The Apostle Paul's writings fulfill God's redemptive purpose in Christ by presenting him as the fulfillment of Old Testament predictions and types. Paul's epistles reveal Christ as the last Adam, the federal head of a new creation, contrasting with Adam's sin and condemnation. He is also depicted as Isaac's ram, illustrating God's provision and argument from the greater to the lesser in giving up His Son. Furthermore, Christ is the Passover lamb, signifying deliverance and the formation of God's people into a holy nation, and the seed of Abraham, through whom all nations are blessed. Paul's ministry highlights Christ's superiority over Moses, representing the glorious ministration of the Spirit and liberty, and the unveiling of God's glory. The sermon concludes by urging believers to give earnest heed to Scripture, study Old Testament types in light of the New Testament, and rejoice in the assurance of Christ's fulfillment of God's promises.
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Let us turn tonight to the book of Acts, chapter seventeen, verse one. Acts seventeen, verse one. Now when they had passed through Antiparas and Apollonia, they came to a Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his menor was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. Now the Scriptures that they had were the Old Testament. The New Testament was not written yet, for God used Paul to write most of the New Testament that we have.
And therefore he reasoned out of the Scriptures, that is the Old Testament, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you afresh tonight for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that he is the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the son of righteousness, the star of the morning.
We thank you that he is indeed all we need. We find everything in him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable at the knowledge that you have given us of him. Direct our thoughts in order that we may rejoice together tonight as one who finds great spoil. We give you thanks now for your words. And we pray that as thy word is ministered, you will speak to every heart and confirm us in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we pray in his name with thanksgiving. Amen. This is the seventh message in this series on God's purpose fulfilled. We began with Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen. in that passage that is known as the seed plot of the word of God. The word God is speaking to Satan and he says to him, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and I shall bruise his heel. We also look through the Old Testament scriptures and how this was fulfilled by its predictions as they focused upon the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The focus was vague at first, but the closer they got to the coming of Christ and the first advent of Christ, when Malachi put his pen down, the picture of the Messiah, The seed of the woman, the son of Abraham, the son of David, was perfect. Nothing needed to be added. So when we come to the New Testament, we saw how Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptics, present Christ as a fulfillment of the redemptive purpose of God. We saw how John, in his writings, in his gospel account, and in the revelations, taking the expression of John the Baptist from John one and twenty nine, behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
We saw this Lamb victorious in John's writing in Revelation chapter five last week. The victorious Lord and our coming king. He's presented there as a lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David who prevails. But he's also the Lamb, the Lamb who's crowned with glory upon the throne. Tonight we want to look at the Apostle Paul. God used the Apostle Paul to write most of the New Testament. How does the Apostle Paul fulfill as he focuses upon the person of Christ, that glorious redemptive purpose of God in Christ Jesus the Lord?
Now this should be important to us. It should be important to us because Paul wrote particularly to the Gentiles. And we are Gentiles. To us, Christ is basically a name. We speak of the name of our Lord as our Lord Jesus Christ. And the word Christ to us is basically a name. But to the Jewish people it was more than a name. It meant that he was a Messiah, the anointed one of God. For that's what the Greek word Christos means. the anointed one of God. And in his hometown of Nazareth, this is what our Lord used concerning himself, as outlined in Luke's Gospel.
He could say, the Spirit of the Word, God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. I am the one who is anointed of God. I am the one of whom Isaiah wrote, for he was quoting the passage from Isaiah sixty-one. And he could say to them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. I am the anointed one of God. I am the Messiah. So this is how Paul, by the way, presents him in the New Testament. Now what we want to do tonight is take some expressions that God used Paul to use to write to the Gentile churches.
and how they fit the Old Testament predictions concerning Christ. So first of all, the way in which Paul presents Christ, he draws particular focus and attention to the New Testament or the New Covenant as it's fulfilled in Christ, and he speaks of Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. and especially the Old Covenant Heights. I want you to turn now to Romans chapter five and verse twelve. In Romans chapter five, beginning at verse twelve and to the end of the fifth chapter, you have one of the greatest Christological passages in the whole of the Bible.
For two men are presented in Romans chapter five, verses twelve to the end of the chapter. The two men who stand as a federal head, of a race, each one. Adam and Christ. And in this passage, Christ is presented by the Apostle Paul as the last Adam, the head of a new race, a race of people who are the redeemed of the Lord, a race of people who are declared righteous by God, a race of people who have been saved by grace. Let us begin with verse twelve, and we shall read to the end of the chapter, because there isn't anything that should be left out.
For we read, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned. after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come? In what way is Adam a figure of Christ? And that figure could be used and translated type, a picture. In what way is Adam a picture of Christ? He is a picture of Christ as a federal head.
And that's the only way you can put it. The federal head means one acting on behalf of the many. And everyone in Adam's posterity, Adam chose for them. For by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and death has passed upon every man. And Adam chose for everyone in the old creation. And just as Adam was a figure of him that was to come, Christ chooses for everyone in the new creation. And if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
Now let us notice the implications of the choice of each. So we read in verse fifteen, but not as the offense, so also is a free gift. For if through the offense of one, many be dead. Adam's choice for the old creation. Much more. Now notice the word. Much more. That word, those two words appear continuously in the King James translation through Romans chapter five. And the much more always has the do not to the first Adam, but to the last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. Much more, the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man.
Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one the condemnation. But the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more. Oh, there it is again. Much more. They that receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life. by one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift, came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So, by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered. that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded grace did, much more, there it is again, grace did much more abound, that a sin hath reigned at the death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
So here we find, first of all, but a great contrast, we see that Christ is the last Adam. He is thus portrayed as the one who has brought righteousness to his people. He is the one who has brought the reign of grace into operation, and we reign in life. And we could add one little word. We reign in life now by one man, Jesus Christ. And you and I should be enjoying that reign. We sing that hymn occasionally. There's a land that is fairer than day. And by faith we can see it afar. For the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there in the sweet by and by.
I like the way Dr. Bornhouse changed the words to that. And he wrote this. There's a land that's fairer than day. And by faith we can enter it now. With my will free from death I can sing. X King Death. Leave the throne. Leave it now. Christ is entered. We reign in life by one man, Jesus Christ. So the first thing we notice about the writings of Paul, he fulfills a type of the one who crushed the serpent's head. And he will undo by his mighty work the foolishness of the condemnation and judgment brought about by the first Adam.
Now we move on to the second thing. We move over to chapter eight. Christ is presented as Isaac's ram. Here we see the twenty-second chapter of Genesis fulfilled. In Genesis chapter twenty-two, I'm sure you're familiar with the story. If you're not, you should be ashamed. It's one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. The greatest picture, one of the greatest pictures that's given of the person of Christ to be found anywhere. And God says to Abraham, Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac, and offer him on one of the mountains that I will tell thee of.
And when he got nearer to the place, Isaac and Abraham were walking alone. And Isaac said to Abraham, he said, Behold, the fire and the river. But where is the lamb for a sacrifice? And Abraham answered him, God shall provide a lamb for the sacrifice. And of course, when he got to the place that God showed him, Abraham took Isaac. And keep in mind, Isaac is not a boy, a little boy. He is a grown man.
He bound him and laid him on the altar, and he raised the knife. And God stopped Abraham. He says, Abraham, Abraham, and Abraham said, behold, here am I. And when he looked up, there was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. In other words, Abraham beheld a thorn crowned ram, a lamb, a male lamb, caught in the thicket. No wonder Abraham could name that place Jehovah Jireh in the mount of the word and shall be seen.
But what do we read in Romans We read here he that spared not his own son. Isaac was spared. The son of God was not. If you go through the word of God, it would be an interesting study to take up the things that God did not spare. A number of them are mentioned in the word. God spared not the angels that sinned. You think that maneuver. The angels that sinned, one act of disobedience, God did not spare them. God did not spare the cities of the plain.
Sodom, Gomorrah, and Gomorrah, Adma, and Zaboam. God did not spare those cities. God did not spare his son. And you see that argument in using the type of the Old Testament and bringing it over into the person of Christ. God spared not his own son. We have an argument from the greater to the less. We have an argument that answers a question. In Romans eight, verse twenty eight, two, verse thirty, we have one of the greatest statements that he found anywhere in the Bible concerning the workings of God on behalf of men in the redemption of sinners.
We know that all things do work together for good to them of God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And then he shows what his purpose is. Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestinated, he also called. Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he also glorified. So in verse thirty-one we read in Romans eight, what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? And then to prove that God is for us, he speaks of Isaac's ram.
Just as God is for Isaac, when Abraham offered him up on Mount Moriah, God is for you and me. How do I know? He that spared not his own son. In order to have us, he gave the best that heaven had. Can you ask anything that's greater than the person of Christ? Never. Shall he not also with him, therefore, freely give us all things? In other words, here's the answer. We know that all things do work together for good development of God. It's an argument from the greater to the less.
G. Campbell Morgan, the great Bible teacher, a woman came to him one night and she said, Dr. Morgan, do you pray about the little things in life? He just looked at her. He said, I can't pray about anything in my life. It's big. Can you? What is there in your life that he's big? in comparison to the infinite God of heaven. It may seem big to us, but to him everything is small. He is the infinite God. He that spared not his own son, but deliver him up for us all.
Shall we not also with him freely give us all things? So we move on to First Corinthians chapter five. Here Paul speaks of Christ as the Passover. And now he focuses attention on the events of Exodus chapter twelve. Chapter five, verse seven, he says, the end of the verse, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Christ is presented here as the one who has delivered us just as The Passover lamb in Egypt delivered they who put and applied the blood, who put the blood upon the mantle and the two side posts.
You see, it is this passage that gives real meaning to what happened in Exodus. You couldn't make any sense out of Exodus chapter twelve. if you didn't understand Calvary. It's Calvary that gives Exodus twelve meaning. It is Calvary that gives meaning to what took place that night in Egypt. And you see what took place that night in Egypt. In the Passover in Egypt, God was, the Passover became the beginning of taking a people who were slaves and molding them into a nation.
What took place at Calvary? God took a people who were no people, according to Romans chapter nine, and according to the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi, excuse me, the prophecy of Hosea. I will call them who are no people, and he has referenced to the Gentiles, the children of the living God. And God has made us a holy, excuse me, a holy nation. That's what he says in First Peter chapter two, verse nine. Ye are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, a holy nation.
And that holy nation, beloved, was formed. When? A cavalry. Just as in Egypt, the nation of Israel was formed at the Passover. But now Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. And we have been brought into the family of God or constituted a holy nation. I don't know if that gets you excited or not. But when you put it into the context of First Corinthians five, and the context of First Corinthians five is discipline in the church. For God demands that they who are in this holy nation walk in holiness.
Oh, the redemptive purpose of God in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have to move on. We move on to Galatians chapter three. A passage that we were dealing with this morning in the Sunday school hour here in this room. Christ is presented here as a seed of Abraham. Galatians three, verse sixteen through verse twenty nine. In verse sixteen, we read not that Abraham's seed were the promises made. He saith not, and the seeds as a many, but as a one, and the thy seed, which is Christ. So here we find that the promise that God made to Abraham under the stars In Genesis chapter fifteen, when he said, In thee are all the families of the earth be blessed.
All the families of the earth are blessed through Abraham's seed. And the seed of Abraham, according to the Holy Spirit's interpretation, in Galatians three and verse sixteen, it is narrowed down to one person, the person of Christ, And when you get down to verse twenty-nine, the last verse in the chapter, we read, And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise. Because we, through faith, are linked to our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been blessed with Abraham.
We believed the promise. As Abraham believed the promise, we have seeing that Christ is a fulfillment of that promise and you and I that thus believe are accounted righteous before God now look back at verse thirteen Galatians three Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written curse it is everyone that hangeth on the tree and then something is added verse fourteen that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.
And what is the blessing of Abraham? That we might receive the promise of the Spirit to faith. In the book of Ephesians chapter one, beginning at verse three, and going through verse fourteen. You have the greatest expression that brings together the work of the three members of the Trinity, the one God in redemption. God the Father choosing, God the Son redeeming, God the Holy Spirit applying the work of Calvary the soul.
So, the seed of Abraham is the great Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ. And the blessing which the Lord Jesus has brought is what? The Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer. Last night, as I was studying this passage, I got a new insight, I got some thoughts I never had before regarding the person of Christ and regarding the doctrine of baptism, linking our baptism with the baptism of Christ.
I'm just going to say just a word or two about it. When our Lord gave great commission, in Matthew twenty eight he said all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them and the singular mark of those who belong to Christ is baptism baptizing them How? In the name of the Father. God the Father chose. In the name of the Son.
God the Son redeemed. In the name of the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit applied that redemption to us. Our word began his public ministry with what? That system. His forerunner had been baptizing. Our Lord came to the Jordan River. John the Baptist said, I need to be baptized of you. No, he said, you do this to fulfill all righteousness. And we have the three persons of the Godhead active.
We have the Lord Jesus being baptized in the River Jordan. We have the Holy Spirit descending as a dove. and abiding on Christ. We have the Father's voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And it's very interesting, friend, that on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came and Peter preached that memorable sermon, The crowd cried out, what shall we do?
You see, Peter said, repent and be baptized. If you mean business with God, identify yourself with him. Repent and be baptized. Now there's a lot more to this, but I just mentioned that in order that we may see what the blessing of Abraham is, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and the child of God publicly declaring that he belongs to God by baptism.
It is a badge of the New Covenant. I never heard anybody else say that. But as I was studying this portion last night, my heart rejoiced as I linked Christian baptism for the first time in my life with a baptism of Christ and with a great commission and with a fulfillment of it in the church. For Acts two forty says, then they who believed, they who received the word, were baptized.
And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayer. But we got to move on. Second Corinthians chapter three. Second Corinthians chapter three. The whole of this chapter deals with the fact that Christ is presented as one who is greater than Moses. He takes that passage here in this passage in Second Corinthians and we're going to begin with verse seven.
But if the ministration of death, he's speaking of the giving of the law, when Moses had to put a veil over his face when he came down from the mountain, because the glory of God was reflected in the face of Moses. And it says, For if the ministration of death written and engraved in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit of the Spirit be rather glorious. Look at verse seventeen. Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here we find that the ministration of our Lord is far greater than that of Moses. Let me just make one or two quick statements. The glory of God in the face of Moses was as much the glory of God as that in the face of Jesus Christ. The only problem was Israel under law could not work upon it.
But these last verses speak, we all with unveiled face. We don't need to put a veil on our face to behold the glory of God in the pages of His Word. With unveiled face, we behold the glory of Christ, for it shines fully where? In the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Moses was a great lawgiver, but Christ is the new lawgiver. The Old Covenant came to glory, but the glory of Christ far excels and exceeds the glory of the Old Covenant. Such is the ministry of Paul, and we could go on.
But I want to go back to the text that I read at the beginning. First Thessalonians, I took this text because of what it says. Paul went into the synagogue and Paul's practice in the synagogue, for the synagogue has reference to the Jews. There were cities where there was no synagogue. For you'll notice when he gets to Philippi, or when he got to Philippi in chapter sixteen of Acts, there were a number of women who were meeting by riverside. Lydia there, and Paul found them, and he ministered to them, and God opened Lydia's heart.
It took ten men to form a synagogue, and in our probability there were not ten Jews there in Philippi to start one. But there was a synagogue at Thessalonica, and of course, Paul went to the synagogue. Why? It was there that he told them, That Jesus is indeed the anointed one of God. And what did he do? He opened and alleged. In other words, he argued with them. From the Old Testament scriptures that they had a foundation in. And he showed how that Christ is indeed the Messiah.
The focus of Scripture is upon the redemptive purpose of God. in Christ fulfilling all that God announced that he would do. Well, we need to apply this truth to our own hearts day by day. Since we have both the Old Covenant or the Old Testament and we have the New and we have Christ for the focus of both the Old and the New Testament We need to take the words of Hebrews chapter two and verse one very seriously. It says, therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we heard lessen at any time we should let them slip.
Did you ever speak with someone concerning Christ? And they say, oh, that's in the Old Testament. Oh, that's what Paul said. But they don't take seriously the implications of what has been said. Therefore, we ought to give them more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them sleep. And the word there in the Greek, the literal meaning is, let it just not pass by before your eyes. And then you forget about what you've seen. That's the thought there. Application number two.
We as believers need to pay more attention to the types of the Old Testament. The word pictures that are given to us in the Old Testament concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said to the Pharisees in John chapter five, verse thirty nine, he said to them, You search the Scriptures, and in them you think you have eternal life. And there are they which testify of me, but you will not come unto me that you might have life. The types in the Old Testament point to Christ, they don't come. Oh, the words of Hebrews chapter two, verse one, we should get the more earnest deed.
Application number two, we must pay attention to the Old Testament types. The only way we can pay attention to the Old Testament types is by studying the Old Testament in the light of the new and the New Testament in the light of the old. As Martin Luther said, the new is in the old concealed, and the old is in the new revealed. How true that is. Application number three. We should enjoy, as God's people, the assurance that studying the Word of God gives when we see the fulfillment of Scripture in the person of Christ as it was written.
I tell you, to take the language of First Corinthians five, verse seven, even Christ our Passover sacrificed for us, and to transpose it back into Exodus chapter twelve, and look at the events of the night in Egypt, the Passover night. It should make a bar of steel that on our backs as we realize what we have in the person of Christ and what the ultimate of it is. He has taken us, who were children of wrath, and he's formed us into a holy nation by his master's grace. For the assurance, we should sing from our heart the third stanza about him, blessed assurance, always at rest.
I and my Savior am happy and blessed. watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness lost in his love. Let's pray. My Father, help us as our children, not to just take these things for granted. Help us to give the more earnest heed. Help us to pay attention to the types and help us to rejoice in the assurance that he's ours in Christ.
We commend this company to thee. We thank you that we can say we know him of whom Moses in the law. And the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Receive our thanks. Bless this word to every heart. For Jesus' sake, amen.