In verse 41 of Luke 24, it says,
while they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto
them, have ye here any meat? Now, the first word I want to
look at, it might surprise you. If I ask you what word do you
think I would pick out of there to think about, this probably
wouldn't be one you would think of. But I want to look at the
word yet. They yet believed not. They believed yet not. And here's
why that word yet is there, Mark 16. It doesn't say in our text
in Luke that when those two disciples came in and said, we've seen
the Lord, the Lord appeared to us. He spoke with us. He walked
with us. He revealed himself to us. Doesn't
say here. They scoffed and didn't believe
him, but it does in Matthew 16 mark mark 16 if you want to turn
there mark 16 9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day
of the week He appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom
he had cast seven devils And she went and told them that had
been with him as they mourned and wept and And they, when they
had heard that he was alive and had been seen of her, believed
not. And what makes that remarkable,
and we're just learning something about ourselves first here this
morning, this is exactly what the Lord told them. The third
day, I'm gonna rise again. And Mary came and said, what
he said was right. They didn't believe her. And so we're in Mark 16, 12.
Now, after that, he appeared in another form unto two of them
as they walked and went into the country. That's the two on
the road to Emmaus. And they went and told it unto
the residue. Neither believed they then. Afterward,
he appeared unto the 11 as they sat at meet and upbraided them
with their unbelief. Hardness of heart because they
believed not them which had seen him after he was risen And notice
it doesn't say that they didn't believe him But that was the
ultimate truth wasn't it because those that said we saw him they
were just saying what he said was gonna happen They were witnesses and they
didn't believe the witnesses And he said unto them go ye into
all the world and preach wait a minute Does that seem strange
to you? He just had to tell them they
didn't believe, they didn't even believe the truth. He upbraided
them for their unbelief and their hardness of heart, and then he
said, now go preach. The Lord just uses, you know,
Paul wasn't kidding around when he said we're just, we're just
nothing. The Lord gives the inquiry, we're
just, he just, There's nothing to us. Now, it would be very insulting
if I were to say to you, you don't believe. You don't believe
nothing. You just don't hardly even believe the gospel. That
would be insulting if I said that to you or if you said that
to me. But the word of God is not tactful. It doesn't pull
any punches about us. It just tells the truth. The scriptures, they're truthful.
We're so full of unbelief, it's frightening, isn't it? We're
so full of unbelief. You remember when the Lord said
to Philip, Philip, have I been so long with you and you still
don't know me? Does that mean Philip was an
unbeliever? No, he was a believer full of unbelief. That's the
only kind of believer there is. But after just upbraiding them
for their unbelief, he sent them to preach. He gives grace, doesn't
he? He gives us grace to be able
to study and to preach and to be faithful to his word. But
boy, there's nothing to any of us. He's still, as we're preaching
the gospel. Now that we've, those who he
sends, after he sends them, he has to upbraid us. for our unbelief
all the time. And he does it by the gospel
we preach. We're preaching to ourselves too, those who preach.
And get the scene in your mind here again. We have to review
a little bit. These two disciples had come
and told these 11, the 11 apostles here, that the Lord had appeared
unto them, that they said he walked with us, he spoke with
us, he revealed himself to us, And they were in this room, now
these 11 were met together in this room with the door shut.
Remember when Simon realized that he had denied his Lord?
The Lord told him he was gonna do it and he said, I will not,
I will be true to you, I will die with you. Well, these 11 had forsaken him
and fled, it says in Matthew 26, 56, but all this was done
that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. And then
all of the disciples forsook him and fled. And I can't imagine they were
feeling real good about that. Simon wept bitterly when he realized
what he had done. And we know why they forsook
him, that they forsook him because they figured those who tortured
and murdered their savior was coming for them next. They had for many of them. Now,
so they're in this room now afraid for their lives and living with
the fact that they were cowards, that they had failed their Lord.
And the Lord Jesus himself stood in the midst of them. It doesn't
say he opened the door and walked in the room. He was just there. He stood in the midst of them.
I didn't see, you know, I was up here, I saw most of you came
in before I got here. We were running a little bit
late. But as I watched y'all come in, I didn't see him come
in, did you? And yet here he is. You know how I know that?
Because he promised. I know that because of the greatest
evidence that there is in heaven, earth, or hell, his promise,
his promise. And so he stood in the midst
of them. If we're hearing his name, he's hearing me. The Lord
said unto them, peace be unto you. And then he showed them
why they had no need to be afraid or to be ashamed. And they were
both, weren't they? They were afraid, that's why
they fled. They were afraid that they were gonna be arrested put
in prison and probably killed for being faithful to the Lord.
And they were ashamed of themselves. Of course they were. They had
forsaken the Lord and fled. But he said, peace, comfort, rest be unto you. And he showed them his hands
and his feet. He showed them how peace is made. Peace doesn't just happen on
its own. Not in this world, not to sinners. It's gotta be made. And it's made by His precious
blood. They didn't need to be afraid of any consequence for
their sin, for their forsaking of the Lord. He said, you deny
me before men, I'll deny you before my Father. But now He speaks peace to them. I'm sure they were afraid that
that's probably us. I think Simon thought that when
he said, I'm going fishing. I'm gonna go do what I was doing
before the Lord found me. In despair and just shame. But they didn't need to be afraid
of any consequence for their sin. And they didn't need to
be ashamed for what they were. Because he has washed away all
of our sin and shame by those wounds. that he showed them. And what was exactly what they
needed right then? If they were afraid for their
lives and ashamed of themselves, what did they need more than
anything else? Peace. Right then, that's what they
needed more than anything else. The gospel of peace through our
Lord Jesus Christ is always exactly what we need right now. Just
like them, there's nothing that we need more than for the Lord
to appear in our midst, not visibly, but even when He disappeared
out of their sight, He didn't disappear out of their presence.
He said, Lo, I'm with you always. We need Him in our midst and
we need Him to speak peace to our hearts this morning. Just like always, like everybody
always, for Christ himself to show us himself and what he did
for us is exactly what we need all the time. And they heard
his voice speak peace to them and call their attention to his
hands and his feet. He said, behold, and they look
and the wounds are still visible there. Remember when he spoke
to Thomas and said, reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my
side. It wasn't just scars there somehow,
the wounds were still there. And though he spoke to them and
showed them, and they yet believed not, but now it's for joy. When others came and told them
When Mary Magdalene told some of them and they didn't believe
her, and then the disciples came that walked with him on the road,
they didn't believe. They just flat didn't believe.
But now he's in their very presence. They're beholding his hands and
his feet. And they believed not for joy. That's a little bit different.
It's a little bit different. Have you ever thought and felt
that the gospel is just too good to be true? It's just too good
to be true. How can it be? There's a song,
how can it be? That on the tree, the savior
died for me. How can it be? Amazing love. As they were sitting there unbelieving
and selfish, it was all about just saving themselves. Cowardly,
wretched, worthless, feeling it and afraid. And then I thought
about this, and probably making excuses for themselves, because
we're proud, too, on top of everything else. They probably were making
excuses of why, well, we had to carry on the gospel. We couldn't
stay and get killed, or things like that. I don't want to speculate
too much. But I know this. We're proud,
as well as ashamed, and guilty, and foolish, and wretched, sinful. And we justify ourselves. There's
not any of us worth shooting, y'all know that, I've told you
that before. You know that's right, worthy
of hell for eternity. And yet he appears in our midst,
in the gospel, and says, you've got nothing to worry about. Look, behold, behold, Christ
crucified. You've got nothing to worry about. And this is the other side now.
This is the other side of when Simon said, I won't deny you.
I'm not going to deny you. I will die with you. I will be
true to you. These other ones will forsake
you, but I will be true. I will stay by your side until
the death. I will, I will, I will. And the Lord said, you won't.
You're going to deny me three times, but I will. I will go
and prepare a place for you. Let not your heart be troubled,
Peter. You're not going to be able to
live up to your idea of yourself, because you're nothing. You're
sinful. You're selfish. You're proud.
You're vile. But I will go and do what's necessary,
and I will come again. And you'll be mine forever. This
is the other side of that now. These disciples had failed, just
like he said that Simon would, and they all forsook him and
fled, and we all do. We all fail, but our Lord says,
I will, and he did. He's been victorious over all
of our enemies, sin, death, hell. He had won the victory for them. All they did in the whole thing
is prove how worthless and sinful they are, just like we do. What
he did was save them. He conquered all their enemies
for them. Is it possible that the Lord
could love a worm like me that much? You see why they believe
not for joy. We can enter into anything that
any sinner has ever felt or experienced because we're all the same. We're
all cut out of the same lump. God makes us by his grace vessels
of honor. Vessels of mercy. Is it possible though? Can it
be? Can he be just and yet still
justify somebody like me? As ungodly as I am. And more unbelievable yet, more
unbelievable yet, would he do that? Why in the world would
he do that? That's unbelievable. That's too
good to be true. No, it's too good and it's true. And they found that out that
day. When he showed them his hands and his feet, they weren't
thinking. You think they were thinking
they saw Christ crucified. You think they were thinking,
oh, wonderful, I've got a shot now. I've got a chance. They were thinking our sins are
gone. That's why they believe not for joy. How can that be? How could it be possible that
he redeemed me with his precious blood? That's not what he showed. He's not showing us when he shows
us his hands and feet that we've got a shot. If he reveals himself
to you in the preaching of the gospel, he's showing you that
your sins are gone, that he's washed them away in his precious
blood. The fact that they believed not
for joy doesn't mean that they weren't believers. He doesn't
send unbelievers to preach for him. He doesn't do that. It was
just still sinking in. That wretched though they were,
he gave himself for them. And it was personal to them.
He gave himself for me. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He suffered for the unjust that
he might bring me to God. And you see, it says they wondered.
Are you still wondering or have you got it all figured out? I
know, I think I know some people that have it all figured out. But here they saw the most simple
thing. He had told them for several
times for quite a while that he was gonna rise again from
the dead. He had to be mistreated and crucified and rise again
the third day, and there he was. Just as simple. It don't get
any more basic than that. There he is, and look what he
did for us. And they wondered at that. Do
you still wonder when the gospel is preached, or is it just like,
well, I've heard that before, you know? I agree with that.
Is there any wonder left in it for you? I'm preaching to myself. It means
that they marveled. When we hear about what he did,
when we hear his word, when we hear about who he is, the perfect,
spotless lamb of God that gave himself for me, that loved me
with an everlasting love, and was determined to have me at
infinite cost, They marveled. Do we still marvel
at that? He was had an admiration of them. That's what it means. They just
sat there and admired him. And adored him. They saw those wounds in his
hands and his feet. They wondered, you know why they
wondered? Because he's wonderful. They marveled because of his
marvelous grace. That's what we do when we see
Christ crucified in the preaching of the gospel by the revelation
of His Holy Spirit. The Spirit takes the things of
Christ and shows them to His people. And when we see, how marvelous. And look at this next
phrase. This reminds me of when those
disciples knew who he was when he broke the bread and handed
it to them. They knew who he was and then he disappeared out
of their sight. Because salvation's not by sight, it's by faith. But this reminds me of that,
how the Lord just, I mean, he appears and they're sitting there
astonished and marveling and wondering it. At him that that
all of their fears were put away Beginning to be it was sinking
in it seems like at the time All of their shame, you know,
they thought well, you know, he'll never have anything to
do with us we forsook him but here he is peace peace This reminds
me of that they're wondering and marveling and you know what
he said I bet you this they didn't Expect him to say this. Yeah,
they said have you he said have you got anything to eat around
here? Doesn't that remind you of when they they they're like
it's him and he disappeared You got anything to eat I Don't
think they expected that But think about that, you know religion
I have to say this because it's just so I They say, what would
Jesus do? What would Jesus do? They didn't
know what he did when they stood there and watched him do it.
They didn't know what he did. They didn't know what he did on Calvary.
They think he died to give people a chance, another chance. No,
he died to redeem his people, and he did. He said he did. He
said he would, and then he did, and then he said he did. But think about this, everything
he says, you might think he would stand there and preach a message
to them, and of course, just him being there, he is the message.
That's the point of this. Everything he says, grace pours
from his lips. Everything he says is marvelous
and wonderful. Even when he's asking for something
to eat, even his rebukes are sweet, aren't they? Even his
rebukes unto us are precious. Because they're his rebukes.
And we know why he does rebuke us. Because we're his children.
This is the glorified, think about this, crucified, yea rather
risen again, glorified son of God. And yet he's eating fish
and a piece of honeycomb. with these men. The fullness of the Godhead in
a body sat down and had a meal of fish and honeycomb. Sounds
delicious, doesn't it? A piece of broiled fish, eating
the same food they ate. A man is sitting on the throne
of glory right now. A man, the man. Sitting on the
throne He's one of us And we're one of him we're his
body Everything that came out of his
mouth Notice that he asked them for something isn't that amazing
He had just done everything for them and showed him that and
now he says I Have you got something for me? Oh man, what in the world can
we give Him when He has given us Himself? And all things in
him, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
You got crust, you've got everything. And he don't have need of anything.
What in the world can we give him? Surely we must give him
something great. If he gave us something, if he
gave us everything, we've got to come up with something great.
No, he just asked for a piece of fish and some honeycomb. He doesn't need us to do anything
great. He's the great one. We couldn't do anything. It's
a good thing, isn't it? He doesn't need us to do something
fantastic. It's a good thing. The truth is, he doesn't need
anything from us. But he asks, not because he needs
something, but because we need something. We need to honor Him
in this flag. We need to honor Him in this
world with who we are and what we have and what abilities we
have. He gives us the privilege of giving. And such opportunity,
I thought about this. When I wrote that down, I typed
that out. He gives us the privilege of giving something to Him. He
don't need, what does He need? He's God. But it's a privilege. To honor him with what we are
and what we have and what abilities what talents he's given us The
gifts that he's blessed each of us with and I see different
gifts in each of you Different gifts and different degrees of
gifts, but all for his glory for his glory And I thought about
this though. He gives us such opportunity Such I think about that we have
the privilege and think of the opportunity that we have all
the time To do something for him. Well, what in the world
what do you mean chris? How can I do anything for him?
Matthew 25 37 then shall the righteous answer him saying lord
When saw we thee hungry and fed you or thirsty and gave you dreams? When saw we thee a stranger and
took thee in or naked and clothed thee? Or when did we see you
sick or in prison and came unto thee? Oh, when I was sick and when
some of you were sick, I've heard you tell what a blessing the
church was to you. It was to me. What a blessing. And the king shall answer and
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you've done
it, Unto one of the least of these my brethren, that's me You've done it unto me The the
privilege and the opportunity all the time To do something
for him Do you love me feed my sheep? There's another one, huh? What else has he told us to do
preach the gospel? To every creature And those that
believe you, I'll save them. And those that don't, I'll damn
them. That's how important this is, how vital this is. Paul said,
we're the saver of life unto life and death unto death. And
who is sufficient for these things? But the Lord, he gives us something
to do, not in order to be saved, but because we're saved. We do
it because he saved us. How is somebody with Christ's
righteousness gonna do something in order to be righteous? That's
the most foolish thing in the world, isn't it? We're covered
in the spotless wedding garment of Christ's perfect righteousness. We do what we do because of that,
not in order to achieve righteousness before God. And notice verse
43, he took it. How can he take anything from
us? How can he even be in our presence to begin with? But how can he accept anything
that we give? He took it, here's how, he took
it with that hand that had the wound in it. It's because of
his wounds that made us acceptable And what we do, acceptable in
the beloved. How can God accept our worship?
How can he bend an ear down and even be aware? How can he even
take notice of us this morning? Much less it be a sweet savor
unto him, Christ. Because we come in his name.
That's why it's only if we come in his name, for his glory, to
preach his word, to rejoice in him, to worship him, that he
comes and he's in our midst. And God is pleased. God is pleased. How can he ever hear a prayer
that we pray? Because we pray in the name of
Christ. Whether we say the words or not, that's a condition of
the heart. We come in his name before the
throne of grace. Our persons and all that we do
in his name by faith are accepted in the beloved and no other way. And these are the joy of our
life. Isn't it the most wonderful thing
that he gives us the privilege of worshiping him, meeting together
in his name, fellowshipping with one another in his name, They're
the joys of our life, and a sweet savor unto Him, all because of
Christ. That's why we enjoy it so much,
because He loved us first, and we love Him back by His grace. He gave us Himself, and in Him,
we have justification. He is our justification. We're
guiltless before God because Christ died for us. And is risen
again. We have forgiveness of sin because
we have Him. We have perfect righteousness
because we have Him. He is the Lord our righteousness. His own righteousness. We have
eternal salvation. We can't be lost even if we try. He holds us in his hand and nobody
can pluck us out, and we can't get out even if we wanted to.
And by his grace, I don't want to. We have eternal glory with him. Well, not yet, Chris. Oh yeah,
we do. We have it. We haven't experienced
it yet, but we have it. He's already given it to us.
We justified them, he also glorified. And you know what that means.
It means to be like him and to be with him. He gave us all of that when he
was wounded for us. And we give him a fish and a
honeycomb. I don't need to say that has
nothing to do with our salvation, what we give him. But oh, we
love him because he first loved us, we give it because he has
saved us. When David came and he was going
to buy that threshing floor in order to offer sacrifice to stay
the plague because of David's own sin, the man, he said, I'll
give you what's right. I'll give you the asking price
for it. And that man said, take it all.
I give it all. I give it all. If God will just
forgive us. That's the spirit of Christ in us, not I, but Christ. So he takes it from us and he
eats it. It says he ate it before them. He eats it before. That's not
him needing something from us. That's us needing something from
him. Always remember that. when you worship, is that you
doing something for God or God doing something for you? When
we pray, when we give, that's God doing something for us. He has done everything for us. And I just wanna introduce the
next verse in closing this morning. We'll look at verse 44 really
next time, but I just want to look at the first part, and this
is the title of the message this morning. These are the words. What does he mean, these? These
are the words. Him coming where they were and
speaking peace to their hearts, Him being alive, Him being risen,
His hands and His feet, Him showing them those, all of these things
that are coming to pass right now. The joy that you're experiencing
right now. It's all exactly what I told
you would happen. These are the words that I spake
to you. And think about this for a second. There they are
sitting and watching Him. They're beholding Him eat before
them. And don't, they don't believe
what they see really yet. Then I believe not at first what
they heard and then they believe not and he refers them where? Moses The prophets and the Psalms That's
verse 44. That's what we'll talk about
next time We have a more sure word of prophecy than any vision
that God ever gave anybody of anything. I We have a more sure
word of prophecy than seeing him with our own eyes would be.
The world says seeing is believing. The Lord said, blessed are they
which don't see and yet believe. We believe God by his grace. It would have been wonderful
You think about it and you say, boy, I wish I was there. You
know, there's nothing wrong with that. I wish I was there. I wish
I could have seen him, you know, just appear in their midst and
be an eyewitness in that room that day. But that's not how
sinners are saved. That's not how it happens. James 118, of his own will, begat
he us, birthed us again with the word of truth. That's how
sinners are saved. They please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe, not by seeing, by hearing. That we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures, he begat us with the word of truth. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the
righteousness of God, Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted
word Which is able to save your souls Receive the word may God
give us grace to receive the love of the truth Concerning
our Savior and what he did on Calvary He died to redeem his
people and he did And we praise Him for it, we thank Him for
it, we worship Him for that, when He shows us that. Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Amen. Amen.