The lesson this morning will
be taken from Luke chapter nine, verses seven through 11. Luke
chapter nine, verses seven through 11. Let's read these verses together. Now Herod, the patriarch, heard of all that was done by
him, talking about the Lord. And he was perplexed because
it was said of some that John was risen from the dead, and
of others that Elias had appeared, and of others that one of the
old prophets was risen again. And he said, that is talking
to himself, John, have I beheaded? I know that he's dead. His head
was brought on a charger, given to Rhodius' daughter. But who
is this of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him. And
the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they
had done. And he took them and went aside
privately into a desert place belonging to the city called
Bethsaida. And the people, when they knew
it, followed him. And he received them and spake
unto them of the kingdom of God and healed them that had need
of healing. Our lesson begins with a man
called Herod. Herod the Patriarch. And he was
a king. He lived in, resided in Galilee. That was his home quarters. I
don't know how they divided. I didn't look it up, because
it really don't make any difference. I don't know how they divided
their rule up, but there were several who ruled over a large
area, and that was his area. And Herod had John the Baptist
beheaded. And his conscience was bothering
him. And along comes a man, and this man is more famous than
John. He's doing things that even John
didn't do. And he's hearing this. He's hearing
all about what the Lord was doing. And he's asking questions. And
some are telling him this and some are telling him that, and
it says he was perplexed. He couldn't make any sense out
of it. All of these things, they left
him confused. But in his state of confusion,
he asked a question that I think all of us ought to ask. And every son of Adam surely
ought to ask this question. He said, who is this of whom
I hear such things? Who is this? Who is this? Never a man spake
like this. Now, he's not like anybody else.
I mean, he looks like everybody else, but he's not like everybody
else. Who is this? Now I've been hearing about Jesus
of Nazareth since I was old enough to put words together. Talk to
me about Jesus. It's Christmas time. I didn't
know what Christmas was. I was just a little kid. I was
looking for presents. I didn't know anything about
it and they'd tell the story. All my life I've heard people
talking about a man who was born of a virgin. Healed the sick,
fed the hungry, gave sight to the blind. And then, after a
little while of ministering in this world, they held a court
together, got a meeting together. And he was judged and nailed
to a cross. And they took him down and buried
him in a borrowed tomb, sealed it with a stone, Put the Roman
seal on it so nobody dare touch it and posted a guard out there.
But it didn't do any good. When the women came to the tomb
that morning, they found the stone rolled away, the guards
were gone. There was an angel there and
it says, why seek you the living among the dead? He's not here.
He's risen. And then I read in the scriptures
where after nearly a month appearing here before men to prove beyond
a shadow of a doubt that he had risen from the dead, the Lord
ushered him with angels into glory, put the crown on his head,
and seated him at God's own right hand. But the testimonies that I've
heard over the years, all of these things I hear that men
have said, are not in harmony with one another. It left me,
just like him, perplexed. Perplexed. What are they talking
about? You're saved and you're lost,
and you're saved and you're lost, and then you get saved. All your
sins are gone. Yeah, but now you gotta be sanctified.
What? I thought I was without sin.
I thought his blood put away my sin. Now you're telling me
I have sin. Which is it? These things, they
leave people perplexed. Who is this that I hear such
things? Well, I'll tell you what, he
said to his disciples, he said, whom do men say that I am? Well,
some say you're Elijah. Some say you're Moses. Some say
one of the old prophets. That's exactly what they were
saying here. Exactly what they were telling this man here. He
said, but whom do you say that I am? Now listen, Peter said,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. He said, Peter,
flesh and blood didn't tell you that. You didn't get that listening
to men. You didn't get that from the
synagogue. You didn't get that from these priests. Where did
he give it? Flesh and blood has not revealed
these things unto you, but the spirit of God. God revealed that
to you. And the Lord said, upon this
rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Matthew 16 and 18. Every believing
soul rests the eternal welfare of their souls upon this divinely
established fact. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He is the Christ. If he's not
the Christ, we're still in our sins. In 1 John 5, 1, the apostle writes,
whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. He didn't come up with that.
He wasn't in his closet and had a dream. He didn't come up with
that. A bunch of philosophers didn't
get together and say, I'll tell you our opinion. And then he
took that and ran away. No, that's not how, you born
of God. That's how come you know. And if he's not the Christ of
the Old Testament prophecy, he's not the Son of God. And if he's
not the Christ, his obedience and sacrifice are of no benefit
to anyone. If he's not the promised Messiah,
his death upon the cross has no saving virtue. He was just
nothing but a martyr. And we're yet in our sins. Our
faith, don't ever forget this, don't ever let anybody sell you
on anything any different. Our faith rests on a person,
not on a system. We're Calvinists, yes, I am,
I do. I believe those five points are
the basic foundation principles of everything that we believe.
But that's not my salvation. My salvation's in Christ. It's
in Christ. Our faith rests upon a person.
The Pharisees rejected him, called him an imposter, said he had
a devil. And the Lord told them why they
didn't believe. He said, you search the scriptures
For in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
that testify of me. But now here's the reason. You
will not come unto me that you might have life. There's no life
anywhere. There's no life in this book.
Life is in Christ. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God, whatever else he has, he has
not life. You will not come unto me. You'll
come to a system, you'll come to a priesthood, you'll come
to the front, you'll come to a catechism, you'll come to a
mourner's bench, you'll come to some experience in speaking
in tongues and all this crazy nonsense, but you will not come
to me that you might have life. But all that the Father giveth
me, now listen, shall come to me. Ever won't. Who is this of whom I hear such
things? When our Lord was preaching to
men and his apostles also preached, there was no New Testament. They
had Genesis through Malachi, that's it. That was the Bible,
Genesis through Malachi. I wanna read you something. You
might wanna turn with me over to Romans chapter 16. This is so important. witnessing to a man one time,
and I was reading to him out of the book of Isaiah, and he
said, that's out of the old Bible. That's out of the old Bible.
You've heard that phrase before, ain't you? Romans chapter 16,
beginning with verse 25. Now to him that is of power to
establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of
Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which
was kept secret since the world began. Now watch this. But now
is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets. Who's that? That's Moses and on down all
the way through to Malachi. by the scriptures of the prophets,
according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made
known to all nations for the obedience of faith. Ain't that something? If Jesus of Nazareth is not the
Christ set forth in the Old Testament scriptures, he's exactly what
those Pharisees said he was, an imposter. My pastor told me years ago,
Brother Mahan, he said, the Old Testament weaves a garment that'll
only fit one man. And Christ put it on, and it
fit him perfect. Peter said in John 6, 69, he
said, we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. The Old Testament scriptures
contain more than I'm able to use all at once. I tried to do
an overview of it one night, and I couldn't even do that.
I couldn't even state the points of it. There's a lot of content
between Genesis and Malachi. A lot of content. But I'm gonna give you a few
things that I think pretty much set forward what the Old Testament
teaches. In Psalm chapter 40, verses six
through eight, and its link to the gospel in Hebrews chapter
10 and five through 10, both David and Paul the apostle established
four things concerning the coming Messiah, the promised Messiah.
He tells us in Psalm 40 verse six, sacrifice and offering,
Thou didst not desire. Mine ears hath been opened. I understand that now, as we
say. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it's written of me, I delight to do thy will,
O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Now there's four things that
I want you to see in our lesson this morning. First of all, that
the sacrifices and ceremonies of legal worship, when the Messiah
would come, is gonna cease. They're gonna cease. And secondly,
when he comes, he's gonna come as Jehovah's servant. He's gonna
be a servant. He's not gonna go up to the palace
and put on a crown, although he's king. But your king's gonna come riding
on an ass, that's what they said, lowly, lowly. He's Jehovah's
servant. And when he comes, the entire
body of prophecy will be fulfilled. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me. I come to do thy will, O God. By the witch will, you're sanctified
once for all by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Isn't that something? The entire body of prophecy will
be fulfilled and then lastly, he will perfectly accomplish
the will of God. So let's consider these things.
First of all, the entire priesthood and all of its sacrifices and
ceremonies are gonna draw to a close. If you wanna research
this a little further this afternoon, you can read Hebrews chapter
nine and 10. And he'll talk about that first
covenant, that priesthood, and all of those things, and what
they were. They were figures for the time then present, which
were offered sacrifices and offerings that could not make the comers
there unto perfect. It was just types and figures.
They're figures for the time then present. And he says there through David
and Paul, Paul quotes him in Hebrews chapter 10, he said,
sacrifice an offering thou didst not desire. When Paul quotes
it, he said, thou wouldest not. He would not. Burn offering and
sin offering have not been required. It's not the blood of the bullock
that he required, it was the blood of Christ. The blood of
the bullock only pointed to the blood of Christ. He tells us
that in Romans chapter three, verse 24, being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth. When did he do that? All through
the Old Testament. Whom God has set forth to be
the propitiation for our sins, now listen, through faith in
his blood. It wasn't the blood of that bullet
that they had faith in, it was the blood that that blood pointed
to. God instituted these things as
figures for the time then present, Hebrews 9, 9. And then in Hebrews 10, 1, he said
the law having a shadow of good things to come, just a shadow. In Colossians 2.14, he said he
blotted out the handwriting of ordinances. What's he talking
about? The ordinances. He's talking
about the feast and he's talking about the washings and the sprinklings and so on. And he said those
things were contrary to us and were against us. And it says
he took them out of the way, nailing them to the cross. And then in 70 AD, God destroyed
both Jerusalem and Judaism. He wiped it out. They ceased
to be a nation. They didn't become a nation until
50s or 60s, I forget. And 1,000 years before Jesus
was born in Bethlehem, David declared that when he would appear,
he would accomplish what no sacrifices, no ceremonies, and no law could
ever accomplish. He's gonna accomplish redemption
once for all. He's gonna accomplish justification,
being justified freely by his grace. He's gonna accomplish
righteousness and impute it to all those that believe. Righteousness,
perfect righteousness. And then he, Paul tells us in
Ephesians chapter one, he says, having forgiveness of sins of
my soul. And when Christ died, the veil
of the temple was rent from top to bottom. God said, you're not
going under that veil anymore. All right, the second evidence
of Jesus being the Messiah, is his capacity as a man. He said in John 6, 38, he said,
I come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me. I'm here as a servant of God. Who said that? He that thought
it not robbery to be equal to God. And he said, and this is the
will of him that hath sent me, that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
day. He came as Jehovah's servant. Listen to this, Philippians 2.7. This one who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and took on
him the form, now listen, of a servant. of a servant. This is God coming into the flesh. And he assumes the role, Winston,
of a servant. You remember he gathered his
disciples together and he said, take your shoes off. And he knelt
down before these maggots and took a rag and washed their feet.
Huh? Oh, my son. He picked up that unleavened
bread in his hand. He is the bread. And he holds
the bread and he breaks the bread and he carried it over and he
said, take this and eat it. This is my flesh. And he took
that cup and filled it and he said, you drink this. This is
my blood. The blood of the New Testament.
He came as a servant. Everything he did was to serve. It was to serve. He humbled himself. I mean, it was bad enough that
he become a servant. Now he humbles himself as a servant
and becomes obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
His death on that cross was the death of a servant. He was serving
God. He was obeying God. He was doing
God's will when he died on that cross. In Psalm 40, verse eight, he
said, I delight to do thy will, O God. And then talking about
this servant of God, Isaiah writes in chapter 42, verse four, he
shall not fail nor be discouraged. Boy, I get discouraged, don't
you? It don't take much. It don't take much. But not him. He didn't get discouraged. Bunch
of them walked off one day. Lord turned to the 12, he said,
you wanna go too? He wasn't discouraged. And then thirdly, we're told
that David's prophecy, told in that prophecy that the Lord's
appearance in this world and his work as Jehovah's servant
would be the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies
concerning Christ. We're not looking. You know,
John the Baptist sent some folks over there and they said, are
thou the Christ or do we look for another? He's the Christ. And no need to go back there
and start looking at all these things and expecting another
person to come. He ain't coming. He's already
come. He's already come. All the patterns, all the symbols,
all the types and pictures of Christ and the salvation that he would
accomplish. It was all fulfilled in our Savior on the cross. If
you read through the Gospels and through the book of Acts,
you're gonna keep finding this phrase, and it was written, and
it was written. Or you say, he did this that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. And what's he talking about?
He's talking about what was written of him way back yonder in the
Old Testament. The very words that he spoke on the cross, I
mean, you could just go on and on and on with the comparisons
of, I mean, he fulfilled everything to a T. To him give all the prophets
witness. They all gave witness. What'd
they give witness to? They gave witness to that accomplished
redemption that he would do, and that your sins would be put
away by believing on his name. I love how he says this, only
the Holy Spirit inspiring these men to write, they could write
such things, but it said, he taketh away the first that he
may establish the second. The prophets foretold of him
and everything they said was in perfect harmony with Jesus
of Nazareth. The time, Daniel, The prophet,
now he's not talking about the exact minute, hour, and all that,
but he's just talking about the time, the time when he would
come. What's it gonna be like? Daniel foretold of that just
as plainly as in Daniel chapter nine. Tells about it. The place
of his birth was foretold. What tribe he'd be born of, his
family. All the miracles that he would
do, all foretold in the Old Testament scriptures. You remember when
he stood up and he found a place where it was written and he began
to read to them? He said, this day is a scripture
fulfilled in your ears. And that's what he's talking
about, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, casting out
demons. And he'd be king. yet distinguished
by humiliation, meekness, and lowliness. You can read about
it in Zechariah 9.9. Your king gonna come, he gonna
be lowly, riding on an ass, in the coat of an ass. His sufferings
and death, and mode of death, all foretold
in the scriptures. Cursed is he that hangeth on
a tree. His resurrection, Psalm 16, nine
through 11, and Isaiah 53, 10 through 12. And the extinction
of his kingdom to the Gentiles, even that foretold in the scriptures,
but the Jews never saw it. Never saw it. He said to the Jews, he said, there were many lepers in the
land of Israel. God didn't cleanse any of them.
But that old Gentile king, Naaman, he cleansed him. And there was
a lot of widows starving to death in Israel. God didn't feed any
of them. But he fed one old Gentile woman. All of these things, the extinction
of his kingdom. to include the Gentiles. And
then fourthly and lastly, the volume of God's book. Both his
eternal decrees and the inspired scriptures declare that God was
pleased with his son and the work he was sent to do. He offered that sacrifice and
God accepted it and we're accepted in the blood. And there's no
sense in which anything required at his hand was not achieved. or left unacceptable by God. What he came to do, he did. That's
what makes the Christ we preach here different from the Christ
they preach out there. What he came to do, he did. Our
Savior saves. Our King rules. Christ demanded, was paid in
full, the righteousness required was provided without flaw. Justice
was satisfied and he perfectly fulfilled the covenant demands
of the Father. And he did so as the surety of
that covenant. And Jesus Christ freely yielded
himself to all the performances of God's providential will as
well as his redemptive will. He didn't cry in the storm, he
just walked on the water. He had nowhere to lay his head.
I never heard him whine about it. God always provided a place. He had nothing to call his own,
yet the cattle on a thousand hills belonged to him. We know that Jesus is the Christ
because God raised him from the dead, declaring his perfect satisfaction
in him. And then he raised him up to
glory and seated him at his own right hand so that his coming
fulfilled and brought to an end the Old Testament types and ceremonies. Don't let anybody, Catholicism,
Lutheran, whatever they are, They got a bunch of priests in
that church, walk away from it. There is no priesthood. There's
a spiritual priesthood, but there is no priesthood in this world. Man says he's a priest, he's
a liar. This was all done away with when
Christ appeared and accomplished these things of God. And his
coming was in the capacity of a servant doing the will of God.
He served. Oh my, how we ought to look at
him and serve. And his coming marked the fulfillment
of all Old Testament scripture. We're not waiting on a, oh, what is it they say he's
gonna, they talk about a, A thousand years and all that, it's all
done. It's at once in the end of the
world that He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. And unto them that look for Him, He's coming. That's
the next thing. He's coming. He's coming. And His coming was to perfectly
accomplish the redemptive will of God. He hung on that cross
and He said, it's finished. Boy, I wish I could get that
in my head. Or get it past my head into my heart. It's finished. It's done. It's done. Who is
this of whom I hear such things? He's Jesus of Nazareth, the Son
of God, our Savior.