The Christ of the Old Testament | Part 2

Adrian Rogers said Jesus is the master key that unlocks the mysteries of the Old Testament. You find the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.

All of the symbols, all of the emblems, all of the ceremonies, they all picture the Lord Jesus. He is the prophet. He is the priest. He is the king. And then you look at the fulfilled prophecies and you say, how could this happen apart from divine inspiration?

Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the timeless teaching of pastor and author Adrian Rogers. In Acts chapter 10, Simon Peter testifies to the household of Cornelius and reveals that Jesus is who all the Old Testament prophets have given witness to. He is portrayed as the prophet, priest, and king of every story from Genesis to Malachi. And when we read the New Testament, we find he is the fulfillment of each law and prophecy. If you have your Bible, turn to Acts chapter 10, verse 43, as Adrian Rogers shares the conclusion of the Christ of the Old Testament. Now turn to Acts chapter 10 and verse 43.

Peter is testifying in the household of Cornelius about the Lord Jesus. And here is a significant thing he says about the Lord Jesus to him. That is, to Jesus, give all the prophets witness. Now when he said all the prophets, he's talking primarily about the Old Testament. The New Testament had not yet been written. And Simon Peter tells this Gentile, this Roman officer, to Jesus, all the Old Testament prophets have given witness. Would you like to be able to understand the Old Testament? Would you like to get into some of the mystery rooms of the Old Testament? So there is a master key that unlocks the doors to the mystery rooms of the Old Testament, and that master key is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now without Jesus, the Old Testament, listen to me, is a book, number one, of unexplained ceremonies. They won't make sense. Number two, it is a book of unfulfilled prophecies, and number three, it is a book of unattainable standards.

Listen to me again. Without Jesus, the Old Testament is a book of unexplained ceremonies. It is a book of unfulfilled prophecies, and it is a book that has an unattainable standard. If you try to live by the Old Testament without the Lord Jesus Christ, friend, you will not make it. Now the Old Testament was completed about 400 years before Jesus Christ was born. And so when we get to the New Testament, we find the fulfillment. For example, in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see Jesus as the prophet preaching the kingdom of God.

In the epistles, you see the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Acts, you see Him as the ascended priest, interceding for the people of God. And in the book of the Revelation, you see Jesus Christ as the coming King, coming to rule and to reign. And so you see that all of the Old Testament pictures Jesus as prophet, priest, and King. All of the New Testament shows Jesus as the fulfillment. He is the prophet, priest, and King. And so everywhere in the Old Testament, you will find portraits of Jesus. Now I just want to mention a few of these, and some of them will be an enigma to you.

You won't be able to understand them, but let me just run through them and just think about them for a moment. You're going to find Jesus as the second Adam because the first Adam prophesied Him. Jesus is a prophet like Moses because Moses typified Him. Jesus is a priest like Aaron and Melchizedek because they prefigured Him. Jesus is a champion like Joshua whose name literally means Jesus. He's the Old Testament counterpart of Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of the offering of Isaac there on Mount Moriah where Jesus literally died. Jesus is a king like David.

Jesus is a wise counselor like Solomon. Jesus is a beloved, rejected, exalted son and world's bread supplier like Joseph. Jesus is pictured in the Ark of the Covenant. Jesus is the sacrifice upon the brazen altar in the tabernacle in the temple.

Jesus is the mercy seat in the sanctuary where the Shekinah glory of God dwells. Jesus is the water that came from the rock. Jesus is the manna that fell from the skies. Jesus is the brazen serpent lifted up in the wilderness. Jesus is the Passover lamb.

Jesus is the scapegoat bearing away the sins of the people. Jesus is the Lion of Judah. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

The Lord is my Shepherd. Jesus is that root out of a dry ground, born of a virgin. Jesus is the fruitful branch. Jesus is that one without form nor comeliness, yet altogether lovely. In all of the Old Testament it is who? His name is Jesus. I'm telling you folks, the Old Testament without the Lord Jesus Christ would be a dead-end road leading to nowhere.

And yet as you look at the Bible and back off and see it, you see really Jesus everywhere. Prophet, Priest, and King, type illustration. An artist took the Constitution of the United States and he painted the letters of the Constitution very carefully and shaded each letter. And as you looked at the Constitution of the United States of America, you could read it and read it all, as the framers intended it to be. But if you step back and looked at it, you would see that the artist had so shaded the letters that you saw a portrait of George Washington. Now that's what you find in the Old Testament.

You'll find all of these laws and ceremonies and practices and deeds, types, illustrations. But as you step back, there he is, Jesus, the Son of God. So you see Jesus in the Old Testament. You see portraits of Jesus in the Old Testament. Now secondly, you're going to see prophecies of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament.

Now these who wrote the Old Testament were called prophets. And fulfilled prophecy is one of the great proofs of the deity of Jesus Christ. Now God began to prepare the world for the coming of Jesus with over 300 prophecies concerning Him.

300 in the Old Testament. Now there can be no mistake that Jesus is the Messiah. The law of mathematical probability makes it totally impossible that Jesus is not the Messiah or that anyone else could claim to be the Messiah according to the law of probability. For example, God said in the Old Testament that Messiah was to come from a race. A Messiah is not to be an angel. He is to be a man.

Messiah is to be a human being. Genesis 3 verse 15. Here's what God said to the serpent. And I will put enmity, that means warfare, between thee and the woman. And between thy seed, the word seed means descendant, between thy seed and her seed.

It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. This is the first prophecy in all of the Bible. It's found right there in the threshold of the Bible.

And it is called by theologians the proto-evangelium, which means the first evangelistic message. And here a battle is prophesied, the seed of a woman and the seed of a serpent. And we're seeing that battle go on through all history. Not only is a battle prophesied, but a birth is prophesied. Here is the seed. You know, in the Bible, the word seed is used more than 100 times. And it always refers to the offspring of a male. But here God speaks concerning the woman, the seed of the woman. The old rabbis used to scratch the heads of this and say, no, no, no, it's the seed of the man.

And yet here in Genesis 3, 15, it's called the seed of the woman, a prophecy of the virgin birth. Not only a battle, not only a birth, but a bruising is prophesied. That seed of the serpent is going to bruise his heel, Messiah's heel. But Messiah is going to crush his head.

Isn't that an amazing thing? I mean, right there in the beginning of the Bible, you find that Messiah is going to be a human being. He's the seed of the woman. But not only is there going to be a race, we've just picked up the phone and dialed the first number.

Number two, there will be a section out of that race. Because as time went along, there was a man named Noah. God put Noah in the ark. Noah came out of the ark, and Noah had three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. These three came out of the ark. Well, from whom is Messiah going to come?

Genesis chapter 9, verse 26. And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Messiah is going to be a Shemite, or Semite. God chose Shem. And when God chose Shem, listen to me, He then narrowed the focus this much more and eliminated two-thirds of all of the people on the earth.

Messiah will come from Shem. But not only does God choose a seed, and not only does God choose out of that seed a section, but out of that section, God chooses a nation. Because about 2,000 years before Jesus was born, God came to a man named Abraham, and God said to Abraham, I'm going to make a nation out of you.

Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. And now the Lord God said unto Abram, that was his name before God changed it to Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, into 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, listen, in Abraham, shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Now we're continuing to dial. First of all, a race. Secondly, a section of that race. Thirdly, a nation out of that section of that race. Now, but this man Abraham had two sons, one named Isaac and one named Ishmael.

Well, which one is going to carry the line? Well, Genesis chapter 17, verse 19. And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant. And so God takes the descendants of Abraham, and God divides them, and God tightens the focus again. And God says, now Messiah is going to come from a race, from a section of that race, from a nation of that race, and from a particular son in that nation, as God chose Isaac. Now God chooses Isaac's son, not Esau, but Jacob.

And when God did that again, He eliminates 50 percent of all of those that are left. God chose Jacob, Numbers 24, verse 17. The prophet said, I see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. And so here is Jacob. He has 12 sons. But God just chooses one of those sons, and that son is Judah.

Listen to me. Genesis 49, verse 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. And so here, God chooses a race. And then God chooses a section of a race. And then God chooses a nation out of that section. And then God chooses a tribe out of that section, the tribe of Judah. But God is not finished yet.

God keeps punching numbers on His heavenly telephone. And now God takes the tribe of Judah, and God chooses a family out of the tribe of Judah. What is that family? Well, that family out of that tribe, out of that nation, out of that section, out of that race is the family of Jesse. Isaiah, chapter 11, verses 1 and 2. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Now, the rod, the ruler, the kingdom, is going to come from a particular family, the family of Jesse. Messiah is going to be a descendant of the family of Jesse. And all the other families of Judah now are eliminated. And now, God's not finished. God is going to tighten the focus a little more. Not only is Messiah going to come from Jesse, but God says Messiah is going to come from a household of that family, of that tribe, of that nation, of that section, of that race.

What is the family? The household is going to be the household of David. 2 Samuel, chapter 7, and verse 6. Now therefore, so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheep goats, and from following the sheep, to be a ruler over my people, over Israel. 2 Samuel, chapter 7, verse 12. And when thy days be fulfilled, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers. Yet I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, that is, a descendant of David, and I will establish my kingdom.

Now, Jesse had eight sons, and seven-eighths of them were eliminated. God just keeps on narrowing the focus. Messiah is to come from the household of David.

It's not finished yet. We have the house of David. But now there's got to be a certain woman out of the household of David.

Out of that household, out of that family, out of that tribe, out of that nation, out of that section, out of that race. This woman is to be a virgin. Isaiah, chapter 7, and verse 14. Behold, the Lord himself shall give you a sign, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Not any daughter of the household of David, but there has to be a virgin who conceives in her womb a child.

Now, are you listening to me? A son is born of that virgin, out of that household, out of that family, out of that tribe, out of that nation, out of that section, out of that race. God's not finished yet. He can't be born anywhere. He's got to be born in Bethlehem. He can't be just an ordinary person. He has to be hated and sold for 30 pieces of silver, betrayed. He has to be crucified by the piercing of his hands and his feet. And he has to be raised from the dead. And when you dial all of these numbers and pick up the phone, who do you have? Jesus, the Son of God. I'm telling you, folks, if you tell me that that all just happened, it's just happenstance, you've got rooms to rent upstairs unfurnished. Now listen, there are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Jesus.

I have mentioned less than 15. There's a man named Peter Stoner who deals with the law of probabilities, and he is a great mathematician. And he takes the prophecies and applies the law of probability.

And here's the illustration that he gives that we can understand, at least somehow get some mental picture of. Peter Stoner said, if you were to cover the state of Texas with silver dollars from border to border, three feet deep. Now that would be a lot of silver dollars.

The Texans would like that, wouldn't they? Three feet deep, border to border, silver dollars. Put a mark on one silver dollar, then blindfold a man and drop him down anywhere in the state of Texas and let him stay there and shuffle through those silver dollars. If he reaches in and finds that one silver dollar, mathematically that would be the same probability that just eight of these prophecies would be fulfilled by one individual.

I mentioned 15 and there are over 300. You see, you find the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Jesus is there in portrait. All of the symbols, all of the emblems, all of the ceremonies, they all picture the Lord Jesus. He is the prophet. He is the priest.

He is the king. And then you look at the fulfilled prophecies and you say, how could this happen apart from divine inspiration? Now let me tell you two things. Number one, you can trust the Word of God.

You can. You can trust the Word of God. Secondly, you can trust the God of that Word.

I mean, if you trust the Word of God, you certainly ought to trust the God of that Word. Now the Old Testament says that somebody is coming. The New Testament says that somebody has come. And the book of the Revelation says that somebody is coming again. Now the New Testament tells you how Jesus, who is coming, gets you ready for His second coming, how you can know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

I'm not trying to prove to you that Jesus is the Messiah. It lies beyond proof. True faith is rooted in evidence. True faith goes beyond evidence. True faith becomes its own best evidence. If you try to figure God out, you will die and go to hell and not have God figure it out. The Bible says, can a man by reasoning find out God?

Why is that? Well, nothing will hold anything beyond its own capacity. In other words, you can't put two gallons of liquid in a one-gallon jug. And do you think that you can cram God into your mind? Your mind doesn't have the capacity to contain God. And so don't try to eliminate God that you don't understand. You see, in order for me to have a God that I can worship, He must be a God greater than my mentality. If I could understand God, God would be no bigger than my intellect, which is far too small a God for me to worship. Now if we could understand God, we wouldn't need God.

But friend, I want to tell you something. We don't have to understand Him to know Him. When I was a little boy, my dad used to go off to work.

I didn't know where he went nor what he did. But I knew he was my dad, and I knew him personally, and I loved him. You don't have to understand how God runs the mighty universe to put your faith and trust in Him. Somebody asked Mrs. Albert Einstein, do you understand the theory of relativity?

She said, no, but I understand Dr. Einstein. I know him. And friend, I'm telling you by faith you can know the Lord Jesus Christ. If I had a thousand lives to live, I'd give Jesus every one of them. The Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That word believe doesn't mean just intellectual belief. The devil believes that way. It's a Bible word that means trust.

You can believe an airplane can fly, but you don't trust it till you get on it. Trust the Lord Jesus. You can invite Jesus into your heart. Would you pray a prayer like this, dear God?

That's right, just speak to Him. Dear God, I know that You love me, and I know that You want to save me. Jesus, You died to save me. You promised to save me if I would trust You. I do trust You, Jesus. Would you tell Him that?

If you're listening through radio right now, would you tell Him that? Maybe you're in an automobile. Just pray that prayer. I do trust You right now. I receive You into my life. I yield my life to You in faith. Forgive my sin.

Cleanse me. Begin now to make me the person You want me to be. I believe that with Your blood, You paid my sin debt. Thank You, Jesus.

And now I just turn my life over to You. Lord Jesus, because You died for me, I will live for You. And help me, Lord Jesus, never, ever to be ashamed of You. Give me the courage to make it public. In Your name I pray.

Amen. And if you prayed to receive Jesus Christ just now, we would love to celebrate with you and invite you to our Find God's Love page on the website. There you'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click on the tab that says Find God's Love. Welcome to God's forever family.

We can't wait to hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call 1-877-LOVEGOD or mention the title, The Christ of the Old Testament. This message is also part of the insightful series, Living Supernaturally. For the complete collection, all 13 powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. You can also purchase our new Bible studies much like this message in our online store.

For more on that, go to the website lwf.org slash radio. Do you trust in the word of God and the God of that word? You don't have to understand how God runs the mighty universe to put your faith and trust in Him. Adrian Rogers said, True faith is rooted in evidence. True faith goes beyond evidence and true faith becomes its own best evidence. We hope you'll join us next time for more profound truth simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding.

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