Father in heaven, at your right hand are eternal pleasures, and in your presence is fullness of joy. Help us now as we look into your Word to remain in Your presence. Oh God we know that You actively seek people to worship You, help us then to see in Your Word that which will draw worship out of our hearts. In Jesus’ Name.
Let’s open our Bibles to the book of 2 peter chapter 1. 2 Peter 1 will give us our introduction for today. Peter is writing to Christians here and he tells them of their resources in Christ and of their responsibility in Christ. Their resources are in verses 3-4 and their responsibility is in verses 5-9. So let’s read of the Christian’s resources and the Christian’s responsibility.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 2 Peter 1:3-9
This list of Christian virtue begins with faith and it ends with love. Faith is the beginning, love is the goal. But it also tells us that we are to be constantly adding Christian character to our lives. We are to be growing in Christ-likeness, increasing in knowledge and virtue, and changing into the image of Jesus Christ. Since the last time we met, you and I should have grown in knowledge and love of God and each other, we should have added goodness to our lives, and knowledge and self-control, etc. we should have changed some in good ways. That’s what the Christian life is about. Notice the first part of verse 8, we are to possess these qualities in increasing measure.
But there is something listed here that will bring our growth to a screeching halt. There is something so serious here that if we miss it we are stopped in our tracks. So what is it that brings a person’s growth to a halt? Look at the end of verse 9: “he has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” He has forgotten his forgiveness; in other words, he has gotten his eyes off of the cross, and anyone, let me say it again, anyone who gets their eyes off of the cross becomes spiritually blind. That is what it says in verse 9. We get near-sighted, meaning we can’t see past our nose, we become self-centered; we’ve lost sight of the cross so we’ve lost sight, and our growth comes to a screeching halt, and we no longer fulfill our responsibility to grow.
And so let’s just state this positively for a second. What is it that will encourage our growth, what enables us to add to our faith goodness, and knowledge and self-control and brotherly kindness and love? It is focusing on the cross, it is remembering that we are forgiven because He was forsaken, that we are cleansed from our sins because Jesus was crucified for them. That, friends, that is what encourages growth in the Lord, that is what takes people from faith to love. That is what grows a church in love. Let us never be in danger of becoming near-sighted and blind, that is losing sight of the benefits that come to us through the cross.
The reason I mention this to you is because we have come to a passage in the gospel of John where Jesus states that He is the subject of Moses’ writing. All through the Old Testament there is the one subject, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because we are prone to forget our forgiveness, and then our responsibility to grow comes to a screeching halt. And one of the reasons Moses wrote about Jesus so often is that you and I might see Him and grow in love with Him and want to be like Him.
So let’s look at John chapter 5 together. As your turning, I want to tell you about a young man had been preaching in the presence of an old minister and after he was done he went to the old minister, and said, "What do you think of my sermon?" "Ah,” said the old minister, “it was a very poor sermon indeed.” "A poor sermon?" said the young man, "it took me a long time to study it." "Ah, no doubt it did." "Why? Did you not think my explanation of the text was very good?" "Oh, yes," said the old preacher, "very good indeed." "Well, then, why do you say it is a poor sermon? Didn’t you think the metaphors were appropriate and the arguments conclusive?" "Yes, they were very good as far as that goes, but still it was a very poor sermon." "Will you tell me why you think it a poor sermon?" "Because," the old man said, "there was no Christ in it." "Well," said the young man, "Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text." So the old man said, "Don’t you know young man that from every town, and every village in England, that there is a road leading to London?" "Yes," said the young man. "Ah!" "and so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis, that is, to Christ. And my dear brother, when you get to any text, your business is to say, ’Now where is the road to Christ?’ and then preach your sermon, running along that road towards the great metropolis—Jesus Christ. And," he said, "I have never yet found a text that did not have a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that does not have a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and ditch and mountain, but I have got to get to my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savor of Jesus in it." (The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon 242)
And so the old minister said that every Scripture has a road to Jesus in it, every passage in the Bible is given to us to somehow show us another aspect of Jesus Christ. Why? So that unbelievers would turn from their sin and be saved, yes, but also that believers might remember our forgiveness and rejoice, and fulfill our responsibility.
So we are finishing up in John chapter 5 today, and let me remind you of where we have been in this chapter, and what we have seen together over the past 5 weeks. In this chapter Jesus healed the paralyzed man (verses 1-15), and that healing brought about persecution from the Jews because Jesus healed on the Sabbath and the man was carrying his mat on the Sabbath (verses 16-18), so Jesus then set forth 7 statements of His Lordship, proving that He has the right to do as He pleases because He is Lord of all people and Lord of every day of the week (verses 19-30). And then in verse 31 He anticipates the objection of the Jews that He is simply testifying on his own behalf, that He has no witnesses to confirm His testimony, so He brings forward 4 witnesses to His Lordship, double the number that the Law requires to establish a matter (verses 32-47).
And last time I was with you we began to focus on this fourth witness. Let’s read it together starting with verse 39:
39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. John 5:39-40 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. John 5:46
Jesus says that every road leads to London, that is, Moses wrote about Christ, and we saw an example of that last time we were together in Genesis 3:15 as we saw Moses write about the incarnation and virgin birth, the suffering and death and the victory and triumph of the Seed of the Woman.
Today we are going to briefly look at just two of the other books that Moses wrote. And all I want to do is just look at two passages written by Moses in the remaining books that he wrote. Last week we saw Jesus Christ in Genesis, this week let’s just look at some stories together, remembering “Moses wrote about me.”
So let’s turn to the Book of Exodus, and let’s find the road to Christ shall we? Exodus tells us that the people of God multiplied and so the Egyptians enslaved them, and Exodus is about God redeeming His people from slavery, leading them out of Egypt. Think of Exodus as God’s people exiting Egypt, and the way they were released from slavery was through the death of the Passover Lamb, pointing forward to our own release from slavery to sin through the death of Jesus Christ our Passover Lamb. And they came out and God gave them the Law, and in chapter 17 we come to an amazing story. As we read this together, please keep in mind how the battle was won.
8 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." 10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Exodus 17:8-13
So here was the scene; it was a fierce battle with one of the Israelites worst enemies, the Amalekites. And Moses takes two other people, Aaron and Hur, and they go up to intercede for the people.
But I want you to notice that this battle was not won by might, nor by power. No, did you notice how the battle was won? It was won by what that man in the middle did on that hill. If his hands were up, God’s people were winning, if his hands were down the enemy was winning. God made the outcome of this battle totally dependent on what Moses the intercessor did.
Can you imagine being in the heat of this battle, swords clashing, blood flying, the enemy is very strong and powerful, and maybe a wounded soldier would look up to a hill far away, and on that hill he would see 3 men, the one in the middle with his arms outstretched, and he’s given strength in the battle, knowing that Moses was interceding with the Lord on his behalf.
See this battle was spiritual; it was not won by the strength of military cunning of the soldiers, it was won by prayer and intercession. Do you want to know what one of the most important but least attended ministries that any church ever has? It is when we pray together. Our Wednesday night times of prayer and praise together is one of the most important ministries we will ever have, ever. That’s where battles are won.
You see you and I are in the battle of our lives, just like the Israelites here: it’s a battle against sin and Satan and against our own selves. And sometimes we get wounded in the battle. We sin, we fail God and we fail each other. But you know what wounded soldiers can do? We can turn and look on the hill far away, and there we will see 3 men, with Jesus in the middle, and His arms are upraised and outstretched, and what He is doing there wins the battle for us. There He forgave our sin, there He crucified our sin, there He defeated the devil, there He destroyed the Law that condemned us, there He took the wrath of God, there He reconciles us to the Father, there He destroyed the last and greatest enemy, death. Moses wrote about Jesus, Moses pictured Jesus. Let’s remember this picture: 3 men on a hill, the one in the middle, arms upraised, winning the battle. Fear of mere information without worship.
Let’s turn to the next book Moses wrote, the book of Leviticus, which tells the people how to worship God acceptably. It describes five sacrifices, each one of them picturing a different aspect of the work of Jesus Christ. It describes the role of priests, and the sacrificial system of worship. And I just want us to notice one sacrifice called the sin offering in chapter 4. This was what was to be done if anyone sinned:
14 When they become aware of the sin they committed, the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the Tent of Meeting. 15 The elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull’s head before the Lord, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord. 16 Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull’s blood into the Tent of Meeting. 17 He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the Lord seven times in front of the curtain. 18 He is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the Lord in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 19 He shall remove all the fat from it and burn it on the altar, 20 and do with this bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven. 21 Then he shall take the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. This is the sin offering for the community. Leviticus 4:13-21
What? What kind of cryptic, cultish, ritualistic sacrifice is this? People putting their hands on a bull and killing it, priests dipping their fingers in blood, going into a room and sprinkling it seven times, putting it on curtains and horns, taking the dead bull outside the camp. What is this?
And let me say to you that this makes no sense whatsoever to anybody, unless we see it in context of the cross of Jesus Christ. If it is put in its context it all makes perfect sense:
The sacrifice required a young bull, a bull in the prime of its life, because Jesus was 33 when He died. And then the community, those who were guilty were to lay their hands on the bull’s head, thereby acknowledging their guilt, and symbolically transferring all their guilt to a substitute that would die in their place. Even as we come to Jesus guilty and by faith we lay hold of Him, and God takes our sins off of us and puts them on Jesus, our Substitute. And then they slaughtered the bull, as the wages of sin is death, but God allows payment by a Substitute, even as Jesus died for us, in our place. And then they took the blood into the holy place and sprinkled it seven times, the number of perfection, for the blood of Jesus is perfect, it perfectly forgives us, it perfectly atones for our sin, it perfectly removes God’s wrath from us, it perfectly reconciles us to God. And then they put the blood on the horns of the altar. Horns are always symbolic of power, and there is power in the blood of Jesus; that is, His death has power to forgive us and to rescue us from sin. And finally they then took the bull outside the camp, symbolizing the complete removal of our sin, because Jesus not only paid the price for our sin but He actually removed them from us. You see Moses wrote about Jesus, and we just took the highway to the Metropolis.
So now I want to apply the Scriptures to us today, and I want to encourage you to do something 3 things this week. Whether you are a believer or an unbeliever, I want to encourage us all to do these 3 things:
1. See Jesus in the Bible. Don’t stop reading until you’ve found the road to the Metropolis, that is Christ.
2. Savor Jesus in His Word. Savor Him. Cherish Him in your hearts. Relish Him. Love Him in your hearts. Don’t just read along, stop and worship.
3. Share Him. Not only see Him and savor Him, but share Him. Husbands share Christ with your wives. Every day that I’m with my wife this week, I’m going to share my discoveries in the Word with her. May I encourage you to do the same? Ladies, whether your married or single, see and savor Christ.
