You remember Genesis, we used
it last week, promise of His coming. I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Then in Galatians chapter
3 and beginning with verse 21, Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily, righteousness
would have been by the law. But the Scripture has concluded,
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. Now watch this. But before faith
came, we were kept under the law, shut up under that faith
which should afterward be revealed, whereunto the law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after
that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster,
for you are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, there is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for ye are all one in Christ, and if ye be Christ,
then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now I say that the heir, as long
as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be
Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time
appointed by the Father. Even so, we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law." Now, today we want to be looking at the
period between the promise made and the fullness of time. And that would be preparations
for the coming of the Son of God. In our first study we dwelt
on the promise, the first promise, Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. Now we come to speak of the preparation
of His coming, those things that were done by God and ordered
in His providence in preparation for the coming of Christ into
the world. the way God ordered His prophet
in, the way God trained His people, the way God taught them, directed
His prophet, gave the types and the shadow and all those things
that fell in their place. Now, of course, when we speak
of the preparation of His coming, we're not in this instance speaking
of the things that were done in eternity or before the world
or that were ordained by God to come on the path. We do not
mean that God had to put any final touches to His plan or
that He had to switch from plan A to plan B. My meaning in using
the word preparation of His coming is that from the fall of mankind
in Adam to the incarnation of Christ, during that entire period
or that entire time frame, the whole period of history was a
preparing for the coming of our Lord and of our Savior. The various dealings of God with
His people, the various ways that He ordered His providence,
the manner of worship that God instituted among His people,
the different times and the different ages in which God did this or
that, the sacrifices, the changes in His providential revelation
that He was unfolding were all but the wheels of providence
spinning, spinning, spinning, ready for the coming of the God-man
into the world. Now, every way that God dealt
with His people, every circumstance that they were placed in, every
change of providence were but preparatory for the appearing
of the God-man in the world. Remember, every bloody sacrifice
pointed unto Christ. Every deliverance of the people
pointed to that great deliverance which would come by Christ. Every
revelation of God foreshadowed that full revelation which the
Son would make of the Father. We saw that there was the promise
of Christ, then following the preparation for His coming, until
at last came the fullness of time and the God-man appeared
among men. We want to look at the preparation
of His coming. The first preparation that we
take note of, of the coming of Christ, is that God instituted
His worship in connection with the practice of the manner of
sacrificing. That early in history, men began
to make sacrifices. Early in history, we read of
these two things being done in the Scripture. Number one, there
began to be sacrifices, bloody sacrifices that were offered
up unto God. Genesis 4, And Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof,
And the Lord had respect unto his offering. In Hebrews 11,
and I believe it is verse 14, declares that Abel offered in
faith and that God testified of his gift that he was righteous. Abel shed the blood of an innocent
creature as his offering and a sacrifice unto his God. Also, the firstling of his flock
did the man offer. He offered sacrifice from God
to God. He did it in faith, we learn,
and far from its institution, from its very institution, the
offering of sacrifices was a peculiarity of approaching and of worshipping
the God of heaven. It owned him as God, it owned
the offerer as a sinner in the sight of that God, and it declared
that God demanded a just and proper sacrifice for sin before
he would be reconciled again on the sinner. Because of sin,
one must die. God's justice must be propitiated. Sin brings death and therefore
there must be a propitiatory offering. So from then until
Christ came, sacrifices were practiced by the people of God
And they only ended when Christ made His great, one, all-sufficient
sacrifice. He offered Himself. But Noah
offered a sacrifice to God, Genesis 8 and verse 20, of which the
Lord God smelled a sweet savor of sacrifice. Now, to make it
very clear, the institution of sacrifices was in preparation
for Christ's coming. They spoke of Him. They pictured
Him. They typified Him. They caused
worshippers to take their place before God as a sinner and to
view Him as an offended sovereign who needs a perpetuatory sacrifice
before he receives a sinner into his fellowship. He would not
receive one in their own righteousness or in their own self. But there's
a second thing also that we notice, and that is God actually began
to save sinners early in conjunction with a system of sacrificial
offering with a view to the coming and the death of Christ. men
began to call on the name of the Lord." Genesis 4 and verse
26. He actually declared certain
ones righteous and pardoned their sin. Now, not that their animal
sacrifices saved them. They certainly did not. In fact,
animal sacrifices never saved a single soul and they never
put away a single sin. Hebrews 10. 1 through 4 tells
us that. And yet, Abel, Noah, Enoch, Abraham,
and others were saved and saved in view of the coming death of
our Christ Jesus, who by faith looked unto Him and believed
and saw His day. But a third thing we notice,
Genesis chapter 4 and verse 25 and verse 26 again. Seth is born in the stead of
Abel. Seth begats a son, and we read,
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. This may have
been the commencement of what we might recognize or describe
as public worship. Worshipping not just in private,
not in the closet, and not just as a family, but worshipping
publicly, gathering together, calling upon the name of the
Lord. You may notice the rendering
in the margin of your Bible, then began men to be called by
the name of the Lord. Sons of God, they're called in
Genesis chapter 6 and verse 2. This may have been the beginning
of that distinction between the saved and the lost. But then,
in Enoch's time and life, God did two things that are interesting. A. He inspired from Enoch, or
through Enoch, a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do
we know? Well, it's referred to in Jude,
verse 14 and verse 15, in this way, And Enoch also, the seventh
from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh
with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all,
and to convince all of their ungodliness, and so forth. Surely
Enoch spoke of the same one as did Genesis 3, And perhaps Jude
chose this particular prophecy of Enoch because of what it contained. It declared the destruction of
the wicked by Christ as the promise had done in Genesis chapter 3
and verse 15. It was probably one of the clearer
or more clear of the prophecies of the Lord's Anointed One under
the old economy, and is noted perhaps also for its antiquity,
in that it dates back to just the seventh from Adam. the seventh
one from Adam. And it came from one who lived
a holy life and who walked with God. But then, B, there was the
catching away or the catching out of Enoch without seeing death. We read that in Genesis 5 and
verse 24. He was not God took him. All
of a sudden he was gone and was missing. Hebrews puts it this
way in verse 5, by faith he was translated that he should not
see death. One of the few that jumped over
the grave and went into glory. a patriarchal obituary we have
in Genesis chapter 5. Yet Enoch is not said, and he
died. Of all the others it is said,
and he died. But of him he was not, for the
Lord took him. He went to heaven without seeing
death. This was the first case of one
escaping the sentence passed upon all men." The very first
bodily ascension is that of this one that we read about in the
Scripture. Then we move along a little bit
in the days of the flood. God gave one of the most remarkable
types of Christ to be found anywhere in the Old Testament. And by
it came the deliverance. of Noah and his family from the
judgment and the death of the flood, an ark providing safety
and security for Noah and for his family, while sending forth
his wrath and destroying all in whom was the breath of life."
The wicked are destroyed, but a righteous land or a righteous
seed is preserved by God to bring forth from that family Messiah
into the world. And at this time, God renewed
covenant again with Noah. God renewing the covenant. Noah
offered up a sacrifice, which is described in Genesis 8, verse
20 and 21, as exceedingly pleasant in the sight of the Lord. Thus,
as these clean beasts were seething upon the altar of Noah that he
had built, and the fire and the burning of the flesh in the hide
God is said to have smelled a sweet savor. It was acceptable unto
God. They preached the gospel in type
and in shadow. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savior. Now we speak of one of the most
important preparations for the appearing of Christ in the world. And that would be the call and
the separation of Abraham from the other families of the world. the call of Abraham, calling
this former idolater away from his land and his people. Now, let's notice and remember
that up until the call of Abraham, the people of God had, for the
most part, been mixed up with the world, mingled in together
with them. And though a deliverer was promised,
yet there was no limit on their progeny to come. But now, in
the call of Abraham, God separates the great patriarch from whom
the person of Christ was to descend. That would be Abraham. God narrowed here His covenant,
if I may use that term, to the family proceeding from Abraham. And of course, we recognize them. And the seed promised in Genesis
3 And verse 15, it was now made known in Abraham's time that
the promised seed would descend out of him or through him. That God made Abraham a great
people. separated them from the other
peoples of the earth. God will no longer destroy the
world as before, but separates a peculiar and special people
unto himself. Abraham is the root out of which
springs or grows that people or that family. From Him came
an elect nation or people. God covenants with Abraham. God
promises a chosen seed and to bless all of the families of
the earth by and through Him. It was in this period that there
appeared one of the great truths of the Scripture as, behold,
the first early manifestation of election. Here is an example,
too strong to be denied, of God's divine election in and through
Abraham. And I think in two ways. Number
one, the calling of Abraham. He was chosen. Why of all the
men in the world God pitched upon Abraham? He called him. He separated him from his family
and from the world. And Abraham, maybe we don't recognize
it, but Abraham before was a heathen. an idolater, a worshipper of
idols, the Scripture said. Yet God called him, chose him,
pitched upon him to be the father of them that believe and to establish
a nation in which he would put his name and his worship. But
then secondly, the forming out of Abraham's loin the actual
people from which Messiah would spring, a peculiar people chosen
in and through Abraham. God narrowed His grace to a single
family. But more about Abraham and his
calling needs to be said. We remember that it was about
halfway between the fall and the incarnation, time-wise and
historically setting. It may be regarded as the third
period in which the promise of the covenant is renewed and declared,
first in Genesis, again to Noah, now unto Abraham. And revelation, all the while,
is made clearer and clearer. Secondly, it was like laying
the foundation in preparation for the coming of Messiah. For more, I say, is done in the
call and the separation of Abraham than is done in all of the time
before. How? He is declared to be the
Father of many people. He was to be a Father of many,
not only physically, but also spiritually. B. Abraham is in
covenant with God. God establishes covenant with
Abraham. And C. It is revealed that the
seed would come through him, that is, through Abraham and
his promised seed. And he, out of him, would grow
that race of people that Messiah would spring from. As Paul said
in Romans, who according to the flesh came of Israel. And then he, the covenant was
more fully and more openly revealed to Abraham than before. Now there might be, to these
we might add, three other important events which attended to Abraham
and attached themselves unto him and his life. A. In his time we first meet with
the work of a high priest. Never before this time, the time
of Abraham, do we read in the scripture of a high priest who
mediates between God and men. And this one was the closest
type of Christ as a priest than even Aaron and the Levitical
priest might ever be. He is called King of Salem, Prince,
Priest of the Most High God." Hebrews said, without father,
without mother, having neither beginning of day nor end of life,
abiding a priest forever. That's in Genesis 14 and Hebrews
7, 1-4. A closer type than Aaron. One
made like unto the Son of God. who took not his priesthood from
another, nor will it pass upon any other, and then be the unique
and miraculous birth of the promised seed, whose name was Isaac."
He was born, if we may say so, contrary to nature in that God
turned back the time of life on Sarah's dead womb, as we read
in Romans 4, and verse 19, so that Galatians 4 refers to him
as the son of promise and one born after the Spirit. Though Abraham was the father
of many, yet the birth of the promised seed and the heir required
a miracle from God. He was not born after or through,
the ability or the strength of the flesh. In this He is a great
type of our Lord Jesus Christ, born in a special way by a special
promise and a special seed. And then see, Abraham's sacrifice
of his beloved son Isaac. You'll see that in Genesis chapter
22. Here is the first clear type that Messiah, Deliverer, Savior,
was to be a man. The man would die. A man would
come and would die. All previous sacrifices had been
of the beastly or the animal order. that of Abel, that of
Noah, that of Levi, and of all. But now God commands Abraham
to take that promised, beloved only son, as he is referred to,
and take him up to the mount and deliver him up unto death
as he is commanded. When he had offered up Isaac
upon the altar." We read in the Scripture, Hebrews 11 and 17
through 19, He offered up Isaac, His only begotten, the one in
whom His seed was to be called and was to reside. The one that
He was able to raise again even from the dead in time. From whence
he received him, that is, Abraham received his son in a figure. And this is a close type of Christ
in Isaac. We see him offered and raised. We see him bound by the Father
and the knife over him and the Father ready to put him unto
death. So let's see, if we might, some
of the typology of Isaac and of Christ that make them type
and anti-type. Well, first of all, of course,
both of them were promised son when thy seed should be called. Both were uniquely begotten. A, in Genesis 22 and 2, Thine
only Son, Isaac." John 3.16, Thine only begotten Son. Then be, Genesis 22.10, And Abraham
stretched forth his hand to slay his son. And in Romans 8.32,
He spared him not, but delivered him up. And then see, in Genesis
22, in verse 12, seeing thou hast not withheld thine only
Son from me. And Romans 8, 32, as we just
said, he spared not his own son. And remember D, something said,
Genesis 22 and verse 8. God will provide Himself a Lamb. And in John 1.29, what do we
read? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. 1 Peter 1. and 19, as a lamb. Again, we see in Hebrews 11,
17, Abraham offered up his only begotten Son. John 3, 16 tells
us, God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son. 1 John 4, 9, God sent His only
begotten Son into the world. Here's one of the great types
between Abraham and between Christ, and that is in Genesis 22 and
verse 6. We read something interesting.
that he laid the wood upon Isaac. Isaac, as they went to ascend
the mount, bore the wood that would fire and that would stoke
the altar. In Luke 23, 26 it said, On Jesus
they lay the cross. And the Lord bear His own cross
for a time. And thus here we see yet the
closest type of this blessed seed and the promised seed. And as A.W. Pink put it, here
it was that God first revealed the necessity for a human victim
to expiate sin, for it was by man that sin came. and it must
be by man that sin is put away. For beasts are not able to bear
the sin and perpetuate God. Isaac typifies, therefore, the
death of Christ. Gospel light is turned up there
in Genesis chapter 22. A giant step is taken toward
the coming and the appearing of Messiah, who would be not
only a man, but a God-man and a promised son, the very Son
of God. Now we come to speak of another
great preparation for the appearing of Messiah, and that's the institution
of the Mosaic system, the things done in this period for the preparation
of the appearance of Christ. And I think you might agree that
this is the most important of all the periods in the preparing
for the coming or the appearing of the God-man. For in this period
of time we have the installation of Moses as a mediator. We have the deliverance of the
people out of Egypt, a type of the world. We have the giving
of the law. We have the building of the tabernacle. We have the institution of the
priesthood. the inspiration of the Scripture,
the Passover is instituted, the separation of God's elect from
the world, and a fixed and particular order of worship is established
by God in the world. Many typical representations
of Christ were attached to the Mosaic economy that spoke of
something to be fulfilled in Christ. In short, more was done
in this period than in all of that done before this period
arrived. So let's consider some of the
more evident ones. Well, first of all, there was
the raising up of a Deliverer, Moses. a type of Christ as our
Redeemer and Deliverer. He was like Christ. Moses said,
The Lord your God shall raise up one like unto me. Deuteronomy
18.15, To Him shall you hearken. Secondly, there was that deliverance
out of Egyptian bondage by the sacrifice and power of the Passover
lamb recorded in Exodus chapter 12. And it was observed yearly. And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
5 and 7, even Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. This great deliverance, therefore,
is the most wonderful of all of those that we read about in
the Old Testament. It was a forerunner, a type,
or a picture, or a pattern. of Christ's great redemption,
taking them from their worldly bondage and misery and taking
them into a spiritual inheritance. But then thirdly, God confined
His revelation at this point to the chosen nation. And as
it were, it was reprobated. the whole world of the Gentiles
for many centuries. And he declared Messiah would
come out of them and through them. In this he prepared the
way for the coming of Christ out of the family of David, out
and through Israel, out and through Abraham. But fourthly, God gave
the moral, the ceremonial, and the civil laws unto the people
of His name, and as Paul wrote in our text, it became a schoolmaster,
a tutor, an overseer of them. And he uses that imagery in Galatians
3, 23 through chapter 4 and verse 6. And it convinced and convicted
them of their sin. It cursed them. It shut them
up, as it were, under a prism that would not open its doors
until Christ had come. It greatly prepared the way for
Messiah. and for the Lord. Then, one of
the most important preparations, God inspired His Word to writing. God inspired men to write the
Word of God, to regulate the faith and the practice of people,
to keep worship pure, and to propagate the truth and His law. This was a definite preparation
for Christ's coming, which word the Jews came to regard as infallible. They regarded it as canonical
and infallible. No longer were they dependent
only on oral instruction or periodical revelation, but a fixed written
testimony of God was inspired that would never change. It was
greatly used by Christ. and by the apostles, how often
they quoted from the Old Testament Scripture in teaching the Jew. But even more amazing, in preparation
for Christ's coming, after the Old Testament canon of the Scripture
was complete and was closed by the book of Malachi, then God
gave the world more or less a common language that covered the Scripture
or that caused the Scripture to be translated in a language
used in most places in the world at that time. Thus was the Septuagint,
which was a Greek version of the Old Testament Hebrew Scripture. No longer exclusively was it
in the language of the Jew, but in use in Greek when Christ came
and appeared in the world. The language most frequently
used at that time. And even by the Jews who were
dispersed among the Gentiles, this was the language. And their
scriptures had been translated into them. Then our God inspired
the New Testament in Greek. It's making the whole body of
Scripture to exist in a common language in the time that our
Lord appeared. And then I mentioned two very
significant things that we want to cover before we close. Number
one, the spirit of prophecy more or less ceased at or with the
book of Malachi. And the light of prophecy and
revelation dimmed greatly during that period. No prophet's voice
heard among them. They lapsed into a long drought,
which was by God's design and by God's providence. For the
lesser prophets must decrease, that he might increase. The great
prophets come from God. It might be for a while in dark,
in preparation for the rising of the Son of Righteousness who
has healing in His wing. And secondly, there was a great
diminishing of the commonwealth of Israel. Their glory exceedingly
faded during this period that Christ might arise among them
in all of His glory and bring in the gospel testimony. There was no more separate nation,
but the people of God are dispersed, for the old covenant was done
away with the institution of the new. They had no king, for
the King of kings has come, even the Lord Jesus Christ. They must
lose the temptation for a living temple. They must give up their
tabernacle. There will be instead a living
temple. The house of David seemed all
but extinct when Christ appeared, yet Christ appeared as a sprout
or a tender plant, as it were, out of a dry root, that withered
up house of David that appeared to be gone and no more, and out
of it came Christ. This decline of the Jewish system
of worship was a preparation for Christ, or as one put it,
it showed the necessity of abolishing the Jewish dispensation and introducing
a new dispensation called the Covenant of Grace. for all of
Judaism was but scaffolding. All those things there was but
for scaffolding that might come down when Christ is come and
be done away with. One last great thing God did
in the preparation for the coming of Messiah, He raised up a forerunner,
a messenger, John the Baptist, to go before our Lord and announce
His coming and cry, Behold, one cometh after me mightier than
I, the Lamb of God. And after this long silence,
a voice cries out in the wilderness from one of the greatest born
of women, our Lord said of John the Baptist. like a runner crying
before a great king coming to prepare and alert and announce
Christ is coming, a voice crying out in the wilderness demanding
repentance, one great is coming, one is coming. And thus came
the fullness of time.