Hebrews chapter 1. Last week we finished the book
of John and as I was searching for tonight's message I ran across
something that was such a blessing to my heart. It was such a blessing
to me and it was so interesting to me. It's something that I
have known for years. And I have been now preaching
it for years. Pretty much every message. But
it was like a light bulb moment for me. And the last thing that
I want this to be is laborious. That's the last thing I want
it to be. But I pray you'll enjoy this tonight as much as I did
while I was studying it. I have something very specific
to say. There's one thing I want us to
get, and I want to prove it. And then after we've done that,
I'll stop. All right? I started looking
over this. I always kind of see how my time's
going to go. I have no idea. Twelve minutes
or 112 minutes? I don't know. But I'm going to
say what we need to say, and we're going to prove it, and
then we'll stop. And here's the title of this
message. And this is what I want us to
leave tonight being convinced of. Convinced right here and
convinced right here. It was always about Christ. That's it. It was always about
Christ. From the very beginning. It never
changed. It was always from moment one,
it was always about Christ, always. All right, now Hebrews 1 verse
1 says, God who at sundry times, the word sundry means many, God
who at many times And in diverse manners, diverse means different,
manners means ways. So God, who at many times, and
in different ways, spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets. God spoke to his people through
the prophets. He spoke through Moses, and Samuel,
and David, and Solomon, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and
Joel, and Habakkuk, and Micah, and Malachi, and Zephaniah, and
Zechariah, and a whole bunch more men. He spoke to those men,
and then those men told the message. And he spoke to them in dreams. They would lay down to go to
sleep and God would talk to them while they were asleep in their
dream. And he would just put them in a trance and they would
see a vision. Or he would send angels to them.
An angel would show up and say, God said for you to tell the
people. So they would receive the message
and then they would go tell the people. Now what did he tell
those prophets? What did he tell them to say? And here's what I'm getting at.
What was the Old Testament message? All those prophets. What was
the Old Testament message? Now, I consider tonight to be
like concentrate. A whole bunch in a little bitty
space. I'm going to really try to be
brief. We're going to be active, okay? I do want to be brief,
but I thought I need everybody to warm up their turner, because
we're going to turn. And don't get bogged down by
this. If you don't want to turn to all these, you don't have
to turn to them. You can listen to them. But I want us to see
something, and I want us to prove something by a handful of scriptures,
and we're going to go kind of one after the next, okay? We're going to see what this
Old Testament message was. Now, first, go with me to Acts
chapter 10. Acts chapter 10, look at verse
43. It says, To him give all the
prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. Their message was Christ. Their message was Christ. Now
look with me if you want to at Luke 24. Luke 24 verse 44 says. And he said unto them these are
the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened He their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. Their message was Christ. The message of the Old Testament
was Christ. It was always Christ. It was always Christ. It never
changed. Now this was a light bulb moment
for me. Because even though I know that so, I still had it in my
mind. Well, the Old Testament message
was law. And the New Testament message
is grace. It was always about Christ. Always. A few pages from here, go with
me to John 5. John 5 verse 46, the Lord said,
For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he
wrote of me. He wrote of me. Moses was talking
about me. Everything Moses wrote was about
me. All those times that Moses was
talking about Jehovah. I am God and there is none else. The Lord said He was talking
about me. He was always talking about me. A couple of pages in
John 8, this is what the Lord said about Abraham. John 8 verse
56, He said, Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it and was glad. He saw it. Abraham saw me. That's what he
said. The Lord appeared to Abraham
with two, three men appeared to Abraham. One of them was the
Lord in the temple. Who was the Lord? Jesus Christ. Abraham saw
me. He saw Christ. Abraham talked
about Christ. Abraham taught his children,
Isaac, Jacob. He told those boys about Christ. Christ. There are not two messages
in this book. There are not two messages in
this book. The Old Testament message is
not different from the New Testament message. While churches are passing
out New Testament only, we don't need the Old Testament anymore.
Why? Because that's the old one. We got the new one. The Old Testament
prophets did not preach the law while the New Testament prophets
preached grace. It was always grace. It was always
about Christ. Always. Now let me show you the
actual message. The Lord just told us. They wrote
of me. All the prophets point to me.
Let me show you the actual message, okay? Go with me to Genesis 3. Genesis chapter 3. This is God
speaking to the adversary. Genesis 3 verse 15 says, And
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel." That is talking about what happened
on the cross. All right, now, the enemy bruised
the heel of our Lord. Christ endured suffering. He did endure pain and anguish,
even death. But in his death, he crushed
the enemy's head. Now, as soon as the first sin entered
the world, Adam and Eve ate a bite of that fruit in this chapter,
verse 6, okay? As soon as sin entered the world,
God came and preached what Christ would accomplish on the cross
for sinners. As soon as it happened, the first
sin, as soon as it happened, God came and preached the gospel.
As soon as it happened. In Genesis 49, and you can listen
to this or turn either way, but this is what Genesis 49 says. Genesis 49 verse 10 says, The
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet until Shiloh comes. Not until Shiloh comes. Shiloh
is the Prince of Peace. The bondage of the law will not
cease until Shiloh comes. As soon as Shiloh comes, it's
all going to be over. And it goes on to say, And unto
him shall the gathering of the people That bondage and that
curse is going to continue until Shiloh comes. And when he comes,
all the people, all of his people are going to go running to him.
That's the gospel. That right there is the gospel.
Now, let me show you two more scriptures here. Go with me to
Isaiah 7. Isaiah 7 verse 14 says, Therefore the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. A virgin is going to conceive,
bear a son, and you're going to call his name Immanuel. His coming was prophesied all
through the Old Testament. Everything about his coming was
prophesied through the Old Testament. Now don't turn to this, just
listen to it, because this one's a hard one to find. This is Micah
chapter 5, and it says in Micah 5 verse
2, But thou Bethlehem. Bethlehem. Thou Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of
thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth have been from of old and from everlasting. The days of eternity. So the one who comes to Bethlehem
is the one from eternity. Now here's the message we just
heard in the Old Testament. Here's what we just heard in
the Old Testament. One is coming. He is the Prince of Peace. We just heard how he was going
to be born, a virgin is going to conceive. And we just heard
where he's going to be born. He's going to be born in Bethlehem. It was always about Christ. Always. It was always. Every
Old Testament story showed us who he was, why he came, and
what he did. Every single one of them. Every
story that we love from children, Noah's Ark. Oh man, don't you
love Noah's Ark? Seeing what the Ark is makes
you love it a thousand times more. Every story. Over in John 1,
this is what John cried. He was baptizing by the River
Jordan. In John 1 verse 29, It says, The next day John seeth
Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. Now I have a reference next to
the Lamb, and we're not going to go there, but it says Exodus
12. That's where God told His prophet Moses. He said, You tell
the people they need a Lamb. Tell the people they need a Lamb.
You go talk to them. And you explain to them that
death is passing through. The only thing that will save
their life is the blood of that lamb. And he said, when I see the blood,
I'm going to pass over you. That lamb that Moses told the
people about was Christ. That lamb was Christ, the substitute
for sinners. And now John says, behold the
lamb. There he is, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the
sin of the world. In John 3, the Lord said, he told a man
named Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
this is John 3, verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. God's people were dying. And we know the story, don't
we? They're all, the venom of the serpent was killing them.
God told Moses, you take the very thing that's killing them
and you put it on a pole. And you tell them to look to
it. I mean look to it. Now, do you
realize how big the camp was? You think everybody could see
the serpent on the pole? No. That's not what he said to
do. He said, look to it. Every soul
that looks to it with this heart right here and hopes in it and
trusts in it will live. Every single one. I can't see
it. You don't need to see it. Look to it. If you look to it,
you'll live. The serpent was Jesus Christ.
God made him to be that very thing that was killing us and
every soul that looks to him will live. Every soul. That's
amazing to me. Isn't that amazing to me? You know, if you have eyes, if
God gave you and me eyes in the womb and we came forth with eyes
and we could see, you know how easy it is to look? It's not
a work. You can do that before you can
do anything else. Look. Look. You look, you'll live. All who see, just like that serpent
on the pole, all who see Christ to be there with my sin on Him. All who see
Christ and the reason He died as being my sin. All who see
that will live. They'll live. That serpent was
Christ. It was always about Christ. Now,
I'm almost finished, right? Go with me to 1 Corinthians 10.
1 Corinthians 10 verse 1 says,
Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how
that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through
the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in
the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did
all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them. Those people were so thirsty.
Oh, we're so thirsty. Those people were murmuring,
complaining, vile, rebellious, unclean, just dried up. And I know that feeling sometimes.
Just dried up. Dying in their way. God told
His prophet, He told Moses, you go out and stand in front of
the people and strike that rock. And out of that rock flowed every
single thing they needed. Everything. That rock sustained
them, cleansed them, nourished them, comforted them, and followed
them. Verse 4 goes on to say, and that
rock was Christ. It was always about Christ. Now
go with me back to Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1 verse 1 says God who
at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his son. The message of the Old Testament
was not law and the message of the New Testament grace. It was
always grace, always. But what we have in the Old Testament
and in the New Testament is two sides of the same message. That's
what we have, two sides of the same message. The law was given
in the Old Testament and it still applies today. It hasn't gone
anywhere. God threw away that old crummy
law. No, he didn't. God is the law. God satisfied the law. We can
go murder whoever we want to. No, we can't. The law hasn't
gone anywhere. It's still here. Our Lord said,
think not that I am come to destroy the law. I didn't come to destroy
the law. I came to fulfill it. That law stood like a curtain,
like a veil between God's people and the Holy of Holies. And all
through the Old Testament, God spoke to His people through the
veil of that law. And He told them, you cannot
see in right now. So I'm speaking to you through
the veil of these prophets. But when Shiloh comes, that's
what he kept saying, as soon as Shiloh comes, and as soon
as he redeems you from your sin, as soon as he makes you a new
creature, as soon as he makes that payment, takes it away,
and redeems you from your sin, he's going to open that veil,
and you're going to get to walk straight on in. And now the New
Testament message is looking from the other side saying, Shiloh
came. He came. He did what He said
He would do. He fulfilled for us everything
that that veil required for us to come in, everything that was
separating us. He fulfilled it all. The law
has not gone anywhere. We just now keep it in Him. We just keep it in Him. We are
law keepers. In him we do not rebel against
his word anymore. Not in Christ we don't. Because
Shiloh came and because he united himself to us, we're at peace
with God. And that means he does not speak
to us through a messenger anymore. That is just glorious to me.
He talked to his people through somebody else. Not anymore. One with him. United with him.
Perfect like him. And he says right here in verse
1, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken to us Himself by His Son directly. He walks with us, He talks with
us, and He tells us directly we are His own. We are His own. I hope the Lord will bless that.
I really do. Shiloh came and he's coming again.
May the Lord bless his word. All right, let's stand together.