Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18. The second message. I said I was going to do four.
I might do more. I was looking at this more. I entitled this
series, Who is Christ? Who is Jesus Christ? Last week
we looked at Jesus Christ as the Son of God. And today we'll
look at Jesus Christ as prophet. Christ as prophet. Deuteronomy
18. Verses 15-18. Deuteronomy 18,
verses 15-19. As I said in the last study,
we looked at Christ as the Son of God and how He was God incarnated
in the flesh and He is God. There is no other God. He is
the second person of the Trinity. He is co-equal with the Father
and the Spirit. The God-man. God incarnated in
the flesh. Fully God and fully man, born
of a virgin, as prophesied in Genesis. Look at Deuteronomy
18, verses 15-19. The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee. The Lord thy God
will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren like unto me. Unto him ye shall hearken. according
to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in
the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice
of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more
that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They
have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise up
a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put
my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them, all that
I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto My words, which he shall speak
in My name, I will require it of him." So here we're going to look at
today the office of prophet, the one spoken of here, the Lord
thy God will raise up Unto thee, a prophet. In verse 15 and 18,
I will raise them up prophets. Now the word prophet comes to
us in the Greek, which means a foreteller or an inspired speaker. Old Testament prophets, having
foretold the kingdom deeds and death of Christ the Messiah,
John the Baptist was the messenger, the forerunner of the Messiah.
And as I said in our instruction, we looked at how Christ was the
Son of God. God incarnate in the flesh. God incarnate in the flesh. And
today we'll look at Christ as prophet. Turn, if you would,
to Hebrews chapter 1. So it tells us here in Deuteronomy,
the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the
midst of thee. Look at Hebrews chapter 1. We'll
see how this ties in here. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and
2. The Lord God Jesus Christ, the
prophet prophesied about in Deuteronomy. God who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets. And the prophets spoke of this prophet. hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom he also made the worlds." So in the Old
Testament, the prophets testified of Christ. They were pointing
to Christ. They were prophesying about Christ.
He was the one that they spoke of. We see this in Deuteronomy. He is the one. Turn, if you would,
to Revelation 1.5. The Lord Jesus Christ is prophet. Priest and
King. Revelation 1-5. Look at this. Right in this verse,
we have prophet, priest, and king. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness? He's the faithful witness's prophet.
He's the faithful witness's prophet. The first begotten of the dead,
the prince of the kings of the earth, the firstborn of the dead
is priest, and the prince of the kings of the earth is king.
Prophet, priest, and king. Prophet, priest, and king. In
the Old Testament, the prophet was the mouthpiece of God to
the people. And in the Old Testament, when
you're reading through the Old Testament, take note, the prophets
always say, thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Speaking. Thus saith the Lord. Christ is
the one who the prophets prophesied would come. He is the Messiah. God incarnate in the flesh. He
is the prophet spoken of in Deuteronomy 18. The prophet. He is the prophet
of prophets. Oh my. In all the Old Testament
types and chattels. find their completeness in Him. They all point right to Him.
All the history of redemption in the Old Testament all pointed
to Christ, who is the Lamb of God. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
40. Isaiah 40. The prophets proclaim
forgiveness and the pardon of God in a coming Redeemer. In
a coming Redeemer. And think of this too, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the final prophet. The final prophet. He is the
one who was spoken of by all the prophets in Scripture. He
is the final one. Isaiah 40, verses 1 and 2, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,
and that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins." The prophets proclaim
forgiveness and pardon. The forgiveness and pardon of
God in Christ and Him alone. How do we speak comfortably to
Jerusalem? How do we speak comfortably to
the Church? Salvation is of the Lord. And
in Him we have the forgiveness of all our sins. Turn, if you would, to John 1. I know I have us moving around
a lot here today. John 1. He is the final prophet, the
one spoken of by all the prophets in Scripture. Not only did he
proclaim the words of the Father, the words of God, He was God
incarnate in the flesh. You've seen Him. You've seen
the Father. Look at John 1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He proclaimed. He proclaimed our need to repent.
And saying, The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe the gospel. Mark 1.15. Colossians 1.14, He's
the one in whom we have redemption, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And this is only found
in our great prophet, priest, and king. Only in Him. Nowhere
else. So let us keep in mind also what
we read in Deuteronomy, right? The Lord thy God will raise up
in thee a prophet. Look in John 1, starting in verse
45. And keep in mind this, the Lord
thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee.
Right? From the midst of thee. Of thy
brethren like unto me. And unto him ye shall hearken. Look at this, verse 45, Philip
findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, We have found him of whom
Moses in the law and the prophets did write. And here it is, the
Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet. Here he is. right
here, right before us. We have found Him of whom Moses
and the Law and the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth,
the Son of Joseph. And Nathanael saith unto him,
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith
unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him and saith unto him, Behold, an Israel, indeed, in whom is
no guile. Nathanael saith unto him, Once
knowest thou me, Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that
Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw
thee. Now he's God incarnate in the flesh. Nathanael's never
met him. Nathanael answered and saith
unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King
of Israel. Jesus answered and said, Because
I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest
thou this? Thou shalt see greater things than these. But note in
verse 45, and keep in mind what we read in Deuteronomy, right?
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet. And Philip
says, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets
did write. Here he is. Here he is. The mighty prophets. So let's
go back to our passage in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 18, verse 15. Lord, thy God will raise up unto
thee a prophet from the midst of thy brethren like unto me,
and unto him ye shall hearken. Here before us we are told in
Scripture that God will raise up a prophet from the midst of
the Israelites, from amongst them, Lord, thy God will raise
up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thy brethren. Turn,
if you would, to Acts chapter 3. Keep your finger, though,
in Deuteronomy. He will raise up a prophet. And
note that it's God who will do this. It's God who will do this. And the prophet will be from
among their brethren, like unto thee." Matthew Henry says of
this statement, I will raise them up a prophet from among
their brethren. This speaks of Christ and it is the clearest
promise of Him that is in all the law of Moses. It is expressly
applied to our Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah. Look at Acts 3, verse
14-23. but she denied the Holy One,
the One that was prophesied in the Old Testament, and the just,
perfect. sinless, spotless, in desire
to murder, to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of
life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And His name through faith in
His name hath made this man strong, whom you see, and know, yea,
the faith which is by Him hath given Him this perfect soundness
in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I want that
through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But
those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all
His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled."
It was all prophesied. All of it. And this is the very
one. Repent ye, therefore, and be
converted. that your sins may be blotted
out. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. God's people, their sins
are blotted out by the sacrifice of Christ. When the time of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord, He shall send Jesus
Christ, which was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive
until the times of restitution of all things which God hath
spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world
began. For Moses truly said unto your fathers..." Here we go.
Look at this. "...a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto
you of your brethren." That's the same as what we read in Deuteronomy. "...like unto me. Him shall ye
hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it
shall come to pass that every soul which shall not hear that
prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." Salvation's
only in Christ. Salvation's only in the great
prophets. The great prophet. He's the light of the world.
He's the promised. He was promised to come. He's
the word by whom God speaks to us. That God would raise him
up from the midst of them. And this is speaking of the Jewish
nation, Israel. In his birth, that he should
be one of that nation. And he was. He shall live among
them, be sent to them. In His resurrection, He'll be
raised up in Jerusalem. And His doctrine, His gospel
will go forth to all the world from there. Oh, my. What God promises comes
to pass, doesn't it? Oh, it's incredible. And look
in our text again, too. The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee. of thy brethren
like unto me. The promised prophet was to be
like Moses. Now Moses though represents the
law. The Lord Jesus Christ is all grace. But here are some
ways that Moses was a type of Christ. Moses was hardly born
when his life was sought by bloody men. And no sooner was the birth
of Jesus known than Herod sought to destroy the young child. Moses
brought God's people out of the house of bondage. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ, what
does He do? He delivers His people. He delivers
His people from a far worse bondage than an Egyptian bondage. He
delivers His people out from the bondage of their sins. Oh
my, what a great king, like unto me. And Moses was a mediator,
wasn't he? He was a mediator between God
and man. What is Christ to His people?
He is the great mediator. The great mediator between God
and His people. In Galatians it says this, Wherefore
then serveth the law, it was added because of transgression,
till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made and
it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Moses
served as a mediator between Israel and God. Exodus says this,
and all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise
of the trumpet and the mountains smoking. And when the people
saw it, they were moved and stood far off. They were terrified. And they said unto Moses, Speak
thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us,
lest we die. He was a mediator. A picture
of Christ. A picture of Christ, our mediator.
And Moses received the words of God and bore it to the people. He received the words of God
and bore it to the people. And no one but Moses performed
this office to the Jews. Oh, what a picture. The believer
only has one mediator, right? Between God and man. The man
Christ Jesus. There's only one. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and man. The man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy
2. Moses was very intimate with
God. The Lord spake unto Moses, Exodus 33, 11 says this, and
the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto
his friend. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ was
God incarnate, God in eternity. If you've seen Christ, you've
seen the Father. No man hath seen God at any time,
the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.
He hath declared Him." John 1. God's people are made willing
to come to the great prophet, the great prophet, the Lord Jesus
Christ. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. Oh, the wonderful drawn power
of the Holy Spirit that He didn't leave we who believe where we
were. And we are made willing. We're
not robots. We're not robots. But we are
made willing. And we run to Christ willingly. Willingly. We flee to Him. My sheep hear
my voice. They hear the voice of the great
prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they run to Him. They run
to Him. And let us note that it's all
the work of God who's raising up the prophet in our text. It's
all. The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee. It's all His work. It's all His
work. God is sovereign, even if people
don't believe it. He's absolutely sovereign. He's
a king. This is His domain. And He does whatever He pleases.
And this is the believer's God. This is who our trust is in.
This is who our rest is in. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
7. And then put your finger on John 17. Our text says, I will raise up, in verse 18 of
Deuteronomy 18, I'll read this, I will raise them up a prophet
from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put my words
in his mouth. So this prophet will speak the
words of God. Look at John 7. from the lips of our mighty Savior,
John 7, 15 to 18. And the Jews marveled, saying,
how knoweth this man letters? Never have I learned. He wasn't
trained up by the Pharisees. He wasn't part of the upper crust.
He didn't go to their seminaries. He didn't need to. He's God incarnate
in the flesh. And the Jews marvel, they marvel. As far as they know, he's a common
man. A carpenter's son. They don't
know who he is. They have no clue. And the Jews
marveled, saying, how knoweth this man letters heaven never
learned? Jesus answered and said, and you remember in Deuteronomy
18, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like
unto me, and will put my words in his mouth? Look at what he
says here. Jesus answered them and said,
my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. Here is the
prophet. Here he is, beloved. If any man
will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be
of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself
seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent
him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. This
is the great prophet. My doctrine is not mine. Deuteronomy
18 18 I will raise up raise them up a prophet from among the brethren
like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth And he shall
speak unto them all that I shall command him Turn if you would
over to John 17 and keep this in mind what we just looked at Oh, this is the prophet spoken
of in Deuteronomy. Christ is prophet. John 17, verses
5-9. The high priestly prayer. And
now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Here we have right
before us Christ proclaiming He's God. The glory that He had. The glory that He had before
He came to earth. And look at this. I have manifest
Thy name unto the man which Thou gavest Me out of the world. Thine
they were, and Thou gavest them Me, and have kept Thy word. Remember,
in Deuteronomy it says He put the words in the prophet's mouth. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever Thou has given Me are of Thee. For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest Me. Oh, what a glimpse we have here
before us. The Almighty King. The Prophet
spoken of in Deuteronomy. I have given unto them the words
which thou gavest Me. And they have what? Made a decision? No, it doesn't say that, does
it? No. No. Oh, beloved. Oh, beloved. They have received
them. They've received them. If you've received them, give
God all the glory. Give it all to Him. They have
received them and have known surely that I come out from thee.
And they have believed that thou didst Oh, the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And then look at this. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world. Christ doesn't pray for everybody.
But he does for his people. Oh, he does for those he's loved
from eternity, for those his love has been set upon, an everlasting
love. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are mine. God's elect are God's people from eternity. Fills our hearts with joy. We
who believe. Fills our hearts with joy. Because
we know how undeserving we are. And then look at the warning.
Back to Deuteronomy 18. Look at the warning in verse
18. And then put your finger in Hebrews 2 if you could. Look
at this warning. Now we do not know who God's
elect are. We proclaim the Gospel and God does the same. We proclaim
the Mighty One, the Prophet. The One who is Prophet, Priest,
and King. the One who's the Redeemer of His people. Look at this warning in Deuteronomy
18-19, "...and it shall come to pass that whosoever will not
hearken unto My words, which he shall speak in My name, I
will require it of him." And then look over at Hebrews
2. and it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he spake in my
name, I will require of him." These folks who say that, oh,
everyone's saved. No. No. The only ones who are saved are
those who believe in the Redeemer, those who trust in Christ, those
who rest in Him. Look at this. Keep that verse
in mind in light of Hebrews 2. Because this prophet is the only
way of salvation. There's no salvation outside
of him. Not at all. Look at Hebrews 2, verses 2 and
3. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation? which at first began to be spoken
by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. Now keep in mind, how shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvation? And Deuteronomy 18,
19 says this, And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not
hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I
will require of him. I don't want to leave us on that
note, because that's the very solemn part. But think of this.
That which was required of us is paid for in Christ. That which
was required for every one of God's elect, all the demands
of the law and wrath of God for the believer is paid for. Paid
for. So let us remember this, that
salvation is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in Him. How
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? There's no
escape outside of Christ. There's none. And remember, He's
not a fire escape. People in religion pray a prayer
thinking it's a fire escape. No. I'll tell you what. When
the Lord saves a sinner, he keeps coming to Christ. He just continuously
comes to Christ. It's not a one-time thing. I'm
done. No. No, He becomes everything. Now, the believer's gonna grow
in grace. I'm not saying we don't have anxiety, because we do.
We get worked up about things, don't we? But what's our constant
rest? Whenever trouble comes, whenever
trial comes, what's our constant rest? Christ. We always go back
to Him. We always go to Him. He becomes,
in reposing, you often hear me say, reposing is just, I'm reposing
on, that's what, you're reposing right now. And that's what the
believer does. They repose in Christ. Repose
and trust Him for everything. And we do, don't we? We have salvation and no other.
We've been bought to the end of ourselves. Shut up to Christ. I often think, and this is kind
of a different analogy, but my brother, for a while, he used
to have cattle, and they would have to take the cattle and bring
them into a place to either vaccinate them or do different things,
but they had this thing that, and I didn't, I'm not much of a farmer,
I don't know a lot about it, but I do remember that they would
corral them into this little, and then they'd shut the door.
They were shut up into that section. They couldn't go anywhere else.
The believer is shut up to Christ. Shut up to Him. Where shall we go, Lord? Thou has the words of eternal
life. So the great prophet that spoke...
we have seen in the text that we looked at today is Christ,
is Christ and Him alone. Oh, that God would grant faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if He's not your Savior.
Oh, that He'd show you your desperate need. Oh, we who believe are
sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ. We have nothing
else. We've been bought to the end
of ourselves. And we give all praise to the One who is our
Prophet, our Priest, and our King. We give Him all the glory.