The theology of fulfillment demonstrates how the Old Testament anticipates and is fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ, countering heresies like Marcionism that deny the continuity between the Old and New Testaments. The sermon traces this fulfillment from Genesis 3:15, where God promises a deliverer who will crush the serpent's head, through Christ's own words in Matthew 5:17 and Luke 24, and the Apostles' understanding in Romans 16:20 and 1 Corinthians 2:20. This theological framework provides assurance, confirms God's faithfulness, and reveals His control over history, ultimately equipping believers for confident witness and steadfast endurance.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 1.87 → restored 4.12
We want to turn tonight to Deuteronomy chapter four. Deuteronomy chapter four and two verses, verses twenty three and twenty four, and then we want to turn to Hebrews chapter twelve for a few verses. Deuteronomy chapter four and verse twenty three. Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.
For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. Now from Hebrews chapter twelve, verse twenty-five, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Whose voice then shook the earth, but nah, he hath promised, saying, Yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also the heavens. And this word, yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's pray together. Father, in the precious name of thy dear son, we bow before you. We thank you for the assurance that the study of your word gives to us. Assurance that is subjective, for it issues in rest which our souls enjoy, peace with thee, joy in the Holy Spirit.
But it's also objective, for we can look away from ourselves and have an objective witness to the person of thy dear Son. and to the salvation that is ours in Christ. Receive our thanks in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The last few Sunday nights, ten of them at least, we have studied together the imprecatory Psalms. And tonight we want to begin a series on the subject of the theology of fulfillment. or a series which speaks of the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the New Testament in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is very important in our study of the Scriptures. We do not want to drift in any way into the heresy that was prevalent in the second century of this church age. During the second century of Christianity, there was a notable heretic by the name of Marcion who came to power in Asia Minor, and even though he was excommunicated, what he taught had a very destructive teaching which lingered for a few centuries in the Christian church and has even been revived in our day.
Marcion believed and taught that there was the total incompatibility between the Old and the New Testament. He believed in a radical discontinuity between the Old and the New. He therefore made a translation of the Bible all his own. There was no Old Testament. The God of the Old Testament to him was not the God of the New Testament. His Bible contained only one gospel account, the gospel by Luke, and only ten of the epistles, and he had none of the pastoral epistles in his Bible that he translated.
Martian and his heresy never completely died out. For in the nineteenth century, in the Enlightenment that began in Germany, with a man by the name of Frederick Schrar-Macher, He was a father of what we know of as modern liberalism. And he followed the footsteps of Marcion. And many have followed the footsteps of Scharlemacher today. And if you read anything in some of the important magazines, I say important because they're read a lot.
If you read anything that deals with religion or something like that in National Geographic, you find the works of Schrallemacher, the name isn't connected with it, but what he thought is. And if you follow any of the modern religion writers who write in the newspapers, they basically follow what Schrallemacher taught in the eighteenth century. It is interesting to note. what we read together tonight in Deuteronomy chapter four. We read in Deuteronomy four in verse twenty-four that our God is a consuming fire. We read in Hebrews chapter twelve in verse twenty-nine, our God is a consuming fire.
The God of the New Testament is not different from the God of the Old Testament. The God among Sinai is the same God as the God among Zion. and Mount Calvary. So what we want to look at tonight are a number of verses that deal with this subject of fulfillment. And we want to begin, strange as it may seem, in the New Testament. I want you to turn with me to Galatians chapter four and verse four. I hope that man leaves his mowing machine silent for a little while. I'm always amazed at the world and what they do.
Galatians chapter four in verse four says, But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of son. What we basically want is to examine what Chapter four and verse four really speaks. The first thing that you notice in Galatians chapter four, verse four, is that there was a definite time when Jesus arrived. It is called in the text the wholeness of time.
That expression is very important. But when the wholeness of the time has come, God sent forth his son. That expression, fullness of time, is important because it implies that there was a previous period of preparation, and so there was. When you examine the Old Testament, the Old Testament is the preparation for the coming of the Messiah. The focal point of the Old Testament is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. and the great redemption which will result from his redeeming work at Calvary's cross.
So, when the fullness of the time has come, it implies a period of preparation. Furthermore, it also implies that there was an era which not only anticipated the coming of Christ, but by its law. It led... to that anticipation. Therefore, we conclude that there was a great need for Christ to come. It was necessary, and when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son. The fourth thing that that tells us is this.
It tells us that up to that point, the point when the Savior came, All history had been running toward that very goal. And the very goal of history is a person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is centered in a person. We get all excited about events. But the object of the Scriptures is to direct our attention to a person. It doesn't say when the fullness of the time has come, there was Christmas. It says when the fullness of the time has come, God sent forth His Son.
It's the person that is so important. And that's exactly what we read in second Corinthians chapter two in verse twenty. And I want to read that passage, second Corinthians chapter two in verse twenty. And it says, As you read, there is no twenty verses in chapter two. But there is in chapter one. My computer wrote the wrong number. And there's someone who really gets a kick out of that. And it's in verse twenty.
I could have quoted the verse. It says, yea, all the promises of God. In him are yea. and in him, amen. All the promises of God, and that includes all the promises of the Old Testament, are in him, yea, and in him, amen. Now, we note from this verse the Gospel accounts how our Lord fulfilled the Old Testament scriptures. And we turn to Matthew chapter five in verse seventeen.
I'm going to have you turn quite a bit tonight. Because I want you to notice this. And I have an objection. And I have an objective view in having you turn with me. In Matthew five verse seventeen. It says. Think not that I am come to destroy the law on the prophets. The law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. So we find our Lord recognizing the importance of the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scripture. Turn over to Luke chapter ten and verse twenty-three.
Luke chapter ten and verse twenty three. We read and he turned him unto his disciples and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired. Here we have the anticipation. They desire to see those things which ye see and have not seen them. and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them. Look at chapter twenty-four of Luke and verse twenty-seven. In Luke chapter twenty-four we have the great story of the two on the road to Emmaus on resurrection night.
And our word drew near and went with them. And we read in chapter twenty-four. and verse twenty seven these words and beginning at Moses that's the book of Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy the first five books of the Bible beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself verse forty four says and he said unto them These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you. That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.
He is the object of the Old Testament scriptures. Now turn over to the Gospel of John chapter five and verse thirty nine. John five, verse thirty nine says, Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. Verse forty six, a most important passage, for had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me.
The Doctrine of Fulfillment. Chapter eight of John and verse fifty-six. John eight, verse fifty-six. Our Lord says, Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Finally, as our Lord applies these scriptures to himself, We can't forget Hebrews chapter ten and verse seven. When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering, I would not, but a body has stopped, repaired me.
In the volume of the book, it is written to me to do thy will, O God. There are many people who say that we should study the Old Testament on its own terms. But if we leave out the Christological application of the Old Testament, all you have left is a grammatical, historical Old Testament, and we must read the Old Testament better than that. God expects you and me to read Christ when we read the Old Testament. He doesn't just simply expect us to read the grammatical, historical in the Old Testament.
He expects us to see him. It was Augustine who said, who coined a phrase that is often used. The old is in the new revealed. And the new is in the old concealed. So we begin basically at the beginning. And when we begin at the beginning, you have to begin with a purpose of God outlined in the third chapter of Genesis and verse fifteen. To me, Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen could be called, and you couldn't argue with anyone if they said this, it is the most important verse in the Old Testament.
For everything in the Old Testament springs out of Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen. It is a seed plot of the Bible. For here God proclaims his purpose. In Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen, God is not speaking to man. God is speaking to the devil. Man is simply listening in. This statement was made to the serpent, and it is full of meaning. If we fail to study this passage, I'll tell you one thing. Satan has studied it. The devil knows Genesis three-fifteen, and I believe he knows it better than mortitude who go to church week after week.
He has studied it. And what do we learn from this passage? God says to the Satan, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. There are a number of things that this verse tells us. Number one, the deliverer will be one of humanity. He will be the woman's seed. That's the first thing that we learn from this test. The second thing we learn about him, that he will be a male descendant. It is he and not she.
The third thing that is most important is the nature of the tempter's defeat will be total. His head will be crushed. The fourth thing that we learn from this test is that the deliverer will be bruised in the process. And that is very important. Now Christ took this verse. And when our Lord took this verse, he applied it to himself. He made use of this prophecy. And the whole of the Old Testament is a fulfillment and the working out in anticipation of that which God said to Satan in the Garden of Eden at the fallen man.
And I want you to notice how Christ uses this verse. I want you to turn to the Gospel of John chapter twelve and verse thirty one. John twelve, verse thirty-one says, Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. After our word announced that this is the time the hour has come for the prince of the world to be cast out.
He then goes on to announce how the defeat of the enemy will come. Verse thirty-two. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me. I, if I be lifted up, he had previously said the Nicodemus in John three, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so much the Son of Man be lifted up. Here he said, And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me. Somehow the deliverer will defeat the tempter by dying.
That's what he said in John three, the Nicodemus. And that is what he said in John chapter twelve to his own disciples. Now the Apostle Paul refers to Genesis three and verse fifteen in the book of Romans. And I invite you to turn to Romans chapter sixteen and verse twenty. An interesting verse. Romans sixteen and verse twenty, where we read, And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Here, the Apostle Paul is writing to the church.
Here, the hope that Paul expresses is yet a future one, and he's looking forward to it. You and I say, and according to our Lord, that Satan was defeated at the cross. The Apostle Paul goes forward to it as a future hope, one in which the church is going to rejoice in. Because he's going to be under the feet of God's redeemed people. What do you do with that? I tell you what you do. You just turn to the book of the Revelation chapter twenty. And you read that whole chapter.
And the chapter reveals the defeat of Satan. His final defeat. And what do we learn from this? We conclude that Satan's defeat was accomplished at the cross. and that it is brought into full fruition at the second coming of Christ in glory. And when our Lord comes again, the purpose for which he died is going to be brought into the full blaze of the glory that belongs to the Son of God at the Lord's Supper. It is written concerning our activity.
As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show forth his death until he comes. They are both linked together. Why? Why? Because it's the fulfillment of that which announced the purpose of God in the Garden of Eden. The theology of fulfillment. You see, prophecy does not point to one single act. Prophecy points to a person and a succession of acts produced by that person. And when our Lord came the first time, he came for the purpose of putting away sin.
By the sacrifice of himself, when he comes a second time, it is for the purpose of the consummation of bringing his people home safely to glory, every one of them who was given to him by the Father. They'll all be there. There won't be a one missing. He could say, Oh, that the Father giveth to me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that sent me. that of all that he has given me, I should lose nothing but raise them up again at the last day.
Oh, the fulfillment of the purpose of God. But then, having begun at Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen, where God announces his purpose to the enemy, to the tempter of man, he reaffirms his purpose in Genesis chapter nine. And the interesting thing is this, every time that God reaffirms his purpose, he produces more light for his people. He reveals more about himself, and he reveals more about his intent and purpose in the redemption of lost sinners.
Turn with me now to the book of Genesis chapter nine. Genesis nine and verse twenty-six. and verse twenty seven. In Genesis chapter nine, it is after the flood of Noah. And it was by Noah's three sons that the whole earth was peopleed, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And all the families of the earth are related to either Ham, Shem, or Japheth. We're all related to either one of the three.
There are some who are related to more than one of them because of the intermingling of the races. But we're all related to the three sons of Noah. And verses twenty-six and twenty-seven we have the purpose of God. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. and Canaan shall be his servant. I'm not going to give an exposition of those verses. I just want to say something that they contain. For the first time in Scripture, God is said to be the God of an individual, the God of Shem.
God now designates himself as a God of Shem. But the blessing goes further. God says he's going to dwell in the tents of Shem. And how important that is. In other words, that means that God is going to have a special relationship with the descendants of this one, this man by the name of Shem. And so it was. You see, it was through the family of Shem that Abraham came and Abraham became the object of God's special care.
And from Abraham came the nation of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And in Romans chapter nine and verse four in the New Testament, the question is asked, who are Israelites? And the question is answered in Romans nine and verse four, and it says concerning them, in telling us who are Israelites, they to whom belong the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and who to the flesh, the Messiah, Christ, came. You see, it was as a Shemite of the seed of Abraham that our word came.
and through his redemptive act at Calvary he brought deliverance for his people and then God because he used that nation he commanded that the gospel be given to them first for we read in Romans one sixteen I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles. I want to say just a word about that verse. I believe that verse has been historically fulfilled.
I don't agree with those who are in Jewish missions and many of them who emphasize that before we go to the Gentiles we have to go to the Jews with the gospel. I believe that the Jews rejected the message. I believe after Acts chapter twenty-eight, when they at Rome rejected Paul's message of the gospel, Paul says, well, the gospel will go to the Gentiles. And you and I have, now, I don't think we should ignore taking the gospel to the Jews. But the gospel went to the Jews first. Paul always went to the Jew first with the gospel.
But I don't believe that verse means that I have to be sure to preach to a Jew before I preach to a Gentile. It doesn't mean that at all. I think it was historically fulfilled in the lives of the apostles. So we want to conclude this message and we want to apply it. As we have thought about the theology of fulfillment, And we barely began this great subject. It is so important to see the fulfillment of God's purposes in the person of Christ for a number of reasons. Number one, it gives us both confidence and assurance.
I believe if there's something that is needed in the church today, it is confidence in the person of Christ. I believe that we need to have confidence and there's only one place you're going to get it. You're not going to get it apart from the Word of God. And the one thing that will give you confidence is to see the way in which the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament in the person of Jesus Christ, his person and his work.
When I was dating Phyllis, she lived at one end of the state and I lived in the middle of the state, just about a hundred and seventy miles apart. And I wouldn't get out to see her except once or twice a month. And this took a period of four years. But nevertheless, before I'd make the trip, I'd get down on my knees. Not praying exactly for safety that nothing would happen, but asking the Lord to give me somebody to travel with me, a hitchhiker, so that I could tell them about Christ.
And you know how I begin? You see, the hardest thing in witnessing is getting started. Once you get started, it's easy. It's getting started with a stranger. And when you have enough confidence in the Word of God, and the thing that gave me confidence was what I call today the theology of fulfillment, to talk about how the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament, in the person of Jesus Christ. And, beloved, without that confidence in the Old Testament scriptures, You can't even witness, you can't begin to witness to a Jew.
Because a Jew doesn't accept the New Testament. But if you can show that the Old Testament is fulfilled in the person that they're missing. And the only way you're going to get it is through study of the Old Testament scriptures as they relate to the person of Christ. The second thing it does, it teaches us that God keeps his word. And this is what gives us confidence. God is the God who keeps his word. God has made threats, and he has made promises, and he keeps every one of them.
He keeps every one of them. He that believeth not. shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth on him. That is kept as much as whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. The promises are made by the same God. Whosoever believeth in him will not perish. And if you just trace that word, perish through the New Testament. The preaching of the cross is to them who are perishing foolishness, but unto us who will are saved.
It's the power of God. Not perish, but he that obeyeth not the Son of God shall not see life. That's a promise, just as much as the other. God keeps his word. And we have a Bible that displays that. and it needs to be shown to poor sinners. This is a predicament you're in, and unless you repent, you will perish. But there's a third thing it does. It teaches us that in all the events in history, our God is in control, and he is working on his purposes, according to the counsel of his own will.
You see, we learn to know who the God is that Jeremiah told us we can know. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the rich man glory in his wealth, and let not the strong man glory in his might, but let him glory, but he the glorious, let him glory in this, and he knows me. The second reason is this, when we started tonight, we learned who the God of the Old Testament was. He's a consuming fire.
And in the Old Testament, he demands holiness. In the New Testament, Hebrews twelve, we read that he demands holiness. Our God is a consuming fire. And in the midst of it he says, See that ye don't refuse him that speaks from heaven. For he's going to shake not only the heavens but the earth also. And he has a purpose in the shaking. The removal of those things that can be shaken. So that things that can't be shaken will be made.
You have something tonight that can be shaken. I find far more activity today among things that can be shaken than among the things that can't be shaken by anything that comes. For the things which can't be shaken are the things that are going to remain. Oh, he talks about grace that can't be shaken. You can never shake grace, friend. It's just as solid as it can be. You can't shake that unshakable person, the person of Christ. For all the promises of God are yea and amen in him.
And the peace that he gives is an unshakable peace. Here is the confidence. And here is the assurance. that we as believers can have. For the theology of fulfillment, more than anything else that I know will put a bar of steel down your back, enabling you to witness a right concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Did you ever ask yourself the question? In the face of all that the Apostle Paul endured, what kept him going? You see, I find people today who turn back at the least thing.
You wonder what they really got. You wonder what they really have. What kept the Apostle Paul going? I'll tell you what it was. He knew the Old Testament. And he saw the Old Testament fulfilled in the person of Christ. He wasn't mistaken. He had absolute assurance. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask you now that you'll take this word, blessed to every heart. We thank you for Christ. We thank you for the way in which he took the word of God and explained the things concerning himself, used this series of messages on the theology of fulfillment in our midst that we as a company of redeemed people will have that confidence and assurance in the person of Christ that enables us to stand and having done all to stand.