Our next speaker, Pastor Bruce
Crabtree, Sovereign Grace Church, Newcastle, Indiana. Bruce has
to be the most beloved man in all the Sovereign Grace circles.
He's the most beloved man I just universally love. He and his
wife, Cindy, are here. You'd be sure to greet them.
They're still newlyweds. You'd be sure to congratulate them and
talk to them after the service. Bruce, do you want this on or
off? This thing here. Off? Let's leave it, okay. If you
decide you want it off, Isaac will be glad to move it for you. First you come bring the message
the Lord's given. That is tall, that. How much of it comes off? Well, that'd be too low. Can you get something just right? Maybe Sunday morning he'll have
this thing just right. I appreciate that song, Isaac. Thank you so much. I got a text
of scripture I want to read over in Luke's Gospel chapter 24.
And I'll need you to keep your Bibles handy tonight if you would. I've got a few scriptures I want
to turn to. This is where the Lord Jesus
had risen from the dead and appeared to his disciples. Here in verse
36 of Luke chapter 24. And as they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, Peace
be unto you. And they were terrified, and
afrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he
said unto them, Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have. And when he
had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. I want to leave you with this
thought tonight. He showed them his feet. He showed
them his feet. I doubt seriously if these poor
apostles and these disciples of the Lord had ever been in
a fix like they were in at this present time. The ladies had gone to the tomb
of our Lord. They found it empty. The angel
said, he's not here but risen, go tell his disciples. They came
to the disciples and they didn't believe them. They didn't understand
the scriptures, they were confused about that. They were so afraid of the elders
and the chief priests, they thought if they killed our Lord, they
would never hesitate to kill us. They were hiding out here
in this upper room, so fearful, so afraid. And it's more than
that. It's not just the fear they had
of man. That was tormenting enough, but
they were so afraid that what they had done, they'd never be
forgiven. One of their number had betrayed
the Son of God, had taken 30 pieces of silver and betrayed
the Lord, confessed his sin, went out and hanged himself.
Another one of their number had denied that he even knew the
Lord. I don't even know him. Three times he denied him, cursed
and swore. I do not know that man. And he
went out and went bitterly. All of them forsook him. The
one who came back could do nothing but sit and sob there at the
cross. He could do nothing. And now they felt so guilty.
Now they felt so afraid. They had told the Lord Jesus,
to whom shall we go? If we left you, where can we
go? There's nobody else that can
save us. There's nobody else that can give us life eternal.
And now they must be eating those words because they left him.
In their hour of need, in his sufferings, they left him. In
the garden, they slept while he swept blood. On the cross,
they forsook it. And when he looked for help,
he found none, and for comforters, and there was none. And here
these disciples were, scared to death, fearful of man, fearful
of God, fearful of what they had did. And yet the Lord Jesus comes
here in their midst suddenly, and He does something for them
to dispel their troubled hearts. And He says this, Behold My feet. And not only did He say, Behold
My feet, when He said that, He showed them His feet. Now, most of us have heard Brother
Mahan's message on His hands. But this is his feet. He showed
them his feet. Now I want to give you tonight
just a few things that this suggests to our mind when the Lord Jesus
showed them his feet. And the first thing this suggests
to us here in our text, this is the way he identified himself
to them. He said, behold my feet, it is
I myself. They saw the scars in his hands. They saw the hole in his side.
They saw the nail prints in his feet. And he said, it's me. It's
me. What did this remind them of?
The cross. He reminded them of the nails.
It reminded them of his agony, his death. In chapter 20 of John,
when the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead, The disciples
were in the upper room and he suddenly appeared to him there
and said, peace be unto you. And he showed them his hands
in his side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. How did they know it was the
Lord? The scars, the wounds. Remember what Thomas said when
he wasn't there. And he said, if I don't see the
prints of the nails in his hand, And I don't thrush my hand in
his side. I'm not going to believe. Now,
what if some man had came there seven days later and said, I'm
the Christ. And he didn't have the wounds
in his hands or the hole in his side. What would Thomas have
said? You're not the Christ. The Christ that I'm talking about
was wounded. The Christ I'm talking about
suffered and bled to death upon the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ
identifies himself as the suffering Christ. As a Christ who has wounds
in his hands and wounds in his feet. Isn't that what the Apostle
Paul said about him? We preach Christ. But he didn't stop there, did
he? We preach Christ crucified. Peter said we preach a wounded
Christ. He suffered for our sins. Isaiah said he was wounded for
our transgressions. The Lord Jesus said they pierced
my hands and my feet. When you and I read the Old Testament,
how do we know how to find Christ? When we hear somebody get up
in the pulpit and preach to us, how do we know that they're preaching
Jesus Christ to us? They preach a suffering Christ.
They preach a wounded Christ. Look over here with me in Psalms
chapter 22, a very familiar passage of scripture in Psalms chapter
22. And look here in verse 1, a very
familiar passage in verse 1 of chapter 22 of Psalms. My God, my God, Why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from heaven,
me, and from the words of my Lord? Now who is this speaking? It's Jesus Christ, isn't it?
And where did he say these words? From the cross. We know this
is speaking of Christ because he was on the cross when he spoke
these words. He cried out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And in verse two, Oh my God,
I cry in the day, but thou hearest not, and in the night seasons,
and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto
thee, and thou, 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. They that see me laugh me to
scorn. They shoot out the lips, they
shake their heads, saying, He trusted on the Lord, that he
would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he
delighteth in him. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb, Thou hast made me to 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. There is none to help. Many bulls
have come past me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me. They
gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water. 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 a poster,
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me
unto the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, and here we find him. They
pierced my hands and my feet." There he is. How do we identify
Him? Look at His feet. A thousand
years or so before His feet were ever pierced. He said, you can
know Me this way. Look at My feet. He showed them
His feet. You know what our gospel is about?
Revealing a Christ. It reveals a Christ. But what
kind of Christ is He? He's a suffering Christ, isn't
He? His vestige was marred more than any man, and the form and
frame of his body was twisted and marred more than any man.
He said, is it nothing to you who pass by? Look at me hanging
on this cross and see if there's any sorrow like unto my sorrow
wherewith God has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. He was betrayed. He was denied. He was forsaken. He was blasphemed.
He was mocked. He was tempted by this roaring
lion by Satan. Satan tried to destroy humanity. He was even utterly forsaken
of God all while he suffered the death of crucifixion. We
have a suffering Christ. You take the blood out of our
gospel and we have no gospel. Paul said, I've said none other
things to you than what Moses said in his writings, that Christ
should suffer. When Jesus Christ was ready to
send his apostles out to preach the gospel into the world, he
said, it's written in the law and it behooved Christ to suffer. He's a suffering savior, isn't
he? We've got a bloody religion, don't we? It's a mess. There's pain in it, there's agony
in it, there's crying in it, there's fear in it, there's darkness
in it. Behold my feet. Nobody ever suffered like Jesus
Christ. And a message ain't worth preaching if we don't preach
a bleeding Savior, a wounded Savior. I was reading a commentary
not long ago and he said, surely when When the last day has come
and the saints are with the Lord in heaven, His wounds will be
healed. He won't have a hole in His side or scars in His hands
or scars in His feet. Surely, surely. That's His glory. That's the way He identifies
Himself. Then and now and then the saints will forever be holding
His feet. What does this feat suggest to
us? Not only that He suffered and suffered greatly, but He
suffered like no other man suffered, and for the cause and reason
for no other man suffered, because His suffering was vicarious.
Behold My feet. I've got wounded feet. I've been
crucified, and My sufferings upon the cross was for you. I don't know when the apostles
saw this, But they must have seen it just about this time.
When He said, Behold My feet, it must have dawned upon them,
this was for Me. This was vicarious. Jesus Christ
did not suffer for Himself. He was not forsaken for Himself. He did not obtain anything for
Himself. He had everything before He came.
Everything He did, He did for others. Behold My feet! I obtained redemption for you.
You were to be charged, but I was charged in your place. You were
to be punished for your sin, but I was punished in your place.
You owed God everything and could pay nothing. I paid it in your
stead. And He shows them His feet. And
they said, this is the truth. Look at His feet. He has suffered. When you and I read the scriptures,
and we're seeking for comfort for our poor, afflicted soul,
let us look for Jesus Christ. And one of the ways we identify
Him is this, behold His feet. Behold His feet. If you see His redeeming feet, Your troubles are going to be
dispelled. Are you troubled? He said to his disciples. Oh,
they were so troubled. He shows them his feet. And what
does the Bible say? Then were they glad. Then were
they glad when they saw the Lord. Redeeming feet, blood, suffering,
sweat, agony, dying, death. That's the kind of Savior we've
got. He did all of that. My next point is this. I'll tell
you this story because you already know it and I won't take time
to turn there. In Luke chapter 7, something else is suggested
by his feet and that's forgiveness of sins. And if he bore your
sins upon the cross and suffered like that, just mark her down.
Your sins are going to be put away from your conscience. They're already put away, but
they'll be put away from your conscience. Remember that Pharisee
by the name of Simon that he invited the Lord Jesus to come
and eat dinner with him. And while they were ready to
eat, this lady came in and she stood at the Lord's feet and
she started weeping. And her tears were running down
and then she got down on her knees. And then her tears started
wetting the feet of our Lord Jesus. mixed with the dirty feet. Then she started wiping his feet
with her hair. And then when she had cleaned
his feet, she began to mourn his feet with a precious ointment. She was at his feet. And Simon
the Pharisee said, if this man were a prophet, he would have
known who this lady is. He would know what kind of woman
this is because she's a sinner. She's probably a harlot. He knew
her. Simon knew her. I don't know
how he knew her, but he knew her. And he said, I don't believe
this is the son of God. I don't even believe he's a prophet.
Or he would know who and what kind of woman this was, because
she's a sinner. And the Lord Jesus said to him, Simon, I want
to ask you a question. There was this man that had...
He was a creditor and had two men in debt to him, and one owed
him five 100 pence. They say that's a lot of money.
One owed 50 pence, but neither one of them was able to pay. Instead of sending them off to
debtor's prison, he freely or frankly forgave both of them. The man who just owed 50 pence,
he couldn't pay. The old John Davis used to say,
bless his heart, he said, I don't know how much I owe. I just know
I can't pay. You can't pay, can you? If God
charges us with one sin, what are we going to pay? He's going
to send us off to debtor's prison. If He charges us with one sin,
who can stand? So the Lord Jesus said He freely
forgave both those men who owed Him. Who will love Him the most?
And Simon said, well, I suppose. I suppose. You just don't want
to give in, do you? I suppose the one that owed him
the most. Yeah, you've said rightly." And
he said, you see this woman, I come in here and you didn't
have any oil to anoint my head, she's anointed my feet. You didn't
have any kisses for my face, she's kissed my feet. She's washed my feet with her
tears, dried them with her iron. You've given me nothing. Because
your sins, which you think are few, are nothing, you still retain
them. You don't give me anything because
you don't love me. That's a difference between an
old Pharisee and a woman who is forgiven, isn't it? They want him to kiss the face
of Christ. She kisses his feet. They want him to take a towel
and wipe the sweat from his brow. She takes her hair and wipes
her tears from his feet. The old Pharisee had nothing
for Christ because he had received nothing from Christ. And it don't
take much to satisfy the conscience of a Pharisee, does it? I'll
pay my tithes. I'll mend my life if I need to. I'll fast twice a week. It don't
take much for a Pharisee to comfort his conscience, but the only
thing that will comfort a conscience of a woman like this is for the
Savior to say to you what He said to her. Woman, your sins,
which are many, they're forgiven. And what did he say? Go in peace.
Get out of here. You don't like being around these
guys. Go in peace. I've forgiven all your sins.
I reckon, would you leave this place tonight in peace if the
Lord spoke to you and said, you're forgiven? All the sins of your
youth, your ignorance, your willful sins, all your sins against my
law, all your sins against God and Christ and the Holy Spirit,
all your sins are forgiven you. And you know where that took
place? At His feet. There's no sinner that ever comes
to the feet of Jesus Christ and leaves unforgiven. Oh, she saw those feet. You know
something? I think I can say this. If He
shows you His feet, you're forgiven. If you ever see His feet, You
forget. He showed him them his feet. Thirdly, I want you to turn to
this scripture with me over in Ephesians chapter 1 quickly. Ephesians chapter 1. He showed
them his feet. If you don't see his feet, then
it's not Christ. It's not Christ. He is identified
by his feet. Look here what he says in Ephesians
chapter one, verse 19, and what is the exceeding greatness of
his power to us who believe according to the working, we believe according
to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ
when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right
hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, that's
the angels, the holy angels, the elect angels, the fallen
angels, all principalities, all powers, spiritual powers, physical
powers, the power over man's body, his soul, his intellect,
his will. The Father's given me power over
all flesh, all animals, all nature. And he said he set him far above
all dominion, all political powers, all systems, all kings, despots,
presidents, governors, He set Him over all might. He's
over all might. Whatever might men may have,
Jesus Christ is set over them. And every name that's named,
and look at this, He's given Him to be head over all things
to the church. And look at this in verse 22,
He hath put all things where? his feet. I was thinking about
this today, and I was trying to think of everything that was
under his feet, and I just kept coming up and coming up with
things, and this is under his feet, and I thought, why don't
I think of it this way? Why don't I try to think of something
that's not under his feet? And that settles it, doesn't
it? What is not under the feet of Jesus Christ? Everything's under his feet.
I told somebody the other day, I quit watching the news because
it just kept me tore up so bad. So I just went and quit watching
it. And I started thinking after that, why was I watching that
anyway? What good did that do anybody? We went on a trip one
time. We was gone 10 days. and we didn't
have any radios, we had no phones, had no TV, we couldn't watch
anything like that. We came back and nothing had
changed. All my worries and everything
didn't mean a thing. You know something, brothers
and sisters, this will bring us rest to our souls and peace
to our souls. Jesus Christ has everything under
his feet. I just saw where the Navy had
came out with a plane that flies 13,000 mile an hour. And they're
gonna use it as a war machine. That's scary, isn't it? We look
around us and there's so many things that scares us. Our next
step that we take may bring us into a situation that will change
our life forever in this world. What keeps us from being devastated? What keeps us from being gripped
with this gnawing fear to paralyze us? His feet. He shows us His feet. And everything is under His feet. Bruce, everything? All things.
You're under His feet. You were His enemy. He brought
you to His feet and made you His friend. But you're there. Your circumstances are there.
The situations that you'll ever be in is there. Your body's there. Your soul is there. Your health
is there. Everything is under His feet and that means it's
under His control. His authority. These preachers that are telling
us that we've got the hands of the Son of God tied? That we've
got Him bent over a barrel and all of this stuff and He's wanting
to do this and we won't let Him? And one man said he was in front
of the throne wringing his hands, hoping and praying that somebody...
Is that the Christ of the Bible? You want to tell those people,
I hope and pray that Jesus Christ shows you His feet. Because when
he does, you'll realize everything is under those feet. And he's either going to crush
his enemies or make them his friends. That brings us to this one. In
Luke chapter 8, and this is another very familiar story. Don't his
feet suggest to us, therefore, a place of rest? A place of rest. If Christ's feet suggest to us
redemption accomplished, and forgiveness, and absolute control
over everything, doesn't His feet suggest to us then that
that's a place of rest? Remember that Gadarean maniac
that left his house and left his family? 2,000 devils got
in that man and drove him to the cemetery, and that's where
he lived. Stripped all of his clothes off, he smelt awful.
He'd put his arm up on the tombstone and cut himself and scream and
cry out. They tried to tame him. No man
could tame him. People would go there to visit their dead
loved ones and he'd whip them, beat them up, run them off. He
was a violent man. And there was nothing he nor
anyone else could do about it. And the Lord Jesus Christ crossed
the Sea of Galilee, went where that man was, and cast the devils
out of that man. They come to see the man and
they were astonished. And here's the way they found
him. Set him. They were astonished. Why were
they astonished? They'd never seen him like that
before. He never sat. He was always crying out and
running. But the Lord Jesus saved him. And he sat down. He had rest. What does this tell us? There's
nobody out of His control. He can save whoever He's pleased
to save. Don't you have relatives, and I have relatives, and we
know people that are so violent in their spirits? You just know they're possessed
with demons. Can He give those people rest? When they find themselves at
His feet, they'll find rest. You want rest? Here's what it's
had at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Something else. Turn to Matthew
chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15 and verse
30. Suggests something else and it
suggests healing. Look here what he says in Matthew
15 and verse 30. And great multitudes came to
Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed,
and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed
them. Insomuch that the multitude wondered
when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame
to walk, and the blind to see, and they glorified the God of
Israel." Isn't this amazing? They brought these multitudes
and they just threw them down at his feet. Some of them were
blind from the birth. Some were crippled from the birth.
They couldn't walk, couldn't even crawl. Some with deadly
leprosy. And they just brought them there
and cast them down at his feet. And another place the Bible says
he healed all manner of sickness. Another place he said he healed
them all. He healed everybody that came
to him. And where were they healed? At His feet. We don't think too much about
this, about physical healing. We've had the charismatic make
us so afraid of talking about physical healing. But you know,
brothers and sisters, the Lord still heals physically, doesn't
He? He has healed me before physically.
But the healing that this shows us here, I think, mainly is the
healing of our souls. That's what we're concerned about,
the healing of our spirit. I wish I didn't have to say this,
but the Lord's little children sometimes get sick. They get
sick in their souls. They get backslidden. They get
indifferent. They leave their first love.
And they need healing, don't they? And I tell you, the place
where you and I can find healing for our souls, our spirit, that's
at the feet, the wounded, nail-scarred feet of our Lord and our Savior. There is healing there. There's
a bomb in Gilead, and it's Jesus Christ, our Lord. The old songwriter
used to sing, there's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not
one. No, not one. None else can heal
all my soul's diseases. Well, you may be here tonight
and you're sick. I mean, you're sick in your soul.
You're just sick. I'll tell you where you can be
healed. At His feet. At the feet of the crucified
Savior. Suggests sixly this. You'll have
to think on these things for yourself. I'm just giving you
some high points to them. Matthew chapter 10, you'll remember
this, where Mary was Martha's sister, and the Bible
says that Martha was cumbered about many things, but Mary sat
at Jesus' feet and heard His word. That's an excellent place
to be taught, isn't it? at Jesus' feet. John Calvin said,
one condition for us getting knowledge is humility. And if we don't get knowledge
and have humility mixed with it, we'll get so puffed up and
proud of our knowledge and even start trusting in our knowledge.
Some people like to brag about how much they know, don't they?
And they get so puffed up in pride, they get some preacher
to tell them something. They go force it down somebody
else's throat or they read somebody's book and they think they know
it all. How could you and I be proud if we sit at the pierced
feet of our Savior? We cannot, can we? Where can
we get knowledge? Where can we grow in grace and
knowledge at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the kind of pastor I want,
Frank. I don't want a pastor that went off to the seminary
and stuffed his head full of knowledge and he just comes here
and tries to cram all that knowledge in on me. I want somebody who
has set at the feet of Jesus Christ. And you can't get any
lower than that, can you? We look up when we're that low,
don't we? And he's taught and he comes
to tell us what the Lord has taught him. Seventhly, the feat of the Lord
Jesus Christ suggested something else to us. In the 12th chapter
of John, in verse 3, you remember the context of this. The Lord
Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Martha and Mary had
been so grieved, they cried and wept for three days. Their brother
had died. He had began to stink, they had
no hope for him in this life, but the Lord Jesus come and said,
Lazarus come forth. And brought him forth, Martha
fixed a big dinner, and it said that Mary, Lazarus' brother,
got this precious box of ointment, perfume, and poured it on his
feet. What does his feet suggest to
us? It's a place where we go to adore him. Go to praise Him. Go to give thanks unto Him. What's
the Lord Jesus did for you? What's He did for you today?
You say, Bruce, I don't have any precious ointment to pour
on His feet. Yes, you do. Thanksgiving. The spirit of praise. We got
up this morning. Who woke us up? The Son of God
woke us up. Who gave us our food this morning?
Who brought us here in His kind providence tonight? Our Lord
did. Who gave us this rain from heaven to soften His ground?
Who commanded the trees now getting green? Who gave us another spring? Who gave you your job that you
have? Who gave you your bank account? Who's given you everything
you've got that's fit to have? The Son of God did. We don't
have a thing but what He's given to us. Oh Lord Jesus, praise
Your blessed name. Then you count your spiritual
blessing. You know Him. He's put your sins
away. He showed you His feet. He's
given you a good hope of heaven. He's helped you through all these
trials. When you're in trouble, He heard
your cry and He delivered you. Lord Jesus, I love you. I adore
you. I admire you. I thank you. I praise you. And boy, the sweet
perfume rises. Where's that dime? Right at His
feet. Right at His feet. And lastly is this. Matthew 28,
verse 8 and 9. When the Lord Jesus had risen
from the dead, they couldn't find Him in the tomb. As they
were going away, when the angel said He's risen, go tell His
disciples they met the Lord Jesus. He stopped him right in the way
and said, all hail, rejoice. And what did the Bible say those
ladies did? They came and held him by his
feet and worshiped him. What does his feet suggest to
us? That's a place of worship. I worship tonight, Brian. I worship
tonight. When you exalt the Savior and
put down flesh, and you see His feet, you worship Him, don't
you? That's one of the things I love about the grace churches.
You don't have to come here and get pumped up. You come here
and they tell us how sorry we are. What great sinners we are. Hell-deserving sinners. They
kick every prop out from under us. Then they exalt our Savior. Then we see we're accepted in
Him. We see His feet. And then what
do we do? We worship. We worship our Lord
and our Savior. But this all takes place at His
feet. May the Lord Jesus do for us
tonight what He did for His apostles. May He show us His feet. Because that's the way you know
Him. That's the way you identify. It's Him when you see His feet. Lord bless you. Thank you, Bruce. I learned so
much tonight, haven't you? Those six laws, the feet of the
Savior. How often do we tell people,
come to Christ, fall at his feet, beg for mercy. What a beautiful
sight there is. Bruce, I'll never say that the
same way again, but thank you for that. It was so good. Before
we stand and sing, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you that
you've allowed us to be here to hear it tonight. And Father,
I beg of you that you would not let one soul leave here tonight
unaffected, their heart not softened, broken, and looking to and trusting
in Christ our Savior, his successful victorious, conquering sacrifice
for his people. Father, give us faith to believe
and rest in the Christ that we've heard preached this evening.
We pray you give us a night of rest and bring us back to a more
time worship at your feet again tomorrow morning. It's in the
precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake and his
glory, we pray. Amen. 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. Come back and hear some more
good news. Shawn, you come dismiss this song. I have already changed things
on our musicians once this evening, but I'm going to do it again.
If you would turn to song number 329 and stand as we sing sitting
at the feet of Jesus.