The name of the message today
is On the Road. Our Lord Jesus Christ has risen
from the grave, and right now He is the risen, exalted Savior.
Right now. And when our Lord was crucified,
the sheep of God were scattered, just as He said they would be.
Turn, if you would, to Matthew, chapter 26. And we see these
words of our master telling his disciples what would occur. And
then we see Peter protesting that this would not happen with
him. And we also see the rest of the apostles say they would
not deny him as well. Oh my, the flesh, the flesh,
the flesh. The scripture says this, that
our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Look at this in Matthew chapter
26. And our flesh is like a plague constantly with us, isn't it?
Constantly worn against the spirit. Constantly. And remember what
we looked at last week in Sunday school. One of the blessings
of us going home to be with the Lord when we breathe our last
breath is we are delivered from this body of flesh. We're delivered. And our loved ones who have died
in Christ, or our loved brothers and sisters who have died in
Christ, beloved, they are delivered from this body of death. And
they're singing hallelujah to the great King. And one day we'll
be delivered from this body of death, every one of us. who believe
on Christ, we all have an appointment, both saved and lost, and we'll
be delivered from this body of death, and what a glorious day
that'll be. We won't have to say the flesh, the flesh, the
flesh anymore, will we? Not at all. Look at verses 31
to 35 of Matthew 26. Then saith Jesus unto them, all
ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written,
I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered abroad. But after I am risen, he's talking
about his death here. And he's talking about what will
happen. The disciples will be scattered. And look, he says,
but after I'm risen again, he's speaking of the resurrection,
I will go before you into Galilee. So he spoke to them right here
about his death and about his resurrection. And we know our
Lord spoke about that. He taught about that to his disciples
and they would tell others who followed Christ too. And others
would hear those words that our Lord is speaking, and look what
he says. Peter answered, though, look
at Peter, here we go, here's the flesh, here's the flesh at work.
Peter answered and said unto him, though all men shall be
offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Oh,
that's a strong statement. But our Lord had just told him,
and ye shall be offended because of me this night. See, he didn't
believe what the Lord said. In his flesh, he thought, no,
I'll never do that. When I was in religion, to my shame, I used
to say, well, how can a Christian be like that and do those things?
And you know what I found out after the Lord saved me? That
I was the chief of sinners. I'm just as acceptable to those
things as anybody else, and so are you. We don't ever say that,
do we? We don't ever say, how can a
Christian be like that and do those things? We don't ever say
that anymore, do we? No, we do not say that at all,
because we know we're all susceptible to any sin, and it's only the
restraining grace of God that keeps us. It keeps us. Oh my. We're just like Peter, beloved.
We all got a little Peter in us. We all do. Oh, look at this. Jesus said
unto him, verily I say unto you that this night before the cock
crow thou shalt deny me thrice. So Peter says, I'll never offend
you. Basically, I'll never offend you once. And the Lord says,
no, you're going to deny me three times. You're going to deny me.
And then look here, Peter again, look what he says even in verse
35, and look what the disciples say. Peter said unto him, though
I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Well, you know,
his heart, he's got the right thing though, doesn't he? He's
thinking the right way, but he doesn't know how susceptible
our flesh is to sin. And then look it, likewise also
said all the disciples. I've noticed this, when Peter
says something, they all say, oh yeah. He was kind of the leader
of the disciples in that sense. Oh my, oh my. And I love Paul,
who's one of the most incredible apostles. And he says, I'm the
chief of sinners. Paul knew what he was. After
the Lord had risen, they all knew what they were, and they
preached Christ in him crucified. Oh, my. Beloved, are we not to
seek our risen Lord, the true and living God? We're not to
seek our risen Lord, the true God. We're not to seek him among
the dead, are we? No, because he's risen. He's
risen. He's alive right now. He's in glory. And he dwells
in the hearts of his true disciples where the scriptures declare
where two or three are gathered together in my name. Two or three.
There am I in the midst of them. Oh, don't seek him where the
gospel is not being preached because he's not there. He's
not there. He doesn't dwell in the hearts
of false religionists. He's not meeting with self-righteous,
works-based religionists. He's not meeting with them. Those
who worship God must worship him in spirit and truth, right?
Spirit and truth. Today, we'll look at two disciples
on the road to Arimaeus. Let's turn now to Luke, chapter
23. This will be where we'll be reading. Luke, chapter 23.
And I wanted to bring that portion out in Matthew to show that they
all were plagued with the flesh, just like we're all plagued with
the flesh. Now, it's not hard for we who are believers to get
discouraged, is it? It's not hard for us to get discouraged.
I think it's natural for us. We actually have to fight it,
don't we? In our natural state, we can be discouraged just like
that. Even after the Lord saves us, we can be discouraged in
a second, in a heartbeat. It may be by someone saying something
to you or complaining about something to you and just gnaws on you
after a while. It may be that. It may be a situation
in your life which is causing you to be discouraged. And in
those times, beloved, in those times are the times when we get
our eyes off of Christ We may get our eyes on what someone's
saying over here, or we may get our eyes on the situation in
our life, and our eyes are off Christ, totally off Christ. And where do we find comfort
in those times? Where do we find comfort in those
times as believers? Well, it's only in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember, we're susceptible to our three enemies. We have three
enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. We have the scriptures
declare that. Those are our enemies as believers.
The world constantly trying to lure us. The flesh, which I think
is the greatest enemy. For me, my own flesh, I'm my
own, Spurgeon said that, I'm my own worst enemy. Well I can
relate to what Brother Spurgeon said, I can relate to that. And
the devil, not one of us is a match for him. Now I know, I know that
he only does what the Lord allows to do, but you know what, he
wants to divide churches where the gospel's being preached,
he wants to get people, the Lord's people so discouraged, that's
what he wants. I remember Brother John telling
me about a sermon Henry preached about how Satan was using church
members to divide things. A long time ago you told me about
it, and I've got to get the title of that. And it's incredible.
He will get people so riled up about situations that their mind
is on absolutely nothing. But what the situation is, and
they're so far off of Christ looking at him and they're looking
at the situation. I'm going to tell you this plainly.
This is so true. Every time we look at a situation,
we're going to get to skirt every time we keep our eyes on Christ.
We keep our eyes on the one who rules over all. We will not be
discovered. Now we were plagued with this
flesh. Beloved, we're plagued with this flesh, aren't we? But
I'm telling you, it's true. That's why Paul wrote, set your
mind on things above. Set your mind on Christ. He'll
never discourage you. He'll make you lift your heart
up in song, beloved. If you're a true born again believer,
you'll find comfort from no matter what's going on in this world.
Spurgeon talked of a man who came to the congregation all
the time and at work, Word got out, this man was always giving
glory to God. He was always giving glory to God, always, no matter
what happened, which is how we really should be, right? And
this man worked in a factory. The guy's got word that he cut
off his finger. One of his fingers got cut off.
And they thought, well, we're going to see what Brother Sunset
says now, right? Well, he comes in. And they said,
well, brother, how you doing? He goes, well, praise be to God.
The Lord is good. And they said, oh, we heard about
your finger. And he says, yeah, but praise God, my whole hand didn't
get cut off. It's perspective. It's perspective, isn't it? He
still gave glory to God, and no matter what, He saw the good
that happened. It's amazing. It's amazing. That's
why we've got to keep our eyes on Christ. We've got to keep
our eyes on Him. So where do we find comfort during
these times of trials and these situations? Well, we find comfort
in the Holy Scriptures, don't we? Through the preaching of
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hearing about our salvation
that we have in Christ. Hearing about that encourages
us. Oh, it encourages us so much that reading the Word of God,
just even listening to it, listening to it being read, it encourages
our hearts and souls. And because you know why? Because
it testifies of our great Savior. It testifies of Christ. It testifies
to the one Paul says, set your mind above, on him, above. Set your mind on the things above.
Well, who's above? Christ. Christ is above. He's
on his throne, beloved. That's where we're to set our
minds. Set your affection, he says, too. The affection is your
heart. When he wrote that in Colossians, he's talking about
your heart. Set your heart on Christ. Set your heart on him.
Set your eyes on him and set your heart on him. Oh, it's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful. Listen to these words by Robert
Murray McShane, brother Matt bought out this morning about
how the light of the gospel is all we need. The light of the
gospel is all we need as believers. And I said to him, that's amazing
that he said that, because listen to these words that I have in
my notes here by Robert Murray McShane. He's a preacher of God's
grace from days gone by. And this was said long before
there was electric lights. Long before there was electric
lights. Mr. McShane said this to his congregation.
When you are reading a book in a dark room, and find it difficult,
you take it to a window to get more light. So take your Bible
to Christ. Oh, my. When you read the scriptures,
take it to Christ. Ask them to illuminate the scriptures.
Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you the things of Christ. Take
it to the light. Read everything in the light
of who Christ is. Oh, wonderful. That's a wonderful
exhortation to the people of God, isn't it? Take it to the
light. Take it to Christ. And we see
the passage here before us makes it clear that the scriptures
are full of Christ. Full of Christ. Now remember
too, when we read of the word scriptures in the New Testament,
they're talking about the Old Testament. None of the New Testament
has been written at that time. So they're talking about the
Old Testament scriptures. Paul, Peter, John, they all preached
from the Old Testament. And they preached Christ. They
preached Christ. Anybody ever tells you, I used
to say this to, oh, the Old Testament is for the Jews and the New Testament
is for, in my foolishness in religion, I said those same words.
The New Testament's for believers and the Old Testament's for the
Jews. That is a lie, a lie, a lie. That book is a hymn book, beloved.
It's all about Christ. And Paul preached Christ from
the Old Testament. John preached Christ from the Old Testament.
All the apostles preached Christ from the Old Testament. That's
what they did. Those scriptures, beloved, they
testify of Christ. They testify of who he is. They
testify of what he was coming to do. And they testified of
where he is right now, where he is right now. Oh, my, our
great God. He's absolutely amazing. He is
absolute. So may the Lord help us to rid
our mind of worldly thoughts today and worldly concerns during
the time we have here together. And may our minds be filled with
the things of eternal value, the things of Christ. May God
give us something that we can just hold on to. Let's read verses
13 and 14 of Luke, chapter 24. Verses 13 and 14 of Luke 24. Look at this. And behold, two
of them went that day to a village called Emmaus. They went the
same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem,
about three score four longs. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened. So beloved of God, these two
men are our brothers in the Lord. These two men are our brothers
in the Lord, and they're in glory right now. They're in glory right
now. They're on the road to Emmaus, and they've been in glory now
for 2,000 years, over 2,000. Now we need to be taught the
things of God, don't we, by the Holy Spirit of God. We need to
have revealed to us what the scriptures say and how they testify
of Christ. Otherwise, we don't know about
the things of Christ. And that's true of every born-again
believer, every blood-washed believer. That's true of every
one of us. So we see our two brethren here walking from Jerusalem
to Emmaus, a distance of about seven and a half miles. A distance
of about seven and a half miles. And we see that their minds were
void of spiritual understanding of the death of Christ. They
were talking about the things that had occurred, but their
minds were, and we see this, their minds were void of the
spiritual understandings of the death of Christ. And they were
confused. They were confused, and their
hearts were filled with pain, and expressed itself in their
countenance. They were more than likely walking somewhat slow,
probably discouraged. And as they walked, they talk
about all the things which which had happened, which had happened
and came to pass in the last few days. And beloved, not knowing
the scriptures is why they had heavy hearts. Not knowing what
the scriptures said about Christ is why they were confused. And
every born again child of God can identify with what they were
going through. Every one of us can identify.
We get our eyes off of Christ and we get our eyes on events.
or situations, and we can become easily confused and easily discouraged,
very easily. And in the miracle of the new
birth, during that time when the Holy Spirit convicted us
of our sinful, bankrupt condition that we were in, naturally, we
were in the same sad frame of mind that these two disciples
of the Lord were. Oh my. And not knowing the scriptures
and what they said about Christ's death, they were filled with
grief amid the situations that had occurred. And just like them,
we sometimes have no idea how to get rid of the grief that
we're going through or the pain that we're feeling. We did not
know in our natural state, even when the Holy Spirit was drawing
us, we did not know that Christ had died for us. But when the
Holy Spirit start drawing us and start showing us our need
for Christ, right? and the guilt of our sin, we
saw that there was only one remedy. And what does the Lord say? Look
to me and live. Look, look, and you know what?
Keep looking. If you take your eyes off Christ,
what happens? Keep looking to him, keep looking to him. I mentioned
in Sunday school, a friend of mine in England, he wrote about
this coronavirus and everybody's going crazy over this thing.
And you know what he wrote? He said, I wish people feared
God more than they fear the coronavirus. That's true, eh? Is God the God
over all microbes and over everything visible and invisible? He is,
isn't he? And he may use that virus to
take some of his saints home. He may use that. We don't know,
he may, but he may not. And we may, might not even get
anything, we don't know. But the thing is, we need to
keep our eyes on Christ, right? We're aware of the situation.
We don't have to freak out like the world. We know who's in control.
And man has no fear of God. And this is what, after he said
that, I started to think about that. Man has no fear of God,
but there is such fear of this virus. I was telling Brother
Jim, I wanted to put a message together. Do you know? Do you
know that there has been a pandemic for 6,000 years that has a 100%
kill rate? It's called sin. 100% kill rate. It's called sin. And there's
only one remedy. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it's true.
It's absolutely true. My brother Tom said, our thinking
now has changed on who God is. It's changed. Now we know he's
in control. Now we know he's absolutely sovereign. We can trust in Him and rest
in Him, can't we? We can. We can, beloved. Oh my. So we see our two brethren here.
They're walking from Jerusalem to Aramaeus. And they're down.
They're down. And as we'll look at later on,
they thought that Christ was going to come and establish an
earthly kingdom. Oh, his kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom, beloved. And so that's why they were down. They thought
that he was going to overthrow the Roman oppression that they
were under. Well, little did they know at that time that the
Lord, that a great emancipation had occurred, hadn't it? That's
right. He saved all his people from their sins. But see, they
didn't see that. They were thinking earthly things.
They had their mind on the world and not on things above. We're
going to see our Lord's going to teach them. Our Lord's going
to teach them. Think of this, in our natural state we didn't
know Jesus Christ had satisfied the holy justice of God when
he laid down his life for us, we had no idea. We didn't know
that his blood had washed away all our sins from God's sight
forever, we didn't know that in our natural state. We didn't
know that Jesus Christ by himself had paid our sin debt in full,
in full. We didn't know that in our natural
state, that he by the shedding of his precious blood had paid
the ransom for our souls, and that now we are reconciled to
God in our natural state, we had no idea. We had no idea.
We didn't know that He was raised for our justification, and is
now seated on the right hand of the Father, interceding for
us. We had no idea about those truths. No. My. And in that sad,
confused condition, Holy Spirit conviction came upon us, didn't
it? Oh yeah. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
to us, and our minds were enlightened under the preaching of the Gospel.
under the preaching of the gospel. Sorrow and guilt over our sins
turned into joy when we were born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Joy that all our sins are forgiven. Joy that we have
this great salvation in Christ. Joy. Joy. Oh my. And we see that's exactly what
he did to his two disciples here. That's exactly what he did to
his two disciples as they walked to Ermaus on that particular
day so long ago. And again, this is written what?
For our learning, isn't it? All scripture is written for
our learning, beloved. It tells us about Christ. It's
written for our Lord to encourage us, to comfort us. And how blessed
they were and how blessed we are that the Lord Jesus Christ
comes to us in our hour of need and reveals himself to us through
his holy word. Look at verses 15 to 17 here
in Luke chapter 24. Look at this. And it came to
pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus
himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holding
that they should not know him. Look at that. And he said unto
them, what manner of communications are these, that ye have one to
another, as ye walk and are what? Sad. Do you see, they're sad.
They're sad over the events that has occurred. And these two disciples
of our Lord were walking and talking together and their hearts
were full of sadness over spiritual things that they did not understand. And we see in verse 15 that Jesus
drew near and went with them. And always remember that our
Lord Jesus Christ came to do the will of our Heavenly Father.
Everything he did was purposed by God. Everything he did was
purposed by God before time began. Before time began. And our Lord
coming to these two disciples right here during this time of
their spiritual need, as we see, they're sad. This was all arranged
by God before the world was created. Now just let that sink in. Your
appointed time of love was purposed and ordained by God before the
world was made. That's something, isn't it? Oh
my. And that which God plans and
purposes what? Shall surely come to pass. It'll come to pass, beloved.
And again, this is true for every child of God. Everything God
does for his chosen blood-bought children is according to his
own purpose and his own will. It's wonderful. It's wonderful.
And it's arranged by God before time began. And it's executed
by him at the time appointed by him. at the time appointed
by Him, and we'll see here, this will be a time of sweet communion
for these two disciples. Oh, it's a time of sweet communion.
And when the Lord saves us, it's a time of sweet communion. And
it's a time of sweet communion every time we hear the gospel,
isn't it? Every time we think of Him. It's a time of sweet
communion, beloved. Oh, my. A time of sweet communion
when we're under the preaching and teaching of His Holy Word.
Scriptures tell us that the Lord drew near to his disciples and
that their eyes were holding that they should not know him.
Look at that in verse 16. But their eyes were holding that
they should not know him. The gospel must be revealed to
you. It must be. Christ must be revealed to you.
You never know him or you never know him. And beloved of God,
our Lord Jesus Christ is going to teach these men some truths.
He's going to teach these men some truths concerning Himself,
because they're His sheep. Some truths they did not know.
They didn't know them yet, but He's going to reveal them to
them, but they don't know them yet, so their eyes are holding
that they should not know Him. But there's going to come a time
in our text when He reveals Himself. And now let us apply this divine
truth to our own walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. We grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ as we study
his word together. But the understanding of God's
word is a process for us, isn't it? It's a process. He reveals
certain truths at his appointed time. Have you not been reading
the Bible? I never saw. Or a preacher be
preaching a message. Boy, I didn't see that. See, it's God's appointed
time for that to be revealed to you. Trust me, Norm and I,
we text back and forth and go, is the ink still dry on your
Bible? Because I didn't see that. And it's so wondrous when we
can let each other know about these wonderful truths, and when
they're revealed to us. And what a blessing it is when
the Lord does that for us. And at the appointed time, by
His infinite wisdom, when we're ready to have these truths revealed
to us, He reveals them to us. So our Lord drew near and started
walking with His disciples. And He said, notice He said,
what manner of communications are these that ye should have
one to another as ye walk and are sad? Notice that. Now, our
Lord is not asking this question for information. He's not asking
it for information. No. He's the all-knowing, all-wise
God. He's not asking this for information.
But you know what He's doing? He's drawing these two disciples
of his into a conversation concerning himself. He's drawn them into
a conversation concerning himself. Have you ever noticed when you
get together with a brother or sister in Christ and you start talking
about Christ, how your heart starts to burn within you? How
you start to rejoice over the things when you start talking
about him? Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it?
It's wonderful. You don't want to leave. You
want to sit there and just soak it up as much as you can, don't
you? It's wondrous. So he's not asking this question
for information. He's drawing them into a conversation
about himself, concerning himself and some things they didn't know
about him. They did not realize the blessing that they're going
to receive. They didn't realize what was coming for them. and
how much they were going to be blessed by this conversation
with our great King. They were troubled by what had
happened. They were sad, the scripture says, by what had happened.
They didn't understand, spiritually, about what had happened. We don't
realize the blessings our Lord has in store for us. as he, by
his divine providence, moves us to get involved in spiritual
conversations one with another. Turn, if you would, to Malachi
3, verse 16. Malachi 3, verse 16. Look at this verse, keeping in
mind what we're reading here, and about how the Lord is drawing
them into a conversation about himself, and about how when we
as brethren even get together and we start talking about the
things of Christ, how excited we can get. Malachi 3.16 Then
they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. They speak
often one to another. They speak about the things of
Christ to each other. It's wonderful. And the Lord
hearkened and heard it. Malachi 3.16 Then they that feared
the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened. and heard
it in a book of remembrance was written before him for them that
feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. See, we now have
thoughts of Christ when we didn't before the Lord saved us. We
now want to talk about the things of Christ when we didn't before
the Lord saved us. We want to hear the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ now that the Lord saved us when we didn't
before the Lord saved us. We want to be with the Lord's
people now when we didn't before the Lord saved us. It's wonderful. So God's people, it says here,
they speak one to another, right? And they think upon him. They
speak of the Lord and they think upon him. I know it's true for
you all. And remember, you can pray anywhere
you are, at work, driving down the road. I remember when I was
religious and I used to say, I'm gonna go pray now, you know,
and shut the door. It was just awful. It was awful
how self-righteous I was. It was, I'm not kidding, it was
horrible. It was horrible. And you know, I had to kneel
down because that's how, you know, no. You know, you can pray
to God when you're at work. You can pray to God when you're
driving down the road. You can pray to God anytime you
want, right? And no one has to know it. No
one has to know about it, okay? Isn't that wonderful? You just
commune with our great God. And then when we do get together,
we like to talk about him, don't we? We like to talk about the
wondrous things he's done. We may talk about some other
things too. Yeah, well, matter of fact, we will. Not may, we
will. But we always come back to our King, don't we? And focusing
upon Him. And our hearts burn within us,
don't they? When we speak about Christ and
when we talk to our dear brethren about Him and what He's done
for us. And we think upon His name, just
as Malachi 3.16 says. Let's go back to Luke 24 with
that in mind then. And our Lord said to his disciples,
what manner of communications are these that you have one to
another as you walk and are sad? Again, they were sad, beloved.
Look at the response to his question here. Cleopas answers this question,
Luke 24, 18 to 24. And one of them, whose name was
Cleopas, answering said unto him, art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem? And hast thou not known the things
which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto
them, what things? Again, he's not asking for information.
He's asking to draw them in to a conversation about himself.
And remember, this is all planned and purposed by God from eternity,
beloved. It's marvelous when you think
about that. Marvelous. What things? And they
said unto him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth. which was a prophet
mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how
the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned
to death and have crucified him. But we trusted, look at this,
but we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed
Israel, and beside 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 that he was alive.
And certain of them, which were with us, went to the sepulcher
and found it, even as the woman had said, but him they saw not. And we see the name of one of
the disciples here is given to us, his name is Cleopas. And
the Greek name of Cleopas is actually defined of a renowned
father. Ah, as I saw that, I thought,
well, truly he's of a renowned father, isn't he? You know where
I'm going. Truly he's of a renowned father. He's a chosen, blood-washed
child of God. Chosen by God the Father. chosen
by God the Father in eternity before the foundation of the
world. And his renowned Father, spiritually, who gave him life,
is our great God. Our great God, beloved. And truly
every believer has a renowned Father, don't we? That's God
the Father. My, it's incredible. And we see that Cleopas just
assumed that our Lord Jesus Christ was a stranger in Jerusalem.
That's what he assumed. And I ask you, who are the born
again child of God? Was there not a time when we
thought, this of our Lord, was he not a stranger to us? Oh,
we heard his name, but he was a stranger to us in our natural
state. In religion, we may have read
the name of Christ and we may have thought we knew him, but
really he was a stranger to us. He was a stranger to us. Mine. There was a time when he was
a stranger. And we were strangers from the
covenants of promise, weren't we, the scripture says. having
no hope, and without God in this world, but rejoice, beloved of
God, now in Christ Jesus we are made, what? Nigh by the blood
of Christ. We are about near by the blood
of Christ. And that's talking about our
state. We've always been his children, and he's always known
that. But the believer by faith in
Christ has bought nigh to the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we?
By the blood of Christ, the scripture says. By the blood of Christ. Oh my. So when Cleopas asked
the Lord if he was a stranger to these things which had happened
in Jerusalem, our Lord asked him this question in verse 19.
What things? Again, he's not asking for information.
Our Lord is drawing them into a conversation about himself.
about the things that had happened to him, and in a short while
their minds would be enlightened to the truths concerning his
death. And again, he must be the one to reveal this precious
truth to them from the Scriptures, beloved. And note our Lord Jesus
in verse 19, asks them, what things? And Cleopas said unto
him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Now we've gotten to the heart
of the matter. Now we've gotten to the heart
of the matter. This is a conversation our Lord was drawing them into,
an open discussion about those things concerning Jesus of Nazareth,
who is right there with them, and they had no idea. God incarnate
in the flesh, risen, exalted Savior. And to a true follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ, one who believes and loves Christ's
gospel, there's absolutely nothing as important as the things concerning
Jesus of Nazareth. And this is why God's born-again
people will seek out and find a place to worship where Christ
is kept ever before them, ever before them, and where Christ
is preached every time they meet, every time they meet. Now we
will see our Lord reveal to them who the Scriptures testify of,
and it's none other than He, the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet
that Moses said would come, a mighty prophet, the God-man, a hundred
percent God and a hundred percent man. And Cleopas went on to say
that the chief priests and the rulers delivered him delivered
Christ to be condemned and crucified him, but we know that the cheap
priests and the rulers didn't know that the wicked hands that
crucified our Lord was all by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge
of our great God. Christ must shed his blood. He
must die in the place of his people to ransom our eternal
souls. God's justice must be satisfied. His law must be satisfied. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, goes right to Calvary's
cross and dies as a substitute of his people. My. And those
chief priests and rulers, the blind leading the blind, weren't
they? The blind leading the blind. They didn't believe what the
Old Testament prophets wrote concerning the sufferings of
Christ our Savior. They didn't believe that. Now
these two disciples did not have revealed to them that the cruel
treatment our Lord received from those wicked men and his death
on the cross was what God had ordained for the salvation of
his elect. They didn't know that. They didn't
know that Jesus Christ cannot fail. They did not know that
he was not a helpless victim when he died on the cross. But
beloved, he's our king. When he cried, it is finished,
that's a cry of a victor. That's a cry of a victor. It
is. gave up the ghost. These two
men, as I mentioned earlier, were not looking for a redeemer,
a savior that would rule as king over spiritual Israel. No, they
were looking for national Israel to be redeemed from the bondage
of Rome. That's exactly what they were
looking for. A king that would sit on a literal
throne in Jerusalem in a temple made with man's So we see then
that these two men have been drawn into a conversation now
of the things concerning Christ, concerning himself. And we see
that it's obvious that they had no spiritual understanding of
the things that had just happened in Jerusalem. So after they had
told him about the events of the past few days, his response
to them is with a loving rebuke. Look at verses 25 and 26. Then
said he 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 to enter into his glory? A gentle rebuke, beloved,
a gentle, loving rebuke to his disciples. And our Lord did something
that every ordained preacher of God loves to do. He preached
a message to his disciples about Christ. Concerning himself. Concerning himself as the subject
of his message. He was the subject of his message.
Jesus Christ preached Jesus Christ to them. Oh my. Who is the one
that God's ordained preachers love to proclaim? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I don't have any other message.
Only Christ and Him crucified as the only Savior of sinners.
Brother Henry used to say, I have a one-string fiddle, and I'm
going to keep playing that string. It's true. It's true. One-string
fiddle, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only string we play,
the only one we proclaim. And God's people love to hear
it. Love to hear it. So Christ said unto them, O fools
and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Again, the Old Testament. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? Our Lord rebuked his
disciples because they did not believe all that the prophets
had spoken. Had they believed what was written
of him, these two men would have known that the promised Messiah
had to suffer before he could enter into glory. And we see
in verse 27 that our Lord, he began to preach to these two
disciples the truths concerning himself. Look at verse 27. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself. We have the book that tells the
things concerning Christ. We have the very book, the Old
Testament, that Christ preached himself to them. And then we
have the New Testament saying he's come. The Old Testament
says he's coming. And in types, and shadows, and pictures, they
all picture him dying as a substitute for his people. Oh my. Look at
that. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in the scriptures the things
concerning himself. He had drawn these two disciples
into a conversation about himself, and now he's revealing himself
to them. Oh my. He's revealing Himself. And the subject of our Lord's
message was Himself. He's the author of His Holy Word,
which is the Old Testament and the New. He's the subject of
all the writings of Moses and all the prophets in the New Testament.
He's the subject of this book. It's a hymn book, beloved. H-I-M.
It's all about Him. All about Him. And this is why
we only preach Christ in Him crucified, just as Paul did.
We have one theme in every message. We preach from every passage
of the Holy Scriptures of God, God's preachers, we preach Jesus
Christ in Him crucified, the exalted Savior. That's what we
preach. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. And now look in
verses 27 to 31, and beginning at Moses, and all the prophets. He expounded
unto them in the Scriptures the things concerning himself. And
they drew nigh unto the village whither they went, and he made
it as though he would have gone further. But they constrained
him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the
day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with
them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he
took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave it to them,
and their eyes were opened, and they knew him." Oh my! Same thing happens to every born-again
believer. When God the Holy Spirit regenerates
us, now He's always knowing us, right? Now we know Him. Oh, and
it's all different. Our whole idea of who He was,
what we are, and what He came to do is flipped upside down. It really is, beloved. It really
is. And their eyes were opened and
they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight. These two
disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ were listening with captivated
hearts as He spoke of Himself in the Holy Scriptures that He
was the author of, and their soul was replaced with joy unspeakable,
beloved, as their eyes were opened to who spoke to them? The Lord
Jesus Christ. And Christ's glory flooded their
souls, didn't it? Oh, they were joyful. They were
joyful. Divine revelation removed the
darkness they were in. Divine revelation removed the
darkness they were in. And that happens to every born-again
believer in Christ. We're brought from darkness to
light when we're born again. And our sorrow is turned to joy.
And the sorrow over the things that had happened during those
recent days was turned to joy unspeakable as a result of the
gospel The gospel preaching from the greatest preacher that ever
lived, the Lord Jesus Christ. The very one who reveals himself
to every born-again, blood-washed saint of God under the preaching
of the gospel, his gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he told them how the scriptures testified of him, his sinatonic
death, his redemptive work, his rising from the grave, his ascension
into glory. And by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit, who commands again the light to shine in the darkness
of our hearts. It gives us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe the gospel. Every sinner
saved by God's sovereign grace has their soul turned into joy. Turned into joy. And by seeing
the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
true. And what a blessed honor our
Lord Jesus Christ bestows upon these two men to have him walk
with them. Walk with them. And what a blessing
that cannot be described by a human tongue to hear the gospel preached
from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and for it to
be made effectual by his sovereign power. What an honor reserved
for only a small number. And then to have the Lord Jesus
Christ come into their home and spend time with them as their
honored guest. with a blessed honor bestowed
upon his chosen blood-bought disciples. And look at this.
And look at this. Let's read verses 31. We're closed
with these two verses. A little bit, I'll say a little
bit after this, but look at this. Verses 31 and 32. And their eyes
were opened. Divine revelation, beloved. And
they knew him. They knew him. And he vanished
out of their sight. There before them. Oh my, 32. one to another, did not our heart
burn within us, burn within us? Well, He talked with us by the
way, and well, He opened to us the script. And they rose up,
let's read verse 3, the same hour, they didn't even wait till
morning. They didn't wait till morning, they rose up the same
hour and returned to Jerusalem right away. Why? And found the
eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying,
The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they
told what things were done in the way, and how he was knowing
of them and breaking the bread. And then look what happens. And
as they stood, thus speak, Jesus stood in the midst of them and
saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Oh, my. He just appeared. He just appeared. And God's people
have peace when I when we have communion with our Lord, don't
we? Oh, what peace we we find under here in the preaching of
the word of God and what a blessing they received. Their eyes were
open and they knew him. And remember earlier in our text,
our Lord kept them from knowing that he was the resurrected Christ,
that he was who he was. And then we read in verse 31,
their eyes were open and they knew him and they knew him. Beloved,
their hearts were already burning with joy. from the preaching
of the gospel that they had heard from the Lord Jesus Christ and
what he had accomplished. He came and accomplished what
he was sent to do. And when our Lord revealed the
true meaning of his sufferings and his death, and remember that
came by divine revelation, how? From the writings of the Old
Testament, right? Because he revealed to them what
the scripture said about him, you see? The Lord uses the preaching
of his word to reveal himself by the power of the Holy Spirit
of God. And as soon as this happened, their soul was turned into joy. Their soul was turned into joy.
And this is what God does to his people. We're bought to a
place where we're under conviction of sin by the power of the Holy
Spirit of God. And when we're born again, oh my, what happens? Soul turns to joy, doesn't it?
Soul turns to joy. And then every time we hear the
gospel, we rejoice in the wondrous things that Christ has done for
us. Glory to his name.