In this sermon, the speaker discusses the spiritual famine that exists in the land, where people are lacking the word of God. He emphasizes the importance of preaching and proclaiming the word of God to bring about repentance and salvation. The speaker references the book of Amos, where it is prophesied that there will be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. He also shares a story about a young man who participated in a parade to spread the gospel. Overall, the sermon highlights the need for the word of God to be preached and received in order to bring about spiritual transformation.

Hello, welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. I'd like to preach a message this morning on something that has been on my heart many, many years, I should say. And I believe a message that is needed in our day. Something that I have pondered for many years and watched and studied and thought about. And that is the title I'd like to call it, Prophets, Prophecy and Prophesying. And maybe a secondary title would be, The Role or Their Role in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. What is the role of the prophets in the Old Testament? What is their role in the New Testament? And prophecy and prophesying, all kind of flows together. So I would like to, if I may, do some teaching on that and preaching. Maybe we can look at what prophets are or what they have been in the past and are there prophets today? And how do we look at prophecy today and so forth? That's some of the questions that I have and that I would like to teach on and maybe answer this morning, if we can. Maybe one of the first questions that we could ask is, what is a prophet? What is a prophet? What comes to your mind? Anyone? Somebody that hears from God? Okay. Someone who proclaims. Okay. A seer. One who sees. That's right. Anyone else? One that speaks forth the mind and will of God. That would include His Word. Speaking of His Word. I have some notes here this morning, but I don't know if the Lord wants me to use them or just to preach from His Word and from my heart. It's something that's been on my heart a long time. So, I want to mind the Lord in all of that. I do have a burden that we as a congregation would be able to discern the prophets of today, what their role is and how they function in the church today. And I believe it's good for us to look at the prophets in the Old Testament a little bit. To get a good solid foundation of what a prophet is and what he does or what he did do in the Old Testament. I do believe that the prophets in the New Testament play a different role than the ones in the Old Testament. And there's a difference in them. A prophet basically is one that foretells. Often one who is divine inspired to communicate God's will and His message to the people. And also to disclose the future. That was specifically, especially true in the Old Testament. If we were to put ourselves back in the early days of say, Genesis and Exodus. After the fall of man, we would have to conclude that man did not know much about God. Man certainly did not know much about God. After the fall in the garden, I believe Adam and Eve, they knew God. But after the fall, after sin entered into the world, it seems like man lost their view and their vision of who God is and who God was. And so God ordained men of old, holy men of old, inspired by the Holy Ghost to proclaim who He was, what He is like, what He does and to look and to prophesy of the coming one. The great job that the prophets of the Old Testament had was exactly that. First of all, it was to proclaim the coming Savior, the Christ. And what He would do and how He would live and where He would be born. And so many of the prophets, they looked down there prophetically anointed by the Spirit of God and they proclaimed the will of God. And they made God known to His people by their means of prophesying. That was the means whereby the people got to know who God is and what He is like. And we today have much of that written in the Old Testament. We have major prophets and minor prophets and most of us are familiar with many of them. These prophets were men of God. Many of these prophets received their call or their appointment to prophesy directly from God. Some prophets were even called before birth like John the Baptist and Jeremiah. The authority of their message came from God alone. We have Isaiah who prophesied beautiful things of the coming Christ. We have Ezekiel, Daniel. Many of these prophecies have already been fulfilled. There are yet some that will be fulfilled in the future. Some are perhaps being fulfilled today, in the church era and so forth. Many of the Old Testament prophets, they acted out their message dramatically. Like Isaiah, he went naked for three years. Naked and barefoot for three years. Ezekiel lay on his side for 390 days and he lay on his other side for 40 days. They did some of these things. They not only spoke the Word of God, they also acted it out in a sense that people could see. I'm sure they would have called them weirdos today. Amen? They appeared from all walks of life. Shepherds, farmers, princes like Abraham, priests like Ezekiel. Women and children became prophets, prophetesses. And sometimes God even used ungodly men like Balaam to proclaim His Word. I don't know that I have all the answers to that. And even Saul, King Saul, who was prophesied when he was in wickedness, but it still says that he prophesied. So, that's a little bit about prophets. If we think about prophecy, it is simply predictions about the future, end time, special messages from God being uttered by humans to indicate, make known, reveal the mind and will of God. The focus of all prophetic truth is Jesus Christ, who was destined to be the greatest prophet. He declared God's truth in this age and the age to come. He is the embodiment of truth. He is the fulfillment of many, many prophecies and so forth. Well, let's look a little bit at the role of prophets in the Old Testament. They were to communicate the will in the heart of God to the people. They were to foretell the coming of Christ. They were to warn of sin and of danger and to predict the future and to encourage God's people. That was the role of prophets in the Old Testament, specifically. When you think of prophets in the Old Testament, which ones come to your mind first? Isaiah. Elijah. Often times we think of them, but we don't often think of David as a prophet, do we? In my mind, I think of David as king. But most of the Psalms seem to have been penned by David, and those are prophetic. David was a prophet, without a doubt. Abraham was a prophet. Noah was a prophet. Enoch was a prophet. Moses was one of the greatest Old Testament prophets and so forth. And almost without fail, and I think it is without fail, they all would speak of the great day of the Lord that is to come. Almost all the prophets. And most of them spoke surely of Christ. What about false prophets? Are there false prophets today? I believe that there is. We'll look at some scripture later on. But Jesus learned much about false prophets and false Christ. But there were false prophets in the Old Testament. Let's begin by going to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 18 is one of the clearer pictures of yea or nay on prophets, true or false. Here we have Moses declaring in chapter 18, verse 15, that the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. This is the book where Moses once again brings the law. Dut means to and it's the second time that Moses brings the law to Israel before he dies. And so he's telling them that after his death he's giving them some direction what's going to happen. He says in verse 15, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me. Unto him ye shall hearken. According to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the days of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire no more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. In other words, Israel was saying to Moses that on the day that God spoke from the mountain, they didn't want to hear his voice. They were afraid of that. So they said, Please, Moses, you go talk to God. Then you come and talk to us. And God is simply saying, Because of that, I'm going to send them prophets. I'm going to speak to them that way. And then he says in verse 18, Again, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. Moses is telling the people, or God is speaking to the people through this, and he's saying, I'm going to raise up a prophet amongst you, one like yourselves, him you shall hear. And the people, of course, they question, Well, how do we know if this is the true prophet? How do we know which one is the true prophet, and how do we know that we have to listen to him? He gives some direction there. Verse 21, If thou stand in heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? Verse 22, When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken. It presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him. This prophet that God is speaking of here is Christ. Christ, this prophet is going to come, him shall you hear. Listen to this one that is to come, Moses is saying. And that is Christ, the greatest prophet of all. But the picture here is that there will be prophets who speak presumptuously. There are men who say things that are not true. There are men who say things with wrong reasons, and so forth. You can see it through the Old Testament again and again, which we want to look at some of those. One of the things that I would like to do is to help us to understand the nature or the character of false prophets, and what they do and what they say. Maybe some of you have been in circles where there's been congregations or church services where there's been prophetic utterances given. Someone would get up and they would prophesy and speak, quote, in the name of the Lord, and prophesy something. Many times they will maybe say things that will be happening or be coming, or maybe they will be speaking specifically to you. And in some circles that is very much the picture of spirituality is when you can get up and you can say something in the name of the Lord and prophesy over another person. Some of those, some of that may be right in a good place today, but I do believe that most of it is not from God. And so I believe it's important for us to understand some of these things. In 1 Kings 18 we have the story of Elijah who had a showdown with the 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah said, there shall be no rain until I say, and for three years and six months it did not rain because of what Elijah said. And Elijah knew the word of God, and the word of God in the law had said that if God's people fall away, then he's going to shut the heaven off, there'll be no rain. And in one sense Elijah simply put the word of God into effect by speaking those words, and therefore the rain was stopped for three and a half years. Then he met there on Mount Carmel with the 450 prophets of Baal, and there they had a showdown. And Elijah believed in the true God, and God answered with fire there. And then they took those 450 prophets, false prophets, or prophets of Baal, and they slew them. In that sense there was false prophets. We have also the story of Balaam. I believe that he was a prophet, but he was not a man of God, and how do we reconcile all of that, I'm not even sure. But God did seem to speak through him, even though he was not walking in righteousness, we would say. We have other stories of false prophets in 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18, where King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat went out to battle together. And there Ahab was the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah at that time, the kingdom of Israel had been divided. And there Ahab called up his 400 prophets to tell him whether or not they would win the battle. Ahab and Jehoshaphat were together against some other nation there, I'm not sure what it was. Ahab's prophets, the 400 prophets, they said that he should go up and they should prophesy. Let's turn to that in 2 Chronicles 18, see if we can find some, take the time to look at that. 2 Chronicles 18, in this story Ahab called for his 400 prophets and they prophesied and said that he should go up and they would win the battle. In verse 9 of chapter 18 of 2 Chronicles. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, sat either of them on his throne, clothed in their robes. They sat in a void place at the entering of the gates of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah, the son of Jinnah, had made him horns of iron and said, Thus saith the Lord, with these thou shalt push Syria until they be consumed. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And then King Jehoshaphat was not satisfied with those men, so he called and said, Isn't there a prophet of God amongst your people? And so they called for Micah. And the messenger that went to Micah, called for Micah, said, Micah, this is what the false prophets have prophesied, make sure you say the same thing. And so when he first spoke, he did say the same thing. And then in verse 15, the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou say nothing but the truth to me in the name of the Lord? Then he said, verse 16, I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master. Let them return there for every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did not I tell you that he would not prophesy good but evil? Jehoshaphat wanted to have a true prophet speak. And so then he said again, and the picture he gives there is that the Lord said, I saw the Lord, in verse 18, sitting upon his throne and all the hosts of heaven, standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab, king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spake saying after this manner and another saying after that manner. Then there came out a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. And he said, How? Wherewith? And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt entice him and thou shalt also prevail. Go out and do even so. Now, therefore, behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets. The Lord has spoken evil against thee. And the picture there we have is that the Lord simply allowed these evil spirits. The Lord seemed to ask the question amongst the spirits and said, Who will go and deceive King Ahab that he might go into battle and fall? And one spirit after another came up and gave a reason why he should be allowed to go and deceive and convince the king. And finally one spirit rose up and he said, It is I will speak in the mouth of the prophets. And the Lord said, OK, you have the right to go do it. You'll be able to do it. And so by that spirit speaking through the mouth of those 400 false prophets, they convinced the king to go. This is quite a picture of what happens, you might say. But let's not take too much time on that. You can always study it later on. But they did go out to battle. They did lose the battle. The king of Ahab, he did fall in battle there. Then let's also turn to Jeremiah for some other pictures of prophets. And we could look at Isaiah. And I want to also make mention of the beautiful things spoken in the word of God by Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40 to the end speaks a lot about the kingdom of Christ, the church and so forth. Beautiful, beautiful things that are spoken. Many of them, a picture of Christ. And those are beautiful things that we need to look at. Ezekiel, Jeremiah. In Jeremiah we have a little more, also a picture of Isaiah, Jeremiah, sorry, of prophets. And Jeremiah lived in the time of the captivity, in the time that Jerusalem was besieged. And there was false prophets in Jerusalem that were saying that Israel is not going to be destroyed. Jerusalem is not going to be destroyed. And Jeremiah was the true prophet. He was the only one standing up and saying this place is going to be destroyed. It is because of the sin of the people. God is going to destroy this place. And over and over again that happened. Let's look a little bit at Jeremiah chapter 27. Just briefly verse 14. Therefore hearken not to the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a lie unto you. These men were prophesying lies. They were simply speaking prophetically and deceiving the people with their lies. And I believe that much of that happens even today when men today, they sometimes speak prophetic words over people. And they convince the people that this is a message from God. And the people actually, the people will go and they will live their lives according to that prophetic utterance that has come upon them. That I want us to be very careful of. And I hope to be able to convince you or to show you from God's word why that should not be followed. That's one part of my heart. These prophets were prophesying lies. Jeremiah 28. We have the story of Hananiah's false prophecy and of his death because he prophesied lies. Verse 8 says the prophets, let's go to verse 6. The battle here was with the prophet Hananiah who prophesied that not only would the city not fall but that they would be able to go back, that the captives who had already been taken to Babylon would come back to Jerusalem and that the gold and silver and the goods that had been taken to Babylon would also come back. That was what he was prophesying while the armies were outside the walls. But Jeremiah said that's not true. In verse 6, even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen, the Lord do so. The Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied to bring again the vessels of the Lord's house and all that is carried away captive from Babylon to this place. And Jeremiah said, well that would be wonderful if that would happen. But he said, nevertheless, hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ear in the ears of all these people. The prophets that have been before me, and this is one of the pictures that I see how to discern true or false prophets. The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms of war and of evil and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesied of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known that the Lord has truly sent him. The picture that I see here is that the prophets, God's men, holy men of old, they prophesied and warned of danger. They prophesied again the sin of the people and they warned them that if they don't repent, then evil would befall them. The evil prophets, they often prophesied peace, blessing, they speak great, swelling words of blessing over people and by that deceive the people into thinking that they're hearing from God. But, Jeremiah is simply trying to make a difference between the true and the false prophets here. And down the end, Jeremiah prophesied that Hananiah would die because he taught rebellion against the Lord. And the false prophets, may I say, they teach lies and they teach rebellion against the Lord. And there's other areas that we could look at there. Old Testament prophets we're looking at. We love the prophecies of Christ and Christ fulfilled many of them. Let's go and look now at the New Testament. I think most of us would know and understand quite clearly the role of the Old Testament prophets. They were to proclaim the mind and will of God. They were to bring revelation of who God was and they did that over and over again. But what role did the prophet have today in the church? Is it the same as it was in the Old Testament? And I believe that we need to look at God's word in light of this and decide for ourselves how much should I be persuaded by so-called prophets today? And what is the role of prophets today? We have the New Testament opens up in the beginning of Matthew with John the Baptist. It opens up in the beginning of Luke with Zechariah the priest who at the birth of John he spoke prophetically by the Spirit of God and it makes it very clear that the Spirit of God came upon him there. He was filled with the Spirit and he spake. And also Mary, she also spake by the Spirit of God. Elizabeth, likewise, spake by the Spirit of God and the words that they said were words of truth. And basically the Spirit of what they were saying was a confirmation of the prophets of old. Let's look at that a little bit. Turn to Luke and notice what they were saying as they prophesied. Just very briefly, if we could look at Elizabeth's prophecy. She simply says, Blesses Mary, the mother of her Lord, and so forth. And it says in Luke chapter 1, Blessed is she that believeth, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And then Mary also, she prophesied and she basically prophesied Old Testament principles of how God works among his people. His mercy is upon them that fear him from generation to generation. Verse 52, He put down the mighty from their seats, exalts them of low degree, fills the hungry with good things, the rich he sends away. Verse 55, He spake to her fathers, to Abraham, to his seed forever. Basically, she's prophetically speaking and acknowledging that the timing of the Christ is here. If you study her prophecy, that's what you will see. She's acknowledging that now is coming the time of the Christ. And likewise, when Zacharias prophesied in the same chapter 68, he was still with the Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which had been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies, from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and so on. So, this is the spirit of his prophecy. It's not something new, you might say, but rather it is an acknowledgment of the fulfillment of the prophecies that already have been spoken. This is basically the nature of prophecy in the New Testament. A fulfillment of the prophets of old. And this is what the New Testament prophets are saying and prophesying in general. When we speak of prophets today, we don't necessarily think of them as prophets in the Old Testament, but rather, prophesying is preaching. And the preaching and prophesying of the New Testament is that of making known the mind and will of God, confirming the prophets of old, bringing them in and showing the people how God has worked through the prophets of old, prophesying of that which is to come, which is Christ, and that now we have the confirmation of that. And Christ has come. And that is what is the preaching of today. Do I say that there are no longer, quote, prophets today? I wouldn't want to say that. There are gifts of prophecy given to the church. But if we study the New Testament by itself, or look at the prophets and the works of the prophets and what they did in the New Testament, we find very little that they actually spoke prophetically. Why is that? What has brought the shift from the Old Testament prophets who by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost spake the mind and will of God and were revealing, may I say, God and Christ to come? What is different from that to today where we live? We are living under the New Testament, the New Covenant, and this is what I see very clearly. That it is that the Spirit of God has been poured out in Acts chapter 2 at Pentecost upon all the believers. And that all those who believe now have the Spirit of God within them and God communicates with them personally on a personal basis. Rather than just one or two men among the congregation, as it was in the Old Testament, where those men were the prophets and they were the ones who were divinely inspired by God to bring God's message to His people. That's what the Old Testament prophets were. The New Testament is a different setting. There really, may I say, the need for someone, for an Old Testament prophet today is really not here. Scripture has been written. All that needed to be prophesied about the coming Christ has been written basically in the Old Testament. The New Testament is simply a demonstration or a proclaiming of the fulfillment of those Old Testament prophecies. So, what is the role of prophets today? That's the question we're going to look at. That's what we're going to come to. First of all, I would say that 1 Thessalonians 5.20 says, despise not prophesying. But if we look at the word prophesying in the New Testament, it basically means one who proclaims the mind and will of God. The same as the Old Testament. And the word prophesying could also be used preaching. And so the word preaching and prophesying is the same. Because prophesying, what a preacher does is he preaches the word of God. He proclaims the word of God. He explains it to the people. He tries to reveal God to the people in a way that they can understand. That's the work of the preachers today. That is prophesying today. And we know that that is right because we have the examples of the apostles in the New Testament. Now some might feel like I'm not giving enough room for prophets today. I want to give room where there is right room for prophets to function today. But I do believe that there is a great danger of error there. Think with me in this sense. Jesus, when He was asked about end times, some of His first words were, Be careful of false prophets. Now it's very clear that in the New Testament era, there are many false prophets and false Christs proclaiming themselves or proclaiming what they have to say. But there's really no place that Jesus, as far as I understand, Jesus never told us to look to the prophets per se. That there's going to be prophets who are going to say more of God's, or going to reveal more of God's will per se than what is already revealed. That's what I would understand. But there are false prophets who will arise and do their thing. Despise not prophesying. The office of setting forth the truth of God is to be the permanent office in the church. So don't despise preaching. And not only when someone is preaching from behind the pulpit, but wherever there is preaching, do not despise it. You see someone standing at the street corner, preaching the word of God, lifting up his voice, never despise preaching. It is the duty, it is the office of addressing mankind on the great truths of religion and publishing salvation. This is to be God's great ordinance for converting the world. It should not be despised in no man who commends his own wisdom, who contends it. For it is God's appointment. The means which he has designated for saving people is the preaching of the gospel. There is nothing else that has so much power over mankind as the preaching of the gospel. There is no other institution of heaven or earth among people that is destined to exert so wide and permanent an influence as the Christian ministry or as the preaching of God's word. This is what God has chosen to use to bring people to Christ, to himself, is the preaching of the word. It is an influence which is wholly good. No man is made the poorer or less respectable or more miserable in life or in death by following the counsel of the minister of God. He who despises preaching or contends that which is designed to promote his own welfare, which is indispensable for his salvation, it remains yet to be shown that any man has promoted his own happiness or the welfare of his family by speaking evil or by having contempt toward preachers. In other words, do not despise preaching, is all that it's saying. Here's a verse I want you to think about in light of the change from the Old Testament prophets to the New Testament. In Luke 16.16 it says that the law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presses into it. It seems like the law, we understand that the law was until John. We understand that Christ came and brought the law of grace, you might say. But the Old Testament law was until John and it says the law and the prophets were until John. Since then the kingdom of God is preached. Since then the kingdom of God is preached. And this is the New Testament preaching. This is the New Testament prophets' work. It's that of prophesying and preaching the kingdom. This is a change, and I see this verse as a change from one dispensation to the other. That of preaching in the New Testament. So we understand that the New Testament work of the prophet is basically preaching. Or of prophesying, which means preaching. Paul said in Romans, So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from heaven, revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For therein, in the preaching of the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In 1 Corinthians, Paul again is writing, and Paul writes a lot about preaching and prophesying. But it's called preaching in the New Testament, basically. 1 Corinthians, it says, chapter 1, verse 18, For the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the cross, is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. The preaching of the cross is to them which perish foolishness. They laugh at it. They mock at it. They scorn at it. But to us, it is the power of God. For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It has pleased God to use the foolishness of preaching. Visiting with a young man in South Dakota. It's a fiery young man there who is just filled with passion for souls. He told me that in his town where he lives, they were having a parade. And he went to the head of the parade, the master who was setting this thing up, and said, can I be a part of it? Sure, he said, you can be a part of it. And he said, is this a good parade? Is this a godly parade? Oh yeah, it's a godly thing. Okay, fine. But I'll take part in it. So he took part in this parade down through town. Well, he made up signs and had some other brothers follow with him and they held these signs up, gospel signs. They took part in this parade through the middle of town. And the announcer who was announcing who each little group was, the ones in front of them were Harley Davidson's and he named them. And the Harley Davidson motorcycles and who they all were and what they represented and all that. And then here come these guys carrying these signs, which everybody thought they were fools, of course. All he did was say, this is so-and-so, this is so-and-so, and they went right to the next one. He didn't say anything about them. The foolishness of preaching. This young man walks up to a crowd of people there later on and said, is there any Christians here? Oh yeah, some hands went up. What is that? I need some help holding signs. Would you hold a sign for me for a while? They didn't want to be involved in that. But yeah, we're Christians, but I'm sure it was a reproach to them. It's a reproach to me if something like that happens. If someone comes to me and says, are you a Christian? Well, yeah, I'm a Christian. Well, maybe I'm not willing to hold a sign up in public and be deemed foolish. But God has ordained that by the foolishness of preaching, men might be saved. And this is the nature and character of the New Testament prophets, may I say. The New Testament preachers. I'd rather say preachers. This is what God has ordained. Who should prophesy? Or who should preach? Oh, that's for the preachers who are ordained and get up behind a pulpit on Sunday morning. Amen? No one says amen to that. That's okay. Who should preach? Everyone. Joshua was complaining to Moses about some of the men weren't ordained, per se. And Moses said, I would think that every one of God's people would be prophets or preachers. And that's the picture there. Joel said, it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Or let's put it in there, preaching the New Testament, right? Your old men shall dream dreams. Young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour my Spirit. So, basically, who should preach? Who should prophesy? All of God's children should be included, should be involved in opening up their mouth and proclaiming Christ. And that can be done in many different ways. You can stand on a street corner and proclaim Christ. You can share Christ with your friend over the phone. You can share Christ when you meet people. There's many, many different ways. But God, this is God's means of prophesying or preaching in the New Covenant. One verse I'd like to also look up here is the verse in 1 Corinthians 14, 32, where it says that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. What does that mean? The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. What I believe that that means is is that the prophet is not in a trance, that he's not in control. But the prophet is in control of his own spirit. He's not out of control. He is in control of his own spirit. What he is saying, he has full control of. That is very different from the false prophets who, in the pagan world, they were supposed to or they feigned that they were under an influence which was uncontrollable, which took away their powers of self-command, which made them the mere organs or unconscious instruments of communicating the will of the gods. This is the heathen, pagan gods. But that's not the case for the prophets of God. The prophets of God have a clear mind. They know what they're saying, but they are speaking under the inspiration of the spirit of God from within. That is one picture that we need to recognize and realize. The false prophets of the day, Jesus said, they shall rise and shall deceive many. There shall arise false prophets, false Christs, and shall show great signs and wonders inasmuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect. We have warnings of those things. And I just want to understand them very clearly by the time that we're done here. There's only... Who knows in the New Testament that there was a time or two when there was acknowledged in the book of Acts prophets. Agabus. Okay? Do you know where that is? Let's turn to Acts 11. This is... There's only several times that actually someone is acknowledged to have been a prophet in the New Testament. And what I see by that is that the role of the prophet in the New Testament is very different than the role of the prophet in the Old Testament. Acts 11. I believe it's 27. And in those days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch and there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples did something about it. They gave and they sent relief to the brethren in Judea. It says there came prophets from Jerusalem. And one of them named Agabus got up and prophesied that there's a famine coming. And they did something about it. It makes specific mention that it was... He signified by the Spirit. This is by the Spirit. And later on we also see in... Let's look at Acts 13. Verse 1. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers. And again, this word prophet could be interpreted preachers. But they were prophets. It does say prophets here. Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manon and Saul. They were prophets. Later on we have Silas and Barnabas are called prophets. So there are places that they're called prophets. But there's very few places that men actually prophesied in the New Testament. In the book of Acts after the days of Pentecost. Here is why I believe. As I have been pondering the work of the Spirit of God in the New Testament, especially the book of Acts following Pentecost, I see very clearly that the Holy Spirit was active in the evangelism of souls. The Holy Spirit is very active in the building of the church, of bringing the church together. And the Holy Spirit is very active not only in the evangelism of souls and church planting and church building, but also very active personally in the hearts and lives of believers. Go through the book of Acts and see where the Holy Spirit acted. Or where the Holy Spirit inspired people to act. Like Philip joined himself to the Ethiopian eunuch. The Spirit was active in the conversion of the household of Cornelius. The Spirit of God was active on the day of Pentecost and so forth. And there are many, many places where the Spirit of God worked. And the Spirit of God spoke to Paul. The Spirit of God spoke to the church at Antioch to separate Paul and Barnabas. And when Paul and Barnabas were sent forth by the Spirit, not the prophets per se, by the Spirit, Paul, on his journey of evangelism, was hindered from going to a certain place. The Spirit hindered him from going in a certain direction. And then the Spirit gave direction to go this way. That is the means whereby the New Testament believers are moved today by the Spirit of God who dwells personally in the hearts of every believer. Every believer should be in communication with God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit and have direction for his life that way, personally. And also for ministry. Now, this is what happened to me. Some years ago, I was a new Christian and someone came along and began to prophesy great swelling words, if I may say, to me, saying that God is going to use you and do this and this and this in your life. And I was a young Christian. And boy, you know, I really wanted to do great things for God. But what happened is that man fed that inner desire within me, unbroken self, that wanted to be seen of men. That is what happens when much of the prophets that are claiming to prophesy over people today, what they are doing is they are feeding that old man and pride within. And you just swell up in pride. And I really wanted to be used of God that way. I really wanted to be known, basically, as deep in my heart it was, I really wanted to be seen of men. And that prophet, he just simply fed that desire and made me believe, or tried to make me believe that I'm going to be some great person someday. That is one of the marks of a false prophet. They speak great swelling words. They speak of great things to come. They try to say, they speak wonderful things that God is going to do. And if you've ever been to some of those circles, you know exactly what I'm saying. I'm not saying that they're all evil. That's not what I'm saying. But I want to say the New Testament principle is what we must look at. We must understand the role of the prophets today, the role of prophecy today according to the Word of God, according to the Apostles and the Acts. And the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's writings. This is where my burden is really coming in at. Because there are people who are drawn away by this. I was visiting with a young couple some time ago. They lived in a distant state. We're visiting here. Out there, they had bought a large piece of property, had gone deep into debt for it, borrowed money from their parents and family, and refused to sell their property because it had been prophesied over them that God is going to use them here on this property for a great work of God. They believed that. And even though they were delinquent on their payments, they were failing to pay their debts. They didn't pay their debts. They kept going deeper and deeper and deeper into debt. Why? They were not following the Spirit of God or even biblical reasoning, but they were following the voice of some man or some person who had prophesied over them saying, great swelling things are going to be taking place in your life. And they held on to that. I believe that those are lies. I believe that teaches rebellion against the Lord. And we must be careful that we do not accept those things freely. Now I believe that when someone does speak, we need to consider it sometimes. But generally speaking, in the New Testament, as I understand it, there is no place in the New Testament that I see that one man is prophesying specifically over another man that that man should be totally listening to what he is saying. One of the things that happened to me earlier on in my Christian life, young Christian life, when this person prophesied over me or this person, Ashley, was giving direction to my life. He was saying to me that, you, Emmanuel, you, God wants you to go over there and do that. And I wondered, what came to my mind was this question, why wouldn't God tell me to do that? Why wouldn't God speak to me to go do that? And so I decided I'm going to wait. I'm not going to go because if God wants me to do it, He will surely speak to me. And I learned a lesson there. I learned to be careful when people speak great swelling words or when people claim to be speaking in the name of the Lord concerning my personal direction or walk of life. Now, I know that Agabus, there in the book of Acts, he did prophesy that Paul would be bound. And that came to pass. But Paul said, I'm not afraid to go to Jerusalem. I'm not afraid to be bound. I'm not afraid to even die for Christ. I'm willing. And though the prophet had prophesied that, and even then he went into Philip's house where there was, Philip's four daughters were prophetesses. It doesn't say they prophesied over him, but Agabus comes again and says basically the same thing later on. Is there a place for prophecy? I say, yes there is. We can read in 1 Corinthians 11 that a man needs to have his head uncovered when he prays or prophesies. A woman needs to have her head covered when she prays or prophesies. And I'm afraid we put so much emphasis on the fact that she needs to have her head covered we forget what it's all about. It's when she prays or does what? Prophesies. And my heart, like Moses, says, oh, that there would be men and women who would prophesy the will of God, the word of God, and so forth. A little bit on the role of prophets in the New Testament. We can read it in Romans about the grace given to different parts of the body, whether it's prophecy. Let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith and other gifts there of grace. And so there is a place where God does give the gift of prophecy. God does give the gift of, may I say, preaching. This is a part of the gifts of God. And it's a purpose. It's to exhort. It's to proclaim. It's to encourage believers and so forth. Also, in Corinthians, likewise, the gifts of the Spirit. One of those is prophecy. And many others there. Also, in 1 Corinthians 12, 28, it says, and God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues, and so forth. Next verse says, are all prophets? The answer, evidently, is no. Are all apostles? Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Does everybody have the gift of healing? And so forth. Covet, earnest are the best gifts. So we know that there is a place in the New Testament for the gifts of a prophet. One who can see. One who sees black and white. One who sees danger ahead. One who needs to give warning. And that's part of proclaiming the word of God. There's much more that could be shared about the gifts of a prophet and how they function in the church. 1 Corinthians 14. Again, we could look at that and learn much from that. We could go to the book of Ephesians. Paul writes to the church of Ephesians. What does he do? He's telling them about the gifts of a prophet. He tells them what that is supposed to be. He says in Ephesians that we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye are built together for the habitation of God through the Spirit, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And what is that? It is that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. And then it says that he ascended up on high and he gave gifts unto men. And he gave spiritual gifts, and one of those is prophecy. And it's for the perfecting of saints for the work of the ministry and so forth. Paul told Timothy, Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands. And so there's still the work of the the Spirit still works, like Paul laid hands on Timothy at the ordination evidently, and gifts were given. We're not to neglect those things. Hebrews 1 also speaks very clearly of, I believe, of the shift from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Listen to this. Hebrews 1.1 God, who at sundry times in divers manners spake in times past, unto the fathers by the prophets, that was in the past, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. And so it's very clearly a shift there, that God in former times spoke to the people by prophets. Now in these last days has spoken to us by his Son. And this Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy 18. He is come. He is one from among them. One of the brethren, raised from among them. This is the fulfillment of that prophecy. It is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who came and He worked among men. He preached the kingdom. He showed who the Father really is. He went to the cross. He bled and He died. He gave His life a ransom for all mankind. And there He poured out His soul and there poured out His blood to redeem mankind. Then He was buried, but God raised Him from the dead and took Him back up to heaven, seated Him on His right hand in heaven and places. And then it says He poured out His Spirit upon mankind. And since that, Pentecost, Acts 2, the New Testament church operates by the Spirit of God working through individual people. And everyone who is born of God, who is born of the Spirit, has the Spirit of God within. And you and I are supposed to be functioning as the Spirit of God leads us, as the Spirit of God works in us, as the Spirit of God guides us and gives us direction for life. No longer do we depend on one prophet out there or the preacher on Sunday morning alone to tell us what to do. Rather, the preacher, now he simply opens the Word of God. He reveals the Word of God. Yes, he does prophesy. Yes, he does preach the Word of God. And he gives direction. He opens the Word of God. He reveals more of it. He helps people to understand it. He communicates the mind and will of God to the people. And then you who have the Spirit of God, we who now have the Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts, when the Word of God is preached by the anointing of the Spirit of God, then the Spirit of God within says, Amen, that's true, that's right. This gives me direction for my life. And that's what we're called to do today. We're called to walk in that way. I believe that we need to renounce some of the words of those false prophets. If you are bound by what a prophet has spoken over you in times past, if you're bound by that, then you need to renounce it. Because when something like that is spoken over you, and you put stock in it, you put faith in that, you believe it to be true, and you begin to walk your life out because of that, if that is a false prophet, your life will go downhill. Your life will go downhill. You will lose out in your spiritual discernment. Why? Because you have listened to man rather than the Spirit of God dwelling within. And you've listened to man because of the great swelling words of some prophet who proclaims to speak the mind and will of God to you and has prophesied over you what great things God is going to do to your life. But that same prophet most likely has not warned you of sin, and most likely has not warned you to repent of your sin, and to beware of evil and wickedness, but rather has lifted you up and swelled your heart in pride, and thereby you are falling. Thereby you have fallen. And if you are bound by the words of such a person, it needs to be renounced. You need to simply say, I renounce what that man said over me. I turn from it. I repent. I now acknowledge, I now concede that that was not the Spirit of God. And we have the New Testament principles in front of us, brothers and sisters, do we not? This is the walk, this is the life, this is the work of the Spirit of God in the body of Christ today. Does that mean that a brother cannot get up and speak prophetically? It doesn't mean that. I believe we need to be aware of that. I believe we need to have room for that. But it's not a light thing to get up and speak a prophetic utterance and per se, thus saith the Lord. This isn't a light thing. Because if it doesn't come to pass, then you immediately become a false prophet. But rather I would say, yes, we need to clearly proclaim God's Word, and we can prophesy and say that God's Word says, except you repent, you shall likewise perish. That's the proclaiming the truth today. We can proclaim the end times. They're the day coming when God will judge the thoughts and intents of the heart of man. And except you repent of your sin, you shall likewise perish. We can preach that. That's the Word of God. And that's what our duty is today is to preach and proclaim this Word of God and make it clear and make it plain for everyone to understand. For men to repent. For men to give their lives to Christ. For men to allow the Lord Jesus to be the Lord of their life in every area. And the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit coming within, He will guide you. He will direct you. He will speak to you. He will show you what way to walk in. Peter would say, Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand the suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed that not unto ourselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven, which things the angels desire a look into." The prophets of old, they didn't see the whole picture. They didn't have it all. They only saw parts here and parts there and parts here. And they took the Scripture. They tried to understand it, but even so, when Christ came, there still needed to be a revelation by the Spirit of God to have an understanding of that. And today, there needs to be a revelation by the Spirit of God in the heart of man for him to be able to understand or even see his need of a Savior. We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as until light that shineth in a dark place unto the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Speaking of the voice that came from Heaven, Peter is simply saying, we have a more sure word of prophecy. We have the risen Lord Jesus Christ before us. Maybe there are some questions that you have. Maybe there's some acknowledgement. Maybe you can see. Maybe you can identify with some of the air that I desire to bring out. I just encourage you, look at the New Testament examples of what the prophets did there. Be careful of men who speak vain, swelling words. There's plenty around. It happens every Sunday in many, many, many places. And they don't speak of sin. They don't warn of judgment. They don't warn you about sin, but they just simply swell your mind so much. And that's kind of a burden on my heart for this message. It's been a long time in coming. By this, I believe, my heart is that you would have a little bit better picture of the character and nature of true prophets, their responsibility, what they're called to do and what they should be like, what they should live like. A true prophet, one who prophesies the Word of God, he should live like what he preaches. More his talk than his talk. We have a parable like that. Also, the nature and character of false prophets. They speak lies. They teach rebellion. They like the applause of men. They like to be known and they like to be in charge. And they use, especially newborn Christians, new Christians, who want to be used of God. They play on that thing and Satan comes along and plays on that desire to be seen of God. Oh, it's so deceptive. And speaks swelling words. So, be careful of those things. But let us not despise prophesying. Let us look at what God really wants us to do. Let us all be preachers of righteousness. That's what my heart is. So, God bless you. Keep looking to the Lord. Again, my desire is that it would be clear to all of us. We would not allow ourselves to be deceived. But rather, look at the example of the New Testament disciples, apostles, Jesus Christ Himself in God's Word. God bless you. Well, how many of us desire to prophesy? Sisters? How many desire to prophesy? Amen. Revelation says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And in Revelation 19 there, John the Apostle, apparently he thought that... I don't know if he thought this was Christ that was speaking. It says in Revelation 19 that there was a voice of many people in Heaven. And then a voice came out of the throne, just one voice saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great. And then on down it says, verse 10, and I felt His feet to worship Him. And He said, See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus, worship God. So, apparently, this was a believer in Christ that was in Heaven, and that voice that came out of the throne was a voice of a fellow servant and a fellow believer. And that fellow believer prophesied these words that were spoken from like verse 5 through verse 9 there. And the picture there is the power of the testimony of Christ. Just simply, John bringing in that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. This is a prophecy that proceeded forth from a fellow servant in that throne room of Heaven, and the voice that spake to John. And so, each of us as believers in Christ, maybe you're a young believer this morning. Maybe you're young in the faith, and you're thinking, well, I'm not a preacher. Do I have a lot to say? Well, here it's bringing in the power of a testimony. If you carry the testimony of Jesus Christ in your life, there's great power there to prophesy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And it brings it in the example of what took place right there in Revelation 19. Okay, do we have some that would want to share this morning? Comment on the message or anything on your heart, Larry? Sisters, likewise, feel free. You're called to be prophetesses. Go ahead, Don. I want to say amen to the message. I testify that I have been there and I have myself even spoken false things to someone and later had to repent and go back and make it right. There are many dangers. So God bless you, brother, for laboring. Amen. Praise God. Up front here? Somebody in the back here? I appreciate that message and was able to learn some things from that. I was reflecting on a few of the situations in Acts with prophecy and how that fits together with what was shared this morning. Agabus, he was a true prophet. What he said came to pass. One day he told the church that there was going to be this famine in Jerusalem. And the church took notice. They listened to him. They gathered. As I read it, it appears they gathered things together before the famine even came. So they were able to help that time of need. A little later, he made a prophecy about Paul. He said, Paul, if you go up to Jerusalem, they're going to tie you up. They're going to bind you and put you in jail. That was a true prophecy. And Agabus, it appears, Agabus and Luke and Philip and his family and all the people who were there said, don't go to Jerusalem, Paul. Don't go, don't go, don't go. That wasn't the prophecy. The prophecy was true. And yet, their feelings entered in. Paul went to Jerusalem in spite of the prophecy telling him what was going to happen. Earlier, he said, I know that every city I go to, the Holy Spirit testifies that bonds await me. Now, how did the Holy Spirit do that? Perhaps every town he went to, someone prophesied that. Or perhaps God just confirmed that every place he went, every time he saw a jail, he said, oh, that's coming for me. I don't know. But that gives two examples of a true prophet and how the church responded. One time, they took action upon his prophecy. Another time, they took action in spite of his prophecy. 1 Corinthians reminds us that we are to covet the gift of prophecy. That's almost a command. Brethren, covet to prophesy. And it tells a lot of details there about that. And that prophecy, the prophesying there, I don't take it to be the great flowering words. But earlier in that chapter, it says, if an unbeliever comes into your service and you're all prophesying and he's putting things together, it says, if God is revealing things to you about his life, he will be judged by you and he will repent. That prophecy is speaking God's truth and it is speaking things that are revealed right then and there. Applying that. And so prophecy can really have a wonderful place in Christian ministry in our lives. It appears to be, as Emmanuel brought out, it appears to be more for judgment and discerning truth in a situation than for boasting up and lifting up. It seems to be mostly for prophesying and warning. Thank you, Emmanuel, for sharing. Amen. I'm very blessed also, Brother Emmanuel. Prophecy is lifted up very high in the New Testament. I'm very blessed with the Word this morning likewise. Go ahead, Jeff. Reading from the book of Amos. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea and from north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it. It's such a blessing to come home to my home fellowship and find the Word being prophesied in both messages. I think of the words of Jesus also where He said, You'll know if the things I teach are true if you'll do them. And I think what gives a prophet authority is that he's doing the very things he's preaching. And whether it's an exhortation to honor our fathers and love our fathers or an exhortation to have discernment regarding the spoken word of God. I'm so thankful that we are not famished in our fellowship. Sunday after Sunday we hear from men who are doers of the word as well as preachers of the word. It says here in 1 Corinthians 14 that he that prophesies speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. I think it's another version that says consolation there. It is such a comfort to be in a place where God's word is lifted up, both in deed and in action. Thank you for praying for me. It felt like I spent a month last weekend in Arizona visiting with pastors and different people about the burden the Lord had put on my heart to lift up divorce and remarriage. I don't believe that if it weren't for the prayers of the saints, I couldn't have stood firm. Some of it was just the time difference. I was going on about two or three hours of sleep a night, staying up late and getting up early. There were times when I just couldn't speak. I just sat there and wept listening to people sharing really from what was nothing more than the results of a famine in this land regarding this doctrine but many other doctrines. Doctrines that only in the last six years I've come to accept as just a part of my life. We live in a very hurting country. There really is a famine in the land. I even sat in a church service where the pastor preached the Lordship. He says in our country, everybody wants Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. We want Jesus as Lord. Amen. And he'd hold the microphone out and people would clap and cheer. But he really didn't say Lord of what. Just Lordship. And that really seemed to summarize the conversations I had. People know something's wrong but they really don't even know what they're looking for. And I can't tell you what a comfort it is to be prophesied at this morning. To be challenged and to be exhorted from men I know, from men who are walking with the Lord. So thank you Jesus for a church home where we get to have prophets in our midst speaking the truth to us for edification, exhortation, and comfort. I think, Jeff, that some of those same people with divorce and remarriage situations, they have been prophesied too that it's fine. The Bible says here in Jeremiah 23, it's not my word like... No, I wanted to read 28 first. The prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream. And he that hath my word let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? It's not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. He brings in the thought here that when there's dreams, all these great swelling words that are spoken, and then the word of God truly is spoken, he compares it to the chaff and the wheat. Let's just be aware when sometimes false prophets may come, to be aware that if it doesn't line up with Scripture, again, it may be chaff. It may simply be chaff that is being brought forth. The word of God is like a hammer. This is a subject that is one I've pondered time and again myself. Something that's kind of close to my heart. I was thinking through a lot of things. I did think of one thing that was very significant in the difference. Maybe not as significant as I think, but anyhow, I was thinking of the amount of transfiguration when Jesus took the three up there with him and Peter true to his nature, just reacted to what he saw there and said, let's make a tabernacle here for you and for Moses and Elijah. And the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Hear him. That brings down to us today. God is no longer sending prophets in the sense that he did in the Old Testament to proclaim his word, but he has said, he says to us, this is my beloved son. Hear ye him. In that, I would say, there's something I see very different in the New Testament and in comparison to the old. But even that I had to think a bit when Moses said that God would raise up a prophet among your brother and like unto me, there was no man that the Lord spoke through before Christ as he did through Moses. Every other prophet, if I'm not mistaken, that spoke after that built somehow on what Moses had given on the law and on all the things that we can read in Deuteronomy. Take Jeremiah, for example, when he was prophesying what the doom that was going to come on Jerusalem. He knew the word of God. He was giving some specifics as to how it would come about. But it was things that had been written down in the law of Moses that would happen to his people if they would not heed him. So you have Hananiah prophesying that in two years God's going to break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar off of them, of Babylon's off of them. But that was not in keeping with what Moses had written. Things had come to such a degree that Jeremiah's prophecy was in keeping with what Moses had written, whereas Hananiah's was not. And you can find that again and again down through. That there's a lot of false prophets out today. Yes, I think there is. But you know there was in those days too. There was probably far more false prophets than there was true ones. So it behooves us to be like the Bereans were. What we hear, preaching that is providing in the Old Testament sense somewhat, maybe prophesying of things that someone may see coming based on what's happening, based on what's written, that we search the Scriptures to see whether these things be so. It just impressed on my heart again today that it is exceedingly important for us to know what the written word of God says, that we not be led astray. But I did appreciate the message. I have a... Just really bless your brother Emmanuel for leaving the word and giving that to us. I just had to think, Tim, too, with what I just shared. You know, the hammer... The word of God is like a hammer. It breaks a rock in pieces. A hammer is... I mean, when the hammer comes down, things happen. Whereas in the... You know, when there's chaff, it's just light. But the hammer is when... You know, when the prophetic word comes across, then things happen. People's lives for the glory of God. Lives are changed. Sins are repented of. We'll have... I think we'll keep it to one more. Is there someone who has the other mic? OK, Tim, go ahead. Just a quick verse from my devotional time this week that I was blessed with reading in Jude about all these false prophets, deceivers and so forth. It seems like that's mostly what's there. But then at the end, he says, But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And then he talks about saving some of these. And I believe that that was what God really spoke to me. Praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping ourselves in the faith. And I was just very blessed this morning. Thank you for that clear message of direction. Tim. Praise the Lord.