What we have here is that we have a lot of different things. Is the Old Testament Yahweh? Pre-incarnate. That's what Daniel's looking at now. In Revelation chapter 1, It is Christ glorified.
He's no longer walking in Israel and Galilee. He's not on the cross. Not only is he Resurrected But he's now back to where he was. He's glorified. He's resumed.
that deity but still visible his people. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Ricky is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through a topical series. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio.
specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Jesus in the OT is the title of Pastor Rick's message. Here he is. Jacob saw God in Bethel in a dream. He saw him again in Haran in a dream.
Those are Christophanes within the dream. In the dream he sees the man It's Yahweh. Mahanaim, physically, he saw him there, and Bethel, audibly. and at Beersheba in a vision. God invested.
And a man like Jacob.
So, if I say I'm not worthy, well, okay, we know that it's boring, don't say it again. God only works with those who are not worthy. But he filters that out or filters it down to working with those. who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Genesis 32 verses 24, 25, 27, and 28, 29, 30.
I'm skipping verse 26. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. And when he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his hip. and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint. and he wrestled with him, So he said to him, What is your name?
He said, Jacob is answering, Jacob or Jacob. He said. The angel, which is the Lord, Jesus, said to him, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.
Well, you have struggled with God. and with men and prevailed. Mm. We can all say that. Yes, Lord, I've struggled with men, and I've struggled with you too in prayer.
Verse 29, and Jacob asked Tell me your name, I pray. And he said, why? Is it that you ask my name? And he blessed him there. And remember, the superior blesses the All the A superior blesses the the subordinate.
As a rule in Scripture.
Now we bless the Lord. The Lord, we can say, Lord, we bless you. And what we mean, we are a blessing to Christ, but it's not the identical form. form of blessing where we can enrich God. By pronouncing a blessing on him.
Whereas he enriches us in some way when he. Does Bless us. But we can cause delight. to God. The same way an infant can cause delight to the parents.
They don't do anything. You know, they just sit there waiting to be whatever. And they just they move your heart. They bless you. Anyway, coming back to Genesis, then Jacob asked, saying, Tell me your name, I pray.
And he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And he blessed him there. So Jacob called. the name of the place Pen I L For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And just as he crossed over Penuel, the sun rose on him and he limped on his hip.
He never walked the same after wrestling with God. What profound metaphor and Parallels, all sorts of lessons come out of that. I have seen the face of God. And this is a theophany. That is also a Christophany.
He wrestled with the pre incarnate Christ. Genesis 32, verses 29 to 30, again, and he blessed him there, and I. I have seen God face to face. Three things come out of this.
Well, actually, a few more. One is the Jews don't eat filet mignon because of this.
So the the kosher Jews, so many of them won't because of this. Anyway, I I don't want to get into that. Here, when he wrestled with him, just aside, this is a side note. to having such contact with Christ. Price changed his name.
Come to Revelation, it talks about that a lot. I will give you a new name. Gave Peter a new name, Simon, he gave Simon a new name. Christ changes walk. He never walked the same.
He always limped. He never, he had a physical reminder. of his encounter with God. And Christ blessed his life. Changed his name, changed his walk, and changed his life.
But Jacob still found life hard. And he limped when he walked with God. And so you come to Christ, you know, life's still going to be hard. You just gotta learn to make it count. How do I make this count?
I'm sick of it. I just want to be raptured. And God says, no, why no. There's a lot to do. And I need I need people.
Who will wrestle with me in prayer and get up Different. Hosea said this about that experience. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, meaning he started out being a shyster. A heel catcher. An opportunist, you could say.
That would be a lesser. Uh just tone it down a little bit. 'Cause I wanna meet Jacob one day and I don't want him to have his feelings hurt because I called him names. Anyway, he took his brother by the heel. In the womb.
And in his strength he struggled with God. And that's what God allowed them to do when they wrestled. God said, use all your physical strength. Go ahead, and you're not going to get anywhere with that. You will not prevail.
carnally with God. He continues, Hosea does, yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed. He wept and sought favor from him. He found him in Bethel and he spoke to us. That is Yahweh, God of hosts, and Yahweh is his memorial name.
Pretty powerful verse to uh Three verses there to consider from Hosea chapter 12. He wept. That's what was left out of the Genesis account that Hosea adds. He wept and he sought favor. He was humbled, but is not humiliated.
Genesis 35, and God appeared to Jacob again. When he came from Paddam, Aram, and blessed him.
So he got to see the pre-incarnate Christ. Uh yet again.
Now we come to Joshua. You know, it's a a rule of preaching that I don't know, I guess maybe I made it up. You don't want to ever look at your watch, like, oh, I'm bored. When are we going to get out of here? But because I didn't push my timer, I'll be doing that so Don't think it's it's rude.
Joshua now. And now, Joshua, this is the time when they cross Jordan, they're in the promised land, the manna stopped. We specifically told that. God was scaling back his blessings in that form. They now had to do more.
to be enriched And then Joshua 5. That was Joshua 5, 12, and the very next verse. 5:13 And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him. With his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him. Are you for us?
or for our adversaries.
So he said no But as commander of the army of Yahweh I have come Now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of Yahweh's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot, For the place where you stand is holy, and Joshua did so. Clearly, this is God. Materialized in front of Joshua.
He's looking at Jericho and he's saying, How are we going to bring down this walled city with rakes? I mean, how is this not going to happen? And God shows up to him. Jesus is the man with the sword drawn. And Joshua instantly took the posture of worship just like Moses did on Mount Sinai.
And um I have another point in here, just slipped my mind.
Well just keep going with it and maybe it will come back.
So, one of the things that comes out of this experience, oh, this is what I wanted to say. And I always make this comment here: Joshua says, Are you for us? or for them. And God says no. I'm not for you and I'm not for them.
I'm for God. And then Joshua lined right up with that. It's just like then he's worshiping the next thing you know, and that's the way to handle it. Not try to get God to Take sides. But Try to side with God.
That's the lesson, one of them. Another one is Jesus shows himself. to those under his command, In war. That's what's going on in Joshua 5. The whole book of Joshua is about.
Conquest. Even when it comes to dividing up the land.
Next up is Isaiah. We touched on him. He was given a vision of God's glory in contrast to the nation's shame. in their rebellion.
So, in the year that King Uzziah died, King Uzziah was a good king. 52 years on the throne. Isaiah was a young prophet. And when Uzziah died, it left a void.
Now what's going to happen to us? Who's going to take the throne? Will his son come close to being what his father was?
Well, fortunately he had a good son, Uziah did. And so at that time, God shows up to him at that critical moment.
Now, there are times when God you want God to show up at a critical moment, and you think he does not. Then the just live by faith. You know he's there. You just want him to do something, and he doesn't appear to do anything.
Well The true believer We'll accept that and worship the Lord. When Job says, Though he slay me, I will trust him. Though he forsake me, is what it comes down to. I would trust him.
So Isaiah saw the seat of sovereignty and the glory of Christ. Christ before the manger before Bethlehem.
So, no matter what unbelieving believers are doing, this is one of the takeaways from Joshua's sighting of God. No matter what, unbelieving believers, that is, believers in name only, professed believers, immature believers, disobedient name claimers, whatever they are. Whatever they're doing. Those who claim to be God's people but live outside of God. Does not mean I can't still see God.
Doesn't mean he's angry with me. And though the people of Israel were forsaking Yahweh as a rule, not every single one of them, but God's people was reduced to a remnant. Here Isaiah gets the vision.
So maybe you go to a church, or maybe you're in a family of people that always say they oh, bless the Lord, lordy, lordy, and they don't care about Christ.
Well, Christ doesn't just lump you in with them.
Now come to we come to Daniel. There's a bunch of them here. Daniel Fuck. We have to breeze through this kind of quickly.
Well then there's Nebuchadnezzar. He's going to be one that gets to see Christ in the Old Testament. It's interesting that when they're in the burning furnace, there's no mention that the three Jewish men saw him. did, um but this just that's not what Daniel focuses on when he writes this. Like he's saying, it's a no-brainer.
The real joy of the story is that this was a step in conversion to King Nebuchadnezzar, who I believe did become a believer of Yahweh. Daniel chapter 3, this is in the valley of Durah, where the king Nebuchadnezzar says, I'm going to build a monument and I'm going to have everybody worship this monument at the beat of the music. And anybody who doesn't worship it, I'm going to burn them up in the fire. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. Oh, let me Back up a little bit.
So of course the three Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. They're not going to do this. And they tell the king right out. And they must have had a relationship with the king because he gives them a second chance. He says, okay, look, let's do this, all right?
And we won't burn you up. And they say, no, we're not. believe in your God, we don't care what you do to us.
So he's enraged at this point. He says, heat that thing up as hot as you can get it, and then throw them in.
So while they're in there, and incidentally, they didn't even smell like smoke when they came out. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished when he saw them in the fire. and rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counsellors, Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said, To the king, true, O king Daniel three verse twenty five Nebuchadnezzar speaking, look, he answered. I see four men loose.
walking in the midst of the fire, They are not hurt. And the form of the fourth It's like The Son of Gods.
Now it's plural because He doesn't know anything about You know, monotheism. He's into polytheism. He believes in multiple gods. His concept is beyond him. It's like when you speak to a person.
person who doesn't know anything about Christ or the Bible, they're wrong with everything pretty much. fertile ground. But that's the language he uses. And it's accurate language. Christ knew that we had come along to the New Testament church and set that right for King Nebuchadnezzar.
So the fourth figure in human form identified as Son of God's is the Son of God. No stretch there. A pagan talking about what he sees and does not understand. Which is the role of the believer to help them with that. In the New Testament, 45 times, Jesus is recognized as the Son of God.
Validating Daniel's Visions In events. Another piece of the puzzle. In spite of the lines of the puzzle, you know what the picture without mistake. what the picture is. Divine in the flames in human form, protecting them, pre-incarnate.
The presence of Jesus Christ. can be seen And impact. the unbeliever. That's one of the takeaways from that session. The unbeliever can see Christ and be impacted.
By what he's seen. And you can add the worst of unbelievers. Daniel three twenty eight again, Nebuchadnezzar spoke. Saying after this got sorted out for him, Blessed be God of the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abenego. who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him.
And they have Frustrated. the king's word, and yielded their bodies And they should not serve nor worship any God except their own. Powerful testimony. This is a pagan king. And he's essentially saying: look, even in our religion, this is impressive.
Jesus is absolutely one with the Father. Absolutely. John chapter 17, now, O Father, glorify me together with you, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. It goes back to his Pre-incarnate self-existence, eternal existence.
Well, there's another one, and we've got a little time. It's in Daniel. There's actually three, but we'll take just these two. Actually, there may be another one, but it will go stay here. This is Daniel 7, and I'm going to blow through this one quickly.
Yeah. Daniel gets the dream and the visions at the same time. And he sees the empires of the world, the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, Alexander the Great. In fact, the Alexander the Great one is so powerful, hundreds of years before Alexander the Great comes along, and he sees this lepre with four heads.
Well, what happened when Alexander the Great died is his kingdom was divided amongst four generals. And they impacted Uh That part of the world, even Western civilization, eventually. And that's God called it. And then, of course, he sees the Roman Empire. Then he sees the resurgence of the Roman Empire in some form.
through Antichrist to come. All of that in Daniel chapter 7. And I watched till thrones were put in place, Daniel 7, verse 9. And the ancient of days was seated.
Now, this ancient of days is both. Father and son. It goes back to that quote from John, what they had. in the beginning. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels of burning fire.
Well, this is matching Ezekiel, for example, and it's also matching Revelation chapter 1 when Jesus shows up, verse 14. His head and his hair were white as wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire. And it continues to develop that character to match this one. And it always gives us a little more whenever we get these appearances. And it always gives us a little something else.
Just like the Gospels. I was watching Daniel seven thirteen in the night visions night as in dreaming, because he tells us that in the first verse and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days. And they brought him near before him. Then to him was given Dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is everlasting dominion.
Which shall not pass away in his kingdom, one which should not be destroyed. This is the language of deity. This is the ancient of the days, and the Son of Man comes. And he's essentially getting everything. He's like inheriting everything.
Well, later on, you're going to get back to this in a moment. But I gotta fill in some more.
So Daniel 7. What we have here Is the Old Testament Yahweh? Pre-incarnate. That's what Daniel's looking at now. In Revelation chapter 1, It is Christ glorified.
He's no longer walking in Israel and Galilee. He's not on the cross. Not only is he Resurrected. But he's now back to where he was. He's glorified.
He's resumed. that deity but still visible his people. in heaven or wherever y he chooses to show up as he did on the road to Damascus with Paul. And so that's what you're getting in Daniel 7:9 through 14. You're getting.
Pre-incarnate Christ. And Daniel is saying, This is what's going on. Here's the Father, the ancient of the days, and the Son of God is going to come, and he's going to get the authority of the Father because he's equal with the Father. And they've got this plan. And he's going to be manifested.
And he's going to gain all the kingdoms of the millennial in the millennial kingdom. And then, of course, we get a whole nother phase after that, which we don't have a lot of details on, except the new heavens and new earth.
So, in the end, the Son of Man merges into the ancient of the days. The deeds of Christ and the deeds of the ancient days. A divine In Daniel seven, continues the story until the ancient of days came And a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the And the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.
So, what Daniel then goes on to do is explain Antichrist. The persecutions against the saints. for three and a half years. And then the destruction of Antichrist kingdom, then the coming of the ancient of the days, which is Christ's return.
So now the ancient of the days is fitting the description of Christ returning because they're the same. In their pre-incarnate state, there's no such thing. It's when God begins to. Show himself to us in these Forms of the Holy Spirit, Father, and Son, but They're they're just one with distinct persons.
So in these passages, Jesus does not initially Identify as the ancient of the days. But as the Son of Man who receives dominion. Jesus Christ This is r if you get nothing else out of and we're almost done. If you get nothing out, I think this comes out of Jesus in the Old Testament, that Jesus Christ. Is God Self-disclosed.
It's God saying, I'm going to tell you who I am, and this is how I'm going to do it. How else could we receive it? Videotape or something? John 14, 9, Jesus said, He who has seen me has seen the Father. You can't say that.
Nobody can say that. There's nobody ever created could ever make such a statement. If you've seen me, you've seen God. Equal to his father as touching his essence. Less than the Father as touching his humanity.
Thus, the Ancient of the Days, the Son of God, and then in the end, the Ancient of the Days is the one that comes and delivers the saints. And we know Jesus said this He's coming in clouds and great glory, and every eye shall see Him.
So the conclusion is everyone will get a chance to see God. Whether it be at the great white throne judgment for the wicked in Genesis and Revelation 20:11 or 2 Corinthians 5:10. For the believers, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. That each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. I got a plan.
I'm going to get Paul to stand in my place. Paul, just go ahead. He won't notice. Therefore, what are you doing? All of this.
You be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, you let your request be made known to God, and that means you take up the Christian life. You take up the Christian life because it ain't going to fly off the ground into your lap. Titus looking for the Blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. A church that will be heard is a church that has seen God in Christ. That's the church and that's the Christian that will be heard.
You struggle, you fail. God's already dealt with that part. For him, that's the easy part. The difficult part is keeping you moving forward. and not quitting.
I can't do this, it doesn't work. I'm so weak. He's already factored in all of that before you were born.
So I repeat that, and then I'll close with a verse: a church that will be heard, or a Christian that will be heard. Is the one that has seen God in Christ. Acts chapter 4 verse 13. And when they had saw the boldness of Peter and John, They perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men. They marveled.
And they realized that they had been with Jesus. Thanks for tuning in today to Cross Reference Radio, where Pastor Rick has some answers for various questions that have been asked. We can't fully express how grateful we are that you've been with us today. But if you're ever looking for more teaching and content from us, you're welcome to subscribe to our podcast. Just go to your favorite podcast app and look for Cross-Reference Radio.
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