Prophets, Prophesies, and the Sufficiency of Scripture

Scripture. So that's what you can fill in that place there that says sermon title.

And so Acts chapter 13, beginning with verse 1. Listen carefully,

Acts 13 · chapter mention

because this is the holy word of God.

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers,

Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan,

a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid hands on them and sent them off.

So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia,

and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

When they arrived in Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in synagogues

of the Jews, and they had John to assist them.

When they had gone through the whole island, as far as Paphos,

they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

He was, with the procouncil of Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence,

who summoned Barnabas and Paul and sought to hear the word of God.

But Elimus, the magician, for that is what the meaning of his name.

Opposed them, seeking to turn the procouncil away from the faith.

But Paul, who was also called Saul, filled with the Holy Spirit,

looked intently at him and said, You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness,

full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and

unable to see the sun for a time.

Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Then the procouncil believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished

at the teaching of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord.

You can be seated.

Heavenly Father, we pray now in Jesus' name for your spirit to fill us,

teach us, instruct us, convict us, encourage us.

Ultimately, Lord, draw us to Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,

in whose name we pray. Amen.

This morning, I want to use the first section that we just read about the prophets

and the prophecies, the number of them, in chapter 13,

Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manan, and Saul, and this reoccurrence that we keep

seeing in the book of Acts with all these prophets and prophecies,

and speak to you, do a little,

sometimes the preacher, if you give me a little bit of liberty,

I sometimes will squeeze a sort of topical sermon into the text,

but it does come from the text.

Note that i'm not just squeezing it in because i want

to it's here over and over again and i

thought it was worth even though it was about 10 months ago can you

believe that 10 months that we looked at acts chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

the prophecy of joel that there would be a multiplication of prophecies and

prophets old men young men even women and children prophesying all the time

with the coming of the spirit of god at pentecost why is that or why for instance

why don't we have a prophet here at Wilmington Reformed Church.

It'd be kind of cool if we had a prophet, someone to predict some future things

that might happen with our church, tell us the word of the Lord,

give us direction, and so forth.

And why don't we? Well, not just why don't we, but would that really even be

better than what we have?

I think many people think, yeah, that would be pretty cool. That would be better

because after all, it would be like the days of the apostles.

But what I want to try to use as an illustration to keep, and I'll use these

kinds of illustrations throughout the book of Acts, because in the book of Acts,

you're constantly confronting things where you say, wait a minute,

that's not happening today.

These things aren't occurring, and why aren't they occurring,

and don't we want them to occur?

Because there are vast traditions in Christianity that still want them to occur

and still think they do occur.

In fact, it marks their whole ministry that this is the place of miracles,

signs, wonders, and prophecies.

But I want to use the illustration of inauguration to help us understand this.

As we look at this, again, we see in Acts prophets and prophecies all over the

place. They're playing a pretty pivotal role.

But if you think about an inauguration as an illustration, the book of Acts

is a bit like the inauguration of this new kingdom of God.

And if you think about the presidential inauguration, you know that when the

president is elected, certified, elected, and when he takes office,

he takes office on inauguration day.

And on that day, I don't know about the rest of you. I like to watch it.

It's full of pomp and circumstance.

The president and his family and the former presidents are there.

And people, all the big wigs, the billionaires are all surrounding and the donors

and all the big politicians are all there.

And there's a lot of pomp and circumstance. It's there that the president usually

puts his hand on the Bible and swears an oath of office.

I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. and then he gives an inauguration speech,

which everyone's usually listening for because at that inauguration speech,

he's like, this is what's going to happen in my term of office.

This is what's going to change.

According to Trump, you know, it's going to be a golden age.

So this is the inauguration of the golden age.

And from there, it doesn't stop. There's much more ceremony.

The old president goes and gets on Marine 2 and flies away back out of the White House.

And then the parties began. It's pretty cool.

Lots of balls and parties and dances.

And the president and his wife will typically go from one ball to another,

cutting cakes with swords.

I don't know if you saw that. He cut the, at the military ball,

he took a sword and cut the cake and give a little speech. And then he goes

to another ball and he waves at everyone. It's really amazing.

Into the wee hours of the morning, sometimes almost all night.

The president and his wife won't get home till three in the morning.

But then what happens? The next day, he starts his term of office.

And if the president and his wife continued to throw balls and parties and celebrations

the same way they had during this inauguration period, you'd wonder when he's

going to get to work, what's going to happen.

In other words, the inauguration is for a short period of time and it's full

of a flurry of activities that you would expect for that period.

The book of Acts is a little bit like that.

In the book of Acts, we have this flurry of activities of miracles and signs

and wonders and tongues and prophets and prophecies in particular.

This is the inauguration period of the kingdom of God. Christ has been raised

from the dead. He's seated at the right hand of the Father.

And during this period, he's given these apostles as an inaugural period of time.

And the things that happen in the book of Acts, this is where we have to,

when we read it and when we preach through it, we see things we wouldn't expect to keep happening.

You would expect it during a celebratory time where things are being inaugurated,

but you wouldn't expect it when the term of office is fulfilled.

Another illustration is building a foundation.

Are we together? So when you have your inaugural period, you have your parties.

When the parties are over, the inaugural period is over, you begin the term.

Same is true of the foundation. And this is the illustration we see.

In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says to the church, which is us,

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you're fellow citizens with the saints

and members of the household of God.

Verse 20 of chapter 2, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Okay, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole structure

being joined together grows into a holy temple.

In him, you also are being built together as a dwelling place of God.

The apostles could be seen as that foundational period upon which the church is founded.

And once the foundation is finished, there's a building period,

which is what we are in today.

And so all the materials and all the items that are occurring in the foundational

period do not continue into the building period. it's a different time.

That's why all throughout the book of Acts, you see prophets,

prophecies here in our verse, our chapter.

There's Simon, who is called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, Niger meaning black.

So you have Africans, you have Europeans, you have Asians, you have Paul,

who kind of represents a Jewish community, and his name is now changed to Saul,

which represents the whole universal focus.

We're reminded that prophets and prophecies were the normal course of events for the apostles.

In fact, remember 10 months ago, we looked at Acts chapter two, and this is what it said.

This was uttered, that is what's happening, right? Tongues are happening,

tongues of fire and all these signs and wonders.

And Peter, when he's preaching, quotes from the book of Joel.

He says, in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my

spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy and your young

men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams,

even on every male and even female servants.

In those days, I want you to pay attention to those words. In the last days,

he says in Joel, and in those days.

So one of the critical things we have to keep asking ourselves is,

are we still in those days?

Because if we are, you really should expect some prophets, prophecies,

tongues, signs, miracles, and wonders. You really should, if they're ongoing.

But if those last days are fulfilled and finished with the age of the apostles,

then you wouldn't expect it, would you?

Because that's the building, that's the sign of the opening up,

the inauguration of this new church period, this new coming of the kingdom of God.

Are we in the last days? One of the questions we should ask ourselves.

I don't see anyone shaking their head any direction whatsoever. Are we in the last days?

Are we in the days of the apostles? Are we in those days, according to Joel, or the last days?

Hebrews 1 says the same thing, you'll notice. Hebrews 1 says,

long ago and at many times, in many

ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days,

He has spoken to us through his Son, whom we have appointed,

the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature.

And he upholds the universe by the word of his power after making purification for his sins.

So you keep seeing this phrase early on in Peter, quoting from Joel,

that the prophet Joel was predicting of days that were going to come.

In the last days, right, twice he mentions it. now in Hebrews,

it says that in the old times, he spoke through prophets, visions,

and dreams, but in the last days, he spoke through Jesus Christ,

his son. What are those last days?

I want to keep asking us because this is going to be pivotal for us to understand,

particularly in dealing with not only our Pentecostal brothers,

but vast millions, vast swaths of millions of evangelicals still want to believe

we are in these last days.

And as a result, you have all kinds of different modified views of tongues,

prophecies, signs, and prophets.

If the apostles were really inaugurating and introducing Jesus as the final word,

and if in that period, that period of the apostles, the scriptures,

the holy scriptures, both the Old and New Testament,

were compiled and completed as the canon or the rule of faith,

then you would not expect that we are still in those last days.

In fact, you'll notice something when you go throughout the scriptures.

There's a big change in the way Paul writes epistles or letters to encourage

pastors about the ministry of the church.

And he doesn't speak quite the same way that Luke does in the book of Acts.

Luke is talking about a building of a foundation period, whereas Paul will say

something like this to Timothy, 1 Timothy 6, 20.

Oh, Timothy, guard the deposit which was entrusted to you.

Interesting, isn't it? Different language. In the book of Acts,

it's like, let's take out tongues and miracles and signs.

You even have Paul doing something that I think is pretty cool.

You get to curse your enemies wow in

the name of jesus shut it right that's what he says stop it i'll blind you it's

first time you ever see the apostolic gifts by the way used in a in a in a imprecatory

way where they're cursing their enemies i have lots of pentecostal friends who

are always cursing everybody in the name of jesus in the name of jesus hallelujah and all this stuff.

But but paul doesn't speak that way once the foundation is laid paul is telling

the church and this is the age we're in, it's time to guard and protect and treasure.

A deposit that was given to you by whom? By the apostles.

During this inaugural period the scriptures were being compiled.

Paul throughout these missionary journeys that we're going to see is writing

letters to churches in Ephesus and Philippi and writing letters to the Romans

and those are what we call the Bible.

Those letters that we have now. And our job in our day is by the work of the

Holy Spirit to guard this deposit, to guard this treasure.

I'm no longer getting any new prophetic words. And some people might say,

well, that's a bummer. No, it's not. It's better.

It's better now. Those signs and wonders were there to point us to the better

days that would come in the fullness of Jesus Christ. When we have the complete

word and we no longer need prophets or prophecies or dreams or vision, this is a better time.

I keep convincing you of that because our Pentecostal brothers would say,

no, no, no, there's no fire.

What you need is fire, miracles. No, what we have, we have had the fire.

And by the way, we praise God for that fire.

There were miracles and there were tongues and there were signs and there were wonders.

And those signs and wonders and miracles and in particular prophets and prophecies

in those last days were bringing us to the better days that we're in today.

The days of Jesus Christ where he rules through his church with a completed word.

No need for anything else. No need for further words because it's complete in Christ Jesus.

Guard the deposit. Again, Paul says, we're now members of a household that was

built on the foundation of prophets and apostles.

So in this building stage in the book of Acts, we would expect things to be a flurry.

In fact, Peter says from Joel, there's gonna be a lot of prophecy,

prophesying and prophecies and so visions and dreams.

So much so that in Corinthians, Paul said, this thing is getting out of control.

Everyone and anyone is coming forward with a dream and a vision,

and we don't quite know what to do.

So we're going to need to organize this into interpreters and wait your turn.

And let's talk about your vision.

Let's think about this before you just jump up and start shouting.

And Paul even says to the church in our age, look, better things are going to come.

He says in verse 8 of 1 Corinthians 13, which we read, love never ends.

Listen to what he says. As for prophecies, they will pass away.

Paul's telling the church, look, those things which were a normal part of an

apostolic day, which would be pretty cool, I have to admit, it would be fun.

But those things which were a normal part, like prophecies, they're going to pass away.

As for tongues, they will cease.

This is where we get the word, you know, I'm called, I'm proud of it,

but some people think it's a naughty word, a cessationist, right?

That's the fancy theological word. You're a cessationist. You're one of those

boring guys that doesn't want any tongues or miracles or signs or wonders or fire,

By the way, I still want the fire of the holy spirit burning bright in your

hearts I want it coming from god and his word through this holy spirit,

But no, it's not that we're boring Or that we don't quite know I although I

i'll say as a side note some of you are getting better But some of you are still

kind of in the what tim hawkins calls the carry the tv stage you're way down

here I know it's hard to lift your hands up to here, but we'll get there.

It's not even about that, is it? It's not about raising hands or clapping hands

or whatever else makes you think a church is active.

It's about the Holy Spirit working through the word and bringing Jesus Christ

into our lives so that Christ dwells richly in us.

What does it mean when it says prophecies will pass away?

This is Paul saying that there's going to be a time. And this is the critical

point where we have to think through it because I'm not merely talking about

Pentecostal extremism.

I'm talking about mainstream Protestant evangelicals who see this and say,

yeah, well, yeah, I guess they're going to pass away.

And maybe when the age of the apostles, all the apostles died,

it kind of tamped down a bit, but they don't want to lose the fact that it's

gone forever. I was reading this past week the works of D.A.

Carson and Wayne Grudem, both evangelical scholars, I think both very respectable,

good scholars, a Christian man who do very serious work in the scriptures.

But as they're dealing with this and as they're dealing with the vast majority

of evangelical churches,

the vineyards and the Calvary chapels and the large churches that are sweeping

the country around us, they want to sort of, what I would say is have their

cake and eat it too, right?

They see and recognize extreme Pentecostalism as extreme.

I'll give you a few examples that are just almost incredible.

You see things that everyone just typically laughs, but they also still don't

want to say that the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the apostles,

particularly prophecies, have completely vanished.

What they say is that the last days, right here referred to in both Hebrews

and in Paul's words and in Peter, those last days continue to the very end of the world.

Now, if that's the case, we really should have at least some prophets,

maybe with a small p. That's what these guys want to argue.

They basically say that the time when prophecies will pass away is a time when

Christ Jesus comes in the final day.

And so therefore we're going to expect and should expect some level of the continuation of the gifts.

Vast numbers of evangelicals. And D.A. Carson says this, he says,

the coming of the Holy Spirit is not associated merely with the dawning of the

new age. That's what I just told.

But with the presence, not merely of Pentecost, but with the entire period of

Pentecost from Pentecost to the return of Jesus as Messiah.

So in other words, you should expect some level of prophecies,

dreams, and visions, and tongues.

But what Carson and also Grudem are dealing with is they also have this thing called the Bible.

And they're like, well, okay, we know that the Bible is the most,

these guys are scholars of the word of God and they respect the word of God

and they know that this should be the ultimate authority.

But how is this going to be the ultimate authority if someone else can receive revelations?

How do you balance the two? Carson and Grudem are well aware of that and they

see the extremes and they're like, okay, we don't want that extreme craziness.

And we do want this. We do want the Bible to be the ultimate authority. So what do we do?

So they created a theory of what they call non-revelatory prophecy.

They're what you would call continuationists with a small c.

They want these gifts to continue They don't want to eliminate them And it all

hinges on the fact that the phrase The last days The last days.

Goes all the way to the end of the world. But what if, this is my what if,

because it's true, what if the last days were the inaugural period of the coming

of the kingdom of God and the age of the apostles?

And what if with the destruction of Jerusalem and the close of the canon,

when the scriptures are complete, that those last days are finished?

And I don't mean, I wouldn't argue, most people argue, well,

the apostles all died, you know, and with them sort of toned down the gifts,

but they're still sort of here.

They still bubble up, and you should still want them. Hallelujah.

Talk to the Holy Spirit. Let the Spirit talk to you. But they're not up here

with the apostles because the apostles are dead.

A lot of people think that. That's fine. I think a stronger way of looking at

it is these last days are the last days that went all the way to the final destruction

of the nation of Israel and the completion of the canon, which I happen to believe was 70 AD.

A few people could say, no, it was 90 AD with Paul, but be that as it may.

So they redefine prophecy, Grudem does He says New Testament prophecy is fundamentally

different than Old Testament prophecy Old Testament prophecy said was on par

with the scriptures Isaiah, Jeremiah,

Ezekiel, those guys But he says New Testament prophecy is simply telling something

that God brings to mind Right?

Some of you may still be New Testament prophets in the small p, right?

Have you ever heard? Or maybe you've said it Well, the Lord told me Fill in the blank.

To marry that handsome devil or that beautiful girl, or the Lord told me to

take this job or something.

I think I know what you mean by that. I think you thought, well, you know, I felt a peace.

I felt this, but some of you would even go for it. No, I heard Jesus tell me ABC.

Well, of course, nowadays you're never allowed to, that's the problem, isn't it?

If I say, did he really, did he not? I don't know, because you're never allowed

to question someone's direct revelation from God versus the Bible.

Unless that's closed, unless it's closed and those gifts have stopped.

And what we really mean is, I felt by the work of the Holy Spirit,

which happens, a peace. And I understood that.

Okay, fine. But is it really the direct work of the Holy Spirit speaking to you with revelation?

That's the question. Because if it is, it could be, it needs to be tested.

Who's going to test it? It's fallible.

So what Grudem and Carson want to do is they say, look, these broad charismatic

gifts, they have to continue because the last days are not over.

But if the last days are finished, and they are, that means that we would not

expect to continue to have revelations of any kind.

It doesn't mean, by the way, God doesn't still continue to reveal himself.

I hope that by the end of this sermon, you feel like the Holy Spirit has spoken

to you through his word and you love Christ more.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit and God continuing to unfold and reveal himself

to you. It's not finished.

Just because we don't have prophets and prophecies doesn't mean the Lord isn't speaking to you.

And he's speaking to you right now through the minister of the gospel. Are we together?

Okay, good. Because we have to make sure that we don't think,

well, we're in the dead age.

Because these guys, these charismatics and the vineyards, they have all the fun.

You know, they still believe that this Holy Spirit, this and Holy Spirit, that.

But these guys are trying to have their cake and eat it too.

And the big problem, of course, is what if God does tell you something?

What if you think God told you something?

And then I ask you, where is that in the Bible?

You're back to this very significant issue. And I would encourage,

especially you young people, this is not my graduation speech,

but I was part of something.

You young people, the way to be liberated from all that is to realize that God

has given you his complete word.

And in this word, you have everything sufficient to make the decisions about your future.

Some of you are saying, yeah, but I don't know where I'm going to go to school.

It's between this, it's between that.

I don't know whether I should marry so-and-so or such-and-such.

Well, God has given you his word, and he's given you the liberty in and through

his word to make decisions.

Not to necessarily find the secret will of God. That's what a lot of us want

to know. Is this girl really in the will of God?

Is this guy, is this job? Guess what? You don't know the secret will of God.

Deuteronomy 29, 29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord.

You don't know it anyway.

You have been given this word, however, and this word is sufficient to guide

you and to help you make decisions and to give you the liberty and the freedom

to make such decisions according to his word.

So that Grudem and Carson want a nuanced continuation of the situation,

but it's still a problem because even if it's something that comes from God,

you still have the question, where do I weigh it? Where do I put it?

How do I put it in the hopper of making judgments? Because if it is the will

of God coming to you from the voice of God, it is God and you have to do it.

What are you supposed to do? And I will jump now to some of the extremes because

I've seen it with my own eyes.

My students in Africa came to me once. They were all laughing.

I was having my chai break, relaxing, enjoying myself.

They come running in and say, oh, doctor, you have to see this. It's hilarious.

What is it? So they show me this picture on YouTube. It was all over the school

of this African, I think it was in South Africa, this pastor who set himself a chair right here,

set a chair, stood on the chair, rolled up his socks and had a long line of

everybody in the church coming up to be anointed.

Guess what he anointed them with? Soda.

That's right. You bring up two bottles of your favorite soda.

I think orange Fanta was the fave.

And he literally starts speaking in tongues and speaking blessings and squeezing

soda on their heads. And they're like, hallelujah.

They're moving and they're rubbing. They're washing themselves with the anointing

of the prophet, because this prophet decided soda was a good thing to use for anointing his people.

Another guy decided in order to illustrate the fruit of the Spirit and his power

as an apostle, went up and grabbed a handful of oranges, the fruit of the Spirit,

and he tossed them out there.

And it would be, Mike, I'll toss you the fruit of the Spirit. And one guy grabbed it.

And when he grabbed it, oh, my word, he jumped, he shouted, he rolled,

he squealed, he flailed, he jumped back up, jumped back down. And really?

You say, well, that pastor, that's just an extreme example. But why not?

If your final authority is not the word of God and God tells you to use orange

Fanta soda to dump on people's heads as some sort of prophetic anointing and

blessing, why not if God has told it to you?

But what if those things have ceased? And what if God wants us to look finally

and totally to his word, his complete word that's given for us and it's given

for us partially to be liberated from such clownish activity.

It even liberates you from me.

I'm not allowed to stand up here and tell you, guess what, guys,

the Lord told me we should build a new building, or the Lord told me that we

should ABC, because you would say, well, thanks, Pastor, but where is that in the Bible?

Where is that in the Bible? A biblical prophet was not someone who just got ideas on his own.

A biblical prophet was someone who came with the Word of God as a mouthpiece

of God, a faithful, that's what a prophet was in the Old and in the New Testament.

Even the New Testament prophets and prophecies were coming by the Holy Spirit

from God as these servants were the mouthpiece of God.

That's exactly what God described Moses as and Aaron as his prophet or mouthpiece.

Exodus 4, and Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I'm not an eloquent speaker,

nor before or since have you spoken to your servant.

I'm slow of speech and slow of tongue, which by the way, wasn't true.

He was fluent in Egyptian.

But anyway, so the Lord said to him, who made your mouth and who makes the mute,

the deaf and the seeing of the blind? Have I not the Lord?

Now therefore go and I will be your mouth and teach you what to say.

But he said, Lord, please send the hand of someone else who may sin. So he sent Aaron.

And then he said specifically, Aaron will be your mouthpiece and he'll be the prophet of the Lord.

And every prophet was to speak only the words of God. He wasn't allowed to make up things.

He wasn't allowed to come up with cute illustrations or soda washings.

He was, the prophet was an instrument and mediator of God directly.

And that's all he could do. This is what Peter tells us about the Bible.

It says these prophecies, he said, no prophecy of scripture is of any private

interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men spoke

as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

The word of God says that specifically. They were to tell forth the word of

God, which is still the prophet's job, small p, the preacher, if you will.

My job is to forth tell the word of God, nothing more, nothing less.

Interesting, we read this past week, it's a great story in the Old Testament

from Numbers 22 and 23 about Balaam and Balak. Remember that story?

Balak, the king, saw the Israelites coming. He said, go get that prophet Balaam

and bring him up here and let's have him curse the Israelites.

Because with the word of cursing, he'll curse them.

Balak, son of Zippor, it says, was the king of Moab, sent messengers to Balaam,

the son of Baor of Pethor, which is near the river of the land, etc.

Come, he says, now curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me.

Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land.

For I know that whoever you bless will be blessed and whoever you curse will be cursed.

And so you know the story, right? He brings them up and sets them there,

gives them gold and burns a bunch of offerings and out of Balaam's mouth said,

blessed be the people of God and they're going to be blessed.

And Balaam's like, quiet, what are you doing?

Well, let's move to a different spot. So then they moved to a different spot.

Maybe this angle, maybe this view will help Balaam to get the courage to hear from the Lord.

And he kept saying, Yahweh, the Lord is going to teach me and speak to me.

And I'll say what he says.

And a second time, same thing happens.

Balaam comes up and says, the Lord will bless these people and you'll be driven.

No, he says, no, I don't want to hear that.

I want to hear something. I want you to curse them. Third time,

a third time, finally, which we know those triads in the Bible are definitive issues.

Like the Lord will curse Moab and the Lord will bless Israel.

And here's what Balaam said. For I will surely do you honor,

this is Balak, and whatever you say to me, I will do. Come curse these people.

But Balaam answered and said.

Though Balak would give to me his whole house full of silver and gold,

I cannot go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or to do more.

That is a biblical prophet.

That is a prophet of God, a mouthpiece of the Lord who speaks his word.

And all those prophets up from there to the times of the apostles were all prophets

and prophecies that were pointing us to this time that we live in now,

when the true and final prophet,

Jesus Christ, would come and fulfill every prophet and every prophecy's purpose.

Deuteronomy 18 even says it,

says, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me in your midst.

You will hear him, listen to him, which is exactly what the Father says of Jesus

Christ. This is my beloved son, listen, hear him, pointing us all to Jesus Christ.

And the apostolic age is no different.

This apostolic age, this flurry of prophets and prophecies should excite us

and make us excited about our times, not those times, but our times,

when all those prophets and all those prophecies were pointing us to the time

when we wouldn't need them anymore.

We don't need them, let alone should we want them.

We have Jesus Christ and his completed word. What a liberating thing.

And the scriptures that we have are sufficient for everything we need.

I almost feel like, you know, when I'm speaking this to you,

I feel like it's, I'm declaring Liberation Day.

Remember when Trump went up there with all those boards and said,

this is Liberation Day. Not everyone was excited about that.

Forget that. That's a bad illustration maybe, but you're gonna get mad at Trump

or something. But that day when he said, this is Liberation Day,

that's what this is like.

To be in a day when the canon, the

word of God is complete and full and sufficient for everything we need.

What a glorious time we live in. Better than the days when we still needed prophets

and prophecies to point us to this day.

The holy scriptures have in them everything we need for life and salvation.

In fact, the Bible warns at the end of Revelation, listen to what it says.

I warn everyone who hears the words of this prophecy and of this book.

If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to them the plagues described in this book.

If anyone takes away from this book a prophecy, God will take away him,

his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Nothing more and nothing less

than the word of God. And that's so powerful and that's so liberating.

God has fulfilled his promise in the days of the apostles. Is he still continuing to give revelation?

Yes, through his word and by his spirit. And it is more powerful now than ever before.

All the miracles and all the signs and all the wonders are not more powerful

than the days in which we live, in which it's complete now, it's finished.

The last days are over. We have the word of God and we're called to go forward and build his kingdom.

And when the church has believed this, magnificent things have happened.

The days of the Reformation were not days in which they thought we need new

prophets and new prophecies.

The days of the Reformation, when almost all of Europe was transformed,

culturally, politically, religiously, financially, the whole place that we now

know as Europe was transformed by people who said, the Bible is all we need.

It will be our final word for everything.

We don't need special revelation from special prophets because why?

We have supernatural revelation given by God in his word.

And it's glorious and it's liberating as well.

And it creates and provokes a revolution wherever people actually believe it. Magnificent power.

During the Reformation, early on, when they started writing their confessions,

they wrote things like this in the Belgic Confession.

It says, we believe that the Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God.

There you go, young people.

You wanna know what to do? Follow the will of God in his word and be faithful.

And you're liberated to take the next step by faith and do the next thing.

It says, contains the will of God and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto

salvation is sufficiently taught in the Bible. What a revolution that provoked.

Was the king supposed to do? What kind of power did the king have?

Guess what? You better look at the Bible. What am I supposed to do as a husband

or a wife? You better look at the Bible.

How am I supposed to raise my children? Look at the Bible. So like an old time

horse riding preacher, look at the Bible, look at the Bible, but it's so true.

And it's so powerful and so liberating.

Later, a century later in 1646, our own confession says this,

the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory,

for man's salvation, for faith and life is either expressly set down in the

scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from the scripture

unto which at any time nothing is to be added,

whether by new revelations or spirits or traditions of men.

During the Reformation, they looked back at this history where popes and bishops

and cardinals and councils had made all kinds of errors.

And when they lifted up the Bible and looked at it and said,

this is what the word of God says. They were liberated from all that rubbish.

And the world was transformed in that way.

Protestants need to renew their interest in what makes them Protestant.

They protested those things based on the word of God.

And the word of God tells us that virtually the same thing, doesn't it?

All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching,

for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness.

Ready? That the man of God may be complete, equipping him for every good work.

That's what you need. That's all you need.

The Holy Spirit working through his holy scriptures completed.

And we need to believe it and live it. How is it with you? Yes,

I'm a Protestant. Go Martin Luther. Do you even read your Bible?

Do you study it? Do you memorize it? Is it central to your thinking?

Is it central to your decision-making?

Is it central to everything you are? Is it foundational to everything about

who you are as a family, as a husband, as a wife, as a father?

Everything coming from the word of God teaching us?

Is it your supreme authority? Because it speaks with great clarity.

That's the beauty of it. You don't have to have a PhD in theology to understand it.

You can understand anything basic to life and godliness right here in the Bible.

It's clear and it's capable of equipping you with every single thing that you

need in your whole life, the rest of your life.

It gives rest for anxious soul, peace and comfort.

All that we need is given to us in Jesus Christ in his final word.

What a blessing it is to have this.

It's permanent. It's written down. It's not something we can diminish.

I found a good quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some of you are like saying,

boo, Dietrich. He has a few good quotes, okay?

When you take the Bible, he says, many people take the scriptures and sift them the way they want.

He says, through the sieve of one's own experience, despising and shaking out

what will not pass through,

and one prunes and clips the biblical message until it fits into a given space,

until the eagle can no longer fly in its true element, but with clipped wings,

it's exhibited as a special showpiece among other domesticated animals.

The Bible just sits there.

Yeah, I believe the Bible. Hallelujah. I don't know how many times churches

say that. Yes, we believe the Bible. You're ordaining women. What?

What? It says right there, don't do that. Well, no, no. The Bible is our final

word. And they sift it and they shake it.

Some churches, we believe the Bible and we're about to ordain a homosexual lesbian and her partner.

But they don't believe it. They don't believe it because it doesn't say that here.

In faith and in practice, too many Christians nod at the Bible and say,

yes, all of you, I've seen you nodding, do you really mean it?

In every way, in everything. This permanent written preservation of the God-breathed

words of our Savior, Jesus Christ, given to us is better than anything,

any prophet in the Old or New Testament or apostolic age could ever have said.

It's complete, it's here, and it's for us. And the book of Acts is beautifully

pushing us towards that. And I hope you are.

You've heard the word of God. Is God continuing to reveal himself to you? I sure hope so.

And I hope you're listening even now. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, we do thank you so much that in the book of Acts, we are beautifully

pushed to Jesus Christ and pushed and encouraged to look at his word complete in the Holy Scriptures.

Help us no longer to look for feelings or inclinations or prophets or prophecies

or other things that were there to push us to Jesus, but rather help us to rely

solely on Jesus Christ and his complete word.

And to remember that it is complete, driving us always to Jesus.

His life, his death, his resurrection, his loving rule right now on our behalf.

We pray this in his name, amen.