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Eugene Prewitt

Prophets Under the Influence?

Jeremiah chapter 43 we're looking at verse 2 the Bible says then spake Azariah and Johanan and all the proud men What do the speakers have in common?

We're about to read about the kind of ideas that proud men have.

Saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely.

That's a very bold thing to say if you say it to the person they said it to.

The Prophet had told them that they should submit to Babylon and not go to Egypt for safety.

Barak, maybe most of you know this, Barak was a secretary.

He was to Jeremiah what Epaphroditus was to Paul, what another man was to Peter, what Miss Davis, at 1 time Miss Bolton was to Mrs.

You know prophets in the Bible, some of them have secretaries.

As a matter of fact, 1 time, Barak was brought in before the king and they asked, so how was it that you got these things from Jeremiah.

There's a really questioning about the validity of a prophet, and then the person whose handwriting it is, isn't the prophet's handwriting, it's Barak's handwriting, and is this stuff legitimate?

And Barak said that, as Jeremiah said the words, that Barak wrote it, dictation.

And a little bit later in the book of Jeremiah, those hard-written, hand-written words of Barak were all burned up.

We don't have any of them from that part of Jeremiah.

But you weren't deprived because what did God do after they were burned in a fire?

He spoke them all, every 1 of them again to Jeremiah and the Bible says he added many words besides and Barak wrote them a second time.

So that God is not really incapacitated by the burning of his word.

Verse 3, they're speaking still, oh I didn't read the rest of verse 2 verse 2 continuing, the Lord our God has not sent you to say don't go into Egypt to sojourn there.

But, Barak the son of Nariah sets thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death, and carry us away captives into Babylon." This is Johanan and Azariah and who else?

They say the words that look like, the ideas that look like they came from God through Jeremiah, these particular words did not really come from God.

Barak was the origin of these words, and these words are not good for us at this time.

And by the way, they did have some historical researches to back up their accusation.

Not really against Barak, but about what would happen if they obeyed.

Because if you just go back a little bit before Nebuchadnezzar had already twice conquered the city and you know what he did when he conquered the city?

He killed a lot of people and took a lot of them captive.

And now the Prophet says surrender and they say barracks trying to get us killed or taken captive I Guess what I'd like you to know Just as a first point is to learn to recognize this way of thinking about profits.

It is the big thing that unites people on the wrong side of the issues today, from the very most liberal end to the very most conservative end.

They don't agree on much at all, but there's something that they agree on.

Some little part of some part of the inspiration that doesn't match what they think they conclude isn't from God.

2 Corinthians 10 and we're going to look at verse 5.

Verse 5 says, "...casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." Have you ever thought about the last part of that phrase?

It's that knowledge of God I'd like you to think about for a minute.

When we think about God we often, or sometimes, we use the word omniscient.

Yeah, The knowledge of God is quite large, in other words.

But I'd like to suggest to you in verse 5 that things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, They exalt themselves against the revealed knowledge of God.

In other words, it's the knowledge of God as expressed through His prophets, as expressed through what we call the Word of God, as shown through the testimonies.

Those are the points that are the objects of the attacks of these high things.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.

The weapons of our warfare, there's only 1 weapon that comes to our mind when we think about the metaphors, the war metaphors in the New Testament.

The Word of God is what we use to cast down those things that exalt themselves against itself.

In other words, verse 4 and 5 uses metaphors to describe a battle between the Word and its opposers.

And its opposers are characterized this way, they are the high things, and they exalt themselves above the knowledge that comes from God but they can be cast down by the Word of God itself it is the weapon of our warfare Turn for a minute to Psalm 19.

We looked at that section that begins in verse 97.

You might remember that we there found that we were wiser than our enemies, we can be wiser than our teachers, we can be wiser than the ancients, the wisest men of yesteryear.

In other words, we're not dependent on academia.

We're not dependent on professors or the books that they quote from.

We can be wiser than all if we have our dependence on the Word of God.

Now you're in Psalm 19, and we're going to look at v.

It says, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

The law of the Lord is the 10 Commandments.

And we've talked in other worships in other places about how the 10 Commandments have a part in converting.

But here it says the 10 Commandments are perfect.

Verse 8, The statutes of the Lord are right.

The fear of the Lord is clean, but not just clean, but forever.

If I could summarize verses 4-10, God's words are absolutely reliable.

You can take what he says, and if the devil ever tries to help you distinguish between what he says And what the prophets say personally, you should just recognize that as a trick.

Yesterday we saw it, that Jesus quoting, I think we were, did we look at Matthew yesterday where Jesus quotes the Old Testament and calls it the Word of God or the Holy Spirit?

Okay, turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 and we're looking at verse 31.

But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God?

First of all, when God was speaking in the Old Testament, who was He speaking to?

Jesus takes something that God said to someone in the Old Testament and says God was saying it to you.

But more than that he's quoting the scripture.

So he takes a scripture in the Old Testament written to someone and says you can read that as if God is speaking to you.

Really Jesus gives here the philosophy of how to read Scripture.

Yes, the Scripture was said to someone and written by someone for someone, but when you come to Scripture, it's God speaking to...

When I come to Scripture, it's God speaking to me.

Verse 43, he saith unto them how then doth David in spirit call him Lord?

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Prophets Under the Influence?

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