Let us turn once more to God's
Word, as we continue in these closing verses of the Gospel
according to Luke. We turn to chapter 24 then, Luke
chapter 24 and reading verses 44, 45 and 46. 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 Lord of Moses, and in
the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he
their understandings, that they might understand the Scriptures,
and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. The last time we were considering
this appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples, remember,
those two that he had met with on the road to Emmaus, and although
initially their eyes had been hauled and they had not recognised
him, he had revealed himself when he broke bread with them,
and immediately they had risen and returned to Jerusalem. and met the others he was saying
how the Lord was risen, risen indeed they said because it appeared
unto Simon Peter and as they were together so the Lord Jesus
Christ himself suddenly appears and stands in the midst of And
last time, as we looked at verses 36 to 43, we considered something
of the evidences of the truth of the resurrection. And that
striking statement that the Lord made to them in verse 39, He
says, Behold, it is I myself, behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself handle me and see for a spirit have not
flesh and bones as ye see me have. And he gives evidence of
the truth of the resurrection then as he appears they actually
see him and they see that this is a real body this is not just
a phantom spirit he invites them even to touch him to handle him
and then he quite deliberately eats food before them. It was those striking words there
in verse 39 when he says, it is I myself. And literally it reads, I am
myself. He is of course the great I am. If you believe not that I am,
he said to the Jews, you shall die. in your sins. Before Abraham was, I am. He is the great Jehovah God but
he is here referring of course not to his deity but to the truth
of his humanity. His was a very real human nature,
body and soul and he experienced death. The death, alas, that
is common to our humanity. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and Christ died. He died a real death, but here
we see the blessed truth of his resurrection. And he is, of course,
the first of all them that slept, and his resurrection is that
guarantee that all who are in him shall eternal life with it. Behold, it is I myself. But now we come to consider what
else the Lord Jesus goes on to say to his disciples in these
verses. Verses 44, 45 and 46. And the particular truth that
I want to dwell on with the Lord now for a little while this morning
is the way in which the Lord opens the understanding of his
disciples. Look at verse 45. Then opened
he their understanding. that they might understand the
Scriptures. And how vital it is that the
Lord should come and open our minds, open our understanding
that we might understand the Scriptures. Yet to ourselves
we cannot understand these things. The Word of God is spiritual
of course. It is that that has been inspired
by the Holy Ghost Himself. It's a spiritual book. And the
natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God,
because their foolishness through him neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. The Lord must come
then and he must open the understanding, he must work in the hearts of
men, he must work in the souls of men. We read of that faith
in Colossians 2, which is of the operation of God. the operation
of God, the mighty effectual work of God in the soul of man. He must work it. And God, when he begins to take
his people in hand and to teach them, where does he begin? Well,
he begins with themselves, he makes a diagnosis, of course,
of their condition. He's of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that great physician, he's the great physician of soul. And
a good physician will seek in the first place to establish
what is the cause of the particular person's illness before there
can be a proper diagnosis as to what is to be the right treatment. and so when the Lord begins with
his people he begins where they are he shows them something of
themselves he teaches them then that sad solemn truth with regard
to their total depravity they have to learn their utter inability
there is a faith that is alas only natural and superficial
and we see it do we not in that parable that the Lord spoke concerning
the sower and his seed. And when the Lord interprets
it, he speaks of the different way in which people are receiving
the word of God. And there in that 13th chapter
of Matthew, we have mention of those who are but superficial
hearers. They don't really receive the
word into their souls with any true profit. He that receiveth
a seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word,
and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself,
but dureth for a while. For when tribulation or persecution
arises because of the word, by and by, says Christ, he is offended,
he receiveth. the word it seems, he hears the
word and immediately with joy receives it. But is there not
something wrong here at the beginning? This is a wrong response surely
to the word of God when it is first brought into the soul of
the sinner. It is not a joyous experience
when God begins with the sinner. As I say, the Lord makes a man
feel something of what he is, teaches him concerning himself
and his natural condition, his sinnership. That is a superficial
response, and on with joy he receiveth it, it seems. But there's
no root, there's no depth. No, the Lord comes and reveals
with men in a different fashion, he deals with the hearts of men.
He shows the man what he is, where he is, he shuts the man
up to what he is. Romans 11 verse 32, for God hath
concluded them all as emergencies, there shuts them all up together. He has shut them all up together
in unbelief. that he might have mercy upon
all. An interesting statement that we have there in that chapter
of Romans, that God when he takes his people in hand and he shuts
them up, he shuts them up all together in unbelief and made
to feel what they are, he turns them into destruction. He brings
them unto the end of himself. Before faith came, Paul says
to the Galatians, we were kept under the law, shut up. to the
faith which should afterward be received. The Lord shows his
people then their complete inability to do anything, to save themselves,
to exercise faith in themselves. You have to learn from whence
that faith comes, it is the gift of grace. By grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Then how does God bestow that
gift of faith? Faith, we are told in Romans
10, cometh by hearing. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. And isn't that what we're reading
of here in these scriptures? Then opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. But before we come
to consider the way in which the Lord opens up the mind and
the heart and gives an understanding mind and the believing heart.
Let's consider the context here. These words are spoken in the
context of what Christ says with regards to the word of God. In verse 44 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 law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
Mary." There in verse 44 he is clearly referring to the words
of the Scriptures, the words in particular of the Old Testament
Scriptures. and then in verse 46 he says
unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to
suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and again we see
how he makes reference to those things that are written the whole
context here then in which the Lord is opening their understandings
is one in which he is speaking to them of the word of God he
directs them to the scripture It is in and through the Scriptures
that God works in the souls of sinners and works salvation in
the soul and does that mighty operation whereby the sinner
comes to trust in that Christ who is set before us and revealed
in the Scriptures. Now what we have in verse 44
is interesting because it is the Jewish threefold division
of the Old Testament. He speaks of the Lord of Moses,
he speaks of the Prophets, and he speaks of the Psalms. And
that's how the Jewish Old Testament is divided. There is, first of
all, the five books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible,
the Torah, the Law of God, and then there are the writings of
the Prophets and then what they call the Agniographer the writings
and the principal book amongst those is the Book of Psalms it
stands at the head of that section the Law, the Prophets and the
Writings or the Psalms This is what the Lord is referring
to then in the 44th verse, even the totality of those things
that are written in the Old Testament Scriptures. Remember Christ dealt
with those two on the road to Emmaus. In verse 27, beginning at Moses,
and all the prophets he expanded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. He opens their understandings
then with regards to those things that were written there in the
Old Testament scriptures. He says to the Jews in John chapter
5, search the scriptures. These are they that testify of
mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ is there
in the Old Testament. It is remarkable, is it not,
when we read the Old Testament Scriptures, to see how clearly
and how plainly time and again those Scriptures speak to us
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some portions of the
Old Testament that are quite remarkable. and so clear with
regards to the accuracy of those things that are stated concerning
him that was to come in for example of a chapter like Isaiah 53 the
Lord's Suffering Servant how that chapter is so fulfilled
in every detail with regards to Christ and the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ isn't this evidence of this book is
divine in its origin. This book is written by one who
is altogether outside of God. This is God's book. And God knows
the end from the beginning. God is that one who is suffering,
who has appointed all things, ordained all things. The Old
Testament Scriptures then is what the Lord is referring to
here. And He opens their understandings with regards to all those things
that were written in the Old Testament with reference to himself. Down at verse 46, thus it is
written, he says, and thus it beheld Christ to suffer and to
rise from the dead the third day. Christ must go that way
of the cross, he must suffer in that fashion, he must experience
all the bitterness of that cruel death, And then on the third
day he must rise again from the dead. Why? Because these things
are written. Thus it is written and thus it
behove Christ. And we see how Paul speaks exactly
the same language as Christ when he writes in 1 Corinthians chapter
15. He says, I delivered unto you
first of all that which I also 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. Observe the expression that he
uses twice there, he says according to the Scriptures, his death.
His death was in accordance with what was written in the Scriptures.
Likewise, his burial and his resurrection on the third day,
it's all in accordance with the Scriptures. It's the same as
the Lord is saying here in verse 46, thus it is written, thus
it beholds Christ. The Scripture cannot be broken.
The Scripture must be fulfilled. And the Scripture was fulfilled.
And is it this comfort, all the scripture will be fulfilled,
all the promises of God, you see. In the Lord Jesus Christ
our Lord, yea, and there all our men, to the glory of God
by us all can say to the Corinthians. We can rest our confidence in
those things that are written here in the word of God. There
is comfort then for the believer with regards to all those great
promises, those precious promises as Peter calls them. but as solemn
also when we think of those words of warning that are also contained
in the scriptures how searching those words are
how terrible when they come to the unbelieving, the infidel
the man, the woman who rejects the word of God not only the
promises are to be fulfilled but also all those dreadful threatening
will, in God's appointed time, be executed. We're not to trifle
then, in any way, with the Word of God. We're to see the importance
of it. The Lord Jesus Christ is dealing
here with his disciples in respect to the Scripture. And this, of
course, is why we desire to make so much of the Word of God, and
why it has such a prominent place in our services. the public reading
of the scriptures, and in the preaching of the word of God.
These are those things that have the primacy, are they not, or
have done so historically, amongst non-conformists. We don't have
ceremony and liturgy and ritual. There is a certain plainness
with regards to the services that we see to be important in
the house of God. We seek to regulate our worship
by those things that are written in the scriptures. To the law
and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word,
it is because there is no light in them, says Isaiah. The importance then of the word
of God. and the importance of God's word
with regards to us being brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. What
is the point? What is the purpose of the Holy
Lord of God? Well, ultimately the law must
serve the gospel. The gospel has the priority as
Paul makes so plain in Galatians chapter 3. It was 430 years before
the law that God gave promise to Abraham and wherefore then serveth the
Lord? It was added because of transgression. The Lord is that
schoolmaster to bring the sinner to Christ. The Lord is good if
a man use it lawfully. It is the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately. But it's interesting here to
see that Christ isn't just referring to those things that we find
in the Old Testament Scriptures. He does. Then at the end of verse
44 make reference to that familiar, it would have been familiar to
the disciples, that familiar threefold division that the Jews
made with regards to the Old Testament, the Lord of Moses,
the Prophets and the Psalms. But see what he also says there
at the beginning of the verse. He said unto them, these are
the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you. It's not just the Old Testament
Scriptures. It's also the New Testament Scriptures, the things,
says Christ, which I spake unto you while I was yet with you. As he is speaking of the Old,
or going on to speak of the Old Testament Scripture, so first
of all he speaks of his own word, his own teaching and when he
comes to the end of his ministry he tells the disciples, you see,
that there will be such a ministry by the Holy Ghost
as to cause them to remember those things that he has spoken
unto them in John 14, 26 He says, the 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, whatsoever
I have sent unto you. There is the promise that they
will also be inspired, they will remember the things that Christ
has spoken, and we have not only the Gospels, of course, but we
have the other writings of the New Testament, we have the Book
of Acts, the epistles we have the book of the revelation and
here is the promise of the Holy Ghost that he will come to the
disciples and teach all things and bring these things to their
remembrance it's all the word of Christ we don't like red letter
Bibles you know those Bibles that are so popular now where
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ appear in red It's all the Word of Christ.
It's all the Word of Christ. Not just those words that appear
in red, but every part of it is the Word of Christ. This is
what the Lord is dealing with, the Word. But the important thing
is that the Lord should come and open our understanding, then
open their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. The word that's used here for
the understanding as the basic idea of the mind, or the reason, it is in a sense that distinguishes
man from the brute beast. It's that faculty of the soul.
When God made man, he made his body of the dust of the earth,
but he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, he became
a living soul. He is a reasoning creature. And isn't the mind,
in that sense, the entrance to the soul? Then opened in their
understanding, this is the way into the soul of a man. The Swami
says, be ye not as a horse or mule that hath no understanding,
whose mouth must be held in by bit and bridle, lest he come
there unto you. We are not to be like those creatures,
you see. They have no understanding. Man has that ability to reason,
to think, to understand. Paul writes to Timothy and tells
him God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and
of love and of a sound mind. And of a sound mind. Now of course
like every other faculty of the soul The mind of man has been
affected by the four. This is why, naturally speaking,
the man has no understanding spiritually. He cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God. But what does God do with his
people? He gives them that power of a sound mind, says the apostle
to young Timothy. We see then the primacy of the
mind. Now that in a sense is contrary
to the ways in which some people approach the worship of God.
When we think of people in certain charismatic circles, for example,
the mind has to be disengaged. It's all emotionalism. And Paul,
of course, has to build with certain abuses in the worship
of God when he writes to the church of Corinth. It was a church
that had remarkable gifts and these were so evident in the
life of that church. But what does Paul say to them
as he deals with these abuses? I'm sure many of you are familiar
with the verses in 1 Corinthians 14 for example. Let's see what
Paul says here, verse 6. He says, Now brethren, 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? What is the purpose of tongues
if a man doesn't understand what I'm saying? That's what Paul
is declaring here. If I come unto you speaking with
tongues, they make much of their remarkable gift of speaking in
tongues they were speaking no languages but they would be those
who were ignorant of the language that they were speaking in a
miraculous fashion Paul is rebuking them here rather than come and
speak in an unknown tongue he says he would come and speak
by revelation or by knowledge or by prophecy or by doctrine
in a game he says at verse 9 So likewise ye, except ye utter
by the tongue words, ease ye could be understood, and shall
it be known what is spoken. For ye shall speak into the air. The important thing is that the
mind is addressed, and what is being said is understood by the
people. Verse 11, Therefore if I know
not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh
above the area. And he that speaketh shall be
a barbarian unto me. Time and again you see Paul makes
these sort of utterances. 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 being with children,
but in understanding with men. All the importance of the understanding
with men. The Swami says we are to sing
praises with understanding. Our minds are to be engaged,
our minds are to be alert. We want that our minds should
be opened up, that our minds should be expanded. that we might
understand something of these great truths, these great mysteries
that are set before us here in the Word of God. It is so important, is it not,
that we worship God not only in the Spirit but also in the
Truth. The Word of the Lord Jesus there
in John chapter 4. The arrow cometh and now is,
when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, because the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Yes, it's to be spiritual worship,
but that doesn't mean that it's something that's incomprehensible.
It's all according to the truth, and what is the truth? The truth
is the Word of God, The truth is in Christ who is Himself the
Word, the Truth and the Life. Then opened He their understanding,
it says, that they might understand the Scriptures. Now it's interesting
that John Calvey makes this observation that what we have here in this
verse, verse 45, is the same as is being spoken of in John
chapter 20 and verse 22, when he had said this, he breathed
upon them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. That's how Calvin understands
the relationship between those two verses, those two Gospels. That was the way in which he
opened their understanding, he breathed on them. And he said
unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. was the work of the Spirit
of God that was necessary in their minds in order for there
to be an understanding of the truth. But of course, where the
Spirit of God is, it's not just a matter of the mind being enlightened,
but when the Spirit of God comes, He addresses all the faculties
of the soul, He addresses the will of man. Where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. God gives that promise to Christ
in Psalm 110, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. When the Lord breathes upon them the Holy Spirit, then
they make willing, willing to follow, willing to obey Him.
But not just the mind and the will, but also the heart is affected,
is it not? Something of this truth is felt
in the very soul of a man through religion more than notion. Something
must be known and felt. It's not just a question of having
the intellect enlightened. So we understand these things
but we're made to fulfill these things. The great promise of
the new covenant concerns the heart of a man, does it not?
Now what is the end then that the Lord Jesus Christ has in
view here? then opens their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. Literally, he opens
their understanding to understand the scriptures. That was what
he was about. He opens their understanding
to understand the scriptures. They must not be wise above what
is written in the Scriptures. None of us are to imagine we
can be wise above what is written in the Scriptures. But they are
to be wise in that which is written here in the Word of God. That's the important thing, you
see, that every thought of the man is brought into captivity
to God's Word. And so they are beginning now
to think in God's ways, they are beginning to think God's
thoughts, after God. That's the important thing. And of course, we see how the
heart is also affected here. What was the testimony of those
two on the road to Emmaus, the Lord? It expanded onto them in
the scriptures, the things concerning himself, And they said one to
another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with
us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? When the
Lord opens to us the scriptures, it's not just that there's illumination
in the mind, there's something also felt in the heart. The heart
embraces these things. There is a true believing of
these things. We need more than an intellectual
fight. It's not just a matter of assenting
with our minds to those things that are written in the word
of God. There has to be that real trust.
Fight is not just notion. There was that emphasis amongst the old
Scotch Baptists, we are told. the Glassites and the Sandemanians
where they saw faith simply in terms of the mind and just assenting
to the truth and they negated any idea of the truth entering
into the soul in that sense. They saw faith simply as intellectual
and it was an error. It was an error that they taught.
There has to be that trust where there is true faith. It reaches
into the very soul of a man. Again, Joseph Hart is so good
on these particular truths, the importance of a feeling religion.
In his hymn on the day of Pentecost, when the day of Pentecost was
fully come, 715, he has that line at the end of
the hymn, we own because we feel. What he is saying in effect is
we own the deity of the Holy Spirit as he comes because we
feel something of his power. We have to bow down to it because
we are made to bow down to it. We need more than an intellectual
faith. What is the great promise of
the new covenant? Does it not have to do with the
heart as we've already intimated? Remember how when Paul writes
to the Hebrews he reminds them of that new covenant and the
promise of the new covenant as we have it in Jeremiah 31. He's quoting from Jeremiah 31
there in Hebrews chapter 8 But 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 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, saying, Know 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 decays and waxes
old is ready to vanish away. Contrasting the old covenant
That was that covenant that God gave at Mount Sinai, that covenant
that we see in terms of law, and he's contrasting that covenant
with the new covenant, which is the Gospel. And what is the
great promise in the Gospel? Well, God doesn't write his law
upon tables of stone. No, he says, I will put my laws
into their minds and write them in their heart. And I will be to them a God and
they shall be to me a people. It's that inward work of God,
you see, that deep work of God in the soul of a man. It is God
who comes and makes the man a Christian. This is the blessed end that
the Lord has in view there. And how Paul experienced it in
his own soul, that man who by his By his upbringing and by
his schooling he was a Pharisee, he was the son of the Pharisee,
he'd been brought up at the feet of the great Jewish leader Gamaliel. Yet what does he say when he
hears? There's testimony to the Galatians,
when he pleads God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace, he says, to reveal his Son in me. All
his religious upbringing was nothing. He had to have that
inward revelation from God into his soul, before ever he could
be a true child of God. He thought he was the servant
of the true God, but he knew not God. He was in ignorance.
But the Lord opened his understanding. He was granted that inward revelation
into his soul. This is the end of the Lord as
He viewed it. It's the Word, yes. But the Lord must come and
He comes by His Spirit and He opens the understanding and He
moves the will and He warms the heart. And so what do we have
at the end? We have those who are enlightened
sinners. And those enlightened sinners
who are saved sinners. Now our natural state of course
is one where we have no understanding as we have already implemented.
Having the understanding darkened, Paul says. Alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their hearts. All the strength of the language
that the Apostle used is there in Ephesians 4. The understanding
darkened. alienated, because of the blindness
or the hardness of their hearts. That's the natural state. But, you see, when the Lord comes,
then open to their understanding, that they might understand the
Scriptures. This is the new man. The new
man renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. This is how the Lord must come
to us, if we are going to be those who are true believers.
Our minds must be opened up to the truth of God. It must
be that work of the Spirit in our souls. What is the consequence when
the Lord does His great work? As I said at the outset, the
first reaction or response in the soul
of the man is that he feels his nightly darkness. He feels his ignorance. That's
the strange paradox. The Lord opens the mind and what
does the poor sinner conclude? He feels he's so ignorant. He
knows nothing. He understands nothing. He's a fool. And yet we know that very few
are aware of that. Men are so ignorant of their
natural state. Well that's certainly the case
with regards to religious men. We see it, do we not? In the
case of the scribes and the pharisees of the Lord's day, they were
those who thought that they saw, they were the men. They were
the men, they knew it. When the Lord deals in John 9
with that man that was born blind, to whom He gave sight, the man
who they then excommunicated, they cast him out of the synagogue.
But what do we see at the end of that chapter? The words of
the Lord Jesus at verse 39, For judgment am I coming to this
world, He says, 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 them, 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. There was their ignorance, you
see. All they thought they knew. They were not made aware of their
real condition. They didn't want to know their
real condition. They were self-satisfied. And I say that, alas, is the
condition of so many. The Lord said on another occasion,
if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great
is that darkness. How great is that darkness. Awfully
great. or that we might be those friends
who would come to the light. Again, we have that contrast,
do we not, in the third chapter of John, in verses 20 and 21. Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should
be reproved, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light. that
his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God,
or that we might know that in our souls it is truly the work
of God, a religion that is altogether wrought by God, our understandings
then being opened, and opened by the Lord Himself, the Lord
being our Teacher, our Instructor, only He who made the world can
make a Christian. We have to come to that, we have
to recognize that. We cannot do it ourselves. It is that faith that is of the
operation of God. Yes, God comes to us by his word. We have the word of God, but
we want to know that faith that comes with the word, that faith
that comes by the hearing of the word. He said unto them,
These are the words which I spoke 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. Then opened in their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them,
Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and
to rise from the dead, the third day. May the Lord bless this
word to us.