Man Deuteronomy chapter number 18 verse number 1 the Bible reads the priests the Levites and all the tribe of Levi
Shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel
They shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire and his inheritance now
This is again one of those themes that is hammered over and over again in the book of Deuteronomy
It's one of the main overarching concepts that just comes up repeatedly and you can trace it through
Chapter after chapter after chapter how it's so important that the children of Israel worship God in a central location
That they go to the place which the Lord will choose
Not that all the towns and villages are just kind of doing their own thing and running their own
version of the Old Testament
Worship of God and the sacrificial system know everything is supposed to be centralized at the place
Which God shall choose which ultimately is going to be Jerusalem
But before it's Jerusalem
It is the tabernacle which resides in various places throughout the history of Israel
And so it's very important to God that they worship at the central location and that the Levites are taken care of
Financially by the rest of the nation. So they are not supposed to have secular jobs. They're not supposed to be out farming and
Making their own living that way they're supposed to be working full-time
For God and this is what we really see happening in
David's reign right when King David is reigning you have a lot of Levites list. I was just today reading
the end of first chronicles and and
There's a lot of talk about the Levites that are doing this job and that job and so forth
It seems like David really had this thing going on all of its cylinders where the Levites are doing what they're supposed to be
Doing serving God full-time day and night. You have a lot of them doing that in his time
And so God wants the Levites to be full-time
serving God and that the children of Israel bring their offerings and bring the tides and bring the sacrifices to that central location
So that the Levites can be taken care of when it says in verse 1 that they have no part nor inheritance with Israel
This is saying that they do not inherit farmland like everyone else and remember throughout history
Ninety-some percent of people have been farmers in today's world
It's a very small percentage of people who farm because of machines
But in the past it was not so and so the Levites are not to be farmers. They don't have any farmland
They are fed from
Working for God and getting those offerings made by fire unto the Lord verse and by the way
They're not vegetarians or vegans because they're eating offerings made by fire unto the Lord, which is
talking about animal sacrifices, but then also if you remember there is the meat offering and
The meat offering in the Bible this confused me when I was a kid because I first saw
Meat offering and then it's just fine flour mingled with oil and I'm like, you know, where's the beef, right?
But it's meat in the Bible
Used to mean just food, right?
So sometimes words will narrow in their meaning right so 400 years ago meat was just food now
That's been narrowed to just meaning
Flesh sort of like the word hound used to be just all dogs in general like German hoot
And then now that's narrowed to just a certain kind of dog. That's a hound, right?
So words often narrow meaning now a lot of people would look at something like that and say well
You know the meat offering fine flour mingled with oil, you know
Get rid of the King James put it in a museum where it belongs because it's just too hard
But even as a little kid
It didn't take me long reading my Bible about the meat offering and seeing that it's flour and oil
After a few repetitions of that I realized you know what meat must just mean food in general
Meat must be like meal just it has a T instead of an L on the end
It really isn't hard to figure these things out
They're not complicated and especially if you're going to church three times a week and you have a pastor explaining stuff to you
Then the learning goes really fast
Right, so just get some smarts learn the vocabulary stick with the King James don't join the Bible of the month Club
So it says here that the Lord is their inheritance as he has said unto them. They get their food they get their
Carbohydrates and their fats from the meat offering because it's fine flour mingled with oil
oil is your fat and
The flour is your carbohydrate and then they're getting meat and then they also get the first fruits of the crop
So they're getting fruits and vegetables. They're getting everything that they need from the people bring it to them
It says in verse number three this shall be the priests do from the people from them that offer a sacrifice
Whether it be ox or sheep that they shall give it to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the mall
So there we go. What part of the animal do they get specifically?
This is what they get the priest. Okay, but remember the Levites need to be fed also
But the priests in particular they eat the shoulder. Okay, and then it says
In verse 4 the first fruit also of thy corn of thy wine and of thine oil
The first of the fleece of thy sheep shalt thou give him
So even the fleece of the sheep, right if they're tithing and giving an offering of the fleece of the sheep
This is even giving the Levite the textiles that he needs right the clothing and the materials that he needs
For the Lord thy God has chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand to minister in the name of
The Lord him and his sons forever
I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this part of the chapter because
we've seen this before in Deuteronomy and it's something that comes up over and over again because it's a major theme in Deuteronomy taking care
Of the Levite and if a Levite verse 6 come from any of thy gates out of all Israel where he sojourned and
Come with all the desire of his mind
unto the place which the Lord shall choose then he shall minister in the name of the Lord is God and
All his brethren leave as all his brethren Levites do which stand there before the Lord
They shall have like portions to eat beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony
Here's what the Bible saying, let's say you have a Levite who his family has kind of gotten away from serving the Lord
they've gotten away from
being at the place which the Lord chooses or or
Participating in these things and he's just kind of part of like a like a Jack Levite family
You know, we think of like the Jack Mormon, right?
So he's like a Jack Levite, right and they're out just kind of doing whatever and the kid grows up and says, you know
Hey, I'm a Levite. I'm supposed to be
working full-time for the tabernacle or the temple and
So if he shows up and says hey, I'm a Levite. This is my lineage. This is whose family I'm a part of then
He's supposed to be able to get
reinstated and be able to do that job and jump in and actually become a proper Levite once again because remember
When we read the actual history of the children of Israel
It's not just this smooth history of just serving the Lord century after century
it's a constant going back and forth between
Serving false gods and Baal and Ashtaroth to coming back and serving the true
God you got the Levites forsaken and then now the Levites are coming back
So a lot of people you could see how they could get disenfranchised as a Levite, but then later in a time when?
The worship of the Lord is thriving say in the reign of a King David or something where then they would start coming out
Of the woodwork and God's saying yeah
You know get those Levites in here doing what they're supposed to be doing because God wanted there to be an army of
Full-time servants that are actually just ministering before him day and night
Preaching the Word of God teaching the Bible to the people running the sacrificial system and so forth
And so God is making provision for the Levites who've gotten away to come back and get back in on
serving God full-time
Says in verse number nine
When they are coming to the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee
Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations
There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire
Or that use of divination or an observer of times or an enchanter or a witch or a charmer or a
Consulter with familiar spirits or a wizard or a necromancer. So let's talk about some of these different things
First of all, he says no one should make their son or daughter to pass through the fire
What this is talking about is?
Human sacrifice and it specifically is talking about the sacrifice of a baby
Now here's the thing about this
Supposedly
They're offering this as a sacrifice to God to please God God, of course says in the Bible
I never asked for that don't ever do that. It's wicked. It's abomination. He says that never even entered into my mind
Let alone did I command such a thing? It's wicked. It's satanic. Don't do it. Okay, the Bible is clear on that
But supposedly they're doing this either as an offering to God or as an offering to some other God some other false
God offering it to Baal or Molech or whatever
whoever the false God doesn't really matter because it's
Satan or some demon that they're worshipping when they offer human sacrifice
But I'll tell you what's probably really going on in the minds of the people who are doing this
Human nature being such that it is and
Understanding that there's no new thing under the Sun and that people today are in many ways going to be the same as people
2,000 3,000 4,000 years ago is
That this becomes a handy way for people to get rid of
Babies that they don't want that's what's really going on and then they can dress it up as something spiritual
Oh, I'm making a sacrifice unto God, you know, I'm just super religious
I'm just being really pious and I'm just so dedicated to Baal worship that I'm willing to give up something
So precious to me when really they want to discard their child
It's not even making a sacrifice because actually they want to get rid of it
Now you say pastor Anderson. How could anyone?
Want to discard a living baby? Why would anyone want to get rid? Well, I don't know but
Ask Planned Parenthood and maybe they can explain it to you
Because last time I checked all kinds of women all across America and all over the world are murdering their babies
And it's called abortion in
This time period it's the exact same phenomenon
unwanted child
Except it just gets burnt in the fire and oh, it's spiritual
It's religious right for them to murder babies and perform a human sacrifice
That's what's going on and it and make no mistake abortion is murder
Okay, and and people are tempted to do this because they don't want to have a child. They don't want the work
They don't want the effort. They don't want to make the sacrifice of raising a child
They don't want to spend the money because they're selfish and they just want to live an easy life
Whatever the rationale it's never right to murder someone to make your life easier
You say well, but pastor Anderson, I'm single and I'm well then quit being a whore
Right, and then you won't have this problem, you know, you don't just magically get pregnant you get pregnant out of wedlock by being a whore
If you would be a virgin and you would be pure and you would wait until you're married to have intercourse
Then you're not gonna get pregnant. It's that simple. It's impossible to get pregnant
Without having sex there. I said it it is impossible. Okay, it's not human
I mean, I'm sure you could go to some laboratory somewhere and whatever but you know
You're not gonna get pregnant without fornicating without committing whoredoms. Okay. Now if you're married
Then you know what go ahead and have kids
Because God wants you to have kids God wants you to be fruitful and multiply
God is gonna bless you and God will will supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus
So don't stress out and say well, I don't know if I want to have kids or you know, well, here's the thing
You know, you might rather
Have a fancier house fancier clothes fancier vehicle, but guess what? That's not the meaning of life
And so having a bunch of kids is a virtue
Happy is the man that had this quiver full of them
And so we want to have a lot of kids we want to multiply we want to have children
And so if you're married go ahead and have children. Well, I can't afford it. Well, you got nine months to make something happen
You know what I mean like once once once you get pregnant
Yeah
now all of a sudden that the clock starts ticking but you got nine months to figure it out nine months to pray every day and
Work and figure out how you're gonna make it work financially
So that's not responsible. No, you're not responsible
For taking care of your own needs when God promised that if you seek first the kingdom of God
All these things will be added unto you
So it really has to do with trusting in the Lord
That God can come through and God can take care of you and you know what when I first got married
You know, I was really poor and my wife and I just barely got by and yet
We had a child and we we didn't really know like how are we gonna pay for this child when it comes?
You know how I mean we're just getting by with two people on this income, what are we gonna do? How's that gonna work?
But you know what? We just went ahead and just did it
Anyway, and guess what it all worked out because you know, I got a raise at my job
And then you know there were times in those early days when yeah
I had to get a second job or I had to work a bunch of extra hours or whatever
But you know what God always provided our needs and we've been married now for what 23 years
Is that right something like that should be easy to calculate since we got married in the year 2000
But you know, we've been married for 23 years and guess what? There's never been a time when we couldn't pay our bills
There's never been a time when the bill was due and ah, we can't make our house payment. We can't pay the rent
We can't pay this bill
Every bill has always been paid and if any bill was late
It was just because we just got sloppy and sent it a couple days late
But we've always been able to pay the bills for the last 23 years
Okay, and it didn't always seem like we knew how to pay for that next job
But we just kept just just having another one. Just having another one
Just we'll cross that bridge when we come to it take no thought for tomorrow
The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the days the eviler. Oh, by the way
I'm quoting Bible verses right now
Lest you think I'm just a wild man up here just spouting some kind of street corner wisdom at you know, this is the Bible
I'm quoting
Okay, so don't make your kids pass through the fire
He says or I don't want anybody among you to use divination
Now what is divination divination is the type of thing where let's say you chop open an animal and you look at its liver
And then you know, there's a chart somewhere explaining to you
What that liver means and you kind of read that liver like you're reading an oracle of God
Now does this sound legitimate to you?
No, or how about or how about reading entrails?
You know
So you chop open an animal you throw its guts out and then a priest who's an expert or a diviner an expert in reading
entrails
Will explain to you what those entrails mean, you know, because you got to know how to read deliver
You got to know how to read the entrails. These things are mentioned in the Bible, right? There are also a bird
Interpreters, so, you know, let's say a bird flies over. Well, you better know that's a sign from God every single time
But you might not necessarily know how to read that sign
So that's where you need the bird interpreter to tell you what this bird means
This kind of bird how many birds there are what's the bird doing?
Right, and so that's a big thing, you know is people who read bird signs
All kinds of divination we could go down the list of all the different kinds of divination
It's it's those type of fortune-telling kind of
hocus-pocus
Figuring out the future through looking at signs is what we're talking about
Outside of what the Word of God gives us outside of the Bible just these kind of side
You know magic 8-ball type of ways of figuring out the future
observer of times this has to do with astrology and
you know basically looking at different signs in the sky to
Tell the future and so forth an enchanter right somebody who's basically
casting spells
People who are performing witchcraft a charmer is probably
I don't know
Making a snake dance a certain way or something right whatever that exactly is a consultant with familiar spirits
Now we know from our vantage point in the New Testament looking backward. We know that these familiar spirits are demons
They are devils. They're fallen angels. They're unclean spirits and
So a familiar spirit somebody who's consulting with familiar spirits is someone who is basically communicating with demons
Okay, and
There are all kinds of people who would do this with a Ouija board or have a seance or do
channeling or something right this is all under that category of
Consulting with familiar spirits a wizard is like a witch, but it's a dude, right? I
Don't know what else to say about that he wears a pointy hat a necromancer
The
first part of that necro
Okay means dead all right. That's where that comes from the Greek word necros
Which means dead and so necro you could think of something being necrotic
Medical term right and then you could think of what's another word is there another word that we use?
That's
Not super perverted so you don't want to bring it up anything else
Okay, all right, so the necromancer is basically the person who is communicating with dead people and
Again, is it possible to communicate with dead people to actually pull up your dead grandpa and pull up your dead grandpa?
No, but what you're typically going to communicate with are demons
And then you say that you're communicating with your ancestors right all these indigenous type religions that are
Communicating with their ancestors worshipping their ancestors. They're really worshipping demons and communicating with demons
but this would be called a necromancer because they're attempting to speak to the dead and
If you think about it the Roman Catholic Church is totally pagan
Okay, if you think about it, but the Roman Catholic Church one of the things that they'll do is they'll pray to dead Saints
You know and and you could make a case that that's necromancy because they're basically community singing to communicate with the dead
Which is never something that God tells us to do we're supposed to pray to God
And there's one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus
We don't need st. Thomas to go to bat for us. We don't need st.
Bartholomew going to bat for us. All we need is Christ to go into bat for us. That's it
So we don't need the Saints nuts to them, right?
The only Saints we need are the living breathing Saints because every single born-again child of God is a saint according to Scripture
everyone who everywhere calls upon the name of the Lord is a saint according to the New Testament and
So it says in verse 12 all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord notice
It doesn't say that doing these things is an abomination. It says that the people who do them are an abomination of the Lord
Lest you think that God just is so loving and having such warm feelings toward every single person on this planet
No, there are people on this planet that are an abomination to God
That he abhors that he loathes that he hates and so it is possible for a person to be in a category
Where they are an abomination unto the Lord, I'm just showing you what the Bible says, right?
That's what it says all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord
not that the things are an abomination but that the person is an abomination and
Because of these abominations, so there we go
The thing itself is also an abomination. The person is an abomination and what they do is an abomination
Because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out the people out from before thee
Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God
For these nations, which thou shalt possess they hearkened unto observers of times and unto diviners
But as for thee the Lord thy God hath not suffered these so to do God has not allowed you to listen to these people
Meaning don't go to the psychic reader
Don't go to the horoscope
don't go to the fortune teller don't go to
Wizards and sorcerers and necromancers and seances and channelers and whatever the New Age
Mumbo jumbo God says you're not allowed to do that. God has not suffered you to do
So these wicked nations they all did that they listen to those kind of idiots
You are not to listen to them
Now what is the alternative
Okay, so if we want to think about this chapter as a whole we started out the chapter by saying hey you need to
Take care of the Levites and we had many verses about taking care of the Levites. Why because these are the legitimate
Clergy these are the legitimate
divine officers, right
These are the legitimate people that are going to help you worship God the priests and the Levites under the Old Testament system
Then you have a list of these other people
These are not legitimate right priests and Levi that's legitimate going to the place
Which the Lord shall choose making a sacrifice hearing the Word of God there the law being that's legitimate
Okay, but then you have all this illegitimate stuff
human sacrifice all of the
Psychic readers and so forth
Now in the third part of the chapter we're gonna talk about the other
Legitimate way to get the Word of God or to get information from the Lord besides going and worshiping God in Jerusalem
Ultimately with the priests and Levites. It's through a prophet. God will send a prophet unto you
Okay. Now this passage here has a double meaning
Okay, there's a double meaning because of the fact that there's an immediate meaning that actually just refers to any prophet that the Lord
raises up
but then there's also an ultimate fulfillment in a single prophet that God will raise up the
Prophet par excellence, which is whom?
Jesus Christ that God is going to raise up. Okay. So what does the Bible say it says in verse number 15?
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brother now
Why have the King James Bible translators?
Capitalized the word prophet here, right?
They have capitalized the word prophet because they are focusing on that ultimate fulfillment with the Lord
Jesus Christ right, but of course
obviously the capitalization there is just that's just a
Capitalization and I wouldn't read too much into it because of the fact that the Word of God is a spoken word
ultimately number one number two
There are no
capitalizations in
Greek or Hebrew and number three in
English the capitalization and non capitalization of words has changed repeatedly since 1611 if you go back to the
1611 replica back there a
Lot more words are capitalized than in our modern day KJV and a lot of people will make a big deal out of that
or or
Try to build a whole doctrine on whether something's capitalized or not
Capitalized or they'll build a whole doctrine on whether something's in italics or not in italics
okay, let me explain something to you if your
Interpretation relies on
Something being in italics or not in italics something being capitalized or not capitalized you're wrong
Because I should be able to read this out loud and it should mean the same thing when I read it out loud
because this book the King James Bible was
specifically
Translated and designed to be read out loud. It literally says on the cover page appointed to be read in churches and
Part of what the King James Bible translators did when they translated it was that they made sure that it sounded good being read out loud
Because the primary the primary way that people were gonna get exposed to this is not by reading it in their home
When it first came out the primary way they were gonna get exposed to it is by hearing it in church
Because we're talking about a time period when many more people were illiterate than they are now, right today
Thank God in America and even around the whole world literacy rates are at an all-time high
so today in 2023
virtually everybody in America knows how to read if
You don't know how to read you better figure it out pretty quick because you're not gonna make it very far in
Modern day America without knowing how to read
So it's super important that we all know how to read well that we teach our children how to read well
But throughout history a
Lot less people have been literate. You know, I was just reading a book on the history of Mexico a few months ago
I want to say around around the turn of the century is like 80% of the country was illiterate around the turn of the
You know the 20th century I should say, you know, it's like 80% of the country wasn't literate or something like that
Don't quote me on that statistic, but it was it was incredibly high number
Of course now in Mexico the vast majority of people are literate. Okay, but I'm just saying throughout history
In this world there have been a lot more people who were not literate
They were not able to read and so they would hear the Word of God being read out loud
Right, and not only that even if they did know how to read
This is the early days of the printing press and so reading materials are not as prevalent
It's not just a matter of oh, let me go down to the Dollar Tree and pick up a King James
Just came out last week hot off the presses. Let me go pick one up for a couple bucks
The first King James that was printed that replica back
There is not just a replica of what's on the page that replica back
There is literally the same weight and size of the original
I've actually held one of the original 1611 King James Bibles in my hands first edition
It's worth about 300 grand or something
So I was really careful with it
But if you pick it up and feel it and if you feel the paper it feels exactly
Like that replica back there that replica back there. I've compared it to the real thing. That is a legit replica in every way
pick that thing up and carry it around a little bit and
See if you're gonna take it out soul-winning
See if you know
You're not gonna necessarily be able to buy something like that own something like that have something like that
So in 1611 when this book came out
It's mainly being read out loud and people are showing up and listening to it being read audibly
That's what it was designed for and in fact the translators while they were in their committees
Translating it read it out loud and they would sit back and listen to it and see how it sounded
And that's why you'll notice that the King James has a great sound it has a great rhythm
It has a great music and flow to it. It really rolls off the tongue
Because that's what it's designed for it's designed to be read out loud
So to sit there and build a whole doctrine on well, you know, that's not capitalized there
You know, that's not a legitimate point
Capitalization or punctuation or spelling is never going to be a legitimate
point
doctrinally
Okay. Oh that comma here that changes everything
No, because we don't even use commas the same way that they did 400 years ago. I would say that the spellings
punctuations and and capitalizations and italics are not
part of the
Inspiration of Scripture. It's the Word of God that's inspired. It's the Word of God that's preserved
Not necessarily, you know a certain font
You can get into just kind of a superstitious
Overboard view here of you know
obsessing over capitalization punctuation spelling and here's the thing then the enemies of the King James will come along and say
Oh the King James Bible has been changed so many times
It's not even the same as 1611 it's been revised five major revisions, but what are they talking about with the revisions?
What are they talking about? They're talking about spelling Oh tens of thousands of changes
Talking about spelling
font
punctuation
Right and and fixing a few typos. That's it. Nothing has been re-translated since 1611
No translation work has happened on the King James since 1611 just correcting typos spelling font
punctuation changes and like I said different things are gonna be capitalized in the replica versus the
1769 edition because typically what we're reading today is the 1769 edition
Okay, that's what we typically have in our lap some people might have one more modern than that but the 1769 is the good one
Right. That's the one that we like
But guess what?
It doesn't match up to the 1611 on
spellings or
punctuation or capitalization, but it has the same words and
it's about the Word of God and
Blessed is he that heareth and he that readeth the words of this prophecy
It's not like oh, I couldn't hear that back. I didn't hear that capitalization
And so I'm gonna get totally the wrong doctrine here
You know, so the by the way, the way that things are capitalized in the King James Bible is not necessarily even consistent
The way things are put in italics is not consistent
So don't obsess over those things. Why don't you focus on what the text says?
What it says, all right, so when we come to this and it says
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren
Like unto me unto him shall he hearken you don't want to just walk away and say well
That's only talking about Jesus cuz capitalized
That's an interpretation
That is a legitimate interpretation
but it's not the only legitimate interpretation and a lot of times what people make a mistake when they're reading the Bible is
Thinking that everything's one way or the other
well, my friend the Bible is a deep book and the Bible has multiple layers of meaning and a lot of times when people argue
about doctrine about does it mean this does it mean this a lot of times it means both and
there's no point in arguing because you're both right because the Bible means both because
Often the Bible has layer upon layer of meaning and you could have two preachers preach through the same book verse by verse and preach
Completely different sermons and they're both they both could be true
They both could be legitimate. There's a lot obviously have a lot of wrong things and illegitimate things that could be preached as well
I'm not a peer said everybody's interpretations, right?
No, because there are a lot of just wrong interpretations
But often there are two three four or five good interpretations that are all correct
You know, I've had people come to me and say well, you know
I heard you preach this passage this way, but then I was listening to this other pastor
He preached it this way and I'm like, well if I heard that sermon I would say amen to that
Well, yeah, but you said this I'm like wait, it's both
In fact, here's a third interpretation
right and so
I'm telling you there are a lot of people out there who don't get that concept that I just told you
That concept that I just told you is pretty revolutionary
If you grasp that the Bible often has a whole bunch of different meanings that are all legitimate as long as you're not
contradicting other scripture
Right, then obviously if it's contradicting other scripture, you're wrong
But if it doesn't contradict other scripture there could be layer upon layer of meaning especially with a parable
I mean the story of the prodigal son. There's not one right way to read that I
Could give you three very different interpretations of that parable right now at the top of my head that are all for sure
Legitimate and that I would guarantee God intended all three
even though they're very different one another and
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. That's just the beginning
Okay, but you never want to base your doctrine on a parable without having clear statements from scripture to back up your doctrine
the parable
Really illuminates and brings life to the doctrine but you better get the doctrine from a clear statement of what the Bible just flat-out tells
You so what I'm saying here about this prophet is that God is telling us in this chapter that he's gonna raise up a
Prophet not one time but throughout their history. He's gonna raise up a prophet. He's gonna raise up another prophet
He's gonna raise up another prophet
He raises up prophets throughout their history to speak the Word of God to them
But then there's another interpretation here that we find in the New Testament that this is referring to a single
Prophet that God is going to raise up and it's Jesus
That's why they asked John the Baptist, you know, are you the Christ? He says no. Are you that prophet and
He says he's not what do they mean when they say are you that prophet?
They're saying are you the Deuteronomy 18 guy?
Right the ultimate prophet that is going to come
so that
capitalized
Interpretation is for sure legitimate because Acts chapter 3 we just read it on Sundays anybody remember how we just read this
On Sunday, and in fact in case you don't remember let's quickly turn there because this is such an important point
look at Acts chapter 3 and
This is a great point
We're not talking about father Abraham tonight
But we kind of have father Abraham in our minds from Sunday and we've still got one more sermon to complete the trilogy on that
Okay, we're not gonna forget about father Abraham. All right, we got one more one more
hoorah with that
Two two down one to go but the Bible says in
Acts chapter 3 verse 20 and he shall send Jesus Christ which was preached unto you
whom the heaven must receive until the times of
Restitution of all things which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began
For Moses truly said unto the fathers a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brother like gonna be
Isn't funny how prophets not capitalized here?
So anybody who's like, I don't know if pastor Anderson was right a minute ago, you know, these capitalizations are inspired
Well, that's funny because why isn't it capitalized here when it's literally the exact same situation the exact same word
Anybody answer me that you want to know why because the capitalization is totally inconsistent
That's why
The italics are totally inconsistent. So quit obsessing over them and go by what the word actually says
a
Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brother and like unto me him shall you hear in all things?
Whatsoever he shall say unto you and here's the best part
I love it and it should come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people
now
Again, we talked about this on Sunday
You know
You can't just be a member in good standing of the nation of Israel and ignore
The prophet whom God raises up in that generation you got to listen to the prophet
The ultimate prophet is who?
Jesus if you don't hearken to Jesus. Are you a part of the nation of Israel? Are you still God's people?
Are you just the chosen people anyway?
No, because guess what even long before Jesus came if the man of God
Gets up and preaches the truth that speaks the Word of God and you're just rebelling against the truth of God's Word
And you're rebelling against the prophet in those days. You're also going to be punished
You're also gonna be cut off. I mean look if you don't listen to the judge
We just saw it was that last week or the week before in Deuteronomy
We saw that if you don't hearken to the judgment that the judge pronounces
Right, you'll be put to death
Other places talk about how if you're defiant or doing presumptuously you will be exiled you will be cut off from among the people
Sometimes it means sometimes it's talking about being killed
Sometimes it's talking about just being kicked out of the nation of Israel
So guess what all the Jews who reject the Lord Jesus Christ are officially kicked out of the nation of Israel
They are officially destroyed from among the people
Acts chapter 3
Alright, we got to hurry though. So let's go back to Deuteronomy 19 fish finish up
I just wanted to refresh your memory on that wonderful passage that we saw on
Sunday and by the way, that's not the only place because in Acts chapter 7 when Stephen's preaching
Stephen brings up how Moses said that a prophet will the Lord your God raise up of
Your brethren right from among your brethren. So this prophet has to come from the children of Israel
Okay, the the big one which is Jesus who is what of the tribe of Judah, so he qualifies
So he's not gonna be a foreigner. It's not it's not Mohammed
Because that's what the Muslims will try to say
No, just no for about a thousand reasons that we don't have time for
According so it says in verse 15 just simply
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him
He shall hearken
verse 16 according to all that thou desirous of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly
Saying let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God neither
Let me see this great fire anymore that I die not and the Lord said unto me
They have well spoken that which they have spoken. So here's why we need a prophet
because when God speaks audibly to man out of Mount Sinai and there's a fire burning and the glory of God is there and
he speaks out of the cloudy pillar it freaks people out too much and
They can't handle it they're scared they're terrified it's so
Upsetting and unsettling that they they said don't ever talk to us that way again
Talk to Moses and have him talk to us
now the point is that Jesus Christ coming to earth and
Living amongst us as a man took upon him, you know the nature of Abraham, right?
he took upon him the form of a son of Abraham of a man a
Normal guy if we could use that term talking about his physical
appearance demeanor
Obviously, there's nothing normal about the fact that he's divine but I'm saying he looks and talks like one of us
Well, then, you know, that's something that we can handle we can relate to that, right?
I mean we can sit down across the table from Jesus and talk to him
You know rather than dealing with the cloudy pillar. It's a little intense. Okay?
Therefore
After Moses is gone
God's gonna send other prophets to communicate as opposed to just speaking audibly at the tabernacle speaking audibly at the temple
He's going to send other prophets
He's gonna raise up a prophet from among their brethren and then ultimately he's gonna raise up the Prophet Jesus Christ
Even
The word Christ has a double meaning because the word Christ means anointed
Right and you have all of these anointed Kings throughout the Old Testament
You have all these prophets that are anointed throughout the Old Testament
But then you have the anointed one the big one the Messiah, which is of course Jesus
Same with the Prophet here
So then it says in verse 18
I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto me like unto thee
Like unto Moses and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him and
It shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name
I will require it of him now remember in Acts chapter 3 when Peter's looking back at this
He's saying hey, you know God said that whoever
Will not hearken unto that prophet shall be destroyed from among his people
He's basically reading between the lines he's not quoting it verbatim
He's just referencing it because what it actually says literally verbatim is just basically
Listen to that prophet. Here's how I would say this in our modern vernacular listen to that prophet or else
Because I will require it of him is kind of vague
But it's saying like something bad is gonna happen
It's not stated specifically here
but if we read between the lines in the rest of the Bible the rest of the Mosaic law if you don't listen to the
Priest if you don't listen to the judge if you don't listen to that what happens, you know you get exiled you get destroyed
You get killed whatever and so here it's more vague because it just says I will require it of him
Okay, if you don't listen that prophet now
Ultimately, this is Jesus
But it could like I said refer in a short term to just whatever prophets the Lord raises up
Because God gives his word to a lot of prophets and then they speak but here's the difference
Okay, we saw this at the end of Deuteronomy last week
There was never a prophet again in Israel quite like Moses was there
So that's why we know that there's an ultimate prophet coming because you say well
If if every little prophet kind of fulfills this
Every time God raises up a prophet it speaks through that prophet. This is fulfilled. How do we know that there's a big one coming?
Right. Why did they say to John the Baptist art thou that prophet, you know?
Why is the woman at the well looking for the Messiah, you know, how do we know the big ones coming because here's the thing
The prophet that the Lord's gonna raise up is gonna be like unto Moses and those prophets are not quite like Moses
Because Moses was special
So the big one that comes is gonna be special but almost every prophecy in the Old Testament has a dual fulfillment
This is Bible 101 prophecy 101. There's almost always a dual fulfillment and
The day that you eat of that fruit of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt surely die
Now in the day they ate thereof did they physically die?
No, but in the day they ate thereof they spiritually died that's the shadow fulfillment then
930 years later when Adam literally dies, that's the ultimate literal fulfillment
so whenever God raises up a prophet you have a shadow fulfillment the literal fulfillment is in Jesus when he shows up and
Again, I could I could literally give a hundred examples right now at the top of my head
And in fact, I believe I did a whole sermon called dual fulfillment of prophecy something long
If you go on our church website just type in dual
You know and and don't spell it like I challenge you to a duel
But spell it like, you know dual with a UAL right then it should come up
No issue dual fulfillment in prophecy and I just give just so many examples so many examples and this is an example of that
And
Then it says in verse number 20, but the Prophet verse 20 which shall
Presume to speak a word in my name
Which I've not commanded him to speak or that shall speak in the name of other gods even that prophet shall die
So two kinds of prophets die number one if they're prophesied in the name of false gods they die. I
Don't care what they're preaching
They die because remember we talked about last week why this is so important because the nation of Israel
Is supposed to be a special nation that serves God and so forth not gonna re-preach last week's sermon
But the other kind of prophet that's put to death is the one who speaks in the name of the Lord
But he's just making stuff up
Like God has not spoken to him. God has not sent him. He doesn't actually have a revelation from God
He's just making these up. He just decides. Well, I want to prophesy too. So I'm just gonna make stuff up
Yeah, yeah exactly
Yeah, I mean we could go down the list right so just basically just oh
Here's what the Lord told me and it's just made up stuff. And of course we see a lot of this in Jeremiah
Jeremiah is is you know?
Preaching against this and so forth
so
The presumptuous
Prophet who just decides
Hey
I'm just gonna preach stuff and say thus saith the Lord and I'm just gonna make up a revelation from God because I want to
be a prophet too
He'll he'll be put to death verse 21 and if thou say in thine heart
How should we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?
You know, how are we gonna know if it's real I mean if it's coming at us in the name of the Lord
How do we know so here's the first thing we need to understand
Not everybody who speaks to you in the name of the Lord is telling the truth
Not everybody who speaks in the name of Jesus Christ is telling the truth
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass
That is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, you know, if he's saying oh, you know
Here's a prediction and then the prediction fails. Well, there's no way God could have told him that because God knows everything
Okay
But the Prophet has spoken it presumptuously
Thou shalt not be afraid of him. Don't listen to his
Pronouncements or prognostications because he's full of beans because he said that something was gonna happen. It didn't happen
Now here's the thing about this the Bible is not saying hey as long as he's 75% accurate
That'll work is that what it says I
mean it sounds to me like
You got to be a hundred percent accurate because if you're actually speaking for God
Presumably you're not just making this stuff up if it's actually coming from God
There aren't gonna be any spurious prophecies
Coming out of your mouth. And if you have a guy who spits out some spurious prophecy
Well, then the guys are fraud because here's the thing. Maybe he could just be lucky a few times. He makes a prediction he gets lucky
Or maybe he did some insider prophesying
You know sort of like insider trading, you know what the stocks are gonna do and you make the trade, you know
He maybe he's just an insider prophet and he's predicting stuff because he knew it was gonna happen
Anyway, sort of like Columbus, you know Christopher Columbus. He was having some trouble on Hispaniola
And so he basically told the Indians
Hey, God's gonna punish you guys and you know, here's the proof that God's gonna punish you guys, you know
The shine is gonna be darkened
In ten days or so, you know and basically he's got all these charts
He's got all this European knowledge of astronomy. He just knows that there's a solar eclipse coming
And so he's like I'm gonna punish you guys
I'm gonna cause the Sun not to shine and then you'll know that you know, I'm have power and it's really just that he knew
When there was gonna be an eclipse because of the clockwork universe
It you know, he he just had that he had an almanac that told him when it was coming
And of course the Indians, you know, they're just like whoa, man this what did this guy do? He's gonna easy
He's controlling heavenly bodies
Okay
But you think that Christopher Columbus the first person to pull that number
Because all throughout history
You know priestly classes have been educated and studied astronomy
And been able to predict these type of things and and really freak people out or even
What was that?
Tecumseh's brother is another example of a guy who you know predicted an eclipse and
You know just droves of people said he's his true prophet now
You know back in the what 1800s or whenever that was and so the point is that
That
You don't just say well he got he got a couple things right
Therefore he's of God. No. No, let's focus on what he got wrong
Because if he's getting stuff wrong he's making stuff up
It's not like well part of the time he's making stuff up and part of the time
He's actually got a message from God. I mean the legitimate prophet is only speaking when he really has a message from God
Apparently the Prophet knows when he's got a message from God
He knows that if you have to wonder it didn't come from God
Because if you just start saying stuff you could be playing with your life
If you're just like I don't know I had a weird dream last night
I've got a feeling and then you just start predicting stuff
You know you might die soon and so therefore
Obviously the legitimate prophet of God knows that God has called him he knows that his call is legitimate
He knows that the word that he's speaking is from the mouth of God
So he's not scared to preach this stuff and the people are gonna see that the stuff that he says is
Actually right and it happens and it's true and so forth right what about the Jehovah's false witnesses?
You know the Jehovah's false witnesses have falsely predicted the coming of Christ six times
They have set a date and said Christ is returning on this date, and it didn't happen
right
What does that tell you about them? They're false prophets?
The whole Seventh-day Adventist religion is based upon a false prediction that Christ would return in the year 1844
Now Christ didn't return in 1844 so then they came up with this doctrine of well
He did stuff in heaven in 1844
So then if you it's funny if you go to the Seventh-day Adventist website and
look at the Seventh-day Adventist statement of faith and
You'll see on their statement of faith a whole bunch of things that make sense
Make sense make sense make sense make sense now
I'm not saying all of its right some of its false doctrine some of its correct doctrine
It's a every false religion is a mix of truth and lies
But my point is you go down and it's all kind of like making sense like this
You know it's like okay. I get it. I get I see what they're doing here, okay
I see where they got that blah blah blah got it. Got it. Got it. Got it
Then all of a sudden. They're like we believe this is part of their statement of faith like their core beliefs
We believe that in 1844
God began to cleanse the temple and he started and they have this whole elaborate doctrine
This is a hundred percent made up not found in Scripture at all
Because it just it's all based on just justifying
1844 and
So they're like well he did this he started cleaning up the temple in preparation for a second coming, but then it's like well
It's 2023 now
How long is it gonna take to clean that temple?
Like if you're cleaning up because they're like well, he's just cleaning he started cleaning the temple
You know maybe in the 1840s you could buy that like okay?
Give it a you know he's got he's got some cleaning to do
But it's like okay. Do you do you expect me to believe that Jesus has been cleaning that thing?
for like a hundred and seventy nine years, and he's still cleaning
How dirty was it?
It's stupid. It doesn't make any sense
But that's what they believe it's right on their statement of faith
Why because they just don't want to admit that they're following a false prophet?
That they themselves are false prophets and
That's what it is Seventh-day Adventist Jehovah's what and the Jehovah's false witnesses also came out of that same
1844 event which went down history as the great disappointment
If you want to look it up on Wikipedia, that's what you need to type in
Okay
So if it doesn't happen
It's not the Word of God
Now look obviously
Sometimes the Bible will prophesy something and it's a little bit cryptic
And it's a little bit you know, but it it better happen
You know and I mean there are a lot of times where you've got Jeremiah saying
Jerusalem's gonna fall and we're going into captivity of the Babylonians, and then you have a whole bunch of other prophets saying
Jerusalem's not going to be captured Jerusalem will not be captured Jerusalem will not follow the Babylonians well
Jerusalem fell and they went captive all those prophets were lying and that's what Jeremiah is just saying these guys are all lying and
Jeremiah even says that to one of them
He says you're gonna die by the end of the year
You know and then the guy falls over dead because God just killed you know the people aren't killing the guy
But the guy just falls over dead
But I believe that God's actually telling them to execute these false prophets back in the Old Testament Israel period obviously in the New Testament
That's not a thing, but I explained all that last week, and so again just looking at the overview of the chapter
There's a legitimate way to hear from God. There's a legitimate way to serve God
It's in the Old Testament through the priests the Levites
The prophet that God will raise up whether it's the Old Testament prophets throughout the history or the big prophet
Jesus the important one
And then there's an illegitimate way to hear from God which is diviners soothsayers psychic readers
human sacrifice
False prophets, that's the wrong way to worship God in the New Testament
There's a right and wrong way to worship God the right way is to go to church
The place which the Lord shall choose for us is the New Testament assembly of believers the congregation the local church
We are to serve God through the local church. We're to listen to
Saved men teach us the Word of God spirit filled preachers not listening to
You know unsaved Jews give us the Word of God or something you know what I mean like hey
Let's learn the Old Testament from from you know Shlomo who doesn't even believe that Jesus is the Messiah
That's a wrong way to hear from God
Okay, that's a false prophet. That's an Antichrist right there
Okay, there's a right way to learn from God. It's called reading your physical Bible
I didn't finish this earlier, but you know when the Bible came out in 1611 was that giant book
but then next year in 1612 they came out with a New Testament only that was handheld and
That started to be found in a lot of homes and ultimately
Yeah, they started printing a lot of Bibles that people could have in their home because obviously yeah
We want to read this thing every day not just hear it out loud in church
The point I was making though is that
This book is literally designed this translation is literally designed by the translators and God designed the original
to be heard out loud blessed is he that readeth and he that heareth and so if all your doctrines based on punctuation or
spelling well
Rethink that let's prides in a board of prayer father. We thank you so much for your word
We thank you for the prophets that you sent throughout the Old Testament
That gave us so much of our scripture and Lord, of course, we're the most thankful for the Prophet
Jesus Christ and
Lord we pray that as many people as possible in this area would receive Christ as their Savior before
It's eternally too late. Please help us to be faithful
Preaching Christ to the lost and in Jesus name we pray. Amen