I have a very special subject
this morning that I want to share with you. The title of this message
is Understanding the Scriptures. Understanding the Scriptures.
And we're going to turn to the book of Luke, chapter 24, verse
44 and 45. That'll be my text. And I would
like for you to turn in your Bibles to this passage of Scripture,
and just keep it open while I bring the message today. 44 and 45 Jesus said unto them These
are the words which I spake unto you While I was yet with you. This is what I've been telling
you Christ said That all things must be fulfilled which are written
in the law of Moses now We're talking about the first five
books of the Bible there Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and
Deuteronomy. These are the writings of Moses
All things written in the book of the law, the law of Moses,
and in the prophets, now we're talking about Isaiah, Jeremiah,
all of these prophets, Malachi, and in the Psalms concerning
me. And then it says, then he opened
their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. Then he opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. Now when our Lord
spake these words, he had fulfilled all that he came to earth to
accomplish. With a mighty cry from the cross
of Calvary, he declared, It's finished. It's finished. It is
finished. Oh, what pleasure do these charming
words afford. Heavenly blessings without measure
flow to us from Christ our Lord. Finished. It is finished. all
the types and shadows of the ceremonial law, finished all
that God had promised, from this we all our comforts draw. Christ had risen and Christ was
speaking to his disciples. He was sending them forth to
preach the gospel. He said to them, all authority
is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and preach
the gospel to all nations. Preach the word of God. He sent
them forth to preach the word. Now, some of them would be commissioned
to write some scripture. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul,
Peter, these men wrote the New Testament as they were inspired
and led by the Holy Spirit. But the scriptures that Christ
sent them to preach, and the scriptures which he opened to
their understanding, the scriptures that he's talking about here
in Luke 24, 44, and These are not the New Testament
writings, but rather the Old Testament writings. We're talking
about Moses, David, Isaiah, and all of the Old Testament prophets.
So our Lord was sending his disciples forth to preach the scriptures.
And he was opening, before sending them forth to preach the scriptures,
he was opening their understanding. He was revealing to them what
the scriptures were saying. And we're talking about the Old
Testament. We're not talking about the New Testament at all.
We're talking about the Old Testament. Christ is the key to the Old
Testament. Christ is the message of the
Old Testament. Christ is the theme of the Old
Testament. The Old Testament is Christ in
promise. The Old Testament is Christ in
prophecy, Christ in picture, and Christ in type and symbol.
So here our Lord had finished the work the Father gave him
to do. He had been crucified, buried, and risen again. And
he was speaking to his disciples, and he said, Now these things
are fulfilled according to what I taught you before. These are
the things I've been saying to you. And then he took the books
of Moses and the writings of David in the Psalms and the writings
of the prophets, and he opened their understanding to understand
what was written in these scriptures concerning Christ. One time years
ago, in a little church in Wales, a young preacher brought a message.
And when he had finished his message, he stepped down from
the pulpit, and one of the old fathers of the church, white-haired
gentleman, came by and shook hands with him. And the young
man asked him, he said, how did you like my message? And the
old man hesitated a moment, and then he turned and looked full
into the face of this young man, and he said, well, it was a mighty
poor sermon. And the young man said, but sir,
I don't understand. He said, I studied. I studied
hard and prepared that message. It took me a long time. And the
old man said, I could see that you'd studied. And I could tell
that you'd prepared, but it was still a poor sermon. And the
young man said, well, was it poorly delivered? I thought I
delivered it quite well. And the old man said, oh, your
delivery was excellent. You'd prepared and you delivered
it well. The young man said, well, what about my illustrations
and my stories? Were they not applied well to
the Scripture? Oh, the old man said, your illustrations
were excellent, your antidotes and all of the stories were fine.
The young man said, well, now if I prepared well and preached
it well and the illustrations were well presented, why do you
say it was a poor sermon? The old man said, because there
was no Christ in your sermon. And the young man said, but sir,
Christ was not in the text. The old man replied, son, Christ
is in every text. Christ is in every text. And
your business as a preacher is to find that road in that text
that leads to Calvary and get on that road just as quickly
as you can. And this is what Christ is saying
to his apostles before he sends them out to preach. They're going
out to preach the scripture. Genesis through Malachi. Not
Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians. We preach these scriptures, but
these men wrote those scriptures, led by the Holy Spirit. But the
scriptures they were going out to preach, and the scriptures
they were going to proclaim, were the Old Testament scriptures.
And we do also, because the Old Testament is Christ. And I'm
going to show you that. In the book of Acts, chapter
10, verse 43, the scripture says, to him, to Christ, give all the
prophets witness. All of them, all of the prophets,
Malachi, Jeremiah, all of these prophets are a writing of Christ.
Christ said, Moses wrote of me. Those religious people in his
day said, well, we have Moses. And he said, if you'd have believed
Moses, you'd have believed me. Moses wrote of me. Abraham saw
my day and was glad. In the scriptures, the Old Testament
scriptures, Christ is the theme. Christ is the message. And here
our Lord said, all things must be fulfilled. Which are written
in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, in the Psalms, concerning me. Concerning me. Now if this is
what our Lord saw in the Old Testament, it better be what
we see. If this is what our Lord taught
about the Old Testament, this is what we better teach. And
I'm going to take you through some of the Old Testament scriptures
this morning, and I want you to listen. as I show you how
that Christ is revealed in these scriptures. Now, take the book
of Genesis, first of all. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 15,
Adam and Eve had sinned, had fallen, and death had come upon
them. And God came to them with a promise,
a promise of life, a promise of hope, a promise of deliverance. And in this promise, the Lord
God spake to Adam and said, He spake to the serpent, and I'll
put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her
seed. He shall bruise your head, you
shall bruise his heel." Now who is this? Who is this woman seed? You're not the seed of woman,
I'm not the seed of woman, no human being ever born is the
seed of woman, we're the seed of man. But in this first scripture
here, talking about redemption, talking about the The destruction
of Satan, the destruction of his power, bruising his head,
that's the government. The head is the government. And
Christ is going to destroy the government and power of the prince
of this world. And in the same time, Satan would
bruise his heel. That's the lowest part of the
human nature. But who is the woman seed? I'll put enmity between
thee and the woman between her seed Your seat the her seed is
Christ the virgin born son of God Christ is the virgin seed. He's the seed of woman. He had
no human father He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the virgin's
womb. He did not partake of Adam's
seed He was the seed of woman and the only person who ever
lived on this earth of whom it could be said He's the seed of
woman. All right, take Genesis 321 When
Adam and Eve fell they were they were in trouble Before they fell,
they were naked. When they fell, they knew something
they never knew before. They knew shame, fear. They knew
all of the covetousness. They knew all of these things.
Anger. They never knew these things
before, but shame. They realized they were naked. And so God slew
an animal or two animals. I don't know, but he slew an
animal. And he took the skin of those animals and covered
the nakedness of Adam and Eve. They tried to cover their nakedness
with fig leaves, and that's a picture of our self-righteousness. That's
a picture of our efforts to hide our sins. But God slew an animal. There had to be death to cover
sins. There had to be death of the innocent to cover the sins
of the guilty. And that's a picture of redemption
all the way through the Bible. Christ died and covered our sins. Christ Jesus shed his blood and
God covered us with his righteousness. We don't try to cover our sins
with our fig leaf aprons of self-righteousness. It's the righteousness of Christ
that covers us. And then take the two boys, Cain
and Abel. This is all in Genesis. Cain brought the fruit of the
field. They were to bring an offering, and everybody's religious
by nature. Cain was religious, just like
Abel was religious, and everybody today's religious. And these
boys were instructed to bring an offering before the Lord,
a sin offering. And so Cain brought the fruit
of the ground. He brought the fruit of his own
efforts. He brought the products of his
own doing. He brought fruits and vegetables
and all of these things, made a beautiful altar with all these
things piled up that he had made. But Abel, the scripture says,
brought the firstling of the flock, a lamb without blemish
or spot. He brought blood. He brought
a blood sacrifice. And this is a picture of Christ.
And God had respect to Abel's offering because it was a blood
sacrifice. It's the blood that makes an
atonement for the soul. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. The wages of sin is death, and
before sin can be forgiven, there's got to be death for sin. And
this is the picture. We see that two religions, right
here at these two altars, we have Cain coming on the basis
of his merit, and Abel coming on the basis of the blood. And
God receiving the blood sacrifice and rejecting the merits of men. And you know, the first warfare,
the first conflict between those two boys came, killed Abel. Why? Because he was jealous. He was angry with Abel because
of what Abel believed, because of the blood sacrifice. There's
been more blood shed on this earth because of religion and
the conflict over religious principles. Suppose in any other single cause
let's go on in Genesis 22 verse 8 You remember God came to Abraham
and said take your son Isaac and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah
and a three-day journey He took to that mountain and when they
came to the foot of the mountain He turned to the servants and
he said you stay here with the animals and the boy and I will
go up yonder and offer a sacrifice to God a sin offering to God
and we'll come back and they started up the mountain and Isaac
was carrying the wood. He was about 15, 16 years old
then. He was carrying the wood on his
back, and they had the fire, you know. They didn't have matches.
They had the fire on a certain stick, a stick that was prepared
to burn. And on the way up the mountain,
he turned to his father and he said, Father, he said, here's
the wood and here's the fire, but where's the lamb? Isaac had
been taught well by his father that there's no coming to God
without a sin offering. There's no coming to God without
the shedding of blood. Abraham said my son God will
provide himself a lame you see Christ that God provided Christ
and God provided himself the lame God is our sacrifice for
sin and he provided the lamb to himself he provided himself
the lamb and a lamb to himself the sin offering of Christ was
to the father and The debt that Christ paid was not to the sinner.
The offering was not to the sinner. The effort was not toward the
sinner, but toward God. All of these Old Testament sacrifices
were before the Lord, unto the Lord, to reconcile the Lord,
and Christ died to reconcile us unto God. And you know, when
he started to slay the boy Isaac on the altar, the voice of God
came to him and said, Abraham, touch not thy son. I know that
you love me. And he turned, and behind him
a ram was caught by its horn in the thicket. And he took that
ram, took Isaac off the altar, and put the ram in his place.
And that ram died in the stead of Isaac. That's a picture of
Christ. He took our place. The Lamb of God took my place
under the wrath of God, took my place and died as a sin offering,
took my place and justified me. I go free, Christ dies. It's
just for the unjust. The sinless became sinful, that
the sinful might be sinless. Let's go to Exodus. You're all
familiar with the book of Exodus. One of the first things you meet
in Exodus is the Passover lamb. Israel was down in Egypt. They'd
been there 400 years, and God determined to deliver them. And
he sent Moses down to deliver them. And you know the conflict
that took place, the 789 plagues that came upon Israel, finally
the last one. And God said to Moses, now you tell Israel, you
tell the people of Israel, to slay a lamb. First of all, put
the lamb up and observe it for so many days. Make sure that
it's not diseased. Make sure that it's a perfect
lamb without spot or blemish. Observe it. And our Lord, he
was observed through his life. He was a tried lamb. Tried by
men, tried by Satan, tried by the law. He was observed for
33 and a half years. And then you take that lamb and
slay it. Kill the lamb. And take the blood
and put it on the door close the doorpost and on the level
and God said when I see the blood I'll pass over you I'm coming
through the land of Egypt tonight and notice he didn't say I'm
gonna send a death angel he said I'm coming through and when I
see the blood I'll pass over you my friends Paul said Christ
is our Passover and you know the Jewish people kept that Passover
feast every year commemorating their deliverance from Egypt
And you and I, we don't keep the Passover by slaying a lamb.
Our lamb has been slain. The blood has been shed. The
sacrifice has been made. But we take the unleavened bread,
which represents our Lord's broken body, and the wine, which represents
our Lord's shed blood. And we take that bread and that
wine. And Christ said, as often as you do it, you show my death
till I come. See, we picked up right where
the Passover left off. All right, take for example the
manna. You remember they were out in the wilderness and the
bread, the manna, came from heaven and the people picked it up and
ate it. Christ said, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven.
They ate that bread and they died. But he said, I'm the bread
of life. If a man eat of me, he'll never
die. You see, that bread is a picture of Christ. He was sent from heaven
to earth and he's sufficient for every need. And then you
take the smitten rock. When the Israelites were thirsty,
And God, Moses came to God and said, the people have no water.
And the Lord said, well, smite the rock. And the rock was in
the wilderness. Moses smote the rock. And water
came from the rock. And Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
10, 4, that rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. And my
friend, when our Lord was hanging on that cross, and he was smitten
of God and afflicted. And from him flowed the cleansing
blood and water. that sanctifies us and justifies
us from the side of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the rock
in the wilderness. When Moses smoked that rock,
he was showing us how Christ would be smitten and we would
drink of the water of life that flowed from Emmanuel's veins.
Either eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life. But you know that something else
happened over there in Exodus. The people were thirsty again.
And Moses came to God again, and he said, the people are thirsty.
And the Lord said, well, speak to the rock. You notice the difference? The rock's only smitten once.
The next time you want water, you speak to it. But Moses got
angry with the people, not with God, but with the people. And
he showed himself. And instead of speaking to the
rock, as he was told, he smote the rock. And God came to him
after the people had drunk. And he said, now Moses, I told
you to speak to that rock, and you smote it. He destroyed the
type, the picture. You see, Christ is never to be
smitten but once. Christ is not offered but once.
Once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away
sin with a sacrifice of himself. The reason I don't observe Mass
is because Christ is not to be sacrificed again. He's already
been sacrificed, the one sacrifice for our sin. We don't go through
that again. We receive him by faith. And
that rock is Jesus Christ. All right, take Leviticus. Go
to the book of Leviticus. The blood of Christ is typified
in Leviticus. In 1711, he said, the life of
the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the
altar to make an atonement for your souls. It's the blood that
make it the atonement for the soul. Out yonder in the wilderness,
God had them build a tabernacle. That tabernacle was about 15
feet wide and 15 feet high and about 45 feet long. And in that tabernacle was a
holy place, and then back here behind the veil was a holy of
holies. And they had a priesthood. They had a high priest, and then
they had many other priests. And once a year, this is all
in the Book of Leviticus. Now, every one of these pieces
of furniture meant something. You had the altar out front,
and then you had the labor where the priest washed his hands,
and then inside you had the table of showbread, and you had the
candlestick, and you had the incense, which is the intercession
of Christ, and then that veil. And once a year, The high priest,
nobody else but the high priest, would go under that veil into
the Holy of Holies, into the awesome, majestic, immutable,
awful presence of God. And there in the presence of
God was the Ark of the Covenant. And inside that Ark was the broken
law, the smashed tables of law that Moses brought down from
the mountain. And over the top of that Ark of the Covenant was
a mercy seat. And that great high priest, once
a year, with the blood of the animal, would come and put that
blood on the mercy seat. And that would make an atonement
for the people's sins. Now you can't preach that Old
Testament story without going to Calvary and preaching the
fulfillment of it. Now here's the difference in
Christ and those priests. There were many of them. He only
won. They had a limited priesthood,
for they were born and they died. Our Lord has an everlasting priesthood,
neither beginning or end, neither mother nor father. They offered
many sacrifices. He just won. They offered the
sacrifice of the blood of animals. He, his own precious blood. The
blood of animals could never put away sin. Christ perfected
forever them that are sanctified. They offered their sacrifices
in an earthly tabernacle, on an earthly mercy seat. Christ
offered his blood before the Father, the mercy seat of glory. And he redeemed us. And when
he died on that cross, something happened. that you ought to know
about, and you ought to study, and you ought to think about,
and ask the Holy Spirit to tell you why, that veil in the temple
was torn in two from the top to the bottom. Not a little piece
down here. Not rent from the bottom to the
top as if some man had done it, but that awful thick veil was
rent in two from the top to the bottom, signifying that because
Christ died, there was to be no more offerings, no more sacrifices,
no more lambs slain, no more bloodshed, and that every believer
is now a priest. Everyone, every believer, can
come into the presence of God. Having boldness, brethren, to
enter the presence of God through the blood of Jesus because we
have a high priest. He's not down here on earth.
He's not dressed like a woman down here on the earth. Our high
priest is at the right hand of God, and every believer is a
priest. He has made us kings and priests
under God. And what sacrifices, you say,
do we offer? The sacrifice of praise, faith,
thanksgiving, love? There are a lot of sacrifices,
but no blood, no crucifixion of Christ again. He is our great
high priest. Well, the whole book of Leviticus,
then Numbers. What about the book of Numbers?
Many times, but one you're especially familiar with, the brazen serpent.
Our Lord referred to that himself in John 3. He said, if Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. That's what was happening when
the Israelites murmured against God and the fiery serpents had
bitten them and they were dying like flies and Moses said God
help us and God said all right you make a serpent in the likeness
a brazen serpent in the likeness of those fiery serpents just
like them and you put it up on a pole and whosoever look at
your limbs It's flesh that's destroying us. Flesh is the cause
of our sin. And Christ came down here and
was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Just like that brazen
serpent was made like those serpents that had caused the death. Our
Lord was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And he was lifted
up on a cross and hung between heaven and earth under the judgment
of God for our sins and everybody that looked and believed lived.
There's the gospel right there. This is what our Lord is saying
when he set these disciples down He's going to give them an understanding
of the scripture and he's not going to teach the Bible from
a historical viewpoint or a scientific viewpoint or a Philosophical
viewpoint or the Bible as a book of law or a book of love but
a book of redemption Redemption Christ is the theme or take Deuteronomy
Moses died Moses couldn't lead the children of Israel into the
promised land. You know why? Moses represented the law. Who
was the one who led them into the promised land? Joshua. What's
Joshua's name? What's Joshua's New Testament
name? Jesus. That's what the word Joshua is.
Jesus. It's the Jesus of the Old Testament. And he represents
the grace of God. He led the people into the promised
land. The law can't take you to glory. The law can't take
you to the presence of God. But Joshua can. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me show you some more examples
throughout the scripture. In Joshua, the book of Joshua,
you read about Rahab, the harlot, and throwing the scarlet lion
over the wall in Jericho. That's the blood of Christ. In
Ruth, who is the kinsman-redeemer? Boaz. He's the kinsman-redeemer. And then in the sixth book of
Kings, our Lord is the King of kings and Lord of lords. In Ezra,
he's the defender of the law. In Nehemiah, he's the great He's
the great restorer. In Esther, he's provider of the
people. In Job, I know that my Redeemer lives. How many times
have you heard that scripture? In Psalms, in many Messianic
Psalms, but I want you to take Psalm 22 sometime and read it.
Verse 1, Psalm 22, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Who is that? Is that David speaking?
Was David writing? Was David writing about the son
of David? Down here in Psalm 22, verse
16, they pierced my hands and feet. Who is that? Christ. Psalm
22, 18, they divided my garments and tasselots. That's Christ. In the book of Proverbs, he's
wisdom. In Ecclesiastes, he's true satisfaction. In the Song
of Solomon, he's the bridegroom. In Isaiah, who is he in Isaiah? Wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was
upon him. In Lamentations, he's the Sufferer. In Ezekiel, he's
the Glory of the Lord. In Daniel, he's the Beloved.
In Hosea, he's the Forgiving Husband. In Joel, he's the Giver
of the Spirit. In Amos, he's the Judge of all
Nations. In Obadiah, he is the Deliverer of Israel. In Jonah,
he's the Sovereign Savior. Salvation is of the Lord, Jonah
cried. In Habakkuk, he's the Faithful
One. In Micah, he's Bethlehem's Infant. In Zephaniah, he's the
Universal Governor. In Haggai, he's the desire of
all nations. In Zechariah, he's the foundation
stone. In Malachi, he's the messenger
of the covenant. God never has had but one way
of saving sinners, and that's through Christ. And everybody
who lived before Calvary, Moses and Abraham and Joshua and Joseph
and Jacob and Isaac and David and all of them, they looked
to Christ. They looked to the coming Messiah, the coming Redeemer.
And every blood sacrifice they brought said, we're waiting on
Christ. And we who live after Calvary, we look back to the
cross and believe.