Amen. Well, if you want to follow along, uh, in the majority text that's on page 21, it is slightly different here. God's word, revelation 10, one through 11. I saw a mighty angel descending out of heaven, clothed with a cloud and the rainbow on his head. His face was like the sun and his feet like pillars of fire. And he had a little book open in his hand. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land, and he cried out with a loud voice, just like a lion roars. And when he cried out, the seven thunders uttered their voices. Now, when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice out of heaven saying, seal up the things that the seven thunders said, and you write after these things. And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to the heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there would be no further delay. But in the days of the blast of the seventh angel, when he is about to trumpet, the mystery of God that he declared to his slaves the prophets would be finished. Now the voice that I heard out of heaven was speaking to me again and saying, Go, take the little book that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. So I went to the angel and said to him, give me the little book. And he said to me, take and eat it up. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. So I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And he said to me, you must prophesy again over many peoples, even over ethnic nations and languages and kings. Amen. Father, we thank you for this, your word, and it is our glory to study it, to submit to it. And Father, we pray that you would open the eyes of our understanding, open my lips and enable me to faithfully preach your word and to preach the word, the whole word, nothing but the word. We love you. We continue to worship you. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Well, this chapter is an absolutely amazing chapter on how we got the Bible, how the Bible relates to prophecy, the timing, the nature, the sufficiency of scripture. We covered a lot of territory in the last three sermons on this chapter here, and we saw that the Bible is living. It is powerful. It has the very attributes of God standing behind it. And as we began studying the characteristics of the scripture, we saw that we really need to be involved in the scripture, reading it, memorizing it, meditating upon it. Now, last week I spent a great deal of time showing how prophecy worked. using the imagery of the angel and the little book that John ate. And we saw that the modern charismatic view of prophecy will not work since all prophecy is inspired, inerrant, and authoritative. Now, I do not, as I've mentioned before, I do not deny the legitimacy of some of their experiences. What I say falls under the category of illumination. or guidance, like the Reformed scholar John Murray. I've experienced them, and I value the Spirit's illumination and miracles, too. I just do not call that prophecy, okay? God reserves that term for inspired revelation, and all of our experiences, I believe, must be held captive to the Bible and to the Bible alone. Now, today I want to demonstrate not only that the canon was closed, but that God ended the need for all new prophetic revelation. And verse seven is one of several go-to passages that you can use when you're arguing with a Mormon, for example, who believes that God gave some more scriptures in the 1800s, discovered some that hadn't been around for a while. Or the Seventh-day Adventists, who treat Mary Ellen White as being a prophetess, and that her writings are authoritative. It's a fantastic answer to so many problems that plague the modern church. Verse 7 indicates, and we're going to just stick to verse 7 today and finish off the chapter. Verse 7 indicates that the mystery of God was finished in AD 70. That's disappointing news to some people. It's exciting news to me, very exciting. And it all depends on how you interpret the word finished. Let me illustrate. If company's coming over for supper and you send your daughter to the pantry to go get some spaghetti, and you're gonna take about seven minutes to cook that up, and she comes back and she says, Mom, the spaghetti's all finished. There isn't any spaghetti there. That's a sad word, right? Because you need that spaghetti. You've run out. You don't have sufficiency. That is not the meaning of the word here. Now, on the other hand, if you've been building a house for the past year and the contractor comes finally at the end of the year and he says, the house is finished, wow, that's exciting news because you have everything you need now. You can move into that house. And that's the nature for the word finished in verse 7. It has the idea of perfection and completion. In fact, the noun form of this verb is translated as perfect in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 10. You could also translate it as complete. It is completed, it is perfected, it is finished in the sense that we have everything that we need. Now, when verse seven was spoken by the angel, prophecy had not ended yet, because he is talking about the seventh trumpet. When it's about to sound, that's when it's going to be ended. So that's still future. And I wanna go through this verse word by word to demonstrate that this understanding is the most natural one. Then we'll look at three practical implications. First of all, any interpretation of verse 7 that is worth its salt needs to account for the very strong contrast that is in that Greek word for but. The very first word of the sentence. He says, but in the days of the blast of the seventh angel. He's contrasting something. And the Greek word is allots, the strongest but that you've got in the Greek, okay? And most other interpretations just breeze over that word. We really cannot. On my interpretation, that but is critical. The angel has given some prophetic revelation to the apostle John and he's commanded him to hold onto it for a while and then to write it down later in the majority text, verse four says, Now, when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice out of heaven saying, and in the majority text there are two distinct commands from this voice in heaven. First, seal up the things that the seven thunders said, and second, you write after these things. The ecclesiastical text that the church has used, F35, And the majority of Greek manuscripts have it exactly that way in the Greek. We have seen that John was being given revelation, inspired revelation, but before he could write it down, he had to go through the same process that Ezekiel went through when he got scripture in Ezekiel 2 through 3, when he wrote it down in scripture. I'm not going to repeat what that process was. We devoted a whole sermon to that. The only thing I'm gonna comment on here is the butt contrasts the ongoing revelation mentioned in verses one through six with the total cessation of prophetic revelation being anticipated in verse seven. It's the most natural contrast. It takes seriously the central theme of chapter 10. All other interpretations insert something that is not being discussed in this chapter at all. So how do charismatics handle this verse? Well, I know of only two ways that my conclusion can be avoided. The first is to interpret the word finished to mean that Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled. Finished in the sense is, okay, there's no more looking forward to it. And we'll be seeing in a little bit that that's an impossible interpretation. But on the surface, it seems like a reasonable one. But this is not the Greek word, pleirao, which is fulfilled. It's a different word. The second group of interpreters admit that this is talking about the cessation of prophecy, but they say that the seventh trumpet is at the end of history. Now, if it was at the end of history, then yes, obviously, prophecy must continue until the end of history. So let me give you two quotes from charismatic commentaries who try to rescue prophecy from ceasing. Gordon Fee says, it is a signal that the mystery of God is to be accomplished before that final moment happens. But in the meantime, there must be further prophetic activity. So the prophetic activity goes all the way up to the time of just before the seventh trumpet. And on his eschatology, the seventh trumpet is at the end of history. OK, so that makes sense that he would be a continuationist based on that. Tony Warren has perhaps given the best charismatic defense of this verse, so I'm going to read him at length. He starts with 1 Corinthians 13 saying this. The key to understanding the cessation of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 13, 8-13 is in looking at the whole chapter in its proper context and discerning exactly when partial knowledge shall cease. And obviously, this can only occur at the consummation or completeness of all things. It occurs when Christ returns in the clouds of glory. Only then will the mystery of God be complete and knowledge will no longer be in part. Revelation 10 verse 7 says, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. And then continuing to comment on both our passage and 1 Corinthians, Tony Warren says, until the second advent, we will always know in part or have partial knowledge because the mystery of God cannot be finished, Greek word teleo, or come to the end or completion until that time. While we are on earth looking forward to His second coming, we will always see the things of God indistinctly and imperfectly. In this life, we will never know as we are known of God. Because this verse of Revelation chapter 10 tells us that this will not happen until the voice of the seventh angel sounds, and that is at the end of the world. Likewise, 1 Corinthians 13, nine through 10 tells us that when the perfect, teleos, same Greek word, or completion is come, that which is partial shall be done away with. That happens only with the coming of Christ and the consummation when that seventh trumpet shall sound. Thus, it is impossible for these verses to be speaking of anything that occurs before Christ's second advent. I've quoted him at length because his is by far the best defense of a charismatic viewpoint on this verse that I have found. He agrees with me on four things. He agrees that the Greek for finished here is exactly the same as the word for perfect in 1 Corinthians 13. except for here it's in the verbal form. He agrees it is a contrast between partial and complete. He agrees that it deals with the cessation of prophecy in both passages. And he agrees that prophecy cannot continue once the seventh trumpet has sounded. Okay, so we're in total agreement that just like 1 Corinthians 13 teaches a cessation of prophecy when the perfect arises, that this teaches a cessation of prophecy when the seventh trumpet sounds. The only disagreement that I have with Tony here is the issue of timing. That's the only disagreement. He believes the seventh trumpet is at the end of time. I believe the seventh trumpet is in AD 70. And the AD 70 interpretation makes the most sense for a number of reasons. I mean, first of all, God is not giving some kind of a nebulous timeframe that will be about to happen, you know, thousands of years in the future, that is utterly unrelated to the current prophetic activity. The words about to indicate an imminence And the word but indicates a contrast that John needs to be aware of. In other words, this information is going to impact him, what he's involved in, the commands in this section relate to him, and this whole chapter relates to the finishing of the book of Revelation and the closing of the canon, which obviously happened in John's lifetime. So the context is the inscripturation of the last book of the Bible, not something thousands of years in the future. But even if you were to ignore the subject matter of this chapter, which is the closing of the canon, you're still in trouble. because it violates the whole timetable of this book. We've already seen that the seven trumpets follow sequentially after the seven seals and that there is a perfect timing to each one of these events from 8030 to 8070 without any break, without any inversions, each one following immediately after the other. The seventh trumpet simply cannot be put off till the end of time. without doing violence to the chronology of these chapters. But even the immediate context of this two-chapter unit of thought militates against putting it off in the future. Now, every commentary that I've consulted agrees that chapter 11 occurs right before the seventh trumpet. But we're going to be seeing that everything in chapter 11 has to be in the first century. For example, verses 1 through 2 talk about the temple still standing, the temple of John's day, that he's able to see, that he's able to measure, that he's able to predict of its destruction. Second, the three-and-a-half-year war, followed by a three-and-a-half-year occupation of Jerusalem by Roman soldiers, where they trampled down those courts. I mean, that's all first century context. Everything about the seven trumpets points to a first century fulfillment. Now, some might want to fudge and say that the plural days here can stretch the sixth trumpet out to several thousand years, and then that would put the seventh trumpet at the second coming. But the word days is unfortunately modified by when he is about to trumpet. Those are the days, the days when he is about to trumpet. The words about to indicate something right before the seventh trumpet and cannot by any stretch of the imagination be stretched out to include the whole of the sixth Trumpet certainly they don't represent our entire age They are literal days that are leading up to and right before the seventh Trumpet, so if you keep in mind all of the time sequences that we've been carefully following from chapters 5 through 10 the end of this prophecy has to refer to 80 70 and not a year earlier or a year later and Now I could probably just end the sermon with that. I could just say, hey, this clearly deals with cessation of prophecy. Even charismatics agree with that. And the timing of the seventh trumpet is 70 AD, end of case. But as we all know, interpretation of theology isn't that simple. There's always objections that come up. So this morning, I want you to put your thinking caps on again. This is going to be one of those thinking sermons. And I want to walk you through the debate, so to speak, and give you some ammo to both those who want to add books to the Bible, like the Roman Catholics or Mormons or Seventh-day Adventists or Muslims or whoever it might be, as well as those who add authoritative oral prophecies. It's such an important topic that I think I need to take the time to do so. I already mentioned that some charismatics try to get around the clear meaning of this passage by saying that the word finished simply means that Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled and not all prophecy is finished. So they take the word mystery to refer to Daniel's prophetic revelation, not New Testament revelation. And they say that Daniel's revelation, his mystery, was fulfilled in AD 70. Well, that's clever, but it simply will not work. We're going to see later on that the word finished cannot be interpreted that way, nor can the word mystery. And let's examine the word mystery first. If you look in your outlines, I've listed every occurrence of the Greek word musterion, from which we get the word mystery, and without exception, every example refers to either New Testament scriptures or New Testament oral prophetic revelation. There's not a single exception. And many of these passages actually emphasize the fact that it is a mystery because it wasn't revealed in the Old Testament. Several of those passages explicitly exclude the Old Testament from the definition of the mystery of God. So even though technically it is true that Daniel was given prophetic secrets that had not been revealed prior to him, and that's the definition of a mystery, something not revealed, The New Testament never uses this term to refer to Old Testament revelation, which hadn't been a secret for hundreds of years. It just definitionally cannot work. So anyway, I'm going to go through a few of the verses listed in your outline to illustrate. We'll just take the first three together. Matthew 13, 11, Mark 4, verse 11, and Luke 8, verse 10 all speak of the mysteries of the kingdom, and the context makes clear he's talking about the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, and I think pretty much all interpreters agree with that. I don't think there is any disagreement or controversy on the meaning of the term there. The mystery there deals with New Testament revelation that had previously been kept secret or unrevealed. Romans 11 verse 25 speaks of the revealed mystery that Israel and the Gentiles would be united within the new Israel that come into the church, both Jew and Gentile being equal partners in the kingdom. And again, it's a new revelation. Romans 16, 24 through 25 makes clear that the New Testament scriptures are God's, quote, revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations. So the word mystery there is being used not only to describe the prophecies of the oral, oral prophecies of prophets, But the New Testament Scriptures as well, and Beal's commentary on Revelation agrees that Romans 16 clearly is calling New Testament Scripture God's mystery. 1 Corinthians 2 calls Paul's spoken prophecies Mystery and he makes clear. This is not something revealed in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 21 21 says that what is revealed is no longer a mystery secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may Obey all the words of this law. So definitionally it can't it's a mystery when it is not revealed But once the mysteries have been revealed for a time. It's a revelation not a secret anyway, first Corinthians 2 says this But we speak, not simply we write, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. So he explicitly says the Jews didn't know that mystery, If they had, they wouldn't have crucified Christ, and so it cannot refer to Old Testament scriptures. Definitionally, it cannot. He explicitly says that what was not revealed before is a mystery now revealed to us, to the apostles and prophets. And notice that his spoken prophecies are just as authoritative as his written one. First Corinthians 4.1 says, let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now the apostles were stewards of the mysteries of God because they were entrusted with infallible new covenant revelation, revelation that had not been given prior to the time of Christ. The word mystery doesn't make sense if it's referring to something old. 1 Corinthians 13 too, though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries. So once again, you can see that mysteries is tied in with New Testament prophets and prophecy. And by the way, all of these verses that we're going through, and I won't go through every one, but all of these I think should help you to define what kind of prophecy Revelation 12 through 14 is talking about. Anyway, chapter 14 verse two, Paul speaks of a person with a gift of tongues speaking mysteries. Chapter 15 verse 51, Paul reveals something new about the resurrection. So this is new doctrine that you won't get in the Old Testament, new doctrine, and he says he's telling us a mystery. Okay, so it's a revealed truth hidden from view until now. So Paul is calling both written scripture and the revelation of earlier chapters' mysteries. They're on the same level. Ephesians 1.9 says that God made known to the apostles the mystery of his will, and he expands upon that in chapter three. After saying in chapter two that the apostles and prophets were laying the revelational foundation once and for all time in chapter two, in chapter three he says that what was really being revealed here to these apostles and prophets was the mystery of God. Ephesians 3 beginning at verse 3, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read you may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. So again, he explicitly rules out the Old Testament scriptures as being part of the mystery of God. Now, I'm not gonna go through all of the rest of the verses there, but Revelation 10, verse seven simply cannot be referring to the prophecies of the prophet Daniel. Definitionally, it can. Now, people object, then why did we need so many prophets if prophecy was simply to give us the same things that we have in the scripture? And I point out in the outline, it's not just the giving of scripture, The word mystery refers to any infallible prophetic revelation, whether oral or written. That's the only definition that fits all of these passages that are in your outline. Now, others object that the early church wouldn't have needed so many prophets to deal with the problem of the Jew and Gentile being in one body. Well, you can argue with Paul. Paul said that's why the prophets were given in Ephesians chapters 2 and 3. But actually, that's only one of nine things that these New Testament prophets had to settle prior to the canon being given, but that's a big one. This whole thing of Jew and Gentile. Gentiles could come into the church without getting circumcised, and that almost destroyed the church in Acts chapter 15. It almost divided it. The Judaizers were infecting almost every church around the empire, so God sends his prophets to those churches to settle this issue once and for all time. But as I mentioned, they had to settle other views as well. The New Testament prophets were absolutely essential. Anyway, if you keep reading through all the passages I've listed in your outline, I think you'll see it's crystal clear. It refers to New Testament prophetic revelation, whether written or oral. So if you turn back to Revelation 10, you'll see that the context supports this understanding. I'm spending this much time on this, because this is really a hotly contested issue, and I think it's really important we understand it. I've got good friends on both sides of this question, but there are a lot of practical ramifications. Okay, Revelation 10, what was the context? What has the whole chapter been dealing with? Well, the whole chapter has been dealing with new prophecy and prophets and the giving of the book of Revelation, And he's gonna go on to deal with more prophecy and prophets in chapter 11. This whole unit of chapters 10 through 11 is a parentheses that is preoccupied with this subject. But certainly chapter 10, we have God revealing the content of the book of Revelation to John, just as he revealed the content of the book of Revelation to Ezekiel in Ezekiel two through three. And the words prophet, prophecy, prophesy occur six times in this unit. In chapter 10, verses seven and 11, flows smoothly into the subject of the two prophets who prophesy in chapter 11, verses three, six, 10, and 18. In fact, the evidence for the mystery of God being new covenant prophetic revelation is so overwhelming that nowadays many charismatics and non-charismatic commentaries acknowledge that to be the case, and their only defense against cessationism is to put the trumpet at the end of history. I'm just gonna give you two short quotes to sum up this interpretation. Beal's highly acclaimed commentary says of verse 7, God's prophetic mystery began to be revealed at Christ's first coming. The striking parallel of chapter 10 verses 6 through 7 and verse 11 with Romans 16 verses 25 through 26 corroborates this conclusion. Now to him who was able to establish you, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now was manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to the nations. Moses Stewart says, Mousterion means the secret designs of God, which only the prophets, that is, inspired men in the Christian church, had been commissioned to make known. Now let's deal with the whole last clause. In your outlines, I give the Greek of the majority text and the literal translation with the original word order. And it emphasizes the word finished by putting it at the beginning of the clause. That's the way the Greek emphasizes a word. It'll put it at the very beginning. So the last clause literally reads, Perfectly finished will be the mystery of God just as he announced to his servants, the prophets. Okay, the word finished, it's exactly the same word that Jesus used on the cross when he said it is finished. When he said that with regard to his redemption, his redemption was 100% completed. Nothing more needed to be added. And the same meaning can be seen with the word finished here. The mystery revealed to all God's prophets would come to an end. It would be 100% finished in 8070 with nothing more needing to be added. Thayer's dictionary defines this word finished as, quote, to perform the last act which completes a process, unquote. Reinecker and Rogers defined it as to bring to the goal, to complete, to bring to completion. And certainly, the canon of scripture was completed, wasn't it? Moses Stewart says in that verse, immediately on the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the mystery of the seven-sealed book is brought to a close. Well, what's the seven-sealed book? It was the growing canon. And the canon was clearly closed in AD 70. I've got a whole book on the canon that goes into this in great detail. Now, for those of you who like to study this in depth, you might want to pursue this little line of thought, which I won't do in a great deal here. But I find it interesting that the noun form of this word for finished is actually translated as perfect in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 10. And actually, the charismatic commentary that I quoted at length earlier makes exactly the same point. 1 Corinthians 13 promises that when the perfect is come, the partial of prophetic revelation will end. So this word for finish can mean perfectly complete or perfectly finished. If you have something complete, like we do in the Bible, then you don't need the partial, as Paul explicitly calls prophecy in 1 Corinthians 13. If you've got the perfect, as we do in the Bible, then you don't need the less than perfect, the immature, so to speak. He uses the word childish, but you could say immature, as Paul also describes prophecy in 1 Corinthians 13. Once the seventh trumpet sounds, the partial gives way to the finished. Now the last phrase of the Greek is, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. So it says, perfectly finished will be the mystery of God, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. So which prophets predicted the cessation of prophecy in AD 70? If we can identify those, then I think we can see if our interpretation is correct or not. Ahn's Massive Commentary says it's Old Testament prophets. Bratcher says it's New Testament prophets, but the vast majority of commentators say that this last clause refers to both Old Testament and New Testament prophets. Thomas, Ladd, Lenski, Mount, Sweet, Morris, Doesn't matter whether they're a futurist, idealist, preterist, they say that it's both Old and New Testament prophets. And I agree, there were many prophets who anticipated this finishing of the new covenant mystery of God. So what I want to do in the remainder of this sermon is to take you through some of the key prophetic announcements that prophecy and prophets would cease by AD 70. I think you need to have these passages in your arsenal. There are actually a lot more than these, but these are the key ones that I think you really need to understand and look at. And if you want to dig into this subject in more depth, volume one of my book on Canon does so, and volume two, which hasn't come out yet, is going to deal with all of the different objections. So I'm not going to give you a thorough analysis of these passages this morning. I'm just going to give you a very, very brief overview. So if you turn, first of all, to Isaiah 8, I want to point out in my book on Canon, I point out how chapters 8 through 9 is quoted over and over again in the New Testament as being a series of prophecies from the birth of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. And the New Testament quotes it so many times, it's just crystal clear what the time period is. But if you look at Chapter eight here, I wanna point out, first of all, that all of verses 11 through 22 describe God casting Israel away in AD 70. But look at what happens at that precise time in verse 16. Look at verse 16. God says, bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. First word bind is sore and it means to bind up, to wrap up, to tie up. It refers to everything being contained within one bundle that's tied up and nothing of what is being talked about, nothing being outside that bundle. It's all tied up in one bundle, okay? The second word is chotam, and it's used elsewhere in scripture to refer to sealing a bag, or shutting up a house, Job 24, 16, or closing off a spring of water so that it doesn't flow anymore, Song of Solomon 4, 12, or something having ended, Daniel 9, verse 24. So applying that word to revelation means that the stream of revelation is sealed up, the receptacle of revelation is closed off, and the giving of revelation is blocked. Those two words, I think, are a powerful proof for at least the ending of the canon of scripture in AD 70. But Isaiah points out that once the canon is closed, There is no prophetic revelation outside of Scripture. Those two are tied together. This is why God rebukes the Jews in verse 19, if you take a look at verse 19, for seeking revelation outside the Scripture. After the closing of the canon, any extra-biblical prophecy is considered false and or demonic. He's not talking about guidance here, and that's what I think charismatics a lot of times have. They have guidance from the Lord, okay? We're not contesting that. But he's talking about authoritative revelation. So take a look at verses 19 through 20. And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. After 8070, there was only one authoritative standard of revelation, the Bible. And all commentators acknowledge that the phrase, the law and the testimony is a synonym for the scripture. So what does Isaiah say here? He says that if people claim to have revelation outside the Bible, There is no light in them. That word light is used by Isaiah as a synonym for prophecy. In fact, in chapter 9, verse 2, he's saying that in the time of Christ, there's going to be much light, great light. He's going to be revealing the Father to his people continually. Lots of prophetic knowledge. But after 8070, there is no light outside the light of the Bible. That is the key phrase. And there are many other pointers in these two chapters to continuing revelation from the birth of Christ up to 8070, but once that target date hits, all revelation is bound up, sealed up, restricted to the Bible. And if you need more exegetical proof, I bore you to tears in my book on that. I give you lots of exegetical material. Turn next, though, to Daniel chapter nine. This is the famous passage on the 70 weeks. Now, let me just explain, because people always get confused over the 70 weeks. Among the Jews, they had weeks of days where there'd be seven days with a Sabbath at the end of that week of days. They had weeks of years with a Sabbath year at the end of the month. seven years, right? So you can have a week of years, or you can have a week of days. A week of years would be seven years. And he's talking here about 70 weeks, which would be 70 times seven, because a week is seven. So 490 years, and it's divided up into three periods with, interestingly, 40 years between each of those periods. But I just want you to notice a couple things. I want you, first of all, to notice that verses 26 through 27 make the last week equal the last seven-year period of war against Jerusalem where both city and temple are destroyed. I'm just gonna go ahead and read verses 26 through 27 because it's gonna be referred to in Revelation 11. I mean, there's so many things that go through my head. I wanna talk about everything at the same time and I can't, but we'll get there when we get to Revelation 11. beginning at verse 26. And after the 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince who is to come, so he's talking now about the war, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood. Until the end of the war, desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. That's when the temple was burned in AD 70. And the war lasts for another three and a half years. But anyway, verse 27 goes on. And on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate. So that's the ending point for the 70 weeks. Now take a look at everything that has to happen before that point, before the war is finished. Verse 24. Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. All seven of those things happened before AD 70. And notice the phrase to seal up vision and prophecy. The word seal up is exactly the same Hebrew word that just a couple of phrases earlier is translated to make an end of. It refers to a complete closing off, ending, finishing, filling up a prophecy. And interestingly, the Hebrew is literally to seal up vision and profit, not prophecy. So if you want to be literal, both the office of prophet and the revelation that comes through the prophet would be sealed up, closed off, and ended. And when does that happen? Before the end of the war. Before the end of the war against Jerusalem that's in the last verses of this chapter. So here's another prophet who anticipated this ending of revelation. It was announced to the prophets. Okay, turn next to Zechariah chapter 13. In my book, I give several proofs that chapters 12 through 13 refer to the time between Pentecost and the destruction of Israel in AD 70, and I don't have time to demonstrate that here. But if you have chapter 13 in front of you, I'm gonna read verses one through six. But before I do so, I wanna point out that verses seven through nine refer to the war against Jerusalem when 2 3rds of Israel would be killed. Okay, two-thirds of Israel killed. It's in that context of AD 70 that God says he's not only gonna cut off idols and unclean spirits, but he's going to cause all prophets to depart from the land. So let me read verses one through six. In that day, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. It shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. It shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, you shall not live because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord. And his father and mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesies. And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. They will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive. But he will say, I am no prophet. I am a farmer. For a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. And one will say to him, what are these wounds between your arms? Then he will answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Now granted, there's difficult things in this passage, but there are some things that are crystal clear, crystal clear, and I want to focus on those. There are eight things I want you to notice. First, the context is the first century. Second, God is the cause of cessationism. He says, I will cause to depart. Third, true prophetic revelation is contrasted with demonic revelation. He speaks of the prophets and the unclean spirits. So those are two contrasting forms of revelation. Fourth, false prophets do continue to exist for a time after God causes the prophets to depart from the land. So the ones that haven't departed are false prophets. And that can be seen by the words, it shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, that's in verse three. The word still indicates that there are some prophetic claims even after God causes the prophets, dot, dot, dot, to depart from the land. Fifth, this cessationism, I will cause to depart, makes false prophets reticent, even ashamed to claim to be prophets. It says every prophet will be ashamed of his vision. And it makes God's people unwilling to receive any new prophecies from others. It says if anyone still prophesies, dot, dot, dot, they will say to him, dot, dot, dot, you have spoken lies. Sixth, This reluctance to receive new prophecies after the time of cessation is with regard to any prophecy, whether it's in the name of the Lord or not. It says, if anyone still prophesies in the name of the Lord, and later it says every prophet. So it's a universal prohibition. If anyone still claims to be a prophet, the righteous will say, no, it's a lie. You're not. Seventh, New Testament prophecy is treated just like Old Testament prophecy, and the prophets are judged according to exactly the same standard that they were judged by in the book of Deuteronomy, death. Same penalty, that's verse three. Now that last point I think is critical as we're critiquing continuationism because continuationists do not believe New Testament prophets should be judged by the same standard as Old Testament prophets. Well this is clearly a prophecy of New Covenant history, so it's clearly referring to New Testament prophets and they are so judged. And then finally this parallels Daniel nine in making both the vehicle of revelation, the prophet, and the message of revelation prophesize to cease. And I think it answers the objection of some who say, OK, well, maybe the office of prophet has ceased, but the function of prophesying continues. No, this indicates, just like Daniel did, that both have ceased. Now just in case some people think that this might possibly refer to a cessation of prophecy still future to us, I want to point out it still does not fit the paradigm that Charismatics give for 1 Corinthians 13. The reason I say that is that for them, 1 Corinthians 13, it ends at the end of history. Here, this is clearly within history. The word is still in verse three, and the progress of history in verses one through six indicates that the cessation has to be within history. So regardless of one's interpretation of some of the difficulties in this passage, I think it contradicts the continuationist interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13. And again, my book goes into more detail. Okay, turn next to Joel. Joel chapter 2. That's just a few books in front of Zachariah. Joel 2. This is the passage that acts two quotes as being fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. I want you to notice something. Verse 28. begins that passage by saying, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Notice that the Holy Spirit and the supernatural gifts are poured out afterward. After what? Well, after verses 21 through 27, which is the glorious time of the Maccabees. And the reason I point this out is that it illustrates that God's power and blessing and favor and presence can be with God's people without any charismatic gifts. Commentators agree that there were no charismatic gifts in verses 21 through 27. Those only come afterward. So notice the fullness of the true faith is possible without charismatic gifts, beginning to read at verse 21. Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things. Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field, for the open pastures are springing up, and the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. For he has given you the former rain faithfully, and he will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be put to shame, Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. I read that because of the slander of those who say that if you don't have charismatic gifts, you don't have God's blessing or his presence with you. This clearly shows God's blessing and his presence. But then God does something remarkable in verses 28 to 29. There's an outpouring, fabulous outpouring of prophetic gifts and miracles. And verse 31 says that all of this will happen during what time period? Look at verse 31. before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord, which is clearly a reference to the destruction of Israel, where only a remnant of Israel was saved. It's a reference to the 144,000 that Revelation talks about, who were saved and delivered, actually, from that three and a half year war. Now, Acts interprets this as meaning that the prophetic gifts would come in the last days of the old covenant, which is the last days of Israel and the temple and sacrifices and things like that. But this makes clear that these things happen before the coming of that great and awesome day of the Lord in AD 70. So there is yet another prophet who anticipates the finishing of prophecy before the last days of the Old Covenant. Hebrews 8 13 says, about the old covenant. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. The Hebrews was written in 66 AD and all of those things he was discussing were ready to vanish away in less than four years. So here's yet another prophet who anticipated that the charismatic gifts would occur before the day of the Lord or before 8070. Now the only things that the Acts passage adds is that this happened on Pentecost, that was when the outpouring of charismatic gifts came, that it was only to take place in the last days of the Old Covenant that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was proof that Jesus was enthroned and that God was saving a remnant out of unbelieving Israel. Now, some people do try to interpret the last days as everything from the cross of Jesus Christ to the end of time, and that just does not work. There's many passages that disprove that, and we only have time to deal with so many. But Jesus was born in the last days. About three scriptures say that. Well, that's before the cross. That's before the time when Jesus established the new covenant at his last supper, just before the cross of Christ. Not only that, but the scriptures indicate that the Maccabees, who were 200 years before the time of Christ, were in the last days. So last days, actually, is the last days of the old covenant, starting with the Maccabees, going all the way up to AD 70. It's not dealing with the last days of the new covenant. Okay, turn with me next to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 through 3 is the passage we read earlier about the apostles and prophets being given the task of telling the church about the mystery of Jew and Gentile being in one body. But I want you to notice what he says in Ephesians 2, 19 through 22. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 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. So Paul is saying that the foundation for the church was being laid in the first century and that this revelational foundation was made up of three parts, each of which gave infallible revelation. The first part was Jesus Christ, who's the chief cornerstone, part of the foundation. The apostles are the next part, also part of the foundation, and the prophets are the third part, also part of the foundation. Just as you cannot have multiple cornerstones or multiple Christs in every century, you can't have multiple foundations in every century. That's why Paul said he was the last of the apostles, 1 Corinthians 15, seven through eight, and an apostle born out of due time, Galatians 1, 16 through 19. Well, if apostleship doesn't cease, if we still have apostles, how on earth could Paul say he was the last of the apostles? How could he say he's an apostle born out of due time? It just doesn't make sense. And this is what has forced charismatic scholar Wayne Grudem to agree. And by the way, he's a lovely man. I like Wayne Grudem a lot, but it's forced him to agree that this passage clearly indicates that apostles have ceased. He tries to keep prophecy from ceasing by saying that we should translate this as apostles who were also prophets. In other words, this is referring to one group of people, not two. We should translate it as apostolic prophets or apostles who were also prophets. So he claims prophets haven't ceased. It's only apostles who also happen to be prophets. It's one group that has passed away. Now, in my book, I quote from Greek grammars that show that that's absolutely impossible. In fact, they cite him as having broken the rules of Greek grammar on this point. Out of close to 200 English translations, Praise God for Logos software, but close to 200 English translations. I've not found a single one that agrees with Wayne Grudem's translation. So Paul is yet another prophet who had anticipated the imminent ending of prophecy. Grudem agrees. Whatever this is talking about, it's first century, it's done. If it's just apostles, it's done. There's no more apostles. If it's apostles and prophets, which it clearly is, there's two offices that cease, They're done, the foundation is laid. Okay, turn with me next to 1 Corinthians 13. This is probably the most difficult passage to interpret, but there are certain anchor points that I think are clear. First, let me read this out of the ESV. I think the ESV's a little bit more literal than the New King James here. Love never ends. As for prophecy, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, now I know in part, Then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide. These three, but the greatest of these is love. Now I'm not going to deal with every possible objection, but let me give you some reasons why this cannot mean that prophecy continues until the end of time. First of all, this passage needs to be interpreted in light of the many other passages that say that prophecy ends in 83. Scripture interpreting scripture. Any interpretation that contradicts the other passages should be suspect. Second, if prophecy continues until the end of time, why does he say prophecy will cease? It'll pass away. It'll end. It'd make more sense to say the prophecy will not cease if it continues till the end of time. Nobody needs to be told that it will cease when history ends. Everything's going to cease. I mean, that's just like a non-statement almost. It's not an argument. Furthermore, when Charismatics say that the three gifts of knowledge, tongues, and prophecy cease at the second coming, I need to ask, in what way does knowledge cease in heaven? Isn't that the time when we all enter more fully into the knowledge of those mysteries? Third, take a look at the last verse of verse 13. It's clear to me that the temporariness of the three gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge is contrasted with the abidingness of the three fruits of the Spirit, faith, hope, and love. Now, Paul's argument is that faith, hope, and love abide longer than prophecy and tongues, and love abides longer than faith and hope. That's what makes love greater than faith and hope. So when does faith and hope end? At the second coming. Scripture is crystal clear on that. So if faith and hope abide longer than prophecy and tongues, and if faith and hope cease at the second coming, then prophecy and tongues must pass away before the second coming. It's just simple logic. Let me just go over that again. Verse 13 says, but now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. This statement would make no sense if knowledge, prophecy, and tongues only ceased at the second coming because that is precisely the time when faith will give way to sight and hope will give way to receiving. No contrast could be sustained between the abidingness of these graces and the non-abidingness of the gifts. Romans 8 24 says, but hope that is seen is not hope. Moffat translates, now when an object of hope is seen, there is no further need to hope. Knox paraphrases, hope would not be hope at all if its object were in view. So do you see the logic there? 2 Corinthians 5-7 and Hebrews 11 1-3 show that faith by its very definition will cease when we receive what we had faith in. Now we walk by sight, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5-7. Now Hebrews 11 tells us faith is the evidence of things not seen. But once we get to heaven, faith will give way to seeing the things that we long for. Thus, if faith and hope do not abide forever, but if they abide longer than the other gifts mentioned in the chapter, then those other gifts logically must cease before faith and hope cease. They must cease before the second coming. Now, I'll be the first to grant that there are interpretive difficulties with this chapter. with several quite different competing interpretations, but I think that's all the more reason why this passage must be interpreted in light of the other scriptures that clearly speak of the cessation of prophecy in AD 70. So when verse 8, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 8 says, love never passes away, But whether there are prophecies, they will pass away. Whether there are tongues, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will pass away. The timing of that passing away simply can't be the second coming. Verse 10 says, but when that which is complete or finished or perfectly completed has come, then that which is in part will be done away with. Now, I'm not dogmatic on what the perfect or complete is. I believe it's probably a completed canon. Revelation 10-7 does use exactly this word to describe a completed, finished canon. So that does make sense, but there were many other perfected or finished things in AD 70. Exactly the same Greek word refers to the resurrection that happened in AD 70. Hebrews 11-40, Hebrews 12-23. Paul knew that he and most of the church would die before that happens, so 1 Corinthians 13, 12 may be a reference to his experience of the resurrection, where he is going to know fully in heaven. Or it may be referred to a cleansed heaven. Heaven was being perfected with all sin being cast out of it once Satan was cast out of heaven, and Revelation 12's gonna talk about that. Or if you translate it as complete, The emergence of the new covenant was complete once the old covenant temple, city, people, and ceremonies were destroyed. So the word perfect, really, it could apply to any one of those or all of those as a grouping. I'm not dogmatic, but I am dogmatic that the passing away of prophecy here had to happen at the same time indicated in all of the other cessation passages, AD 70. Scripture must be allowed to interpret scripture. So that's the meaning. of the last clause of Revelation 10 verse 7, and I think when you examine every word of that verse, it's a slam dunk. If you've been confused by the detail, just keep in mind that many charismatics interpret Revelation 7-10 the same way I do, that prophecy must cease when the seventh trumpet ceases, and if you're convinced the seventh trumpet happened in AD 70, that should be enough, right? I'm gonna skip over the verses in Revelation, I deal with those in my book, but let me end with three applications. First, this verse shows that no more books may be added to the canon. Islam agrees that the Bible is God's revelation, But they claim that the Quran was added to it. Well, since the Quran claims that the Bible is God's revelation, you can point to this verse and say, no, all revelation is forever ended. And for that matter, Revelation 22 pronounces God's curses upon anyone who wants to add to the words that are written in this canon. Muslims may not add to it. Mormons may not add to it. Seventh-day Adventists may not add to it. Wilkerson may not add his book, The Vision, to the prophecies of this book. Nothing written may be added. Second, it isn't just books that may not be added. No more prophecy is true prophecy after 8070. Continuationists say that we thereby despise prophecies contrary to 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 20, but actually they are the ones who despise prophecies when they lower the prophetic revelation to something very fallible, errant, and I think so kind of an utterance. It is they who despise the very nature of prophecy by lowering its meaning and value. And second, they ignore the context of that verse which commands people to test all things and to stay away from bad trees that produce evil fruit. When we test continuationist claims to prophecy with the 100% inerrancy rule that Jesus gave us in the Sermon on the Mount, we're not despising prophecy. We are elevating it. Elevating it to the authority that scripture has. And of course, every prophecy God wants us to have has been recorded in the Bible. Third, as we have seen, that word finished means finished in the sense of being completed or perfected. There's nothing lacking in the Bible, nothing. Peter tells us it gives to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, all things. We don't need more information. Illumination, yes, but authoritative knowledge, no. Paul tells us it's sufficient to thoroughly equip the man of God for every good work. Jesus says it's the key of knowledge. It gives us the foundations for any subject. It's a solid foundation for science, for politics, for economics, for anything else you face in life. We are not missing anything. And I'll emphasize again, I've experienced the same experiences, not maybe all, but most of the experiences that charismatics have. But they aren't authority. The Bible stands so exalted above our experiences that if the Bible contradicts my experience, I have to throw my experience away, or at least reinterpret my experience. I can never ignore or reinterpret the Bible. The Bible stands as authority. I started the sermon with two ideas and the word finished. The spaghetti is finished, which is the sad view. And the second idea is that the house is finished and ready to move into that's the writing view And if we could once get our heads and hearts around the incredibly exalted nature of the bible that we looked at in the second sermon on this chapter We wouldn't trade the bible for anything for our psalm of response. We're going to be singing psalm 138 which is a psalm of thanksgiving for incredible riches that we have, but one of those riches, a Bible that is so precious, so exalted, that Paul here says that his scripture is exalted above God's name. That's incredible. He says that his word is exalted above his name. There is nothing in our experience that is more exalted than the word of God. Let's praise him for his finished revelation. Amen. Father God, we do thank you and praise you and lift you up and glory in the provision that you have given to us in the word. Forgive us for those times where we neglect it. And I pray, Father, that you would help the church of Jesus Christ to be a people of the book, a people who know how to read it, know how to understand it, know how to use it and apply it to every area of life. Make us a people of the book. And I pray that as we respond by singing this psalm of gratefulness, that you would hear our worship in Jesus' name.