Just turn over and get a hold
of you, Ron, in chapter 18. And hold that there. But I want
to read a couple of Scriptures for you in the New Testament
in Acts chapter 3 and verse 19. Acts chapter 3 and verse 19. Here's
Peter preaching a few days after Pentecost, preaching
to the people. And in verse 19, of Acts chapter
3, Peter preaches and here is what he says to them, Repent
ye therefore. God has sent His Son. He has
exalted Him. Christ has fulfilled all the
law. Repent ye therefore and be converted
that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send
Jesus Christ. Send Him to your hearts, to your
spirit, the spirit of His Son, which before was preached unto
you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution
of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His
holy prophets since the world began." His prophets have been
since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the
fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you
of your brethren. lack unto me, him shall ye hear
in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come
to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall
be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken,
have likewise foretold of these days. From the foundation of
the world, they had prophets. From Samuel on, they had prophets. And all of them spoke of the
gospel days, the days of Christ's coming, His sufferings and His
death and resurrection. And look how Peter says it over
in I Peter chapter 1. I Peter chapter 1 and verse 9. I Peter chapter 1 and verse 9. Receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of and the glory that should be
revealed. Prophets. But Peter talked about
that prophet. That prophet. And he said it
was Christ. Now over in Deuteronomy chapter 18, let's turn there
and look at this one verse. We'll just look at this one verse
this afternoon. Here in Deuteronomy chapter 18
and verse 15. Look here at what he says. This
is where Peter quoted from. Deuteronomy 18 and 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 shall you hearken. So Moses wrote of Christ. Peter said this is Christ. And
Moses wrote of Him, that prophet. And as you begin to read the
Gospels, one of the things that we realize is that There was
a great expectation, a wide expectation, that Christ would be a prophet. Remember when they sent out to
question John the Baptist and they said, Are you that prophet?
That should come. What prophet was they talking
about? This prophet here. Are you the Christ, the prophet?
The Lord Jesus there in John 7 preached that wonderful message,
If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. And people heard
what He said and they said, Surely this is the prophet. This is
the prophet. The miracles in John 6 that he
performed, fed the 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes, and
they said, well, this is that prophet that should come into
the world. So they were looking for him.
They were looking for a prophet. The Messiah would be a prophet.
Even the Samaritan woman said, come see a man that told me all
things that ever I did. That's what a prophet did. Christ
was a prophet, and there was a wide expectation that Jesus
Christ, the Messiah, would be a prophet when He came. Now let's
look at our text here in verse 15, and let's just look at it,
just take one section of it at a time. And the first thing I
want us to see here is the hand that the Father had in sending
this prophet. And look here how He says it,
The Lord thy God, will raise up unto thee a prophet. The Lord thy God will raise him
up." His father had everything to do with sending his son to
be our prophet. He said, a body have you prepared
me. Everything that had to do with
the body of Jesus Christ, the father prepared that body. From
its conception, often as our teaching brother reminded us,
in the last wall about the way Mary conceived. The Holy Ghost
came upon her and she conceived in her womb. Who did that? The
Father prepared a body for Him. And He says in Psalm 22, verse
9, listen to this, this is Jesus Christ speaking. And He is speaking
to His Father, and listen to what He says, But thou art He
that took me out of the womb. Now, some midwife probably was
there as the instrument. But the Lord Jesus said to His
Father, You are He that took me out of the womb. You conceived
me. You prepared this body. You took
me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope upon
Thee when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon Thee
from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. Now, nobody else can say that.
I can't say that. God wasn't my God. I was a rebel
for my mother. But Jesus said that. You've prepared
a body for me. You're my God for my mother's
belly. God raised up Christ from His
birth to be a prophet. The Bible says that He shall
grow up before Him as a tender plant. And listen to Acts 10.38. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost. Why did He anoint Him with the
Holy Ghost? He was going to be a prophet. When God raised up
a prophet in the Old Testament, they sent another prophet to
anoint Him with oil. He anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost. But you know what the Bible says?
He gave the Holy Spirit without measure. You and I have Him in
a measure. We have an unction, don't we?
Just a measure of the Holy Spirit. But boy, He had Him without measure.
God raised him up. Now, isn't it a delightful thought
to think that God has sent us a prophet? And that prophet is
His Son. That's His Son. The Lord thy
God shall raise unto thee a prophet. Now, what is a prophet? Well,
somebody said this. They gave this definition. I
think this is about the best you can give. Somebody said the
human instrument by which God speaks to people. A human instrument by which God
speaks to people. God who at sundry times, different
times, and in diverse manners, spake in time past to the fathers
by the prophets. He hath in these last days spoken
to us by His Son, this prophet. And it was said of Samuel, the
great prophet, none of Samuel's words fell to the ground. None of his predictions, Larry?
None of his promises, none of his threatening, none of his
words fell to the ground. When God raised the prophet up
and put his words in his mouth and he spoke, God made sure those
predictions came to pass. And how much more would he do
that for his son who is our prophet? Why was a prophet essential? God had to be revealed. Everything about God is secret.
His mind is secret until He opens it. His will is unknown until
He reveals it. His heart, His bosom is closed
up until He unbosoms Himself. And when He does and reveals
His mind, who does He reveal it to? His prophets. And then
His prophets reveal or preach it or teach it to the people.
Boy, a prophet is worth his weight in gold, isn't he? You see, in
the Old Testament, God did not go around and open His bosom
up to everybody. He did it to His prophets. And
His prophets preached then to the people. Listen to Amos 3,
verse 7. Surely the Lord God will do nothing,
but He first revealeth His secret unto His servants, the prophets. He does nothing until He first
reveals His secrets. to His prophets. That is why
a prophet is worth his weight in gold. Christ Jesus came to
reveal, He came to speak to us the will of God, the mind of
God, the heart of God, the purpose of God. He said when He was praying
to His Father there in John 17, 18, I have given them the Word
which Thou hast given Me. That is what a prophet did. God
put his words in his mouth and he gave it to the people. The
Lord Jesus said, you gave me the word and I gave the word
to them. I have manifested thy name, thy
holy name, your holy character, your gracious character, your
heart of love and grace and mercy. I have manifested thy name unto
them. The Lord Jesus said this and
he was speaking here as a prophet. He said, No man knows the Father
but the Son. Now you know the Father, don't
you? Don't you go to prayer and call God your Father? Don't you
know Him as your Father? Of course you do. But you don't
know very much about Him, do you? But you know Christ knew
Him perfectly. No man knows the Father but the
Son. And the Son knows Him perfectly.
The Son was with Him. And even in His humanity, He
knows the Father. He knows the Father's will about
everything. He knows the Father's commandments,
His requirements. He knows His heart. No man knows
the Father but the Son. When Christ came, He revealed
three things. Many things, but here's three
things that we see in His Word that He revealed. He revealed
the mind of God in creation. God's will in creation. What
did he say about it? Well, he said this, my Father
causes the sun to rise. That's my Father's sun. He causes
it to rise. My Father sends rain on the just
and the unjust. My Father feeds the sparrows.
My Father clothes the lilies. My Father gives fruitful seasons. It sounds like He's saying, this
is my Father's world. Is that what He's saying? It's
my Father's Son. It's my Father's reign. It's
my Father's seasons. It's my Father's gifts that He
gives. All of these things is my Father's. It's my Father's. He made it. He upholds it. And He uses it for the glory
and the good of His church. He revealed that in creation.
This is my Father's world. The birds, their carols rise. The morning light, the lily white,
declares their Maker's praise. He reveals something else, the
will of God in providence. This same God that created the
world, He upholds the world and provides for His people in this
world. Listen to what He said. He that
feeds the lilies, He that clothes the lilies and feeds the sparrows,
will He not much more feed and clothe you, O you of little faith?"
What's He making known to us? He's making known something of
the Father's heart towards His believing people. And what is
it? That the Father cares for you.
That the Father loves you. He's not going to let you starve
or go naked. Trust. Put your trust in the
Heavenly Father, in His providence. That's what Christ... Aren't
you thankful that sometimes when you begin to be concerned about
this world, finances, health, and all of these other things,
you begin to be overwhelmed with sorrow and apprehensions about
it, this Word will come to you. Our Master, this Prophet, has
revealed the mind and the will of His Father. He loves you. He cares for you. And He's ruling
in all His providence to take care of you, to feed you and
to clothe you. Well, there are some awful things going on over
in the Far East right now, and I feel sorry for those people
over there. I really do. And people are fearful that it's
coming here, and it may come here. But I tell you this, it
won't touch God's people except it comes through Him We are God's. God is our Father and He cares
for us, His people. The Lord Jesus as the Prophet
of God reveals something else concerning the salvation, His
creation, His providence and His salvation. Listen to this.
This is the will of Him that sent me. Here is a man that knows
the will of God. He knows the will of God. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day." Aren't you
glad that God revealed that to some man? And that man came and
told us about it. And if you can believe that you're
one of these that the Father gave to the Son, your destiny
is sealed. He's going to raise you up at
the last day. How do we know that? Our prophet
told us that. And our prophet knows the Father. You can't know
the will of God in salvation except He revealed that will
to some man. And then that man come and tell
us. And that's what this prophet
has done. That's what he's done. Something else here in our text,
and look at this. This is a wonderful thing to
think about. The Lord thy God, your Father, will raise up unto
thee a prophet from the mist of thee. He's going to raise
him up from the mist. He's going to be right in your
mist. Our Lord in His human nature
was never in heaven. He didn't have a human nature
when He was in heaven. He didn't have that until he
came to this earth, did he? His human nature was joined with
his divine nature in his mother's womb. He was conceived, he was
born, he was raised, he worked, he ate, he slept right in the
midst of humanity. In the midst of humanity. You
read these prophets in the Old Testament and one thing you'll
notice about all of They lived and worked and preached among
and in the midst of the people. They never separated themselves
for years and you never seen them. They didn't go up in the
mountains and build a monastery. Moses lived among the people,
didn't he? That's the way the Lord Jesus
was. He was in the midst of the people. Boy, when you read the
Scriptures to see where He's in the midst of, Revelation 1
tells us he's in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
What's that? The churches. Where two or three
are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. Aren't you
glad for that? He's in the midst. He's always
in the midst. He never did separate himself
unless it was just to get some sleep or to eat a meal. He's
always in the midst. Let me show you something else.
Hold that and look over right quickly in Revelation. Look over in the book of Revelation
chapter 5. And look in verse 1. Revelation
chapter 5 and verse 1. Boy, you start reading and you
find out the Lord, I tell you, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's everywhere.
He's in the midst of everything going on. I just mentioned about
that evil. I can imagine, because knowing
the depravity of man, I can imagine a group of people like that ISIS
group cutting children's heads off. I heard a photographer,
a news photographer, a news man and photographer, he said he
saw this little body, a beautiful little child, the body. was in
a beautiful little grass setting out in the desert. He said you
could look and tell it was a beautiful child, a beautiful little girl
without her head. Can you imagine that? But you
know something? The Lord Jesus Christ is right
in the middle of that mess. Do you know that? He's right
there because He's everywhere. You start looking in the Bible
and that's what you realize. He is everywhere. Look what he
says here in Revelation 5. I saw in the right hand of him
that sat on the throne a book written within and without, on
the backside sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel
proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book
and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven or in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book. Neither
to look thereon. And I wept much because no man
was found worthy to open and read the book. Neither to look
thereon. God's purpose ain't going to
be fulfilled. Nobody can open His book. And one of the elders
said unto me, Weep not. Behold, the line of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book,
and to loose the seven seals. And I beheld, and, lo, look here
where you see this prophet, in the midst of the throne. Now, tell me who sits in the
midst of the throne? Christ, ain't He? He's God then,
ain't He? Ain't but one God sitting on
that throne. Well, He's right there in the midst. But look
at this. And He's in the midst of the
four beasts. I don't know who they are. But whoever they are,
He's in their midst. And look at this. He's in the
midst of the elders. I tell you, He's everywhere,
ain't He? Humanity, when He was here physically, the Lord God
raised Him up in the midst of humanity. He lived among them.
Preached to them. And now He's in the midst of
the throne. He's in the midst of His church where two or three
are gathered. I'm in their midst. He's there in heaven in the midst
of the elders. He's everywhere in their midst. Stood alone as
it had been slain. He's in the midst. God raised
Him up in the midst. And someday, He's going to bring
His church up to heaven, and we're going to see that experiential.
We're going to see once and for all, yes, He's right among us.
He's one with us, and He's among us. Look back over in our text
again, what He said. Two or three more things, and
we'll come to a close. Chapter 18 and verse 15 again,
"...the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the
midst of thee of thy brethren." Now he's talking there about
his Jewish brother. It was essential that Christ
be born a Jew because God had already told David of the fruit
of your loins. I'm going to raise up Christ
to sit on your throne. The Lord Jesus Christ could trace
His lineage, His family tree, all the way back to Abraham.
And Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob
begat those twelve sons, and one of them was Judah, and that's
the tribe of which Christ came out of. He preached and prophesied
and worked and did His miracles among His brethren, those Jewish
brethren, the ones that Paul prayed for. I could wish myself
a curse for my brother, my Jewish brother. Christ was one of them.
He was one of them. He was a Jewish man, a Jewish
prophet. And notice what else he said
here. Like unto me. Moses said he was going to be
like unto me. He was like Moses in a lot of
ways. But in every way he exceeded Moses. Moses, we are told in
chapter 7 verse 22 of Acts, was learned in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians and was mighty in word and deed." Moses was
learned in all the wisdom. He is a brilliant man, wasn't
he? Here's what was said of Christ. Jesus increased in wisdom. But
I'll tell you something else they said about Him. He is the
wisdom of God. He's not only full of wisdom,
He is the wisdom of God. He outstrips Moses, doesn't He?
Moses was mighty in word. Boy, I tell you what, when he
spoke, now his words carried some weight, didn't they? And
they still carry some weight. Let him speak to your conscience
sometime. You see how much weight he carried. But never men spoke
like this prophet. Like this prophet. No, Moses
was mighty in word. And Christ was like that. But
boy, he exceeded him. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter
34 and verse 11. There arose not a prophet in
Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face in
all the signs and wonders which God sent him to do. Signs and wonders. He was the
first prophet to do all these great signs and wonders, wasn't
he? But listen to what Peter said about the Lord Jesus Christ.
You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by Him in the midst of you. There He is in the midst
of them again. And what's He doing? These miracles,
signs and wonders. Moses could lift his rod and smite the dust and fill the
air with mites that eat on people. He could stretch out that old
rod and snap the waters and turn them to blood. And all the fish
in the rivers would die. He could stretch out his old
rod and all the frogs would invade the land. He stretched out his
rod and parted a sea. That's amazing, isn't it? He
smote a flint rock and waters gushed out until there was a
great river. Now I'm telling you, that's signs and wonders,
isn't it? And miracles. I'll tell you something Moses
couldn't do. He couldn't forgive a sin. He couldn't forgive a sin, could
He? That's a miracle, ain't it? He couldn't raise a dead sinner
out of His spiritual grave of death. He couldn't reconcile
a poor sinner to God, but Jesus Christ, our Prophet, did all
of those things. He's likened to Moses, but He
exceeded Moses in every way. Like me. Like me. Here's another
way that the Lord Jesus and Moses was alike. In Numbers chapter
12 and verse 3, Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men
which were upon the face of the earth. Very meek. Is he like Christ? Well, listen
to Matthew chapter 11 verse 28. Coming to me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you
and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in My heart." Isn't
it amazing that two of the greatest prophets that ever lived, Moses
in the Old Testament and Christ in the New, both of them had
this, a meek and lowly heart. You don't see many great men
with a meek and lowly heart, do you? Obed Williams was up
this week I was out in my office and he sat down. He said, can
you give me some advice? Can you give me some advice?
I said, I'll tell you this, young man. Stay low. Stay low. Stay humble before God and the
people. If you get to thinking you know
anything, and God has called you to straighten everybody out
and everything out, and you get lifted up, you'll lose your ministry. That's what I told him. Be like
Christ. Be like Moses. Stay low. A meek and lowly man. That's how they were like. Something
else was like this. And this was probably one of
the most important things. We looked at this a couple of
weeks ago, but Moses was a mediator, wasn't he? He was a mediator. We looked at Psalm 106 and verse
23, but let me quote it to you again. Therefore, he said, God
said, that He would destroy them, the children of Israel. Had not
Moses, His chosen, stood before Him in the breach to turn away
His wrath, lest He should destroy them. Moses was a mediator, and
the only reason God didn't destroy Israel was because Moses stood
in the gap that had been opened up by their sin. And he kept
the wrath of God from coming through. Boy, he's just like
Christ, ain't he? The Lord Jesus is a mediator.
And God is a holy God. He's a judge of all the earth.
And how could you and I, with one sin, come before this holy
God and be accepted of Him? We couldn't, could we? If we
didn't have this mediator between us and God, one that's able to
take hold of God and take hold of poor sinners and reconcile
them together, satisfy both parties. And that's what a mediator does.
He has to satisfy both parties and bring them together and make
peace. And that's what the Lord Jesus
did by the blood of His cross. He's a mediator between us and
God. And that's why the Bible says
He's able to save to the uttermost forevermore those who come to
God by Him. God can't save anybody apart
from Christ, can He? But He can save everybody through
Christ that He's pleased to save. A mediator. I remember when I
was lost, and I've told you this, I don't know how many times,
but I kept trying to save myself. Then I thought, well, I need
some help. You know, put me and Christ both together, and sure,
both of us working together, that'll save me. That didn't
work either. And I remember one night, I remember it so well,
when I made this statement. I don't know why. Well, the Holy
Spirit, I guess, prompted me. This is what I said. Psalms 35
verse 1, if I'm not mistaken, is the psalm. David said, Lord,
plead my cause. Plead my cause. My enemies, he
said, are against me. They are prevailing against me.
I wonder who he was talking to. He was talking to this mediator,
wasn't he? Who was he pleading with? God, his Father. There
is one mediator between God and man. He can hear your cries for
mercy. He can see the guilt upon your
conscience. And he said, Father, forgive
them. Father, receive them. Boy, a mediator is worth his
weight in gold, ain't he? That's how he was like Moses. This prophet
is going to be like Moses. And then lastly this, Christ
and Moses was alike in this sense. Both of them, both Moses and
Christ, introduced the two greatest dispensations in the history
of humanity. Moses introduced the law, didn't
he? The law was given by Moses. And my, look what an institution
that is. It still is, isn't it? It still is. It shows forth Christ. And what did Christ institute?
The Gospel. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The Gospel. Where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. That came by Christ.
By grace, oh, you're saved through faith. Not of yourselves, it's
a gift of God. And that comes through Jesus
Christ the Lord. That first great institution,
it comes to convict us of sin. It comes to show us our need
of Christ, to drive us to Christ. And this second great institution
comes to save us. Save us by His grace. And the
last thing He says here, look at this, the very last thing
in verse 15. The Lord thy God will raise unto
thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like
unto Me, unto him ye Shall hearken. Now He didn't say you should
hearken. Of course we should hearken. But He said you shall
hearken. I like His shalls, don't you?
We talk about them all the time. My sheep hear My voice. What do they do when they hear
His voice? They follow Him. The other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them I must bring, and they shall hear My
voice." And when they hear Me, what happens? They follow Me.
When Christ speaks to a man in His power, when He speaks to
the heart in His authority, He will get your attention. You
will obey Him. You will. They shall hearken. One last verse. Look over in
Psalm chapter 18. Look at this. That's what you and I are waiting
on now. We've got lost people attending our services on Sunday
morning. And I've come to the conclusion
that just some of them need to be saved. They don't know the
Lord Jesus Christ. They're not submissive to Him.
They've not bowed to Him. They've come and gone. for a
long time. Some new ones now coming. But
this is the conclusion your pastor comes to. They need to be converted.
But I'll tell you one thing, one thing is going to convert
them. That's this voice. You and I know that, don't we?
That's this voice. They hear this voice. Look what
he says in Psalms chapter 18. Look in verse 43. Here's the
Lord Jesus speaking to the Father again. Thou hast delivered me.
from the strivings of the people. Thou hast made me the head of
the heathen. A people whom I have not known
shall serve me." Listen to this. As soon as they hear of me, what
are they going to do? They shall obey me. Strangers
shall submit themselves unto me. Tell what Paul said about
those Jews. They've gone about to establish
their own righteousness and they've not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of Christ. They won't give themselves up
to be saved by the righteousness of another. But here the Lord
said, when I speak to them, they will. He saved the worst one
among them when He saved Saul of Tarsus just to show us that,
but I've got the power to save anybody I please to save. All
I, God, do is speak, and they shall hearken. I love that, don't
you? I love that. This prophet. This prophet. Oh, what a blessed prophet. And
to think that he's the Son of God. And the Father sent him. What a blessing.