You will open your Bibles with
me to Luke chapter 24. I've been here many, many times
over the years. We come up here this morning.
I was walking up on the porch and maybe some of y'all remember
when Don used to have the conferences over New Year's. And, oh, it's
so cold to come up here in that wind to jerk the door out of
your hand and just freeze you. It was awful. I'm glad he finally
moved it to September. But boy, those was... All right, it's just a good blessing
for me to be here and I pray God would, I prayed for this
service and prayed for you and asked the Lord to please meet
with us. If he doesn't meet with us, I've been where I'm at now going
on 42 years, and as I told Bruce Crabtree a couple of days ago,
with all the preaching we've done and all the studying we've
done, we ain't touched the hem of the garment yet. Not touched
the hem of the garment. But look there with me in verse
50, Luke 24, 50. And he led them out as far as
to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he
blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and
were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. Our Lord lifted up his hands
here and blessed those disciples that were gathered around Him
as He is taken back up into glory. But this is after our Lord Jesus
had already conquered death. He had defeated death. He left
the grave spoiled, just a place for us to wait for the resurrection
of our own bodies one of these days. And our Lord Jesus, who
created this world and upholds it by the word of His power,
bless this earth by being born and by living on this earth and
walking on this earth for 33 years, some say 33 and a half,
but how what a blessing for him to come into this world and meet
with us as a man. But now he's going to pass through
the air, he's going to ascend back to the glory that he had
with the Father before the world ever was. He's gonna go back
there. He's gonna go back in the exalted position that his
Father gave him at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And our Lord Jesus ascended to
heaven in a way that I believe we can learn some things from.
I certainly hope we can. And you know he was on the earth
for 40 days AFTER his resurrection. After our Lord Jesus was raised
from the dead, he stayed here for 40 days. And that 40 in the
scriptures means PROVING TIME. PROVING TIME. Moses was on the
mountain 40 days and 40 nights. Our Lord Jesus Christ was in
the wilderness 40 days and 40 nights. And that 40 is a PROVING
TIME. And so our Lord Jesus stayed
here for 40 days and 40 nights to prove that He was really the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal God, and the Man who was crucified
and was buried and was raised again, and was raised again. And so to remove any doubt of
His identity, and to teach and instruct His disciples. Look
what it says back up here in verse 45. And this is exactly
what has to happen to us. Then opened He their understanding. Nobody's going to have any understanding
of what God has to say, of what Christ did and what He accomplished,
unless Christ opens their understanding. And here's what He opens their
understanding for, that they might understand the Scriptures.
The Scriptures. And I tell you what, and he said
this, and thus it is written, he went to the Scriptures, he
always used the Scriptures, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead the third day, and then you go out
and preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem, and you are witnesses of these things. So you just
wait in Jerusalem until you endued with power from on high. So here
he is, he teaches, he's taught his disciples, he's instructed
his disciples, and he gave them the commission, what they're
to do. And the place where our Lord Jesus Christ was, he was
on Mount Olive. He was on Mount Olive. This is
the mountain where our Lord Jesus went up and often communed with
his Father. And he oftentimes took his disciples
with him. And there he often went up on
the mountainside, and at times it says he went up there and
prayed all night. Prayed all night. And this mountain
looked down on Bethany. And Bethany was a special place
to our Lord Jesus. Bethany was a wonderful place,
blessed place. There were people there that
He loved. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He performed one of the greatest
miracles that He ever did there in Bethany. And He loved Bethany. And He loved the people in Bethany.
Especially that dear, dear family. Sat at their table and ate with
them. And also this place where He was at, it was near to Gethsemane,
the place of agony, the awful agony that our Savior went through
before He went to the cross. The agony, His soul was so troubled,
His heart was so pained, and it WASN'T because of what He
was going to face. For you and me, it was because
of what He was going to be by His Father. that His Father would
turn out the lights on Him, that His Father would turn His back
on Him, that He would be alone even without His Father doing
anything for Him. THAT'S what He dreaded! Him and
His Father, Him and His Father were, this is one of the greatest
mysteries of all time, how that Christ, the Son, is as old as
God the Father, and yet when He assumed humanity, He came
into this world and humbled Himself and became as a SERVANT to His
Father. And for Him to say, you know,
that was what BOTHERED Him more than anything in this world,
was that His Father, My God, My God, why hast thou rejected
Me? Because even when He wanted the
Christ from the cross, He said, Father, forgive Him! Forgive them, they don't know
what they're doing. So it wasn't our sins that made His burden
so great, though that was great, but to be forsaken of His Father,
that's why He sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. And
then there was, look at the witnesses. Our Lord Jesus, before those
40 days and 40 nights while He was on the earth, there were
so many people that saw Him, saw Him. And I couldn't, you
know, he appeared to his disciples first, the 11. Simon Peter wasn't
with them. And I tell you what, then he
appeared to all of his disciples, then he appeared to Mary Magdalene,
then he appeared to Mary, his mother, then he appeared to,
the scripture says, above 500 brethren at one time, at one
time. And so they couldn't be deceived
as to who he was. You know, our Lord Jesus, he
says there, he says, you know, when they looked at him, he said
he'd hold his hands out, said, look, it's me. It's me. He couldn't
be, they couldn't be deceived as to who he was. Great witnesses. Oh, he appeared to Simon Peter.
He said, tell Simon that I'll go before him in Galilee and
that I'll see him. And these people were trustworthy.
They were characters and wonderful characters, blessed people. And
they witnessed our Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrected body
after he is raised from the dead. And so he's standing here. His
disciples gathered around Him. He's fixing to go back up to
glory. And He lifts up His hands. He lifts up His hands. Nothing
superstitious about it. He's standing there, lifts up
His hands. It was quiet. No chariot of fire
come down like it did for Elijah. No horses of fire coming across
the sky. But here He is just in His glorious
person, so majestic, there's no angels around, there's no
great choir singing, no imaginary splendor, just our
Lord standing there with His disciples with His own power
in His Godhead and the simplicity of Him doing everything. doing
everything. And oh God, please, for Christ's
sake, meet with us and let us see some things about our Savior
here today. And our Lord Jesus blessed. The
last thing he did before he ascended to glory was to bless his disciples. He lifted up his hands, lifted
up his hands. Now this blessing, this blessing
wasn't an unusual thing. It's customary for Him to bless.
You know, when He was walking with the disciples on the Emmaus
Road, and you know, they didn't have a clue who He was until
He sat down to eat with them, and He blessed the bread, and
then their eyes were opened just because of the way He spoke and
the way His blessings was. That's the LORD! That's the LORD. So it's a customary way to bless. and more the customary ways of
blessing was to stretch out His hands. And this is the attitude
in which He departed, with His hands lifted up and a blessing
coming out of His lips to His blessed people. Oh, what a blessing
it was! And I'll tell you something,
it says there, when He came, you know, and He lifted up His
hands and blessed them. This blessing was with authority. Now, I can't, I can say, the
Lord bless you, may God bless you, but I can't bless you. I hope to be a blessing to you,
but I can't bless you. I don't have any authority. There's
not a man on the earth that has the authority to bless you. If
I said, lifting their hands and say, now, I'm gonna put a blessing
on you. I know there say there are people
that can do that, and go through some hocus-pocus and hold up
some little old thing, you know, and sprinkle it around and all
that rigmarole. But I tell you, this blessing
that our Lord Jesus Christ gave was WITH AUTHORITY! Authority! He had AUTHORITY to give a blessing! He had the POWER to give a blessing! AND THIS BLESSING WAS GIVEN AS
HIS FATHER WAS RECEIVING HIM BACK UP INTO HEAVEN, TO SET HIM
AT HIS OWN RIGHT HAND. NOW KEEP LUKE AND LOOK OVER HERE
AT MATTHEW CHAPTER 8 WITH ME. LOOK AT MATTHEW CHAPTER 8. WON'T
YOU SEE SOMETHING OVER HERE ABOUT OUR LORD'S HANDS? ABOUT OUR LORD'S
HANDS. YOU KNOW, HE GAVE THIS BLESSING
WHEN HE WAS BEING RECEIVED BACK UP INTO GLORY. HE SAID, FATHER,
I FINISHED THE WORK THAT YOU GAVE ME TO DO. NOW GLORIFY ME
WITH THE GLORY WHICH I HAD WITH THEE BEFORE THE WORLD WAS. NOW
LOOK HERE IN CHAPTER 8, MATTHEW 8, AND LOOK START IN VERSE 1. WHEN OUR LORD JESUS WAS COME
DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN, WHICH IS WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT,
HE WENT UP THERE TO PRAY. GREAT MULTITUDES FOLLOWED HIM.
AND BEHOLD, THERE CAME A LEPER AND WORSHIPED HIM. saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now look what it says
here. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him, and touched him, put forth his hand and touched
him. Do you know what a blessing this
man received by Christ touching him? If you and I touched a leper,
we'd be contaminated, we'd be unclean. Christ can touch a leper
and the leper becomes clean and Christ is not contaminated. Christ
became sin for us, but he himself was never a sinner. He's always
been holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And look
what it says down here in verse 14 of Matthew 8. And when Jesus
was coming to Peter's house, and he saw his wife's mother
laid sick of a fever, And he touched her hand. He reached
out with his hand and touched her hand. And the fever left
her just that quick. Oh, you're talking about a blessing.
He's got the authority to give a blessing. He's got the authority
to do it. And this blessing that he gave,
we're here back over here in Luke 5, 24. This blessing was
so full, so wondrous, that when he gave a blessing, all the blessings
that he had, come through him. No blessings was ever given except
what come through his blessed hands. And he emptied his hands
on these people this day. And this blessing that he gave
was for them, for them present right then at that time, and
for them who would believe afterwards who were on the sound of his
voice. Those who weren't even present
And even now He scatters blessings upon all of His people for all
time. If I have a blessing in this
world, and people say, Boy, I tell you what, you know, you need
to do this or do that to pray so much, read your Bible so much,
attend so many services and do all this and that to receive
a blessing. THERE'S NOT ONE THING, NOT ONE THING THAT A HUMAN BEING
HAS EVER DONE TO EARN ONE BLESSING FROM GOD. NOT ONE. NOT ONE. SO IF YOU EVER GET A BLESSING,
AND GOD EVER BLESSED YOU, HE DID IT FOR ONE REASON, FOR CHRIST'S
SAKE. AIN'T THAT RIGHT? WHY ELSE WOULD
HE BLESS US? WHY ELSE WOULD HE BLESS US? AND
I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, IF HE GAVE BLESSINGS Blessings upon blessings,
even for those that are sitting here today. And what a glorious,
blessed way for our Lord to finish His time here on earth. He's
just finishing up His life, finishing up leaving here. And as they're
standing there, He lifted up His hands. Now His gravity is
fixing to let go of Him. He's fixing to leave here. And
He lifted up His hands. And He blessed them. And He blessed
them. Oh my. There's nothing here for
us to cry about. This is no deathbed scene. I've been in several deathbed
scenes. I have over in my life. I've been with several people
that was leaving this world. And I was never, ever, never
with a believer that was leaving this world that left with any
fear or trepidation. They were all ready, they were
all willing, they were all joyfully waiting to go. Waiting to go. And it's a blessing to watch
somebody take their last breath and know the minute they take
it, they're in glory. Just that snap, just faster than
you snap your fingers. Just that quick. But this wasn't
no deathbed scene here. We aren't at the close of our
Lord Jesus Christ's life here. No, no, no, no. This is just
the beginning. This is just the beginning of
life. He's going back to glory. He's
going to sit down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
He's going to sit down to a place with all power and authority,
with all might in His glorious hands, all might in His glorious
presence. And when we even pray, we use
His name. When we ask for God to give us
something, we use Christ's Name! And I tell you what, this is
just the BEGINNING! Just the BEGINNING! And you know,
our Lord Jesus, when He prayed His high priestly prayer over
there in John 17, He said, Father, I don't just pray for THESE that
You've given Me, but for THEM that shall BELIEVE on Me through
Their Word! And you know what the word that
we believe is this right here, this is God's Word, every word
in it. People say, Paul said this and
Peter said that. We can instead of saying Paul
or Peter or anybody else, we can say God said, Christ said. And that's what gives us our
authority, that's what gives us our peace, that's what gives
us our comfort in this world. And then let me tell you something
else about these hands that blessed them, lifted up and blessed them
as he was getting ready to ascend. And it says there in verse 51,
And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from
them. Still had his hands up as he
parted from them. And those hands that he lifted
up, those hands that he lifted up to bless them, they were hands
that had been pierced. had been pierced. And this is
how they knew, this is how they knew they were the Lord's hands. You know, when we get to glory,
we're going to see Him as a Lamb that had been slain. Well, even
when we get to glory, He's still going to have the scars in His
body that He got while He was here. Still have them. They said
they saw Him as a Lamb that had been slain. and those hands that
he held up to bless these saints with and to bless us with their
pierced hands and because they were pierced that's why they
knew they were the Lord Jesus' hands and seeing his pierced
hands they knew and saw the price the price of their blessing the
price of their blessing when you look at the hands of the
Lord Jesus Christ that blood flowed out of his hands Blood
flowed out of His feet. Blood and water flowed out of
His side. And when they saw those hands
that were so pierced, they understood that this is what the cost of
our blessing was. That death that He suffered,
that death on the cross, those cruel nails put into His hands. And it was His death that brought
continual blessings upon them and upon His redeemed even today. It's because of those pierced
hands. And when they saw those hands that had those holes in
them, they saw the way of God's blessing, the way of Christ's
blessing. When they saw those hands, they saw it was the hands
of a man, the hands of a man. They saw the sacrificial wounds
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah asked this question,
talking to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, where are those thy
wounds that you got in your hands? Where did you get those wounds
that are in your hands? He said, I got them. I got them
in the house of my friends. And the next word says, smite
the shepherd. Smite him how? Smite him with
nails. Smite him. And I tell you what,
when you get to glory, there'll be a man, the only God we'll
ever see in glory is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you
what, he'll be just like he was when he went up, when he left
those men there, that's the same body we're gonna see when we
get to glory. Oh, my! The sight of His hands,
just the sight of His hands, period, is in itself a blessing. And you see in those wounds,
seeing the wounds that was in His precious hands, seeing the
wounds that was in our Savior's hands, seeing the wounds that
was in His feet. I even believe that there's going
to be scars on His head because of that pierced, those thorns that pierced
his scalp and pierced his face. Oh my. And just a sight of those
hands in itself is a blessing, just to see them. And it's by
seeing those blessed wounds, by seeing that those wounds purchased,
bought for us, paid for us, endured for us, everything that God has
ever chosen for us and given us and even ELECTED us for, for
Christ to come and DO THIS and GO THROUGH THIS so that we can
be ACCEPTED in Christ and Christ alone. Oh my! In those blessed hands we see
LIFE! In those blessed hands we see
FORGIVENESS! In those blessed hands we see
justification! We see righteousness bestowed
because of those blessed hands. I remember a deacon that was
a deacon of a church, 13th Street as a matter of fact, years and
years ago, years ago, probably 30-something years ago. And I
know the man very well and loved him and enjoyed his blessings,
enjoyed being around Him, enjoyed being with Him. He had been a
deacon for a while, but one day he was traveling in his automobile
to go somewhere, and he was listening to a message. He was listening
to a message about Christ crucified. And he said, and he went back
and told the church this, he said, I have NEVER seen Christ
crucified for me and me alone! Just for me! And I saw that day
that Christ died for me. And that day was the day of my
salvation. And he went back as a deacon
of that church and told his pastor, he said, God saved me today. I saw Christ dying for me, not
just a generic Christ, scattering blessings all over the place,
but a Christ who died for individuals, who died for people. When I say
died for people, I'm telling you that, beloved, before I was
ever born, before God ever put a star in the sky, before the
sons of God ever shouted for joy, before he laid the foundation
of the earth. God chose his people in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And he said, I'm gonna
send my son into this world. And he's gonna die for Abel,
he's gonna die for everyone, that from Genesis to Revelation,
he's gonna die for every single one of them. And every one of
them is gonna know that I did it for them. When they preached
on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 souls believed, every single
one of those souls believed for themselves. And that's why, son, when we
talk about looking at the hands of Christ, take those blessed
hands and those blessed hands reach and get you and bring you
to Himself. reach and get you and hug you?
As old Maurice Montgomery used to say, he said, oh listen, hug
up to him, hug up to him. He shed blood so he could hug
up to you and you could hug up to him. He bought and paid for
you so you could hug up to him and he could hug up to you. He
did this so that when we call on him and need him and desire
him and have to have him, we do. We do. Oh, my. And the lifting up of
those hands to bless, to bless these men and to bless us, that's
the very epitome of the gospel. It's the substance of the gospel.
It's pierced hands that bring the blessings. It's pierced hands
that lifts up over us. It was through suffering, through
death, And our Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who has the right, who has the power to bless. And he alone has that power to
bless. And I'll tell you something,
this was the last that was seen of the Lord on this earth until
he comes again. but he hasn't changed his way
of blessing. Oh, the wonderful hands of our
Lord Jesus Christ! Simon Peter, he said, If Lord
if it's you, bid me walk to you. Simon Peter just started walking
on the water, going to Christ! Because Christ was walking out
on the water, coming to get in that boat with him. Simon Peter
started going down, and his hands reached out and said, he said,
Lord, save me. I'll perish. Christ just reached
God by the hand. And he no sooner touched his
hand than he was in the boat with him, just like that. The same hand, the time old Peter,
Thomas, excuse me, Thomas said, The disciple said, Christ is
risen, we've seen him. He said, I don't believe it.
I don't believe it. I do not believe that. Well,
we've seen him. He said, I tell you what, unless
I can see him with my eyes and my hands can touch him and I
can stick my finger in his hands and put my hand in his side,
I'm not gonna believe. He no sooner got the words out
of his mouth No sinner got him out of his mouth and Christ was
right there. You know how quick Christ can get to you? Just like
he did Thomas. Thomas, no sinner got through
saying, I don't believe it. And except I. Christ stood in
front of him and said, here, Simon. I mean, here, Thomas,
go ahead. Go ahead. Turned his side to
him. Go ahead, stick your hand there.
You know what Thomas did? Got on his knees and said, oh
my Lord and my God. But that's how quick Christ can
be here. All you gotta do is just say his name and he's there. He's there, just that quick.
Oh my. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus,
oh what a blessing. What blessings he gives. Oh his
precious hands, blessed hands. And we ask God to take those
hands, do things for people, pray for people. Can you imagine
the Lord Jesus Christ? He don't even let ANYBODY do
anything for His children but Himself. He don't let ANYBODY take His
children home but Himself. And here's the thing, our Lord
is so glorious, so majestic, so infinite, so eternal, that He can do something for every one
of His children on earth and all of them in heaven at the
same time and be their Lord and their Lord alone. You know, I don't know if I ever
told you this before, but you know, if you're a member of a
family, and your parents die or somebody dies, you're gonna
inherit some money. Say there's five of you. You gotta take that inheritance,
divide it five ways. Five ways. So if you had a pie,
you cut it up, and everybody gets a piece of pie. But with
Christ, we get the whole pie. We get it all. With Christ, we
get it all. We don't have to share with anybody
else. I mean, when we get Christ and
the inheritance is with Him and all we get for Him, we, every
single one, get exactly the same thing and it's just the whole
pie. The whole inheritance is ours.
And oh my. So those hands that He held up
to bless these people, they were omnipotent hands. They were omnipotent
hands. All powers in them hands. All
powers in them hands. It says that he upholds them
by the word of his power. And oh my, he holds the scepter
of righteousness in his hands. And I tell you what, beloved,
and you know the world, we don't have to talk, preach about how
bad the world is. I mean, it's always been bad,
I never dreamed it was gonna get this bad in my lifetime anyway,
but it's bad. But I'll tell you this, I'll
tell you this, that I'm thankful that he is running this world,
that he's got all power, and that I'm in his hands. That's
the safest place you can be. You can't be in a more safe,
more secure, more blessed, more comforting place right now than
in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't. People get, you know, and he
holds that scepter. He holds that scepter. That scepter
of a king. And not only is his hands omnipotent
hands, all powerful hands, but those hands were the hands of
providence. Do you know that our Lord Jesus,
we put some things in our bulletin this week, that he holds the
smallest affairs. I mean, if he doesn't pay attention
to the minutest details of this world, what makes you think that
he ain't gonna take care of the great things? If he cares about
a sparrow, imagine what he thinks about you. And I'm like Mr. Spurgeon, you see light coming
through a window and you see all that dust in the air, you
know that light coming through a window? He's just as much control
over that dust in the air as he is over your soul. If we can't trust Him with a
little many things, we certainly can't trust Him with a big. And
if we had 10,000 souls, we could trust Him with every single one
of them. And oh my, His providence. His providence. You ever get
aggravated because somebody gets in front of you and they're just
going slow, slow, slow, and you want to get on with it? You want
to move on? Did you ever think that God put somebody slow in
front of you to keep you from going around and getting hit
by a big truck or something? You know, everything happens
for a reason. But we get frustrated over the
little things. The big things don't seem to
bother us, but oh my, we just let some little something happen.
But I'm telling you, what I'm telling you is that the smallest
things that happen is as much as the big things that happen.
But we just ain't got, I don't, I won't tell, I'm just gonna
tell you, me, I won't say it about you. But I don't pay enough
attention to the little things. I look at the big things. But
I tell you, I still understand. He numbers the hairs of our head,
that's how much he's interested in us. And not only is this the
hands of omnipotence and providence, but it's the hands of a king.
the hands of a king who has a KINGDOM on this earth. And it's a SPIRITUAL
KINGDOM. Spiritual Kingdom. And the church,
and you know, we all in a kingdom. We all have a king. And the church,
he's over the church and all of its work in this world. He's
the head of the church. He's the foundation of the church.
He's the LIFE of the church. And he upholds the church. And our Lord Jesus said, I tell
you, I give unto them eternal life. And oh, what a statement. And no man, no man shall ever
pluck them out of my hand. Nobody, nobody. A fellow told
me one time, well, you can take yourself out. I said, what kind
of idiot would take their self out of the hands of Christ? Then
he talked about, you know, well, you can be lost again. I said,
you can't undo a birth. Once you've had it, you can't
undo it. Once you're born, then if you're born again by the Spirit
of God, you can't undo that birth. You may stumble, you may fall,
you may do some awful things, but you cannot undo that birth.
There's a little old gal in our congregation. They were, her
and her husband was off at a golf tournament one time. She, because
of her work, she got a chance to go to Augusta, to the Masters.
While she was down there, she was pregnant and she lost a baby
while she was down there. And she was just not very far
along. And they come into the room,
and they ask her, what do you want us to do with it? You want us
to dispose of it? What do you want us to do? She
said, no. I'm going to take it home with
me, and I'm going to bury it. And I'll tell you what, she had that. I mean, you could
put it in a shoebox, a small shoebox. but as a body. And she said, I want it. She
had it brought back. Her father and her mother, me,
my wife at that time, and the mother and the daddy was all
that was there. And her granddaddy, but I'm telling you, what I'm
telling you is that Christ, his life, and that he takes care
of life, the smallest details in life. And if she took interest
in that little baby of hers and took it home, and there it was
there, and the grandfather dug the grave. It's a little old
bitty grave. They pulled up in a white hearse,
took it, little old bitty white casket out, we put it in the
ground, and he covered it back up. And I said, suffer the little
children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of God. We're
in the kingdom of a spiritual king. And I tell you, you know,
and if she'd take care of her baby like that, imagine what
Christ does for us. Huh? Oh, my. And here's something
else I tell you. You know, the future judgment's
in his hands. and eternal reign, this is what?s
a blessing! People say, ?Ain?t you afraid
of the judgment?? Absolutely not! Absolutely not! I?ve already faced the judgment!
I?ve already faced it! See, we?re all going to have
to appear before the judgment seat of Christ! I already have! Where
was it at? At the cross! Ain?t that right? At the cross! So let me close
with this. I don't have a clue how long
I've preached. I didn't break my watch. But anyway, look what it says
here now. So let's worship Him. He's ascended. Verse 50 said,
He led them out as far as to Bethany, lifted up His hands,
and blessed them. And it came to pass while He
blessed them, He was parted. from them and carried up into
heaven. Now look what it says after that. And they worshipped
him. They worshipped him. They worshipped
him. Oh my, that's what we're here
for today, to worship Christ. If we don't worship him here,
ain't no sense going home and trying to worship him. But that's
the wonderful thing. Another thing about Christ, we
worship him all the time. We adore Him all the time. We
call on Him all the time. We need Him all the time. Need
Him, need Him, need Him, need Him. I need Thee every hour.
One fellow said, I need Thee every moment. I need Thee, oh
Lord, I need Thee. And they worshipped Him. They
worshipped Him. And then they returned to Jerusalem,
it said, with great joy. He had just parted from them.
He had just left them. What are they so joyful about?
Because they knew that everything they needed and everything they
had to have, He already gave it to them, already gave it to
them. And they were continuing the
temple, praising and blessing God. The veil had been removed
from their eyes for the first time they saw clearly the meaning
of our Lord Jesus Christ's humiliation. They saw clearly His mysterious
agony upon that cross. They understood the meaning of
how He would have to suffer before He could ever enter into His
glory. They understood His suffering
and His crucifixion now, and they understood that, yes, He
is the Son of God, and they saw it clearly now. Saw it clearly. Look with me, if you will, over
Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter 6. I believe
this was the blessing that he gave them. I believe this was
the blessing. But oh, they went back with great
joy. Great joy. Number 624. I believe every one
of y'all know this. Maybe this was the words that
he said to him when he ascended back to glory that day when he
lifted up his hands. And that's what God told Aaron
to do. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. For the Lord Jesus to say that. The Lord bless thee and
keep thee. The Lord make His face to look at you. and shine
on you. And the Lord be gracious, gracious
unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance
and look at you. Lift up His countenance and look
at you. And when He looks at you, let Him give you peace. give him peace, and then put
my name upon the children of Israel. That's the name we've
got. The name of Christ, our life. Oh, our Father. Oh, our blessed,
blessed Father. Thank you, Lord. Blessed be your
holy name for allowing us to meet, to worship, to look into
your word, to believe your word, for your word to speak to our
hearts, our minds, and our understandings. And I thank you for this, people.
Thank you for these dear saints here. God, and I pray you'd give
them an abundance of grace, cause them
to be fruitful, Cause them to multiply. Raise them up someone that's of your choosing, if it
pleases you. And Lord, meet the need of every
home here and of every heart. Strengthen and encourage. Go
in the home, go in the heart, go in every family. And Lord
Jesus, do for them and do for all of us what only you can do. We ask you and bless you and
praise you in Christ's holy name. Amen.