Published: December 21, 2025 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: The Law of Liberty - Part 16 | Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:13-22
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First Thessalonians trying to to finish this up.
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I did want to say at the outset that my um I hope the discussion last week that that sort of focused on praying without ceasing was helpful um and and offered some insights or some thoughts for
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folks. I do want to say here because I didn't remember to say it last time that that uh that discussion in context here was not by any means the extent of everything that we ought to say about
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prayer. And I'm not going to rehash all of those things this morning. But simply in the context here as Paul says pray without ceasing that we understand that to indicate to us that it is possible
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then the nature of prayer must be such that it can be done without cessation. Um and we we spoke very briefly there and and I on reflection realize some of
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my comments might have been taken to mean that I don't think that petition is a worthwhile form of prayer at all. Um it's certainly not that petition is part of it and uh petition is included in
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that. In fact, you can go back to some of the parts of scripture where we read people pray and the scripture tells us that God repented. So petition has a lot of things wrapped up in it. petition is
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absolutely a fundamental element of prayer, but it is not the only thing. I would remind you also of the concept, I don't know who coined the phrase, but the concept that we see reflected often in scripture of praying the promises,
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the things that God has promised. We see many members of of the canon of scripture, reminding God of things that he has promised. Not that God needs to be reminded, but that it is one of the
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formats of prayer that we see there. Again, just a a kind of caveat at the beginning there because I realized I didn't I didn't hedge my um discussion properly last time, but I want to um I
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want to tackle a section here and and I don't know exactly which verses all we will cover, but I was was thinking about this and Aaron gave me a comment that I I thought was very helpful kind of right
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at the end and I wanted to go back over it here and um I completely failed in my writing. As you see, it's climbing the board. And I don't even have them all up here. But what I wanted to say was this.
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Um, I think you could very honestly read this section in First Thessalonians. And not only here, I think there's a number of sections in scripture, but here you could read them
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in the same way that we could read the Proverbs. These are short almost staccato statements of Paul. And I'm going to borrow the the framework that Aaron laid out in his last study in
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which he mentioned sort of reading some of the uh the law as wisdom in a similar format to how to read the proverbs which is take them as groups where whichever
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one of the phrases you center can be enhanced or its understanding can be reinforced by the things that sit on either side of it. So I think about them this way because I'm currently teaching
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geometry. I use the term tessellation if you're familiar with geometry. Shapes that fit into each other no matter which way you rotate them. They always fit back in there. Um but you know using um
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just sort of they basically you can reorder them and refit them in ways that will elevate one another but also the order in which Paul gives them to us they already have a certain kind of
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reinforcement. So, I wanted to talk about that a little bit this morning and also to acknowledge Abe um did point this out last week um and also connected it to to first Peter that these things
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these sort of short phrases they link together very quickly with various ideas. There is a sense in which they are somewhat self-evident. Um, but I do think it's worth taking a minute just to
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review them and look at how they reinforce one another or how they can uh vary the emphasis of what the the idea is if you look at them as they connect to one another. I've made a little bit
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of a judgment here. Um, again, we could argue about where the punctuation ought to go in the Greek. I don't really intend to do that. Um but if you read from basically sort of verse 14 on or
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actually I backed up to the end of 13 where he says live in peace with one another. Um I think really you could start there with a lot of these phrases that he has through here. Um, I guess I
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found it a little curious that the the grammar that is typically accepted here, if you look at 14, mine says, "We urge you, brethren, uh, admonish the unruly,
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comma, encourage the faint-hearted, comma, help the weak, comma, be patient with everyone." But then we come down to, uh, 16, 17, 18. They, you know, we've got a semicolon or a period in these. We've, we've truncated them in a
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way. I don't quite understand why they chose that one is one and one is the other. I'm going to make the point, I think, that all of these could be taken as basically proverbial phrases from
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Paul. Please don't understand my use of proverbial there to uh denigrate them or somehow um blunt their impact. I rather
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I mean the reverse. proverbial in the sense that these are sort of gems of truth that the the reflections through them reinforce one another or shine
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light on one another as you take them in in groups together and you look at them. Um I haven't printed it out. I should have printed it out. Aaron gave us this concept that the the proverbs in the
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scripture, if you read the book of proverbs, sometimes people don't really understand what to do with them and take them one by one by one rather than taking them three or five at a time as
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sort of groupings or couplets is not the right word. Triplets um where whatever is centered in those phrases is uh informed and enhanced by the things on
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either side of it. giving also as one of the proofs there the fact that several of the proverbs repeat. Um there are there are almost word for word reuse of
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certain proverbs which would not be in line with if they're just meant to be taken one by one. Why would you keep writing it down? It's meant to be taken in the context of the things that sit
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around it. So I'm going to make that argument here this morning. I don't want to belabor this point, but I certainly welcome any thoughts as I've tried to put these up here. And I realize now
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that I haven't done it very neatly at all, but um I'm also I'm also running out of room. But we looked last week, of course, at the one um that most of the commentators indicated to understand
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this way, which was rejoice always, pray without ceasing being centered, and then in everything give thanks. And I think everyone understood the eminent uh sense or or benefit of having that centered
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that pray without ceasing then could be reinforced by the idea of rejoicing on the one side and giving thanks on the other. But I'm making the argument here that really all of these pieces could be understood in a similar way depending on
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what we center with them. So I've put up here to start with be at peace among yourselves, admonish the idol, encourage the faint-hearted. If we took this as a group of three and I a little unwieldy
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here, admonishing the idol is in the center of these things, but it's reinforced by the idea that you ought to be at peace with one another. It's it's reinforced by the fact that some are
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faint-hearted on the other side of those things. It helps us understand perhaps a little bit of the things that are entailed on the sense of idleness that he was discussing there. the idea that
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it is not conductive to peace or the idea that some people perhaps are not uh engaging or um I I'm going to stick with the word
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engaging. They're not engaging the work of the ministry in some things because they may be faint-hearted. They are scared. They are frightened. The admonishing of those things is not necessarily strictly the you're doing a
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bad thing. It can also be related to the encouragement. So, you see how these things can interact this way. Um, again, I'm just going to pick the next one
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I think obviously helping the weak and encouraging the faint-hearted relate to each other. We can see that. And I've already indicated to you the idea that the admonishing the idol could be related to this. So, I think you could you could work your way all the way down this way. Does anybody object to this or
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have a thought or a comment on that? Um, so I'm offering this as a as a reading or a hermeneutic of this section of Thessalonians that as you read through
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here, and I think frankly all the way down to um verse 22, which we're going to hopefully discuss down through there this morning, all of those phrases basically from the end of 13 through 22
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here, you could read the majority of them as effectively proverbs of Paul and let them shine light on one another. Is that helpful in the reading of those
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things? So, um I don't know that I'm going to go rehash them all because I have this Sunday and next Sunday for us to wrap up First Thessalonians um
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and spending the morning going through each one of these in turn. But I I I offer this for you as a um as a thought about it or as a um as a way to engage
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with these things. And and I hope that you will read them as uh as you read through the scriptures on your own, you'll see this. And I I will say again, there are other passages of scripture where Paul uses a similar staccato tone
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of voice. Number of commentators point out that he has a tendency to do this at the end of his uh letters. Not all of his letters, but often he has something like this. And I think it is, we've
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talked before that it naturally flows out of the preceding theology. What I think I'm going to do um next week is honestly probably read through
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the book and ask you guys to keep your eyes open for some of these signposts as we go all the way through it in one read um to to in in examine uh perhaps even
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to search the scriptures and see if I'm right. Um, as I read through here, the things that I've outlined, see if you see them as we read through there. But I think about this perhaps a little bit in the terms of like, uh, if you ever
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played as a kid with this those sort of ciphers. Um, you know, some of them you fold the page in the right way and you could line up the words across from each other or some of them they were red and blue. So if you put the red uh, you
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know, clear plastic over it, the red translucent plastic, you you revealed certain words and the blue plastic would reveal other words. those kind of cold war cipher things that we played with as kids. I think about it like that in some
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respects, which is the different arrangements of them add different thoughts or emphasis to the different pieces. No one is objecting, so I guess I'll leave that alone then.
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Um, so I'm going to pick up where we left off in the midst of these things, um, which is not quenching the spirit and talk about that a little bit. But I I would encourage you to go back and and
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look at these pieces that he has laid out as proverbs and examine them in their their context with one another. So, stop quenching the spirit, which is
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I think the correct translation of this. Um, sorry, I should probably read a little section this morning.
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I'm going to pick up uh 18 and I'm going to read down probably through the end in the ambition that we get down through the end this morning. In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do
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not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances, but examine everything carefully. Hold fast to the good. Abstain from every form of evil.
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Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he
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who calls you and he also will bring it to pass. to pass. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adure you
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by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. All right,
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Don't quench the spirit. Stop quenching the spirit. Um, I briefly brought this up at the tail end of last week. It is phrased in the in the sense of stop doing something
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you're currently doing. Um, an awful lot of the commentators spent a good number of paragraphs talking about
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the motif of fire here.
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Suffice it to say, the spirit is presented a number of times in scripture as a tongue of flame. We understand obviously. I don't think I need to explain to you, but I will anyways. We're not talking about the
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extinguishing of the actual person of the Holy Spirit. We're talking about the actions, the outworkings, the gifts in his people, right? That's obvious to us
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from the reading of this. There's not a there's not a sense here in which Paul is suggesting that we could actually extinguish one of the persons of God. Great. that out of the way, the spirit
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is often presented as a tongue of flame or his actions are presented as a as a flame or a fire in the hearts of his people. Um,
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people. Um, we understand, of course, that fires can be quenched in a number of ways, can they not? I mean, we think first of all, of course, of pouring water over it, but fires can also be quenched by smothering. They can be quenched by
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being starved for air or starved for fuel. I think all of those things are in the thought here from Paul. He's saying, "Stop. Stop depriving it of what it needs in
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order to work in you." Okay. I do think that this is among his proverbs here. But I also think that this thread carries all the way back through
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Thessalonians. And I will challenge you to to see this as we read next time going back to the despondency he talks about in in chapter 4. The fact that they are despondent over some who have
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passed away. the fact that he is talking uh about folks who are idol. He's going to remind them in second Thessalonians, people who have basically given up on the day-to-day life because they're so
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anticipating the second coming of Christ. He's talking to them about all of these aspects of their life that carry carry on. First and second Thessalonians are often
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thought of as books of encouragement. And there is much encouragement in them. It's very interesting to me that this is the place where he says, "Stop doing that. Stop quenching." It's a contrast.
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We've talked a number of times about the contrast to um the Corinthians, the letters to the Corinthians. In the letters to the Corinthians, he effectively says, "You have too much spirit. You're letting it flame out of
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control to the detriment of the of the body." There is an element here in in Thessalonians that this connection of not quenching the spirit relates to some of what precedes this of the sense of
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you are so uh ordered perhaps as to have quenched the spirit. There is no there is no freedom there.
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This verse has been largely
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It has been co-opted by the charismatic m movement. It has been co-opted by also various other forms of liberality. Um I think this is one of those places
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where obviously scripture has to interpret scripture. interpret scripture. I would offer the Corinthians, the book of the Corinthians, uh, as its own
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guard rail for this interpretation. Um, because it is very evident that there are places where Paul indicates that
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the even those things that are eminently gifts of the spirit that the Corinthians were engaging in were not
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were not edifying the body. They were causing harm. They were causing damage. So I would say to that that this is a verse
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that has to be taken in the context of all of those things. And we have to understand that there is a I've phrase I've framed this entire study on the idea of the law of liberty.
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And I will maintain that here which is to say there is a limit in both directions.
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There is an upper limit to how
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freedom can be its own harm. Right? You can be so free as to be without rule or without law or without good conduct. good conduct. And you can be so concerned with rule
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and law and good conduct as to have no freedom. We exist in between those things. Is that fair to say?
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Which position is worse?
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They both got letters from Paul. Why should I be worse? I Yeah, I I guess I'm because the balance is rarely in the middle. I I guess I'm struggling here to think
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as I can think through the references that I can collect in my head. The one that Paul excuriates more is being so unbounded as to tear everyone else around you
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down. Whereas the comment here for the Thessalonians is rather mild. I mean having somebody write to you and say stop quenching the spirit can't feel particularly good. But it's also not
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the extent to which he has to say things about it here in Thessalonians and the other places that I can think of similar reference is relatively mild by contrast. So, I guess I would say being
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on the side of ordered and uh lawful is probably less damaging, at least as far as I can think. However, I there is a
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there is a level to which that rises to the point of death that that that that being so lawful, so quenching, you quench a fire, a fire goes out. So, that
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can be deadly. You got a church, two
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that major problem. Yes. But just get away from Sure. Yeah. I guess think of I guess I'm thinking of the letters in
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in Revelation to the churches. When you quench as you just said, Yeah. quench the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit is no longer operating in
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your midst, right? In case you I would argue no at that point. Uh Ariel had your hand up first then you
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Yeah, I I I appreciate that comment. I was thinking about this somewhat in in the context of Thessalonians because there are many things that he encourages them and he praises them for.
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Uh he does seem to have an attitude here almost of you know if you if you would if you would open the damper it would spring into flame
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which I think is where this verse stop quenching the spirit is coming from. He's he's he is in some respects telling them you have so much fuel here open the
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the airways and let the air in and let it spring to life. Um, we talked about this somewhat last week. Um, and I think it's an important caveat here before I I
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pick up the other hands that have gone up is up is Paul is careful here and we will see it a number of times. It's peppered through the section that I've just read. He is
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always connecting these things back to the work that God is doing among his people. None of this is things that we can do on our own. Right? So the idea that we are that we are
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trying not to quench the spirit is the conscious effort that he is encouraging us to in conjunction with the things the spirit is already doing. Right? It is not that we manufacture these things. It
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is not that we we kindle some ember within ourselves. It is that we are we are engaging our conscious effort to be in step with the spirit as dad was
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pointing out and I think probably will as he picks up next session in Sunday school on the Holy Spirit. There are lots of aspects of the Holy Spirit that we're not going to get to in one Sunday here. But we've talked about this
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throughout this study which is Paul is engaging them in this format of God is at work among you. You must also be at work. It is both and and quenching the
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spirit is basically frankly I think almost all of these things can be connected to this phrase of not quench you know admonishing the idol encouraging the faint-hearted helping
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the these go to encouraging that the growth of that flame you had your hand up a while back and then I'll come over
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Yeah, I I agree with you there and and I appreciate Chuck's question because it challenges us to think through those things. I I h find it hard for me to say it's definitely one or definitely the other. But you're not wrong that sometimes that and I would say the
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charismatic movement is an example of sometimes that spirit is not this spirit which is wildly dangerous.
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I will do what I think Paul is doing and I and next time I'm up here hopefully we'll go through some more of the letters and see these things. All of this and he is clear from word one in first Thessalonians. All of this is in
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service to the glory of God. This is our aim, our objective, the thing for which we strive as a body. So all of these things, all of these ideas, all of these
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proverbs, all of these behaviors, everything including not quenching the spirit is in service of the edification of the body to the glory of God. Okay? So that's the law of liberty in a
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nutshell by which we labor at these things. Wisdom is understanding which of these things we're doing at any one given time. Yes. So that's where I'm sort of coming from. I'm going to um
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take Abee's comment or question and then I'll come back.
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I agree with you. I I I think absolutely 20 and uh 19 20 21 do hang together very obviously. What I'm also trying to encourage us to think about though is I don't think 19 only hangs with the stuff that comes after it. I think it also
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hangs with all the stuff that precedes it. That's that's the point I was trying to make here is not quenching the spirit is is not only telling those who are prophesying to shut up. It's all of that
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is related to it. Okay. Um, do you have your hand up again? Yeah. I just wanted to say I raised the question because in my experience within reformed tradition,
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reformed tradition, most churches would rather be like Thessalonians and Corinthians. Yeah. And I think that just as this verse is used by the charismatics in exciting
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definitive answer to which one's worse. But I think the metaphor he's using can't be a good thing. Even if and I don't know that there's
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any indication in Corinth that the spirit is a different spirit, right? He doesn't seem to
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right overight of the Holy Spirit. But at least here he's still working. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Yeah. But I do think that within conservative
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Christianity is one big red flag. Don't go there. And I think we should we should look closely at this to say you completely disallow the working.
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No, I I I appreciate you asking the question. I think it's a very good challenge to us to to examine these things in that way. I think it relates to what he says of of testing. Um, I would also say I appreciate it too
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because as I said a minute ago, I think sometimes people read Thessalonians in a kind of Christian and don't recognize that some of this is
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relatively dire warning. Um, it's not all sunshine and roses. There is great encouragement here and we ought to be encouraged, but there is also much instruction. And I think most
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of what I have talked about up here has been instruction of how to behave and how to both in where he's encouraging them and when he is is correcting their behavior. Ariel, you had your hand up.
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I was think
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said about the solutions in the middle. We're told right there, y'all are in the middle. I can't do anything with you, right? I'll write you. I'll write you.
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I app Yeah. Thank you very much. Um, Dad, you had your hand up. um in Corinthians and first Corinthians Paul um and it is a radical it is a
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radical idea radical idea but he he reminds them that we don't have the spirit of the world we have the spirit which is from God that we may
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know the things given to us by God things which we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom but in those taught by the
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combining literally spiritual and spiritual. The American standard I think helps us tie it to first steps five combining spiritual thoughts with
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spiritual words. spiritual words. And if you look at what comes after don't quench the spirit. It's don't despise prophetic utterances. Test examine everything carefully. Hold fast
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to the good. There is that combination for both and theians
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that it is and Paul goes on and say a natural man can't accept all this stuff. Yeah, it's foolishness to him, but we can understand it because we have the spirit of God. And so the groundwork is the
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same in both that the spirit helps combine the things that we read and study and examine and put it into
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thoughts in our minds, in our actions so that we will um do the things that are pleasing to God. And so um the
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instruction is is the same to all the churches. I think you could say that. And maybe there's the extremes where one did not examine and and maybe
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didn't consider the prophetic utterances enough. And the other one's thinking, well, I got this. Yeah, I understand all this and I'm running with it. And he's saying, "No, there the
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spirit has this role and has this job to to bring these thoughts and these words
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together in in a in a way only believers, true believers can understand. And uh it is radical and it it's not something to be
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to be shunned as many Christians do. You know, Holy Spirit, that's kind of out there. Let's just stick to as you said, the disciplines that we know and they I
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think by doing that they do quench the spirit. No, thank you very much. I I I appreciate that uh thought very much because um
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because um I I I was almost thinking while you were commenting that here that that uh it seems like everybody has the right idea which is great. I'm excited about that. U and Paul is not inconsistent right
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between the Corinthians and the Thessalonians. The action the the principle on which we are based is not inconsistent. Paul has the same idea in mind. the outworking of those things,
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the wisdom, the application of it is different between these places, but the principle that undergurs it is the same. And that's part of what I'm trying to drive at. Not that I'm trying to do a Pauline theology necessarily, but I'm
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trying to uncover this. I guess I was thinking about it before Aaron did his study, but I've been thinking about it even more sense as he was examining the law as wisdom. We live under grace. What
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I'm terming and is used a couple of times in the New Testament, the law of liberty. What even is that? How do we what is that principle? And I think we're hitting a lot of it here. It is
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100% engaged with the action of the spirit. The law of liberty is useless to the natural man as as he quotes there from from Thessalonians or from
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Corinthians. Sorry. Corinthians. Sorry. What I see is a very practical application of Paul's writings when he talks about of the Holy Spirit in a in a in a way saying stop doing this. It is
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usually associated with prophecy. Yes. And that is usually associated with limiting who may and you look at the history of the
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church that is exactly what we've done. Yeah. We've limited who may be an instrument of the Holy Spirit within the body of Christ. And we've done it in a number of
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different ways. And I think that to me that it's not not speaking in tongues, you know, that's not what it
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means. It it's despising not only despising prophecy, but despising it because it's coming from coming from a class within the community that is not
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right, or not allowed and we end up with the pope. Yes, I I agree with you 100%. And and I'm going to move us forward then into this section and pick up with your
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thought from there because uh verse 20, do not despise prophetic utterances. Verse 21, examine everything carefully or test everything carefully. Hold fast to the good. Abstain from every form of
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I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was dismayed by the number of commentators even whom predated the charismatic movement who said, "Oh, understand preaching by this."
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Great. Wonderful. You just took all the teeth out of what he said. Great. Um, and frankly, if this phrase, do not despise prophetic utterances, makes you uncomfortable, sit here and be uncomfortable for a minute because I
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think Paul demands it of us. Okay? I will add some categories for our own context. This is not going to be we've got 15
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minutes. I'm not going to give you a a comprehensive overview of the idea of prophecy. I did that in the Amos study. So go back. Um,
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a couple of the commentators were willing to note that in the scriptures there's this sort of cutesy phrase that you read in some of the reformed writers of forthtelling or fortelling. The idea
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that that some of the prophets were telling things that were to come and some of sometimes those same prophets were also explaining words that God has already given. Fair. Fine. There is an
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element of understanding the words that God has already given. For us, it's mostly that, okay, we have the word of God. Um, Jenny showed me one a couple of
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weeks ago, a lady saying, "I keep hearing people say, "I'm waiting for a word from God. I'm waiting for a word from God. He gave you 66 books. That's a lot of words. Go start there." Okay. The action of the spirit within us is
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frequently to remind us of the word he has given. But to Chuck's point, we have confined that so entirely to those who stand up to preach as to have
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cut off every other aspect or avenue for the spirit to speak to you, whether by people or in your own mind. Um, Aaron first and then I'll come over here.
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You mentioned kind of a classic example that all of us have encountered, which is the the one who thinks they need a
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certain or burning in the bosom or something along those lines to do certain often mundane things like take a job or you know you know you used the example last week of buying
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a house a buy a house or what have you it is of interest to me now that I'm thinking about it that when when the commonwealth of Israel needed to seek
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Yahweh as to a specific course of action military campaign military campaign etc their typical recourse was not to the prophet in office in those days, but to the 10
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was to the priest handling to me. Right? In other words, they were they were going and being guided by the spirit of God in a very physical parable to us.
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But it seems like that's a that's a that tendency to want to get that movement of the spirit to do these various mundane things or take certain courses of action
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mismatch. calling back prophecy is not a correct definition at all. That they weren't going to the prophet in office in those days. They rather resorted to the spirit of God that that they had in their midst
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in ordinary fashion. Whereas the prophets when you see them written down in scripture, I'm impressed by this in Isaiah again and again and again over the last year or two that he's he's
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really reading their news but d but redirecting their focus in it. And also the the the Isakarian men who
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understood the times and and how that correlates with with prophey. I've struggled a lot with how one should define the the prophetic gift, but if it
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keeps if it keeps being put in the well, I have a word for you specifically can't we're not going the right direction at all, I think. But but rather the reform tendency to
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want to put it as preaching or teaching is like more on the mark but like on the side of the target, right? There's there's there's more specific
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the prophetic gift simply teaching and yet it does obviously involve the preaching and teaching of the insights given for the benefit of the body does it not sorry that was a lot
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it's reasonable um I I will I will agree with you there that there's there is a specificity to the idea of of prophecy specifically in the Old Testament there
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was the prophetic office I don't know that I can get to a place where I think that the modern context has a prophetic office anymore, where
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someone is a prophet. We see that a little bit in the New Testament. So, I'm being careful here because I don't know that I want to fully drive my tent pegs
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down yet because I'm not quite sure here. But I will say this, the way we see prophecy handled in the New Testament, there are only a handful of people that are that are singled out as
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being prophets. However, we see a number of times where people prophesy but are not identified as prophets. I did find it very interesting to one of the points you raised there as I was looking at
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Amos and thinking through some of these things, the number of times where somebody goes, "Oh, I know there's a prophet. Let's go consult them." is actually relatively few.
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If you think about the fact that you knew somebody who who like be careful how I phrase this, I think the way we think about prophecy
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is probably wrong because of the way I was about to phrase this, which is those prophets, the prophetic office, we have this idea of like, oh, they had the red phone to God. I could go talk to that
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guy and he's got a red phone to God and he'll tell me what God has to say. We think about them like that sometimes and it's completely misunderstanding the
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reality of where we live now. What does Moses say? Would that all of the people of God had this? We do.
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Okay. Um Abigail, you've had your hand up for a little while and then I think Chuck had his hand up.
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I'm not supposed to do that
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app. Absolutely. So, I was thinking about this. So, I appreciate you you giving me the springboard there because this was a thought that I wanted to bring out here in terms of prophecy is
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throughout the history of what we have in scripture, there are times when new canonized messages from God came through the prophets. I don't think anybody's going
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to dispute that. I frankly think though that a significant portion of what we see and we read and what applies largely to us is the canon I'm going to say this
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definitively the canon is closed but the spirit of prophecy remains in this sense that those words and their applications I said before it requires
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wisdom to do these things wisdom is part of it the action of the spirit giving you wisdom to know when am I admonishing an idler an idler and when am I encouraging the
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faint-hearted? That comes from the spirit and from reading and dwelling in his word and understanding the difference of those things, does it not? And so the idea
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okay, I'm going to say it this way. The fact that all of us have experienced abuses of this concept does not negate the reality of the concept. So I am sure you have encountered people in your life who said the Lord gave me a word for
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you. Now listen here that doesn't negate the reality of what Paul is saying which is there are times
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where for whatever reason it's not called to that person's mind but it is called by the action of the spirit to your mind to say you know what scripture has something to say to you here. God has explained this. Here's how that is a
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that is a I'm going to say that's a manifestation of the idea or the spirit of prophecy is that the spirit working in you says God has this to say.
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Pay attention. Pay attention. Paul frankly Paul frankly I actually say all of the letters of the New Testament have some element of this. You've pointed out a number of times in
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your studies the references to the Old Testament. Those references to the Old Testament and the New Testament are the the the prophetic utterance of the spirit in the apostle saying, "Hey, back there this word
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applies to you." Um, I think you had your hand up and then I'll come back to a quickly by way of encouragement. I haven't attended a lot of Sunday schools
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except here. except here. Sometimes in traveling, we visited other churches. There's more wisdom spoken in this room for an hour on Sunday morning than
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combined over 40 years combined. It's a blessing to sit here and listen often times
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often times just unbelievable wisdom coming from the body from the word. It's almost never
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in the word scripture scripture scripture scripture that is so
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makes me lament the reality that so many of our brothers and sisters do not consider this time important. You know, they they'd rather, I guess,
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sit and listen to one man harp at them rather than listen to the spirit working through their brothers and sisters in this room just flooding us with the word
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of God. Yeah. Thank you. Um, and I'm going to say there before I I grab Abee's thought, which is I I thank you for that. Um, and
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do encourage one another to attend. Um, I can say that because I'm almost done. So this is not self arrandising. Um to to one of the points that Aaron brought out
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because there were several points there. One of those elements is I think sometimes people struggle to articulate why go to church.
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This is one of those things. The spirit of prophecy and the the receipt of the word of God is not one man harping at you or you by yourself with with the scripture. It can be part of that, but
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it is manifest in the collective work of the spirit through the body. Each of us are an instrument in the Lord's hands if we are truly saved. And
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so to cut yourself off from that is the height of foolishness, not wisdom. Abe, you had your hand up. I was thinking of
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Yes. So, uh, excellent point and I'm going to try to close with this thought here because we I don't want to run us over time here. I was thinking about this with some other things and I wanted to say this earlier. So, thank you for
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reminding me. Grabbing further back in the discussion to the idea of being lukewarm,
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we are told and we've we've discussed at some length the idea of the church as this sort of family military unit similar to to Israel. A military for the most part when we are
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engaged in a campaign and I am going to argue that we are engaged in a campaign for the kingdom of God. There ought to be contact with the enemy. There ought to be warfare.
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If we have nothing, there is no conflict. There is no engagement. There is no assault or defense.
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We're superfluous. We're we're we're useless as a unit. We're not contributing anything to the campaign. I would argue as we have when we talked about this in detail that our
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this group specifically here, our engagement is going to be considerably more in defending the truth of the word amidst an army that has been much
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infiltrated by incorrectness, much infiltrated by the enemy to sap the truth of all of these things out of it.
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Okay. Military units by and large are intended to coordinate together. The vast majority of military units throughout both history and in this analogy
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we need one another. We li rely on one another for support. There are and have always been special forces small sometimes single but not usually
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single small groups of operators who go to do specific things. I will make the argument that argument that Paul and Silas and Timothy going out on a missionary journey, that's that that's
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a special group called to a specific mission that is hard, dangerous, and not to be done by noviceses actually. So, this idea that as soon as
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you get saved, go start knocking on doors and sharing the good news. Not until you're trained, buddy. Okay? You're not going out there on your own to get slaughtered. Okay? So somebody like Octave called and
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I frankly think by by every evidence called by the spirit to go out there and do that work with very little direct support. Yes, he's got a little bit of a
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different context. And yes, he is dealing with something much more in line with Paul and Silas and Timothy going on a missionary journey relying on that direct ministry. And yet even they had
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support. Paul says in this letter that he longed to see these people that he knew were walking in the faith. So carry all of that together in that message. So
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the reason that I'm going to connect all this back here, you know, Paul starts, if you'll permit me to say that this is where his um proverbs start, be at peace with one another. Don't fight
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internally. Okay? Be at peace with one another so that you are ready and effective to face the challenges ahead of you. But also to the point that we've talked about, if if we are quenching the
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spirit to the point where we are all geared up and then just sitting there, what good are we? Okay, we are intended to engage these things. Now, I'm not
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saying that we need to start a street preaching term uh team or that we need to go, you know, we need to go camp out at the next um you know, GPTS conference and argue with them about the stupidness
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of reformed, you know, uh lukewarmness. That's not what I'm arguing for. What I am arguing for is be alert. Be awake. As Paul says in the end of chapter 4, beginning of chapter 5, you are these.
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You are intended to be awake. Alert recognizing what is right and what is wrong. We didn't get there today, but he's going to say here, test everything. Examine it carefully. Cling to the good
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and resist every form of evil. And I guess we'll talk more about that next week because I'm over time. So, let's close in prayer. Father, we do thank you for this time,
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for this uh chance to study. We thank you for the wisdom that you have given to this body. We thank you for the the wisdom that comes to us through the spirit. We ask that we would truly be uh
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wise as serpents but gentle as doves. That we would not quench the spirit, but that we would find in ourselves the energy to engage with what he is doing in us. that we would be encouraged to
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run along with him and not not to hold back or to quench. So, Father, please by your work be stirred up among us this morning that you might be glorified. We
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ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.