Deuteronomy chapter 18. As you know, we were studying
Luke and we got to the end of Luke where our Lord preached
to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And it says, He said
to them, these are the words which I spake unto you while
I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were
written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning
me and then he opened their understanding that they might understand the
scripture. And this is an understanding of the script that it is written
that it behooved Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third
day and repentance and remission of sin should be preached in
his name. So Christ crucified. is the subject. He is the subject
of all scripture. This is why they're written.
And the scripture says, to him give all the prophets witness. He began in Moses and the prophets
in the psalm. All right, let's look at Moses,
Deuteronomy 18. This is where we're at. And I
wanted to deal with the cities of refuge in chapter 19, which
is Christ. But I just started reading and
I thought Christ must have dealt with this. He is that prophet. He's that prophet of whom Moses
spoke. All right, look at it. Deuteronomy
18, verse 15. This is Moses speaking. Deuteronomy
18, 15. The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee a prophet. Capital P. From the midst of
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, Moses said, unto him ye shall
hearken according to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy
God. And Horeb in the day of the assembly
saying, and they were before the mountain, And it thundered
and lightning and they feared God, they were afraid. And they
said, let us not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither
let me see this great fire anymore that I die not. And the Lord
said unto me, Moses said, the Lord said to me, they have well
spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet,
capital P. from among their brethren like
unto thee, Moses, 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 God said,
this is the one. I have raised it up from among
you, like most. My Prophet. Okay? Now, you notice
the word is capitalized, P. Nowhere in the Bible is it capitalized,
ever. Right there. No prophet ever
had that word in front of his name as a title. No apostle did. It does not say,
The Apostle Paul. It says Paul the Apostle, small
a. Every time. Nowhere is it capitalized
except here. In Hebrews 3 it says consider
the Apostle, capital A, and high priest, capital A. Jesus Christ. Nowhere is King capitalized,
ever. except concerning Christ, he's
the king, capital K, of kings. Lord, capital L, of Lords, small
l. That's significant. People worshiped
prophets. And they, John did. John, the
apostle on an isle of Patmos, fell down before the angel. and
worshipped in it, and the angel said, See thou do it not, I am
of thy brethren, the prophet, small p. I've just been glorified,
and you'll soon be just like me, but don't worship me, worship
God. So he's that prophet. Occasionally, Angel is capitalized. Capital A. Who could that be?
The Angel. Definite article. The, like,
this is the only one. The Angel. Capital A of the Lord. Who could that be but the King
of Kings of the Lord. Angel, means messenger of the
covenant. Melchizedek. It's capitalized. King. King of Salem. King of Peace. Who's that? And I wanted to deal
with that, but I just skipped over it. It was just too much.
All right, Christ is this prophet, the prophet, capital P. What
is a prophet? Look at verse 15. 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. It's
a man, a prophet, was a man sent by God. Turn with me to John
1, Gospel of John chapter 1. The prophet was a man, a man
sent by God, like Moses, sent by God, raised up by God. Elijah, a man sent by God. Elisha, a man sent by God. Samuel, John, John the Baptist
was the last, our Lord said this, the last of the Old Testament
prophets. All the prophets prophesied until
John. He's the last Old Testament prophet,
all right? They came to John, chapter 1,
verse 1. There was a man sent from God,
you see that? Whose name was John. The same
came for witness, to bear witness of the light. See, to Him, to
Christ, give all the prophets witness. The man is a true prophet. He's bearing witness to Christ.
That's his purpose. Read on. Verse 8, He was not
that light. He was sent to bear witness of
that light. Capital L. You see that? Capital W, the word. Verse 9,
that was the true light, capital A, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world, if he has light. He got it from Christ. He was in the world. The world
was made by him. The world knew him not. All right,
look at verse 19. This is the record of John, the
preaching of John. The Jews came to him. Who art
thou? Verse 20, and he confessed and denied not, but confessed,
I am not the Christ. Well, they asked him, are thou
Elias? He said, I am not. Are thou that prophet? He said,
no. His words got fewer, didn't they?
How plain could he make it? I am not Christ. I am not the
Christ. No. Some of these self-proclaimed
prophets in our day, they leave some doubt as to, I mean, they
would have you think they're something special. If you come
to them and ask them, well, I'm anointed, they'll say, hmm. John never said that. Well, this man was sent by God,
John, but Christ was sent by God. Christ was sent. Look at John chapter 6. John
chapter 6. You know what he said in his
prayer, this is life eternal. John 17, verse 3. This is life
eternal, that they might know the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent, the sent one. John chapter 6, look at
verse 38, I came down from heaven. No prophet ever came down from
heaven. Christ did, didn't he? To do mine own will, not to do
mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And verse 39,
this is the will which This is the Father's will which
hath sent me. Verse 40. This is the will of
him that sent me. Sent me. Look at verse 44. It is written, verse 44. No man
can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. Verse 57. As a living Father
hath sent me, and I live by the Father. So he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. A sent one. Sent by God. With the Word of God. Now a prophet,
go back to Deuteronomy 18. A prophet was one sent by God. Christ was sent by the Father.
To do what? to speak the words of God. This
is what all prophets were sent to do. This was their job. This was their message. This
is what they were sent to do, bring the word of God to the
people of God. All right, look at Deuteronomy
18, verse 18. I will raise them up a prophet
from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words
in his mouth. He shall speak unto them all
that I shall command him. God said, I've sent him to speak
my word. OK? Moses, and go to Hebrews
1 with me. Hebrews 1. It's a Bible study,
so we search the scripture. Hebrews 1. Moses was the spokesman
for God, wasn't he? He was the spokesman for God.
He was God's prophet, and he spoke to the people for God.
And you read with me where the people said, And they saw the
mountain burning with fire and thunder and lightning, and they
said, Don't let God speak to you, speak to us from God. You speak to us. And God said,
They will say it. And Hebrews 1 says this, in verse
1, God at sundry times in divers manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophet. Small pen. After these last days,
spoken unto us by Son," capital S, "...whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the world," and on and
on. It goes to talk about Christ being better than the angels,
better than Aaron, better than Moses. The Pharisees and all said, we
have Moses. He said, Moses wrote of me. I said, Abraham's our father.
He said, before Abraham was, I am. He said, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. So this
is the one sent by God with the Word of God like Moses. John
3. Turn to John chapter 3. Again,
John the Baptist is speaking here. John chapter 3. And here's
what he says of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what he says of
himself, verse 30. John 3, verse 30. He must encrypt,
but I must decrypt. Now there's a prophet of God,
a small pig, that says, I'm a nothing, I'm a nobody, from nowhere, knew
nothing, can't do nothing, but God called me by His grace, revealed
Himself to me by His grace. And I preach Christ. That's the
problem. And he must enter in. Verse 31.
He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the
earth is earthy. Speaketh of the earth. He that
cometh from heaven is above all. What he hath seen and heard,
speaking of Christ, that he testified. No man receiveth his testimony.
He that hath received his testimony hath said to his seal that God
is true. He that believes Christ believes
God, because all that Christ said was the Word of God. And
said to his seal that God is true, and every man a liar. Verse
34, here it is. He whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit,
capital S, by measure unto him. Speaking of Christ. But the Father
loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. The
Word of God. The people of God. Everything.
So the prophet was once sent by God from among the people. Born of a woman. Chosen from
among the people. Yeah, but how can he come down
from heaven and yet come from the earth? Well, you know. A child is born. Yeah, but the
Son. A babe was born. A body hast
thou prepared me. Yeah, but he was with the Father
from the beginning. That's it. God was manifest in
the flesh. Chosen from among the people,
but sent by God. And the Father, it says here,
John says, loveth the Son, hath given all things into his hand.
We've got to read verse 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son,"
didn't Moses say? If you won't hear that prophet, "...shall not see light, but
the wrath of God abideth on him." And again, I remind us all that
God spoke out loud only three times to all people, and it was
when Jesus Christ was on this earth. And he said one thing
all three times. This is my beloved son. Hear him. Isn't it? And that's what Moses said. God
said, if they won't hear him, I'm going to require it at their
hands. If they don't believe on the son, my wrath abides on
them. Do you believe? That means the
love of God abides on you. And in you, as Christ came for
you, he was sent for you. Those who love God are called
according to his purpose. All right, a man, a prophet was
a man sent by God. And he had the words of God.
Turn to John 14. John 14. He had the words of
God. Moses, Elijah, Samuel, all those
men, they didn't speak their own mind. And that's what Peter
said then. Holy men spake as they were moved
by the Spirit of God. No scriptures of any personal
man's interpretation, but holy men, chosen men, spake as they
were moved by the Spirit of God. And Christ had not the spirit
by measure, but he is the anointed one. John 14, verse 6, Christ
said unto Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Now
all the prophets pointed to the way, didn't they? All the prophets
pointed to Christ the way. That's what John did the last
year. Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. That's how you know a true prophet.
He spoke of Christ. He testified of Christ. He pointed
to Christ. He pointed people to Christ.
John had two disciples that followed him. And when they heard Christ,
they quit following John and started following Christ. And
John said, Hallelujah. My job is, I've done my job.
I pointed to Him, they're not following me, they're following
Him. They're looking to Him. Because
to Him give the prophets witness. And they all pointed to the way
where Christ, that prophet, came. Capital P. He said, I am the
way. All the prophets preached the
truth, didn't they? That's how you know they were the prophets
of God. They told the truth. Christ said, I am the truth. All the prophets preached the
way of life, which was Christ. Christ said, I am the life. He that believeth on me, Christ
said, hath everlasting life. Look at verse 10, John 14. He
said to his disciples, believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me? The words I speak unto you, I
speak not of myself. but the Father that dwelleth
in me, and he doeth the works." The Word, the works, everything
proves that he is that prophet of whom Moses spake. All right?
Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Now here's the test of a
prophet of God. Deuteronomy 18. Here's the test
of a true prophet of God. Verse 22. You have it? Verse 20, the prophet which shall
presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded
him to speak. Oh my, you could dwell on that
a lot right now, there's so many today. Don't you hate, don't
you despise everything you see and read on these billboards
everywhere and pretend to be what God has said. It's blasphemy. Don't you see these flippant
little careless subjects that have God's name signed to it?
Like, what part of no don't you believe? Sign God. Or come to my house on Sunday,
God. Don't you hate that? I hate it.
God didn't say that. And anybody that says He said
that is not of God. And these prophets that say things
that are not from God's Word, they're not of God. If anybody,
to the law, to the testimony, if they speak not according to
my word, God said, there's no light in them, no Christ in them.
God didn't send them. Jeremiah 23 just goes in depth
about these prophets that preach their dreams and signs and all
this babbling talk of tongues and so forth. They're not of
God. The prophet of God is sent to do one thing, preach that
prophet. Preach Christ, point me to Him,
that's how you know. But look at this, all right,
in verse 20, the prophet which presumes to speak a word in my
name, which I have not commanded him to speak, and that shall
speak in the name of other gods, that prophet will die. Count on it, it's going to happen. Verse 21, if thou say in thine
heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not
spoke? How do we know? How do we know a man's a prophet
of God? How do we know what he's saying
is true and not true? Verse 22, when a prophet speaketh
in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, if it doesn't
come to pass, the Lord didn't say that. Don't be afraid of him. Don't
listen to that prophet. If what he says doesn't come
true, he's not God's prophet. All right? Now listen to what
our Lord said. The Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what he said
in Matthew 24. He said this. I don't want to
misquote him. He's the only one I want to quote.
He said in Matthew 24, listen to this. Heaven and earth shall
pass away. And it shall. He said that. He said that my words shall not
pass away. Not one word of mine shall fail. Not one word that Christ spoke
will not come to pass. Every single thing he said hath,
doth, and shall come to pass. He is the Word. He spoke the Word. He preached
the Word. He reveals the Word. That's my
next point. A prophet is a foreteller of
future events. a foreteller of future events.
And our Lord, through Isaiah the prophet, over and over and
assisted, He said, bring forth these prophets. Let us tell us
things that are going to happen. Come on. Tell us things that
aren't yet done. Tell us. And our Lord, everything He spoke,
hath and doth and shall come to pass. A foreteller of future
events. Things not known. Things not
known, a diviner is the word, a diviner, one that knows the
mind, the will of God, what God hath willed, what God hath purposed,
the covenant of God, the mind of God, the will of God. Who
knows? All the prophets received what
they know of God, they received it from Christ. Solomon was a
man of great wisdom, wasn't he? A man with all that wisdom. Where
did he get his wisdom from? Christ. Christ is wisdom. That's who Solomon wrote of in
chapter 4, Proverbs chapter 8, and on and on, didn't he? That's who he got his wisdom
from. Christ is the wisdom of God, is the power. These prophets
were men of power. They were men who performed great
miracles, didn't they? Like Moses. Moses had the rod
of God in his hand. By which he divined things. By
which he judged things. By which he ruled all of Israel.
Millions of people. Moses was a powerful man. He
went into the king of this world, Pharaoh, and said, let my people
go. Right in his face. Maybe he pointed
his finger. Let my people go. Thus said the
Lord. Unafraid. Let my people go. And eventually
he did. Now Moses represents Christ who
stood before the God of this world. He came to do what? Let his people go. To lead captivity captives. Take them from the God of this
world. And he faced them first thing.
Moses had the rod of God by which he ruled, that rod of Aaron,
the high priest, which budded, which was powerful, That rod,
that scepter? Oh, Scripture says our Lord is
the scepter of God, is the rod of God, the ruler of God. Moses took that rod and divided
the Red Sea, didn't he? divided the Red Sea by which
his people walked through on dry land, which the Egyptians
are saying to do, were destroyed in the same way that Moses divided
the sea and the people went across the Red Sea, mind you. And they
went across on dry ground with not any mud on their feet. From
the weakest to the strongest, they all went over. by Moses,
God's decree through Moses, and separating the sea. And the Egyptians,
the world, are saved to do, to get to the other side, and by
the same power, Moses, God said, put your rod and swallow them
up. And they did. They died all died.
Christ is Moses. Christ is the rod of God. Christ
is the Red Sea who parted. Christ is the solid rock on whom
we walk and stand. He is the way over it. He is
the water. Christ is all in all. And just
as those Egyptians wouldn't listen to Moses, they didn't believe
Moses, they weren't in the houses under the blood, and they'll
say to get on the other side, God, Christ says, destroy them
by His decree. Moses took that rod of God and
smoked the rock, didn't he? What power to smite a rock, mind
you, and out of that rock flowed rivers of living water by which
all the people of God were watered in the desert, in the wilderness,
where there no water was. Christ is the one who smote. He's the rod. He's the rock.
He's the water. He's all of them. Moses interceded
for the people. They said, let not God speak
to us. You speak to us. There's one
mediator. You're so blessed if you know
this. There are millions upon billions of people who pray to
the saints or pray to a woman named Mary. There's one mediator
between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus. And He said, the Father always
hears me. And if you come to me, if you
call on the Father by me, He'll hear you. He promised that. That's what Moses said, a prophet.
Moses prophesied of Christ. He said, a prophet, capital P,
the Lord will raise up like me. Him, to Him. He's the one you
need to hear. Moses had many people killed.
That's power, to kill or make alive. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He stood on one side and said,
who's on the Lord's side? Come unto me. And whoever believed God came
and stood by Moses. And I remind you, all the sons
of Levi did. The priests of God. They did.
They stood by Moses. And you know what God did through
Moses? Opened the earth up and swallowed
them up. And it says all the people feared God and Moses. People don't fear Jesus today.
They don't fear Jesus. Because He wouldn't hurt anybody.
He loves everybody so much. He's standing outside everybody's
heart's door, wanting so badly for them to let him in. That's
not the Lord Jesus. His name is Lord, capital L,
Jesus Christ. He is sitting on the circle of
the earth, sitting on the right hand of the majesty on high,
reigning and ruling, expecting his enemy to be made his footstool. He's not standing outside anybody's
heart's door. He's seated, having finished
his work, reigning and ruling over everything that writhes
or wriggles. Killing, making alive. Wounding,
healing. He said, I the Lord do all these
things. And the fear of this Lord Jesus
is the beginning of saving wisdom. Elijah hewed those prophets,
didn't he? Elijah. He hewed 450 prophets
right in front of people's eyes. Samuel did the same thing, didn't
he? Killed them all. Yes, he did. Elijah, Elisha raised
the dead. Now, who could do that except
the true prophet of God? Christ said, I am the life. I am the resurrection. Oh, raise the dead. He hath quickened
us together. All of God's people have been
raised from the dead. By who? Jesus Christ. Quickened
together with Him. I cry. Greater than all the prophets,
because He's God. Of whom the prophets wrote. Of
whom the prophets spoke. They all received their life,
their knowledge, their power, their everything from Him. And
let me close with this. Deuteronomy 18. Go back there.
Deuteronomy 18. It says in verse 19, He said, Whosoever will not hearken
unto My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require
it of him. And our Lord said in John 5,
John 8, over and over again, He said, He that is of God, heareth
God's words. That's what he said. He said
to some pharisees, why do you not understand my speech? Because
you cannot, because you're not of God. He that is of God, heareth
my word. He said, the words that I speak
are the words of him that sent me. He that heareth me, heareth
him. The words I speak. He said that
over and over and over and over again today. Have you heard? Do you believe? There was a woman at the well,
remember John 4? And the Lord told her things
that he knew all about her. And she said, Sir, I perceive
you're a prophet. You know, that's what the disciples
on the road said, we believe Jesus of Nazareth. They said,
are you a stranger here and you haven't heard what's going on
here? She said, what things? He said, what things? They said,
concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet. We trusted that it was him who... And so then he began to preach
himself. And the woman at the well said,
we... She said, I perceive you're a prophet. And she was religious,
you know. Well, our fathers say these,
our fathers. I'm a Methodist, you're a Baptist. Woman, you
don't know what you worship. If you don't know Christ, you
don't know what you worship. And then she said, well, when
Christ has come, Messiahs, he'll tell us all things. And that's when he said, I speak
unto thee. Damn. She dropped her water pump. She dropped everything. Went
home and dropped that fella she's living with. And now, you know
who she's talking about? You know who she's taking up
with? You know who she believed? She didn't know what she believed
for. Now she knows who. Christ. That's all she could
talk about was Him. Because He's all. I've met the
Christ. He's not just the Christ. He
told me all things. And Peter preached at Pentecost. He said David was a prophet.
He preached at Pentecost. David was a prophet. But he didn't
speak of himself. He spoke of Christ. He wasn't
speaking of himself, saying that he wouldn't suffer corruption
or leave his soul in hell. He said, David's in the ground
right now, his body is, but Christ, he spoke of Christ whom the Lord
raised from the dead. All the prophets except Elijah
died. Elisha died from sickness. He
had, what did he die from? He had some kind of virus, I
guess. Wait, who sent it? God did. And what happened to him? He's
living forever now. But he died from that. God sent
it. Now all the prophets, well Christ
died. All those prophets died. If you could find their graves,
you'd dig up some bones, you'd find some bones. But you go over
to Israel and look for the bones of Jesus Christ, you'll never
find them. God raised him from the dead. And that's how we know he's the
Christ, by the spirit of holiness and the resurrection from the
dead. And now he's ever liveth to make intercession of his people.
So he's that prophet, of whom Moses wrote, capital P. Do you
trust him? Do you believe him? Do you look
to him? Do you follow him? I hope so. If you do, then I've
done my job. Okay.