Three Reasons Why Prophecy Is Important

The topic of my message today is prophecy. I gave a shorter version of this when my family and I were in Houston two weeks ago for the Regional Family Weekend. And I thought, well, you know, a lot of those folks that were there and heard it, they were going to be traveling, so I'll expand this into a sermon.

That way, everyone gets new material. You don't have to hear anything that's been rehearsed a little bit. Lo and behold, we've probably got over a dozen people that were there. We have friends of ours up here from Houston, the Bauman family, and they're here from Dallas, and so on and so on. Well, the good news is I never give the same thing twice. I always work it up and refresh quite a bit.

But it's okay because repetition can be a good thing, and I hope it is this time for you.

My message, the topic is on prophecy, and that is not a small topic by any means.

In fact, before services, I went to our table in the back. We have literature. I just started gleaning through some of our booklets that we have, and this is not a whole list. You can understand Bible prophecy, the book of Revelation unveiled, the Middle East involved the prophecy. How to understand the Bible? Jesus Christ's real story. Does God exist? God's Holy Day plan.

That's a lot of material to get to read in order to give a sermon on prophecy. No, I did not read all of these in one sitting. I probably should have, but some of this you remember through the years. I can't address everything to know about prophecy in a sermon, but I did discover not only these booklets, but if you would have to go to our church website, www.ucg.org, there is so much information about prophecy there for us. You can get the booklets there in PDF form. You have numerous articles on prophecy. Even the broadcast, you can watch the broadcast episodes about prophecy. If you are really into prophecy, you can spend the rest of this winter and more just going through prophecy as the church has come to understand it through the years. It is literally a treasure trove. I am going to touch upon some aspects of prophecy today. I mentioned these sources out there you can go to because if there is anything that piques your interest that I just touch upon, and I don't really go deeply enough in there for your interest, go to the website, www.ucg.org, and you can find much more information there. With the help of God's word, I have narrowed down my topic a little bit today. I've narrowed down the topic to the importance of prophecy in three reasons. Let me just give you the title. It is probably easier. Three reasons why prophecy is important. That is the title I chose. Three reasons why prophecy is important. I have seen as many as 12 reasons, nine reasons. I came up with three. That is a good round number in my mind.

Three reasons why prophecy is important. The reasons are, and I'm going to cover each one of these in the sermon today, three reasons why prophecy is important. Prophecy edifies, first. Prophecy exhorts. And prophecy comforts. Those are the three broad reasons we're going to touch about. Prophecy edifies, exhorts, and comforts. Today, I'd like for us to consider each of these reasons as we go through here. Also, with these three reasons in mind, we'll also touch upon why prophecy is so important for our salvation. Why is prophecy so important for our salvation? So, I'm just going to begin with reason number one. Prophecy edifies. According to Vine's Expository Dictionary of the New Testament, edify literally means to build a home. It comes from the Greek word, oko-dome, which put together two words, means to build a home. The word is used figuratively in the New Testament in the sense of a building or promoting strengthening our spiritual growth. We might say it's a way of strengthening building our spiritual house. Prophecy then should build up and strengthen our confidence in God and in His word so that we would believe and trust God with the deepest of conviction. More specifically, Bible prophecy edifies or strengthens our faith in God and in His word. Now, like asking questions, how then does prophecy edify or strengthen our faith in God and in His word? Prophecy is an integral part of the Bible. God's inspired revelation of mankind. The Bible is breathed by God.

It reveals God, who He is. The Bible reveals His plan for humanity. The Bible reveals why we are here. God's Church has long understood this and taught this through many years. The Bible is unique among all literature. Scholars tell us the Bible has been penned, written out, by as many as 35 to 40 writers, some scholars suggest.

These writers come from various cultures and various centuries, the span of 15 different centuries, the Bible has been put together into the form we have today. But even knowing that, we have to understand that the Bible is actually a masterpiece by one author. It's really just authored by one being, and that is God, the creator of the universe.

We know that because the Bible itself proclaims its origin. We would know that, but you don't need to turn there. 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. God, creator of the universe, is the author of the Bible.

So, when we realize that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we can begin to realize the significance of its prophecies. They are reliable because God himself inspired them.

So, what does the creator tell us about himself and the future? Let's begin by turning to Isaiah 46, verse 9.

Isaiah 46, verse 9. What does God tell us about himself and the future? He is the author.

Isaiah 46, verse 9. Let's read what God inspired Isaiah to write. Isaiah 46, verse 9. Remember the former things of old.

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other.

I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.

Then skipping down to verse 11, let's also break into that.

God writes through Isaiah, And so God not only claims to reveal the future, he has the power to bring to pass what he has foretold.

In the Apostle Peter, in 2 Peter 1, 19, urges us, therefore, to pay close attention to what God has to tell us through the biblical prophets. 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1, verse 19. 2 Peter 1, verse 19. Peter writes, And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, Which you do well to heed, as a light that shines in a dark place, Until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Again, God is the author of the Bible. God is the author of all biblical prophecy.

A prophet is one, then, through whom God speaks.

A prophet is one appointed to reveal the will of God to the people, especially his people. The Hebrew word for prophet, navi, means one who announces or brings a message from God. And the Greek word for prophet, frofetis, means a proclaimer of a divine message. And our own English word, prophet, does seem to accurately capture the meaning of both the Hebrew and the Greek word.

The English word prophet means one who speaks by divine inspiration as the interpreter or spokesman of God. Whether it be a message of duty, a warning, or a prediction of future events. God usually revealed his will to prophets through visions and dreams. They saw in clear mental images what God wanted to convey to the people.

And then they described what they saw in their own words and style. Sometimes not only what they saw, but what they also heard. At other times, God told them what to say. Sometimes, when we read prophetic passages in the Scripture, we'll actually come across phrases such as, Thus says the Lord, Thus says the Eternal. We'll find that throughout Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and elsewhere.

And since all Bible prophecies then come from God, God's prophets were messengers who spoke and wrote down the revelations from God. And it's been preserved for us through this day. Now, we sometimes assume that the mission of God's prophets was only about predicting the future. My earliest understanding of prophets were kind of strange people that would say crazy things that nobody could understand.

All they did was to predict the future. And it was typically a scary future. But that is not what we find in Scripture. Those are some ideas that we may have, or at least I'll speak for myself, I gathered from the wrong places growing up.

And God's Word has revealed that prophecy and prophets should be much different. Prophets is what we find out from God's Word is that prophets often had a dual role. Two roles at the same time, possibly. God often sent them to predict and to preach. They did both things oftentimes. Not always, but oftentimes both. They predict and preach. And when we consider all the many prophecies of the Bible, we will find that the prophets' mission was more about preaching repentance and obedience.

Through the prophets, God defined good and evil in many ways. And he explained through the prophets the consequences of good and evil. We'll be talking more about the preaching aspect of prophecy in a little bit. First, I want to focus our attention. Again, we're still talking about prophecy exhorts us.

To focus our attention, begin here with what for many of us I expect is a little more exciting aspect of prophecy. And that is learning how biblical events, events of prophecy in the Bible, are actually fulfilled and all the details that go along with it. And this is important to consider because fulfilled Bible prophecies give us example after example of the omnipotence of God. It provides rich ground to prove that God truly does exist. People for millennia have wondered, does God exist? And we know He does. And fulfilled prophecy is a good way of proving it.

Now, maybe the most amazing predictions in the Bible belong to the Messianic prophecies. Prophecies that foretell or predict events surrounding the Messiah. Scholars claim that the Old Testament contains 300 prophetic passages that describe who the Messiah is and what He will do. But few people are aware of the sheer number of prophecies and the astonishingly precise details foretold in God's word up to thousands of years in advance.

These prophecies provide us a powerful confirmation of God's power and also the accuracy of God's Bible. Let's be turning to Zachariah. I'm just going to look at a few of these. I guess part of my purpose here is to whet your appetite for more. And then you can go home this week and start pulling out booklets and going online and reading your Bibles and see more. Let's look at Zachariah 11. Let's look at an example of a prophecy about the Messiah. In Zachariah 11 verses 12-13, here we read about the price for the Messiah's betrayal.

30 pieces of silver. And how those 30 pieces of silver would buy a potter's field. Zachariah 11-12, then I said to them, if it is agreeable to you, give me my wages, and if not, refrain. So they weighed out my wages 30 pieces of silver.

And the Lord said to me, Throw it to the potter. At princely price they set on me. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.

Now let's compare these scriptures with what we see fulfilled and recorded for us in Matthew 26. Matthew 26, that was the prophecy we're told of by God through Zachariah. Matthew 26.14, these are the sort of prophecies that when I was finally listening to God and coming into church many years ago, these were the sort of things that made my hair stand on in. It gave me goosebumps. Matthew 26.14-16, here's what actually happened 500 years later, five centuries later. Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and said, What are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you?

And they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray him, meaning to betray Christ.

And what happened to those 30 pieces of silver? Let's flip the page over or so to Matthew 27.3. Matthew 27.3-7. Matthew 27.3, Then Judas is betrayer, this is after he had betrayed Christ, seeing that he had been condemned was remorseful, and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? You see to it. And he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. But the chief priest took the silver pieces and said, It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood. And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Now, I find that amazing. 500 years after God foretold predicted this event, it happened. It happened. That would be like William Bradford, one of the first governors of Plymouth Colony, 1650 in the colonies of America, and Bradford predicted that Barack Obama would be President of the United States and set up the health care system. Can you imagine that happening? No. Humanly, it is not going to happen. It is not possible. And yet, this is an amazing prophecy about the Messiah that came to be. Now, there are many other messianic prophecies. Some of these were made 10 centuries or even more before they would be fulfilled, or at least recorded for us. But together, they do prove that Jesus of Nazareth was and is a Messiah. Let me just run through a few of these as a list.

If you want to read more, read this booklet, Jesus Christ, the Real Story. They are outlined in this booklet. I am not ashamed to say I use research in my messages. What do we learn about other prophecies about the Messiah? They were predicted and were fulfilled, such as, you don't have to try to write these down, He would be a descendant of King David. He would be born of a virgin. He would be born in Bethlehem, and His own people would reject Him. He would be forsaken by His followers. He would be executed with criminals. All these things did happen. Others would cast lots for His clothing. He would be offered vinegar and gall. He would suffer execution without the breaking of any of His bones.

He would be buried with the wealthy, and God would resurrect Him from the grave. Now, for that one, let's turn back and look at that prophecy in more detail. This prophecy is predicted back, well, at least a thousand years it was written before it happened, Psalm 16, verse 10. Let's look at this prediction in Psalm 16, verse 10.

Again, we're looking at these because my first point is that prophecy edifies. Prophecy builds us up. It strengthens our spiritual house. Psalm 16, verse 10. Who was this prophet that wrote this down under the inspiration of God? King David. King David. King David was inspired to write this prophecy. It's been about a thousand years before it's fulfillment. For you will not leave my soul and sheol in the grave, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Now, flip forward to Acts 2. Acts 2, verse 30.

I'll keep you busy a little bit going back and forth today in the Bible. That's okay.

Acts 2, verse 30.

Here we read Peter's personal affirmation that this prophecy was fulfilled. How does he know it was fulfilled? He is an eyewitness. How's that for proof? Acts 2, verse 30.

We are all witnesses, all referring to he and the other disciples. They saw Christ with their own eyes. If you remember, John and Peter ran to the tomb that day when they had heard the report that the body was gone. John got there first, but Peter was the first one to go in and see it for himself. He was a good eye-witness of this fulfilled prophecy. I imagine that edified him a little bit. Strengthened his belief a bit. Confused, but strengthened his hope. Now, of course, people will try to weaken our faith and argue that Jesus was only a man. I think we've all heard that, haven't we? He was just a good guy. He preached some good suggestions. He was just supposed to love everybody. But he was just a man, a good teacher. They say that he and his disciples actually manipulated events. That's what I've been reading. And somehow, he even faked his death. That's what some want to believe. But when you consider this list, I just went down. You've heard of before, probably. You've got to realize that's ridiculous. That's absolutely ridiculous. There's no way a mere man could, for example, control the circumstances of his birth where he would be born. He could not control who his ancestors were. Nor could he control the actions of others in betraying him, as Judas did. How could control where he would be put after he died? And putting his body in the unused tomb of a wealthy man. How can mere mortals have done that? It's not possible. A true explanation of what happened defies human logic, human rational thinking. The true explanation is that Christ, as God made flesh, was simply bringing to pass what he had foretold. Make of it that way. He was bringing to pass what he had foretold. And so we can trust that God, who is able to control all events, caused these prophecies to be written many centuries before they were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Fulfilled prophecies like these builds and strengthens our belief and trust in God. For they reveal to us the evidence of God's existence and the truth of his holy scriptures. And knowing who Christ is also strengthens our belief and trust that God fulfilled many other prophecies found in the scriptures. For example, Genesis 6. God foretold that he would send the flood to destroy all humanity but spare Noah and his family. It's one of our favorite stories, isn't it? Our children are interested in that story. Genesis 6.7.8. Genesis 6.7.8. Just look a little bit here. This is what God said and predicted. Genesis 6, verse 7-8. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air. For I am sorry, I regret, that I have made them.

Verse 8, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And skipping down to verse 17, God says, And of course, Genesis 7 goes on to describe God's universal flood. How God opened the deeps, how it rained 40 days and 40 nights, and how the water rose up way above the tops of the mountains. How can we trust that the flood really happened? Nobody recorded it. No video cameras. No cell phones to record it for us. How do we know it happened? Now our day and age is a lot. You have to see it to believe it. How can we know that God fulfilled that ancient prophecy as he foretold? Well, two and two together. Because the fulfilled messianic prophecies show us that we can trust Jesus Christ to be our Savior, we can also believe and trust that God fulfilled his prophecy of the flood. Why? Well, let's be turning to Matthew 24.

Why can we be confident that God fulfilled the flood prediction and many other predictions we find in the Old Testament, especially?

Matthew 24.37 We know it because Jesus Christ confirmed it with his own words. Matthew 24.37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, He's speaking this as historical fact. Because as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. And did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

He was an eyewitness account.

We can trust his witness. We can be confident that the flood did indeed happen.

We also wonder, I'm sure, we here go back and forth. The scientific community will never back that up. They'll never agree. And even among the religious community, there's constant debate about what was the flood really? How could you have gotten all those animals on there? What was the shape of the ark? And so on. We can get caught up in that. Or we could just believe what Jesus Christ said and be strengthened by that knowledge. The flood happened. We can also believe and trust that God had many other prophecies fulfilled. We can believe what we read when God told Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved in a foreign land and then be freed. And so they were. Or when God told Moses that he, God, would use many wonders to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt and then give them a promised land. We know he did. Because God said it. We can trust God's word.

God wants those whom he calls to salvation to build up their spiritual strength. God alone can foretell the future and then bring it to pass. That's what fulfilled prophecies reveal to us. Fulfilled Bible prophecy provides irrefutable proof of his existence and of the divine origin of the Bible for those who choose to believe and trust God. You do have to make a choice to believe what you read and what you hear from Scripture. And when we trust God in his word, we will be building a deeper and more profound trust in God. Bible prophecy does indeed edify or strengthen our faith in God and his word. We can believe it. We can trust it. Now let's talk about reason number two. Prophecy exhorts. Prophecy exhorts. Vines expository dictionary tells us that the word exhort or exhortation comes from the Greek word paraklesis. And it literally means this, to call to one's side, to summon, to pay attention, to draw one out in a certain direction, we could say. It can also mean to encourage or to motivate. Exhort can mean to encourage or motivate. Albert Barnes suggests a little more detail in exhortation. Albert Barnes and his notes in the Bible suggest that the exhortation is a call to the practical duties of our faith in conviction. It's a calling to do what we're told to do. That's the motivation. And so when we consider exhortation with prophecy, prophecy then moves here as to respond positively to God's message. More specifically, we will find that Bible prophecy motivates us to repent of sin and to obey God. Prophecy motivates us to repent of sin and to obey God. Even God's earliest prophecies, and we can look at one of the earliest ones, Genesis 2, 16, way back in the beginning. Genesis 2, 16, we may not often think of this as a prophecy, but it is a foretelling. It is a prediction.

Genesis 2, 16, through 17, this may be the earliest prophecy, but I'm not going to necessarily say that, but it seems it may be. Genesis 2, 16, 17 contains the exhortation that God is going to repeat over and over again in some variation throughout the Bible, from where it starts here to the end in the book of Revelation.

Here's what we read.

It's a statement of fact, but it's also a prediction. You eat of this. If you disobey me, you will die.

God exhorts and encourages Adam here to choose life over death. We see a similar exhortation in Deuteronomy 11. In Deuteronomy 11.

Verse 26.

In Deuteronomy 11, verse 26, In Deuteronomy 11, verse 26, Behold, I said before you today a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Eternal, the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God. Blessing and cursing. Blessing and cursing. Life or death. God's prophets were often sent to exhort or motivate people with this what in our literature we sometimes call it the carrot or stick approach.

The carrot or stick approach. We had a pony growing up, Shetland pony, the most stubborn critter we ever had on the farm besides us kids. Sometimes that pony never wanted to move forward. Now you could try the stick, you know, add its little rump a bit, poke it to get it to move. It wouldn't move. What would make it move? Not a carrot.

It was what? Turn its head on a carrot. But it'd move forward for a sugar cube or a piece of cookie. That's how we got it moving forward. That's that carrot stick approach. I have to say that because I realize some of our kids may not understand that.

That's a metaphor, the carrot or stick approach. Prophecies then typically include both the promise of reward and a warning about punishments. That's what we've seen so far in Genesis here in Deuteronomy. Now this reward or punishment could either be given explicitly, obviously for us to read, or it's implicitly. It's suggested or it's there in the background. Let's look at a really good example of this sort of thing going on in the book of Jonah, chapter 3.

It's a basic textbook application of how prophecy works. How prophecy both predicts, as we talked about earlier, but now in this case, prophecy predicts and preaches. It's offering a motivation to do something. Let's look at Jonah 3, and we're going to pick it up in verse 4.

God sent Jonah to Nineveh, if you remember, and that was the capital of Assyria. And Nineveh, and Assyria was one of Israel's greatest enemies at the time. And Jonah's message seemed inevitable. It was a prediction, and it seemed no way possible anything else could happen but what was predicted. In Jonah 3.4 we read, Jonah cried aloud and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Sounds pretty definite, doesn't it? But we know what happens. Jonah becomes amazed and frankly soured, disappointed, because the Ninevites responded to this prophetic message in a very positive, God-fearing way with acts of humble repentance. Amazing for a group of Assyrians. Look at verse 5.

So the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast. They put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. The king of Nineveh arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself in sackcloth.

Sackcloth is like putting on a burlap bag like a gunny sack. The itchiest material, probably known to man besides wool. Really scratchy wool. The king took off his royal robes, his fancy soft clothing to put this on. He was humbled and frightened that God would destroy them. He covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king in his noble, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything.

Do not let them eat or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? Pretty incredible. And the result? Well, God changed his mind. He relented and he did not destroy Nineveh, as he had said, after all in verse 10. Pretty impressive. The lesson we learn here is that when prophets speak of future events, they are not necessarily predicting an inevitable and irreversible future.

God is a God of love, a compassion, and mercy. Let's notice what he spoke in ancient times through the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel 18. There are some wrong ideas out there in society that says the New Testament is all about love. And the Old Testament is about this mean, old, vengeful, cranky God that just wants to squish and destroy everybody.

I hope we don't believe everything we hear, but we do believe what we read and hear from God's Word. Ezekiel 18. 21. These are the words of God through the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel 18. 21. But if a wicked man turns, that's the word we would say, repents. But if a wicked man repents, turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him.

Because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. He'll no longer face the curse of death. He'll face the blessing of life. And skipping down to verse 32, God has never been a mean old cranky, vengeful God. He's love. He's got strict requirements and high expectations. But he understands what we are made of. Verse 32. God speaking through Ezekiel, again, I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God.

Therefore, turn and live. Repent and live. This is not a New Testament message. It's a very old message. Turn and live. God continually urges people and nations through prophecy to turn from their wicked ways in order to receive blessings for their obedience. But as the Bible reveals, not everyone listens to God.

Not everyone listens to God in the olden days, either. Let's be turning to 1 Kings 14, please. 1 Kings 14. 1 Kings 14. We're going to look a little bit here about the ancient kingdoms of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. A lot of time is spent with those two kingdoms in God's word. And 1 Kings 14 is where we'll pick this up. We see that unlike the city of Nineveh, unlike the city of Nineveh, the northern kingdom of Israel refused to heed God's warning.

After the ten tribes of Israel broke away from Judah, Jeroboam, their new king, immediately led Israel, those ten tribes, into all sorts of idolatry and wickedness, despicable things that God abhorred. In 1 Kings 14, verses 15-16, we'll read this prophecy. God inspired Ahijah, the prophet of that time, to deliver to Jeroboam. 1 Kings 14, verses 15.

For the Lord will strike Israel. It's a prediction. As a reed is shaken in the water, he will uproot Israel from this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the river. That's the River Euphrates. Because they have made their wooden images provoking the Lord to anger. And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and made Israel sin.

This prophecy, like the one Jonah delivered to the Ninevites, is very, very dire. It's very serious. But Israel chose to ignore it. They could have repented like the Ninevites, and God would have relented, but they did not. What's interesting is that for over 200 years, for over 200 years, Ahijah would have given this prophecy to Jeroboam possibly around 900, 920, 900 B.C. For over 200 years, this message was given to Israel over and over again.

But they never listened. Let's look at 2 Kings 17, please. 2 Kings 17. We're going to get up in 2 Kings 17, verse 13. We get a summary, you might call it, of God's messages to Israel. Not just to Israel, as we're going to see here, but this is also the summarized version of the messages God sent through His prophets to Israel and to Judah. 2 Kings 17, verse 13 through 15. And we read, Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer.

How often He told them. He said, Turn, meaning, Repent from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commandage your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets. Nevertheless, they would not hear, but stiffened their necks like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them. They followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. For over 200 years, we know then that God sent prophets to warn Israel. And Judah as well. Judah gets to be around a little longer. We know it's 200 years because in 722 BC, 200 years since Elihiah first prophesied and warned Jeroboam, in 722 BC Israel was carried away to Assyria.

They were carried away to Assyria, and they were indeed scattered among the people beyond their river Euphrates. God had no reason to relent. They had done nothing to show repentance or to turn away. They ignored God's warning message. They could not do like the Ninevites did. Judah temporarily avoided Israel's fate. But over the following century, Judah also proved increasingly stubborn towards God.

Let's read what Jeremiah was inspired to tell the people of Judah. Jeremiah 25 verse 3. Prophecy exhorts. That's what we're talking about here. Prophecy exhorts. It motivates. It urges us to behavior. But not everybody will listen. Jeremiah 25, breaking into verse 3 here a little bit. Bottom part of verse 3 in Jeremiah 25. I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. And the Lord has sent to you all His servants of prophets, rising early and sending them. But you have not listened, speaking to Judah, nor inclined your ear to hear.

They said, repent. Repent now every one of His evil way and His evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers for ever and ever. You won't get a sense of God is begging them. Just listen to me.

Just do what I'm telling you to do. He said, do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the works of your hands.

And I will not harm you. Just do what you're told.

Verse 7, Yet you have not listened to me, says the Lord.

Despite God's exhortation to prophets, to turn to Him, and despite the example of Israel's own deportation by the Assyrians, Judah refused to repent. What did their action gain them?

Remember the carrot and stick? Their action gained them the stick or rod of God's wrath in the form of Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar. Let's continue on here in verse 8. Because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send, and take all the families of the north, says the Lord. And Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, against Judah, against its inhabitants, and against all these nations surrounding, all around, and will utterly destroy them, and will make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. And so, like Israel before them, Judah was taken into captivity. They refused to be motivated. They refused to be exhorted to the right behavior God demanded. And so, these examples, what do these examples illustrate? These examples illustrate that God's prophecies exhort, and they encourage hearers to respond in a positive way to God. God gives profound reasons to change and to motivate people to repent and to turn to Him. He does it with the wonderful promises of His blessings for obedience. And if necessary, the warning, the stick, of cursing for disobedience. And so, we have then the second reason Bible prophecy is important, because it exhorts and motivates us to repent and obey God. And that brings us to our third reason, prophecy comforts. Prophecy comforts. The word translated as comfort is the Greek paramuthia, which literally means speaking closer to. That means speaking close to someone, like with a greater degree of tenderness, with words of consolation and reassurance. In my mind's eye, I think of, if you ever had a child or grandchild that's hurting and suffering, do you stand across the room and tell the kid, Oh, I'm sorry, honey. Hope you feel better soon? We don't do that. We're trying to comfort someone, do we? We get up close, very close to them, and quietly speak words of comfort and encouragement. God's prophecy, in a sense, does the same thing. There's a certain comfort, consolation, and even this idea of reassurance.

There's a reassurance in God's comfort. Albert Barnes adds this note, that he who prophesies presents the promise in the hope of the good news, the hope of the gospel, and often in the time of trial. So let's talk a little bit, then, how Bible prophecy comforts us and reassures us, and specifically reassures us and comforts us about God's mercy and His love. Now, many times God prophets are accused, again, of preaching and predicting only doom and gloom. Only doom and gloom. In fact, you may not be familiar with this word, but there is an English word called a Jeremiah. Jeremiah. It's from the name Jeremiah. It means a prolonged lamentation or complaint, or maybe a warning or angry harangue. It's bad news. But that's not fair to Jeremiah. We're still in Jeremiah 25, if you haven't turned around a lot or flipped a lot. Hopefully you're still in Jeremiah 25. Let's look at verse 11. Jeremiah gets a lot of bad press. He's always angry and complaining.

But God also sent Jeremiah with a message of comfort for Judah. Let's look at verse 11. Jeremiah 25, verse 11. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the eternal. And I will make it a perpetual desolation. And that's good news if you're the one receiving the stick of Babylon beating on you and carrying you away. That's good news to know that the ones that are inflicting this harm are going to be punished by God. And indeed, as God foretold, seventy years later, Babylon, we have proof of it just through your books of history, human history, external sources. Seventy years later, Babylon was overthrown by the Persians, and the Babylonian Empire did cease to exist. It gives us one more proof of God's inipotence and the accuracy of his word. But I would also like for us to consider another amazing prophecy that God fulfilled for the people of Judah at the end of their Babylonian captivity.

Let's read an earlier prophecy concerning Judah given through Isaiah. You can be turning with me to Isaiah 44, and we're going to pick up this amazing prophecy here.

This is another prophecy. This one is found in the book Isaiah, and we're going to look at it here. This is a prophecy about Isaiah, about Judah, and it in particular shows how prophecy does indeed comfort and reassure. Because this prophecy is meant to comfort and reassure Judah.

In this instance, we have a prophecy that was foretold nearly 150 years in advance. That a man named Cyrus would conquer Babylon, set the Jewish captives free, and even enable them to rebuild Jerusalem in the temple. And yes, that happened, and the man's name was Cyrus, just as God foretold, we believe, at least 150 years earlier. So let's look at Isaiah 44, verse 24. We're going to read part of this amazing prophecy. Isaiah 44, verse 24.

Verse 26.

He says to Cyrus, who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and He shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built, and to the temple Your foundation shall be laid. And let's keep reading on to Isaiah 45, verse 1. And thus says the Lord, to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut. Now, by itself, this prophecy is interesting, but I believe God allowed a certain historian, a Greek historian named Herodotus. He lived about 100 years after this event. He lived from 484 to 420 B.C., right at 100 years or less after Babylon's fall in Cyrus-Admen. He confirmed Jeremiah's prophecy of Judah's 70-year captivity. And his history also confirmed Isaiah's prophecy of Cyrus, allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild that temple, their temple, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. And since Herodotus, archaeologists have come up with other records of an event found in the desert, in distant places, and these other ancient records also correlate many details concerning the fall of the Babylonian Empire, just as God's prophecy foretold. And these details give remarkable verification of God's prophecies. And I'll just mention a few of them here. For example, when we read, I will dry up your rivers in Isaiah 44-27, we now understand that the prophesied strategy Cyrus would use in which he diverted the rivers of Euphrates so his soldiers could wade up the riverbed into the city of Babylon.

God even foretold that someone would unlock the double doors or gates facing the river on that night. That's what's referred to in Isaiah 45-1.

Now, if you want more information, go to one of these booklets or to our website. It's long and it's very compelling, very interesting. It reads like fiction, but it ain't fiction.

Pardon my English. I did it on purpose.

So, part of the fulfillment, though, let's look at Ezra 1-2-3. Part of its fulfillment is recorded for us in Ezra 1, verse 2-3, though. It's not all in outside sources.

Part of the fulfillment of God's prophecies was Cyrus' proclamation to rebuild God's temple. We can read this edict in Ezra 1-2-3. Now, this may not be the exact edict, is what scholars say. What they do tell us is the phraseology, the wording, is exactly what they find in official royal proclamations of the day and age of Cyrus.

So, in Ezra 1, verses 2-3, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all the kings of the earth, the Lord God of heaven has given me, and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, he is God which is in Jerusalem. It's kind of stilted, isn't it? It kind of reads in a rather official, legalistic way. That's the way it was done back then. And again, scholars have compared this to other proclamations given by Cyrus at the time, and they fit the pattern. And so, it's really amazing when we think of it. God was comforting Judah, and especially those who did believe and trust God. Not everybody in Judah did, but those that did, they heard these prophecies, and that must have been a huge comfort. Nearly 100 years before the Babylonian exile even began, God is making these specific prophecies.

God foretold the rebuilding of Jerusalem then, and the rebuilding of the temple before they were even destroyed. Isn't that amazing? Talk about a plan. God foretold the freeing of the Jewish captives before they were even taken into captivity. And he even foretold the name of Cyrus before he was even born. A long time before he was born. So, why should these ancient prophecies comfort us? Well, just as God has fulfilled prophecy in the past, and we have proof of it, we can believe without any doubt that God will fulfill those yet to occur. And especially our favorite ones about the return of Jesus Christ, and about the establishment of the kingdom of God.

You know, those prophecies are our favorite around the Feaster Tabernacle time. Isaiah 65-25, how the wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. I can't wait to see that. And how they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. Those things will truly happen.

Can we suspend our natural human disbelief and actually believe this is going to happen? It is going to be as real as you sitting there and me standing here. It's going to be that real. It is going to happen. We can trust God to make it so. Prophecy assures us that God's will will be done upon the earth.

And that is a comfort force. It should be. It's a comfort force through all of life's tribulations. Both are smaller personal ones we go through now, and especially through those much larger ones. But now we're going to know what will come to pass.

So far, then, we have considered that prophecy, the three reasons why prophecy is important, is because it edifies and exhorts and it comforts us. What's interesting about these three prophecies, not three prophecies, these three reasons, edify, exhort, and comfort, if we would somehow meld them together, put them together, three as one, edify, exhort, and comfort, if we could put them together to one ultimate purpose, one overriding purpose, that prophecy fulfills, it would seem to be that prophecy motivates us to believe and trust God, and so repent, to believe and trust God and repent.

And when we grasp the significance of fulfilled prophecies and many others God has yet to fulfill, we who choose to believe and trust God, we are compelled to ask a very important question.

If God has called you, invited you to salvation, you too will ask this question. A lot of us have asked this question, we've answered it. But if God's calling you, you will be compelled, just a scan of evidence I've gone through today, you'll be compelled to ask yourself this question.

It's the same question asked of Peter, look at Acts 2. It's the same question asked of Peter, on that day of Pentecost, when his sermon cut the listeners gathered there to hear him, his sermon cut his listeners to the heart.

Acts 2.37. Do you remember what that question is?

Acts 2.37. They asked Peter, after hearing this compelling sermon, they asked Peter, men and brethren, what shall we do?

We've just heard this reference, all these fulfilled prophecies.

Men, women and brethren, what shall we do?

And Peter gave them the answer, and this is still the answer.

What do we do when we hear this evidence? Proof? Repent. Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You see, God's prophecy and God's inspired prophesying should motivate us to repent of sin.

To be baptized and receive God's gift of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul knew this. He knew this, and he was inspired when he wrote these words. 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14.3.

The Apostle Paul knew that prophecy and it fulfilled prophecy, all this proof of God, and by the power of God's Spirit in him. The Apostle Paul knew what prophecy would do for us. He was inspired by this when he framed these thoughts from God found in 1 Corinthians 14.3. But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.

Those for your reasons are not mine. I'm not smart enough to come up with them. But I'm smart enough with God's help to read and at least begin to understand what he's talking to us about here. He who prophesies inspired preaching, that would include prophetic prediction. He who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.

These things motivate us to repent of sin, be baptized, and get God's Holy Spirit, receive it from him. That's the process of conversion. That's what we speak a lot about. In all of this, these things, repentance, baptism, the gift of God's Spirit, all these are required to have an eternal relationship with God. Prophecy exhorts us, motivates us in this direction.

So ever since the time of Adam, God's purpose through prophecy has always been to motivate human beings to reject sin, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and to choose obedience, the tree of life. God wants no one to suffer eternal death. He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2, verse 1, That all men be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. In prophecy places before each of us that hope of salvation, which God desires for each of us. But he also gives it along with that warning to choose life and to avoid death. Now, this hope of salvation is a wonderful hope. It's prophesied. What exactly? What hope am I speaking about? Let's turn and read what God foretells for us. For those who believe and trust God, who repent, and are baptized, and receive His Holy Spirit. Revelation 21. Revelation 21.

The Scriptures here in Revelation we're going to look at. They truly edify us and exhort us, motivate us forward.

And they surely... Humanity has been capable of annihilating itself for nearly 70 some years now. And hearts turn ever colder, is what I believe. However, as we watch and see these prophetic signs unfolding around us, we watch and see these things. We do that. We're good at that. Try to be good at that. But we must not neglect to watch something even more important. What is that? What is something even more important than watching the signs of the times? What's more important than watching that? That answer is found in Revelation 16.15. What is more important than watching these prophetic signs unfolding around us? Yes, watch those, but don't neglect to watch this. Revelation 16.15. Behold, I am coming as a thief. Well, that's going to come when we least expect it. Christ is going to return when we least expect it, it seems. Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments. Lest he walk naked and they see his shame. What is it we must watch? We must watch ourselves to be sure that we are clothed in the righteousness of God. It's interesting to watch things occur around us. But we must watch ourselves to be sure we are clothed in the righteousness of God. We must be on the watch, always believe and trust in God, and allow nothing to turn us away from our only hope for salvation. There is no other way, no other path to salvation. Please turn with me, finally, to Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46, 21-22. Isaiah 46, 21-22. You know, God has called us, you and me, He has called us now, now, to believe and trust Him, to commit ourselves forever to Him. And prophecy, as we've seen today, edifies us in His way. It strengthens us in His way. Prophecy exhorts us to greater acts of obedience and repentance. And prophecy comforts us with this unshakable assurance of God's mercy and love of our place in the Kingdom. We must take to heart God's warning against sin to be ever watchful and not allow sin to rule over us. We must look to God, remain resolute in faith, and hold true to our calling, so that we may receive salvation in our place in the Kingdom of God. Now, I just want to make sure here that I give you the right Scripture. Couldn't be. It's Isaiah 45. I heard the whisperings. Good teachers, preachers, keep their ears open. We must look to God, remain resolute in faith, and hold true to our calling. In Isaiah 45, verse 21, and that's a better spot, but it's a better place, too. Here God challenges us to do just that, to remain resolute in faith, hold true to our calling, and receive salvation in our place. Let's read here, then, and then I'll be done. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord, the Eternal? And there is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is none besides me. Look to me, then. Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other. For I am God, and there is no other.