Radio Broadcast – Bible Study - Part 2

In our broadcast last week, as I have said, I commenced a series of Bible studies on the subject of prophecy in the New Testament Church. And I pointed out that in Acts 2, 17 and 18, God says he will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh in these last days. It also says that in those days of the outpouring of his Spirit, that your sons and daughters, servants and handmaidens, shall prophesy. You might remember I went on to say that the Bible clearly teaches that God has always spoken both to men and through men. Men actually heard his voice as he spoke to them, and men became his voice as he, by the Spirit, spoke through them. Now the majority of Christians, at least fundamental Christians, will not hesitate to acknowledge the fact that God did speak through his prophets in Old Testament days. But somehow they seem to think that with the coming of Christ into the world, and with the giving of the New Testament scriptures, that God just stops speaking. Now let's see what the Word of God has to say about this. Come first to John 16, verses 12 and 13, and listen to the words of Jesus. I have yet many things to say unto you, but he cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. Now notice these verbs, guide, speak, and show. Jesus said the Holy Ghost would not only guide men and show them truth by revelation, but that the Holy Ghost would speak. Now go on to Acts 2, verses 17 and 18. And again I repeat, it says that with the outpouring of the Spirit, sons and daughters, servants and handmaidens should prophesy. Go on to 1 Corinthians 14 and 1. Follow after charity and desire, not despise as some teach, but desire spiritual gifts, but rather that he may prophesy. Then verse 37, if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, that is, if a man wants to be willingly ignorant of these things, then let him be ignorant. And then the apostle sums up the teaching of the whole of the chapter and says, Wherefore brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak in tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order. Now one more scripture, Ephesians 4 and 11, And he, the ascended Lord, gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. To the Old Testament saints? No, he gave them to the church for the edifying of the church, the body of Christ. And as you read your New Testament, you will see plainly that there were prophets in the early church, and that God spoke through them words of guidance, words of direction, as well as words of revelation. Let me read from Acts 13 and 2. Now there was in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers. Now notice the significance, this was the Gentile church at Antioch, and they had prophets and teachers. And then it goes on and it says, As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, S-A-I-D said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. Verse 4, So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed. You see the Holy Ghost spoke, and obviously he spoke through the prophets. Then in Acts 15 and 32, And Judas and Silas, being prophets themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them. Barnabas and Paul, two apostles, were accompanied by two prophets, Judas and Silas, on that vitally important mission to the Gentile churches. Let me give you one more scripture. Acts 21, verses 10 and 11. And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a prophet named Agabus. And then it says that he took Paul's girdle, bound his own hands and feet, and prophesied. Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. Notice what it says now. Thus saith the Holy Ghost. Not thus saith Agabus, but thus saith the Holy Ghost. Now let's go on into the epistles. 1 Timothy 1 and 18. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them, the prophecies, mightest war a good warfare. Chapter 4 and verse 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Ephesians 3 and 5 speaks of the revelation of the mystery of the church, the body of Christ, which in other ages, says the apostle, was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. You see the revelation of the body of Christ came to apostles and prophets. Now surely these are sufficient scriptures to convince any honest Bible student that there were prophets in the New Testament church, and that the Holy Ghost spoke through them words of direction, words of guidance, and words of revelation. Some few years ago when I was pastoring a church in Montreal, Canada, someone sent me a copy of a magazine which contained an article entitled Apostles Today. And then there was a big question mark. And the writer was a very strong fundamentalist preacher who was supposed to be contending for the faith. And in the article he said, there has arisen a certain sect who teach that there are apostles and prophets in the church today. And then he went on to try and prove how foolish such a statement was. He said that the apostles and the prophets were in the foundation of the church, and that the church had no need of apostles, no need of prophecy today. And then he issued a solemn warning to the preacher, who was of course myself, that if I continued to teach that erroneous doctrine, I was adding to the scriptures. And consequently I was in danger of getting the plagues spoken of in Revelation 22 and 18. And I think this is the only time I have ever done it. But I replied to the article and begged him in my letter to print my reply in his magazine, which of course he did not do. And I gave him some of the scriptures that I have given to you today with some others. And I told him that prophecy does not add to the scriptures, prophecy fulfills the scriptures. And then of course I couldn't help adding the words that it is just as dangerous to take from the scriptures as it is to add to them. And if any man denies that God has set prophets and has given prophecy to the New Testament church, he is taking from the scriptures. Oh, I pray that God will open the hearts of all who are listening to me today to see the truth and to believe God for a restoration of his voice to the church according to his promise for the last days. Let me close by saying again, God says in the last days when I will pour out of my spirit, your sons, your daughters, servants and handmaidens shall prophesy. Now in our broadcast last week, I commenced dealing with Acts chapter 23, where we found the apostle Paul brought before the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem. You might remember that the high priest Ananias, filled with religious hatred, commanded them that stood by Paul to smite him on the mouth. And how Paul said, God shall smite thee thou whited wall, for thou sittest thou to judge me after the law and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law. And then later we saw how Paul used the gift of wisdom, perceiving that one part of the Sanhedrin was Sadducees and the other part Pharisees. And he cried out, men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am called in question. And when Paul had said this, he started off a battle between these two theological groups. The Sadducees said, there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit. The Pharisees confessed both. And then the Bible says, there arose a great cry and a great dissension, as these two factions began to fight among themselves. So much so, the chief captain takes Paul, brings him back into the custody of the castle, where he would be safe from those who would have taken his life. But now today, as we come to verse 11, we have what I believe is the key to the whole chapter. We have seen Paul in the presence of the Sanhedrin. Now we see him in the presence of the Savior. And verse 11 says, And the night following, the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so thou must bear witness also at Rome. And with the word of the Lord, the whole picture is changed. I want you to try and imagine, Paul, as he thinks over all the events that have happened. He's come to Jerusalem, bringing help from other churches and seeking to be of service to the church at Jerusalem. It seemed that he receives no word of encouragement from the church at all. And then his own brethren, the Jews, those outside of the church, had demanded that he be killed because he'd preached Jesus and the resurrection. And Paul was only human. There must have been a sense of bitter disappointment. He must have been discouraged. And if ever Paul needed a word of encouragement, he needed it right now. But hallelujah, verse 11 says, The night following, the Lord stood by him and spoke to him. The Lord stood by him. Ready, your friend, listening to me today? Let me say that when you find yourself in a place of severe testing, the Lord knows exactly how to come and to stand by you also. He's a wonderful way of making his presence felt when his children are going through fiery trials. The Lord stood by him. The Lord stood by him and spoke to him. And I want you to notice three things in the word the Lord gave to Paul. First of all, it was a word of cheer. The Lord's first words were, Be of good cheer, Paul. Be of good cheer. Don't be discouraged. You might remember the Lord used the same words when the disciples were caught in a storm. The storm was so bad that even those hardened fishermen in the boat thought it was the end. Read the account in Matthew 14. Here were a group of men taking a ship in obedience to the command of Jesus and run into what the Bible calls contrary winds. And their ship was tossed with the waves that any moment they might have been thrown into the sea. And then suddenly Jesus appears walking on the sea and the very first word he said to them was, Be of good cheer. I wonder if some of you listening today have run into winds that have been contrary, into situations when in spite of the fact that you have been doing the will of God, it just seems that everything has turned out all wrong. Oh, I want to praise the Lord this morning for the many times he has come to me with the same word, Be of good cheer. And there has come with his word a renewed sense of courage and confidence as I have realized that in spite of circumstances, hallelujah, God is still on the throne. But then the word of the Lord was not only a word of cheer. It was a word of commendation. The Lord said, Thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem. And the Greek word used here for testified is a strong word. It means to bear a thorough witness. Oh, it may have seemed on the surface that nothing had happened in Jerusalem. The church had given him such a cold reception. The Jews had sought to kill him. But Jesus says, Paul, you've done a grand, thorough job. You have borne a thorough witness of me in Jerusalem. Oh, what a sense of gratitude must have filled the heart of Paul, for he must have thought, may be, I should not have come to Jerusalem. Maybe I should have listened to the pleadings of the brethren in Tyre and in Caesarea. But now the Lord comes to him and commends him. Paul, you've borne a thorough witness of me in Jerusalem. Brother, sister listening to me this morning, let me remind you that the most important thing of all is to have the Lord's commendation. You remember Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10 and 18, For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. If others would misunderstand your motives, possibly criticize you, if the Lord comes with a word of commendation, all is well. But that is not all. The word of the Lord was not only a word of cheer and a word of commendation. It was also a word of commend. The Lord says, Thou must also bear witness in Rome. Now notice the divine must. As thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness at Rome. Oh, what confidence this word must have brought to Paul. There must have been times when he had wondered if he was doing the right thing. But now comes this word of divine command. Thou must bear witness also at Rome. And Paul knew that no schemes of men, no storms or anything else, would be able to keep him from doing the thing which the Lord said he must accomplish. Now let me briefly summarize the rest of the chapter, so you might see the hand of the Lord in divine protection and guidance. It says in verses 12 and 14 that over 40 men, Jews, entered into a conspiracy and swore they would eat nothing until they had slain Paul. Their strategy was to ask the chief priests to request the captain that they might have another interview with Paul. And at that time, they would find ways to slay him. But oh, hallelujah, the Lord knows all about the plans of the enemy. And so he sees to it that Paul's nephew overheard them talking about this plan to kill Paul. The young man was at the right place at the right time to hear the details of this plot. And so he goes to the castle, informs the chief captain of what was being planned. You know, as I read this portion of God's word, oh, there came to my heart such a sense of security. It's wonderful to know that our God is omniscient, that he knows all the plans and the strategy of Satan ahead of time. I don't know why, but Isaiah 53 and 17 has come to me repeatedly for weeks. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. You see, the enemy shall never catch our God unprepared. And so this wicked plan to kill Paul is made known to the chief captain, and he gives command that Paul be taken from Jerusalem to Caesarea to be tried before the governor Felix. Now think of this. The chief captain sends 470 men to guard this one seemingly insignificant prisoner, Paul. There can only be one explanation for such an action. It was the hand of the Lord in divine protection. Over 40 Jews had taken an oath not to eat until they had killed Paul. But the Lord had said, thou must bear witness in Rome also. And so 470 picked soldiers are sent to guard the servant of the Lord as he's taken from Jerusalem to Caesarea. And let me say in closing, if we are walking in the will of God, he has guaranteed to us divine protection and divine guidance.