Published: January 18, 2026 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 2 - Part 3 | Scripture: 1 Peter 1:8-12; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Hebrews 1:39-40
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We've been talking about um the spirit of prophecy as preparation for the New Testament and um again trying to uh
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come up with titles. for these things. Um, I guess for the the tape and future people who might uh
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and I've changed the title of this about three times on my paper uh typing, but um it's and this is the best I can do.
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um for right now. Um, we talked about the the gift of prophecy for men and um for from really from the beginning of time
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uh in Genesis seeing the spirit at creation and on through the Old Testament uh from the fall to the exile
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to the day of John the Baptist. um last week talking about the privilege of u and I think I've done that right it's two I's and one E not two E's there
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um privilege of prophecy for us um and today I want to and there will be some things that are kind of um reminders of a few things that we looked at a couple
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years ago um looking at how the the spirit worked in various uh men but here uh in the design of prophecy. I I I
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think it's illustrated by um Peter's words in second Peter chapter 1 um which we looked at very briefly last
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time and u want to just read that now. Um second Peter 1
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21. Peter says, "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were
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eyewitnesses of his maj majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic
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glory. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy
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mountain. So we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the
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morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own
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interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
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the translation um and the the full understanding of what it means that men were moved by the Holy Spirit. Um they were some interpreted as
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as born along by the Holy Spirit from God and then made utterance. Um John Owen uses this word and I'm I'm still
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trying to uh understand from his day exactly what he means
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rereading and rereading different sections. But um he his idea is that the
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and he uses this word acted. Um but he uses it this way. Not acted on but the spirit acted their faculties.
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My first thought was was it like ventriloquism um that he acted as their motions? But I don't I don't think that's what he
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means. It's uh they were acting with a power that is not their own. But somehow the spirit prepared
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for for what would happen for what uh was coming. Um that their their understanding was ma was enlightened. Um again as a gift and not something um
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I think one of uh the commentators said something like um it wasn't like a reservoir that they retained and then they just when they prophesied they just
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pulled out of this reservoir. It was the Holy Spirit acting in them. Yes. I've always been intrigued by the school of the prophets.
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the prophets. I've never really done the research, but we read about the school of the prophets or which one is it? Amos who says, "I am not prophet or the son of a prophet."
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Yeah. It's like we read in the Old Testament that there was some type of institutionalized prophetic ministry, prophetic ministry, but painfully [clears throat]
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more about that. Yeah. Um, yeah, I I at least in preparation for this, I hadn't really thought about the school of the prophets. I did look some and I
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was going to I kind of I have it later in my notes. um what came about um and I I I don't know
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years or when this happened but it became kind of a common saying that the prophets um kind of
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the title of what they did or said was the burden of the Lord and that kind of became the um let me see if I can read it here Um
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it's from Zechariah. Um and this kind of summary what I was going to say but we'll do it now. Um the Zechariah 9 he says the burden of the
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word of the Lord is against the land of Hadra and with Damascus on its resting place for the eyes of men especially all of the tribes of Israel are toward the
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Lord. So this idea of and I don't know if it relates to the school of the prophets or not but this kind of title the burden of the Lord um in in two
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senses um as as Zechariah does it the burden of the word of the Lord. Lord,
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consciences, what they were actually saying, what was actually coming to them. And we we talked about that some with with Daniel and um Habach just how
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they felt they felt it it was to them wonderful and yet fearful. There was that awesomeness of the word of the Lord. Yeah. Comment or
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is it is it possible that there is some preparation that the man himself
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In other words, if the spirit wasn't acting on nothing, yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, I was going to use David as the illustration of that. So, yeah,
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we'll get hopefully we'll get to that. Let me do one one more because I I think the burden the burden of the Lord was two aspects.
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um the the burden of of just the word but the the burden
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and you may think well this is the same it's the word but I there's there's something about the word of the Lord coming to a man burdening his conscience with the the word what he's actually
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saying but and the the burden of of those contents that he's now digesting. He's got to execute the proclamation.
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He's got to proclaim it. And so it's kind of kind of two parts. Um and
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so perhaps we'll circle back to this this idea. Um [sighs] this is from Owen.
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Um he says he con he meaning the spirit confirms their memories to retain the words and impressions. It and this is a direct quote. It seems
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they were not they meaning the the prophecies they were given were not made to enlighten them as to the full extent and comprehension of all things declared
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to them. Two hand. There are two hands over here. Okay. I see one. Go ahead.
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It sounds very similar to what we're call
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okay. Um yeah yeah the the the uncction or the the motion of the Holy Spirit definitely. Um was there another hand another comment another comment of the burden of making sure that you're giving
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making sure that you got it right. Yeah. I I I think that's that's more you know here the you know like I said the now proclaim it. Um,
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let me read um
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what David says and and maybe maybe it'll help something that I was thinking through um through um and just realized this morning that I should have spent more time in Psalm 45
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than I did, but um and it's it's kind of been an enigmatic verse to me, But Psalm 45, uh, David says, "My heart overflows
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with a good theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer."
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ready writer." And it's like, okay, I'm not sure if I'm getting this, but the psalm itself is is a psalm of
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the prince. It's the psalm of of Jesus Christ. It's it's it's the gospel in a psalm. And because in verse two, he start thou
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art fairer than the sons of men. Um, it always makes me think of of the hymn Fairest Lord Jesus. All right. I mean, he starts in and it talks about the the
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prince and him's coming and his throne, but it also talks about the church. It als the the the
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bride um the people that would be prepared. The king's daughter is glorious within. Her clothing is in her worn with gold. will be led to the king. There's there's there's a church,
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there's the people gathering together and and it's as if um you know, my margin says uh my heart is a stir or his
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heart overflows with a goodly theme. That's what he's been presented here. Um he's it's the awesomeness
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of what he's been given and he's looking at it and saying my heart overflows. heart overflows. It's as if um this is uh Matthew Henry's
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translation, but he he says David could have said have said it the the thoughts given to me of this
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good theme guided my heart in every word as the pen is guided by the hand. And so there is that motion, but his his
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heart is overflowing. And out of his heart that was stirred by this good theme of Christ Jesus as he saw him from
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afar, it overflowed in his speaking. And and again, um we'll look at a couple other passages, but there is this
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unity of the of the prophets. Um again the verse that I was thinking of
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there are those who translate this from Hebrews chapter 2. Um the word um yeah let's see
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yeah these notes are further along than I was ready to go to. Um yeah um Luke chapter 1. Uh so not not the Hebrews one. We'll get to that when
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Zachcharias talks about talks about the the marvel of his son um John. And he he talks about how it
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was foretold. He says as he spoke by the mouth singular of his holy prophets from of old. It's uh um
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yeah, I'm getting all out of whack here,
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it's as if we I think we could say one voice there. There's a unity. There's a
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it's it's of one piece this and the design of of the spirit of of prophecy is that the the messages aren't going to conflict. They all add.
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But it's it's one voice. There is absolute agreement absolute agreement in the in the message that's being portrayed here. Um,
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and they're all of a of a piece. Yes.
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Right. Right. I think this is also how they recognize false prophecy
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prophey. Yeah. Yeah. I um I I know that I would have to spend more time reading um um the one ago, you brought up last week
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Jeremiah 23 and about the false prophets and and most of it is there. Um, but I guess here in in thinking about David
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and how his his heart was stirred and overflowing with this stuff. Um, and I don't mean that derogatorily
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stuff. I I'm that's an Americanism, I guess. But it's um
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here's here's what uh Jeremiah says in the midst of that long passage, railing against the false prophets. It's really God through him railing against the false prophets. Um
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he says this, "The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has my word speak my word in truth?
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What does straw have in common with grain?" declares the Lord. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock?
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Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, again, those who were speaking falsely, declares the Lord, who steal my words from each other. So, it it is in
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the midst of trying to identify, you know, what are you hearing? But when I read these words, is not my word like
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fire? is not um is not my word like a hammer which shatters a rock. Um, all I could think of when I the first thing I thought of and I think Chuck
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will remember that's I don't know 20 years ago there was a church and I got the flyer in the mail the the mail out that says we're starting a new church and and they had these quotes from
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people I don't like to be hammered over the head with the Bible. And I think was Chuck who said uh have you not read Jeremiah 23 where God says my word is
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like a hammer. Um these there there is a David but also you know Zachchariah recognized it. Um the the
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prophet here's here's Jeremiah three chapters earlier. For each time I speak, I cry aloud.
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I proclaim violence and destruction because for me the word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long. But if I say I will not
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remember him or speak anymore in his name, then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones and I
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am weary of holding it in and I cannot endure it. That's not man. That's not a a a a man dealing with
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um his own burden, his own thoughts. That's a man who has been moved by the Holy Spirit. Uh he recognized in him him
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in in in his body, in his mind and heart, the the burning fire and he said, "I I I can't shut it up inside. I I have
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to speak." to speak." I think that while comment about the burden. It's clearly biblical that you got to get it right and not add to it, not
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borrow from other prophets. Yeah. But I think the burden fully is that weight that the man himself cannot.
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Yeah. And I And I you know one other thing that I wrote down here that the prophets as we know from from Peter and I'll read it again but they were not
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privileged to know every what when why and how that was to come. I mean, we when we read in Peter, it's as to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied
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of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as
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he predicted the sufferings of Christ in the glories to follow. um they
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needed strength and to to carry what they were given, but they weren't privileged to know everything. And I And I to me that's a that's a wisdom of God because the carrying the total burden
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was not their
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each particular particular Yeah. It's like they don't know for sure what the other saying
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Yeah. Yeah. Uh I I think that's a good word seeing it as a tapestry uh and how it was all woven together because obviously there's different errors there's different you know um and and we
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do have to be careful I think Abigail was right to not isolate them but see how those pieces fit each each prophet um and each prophet again it's that
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mystery of mystery of the Holy Spirit not only working in the Old Testament prophets, but people today we we remember the words of Paul that
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it's the same Holy Spirit and and there's there's one spirit and yet he gives various gifts to various people.
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And so there is in a sense the tapestry of our church that as we live our lives of faith then we we coalesce and we we
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become a church. We we're built up uh as because we're not all have the same gifting. We don't all have the same
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insights or the same understanding. And yet there we need each other. We we need to to be together. We we need um I mean
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we say it in in many of our our benedictions with with one heart and one one voice or and and the illustration of of Paul in Ephesians 4, the the joints
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and ligaments that supply what the body needs uh to work together. So the idea of a tapestry Yeah. Um I I think that's a good thing. Um
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question comment. question comment. Yeah question
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portions of fully understand
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only how did it
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sometimes very hard to see how they would have gotten any benefit from the words of the prophet yeah it's um I had looked at um Isaiah
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53. And we do I concentrate on the things that we, you know, we can look at what he says about Jesus as a
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prophecy, but he begins chapter 53 with verse one. He says, "Who has believed our message
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and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" It's like he's asking who's this going to
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and he could be saying that or he could be saying are you listening or to echo um the New Testament, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Um I I
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he's he's he's saying who has believed this? who is whose hearts are ready for this? Uh so yeah, I think it's it is immediate. Um
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it's um well, I was going to read from Daniel first. Um just on the first part of I don't understand. Here's here's Daniel
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12. Um and he's been being instructed and shown all these different things. And he says, um, "As for me, I heard but could not understand." So I said, "My Lord,
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what will be the outcome of these events?" And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. Many will be purged and purified and refined,
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but the wicked will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand. But those who have insight will understand. from the time that the regular, and this is explaining what he's shown him, the
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time of the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. How blessed is he who keeps
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waiting and attains to the 1,335 days. But as for you, go your way to the end. Then you will enter into rest and rise again for your
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allotted portion at the end of the age. Um, there's a lot in there to try to understand, but understand, but Daniel is saying, I I don't understand
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all of this, but he does believe it and he does um acknowledge all of it to the best that
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he can understand. But God is saying to him, "Yeah, it's not for you to know all that, but you're you go to your rest and at the end of
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the days when it's all revealed, you will you will know. You will understand." Um, understand." Um, so it appears to me that the James
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Yeah. Um, yeah, I guess my mind went back to the two men on the road to Emmas, how, you know, they had it cataloged. Um, but but yeah, I I mean, but there
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were always people who did recognize the the full picture, you know, when Anna and and Zachcharias and Simeon Simeon, thank you. couldn't couldn't
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couldn't come up with it. Um there there were people um and and they had the 400 years of silence just before then. So they were they still had ears to hear.
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They they had [laughter] to to reach back. But but again I I think you know what Abigail was saying. But okay, we know that and we know that
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what you said is true of a lot of people that if we've been keeping better track, well, are we keeping better track? Are
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we studying our scriptures like that? Um, here's what is there another hand something? This is uh again this is near the end
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and I guess we're closing in on that. But Hebrews 2 um he the writer says for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what
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we have heard so that we do not drift away from it. For if the words if the words spoken through angels proved
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unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first
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spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. That's like Peter is saying, God also testifying with them both by signs and
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wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. To me, it's it's that's the design
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the design is that the men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God, not knowing all of how it all fit, but
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their burden, their task was to present what the Lord presented to them. and that this design
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of the things that and and we'll we'll look at a um there three things and again kind of a recapitulation of some of the things we looked at before.
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um they um they the Holy Spirit was gracious and again exactly how it it's hard for me to
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understand but with the things that the spirit did in their their minds, their hearts, their their recognition of what they were saying,
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it prepared them for the the dangers as As Jeremiah said, I all I get is retribution and retribution and you know I I I get thrown under the bus
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by these people and we know the dangers they face. Uh they we know the um opposition, the threats that came to some of the prophets. Um but they were
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assured that that their testimony as the writer to the Hebrews said is the truth. that that that they're speaking words of
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truth and truth and at the same time they were not to have any um and I think the right word is is
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delusions uh false understanding of what they were doing or about their their calling. Um, and but just like Isaiah, who has
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believed our message and and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? They're they're men. And I think they
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um, and as Peter says, they earnestly sought, they earnestly searched, what are these things which are to come.
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This the spirit of Christ is telling us about the Messiah there. He's revealing things about his incarnation, his his
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atonement, his his sacrifice for people and the glories as Peter says and the glories to follow.
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But it's hard. It's it's it's a burden that we carry but a burden that we we have to
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[sighs] uh just one more um follow on uh Acts one, Peter basically reiterates what what David said about himself. My my my
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tongue is the pen of a ready writer and Peter says, "Brethren, the the scripture has been fulfilled. Um the Holy Spirit
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foretold it by the mouth of David. these various things that would happen. Um David even said of himself uh 1 Chronicle when he's detailing the
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patterns of the uh of the temple he says all this the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me. So again there's this
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direct um direct um re relating of these things but how did those things come?
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And I would put these up here because I'm probably going to lose my way before we get done.
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Um Moses uh this is from Exodus 33. Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp a good distance from the camp. And he called it the tent of meeting and everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting
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which was outside the camp. And it came about whenever Moses went out to the tent that all the people would arise and stand each at the entrance of his tent and gather after Moses or gaze after
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Moses, sorry, until he entered the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people
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saw the pillar of clouds standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face just
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as a man speaks to his friend. Um uh to me that's audible voices that he heard what what God was saying.
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um others um saw things in in dreams and visions and there's difference between the dreams and the visions and I'm I'm not sure
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I've fared all that out um exactly how they would be uh different but um Abram before he be he was renamed Abraham uh
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Genesis 15 now when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, "Know for
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certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years." And then the prophecy uh of course gets better and
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goes on, but it's a dream. He's he's gone into a deep sleep. Um but even uh someone uh like Paul, Acts
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chapter 16, a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When he had seen the vision,
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immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So um
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So um again in instilling you know the the voice and the dreams and visions they were being prepared for their their mission. Um
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mission. Um this one is harder for me to to grasp. Um it's um
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the acts of illustration. Um the the one that seems most clear to me is is Isaiah 6. So what I mean by illustration is not a a drawing or artwork, but it is looking at the vision
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and or the actual event and drawing from that what this what it means and what it foretells. Um Isaiah
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6, uh you're familiar with this one. In the year of King Isaiah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with the train of his robe
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filling the temple. Saraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
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um the majesty of the Lord, the the awesomeness of the appearance of the Lord on his throne, lofty and exalted um
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to Isaiah. Uh the harder ones for me is what in the world is Isaiah uh supposed to illustrate when he's told to get in
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his birthday suit and walk around and and prophesy. Um, there are those who believe that it was just an illustration. I don't really mean you to
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do that, Isaiah. Uh, same way with Hosea in chapter one. Go and marry a harlot. Um, that he actually didn't do that. It
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was an illustration. And those are the harder ones for me. They, yeah, they were illustrations, but did they not actually happen? Did did Hosea not obey
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the Lord physically? I don't know. Uh I'm still working on that. Um
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the bottom line I I think at least what I've written here uh to show people that in receiving divine words the prophets were not being
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misled as Peter says by cunningly devised tales uh by wild their wild imag imaginations of individual men.
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It wasn't religious enthusiasm. It wasn't that these men went on some mountaintop somewhere and you know
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uh had some experience of sentiments but they were to proclaim the incarnation, the atonement, the reign of Jesus Christ the Messiah.
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Um, Revelation 19. Revelation 19. I'll just read that as as we close that couple of verses. Uh, as I understand,
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And he said to me, "Write, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are true words of God." And I fell at his feet to worship
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him. And he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony of
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Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." or translated another way, the spirit's prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. Let
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us pray. us pray. Our father, we thank you for the scriptures and we do ask, as we have alluded to this morning, that uh we all
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ought to pay special attention to these things. We've been enlightened. We have the scriptures. We have the book. We
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have the experiences of these prophets. We have the wonderful illustrations of things that happened. We have the the testimony.
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We we have the the lives of many who have gone before us, who have believed these things and walked in them. We ask, Father, that we also may walk in their
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in their paths. That we may cling to the old path, cling to the words of truth, knowing that your your word is a fire
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and it is a hammer that breaks a rock and yet it is for our good, for our edification, and for our encouragement in walking with you. We ask that we
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would give ourselves to it. In Christ we