Prophecies Concerning Christ.
By Dwight Lyman Moody
IN second Timothy, third chapter sixteenth verse, we read, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." That referred, of course, to the Old Testament, and is a text which ought to be preached on by ministers in these days who have their doubts about the inspiration of the Old Testament, while they profess to believe in that of the New. When Christ was on earth he was constantly referring to the Scriptures; by which term, of course, he meant the Old Testament, as there were no other Scriptures then in existence. There are two hundred prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Jesus Christ, every solitary one of which has been fulfilled; and yet there are some intelligent persons who say they really don't think that the Bible is inspired. Such people ought to remember that "the Scriptures cannot be broken." Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, all testify of Christ. If you turn to the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke and twenty-seventh verse, where Christ, after his resurrection, was talking with the two disciples as he walked with them to Emmaus, you will find these words: "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." Then in the forty-fourth verse of the same chapter: "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." There was never so much said about the birth, life, death, and resurrection of any man as about that of Jesus. Mark and John say nothing about Christ's birth. We are indebted to Matthew and Luke for all we know about it. For four thousand years, from the time that God made the promise in Eden, men had been looking for this child. The mothers of Israel had been praying that they might be the mothers of this child, and now, as we come into the first chapter of Luke, we find the long, dark night had rolled away. We are told that Zacharias, the priest, received a visit from the angel Gabriel, and that he was somewhat staggered by the message. If you turn to Daniel you will find that it was the same angel that visited that prophet while he was praying. Gabriel is only recorded by name as having made three visits to this world, and every time he came it was on something connected with Christ. In the first chapter of Luke we find this same Gabriel visiting Mary at Nazarath, and revealing to her the great event that was to befall her. I call your attention to what Gabriel said to her about her son: "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest." So we have the right to call him the Son of God, because the angel said he should be called the "Son of the Highest." The birth of John was not a secret; and so you will find that, notwithstanding the claims of the infidels to the contrary, Christ's birth was not a secret. The emperor of Rome issued a decree that the whole world should pay a tax, and that every one should repair to his native place and be registered. That is one of the most marvelous things in the whole word of God. I am told by very good Bible students that that impost was not collected for nine years afterward. The child Jesus would have been born at Nazarath had not the emperor sent out this decree. In consequence thereof Mary went to Bethlehem, and the child was born there; in other words, God set the whole world in motion to bring the virgin to Bethlehem, so that his word might be fulfilled. If that child had been born at Nazarath the Scriptures would not have been true, and if the Scriptures can be broken in one place, they may in another. What are you going to do with the passover if you take Christ out of the Old Testament? What are you going to do with the atonement—the sacrifices—the brazen serpent—the sin-offering? What do they all mean? The Old Testament is a sealed book if you take Christ out of it. He is the key of the word, and he unlocks the Old Testament just as he does the New. Philip found Christ in the Old Testament at the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, (Acts viii, 30-35,) and you may find him in the same place, and in hundreds of other places in the writings of Moses and the prophets. Study the book of Genesis. You will find Christ there. "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Take Exodus. That may be called the book of redemption. Leviticus is the book of sacrifices. They both abound in typical references to Christ. There is no other way of understanding the entire system of Old Testament worship except as types and prophecies of Christ.—Moody.