Title: Let me introduce you to One like Moses
Central idea: God planned to send Jesus.
Specific purpose: to persuade the congregation that Jesus is the fulfillment of a promise.
Remember in Exodus when the Children of Israel gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. There, from the top of Sinai, God had spoken to them in thunder and lightning, out of the midst of the fire and thick darkness. God spoke to the first two commandments to them directly; every word made their ears howl and their hearts tremble. They were so terrified that the whole congregation was ready to die with fear. In this fright, they begged that God would not speak to them in this manner any more, they could not bear it; it overwhelmed and distracted them. They begged Moses that God would speak to them by men like themselves, by Moses then, and afterwards by other prophets like unto him. God agreed and Moses did. Later, as Moses approached the end of his life, he wrote the Book of Deuteronomy. He includes in that Book a promise from God; that promise, God would send another like Moses to teach them. God did, God sent Jesus.
Deuteronomy 18:15-22, 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” 17 The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.” 21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
I. Here is the promise of a great prophet, with a command to receive him and hearken to him.
A. Some think this scripture refers to the promise of a succession of prophets. Besides the priests and Levites, whose task was to teach God’s law, the Israelites would have prophets to reprove them for their faults, to remind them of their duty, to foretell things to come, to warn them of judgments and deliverances for their deeds.
1. Having these prophets, unlike the pagans, they need not use divinations nor consult with familiar spirits for they might enquire of God’s prophets even concerning their private affairs as Saul did when he was in quest of his father’s herds, 1 Samuel 9:6.
2. With the prophets among the Israelites, they could not miss the way of their duty through ignorance or mistake for the prophets warned them. In every doubtful case, the people of Israel heard the cry of the prophets. Deuteronomy 34:10 these prophets were like unto Moses in some respects though far inferior to him,.
B. Whether a succession of prophets be included in this promise or not, we are sure that it is primarily intended as a promise of Christ for God says that he will send "a prophet". Further, this is the clearest promise of Christ in all the Law of Moses. Acts 3:22 & 7:37 say this promise expressly applies to our Lord Jesus, the promised One. John 6:14 says “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world”, and 1 Peter 1:11 that his Spirit spoke in all the other prophets, the spirit of Christ.
1. What God promised Moses at Mount Sinai in Deuteronomy 18:18 is the coming of Christ.
a. That there should come a prophet, great, above all the prophets, by whom God would make known himself and his will to the children of men more fully and clearly than ever he had done before.
b. John 8:12 says that he is the “light of the world.” John 1:1 and Hebrews 1:2 say that he is the Word by whom God speaks to us.
c. That God would “raise him up from the midst of them.” In his birth he should be one of that nation, should live among them and be sent to them. He was to be “raised up at Jerusalem”, and thence his doctrine should go forth to all the world. Thus God, having raised up his Son, Jesus the Christ, sent him to bless us.
d. That he should be like unto Moses, only as much above him as the other prophets came short of him. Moses was such a prophet as was a lawgiver to Israel and their deliverer out of Egypt, and so was Christ: Jesus was not only a prophet, he saved and still does save souls. Moses was the founder of a new dispensation by signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Christ by miracles proved himself a teacher come from God. Moses was faithful. So was the Messiah. Moses came as a servant, but Christ came as a Son.
d. Deuteronomy 18:18 says that God would put his words in his mouth. What messages God had to send to the children of men he would send them by him, and give him full instructions what to say and do as a prophet. In John 7:16, our Savior says, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.” This Prophet has come. Jesus is he that should come, and we are to look for no other.
C. John 1:14 proclaims the One like Moses, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Thus, in answer to the request of those struck with amazement by the law, God promised the incarnation of his Son, though we may suppose it far from the thoughts of those that made that request.
D. As Moses and Elijah then stood by, God himself applied this to our Lord Jesus in the, Matthew 17:5, “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’”
E. A charge and command given to all people to hear and believe, hear and obey, this great prophet here promised: Deuteronomy 18:19, “Unto him you shall hearken”, and “whoever will not hearken to him shall be surely and severely reckoned with for his contempt, ‘I will require it of him.’”
1. The sentence here passed on those that hearken not to this prophet is repeated and ratified in the New Testament. John 3:36, “He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him.”
2. Hebrews 12:25, “And how shall we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven?” John 12:48, “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.”
3. Those scriptures refer to hell. Yes, the only way to heaven is through Jesus so do not listen to false prophets.
II. Here is a caution against false prophets. Deuteronomy 18:20, “But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.” Whoever sets up for a prophet, and produces either a commission from the true God, shall be deemed and judged guilty of high treason against the crown and dignity of the King of kings, and that traitor shall be put to death.
A. Jesus was not only the Son of God; he was a prophet and must be put to death where all prophets must be put to death. Luke 13:33-34, “Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! whom therefore God himself would punish; yet there false prophets were supported.”
B. By way of direction to the people, that pretenders might not impose upon them, there were many, Jeremiah 23:25; Ezekiel 13:6; 1 Kings 22:6. It is a proper question that they are supposed to ask, Deuteronomy 18:21. Since it is so great a duty to hearken to the true prophets, and yet there is so much danger of being misled by false prophets, false messiahs, anti-Christ, “how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?” By what marks may we discover a cheat?
1. Note, it highly concerns us to have a right touchstone wherewith to try the word we hear, that we may know what that word is which the Lord has not spoken. Whatever is directly repugnant to sense, to the light and law of nature, and to the plain meaning of the written word. We may be sure is not that which the Lord has spoken; nor that which gives countenance and encouragement to sin, or has a manifest tendency to the destruction of piety or charity. Far be it from God that he should contradict himself.
2. Deuteronomy 18:22, “If there was any cause to suspect the sincerity of a prophet, let them observe that if he gave them any sign, or foretold something to come, and the event was not according to his prediction, they might be sure he was not sent of God.”
3. This does not refer so much to the foretelling of mercies and judgments. The difference between the predictions of mercies and judgments, there is a rule of discerning between truth and falsehood laid down by the prophet. Jeremiah 28:8-9, “The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms—of war and disaster and pestilence. As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the LORD has truly sent.”
C. When Moses cast his rod upon the ground, and said it would become a serpent, it had to or Moses was a false prophet.
1. If when Elijah called for fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice and none had come, he had been no better than the prophets of Baal.
2. Samuel’s mission proved this, 1 Samuel 3:19-20, “The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD.”
3. By the miracles Christ wrought, especially by that great sign he gave of his resurrection the third day, which happened as he foretold, it appeared that he was a teacher come from God.
D. Lastly, they are directed not to be afraid of a false prophet; that is, not to be afraid of the judgments such a one might denounce to amuse people and strike terror upon them; nor to be afraid of executing the law upon him when, upon a strict and impartial scrutiny, it appeared that he was a false prophet. This command not to fear a false prophet implies that a true prophet, who proved his commission by clear and undeniable proofs, are to be feared, and it was at their peril if they offered him any violence or put any slight upon him.
III. Not only did God, through Moses, promise that Jesus would be a prophet like unto Moses,
A. through the ages, many prophets told that Jesus was coming.
1. It was by Abraham’s seed that all the families of the earth are to be blessed.
2. Later in the Old Testament, we are told that One is to be a king like David, a prince of peace as Solomon.
3. His kingdom is to be without succession and without end; Isaiah said, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, the government shall be upon his shoulder."
4. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
5. Micah 5:2 predicts that the God-man would be born in Bethlehem.
6. Gabriel told Zachariah and Elizabeth things were about to happen.
7. The Virgin Mary saw Gabriel and believed.
8. God spoke to Joseph in a dream.
9. The Wise men saw a star.
10. The Sheppards heard the angles announce his birth. Since then we have learned much.
B. So how should we view Jesus?
1. Jesus was far more than a baby born in a stable and laid in a manger.
2. If you have not meet Jesus, give me the honor to introduce him to you.
3. His credits are too long to list. He has done the impossible time after time.
4. He comes to us out of a manger in Bethlehem of Judah by way of heaven.
5. His mother was blessed beyond all women of the world.
6. His Father is the author of a Book that has been on the bestseller list since the beginning of time.
7. He holds the record for the greatest fish fry. He feed 5,000 hungry souls with just two fish and five loaves of bread.
8. He can walk on water, turn water into wine -- no special effects, no camera tricks.
9. Symbols reminding us of Him are in every Christian Church across the world.
10. I proclaim to you today that Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Bright and Morning Star, the Ruler of the Universes, the Author of Life, the Word, the Word of God, the Light of the World, the Second Adam, the Lamb of God, the King of kings, the King of the Jews, the Lion of Judah, the Lord, and the Lord of Lords. Some call him Wonderful and others the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley. He is our Advisor, the Deliverer, the Holy and Righteous One, the Anointed One, the High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek, Rabboni, Prince of Peace, The Head of the Church. He is Immanuel, Yehoshua, Son of David, the Son of Man, the Savior of the world, the Christ, the Son of the Most High God, the Messiah, He is The Son of God.
