Open your Bibles this morning
to Luke chapter 24, the gospel of Luke chapter 24. And in this
chapter is a story of two disciples of Christ walking on the road
to a town called Emmaus. Now, this is a seven and a half
mile walk to this town, and they're talking of everything that has
recently happened. The Lord was just crucified three
days earlier and died, and there are reports of his resurrection. And I'm reading Luke 24, verses
15 and 16, which say, it came to pass while they communed together,
these disciples talked together and reasoned, that is, were trying
to figure things out, it says, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. their eyes were holden that they
should not know him. They didn't know it was the Lord. These men are a picture of how
God saves by making Christ known through the preaching of the
word. They didn't know Christ, but they are about to. They didn't
know him, but I believe they were seeking answers. because
Christ had chosen them earlier. Christ now comes to them and
is going to reveal the truth to them of who he is, why he
came, and what he accomplished. The Lord asks them a question. The Lord never asks questions
for his own information, but rather to bring out a confession
from us. When he asked Adam, Where art
thou? He knew where Adam was, but he
was saying to Adam, now look at you. Where are you now? When
he asked Jacob his name, he wasn't unacquainted with Jacob, who
he was, but rather wanted Jacob to confess what he was. My name's
Jacob. I'm a cheat. I'm a supplanter. And so the Lord asks this question
to these disciples. He said unto them, verse 17,
what manner of communication are these that you have one to
another as you walk and are sad? What are you talking about and
why are you sad? And one fellow named Cleophas,
verse 18, he answered saying, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem,
and hast not known the things which are come to pass there
in these days? Are you a stranger here? You
don't know what's happened? And if the Lord had answered
him then, he would have said, No, Cleopas, I'm no stranger,
but evidently you are. You're the stranger to the truth.
You're a stranger to the covenant of grace. You're a stranger,
Cleopas, not me. The truth of how Christ must
suffer, the truth of how God saves sinners, the truth of who
Christ is and why he came is strange to you now, but I'm about
to reveal it to you. But the Lord doesn't say that,
and He asked another question. Verse 19, the Lord said unto
them, What things? What is it? And they said unto
Him, Why, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet,
mighty indeed, and word before God, and all the people. Why
don't you know about Jesus, the prophet, the miracle worker,
the healer, the friend? The humanitarian? You see, these
men did not know who Christ was, nor why he came. And so it is
with every son of Adam, religious though they be, and many profess
to know the Lord Jesus Christ, yet, like these men, only refer
to him as Jesus, a prophet, a healer, a miracle worker. But that's
not salvation. Salvation is to know the Lord
Jesus Christ, to know who He really is. Our Lord said that
in John 17, verse 3. He said, This is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. to know that God is indeed God,
not in the hands of men, but vice versa, that God indeed is
God, working all things after the counsel of His own will,
and none can stay His hand. that God is not subject to the
will and the purpose and the whims and the actions and the
decisions of mankind, but rather vice versa, that God is God,
and that God in a purpose before the world began sent His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, to this earth for the express purpose
of fulfilling God's purpose. All men do not know that. But
all whom God chooses to reveal the truth to, to reveal the truth
of who God is and who Christ is and why he came, all will
in time know the truth. But they are not saved until
they do. And neither were these disciples.
They did not know who Christ was or why he came. They trusted
he was just a prophet. and earthly ruler or messiah. Look at verse 20, and they said,
The chief priests, our rulers, delivered him, to be content
them to death, and have crucified him. No, Cleophas and whoever
the other one was, it wasn't the chief priests and rulers
who really delivered him, but God delivered him up for his
people. Yes, they took him with wicked
hands and crucified the Lord of glory, but they did, Peter
said later at Pentecost, they did what God determined before
to be done. Our Lord said many, many times,
no man taketh my life from me, I lay it down of myself. And
it's so even now that Jesus Christ is not in the hands of men. He is not up to the will and
decision of men. You are ignorant of the true
Christ of Scripture, if that is what you believe. But rather,
man is subject to the will of God. Man's salvation depends
on the decision of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has given all authority
in heaven and earth to give eternal life to as many as God has given
him. That is what the Word says. Verse
21, they continue, We trusted, we believed, we thought that
it had been He, that this Jesus of Nazareth was He which should
have redeemed Israel. We thought He would come into
Jerusalem And one day he did. He was riding on a colt, a foal
of an ass, riding in Jerusalem, and we thought that he would
be crowned as king, that he would sit on the throne of David as
king of Israel and establish an earthly kingdom. And people, do you know that
most persons today who profess to believe Jesus believe that
very thing, believe still that he is coming to sit on a fleshly
throne, the very throne of David. They believed that when he came
the first time, and yet he said, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would
fight. My throne is not a literal throne
in Jerusalem, but rather my throne is in heaven. My throne is sitting
on the circle of the earth. Ah, but they say, we trusted
he would redeem Israel. But Paul said, all Israel will
be saved in Romans 11. But he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly. Circumcision is not outward,
but of the heart. He is a Jew which is one inwardly,
made so by God, chosen by God, having his heart circumcised
by God. And so, Paul said in Romans 11,
all Israel shall be saved. All the elect, the chosen
of God, those who are redeemed by Christ, those who are His
subjects, those who are loved by God, those who have the blood
of Christ shed for them, the righteousness of Christ imputed
to them, they will come to know Christ and they shall be saved. Well, they continued. These disciples in their ignorance
said, well, certain women of our company made us astonished,
which were early at the sepulchre. They found not the body, and
they came saying they saw a vision and he was alive. And some others
went to the sepulcher and found it so, as the women had said,
but they didn't see him. And then Christ said in verse
25, Christ said to them, O fools and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? He calls them fools. Fool. That's what the Son of
God calls these men, and that's what man is by nature. You know,
the Word of God does not mince words, but rather calls things
as they are, calls us what we are. Scripture does not speak
of man in glowing terms, an affectionate term, but rather calls us things
like dogs, worms, fools, fools. Oh yeah, that's what the Scripture
says. That's what our Lord called these men, fools. And that's
what we are by nature. All of us, the Scripture says,
the fool hath said no God. The man, the woman, the young
person who does not believe God is a fool. The one who is sustained
by and in whom he lives and moves and has his being by his Creator,
by his God, but yet does not acknowledge that God is a fool.
And the man who thinks that the God who made the heavens and
the earth and upholds all things by the word of his power, yet
that God is in his hands, in his will, in his own power to
do with as a foolish man pleases is a fool. The one who thinks
Jesus came down here to do something, yet tried and failed, who is
really nothing more than a man, a martyr, and a would-be Savior,
that man is a fool. The one who thinks that salvation,
entering into the kingdom of God, a spiritual kingdom, that
which is a supernatural work, the one who thinks that that
work is a mere decision made by man, a mere choice made by
man, a mere changing of one's mind, turning over a leaf, or
doing this or that and the other to get God in the notion of saving
him, is a fool. O fools, he said, and slow of
heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. The prophets
have spoken. All that the prophets have spoken.
The Old Testament. I remind you again and again,
the only scriptures which our Lord preached from were the Old
Testament scriptures. The only scriptures the apostles
preached from were the Old Testament scriptures and the prophets before
them. This book, the Old Testament scriptures, are not done away
with, but rather just as relevant today because they reveal the
true God and the true Christ, the true God who Himself said,
I never change, and the true Christ, who He really is, why
He came and what He did and where He is now. Our Lord said, ought
not Christ to have suffered these things? Yes, Christ was sent
by God, not as a would-be Savior, but as a true Savior, a Redeemer,
a Messiah, sent to save His people from their sins, not from Roman
tyranny, not from poverty, not from sickness, not to just heal,
but to heal souls, not to give eyesight to the physical blind,
but spiritual eyesight to the spiritually blind, not to heal
the deaf ears of physical people, but to give spiritual hearing
and understanding. Christ came to suffer sin's consequences. The soul that sins must surely
die. Christ's soul was made an offering for sin for his people.
Yes, and enter into his glory. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things on behalf of his people and to enter into his
glory? Yes, and he did. They had hoped
to see Christ gloriously enter into Jerusalem and sit down on
that throne there in Jerusalem, a dirty little worthless town.
But no, the fact is He gloriously entered into heaven itself. A
greater than Solomon entered a greater than Jerusalem. They
had hoped to see Christ enter Jerusalem and sit on the throne
of David when He entered the gates of heaven, paraded the
streets of glory, entered the courts of heaven, and ascended
the very throne of God Himself. They had hoped to see Him sitting
on David's throne wearing a crown of gold when in fact He sat down
on the right hand of God and is right now crowned with glory,
honor, wisdom, power, and all blessings as the King of kings,
Lord of lords, and has entered into His glory. Yes, ought not
Christ to have suffered and enter into His glory? O fool, don't
you see, don't you hear, don't you believe what this book says? May it be so. May you believe
by God's sovereign revealing grace. Amen. All right.