Do Not Despise Prophetic Utterances - 1 Thess Lesson 41

Do Not Despise Prophetic Utterances

1 Thessalonians 5:20-22

 Let’s open our Bibles again this morning to 1 Thessalonians 5. We will finish this paragraph we have been studying for the last couple months. We looked at verses 12-13 on the Sunday before Memorial Day and we are now at the last Sunday in July and we have been examining closely this paragraph with so many important imperatives. Let’s stand together and read verses 12-22 one last time. Our study today will focus on verses 20-22.

 As I pointed out last week, Paul is not simply giving us a list of do’s and don’ts for the Christian life. As we looked last week at the imperative of verse 19 we saw that Paul was getting at the very heart of the Christian’s relationship to God. We do not want to do anything that will quench the Spirit because it is God’s Holy Spirit, whom He has given to every true believer, who is our Helper, Comforter, Guide, Teacher, and the One who convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit is our resident Helper who is working God’s work within each of us to mature us in the faith and lead us into all the truth and make us progressively more like Jesus. We don’t want to quench His influence or diminish His work in any way.

 There is good reason the next imperative tells us “do not despise prophetic utterances.” As we saw last week, the major emphasis of the Holy Spirit’s work in us is in regards to the truth of God’s Word. We are sanctified in the truth and God’s word is truth (Jn. 17:17). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who guides us into all the truth. He makes known to us the will of God as He reveals God’s truth to us. The Holy Spirit’s work is inseparable from the Word of God, which He inspired and which He illumines in our hearts. The Scriptures emphasize this aspect of His work, which is the primary aspect of His work, because this is what ties the imperative concerning the quenching of the Spirit to the truth of verses 20-22. The prophetic utterances we are commanded not to despise are the very truths of God’s word which the Holy Spirit impresses on our hearts and imprints in our minds.

 When Paul tells us not to despise prophetic utterances He is telling us the proper way to respond to the word of God, the Bible. This Book we have the privilege to hold in our hands and read for ourselves was not available at the time Paul wrote these imperatives to the Thessalonians. They had the Old Testament Scriptures but the New Testament had not yet been fully written and made available to the early church. The early church relied upon men gifted as prophets. Ephesians 4:11 tells us that God has given to the church “some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ…” The gift of prophecy is the gift of public proclamation of the Word of God. The prophetic utterances of these prophets were the very words which we have in written revelation today.

 The word translated “prophetic utterances” is “propheteia” in the Greek.  It can, and does on a few occasions, refer to a foretelling or prediction of a future event. One example of this is found in Acts 11:27-28 where a prophet named Agabus foretold of a famine that would be great and worldwide. This became the impetus for an offering for the support of the brethren living in Judea. However, the most common use of this word refers to the written word of Scripture. The proper interpretation and application of this verse for us today would be that we would not despise the written revelation of God in the Scriptures.

 The Thessalonians, being part of the early church, before the written word of God was available, would have received these prophetic utterances from the a well recognized, spiritually gifted man who were recognized as having the gift of prophecy. In 1 Cor. 12 Paul is discussing the use of spiritual gifts. Turn there and let’s read verses 4-11. We read here of the gift of prophecy. In 1 Cor. 14 Paul is addressing the problems associated with the practice of some of the spiritual gifts he explains in verse 3 that the “one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.” In verse 4 Paul states that the one who prophesies edifies the church.

 These prophets were speaking God’s message concerning salvation in Christ and the doctrinal truths that we now have spelled out for us in the canon of New Testament Scripture. These prophets, of whom Paul was one, were delivering what Jude called “the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” (Jude 3) These prophets were proclaiming divinely inspired revelation concerning salvation and the doctrines of the faith. These men were laying the biblical foundation upon which the church is built. They belonged to the foundation laying era of the Apostles and once the canon of Scripture was complete, their function became the very thing I do before you each week, which is to proclaim the word of God. Today’s prophet is not proclaiming new revelation, at least not from God. God has spoken His word and the prophetic utterances of today need only come from the written word of God.

 So, we are being told to be careful that we do not “despise” the Word of God. This word “despise” is “exoutheneo” in the Greek. It means to treat with scorn, to consider as nothing, or to count something worthless.” It is used in Luke 18:9 of the attitude of the Pharisee toward the tax collector. You remember that parable. The Pharisee despised the tax collector. The word is used in Luke 23:11 to describe the attitude of the soldiers who mocked Jesus and put the robe on Him. When we despise prophetic utterances we are looking down on the word of God, considering it as nothing, treating it with contempt.

 Sometimes we gain insight into the meaning of a word by looking at the antonyms, those words that mean the opposite. My favorite Greek dictionary listed three antonyms to this word translated “despise.” They are “timao” which means “to honor,” “hegeomai” which means “to esteem,” and “doxazo” which means “to glorify.” I mention these because they help us understand the essence of despising the word of God. We may claim that we don’t consider the word of God as nothing, or treat it with contempt, or look down on it as worthless, but we must remember that it isn’t just any revelation. It is the word of God. It should be honored, esteemed very highly, and glorified. We don’t want to be guilty of responding to God’s revelation with indifference. We despise prophetic utterances when we do not give the word of God its rightful place in our lives.

 This is one of the ways we despise the word of God. We treat it with indifference. We read it, or hear it preached, and we are not concerned with learning how it is intended to impact the way we live. Most who call themselves Christian are not outwardly disrespectful to the word of God. But few are those who call themselves Christians who honor and esteem the word of God as they should. We quench the Spirit when we do not give the Word of God its rightful place as the honored, highly esteemed, glorified word of God. We despise prophetic utterances if we become hearers only and not doers of the Word.

 Paul then tells us in the next verse, “But examine everything carefully.” The context demands that we apply this examination to the prophetic utterances we are told not to despise. There are many things being uttered today in a lot of “so-called” churches that are being called prophetic, but they clearly are not. How do we know if they are truly the “word of God” or if they are not? Is there a way to know? Is it appropriate to confront or even condemn those who speak what they claim to be “prophetic utterances” but clearly cannot be supported by the revelation of God’s inspired, holy Word? I despise those utterances which are clearly not prophetic, but are false. We know they are false because they do not square with the teaching of the Bible. We must examine everything carefully.

 I must warn you that if you go into a “Christian” book store, you are going to find more garbage than you are good. Unfortunately, Christian book stores don’t decide what they put on their shelves to sell based only upon what is doctrinally sound. They decide what to put on the shelves based only upon what is profitable, what the purchasing public wants to buy. The popular false teachers are profiting from their distortions of the truth of God’s word. They are guilty of despising prophetic utterances. True prophetic utterances come from the written word of God. They are understood by the application of sound hermeneutical principles. If you distort God’s word by failing to properly, accurately, and carefully interpret God’s word, you are guilty of despising prophetic utterances. 

Also, if you turn on most television networks that call themselves “Christians” you are going to hear more garbage than solid teaching from God’s Word. Most of those popular television personalities, like Joel, Benny, and Kenneth, are speaking distortions of God’s word. They despise prophetic utterances because they distort prophetic utterances.

You could leave here this morning and drive less than an hour and find literally hundreds of churches. You would have to be very careful which of those churches you would go to because, unfortunately, even in the church you will find more garbage than God’s holy, inspired Word being taught. We had a guest speaker here a couple weeks ago and he attends a lot of churches. He and his wife and in-laws came for our Bible Study time and they said it was refreshing to come and sit in church and hear someone teach straight from the Scriptures. They said I would be amazed at how rare that is in the church today.

 The church has come to despise prophetic utterances because the church has turned away from the word of God. Too much of the church does not preach the Bible. I am of the conviction that you can call yourself a church if you want to but if you are not committed to the in depth, accurate, exposition of the Holy Scriptures you are not a true church. If the leadership isn’t scripturally qualified as an elder or a pastor, the church does not have a pastor. It does not have a prophet. There are many churches that do not preach the word and they are led by unqualified men or women, or both. These are not true churches because they despise the authority of God’s word. We despise prophetic utterances when we disregard the authority of the Bible for all matters of faith and practice.

 One thing that has happened in the church in my lifetime has been a not so subtle drift away from intellectualism and toward experience and emotionalism. I don’t get a sense for what goes on in many churches because I don’t do a lot of YouTube stuff or podcasts. But I do hear and see enough to know that there is some weird stuff happening. There are so many churches concerned with being relevant more than righteous. They want to entertain rather than edify. They are packed and use that as justification for what they do. They believe they must be right because of the results. They are measuring the wrong things to determine results. They get those results by despising prophetic utterances.

 The further and further the church moves away from the authority of God’s word the less impact it will have on the world and for the Kingdom. It is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation to those who believe. If we stop preaching the gospel how will they be saved? If we stop preaching the sanctifying truth of God’s word how will people be transformed? Let the church universal do what it will. Grace Bible Church of Muskogee will not be guilty of despising the prophetic utterances of the holy Scriptures.

 We are called to examine everything carefully. This is a call to be discerning when it comes to the prophetic utterances we hear. When Paul called the Thessalonians to examine everything carefully, he was telling them to even examine the prophetic utterances that were coming from his own mouth and from his pen. This is a command to you to examine everything carefully, especially the prophetic utterances that come from my lips. I am capable of making mistakes. I sometimes say things I have to backtrack on and make corrections and clarification. That’s ok. If you hear something that comes from this pulpit that does not sound like it squares with the word of God, be like the Bereans and search the Scriptures to see if these things are so. If I get something wrong, come to me and we will examine the Scriptures together to try to determine the truth. If I am wrong, I will come back and correct my mistakes.

 That word “examine” is “dokimazo” in the Greek. It means “to test, prove, discern, distinguish, and approve.” It describes testing of something to determine authenticity. We must be able to distinguish between that which is true and that which is false, that which is right and that which is wrong. We should be able to determine what is good and what is bad. This is why it is important to be discerning. We must examine what we hear and read against the backdrop of the Scriptures.

 Paul says that we are to examine “everything.” False teaching is everywhere. Subtle distortions of the truth can sometimes be hard to recognize. Satan is very good at disguising error because he will carefully insert it into a pile of truth. But Jesus warns us that a little leaven can spread and influence the whole lump of dough. Let’s look at Ephesians 5:6-13. 

 These verses speak of deception, disobedience, darkness, disgraceful things and unfruitful deeds. All these things have one reliable antidote. It is the truth of God’s word. We shine the truth of God’s word into the darkness so that we can expose the deception. This is why we focus on the truth. If we know the truth we will be able to spot the counterfeit. It is like Craig illustrates with counterfeit money. Those trained to spot counterfeit money are so knowledgeable of the real thing that the defects of the counterfeit bills jump out at them. We have to examine everything carefully so we can expose the error and walk in the light. We are to walk as children of Light, the fruit of which is all goodness and righteousness and truth. These are the things that we know are pleasing to the Lord.

 It starts with a tenacious clinging to the word of God. We honor, revere, respect, and esteem God’s truth very highly. We use God’s word as the standard by which all other teaching is judged. We examine everything carefully by holding it up against the backdrop of the Scriptures. If it passes that test we hold fast to that which is good. If it fails the test of consistency with the word of God, we abstain. 

 The Greek word for “hold fast” is “katecho.” It connotes the idea of holding tightly to something in order to retain it. I think Paul chose this word strategically. You see Jesus used the same word in Luke 8:15 in the Parable of the Soils. We are very familiar with that parable. I refer to it often. Jesus said that the seed that fell on the good soil, “these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.” Good prophetic utterances that are the seed of the word of God, that fall on good soil hearts, when held fast, will bear fruit with perseverance.

 This is what we want to see happen. Paul commands us to hold the prophetic utterances of God’s holy Word in high esteem so that we know it well enough to examine everything that is taught. When we discern error, we abstain. When we know it is the truth of God, the end result is not just to know the truth. The desired result is that we would hold it fast so that our lives bear fruit with perseverance. The fruit it bears will be righteousness and godliness and Christ-likeness.

 It is never the goal of God’s truth to simply inform. Prophetic utterances of the word of God are not shared for informational purposes only. They are shared for transformational purposes always. Holding fast to that which is good, the precious truth of God’s word, is to have it sown in an honest and good heart, a heart transformed by the work of the Spirit of God, and to have it bear fruit with perseverance.

 This is emphasized in the use of the word “good.” The Greek word “kalos” speaks of that which is constitutionally good, that which expresses beauty, harmony, completeness, balance, and proper proportion. It is good as to quality and character. It is that which is choice, excellent, honorable, distinguished, profitable, virtuous and useful. I chose again to read Psalm 19 for our Call to Worship. This Psalm is a biblical description of something that fits the qualifications of “good.” In that Psalm we read the word of God is described as perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, enduring forever, true, and righteous altogether.

 On the other hand we are told in verse 22 to “abstain from every form of evil.” The KJV says, “abstain from all appearance of evil.” To abstain means to keep yourself away. Don’t give evil any room in your life. Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.” This verse uses the Greek word “eidos” which is a noun meaning “the act of seeing, or sight.” This is why the KJV translates this “abstain from all appearance of evil.” The essence of the imperative is that we are to turn away, turn our backs, at the very sight of anything evil, especially false teachings or behaviors that result from distortions of God’s truth. The word “evil” is “poneros.” It is sometimes translated “wicked, malicious, mischievous, vicious, or corrupt.” It describes anything evil in nature or quality. 

 One thing that most evangelicals hesitate to do is to call false teaching “evil.” This is exactly what Paul calls it here. False teaching is evil because it leads to eternal condemnation of the unsuspecting. This is why Jesus said, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” False prophets are spouting the prophetic utterances we are to despise. This is why we examine everything they say carefully. They are dressed like the sheep. They are deceiving with false words. We examine them and their teaching closely because Jesus went on to say, “You will know them by their fruits.”

 What is so dangerous about them? The result of their deception is that not everyone who says to Jesus, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of God in heaven, they are those who will enter. Many will say to Jesus in the day of judgment, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles.” Jesus will declare to them, “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

 Why would we not call false teaching evil if it results in deception producing eternal condemnation? How could anything be more evil than that? Did not Jesus look at the Pharisees and condemn them as blind guides of the blind. He called them sons of hell and proclaimed to them that the disciples they misled were becoming twice as much sons of hell as they were themselves? How much more evil could something be than that which makes someone a son of hell? Did not the Apostle Paul say that if anyone preached another gospel other than the one he preached, that person was to be accursed, condemned? Do you think that Paul considered false teaching as something evil? I think he did.

 False teachers are evil. They are deceivers. They are of their father the devil who is the master of deception. Everything Satan does is designed to prevent people from coming to the truth of the gospel and finding redemption. If he can distort the gospel into something which deceives people into believing they are saved when they are not, has he not been successful with the most heinous form of evil imaginable? We are to abstain from every form of evil. We must be able to recognize error and false utterances when we hear them.

 We want to never despise God’s truth, so we honor it, reverence it, and obey it. We know it well so we can examine everything carefully to make sure what we hear taught is consistent with it. If it is consistent, we hold it fast. If it is wrong, we reject it as evil.

 While I believe the command to examine everything and hold fast to that which is good and abstain from every form of evil applies primarily to the prophetic utterances we hear taught, it probably isn’t a stretch to say that this isn’t a bad piece of advice for most everything we are letting influence our thinking. Paul wrote in Romans 12:9, “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” The context there is a passage that is not dealing with prophetic utterances, but rather Christian conduct.

Some of you would do well to print verses 21-22 off and hang it on the wall just above your computer screen, or television set, or make it the first thing that pops up on your phone when you pick it up and turn it on. While these verses pertain to the things we hear taught, these verses can appropriately be applied to many other areas of life, and that without mishandling the truth of God’s word. When we move on into the next verses, and we learn about God’s work to sanctify us entirely, and His work to preserve us complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we would do well to apply the principles of choices to everything in our lives.