before God in prayer. Let's ask his blessing upon our time together this morning. Father, surely there's no better way to come into your presence than to be singing of the name which is above every name, the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, that his name is the most precious of all names, for it means to us everything, for he is the one who saves us from our sins, who reconciles us to Yourself, who brings to us the gift of eternal life, who enables us to make sense of who we are and the world in which we live, and the God to whom we are to relate. We thank You, Father, this morning for the work of the Holy Spirit that brings us from death to life, uniting us to Christ and bringing to us the blessings of our justification. our sanctification and our adoption. And we come to you this morning, O God, in need afresh of your Spirit to help us as we turn to your Holy Word and as we seek to be fed by your Word. We pray, Father, as we would spend time this morning seeking to see Christ in the Old Testament, that you would help us to understand how important these things are and how we need, O God, to be reading our Bibles with our eye toward the Lord Jesus Christ at all times. We know, Father, that this is something that is important, it's something that we need to grow in, it's something that we need to understand, and so we ask that even now you would help me, Lord, to explain things and you would also help us to understand things so that daily as we are in the Word, we would be meeting with Jesus Christ. And that as we meet with your Son, we would be transformed from one degree of glory into the next, that we would be conform to His likeness, loving what He loves, hating what He hates, seeking to be like Him. And so we come to you now, we pray that you would hear us, we pray that you would bless this hour together, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, one of the things over the years that I've studied and wrestled with and sought to understand, and I think it's fair to say I'm still studying and wrestling with and seeking to understand, is this whole issue of how we see Christ in all of the scriptures. It's very important and yet at one level it's also somewhat controversial. If you get into the whole world of hermeneutics, that is the principles of biblical interpretation, you'll find that there is no end of material, no end of debate, no end of discussion regarding how we might or might not see Christ in all of the scriptures. Now for some of you, you'll never spend time doing all of that, and the Lord bless you, that's fine, don't get discouraged by that, you don't have to be studying all of that to understand the Bible. But, it is important at a very, what I would call, straightforward level as Christians, but we do learn over the years more and more how to read our Bible in such a way as to relate to Christ, enjoy Christ, see Christ, walk with Christ, be transformed by Christ. And so there's a sense in which what you're getting from me and Sunday School in these days is something like the product of 20-odd years of studying these things, and I'm pretty confident to say that I'm not in any way at the end of this. I haven't arrived, so I want you to know that. One of the best books that I think is out there right now, and I've been using it, and I give him the credit for this, is a book, Jesus and All of the Scriptures, or Pictures of Jesus, by David Murray. David Murray is Professor in Theology at Puritan Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids. He's also a fellow Scotsman. I've met David, and he has an excellent blog that he writes, and he's written this book. I've got it on my Kindle. I've been reading it back and forward now for at least a year. And I've found his approach to things has been very helpful for me just to maybe crystallize in my mind how we should seek to see Christ in all of the scriptures. And so I'm drawn very heavily on his material. I want to give him the credit, so you don't think I'm a plagiarist and I'm just stealing somebody else's material. But my attitude to these things is if it's been written better by someone else, then give them the credit, but use it all you can. And so we're going to look at this subject this morning and probably another couple of classes because I want to give you some opportunities, some background, some examples of how we might do this. What we're going to be looking at is Christ in creation, which we're going to start to look at this morning. Christ and his Old Testament people. I'm going to deal with that one hopefully this morning as well, although it might be a bit ambitious to get to them both. And then we're going to also look in the future at Christ and Old Testament appearances. Christ and Old Testament law. You might think, well how would you see Christ in the law? Well that's important, right? Because if you just read the law without thinking of Christ, then you'll get pretty dry and you won't benefit from it as I think God intends. Christ in Old Testament history, we're going to think about that, okay, how the scriptures show us Christ in Old Testament history. And then, you can see why it's going to take more than just one week, Christ in the Old Testament prophets, we're going to think about Christ in the Old Testament prophets, how we can see him. I'm going to give you something of an illustration of that this morning, if we get time, under Christ and his Old Testament people. Christ in Old Testament pictures, Christ in Old Testament promises, Christ in Old Testament proverbs, and Christ in Old Testament poets. Now David obviously likes his alliteration, I just stole his stuff. But it's very, very beneficial when you read through this, you begin to see, wow, the God who made the heavens and the earth, and the God who sent his Son into the world to save us from our sins, is the God who so orchestrated history, so orchestrated redemptive history that you see Christ again and again and again foreshadowed, being pictured in certain ways. And it's important for us to read the Bible as Christians, right? The whole of the Bible is Christian scripture. The notion that the Old Testament is Jewish and the New Testament is Christian, that's liberalism, that's not what we should understand the Bible to teach. The Bible makes it very clear, Paul makes it very clear, the whole of Scripture is Christian. From Genesis to Revelation it's all Christian Scripture. Jesus says this, if you were here the last couple of weeks you saw it, I laid this out. These things testify of me. That's the authority right there. Jesus' method of interpretation should be your method of interpretation if you're going to say you're a Christian. If you buy into something else, then you've departed from Christ Himself. and what he says regarding how we're supposed to interpret our Bible. This is very important in a day when there's immense attack upon the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture. The wars are raging out there right now in many different ways from post-modernity to modernity to liberalism and all these theological elements are impacting even elements of the Christian church where the Scriptures are being reinterpreted and twisted and we're losing the authority of the Word of God and the authority of Christ. So it's important that we understand our Bibles the way Christ tells us to understand our Bibles if we would say that we're true followers of Christ. So what we're going to look at this morning beginning with this is to see Christ in all of Scripture. Let's look first of all at a couple of key New Testament texts. I had the Jehovah's Witnesses at my door yesterday and that's the third time in a month they're really trying to convert me right now and sweet lady. I really have grown to love her. We stand for about an hour, maybe 40 minutes. She was going to come back and have a Bible study with me, but she was busy with something else, but I'm praying the Lord is going to really work in her life, or is working in her life. She maybe just likes to listen to my Scottish accent, I'm not sure, but this is a key text for dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses. It's a key text for laying down the deity of Christ. Unfortunately in the Jehovah's Witness Bible the text has been changed and it's not consistent with the original language. You have to realize that. But for our purposes this morning I want you to see John 1, 1 through 3. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God Now here it is, all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. Think about that. All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. Do you think of Christ, God the Son, merely in terms of His coming into existence in Bethlehem? If you do, your Jesus is too small. Okay? The Jesus of the Bible pre-existed His incarnation. He is the creator of the universe. That's who He is. You've got to think about Him in those terms, especially if you're going to see Him in the Old Testament. Right? And so you have to think that through. That's going to stretch you. Your brain's going to get sore. You're going to get to the end of your thinking abilities and go, boom. This is difficult. That's okay. It is. but it can be grasped, right? Jesus is Creator. Now, we see it also in Hebrews 1. A very important text as well regarding Christ and His purpose and His identity. Hebrews 1.1, Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. whom he appointed the heir of all things, then here it is, through whom also he created the world. Do you think of Christ playing a mediatorial role even in the creation of the world? Very important, right? I think for too many people who profess faith in Christ, their Jesus is far too small. The Christ that we worship is the God who made the universe. That should change our perspective a bit when we come to sing, when we come to praise. We've got to move away from the mere sentimentality that often can mark us regarding things like the nativity and all of that, meek and mild little Jesus. Yes, the humanity of Christ is of course there and that's important and we must understand that too. But He's far bigger than that. He's far greater. Now this is critical as we think then of this whole issue of seeing Christ in creation. Christ is identified as Creator of all things. Now turn to Revelation 13 verse 8. It's interesting, yesterday morning when the Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door, I was preparing some of this stuff and I was in this text and I was just milling over this text and I thought when we got into the discussion with the over's witnesses I'll turn this text up and I never bothered taking my Bible to the door because it's pointless I just used their Bible and so I said to the girl you know let me have a look at your Bible for a minute and she gave it to me and I opened up this verse it's completely different I mean it was it was just complete I was like I started to doubt that I was remembering the verse right. I was thinking, I'm sure it was 13.8. I was just looking at it. And I'm reading it in her Bible and I could not make head nor tail of it. So I thought, forget that. We just have to move on to something else. But their Bible is very different. We've got to realize that. But here in Revelation 13.8 we read this. Read it from verse 7. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints. to comfort them and authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation this is the context of the first beast and the whole issue of religious oppression and then all who dwell on earth will worship it everyone whose name has not been now listen to this text and this is important has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of the lamb who was slain now why do I point this out? because here's where we're going this morning, right? We're going to creation and we're going back before creation, right? So I'm testing you this morning. I'm getting you to think outside the box in a sense, right? Outside the world in a sense, right? This text tells us, right, that there was a book, right, written before the foundation of the world in which God put names. This is the doctrine of election, okay? This is the doctrine of election. When I did have a little discussion yesterday with the ladies on the door at election, you would have almost thought I had committed an unpardonable sin. Jehovah's Witnesses are no doctrine of predestination, no doctrine of election. Their countenances changed actually when I told them what I believed about these things. They were just flabbergasted. But here's the point for us this morning, right? This text makes it very clear then that creation itself came after God had determined to save. I want you to think about that. Creation itself came after God had determined to save. That means that creation itself, right, has a part to play in the whole issue of God's intent to save. Now the question we have to ask ourselves is, what was that part? What was God doing? Was God taken by surprise by anything that happened? No, of course not. There's an intentionality here. So, we should see Christ then, right, pre-creation in the counsels of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit As involved now in the purpose of God to create toward the end of redemption. Right? We've got to see it this way. Christ created the world in order to redeem it. That's what we must see from the scriptures. Christ created the world in order to redeem it. We must see creation against the backdrop of redemption. Very often we fail to do that, don't we? We often try to see redemption against the backdrop of creation. But we haven't gone further enough back in the Bible's clear revelation, right? We must see creation against the backdrop of redemption. God was always intent on bringing about His purpose in Christ, even from before the foundation of the Lord. It wasn't a mistake. It wasn't an afterthought. It was a forethought, intentional purpose. Now that's important. That's very important. Why? Because it's going to help us to see Christ in the creation narrative in Genesis 1 and 2. And so we want to look at several things. First of all, there's the arena of redemption. What is the arena that God created in order to display His purpose in redemption? it is the created order. In other words, if you like, creation forms the theatre, the stage upon which God would display His love and His glory and His majesty and His power and His grace and His mercy. That's what we have to understand. When God was making the world, God was making the world with an intentional purpose of displaying His glory. Now don't misunderstand me. There's mysterious elements to this. Don't you think there's not mysterious elements to this? There is definitely mysterious elements to this. Right? What about the issue of Adam and Eve and the probation? And what about what if they had and all that? These are all issues that we all have questions on and are legitimate things to ask. But what I want you to see in the big picture of things, what God has presented to us in the Scriptures, what we can mine out of the Scriptures is this. The arena of redemption, right, is the world in which we live. It's the created order. So when we come to the Bible, remember what I told you when we started this? Don't start reading Genesis 1. and say, well now I'm going to find out what it's all about. Your entry point to the Word of God is what? Remember? What was it? Jesus Christ, the Gospel. Right? You come into your entry point with the Word of God through a relationship with Christ and now Christ is the lens that you must use to actually make sense of the revelation of God. Right? Don't be arrogant. Right? And sit down and say, well I'm coming to it all objectively and neutral as though somehow existentially, you know, I'm the first person to just sit down and start in Genesis 1. That's just not reality, right? The reality is that we come into contact with the Word of God through the Gospel, through Christ. Now He becomes the lens through which we must seek to understand this thing called the Bible, this revelation of God. And He must therefore be the filter that we use to understand all of Scripture. That's the Christian way to understand the Bible, right? That doesn't mean that in other parts, in other places, other ways are used. I'm not saying that. That is the case. But we're talking about what's essentially Christian here. The arena of our redemption is creation itself. The aim of redemption, right? Let's think about this. Creation forms the language for new creation, doesn't it? The parallels. I want to see a little bit of this. Adam, for example, functions in fellowship with God, as a prophet, a priest and a king. He's the one who names the animals, guides. He's the one who relates to God. He's the one who rules over. All of these things would find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. So when we look at Adam, if we're reading our Bibles properly, Romans 5, We should see there's a correlation, Adam and Christ. We've got to work that out. We've got to figure all of that out. Now, for some of you who are young Christians, it might be five years before you figure that stuff out. That's okay. Don't get all discouraged, right? I know we live in the generation of the instant, and everybody wants instant everything, instant knowledge, instant understanding. There are some things that take 20 years to understand, some things take 30 years, and some things you'll simply never understand. Okay? We've got to realize that. But the aim of redemption is that God is creating forms of language that will be used in new creation. We're going to see this in a minute. The accessories of redemption. Think about this. God's very inventive and imaginative. Right? Maybe you've not thought of creation this way, but God uses a diverse amount of animals and materials to teach us the way of salvation. Have you thought about the fact why God created sheep? I wonder why God's created spiders. That's one I've not figured out yet. That's an issue for me. But there is an intentionality. Maybe I've got to learn something from Proverbs. The reality is they persevere. But think of just sheep for a minute. Do you ever think, why did God do that? A sheep. Why did God need a sheep? Have you ever connected it with the gospel? Have you ever connected it with yourself? Well, of course you have, inadvertently. We all, we like sheep, have gone astray. But you see what God is doing? God is seeking to teach us things about redemption, even through the natural world. Now if you don't think about your Bible this way, think about your world this way, that's okay. Hopefully this is an epiphany for you this morning, okay? And now you're going to start thinking about it, okay? Have you ever thought about water? Why did God create water? Well of course there's a natural purpose but there's also a redemptive purpose. Water is used again and again isn't it in the scriptures to talk about refreshment and revival and cleansing and renewal. If we didn't have water, all those pictures and images and truths would be a lot harder to understand. So we've got to be careful that we don't just view the world through the natural lens. Yes, it's there and it's appropriate, but there's something even more glorious than that going on if we're viewing it with the eyes of Christ. What about trees? Do you think God made trees without knowing, having slain his Son from before the foundation of the world, that his Son would not hang on a tree? The reality is all of these things have been chosen by our Creator intentionally. Do you think there's anything in the world created by God that shouldn't have been created, was a mistake that God did not have an intentionality about? If you can think of anything, let me know. But the reality is, if we really believe this God who we worship is really as big as the Bible says He is, and if we really understand that He's a God of intentionality, all of these things have to be wrestled through. The accessories of redemption were all created by God. every single one of them for a purpose. So when we think of these things, we must think of it in that way. There were assistants in redemption, the angels, right? We could go into a whole lot of stuff on that this morning. I'm not going to go into that. The advance of redemption. Think of it for a minute. Who wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy? As far as we can tell. Well, who do we believe wrote that? Right. Who was Moses? He's the mediator of the old covenant. He was the leader of Israel in the wilderness, right? He writes these things down, okay, for the people of God at a particular time. What are they going through? They're going through the wilderness. They've had an experience of redemption from Egypt, right? What do we find in God having done what he did in the creation? The creation story, the creation events, the fall, expulsion into the wilderness, all of these things, they help Israel understand this. God's purpose in the world is advancing. God has a purpose that is advancing. It's going forward towards a consummation. We're in it now, but we're in it in a very different place. So there was creation, fellowship, There was disobedience, there was fall, there was expulsion. Israel saw something of that in their experience, right? There was the bondage of Egypt, there was the redemption, there was the wilderness. God is teaching Israel that His purposes advance, it's going somewhere, right? And now here we are, all these thousands of years later, and we see how much more it's advanced, and how it's concluded and consummated in Christ. And we need to see this when we come to the creation account. This is not merely, right, merely, and this is a challenge for us, and this might get me into trouble with some of you, but the Genesis account is not merely about creation and evolution. People are making an industry on this, right? Now I'm not saying, I'm a six day creationist, I'm not saying it's not that, but I think it's a lot more than that. That's what I am saying. I think it's about Christ. I think it's about redemption. I think that's the big stuff that we should be seeing, right? I'm not saying the other stuff is not relevant and we can't discuss that, but I do think we miss so much of the glory of God and the wonder of grace and the truth as it is in Jesus if we don't see Christ in the creation. if we don't see Christ in the creation. We need to see Christ in the creation. We need to be teasing these realities out as the people of God. Now think about it from this perspective. I want you to think about creation and salvation, right? Interesting. Creation starts with what? A life-giving spirit. Isn't that right? God breathed into him a life-giving spirit. What does new creation begin with? The Spirit being breathed into us in regeneration. Right? Well, you think that's exciting. Creation life began and God said, let there be light. And light comes to bring about new creation, the light of the gospel, the light of the truth of God. You see the parallels are there. Created light, salvation light, separate from darkness. There's a separation, right? Creation produced fruit. Salvation produces fruit. The parallel between creation and new creation is intentional by God. It's not a mistake. It's not an afterthought. It's not like it was just coincidental that it happened. It was built in by God. God built this in so that we could understand our salvation. Creation and salvation move toward a climax of humanity in God's image. The first one was lost. The second one will not be lost. God made man in his own image and he fell. God's recreating man in the image of Christ and he will be like him. We're going to see these parallels when we're reading our Bibles. Creation and salvation end with control and dominion. Now we lost it in the first creation, the old creation. We won't lose it in the second. The new heavens and the new earth are truly coming. and it can never be lost. But the parallels are there. We need to see these parallels, what God is doing in Christ. And so there's the analogy of redemption. Adam alone, but not alone. Now what do I mean by that? Well, Adam was on his own in the garden with his wife and he sinned, but he wasn't sinning only for himself. He was sinning for everybody else. He is our head, right? The parallel is seen in Jesus. Jesus acted alone, didn't he? But he wasn't acting for himself only. He was acting for all who would believe in him and be saved. That's why really in many ways there's only two people in the whole universe that we need to understand. Adam and Christ. We're all born in Adam. We fall, we're lost. We all must be in Christ if we would be saved. There's this analogy that is clearly there. Only by understanding the first Adam can we understand the last Adam. And there are the advantages of redemption built in right there in the beginning, Sabbath and marriage, both of them pointing us to redemption. Sabbath points us to eternal rest, marriage points us to eternal relationship. These things will be picked up in the New Testament and fleshed out in very clear ways. We're looking, our marriages, believe it or not, what do they portray? The marriage supper of the Lamb that is yet to come. A picture for us to understand this great redemption that has come to us in Christ. They're all there in the creation. The very apex of redemption. A kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. That's what Matthew 25 says. God has prepared a kingdom from the foundation of the world. It was always God's intent to bring us to the new heavens and the new earth. Always God's purpose. So heaven existed at the creation for the redeemed of God. Then there's the author of all of these things. It shouldn't really surprise us, really, that if God has written the script and God has written the end, that God would write all the details in between. It's not hard, is it, for Him to do that? He's the sovereign Lord. In Him we live and move and have our being. God ordered creation the way He did to teach us about redemption, revealing what? He is the all-wise and gloriously good God. and he wants his creatures to enjoy him, to relate to him, to understand him, to walk with him. Of course man in his rebellion, in his foolishness has sought to walk in darkness. The application of redemption then is this, that the stage is set for redemption at creation and we must see this in all of creation and seek to believe in him. God sets the stage and then works out his purposes to bring about what? the salvation of all those that he had given to Christ from before the foundation of the world. That's what God's doing. Now, I know that that really, really offends modern man's sensibilities. Secular humanism revulses at this, mocks this. But that's what the Bible teaches. And that's the reality. You either believe it or you don't. You either shape your life by these things or you don't. And when we go to our Bibles and we look at creation, don't just go to your Bible to look at creation to have an argument about creation and evolution. Go there to see the glory of God and the person of Christ and the purpose of God in Christ in terms of our so great salvation. Genesis 1 and 2 is rich. And that's why we cannot afford to lose Genesis 1 and 2, because it forms the very basis for everything else. Why do you think the devil, with all his forces and all his influences, is out to destroy the foundation? Because if he can destroy that, the rest of it makes no sense. So realize we can't budge an inch on this. You lose the gospel if you lose Genesis 1 and 2. Simple. Straightforward. Not easy. Any questions on that? Because we're going to move on to the next part. Christ in Old Testament characters. Any questions on any of that? I know there's a lot of stuff there. I even left out several other points. But I really encourage you, if you want to read the full material that David Murray presents, get the book and just spend a year working through it. You will not be disappointed. It has been rich for me. It helps to transform your prayer life. help to transform your devotions when you really are meeting with Christ in all of Scripture and trying to work it out. Go ahead, Joe. Sure. Yep, I think that's right. I think that's why we have the Living God dwelling within us by His Spirit to help us. Because what is the Spirit's purpose? The Spirit's purpose is to glorify Christ. To bring us to Christ. To continue to help us to relate to Christ. So, absolutely. When you have your devotional time, when you come to hear the Word preached, you should be praying for the blessed Spirit of God to illuminate your understanding. into what you're listening to, what you're reading, so that you might meet with Christ, experience Christ, understand Christ, and live out what Christ requires of you as one of his followers. Absolutely. Daniel. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, it's funny you say that, Dion, because yesterday, you know, I mentioned that the GWs came to my door and, you know, this dear woman, she's a sweet lady, and I felt I had to be restrained because I felt I went to the... I was going... I had just prepared all this stuff and I was going to the door like, you know, I felt like I was going to the door with five nuclear weapons, you know, and she's standing there with a pea shooter, you know, telling me about this Jesus that she believes in, and I said to her, I said, you know, the real issue for us is who is Jesus? You know, the Jesus you're following won't save you. He can't save you. But the Jesus of the Bible, He's God. And I had to really just be very restrained because my heart was full. I mean, I just wanted to preach 10 sermons, you know, at my front doorstep. And I felt, you know, it was hard. But you're right. I think that, you know, if we do not know the true Christ, we are not saved. If we have a false Christ, the Bible warns us, there are many false Christs. If we worship the false Christ, we are not saved. Only the true Christ saves us. And the true Christ is the Christ who is God, who's come in the flesh. And that's why it's so important as a pastor to help people to have a real understanding of who Jesus really is. That he's much more than what we realize, much more than what we maybe first understand when we first believe in him for our salvation. You know, I think it's a growing thing, it's a maturing thing. But it's a difference between someone saying to me, I deny that, right? Or, I don't understand that, but I want to grow in it. That's the language of the child of God. The language of the false professor is the person who denies the truth of the Scriptures. And that's the challenge for us, Daniel, with that. But yeah, there's many false Christs out there, folks. We've got to make sure that we're in union with the true Christ and that we're growing in Him. That we're growing in who He is. The Bible says to grow in our knowledge. right? And grace of God in Christ. And that's what this is about. We're trying to grow in our understanding. Is your Jesus big enough? There's a book title, you know. That's the reality for us. We've got to work through who Christ is. Okay, so let me move on because I wanted to see then, bring this down a little bit more in terms of working through where we must see Christ in different parts. The creation aspect is huge. We only really skimmed the surface of it in that time that we did it, but hopefully it will send your hearts and minds in a particular direction to help you to study it for yourself. I want us to think about Christ and the Old Testament characters. Preserving the gospel and the ethical impact of the Old Testament is vitally important, but it's not easy. Okay? I want you to know this right off the bat. Now what do I mean by this? I mean that there are certain things in the Old Testament that apply particularly to the Old Covenant people that don't apply to us. And we have to understand that, right? There are certain struggles with drawing the ethical implications of things from the Old Covenant into the New Covenant, and we all struggle with it. And you've heard the arguments, you know, are tattoos valid? are should we wear cotton clothes? We have all these kind of things because people go to the most obscure texts in the Levitical code and they start to wrestle with it. The reality is it's an expression of the fact this is not easy. So I want you to know that right off the bat so that you're secure in the fact that it's not easy. So if you're confused and you're not sure, it's not that you're not saved. It's just that it's not easy. We're dealing here with deep things from the things of God. But we need to understand that there is gospel import and ethical import from the Old Testament that we need to work through. We need to be careful. Not heroes and villains approach. What do I mean by that? There's the goodies and the baddies. Remember all the movies used to be about the goodies and the baddies. As if we go to our Bible and we see these goodies and we see these baddies. We've got to be careful about such a simplistic approach. That can lead us into a kind of moralism, a kind of emotional-based fragmentation of our Bibles. So let me give you a couple of illustrations of that. If at the end of the day all we get out of David and Goliath is, you know, be courageous and face your giants, right? I'm not saying you can't find something like that there, but if that's it, right, you ain't reading your Bible very deeply and you're not very theologically astute, okay? There's much more in that account that we're supposed to see regarding Christ and God and His cosmic purpose than that reality, okay? If at the end of the day, okay, it's all about just simply being like Samson where he was good and avoiding him where he was bad, yeah, okay, but there's much more to that story and that account than we're understanding. We've got to be careful. Now, I understand, when you're in Sunday school and you're five, you just need to get the story down. But when you're 15, 20, 25, you need to get a whole lot more than that. You're gonna get married, establish a family, go into the world and contend for your faith. You need to be much more deeply grounded in things than simply, I'll tell you the story of David and Goliath, okay? It's okay when you're a child, but Paul talks about the fact that we need to grow to maturity, right? And I am of the mind, every man and every woman who is a member of Christ and the body of Christ in the church should know as much as is possible to know. about the truth of God's word, theologically, historically, exegetically. Now I realise we're all at different levels and I realise we've all got different schedules and I realise we've all got different ability to understand and capacity to understand, but that's my passion. If you were to say to me what's my passion for the church, it is that we would all be growing in all of these things, all of the time, right? It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter how long you've been saved, there's always more. Right? And you should be striving to grow in these things. We need to be careful as well, that very often if we just read the Old Testament stories as stories, we can often then have a Christless view of the Old Testament. Right? You miss Christ by just reading the story. And so what you need to be asking yourself is, where is Christ here? Now that might not be an easy question to answer, but you should be asking it. You should be asking it. based on the fact that in the New Testament, Jesus has told you, I am there. Right? These things bear witness to me. So it may not be that you'll answer that question in 20 minutes with your coffee mug on a Thursday morning, you're trying to get out to the office and you're under pressure. I understand that. I don't want you to think, you know, pastor, what planet do you live on? You can sit in your study and study these things for four hours. I get it. I'm not, I understand that. But listen, you still need to be asking the question. And it may take you a month to get the answer, right? And that's okay, as long as you're asking the question and you're seeking to find out what the answer actually is. Why? Because here's the point. It's about growing in your relationship with Christ and your knowledge of Christ and seeing Christ in all of Scripture. That's part of your sanctification. It will help you as you go forward. The Old Testament speaks to Israel and to us. We need to remember that, right? So here's the point, we mentioned it. The Pentateuch was originally given to the Old Covenant community at a given point in redemptive history, we have to remember that. But it wasn't only given to them, it was given to the Covenant people of God in every generation and we have inherited it now, so in that sense we also have these things. Paul tells us these things were written down for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the age has come. God intended, remember 1 Peter chapter 1, God intended that these things would be written for us. And those who received them at the beginning, they scratched their head at times and went, what is this referring to? We're looking into it. Let's just look at that text again because I think it's a critically important text. 1 Peter chapter 1. And remember, this is the mature thoughts of Peter. This is the Peter who at one point was so scared of what was going on, he denied Jesus and ran away. But now here he is as an older pastor, mature pastor, seasoned pastor. Here's what he writes, 1 Peter 1.10. I think this is a very, very important text. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully. inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he preached the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. Remember what's it about? Christ's sufferings, Christ's glories. That's what the Old Testament is primarily about. It was revealed to them that they were serving, read this very carefully, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, But you, now think about that, Isaiah, it was revealed to him that what he was now being given by God, right, was not only for him but for us. That's amazing, right? It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Now I don't know about you, but that's an amazing thing. When I read Jeremiah, when I read Isaiah, when I read David's Psalms, right? These things that was revealed to them, this is not only for you guys, it's for the covenant people of God to come. It's for the people of God who will see the Messiah, behold the Messiah, believe in the Messiah. We've got to understand we are part of something so fantastic, so glorious, so immense that we just cannot take it in fully, all that we're part of. And so when we're looking at the Old Testament, we need to realise this, it's to Israel, it's to us, we need to avoid individualistic interpretation. You know what that means? The kind of way that we often are guilty, you know. Well, I'm sitting down, I'm the only one who's got the Bible. God is just speaking directly to me. There's no historical context. There's no original authorial intent. It's just the word comes to me direct and it means something. Whatever it means to me, that's my guidance. That is a recipe for disaster. Let's be honest. I put my hand up first so you can feel not embarrassed. But in my early days as a Christian, that's how I read my Bible. Nobody taught me it. I didn't know any better. That's how I read it. I remember many years ago, I was a teenager and we would go to camps in the summer and even camps that Alistair Begg was preaching at but you never got near Alistair Begg because he was way up there somewhere. You would have your devotional time and you would just open your Bible, you would be reading something and really all you were doing was looking for something that had an application for you. It was an individualistic approach. Now, here's the amazing thing about God, right? This is the glorious reality, right? God loves us. And He's merciful to us. And even in our immaturity, boy, I was immature back then, right? It's embarrassing when I think back to the things I used to think. But God knew my heart. I was really wanting to please God. I was trying to work it out. And God took me where I was at. And I didn't make any crazy decisions based on crazy applications of the Word of God. He was merciful, He was gracious. So I want to say to you this morning, maybe that is how you approach your Bible, maybe that's how you've been approaching it, but you're here, you're still alive and God's been merciful, right? And you haven't done anything really, really crazy. Or if you have, you've repented and you're back and you're doing okay, right? God is gracious to us in spite of how immature we are, right? And we also got to be careful that just because we start to understand our Bibles like this, that doesn't suddenly make us spiritual supermen and spiritual superwomen, we still have to be humble before him, realizing there's so much more for us to understand. We are finite, and he is infinite, right? And what he's doing is ultimately conforming us to the likeness of Jesus. That's why it's not so important about what you're doing, although doing matters, it's what you're becoming that really matters, right? Are you becoming like Jesus? in your heart, in your character, in the way that you relate to folks. That's the challenge for us. Okay, the way you view the world. Okay, so avoid individualistic interpretations, but look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, because here's another important text. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 1. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And then verse six, now these things took place as examples for us. Think about that. God set up creation as his theater and he then ordained in Providence the events that took place to the very detail for us to have examples that we might not desire evil as they did, Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to pray. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them, and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did. Now what was that? Christ to the test. You see that? That's what we've got to be seeing. The Spirit of Christ is in His people. The ministry of Christ is at work, even in the Old Testament, right? Dispensationalism has wreaked havoc in the minds of God's people, right? And put this wedge in between Old and New Testaments, right? Yes, they're not identical, but they are inextricably united together in one flow of redemptive history. That's really important to understand. So the Spirit of Christ is there. The work of Christ is there. The person of Christ is there. Yes, it's by way of shadow. That is, it's not full lights on, full revelation yet, but it's there. We need to see this. Verse 11. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. So Moses sat down and he wrote down what he did so that you and I could read about it and learn how to walk with Jesus Christ. That's amazing. But that's what it teaches. That's what it's teaching. Okay? Notice, they were written down for our instruction. You say, are you sure? Yeah. On whom the end of the ages has come. There's your eschatology right there. On whom the end of the ages has come. You've got to work that text out. But I'm telling you, this is what I believe it means. Jesus comes next, it's over. Done. The ends of the age have come. This is it. And then when Jesus comes, a new heavens and a new earth. I'm persuaded that's what Paul's referring to. So these things were written down for us who would be the last peoples in God's purpose on the earth. Now it's lasted for 2,000 years, I grant you that. It may last for another 2,000 years, we don't know. But we are those upon whom the ends of the age have come. And these things were written down for our instruction. And if you don't interpret your Bible the way that Jesus tells you to interpret your Bible and the way that the apostles interpret your Bible, then you're not interpreting your Bible according to what Christ and God would have you to do as a Christian. There's all sorts of ways to interpret the Bible. The Jehovah's Witnesses are a brilliant illustration of that. It's incredible how they interpret their Bible. See, it's not enough to say, I believe the Bible. That's not the question. The question is, would you believe the Bible teaches? That's the question. The Jehovah's Witnesses told me yesterday they believe the Bible. We definitely don't believe the Bible teaches the same things. So, time is almost gone. Let me just begin this. Here's what I want you to see. When you go to the Old Testament, use the control of Jesus to help you to understand it. Right? Use the control of Jesus. So for example, Use his character. See, you see how it's important to know who Jesus is, isn't it? You see how important it is to know Jesus yourself. Because if you don't know Jesus yourself, right? If you're not relating to the true Jesus, there's no way you can unpack the Old Testament and make sense of it. The character of Jesus, right? Let's take, for example, the life of Joseph. We all know this is a pretty familiar one, right? We're all pretty familiar with the life of Joseph. One of my favorite characters in the Old Testament. So here's one of the Old Testament characters, Joseph. Jesus tells us, as our Lord, you read the life of Joseph, you need to see me in the life of Joseph. In what way do I see myself, do I see Jesus in the life of Joseph? Well, here are some basic guidelines to help you to see Jesus, right, in the life of Joseph. What about his character, Jesus' character? What do you see in Joseph? You see a forgiving man. When do you see that? When you see Joseph as a forgiving man, remember the account? His brothers, right? I mean, they were rascals. They really did treat him badly, right? Threw him in a pit. Ended up in a horrible situation. Ended up in slavery. Ended up then unjustly in prison. But God did not forget him. God highly exalted him, right? And then his brothers came along. Joseph says to them, what you meant for evil. God meant for good. Now, we can do this, we can say, right, we can see the forgiveness of Joseph, right? So that means we must be forgiving, right? And that's true, but there's a danger. If we leave Jesus out, we've only got moralism, right? I must be forgiving in my own strength. I must be forgiving because that's just a good trait. That's a virtue. That's how you end up in moralism. Everybody becomes good, but Jesus has left out the equation. No, we must realize we're not Joseph in that story. We're the brothers. We are. We're the brothers. We're the haters. We're the jealous ones. Joseph is Christ. We need to see that. Joseph has the spirit of Christ. Joseph has the forgiveness of Christ. Joseph is the personification, if you want to go that far, of Christ. And we must see that. And then we must realize then, well, if we're going to be like Joseph, we must first be in Christ. And we must be like Christ. And we must follow Christ. So as a forgiving man, what do we see? We see it, he illustrates the forgiving spirit of Jesus. That should encourage us, shouldn't it? Because we're like the brothers by nature. Jealous, hateful, bitter, rivalry. We can receive forgiveness from Jesus. And then he bears witness to the forgiving heart of Jesus. What a heart that man had. When you think about what he did as a result of what he suffered. You see, you haven't suffered what Jesus suffered. Jesus suffered it for you. And so we have to be able to tie these things together. When we come to the character of a man like Joseph, we must look at Joseph and think, okay, how do we learn? Draw the lines between Joseph and Jesus and then bring it by way of application to ourselves. Now, that's not easy to do. I don't want you to think this morning, right, you're going to go home and be able to do this. You're going to have to wrestle with this. You're going to make mistakes in doing this, right? You're not going to be able to always fully draw the parallels. But here's the point, I'm simply wanting you to start thinking in these categories because I think it's important if you're going to enjoy Christ in all of the Scriptures. And that surely should be our desire, right? The reality is that we must enjoy Christ in all His fullness and He wants us to enjoy Him in all His fullness and we will enjoy Him in all His fullness if we see Him in all of Scripture. So when we read our Bibles, you're not just reading the story of Joseph and getting a moral lesson on how to be a good person. Right? I'm not saying that's not there. I'm simply saying to you, it's far deeper than that. It's far deeper than that. It is Christ that is being revealed. And it is our need for Christ that is being shown. And it's our relationship with Christ that is being we're being pointed to when we read these things. Christ wants us to relate to him through the scriptures because these are the things that bear witness of him. So you see the danger on the one hand is of mere moralism, mere, now remember I'm saying mere moralism because being in Christ leads to a moral life, don't misunderstand me right, it leads to righteousness and uprightness but leave Christ out And all you've got is a book of moral principles that you'll be trying to do in your own strength. And that will be a disaster. And that's actually what Pharisees do. They leave Christ out and they just try to keep the law themselves. You can't keep the law. You can't be good at all in yourself. There is no goodness in you by nature. You are only what you are because you're in Christ. That's the important thing that you've got to see. So our time is gone. I knew we wouldn't get through this. I'll come back to this. I'm sure there are going to be questions. Over the next three weeks, here's your homework. As you're reading your Bible, ask yourself, I know we've only got started on this, ask yourself the question, where is Jesus in this passage? And then try and answer it, right? And don't worry if you get it wrong, right? That's okay. Spurgeon said, I'd rather see him where he's not than miss him where he is, okay? But the reality is, Try that in your devotions. As you pray, Lord Jesus, where are you in this? And how am I to see you in this? And start thinking about that. Because here's the point. In your devotions then, one thing's for sure. Your heart will be going to your Saviour and your Lord. And He will encourage your soul. Even where you're seeing Him, maybe where He's not. But may the Lord give us ability to grow in our understanding of seeing Christ. in all of Scripture. Amen. Let's pray. Father, how amazing You are. How glorious Your Son is. How wonderful Your Word is. We know, Father, that as we grow in Him, we realize just how much over the years we've read Your Word in ways that has not profited our souls, even as Your people. We thank You that when we begin to understand that Christ is in all of Scripture and that He wants us to see Him in all of Scripture and to relate to Him in all of Scripture, that it is a life-transforming reality that brings to us joy, delight, brings to us guidance and direction, helps us to realise something of the greatness of Jesus Christ and something of the glory of your purpose for us in your Son. Deliver us, Lord, from a domesticated Christ, Christ that is just so small that we do not enjoy Him as He intends, but rather give us an understanding of the immensity of your Son as the one who has loved us and saved us from sin and as the one who sits enthroned in heaven as the Lord of the Universe. For we ask it in His name. Amen.