The fulfillment of God's purposes, centering on Jesus Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of Old Testament promises, beginning with Abraham's call in Genesis 12. It traces this lineage through Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David, highlighting God's promises of family, an heir, an inheritance, and a heritage to Abraham. The message emphasizes that Jesus is the singular seed through whom all nations are blessed, fulfilling prophecies like the one in Deuteronomy 18 about a prophet like Moses. This prophet, Jesus, is presented as the mediator and the ultimate lawgiver, bringing the gospel of grace and inaugurating the acceptable year of the Lord, thereby completing God's redemptive purpose.
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We want to continue our thinking on the subject of the fulfillment of God's purposes or the theology of fulfillment as found in the Word of God. We're going to turn the pages of our Bibles tonight quite a bit, as we did the last time in the last session on the fulfillment of the purposes of God. Verse one, Genesis twelve. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, you'll notice that that expression not a Lord had said. That means that God appeared to Abraham previously. And to find that appearing, you have to turn to the New Testament, which we will not do, to the address of Stephen in Acts chapter seven.
There's where we find the first appearance of God to Abraham when he dwelt in, before he dwelt in Heron, when he was still in Mesopotamia. In that passage he says, the God of glory appeared to our Father Abraham when he dwelt in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Heron. Or as it's mentioned in Acts seven in King James, it's mentioned as Caron. Now the word has said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation. and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. May the Lord bless his word. Let's pray together. O God our Father, as we seek to lay a foundation from the Old Testament scriptures that declare so plainly what Paul declared in the Gospel, that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried and that he arose again the third day according to the scriptures we thank you for that glorious foundation laid in the old testament and we pray our father that as we see the focal point of it in the redemptive program of thy dear son that our hearts may rejoice and that we may say with the early apostles we have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth.
So take the word tonight, search our hearts, and establish our hearts in peace for the Lord Jesus' sake and glory. Amen. When we introduced this series on the theology of fulfillment, we saw that our Lord Jesus Christ is a focal point of God's purpose. He is the fulfillment of Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen. And we work from Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen down to the end of chapter nine. And in chapter nine you have Noah and his three sons coming forth after the flood, coming forth out of the ark.
When the ark rested upon Mount Ararat, they come forth and We noted that in a special sense, God calls himself something different. He calls himself the God of Shem. The God of Shem. In other words, the Shemites are going to have a special relationship with God. In other words, to understand this truth, we have the confirmation within that God is God and that what He purposes, He fulfills. And what we find through laying this foundation from the New Testament, from the Old Testament, seeing its fulfillment in the person of God's dear Son in the New Testament, it establishes our hearts in faith in the promises that God has made.
God keeps His word. Two weeks ago, we had a young missionary with us, Pamela Jamrosi. She was here on a Wednesday night. And she gave me a copy of the history of New Tribe's mission. For she's going out to Papua New Guinea under the auspices of New Tribe's mission. If you study the mission, New Tribe's mission, you'll find that New Tribe's mission follows the same principle on giving and sending missionaries. that we hold to right here in our assembly, and that the brethren have held to since the early days of missions, for they were the pioneers under Anthony Norris Groves and others.
And I couldn't hardly put that book down until I read every word of it. My wife now has it. But there was one section in this book on the history of New Tribes' mission that really caught my attention. It was chapter twenty-three. It was pages two hundred and fifty-one of that book. And what caught my eye was something that has bothered me down through the years. And the same thing that's true in the homeland is also true on the mission field. And that is, why don't many of the converts stick?
And you know and I know, one of the biggest problems that we faced in the church in the past fifty years, since I'm aware of getting involved in the church in a very real way, is I've seen many make professions. And they go on for a little while, like the seed that was sown among the thorns of Matthew thirteen. But then the cares of the world. and the other things choke out the word and they don't bear fruit. You see, they have that on the mission field and it became a real concern of the missionaries.
And there's an Australian who came up, a man by the name of Trevor McAwen. He came up with an answer to the problem. And the new tribe's mission follows the pattern that he laid down. And they find when they follow the pattern that he's laid down, that this man discovered from the word of God, that he's laid down by the new tribe's missionaries, when they go to a new tribe, learn their language, teach them to read and write, and then do the many other things. They found that by laying this careful foundation in their careful foundation that they laid, it don't give them the New Testament right away.
Teach them from the Old Testament the various stories of God's purpose as outlined in the Old Testament. And then when they open the New Testament, for that's what they always work on in translating They see immediately that Jesus is a fulfillment of all that was promised by God in the Old Testament. They have a foundation for their faith. And they hit the ground running. If I may use that expression. Just like the people in the synagogues where Paul went.
God had a purpose when he said to the Jew first. In Romans one sixteen. because a Jew had a background in the Old Testament scriptures. He understood it, and God could find the best soil into which he could plant the seed of the gospel, and it would bear fruit. And there's a great lesson there. And when I started with that, it began to work in my thinking. concerning this series of messages on the theology of fulfillment. So tonight, as we follow through what we started with, Genesis three, fifteen is the seed plot of the Bible.
And I began to think of what I did when I first came to North Carolina. I started Bible classes. And in that Bible, in those Bible classes, if you still have the notes, I don't know if you do from those early years or not. If you still have the notes, I started with a series called Christ in all the Scriptures. That's where we started. And that's where a great interest was laid. And people came to me one after another and said, we never... knew that the Old Testament was so interesting.
Christ in all the Scriptures. I'm not going to go any further in that. We saw that Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen is a seed plot of the Bible, where God announces to the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed, the seed of the enemy, the seed of Satan, and her seed, the seed of the woman. He shall crush your head, but you're going to bruise his heel. And we find the redemptive purpose of God in the third chapter of Genesis where sin entered the human family.
But tonight we're dealing furthermore with the doctrine of fulfillment, and therefore we're in Genesis chapter twelve, verses one through three. The call of Abraham in the Old Testament is one of the most important events relative to the person of Christ. Again, God reconfirms his promise. If you note Genesis chapter twelve, verses one through three, chapter thirteen, verses fourteen, through sixteen, chapter fifteen, and chapter seventeen, this promise that God makes here initially in chapter twelve, he reiterates, and in chapter fifteen it becomes a covenant, known as the Abrahamic covenant, reconfirmed in chapter seventeen, and again in chapter eighteen, and again in chapter twenty-two.
What are we really saying? We're just simply saying how important the call of Abraham is. For Abraham, we see from Abraham is going to move to Isaac. We're going to move to Jacob. From Jacob, we're going to move to Judah. From Judah, we're going to move down to the Old Testament. And finally, we're going to move to David in Second Samuel, chapter seven. And from David, we move right on to the person of Christ, who was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh. And the New Testament opens with the words, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Here we have the doctrine of fulfillment, what God purposes. He brings the past and the whole of the explanation of justification by faith in the epistle to the Galatians. He's bound up in understanding the covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis chapter fifteen. Now, furthermore, I want you to notice what is involved in these first three verses of Genesis chapter twelve, for they are most important. Notice, God promises Abraham a family. And by the way, that's of the family of Shem.
Abraham was a Shemite. And back in chapter nine or two weeks ago we noted that God calls himself the God of Shem. He not only promises him a family, he promises him an heir, a seed. Did you notice that? He promises him a seed. In verse three, I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee and in thee shall all the families of the earth Be blessed. I'm looking for that. The word seed is here in one of these verses because I looked at it last night.
But I want you to notice, Father, he not only promised him a family, an heir seed, he says, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. An inheritance, he promises him a land. and he promises him a heritage, in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. All these four things are all promised to Abraham by God when he calls him. Let me go over them again. He promises him a family. What a blessing.
I remember... When I was a boy, when they would have a discussion on the Bible in our home, my father had an expression that I often wondered what it meant. It took me years to figure it out because I never asked him. And the expression was this, Sarah shall have a bigger family. That's what our brother Neil was on this morning at the Lord's Supper when he ministered to us. You see, those of us who are saved by God's matchless grace are children of Abraham. And we're children, according to Galatians chapter four, not of the bond woman Hagar, but of the free woman, Sarah.
And I understand that. And I can see that my father understood the scriptures. Sarah shall have a bigger family. My. It's good to remember what your parents say, isn't it? Abraham, God promises him a family. Number two, he promises him an heir, seed. Galatians chapter three, verse sixteen. He saith not as to seeds as of many, but as of one, a singular seed. And then the Spirit of God tells us who the seed is, and to thy seed, which is Christ.
A family and an heir. The heir of Abraham is Christ. Furthermore, he promises him an inheritance, especially in chapter thirteen, the land. The land of Israel, the land of Canaan. And furthermore, he promises him an heritage blessing to the world. Now like Eve, remember Eve was looking forward to a future descendant. who would fulfill what God gave in promise to the devil. Genesis three fifteen. I will put enmity between the and the woman. And Eve looked to the future for the fulfillment of it.
Now, just like Eve, Abraham also does. Eve looks to the future. And Isaac is made to look to the future. And Jacob is made to look to the future. to all these three, what we call the patriarchs, all the way to Joseph. It was always looking to the future. And you remember the instructions Joseph gave concerning his bones. I don't want to be buried in Egypt. You bury me in the land of Canaan. He was looking forward to the future and the future fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham.
So... they were forward to the heir who would bring the blessing to the world. Now mixed with his glorious promise mentioning the earth, there is the expectation in this passage that God would not only redeem men's souls, but that he would accomplish the same kind of redemption for the earth itself. And when you come to the eighth chapter of the Romans, We find the fulfillment of that in when the resurrection of the body of the saints, at the time when at the manifestation of the sons of God, the scripture says in the first epistle of John chapter three, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him.
For we shall see him as he is. And this is the manifestation of the sons of God. And that the manifestation of the sons of God, according to Romans chapter eight, creation itself is going to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into which creation was brought unwillingly by the sin of man. But there's going to be redemption for creation itself. So let us look at the blessing that God promises Abraham. He says, I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing. It's twofold. For the more, he says to him, In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
And in Revelation chapter seven, and in Revelation chapter five, we see people from every kindred and tribe and nation and tongue gathered before the before the throne of God, giving glory to God, having been redeemed by matchless grace. Indeed, to all the families of the earth be blessed, and to the seed of Abraham, our Lord Jesus Christ, blessing has been brought to every family on earth, because there won't be a one of God's people missing. They'll all be there. And our blessed Lord, according to Hebrews, too, will be able to say, Behold, I and the children which thou hast given me.
Furthermore, in chapter seventeen and verse six, God says to Abraham, I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And how true that has been, that more than kings coming out of him, like David, and Solomon and the other kings of Israel, we have the king of kings and the Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made of the seed of Abraham. Now, this leaves Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a hope for a dynastic kingdom that belongs to God and to God alone.
All friends, the theology of fulfillment It lays before us a foundation that blesses our souls and enables us to enter into the presence of God with rejoicing and expectation. But we're going to move on. We're going to go all the way over to the book of Deuteronomy chapter eighteen. In Deuteronomy chapter eighteen, God through Moses expands that which he said. in Genesis chapter twelve in which we see as the nation of Israel develops. Israel is now on the borders of the land of Canaan.
They are about to enter in. They're in a place called the plains of Moab. They're about to go across the Jordan. So Moses has something to say to them. That's very special. And the book of Deuteronomy is what is known as the second law. The generation that was born in the wilderness is now going to enter the land. And as they enter the land, they have to be instructed as to the purposes of God. What is God going to say? Notice verse fifteen. Deuteronomy chapter eighteen. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee.
of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him shall ye hearken. According to all that thou desirous of the Lord thy God in Horeb, in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken, that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, Like unto thee. And will put my words in his mouth. I'm going to just stop there and go out on a limb. Remember the Gospel by John.
Remember chapter five in particular. In John chapter fourteen. Remember what our Lord said. The works that I do are not my works. They're the works of the Father. The words that I speak are not my words. They're the words that the Father gives me. That's who I speak. So when we come and we talk about the prophet greater than Moses, we're talking about none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, when you read this passage, when you read this passage, it is interesting to keep in mind the genealogies in the New Testament.
And what God doesn't say. God didn't say to Moses, the word thy God is going to raise up a prophet of thy seed. He never said that. For this reason. Of all the great men of the Old Testament who were used by God, there is one who is not in the genealogy. And that's Moses. Moses was not in the line of the genealogy of Christ. Moses was of the tribe of Levi, if you'll remember. Christ sprang out of Judah.
And when people want to make so much of Moses, you know, we've got to remind them he's not even in the genealogy. Moses was the giver of the law. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, let me finish that verse, verse eighteen. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, alike unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. Now the context in which this great prophecy falls serves as a warning to Israel, not to resort.
to fanciful practices of divination. Don't be like the nations round about who practice all kinds of ways of divination. In other words, demon worship. It is not only wrong, it is unnecessary. As a people of God, you don't need it. You are something that is far more sure than the word of the devil could ever be. We have the word of God. The Christian does not need to resort to any other thing than the word of God.
It is wrong to begin with, and number two, it is unnecessary. But more than that, why is it wrong and why is it unnecessary? Well, because God says, I'm going to raise up a prophet, and I want you to listen to him. And he's going to be a prophet who is greater than Moses. And the scripture here declares, this prophet they must hear. And how they hear him will be the point of issue in their judgment. That's why when our Lord came, he said, he that has ears to hear.
Let him hear. And how we hear God's masterpiece, the prophet of God, is the point of issue in the judgment. Have you listened to the one who God said was coming, who is greater than Moses? So when God appeared on Mount Sinai, in the midst of this passage on the prophet, he said, You couldn't take the fire and the presence of God. You begged that he would not speak anymore. And God says, you said, well, for I have something greater to tell you. There's a prophet who is greater than Moses who is coming, and the prophet greater than Moses is the one to be listened to.
Oh, what a testimony this is. Now we ask the question, who is that prophet? For throughout the Old Testament, no other prophet stood as high as Moses. Jeremiah was a great man. Ezekiel was a great man. But no prophet in the Old Testament could match Moses. In what way? In the way he ministered the office of mediator. For when you get to chapter thirty-three and thirty-four of the book of Exodus, You have a mediation there that brings me to tears when I see Moses standing before God.
For in chapter thirty-two, Israel ascribed to a golden calf that they made the attributes of God. And Moses stood between Israel and the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, Stand aside, and I'll wipe them off the face of the earth, and I'll make of you a great nation. Oh, Moses there, he beheld something that you and I need to behold day by day, he beheld the glory of God. He said, Lord, what will the people say if you do that? Don't do that. Pardon them. And if you won't do that, wipe me out of the book.
He's the only man, apart from the Apostle Paul, who prayed to go to hell. He loved the people that much. He said, wipe me out of the book. And the scripture says in the thirty-fourth chapter of the book of Exodus that God spake face to face with Moses as a man speaketh with his friend. Oh, what an expression. There isn't a man in the Old Testament, a prophet that rose to the height that Moses was. at the beginning of their history as a nation.
No prophet was a mediator like Moses was. Yet our text demands it's going to be a prophet like unto Moses. That's what it says. And when you come to First Timothy two five, we read what? There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. He is a prophet. Now, I'm going to go through a lot of scriptures, and if you want to jot them down, you can, to see the fulfillment of this. And I'm doing this for the sake of time.
When we talk about how the New Testament gives us the answer to the fulfillment of this, we're going to turn to one of them. but we're going to first of all say in Luke chapter twenty four nineteen we read that Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet mighty in word and indeed a prophet like unto Moses for the more he was without guile first Peter chapter two and verse twenty two but as a prophet who is coming into the world That's what they said of him in John six and verse fourteen, when he multiplied the loaves and the fishes.
He is that prophet that was coming into the world. They knew the text of Deuteronomy chapter eighteen. John chapter four, verse twenty five, the woman of Samaria, the Samaritans knew that the Messiah was coming. And she said, are you greater than our Father Abraham who gave us, or our Father Jacob who gave us the well, the well of Sychar? Are you greater than he? The Lord said to her, when she said, I know that Messiah comes, he said, I am the Messiah.
For she said to him, when he told her about all her life, her life of impurity, Having five husbands and the one she was living with was not her husband. She said, I saw a prophet. He must be the prophet greater than Moses. Like unto Moses. And here she sees and meets the Messiah, the fulfillment of the promise of God. John chapter seven, verse forty. The same truth is brought out. But I want you to turn to Matthew seventeen. In Matthew chapter seventeen we have to me one of the great activities of our blessed Lord while he walked among men.
And I have reference to the transfiguration of Christ. When the veil of his flesh was lifted and they be And there they saw the glory of the Son of Man. As he entered into glory, into the glory of the Father. And Moses was there. Elijah was there. And Peter, James and John was there. And Peter, you remember, he opened his mouth. He said, Lord, it's good for us to be here. Let's make three tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. We might as well worship all three. Oh, what a mistake he made.
And a cloud overshadowed them. And God said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. Our Lord incorporates the whole of the Old Testament. Amen. in a statement. I want you to follow me. The Old Testament was in three parts in those days. You have the law, the Pentateuch, that's the law of Moses. And the book of Deuteronomy is in the Pentateuch, the law of Moses. Then you have the Psalms and the prophets.
Our Lord takes a bit from the Psalms and also from the prophets and from the book of the law, the book of Moses. This is my beloved son. That's Isaiah forty-two. It's also the second psalm. In whom am I well pleased? That's Isaiah forty-two. Hear him. That's Deuteronomy eighteen. Unto him shall you hearken. And what God is saying there to Peter, James, and John on the mountain is this is the fulfillment of that great statement in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen.
When you go through the Sermon on the Mount, we find our Lord doing something that no one else could ever do. He said, you have heard it hath been said of old time. Thou shalt not do this and that. But I say unto you. And you should go through Matthew chapter five. And every time our Lord says, but I say unto you, he's not just putting a stamp on what Moses said. What he's doing, he's saying, I'm giving you a new law. I am the new lawgiver. I am the prophet like unto Moses.
You find it in Matthew five, twenty-two, again in verse twenty-six, again in verse twenty-eight, again in verse thirty-two, verse thirty-four, verse thirty-eight, and in verse forty-four, all in the fifth chapter of Matthew, in what is known as a sermon on the mouth. Our Lord, when He was here on earth, He spoke of His mission. in the terms of bringing a message from God the Father. Turn over to John chapter seventeen. John seventeen in the high priestly prayer of the Lord, he speaks of his mission as being from God the Father.
Look at verse six. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. In other words, he's speaking of his mission as from God the Father. Look at verse eight. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and I have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that God did send me. His mission was from God the Father.
Furthermore, look at verse fourteen. He says, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. When you go to that great epistle to the Hebrews, you find the opening verses of chapter one, and it speaks of our blessed Lord as a fulfillment of the revelation of God. Furthermore, Jesus himself emphasized that the word he brought would be delivered to us at the hands of his apostles.
And I hinted at this this morning, I think in the Sunday school hour, but I want you to turn now to John chapter sixteen. John chapter sixteen verses twelve and thirteen. where we read in verse twelve, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How be it when he, the spirit of truth, has come. Now the spirit of truth could not come until the Lord Jesus went. You see, he had to be glorified at the right hand of God before the Holy Spirit would come. But when he has come, He will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. In other words, the message that God has for us as a people of God is going to be delivered concerning him by the apostles. Again, notice John seventeen and verse six. We just... read this verse, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. And we'll have a completion of the all things.
I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he has come, he will guide you into all truths. All things. He will make all things known. In other words, he's going to complete the revelation of God. And therefore, when you come to the end of the New Testament, the little epistle of Jude, the third verse of the epistle of Jude, we read, and that's the second last book of the Bible. The little epistle of Jude, the third verse, he says that we should earnestly contend for the faith. Once delivered unto the saints.
And that expression once delivered talks about the completion of the revelation of God. And the completion of the revelation of God is not only a book, but it is a word that reveals the person and work and redemptive purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have one thing quickly yet. And it is this, a question. What is the message that the prophet brings? Is prophet greater than Moses? What is the message that he is going to bring? The message he is going to bring is the gospel of grace, the good tidings of salvation.
And I want you to turn to Luke chapter four. Luke four. And our Lord's message in the synagogue at Nazareth. Luke four, verses sixteen through twenty one, where we read, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for the read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's quoting from Isaiah's He's reading Isaiah chapter sixty-one, verses one and two.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovery of sight to the blind, to set a liberty them that are bruised, to preach the year of Jubilee. the acceptable year of the Lord. It is the good tidings of salvation that our Lord came to announce and to bring to men. And you'll find this truth reiterated over in Matthew chapter eleven, verses two through five. In Matthew eleven, John the Baptist is in jail.
He'd been put there by King Herod. And our Lord didn't seem to do anything about it. How would you like to represent one who doesn't seem to bother when you're in prison? John the Baptist had proclaimed a message. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When he saw the Savior, he said, Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. And now he's in prison. And our Lord didn't seem to help John. John sends two of his disciples and he said to the Lord, Are thou he that should come, or should we look for another?
What did our Lord do? He preached to him the doctrine of fulfillment. He said, You go tell John that the blind received their sight. That's what he said in the synagogue. The lame walk. and the poor have the gospel preached to them. What is God's purpose? God's purpose is a redemptive purpose to our Lord Jesus Christ in bringing the gospel of grace to poor sinners. And it was authenticated in the life and ministry of Christ, a fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures.
And what a book. and what a fulfillment. And when he said, I came to inaugurate the acceptable year in the Lord, the year of Jubilee, what was that? The year of Jubilee was when every man's indebtedness to God could be canceled. And oh, what a blessing is the gospel of grace, for our indebtedness to God is canceled. through the glorious work of Christ, dying for our sins according to the Scriptures,