If you would, Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24, the name of
the message is Behold Christ. Luke chapter 24. Now right before
the passage we'll look at today, the Holy Spirit of God moved
Luke to record our risen Lord's conversation with two of his
disciples as they walked from Jerusalem to Ermaus. And we see
that in verses 13 to 16 of this chapter. And when you read that
passage, our infinitely wise Creator kept these two men from
knowing Him. Well, He drew them into a conversation
concerning the events that had recently taken place in Jerusalem,
which was the arrest of our Lord by wicked men who hated Him without
a cause, and also our Lord's crucifixion and the report that
He had risen again. We see that all through verses
17 to 24 in this chapter. In verses 25 and 27, our Lord
turned the heavy, sad hearts of His two disciples into rapturous
joy. They were full of joy. And as
He expounded from the writings of all the Old Testament prophets
the things concerning Himself. And then we see in verses 27
to 31 that when they reached Arimaeus, these two men were
so blessed with what they had heard through His conversation
with them. And the conversation was very
engaging to them. And it was sweet and delightful
to them, so powerful and moving that they couldn't bear to depart
from Him. They were desirous of His presence
with them. Even though He was estranged
to them, they invited the Lord Jesus Christ to stay with them.
And it is during that visit that our Lord revealed Himself to
them. And then He vanished out of their sight. And then in verse
32, the two honored disciples, and what an honor it was for
them to walk and talk with the risen Lord, said, Did not our
hearts burn within us while He talked with us by the way and
while He opened to us the Scriptures? So with that fresh in our minds,
let's read, starting in Luke 24, verse 33. And they rose up
the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven
gathered together, And them that were with them, saying, The Lord
is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what
things were done in the way, and how he was knowing of them,
and breaking of bread. And next we see our Lord appear
to the disciples. Look at verses 36 to 39. And
as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and
said unto them, Peace be unto you. Oh my! But they were terrified and affrighted,
and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them,
Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me, and see, for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. Now let's look
at the portion of Scripture verse by verse, starting again at verse
33. And they rose up the same hour
and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together
and them that were with them. Think upon this, beloved. It
was already late in the evening. It was more than seven miles
back to Jerusalem. But these two men were not about
to wait until the next day to tell the good news. No. They had seen and heard the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they wanted to run back and tell their brethren.
Having seen the risen Savior, they rose up at that same hour
and returned to Jerusalem. And could you imagine that conversation
the whole way back? Oh, their hearts would be burning
within them, wouldn't they? Oh, they'd be so excited. So
excited. with the divine revelation of
the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember, He expounded unto them the things concerning Himself. Oh my. So they sought out the
apostles, and they knew right where the true followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ would be. They knew where they'd be. They
knew where they'd be meeting. And they found them to tell them
what had occurred. Now think upon this, that our
Lord's apostles and disciples who were meeting with them, They
were already excited with the report that the woman had given,
and the report of Peter and John, which our next verse confirms.
Look at verse 34, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath
appeared to Simon. Before the two from Arimaeus
could say anything about what they had seen, someone who was
so excited about the resurrection of Christ proclaimed, The Lord
is risen indeed. Even before they could get anything
out, beloved. And these two disciples had heard the report from the
woman that Christ had risen, but their report was not believed.
And they knew Peter and John had come back with their report,
but they did not find the body of Jesus in the grave. But now
the truth of our Lord's resurrection is confirmed by these words. The Lord is risen indeed. The
work is done. And God the Father is pleased
with that work, right? That sacrifice of Christ on the
cross for his people, where he shed his blood. to redeem His
people from their sins. The work is finished. Praise
God, it's done. There's nothing to be added to
it. It's done. And we who are God's born-again
believers, His people, we know that work is done, don't we?
And that's what we trust in. We trust in the fact that it's
finished. He completed the work. He redeemed our souls by His
precious blood. We are complete in Christ. And
this resurrection is so important because it proves that God is
satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. So don't let it be
commonplace when you see the Lord is risen indeed because
this is wonderful. This is wonderful. Now we see though this is The
truth of our Lord's resurrection is confirmed by these words,
the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. Now John
Gill says none of the writers of the New Testament take notice
of this appearance besides only the Apostle Paul. Turn if you
would to 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 to 6. Now some would think,
oh that's when he was with John. No. No, look at what Paul says
over here. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
where we see this said, in verses 1 to 6. And Gil gives proof that our
Lord appeared to Simon Peter before the two men from Arimaeus
returned to Jerusalem. Look at this in 1 Corinthians
15 verses 1 to 6. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which ye have received,
and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved. We're saved
by grace, aren't we? Through faith in Christ. But
it's because Christ redeemed us at Calvary's cross. It's all
because of what He's done. It's all because of what he's
done. We always ask the question, and I mentioned it in Sunday
School, what comes first, faith or regeneration? Well, regeneration,
you must be born again. If you're not regenerated, you'll
never believe. But if you're regenerated by
the Holy Spirit of God, like Brother John said, you'll believe.
You'll look to Christ. You'll look to Him. You'll believe
upon Him. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you that the gospel, and the gospel is all about Christ,
not about us, all about Christ, all about what He's done, which
I preached unto you, which you have received, and God's people
receive it by grace, right? The unwilling are made willing
to flee to Christ, wherein you stand. And when you receive something,
you don't do anything for it, you receive it. And this is what
is a gift of God. Salvation is a gift of God. by
which also you are saved." Oh, praise God, we're saved by the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and by His work. If you
keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed
in vain, unless it's just a false profession. For I delivered unto
you, first of all, that which I received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried,
and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the Twelve, that's Peter.
After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom
the greater part remaineth unto this present, but of some are
fallen asleep. John Gill says this about the
Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon. He says this,
it is certain it was the same day Christ rose from the dead
and was after the woman had seen him and after Peter had been
at the tomb and before the return of the two disciples from Arimaeus,
and before he showed himself to the rest of the apostles.
And we see that Paul over there in 1 Corinthians brings that
forth, and that he is seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. Now
think upon this, think upon how excited these two disciples are.
They've talked with the Lord, he's expounded to them the things
concerning himself all through the Old Testament. Their hearts
are burning within them with excitement, and This excitement
must have grown when they heard that the Lord is risen indeed
and hath appeared to Simon. You think it's just putting fuel
on the fire, isn't it? They're getting even more excited.
Now look at verse 35. And they told what things were
done in the way, how he was knowing of them and breaking of bread.
Now the two from Aramaes in verse 35 are given the opportunity
to speak and they burst forth with excitement, beloved. of
what they have seen and what they have heard. They've seen
the risen Christ. They've seen the risen Christ
with their own eyes. Just as Peter had and just as
Mary had. And they heard the truths concerning
His sufferings, His death, His resurrections from the very lips
of Jesus Christ Himself. And the eyes of their understanding
were open, just like our eyes were open. There was a time when
we didn't see, we didn't know who he was. Now we see him. Now
we see him in the scriptures, don't we? Now we know who he
is, only because he's revealed himself to us. And just as he
had revealed himself to the two that walked on the road to Aramis,
he revealed himself to them. And they saw him. Oh my. They saw him for who he really
was. Oh my. And they could explain the meaning
of the writings of the Old Testament prophets because the Lord Jesus
Christ had enlightened their minds to these truths concerning
Himself. And that's what He does for His
people, isn't it? We can look in the Old Testament. The Old
Testament is full of pictures and types and shadows of Christ.
It points right to Christ, beloved. All those sacrifices point right
to Christ. They point right to Him. And
we see that we didn't see that before. Right. I remember there
was a time when I used to think all the Old Testament was for the
Jews and the New Testament was was for believers. That's that's
hogwash. My gosh. The Old Testament testifies
of our great king, our great king. It proclaims our great
king. It's all about him. This book
is a hymn book, beloved H.I.M. It's a book all about Christ
and Christ alone. And it points us to Him. It points
us to Him. So their eyes had been opened,
their understanding had been opened. They could explain the
meanings of the writings of the Old Testament. And they were
excited. This excitement was growing too
in the fact that they were gathering with other saints of God. And what was it that generated
all this excitement? Christ. the fact that He was
risen, beloved? And every born-again, blood-washed
saint of God should be able to partake in this excitement, because
we're reading about Christ. We're reading about Christ, and
we who are born-again have experienced the new birth. The new birth. God has sent His Holy Spirit
into our hearts in the same excitement that we're reading about. comes
about of the same Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God. He moved
in these saints and excited them about the things of Christ. And
he moved upon the Old Testament prophets to what? To write about
the things of Christ. In the same Spirit who moved
the Apostle Paul to write even so then at this present time.
There also is a remnant according to the election of grace is the
same spirit who is within us. All the things of Christ should
excite the believer. We're excited about the things
of Christ. We desire to hear the gospel, don't we? It's refreshing
to us. It gives us strength and grace
to carry on as God gives us that through the preaching of the
word. The same spirit within us is
the same spirit that was in Paul when he wrote that Jesus Christ
was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification. When he wrote Jesus Christ obtained
eternal redemption for us. And when he wrote that Jesus
Christ by himself had purged our sins. The same spirit that
was within Paul is the same spirit within us. We have the same spirit
who moved the Apostle Paul to preach these words, which were
recorded for our learning. Men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the Patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us today, therefore being
a prophet, knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, according
to the flesh, that he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.
He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that
his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. We who are born again have received
the same Holy Spirit that was in the Apostle John when he recorded
these words from our Lord Jesus. It is the Spirit that quickeneth
the flesh profit nothing. So the things of Christ excite
God's people. Excite God's people. And we know
that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, won't he?
He'll guide us into all truth. And we know that the gospel truths
of the scripture will move God's children to give him all the
glory. give Him all the glory. Because what does the gospel
truce do? It causes us to look away from
ourselves, doesn't it? And it causes us to look to Christ
and Christ alone. Because it's all about what He's
done. See, religion will tell you what you've got to do and
what you've got to keep doing. But how much is enough? They
never tell you that. They just tell you to keep doing.
Oh, beloved, I preach a Christ who the work is done. It's accomplished. We rest and repose in the finished
work of Christ. We trust and rest in the Christ
who has saved us and redeemed us from all our sins. And He gets all the glory. He
gets all the glory. And the Holy Spirit who dwells
in the heart of every born again child of God generates this true
excitement in us, pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ and
causing us to what? To rejoice in Him. To rejoice
in what He's done for us. What has He done? He had mercy
on me. Think of that, beloved. You who are the beloved of God,
you who are one of His sheep who have been redeemed. Think
of that. He had mercy on you. He had mercy on me, a sinner.
I stand before you a sinner, saved by the grace of God, plus
nothing else at all, in Christ, in Christ alone. And I still sin and I still struggle
just like every one of you do too. But I'm saved by the grace
of God in Christ. Praise His mighty name. Because it's He who keeps me. And I'll give Him all the glory
till I breathe my last breath. I pray that He gives me that
grace and strength to do it. Just keep giving Him all the
glory because it's all about what He's done. Is it so for
you? Are you trusting in your own righteousness or are you
trusting in what Christ has done? He must what? Increase and I
must what? Decrease. He becomes everything and we're
in the dust, beloved. That's where He is. He's on the
throne. Oh, praise His name. He's on
the throne. He's a great God. He's a great God. Now take note
of something here too. When our Lord said, the spirit
that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing. Take note that the scripture
there, and we know in the scriptures and all other places talk, there's
no talk about man's doing, is there? Except for our sin. Except for our sin. We fell in
Adam and we're born sinners. We can lay claim to that, can't
we? Every one of us is a sinner. We can lay claim to that. That's
our rightful claim. Oh my. But there's never in the
scriptures talk about man's doings to save themselves. We don't
see it amongst these early disciples. They speak of what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done. Have you ever read in the scripture
where Peter says, I led 10,000 people to Christ? You ever read
that? Or I led 3,000 people to Christ? You don't see that, do you? But
you know, when I was in religion, I used to hear people tell, oh,
I led 100 people to Christ this weekend. Oh, just stop. Just
stop. Who does the saving? Amen. Christ. God does the saving.
It's His work. He's the one who gets the glory. He's the one. You never see the
apostles proclaiming or testimonies of how they led X amount of people
to Christ. You never see that in the scriptures.
The scriptures behold what God has done and what God's doing.
He gets all the glory. He gets all the glory. There's
nothing in the scriptures even about one making a decision for
Christ. You don't see that. But it does proclaim that the
Lord saves His people, doesn't it? By His almighty power. By His almighty power. And the
unwilling are what? Made willing. And they flee to
Christ. They run to Christ. We don't
deny that, absolutely. But you're never come unless
He makes you willing. Because there's none that seeketh
after God. There's none that understand it. But if He makes
you will and if the Holy Spirit regenerates you through the preaching
of the gospel, let me tell you, you will run to Christ so fast. His brother John said, there's
no stopping it. There's no stopping it. Oh, my. We don't talk about the freedom
of man's will to either accept or reject Christ, but we do see
in the Scripture that God does what He wills, when He wills,
in the armies of heaven, and among all the inhabitants of
the earth, He does whatever He pleases. And you know, when you
preach that, natural man gets real upset, because that offends
their pride. They say, well, I made a decision. There is none that seeketh after
God. But the scripture does say, praise
God, thy people shall be made willing in the day of thy power. You see, what Jonah proclaimed
is truth. Salvation is of the Lord. From beginning, he is the Alpha,
to the end, He's the Omega, and you've heard me say this many
times, and He's everything in between. Salvation's of the Lord. So,
the excitement we see here was all about Christ, wasn't it?
It was never about what they were doing. It was all about
Christ. It was about who He is. It's
about what He's done. It's about the fact that He's
risen. And this is what God's people
today boast in. We boast in what He's done. We boast in what Christ has done.
Because we know we could never save ourselves. Don't we? We know that. We've been taught
that. We've been taught by God the
Holy Spirit our desperate need for Christ, and we've been taught
that we could never save ourselves, but praise God we've been taught
that Christ is the one who saved us, and He's redeemed us. And
praise God, He keeps us. He keeps us. And He'll take us
all the way home to glory. So our boast is in Christ. So
these two from Arimaeus, they knew where the saints of God
were meeting. And what did they do? They sought
them out, just in like manner where we know the gospel of God's
sovereign, amazing grace is preached, we'll seek it out. We'll seek
it out. We'll seek to be there. We'll
seek to hear the gospel preached and proclaimed. Because it's
precious to us. It's precious to us. And we desire,
what do we desire? When you come here, you don't
desire to have me stand up here and tell you, well, you gotta
do this, and you gotta do that, and I'm right beside you, and
I'm gonna do it too with you. No, I came out of all that stuff.
Now, you like me desire, you desire to hear about the perfect
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say it again, the
perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. A work that
needs nothing added to it, because it's perfect. It is finished. Perfect in the Greek. It's perfect. The work's done. The work's done. That's what you desire to hear.
You desire to hear about Christ who completed that perfect work
for you. For you. For you who are his chosen people.
And what do we do? We rejoice, don't we? We rejoice
just like the apostles and the disciples in the text here. We
rejoice just like them, don't we? We rejoice to know that we
are numbered with God's elect. We rejoice. And we rejoice to know that we
are numbered with God's elect all according to His own purpose
and grace. His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And that's
what the Scripture declares. That's not just my opinion. That's
what the Scriptures declare. And we talk about this, don't
we? And we think about these truths. And what happens when
we talk about these truths and we think about these truths?
We get excited. We get excited about what the Lord's done. Oh
my. It's not wrong to get excited.
We should get excited about what the Lord's done for us. We should
be thrilled. He's redeemed us. This is cause for great joy for
God's people. He's purchased us. We were dead. We were graveyard dead. He's
made us alive. We give us ears to hear these
wonderful truths. and eyes to see Christ when we
never saw Him before. Oh, this is cause for great rejoicing,
beloved of God. It's cause for great rejoicing.
And we hear these truths concerning our risen Savior, and we get
excited. And each time we hear the perfect
redeeming work of Christ for us, knowing that nothing can
be laid to our charge because of what our Savior's done for
us, it excites us. We're thrilled, aren't we? Just
like our brethren are here. And these truths, these truths
make our hearts burn within us. Just as it did for our brethren
of the past. And we want to be where these
truths are proclaimed, don't we? We want to hear these truths
week after week after week after week. It's wonderful. Now let's look at verse 36, where
we see our Lord appear to the apostles and those gathered with
them. Look at this. And as they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace
be unto you. Note, beloved, our Lord Jesus
Christ did not appear before the Sanhedrin. He did not appear
before the religious leaders of that day. He didn't show them
that they were wrong in their religious beliefs. And He didn't
show them that they didn't get rid of Him by putting Him to
death? No, beloved of God, He left them to die in their sins. That's pretty sobering, isn't
it? He left them to die in their sins, steeped in their own sinful
spiritual blindness, steeped in their own self-righteous religion. But who does He appear to? His
true disciples. His people. And where does He
stand? Look where He stands. In the
midst of them. He stands in the midst of them. That's what the
Scripture there declares. He stands right in the midst.
He stands right in the midst of those for whom He died and
bled for. Right in their midst. Who is
that? His blood-bought bride, beloved. They're His people. And note
our Lord didn't stand outside the door Did he? He didn't ask
permission, can I come in? He didn't do that, did he? Well,
some preaching you hear, you think that's what it's like,
isn't it? He didn't do that. He didn't do that at all. He
didn't knock to see if anyone would let him in. He didn't need
anyone's permission to come among them. He does what he wills,
when he wills. You know why? Because He's God
Almighty. And He can do whatever He pleases. We see that right
here. He can do whatever He pleases.
Jesus Christ is the Almighty God. He is God incarnate in the
flesh, the Word of God. And every true disciple of Christ
worships Him. And we see right here that it
pleased the Lord to be amongst His people, to be amongst His
brethren. They were honoring Him with their
joyful excitement, weren't they? They were talking about Him!
Oh my! And every time God's people meet
together for public worship, our Lord's with us. Our Lord's
with us. He's pleased to meet with us.
And we rob ourselves of special blessings from our risen Savior
through the preaching of the Word when we're absent from the
appointed times of meeting together. We need to be together. Now take note of four important
precious words which come from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ
when he stood in the midst of them. He said this to them, peace
be unto you. Peace be unto you. Our glorious,
ever gracious Lord and Savior says to his fallen sinful people,
peace be unto you. Peace be unto you. Where is the sinner who needs
to fear such a Savior? In the hand of God, beloved,
there is mercy. There is mercy. There is mercy
towards His people. He says, fury is not in me. Why?
Because it's all been appeased in Christ, their great substitute.
God's fury is not unleashed upon His people because it fell on
the substitute. It fell on Christ. We looked at that on Wednesday
night. He's like that great rock. And the wrath of God and the
justice of God falls upon that and just beats upon that. But
where are we? We're safe on the other side
of the rock. Safe in the shadow of the Almighty,
the Lord Jesus Christ. John Gill brings forth that these
words, peace be unto you, is a usual form of salutation among
the Jews, expressive of all prosperity in soul and body, inward and
outward, spiritual and temporal. And here may have a special regard
to that peace. He said he gave unto them. He
gives it unto us, beloved. Remember, Paul writes, the peace
that passes all understand. He keeps our hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus. And we know that we have peace
with God only through the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ alone.
We don't have peace anywhere else. He said He gave unto them
and left with them upon His departure from them, in which He obtained
by the blood of His cross and now preached unto them. The only
reason we have peace with God is because of the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He bled and died as our
substitute. Because He paid all that God
demanded for us. That's the only reason. And she
says, Peace be unto you. Oh, wonderful words. Absolute
wonderful words. Now let's look at the next two
verses. But they were terrified and afraid, and supposed that
they had seen the Spirit. And He said unto them, Why are
you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Now, look
at this and see how these men and women were terrified when
He appeared among them. They were just talking about
the truth concerning the resurrection of Christ, and here He was before
them. Oh my. Oh my. The woman had seen our risen
Lord. Simon Peter had seen our risen Lord. The two on the road
from Aramis had seen and talked with the risen Christ. Yet here,
when He stands in the midst of them, they're not just frightened
by His appearance, but they're terrified. They're terrified. Oh my. The Greek word for terrified
in our text here means to fall. They almost fainted. They almost
fainted. How would we react in this situation?
Probably the same way. Probably the same way. I know
I would. I'm not going to, we would just
be shocked. We'd be just like them. Because
you know why? You know why we know that we'd
be just like them? Because we have the same weakness
as the flesh that gripped their hearts. That's why. That's why. These disciples were terrified
when they saw Christ. When they saw the risen Lord
with their eyes. With the eyes of the flesh. And
our Lord stood in the midst of His disciples and they supposed
that they had seen the Spirit, Scripture declares. And their
minds were filled with with fearful thoughts and the word afraid
there means to fear, to tremble. They were trembling. You ever
trembled? Oh my. We do not know what they were
thinking but our blessed Lord knows and He alone knows the
thoughts of every heart. He knows the thoughts of all
our hearts and minds and And look, he asked them a question
in verse 38, and he said unto them, why are you troubled? Why
are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Now there's a good thing for
us to ask, and I know we all, we go through things and we start
to fear, we start to, but why do we tremble? Why are we troubled? Our God's in control, beloved.
He loves us. He loves us. He's ever with us.
He'll never leave us. Just remember that. You know,
this is a sweet verse for us to remember. Why are you troubled
and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Just trust the Lord. And I know it's easy for us to
say that. I know, I know it is. I know. And we're flesh, beloved,
and we do. And the reason I bring this out
is because this is for me as well as for you. It's for all
of us. Why are we troubled? So next time I feel that way,
I'm going to look at this first, beloved. I'm going to look at
this portion here. And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Now this world is full of religious folks who deny
the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and they believe
that only His Spirit came out of the grave. But verse 29, look
at how it gives us the truth of the bodily resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. Our Lord used the
truth concerning Himself to remove. He used the truth of His resurrection
and the truth of the bodily resurrection of Himself to remove His disciples'
fears. And it's these same truths concerning
Himself which the Lord uses in every generation. I want you
to think upon this too. It's these same truths concerning
Himself which the Lord uses in every generation to remove doubts
and fears from the hearts of His enlightened born-again children. What peace we can have. How fears and doubts can be removed
when we think upon the risen Christ. When we think upon the
fact that our Savior is risen. And that He is in glory right
now. And that one day we will be with
Him. All by His grace and all by His
mercy. Oh, what strength that can give
us. How it can remove doubts and
fears when we think upon Him. Think about the song we sing
in light of this to help us remove doubts and fears in our lives. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look
full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. I love that song. I don't know
if you do, but I love it. It's just, and we sing it a lot
on Wednesday nights because I love that song. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Oh, we
need to just keep looking to our Savior, don't we? And our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's ascended to glory with these
visible wounds in His resurrected body. And the Scriptures tell
us, turn if you would to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. Scriptures
tell us that this same Jesus shall so come in like manner
as His disciples saw Him ascend into heaven. Look at this in
Acts chapter 1, verses 9 to 11. Look at this. This same Jesus shall come in
like manner as disciples saw him ascend into heaven. Acts
chapter 1 verses 9 to 11. And when he had thus spoken these
things, well, they beheld, he was taken up in a cloud, received
him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel. which also said, ye man of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken
up from you, the same Jesus who appeared to them, shall so come in like manner,
as ye have seen him go into heaven. Now let's go back to John 5,
and in light of that right there, read this. John 5, verse 39. Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. He would not have drawn their
attention to his hands and feet if the wounds from those nail
prints were not still there, beloved. Brethren, for all eternity we'll
see those visible wounds in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they will remind us of His
perfect redeeming work that He accomplished for us as
He endured God's wrath in our room and place, satisfying God's
holy justice for His chosen people. And that reminder will not bring
tears of sorrow, because we know there's no tears in heaven. Rather, it will cause the blood-bought
saints of God to rejoice in the blessed Redeemer who saved us
at Calvary's cross, causing our eyes to sparkle with joy and
praise to the One who has loved us and gave Himself for us. And
what's the anthem in heaven? Worthy is the Lamb! Worthy is
the Lamb. To receive all glory and honor
and power. Worthy is the Lamb. And notice
how our Lord calmed the fears of His disciples when He said,
It is I, myself. It is I, myself. Handle me and
see. For a spirit hath not flesh and
bones as you see me have. It is I. He was in a real body, the same
body that hung there on Calvary's cross. Handle me, our Lord said,
and see, it is I myself for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you
see me have. The saints of God here before
us in our text had trusted the Lord Jesus Christ before He went
to the cross. Before He had uttered the words,
it is finished. They looked to Him and they trusted
Him. And now that He had finished the work His Father sent Him
to do, there was no more reason for them not to trust Him. They now knew that all the conditions
of the eternal covenant of grace are fulfilled. He having died
as the substitute of His people on Calvary's cross, shedding
His blood, giving His life to redeem them from all their sins,
to redeem those who were given to Him by the Father in eternity. And now we see that great shepherd
of the sheep. Where is he? He's in the midst
of them. He's in the midst of them. He's right there with them.
He's right there with them. Where what? Where two or what?
Three are gathered together in my name. Where is he? There am
I in the midst of them. Right there. Right there, beloved. Oh my. The Apostle Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 2 and 4, he says, This ye are saved,
ye are kept, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless
ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. And that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. And here we
see in our text our risen Lord. And again, our risen Lord is
in the midst of his people. Right there. Now even in the
apostolic age there was another Jesus being preached. We know
that because Paul wrote of it. There was a perverted gospel
being preached where they mixed works with grace and there was
another spirit that was being received. Again, Paul wrote of
this. And those false religionists were going along with those false
preachers and it shouldn't surprise us today that that most of today's
preaching is dominated by false preachers who do not know that
the Lord Jesus Christ died according to the Scriptures, who do not
believe that He was buried and that He rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures. There's people out there who
believe that way. And the majority of today's preachers
don't believe that the death of Christ satisfied the holy
justice of God for a particular people. They believe that Christ
died for everyone. But Christ says, I give my life
for the sheep. And we know who those sheep are.
Those sheep are those who are given to Christ for eternity.
And a lot of people out there don't believe that God's people
were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
But that's what the Scripture declares. That's what the scriptures
declare. And those people who were given
to Christ by the Father in eternity were reconciled to God by the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the scriptures declare. And some preach a universal atonement.
Where they believe that the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the blood that
he shed at Calvary's cross, his death on the cross was for all
of Adam's posterity, even for those who are already in eternal
torment. Well, that means that Christ
wasn't a successful Savior then. If there's some that Christ died
for who are burning in hell, then He wasn't a successful Savior. Then He failed to make atonement
for their sins. But we know, beloved, we know
that the blood of Christ was shed for a particular people. And it's redeemed them. It's
paid the price for all their sins. And the saint of God goes,
praise God I'm in that number. I don't deserve it. But praise
God I'm in that number. Praise God I'm born again by
the Holy Spirit of God. Praise God that he sought me
out because I never would have sought him out. Praise God that he made
me willing in the day of his power. Because I'd still be in
the world doing the things I did before. Praise God, I'm born again of
the Holy Spirit of God. And I now have ears to hear and eyes to
see. Christ Jesus, our Savior. The truth of God's free grace
is that it proclaims the perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we preach. Every
time a man gets in this pulpit, that's what he preaches and proclaims.
The perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And beloved,
this truth shines forth when it's presented against the backdrop
of false doctrine. It just shines forth, doesn't
it? It shines forth. Think upon this and consider
this, that our great majestic providential God brought us under
the preaching of the gospel. He brought us to a place where
we could hear the gospel. The preaching of the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. The preaching of a
completed salvation in Christ. And He came to us in the person
of God the Holy Spirit and gave us faith to believe. We were
born again by the Holy Spirit of God and granted faith and
repentance to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ all according
to the Holy Scriptures. And let we who are redeemed of
the Lord by faith behold the hands of our Savior. And His hands will remove our
doubts and assure our hearts and give us peace. Our Savior
says to you and to me, behold my hands, they are the hands
of our sovereign. They are the hands of our sovereign
king. They are the hands of our surety.
They are the hands of our surety. They are the hands of our substitute. The one who died in our place,
the just one for the unjust, that's us. They are the hands of our security. He who saves us, keeps us. And none will pluck any of God's
sheep out of his hand. None. That's wonderful. These are the hands of our solace.
Oh, what comfort we find in Christ. Lastly, these are the hands of
our salvation. His precious blood redeems us from all our sins.
Behold the hands of Jesus Christ, as He by His perfect obedience
to the will of God our Father, working the work of Him that
sent Him, established a perfect righteousness for all of His
chosen people. And behold the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The feet that not only carried
him throughout his life here on earth, but also carried him
to the cross of Calvary. Carried him to the cross of Calvary
where he endured the wrath of God. Suffering as our substitute
and paying the ransom price in full. In full. This is wonderful. This should
cause us to rejoice. Paying the ransom price in full
for all of His chosen people with His own precious blood.
Oh, what a Savior. Praise His mighty name, beloved.
Praise His mighty name. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee
for the Scriptures that we looked at today. O Lord Jesus, we thank
Thee that our salvation is complete in Thee. Complete in Thee, O
Lord. And You, by Your almighty power
and grace, You draw us and take us from the dunghill of sin that
we're in, Lord, and pick us up, and we're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, and then we look to Thee and trust in Thee, and
are granted faith and repentance to believe upon Thee, O Lord.
And then we know it's the love of Christ that constrains us
from sin, O Lord. O Lord, we love You and we praise
You. We thank You for Your goodness and mercy and grace towards us
all the time. And let us always remember that
you are good to us all the time, whether we're going through times
of trouble or sorrow, or you are always good to us. Lord,
teach us, teach us, Lord, to rely and rest upon the more and
more. We love you only because you first loved us in Jesus name. Amen.