The Lord may graciously help
me. I'll turn your prayerful attention once again to the text
we had before us this morning from Acts chapter 7 and verse
37. Acts 7 verse 37. This is that
Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the
Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me
him shall ye hear. Acts 7 and verse 37. As the Lord helped us this morning
we sought to show something of the greatness of this prophecy
that Moses made in Deuteronomy regarding the coming of that
prophet even the Lord Jesus Christ, who would be that one who had
that intimacy with God, as Moses was the one who had that more
than any other in the Old Testament, that with God, face to face. And so Moses is one who was,
had a good relationship with his God. Well we looked at a
number of likenesses, as it says here, like unto me. And I want
to just look at in verse 36 of Acts 7, and he brought them out
after he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt. Moses
was used of God, you see, to lead them out of this slavery. And of course there was that
giving of the Passover, the death of the lamb, that was all under,
Moses was leading the children of Israel at that time. And how
it was pointing to the death of the lamb to be able to be
brought out of the slavery of Egyptian slavery and how God
used with a mighty hand opened the Red Sea and of course Moses
had that power over the sea through God and of course the Lord Jesus
he when he was on this earth he demonstrated that he had power
over the sea he could he could still a storm when the disciples
were terrified with the storm. He could make the storm a calm. He could walk on the water. This one that Moses pointed to
was one also that what sort of a man, what manner of man is
this, said the disciples, that even the wind and the waves obey
him. This is the greatness of the
one we speak of. And so this was a great blessing. for Moses was one that had that
great power and yet he was pointing to another. And but in the text
we have before us a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto
you of your brethren. So this clearly showed that the
Messiah was going to come from the Jews. It was of the brethren. And of course Jesus did spring
from the tribe of Judah. one of the brethren of Moses,
not one of his tribe of Levi, but of the tribe of Judah. And
so the Lord Jesus was going to come, and of course it was prophesied
later on that there would be a descendant of David out of
his loins. And as you go through the word
of God, you get an increasing revelation pointing these prophecies
to the coming of the just one. But this one was going to be
of his brethren. There was going to be a similarity. But then we did look at a little
bit. of this event of the golden calf
and what happened at that time. But I do want to look a little
bit more of that, such a precious occasion that happened in terms
of what Moses did. Moses was so concerned, he stood
in the breach and then, but then we have that God said he would
send an angel to go with Israel because they had done this matter
of the golden calf. God would send an angel with
Israel and not go himself. And that's when we have Moses
pleading with God. You see, Moses was an intercessor. And you see one of the wonderful
things is to consider that we have in heaven one that intercedes
for his people. And we see in Exodus 33 the fruitfulness
of Moses' intercession on behalf of Israel. You see at the beginning
of Exodus And the Lord said unto Moses,
Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast
brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I
swear, unto Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed
will I give it, and I will send an angel before thee. He wouldn't
go himself, he said. But you see, in verse 12 of Exodus
33, Moses is not content. And Moses said unto the Lord,
See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast
not let me know whom thou hast sent with me. Yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in thy sight.
Verse 13, Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in
thy sight, show me now thy way. He wanted to know God's way,
and he wanted God with him, and he wasn't content to have an
angel. He wanted God himself, that I may find grace in thy
sight and consider that this nation is thy people. And he
said, God said, my presence shall go with thee and I will give
thee rest. He was, he was, he gained the
point that God would go with them. He said he wouldn't, but
you see Moses interceded and God said earlier as well that
he would make of Moses a great nation. But Moses didn't want
that either. You see, Moses didn't seek his
own glory. That's one of the great characteristics
of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ, he said, I seek
not my own glory, but the glory of the one that sent me. You
see, he sought to honor his father. And how Moses did not want, as
it were, of his family to be made a great nation, but he wanted
the blessing on God's people. He was an intercessor for God's
people. And that's how we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ, one that intercedes for his people. And then in verse 17 of Exodus
33, and the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that
thou hast spoken. Thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know
thee by name. But then Moses pushes the boundaries
further. And in verse 18 of Exodus 33,
and he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. So Moses wanted
the glory of God. And he said, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and I will show mercy upon whom I will show
mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see
my face, for there shall no man see my face and live. And the
Lord said unto me, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon
a rock, and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth
by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee
with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away mine hand,
and thou shalt see my back pass, but my face shall not be seen.
So Moses was one who desired the glory of God. And it's so
important in our lives to be seeking for God's glory, not
his own glory. So intrinsic to human nature
to seek our own glory. It's so in built in us. Moses, you see, he didn't. He didn't seek his own glory,
and Christ did not seek his own glory. He sought the Father's
glory, and he sought the good of his people. He laid down his
life for a people that despised him and rejected him and said
all manner of evil against Moses. You see, Moses had so many people
that spoke against him, and yet he pressed on. He pressed on
by the grace of God. So we have Moses then going on
in this way. And one of the great things that
often we think of the Lord Jesus Christ as a prophet, a priest,
and a king. Well, we've had set before us
this nature of a prophet, shall the Lord your God raise up like
unto me, a prophet. So Moses was a prophet, the Lord
Jesus was a prophet. He told to the people the things
of God. And of course he prophesied of
his own coming crucifixion that he would be taken and by wicked
hands. He told the disciples many times they ignored him.
They didn't say that they didn't really take it in what he said
but he did say it and everything that he said came true. He was
a prophet. He prophesied of course also
of that destruction that was going to come to Jerusalem in
70 A.D. How that there would be a destruction
of those who despised and done what they had done. So the Lord
Jesus is a prophet. Moses was that prophet that we
read. But thinking of Moses, he said,
like unto me, the Lord Jesus is also a priest. A priest is
one that represents the people to God on behalf of them. And Well, you might say, was Moses
a priest? Well, if you look in Psalm 99,
Psalm 99 and verse 6, Psalm 99 and verse 6, it says, Moses and
Aaron among his priests and Samuel among them that call upon his
name. They called upon the Lord and he answered them. So Moses
here is named in Psalm 99 a priest and if we look in Leviticus
chapter 8 verse 18 Leviticus 8 verse 18 you'll see how he
does loads of things at the consecration of Aaron which are basically
things that the priest did Leviticus 8 verse 18 and he bought the
ram and the burnt offering and Aaron and his sons laid their
hands upon the head of the ram and he killed it and Moses sprinkled
the blood upon the altar round about and he cut the ram into
pieces these were things that were normally done by the priest.
Moses it seems here was that priest as well as he not normally
obviously Aaron was the high priest but in the initial consecration
of Aaron Moses played role, and it was his job, as it were, to
consecrate Aaron, then to be the priest. But he was, in that
sense, acting as a priest at that point. Another aspect, of
course, is that Jesus is a king. He's king of his people. He is
over them to gain the conquest. And interestingly, if you look
in the chapter that we read, we didn't read this bit, but
In Deuteronomy chapter 33, you have that. Deuteronomy 33, which
is part of this sort of Song of Moses. Deuteronomy 33 verse 5, it says,
and he was king in Jashurim. Let me just step back a little
bit. So Deuteronomy 33 verse 3, yea, he loved the people.
All his saints were in thy hand, and they sat down at thy feet,
every one shall receive thy words. Moses commanded us a law, even
the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob, and he was king in
Jashurim when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel
were gathered together. It seems there that It seemed
a reference that in one sense that Moses was acting like a
king in that sense. So the Lord Jesus is that prophet,
that priest, and that king. Normally there wasn't one person
that had multiple roles like that, but of course the Lord
Jesus was going to be that prophet, that priest, and that king. But
Moses had been so concerned and he had spent 40 years leading
the children of Israel through the desert and then through the
wilderness and then was going seeking to go over to Jordan. But as you might remember on
one of the occasions earlier on in their journey they run
out of water and Moses was told to strike the rock. And he did. And out of that rock flowed that
water, the smitten rock. And we read in the New Testament
that that rock was Christ that followed them. But there was
occasion in the time that Moses was with them that when the children
of Israel murmured, they hadn't water and God commanded Moses
to speak to the rock. Moses, it seems, was frustrated
with the disobedience and the behavior of Israel, and he smote
the rock. And he said, must I bring water
out for you, you rebels? And he didn't honor God at that
point, as he should have done. And because of that, God said
that he could not enter the promised land. And this was a great trial
to Moses. And we have something of that
as we read together this evening from Deuteronomy chapter 3. And
Deuteronomy chapter 3 in verse 24, it says, O Lord, this is
Deuteronomy 3 verse 24, O Lord, thou hast begun to show thy servant
thy greatness and thy mighty hand. Moses wanted to see the
greatness and the mighty power of God. He delighted in that.
He'd seen so much of that as they came through the wilderness,
but now he'd been looking forward to taking the children of Israel
into the Promised Land. This was something very special
for Moses, and something that he pleaded with God that it might
be possible that he could go. You can understand it. He'd led
them, he'd bared with their manners in the wilderness for so many
years, and he greatly desired to go over Jordan and have, as
it were, inherit the promised land with the children of Israel. And so we have in this Deuteronomy
3 verse 24, for what God is there in heaven or in earth that can
do according to thy works, according to thy might? I pray thee, let
me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly
mountain, and Lebanon. This is his request. He sincerely
desires that the Lord would grant him permission to go over Jordan. But here we have, in verse 26,
a very definite no. But the Lord was wrath with me. for your sakes, and would not
hear me. And the Lord said unto me, Let
it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter.' There
was a firm no. God would not let Moses go into
the Promised Land at that time. He was to die in Moab, the land
of Moab, in Mount Nebo. and was not going to be able
to go over Jordan. This was a great sorrow for Moses. But look at these words. Surely
there's something pregnant here of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes. Ah, we think of what
happened to the Lord Jesus. We think of this prayer that
the Lord Jesus pleaded in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had
before him this great work to complete. He had to lay down
his life. He had to drink that cup of the
wrath of God. And he says, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Yet the Lord Jesus receives,
in a sense, a firm no. In the sense that it was not
possible, there was no other way. There was no other way that
the Church of God would get to glory than that the Lord Jesus
needed, must go and must lay down his life and die. A necessity. And this was difficult for Moses,
wasn't it? But the Lord was wroth with me
for your sakes. You see, Moses is saying really
in a sense, yes, I guess there was also in Moses' sense, there
was some sin on his part too. But of course, as we look at
the one that was like unto Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ, there
was no sin on his part. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and yet God was wroth with him for our sakes. He took his beloved
son and he hid his face from him and he poured upon him the
wrath that should have sent that church to a never-ending eternity
in hell. He poured it on his beloved son,
but the Lord was wrath with me for your sakes. It's a tremendous
gospel truth how the Lord is laid on him. the sin of us all,
the sin of the entire church, laid on him who was innocent,
an innocent sufferer. This is so much precious as we
look at this. But the Lord was wroth with me
for your sakes, and would not hear. And the Lord said unto
me, Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter. It's difficult for Moses. And
yet we see We don't read any more of Moses speaking of this. He meekly took it. And you see, the Lord Jesus,
he said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. Moses wanted God's will to be
done. He wanted God's glory. And may
that be the motivating power in our lives, the glory of God.
It's a wonderful thing to have the glory of God as our motive.
And then nothing ultimately matters but the glory of God. To do what
the Lord would have us to do for the glory of God. It's a
great liberating power. And you see Moses was given that
grace and the Lord Jesus was given that grace, wasn't he?
Because afterwards we read when Peter came and cut the ear off
of the servant of the high priest The Lord Jesus turns to Peter
and says, the cup that my father giveth me, shall I not drink
it? You see, here he was embracing the cup. He was not now saying,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. This was the cup.
He was to drink it. And there was that calmness,
that submission. submissions beautiful beautiful
thing here that was Moses this meek man the meekness of Moses
when when his brother and sister rose up against him he was meek
he didn't reply he didn't criticize them back God sorted it out he
had a meekness And what a blessing that is. And as we see, of course,
the Lord Jesus, the meekness of Christ, meek, riding upon
an ass, we read as he came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, meek
and riding upon an ass, the meekness of Christ and how he laid down
his life willingly. Well, then you see, we come to
what we read in Deuteronomy 33. And in Deuteronomy 33, you see
he's speaking the praises of God. But Moses has been told
he can't go over Jordan. Moses has been disappointed.
It was a difficulty for Moses. It was painful for Moses. But
you look in this song that he writes, and we only read a little
bit of it. But there is none like unto the
God of Jashurim, who rideth upon the heavens in thy help. in this
excellency in the sky, the eternal God is thy refuge, there isn't
a hint of bitterness in Moses' heart against God is there. You
look, you read it, it's beautiful words. He's been told that he
cannot go over Jordan. And as it were, he's been given
that grace to embrace it. If this is what God wants me
to do, there is none like the God of Jashurin. The eternal
God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He
shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and say, destroy
them. Well, then we read in chapter
34 how Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain
of Nebo. He went up willingly. We don't
read that there was a struggle. We don't read that he was dragging
his feet. No, Moses, that man of God, he
went forward. And of course, when we think
of what that was for the Lord Jesus, he was going to go to
die. He set his face towards Jerusalem. I have a baptism to
be baptized with. And how am I straightened? Those
beautiful words in Zechariah, Zechariah 13. And verse 7, awake,
O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow. There was an equality between
God the Father and God the Son, and God the Father was putting
his sword of divine justice into God the Son. Against the man
that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered. But it was to be for the bringing
together of those sheep eventually. Yes, they were scattered. All
the disciples forsook him and fled. Yet you see, Moses was
going to go up with this resolution. He was going to go up into obedience. We read in Hebrews that yet learned
he obedience, speaking of Christ, yet learned he obedience by the
things that he suffered. This was a difficult path for
Moses. It's a difficult path. And yet
when God clearly showed him that that's what he needed to do.
He was given grace to do it. There's another part in Psalm
106 that also picks up this same idea of the fact that God was
wroth with Moses for the people's sake. Psalm 106, I can just find
it. Psalm 106 recounts the pathway
of Israel Psalm 106 verse 32, they angered
him also at the waters of strife, that's when they were complaining
about not having water, so that it went ill with Moses for their
sakes. Again, very similar words showing
that in a sense the difficulty that fell on Moses was to do
with the people's sin. Of course in a greater sense
that was so with Christ. He was pure, holy, harmless,
undefiled. Then we have Moses seeing, in
chapter 34, seeing the land. He looks, he's able to see. It's
amazing, isn't it? Seems that something must be
supernatural. But just before I come to that,
I have missed something out I wanted to say. When we think of Moses
in Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11 talks about, I did mention that a bit
this morning, but I wanted to say something else about that.
Hebrews 11, It says by faith Moses when he would
come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Moses chose that right
way and away from the difficulties that
he could otherwise have done. And I want to think about the
Lord Jesus when he came into that, the temptations after he'd
been baptized. Satan set before him all the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said, all these
things are thine if thou does fall down and worship me. And
you see, Jesus refused that. He refused all those things,
because he said, get thee behind me, Satan, now save us not the
things that be of God. Just as Moses had turned down
the riches of the land of Egypt, so the Lord Jesus was not going
to be derailed from his track to have the crown before the
cross. There was to be the cross, you
see, and that's a very important thing. Jesus said, if any man
follow me, let him take up his cross. cross, a difficulty. It's the cross before the crown,
not the crown and then the cross. It's the cross before the crown.
And you see Moses was, he, he endured seeing him who is invisible. Well, when we then come towards
the end of Moses' life, he's going up this mountain and he
sees the land. And interesting, the way it's
described in, in Deuteronomy 34, It's pictured as it was after
the children of Israel had divided the land. Of course, it hadn't
yet been divided. And so Moses was able to look
over that land. The land that God was going to
give, and he believed that God would give them that land. And
so in verse 5 of chapter 34, so Moses, the servant of the
Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word
of the Lord. When you look at this, it wasn't
a normal death. Moses climbing up on his own
up on top of a mountain and then dying. He did it in submission
according to the word of the Lord. He died according to the
word of the Lord. In a sense, our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, it was not a normal death. He didn't die of old age.
He died in obedience to his father. And we read, and he was buried
in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor. But no
man knoweth of his sepulchrum to this day. He was buried by
God himself. This was a funeral that was conducted
by God himself. And he dug the grave and provided
this place for Moab. That's for Moses, this sepulchre
for Moses. But you see, Moses was 120 years
old when he died. His eye was not dimmed, nor his
natural force abated. There was, we think of the Lord
Jesus on Calvary, didn't die in the sense of old age, did
he? There was a strength he had. A loud cry at the end, it is
finished. A victory cry, right at the end,
a victory cry. Of course, we think of Moses
and often Moses represents also the law, the giving of the law.
And it's seen there that as Moses, the law could never bring us
into the promised land. the law and Moses as he's representing
the law. But I hope, as we've seen from
the scriptures, I think to just think of Moses only as representing
the law is not actually scriptural in the sense that he definitely
also has this idea of being a type or a likeness to the Lord Jesus
Christ in his mediatory work. He stood in the breach between
an angry God and Israel, and he interceded them. And if he
hadn't have interceded, God would have destroyed Israel so many
times. Ah, but look, there's a greater
than Moses. There's the Lord Jesus Christ
that stands pleading. What voice is this that pleads
from thee? in heaven's high courts above."
It is Jesus' precious blood, one that pleads on behalf of
his people, one who has paid that price. Moses didn't, in
that sense, pay the price for his people, but he interceded
for them. He was that mediator. And as we said before in verse
10, and there arose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses,
whom the Lord knew face to face. So there was this intimacy, as
it were, between Moses and his God. And of course, the Lord
Jesus ultimately, the God the Father and God the Son had that
perfect intimacy. And yet Israel was saying at
Mount Sinai, don't talk to us directly, talk to us through
a mediator. And God said, they're right. That's who I'm going to send.
A mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is perfectly knows me face
to face. And yet also, it is able to take
on that human flesh. So he was also a man, as well
as God. Moses wasn't man and God. But
Moses was foreshadowing that one who would come, the Lord
Jesus Christ, a prophet, shall the Lord thy God raise up like
unto me. And in all the signs and wonders
which God sent him to do in the land of Egypt, and to fare unto
all his servants, and to all his land. So in this picture
of Moses, we see how God had appointed, that God had raised
up Moses, and Moses was one who needed to be listened to. But
Moses is now gone, and we have a greater than Moses. We have
one that is truly great, and Hebrews picks that up. how great the Lord Jesus Christ
is. In Hebrews chapter 3, it says
this, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the apostle and high priest of our profession Christ
Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses
was faithful in all his house. Moses was a faithful servant
of the Lord, and Christ was faithful. He faithfully fulfilled all that
the Father had given him to do. For this man was counted worthy
of more honour and glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath
built the house was more honour than the house. And I think that
Moses, as it were, was part of the church of God. He was part
of the house, but God was the builder of the house. And therefore
God has that greater glory than Moses. Moses was used, you see,
to build the church of God in that sense in the Old Testament
times. But God was that one who was
the builder. Sorry, Moses was that house and
part of that. But God was ultimately the builder
of it all. And that's the same as we have,
the sin is if we worship the creation rather than Sorry the
creation rather than the creator You see we can go around and
see the wonders of the world around us And of course many
in the world do that they see David Attenborough and people
like that They see such a wonder in in nature, and that's good
to a point But you see they don't see that actually the creator
Is a greater glory than the creation So if you've made something,
yes, that something may have value, but really the glory of
it goes to the person who made it. Because that person had the
intellect and the skill to be able to make that object, or
that car, or whatever it was they made. So the person making
it has a greater glory than the thing itself, and how therefore
the Lord Jesus, you see, he is he he's created all things and
he has the glory so we shouldn't end in the glory of the creature
the glory of of the beauty of this creation that we are surrounded
with yes it has a glory but we need to go back to the one who
made it the one who created it For every house is built by some
man, but he that built all things is God. This is Hebrews 3 verse,
and then in verse 5 it says, and Moses verily was faithful
in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things
which were spoken after, but Christ as a son. Moses a servant,
Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are if
we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm
unto the end. So as we look then at this character
Moses, this one who was raised up in the Old Testament, no other
prophet like him, pointing to the Lord Jesus, there is this
great Peter in his sermon to these people and makes this point. and it shall come to pass that
every soul which will not hear that prophet, talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ, shall be destroyed from among the people. So here's
a solemn warning. We've heard of the greatness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, a greater than Moses. Moses was great,
the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, but a greater than
Moses is here. And he's alive. And he's paid
the price of his people's sins. May we be amongst those who hear
his voice. Hear him. And he has that love,
you see. It's love to his people. Moses
had love to Israel. He loved Israel. We just sang
of that lovely hymn of crucifying itself to God, that God may be
everything. and the love of God that God
had. You see, he had love to his people.
He loved the people. Ye, he loved the people. Moses
loved the people, but God loved the people. And God is love. And he has this love for his
people. He's concerned for his people. He wants to know the
blessing of God, for Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet
shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren
like unto me him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall
say unto you. The apostles were concerned that
this Lord Jesus would be hearkened to and may we today as we preach
the gospel give this note of warning that this is the only
way of salvation, the only mediator there is between God and man,
the only one who has access to God, the only one that can lay
down his life, the only one that has made an acceptable sacrifice. May we be amongst those who say,
this is my beloved and this is my friend, O ye daughters of
Jerusalem. Amen.