Over in the book of 1 Timothy
chapter 4, the Apostle Paul said something else to this young
minister, Timothy, whom he called his son in the ministry. In 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse
1, I want to read verse 1 through 6. especially emphasizing the sixth
verse. But he said in 1 Timothy 4, Now
the Spirit, the Spirit of God, speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times, and many of us believe that we are definitely
living in the latter times, I'm not setting any kind of dates
for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ But even the Apostle Paul
called his days the last days. And certainly we can more emphatically
call ours the last days. We are in the latter times. But
he said, in those times, some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy. having their conscience seared
with a hot iron, forbidding people to marry, commanding folks to
abstain from certain meats, which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the
truth, both marriage and eating meats. For every creature of
God is good, Sin is not in the creatures, it's in us. Sin is
not in the plants, sin is in us. Sin is not in the beast of
the field, it's in us. We're the ones who pervert and
twist and warrant things and make them evil. Every creature
of God is good, nothing to be refused if it be received with
thanksgiving and judgment and temperance and understanding.
but sanctified by the word of God in prayer in its proper place. Now, if thou put the brethren
in remembrance of these things, all of these things I've had
to say, thou shalt be, and these are the words that especially
appeal to me and interest me, thou shalt be a good minister
of Jesus Christ. nourished up in the words of
faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained." That is
the thing that especially interests me and concerns me, and that
is to be a good minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to
be true to God and true to the Word and true to the souls of
men and women who trust me. and who hear me, who listen to
me, and who pray for me. I hear these men in the study
praying, speak through our pastor. As Brother Cecil often says,
speak to him that he may speak to us. And I walk desperately
and sincerely, and I give time, much, much time, as my wife will
attest to the fact, in study and preparation and trying to
find the mind and will of God in reference to these messages.
And one of the things that I have tried earnestly to do over the
years is to help you to see that the Bible is one book. It's not two books, it's one
book. It's not the old Bible and the
new Bible, it's the Bible, the Word of God, the Holy Word of
God. And the Old Testament, which
is called in the New Testament the Scriptures, the Scriptures. The Old Testament reveals unto
us in so many ways the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you, I want so earnestly
and desperately for you to be able to see the person and work
of Christ in the whole Bible, from Genesis 3.15 to the last
chapter of Revelation. In John 5, verse 39, if you would
like to turn with me there, our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
to the religious people, the Pharisees, the religious leaders.
And he had told them, he told them who he is, what he came
to do. And then he said, I have many
witnesses. Now, if I bear witness of myself,
my witness is not true, but I have many witnesses. He said, John
the Baptist, the forerunner, John the Baptist, witness, and
you listened to him, you were willing for a time to rejoice
in his life. And then he said, the Father
himself bore witness of me. And then he said, but I have
greater witness than John, the works that I do. No man ever
did the works which he did. Has it ever been reported at
any time someone said that a blind man's eyes have been opened,
that the dead have been raised? But the works that I do bear
witness of me. But then he came to that last
witness in verse 39, and he said to these religious leaders, he
said, search the scriptures. And many people believe that
he's saying you do search the scriptures. And these men were
students of the Old Testament scriptures, and the Old Testament
are the scriptures that he's talking about here. You search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life,
in their laws, in the laws of the Old Testament, in the ceremonies
of the Old Testament, in the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
You think you have life. In the holy days, and the Sabbaths
which you keep, and the tithes which you pay, and the rules
which you follow, he said, you search the Scriptures, you read
the Scriptures, and in all these things you think you have access
to God, you think you have eternal life. But, he says, they, that
is the Scriptures, they are they which testify of me, of me. Now, turn with me to Luke 24,
and I'll tell you, if you can lay hold tonight on what I'm
trying to preach, a summary of what I've tried to preach through
the years, if you can lay hold upon this, there's a key somewhere,
the key of knowledge, there's a key somewhere that opens for
different people the Word of God. Old Dr. John Gill said that the scriptures
that God used to strike home to his heart and to open his
eyes and his ears, believe it or not, was the scripture, Adam,
where art thou? Adam, where art thou? He said,
I read that and it just meant so much to me, Adam, where art
thou? And then Dr. Brother Herringdean, the publisher
of Pink's works, told me one time that the scripture God used
to enlighten him to the greatness of God and the sovereignty and
power of God was John 6, 44. When Arthur Pink wrote to him
and quoted that verse of scripture, no man, and he underscored a
little three-letter word, can. That's all. He just said, Dear
Brother Herringdean, and quoted this scripture, John 6, 44, No
man can come to me except my Father which sent me draw him.
And I raised him up at the last day. And Herringdean said, It
just seemed like the light of God shone upon the Word all the
way through for me. It just gave me a start into
the scripture. Dr. N. B. Magruder and I were
talking one day, and we were talking on this subject, and
I asked him, I said, is there any particular scripture, any
particular verse of scripture that God used in your life? His father was a minister. He
grew up in the church, but he grew up a pagan like the rest
of us, you know. And he said, yes. He said, that
scripture over in John. John chapter 6, verse 30, 40. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, seeth the Son,
and believeth on him. And he said it just went all
the way to see the Son. What does it mean to see the
Son? To see the Son. To see Him, not with these eyes.
That's the fool's folly. but to see the Son. And for me
personally, honestly, I grew up in the church and made professions
of faith, went away to school, all these different things, but
tried to do some preaching, pastor a church, but Brother Ralph Barnard
preached over there at Pollard in April 1950, and dealt with that verse, Romans
8, 28, and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them will call according to his purpose. Purpose. And I saw by the Spirit of God
leadership the purpose of God in all things. There are no accidents
with God. There's a grand eternal design
in Christ Jesus and through Christ Jesus and for the glory of Christ
Jesus. And I've just had no trouble
with the Scripture since then. And it may be tonight in some
of these things that I shall touch upon or read that, and
it'll have to be the Spirit of God, because the natural man
received it, not the things of God. Neither can he know them,
they're spiritually understood. The carnal mind, it doesn't say
it's at enmity, it is enmity, it is enmity. And it'll resist
and reject and refuse everything spiritually brought its way.
Unless God is pleased, then oh, may He be pleased to give us
some insight. And the thing about it is that
you don't have to sit down with a believer and take him every
word through the Scripture. Give him a start. Give him a
start. If the Holy Spirit speaks to
him through the Word, the Holy Spirit will be his teacher. And
he'll be his own, he'll discipline himself, and he'll study, and
God will open things. Now in Luke 24, The disciples
were in the same shape that many people are today. They didn't
understand the Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament
Scriptures were closed. The Old Testament Scriptures
were just rules and regulations and laws and ceremonies and rituals
and peace days and holy days and Sabbath days. They didn't
see Christ. And he said here in Luke 24,
verse 27, and beginning at Moses, at the first chapter of Genesis
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, he expounded unto
them in all the scriptures, the scriptures, the things concerning
himself. And verse 44, And he said unto
them, Luke 24, 44, These are the words which I have spake
unto you, while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which are written in the law of Moses, in the prophets, in
the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures. The Old Testament
scriptures, and I wish I knew just how many years I labored
with the Old Testament, and some of you did too, and just didn't
find any revelation or joy or delight in those Old Testament
scriptures. But I tell you, once God gives
you the key of knowledge, which is Christ, the Old Testament
comes alive. And wise and happy is the man
who frequently turns to the prophets for prophecies of Christ. Who
turns to the Old Testament scriptures and feasts upon the promises
of Christ. Who turns to the Old Testament
scriptures and feeds upon the pictures of Christ. What a confirmation
for our faith. This is no new gospel. Turn to
the book of Romans chapter 1 for a moment. I preach no new gospel. The gospel which we preach goes
all the way back to God's eternal counsel before the foundation
of the world. The gospel we preach is the gospel
of Abel. It's the gospel of Abraham. It's the gospel of Moses. Look
at Romans chapter 1, verse 1. The Apostle Paul, writing here,
and he said, Paul, a servant, a bondslave of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. I'm separated
to the gospel. I'm called to preach the gospel.
I'm obsessed with the gospel. Which? Which gospel? He promised a forward by his
prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now, my friends, turn to 1 Corinthians
15 now. 1 Corinthians 15. And I've said
this to you so often. When the New Testament talks
about the scriptures, when it refers to the scriptures, it's
referring to the Old Testament scriptures. Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2
Samuel, all the way. Now, watch 1 Corinthians 15. I declare unto you the gospel,
which I preached unto you, and which also you have received,
and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep
in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you," and
here's that gospel, that gospel which I preached, that gospel
you received, that gospel wherein you stand, that gospel by which
you're saved, "'I delivered unto you,' first of all, And that
which I also receive, how that Christ died for our sins according
to the Old Testament, according to the prophecies, promises,
pictures, patterns of the Old Testament. He died according,
he's a fulfillment. You see, the New Testament is
the Old Testament opened up, revealed. The Old Testament is
the New Testament concealed. Everything in the New Testament
is right here in the Old Testament. Everything. Everything regarding
Christ, His birth, His virgin birth. Genesis 3.15, God said
to the serpent, I'm going to put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed. That's Christ, the
seed of woman. That's the first prophecy. Our
Lord Jesus Christ's death is pictured right there in the Garden
of Eden when God slew an animal, an innocent animal, a substitute,
shed its blood, and took coats of skin. Now, He didn't make
coats for Adam and Eve out of fur. He made them out of the
skin. The animal had to die, had to
shed its blood. And God covered the nakedness
of Adam and Eve. And that's Christ. That's a picture
of Christ. When Abel brought a lamb and
slew it, the scripture tells us that the blood of bulls and
goats can't put away sin. Rivers of blood shed over the
centuries, shed over the millenniums, shed by thousands of priests.
That blood has no purifying power. It has no cleansing power. It
has no really atoning ability. It simply served as a picture,
as a type of Christ who would die. That's what the Old Testament's
all about. That's what it's all about. Let
me just show you two illustrations here. Turn to Exodus chapter
17. Exodus chapter 17. And if I can, and these young
men in our church who are preaching and teaching, if I can in some
way, preaching tonight or through the times that God lets me appear,
Give you a respect for the Old Testament Scriptures. Give you
an interest in the Old Testament Scriptures. Give you a desire
to look into the Old Testament Scriptures. I tell you, it can
be such a blessing to you, to the strengthening of your faith,
to your confidence in Christ Jesus. He is who He said He is. How do I know that? Because of
the faithful witnesses in the Scriptures. He died according
to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again
according to the scriptures. Everything he did is in the scriptures. If it's not, he's an imposter. He's subject to the scriptures.
In Exodus 17, you know the story. Congregation of Israel, look
at the last line in verse 1 of chapter 17. There was no water
for the people to drink. There was no water. All right,
and the Lord said to Moses, verse 5, look at verse 5, the Lord
said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of
the elders of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the
river, that is, the Red Sea. Take it in your hand and go.
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Urim,
and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come forth out
of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel." Now, you know, when I was growing
up, they used to teach this this way, that Moses, God miraculously
supplied the people with water, and He did. Miraculously. Wasn't that a wonderful thing
for God to give them water? Wasn't the Lord good to them
out there in the desert to give them water? What a miracle that
was. There it was in the middle of
a desert, No stream, no river, no fountain, no lakes, the hot
burning sun, 120 degrees, 2 million people, nothing to drink, and
Moses hit a rock and smoked the rock and split the rock and out
of the rock came that cool, cleansing, thirst quenching river of water. What a miracle! Yeah? Yeah, and you stay there on that
kind of thinking and you'll miss the whole message of the rock.
You know why I say that? Well, that turned to 1 Corinthians
5, 7. 1 Corinthians 5, 7. And that rock gave forth thirst-quenching
water. It gave forth an inexhaustible
supply of water. It gave forth water to meet every
need of 2 million or 3 million people. But look at 1 Corinthians
5, verse 7. Listen to what it says. No, 1
Corinthians, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4. 1 Corinthians 10,
verse 4. Now look at this character. 1
Corinthians 10, verse 4. And did all drink the same spiritual
drink? You have it there? 1 Corinthians
10, verse 4. They drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them. That rock was Christ. Now, brethren, and when we preach
the rock, let's get as quickly as we can by the thirst and by
the the miracle of it, and the amazing amazement of it, and
let's get down to defining who that rock symbolizes. Who that
rock, that's Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that
rock of ages. He is that rock that is smitten,
smitten of God, and afflicted, and out of his side flowed blood
and water. He's the water of life. He cannot
be exhausted. He's an inexhaustible supply
of water to all who are thirsty. Also, the bread that came down
every morning, they went out and gathered the wafer. Scott
described, you know, in his message, how many train loads it'd take
to feed people, 2 million, 3 million people, bread every day, but
God supplied it for 40 years. 40 years. But that bread, Christ,
And now turn to 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7. I will look at that one now.
And then when Israel was in Egypt, in Egypt, and God would deliver
them from the hand of Pharaoh and from bondage and slavery,
the Lord God told Moses to instruct the people to take a lamb, the
firstling of the flock, of the first year, without spot or blemish,
Put it up for 4 days, on the 10th day, sacrifice it on the
14th day, shed its blood, put it on the door post and the side
post and the lintel. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you." Now, we can dwell on the miracle of that, and we
can dwell on the wailing and the tears and the midnight cry
that rose up from Egypt, and we can dwell on the safety of
Israel. But my friends, look at 1 Corinthians
5. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7, the last line, for even Christ, our
Passover, is sacrificed for us. And what I'm saying is when you
start in the Old Testament with the fall in the Garden of Eden
and the slaying of that animal, you come down to Abel's sacrifice,
you come down to Abraham and Isaac's Christ, Isaac's Christ. In Isaac shall thy seed be called,
and that seed is Christ." That miracle son that was born to
Abraham and Sarah, that's Christ Jesus the Lord. He's the miracle
son. He's the virgin-born Son of God. And all the way through the Scriptures,
we must tarry on each of those. Now, let me show you this. And
then, you know, Moses didn't enter the Promised Land. God
killed him. The Lord killed him. But now,
the Lord God, Christ is in that. You see, Moses, the law came
through Moses. Grace and truth through Jesus
Christ. Moses, while he led those people through the wilderness,
and while that law, that tabernacle and all that that he built, the
priesthood and all these things, picture Christ But Moses could
not take the people into the promised land, because Moses
is the law. Who did take them in? A man named
Joshua. And Joshua is the Old Testament
word for Jesus. Jesus. There's no way that Moses
could take Israel into Canaan, cross Jordan into Canaan, any
more than the law can take us to glory. Christ has to take
us. And the Lord God, in the exactness
of the Old Testament, fixed it so that Moses couldn't go in
the Promised Land. It is in his will. And Moses
did it himself. Moses failed himself. Again the
people thirsted, and again God said to Moses, there's the rock. Don't you smite it, speak to
it. Speak to it. Speak to the rock.
Why? For the perfection of Scripture.
Christ is not smitten twice. He's smitten once. By one offering
he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. By one sacrifice
he hath accomplished, I read it, just one. And Moses stood
before the people and in anger raised that rod and smote that
rock. Well, the water came out, but
God called Moses aside and said, you didn't sanctify me in the
eyes of the people, and because of that, you'll never enter the
Promised Land. I'll take you up and show it
to you, but you'll never see it. You'll never go in. But he
couldn't. He couldn't. He's the law. And
Christ has got to take us in. Christ must. Now, if you turn
to John 12, I want to show you something and then paint you
a picture here. in just a few minutes, but in John chapter
12, the book of Isaiah, and my friends, now here's what you
want to watch. In studying types and pictures,
don't get bogged down in the type. Take it for what it's teaching
and leave the rest alone. See, like Moses smiting the rock,
well, you can have Moses representing the father, it pleased the father
to smite him, but Moses was a man. And what you've got to see is
Christ is the rock. Christ is the rock. And the rock
is smith, and the rock gives forth the water. But it's dangerous
to get bogged down and try to make a type or a picture or pattern
to actually be the thing. It can't be. It's an image, it's
a shadow, and there's a lot of deficiencies in images and shadows. It's not the very substance.
It can't even be compared with it. except to enlighten us. And
so here in John 12, verse 41, it says this, now we're going
to turn and look at this, John 12, 41. These things said Isaiah,
that's Isaiah, when he saw his glory, he spake of him. When Isaiah saw the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ, he spake of him, he spake of him. And Isaiah has fittingly been
called the gospel of the Old Testament, the gospel according
to Isaiah. And I want you to turn now to
chapter 50, and let me in a few minutes give you this picture,
this picture of Christ speaking here, and let you see how the
Old Testament scriptures preach Christ. The Old Testament scriptures
preach Christ. Isaiah 50 definitely, definitely
is Christ speaking, and you can see that in the last line of
verse 26. Now, another thing I need to
tell you is that when the Bible was originally written, it wasn't
written in chapters and verses. These chapters have been added
in the last few hundred years. So have the verses, but they're
beneficial to us in finding Scripture. But if you'll notice the last
line of verse 26 of chapter 49, it says this, And all flesh shall know that
I, the Lord, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty one
of Jacob. That's Christ. I am your Lord,
your Savior, and your Redeemer. Now look at verse 6 of chapter
50. I gave my back to the smiters. They scourged him, you remember?
I gave my cheeks to them that pluck out the hair. They pulled
out his beard. And I hid not my face from shame
and spitting." That's Christ. And you can trace that all the
way through the New Testament, these things referred to here,
the smiting of his back, the scourging, the plucking out of
the beard, and the spitting upon his face. But now let's go to
verse 1, and just look at these 9, 10, 11 verses briefly, and
I'll run through it. What I want to do is give you
a start. I want you to get to where you
can compare Scripture with Scripture. You can take the New Testament
and study the Old Testament. Take the Old Testament and see
a revelation in the New Testament. And if you've got a Bible with
a center reference here, it'll help you so much. That center
reference, it refers you to Scriptures in the New Testament and the
Old to help you to understand these things. All right, verse
1 of chapter 15. This is our Savior, our Lord
and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob speaking. Thus saith
the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom
I have put away? Now, when a man puts away his
wife, back in Old Testament scriptures, and I guess today too, he gives
her a bill of divorcement, an official paper that she can show
to the world, my husband put me away. Here's the paper right
here, signed by the judge, I'm no longer his wife. The Lord
God says to Israel, you have no such bill. I didn't put you
away. The fact that in Israel the mother
is the nation. The children are the people.
The mother is the nation. He said, you have no writings
anywhere where I put Israel away. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. And he says in the next line,
of which of my creditors is it to whom I've sold you? In other
words, back then, if a man got heavily in debt, He had to sell
his children into slavery, and that happened there. People got
heavily into debt, and they couldn't pay. You couldn't write a bad
check back then. People got in debt, and they
had to pay. They had to pay. And if they
couldn't pay, sold their children. That's right, into service or
slavery. That's exactly right. All right, God said, the Lord
God says, I have no debts. I have no creditors that I must
pay. causing me to sell Israel into
slavery. I haven't divorced the nation.
I haven't sold the children. Behold, your iniquities, for
your iniquities, you sold yourself. You sold yourself, and for your
transgressions is the nation put away. You are totally responsible for
your situation. That's what the Lord God is saying
right there. You're totally responsible. Your iniquities are your iniquities
you sold yourselves. And for your transgressions the
nation is judicially blinded. Let the guilt be laid not at
the door of God, but at the door of the one to whom it belongs.
Your fault, my fault. All right, verse 2, and also
this, watch this, and when I came, When I came, he was in the world.
He was in the world. He came into his own. Jesus Christ
came into the world, Paul said. He came into the world. When
I came, was there is in italics. It's been supplied by the translators.
When I came, no man. No man. He said he made the world,
he was in the world, and no man knew him. He came in his own,
his own received him not. No man. When I called, none to
answer. None to answer. But let me ask
you this, is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?
Now, the reference that I would refer to here is in Romans 3,
verse 3. Romans chapter 3, verse 3. Listen
to this. All right. All right. God's purpose is to save. The Lord God's purpose is to
redeem a people. He came into the world. He came
to his own. His own received him not. He
was in the world. The world knew him not. Now, here's the question
that Paul raises in Romans 3, 3. What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith, the purpose, the program, the design, the plan of God without
effect? God forbid. Because Israel doesn't
believe, because Israel will not receive me, my hand is not
shortened that it cannot redeem. Have I no power to deliver? Have I no power to deliver? Turn
with me to John chapter 6 a moment. I told my Sunday school class
this this morning. Our Lord Jesus was talking to
this bunch of Jews there in John chapter 6, these Pharisees and
Sadducees and religious leaders, and told them he was the bread
of life and the bread that came down from heaven. And in verse
36, now watch this, John 6, 36. Now, I said unto you, you have
seen me and believed not. I've talked to you, I've preached
to you, I've performed miracles in front of you, but you hadn't
believed. Does that mean that my program is finished? Does
that mean that my purpose has failed? Does that mean that my
design in redeeming a people will not come to pass? Oh no,
verse 37, listen. all that my father giveth me
will come to me. And him that cometh to me I'll
in no wise cast out." You may not believe Him, and you may
not receive Him, and you may not bow, but He has a people
who will. He has a people who will. Isaiah
46 verse 9 through 11 says this, listen to it, Isaiah 46, verse
9, remember the former things of old. I'm God, and there's
none else. I'm God, there's none like me.
I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, I will
do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executed my counsel from a far country,
yea, I've spoken it, I'll bring it to pass, I've purposed it,
I'll do it. And then in verse 2 of Isaiah
50, listen to our Lord speaking here. I came, nobody heard me. There was no beauty that we should
desire. Go on and on. Isaiah chapter
53 says that when I called, no one, but is my hand shortened
that I cannot redeem? Have I no power to deliver? Behold,
listen to this, at my rebuke I dried up the sea. You can read
that in Exodus 14, 21, Israel walked across on dry land. I
made the rivers a wilderness. I turned the rivers into blood,
and their fish stinketh, because there was no water and died for
thirst. I clothed the heavens with blackness. You can read
that in Exodus 10, 21. I made sackcloth their covering.
Our God shall not fail. Our Christ shall not be discouraged.
He will redeem a people. Notice what he says in verse
4 and 5. Now listen to this. The Lord
God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should
know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Now, my
friend, the Lord Jesus Christ is pictured in the Old Testament
in a threefold office, primarily. Our Lord has many offices, but
he has a threefold office, and we need to lay hold of this and
we need to grasp it. And God pictured him in the Old
Testament as a prophet. Moses is the best illustration
of Christ, the teacher, the prophet. And Moses kept saying to the
people, God will raise up from among the brethren a prophet,
a prophet like unto me. Hymn you shall hear. Hymn you
shall hear. The Lord Jesus Christ came down
from heaven as that prophet was made in the likeness of flesh,
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh and talked our language
and talked to us for God and revealed the mind of God and
the will of God and the purpose of God and the redemption of
God as the prophet. He spoke to us. He said, He that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath life."
He's that prophet, that prophet. And then the Lord God gave us
another picture of Christ in the Old Testament, a priest,
a priesthood, the priesthood of Aaron and the sons of Levi.
But that being such an imperfect type of Christ, because there
were many of them and he won They ministered in a tabernacle
on earth, he in heaven itself. They offered the blood of animals,
he offered his own blood. They offered many sacrifices,
he won, they lived and died, he liveth forever. There are
so many ways in which they are not types of Christ. And even
from the tribe of Levi, he was from the tribe of Judah, he was
the king. So God raised up miraculously
a type of Christ as a priest called Melchizedek. who met Aaron out there. And
brethren, you talk about overlapping. Melchizedek is in the New Testament
about five times, five verses of Scripture. He's in the Old
Testament a whole column. And Melchizedek is Christ who
met Abraham with the bread and the wine. He has broken body
and shed blood. Melchizedek without mother or
father, without without pedigree, without beginning or ending of
days, a priest, a high priest forever. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's a king. He's a king,
David. He's going to sit on the throne
of his father, David, and we need to study Moses, the prophet,
who is Christ. Melchizedek, the priest, who
is Christ. David, the king, who is Christ,
raised up for that purpose. Just as God raised up Pharaoh
to dump him in the river to get glory for his justice, he raised
up David and sat him on the throne to picture his son. And he raised
you up for some purpose, because he's God. And here in verse 4,
he said, "...the Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned."
Now, if you look back in Isaiah 42, the Lord Jesus Christ is
called in the scriptures in many different words. But here he's
called a servant, a servant. Behold, chapter 42, verse 1,
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul
delighteth. I put my spirit upon him. He'll
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break. The smoking flax shall he not
quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he set judgment in the earth, and hours shall wait for his
law." Who is that? That's Christ. That's Christ. He's called a servant. And when
he was down here on the earth as that prophet, he said in Isaiah
50, verse 4, The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned,
that I may know how to speak a word in due season to him that
is weary. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Weary and heavy
laden. Christ sounds like, you say,
well, that's not Christ, that's some prophet. Yeah, it's Christ
and he's some prophet, all right. But he humbles himself, and he
said, one time, I came not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me. He said, it sounds like that
he's got one will and the Father's got another. Oh, no, he's saying
that the Son never does anything independent of the Father. Everything
that the Father wills, the Son wills. The Father designs, the
Son designs. The Father purposes, the Son
purposes. I can do nothing of myself, he
said. Because I'm one with the Father.
I do something, I do it. I can't say, well, that really
wasn't me. It was me, too. And that's the
same thing, the Father and the Son are one. And they can only
do the same. In verse 5, the Lord God has
opened my ear. He has digged my ear. He has
bored my ear. Take a moment. I won't be but
a minute more. Exodus 21. Exodus 21. But if I can whet
your appetite, if I can give you some interest, Exodus 21,
some insight into the unity of the scriptures, I will have accomplished
something tonight that is of eternal value. Now, he said over
here in scripture I read a moment ago, Isaiah 50, verse 5, the
Lord hath bored my ear. open my ear. In Exodus 21, now
these are the judgments, verse 1, which I shall set before you. If you buy a Hebrew servant,
he'll labor six years, that's all. In the seventh year, he
goes out, free from nothing. If he's in by himself, he'll
go out by himself. If he's married, his wife will
go out with him. But if his master's given him
a wife, and she's born him sons and daughters, The wife and her
children shall be the masters, and he'll go out by himself.
But if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife
and my children, I will not go out free. I will be a bond slave,
a willing, loving, obedient bond slave, willingly. Then his master
shall bring him to the judges, bring him to the door, the door
post, and the master shall bore his ear through with an awl,
and he'll serve him forever. That's a bond slave. And that's
what our Lord is saying about Himself. I'm a bond slave of
my Father. He bored my ear. I will do His
will. I will do His will. And that's
when He said, verse 6, and verse 5, He said, He bored my ear.
I'm a willing. He said, no man takes my life
from me. You see how this fits in in the Old Testament? No man
takes, I lay it down. I'm a bond slave. Here's a man been working six
years, he'd go free. Seventh year, he's still hanging
around. Somebody said, well, I thought you was free. I am. But I choose
to serve my master. I'm not here because he made
me. I'm here because I want to be. And Christ said, I'm not
here because I have to be. I'm here because I want to be
on this cross. And he bore my, I didn't turn away, verse 6,
and I gave my back to the smiters willingly. I gave my cheeks to
them that plucked the hair willingly. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting." Now, verse 7 through 9, he says, and I'll not fail.
The Lord God will help me, therefore will I not be confounded. Therefore
will I set my face like a flint. It says over there in Luke, he
set his face for it to go to Jerusalem. I shall not fail,
I shall not be confounded, I shall not be ashamed. Verse 8, he is
near that justifies me. Who shall contend with me? Shall
Satan? He's defeated. Shall the law? It's fulfilled.
Shall justice? It's paid in full. No one can
contend with me. Let's stand together. Who is
my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold,
the Lord God will help me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? That's what Paul says over in Romans 8, because When Christ
died, he said no one can lay any charge to God's elect. No
one can condemn it. The same words he's using right
here. Behold, all my enemies shall wax old as a garment, and
the moth shall eat them up. Now, I'm going to close with
this right here. Verse 10 to 11 sums it up. All right, he
says, Who is there among you then that feareth the Lord? Can
you see the hand of the Lord in this marvelous, miraculous
book? in these prophecies and patterns
and pictures in the fulfillment by Jesus Christ our Lord. Can
you see it? Do you fear the Lord? Do you
fear the Lord? Who is among you that feareth
the Lord? Who is among you that obey the voice of this servant
he's talking about here, the Lord Jesus Christ? Anybody here
that obey his voice? Who is he here that walks in
darkness and has no light of your own? I don't have any light.
I'm dumb. I don't have any light, no natural
light, no wisdom, no understanding. Well, if there is, let him trust
in the name of the Lord. Let him look to Christ. Let him
rest in Christ. And let him stay on his guard,
huh? Stay on guard. Can you do it? Can you stay on
the Lord? Can you trust in Him? This encourages
me, when I read like chapter 50 here, and then I see all of
it fulfilled, and Christ coming to earth, and walking to earth,
and dying on the cross, buried, rose again, those men of the
New Testament writing in these identical words the same message,
this encourages me. And when he gives this initiative,
he doesn't say, go out and work your hands to the bone and knock
on doors and give your tithe and keep the Sabbath day and
yeah, all this. He said, trust the Lord. Trust
the Lord. Look to him. But now wait a minute,
verse 12. But you behold all ye that kindle a fire to warm
yourselves. You reject Christ the light and
Christ the life and Christ the righteousness. You compass yourself
about with sparks from your own fire. You walk in the light of
your own fire. You walk in the light of your
own righteousness, your own wisdom. I don't know what the Bible says,
but I know what I think. I'll tell you what I think. You
walk in the light of your own fire, and in the sparks that
you kindle, you go about like those in Romans 10, to establish
for yourself a righteousness that, he said, This shall ye
have of my hand, if ye lie down in sorrow." Lie down in sorrow. Anybody here fear the Lord? Anybody
here obey the voice of anybody here that doesn't have any light?
Not striking your own match and lighting your own fire and kindling
your own sparks, but you're helpless, look to Christ. But he said,
if you want to continue in the light of your own fire, you want
to kindle your own sparks, you'll have it from my hand. to lie
down in the sun.