Marvelous, amazing, sovereign,
saving grace. Alright, let's read Matthew 28,
verse 9 again. And as they went to tell His
disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and hailed Him
by the feet and worshipped Him. And they were not idolaters. They were worshiping God, weren't
they? God. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ never
uttered an idol word. That's amazing to think about
it. Not one insignificant word came out of His mouth. Does that just amaze you? The
Lord, for that matter, never made an idle gesture or made
an undetermined move. Never took a step in any direction
that wasn't purposed and determined before the world began. The Lord
never said a word that was not full of infinite glory. and meaning and wisdom and power,
not one word. His very greetings and farewells
were full of glory and full of comfort for his people and eternal
blessing. This is what we're going to look
at tonight, this greeting of the Lord. You know, we Greek
people, the same way all the time, we do it by habit. The
Lord never uttered an insignificant or meaningless or idle word.
It was deep and full with meaning. Now, the angel of the Lord had
just told these women the wonderful news that the Lord is risen from
the dead. And he said, Behold, he goeth
before you into Galilee, and there ye shall see him. Lo, I
have told you." The messenger of the Lord was sent to give
this announcement and tell them where to go and what the Lord
said. And he did his job and he said,
I've told you. My job is done. It's done. Paul wrote one time, if the word
spoken by angels was steadfast, oh my, we better not let it slip,
the word spoken by the Lord Himself. So he did as he was told. The
Lord told him. The Lord sent him and told him
to tell them he is risen. Tell my disciples that they don't
worship a dead Lord. They worship a Christ who was
crucified. But He's not anymore. He's risen. He's seated. He's exalted. They
worship a Christ who was made flesh, a God who was made flesh,
who was made of woman, and a child was born. But not anymore. He
is now King of kings and Lord of lords on His throne. You go
tell my disciples that He is risen, exalted, seated, at the
right hand of the Majesty on High, as He said, as Scripture
said. And I've told you that. That
was my job. That is my job. And I've told
you, haven't I? And my hands are free from your
blood. I've done my job. So the angel
told them that the Lord was risen. Our Lord is indeed risen. And
so they departed. They departed the place of the
dead, the sepulcher, as they should. Brother John read from
Luke 24 where it said, where the angel said there, and there's
no conflict. There's no conflict. Matthew
just didn't record everything that they said. Right? And Luke
picked up where he left off. Same story. But anyway, the angel
said, why seek ye the living among the dead? What are you
doing hanging around this grave? He's not here. And we looked
at that last week, how let the dead bury the dead, and we don't
worship a living Lord amongst dead religion and dead works
and so forth, but we worship Him in spirit. and in truth. So they departed the place of
the dead quickly. And they went to tell the glorious
news of the living Lord. And it says, look at this, they
ran, in verse 8, they ran to bring this news, and they departed
with fear and great joy. Now here's two things that the
truth of who Christ is and where He is now, these are two things
that it will produce in everyone who Here's it from God's angel. Fear? Fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, isn't it? The fear of the living and true
God. You know, our generation doesn't worship the living and
true God. How do you know? Because there's no fear of God
before they're out. It's obvious. The way they talk
about Him, the way they use His name, the way they say they worship
Him so flippantly and carelessly, and all this flesh and all that,
it's obvious to me, it's obvious to you, there's no fear of God
before their eyes, is there? But we do. He's united our hearts
to fear His name. How do you know? By what we preach,
or rather who we preach, how we preach, how we conduct our
worship services, and so on and so forth. We worship Him in spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus, don't we? And we put no confidence
in the flesh. You just don't see the trappings
of flesh here, do you? And so the fear of the Lord is
what this message from the angel of the Lord will produce. Fear
of the Lord in whose, not who's in our hands, but in whose hands
our breath is and all our ways. That's the Lord we're talking
about. The God who is helped. The fear of the Lord in whom
we live and move and have our being. The fear of the Lord who
reigns among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay His hand and say unto Him, what doest thou?
The fear of the Lord who will work and who is going to stop
Him. That's the Lord we fear in it. Now notice it says they
ran with fear. They feared. They feared. And this message produces fear
in them, but not too much fear. But here's what it did produce
in them greatly, great joy. It doesn't say they ran with
joy and great fear, but rather with fear and great joy. We fear the Lord, don't we? We do. And yet we have great
joy. Great joy. Peter wrote this. He said, Whom having not seen,
ye love. In whom though now ye see him
not, yet believe him. Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable. full of glory. Don't you? Yes,
you do. And all who fear him He declares
the gospel and the good news, the glad tidings of great joy,
doesn't he? And the first thing he says in
this gospel of great joy is what? Fear not. You need not fear. That's the first thing the Lord
said to these ladies when he met them, after he hailed them,
of course. So they ran to tell the other
disciples, and they were doing it with great joy. Wouldn't you
love to run with this message? You're the first to hear it.
That He's risen. They're weeping. Remember, they're
weeping and sad and mourning. And they can't wait to tell Him. I've been there a few times.
I wish it were more often. Quite often I can't wait to get
here. I was talking to one of the brethren,
Don Bell, last Wednesday night. I mean, last Wednesday afternoon,
and we both had prepared our messages for that Wednesday night,
and we were both talking about them to one another, and I made
the statement to him, I said, don't you wish it was 7 o'clock
right now? He said, yes, I do. I wish I
could just run up there right now and tell it. And sometimes
it seems to be lost in the translation. But they ran to tell the other
disciples with great joy, and I believe they were running in
great anticipation to see the Lord. You'll see Him in Galilee. They
couldn't get there quick enough. And I thought about this. of
those that truly seek the Lord. He said, in seeking me, you shall
find me when you search for me. How? With all your heart. David said, I will arise early.
The early worm gets the Lord. Can I coin that phrase? I'm not
trying to be cute. Fear not thou worm, Jacob. Rise
up early. Run to the place that he has
chosen to put his name there. The place that he's chosen, he
said, I'll be there, run, and you'll see. He said so. You know, he appointed the place,
and this is in the last part of my notes, but I might not
get to it. But the Lord appointed the place. And when he makes
the appointment, and he does make the appointment, doesn't
he? He appoints every church where he is going to put his
name back. Every place, every city that is, and makes it a
church. And that's the place, like he said in Deuteronomy,
I've chosen to put my name there. You better sell out. You better
do everything you can to get there. Take your kids there and
so forth. Read it for yourself. Deuteronomy
11 through 16, I believe. And when the Lord appoints a
place and He says He's going to be there, He will always show
up. He'll be there. He'll be there
first. And one of the old writers said,
he's a lot nearer than that, though. And these ladies are
going to find out. They don't have to wait to get
there. They're going to meet him on
the way. He said, I'm a God ever-present. You don't have to come into this
place to meet him. But he said he would be here. So you can
be assured of that. But they're going to meet him
on the way. And Brother Charles Spurgeon
said Galilee was the place. And he made this note. I might
not get to this. It doesn't appear I'm going to. But Spurgeon made this note that
Galilee was a border country of Gentiles and Jews. You've got to catch that. The
Lord meets where both Jew and Gentile meet. If made of two,
one new man. Broke down the enmity. Galilee. And he said that's the first
meeting, a congregational meeting, how is it in Hebrews, that's
the first assembly of the saints, of the church, after he arose
there at Galilee. So these ladies believed the
angel. It wasn't the Lord that spoke
to them, it was an angel. It was a saint that had lived,
I believe, like the one that spoke to John. They believed
the angel. And they ran to see the Lord. And they ran to tell
the disciples. Verse 9, And as they went, it
says, Behold, Jesus met them. And as I said, the Lord is in
great mercy and grace, won't allow anxious seekers to wait
too long. But he met them. They weren't
expecting to see him until they reached Galilee. But lo and behold,
it says, behold, he met them. Who? Who did he meet? Here it
is again. Who were the first ones that
he made the announcement to? Mary Magdalene, chief of sinners.
That's good news, isn't it? That's good news to me. And then
again, Kelly again, as they were on their way, he met them again.
Who? Mary Magdalene, chief of sinners. Chief of sinners. And the Lord
met them. And it says they went and held
him by the feet. Held him by the feet and worshiped
him. When they saw the Lord, oh, don't
you look forward to actually seeing the Lord Jesus Christ? We sang that hymn, When by the
gift of His infinite grace I am accorded in heaven a place, just
to be there and to look on His face. will through the ages be
glory for me." Oh, that will be glory for me. It's impossible for us to imagine
what it must have been like to be with the Lord Jesus Christ
day and night for three and a half years. I've just tried to imagine
that I can. I hadn't seen Him or hadn't heard
Him. We haven't seen Him. We've just
had a little foretaste of these things, just a little taste of his person. But it's impossible for us to
imagine what it must have been like to actually look on him. And John said, we've touched
him, we've handled him, we've felt him, we've heard him and
spoken to him. He with us. And they did this
for three and a half years. They heard his voice, and Scripture
says no man spake like this man. And they saw him, his countenance,
though he was not beautiful to look at, humanly speaking, that
by design, yet, you know, beauty, we say, is only skin deep. But
his wasn't in the skin, yet it was in his countenance. You know, his eyes, that description
of him over in the canticles over there in the Song of Solomon,
you know, his countenance, his eyes, Dove's eyes. And to see his countenance, to be
touched by him. You know, there's something wonderful
in a touch, isn't it? Even by a fellow human being.
Isn't it? A touch. An embrace. sincere, meaningful embrace,
especially in times of sadness or sorrow or happiness to see
somebody unseen a long time. Oh, man. For the Lord to embrace you? Barbara, in His hand, in
His touch, virtue went out of Him. For Him to lay His hand
on your shoulder Just all your fears will be gone. You know, I'm just trying to
imagine that. But they experience that. And I look forward to that. Don't you? And yet the Lord has in a sense,
in a great sense, has briefly shown Himself to us. And He has. We're going to look Sunday morning
at where Paul said to the Galatians, Jesus Christ crucified has been
so evidently set forth before you. You folks in here have heard,
and I'm not just talking about from me, I'm talking about other
preachers. You have heard some of the most glorious messages
in the history of preaching. I'm telling you that. Preachers and all that. I'm telling
you, you've heard some of the most glorious Christ exalted.
You've seen His glory. You've heard His voice. We're like the children of Israel.
We've heard God and seen God and lived. That's why. To see Him is life. And the Lord
has indeed revealed Himself to us and in us. That is, His Spirit
bearing witness the Spirit, the new man, to relieve our doubts
as to who He is. We have some, but that's to be
expected in the flesh. And so we won't have to wait
too long. You know, we've got to live here
70 years, 80 years, don't we? Oh brother, all my days, as I
said, all my days I wait, Joe, all my days I wait till my change
comes. I ain't working on the world
to change. That fellow's going to wait a long time. I'm waiting
on me to be changed. Aren't you? Wait on my change. Well, these women, they ran and they saw the Lord. And so have we in His Word. And
we hold Him by the feet. These women, it says they ran,
and I don't know how many there were, but they all dove at his
feet. Luke said there was Joanna, Mary,
and the other Mary, and they all went for his feet. That's
where he always found Mary, wasn't it? Oh, she wasn't presumptuous. She wasn't like Judas. She felt far inferior to her
Lord beneath Him. She was just pleased like a dog
to be at her Master's feet. That's where all of God's people
feel is their place. And they're just happy to be
right there. Old Abner, you know, there I go. I said I was going
to go about six months without bringing him up. Can't do it. He's a good illustration. He
just loved to sit on my feet. As if to say, don't go anywhere
without me. And these ladies hugged him by
his feet and worshipped him. Now think about that. I never
thought about that. But the Lord is our head. He's called our
covenant head, isn't he? He's the head. He's in heaven
right now, isn't he? But his body is upon the earth.
His lower parts. His feet still stand upon this
earth, and we hold them and worship Him. What might these feet be
represented by? The feet of the Lord, which we
embrace and worship Him. Two feet. Pillars of truth, grounded
and settled. Two feet, old and new. Doesn't
the Scripture say how beautiful are the feet on the mountains,
Mount Zion, of them that bring glad tidings of great joy? These,
in a sense, are the Lord's feet. This is how we know Him. This
is how we know He's risen. This is how He speaks to us.
This is how we've seen Him. And I hold to Him. I worship
Him. They have brought me glad tidings
of great joy, and I believe this is indeed the Word of God, and
He is the Christ. And I hold to them, and they
are they which testify of Him, the living Lord. And we can't
see Him right now. We can't see His unveiled face
because we still dwell in the flesh. We can hold Him by the
feet. Does that make sense? And I know there he is. I know
these feet are his. How? Just like Fannie Crosby
knew he was going to be the Lord. How? Nail scars. Old and new, full of nail scars. Christ's crucifixion. Alright,
then the Lord. Here's the greeting. Before they held Him by the feet,
they went to tell the disciples, and behold, it says, Jesus met
them and He said, All hail. And upon hearing Him say that
in the power of the Spirit, in a way that no man could say it,
and I can't, they hugged His feet and worshiped Him. What
was the Lord saying here when He said, all hail? Now remember,
it's not just an idle greeting. No, sir. Gather yourselves, okay? Rouse yourselves. Okay, stir up yourself. It's more than a greeting, more
than a salutation. These are words of great blessing,
great peace, great joy and happiness. He said, all hail. What he is saying is, all in
heaven, say hello. The Father says, presently, hello. To us, yes you. All in heaven,
the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit say, hello. To you, Chief of Senate. The
saints, all the departed saints, they know you. I didn't used
to think this, but now I do, because scripture says we shall
know even as we've been known. And the Lord brought two of them
down, remember, to earth to speak with him about that glorious
death which he should accomplish. Saints and angels and a multitude
of heavenly hosts say, Hail, Jeanette Berry. Yes, they do. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Abraham, Ellen. say hail. All hail. You get that? Is it getting you? All in heaven say hello. And we're waiting. We can't finish
without you. Hello. All. They know you. They await you. And they're all
coming. They're all coming when the Lord
comes again to get you. Is that what the Scripture says?
Huh? It says, We shall not go before
them, but they will come with Him, and we shall meet Him in
the same in the earth. All hail. All hail. Yes, it's true. We'll know even
as we've been known. And they all know us and they
hail us. And it says, All hail. The word hail. The word hail
means cheer, great cheer. The word hail means happiness.
The word hail, really now, it means well-being. The word hail
means gladness. All the cheer that you could
possibly have, you need to have. All the happiness is yours. All the wellness is yours. All gladness that heaven affords
is yours. All the blessings, Paul wrote
in Ephesians 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
things or places in Christ Jesus. All these things from the Father,
from the Son, from the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come. Oh yeah. All hail. Be of good
cheer. Didn't Christ say that before
He went to the cross? He said that. One of the last
things He said before He left them to be abused and crucified
was, Be of good cheer. All hail. I've overcome the world. The Lord in this greeting says,
You have nothing really to be sad about. You, of all people,
need to be the most cheerful. Cheer up. All cheer. Be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. And after he arose, Juanita,
from the grave, be of good cheer. I have overcome sin, hell, and
death. Cheer up. But I'm about to die. Be happy then. Cheer up. But I'm sick. I'm getting old.
Well, blessed be the Lord. Huh? When you think about it,
the Scripture says, Christ, who for the joy set before Him, endured
the cross, despising the shame, thinking nothing of it, is now
set down. Cheer up. All cheer. All the
cheer that can be had is yours. Cheer up. All the goodness of
God is yours. All gladness. We talked about babies being
born. You being born again calls for great joy and gladness. Be glad your sins are gone. Here's
a message of glad tidings. Robin Hendry, your sins are gone. Now, what's there to be sad about?
I want you to leave this place with a smile on your face, okay?
All hail, this is what he said, all cheer, all gladness. You
came in here sad? If you go out of here like that,
you didn't hear a word, did you? All hail! And when our Lord leaves,
we're going to see next Wednesday, Lord willing, he's really going
to cheer them up when he leaves. All power is given unto them. There's nothing and no one and
nothing that can touch you. I've done it all. All hell. All hell. All joy. All hell. Be joyful. Heaven is
yours. Be happy. You're mine. And I
am thine. And we're the Father's. And mine
are thine and thine are mine. Cheer up. But I've got to go
to work. I know how you feel. He's touched
with a few of our infirmities, but he was joyful in the task. All hail. Be of good cheer. Be
happy. You're well off. You're most blessed. You're highly
favored among women. He's still talking to women.
And I'm talking to you, all of you, a bunch of women that followed
him and ministered to him, haven't you? And I say unto you, by the
Word of the Lord, you're highly favored among women, Tammy. Not
above, but among. No less than Elizabeth, no less
than Mary. No less than Mary whom Christ was formed in. Highly
favored. All hail from Christ himself. All hail. And upon a sight of
him and this blessed greeting, they ran and held him by the
finger. And don't you know they had big
tears running down their faces? You know they did. Because in
a word, he relieved all their fear. Be not afraid. And they
hugged him by the feet, but with big old tears running down their
faces. They were tears of joy. They had smiles. Sure you had. Tears of joy with a smile on
your face. Spurgeon said, kind of like April
showers, you know, the little showers, and then the sun comes
out brightly, and what do you see? Rainbow. OK, so he said in verse 10, then
he said unto them, be not afraid. Be not afraid. Christ rose from the dead to
deliver us from fear of death, didn't He? Be not afraid. I live. And you too. You too. You'll never die. And
He says, Be not afraid. Now go, tell. Look what He calls
the disciples. The angel said, Go tell His disciples. The Lord said, Go tell My brethren. In another place, he said, you're
my friends. Go tell my brethren. Isn't that
a blessed term? I just don't call everybody that,
do you? Brother this, brother that. But I call Christ's people,
I'm a companion of them that fear Him. And they're my brethren. And that's a blessed term. Brother
Patrick, that's a blessed term. And to be called for this cause,
he's not ashamed to call them Brethren. What cause? He died. Christ's cause. That's why he
came. That's why he died. And he ever lives to make intercession
for the brethren. Go tell my brethren that they
go into Galilee. I've already told you this through
my angel. And I'm telling you again, you go to the place that
I've appointed. And if they'll go there, they'll
see me. And they'll rejoice with joy
unspeakable. They've been sad, haven't they?
Just like the Lord said. He said, you're going to be sad
and the world's going to be happy. We put an end to this, Lord.
Oh, no, you haven't. Your sorrow, he said, will be
turned to joy. And their joy will be turned
to sorrow. All the happiness you see in
the world that people have over things and whatever it may be
is going to be turned to great joy. I mean, great sadness. Great sadness. And all the sadness
and all the sorrow that every believer... He's got our tears
in a bottle. Isaiah 56. Just as the hairs
of our head are numbered, our tears are in a bottle. You know
that? Read it for yourself. Psalm 56.
And all the sorrows and all the sadness and all the whatever
that believers experience, the griefs and all that, are going
to turn into unspeakable joy. Yeah, that's right. And he says,
you'll see me. You will see me. I said, I want
to see you. Don't you? Now, the Lord and
the angel said, I told you. Then the angel said, and they
believed it. And they saw him. And then the
Lord said through these women and also through the angel, you
go tell them that I said, go there and they'll see me. Well,
Lord willing, next Wednesday we're going to see that they
went there and they saw him. And so shall we. You have his
word on it. He believed the angel. Huh? The messenger of the covenant.
You believe him? You believe his word? An angel
can't lie. An angel of the Lord can't lie.
And the Lord, you know the Lord, who is truth itself, he can't
lie. He said, you're going to see me. Barbara, you're going
to see me. You're going to see me. And so
be not afraid. All hail. And I say, all hail
the power of Jesus' name. All right, stand with me. Our Lord and our God and our
King and our Redeemer, we thank You for this great greeting,
this great hail that You gave to these women and us. Lord,
Your Word is so wonderful, so marvelous, so powerful. When
you speak through the power of your Holy Spirit, we've been
spoken to, we've been comforted, we've been blessed, we've been
filled with joy, and our fears have been relieved, and gladness
has overtaken us. We see things afar off and we
have great expectation and anticipation and we run. Lord, when we hear
the news, we run. Lord, quicken us and cause us
to make haste, we pray, to run to thee. Lord, thank you for
your Word and pray that you keep the piles of the air from taking
it away and the thorns and the thistles from choking it out.
and cause it to take root and deliver us from fear, fear of
death, fear of sin, fear of all things. In Christ's name we meet
here tonight. Amen.