So for those of you perhaps that are listening and watching via the internet, we do welcome you this morning. And with our congregation, turn with me to begin with to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. We commenced last Sunday morning looking at remembering Jesus Christ. And we're going to look at a number of different passages of scripture. I reminded you that these are topical messages, so we generally don't camp in any particular passage. But this, of course, we're looking at this morning on why Jesus is referred to as the prophet. And so, Paul wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter two and verse eight, He said, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. So of all of the incidents that went into the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one thing that Paul wanted Timothy to focus on was the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. No gospel without the resurrection. And so that removes the fact that this is being a morally good person saves because there has to be the resurrection in order for there to be the good news. Now turn to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy has been called the second giving of the law. And in it, there's quite a bit of reiteration of the law that was the Mosaic covenant that was made in the latter part of the book of Exodus, which we're looking at right now. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, we are told, beginning in verse 15, and Moses, of course, is recording this, and he says, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, him you shall hear. According to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die. And the Lord said to me, what they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among the brethren, and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. I suspect that in most of your Bibles, if not all of them, the word prophet is capitalized, or the first letter is capitalized. So there is a distinction between this prophecy about a prophet And all the other prophets, and there were hundreds of them, if not thousands of them. And so that's what we're going to look at this morning. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father bless, I pray the word. Teach us from the word this morning. Exalt Jesus Christ who is the great prophet. In his name we make this prayer, amen. First slide if you would, Brother Jeff. So last Sunday we focused on the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and that will continue as we look at Christ being God's prophet, Christ being God's priest, and Christ being God's king. So when we talk about remembrance, Paul said, remember Jesus Christ, the resurrection, and that's vitally important to our salvation. But Christ is to be remembered in the permanency of the incarnation. And part of that reflection in the incarnation is that he's to be remembered as personifying three Old Testament spiritual offices. Now there are but two in the New Testament, that of pastor and deacon, but there were three in the Old Testament. And they were the office of the prophet, the office of the priest and the office of the king. Now, in the Old Testament, there was never a single person that embodied all three. There were prophets that were priests. There were prophets that were kings. There were priests that were kings. But there was never any single man that occupied all three of these Old Testament offices. So at Christmas time, in the manger, lay God's principal prophet. And that's an important title of our Lord Jesus Christ. as the prophet mentioned here in Deuteronomy. Christ brings to us the true Word of God because He is the Word incarnate. We looked at that last Sunday morning. John 1 in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, period. So I'm gonna ask a few questions this morning as we go through and examine the prophetic office of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did God choose to exalt Jesus as prophet, as the prophet? And obviously there's some background here. Israel waited for the fulfillment that we've just read here in Deuteronomy 18. They waited for this fulfillment as the promise to Messiah. They understood there was a distinction between Moses and what Moses wrote and declared to the people in Deuteronomy 18. Something is different about this prophet. Now you and I wait for a prophet. Jesus fulfills the message of the prophets, of the Old Testament prophets. And he speaks for God in the greatest way possible. And we'll unfold this as we go through the message this morning. So God sent prophets. He commissioned prophets to go to Israel to speak on his behalf. And one of the great things that the prophets did, those that were true prophets, was to call Israel away from idolatry. Now that applies to you and I today. You'll have no other gods before me that did not change Old Testament to New Testament and is still as relevant and is still as prevalent today as it was then. Most prophetic oracles from the Old Testament began this way. Thus says the Lord. And over 400 times we find this in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit used this intro. two, is to attract Israel's attention and remembering that they were not alone. God had intervened. God was with them and he's with us again today. And he was proclaiming a message directly from the Lord. So what we see here in Deuteronomy 18, Moses did not conjure this up. This is a direct revelation from God through Moses to the Hebrew people. Now prophets were the mouthpiece of God. They announced both good news, and here's good news, and they announced bad news, because that's what prophets do. If they're the mouthpiece of God, they're gonna give you the good news, and as God is wont to do, he'll give you some bad news. He reminded Israel of God's will. And they also reminded Israel of the dire consequences of disregarding the bad news. Of just, well, did God really say these things? Brother Terry was teaching this morning, and we looked at the book of Jeremiah while he was teaching, and there was a quote in there from the prophets during Jeremiah's time. And those prophets say, hey, we don't want to hear the bad news. There are dire consequences. We don't want to hear that. And how relevant is that today? We don't want to hear. the consequences. We'd rather hear just the great mercy and grace. And indeed, there is great mercy and grace in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's the two things primarily that prophets did. And they did this by preaching. They wrote and they preached verbally. Prophets foretold future events. And one of the great blessings that we learn from prophets that were that were sent by the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you would, look at verse 19 of Deuteronomy 18. There the Lord continues, and it shall be that whoever will not hear my words when he speaks in my name, that's talking of that prophet, but notice what he said, I will require it of him, but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, these are the general prophets. These are the generic prophets. Because that prophet, the prophet, Jesus Christ would never presume to do that. But notice what he says, the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. Now this didn't happen often. As with most of the commands of God for putting people to death, it just didn't happen. And so they ignored The consequences of speaking falsehoods, of lying, and he says, I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, if it is not foretold, how do you know? That is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. And this happens, it happened probably thousands of times through the Old Testament, false prophets. It happens today. We're gonna go into 2 Peter here in just a few weeks. In 2 Peter we'll begin to see that in the last days perilous times are going to come and there will be false prophets. It hasn't changed. And so the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of it. In fact, get rid of it. And there are many, many revelations of these prophets that are contained in the Old Testament. So they would foretold, they foretold future events, like Daniel, like Moses, like Isaiah, like Jeremiah, many, many others. Now Yahweh's prophets spoke mostly to Israel, but their preaching was not only for Israel. Well, preacher, you're just preaching to the, you're preaching to the choir, so that doesn't apply to anyone else. Oh yeah, buddy, it does. Whether it's here in the house of God, which is where God's people should be, or whether it's broadcast, thankfully, or whether it's ignored. It doesn't change the value of the message. The preaching is not only for you. It is for you, but it's for others as well. The prophets preached of coming judgment for Israel, but they also warned pagan nations who arrogantly acted as if they were independent of the Creator God. We see this all through the Old Testament, but primarily Daniel 4, where Nebuchadnezzar says, is this not great Babylon that I have built? And then the shortest book in the Old Testament, the book of Obadiah, the whole 21 verses of that, the first 24 verses of that, has to do with the prophecies made against Edom and against other pagan nations. So yes, they prophesied primarily to Israel, but also to other pagan nations. And that continues today. Their message was a message of hope for the nations. If we had time this morning, we could go to Zechariah chapter 14. I've got it listed here. By the way, the Old Testament book of Zechariah, 14 chapters, has more prophecies in it than any other book in the Bible. So it would do you and I well to reread that. The latter part of chapter 14 of the book of Zechariah talks about a great revival that's going to occur during the end times. So how does that occur? It occurs because prophets proclaim the prophet that is the savior of mankind. So they're prophesying about God restoring Israel. and including other worshiping nations as his people as well. You and I are representative of the church. As I look about us this morning, almost all, if not all of us, are Gentiles. We were part and parcel of pagan nations until Christ himself resurrected from the dead. So why a prophet? Why does God choose the office of prophet for Jesus to occupy? So let's ask this question. Hundreds of prophets in the Old Testament. Did the Old Testament prophets' ministry fail? Now here is the summation. Despite all that the Lord did and declared through his prophets, their ministry was ultimately insufficient and incomplete. It was insufficient because Israel continuously rebelled against the prophets and they rebelled against God himself. Now, not only was this true of Israel, but it was also true of all the pagan nations that they became involved with. Yes, it was true of all the pagan nations globally. Doesn't change the message of God. And we learned this last Sunday from looking at Romans chapter two. Yes, there were times of repentance and restoration, but they were rare. In Old Testament, Israel is finally, when you get to the book of Malachi, it's finally a tragic story that ends in the judgment and the exile of Babylon and Assyria. Babylon for Judah and Benjamin, and the other 10 tribes for the captivity in Assyria. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Babylon, obviously, was the capital of the Babylon Empire. Now God finally broke them of their idolatry, and a remnant was allowed to come back, and that's where we are when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. So in a time of great, great spiritual darkness, Jesus is born. The Old Testament ends with Israel's sin festering and the Messiah still absent. The prophet's messages, prophet's plural, the prophet's messages were incomplete. And then they were unfulfilled. Now, they did not fail fully. And one of the reasons is they pointed to, as we see here in Deuteronomy chapter 18, a greater prophet that was yet to come. And this was their hope. This was, for those that were looking for the coming Messiah, this was their dream. that God himself or God in some form would manifest himself to the nation of Israel. Next slide, brother. So we have an Old Testament prophet, the last of the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist. John the Baptist, cousin of the Lord Jesus Christ, born six months before Jesus, was as Jesus proclaimed Matthew 11, he says, truly I say to you among those born of a woman, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. The greatest, you ever ask this question by the way? If you're on Jeopardy, who's the greatest Old Testament prophet? Or I don't know, they have a declarative sentence, not an interrogative, whatever that is, question mark sentence, okay? So you would say, who is John the Baptist? The greatest Old Testament prophet. How do we know that? Because Jesus said that. And so John was great. He was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, and John came out of the gate during his ministry with these words, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then Jesus shows up one day while John is baptizing. And Jesus says, you need to baptize me. I need to identify with your message, John. And John said, far be it from me to do this. And Jesus said, but I implore you, this is necessary for me to begin my ministry. Now when we come to Jesus as King, we'll focus on the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. That was the message of Jesus as King. It mirrored the message of John the Baptist, and it didn't change. So Jesus agreed with John the Baptist. Jesus agreed with the true prophets of the Old Testament, and they agreed with him. And so what we have here is that John has had the supreme privilege because he was the last Old Testament prophet to predict and anticipate the coming of the Messiah. He saw the Messiah, the others didn't. Now here's the thing that you need to remember, and this is where people get confused about the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophetic revelation was not less authoritative than the New Testament. The Old Testament is not less the Bible than the New Testament. There are reasons that God has given us both. It was deliberately, Old Testament, it was deliberately fragmented and incomplete by God. Why? Because none of the Old Testament prophets were worthy to be the prophet that was prophesied in Deuteronomy 18. So God veiled the Messiah until all these events began to happen in and about Bethlehem a year or so before the Lord Jesus was born. This fragmentation occurred because of Old Testament covenants didn't provide closure to God's promise of the Messiah. The Old Testament prophecies were meant to awaken an expectation that God would continue to speak to His people. It didn't awaken this expectation for the majority of people in Israel, but it did for some. And the Old Testament prophets provided the unveiling of the first advent of the prophet. We've seen here, God will raise up for you a prophet, like me, as Moses said, from your brothers. It is to him that you shall listen. Now turn with me to Acts chapter three. This message and prophecy about that prophet is so powerful that Peter used it in preaching soon after the Day of Pentecost. Acts chapter 3. Look at verse 13. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Peter, is preaching. Now Peter's a prophet. He's a New Testament prophet. He's an apostle. He became a pastor. The God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate. when he was determined to let him go, but you denied the Holy One and the just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Prince of Life. But you didn't stay dead, and God raised him from the dead, of which we are witnesses. We talked about witness revelation. We'll talk about it a little later on in the message here this morning. His name through faith in His name has made this man strong. This is the healing of the lame man there in Solomon's porch. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given Him the perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also all your rulers. Those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets that Christ would suffer, he has fulfilled. Repent. There's a message of John the Baptist, there's a message of Jesus, and here's a message of Peter. This is the message of Ernie, your preacher, your pastor. Repent, therefore, and be converted. that your sins may be blotted out so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, who heaven must receive into the times of the restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Do you remember what Jesus told, what God told? The rich man that died and went to hell, Luke 16, or what Abraham told him. You remember? The rich man said, Lord, send someone to my brothers and tell them about the horrible conditions and nature of where I am. And the reply was, They have Moses and the prophets. Not gonna do it. They have Moses and the prophets. If you're here this morning and you're unsure of your salvation, I would adjure you to understand that you have Moses and the prophets. You need no other revelation from God other than Jesus Christ. That's what Peter is saying here. Moses truly said to the fathers, verse 22, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things whatever he says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet. You got Moses, you got the prophets, you got this prophet. You don't need any other revelation. be utterly destroyed from among the people. Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow and as many as have spoken have also foretold these days. So prophets foretold of the events and they foretold the truth of God to the people of God. The way that God chose to speak to the world at Bethlehem was disruptive. And we have Moses and the prophets. And Jesus was, it disrupted the life of God the Son. And the fact that at that particular point when he became incarnate, he has never relinquished his fleshly God-man body. Never. It was disruptive for Jesus. It's disruptive for us. It was meant to be. Next slide. So who is Jesus the prophet? talked about him in Deuteronomy 18. Peter is preaching about him here in Acts chapter three. And there are a number of phrases here all through the New Testament. Jesus, and we'll talk here about the transfiguration in just a moment. Just before the transfiguration occurred in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus asked the question, who do men say that I am? And so the disciples began to say, well, some say you're Elijah, some say you're Moses, some say you're one of the prophets. You just come back from the dead. In John chapter four, when Jesus was speaking to the woman at the well, he was telling about the fact that she had been married five times and the man that she was living with then was not her husband. And she said, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. So they understood, disciples and this woman at the well, they understood that prophets had some, biblical prophets had some supernatural ability to know things that others did not. This doesn't occur today, folks, because we have Moses and the prophets. Luke 24, Jesus is resurrected. He's walking with two disciples on the Emmaus Road Sunday afternoon. And they were talking to Jesus about the Messiah being put to death, and now someone has said that they have seen him, and we're not sure what's going on. And then Jesus said to them, oh foolish ones, standing right before them as they're walking, and slow of heart to believe, all of the prophets have spoken. You think you and I would have been any different? No. Was it not necessary? that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, beginning with the word, he interpreted to them all the scriptures, in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. He went back to the word, because the word suffices for the witness revelation of Jesus Christ. Now Jesus certainly has a number of messages that we see, but he was and is a source for the good news from God, the gospel. His prophet is a disruptor. He was and is unique. Peter, James, and John witnessed the transfiguration as recorded in Matthew chapter 17 and Luke chapter 9. Mount Tabor, which is just north of Caesarea Philippi, was the furthest that Jesus had ever ventured or would ever venture from Jerusalem. And so Jesus is raised and exalted there on the Mount of Transfiguration. And we are told in Luke 9, and a voice came out of the clouds saying, this is my son, my chosen one. God chooses. My chosen one. Moses, chosen of God. Abraham, Abraham was a moon worshiper. that God called out of the earthly colonies. Abraham didn't choose God. God chose Abraham. God chose Moses. God chose his monogenies. And the words that are used there, Matthew 17, Luke 9, and others are, hey, Moses and Elijah are here, but you're to listen to this man. These are smart guys, but they're not the chosen one. How often do we listen to other smart guys, smart gals? How often? Listen to the chosen one. Now the word listen there, eight times in the gospel, Jesus, this is the most frequently stated phrase made by our Lord Jesus. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. The word here in the Hebrew is the word Shema. And it is the record of, hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord. Do we hear that today? Our families are not our Lord's, albeit they are good gifts from God. Our children, our grandchildren, they are not our Lord. Hear this prophet. That's why he came as a prophet. Hear this one. So eight times in the gospel, Jesus repeated, he that has ears to hear, let him hear. And his father said, he's the chosen one, hear him. Next slide. and God's sovereignty. Moses and Elijah appear on the Mount of Transfiguration. They're two key prophets, and these represent, Moses obviously represented the law, and Elijah represented the prophets, the Old Testament. And they appear there present with Jesus. So Peter, ever the wonderful individual that wants to jump in without thinking, we gotta do something. Hey guys, we gotta build three tabernacles here. We gotta build one for Moses, we gotta build one for Elijah, we gotta build one for the Lord. And that's when God the Father shows up. He's my chosen one, you listen to him. He is a greater revelation than the law and the prophets. Because he agrees. Now the message is distinct. And we want to know that he's the greatest prophet because he's the living word of God. As Moses and Elijah represented the law and prophets, be reminded that when we talk of the Old Testament, we're talking about the Old Testament, the Hebrew understanding of the Old Testament is that it's divided into two segments, the law and the prophets. It's not divided into the law and priest, and it's not divided into the law and king. is divided into the law, and thus saith the Lord. Jesus is the witness revelation. We talked about this last Sunday morning. The witness revelation from God. That which we have seen, John said, we've held, we've heard. He is God with us. And he also is a special revelation because he is enfleshed as the God man. This is a prophet. Hear him. And how often do we listen to the words and obey his voice? Under the Old Testament covenants, the people couldn't hear, and we read this in Deuteronomy 18, they couldn't hear the Father's voice or see His image, see the fire that descended on Mount Sinai. Moses, we don't wanna see this, we don't wanna listen. You go up, Moses, we're right behind you. We got your back. But under the New Testament covenants, They behold God in the face of Jesus Christ. On Sinai, God's word was written on stone tablets. On Mount Tabor, they saw a glorious word in the tablet of flesh, a greater revelation. Richard Hayes, who teaches at Duke Seminary, says that the new covenant is enfleshed rather than inscribed. The law was written on tablets of stone, encased, inscribed. But Jesus is the very word of God, enfleshed. The greatest commandment we've talked about, this is Shema, Now listen to what it means, just hear. Listen, Shema Israel, hear. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. So he's reiterating again what he said in the very first commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Hear that, Israel. And he goes on to elaborate. in the latter part as we go down Deuteronomy chapter six. Next slide, if you would, brother. In the Old Testament covenants, they commanded Israel to listen. And how much more are we to listen to the prophet that is truly God himself? Jesus' transfiguration is the new covenant Shema, because the Father and Son are one. The disciples are called, like Old Testament Israel, to heed his voice. Shema, chosen one, hear him. If you listen to Yahweh in the Old Testament, you must listen to Jehovah will say. That's what the name of Jesus means. Jehovah will say it in the New Testament. And this obviously is rooted in the incarnation. Let's close this morning by looking at what is different about the prophet Jesus. John Carson wrote this. The Old Testament's real and abiding authority must be understood through the person. and the teaching of him to whom it points and to which so richly fulfills it. Why are you looking? As the angels said, told Peter and John at the empty tomb, he said, why are you searching here? Who are you searching? He is not here. He told you. And you didn't listen. Wouldn't you like to have a dollar for every time that had been said down through history? To your kids or your mom and dad said it to you or your grandkids or whatever. You did not listen. So the Transfiguration affirms two things about Jesus. He's the new Moses because he's a man. He has all the humanity without any traces of sin. And secondly, he's greater than Moses because he's the eternal begotten son that the Trinity chose to become incarnate. Now a little bit of theology, and this won't hurt you. Help you to understand a few things. These two things occur at once. I'm a man. I will never be divine, even in heaven. You are men and women. You will never be divine, even in heaven. We'll see him as he is, be made like him, but we will not be divine. But in Jesus, these two natures exist in one person. These natures aren't confused. Now, if there's confusion, it's because we confuse them. With God, they're not confused. They are indivisible and they are inseparable. They cannot be divided. They cannot be separated any more than the Trinity can. The distinction of the two natures in one separates Jesus from all, all, A-double-L of the Old Testament prophets. As great a prophet as Moses, great a prophet and king as David was, all of these other Old Testament prophets, Christ is greater than all. The Transfiguration affirms that Jesus is like Moses because he's man, but he's unlike Moses because he's the God man. He deserves much greater glory, something that you and I should never forget. He's not just a little bit above us, no. He is God. Next slide, brother. Go with me to Hebrews chapter one. We will close with this this morning. Probably pick up quite a bit in Hebrews next Sunday, because we're looking at the priest or Sunday after next. Verses one and two. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son. The word his is italicized, which means it was added, so it reads, has in these last days spoken to us by son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. He spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. They have Moses and the prophets. and God spoke to them through them. But now, through the prophet of Deuteronomy 18, he's spoken to us by some. And the author of the book of Hebrews says there's a quantitative difference, different in quality, different in substance, a number of different things. He is different than any other previous revelation from God, because he is God. As the prophet, he does the same thing that Old Testament prophets did. He calls the people of God to repent and believe the gospel. That message doesn't change, and it's not going to change. Jesus came to Galilee in Mark, chapter one, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying to Thomas, fulfill the kingdom of God as I have, repent and believe the gospel. Period, end of story. As the prophet, He warns us of coming judgment in Matthew 24, in the Olivet Discourse, in the latter part of Matthew 24, there's this great understanding that Jesus is teaching about not only the destruction of Jerusalem, but the things that are going to occur after the Great Tribulation. So he foretold his disciples, when shall these things be? What's going to happen at the end times, the disciples ask. And when, what is the sign of your coming? And so Jesus begins to preach, because that's what prophets do. There's a prophet on Calvary's cross. He continued his prophetic ministry. He quoted scriptures to the Jews and the Romans that were mulling around the cross, and they were casting dispersion on him, spitting on him, and continuing to whip him, and, oh, if you be the Son of God, come down from the cross, then we will believe. But they had Moses and the prophets. On the cross, the prophets suffered. And he fulfilled the words spoken about the atonement for sin. In his resurrection, the prophet was shown to be the vindicated servant in whom the Lord was well pleased. Both of these are found in Isaiah chapter 53. It pleased the father to bruise the son. As a resurrected prophet, he calls the world to repentance. In Luke 24, we don't look at this very often, but this is Luke's record of the Great Commission and he says, thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name to all nations. The time of this ignorance Paul preached on the Areopagus in Athens in Acts 17, the time of your ignorance God overlooked, but now a greater prophet than Moses is here, greater than Solomon is here, a greater than John the Baptist is here, and he now commands you to repent. Next slide. As the resurrected prophet, He commissions his church to speak on his behalf, that's you and I, those of us that know the Lord as Savior. Matthew 28, Matthew's record of the Great Commission, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go and make disciples of all nations. Not just get them to make professions of faith, that's not a Christian. A Christian is a disciple of Christ. baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them. How do you make disciples? You baptize them because that's a reflection and identification with the message of Jesus and the person of Jesus, and then you teach them. They don't go home, sit down, feel good, and have warm, fuzzy feelings about themselves. They're to be taught, taught the good things. and taught the bad thing. To observe all that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, God with us, the hope of glory. Remember that Jesus completes all that the Old Testament prophets were called to do. In the ministries of the Old Testament prophets, they were insufficient and incomplete, intentionally, to point us to the promised Messiah. Jesus fulfills all that the prophets anticipated. He fulfills all that the prophets declared. And this great phrase from Isaac watched him, joy to the world, far as the curse was found. We'll look more about that next Sunday morning. Far as the curse was found. You and I that know the Lord Jesus as Savior, we're still, in many cases, the penalty of sin has been removed, and the power of sin has been removed, but not the presence. We live, as beautiful as this world is, you've heard me say this thousands of times, in a sin-cursed world, far as the curse is found. That's what Jesus did. In this great hymn, Joy to the World, the hymn marks primarily the effects of Christ's second coming, as I mentioned in Psalm chapter 98. But it does not mean, and of course we sing it more often here at Christmas time. We could sing it other times of year, but we just don't. We sing it here as a Christmas hymn. That's fine. The seamless nature of the incarnation sets forth Messiah as prophet, as priest, and king. And it announces to us as it did to the shepherds of old, unto you is born this day in the city of David, great prophet and king, in the city of David, who is Christ, a savior, who is Christ the Lord. It includes the prophetic confidence that when the child is born, the son is given. The prophecy in Isaiah. And we have entered the last days, as we see here. Who in the last days spoke to us? By some. The prophet, Jesus. We can affirm through what we've learned, through Moses, the prophets, the New Testament, as Isaiah said, of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. And yes, he is coming again. Remember, Jesus Christ is the prophet that is God. And that makes all the difference. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning for your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to remember that he is prophet. That he never left anything undone that perhaps the Old Testament prophets may have. Not only did he preach and proclaim, but he also was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about who he is. We ask that you would have your sweet will, your divine way, the remainder of this service this morning. Glorify the Lord Jesus, not only in his incarnation, but help us to remember that he is that prophet. who is the chosen one of God, in whose name we pray, amen. We're gonna sing a closing hymn. And if you're here this morning, And perhaps you do not know the Lord as your savior, or perhaps you're uncertain of your salvation. Then the message is about the law and the prophets to you, the fact that the word of God is sufficient to represent who Jesus is to us. Talk briefly about this last Sunday morning. And so if you're here today and you know that you're a sinner, that's the first thing. You must recognize that you're a sinner before God. That recognition is the revelation of the Spirit of God. That is conviction and that's grace of God. It's a wonderful thing, not a bad thing. It's a wonderful thing, good thing. And so if the Lord's dealing with you this morning about that as we sing, Preacher, I'm not certain. Make your way out of the pew. We can take you to a private prayer room and lead you to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can leave here with that assurance. But that, again, is your responsibility. As a child of God, perhaps you're here this morning and your desire is to unite with a fellowship here, the Flat Creek family, through statement of faith or a transfer of letter or baptism. We encourage you to make that decision today. As a child of God, may we never forget that Christ is that prophet and that his prophetic office fulfilled, continued. Those three will be retained in glory forever. What a marvelous thing, what a marvelous truth, what a beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. What number, Brother Mike? 102. 102. If the Lord's spoken, won't you come as we stand and sing?