Let's turn to Luke 24, 13, 32.
I love the gospel of grace. And
like I said earlier, I'm just a great sinner who likes to rebel
in my great savior. Unfortunately, as I've gotten
older, I've gotten very emotional. I have a hard time controlling
my emotions at times, so if that happens today, the subject we're
talking about is the Lamb of God, and it's near and dear to
my heart, and I may get emotional. If I do, forgive me in advance.
Chapter 24, starting at verse 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to the village called Emmaus, which was from
Jerusalem about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know
him. And he said unto them, what manner of communications are
these? ye have one with another as ye walk, and are sad. And
one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering him, said, Art thou
only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things
which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto
them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning
Jesus of Nazareth, which is a prophet, was a prophet, mighty indeed,
and in word before God, and all the people, and how that the
chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned
to death and have crucified him. But we trusted that he had been
he which should have redeemed Israel. And besides all this,
today is the third day since these things were done. Yea,
and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which
were early at the sepulcher. And when they found not his body,
they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels,
which said unto them, he was alive. And certain of them which
were with us went to the sepulcher and found it even so as a woman
had said, but him they saw not. Then Christ, then Jesus said
unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and entered into his glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. When I was a young boy, my parents
had a portrait. It was a print, I'm sure, but
it was like an oil painting in our living room, and it was this
beautiful landscape, these beautiful, huge, eucalyptus-type trees,
and there was supposedly Christ, with two disciples walking. I think that was supposed to
portray the road to Emmaus. And since I became a believer,
and I've read this chapter, I've always thought, man, I would
have liked to have been on that road. I would have liked to have
heard the Lord open the scriptures and tell us all about him from
the Old Testament, from Moses, and from the Psalms, and from
the prophets. I can't imagine what that must have been like.
You know, it was about a three hour walk, I guess, from Emmaus
to Jerusalem, or from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and I'm sure that
he couldn't get nearly all of it in there. That being said,
they didn't know that this was Christ. So, I would have imagined
if they would have known that, the Lord would have said, for
example, I am he who was prophesied of who would crush the serpent's
head and would bruise my own heel. But instead, because they
didn't know him, I guess he would have said, he is the one, pointing
to the Christ. So this morning, I would like
to do something that's way past our ability. We're going to the
microcosm of it, not the whole thing. I would like to just walk
quickly through the books of Moses, through some of the prophets,
and just pick a flower as we pass by, if you would, and smell
it, and see Christ in it, and glory in his accomplished work.
The verse that I want to stick out the most in your mind is
this one, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and
entered into his glory? The title I originally gave this
was, He Is, and You'll See Why. But that's the scripture. Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things and entered into his glory?
Took 1500 years of time, 40 different men that held the pen, but there
was only one writer of this book, and it was the Holy Ghost. There's
only one subject, and it's the Lamb of God. And I hope that
we can see that. Don and Henry McMahon used to
say, a preacher's job is to get to the Lamb as quickly as possible.
And so we're just gonna start there at the Lamb of God. We're
gonna look at the types, the shadows, the ordinances, the
pre-incarnate visitations, Tom just read about one of them.
The prophecies and the appearances. If Christ is not who he said
he was, We are wasting our time here
today. There's nothing that matters less. He's the biggest lunatic,
the biggest deceiver, even more deceitful than the people running
for the presidency of our country. But if he is who he said he was,
there's nothing that matters more. Not a thing in this life
or the life to come that matters more than us hearing that. Hebrews
1.2 says, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he hath made the worlds. Christ is the word of God. God
spoke, the worlds were. If this scripture is true, then
he's the creator of the universe. He's the one who walked in Eden,
the garden he created for Adam in the cool of the day. He is
the one who was prophesied of who would crush the serpent. He is the animal that was slain
to cover our first parent's nakedness. He is Abel's lamb, whereby God
could say that he had respect unto Abel. God doesn't respect
anybody outside of his son. He is the ark of Noah. God put
his people in that ark and sealed the door. Then he poured out
his wrath upon that ark and battered it. and we were inside of that
ark safe until we came to dry land. He is Melchizedek. He is the one who met Abraham
after the Battle of the Kings. He is the only one who it could
be. He is the Prince of Righteousness, or the King of Righteousness
and the King of Peace without beginning of days or end of life,
without mother or father. And I can't help but wonder if
that is not when Abraham had the gospel preached to him Could
it be that Christ himself in pre-incarnate form preached to
Abraham as he gave him the bread and the wine like he did his
disciples so long ago? The broken body and his blood
and told him that in me and because of what I'm going to do, you
and all of your seed will be blessed. He is the one that Abraham prophesied
of when he told his son, God will provide himself a lamb. He is the one that Jacob dreamt
about when he saw the ladder from heaven to earth with angels
ascending and descending upon him. The only way that mankind
could ever be reconciled to God is through that medium, through
that mediator, the ladder, who is Christ. He is the one who
Jacob wrestled with when he told Jacob, let me go, the day breaks.
And Jacob said, I will not let you go until you bless me with
your salvation. He is our heavenly Joseph, the
one who went before us to save much people alive. He is Judah,
our surety, the one who covenanted with his father, who said, I become surety for my
baby brother Benjamin. I will bring him back and set
him before you, or I will bear the blame forever. He is the
lion of the tribe of Judah, the one who all of his brethren will
praise. the one whose hand is on the neck of his enemy. He
is Shiloh, the promised one. In Exodus, he is the one who
spoke to Moses from the burning bush, fire of God's wrath burning
the bush that could not be consumed. He is the Passover lamb, the
redeemer for all of Israel. He is the rock in the wilderness,
the one that God told Moses to take his rod and strike and water
would flow out to satiate the people of Israel. But then Moses was the law. His rod is
the wrath of God. He told Moses the second time
when the people chided against God and against him that simply
speak to the rock and it will give you water. I can't help
but think of Christ sitting with the woman at the well. If you
knew who it was that spoke to you, you would have asked me
and I would have given you living water. He's the rock that we
need to cry to and ask. He is the tabernacle in the wilderness. Most unremarkable thing, I'm
sure the people of the land of Canaan used to look at it and
laugh. Think how silly they had their towers and beautiful mausoleums. And here, the people of Israel
are crawling into this thing that's covered with badger skins
and goat skins, representing His manhood, His humanity. But inside, the interior of that
tabernacle was gilded and glorious, full of the Shekinah glory of
God, letting us know that He was God. He is our Emmanuel,
God with us. He is the High Priest. He is
the altar, and he is the sacrifice. He is the ark of the covenant,
and he is the mercy seat, the only place mankind can be reconciled
to God. He is the manna, the living bread
sent from heaven. He is the rod of Aram that budded
out of root, out of dry ground. He is the sin offering. He is
the bullock and the goat whose blood was sprinkled on the horns
of the altar, whose bodies were taken outside of the camp and
burned. He is the scapegoat who bore
our sins into an uninhabited land. And he is the fit man who
led that goat away. He is our Joshua, our savior,
the one who leads us triumphantly into battle, conquering our enemies,
and bringing us safely into the promised land. And he is the
man who appeared to Manoah in his life. Let's turn back there,
you guys, to Judges 13 for just a moment, if you would. Starting at verse 15, Manoah
said unto the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee
until we have made ready a kit for thee. The angel of the Lord
said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of
thy bread. And if thou wilt offer a burnt
offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. For Manoah knew
not that it was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto the
angel of the Lord, what is thy name? That when thy sayings come
to pass, we may do thee honor. And the angel of the Lord said
unto him, why askest thou for my name, seeing it is secret?
And Tom aptly pointed out, if you look in the marginal reading
of your Bible, where it says secret, it actually says wonderful.
wonderful counselor, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting God.
And it came to pass, when the flame went up towards heaven
from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in
the flame of it. And Manoah and his wife looked
on and fell on their faces. We stopped here for just a minute,
because like the ark, like the bush in the wilderness, Todd Nibert used to say, Every
sacrifice is consumed by the fire, by the wrath of God, except
for this one. This one wasn't consumed by God's
wrath. This one consumed it. It absorbed it, he consumed it,
he endured it, he satisfied it. Don would say he drank the dregs
dry. He went up in the flame, this
one. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and entered into his glory? He did wonderfully. The only one who does wonderfully
is God himself. Manoah was right when he said, because we have seen God. But
Manoah's wife was wiser because she said, but his wife said unto
him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have
received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands.
If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would have done so, that
he received his son for us in our stead. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down in the right hand of
God. He consumed the wrath. He finished the work. Whom God
hath raised from the dead, having not loosed, having loosed the
pains of death because it was not possible that it should be,
that he should be holding of it. Death could not hold him
because he finished the work. It's over. to finish the annual 924, to
finish the transgression, I'm sorry, to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins, to finish the transgression and
to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness. It is finished. He is also Manoah's
son, Samson, the Nazarite. Don Fortner used to love to say,
whose insatiable love for harlots like me would cost him his life,
but in his death, he would conquer his enemies. He is, in Ruth,
our heavenly Boaz, our near kinsman redeemer. Although we were cursed,
we were like the Moabitess woman. He loved us and bought us back,
not with money, but with the precious price of his own blood.
And Samuel, he is David. He is David's son. He is David's
Lord. He is a shepherd who killed the
lion and the bear, retrieved his precious lamb from the mouth
of both of them. He is David, our covenant head,
who fought and killed the giant. He is the victor, winning the
battle by himself for all of Israel. He is in Job, Job's ransom. the one of whom it is said, deliver
him from going down into the pit, I have found a ransom. He is Job's redeemer, for I know
that my redeemer liveth, that he shall stand the latter day
upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another. Some of these verses,
you guys, I just love them to death. The Psalms drip with Christ.
They drip with what he had to accomplish. Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things and entered into his glory? Psalms
2 starts off with Christ the king. Yet have I set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. Then finishes with, he is the
son of God. The Lord has said unto me, thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee. In Psalms 22, if you will turn
there, he is the one forsaken of God. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring,
O my God, I cry in the daytime, that thou hearest not, and in
the night season, and am not silent, that thou art holy, O
thou that inhabitest the praise of Israel. Our fathers trusted
thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried
unto thee, and were delivered, they trusted in thee, and were
not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man,
a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that
see me laugh me, scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake
the head, saying, he trusted on the Lord, that he would deliver
him. Let him deliver him, seeing that
he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from
me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls
have come past me about. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me round. They gape on me with their mouths.
And as a ravening and a roaring lion, I'm poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
potsherd. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws,
and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have
compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and
my feet. I may tell all my bones. They
look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture. Be not far from me, O Lord, O
my strength. Make haste to help me. Deliver
my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. Save
me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns
of the unicorn. O Christ, not to have suffered. these things and entered into
his glory. Psalms 40, please. Starting at verse six. Sacrifice and offering thou does
not desire. Mine ears thou hast opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. I'm sorry,
I misread. I'll keep going. Then said I,
lo, I come in the volume of the book that is written of me. I
delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, my law is within my
heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold not thy
tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help
me. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and entered into his glory? The shame that I feel
when I read these verses and know that the Lord owned my sins
as his own. He took them upon himself and
suffered these things, but he did enter into his glory. Psalm 68, 18. Thou, O Lord, hast
ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord might dwell
among them. You have truly entered into your
glory. Proverbs 8, 22, if you would. Sorry, you guys, we're gonna
do a lot of reading this morning, because I don't like to speak. He is the wisdom of God. In Proverbs
8, starting at verse 22. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was brought, I'm sorry, before the hills was I brought
forth, while as yet he had not made the earth nor the fields,
nor the highest parts of the dust of the world. When he prepared
the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass on the
face of the depth, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened
the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the seas his decree
that the water should not pass his commandment, when he appointed
the fountains of the earth, the foundations of the earth, then
I was by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his
delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable
parts of the earth and my delights or with the sons of men. Does
that make you happy? It makes me thrilled that he
would think upon me before the foundations of the world, that
he would see me and see us as sinners in Christ before he ever
formed the world or the universe. In Isaiah 9, six through seven,
he is the son given. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and the peace there shall be
no end. upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. He is the servant of God in Isaiah
42. one through four. Behold my servant,
whom I uphold, my elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I have
put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard into the streets. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax he not quench. He shall
bring forth judgment unto truth, He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he have set judgment in the earth, and the aisles shall
wait for his law. He is, in Isaiah 53, the man
of sorrows. He is the lamb led to the slaughter,
and he is the offering for sin. who has believed our report and
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. For he shall grow up
before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
He hath no form or comeliness and when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. like the temple and the
tabernacle in the wilderness. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our sorrows,
I'm sorry, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to our own way and the Lord has laid
up on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought
as a lamb to the shearers, and as a sheep before the shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgressions
of my people was he stricken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and entered into his glory? He is the preacher. in Isaiah
61, one through four. Isaiah is one of those books
we could spend the rest of our lives in and never touch half
of what it has to say. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto
the meek. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn, and to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
to give unto them beauty for ashes, and oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they
might be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of
the Lord, that he might be glorified. Amen. In Jeremiah, next book
over, 23, he is the righteous branch. I'm sorry. Got the wrong passage
there. I'm gonna read this anyway. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David
a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and
shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, Judah
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the
name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Love
that. In Jeremiah 50, 34, he is the
strong Redeemer. Their Redeemer is strong. The
Lord of hosts is his name. He shall thoroughly plead their
cause that he may give rest unto the land. He is also the one speaking in
Lamentations 1, 12, 14. Lamentations 1, 12, 14. Is it nothing to you, all that
pass by? Behold and see, if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From
above hath he set fire into my bones, and it prevails against
them. He hath spread a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgression
is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come upon
my neck. He hath made my strength to fall.
The Lord hath delivered me into their hands from whom I'm not
able to rise up. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and entered into his glory? In Daniel, he is the one we wrote
about earlier who made an end of sins. He is the fourth man
in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. Nebuchadnezzar said, his form
was like that of the Son of God as they walked around free in
the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In Hosea, he is
our heavenly Hosea who took a wife of Horeb He is the one in Hosea
who is promised to be our ransom. Hosea 13, 14 says, I will ransom
them from the power of the grave, John. I will ransom them from
the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death.
O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. That's Jesus Christ. In Zechariah,
he's our mighty Zerubbabel. 4, 7, who worked out O great
mountain before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying,
grace, grace unto it. For nine, the hands of Cerebuble
have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it,
and thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts has sent him into
you. He is the branch. He shall grow
up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord,
Even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear
the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and shall
be a priest upon his throne, and the council of peace shall
be between them both. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and entered into his glory? He is the one we mourn for, in
Zechariah 12, 10. I will pour upon the house I will pour upon the house of
David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplication, and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one
is in bitterness for his firstborn. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and entered into his glory? In Zechariah 13.1,
he is the fountain for sin. In that day, there shall be a
fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. I'm a lot quicker than Rick. Finally, in Revelations, he is
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Turn to Revelations
5.10. And I beheld, and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beast, and
the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000, and
thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is
a lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom,
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessings. and every
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power,
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
forever and ever. I'm gonna back up, you guys,
I did that backwards, I'm sorry. Verse 1, and I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on
the backside and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong
angel proclaim with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book
and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor on earth,
neither under the earth, were able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open and read the book. neither to look
thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, weep not. Behold
the lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of David hath prevailed
to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. And I beheld
and low in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts in the
midst of the elders stood a lamb. as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God
sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that set up on the throne. And
when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and
20 elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them
harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers
of the saints, and they sang a new song, thou art worthy to
take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain,
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God
kings and priests, and we shall reign in the earth. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and entered into his glory. The spirit and the
bride say come and let them hear it. Say come and let him that
is a thirst come and whosoever will let him come and take the
water of life freely. Todd Nibert used to say, aren't
you glad you're a whosoever? could be lots of Tim Morrises
in the world, but whosoever means I'm qualified. A few years back
during the pandemic, a gentleman named John Prine died of complications
due to the disease of the pandemic. He was a well-known folk singer
and songwriter, did Angel from Montgomery and Mr. Peabody's
Coltrane, hosts of these prolific writer. He wrote another song,
and it's entitled, The Glory of True Love. And it goes, glory,
glory, glory, glory, oh, the glory of true love. And I thought
to myself, I don't think he knows what true love is. Another man
a few years ago named Stuart Townend wrote a hymn. And Denise sings it from time
to time. And as I read it, I became convinced that Stuart knows about
the glory of true love. How deep the Father's love for
us, how vast beyond all measure that he should give his only
son to make a wretched treasure. How great the pain of searing
loss the Father turns his face away as wounds that mar the chosen
one bring many sons to glory. Behold the man upon the cross
my sin upon his shoulder. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there
until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought
me life. I know that it is finished. I
will not boast in anything, no gifts, no powers, no wisdom,
but I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. Why
should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer, but
this I know with all my heart, his wounds have paid my ransom. Ought not Christ to have suffered
and entered into his glory? I have a question to you this
morning, but think ye of Christ.