00A.06 CHAPTER III.—Christ in Prophecy.

CHAPTER III CHRIST IN PROPHECY As a Scripture reading for the sermon tonight you will please give heed to John 5:30-47. I shall read all the remaining part of the chapter. (Speaker reads from memory.)

I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. It is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye have sent unto John, and he hath borne witness unto the truth. But the witness which I receive is not from man: howbeit I say these things, that ye may be saved. He was the lamp that burneth and shineth; and ye were willing to rejoice of a season in his light. But the witness which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father that sent me, he hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he sent, him ye believe not. Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; am. ye will not come to me, that ye may have life. I receive not glory from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in yourselves. I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, who receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from ;he only God ye seek not? Think not that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, on whom ye have set your hope. For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for be wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? This is- the language of our Lord addressed to the unbelieving Jews. He here presents four witnesses upon whose testimony he rests his claim to be divine. He did not ask them to accept his own testimony or to believe his claim upon his unsupported word. There was plenty of evidence if they would but consider it. The four witnesses that he here introduces are (1) John the Baptist (2) the works which he (Jesus) did, (3) the Father and (4) the Scriptures. It would be very interesting, as well as profitable to hear the testimony of all of these witnesses tonight, but our time will permit us to hear only one witness testify on this occasion. And I have chosen the fourth. Let us examine this witness.

TUB SCRIP TURPS. This means, of course, the Old Testament Scriptures. The New Testament had not then been written—not a word of it. These Scriptures were what are sometimes called the Jewish Scriptures, though these Scriptures are for all men indirectly which will be. shown by the lessons of this sermon. But they were Scriptures that these Jews searched and in which they thought they had eternal life; Scriptures, some of which had been written by Moses, the head of the Jewish church and the Mediator of their covenant. “If you had believed Moses, you would believe me:; for Moses wrote of me,” said Jesus. All the Old Testament Scriptures bore witness of Christ, and Christ repeatedly and boldly made this claim and declared that he would fulfill “all that was written in the law of Moses, in the prophets and in the psalms” concerning him. You remember the many passages, no doubt, in which this claim is made in such language as: “It is written of the Son of Man that he must suffer many things.” “The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him.” “All things written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.” “Then said he unto them, O, fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Consider now how wonderful and how daring this claim is. The Jews knew that their Scriptures promised them a Messiah and they well knew from what tribe he was to descend. They knew that the time and the place of his birth were foretold. They knew what his character was to be and that he was to be a king and reign in righteousness. They could have known at least something of the nature of his kingdom and that the Gentiles were to be embraced in it, had they not been blinded by a false interpretation of their prophecies. They read and searched these Scriptures, copied them, quoted them, argued about them and earnestly hoped to attain unto the promise made of God unto their fathers. They were looking for their Messiah and each succeeding generation for centuries had hope that he would appear in its day. They were ready to examine the claims of any contender and to measure him by their Scriptures and to challenge each other to search and see if a prophet was to come out of Galilee, And Jesus boldly claimed to fulfill all the requirements of all these Scriptures and they were not able to refute his claim! They exhausted their resources and all the devices that their wicked scheming could conjure in an effort to get an accusation against Christ, but not once did they point out a prediction of their Scriptures that he did not fulfil. Had they done this they would have proved him an impostor and his claims would have been so ingloriously defeated that they would have been laughed out of the minds of men before that generation had gone from the earth. Why did they not do this? Is it necessary to say that the only reason they did not was because they could not? The apostles made this same claim for Christ even after his crucifixion and resurrection. They fearlessly accused the Jews of fulfilling their Scriptures in killing Christ. They charged upon these rulers and doctors of the law that they had crucified their long looked for Messiah—the one who was promised and described in their prophecies. They “powerfully confuted the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.” They always took their texts in the Old Testament Scriptures and then added their own personal testimony to the fact that these Scriptures had been fulfilled before their eyes—the eyes of all that generation of Jews. Peter quoted David and Joel on the day of Pentecost. Philip took a text in Isaiah and began “at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus.” Paul went into the synagogue and “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, opening and alleging that it behooved the Christ to suffer, and to rise agaiii from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom, said he, I proclaim unto you, is the Christ.”

These Jews knew their Scriptures, and if Jesus were not the Christ it certainly should have been easy for them to answer the apostles. One prophecy concerning the Christ that was not fulfilled in Jesus would have been sufficient. That would have overwhelmed the apostles in disaster. But no such Scripture was ever adduced jind the learned Jews for two thousand years have had ,to suffer the embarrassment of facing the charge that they rejected the testimony of their own Scriptures and killed their Messiah—the world’s Redeemer. The only rational conclusion from all this is that in Jesus all the predictions and promises of the Scriptures found accurate fulfillment. His claim in this respect must be true. But if this claim is admitted then we are also forced to the conclusion that Jesus was divine. No mere human being could search out all the prophecies concerning Christ and then so shape his own life as to fulfill them. Many pf these prophecies were concerning the birth and death of Christ and over neither of those events did he exercise any control. An impostor could not have made his birth, life and death match these Scriptures so accurately .that no detail could be pointed to as missing or out of place. That would have been impossible, as all must admit. Therefore Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah of Jewish hope, the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

Why do not the atheists, the infidels and the skeptics of our day consider the arguments made on the prophecies in favor of the divinity of Christ? Why do they not point to some prediction that was not fulfilled? Why do the college students and the younger atheists who imagine that they have superior intellects, who boast of using their reasoning powers and laugh at the gullibility of Christians, not turn their reasoning faculties to work on this argument and expose its fallacy? The fact is that these young upstarts do not know that such an argument exists! They never heard of a prophecy and its fulfillment. As between Christianity and atheism they never heard but one side and they don’t even know the strength and weakness of that side. If they will study the evidence in favor of the existence of God, of the divinity of Christ and the inspiration of the Bible, they will find that it is far more rational to believe than not to believe. It is far easier to believe that Christ is the Son of God than to believe that a peasant of Galilee could have done and said the things that Jesus did and said: could have influenced the whole world for two thousand years, as Jesus has. In order that we may see the meaning and strength .of the argument from the Scriptures referred to in the ,text, let us notice now a few prophecies and their fulfillment. This is a great field of study and in this sermon I can do but little more than show you its beauties and possibilities. You may continue the study indefinitely.

1. First, you remember that Jesus said that Moses wrote of him. What did Moses say concerning Christ? Here is one statement:

Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou desirest of Jehovah thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Jehovah my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And Jehovah said unto me, They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-18.)

Peter applies this prophecy to Christ in Acts 3:22-24. If Jesus was not like unto Moses the Jews could have pointed out the difference—if the difference was such as to vitiate the claim. But that is not the only way in which Moses wrote Of Christ. The whole law of Moses was temporary and symbolic. It contained many types of Christ. He was fore-shadowed in the sacrifices of the law. Paul said, “For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of things” could never make the comers thereto perfect. “For it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.” Their sins were remembered again every year. But he declares that when sins are removed by the blood of Christ they are remembered no more forever. Therefore the “good things” to come were the blessings of salvation in Christ Again in Colossians 2:16 he says;

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s. A shadow passed down over the generations and told of an approaching substance or body. That body was Christ. The ceremonies and sacrifices of the law of Moses constituted that shadow.

2. But to descend to details let us notice that the Scriptures had foretold the tribe out of which the Messiah should come. In Genesis 49:10 we read: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come; And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be. This is understood to mean that the Messiah—Shiloh, one sent—would come before Judah ceased to be a distinct and ruling tribe. The “scepter” was the standard of the tribe of Judah and a symbol of the tribe itself. It is well known that Judah was the only tribe remaining in the days of Christ, as is indicated from the name Jew (from Judah), and there was still a Jewish high-priest. Thirty-five years after the death of Christ both disappeared in the destruction of Jerusalem. This promise that Christ should come out of Judah ,was repeated in the promise to David, for David was pf the tribe of Judah. It is well known that Christ was ,to be of the seed of David, but one prophecy to that effect will not be out of place here. Jeremiah 23:5-6, Says:

Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called : Jehovah our righteousness.

Mary the mother of Jesus, was of the tribe of Judah, and of the seed of David, as was also Joseph, as may be seen from the genealogy as given in Matthew and Luke. And Paul said, “For it is evident that our Lord hath Sprung out of Judah” (Hebrews 7:14).

3. The place of the Messiah’s nativity was definitely foretold by the prophet Micah. In Micah 5:2 of his prophecy we read: But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. The Jews understood this to apply to their Messiah and not to some mere human ruler, for when Christ was born Herod called unto him the chief priests and scribes and inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written through the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, Art in no wise least among the princes of Judah: For out of thee shall come forth a governor, Who shall be shepherd of my people Israel. (Matthew 2:5-6.) The prophecy of Micah was written something like five hundred years before the advent of our Savior, but the prophet, looking down the vista of the years, named the place where he was to be born. And let us consider J:ow remarkable was the fulfillment of this prediction. Mary the mother of Jesus lived in Nazareth of Galilee and not in Bethlehem. Nazareth was about a hundred miles from Bethlehem, Then how did it happen that Mary was so far away from home when her babe was born? You all know, of course, that this was brought about by a decree issued by the Roman emperor—the ruler of the world—that all the world should be taxed or enrolled. This required each subject of the decree to ,go to his native city to enroll. Joseph was of the city of Bethlehem, and he went there to enroll himself and Mary. But why did he bring Mary with him? Surely that was not necessary. Surely she could have been .excused under the circumstances, especially as Joseph could enroll for her. (Men were the heads of the house in those days.) The ways of travel then were very .crude and the journey was a long one over a rugged country and beset with dangers from wild beasts and from robbers. Can you imagine why an expectant mother would undertake such a journey, especially right at the time she was expecting tire birth of her babe ? The answer is, Jehovah was guiding in this affair. His prophet had foretold the place where the babe was to be born and the power that enabled him to know that had now caused the emperor to issue a decree and was moving in all the circumstances to bring about that which had been before revealed. But unless Mary knew and understood that her babe was now .to be born just at this time, in fulfillment of prophecy (which she evidently did not), how do you suppose she was induced to make the trip? Did she go on that journey for the express purpose that her child should be born ir Bethlehem? I hardly think go. There is some evidence that she did not expect the .child just at this time. When the babe was born they wrapped him in swaddling cloth. Swaddling cloth, according to the meaning of the Hebrew word, was cloth unrolled from the bolt—bands of cloth. There was no garment made; no preparation for the child. But Jehovah knew and guided the young mother to the right place.

Then when the wicked Herod sought to kill the child, Joseph, being warned of God. fled into Egypt. There he remained until after Herod’s death and then Jehovah called him out of Egypt and thus another prophecy was fulfilled. Hosea 11:1 says, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”

Now that Joseph was told that it was safe to do so, he returned to his home in Nazareth and there Jesus grew up. For that reason he was called a Nazarene, and MatLhew tells us that that was in fulfillment of another prophecy. (Matthew 2:23.) This prophecy is .probably found in Isaiah 11:1, but our English versions do not show it.

Because Jesus was called a Nazarene the Jews assumed that he was born in Nazareth. Things of such a vital nature must never be settled upon assumption. That is what prejudice will do. Prejudice means to .pre-judge, to judge before you hear or before you investigate. In the seventh chapter of John, when the Jewish rulers were denouncing Christ and abusing the officers for not arresting him, Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, dared to say: “Doth our law judge a man, except it first hear from himself and know what he doeth?” But they silenced him with the scornful and sarcastic reply: “Art thou also of Galilee? Search and see that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.” But had they themselves been honest enough to search and see, by investigating the life of the man whom they were seeking to kill, they would have found that he was born in Bethlehem, and that he was called a Nazarene even in fulfillment of their Scriptures.

4. The trials and death of Christ had been minutely foretold by the prophets. They had said that in his .trials he would suffer great abuse. “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6). That this was literally fulfilled the following passages show:

Then released he Barabbas unto them; and when ne had scourt/ed Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. (Matthew 27:26.)

Then did they spit in his face and buffeted him: and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who smote thee? (Matthew 26:67.) And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say to him, Prophesy! and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands. (Mark 14:65.) That the Messiah was to die a violent death is clearly indicated in these passages: “He shall be cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8). “And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself” (Daniel 9:26). These quotations do not, however, show the manner of death that he should die, but that will be seen in another prophecy soon to be introduced.

Psalms 22:1-31 gives a complete picture of Christ’s death on the cross. It opens with the words, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,” and then in the sixteenth verse it says, “They pierced my hands and my feet.” This refers to the nails that were driven through the hands and the feet of our Savior when they crucified him. This prophecy becomes one of the most remarkable of all when we consider that this manner of putting men to death had not been heard of when this Psalm was written. At least it was not known among the Jews. Their manner of inflicting capital punishment was by stoning- Had they put Jesus to death by their own hands they would have stoned him. Romans inflicted capital punishment upon a citizen by beheading him. Decapitation was their well known method. But they used the cross, which was the most barbarous and horrible death ever devised, for slaves and subjects who were not citizens. Jesus was condemned by the Jews and sentenced to death. How then did it happen that they did not execute him by stoning? Here again we see the hand of providence guiding in the affairs of men and bringing about the fulfillment of his word. The Romans had taken away from the Jews the privilege of inflicting capital punishment without the sanction of the Roman authorities and that meant that the Romans would attend to the matter themselves. But how did it happen that these Jews, who were entirely the cause of Christ’s death, did not override this Roman law and execute Christ as they did Stephen, and as they would have killed Paul had not the Roman officer interfered? (Acts 7:1-60, also Acts 21:1-40) The only answer is that God was guiding. His prophet had said they would “pierce his hands and his feet,” and that meant crucifixion. Jesus had himself indicated that he would die on the cross—be lifted up. “And as Moses ’lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he should die” (John 12:32-33.) In Psalms 22:1-31 we find another prediction that was fulfilled in Christ’s death. Psalms 22:18 says: “They part my garments among them, and upon my vesture do they cast lots.” This was literally fulfilled as John tells us in these words: The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my garments among them, And upon my vesture did hey cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. (John 19:23-25.) Another prophecy concerning the death of Christ is found in Psalms 69:21, which reads:

Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;

d for comforters, but I found none.

They gave me also gall for my food; And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. The fulfillment of that prediction is told by John in this language:

After this Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished, that the scriptures might be accomplished, 3aith, I thirst. There was set there a vessel full of vinegar: so they put a sponge full of the vinegar upon hyssop, and brought it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head, and gave up his spirit. (John 19:18-20.)

There is one other prophecy that we must not fail to study tonight in connection with our Lord’s death. We have seen enough already to convince any unprejudiced mind, it would seem, that these things did not just happen. They were not mere accidents or fortuitous coincidences. Divine wisdom is displayed in all these things. But the one other prophecy that I wish to bring to your attention before we close tonight is found in Isaiah 53:9. It says: And they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. The statement that he was to be in the hands of a rich man in his death challenges our attention. That he was numbered with transgressors and was with the wicked in his death is not new to anybody. That fact is so well known that it is not necessary to cite the passages that prove it. Everybody knows that Christ died as a criminal, the just for the unjust—taking our sins upon him—and that he was crucified between two robbers, though everybody may not know that that also was foretold by the prophets. But unless it has been called to your attent’on. many of you may have overlooked this remarkable statement, that he would be with the rich in his death. This strikes us as peculiar because we know that Christ was a pauper all his life and his friends were the common people—the poor people and often publicans and sinners. He was born of pauper parents. We know this not only from the fact that he was born in a stable and cradled in a manger, but we see it in the fact that Mary brought the pauper’s offering when she came to offer for her cleansing. (See Luke 2:22-24; Leviticus 12:8; Leviticus 5:11.) That Christ was homeless and penniless we know. When one man suggested that he would like to join his company and go about with them, Jesus said, “The foxes have dens and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.” And when he wanted to pay his temple tax he had to direct Peter to get the money miraculously from the mouth of a fish. How strange that he who was so poor, and whose disciples are from the poorest classes, is to be among the rich in his death. But the prophet said that such would be the case. Did it come to pass? When Christ was on trial no rich man was there to employ counsel or to use his influence in behalf of Jesus. Even his disciples had deserted him and he stands friendless and forsaken between a cowardly governor and a mob of purblind sectarian ecclesiastics and blood thirsty hypocrites. When at last he dies upon the cross between thieves none but a few weeping women are near to sympathize. He is dead now’and no rich man has appeared to defend him or to die with him. What shall we say of that prophecy? Did this one fail? Oh, no. The interpretation thereof is accurate and the fulfillment thereof is sure. Let Matthew tell us how this was fulfilled, although he does not refer to the fact that it was a matter pf prophecy—just tells what occurred as a matter of history. Hear him: And when even was come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: this man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded it to be given up. And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. (Matthew 27:57-60.)

John tells us that Nicodemus joined Joseph in the burial and that he brought a hundred pounds of ointment made of a mixture of myrrh and aloes and they anointed the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths and buried it in the rock hewn tomb in which no corpse had ever been laid. Thus our Lord was given an expensive burial by the hands of two rich men—members of the Sanhedrin or Jewish supreme court, though they had not been present at the trial of Christ, it seems. My friends, can you follow out this line of study and not be convinced that the men who wrote those prophecies were inspired? How could they have known that these things that were centuries in the future as they ,wrote would occur? And how could a mere man have made the events of his life accord so perfectly with these predictions? What say you of Jesus? Was he not unique, different, therefore divine? If not, how do you account for him? If he was divine what will you do with him? To reject him would be to reject the divine One, the messenger from heaven, the Gift of God’s love, and therefore to judge yourself unworthy of eternal life, If God has gone to that extreme limit to save you and then you refuse to accept the escape thus provided, what do you think ought to become of you? These are solemn questions, beloved, and this is your hour; others may or may not have heard the gospel, and they may or may not have heard the testimony in favor of the Lord’s divinity, but you have heard it tonight. The evidence is before you and you are forced to render a verdict. You must say that he was divine or he was not. If he was divine, then your soul is lost without him—else there was no need for his journey from heaven to earth; no need for his sacrificial death. What is your decision? Will you accept the salvation brought to you by this suffering (Savior or will you refuse it and go out into the darkless of the boundless beyond without one ray of light or hope?

O, come unto the Lord tonight, give him your life, You must believe, the evidence is too strong to be rejected, Then believe upon him with all your heart, repent of all your sins and having thus died to sin be buried with your Lord in baptism, according to his blessed word, and arise to walk in newness of life. Thus one life is ended in a death and a burial and another life is begun by a resurrection. These are the terms of the gospel; these are the conditions upon which he promises to save you. He is lovingly, tenderly calling you now and we pray that you may come to him right now.