This just possibly could be one
of the most important messages that you'll ever hear. I do say
if you listen carefully and God the Holy Spirit is pleased to
bless it to your understanding and to your faith, it'll be one
of the most helpful messages that you've ever heard. My subject
today is Christ in the Old Testament. Christ in the Old Testament.
I'm reading from the book of Luke. Chapter 24, verse 27. Now these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking to his disciples
after he had been crucified and risen from the tomb. And he says
to them, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
And this is what he said. These are the words that I've
spoken to you while I was yet with you. that all things must
be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses," now that's
the first five books of the Bible, and in the Prophets, that's all
of the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. The things which
are written in the Law of Moses in the Prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me. And then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. Now, the New Testament
was not then written. So the scriptures are referring
to the Old Testament, not the New Testament at all, but the
Old Testament. In fact, my friends, almost every reference to the
scriptures in the New Testament is a reference to the Old Testament
scriptures. Genesis through Malachi, 39 books.
Almost every reference in the New Testament is referring back
to the Old Testament. Now, the promises of the Old
Testament is full of promises. The prophecies of the Old Testament
is full of prophecies. And the patterns and the types
and the ceremonies and the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the
history of the Jewish nation from Abraham to John the Baptist
is especially marked by one thing. Do you know what that one thing
is? I'm saying that the promises, all of them in the Old Testament,
and the prophecies, and the types, and patterns, and pictures, and
shadows, and ceremonies, and sacrifices, and the history of
the Jewish people from Abraham to John the Baptist is especially,
especially marked by one thing. You know what it is? It's the
coming of the Messiah. The coming of the Christ. That's
right. All the way through. Moses called him that prophet.
He said, God will raise up from among the brethren a prophet,
him you shall hear. Ruth called him the kinsman redeemer.
David called him the king, the king who shall sit upon the throne.
Solomon called him my beloved. Isaiah called him wonderful counselor,
the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace.
Jeremiah called him the branch, or the Lord our righteousness,
but all the way through the Old Testament he's called the Messiah,
the Messiah. the Christ. And the Jewish people
of the Old Testament and the Jewish people in the New Testament
look for the coming of the Christ, the Messiah. That's right, they
look for his coming. John, in other words, in John
1 41, Andrew was looking for the coming of the Messiah, and
he foundeth his brother Simon. Now listen to this, John 1 41,
Andrew findeth his brother Simon and said to him, we found the
Messiah. We have found the Messiah. of
whom Moses wrote and David wrote. We have found the expected one,
which is being interpreted as the Christ. We found the Christ.
When our Lord came to the well at Samaria and talked to the
woman of Samaria, and she finally said to him, she said, I know
that when the Messiah comes. Now here is an ordinary woman.
She's not a leader. She's a woman who's been married
five times, was living with a man who was not her husband. She
was a very lonely person, an outcast. But a Samaritan, not
even the Jew, a Samaritan. But she was looking for the Messiah.
She was looking for the Christ. She knew something about the
Old Testament scriptures. Evidently from her parents or
from the Pharisees who taught in the temple, the Sadducees.
But she was looking for the Messiah. There was a man called Simon,
a man called Simeon in the temple. When Mary and Joseph brought
the child Jesus to the temple. Simeon was looking for the Messiah. He was looking, the scripture
says, for the consolation of Israel. He was looking for the
Christ. All Israel looked for the Redeemer.
All Israel looked for the Christ. All Israel looked for the Messiah.
All Israel looked for the one who would come, called the Emancipator,
the Redeemer, the Savior, or whatever. Now that's what the
Old Testament is all about. Every promise and prophecy and
picture and pattern is about the coming Christ. the coming
Redeemer, the coming Savior of Israel, the coming King. Now,
I believe, and this is what I'm teaching, and this is what the
New Testament teaches, I believe that every promise of the Old
Testament and every prophecy and every picture of the Messiah,
the Christ, that prophet, the kinsman Redeemer, is fulfilled
in Jesus of Nazareth, who was born of Mary, who lived on this
earth 33 1�2 years, who was crucified on a Roman cross, and who was
buried and who rose again. His birth, his life, his death,
his resurrection, and his ascension is a fulfillment of every picture
and pattern and promise and prophecy of the Messiah, of the Christ,
the Redeemer of the Old Testament. That's what the angel said to
Joseph. When the angel came to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1,
he said to him, Joseph, fear not to take unto thee Mary to
be thy wife. For that which is conceived in
her is of the Holy Ghost. She's with child of the Holy
Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. And
this is accomplishing what was written by the prophet Isaiah
when he said, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and thou
shalt call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted, God
with us. This is what the angel said.
The angel says Jesus is a fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy of
Isaiah 7.14. And this is also what Philip
said to the eunuch. The eunuch had been to Jerusalem
to worship. He was a renowned, important
man of Ethiopia, treasurer of all of Ethiopia. And he'd gone
to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way back to Ethiopia,
he was sitting in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah, Old
Testament prophet. And Philip came alongside the
chariot, joined himself to the caravan, and was listening to
the man read or watching him read. And Philip asked him this
question. He said, do you understand what
you're reading? He was reading Isaiah 53, Old Testament scripture. And the man said, no, I do not
understand. How can I understand except some man show me? He said,
get up here with me and show me. Does the prophet speak of
himself or some other man? Of whom does the prophet speak?
And Philip sat down beside him and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus of Nazareth. Philip says that Jesus
Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ. He is the Messiah.
He is the one of whom Isaiah wrote. He is the expected one.
He has come. This is what Peter said at Pentecost.
When he preached to the thousands at Pentecost, those Jews who
were gathered there from every nation unto heaven for that special
feast of Pentecost, he said, this Jesus, whom you crucified,
is none other than the Lord and the Christ, whom God sent. God
hath made him both Lord and Christ. That's what Peter said to them.
He is the fulfillment of the scripture. He is the Christ.
Now, this is what Paul preached. I want you to listen carefully
to two scriptures that I'm going to read, one from Acts 17, verse
2 and 3, and the other from Acts 18. Now, listen to Acts 17, 2.
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them in the synagogue,
and three Sabbath days, three weeks, He reasoned out of the
Old Testament Scriptures, preaching that Christ, the Christ, the
Christ of whom the Old Testament prophesied and of whom all of
these things are written, that the Christ must needs suffer
and be crucified and raised from the dead, and that Jesus of Nazareth,
whom I preach to you, is that Christ. That's what Paul preached. He reads in three Sabbath days,
he said, the Christ for whom you look has come. The Messiah
whom you expect has come. He's none other than Jesus of
Nazareth, whom you crucify. And in Acts chapter 18, verse
28, and he mightily, this is in Archaia, and he mightily convinced
the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Old Testament
scriptures, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. My friends, God
has never had but one way of saving sinners. Our Lord said,
Abraham saw my day and was glad. He said, Moses wrote of me. All
the way through the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, I
know that people today have divided the scriptures up into what they
call dispensations. Well, there are dispensations.
There are different ways that God has revealed himself, but
he always reveals the same message, grace and mercy through Christ.
Salvation by the blood. The book of Leviticus says, it
is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. I have given it
to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul. And
Hebrews 9.22 says the same thing. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. Moses was saved by looking for
the coming Redeemer. We are saved by looking back
to the Redeemer who has come. So all the way through the Old
Testament, the Christ is promised. The Christ is pictured. The Messiah, the Christ, is prophesied. And every type and ceremony and
sacrifice points to him. And what I'm saying is that Jesus
of Nazareth, son of Mary, virgin born, who died on Calvary's cross,
was buried and rose again, is the Christ. He is the Messiah.
He is the Redeemer. Now let's go back and see if
we can make good on that. Let's look at the prophecies.
First of all, the first prophecy concerning the Christ, the Messiah,
The Redeemer is found in Genesis 3, 15. When Adam and Eve, being
tempted of Satan, who used the serpent, fell in the Garden of
Eden, God had several things to say. And in these things that
he said, this is what he proclaimed. This is the first announcement
of the Christ, the Messiah. He tells us that this Christ,
this Redeemer, this Messiah, will be of the seed of woman. He'll come into this world not
riding on a white horse. He'll come into this world not
riding on a chariot of fire. He'll come into this world, this
Christ, this Messiah, from the womb of a woman. That's how he's
going to come into this world. He'll not come the first time
when every eye can see him. The only one who saw him was
the midwife who helped deliver him. He came into this world
as a baby from the womb of a woman. That's what he says in Genesis
3, 15. He said to the serpent, I'll put enmity between thee
and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, the seed of woman. This, this, and he'll crush your
power, your head. You bruise his heel, the lowest
part of his humanity. He'll be crucified on a cross
and suffer, but his power will not diminish. His power will
be, will be accomplished. His victory will be accomplished,
but your power will be broken by his death. By your bruising
his heel, he'll conquer your power. You'll destroy your head
and when Eve gave birth to King Genesis 4 1 & 2 Adam knew Eve
his wife she conceived and bear son And you know what her first
words were when that little baby come came forth from her womb
that little boy She saw that man child and she said I've gotten
the man. I've gotten the man the man with
the help of the Lord Here is here's the Christ. Here's the
Messiah. Well, we know that it wasn't she thought it was He
thought that first man, here he had come to restore them back
to favor, to restore them back to holiness, to restore them
back to glory, which they had lost by their fall, but the man
came was not the man, Christ Jesus. Because Isaiah said, he'll
be born of a woman, but not a married woman, and not with the help
of a man. He'll be born of a virgin, conceived
by the Holy Ghost. You see, Christ could not be
Joseph's son, because he'd partake of Adam's sin. Cain was born
in the image of his father. Jesus Christ was born of the
Virgin. Now, the second prophecy concerning the Christ, that's
the first. He'll come into this world from the womb of a woman,
just like you and I are born, but without the help of man,
without the assistance of man. He'll be the Son of God, the
Holy One of God. He'll come from a woman. Secondly,
the next revelation said he'd be the seed of Abraham, a Jew.
That's right, Abraham. The seed of Abraham, God said
in Genesis 12, He said, I'll multiply your seed like the sand
of the seashore and the stars of heaven. And He said, I'll
bless you and make you a blessing to all nations. For coming forth
from your seed will be the Redeemer, the Messiah. Listen to Galatians
3.16. Now to Abraham and his seed was
the promise made. And the seed, not the seeds,
but the seed, which is the Christ. And not only Abraham, but in
Isaac shalt thou seed be called, not the son of Ishmael, but the
son of Isaac. You see, Isaac was supernaturally
born to Abraham and Sarah. He's a picture of Christ. He
was born, Abraham was 100 and his wife was 90 before the child
Isaac was conceived, a miraculous child. Even so, with Christ,
he was brought forth by the power of God from a dead womb. And then thirdly, the third revelation,
he'll come from a woman, a virgin woman, And he'll be the seed
of Abraham through Isaac. And the next revelation was that
he should be from the tribe of Judah. Now, Jacob had 12 sons. But Judah is the tribe from which
he would be born. God narrows this Christ, this
Messiah, down to where if you will read the Scriptures with
an open heart, as the Spirit of God teaches you, He'll show
you that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. The tribe of Judah,
Judah. He says in Genesis 49 10 when
Jacob was blessing the 12 sons He said the scepter shall not
depart from Judah the scepter the sign of power kingship shall
not depart from Judah until Shallow come unto him shall the gathering
of the people be he'll be the king the one who comes from Judah
and Down here in Hebrews 7 14. It says it's evident that our
Lord sprang out of the tribe of Judah And then he'll not only
come from the tribe of Judah, but the next prophecy, Isaiah
11, 1, says he'll come from the family of Jesse. Jesse was David's
father. The family of Jesse. Not just
any family in the tribe of Judah, but the family of Jesse. And
not only from the family of Jesse, but the seed of David. The seed
of David. The Lord Jesus Christ one day
asked the Pharisees, what think ye of the Christ? Whose son is
he? And they replied, the son of
David. You remember when Brian Bartimaeus cried for help, he
said, Jesus, thou son of David? He recognized Jesus of Nazareth
was the Messiah. And these Pharisees knew that.
These Sadducees who rejected him and called for his death,
they knew that the Messiah would be of the tribe of Judah, the
family of Jesse, and the household of David. And do you know that
Mary was of the house and lineage of David? That's the reason she
and Joseph went to Bethlehem to be taxed. That was their capital
city. She was of the household of David.
And our Lord said to those Pharisees, now what think ye of the Christ?
Whose son is he? They said, the son of David.
The son of David. And they were exactly right.
Exactly right. And then the place of his birth
was foretold. In Micah 5, verse 2, these are
all Old Testament scriptures regarding the Christ, the Messiah. But thou Bethlehem, though thou
be little among the thousands, yet out of thee shall he come
forth unto Nathan, the ruler of Israel, whose goings forth
have been from of old, from everlasting. where he would be born. And then
the loneliness of his birth. How was Jesus of Nazareth born?
No room in the inn. He was born in a cow stable and
laid in a manger, surrounded by shepherds and cattle and sheep. Well, listen to Isaiah 53, verse
1. He's despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrow is acquainted
with grief. He shall grow up as a tender
plant, as a root out of a dry ground, No form, no comeliness,
no beauty that we should desire him. Very poor and lowly. Zechariah
said, Behold your king coming, riding upon an ass. Riding upon
an ass. Not in a chariot, not on a great
stallion, not surrounded by satin and silk and all the finery of
the kingship. No, he'll come lowly. Be born
that way and live that way. And then he's dead. Now if you
read Psalm 22, I wish every one of you take the 22nd Psalm. Here
is David writing hundreds of years before Jesus of Nazareth
died on that cross. Hundreds of years. This is a
messianic psalm. You preachers know what a messianic
psalm is and some of the rest of you do. But Psalm 22, I want
you to listen to it. It begins this way. Hours of light and darkness when
Christ hung on that cross He said dogs have compassed me about
and they walk about shooting out their lips and crying. He
trusted God Let's see if God will have him now That's what
they said about the cross another thing. He said they pierced my
hands and my feet David never had his hands and feet here David
was not writing about himself. He says they cast lots for my
garments When did they ever cast lots for David Garland? He was
writing under holy inspiration. God breathed. He was writing
prophecies concerning the Messiah. And every one of these things
were fulfilled. They gave me vinegar to drink
and gall. That's Christ on the cross. The
whole 22nd Psalm is Jesus of Nazareth hanging on a cross.
The very words that he spake. And this was written in the Old
Testament hundreds of years before Christ came. I'm saying that
Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfillment of every prophecy and promise
and picture of the Messiah, the Christ, in the Old Testament,
even his burial. It says in Isaiah 53, 9, he made
his grave, or his death, with the wicked. He hung between two
thieves. This is talking about the Redeemer, the Messiah, the
Christ. And with the rich in his death.
How do you find this? Where did the rich come into
his death? Matthew chapter 27 59 there was a rich man called
Joseph of Arimathea that came to Pilate and asked if he could
have the body of Jesus of Nazareth and this rich man of Arimathea
by the name of Joseph took his body down from the cross and
Took it and buried it that body in his own tomb in which man
had never been buried His resurrection is prophesied by Jonah As Jonah
was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so
shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth." There you have, through the Old Testament,
he'll be the seed of woman. He'll be the seed of Abraham
through Isaac. He'll be the seed of a virgin
woman. He'll be from the tribe of Judah, the family of Jesse,
the household of David. And he shall be lowly in his
birth and in his life, and he shall die on a cross. He shall
be forsaken of his own. Despised and betrayed by his
own disciples sold for 30 pieces of silver his hands and feet
nailed to a cross He'd be taken down and buried in a rich man's
tomb and he'd rise again on the third day and that is all fulfilled
in the person Jesus Christ He is the Messiah now you take the
tabernacle in the wilderness. This is the second thing The
worship of God took place centered around that tabernacle in the
wilderness The Jewish people, when they came out of Egypt and
were going to the Promised Land, their whole worship centered
about that tabernacle. That tabernacle is Christ. That
tabernacle is where God met men and men met God. And in itself,
it's a picture of Jesus Christ. And then in its design, now take
the tabernacle, it was only, the tabernacle was only 45 feet
long by 15 feet wide. It wasn't a very impressive building,
not on the outside, but on the inside. It was gold and silver
and beauty. But on the outside, it was covered
with rough badger skin. This is a picture of Jesus of
Nazareth. On the outside, he looked like any other man. No
form, no comeliness, no beauty that we should desire him. But
on the inside, holy and pure and spotless, the Lamb of God.
There were four coverings on that tabernacle. There was the
white linen on the inside. And then there was the goat skin,
which is Christ our scapegoat. And then there was the ram skin,
dyed red, which is symbolic of his blood. And then the dark
brown badger skin that covered it. And when you stood off and
looked at that tabernacle, you thought, that's a common tent.
That's a common tabernacle. There's nothing there. But when
you walked on the inside, on the inside, there was the gold
and the beauty and the very cleanliness and presence and power of God.
That's Christ the Lord. And then in its sacrifices, You
come to the tabernacle, and here's the altar, the altar of burnt
offering. That's where the priest would
bring the lamb and slay it and burn its body and take its blood
and start for the tabernacle. Christ suffered outside the gate,
outside the wall. His body, his sufferings were
the burning, the burning of suffering. He cried, I thirst. And then
the priest would come to the laver where he washed his hands
and washed his feet. And that's sanctification in
Christ. Then he would go inside. Inside the tabernacle in the
holy place, over here were the candlesticks, seven of them.
Christ, the light of the world. Over here, the shewbread. Christ,
the bread of life. Just before the veil was the
altar of incense. That's the prayers of Christ
that ascend for his people all the time. Then under the veil
into the Holy of Holies was the mercy seat over the ark. And
there the blood was put on the mercy seat. And as that high
priest entered into the holy place made with hands, even so
Christ entered the holy place not made with hands, into heaven
itself, not with the blood of an animal, but with his own precious
blood. These priests were all pictures of Jesus Christ. There
were many of them. He only one. They served a short
time, only a lifetime. He's an eternal priest after
the order of Melchizedek. They offered many sacrifices.
He won. They offered animal sacrifices.
He is on blood. Their sacrifices could not save.
He sanctified forever those whom he represented. They always stood. There wasn't a chair in that
tabernacle. They never sat down. He sat down on the right hand
of God. They went behind the veil. He
tore the veil in two and went into the very presence of God.
If you'll go through the Old Testament, you'll see Christ
on every page. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden,
and they stood naked, they were trying to cover their nakedness
with fig leaves, and God slew an animal, and took the skin
of that animal and covered their nakedness. And even so, our Lord
Jesus Christ, the innocent, died for the guilty. He shed his blood
and covered us with his righteousness. When Abraham took Isaac on the
top of Mount Moriah and put him on the altar and would have sacrificed
his son, God said, touch not the lad. And here was a ram caught
in the thicket by its horn. And he took Isaac off the altar
and put the ram in his place. And the ram died for Isaac. Christ
died for us. The Passover in Egypt, when God
would deliver Israel out of Egypt. He told them to slay a lamb and
put its blood on the door. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Christ is our Passover. When the people needed water
in the wilderness, and God told Moses to smite the rock, and
the rock gave forth that thirst-quenching, clear, crystal water, and they
drank thereof, and that rock followed them. First Corinthians
10 says, that rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. The brazen
serpent lifted up, made in the form and likeness of the serpent
that had bitten the people. That serpent's Christ. My friend,
the Old Testament testifies of Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners.
The seed of woman, he destroyed the power of Satan. In him the
day has come that Abraham foresaw, of which Moses wrote. In him
we see the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God, the Branch of Jesse,
the Seat of David. He appears the Bread from Heaven,
the Living Water, the High Priest, after the Order of Melchizedek.
He is the Sin Offering, the Atonement, and the Mercy Seat. His untold
sufferings have secured the full redemption of his people. His
righteousness is sufficient, his intercession eternal. He
is the Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. And in
him is fulfilled that ancient prophecy, Behold your God. Christ
is the Scripture. And he died for our sins according
to the scriptures, was buried and rose again according to the
scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. Now this message
is on cassette tape. I have a message I preached last
week, boldness at the throne, and this one, Christ in the Old
Testament. If you'd like to have it, send two dollars and write
to the address that you'll see on the screen. Until next week,
may God bless you, is my prayer.