All right, good morning, everybody.
Let's turn in our Bibles to John 1. John 1. I want to speak on the subject
of the message of the book. In verse 45, It says, Philip
findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, we have found him of
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Have you noticed how often in
the scriptures those who Christ came to and called to faith in
Christ knew the scriptures? Many of them knew the scriptures
and were looking for the Messiah. Philip, Nathanael, and Nathanael
knew the Scripture. They expected the Messiah to
come. That means they had read the Scripture. They had studied
the Scripture. The woman at the well even knew something of the
Christ to come. So many our Lord called, though
they were lost, yet they had looked into the Scriptures. And
they knew something of the scriptures. I asked a young person this week,
do you read the scriptures? Do you hear a message preached
and then look up the scripture and look into the word and actually
study what was preached? I know that you have jobs and
you work and young people have school and what have you. So you have other things, but
it takes hours and hours to get a message from God and prepare
to preach a message. And it would be good if we took
that much time to not only just hear it, but then study what
we heard to know the scriptures. This is light that God's given
us. He's given us the gospel and he's that's he's caused that
giving light. And we can't earn salvation,
but he does promise if we walk in the light God's given us,
he'll give us more light. So I want to speak on the message
of the book. The message of all the scripture
is Christ. All the Old Testament law and
prophets, including the Psalms, have one message, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the salvation of God's people. That's the message, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation of God's people. Philip found
Nathanael and he said to him, we found him. We found him. Of whom Moses in the law and
the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
We found him. Now, first of all, Moses wrote
of Christ, and he speaks here of the first five books of the
Bible called the law. All five books is called the
law. Often the word, when you read the word law, it means the
word of God, and Moses wrote the word of God in those first
five books. It includes the law given at
Sinai, but all those books are the law that Moses wrote, and
it declares Christ alone saves God's elect. You know, the self-righteous
Pharisees, this is the problem with self-righteousness. You
remember the Lord gave the parable. It said they thought within themselves
that they were righteous. And you know what they did? They
despised others. When they saw others sin, rather
than saying, that's me. Rather than saying, I've done
that exact thing, or I'm doing that exact thing, or I'll be
the one doing that exact thing tomorrow. Instead of saying that,
they despised others as less than. And Christ came to them
and he said, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
life. They went to the scriptures like we all do at the beginning
when we're dead in sins. They went to the scriptures looking
for what can I do to earn eternal life. That's how I read the scriptures
in the beginning. I went to it trying to find out something
I could do. And he said, and they are they
which testify of me. All these scriptures testify
of Christ. And he said, and you will not come to me that you
might have life freely apart from your works. Christ told
them, had you believed Moses, They rejected Christ for the
law of Moses. They wanted to come to God by
their work. He said, if you really believed Moses, you'd believe
me because Moses wrote of me. In other words, they didn't hear
what Moses wrote. They just saw things to do and
they didn't hear all of that was pointing to Christ. When
Christ opened the understanding of the two on the road to Emmaus,
scripture says, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he
expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. Don't you know that was a sermon?
He went through the scriptures and expounded everything concerning
himself. Well, when we go back to Genesis,
we go back to the garden, as soon as Adam broke God's law
and fell into sin and died and plunged all of us into sin, as
soon as that happened, the Lord came to them and preached Christ.
And Moses wrote of that over in Genesis 3.15. This is where he speaks of the
seed of woman. He says, I will put enmity between
thee and the woman. Speaking to the serpent, the
devil, he says, I will put enmity. God said, I will. I will put
enmity between thee and the woman. And between thy seed and her
seed. That seed is Christ. That one
born of a virgin. And he said, and that seed will
bruise your head. He's going to strike the death
blow to your head and he's going to do it through the devil bruising
his heel on the cross. Christ is pictured in Noah's
ark. Moses wrote about Noah and his ark. Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. What does that mean? It means
God chose Noah freely by his grace. He found grace in God's
eye. God looked upon him with grace,
with favor, and chose him. And he came to him and he taught
him the truth. He taught him the gospel. He
said, I'm going to destroy this world. The Lord said he saw the
hearts of men and every imagination of the thoughts of the heart
was only evil continually. That's in you and me, brethren,
in our flesh. And so he said, I'm going to
destroy him. And that's what God's going to do in the end
of this world. He's going to destroy this world. But he told
Noah to prepare an ark, and he shut Noah and his family up in
that ark. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. That's what's pictured. Of God
are you in Christ Jesus. God put his people in Christ,
and when Christ went to the cross, just like the rains came down
upon that ark, Justice fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ, but just
like Noah and his family were safe in that ark, all God's elect
were safe in Christ, saved from the justice of God because Christ
bore it. The Hebrew writer tells us that
Moses spoke of Christ when he wrote of Melchizedek over in
Genesis. A lot of times when you read
the scriptures, and it's really good if you have a Cambridge
Bible or if you have one of these that Brother Marvin paid to have
printed up, because it's an exact copy of a Cambridge Bible. And
the marginal references are really good. You can preach the gospel
from them. But when you read of Melchizedek in Genesis, it
will reference you to Hebrew 7. Look at Hebrew 7. And this
will explain to you what was intended when you read Melchizedek. Read about Melchizedek. Hebrews
7 verse 1, it says, For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest
of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter
of the kings, he blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth
part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness. That's
what this Melchizedek, he's the king of righteousness, also king
of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life, but made like unto the son of God, abideth a priest
continually. He never dies like earthly priests.
And here's what the Hebrew writer is telling us. Here's the gospel,
chapter eight, verse one. Now the things which we spoken,
this is the sum, we have such a high priest. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the king of righteousness. He's the king of peace. He had
neither beginning of days nor end of days. He's a priest on
his throne forever, forever, ever living to make intercession
for his people, saving his people from our sin. Moses wrote of
Christ as the lion of the tribe of Judah, Genesis 4910, he wrote,
the scepter shall not depart from Judah. The scepter, the
throne, the kingship shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
from between his feet until Shiloh come. Unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. When John beheld the revelation
of Christ, over in Revelation, and it says no man was found
worthy to open the book, Revelation 5.5 says, one of the elders said
to me, weep not. John began to weep. No man was
worthy to open the book. John began to weep and the elder
said, the line of the tribe of Judah, that one spoken about
way back there in Jacob's day, Judah's day, the line of the
tribe of Judah. The son of David, the root of
David, he's prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven
seals thereof. And I beheld, who is this line
of the tribe of Judah? He said, I beheld and lo, in
the midst of the throne, in the midst of the elders stood a lamb
as it had been slain. That line of the tribe of Judah
is Christ the lamb. He's Christ the lamb. God's people
are not gathered to Mount Sinai. We've not come to that mount.
Where is Christ? He's on the throne, in the throne
of glory in heavenly Jerusalem, in heavenly Mount Zion. That's
who we're gathered to. We're gathered to Christ. We're
gathered to him. When I gather to a church or
a denomination or to men, we're gathered to Christ. John the
Baptist was drawn to him. Andrew, John, Peter, Philip,
Nathaniel, everybody Christ called, they were drawn to Christ. He's
shallow. To him shall the gathering of
the people be. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. All the old covenant law, we've
been going through the law and we see all the old covenant law
speaks of Christ. Believers delight in the Ten
Commandments in our inward man. And here's two reasons we delight
in the law of God in our inward man, in that new man created
of God. Here's why we delight in it.
Number one, it teaches us our total ruin and sin. Paul said,
I would not have known lust except the law said thou shalt not covet.
And that's our idolatry, coveting what belongs to God. for ourselves. We set ourselves up as many gods. But that law teaches us we can't
come to God in our works. We can't. But the law also, the
Ten Commandments also shows us something else. It shows us the
righteous love that Christ is. When you read that law and you
think of how wide and how broad and how deep and how high the
law is and how impossible it is for us to keep it, It teaches
you something about Christ and how righteous he is, and the
love with which he loved his people. That's the righteousness
that fulfilled it. And so we believe on Christ,
and through faith in Christ, we establish the whole law of
God, just like Abraham did 430 years before it was given. And in Christ is everything typified
in the ceremonial law. We've been seeing that, so I
won't labor it, but he's the high priest, he's the lamb, He's
the brazen altar on which the sacrifice is made accepted. He's the mercy seat in the holiest
of holies. He's the tabernacle itself. Everything
in the law is speaking of Christ. Those Pharisees didn't see that.
They didn't. They wanted to be under that
law. They wanted to try to come to God and they were so haughty
and so puffed up They thought they really had kept it, and
so did we. And sadly, we think that now
too often. Why does God command us not to
go back to the ceremonies? Why does he command us not to
go back to observing days and the ceremonial law? You know,
those were pictures, and if you had a picture or somebody you
love that was not present. They're far away from you, and
you had that picture, and you kept looking at that picture
and thinking on them, and you'd embrace that picture, and it'd
just fill your heart with love for them because it makes you
think of them, makes you see them. But when that person comes
in person, if you let go of them and go back and embrace the picture,
something's wrong. That wouldn't show very much
love to the person. It would offend the person that
you're more infatuated with the picture than you are with the
one who is to express image of that picture. So that's why God
said, we have the scriptures now. We have the full scriptures.
And so now we look to Christ alone. That's what God commands
us to do. That's what he commands. Now,
secondly, the prophets wrote of Christ. He said, we found
him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write. Acts
3.24 says, all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow
after, as many as have spoken, have foretold of these days of
Christ. Samuel was a prophet. He himself,
like many of the prophets and even Moses, they themselves pictured
Christ. Samuel was a son born as a gift
to his mother Hannah when she couldn't have children. And he
was a sort of a miracle like our Lord Jesus Christ was. And
he served the Lord from his youth just like our Lord Jesus did.
But he wrote about Christ being the son of David, the king of
his spiritual Israel, whose throne is for everlasting. Look at 2
Samuel 7. In verse 12, the Lord said to
David, He said, When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt
sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee. Now the immediate picture was
Solomon, but the Lord is speaking about Christ. Which shall proceed
out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall
build a house for my name. That's what Christ has done.
And I'll establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Solomon's
kingdom didn't last forever. Christ's kingdom's forever. His
throne's forever. I'll be his father. He shall
be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will
chasten him with a rod of men and with the stripes of the children
of men. Christ was made sin for us and bore the curse on the
cross. Verse 16 says, in thine house
and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne
shall be established forever. So Samuel, the beginning of the
prophets, he spoke of him. And then Isaiah, that book of Isaiah is like the
Romans of the old covenant. He wrote a Christ throughout
the book. as they all did. He said in Isaiah 714, Therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. God with
us. God with us. A sinless substitute. The only other man besides Adam
that came into this world without sin. The only fit man who could
lay down his life because he had no sin. That was the necessity
of him being born of a virgin. That one is God with us. He said, unto us a child is born. He's the child born. Unto us
a son is given. He's the son of God given. As
man, he's the child born. As the son of God, he's given
by God as a gift for his people. And the government should be
upon his shoulder. Everything rides on him. The
whole government of God is on his shoulder. not on mine, not
on yours, it's on his shoulder. And his name should be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Isaiah said in 11.10,
in that day there should be a root of Jesse. He's the offspring
of Jesse, the root of Jesse. He's actually the one who produced
Jesse. He's the root of Jesse. He's
Jesse's vine. Jesse's a branch. He's the vine.
He's the root of Jesse. And he stood for an ensign of
the people. He's the banner. He's the flag.
He's the one we rally to. To him shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. His rest is glorious. Look at
Acts chapter 2. I always like to read this. This
is We see the Lord magnified here and we see how that David,
we go through the Psalms and we keep seeing how David is writing
the words of Christ. And that's what Peter stood up
and preached on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2 and verse 25, he said,
David speaketh concerning him. When David wrote the Psalms,
David was writing the words of Christ. Watch this. This is the
word of Christ. Now listen to Peter, men and
brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David.
He's both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us unto
this day. Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God has sworn
with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, According
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.
He, David, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of
Christ, and his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh
did see corruption. Look at verse 34. For David's
not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, Thee, Lord,
said unto my Lord. God said to his son, the Lord
Jesus, the Lord said to my Lord, sit there on my right hand till
I make thy foes thy footstool. Peter said, so rest assured that
same Jesus whom you crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ. That's who he is. That's who
David was. David saw him. I think we underestimate how,
how this, how the old Testament saints saw the Lord. Christ is
the branch. He's the Lord our righteousness.
This is good to see. Go to Jeremiah 23. You're familiar with this, but
look at Jeremiah 23 and look at verse 6. The branch. Remember the Lord said, I'm the
vine. You're the branches. That's what this word branch
really means. It means he's the vine. He's
the trunk. He's the base. We're the branches. But look at this. The church
wears his name because we're clothed in his righteousness.
Look, Jeremiah 23, six, in his days, Judah shall be saved and
Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the name whereby
he shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Now look at
Jeremiah 33 and look at verse 16. Now here he's talking about Christ
again and he's talking about what he's gonna do for his bride,
his church, his people. He says, in those days shall
Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. That's the
church, that's the bride. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. He's the Lord
our righteousness. And what is our name? The Lord
our righteousness. We're one in him. perfectly one
in him. As he is, so are we in this world. He's righteousness and his church
is righteousness by him. He's the true shepherd that Ezekiel
spoke about. Micah declared his birthplace.
He said, but thou Bethlehem Ephratah, Though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, this little, no place, little town, he said,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be
ruler in Israel, whose going forth hath been from of old,
from everlasting. Christ is the messenger of the
covenant that Malachi promised, the one who would suddenly come
to his temple. Zechariah declared the price of Christ's betrayal
by Judas. He said, I said unto them, if
ye think good, give me my price, and if not forbear, so they weighed
for my price thirty pieces of silver. Every detail about our
Lord when he walked this earth and what he was done to him by
wicked hands and what he would accomplish, it's all in the prophets. And he's that Messiah Daniel
prophesied of who he said would be cut off, but not for himself. He'd be cut off for the people,
for his people, to save us from our sin. Now let me ask a question. Seeing these things and hearing
this message that Christ is the message of the book, are we to
try to go to these scriptures and seek life by our doing? Is that what we're to do? Are
we to go to the law and the prophets and look for something that we're
to do so we can have life? Is there life to be found by
our hand? No. No. We've sinned. And that's just the end of that.
We've sinned. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Right now, in you that have been
created anew, there is a sinner. So we can't ever stop needing
Christ to be everything. We need Him to be our righteousness.
We need Him to present us to the Father. We can't seek life
in the Scriptures, but the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms
bear witness of Him who is life. They tell us of Christ who is
life. He's life because He's righteousness. Moses represents the Law and
the Prophets. He was a prophet and a law came
through him. He represented the Law and the
Prophets. Look at Romans 3. So that when he got to the land
of Canaan, because he represented the law and the prophets, the
Lord wasn't going to let Moses take them into the land, into
Canaan. He wasn't going to let Moses
take them into Canaan. He's a picture of the law and
the prophets. Law and the prophets can't deliver us into God's promised
glory. It can't do it. But instead,
the Lord said, Joshua will deliver them. That's the same name as
Jesus. Joshua. Deliverer. He'll deliver
them. So Moses goes to Joshua before
the people and puts both his hands on Joshua and declares,
he bears witness, he's the one that's going to deliver you.
And that's a picture of the law and the prophets doing what we
just saw, bearing witness, Christ is the deliverer. He's the only
one that can deliver us. And so look at Romans 3.20, It
says, therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. That's all the law was given
for, to teach you the knowledge of sin. But now, here's the second
thing it does. The righteousness of God without
the law, without your works, is manifested being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. The Law and the Prophets do what
Philip did when he came to Nathanael. The Law and the Prophets say,
we found Christ. He's the deliverer. We bear witness. He's the righteousness of God.
Even the righteousness of God, which is by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ, imputed unto all and upon all them that believe. I'll give you another illustration
of this. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses appeared. in glory, and
Elijah appeared in glory. There's the law and the prophets.
And Christ was transfigured in his glory. And Peter made the
suggestion that they worship all three of them. That's basically
what he was getting at. Let's build the tabernacle for
Moses, for Elijah, and for the Lord. And the Lord spoke from
heaven. God spoke from heaven. The Father
spoke. And he said, this is my beloved
son, and whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. And when Peter looked back up,
Moses wasn't there. And Elijah wasn't there. There
was just Christ. He's the fulfillment of the law
and the prophets. He's the one the law and the
prophets pointed to. And God's command, you want to
keep the commandment of God? And I always want to go back
to the law. Well, I just feel like we ought to keep the commandments.
This will help us worship God so much better. God's commandment
is, this is my son. My only begotten son. He's the only one in whom I'm
pleased. Hear him. And what does Christ
tell us? What does he tell us to hear?
This is the work of God. that you believe on him whom
he hath sent." There's life, Christ the life. The whole Bible,
the commandment of the Father and the commandment of our Savior
is to believe on Christ. When Philip said to Nathanael,
we found him of whom Moses and the Law and the Prophets did
write, Nathanael knew, he knew Philip was saying, we found the
Christ. He knew that because he knew
the scriptures. Christ is the Savior who alone
saves his people from our sin. He saves us in every situation.
He said, I'm going to save the poor from him that raises up
in judgment against him. He says, every weapon that's
formed against you and every tongue that speaks against you,
I will condemn them. They won't hurt you. No weapon
that's formed against you, no tongue that speaks against you
is going to hurt you. Because your righteousness is of me,
and this is your inheritance. That's what the Lord says. Believe
on Him. Rest in Him. And watch God protect
you from the enemy. Trust Him. He's the only refuge. And I would encourage all of
our young people and all of us to search these scriptures looking
for Christ. We should go to these scriptures
looking into these scripts, searching for something. God will give
you what you're looking for. If you're looking for a self-righteousness,
he'll make you think you have one. He'll leave you there. If
you're looking for Christ, he'll show you Christ. Go to the scriptures
looking for Christ. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, thank you for this word.
Lord, we thank you that you gave us the scriptures, that you breathed
this word and put it into the hearts of your messengers of
old and wrote these scriptures for us. And you've given us a
sure and fallible word, a more sure word of prophecy, more sure
than even beholding the glory of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. We have the scriptures. Lord,
thank you for these scriptures. Thank you for revealing to us
that Christ is the message of this book. Lord, help us and
help our young people and those that you're drawing to you. Help
them to see that Christ is the message of the book. and help
them to see him, reveal Christ in our hearts. Lord, keep us
looking only to him. We ask, Lord, that you forgive
us our sins. In Christ's name, amen.