Heavenly Father, we do come to You this afternoon. Lord, we come with humility. We come, Lord, on our faces seeking Your grace, seeking the mercy that can only come from You. Lord, we desperately need the Spirit to come and to help us understand Your Word. Lord, because we're so darkened in our hearts, our minds are so perverted. Lord, give us grace, I pray. Pour out your spirit among us and in us that we can worship in spirit and truth and understand these things. Lord, help me to teach clearly and simply. I do ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for his glory. Amen. So I was struck by Pastor John McKnight's sermon last week. And when he went through the revelation of the Messiah, So I decided to do a study on, the study is called the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the New Testament. So there's many, I can't go through the whole Old Testament because there's too many. So what I'm gonna do is restrict today to the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It's called the Pentateuch. How do you spell that, do you know? P-E-N-T-A-T-E-U-C-H. Pentateuch. C-A-C-H. T-E-U-C-H. That's the first five books of the Bible. You don't have to remember that word. And Job and the Psalms. So I'm gonna try to cover all that in this one study. And I think it works out pretty well based on the form and the structure of it and the coverage. I hope it's a blessing. It was a blessing to me to put this together. So we're gonna get started with Genesis. In Genesis 3.15, Genesis 3.15, it says, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel. Here, God was talking to the serpent. And in this one verse, And basically the whole entire gospel and practically the whole history of redemption is packed into this one verse. It's too rich and too profound. There are two seeds mentioned here, the seed of the woman, and then the seed which is elect by grace, which is implied in the promise of the one specific seed, which is Christ. This verse, not to use another, but it's called the Proto-Evangelium, which is like the very first mention of the gospel in the Bible. And what a mention it is. It's amazing. So I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between the serpent and the woman. So the woman is set apart here as holy, even though she just sinned and violated God's law, but here God sets her apart and her seed, which would be the goodly seed and then the seed of the serpent, which would be the wicked people in the world, which we are all by nature. But then it switches to a mention of Christ. It says, it shall bruise thy head, serpent, that this seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. So here there's a remnant saved by grace, and there is a conflict between the ungodly and the godly in every generation. And the promise is for that the one who would come would crush the head of the serpent, and at the expense of his own life, as he shall bruise his heel. And in Colossians 2.15, it says, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. So here is the fulfillment. There's Christ hanging on the cross, Apparently, the loser, right? He's dying on the cross. All the Pharisees and everyone thought that He was done for, that they had conquered Him. And Satan probably thought that He was the victor at this point. But the Scripture says that Christ in the cross spoiled principalities and powers. And He made a show of them openly. He put them to shame. And He triumphed over them in the cross. It's marvelous. This verse contains all this. it shall bruise thy head at the cross." Christ crushed the head of the serpent. What a marvelous triumph it is. In Hebrews 2.14, it says, through his death, he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil. So Christ destroyed the devil through his own death. Satan bruised his heel. You can think of the eternal God as joined to a human nature. And yeah, the human person died, but the eternal Son of God could never die. But in His human nature, He did die. So that's like you could say bruising His heel. Because on the third day, He was raised again from the dead. I think we could probably go on for a whole hour just on this one verse, but we're going to move on now to Genesis 22, 18, which is the The continuation of the seed, this section is called the seed, and there's a whole thread throughout the whole Old Testament you can follow through with this original promise of the seed in Genesis 3.15. And then in Genesis 22.18, it says, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice. The idea of a seed, if you think about what a seed is, It's not something that life springs directly from the seed. The seed has to fall into the earth. So the idea of a seed contains the idea of its own death or its own radical change, I would say. In John 12, 24, Jesus said, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. So this death of the self is implied in the idea of the seed. The seed hull falls away, and then the roots go down, and a stem and leaves go up. And the point of a seed is to bear fruit. But it's impossible for the seed to bear fruit unless it dies. So that is the idea. In 2218, this is God talking to Abraham. the messianic promises that Abraham would be the one who would bear, I mean, not directly, but from his lineage would come this seed and all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him. And then Genesis 49.10, Genesis 49.10 says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be." This word Shiloh is an unexpected word there. Until Shiloh come, we read over that. We probably wonder what that's about. But the word, yeah. Can I just read Galatians 3.16? Because it's so connected to Genesis 3.18. Okay, sure. It says, now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Amen. I should have included that. It's a great verse. Thank you. Wait, what did you just read? Galatians 3.16. OK, so here in Genesis 49.10, it says, A scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall be the gathering of the people. A scepter is a... It's like a rod, but it's a king, the rod that the king holds, it shows the kingly authority. The scepter, it's talking about the king. But here the name Shiloh is from a word which means tranquility or to be at rest and to prosper, to be quiet and to be at ease. The reference in Isaiah 8, 6 highlights the tranquility and peace of the Holy One who was rejected by the people. In Isaiah 8, 6, it says, in as much as these people refuse the waters of Shiloh that flow softly and gently, Etc. And those who reject the easy yoke of the Lord will be forced to bear the yoke of their own guilt and and that for endless days but People reject Shiloh because it's gentle and peaceful and we like we like trouble. We like sparks that fly upward Shiloh is it's a word that means tranquility basically you think of the think of Christ as King right his in his kingdom there there's peace because of His righteousness, and He rules. So that's a reference, Shiloh, there's a reference to Christ, the coming of the Messiah. And then finally, in Deuteronomy 18, 15, and also in verse 18, it says, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren like unto me, unto him you shall hearken." And again, it's repeated in verse 18, it says, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. This we find obviously fulfilled in Christ For example, in John 1, 45, when Philip and John were following Jesus, Philip went to find Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. So here's a place where Moses wrote of him. And that's what Jesus also said in John 5, 46. He said, for had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. And again, in John 6, 14, it says, then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of a truth, that prophet that should come into the world. I don't have this written down, but when the scribes and the Pharisees sent men to John the Baptist, you could see the confusion that they have with these passages in the Old Testament say, are you the Messiah? No. Are you Elijah? No. Are you the prophet? So they didn't understand that this prophet that Moses was speaking of was really the Messiah. They had like, are you this one? Are you that one? As if they were separate, but the prophet, the Messiah, Shiloh, this one who would crush the serpent's head, they're all the same. There's all of the Old Testament scriptures pointing to Christ and the coming. So there's this thread throughout the whole Old Testament predicting and prophesying and giving information beforehand about the Messiah. In Acts 3, in verses 22 and following, it's Peter, and this is in his sermon, he says, for Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken have also foretold these days, to you first, God having raised up his servant Jesus, send him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities." So this one, Jesus is the prophet that Moses prophesied about. And then in 2 Samuel 16, we continue on through David now and the narrowing and making more and more specific the prophecies concerning the Messiah. 2 Samuel 7 16, it says, And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. Obviously, David died and was buried and still He stayed that way. He's still dead, even his body anyway. But this one, the kingdom shall be established forever. That's Christ as the king. We can think back to the prophecy in Genesis 49. A scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. And even then it won't depart because Christ is from Judah. And he's also from David. It's a prophecy of the Messiah. It's another name for Christ, for the Messiah, for the one whose rule is tranquil and peaceful and his kingdom is forever and ever. In Luke chapter 1, verses 32 and 33, the angel said to Mary of Jesus, he said, he will be great. and will be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there will be no end." So He is the eternal King. Christ is the eternal King. And even though the baby Jesus was lying there, well, He wasn't born yet, but the baby Jesus would be this King, this great one. So all these in the Pentateuch, there's like little hints and starting out like little glimpses of the Messiah. And then as the revelation proceeds, it becomes richer and richer and more specific. So now we're gonna take a look at the book of Job. And there's four specific prophecies in the book of Job or mentions of the Messiah that we're gonna take a look at. And the first one is in Job 9, chapter 9, verse 33. And there it says, neither is there any daze man betwixt us that might lay his hand upon both. Job was lamenting his situation. The Lord has brought great trial upon Job and he is yearning for someone to mediate between himself and God. A daze man is like a mediator. He's yearning for the Messiah, and these words like, no doubt, the Spirit of Christ, which was in those early prophets, taught them to speak by faith of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 1 says that, taught also the holy men of old to be looking for that same precious mediator, this almighty days man, the promised seed, the Messiah. The words to lay hands on both means to have The ability to touch both, and we have to understand that means that He will have to have both natures. He has to be, in order to lay your hand upon God, you can't just be a creature. You have to be yourself, eternal God, because God is infinite and eternal and unchangeable. So to lay your hand upon that God means that you must be God, and also to lay His hand upon men, It means that he has to have the same nature of a man. I mean, this is already taught like in Genesis 3.15, thy seed implies that he would be born of a woman, that he would be a man. But here, in order to lay his hands on God as well, he has to be also of a divine nature. And that's amazing that the mediator would be of the same nature of man and God, And yet there's really no other way for a mediator to mediate between two parties. So he has to be able to represent God to man, and he has to be able to represent man before God. And so he must be infinite and yet also have a human nature. And this is mind boggling, right? This is how can it be, right? How can a man have the same nature as God? You can't just A man can never progress to have the nature of God, so he must be God before he takes to himself the form and nature of a man. So that's the seed. The seed is continuing on in the revelation of this thread. The breach between man and God is infinite. Job suffered, even though he was a sinner, there was no specific sin that we can point to, but nevertheless, just in our nature, we're sin. So Christ had to bear the nature of a man and yet be separate from sin in order to represent us before God in a way that would be acceptable to God the Father. He has to be man and yet sinless. And he has to be God, an eternal God at that. So this, however much Job understood, I don't know, I can't say exactly, but this is, clearly evidence of Job's lively faith in the coming Messiah. And he may have only had the book of Genesis at that point, or he may have had only the Pentateuch. So he had very little revelation compared to what we have. And yet, look at his understanding and his insight. He knows that we need this mediator. And let's go on to Job 16.21. Job 16.21 says, "'Oh, that one might plead for a man with God "'as a man pleadeth for his neighbor.'" This idea of pleading is one of the mediators. The mediator would plead for a man to God. And this is the idea of the advocate. In the New Testament, there's Christ as our advocate. In 1 John 2.1, it says, "'My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." So this is him, this is the one, he advocates for us to the father. When we sin, that's what we need. We need an advocate, someone who will stand up and say, I died for him, I paid the penalty for his sins, forgive. And we are forgiven in Christ. In Romans 8.34, it says, "...who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." The idea of intercession or one interceding for another is what Job was talking about and said, oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleaded for his neighbor. There's the Christ's intercession. Christ makes intercession for us. That's Him pleading with the Father for us, showing His hands and His side. I died for them. Therefore, forgive them. Like you prayed on the cross, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Should we read 1 Timothy 2.5? I'm not sure if you're gonna get to that. Yeah, that's my next verse. Oh, it's your next verse. What is it? 1 Timothy 2.5. I've been waiting a few minutes. I said, he's probably going to mention it, so I better wait. And I didn't wait long enough. Okay. 1 Timothy 2.5 says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So there he is. He's the mediator between God and men, to himself fully God and fully man. How we can comprehend that, one of the most amazing things of all time, but prophesied from the very beginning that He would be the one, the seed of a woman. So that's the mediator. There's no other way to come to God except through the mediator. You can try to go to God. Many people say that they will go to God. They don't need Jesus. God will maybe wink at their sin or weigh their good versus their bad. We have no good. That's our only problem. Other than that, we're fine. But that's why we need a mediator, one who not only pleads for us with God, but who also lived and died in our nature and for us, for us. And Hebrews 7.25 says, therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. So He can save us to the uttermost because He lays His hand upon God and upon men. So He has brought the two parties together and the reconciliation is the rejoining together of the two parties that were alienated, were born alienated from God and through Christ were reconciled because He can bring us all the way to God and save us to the uttermost because we actually come to God the Father through the Son. That's our mediator. And one more, in Hebrews 9.24, it says, for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. He didn't do all that for Himself, right? He didn't come and live a sinless life and die an agonizing death for Himself. He did it for us. And now He appears in the presence of God for us. to intercede, and He is this one. He pleads with God for our sakes. Okay, so that's Job 16.21. The next verse in Job is Job 19.25. This is a marvelous verse. Job says, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. What amazing... Insight that is he knows that his Redeemer is alive even then when he was speaking and that he would stand on the earth in later days The idea of the Redeemer in Job's mind is the vindicator the one who will redress all the wrongs In Job's mind the promise of the one who would suffer his heel to be bruised in order to crush the serpent's head Was probably his main inspiration. He knew that he was coming. He knew that he had to be alive at that point, and yet he would still come as a man. So he had a primitive understanding of the Trinity to some extent. Amazing. His standing upon the earth includes the idea of being born into the human race, for he is to be the seed of the woman. This verse amazes me. Joe probably lived around the time of Abraham, so he was well before, it was before Moses, I think. Anyway, no one knows exactly, but. So he may have just have had that one idea from Genesis. What an insight the Spirit gave him. Finally, one more verse in Job. This is also amazing. In Job 33, chapter 33, verses 23 and 24. 33, 33, 34. 33, 23. 23 and 24, there it says, if there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand to show unto man his uprightness, then he is gracious unto him and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. Wow. How amazing is that? Deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. in Job's mind was the idea that we need a ransom, right? God is righteous and God is holy and God doesn't just wink at our sin and then ignore it. God has to deal with all sin. He's righteous and no sin will ever go unpunished. I tell this to people down in the streets all the time that God will by no means clear the guilty. If you have even one sin, you're guilty and you appear before God with even one sin, And God, by His perfectly righteous nature, will condemn you. But if you come through Christ, who was our ransom, then we can be accepted in Him. And it's the only way. The word used here for ransom is first used in Genesis in the ark when Noah made the ark. The pitch that he used to cover the ark is the same word that's used here for ransom. So it's like this covering. which keeps the water from penetrating into the ark. I don't know. I don't have, you can find it there. Noah was building the ark and he's talking about the pitch. And then in Exodus 21 verse 30, it says, if there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give that for the ransom of his life. So there's the idea of an exchange here that our lives are not worthless, right? Like if we are guilty, then God will require a ransom in order to bring us to him. There has to be this substitution, which is built into the idea even in the beginning of the seed that would His heel would be bruised and he would crush Satan's head. The bruising of his heel is the ransom. It's the substitute for our own. And the only ransom for a human soul is another human soul. The blood of bulls and goats will never take away sin, right? Because they're not human. They have no equivalent value with God. They have no particular value because they're not moral creatures. So the only one who could bear the infinite penalty for sin had to be marvelously both fully man and fully God. Because a man, a finite creature, simply would take an eternity to bear the penalty that is due to us. Because as a finite creature, you can only have a finite bearing of sin, right? And then our guilt is infinite. So that means you need an eternity of time. You'll never end. bearing the guilt for your own sin, but Christ being infinite in Himself, He is a divine person. It is infinite nature. He could bear the full penalty for our sin on the cross in a finite amount of time, six hours or so, however long. And so that's a marvelous idea that this infinite, eternal one with a human nature, that the value of His sacrifice is infinite. And if you ignore it, then you will have to spend an eternity bearing your own guilt. Job's view of the promised Messiah is amazing. I think I don't know how he possibly could have come to such a deep understanding. I mean, obviously the Spirit of God revealed these things to him, but I still find it to be amazing that he has these verses. So those are the four verses in Job that I wanted to cover. Now, we're gonna proceed on to the Messianic Psalms. Mark, you have something? Oh, no, I was gonna say Genesis 6.14. Genesis 6.14, there you go. Thank you. So in the Psalms, there are many Messianic Psalms and many hints. When you're reading through the Psalms, sometimes you'll come upon a verse that seems like a little too much or something a little too bright, a little too shiny. in a Psalm about David or about Solomon or someone, but it's too much for Solomon, right? Like this kingdom will last forever and ever. Like these things, we have to be attentive and sensitive to the Word of God. And with a proper understanding and a hermeneutic of the Scriptures, we have to carefully and very, with great caution, understand that these things are written about the Christ, about the Messiah. And obviously when the New Testament interprets the Old Testament, That's our help because we could easily go astray and find things in the Old Testament which are not intended necessarily to be about the Messiah. So we always let the New Testament interpret the Old. And even in the Old Testament, we let the clear passages interpret the less clear, the more clear interpret the less clear. So the first one we're gonna look at is in Psalm 2. Mark just covered this recently on Thursday nights. Psalm 2 in verse 2, it says, the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, yet, and skipping to verse 6 and 7 now, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Here, amazingly, both father and son are mentioned. The father is called by the covenantal name of Jehovah or Yahweh. The Hebrew word here for anointed is Mashiach, which is the word Messiah. That's what Messiah means is anointed. So when we're tracing the thread of the messianic prophecies to the Old Testament, we're tracing the the threat of this Messiah, this anointed one who would be anointed with the Spirit beyond measure. And Messiah is the exact same word or the exact same meaning as Christ. When we talk about Christ, we're saying that that's Messiah. In John 1 verse 41, it says, he first finding his own brother Simon and saith unto him, we have found the Messiah. which is being interpreted the Christ. And also in the passage of the woman at the well, the woman said, even she had this understanding, the woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. So when you talk about Jesus Christ, you're talking about Jesus, the Messiah, and all these messianic prophecies are about the Christ or the Messiah. So this, In Psalm 2, here we see the verses set forth the eternal nature of the Son. Although it may seem contrary when we first look at it, when it says, this day have I begotten me, our first inclination would be to try to find a particular day in history in which He was then begotten. And throughout, I mean, in Christianity, theologians have actually gone about trying to say this day or that day is the day that He's begotten of the Lord, but of the Father. Some people have made this like the incarnation that they say He was begotten at the incarnation. But in fact, John MacArthur said that at one point, that He was begotten at the incarnation. But that ignores these verses that say that He was the Son before He was sent. Like in John 3.16, with the great verse that says, "...for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He was His Son before He was given, before He was incarnated, He was already the Son of God. And in 1 John 4, 9, it says, "...and this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, He was clearly the Son before He was sent into the world. And then on the other hand, some people have attempted to make the resurrection, the day of the resurrection when the Son was begotten. And there's Acts 13. They use Acts 13.33 to make their argument. They say in Acts 13.33, it says, "...God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again." as it is also written in the second Psalm, now art my son, this day have I begotten thee. So there's some, a little bit of warrant there for even saying like, oh, okay, maybe, yeah, maybe he was begotten at the resurrection. But we dare not read this verse in a way that contradicts the rest of Scripture. That's a terrible mistake. The resurrection of Christ from the dead was not the day on which he was but the day which confirmed that He is the eternally begotten of the Father, the Messiah, about whom it was prophesied that these things would take place. For instance, again, I said earlier, we always have to interpret the less clear passages by the more clear. And this Acts 13.33 is a little unclear. It doesn't say that He was begotten on the day of the resurrection. It just puts the two together without explaining why they're together. But in Romans 1, 4 it says, and he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So the resurrection didn't make him the Son of God. He wasn't begotten that day, but it declared that he was the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. So all these attempts to find a particular day and time in which the Son could be said to have been begotten are failures. The Son was the Son before He was sent. And so we have to understand that this day of the Psalm 27 is the eternal day. We have to have a conception of eternity, which is not like an endless succession of days. People talk about eternity past, and I don't know what they think, but people seem to think that many, many days, like infinite days ago, like the God has lived infinite days, but that's not the way to think about eternity. Eternity is something beyond our comprehension in a way, like outside of time and timeless. You can think of time having a beginning with no end, just like a timeline, but then eternity is outside of all that. It's timelessness. And I know, We've covered in scripture. So we're in Peter second Peter. It says one day. It says a thousand years and a thousand years is one day They forgot time doesn't have the same meaning as it has for us. He is the same yesterday today and forever because He's timeless He's not in the flow of time. There's theologians called process theologians who think that God is becoming Learning as we go. It's like a hyper Arminian ism that God doesn't know certain things and he learns them. No, none of that is absolutely, that's all nonsense, right? God knows the end from the beginning, He declares it and He brings it to pass. But to say yesterday, today and forever is saying eternity past and eternity future. God has to put it in terms that we can understand, even though we can't understand it. But in a way that verse is about time, like because Christ was saying yesterday, and he'll be the same tomorrow because he's outside of time. And in Ecclesiastes, it says that God has put eternity into our hearts. If we have a conception of it, we can't really put it into words. When we try to put into words what we think, we like stumble all over ourselves. But we still have the idea. I don't think there's any, I can't, I don't know, all my life I've been trying to think of an image about eternity. If you could think of time as like a line, then eternity would be everything outside of that. I don't know how to think of it, really. It's really hard. I don't get that at all. If you think of eternity as like, correspond to every point. Like, so a thousand years ago, God views like a thousand years ago and a thousand years from now, if there is such time, all in one glimpse, like all of the time is just to him, like even a single point. It's all of time is compressed into this one thing. And he's outside of that. I don't know. That's not helpful. When I try to think about it, it makes me scared. I can't even, can't go there. Right. We can't really go there. No, if you say without end, that's, you're talking about everlasting time. Eternity doesn't have a beginning. It doesn't have an end and it doesn't have a middle. It just is right. Giant. I don't even know how to put a word to it. Like when we, like our human souls have a beginning, but they have no end, right? Whether you're in hell for eternity, for everlasting time, or in heaven for everlasting time, those days will never end, but we're still not eternal, we're not outside of time, we're still creatures of time. So I don't know, I don't have too much more to say about that. So let's move on anyway, because time is flying. Psalm 72, Psalm 72, I think the entire Psalm is messianic. Messianic? M-E-S-S-I-A-N-I-C. M-E-S-S what? I-A-N-I-C. This entire psalm, I'm sure, is messianic. It says, the preface says a psalm for Solomon. The language is just too highly exalted to be read of Solomon. In verses one to two, it says, give the king thy judgment, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment. And then in verse 17, skipping down, it says, His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun and men shall be blessed in Him. All nations shall call Him blessed. This is a reflection of the Abrahamic promise that in Him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. So this is a reflection or a continuation of this idea of the seed that in Him, through Him, everybody would be, all nations would be blessed. So I'm quite sure that this contemplates the exalted Messiah, whose name is above all names, that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and earth, under the earth, in Philippians 2.10, it says, in Luke 1.31, Back to Luke 1 again, I love Luke 1. It says, And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. So this is, again, the promise of the seed. This is a section called, this is rejected and betrayed. And I am amazed that this is going to be five different verses from five different Psalms. And I'm just going to go, I'm going to read them to you guys. And I put them in a certain order, not in the order in which they occur in the text, but this is my own ordering. And then I will mention. So 1st Psalm 69, 4 says, they hate me. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that which I took not away. Next Psalm 118, verse 22. The stone which the builders rejected or refused has become the headstone of the corner. Next Psalm 41, verse nine. It says, yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. And then Psalm 55 verses 12 to 14 says, for it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me. Then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked into the house of God in company." And then one more in Psalm 22, 1, it says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So all these verses are about the rejection and the betrayal of Christ, the Messiah. What was that last one? Psalm 22 verse 1. Isaiah, the prophet prophesied of the Messiah a few hundred years after David, and that he would be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. That's Isaiah 53.3. In the above ordering of the Messianic references, there's an evident progression in the severity of the rejection and that the completeness of the rejection is expressed throughout the New Testament. In John 1, 11, it says, He came unto His own and His own received Him not. John 7, 5, it says, For neither did His brethren believe in Him, His own brothers didn't believe in him. Zechariah, the prophet, later, maybe 500 years after these Psalms were written, prophesied of the Messiah, it said, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. And we read of the fulfillment of this in the gospel, Jesus saith unto them, all ye shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. Mark 14, 27. And shortly thereafter we read, they all forsook him and fled. Even his own disciples forsook him. What was the number for Zachariah? Yeah, I don't think you said. Oh, sorry, Zachariah 13, seven. Thank you. In Psalm 118, the Messiah is likened to the great foundation stone of the temple of God, but that the builders would reject the stone This was fulfilled in the life of Christ by the rejection of Him by the leaders of the people. In Acts 4, verses 10 and 11, it says, "'Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at Nod of you builders. which has become the head of the corner. So what the leaders and the people rejected is what God has chosen and is precious. For no other foundation can any man lay but which is Christ. In 1 Peter 2, it says, verses 6 and 7, it says, Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect and precious. And he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. And to you, therefore, which believe, he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner." And then in the point, these words strike me, Psalm 55 verses 12 to 14, The Messianic verses in the Psalms lament the betrayal by the man in the inner circle of Christ. This is obviously about Judas, whom we know betrayed the Lord. In the New Testament, we don't really read too much about the anguish that it caused the Lord, but this Old Testament language, I think, is enough for us to grasp and understand that this was a more painful rejection for the Lord than the Pharisees out of the builders. And even more amazingly, he knew all along that it was Judas who would betray him and even just how it would happen. And yet, nevertheless, he had fellowship with him. He went, as it says in Psalm 55, we took sweet counsel together, walked into the house of God in company. Somehow the Lord was able to bear up under that. He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities and that the betrayal hurt. hurt the Lord. And then finally, there's the ultimate, the cry of despair for being forsaken by the father. And this is nothing less than the heart-wrenching cry of him becoming the object of the father's wrath. The son who knew no sin was made sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. And Esabakik wrote of God, thou art of pure eyes and to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." So as Christ was made sin for us, the Father had to turn away. The Father hid His face, His blessed face from His own Son for a time. The perfect and blessed fellowship that the Son and the Father knew together from eternity was severed, and the Messiah suffered the infinite loss and the infinite agony of being rejected by His Father. and all while under the most extreme and physical and spiritual agony. This is our salvation. He was rejected of men. He was rejected by his own people, by his brothers, by the builders, by his own familiar friend in whom he trusted, and by the Father. All that we can be except that we will never be rejected by God. So then the Psalms continue on and they mention and give information about the crucifixion, the sin bearing, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. The Psalms are rich. In Psalm 22, there's much more. Verses 6 and 14, it says, But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a pot shard and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, now has brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones, they look and stare at me. They part my garments among them and cast lots for my vesture. In Psalm 40, verse 12, it says, for innumerable evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. And in Psalm 69, verse 21, it says, they gave me also gall for my meat. And in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. And finally, in Psalm 16, verse 10, it says, But thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to seek corruption. The prophecies in these Psalms relate to the crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection of the Messiah. Note that in Psalm 22, 16, it says, They pierced my hands and my feet. The word for pierce means to dig through And this is unusual use of this word and the language points to a form of death, which was not even practiced at the time of David. They didn't have crucifixions back then, but nevertheless, he used this language to talk about piercing of hands and feet to refer to something future, which was clear and yet probably not so clear to them at the time. Deuteronomy 21 does say that being hung on a tree is a curse, and Paul quotes that in Galatians 3.13, where it says, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree to show that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. Crucifixion is excruciating. Note that the word excruciating has the word cruc in it from cross. That's crucifixion it is. probably one of the most excruciating ways to die, and often leads to death by heart failure, because you're hanging down, you can't raise up to breathe, and your heart tries to pump the blood, and it can't. So your heart often will fail in crucifixion. I think it's amazing in the Psalms, it says, my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. And in Psalm 40, 12, it says, my heart faileth me because of the innumerable sins, which were not his sins. Obviously, he's the righteous one, but our sins, which he counted as his own. That's what it says, for innumerable evils have compassed me about, so my heart faileth me. And then they parted in his garments among them. Such an amazing prophecy was fulfilled so precisely. We're familiar with this already. The soldiers, they took his Garments they they gave one to each but then there was the one that was a woven of a whole thing They didn't want to tear it. So so let's cast lots for that. So you would think that this doesn't make any sense No, I like throwing dice It's like gambling Sort of So that's a minute you would think all that that's even like mutually exclusively like parted my garments, but then they cast lots for them. Like, what is that? Well, but then you see the fulfillment of it. Like, wow, it's so precise. It's so amazing. And then in Psalm 69, it mentions the thirst of the Messiah and that he would thirst and they would be given vinegar to drink. Such a little detail, right? But yet on the cross, Jesus said, I thirst. So they took a sponge and dipped it in vinegar and put it to his mouth. I mean, on top of all the agony of the crucifixion, to have that taste in your mouth, just amazing. And then finally, it's clear that the Messiah died. Like you can even see that in the Old Testament, that He died. In Psalm 22, verse 15, it says, that was brought me into the dust of death. I know that. And Isaiah 53 also has it, He poured out His soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors and He bared the sin of many. And finally, by implication in Psalm 1610, where it says, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer Thine Holy One to seek corruption. We understood that He was in hell, like literally on the cross, not that He descended into hell after His death, because He said to the thief on the side, today you will be with Me in paradise. immediately in paradise, but on the cross, he was in hell. The father forsook him, the demons were tearing at his soul, and he was in tremendous physical agony. So that was hell. But then, when I suffer that holy one to seek corruption, we understand that that means that he did die, but that he would be resurrected again. And that's the way it's picked up also in Peter's great sermon, the Pentecost sermon, He says, "'Men and brethren, let me speak freely unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. But therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on the throne.'" This is talking about Christ. Yes, He would die, but He would be raised again on the third day. Because the idea of corruption, like Mark was covering in John 11, like on the fourth day, the corruption doesn't really set in until after the third day. But on the fourth day, it's like, yeah, you stinketh, right? Lazarus stinketh in the tomb. So like corruption already set in him, but Christ was raised on the third day and early. And so God did not abandon him to the grave or into corruption. I have just a teeny bit more. The ascension in Psalm 68, 18, it says, Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. This verse can't really be applied to David. So we have to understand that this is a reference to the Messiah. And the New Testament reveals the Messiah was not only raised from the dead, but that He is ascended to sit at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. And Jesus even referred to this Himself when He was standing before the high priest. The high priest asked Him, Aren't Thou the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven." So there he prophesied his own ascension. Of course, they tore their clothes and said, this is blasphemy, but only blasphemy if it's not true. It is true. And then we know that he was raised from the dead. Paul references this verse in Ephesians 4, but he changes the wording slightly. In the Psalm originally says, thou hast received gifts for men, but Paul changes it. And he says, wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. So that's an interesting change that makes us really understand, I think, the covenantal nature of the Messiah's work. that those who are saved are saved because they're in union with Him. And when He received gifts, if we're in union with Him, then we receive the gifts and He gives them by virtue of us being in union with Him. Like if a married couple, like someone gives a gift to the one, it's a gift to the other one as well because they're married. Go a little bit more quickly. And then finally in Psalm 110, This is the most quoted Scripture in all of the New Testament from the Old Testament. It's amazing. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And the Lord Jesus used this verse to confound the Pharisees and the scribes. He said, what think ye of Christ in Matthew 22, verse 42. He says, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And they say to him, the son of David. And he saith unto them, How then did David in the spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And they didn't have any answer for him, and they couldn't even understand, because they had not the spirit. But we do, and we understand that God is triune, and that the Son, the Messiah, is seated at the right hand with one God and three persons. And then this psalm also provides the view of the Messiah as being a priest. It says, the Lord has sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So here we have the view of the Messiah as both priest and king. And that's amazing, Zechariah also wrote that he shall be a priest on his throne and the council of peace shall be between them both. So he has to be a priest in order to make intercession for us because he has to plead his own blood, his own sacrifice. And yet he is a king, he rules and reigns in Psalm 110, even in the midst of his enemies, he's working out these things. And then finally, just the final purpose of the whole thing from our perspective anyway, The Messiah is prophesied to be the bridegroom. I'm going to just bring everything together here in just a few minutes. In Psalm 45, another marvelous messianic psalm. In verse 6, it says, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of Thy kingdom is a scepter of righteousness. And then the psalm goes on. It's a marriage. It's a song for the marriage of the great king. In verse 10 it says, Harken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people and thy father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him. And then the king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework. to virgins or companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee, with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought." This seems a little confusing to us, like the bride of the king is both the king's bride, but also the king's daughter. That may seem a little odd to us. And yet when you think of it in terms of the gospel, there's no other way for it to be because The Messiah's purpose is to redeem the people for Himself. And the people are properly called His children since we are adopted into the family of God by means of our union with Christ. And this marriage, this idea of marriage is a different idea of union with Christ. So we can't be in union with Christ without being a child of God. And yet we're also considered the bride of Christ. To me, this is all so rich and so amazing, and it brings together all the various threads of the idea of the Messiah. In Mark 2, 19, it says, And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and they shall fast in those days. Behold, the Messiah is the bridegroom, but where is the bride? There's no mention of a bride in the passage, so where is the bride? The Puritan Edward Peirce wrote, it is answered, Christ has a twofold spouse. First, our nature, and then the persons of believers, both of which may be intended here, though first chiefly is the nature, By marriage, we understand in this case that the person of God, of the Son of God is joined to a human nature. And that's the foundation of the marriage that we make up because Christ Himself is too high. He's too exalted. He's too holy. There's no way for a human to come to God and to be joined with Him in this marriage without the foundation of God joining the human nature to the person of of his own son. So in Ephesians 5, Paul compares the marriage relation of husbands and wives with Christ and the church. In verse 32, he wrote, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. And this is a great mystery. The Messiah set about to secure a bride for himself. And the first union that needed to be made up was between the Son of God and a human nature. He was joined to a human nature. And in that nature lived a sinless life, was crucified, died, buried, rose again, and ascended to the right hand of God. And in doing this wrought a perfect redemption for His people. Those would be joined to Him in His human nature are the church. They are His children and also His bride. By the union that we have with Him, we are adopted as children of God, and we're also constituted as His bride. of the marriage is divided into two parts. In Jewish custom, the two parts of a marriage are roughly equivalent to our betrothal and then the marriage proper. So what we read about in the Gospels is the marriage of the son to a human nature and the betrothal of the son to the church. In Jewish custom, following the formal betrothal, the bridegroom would go back to his parents' house and he would prepare a place for his future wife. And this is the pattern that we see in the Gospels. Christ came the first time and espoused the church to himself and then ascended to the right hand of God. And in John 14, we're familiar, he said, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. So this is the blessed hope of the Christian who eagerly awaits for the consummation of the marriage. In Revelation 19, it says, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready. To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. So this is all the fulfillment of Psalm 45. It extends out even into the future, the marriage of the Messiah to the people that He redeemed for Himself. This is the work of the Messiah from beginning to end to redeem a people for Himself that would be joined to Him for all eternity. We are already joined to Him in the Spirit, in the sense of the betrothal, we're committed to Him, we're set apart for Him, but we await the final consummation. That's it. Amen. Sorry, I went a little over. I'm sorry about that. Any questions? Comments, questions, verses? Hallelujah. What a Savior. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Amen. How amazing. To me, all this thread of the Messiah through the Old Testament, this is even really touching that much on the prophets. So amazing. comprehensive revelation, but here a word, there a word, right? It's like you go through a Psalm and there's one verse about the Messiah and the rest can properly be attributed to David or Solomon, but just this one verse here and another verse here, when you put it all together, what a picture it gives us and what a round and glorious picture of the Messiah. Even extending out into the final marriage that we're looking forward to and anticipating eagerly the redemption of our bodies, as it were. It's interesting, you mentioned Pastor John at the beginning of his message on Sunday, how most of what he mentioned were seemingly defeats, but Christ, they were Christ's victories. And that's really, and we're gonna talk about this tomorrow, probably why it's on my mind, which is at the heart of the gospel, that Christ's greatest The loss, as you mentioned, was actually his greatest victory. Amazing. And Satan's greatest victory was his greatest loss. Amazing. It's so amazing. Yeah. And how God uses that for his own purposes. And yet, wickedness will be punished. God is never culpable for wickedness. Yet, he uses it. And he's glorified in any way you look at it. It's amazing. Oh, that's actually like implicit in Genesis 3.15, right? His heel would be bruised, right? I mean, He suffered loss. It's not obvious what that meant originally, but then we understand that the death of the Messiah is the bruising of the heel. And it seems like a total loss, a complete failure. He's died, right? The disciples were crushed, like we thought He was the one that would redeem Israel. They didn't even get it. But then through that sacrifice, all the good came from that. Like the seed falling into the ground has to die and then it brings forth much fruit. So rich, all this stuff just blows my mind. So you mentioned that he didn't go to or ascend from hell. After death? Right, and the Apostle's Creed is like he was crucified, died and was buried and descended into hell. But I think we should understand that like his hell was on the cross. That's where the father forsook him. But when he said it is finished, he meant that like it's finished. There's no more suffering for him. There's no more separation from God at that point. Like full debt was paid. Like the Greek word has even like a commercial commercial transactional sense, like it's paid in full, you could say. So what more suffering could there be? And plus he said to the thief, today you will be with me, this day you will be with me in paradise. So, so there's- Could that descending be into Abraham's bosom? No, I don't know what you mean, what descending? Where it's, you know, there's separation, there's Abraham and then the gate called him. So when Christ descended, did he set the captives free there? From Abraham? Or from Sheol? I never thought of them as captives, first of all. I thought that's a place of blessing. I mean, I guess I view that as sort of heaven, basically, or a picture of heaven. But you should clarify, there was a doctrine, the charismatics, In all charismatics, I think most of them teach that Christ went to hell for three days, was tortured, and somehow became victorious. It's not biblical. That's their own thing. It's not biblical. I would agree with you. When it mentions hell, what's the passage where it mentions Christ in hell? I think I saw that. It's on in Revelation, the depiction of him is in there. He's got like fire in his eyes and like bronze feet, right? Yeah. Psalm 16, 10, it says, but thou will not leave my soul in hell. And you could, in the Hebrew conception of Sheol, it is a little bit less clear than what we have. Like for them, the body and the soul would go down to Sheol. But in this case, like from a New Testament point of view, you could say that it is, body was obviously in the grave or in the tomb, right? But his soul was in heaven with God. So, Benny Hinn says, I can get the quote for you, that the ransom was paid to the devil for our sin. That is, that is such a heinous doctrine if you understand what he's saying. Terrible stuff. That is, he's saying that the devil had to be paid off for people to be Totally Antithetical to the gospel the gospel is God was satisfied. His justice was satisfied The atonement is for the holiness of God It would imply that the devil would be holy or somehow a pony is right have some right to It needed to be satisfied. Yeah No, he needed to have his head crushed. That's what he needed And that's what Christ did. Right? Yeah, that's weird. If anything, it's awesome. The creation of what? The creation of hell. Yes, there is. I'd have to look it up, though. It says it somewhere. One of the gospels says that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. You know that? Where that is? I would have to look it up. Yeah, I know where it is. I don't know where it is. I'll just look it up. Hell's not eternal. I mean, hell is part of the creation as well. Ah, there it is. Matthew 25 verse 41, it says, then he will say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. It doesn't say that the hell was prepared for men, right? But it was prepared for the devil and his angels, but men go there also. But then, yeah, somewhere later. Yeah, anyway, that's... That's the only verse I can think of off the top of my head. I don't trust Google. It's a biblical reference, though. Yeah. Yeah, it's a biblical reference. I would just say, like, this type of Bible, like, key words, like, where in the Bible does it say? Well, you can get good, you can get strong concordance on your phone. the strongest, the strongest concordance on you. I can send you that. Just get the blue, get blue letter Bible and you can just search in that, right? Yeah. Blue letter Bible. You can search plus it has cross references. It's so helpful. Yeah, it's a blue letter Bible all in one. It's an app. You should definitely have it. There's no, I don't think there's a better one. It also has two columns so you can have like English on one side and Greek or Hebrew if you want to like plunge into the original languages or Spanish if you want to learn Whatever tag along if you want Anyway, should we should we pray sure, okay Holy God and Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Lord, what a joy and what a comfort it is to us to read of the Messiah and how gracious You are, Lord, to have revealed Him to us. The Old Testament is so rich and full of Christ. Lord, help us to see Him on every page. Help us to find Christ in the Old Testament and to rejoice and that we can know Him, We can have a perfect righteousness through Him and come and be reconciled to You. This Mediator lays His hand upon us both. Lord, we know He said, No man comes to the Father but by Me. Lord, give us that grace to come to You through the Son. Oh, draw us, I pray. Lord, call us. Give us mercy. Lord, we just wither away without You. Lord, give us. more grace and help us to be a blessing in our communities and our friends. Help us to have Christ in our hearts and on our lips and help our lives to be pleasing, Lord, to conform that our lives would speak of Christ as well as our lips. We do ask these things in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen. Amen. Let me