front of you, don't you? What is this Bible? This Bible is God speaking to you. You have here in the word of God, the listen, you have here the prophetic office of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Lord Jesus declaring to you the truth of God. And I tell you again, there'd be absolutely no salvation for anybody. There would be no peace between sinners and God if it were not for this word of God. Sometimes we sing these lines, listen, by God's word, at last my sin I learned. Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned till my guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary. How is it that you came to experience this wonderful thing of salvation? Well, you came to experience this wonderful thing of salvation through the word of God. Now we're living in very strange and very trying times. And we can occasionally, I hear this from time to time, people will say, well, why do you put so much emphasis on preaching? Don't you realize that people don't have much interest in preaching today? They don't have much tolerance for preaching. Don't you think that you could get a larger crowd if you would just dispense with preaching and do something else? Don't you think that if you had more entertaining services, if you tried to make people feel good, don't you think that you could fill the pews? Well, perhaps so. But my friends, we preach the word of God because the word of God is the means that God uses to bring people to the knowledge of their sins and to bring them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God for preaching. I was a boy eight years of age. This hasn't been all that long ago now. So don't say, well, boy, that's a long time ago. Well, I was a boy eight years of age. And thank God, one Sunday morning, my pastor stood up in the pulpit of Bethel Baptist Church near Vandalia, Illinois. And my pastor began to declare the truth of God to me. And as he declared the truth of God, you say, well, you say he declared it to you. Wasn't there a congregation there? Yes, there's a congregation there, but I could have sworn he was preaching just to me. I mean, it was as if he was talking to no one else and he was talking exclusively to me. And oh, the spirit of God fired an arrow of conviction into my heart. And I was saved that day. And I tell you that God used the preaching of the word of God to not only bring me to conviction of my sin, but also to point me to the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, don't you, that the sword of the spirit is the word of God. And if we expect the spirit to work here at Parkview Church, we need to make much of the word of God. And so this prophetic office of Jesus may be more familiar to you than you think. Every time you pick up a Bible, and my how blessed you are every time you pick up a Bible. But every time you do, you are holding in your hands nothing less than the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Lord Jesus Christ declaring to you the truth of almighty God. Now, what do we find Jesus talking about in this holy word? What do we find him talking about? Well, we find the Lord Jesus emphasizing several things. My, I don't have time to go into detail about this. One thing we find Jesus talking about in this word of God is the reality of God, the reality of God. He sets God before us. And he not only tells us that God exists, that God is real, but he tells us, and I've been referring to this all along the way. He tells us what God is like. And some will say, well, I know what God is like. God's just this grandfatherly character up there in the sky somewhere. And he's just so choked up with love for everybody that he wouldn't think of judging them. And so I'm okay because God just, God loves me so much. Well, my friends don't ever minimize, don't ever underestimate the love of God, but you need to understand that God is also a holy God, and he never expresses love by compromising his holiness. And when he loves, it is always in a holy way. And the Lord Jesus declares to us not only the reality of God, but he declares to us the nature of God. This is a holy God. And the Lord Jesus, I'm telling you that you have right here in the word of God, the prophesying of Jesus. And you have not only the reality of God and the nature of God here in this word, but you also have the reality of human sin, the reality of human sin. Oh, here's the great dilemma that we're in. Here's this holy God, because he is holy, he cannot himself sin, and he cannot turn his head away from our sins and act as if our sins did not exist. His holiness compels him to judge our sins. And so here's the great dilemma. It's the greatest dilemma in all of the ages. How can guilty sinners ever hope to stand acceptably in the presence of this holy God? Well, my friends, aren't you glad for the prophesying of Jesus? Because Jesus not only declares to us the reality of God, and not only declares to us the holiness of God, and not only declares to us the reality of our sins, but thank God, he also declares to us the way that our sins can be forgiven. And he is the way. I'm telling you that the Lord Jesus in his prophesying talks about himself. He is the major subject of his prophesying. The Lord Jesus talks about himself. You know, in the Old Testament times, the prophets pointed the people to the coming Messiah. And the Lord Jesus, when he stepped on the human, on the stage of human history, he was also a prophet, as I've been telling you. But unlike the prophets of the Old Testament, he did not point people to one who was coming, because he was the fulfillment of all of their prophecies. And so he pointed people to himself. The Lord Jesus said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And so this is what you have as you open the Word of God. The Word of God is the prophesying of Jesus. It's the preaching of Jesus. Oh, we get so familiar with spiritual things, and when we get familiar with them, we take them for granted. How many of God's people today are bored by things that ought to thrill their hearts? And some of you, you've had a Bible for more years than you can count. And you may have, if you're like me, more Bibles than you can count. And it's become old to you, and it's become familiar, and you're not excited about it. And when it comes time to go to church and hear the Bible preached, you're not excited about that. And when the preaching's going on, you're sitting there thinking, well, when's this man going to be done so I can get on to the important things? And I tell you, you need to go over the ground that I have been covering tonight, and you need to reflect on this, that this Bible is not just a book. It's not just white paper with black and red ink. This Bible is the preaching, the preaching of Jesus Christ. And he's preaching to you. And the Bible might take on a whole new glow in your eyes, if you would just remember, when you pick it up, that you are holding, as I said earlier, the preaching of Jesus here in your hands. It's the Lord Jesus Christ declaring to you truths that you need so desperately to hear. It's the Lord Jesus telling you about God. It's the Lord Jesus telling you about yourself and your sin. It's the Lord Jesus telling you about judgment to come. And thank God, it's the Lord Jesus telling you that there is forgiveness. There is forgiveness. I don't know that there's anyone here tonight apart from Christ. I think all of you profess to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God that you are. But I've met people down through the years. In fact, I've met several people who have said to me, Pastor, if you only knew what I have done, you would never say, you'd never say there's forgiveness for someone like me. I have been the worst of all scoundrels. Well, I tell you, as you open these pages and you begin to read these books of the Bible, you find the Lord Jesus prophesying. You find him preaching. And one thing he preaches is that the grace of God is greater than your sin. You're not a greater sinner, are you, than Saul of Tarsus was? I mean, we read in the book of Acts that Saul of Tarsus had a hand in putting godly Stephen to death. And we read in the book of Acts that here he was on his way to Damascus, and he was enraged against these Christians. By the way, as I read things today on the internet, I feel that I must conclude that Saul of Tarsus has come back to life, because there is so much hatred for Christianity. I was reading a discussion on the internet the other day that was going on right here in Jackson, and this guy said, I hate Christians. I hate Christians. And there was no outrage. There was no uproar from the others who were involved in the discussion. And I told Sylvia, if he had said, I hate black people, or I hate homosexuals, or I hate any other group, there would have been an outcry, and people would have been upset, and rightly so. But here's a person who can say, I hate Christians, and no one's upset, it seems. Or if they are, they're afraid to say so. Oh, I tell you, there's a war going on against Christianity already in this country, and it's going to get worse and worse as time goes by. And you and I need to be aware of that. But here's Saul of Tarsus. He's breathing out slaughterings against the church of Jesus Christ. He hates the church with utmost hatred. He would later say that he was exceedingly enraged against the church of Jesus Christ. Why? I don't know the details of your life, but you're surely not a greater sinner than Saul of Tarsus. And I say to you, my friends, God's grace was sufficient to save Saul of Tarsus, and if God's grace was sufficient to save Saul, God's grace is sufficient to save the biggest sinner in Jackson, Tennessee. Oh, aren't you glad for the prophesying of Jesus? Aren't you glad that he says to you in this word, come to me, come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. Those of you who are bowed down with a heavy load of guilt and sin, come to me and I will give you rest. I'm just trying to help you to appreciate tonight what we have in the prophetic office of Jesus. And I'm telling you that if it were not for that prophetic office of Jesus, there'd be no peace between us and God. This is his mediatorial work, part of it. He makes peace between us and God by telling us the truth about God and by telling us the truth about ourselves. And now the responsibility lies before us. After we have heard the preaching of Jesus, responsibility lies before us to submit to the truth, to not fight against it, to not rebel against it. So many tonight in Jackson are rebelling against the prophesying of Jesus. Jesus talks about God. Jesus talks about sin. Jesus talks about judgment. And Jesus talks about forgiveness of sin through his redeeming death. And they have no interest. They just shove it aside. Oh, my friend, I tell you that Jesus is speaking in this word and the responsibility that rests upon us is to submit to the truth of Jesus. Now, all of us who are Christians have done that, but we have upon us the ongoing responsibility to submit to everything that we find in God's holy word. It's never been stated any better than it is over there in 2 Peter 1 verse 19, where Peter says, you have in this word of God, a light that is shining in a dark place, and you do well to take heed to this light. Oh, how wonderful it is in this dark world to have a light shining in a dark place. It's the word of God. It's the prophesying of Jesus. Now, will you take heed to the word? Will you take heed to this light that is shining in this dark world? May God help us all to do so. And God's people said, let's bow together for prayer. Father, we thank you for the prophetic office of the Lord Jesus. Father, forgive us for ever taking this lightly. Forgive us for ever taking it for granted. Father, we know that we're saved because Jesus took up the work of prophet and declared the truth of God to our souls. And we heard about God and we heard about our sin. And father, we heard about judgment to come, but thank God, we also heard about Jesus. And now we're saved and we praise you and bless you and pray father that you would help us in these days to be freed from our lethargy, be freed from our indifference and to love these things again as we once did. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.