All right, 1 Thessalonians chapter five, and we'll just read verse 20. Do not despise prophecies. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your precious word and for this opportunity that you've given us to consider this important text, Lord, one that we would perhaps struggle with to understand. To get a sense of what Paul means by this, we do pray that you would fill us with your spirit and help us to see the applicable nature of this text for us. And we pray that you'd be glorified, Lord, in all that we consider here in this text. So please, Father, meet with us, grant us your Holy Spirit. Please forgive us for our sins, Lord, and be gracious to us. And use your word to change us, Lord, and to speak your truth, and to accomplish your holy will in us this morning, we ask in Christ's name, amen. Well, we continue down the path of seeking to consider a list of various exhortations which the Apostle Paul has strapped on to this letter to the Thessalonians. And this morning we come to one of those texts which we, especially as Reformed Baptists, might easily sweep under the rug. rather than deal with it because it can pose some serious problems if it is misinterpreted. And it is much easier to just kind of swoop past it rather than wrestle through and deal with the text as it stands. Do not despise prophecies, Paul states. What could this possibly mean? Well, in a Pentecostal or a charismatic context, one can have a field day with this text, and that is where the danger lies. Pastor Doug. Received a word from the Lord yesterday and the Lord said that he wants everyone here in the presence of Pastor Doug and in this congregation to empty their bank accounts, to cash in all your stocks and your bonds, and to liquidate all of your unnecessary assets and to put the money at his feet because the Lord would like him to buy us a pair of Lamborghinis to testify to the world of how God has blessed us so richly. And don't worry, while that's the case for us, the Lord will provide you with much, much more if you do this, because you will be sowing a seed of faith. And so don't despise prophecy. Don't be disobedient or you'll miss the blessing. You don't want to be left outside with those who lack faith and maybe even be chastised for your failure to give heed to God's prophetic word. Or, Brother Eugene approaches me after the service and assures me that he has received a word from God and God has told him that he immediately wants me to stop preaching through the rest of the book of 1 Thessalonians and starting next Sunday to begin to preach through the book of Isaiah. And I can't reject that because this brother has received a word, a prophetic utterance, and to reject that would be to despise prophecies. Well, I think you get the point. You can keep going and going on and on with that and how this text can be misused. Needless to say, brethren, even in a first century context, where prophecy still existed for a time in the way we would think of prophecy, this has absolutely nothing to do with what Paul is commanding here. It never had anything to do with the kinds of things that I've just stated. So we won't be getting Lamborghini's. Well, what then is Paul exhorting us to do here? Well, the task of this message is to get to the bottom of that very question. Despising prophecies, while the bulk of our study will be dedicated to understanding what Paul means by prophecies here, I think that's the big question. I do want to briefly consider the other word, the other only key word in this text, it's just a small verse and even smaller in the original language, that word despise. Let's just talk for a few moments about despise before we get into prophecies. Do not despise prophecies, Paul commands. Well, the Greek word used for despise here is used 15 times in 11 different verses in the New Testament. Well, for the sake of time, I'm just going to highlight three of those times. I'm not going to go through 15. That would be too extensive. And I think we will be able to get a robust understanding of the term. And it means kind of what we understand it to mean already. But I think a lot of times when you see it used in Scripture, it's helpful because you get somewhat of a three-dimensional understanding. when you see it used in different contexts, especially historical contexts. Well, in Luke chapter 18 verse 9, we find this word used, and Luke is prefacing a parable that our Lord is speaking, or about to speak, concerning the Pharisees and their self-righteousness and how they look down upon those who are sinners in their sight. And so the Lord speaks there, what we call that parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector, and Luke prefaces his words by this statement. says also he, that is Jesus, spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. And so the word here, despised, is the same word that Paul is using in our main text in 1 Thessalonians. And when you consider the imagery of that parable that's given in that parable, it helps give you a three-dimensional understanding of what this word means. You get an idea of this Pharisee who has a false view of himself. For one, he is very self-righteous, he is proud, and people who tend to despise others have a wrong view of themselves first, a wrong view of God for that matter, and then themselves. But generally what they do is they look down upon others. And the idea here is that this Pharisee in our Lord's parable considered this tax collector to be worthless. To be without any value. He was a reject, as it were. And that's the idea of despise. To consider something to be without any value. Don't even consider it. Don't even give attention to it. It is without worth. Again, in Luke chapter 23 verse 11, we find this term used as Luke speaks of the horrible way in which Herod and his soldiers had treated the Lord Jesus Christ. We're told there in verse 11, then Herod with his men of war treated Jesus with contempt. And that's the word there, contempt. And they mocked Him and arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate. And so clearly, Herod and his soldiers had no regard for the life of Jesus whatsoever. They certainly did not honor him as a prophet even, let alone the Son of God, or in any respectable sense, they mocked him, they belittled him, they looked down upon him, they considered him as one without value. And so that is the sense there of the term. And then finally, one other example in a more positive sense in Galatians 4.14, of those who did not despise, we get a little bit of the opposite of how someone who respects someone is one who doesn't despise. The Apostle Paul commends the Galatians for how they received him in spite of his physical appearance, which was marred in some way because of persecutions. Paul was in weakness when he came to Galatia and he spoke the gospel to them. He did not come in a very presentable way. He had just been persecuted. He had just been injured in various ways. And so he came with a very weak appearance to these people, and yet they listened to him. Paul states in verse 13 and into verse 14, to the Galatians in chapter four, he says, you know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at the first. In fact, it was my infirmity that led me to be able to have the opportunity to preach you the gospel. And my trial, which was in my flesh, you did not despise, there's our word, or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. See, the antithesis or the opposite of what happened with Christ and how He was treated. Paul, who was in this very weak condition physically, was honored and received as if he were God, the Son of God Himself. And so Paul commends them for not rejecting Him or considering what He had to say to be worthless or unsubstantial because of His physical appearance. In fact, Again, to the opposite extreme, they received Him, they welcomed Him, they took His Word as if it were from an angel of God or Christ Himself. They acknowledged His teaching. Well, brethren, I don't want to go into any more text, because I think you get the point here. And so when Paul exhorts, do not despise prophecies, he means do not treat them as worthless, do not hold them in contempt, do not reject them, do not trample upon them, do not treat them as irrelevant, or as vain, or empty, as if you just would walk over them and they have no meaning to you. And the positive aspect of this command, then, would be this. If Paul were to give it in the positive sense, he would say, give special attention to prophecies. Believe them, obey them, listen intently, closely to them, be eager to observe the prophecies that are given to you. Well, that, brethren, is the easy part of studying this text. What, then, of these prophecies which Paul exhorts them not to despise? This is where we get into some of the challenge of this text and how people might misuse it. Well, interestingly enough, the Greek word for prophecies here is the plural form of the word prophetēa, which actually means prophecy. And so, there is no doubt that prophecies here is speaking of prophecies So I can't change the word on you, and I'm not gonna do that It's the word prophecies and there's no doubt about that when you look through the scriptures It's the same word that's used for prophecy all throughout the New Testament speaking about prophecy So that is your term given in the text that said brethren We do have to be clear about what is intended by prophecies, because there is much confusion and misunderstanding surrounding the whole notion of what a prophet, who prophesies, actually does. I think one of the problems that we have with a misuse or abuse of prophecy today and people proclaiming to be so-called prophets is by and large people don't understand what a biblical prophet is and has been since the beginning of time when God had called anyone to be a prophet in any sense. Sadly, most people don't understand what a biblical prophet really is and does, which has led to a significant distortion of the term, leading to all kinds of abuse of scriptural texts, such as the one that we are considering here before us. So the problem is not with the word prophecies, and that we in the reform realm should say, well, wait a second, can we interpret this word in some other way? No. The problem is in understanding what a prophet is, and what a true prophecy is, is all about why prophecies were used in any sense. Were you to ask the average Christian today, What is a prophet? Now I want you to imagine for a moment as I go forward here, if you were to close your eyes and in your own mind and think about the word prophet, and come up with an immediate definition and be honest. I wonder how many would think, and I don't say this in a critical way, because naturally we would think this way perhaps. I would venture to assume that most people today would say in defining a prophet, a prophet is someone who predicts future events. Right? Wouldn't that be the natural thing? We hear that all the time. Someone who predicts things that will happen at some point in the future. Genuinely, generally speaking, people tend to immediately think future when they think of a prophet. If you would just say, okay, you know, you go to one of those psychological tests, I'm going to give you a word. And when I say that word, the first thing that comes to your mind, if somebody were to say prophet, you might say future, right? In an immediate sense. However, When you look carefully at the scriptures, brethren, you will find that all of the prophets of God spoke not only about future events, but also about present and past events as well. They didn't only speak in a future sense. Oftentimes, In fact, a prophet simply came with a message from God to a specific people concerning the will of God about any particular matter. So sometimes it was to address a present issue, sometimes it was to speak about past issues, and sometimes it was to speak about future issues as well. And to this end, brethren, a prophet from the biblical standpoint, served rather as a mouthpiece for God rather than a teller of future events. You need to understand, that's important. A prophet is not a future, a person who just tells of future events. A prophet in the biblical sense is a mouthpiece of God, one who is mediating on behalf of God in some sense, God's truth, be it past, present, or future. Many times, of course, prophets spoke of future events. I don't want to dumb that down. Many times. We value much of the Old Testament prophecy that speaks of the coming Christ and all the things that were confirmed in His coming that affirmed that He was the Messiah. We value those prophecies. So there's no denying it. There's a future reality to prophecy as well. But again, That is only under the umbrella, the broader umbrella of serving as the mouthpiece of God. That is what a prophet did in the general sense. This was especially significant throughout the history of the Bible, which we read when we read our scriptures and we go through the Old Testament, especially the historical narratives, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, right numbers, those books, Esther, and when you see the historical things unfolding, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, this is especially significant because throughout the history of the Bible, the people of God and all people for that matter, did not have access to a book that contained the entire will of God. Right? Everybody that we read about in scripture, in the historical events unfolding, none of them had a completed Bible in their presence. And so God, in accordance with His own glorious purposes in redemptive history, chose to speak through prophets Not often directly, although we had some who were very close, like a Moses, where he spoke directly as God's friend, right? And Aaron was to be the mouthpiece of Moses, as it were, and so on. So you had some of those rarities like that. When you're bringing in the old covenant in such a traumatic way, God would do something like that. But in a general sense, God chose in accordance with his own glorious purposes and redemptive history, to speak, to mediate his truth, past, present and future, through prophets, until he had established his church through the redemptive work of Christ. So that was his means of communicating until he had established his church. Now I want you to listen to two texts that I believe confirm what I'm saying, so that I'm not just saying this out of my own understanding, my own mind, but I'm taking this from scripture. Listen closely to two texts, and I know Pastor Doug is itching on one of these texts right now. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, listen to these words, and we'll also look at Ephesians 2, 19 to 22. So just two texts. I'm going to read one right after the other and then make some statements about this. Hebrews 1, 1 and 2, God, who at various times and in various ways, right, dreams, visions, in different ways, direct speaking in some sense, and in various ways spoke in time past, to the fathers by the prophets. has in these last days spoken to us by His Son whom He has appointed heir of all things through whom also He made the worlds. God in past times chose for His own glorious purpose through various means, right, dreams, visions, et cetera, through prophets in these last times has spoken through His Son. Now listen to Ephesians 2, 19 to 22. now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the Saints he's speaking to a Gentile church here it's not about Jew and Gentile both have been brought together in Christ the wall of separation is down and he says now therefore you're no longer strangers and foreigners as the Gentiles once were that wall is broken down but fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God having been built past tense, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. Two important texts to think about. Now brethren, we make two critical observations here. in thinking about those texts. First, the implication of Hebrews 1 is that God in Christ has given his final revelation to us. Very implication of Hebrews chapter 1. He has given us in times past, this is the way God communicated through various prophets in various ways. Now in these last days, he's given his final revelation to us in Jesus Christ. In the Old Covenant, He mediated His truth to us through prophets who were His mouthpieces. But now He has mediated His truth to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now brethren, we might say, but weren't there prophets after Jesus ascended into heaven? That's a good question. We talk about Philip's daughters and Agabus and others. Jesus had already ascended to heaven. This is after Jesus arose. Yes, but this is where our second text comes into play in Ephesians. Secondly, it is through the apostles and the new covenant prophets that the foundation of the church attached to the cornerstone of Christ was laid. So the foundation is still being laid of what Christ has established and set in motion, set the pattern for as the cornerstone. It is laid by the apostles and the prophets. So there is a continuing of prophecy for a time following the life and the ascension of Christ until the foundation is laid and so The apostles and prophets didn't so much as add to Christ, rather they reaffirmed and made clear what has already been revealed in Christ, made known what has been revealed in Him so that the people would understand what Christ's coming had brought about. And so it was prophecy. in a very real sense, but it was a continuing of the pattern. When you lay a cornerstone, a cornerstone sets the pattern for every other stone in that temple. It's the most important one, especially for the foundation to be a smooth foundation. And so they were built onto that cornerstone. However, what are we to say once the foundation has been laid? See, today we have many people who are claiming in their prophetic utterances, so-called, that that foundation is still being laid. When is it done? According to Paul, the apostles and their contemporary prophets are the foundation upon which the entire church is built throughout all of church history. There is no other foundation. And the very clear implication then, brethren, is this, that prophecy in the mouthpiece of God sense, which is what its original intention was, and the idea of being a prophet, has ended when the time of the apostles had ended because they, along with their prophetic contemporaries, are the foundation upon which the church, moving forward, sits. So when the time of the apostles ends and their contemporary prophets, that is the end of new revelation, because the foundation has been laid, Christ being the cornerstone and the final revelation of God, though in times past he spoke through prophets in various ways. We do not continue building a foundation once it has been laid, do we? That'd be kind of silly to keep building the foundation. We lay it and then from that point on we build the infrastructure and we build the rest of the building based on that foundation. What then does it mean in Ephesians to be set upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets? What does that language even mean then? When Paul says that you have been now built, past tense, on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, what exactly does that mean? Well, certainly it doesn't mean that the church is laid on their physical bodies, right? That's obvious. What does he mean by that? It means that the entire church throughout all of church history rests upon the infallible teachings of the apostles and the prophets. Right? That's what it means to be laying on them. He's talking about teaching, right? Nothing else, but they're teaching the traditions that came from them, from them proclaiming the prophetic word in accordance with their appointment to the office of apostle and prophet. We rest upon their teaching, not develop new teachings, but we rest on them. Well, how is this the case? How are we said to do this? The church does this by resting its very soul upon the completed canon of scripture, which contains everything essential that has been passed on to us by the apostles and the prophets. At the time of the apostle when he wrote these things to the church at Ephesus, they did not have the completed canning yet, but they had everything in a verbal form. Everything was passed on verbally and by these letters as well that were sent out and so it was present, it was there. And later on, these things were officially canonized. I guess you can say we put them together or compiled them, but we have the completion of what they had in a verbal sense. We have it documented, and it is all that we set our hope upon, this foundation being the Word of God. Brethren, in a nutshell, this is the ultimate mouthpiece of God for us right here. And insofar as it is accurately proclaimed and taught, we can, in a very real sense, claim such preaching and teaching, in a sense, to be prophetic, not because of the vehicle that proclaims the word, we're no prophets, but because of the prophetic word which it accurately proclaims. So we're taking from God here, as it were, this is the mouthpiece, and we are like Aaron, in a sense, presenting what Moses has given to us in the Word of God. Now, at the time when Paul had written this letter to the Thessalonians, the foundation was probably still being laid. Paul was still alive at that time as well, so it was still being laid. And so there were prophetic utterances in tune with all that Christ had accomplished, which were very much applicable to this exhortation. There's no question that there were still prophetic utterances and things going on at this time. when Paul was alive. Paul could command the Thessalonians to not despise present prophecies declared by contemporary apostles and prophets which related to the incarnation, the ministry, the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension, and perhaps very more particularly, the future coming of Christ in the context of 1 Thessalonians. Paul could say that. But brethren, In our present day setting, where the foundation has long since been laid, the apostles have long since been buried, the prophets have long since been buried, this text finds its complete relevance and application for us in the written word and in the faithfully proclaimed word of God. in the Word of God being faithfully proclaimed, and of course in the written Word itself. That is the relevance of this text for us. Paul does not list, interestingly enough, right, in this text, specific prophecies here. He doesn't mention, we don't have any details here. Paul, why would you say this? When you say, do not despise prophecies, what did you have in mind when you said that? What ones would they despise? Well, I believe that one of the reasons for that is because none of the Scriptures are to be despised. It's like when Paul had that thorn in the flesh. How many of us would love to know what it is? But one of the reasons that text has so much relevance for those who are suffering is because we don't know. Because what would we do if we did know? We would say, well, Paul was suffering in this way, we can identify with that. But we can identify because Paul is leaving it general enough to say, yes, I can relate to Paul. in his suffering. Well, in the same sense here, I believe, Paul is using a general statement to know that we are not to despise anything of the Word of God. But we can certainly presume, at the least, for the Thessalonians, more than likely, in accordance with the context of the books of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, in accordance with the suffering that was going on there, that I believe Paul had specifically the return of Christ. was something that was significantly in his mind when he made that statement. It is the way people were relating to the return of Christ, how they were living, how they were treating the prophecies about his return. Probably that was most in mind when he said these words. Some were beginning to question, well, when is he really coming? You, Paul, you're speaking of this coming of Christ? And how near it is? Is he coming at all? In 2 Thessalonians, there were even heretics who were so much as saying that Christ had already come. And Paul had to rebuke them and say, look, that's heresy. There were people teaching that He already came. And we were past that point. And so how you view the second coming of Christ will definitely affect how you live. And if you don't believe the truth given in God's perfect and prophetic word, it will lead you. And here's the reason why Paul was so adamant about not despising prophecies. If we do not have proper reverence for God's word in any sense, it will lead us to live in an ungodly manner. Clearly indicating that we are despising God's Word, that we do not give it any value, any worth. We reject it and do not take God seriously. And that is exactly what happened at the beginning when Adam had sinned and Eve had sinned against God, isn't it? Did they not despise the Word of God when they ate of that fruit and listened to the devil who said, you will not die. On the moment that they took that fruit, they trampled upon and despised and gave no value to the Word of God. And so brethren, much to the chagrin perhaps of many of our charismatic brethren, particularly from our modern day standpoint, this text has absolutely nothing to do with new prophecies, with new visions, with new dreams which are allegedly received today concerning future events. I get tired of seeing how many times people, and I'm dealing with someone at this moment, are going to tell you when the end of the world is coming. It's nauseating. Yeah. Well, it's gonna come in 2019 brother. We don't know when the Lord is gonna return Jesus says it's not for us to know times and seasons Yeah, he says you don't know the day or the hour but we can predict the year in the month and it just gets sickening after a while when people do those kinds of things and so This has nothing to do with that. This has everything to do with how we treat the Word of God. That's the issue here. As it stands, as it is read, as it is faithfully taught, and as it is faithfully preached, to neglect the Word of God, or to trample upon it, or to reject it, or to treat it as if it has no relevant value for affecting how you think and live, for how it affects your general worldview. That is to despise prophecy in violation of Paul's exhortation here. Even to neglect to respond properly to the preach word of God because of knowing that the person who's preaching it is imperfect and not Abraham and not Moses, not that they were perfect either, but not a prophet in that sense. It could be very easy to despise the message because of the fault of the messenger. And brethren here, It is also here, it is also the reason we see how this connects to what Paul says in the previous verse about not quenching the Spirit. And I said last week that I would say in addition to the reasons I gave for how we can quench the Spirit, it is also in despising of prophecies that we can quench the Spirit. If we despise the Word of God, then we despise the Spirit's ultimate means of accomplishing anything in our lives. and thereby we quench the spirits. And so you can see the connection. Next week, Lord willing, when we finish verses 21 and 22, we'll see another attachment, which calls us not to despise prophecies, but also to test all things, that there is wisdom involved in not just taking everything at face value, but testing things in accordance with the Word of God. Well, brethren, once again, We cannot ultimately benefit from this agitation unless we carry it from the realm of the theoretical and into the realm of the concrete. And so I want to ask the question in closing, in what specific ways can we despise rather than honor and respect prophecies? What specific ways can we do that? Well, first, by way of application, we despise prophecies when we fail to consider them. Now what I mean by this is that when we fail to read and meditate upon the Word of God, when we neglect the Word of God in any sense, we are despising prophecy. We are considering it as of no value to help sustain us, to change us, to direct us, to guide us, to affect us in our lives and to accomplish the will of God in us. And so just not acknowledging or neglecting the Word of God in any sense would be a means of despising prophecies. Secondly, we despise prophecies when we don't give heed to what the Word of God teaches and commands. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ said at the end of his Sermon on the Mount, he gave that great illustration about the one who builds his house on the sand or the rock. He said, blessed are those who don't only hear what he says, but who also put it into action. So you can be in the Word, you could be under the Word, but if you do not believe it, if it doesn't change you, if there's no way in which it affects your life, and you leave this building, let's say, this morning, and there's no thought about meditating on how to apply it, that is to despise prophecy as well. If our lives do not reflect obedience to the Word, then what does that prove other than that we despise it, that we consider it worthless, that we consider it no, meaningless, of no relevance to us, void in any sense. That's what it speaks to us in the sense of what Paul perhaps was dealing with here. How would people despise prophecies if they lived licentiously and really did not believe that they needed to live in light of the Lord Jesus Christ's return? Well, he's probably not coming for a while, or where is the hope of his coming as Peter deals with that as well? Where is it? You say that he's coming, well, where is it? And so they go on and live how they want. Believing and understanding the reality of Christ's return, properly digesting that will lead us to live in a certain way. and so we don't want to despise it in how we respond to the Word of God. Thirdly, we despise prophecies when we do not consistently attend the preaching of God's Word. God has appointed preachers to proclaim His truth And we need to be under the ministry of the word, not because of the preacher, but because of that being the means God uses jars of clay to accomplish his purposes in us. And so I ask you this morning, brethren, how often are you absent from that critical means of grace of being under the ministry of the word? Do you consider it important to be under the ministry of the word? While we no longer have prophets, because the Word of God is complete, we do have preachers and teachers who, with the Spirit's aid, proclaim and explain what has been prophetically secured in this book. So they are meant to disseminate, as it were, the truth of God's Word, to rightly divide it. with the Spirit's influence and guidance and direction. In this sense, we can see how the New Testament preacher fills the shoes of the Old Testament and New Testament foundation-laying prophets. They don't lay the foundation, but they're the ones responsible to take from that foundation in the infrastructure and to proclaim what has been laid, and to study what has been laid, and to properly exegete it to the people. And so your attention to and your response to the preached word also is indicative of whether or not you despise prophecies. What kind of mindset do you come into the gathered assembly each day? What kind of mindset do you come with here as you're here each week? Do you come under the ministry of the Word with a prepared sense of desiring to learn and to apply what is taught? Are you here to apply it? Are you here to drink in what God would give you from His Word? Or is this the equivalent of sitting behind a television set just observing and then on to other things? Is this just a continuation of whatever you've been watching throughout the week or observing in some sense that interests, piques your interest on the television set? Or you hear saying, I long to meet with God and to understand His will. I want to embrace it. I want to be changed by this Word. I've been praying about God, working in my heart, seeing some of the dreadful things that are still there. Well, am I listening to that means of grace that he gives in the preaching of the word? In what specific ways are you applying, what specific ways are you applying what is preached and laying hold of what God is giving you through his preaching vessels? What specific ways, what steps are you taking to apply what is preached? When you go to your job and you listen to what the boss tells you and how you're to work that job, you listen carefully, you learn about the computer program or whatever it is you do and you study it and you learn certain things so that you can do an effective job. Well, sometimes we can come to church and give less respect to God. and don't even consider what's taught. We just come in and maybe we can have some sense of conviction or joy or whatever it is. We leave the building, we go out, and our conversation changes, and before you know it, it's just behind us. And I think, brethren, especially in the American culture, where everything is the fast food delivery type mentality, it's very easy for us to do that. In a Facebook world, where we're constantly scanning past posts and reading little sections, and we don't want to read more than a little paragraph, including myself. We want everything to be videoed. We want everything to be memed and pictured. We don't want to read lots of words. It's very easy to become lazy and not to do the hard work of processing, digesting, and applying the Word of God. In what specific ways are you prayerfully applying what is put before you each week? Ultimately, your actions, though imperfect in the best of cases, speak to the issue of whether or not you are despising prophecies. What is going on in your lives? What kind of actions are taking place? What kind of renewed thinking? Again, I'm not saying perfection. You don't want to leave here this morning and say, wow, you know, I've fallen again. I said something I shouldn't have. I thought that I did. Or whatever it is, I must be condemned. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying, is there any change as the days and the months and the years go by? Are we seeking to apply? Are we seeking to wrestle with these issues? even the way that Jacob wrestled with God, to see change in our lives and blessing. Brethren, I wanna close by reading some comments on this text given by various, a few commentators, who would apply this text most specifically in dealing with the preaching of the word of God. They would see it most specifically. In case you think I'm spending too much time on the preaching, I wanna show you that that is the way most commentators seem to take the direction of this text. John Gill says, now he has a lot to say, but one of the things he says, he says, rather prophesying's here, In 10, the explanation of Scripture and the preaching of the Word. Matthew Henry says, Do not despise prophesying. Verse 20, For if we neglect the means of grace, we forfeit the Spirit of grace. By prophesying, here we are to understand the preaching of the Word, the interpreting and applying of the Scriptures. And this we must not despise, but should prize and value, because it is the ordinance of God appointed of him for our furtherance and increase in knowledge and grace, in holiness and comfort. We must not despise preaching, though it be plain and not with enticing words of men's wisdom, and though we be told no more than what we knew before. It is useful and many times needful to have our minds stirred up, our affections and resolutions excited to those things that we knew before to be our interest and our duty. John Wesley, and I know there's differences of opinions on Wesley, but I want you to hear what Wesley says. Despise not prophesying. That is preaching for the Apostles not here speaking of extraordinary gifts It seems one means of grace is put for all and whoever despises any of these under whatever pretense will surely though perhaps gradually and almost insensibly quench the spirit and then lastly John Calvin despise not prophesying. This sentence is appropriately added to the preceding one, for as the spirit of God illuminates us chiefly by doctrine, those who give not teaching its proper place do, so far as in them lies, quench the spirit, for we must always consider in what manner or by what means God designs to communicate himself to us. Let everyone, therefore, who is desirous to make progress under the direction of the Holy Spirit, allow himself to be taught by the ministry of prophets. By the term prophecy, however, I do not understand the gift of foretelling the future, but as in 1 Corinthians 14.3, the science of interpreting Scripture. so that a prophet is an interpreter of the will of God. For Paul, in the passage which I have quoted, assigns to prophets teaching for edification, exhortation, and consolation, and enumerates, as it were, these departments. Let, therefore, prophecy in this passage be understood as meaning interpretation made suitable to present use. Paul prohibits us from despising it if we would not choose of our own accord to wander in darkness. The statement, however, is a remarkable one for the commendation of external preaching. It is the dream of fanatics that those are children who continue to employ themselves in the reading of the Scripture or the hearing of the Word as if no one were spiritual unless he is a despiser of doctrine. They proudly, therefore, despise the ministry of man, nay, even Scripture itself, that they may attain the Spirit. Father, whatever delusion Satan suggests to them, they presumptually set forth as secret revelations of the Spirit. Such are the libertines and other furies of that stamp. And the more ignorant that anyone is, he is puffed up and swollen out with so much the greater arrogance. Let us, however, learn from the example of Paul to conjoin the spirit with the voice of men, which is nothing else than his organ. And that is the words there of John Calvin as well. Well, brethren, may God give us the grace to embrace these exhortations as they are relevant for us. I hope we see the connection here to prophecies and the proclamation of God's will. May he give us the grace to embrace and apply these things. Let's pray. Father, we do thank You so much for Your grace to us in teaching us these exhortations, Lord, and we pray that You would help us to apply them. Help us to give heed to Your Word. Father, we know that from the beginning It has always been a problem with man questioning you, despising your word, challenging your truth, which is, Lord, irrefutable, which is infallible. Help us to be those, Lord, who do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Help us to be those who realize that while this life and this flesh and the beauty of everything in life fades like a flower in the field, that it is your holy word alone which stands forever. Father, so give us the grace to respect, to honor, to hold up in the highest esteem your word insofar as it is written, insofar as it is read, insofar as it is accurately proclaimed. and father we do pray for those in this room who do not know you that you would lead them to stop despising the gospel the greatest proclamation in your word redemption given freely in jesus christ for the forgiveness of sins lead those today who are lost to cry out to you that they might be saved and forgiven lead them lord to have a heart that trusts in your word and not in their own flesh, not in the world or in the lives of Satan. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.