Let us turn to the portion we
were reading in the final chapter of the Gospel according to St.
Luke and turning now to verses 44 and 45 Luke chapter 24 I read
verses 44 and 45 and he said unto them which is Christ when he appears
to the disciples gathered together in the upper room 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 they their understanding that they
might understand the scriptures and in particular I want to take
for a text those words in verse 45 then openly their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures and really the theme
that we have in the words of this text surely is that of the
indwelling of the Word of Christ, the indwelling of the Word of
Christ. Paul writes into the Colossians,
says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And so here we have that word,
that indwelling word that's spoken of in verse 45, then openly their
understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. Of course the one who is speaking
these words is himself the Word. He is the incarnate Word. We
are familiar with those words. At the beginning of the Gospel
according to Saint John, in the beginning was the Word. And the
Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word, we are told, was
made flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. He is the incarnate
Word who is speaking here of that Word of God that we have
in the Holy Scriptures. And there's a connection between
each between the Word of God that we have before us here in
our Bibles and Him who is the Word incarnate. We sang it just
now. The Scriptures and the Lord bear
one tremendous name. The written and incarnate Word
in all things are the same. If the Word of Christ dwells
in us richly then it is in fact the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
who has come. and written that truth upon our
hearts. But looking at the context, and
what the Lord is saying, as I said, it's the upper room, it's the
day of His resurrection, it's the evening hour, and much has
taken place as we saw, as we read through the chapter. The
women there very early at the empty tomb, and Simon Peter,
and as we're told in other Gospels, John also rushing off to witness
the sight of which the woman had spoken when they were so
full of incredulity, they couldn't believe it. And then we read
of that remarkable occasion as the Lord speaks of those two
on the road to Emmaus. And then though their eyes were
holden for so long, as he enters the house with them and breaks
bread their eyes are opened and then he's gone and they immediately
rush back to Jerusalem and they find the others gathered together
saying the Lord is risen indeed and that appeared to Simon and
then these two tell of all that they had experienced on that
road to Emmaus and then the Lord comes As they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace
be unto you. And so he reveals himself and
makes them understand that it is indeed that very body in which
he had been crucified. It was a real body, it was a
physical body. He partakes of food before them. He asks if they have any meat,
any food. They give him a piece of fried
fish, and a honeycomb, and we're told how he took it and he'd
eat. Before them. How significant
are those words in verse 43? He takes the food and he'd eat,
and it says quite clearly it's before them. It's a demonstration
that this is a real body. Yes, it's a glorified body. But
it is that very body in which he had suffered and bled and
died. And then we come to the words
that I just read in verses 44 and 45. Here is the context. He says to 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 Lord
of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. the Lord here in verse 44 is
referring to the Old Testament Scriptures, and makes specific
reference to that threefold division that would be so familiar to
the Jews. That's how they divide the Old
Testament. They would speak of the Torah,
the law, the first five books, the books of Moses. They would
speak of the prophets, and then they would speak also of what
is technically the agiographer, the writings. And the principal
book amongst those writings would be the book of Psalms. And so
you see we have the threefold division, the Lord of Moses,
the prophets, and the Psalms, the the Old Testament really
in its totality and again speaking to those two on the road to Emmaus
verse 27 we're told beginning that Moses and all the prophets
he expanded onto them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself he could say couldn't he on another occasion to the
Jews search for scriptures in them you think that you have
eternal life and these are they that speak of me so he's referring
to to all the word of God all of the scriptures but of course
it's not now just the the Old Testament scripture it's also
the the New Testament scripture and in a sense we see how the
Lord make some allusion to that in what he says at verse 44.
These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you. All those words of the Lord,
are they not written down, are they not found here in the New
Testament Scriptures? Remember how he gives promise
of the coming and that blessed ministry of the Spirit in the
lives of the apostles. speaking there in John 14 verse
26 a comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send
in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you and so we don't only have what
was the Jewish Old Testament we have the New Testament Scriptures
And the writings of these men who under the inspiration of
the comfort of the Holy Ghost have completed for us a complete
canon of Holy Scripture, God's Word in its totality. And how it all, all of it, from
Genesis through Revelation, speaks to us of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christ who is the fulfillment
of all that we have written here. He says in verse 46, thus it
is written, and thus it beholds Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day. His very life was the fulfillment
of all those things that were written in olden times, written
throughout the Old Testament scriptures. Paul makes that so
plain in those opening words that we have in the 15th chapter
of 1 Corinthians. Remember how he speaks there
of the Lord Jesus. In a sense, he is defining something
of the Gospel. He says, Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you. which
also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are
saved. If ye keep in remembrance what
I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. And then
he says, I delivered unto you first of all that which also
I received, as 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. It's all in accordance to the
Scriptures. It's a fulfillment of all those
things that were written in the Old Testament. I remember being
struck in reading some of the sermons of Martin Luther and
in some ways he was wont to do what was quite common amongst
the early church fathers, they would often allegorize the scriptures
as they interpreted the word, as they preached the word and
Luther preaching on words that we find earlier here in the Gospel
of Luke, in chapter 2 and verse 12 of course, there he's speaking
really, the evangelist Luke is speaking of the incarnation,
the coming of the Lord Jesus in the opening chapters. And
Luther preaching on those words in chapter 2 and verse 12, when
the angel says to the shepherds, this shall be a sign unto you,
Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in
a manger. This shall be a sign unto you."
And as I say, Luther then allegorizes those words, and he says this
concerning those Old Testament Scriptures. He says, "...law
and prophets cannot be rightly preached and known unless we
see Christ wrapped up in them." Law and prophets cannot be rightly
preached and known unless we see Christ wrapped up in them. The babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manger. He understands that in terms
of the Old Testament and it's Christ there, it's Christ in
all the Scriptures. again back in chapter 22 and
verse 37 the Lord says this is that that is written or rather
this that is written must yet be accomplished in me this that
is written must be accomplished in me the Lord Jesus is that one you
see who is in all the scriptures, Old Testament as well as New
Testament. The testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy. We have those words right at
the end in Revelation chapter 19. The testimony
of Jesus, it's a very spirit of prophecy. Christ is the key
whereby the Old Testament can be unlocked and applied and that's
what we have here really in the verse or the verses before us
this morning in verse 44 he he speaks of the Old Testament
all that was written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms he says concerning me then opened in their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. So coming to consider
in particular what the Lord is saying here in verse 45 He makes
reference to their understanding and the word that is used here
refers principally to the mind to the reason and I want as we
look at the words to divide what I say into two basic parts First
of all to establish the fact that it is the mind that is really
the way whereby God's Word enters into our souls. It is through
the mind that God's Word enters into our very souls and as it
were becomes part and parcel of us. God made man as a rational
being, we know that, that is quite clear. Think of the language
of the Psalmist in Psalm 32. Be ye not as the horse or mule
that hath no understanding, whose mouth must be held in by bits
and bridle. We're not brute beasts. God has given us a mind, an understanding. These faculties have belonged
to the soul that's in man. And again, the language of the
Apostle when he writes to Timothy, there in 1 Timothy 1.7, God has
not given us the spirit of fear, he says, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. God has granted to his people
a sound mind. And we need to remember that,
the primacy, as it were, of the mind. And now, in some ways,
when the apostle is rebuking the church at Corinth, you remember
Corinth was a church that was remarkably gifted with those,
what are called charismatic gifts, we might better term them apostolic
gifts, they belong to the apostolic age, But they had great gifts
at Corinth, but how those gifts were so much abused, and especially
the gift of tongues. And you know the language that
Paul uses in dealing with these matters in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians? Several times he reminds them of the importance
of the mind of reason. In verse 6, now brethren, he
says, If I come unto you, speaking with tongues, what shall I profit
you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or
by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? And then again
at verse 9, So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words
easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for
ye shall speak unto the air. Verse 11 Therefore if I know
not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh
a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. And then Verse 19, he says, Yet
in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding,
that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand
words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in
understanding, albeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding
be men. What is Paul saying? He's reminding
them of the importance of the reason. and having a right understanding. It's not just a matter of display.
There were those who were wanting to, it appears, project themselves,
show off, as it were, because they did have such remarkable
gifts. Think of the language of the
psalmist. Seeing he praises, he says, with understanding. And again, it's to those same
Corinthians that Paul says, I will pray with the Spirit and I will
pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the Spirit and
I will sing with the understanding also. It is clear then, it is
evident that God has so created man that he has a mind and he's
able to reason matters. is able to think things through,
and that's what he is to do. Then opened it their understanding,
it says, that they might understand the scriptures. How does he open
the understanding? It's interesting because Calvin
in his commentary on the Synoptic Gospels says here that this statement
in verse 45 is the same really as what is
also recorded in John's Gospel. In John 20 and verse 22, He breathed
on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. This is how
the Lord opened their understanding. The Reformer says it was by and
through that gracious ministry of the Holy Ghost. It is the ministry of the Spirit
that must work mightily and effectually in the minds of those who are
saved. But it's not just a matter of
the mind, is it? It's not just a question of mental
ascent. There are some who imagine that
that's all that faith is. It's a question of the mind. You read the Word of God and
you come to some understanding of the Word of God and you give
a mental ascent. to those things that are written
here in the Bible. And that's faith. Amongst the
Scottish Baptists back in the 18th century, there was a man,
Robert Sanderman, who emphasized that idea of faith. It's just
a matter of the mind. And maybe you've heard of the
Sandemanians. There were others who had a similar
view, but it's not really an adequate view. Because as I've
already indicated, this word understanding is rather a word that's fuller than maybe
we appreciate. There's no one English word that
really brings out the force of what this word really means.
It doesn't just have to do with the understanding, the mind,
and the reason, but also there's that association with the with
the will and with the heart we know that the promise in the
Old Testament concerning those who are the Lords those who will
come to saving faith is that they'll be made willing the promise
that we have there in the 110th Psalm thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy and that is the day of grace that is this
day in which we're living it's this dispensation of the Holy
Spirit surely we recognize this is the day of Christ's power
he has accomplished the great work of redemption and he has
now risen and entered heaven and he has shed abroad the Holy
Ghost this is the day of his power and those who come to saving
faith are not only those who are by the Spirit enlightened
in their understanding but their wills are moved their wills are
liberated those wills that are really in bondage to what we
are in our fallen nature we're those who in our very natures
are born dead in trespasses and sins we're in that state of alienation
we're enemies of God But in the day of Christ's power, all the
will now is liberated. And those who come to faith,
they willingly take up that cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and
they become His disciples. So it's not just a matter of
assenting with the mind. There's that work that's done
upon the will. And of course there's also that
work that's done, as we say, in the hearts. God's words reaches
into the very depths of our souls. There's that little couplet in
Joseph Hartzim, true religion's more than notion. Something must
be known and felt. We feel something. We see it
so clearly in those two that the Lord was meeting with and
talking with on the road to Mimaios, when their eyes were opened.
And when he had vanished out of their sight, they knew not
who that stranger was. But then after he had opened
their eyes and obviously they had come to recognize that this
was in fact Jesus of Nazareth. And what did they do? Verse 32,
they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us
while he talked with us by the Word and while he opened to us
the Scriptures? If the Lord opens our understanding
and we understand the Scriptures, our hearts will burn within us. When the Lord shows us the precious
truths of the Gospel, does He not stir us in our souls? Do
we not feel something emotionally from the Word of God? I remember
the late pastor here, Mr. Matronola, saying to me how as
a young man when he first came to any proper understanding of
the doctrines of the gospel, the doctrines of sovereign grace,
and discovered some of those hymns that we're so familiar
with now in Gadsby's selection. It's a fine selection, isn't
it? Gadsby's selection of free grace hymns. And Mr. Matronola was speaking in particular
of that hymn, I think it's 766 in the book, Sovereign Grace,
or Sin Abounding, Ransomed souls, the tithing swell, tis a deed
that knows no sounding, who its height or breadth can tell. And he said, you know, when I
first became familiar with such hymns, and that hymn in particular,
he said, you know, I'd sing it and it would make the hair stand
on the back of my neck. It's so touchman. It's so touchman. If the Lord opens to us the Scriptures,
reveals these precious truths to us, it won't just be a matter
of the mind, the understanding, the reason, our reasoning powers,
it won't just be a matter of our wills being moved and us
being made willing to come to Christ and to embrace Christ.
but something will be found, and we'll feel it in the very
depths of our souls. Always God's Word, you see. And
that Word that was first given by the Holy Spirit, those holy
men of God, they spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of God,
all Scripture, given by inspiration of God, all Scripture, the very
breathings of God, but then that Word now breathed by the Spirit
as it were into our souls. There's an understanding then.
Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures. Oh, it's the entrance of God's
words into the soul. But secondly, I want us just
to observe here that this is the fulfillment of that promise
of the New Covenant. The Lord is very much speaking,
isn't he, as we said in verse 44 of what we have in the Old
Testament Scriptures but of course in the Old Testament Scriptures
we have the promise also of the New Covenant and Paul reminds
us of that when he's writing to Hebrew believers
Jews converted followers of the Lord Jesus Christ remember what
he says there in Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 10 this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith
the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and write them in
their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be
to me a people and they shall not teach every man his neighbor
and every man his brother saying no the Lord For all shall know
me from the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more, in that he hath set a new covenant, he hath made
the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away." The Old Testament is gone in
that sense. Of course it's part and parcel
of the Word of God. and we have the Old Testament
as part of our Bible, so we reverence it, we go to it, we're instructed
from it. But the old covenant, that covenant
that God entered into with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai,
the law, that has gone. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. What is he saying
here? well he's reminding us that with
the new covenant it's not a matter of laws being written on tables
of stone I will put my laws into their minds and write them in
their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be
to me a people and they shall not teach every man his neighbor
and every man his brother so you know the Lord the Lord himself
is that one who will teach his people oh that's the amazing
thing And the words that are being referred to there in Hebrews
8 are those that we find back in Jeremiah 31. The Apostle is
quoting specifically from that portion in Jeremiah 31 at verse
31 following. But also the Lord Jesus Christ
himself makes reference to the Old Testament Scriptures having
their real fulfilment in the New Testament, and particularly
under his own ministry. There in John 6.45 it is written
in the Prophets, They shall be all taught of God's. Every man
therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
unto me. they are taught of God and here
we have God's God's manifest in the flesh the very Son of
God who in the fullness of the time took to himself a human
nature a real man and as the God-man fulfilled all righteousness
made the great sin atoning sacrifice he opened their understanding
the Father opens the understanding as he says there in John 6.45
they shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath
heard and have learned of the Father cometh unto me the Father
opens the understanding brings them to Christ but the Son himself
also opens the understanding that they might understand the
scriptures that we might understand the scriptures but then We know
that primarily, in this day of grace, it is the Holy Spirit
who has this work of revealing the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, says Christ,
He will guide you into all truth. He will guide you into all truth.
And John says, doesn't he, to believers there in the second
chapter of that first general epistle verse 20 you have an unction
an anointing from the holy one and ye know all things verse
27 the anointing which have received of him abideth in you, and ye
need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it
hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." All that blessed work
of the Spirit, the fulfilment of the promise that we have there
in the Old Testament, God's law to be written now,
not upon tables of stone, but fleshy tables of the heart. And
how vital is that work of God in the soul of the sinner? It
must be so. Because of what we are by nature,
as I've already intimated in some measure. What is our understanding
by nature? Well, we're told Ephesians 4.18
having the understanding darkened having the understanding darkened
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is
in them because of the blindness of their minds the hardness of
their hearts we know the natural man the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God their foolishness to him
neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. God must work. God must work
in the heart, in the mind, in the will. God must do all that
work. Thou also hast brought all our
works in us, says Isaiah. O Lord our God, other lords beside
Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee alone Will we make
mention of thy name? We're told, aren't we, if any
man is in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's a new creature, he's a new
creation. God created the first man, Adam,
without Adam as sin. We have that awful record of
the fall of our first parents and the consequence their disobedience leads to death. But if a man is in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's renewed in knowledge, it
says, after the image of him that created him. Oh, there's
a renewal, you see, in the mind. And what is the consequence where
there is that gracious work, that renewing, that enlightening? Well, is it not a strange thing
that first of all we begin to feel and our ignorance and our
native darkness that's what we feel, we feel what we are and we're brought to the end
of ourselves and any confidence in ourselves we understand then
the language of Isaiah there in chapter 26 thou also has brought
all our works in us God must do all the works Salvation is
altogether of the grace of God. And yet there are those religious
people who think they know. Strange, isn't it, what the Lord
says at the end of that ninth chapter in the Gospel according
to St. John. Remember how he heals the
man, gives sight to the man who was born blind. And the cruelty of the Jews and
their leaders. Now they excommunicate that man,
they put him out as it were, cut him off from Israel. But
then the Lord speaks at the end of that chapter. Jesus said,
For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not
might see, and that they which see might be made blind. And
some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and
said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were
blind, ye should have no sin. But now ye say, We see. Therefore
your sin remaineth. They thought they knew. Or they
thought they could do it all. Their religion was all of themselves,
you see. But they knew nothing at all.
Now the Lord exposes them. Those who were saved are delivered
from that spirit of the Pharisees. We feel what we are, we feel
our ignorance and our continual need of the Lord to come to open
our understanding that we might understand the Scriptures. He
must come to us time and time and time again. Think of the
words of the Lord there in the third chapter of John, you know
the passage, the Lord speaking to Nicodemus the necessity of
the new birth what does the Lord say? verse 20 everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his
deeds should be reproved or discovered as it says in the margin but
he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may
be made manifest that they have wrought in God All friends, all
that is of any real consequence in us is that that's wrought
in God. It's the work of God. We have to look to Him, we have
to come to Him, and recognize how we must time and again open
our understandings, that we might understand the Scriptures, that
we might receive the Word, that we might know it as that engrafted
Word, that implanted Word, that is able to to save our souls let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom and understanding or the Lord be
pleased and to grant that we might know such a ministry that
the Lord himself might come and reveal himself manifest himself
to us even here in His own Word. May the Lord be pleased to bless
His Word to us today. We're going to sing as we conclude
our worship this morning, number 31. I'll read the first three verses. We'll sing then
from verse 4. We'll sing five verses. I'll
read the first three verses in Hymn 31, the Tunis Saint Agnes,
218. The form of words, though e'er
so sound, can never save a soul. The Holy Ghost must give the
wound and make the wounded whole. Though God's election is a truth,
small comfort there I see, till I am told by God's own mouth
that He has chosen me. Sinners I read are justified,
by faith in Jesus' blood, but when to me that blood's applied,
it is then it does me good. We'll sing from verse 4, number
31, tune 218.