Is it possible that the Son of
God can be forced to do something? Do the Scriptures give us any
indication anywhere that He was ever forced to do something? Indeed, they do. Turn with me
tonight to Luke chapter 24. We will begin reading at verse
28. The Lord Jesus is walking with
these two disciples on the road to Emmaus. after his resurrection. And they drew nigh unto the village,
whither they went. And he, our Savior, made as though
he would have gone further. As they walked along the road
with these two disciples in his company, the Lord Jesus came
with them close to the village, and they turned to go into the
village where they were going, to go into the house Perhaps
it was their own house, don't know. And the Lord Jesus kept
walking right on down the road. He made as though he would have
just kept on walking. He didn't give any indication
that he was going to turn in with them. His feet were turned
away from them, but his heart was turned toward them. His heart
was still with them. He acted like he was going to
leave them. Why? If it was his intent, if it was
his purpose to go with them, why did he act like he wasn't
going to? He wanted to constrain them,
to constrain him to abide with them. Now, we have numerous examples
of this kind in Scripture. You'll remember one dark night
when the disciples were in a terrible storm. It was dark. blowing,
beating against the ship, the ship tossed, and they were horrified. They were horrified. Suddenly
they saw a figure walking toward them across the raging billows
of the sea. They thought they'd seen a ghost.
And as the figure got closer, it looked as though he was just
going to walk right on by them, until suddenly they cried out
for fear. They didn't cry out in faith.
They cried out for fear. They didn't cry out because of
great theological depth of understanding. They were in a storm. They cried
out for fear. And as soon as the Lord Jesus
heard that cry, straightway He spake unto them, saying, Be of
good cheer, it is I. Be not afraid. As soon as they
heard His cry, The Lord Jesus is walking across the water,
and He acts as though He's going to go right by them. And they
cried for fear, and He stood dead still on top of that water. That's what I came to hear. That's
what I came to hear. And they heard Him speak. As the Lord Jesus made His way
to Calvary, nothing could stop Him. Scripture tells us he set
his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem. To go up to Jerusalem
to suffer and die as our substitute. To put away our sins by the sacrifice
of himself. So clear was he in declaring
his purpose that when the disciples could not persuade him not to
go, Thomas said, let's go with him that we may die with him. They knew what our Master had
said. The Jews were going to kill him. but it set his face
to go up to Jerusalem. And nothing could stop him. Nothing
could cause him to even pause and take a backward glance over
his shoulder. Nothing could break his stride
until as he's going up out of Jericho, just as he's about to
leave the city, as he passed by, there's a blind man by the
name of Bartimaeus sitting by the wayside, begging, who when
he heard that Jesus was passing by, cried, Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, stopped,
dead in his tracks, at the cry of a needy soul. On another occasion,
there's a poor Canaanite woman who came to the Savior, whose
daughter was grievously vexed with the devil, and she cried
to him to help her. And he acted like he didn't even
hear her. The Scripture tells us, he answered
her never a word. Didn't even hear her, as far
as she could tell. When he didn't appear to hear her, she did the
same thing we would do if you were talking to somebody and
it was obvious they didn't hear you. You speak a little louder.
And she cried a little louder so much so the disciples said
to the Master, send her away. We don't want to hear this woman
crying like this. And the Lord Jesus at last heard
her cry and satisfied her need. But why? Why is it that those
ears always open to misery, that heart always full of mercy. Why is it that the master appeared
not to hear her? It was because he would open
her heart the wider to receive the greatness of the goodness
he's about to bestow on her. The Lord Jesus often works this
way with his own. He often makes it appear that
he will leave us or that he has left us. He does so that he may
graciously cause us to cry after him. Oh, how he loves to hear
us cry after him. One of the objects we have in
life as parents is to raise our children to be independent. To be independent. Raise our
children to do without us. And one of the most painful things
on this earth for a parent to experience is for those children
to be independent and be able to do without us. Now, for you
who haven't yet had the joyous pain of experiencing it, Lindsey
and Diane are fairly new grandparents. Wait until they don't need you
quite as much. don't need to sit on your lap
quite as much. They don't need to see you come
quite as much because they have other interests, other cares,
other concerns. Oh God, let us never grow in
that way before our God. Our Savior loves to hear us cry
after Him. and acknowledge and know in our
hearts our utter dependence upon him. He loves for us to entreat
him not to leave us because he delights to abide with us. Our Lord, blessed be his name,
is ever gracious and often proves our love, not for his benefit
but for ours. He compelled Peter at last to
confess, Lord you know all things, you know that I love you. Not
for his benefit, he knew it all the while. Peter was the one
in the mess, and Peter needed to know the reality of his love. Not something to brag about,
not something for him to sing about, not something for him
to talk about, but a compassion that the Lord Jesus finally squeezed
from his heart for his benefit. And our Lord often proves our
love, withholding his mercies until we ask for them. He's promised
that he will do us good. He promised that he will bless
us. He has promised that he will never leave us and never forsake
us. But listen to this, I will yet
for this be inquired of you. That's how he dealt with Jacob
at Peniel. You remember he came in Genesis 32 and wrestled with
Jacob. The scripture does not tell us
that Jacob wrestled with the Lord. He didn't. He wrestled
with the Lord only because the Lord had wrestled with him. Jacob
was wrestled by the Lord. That's not a picture of men wrestling
with God in prayer. You don't have to wrestle with
God in prayer. You don't conquer God by prayer.
The Lord met Jacob and wrestled with Jacob because it was his
intent from the beginning to make himself known to Jacob and
make Jacob know that he must have him. And at last, as the
day began to break, Jacob, desperate in his need, as the Lord Jesus
said, Let me go, for the day breaketh, he cried, I will not
let thee go, except thou bless me. And he got what the Lord
came to give him. He blessed him. And one way he
blessed him was by breaking his thigh. Let me see if I can give
you another illustration. Turn to the psalm of Solomon,
chapter 5. Let me remind you, as you read
the Song of Solomon, don't even try in your mind to picture this
as a literal story. It is not. It is impossible to
accurately and properly interpret the Song of Solomon and make
any sense about it by describing it as the love of Solomon for
one of his hundreds of wives. There's nothing spiritual about
that. But this book is written by inspiration. Inspiration of
God. And Solomon is set before us
as a blessed picture and type of our Lord Jesus Christ. His
Shulamite bride, this one chosen of Him, is His church. And this is how she's represented
over and over and over again in the Song of Solomon. Here
we are. I sleep. That's a sad state, but that's
the state in which He most commonly finds us. Is there any child
of God here who would argue with that? I sleep, but my heart waketh."
That's good. It is the voice of my beloved
that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled. Oh, what mercy. The same picture
is given in Revelation 3. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If any man will open to me, I will come in and sup with
him, and he with me. He ever knocks, not at the heart's
door of dead sinners that they might let him in, but he knocks
at the heart's door of his beloved, bids us to have him come in.
He describes us even in our lethargy and sleep. He describes us as
My sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled is open to me. I've made you as lovely as a
dove, undefiled. For my head is filled with the
dew and my locks with the drops of the night. I still bear upon
me and about me every sign of toil and labor which I endured
as your substitute to redeem and make you my dove, my undefiled. And our response, Lord, don't
bother me now. Everything's going all right.
I put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I'm resting.
I've washed my feet. I don't need you right now. I've
been behaving pretty good. I'm not too dirty. I'm secure
and comfortable. How shall I defile them? If it
was any one of us standing at the door, we'd say, good enough,
I'll leave you. But not the master. My beloved
put his hand in. By the hold of the door, those
ancient homes, the one who owned the house, he knew how to open
the house. They didn't have locks and keys
like we do. They had tumblers. The man who owned the house,
he'd come in, stick his hand in, open the door. The door had to
be open on the inside, yes, but he's the one who works his way
on the inside. He sticks his hand into our hearts. And as
you heard the door open, he put his hand in by the hold of the
door. And my bowels move for him. Modern translators often translate
those words, my bowels, or bowels of mercy, speaking of heart.
Bowels is a better translation. Whenever your heart's broke,
you hurt right here. Whenever your heart's anxious,
it's anxious right here, you get butterflies in your stomach,
is the way we put it. Oh yeah, his stomach is just
turning. He puts his hand in and I hurt. and yearned and longed in the
depth of my inmost being. My bowels were moved for Him. Oh, Son of God, do that for me. And I rose to open to my beloved,
and my hands dropped with myrrh. He left a sweet fragrance of
His grace. My fingers were sweet-smelling
myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved,
But my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gold. My soul
failed when he spake. I sought him, but I couldn't
find him. I called him, but he gave me
no answer. Why? Why? He's the one who initiated
this thing. He's the one who comes and knocks
at the heart's door. He's the one who says, open to
me. I'll come in and suck with you. And now we arise open to
Him and He withdraws Himself. Why? To make us seek Him earnestly
and to make us know our constant need of Him. The watchmen that
went about the city found me. They smoked me. They wounded
me. The keepers of the wall took
away my veil from me. That's my job with you three
times a week. My business is to take away your
veil, your covering, and expose you to yourself. The watchman
took away my veil as smoke pan. As smoke pan. The Word of God
smites the heart. Smites us because of our coldness,
indifference, and sin. Now, I charge you, O daughters
of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him, I'm
sick of love. Thou shalt yearn for him whom
I have so ill-treated. Why does he withdraw himself?
To make us sick of love for him. To make our hearts think of him
just as she begins to speak in verse 9. These daughters of Jerusalem. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved? O thou fairest among women. What
is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge
us? We speak to one another in just
such language. What is it that makes Christ
so precious? Not that we openly say so, but
our hearts are so disinclined to Him by nature, and we are
so lethargic without Him. And he withdraws himself from
us, though he makes us seek after him, because he would have us
to look upon him in just this way. What is he? I'm so glad
you asked. Let me tell you about him. My
beloved is white and ruddy. He's pure and full of life. He's the chiefest among ten thousand. Never been one like him. His
head is as the most fine gold. His hair, his locks are bushy,
black as a raven, full of the vigor of his youth, though he's
the ancient of days. His eyes are as the eyes of doves. Peaceful. Those are the same
eyes that are flaming fire to his enemies. but as eyes of doves
to his people. Thereby the rivers of waters,
washed with milk, fitly scent his cheeks. His cheeks are as
a bed of spices, as sweet flowers, His lips like lilies, dropping
with sweet-smelling mirth, the word that flows from his mouth.
Oh, how good it is! His hands, the hands that hold
me, are as gold rings set with veils. His belly is as bright
ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs, oh, he's my manly man. are pillars of marble, set upon
sockets of fine gold. His face is countenances like
Lebanon, excellent as the seat at his mouth, his most sweet
year, he's altogether lovely. This is my beloved, this is my
friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem." So it is back here in Luke 24.
As they drew near to Emmaus, our Lord made as though he would
have gone further, because he wanted to constrain them, to
constrain him to abide with them. And so we read in verse 29, And
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. O Christ our hope! our strength,
our God. You have redeemed us by Your
blood. Through You alone we are saved from sin. You proved Yourself
the sinner's friend. Often when we gather in this
place, You come with tokens of Your grace and bless the preaching
of Your Word. O come again, beloved Lord. Enter our hearts and show your
face. Abide with us, dear Prince of
Peace. Come now and make each heart
your own, your house, your temple, and your throne. Abide with us. That's my unceasing prayer. That is my prayer for myself. Savior, abide with me. I need Thee every hour. Oh, I need Abide with me. That's my prayer for my home. Abide with us. Abide with us. Oh, God, blessed Savior, abide
with us. That's my unceasing prayer for
my children. Lord, God, keep them. Keep them. Be with them. Uphold them. That's
my unceasing prayer for you. I pray for you every day. God, abide with them. That's
my unceasing prayer for us as a body of believers. Abide with
us. Now let's look at this just a
little bit. They constrained him. Wow. That word's only used one other
time in the entire Bible. Only one other time. You find
it in Acts chapter 16, where Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened
after she was baptized, Asked Paul and Silas, y'all come on
home with me and I'll take care of you. And apparently they said,
no, no, no, that's not right. We wouldn't do that. We won't
impose on you. We'll go find us a room to holiday
in somewhere. And the scripture says, and she
constrained us. That's the same word. The only
other place in the Bible that particular word, translated constrained,
is used. And it is a remarkably strong
word. It means to compel by force. The word might be translated,
she held us by force. She compelled us by force of
arms. She forced us to abide with her. And so it is here. They constrained
him. They held him by force. They forced the Son of God to
abide with him. They forced him to. How? How? Was it their strength of
faith? I don't think so. Ron, they didn't
even know who he was. Was it their power in prayer? Don't think so. As far as they
knew, they were just talking to a remarkable man at the time.
What forced him? Their need. Their need. Did you hear me? Their need. Their known, felt need of Him. Now listen to me. Listen to me.
As you need Him, He's with you. I'm talking about as you need
Him. The needs of His people. is that which forces the heart
of him who delighteth in mercy." Did you get that? What does Luke
tell us? As many as had need of healing
were healed. Those disciples on the storm-tossed
sea, they thought they saw a ghost. And it wasn't their great faith
that caused him to stop and stand still and wait for them and come
to them, but rather it was their desperate need, their crying
out for fear. And he stopped and said, don't
be afraid, it's me. It's me. What forces his heart? What forces his hand? What forces
his work? the need of those people he dearly
loves. His conversation had been so
engaging, so heavenly, so instructive, so sweet, so delightful, so powerful,
so moving and beneficial to their souls that they could not bear
to part with him. And so they constrained him,
saying, abide with us. This is not our master speaking
to the disciples. It is not the Lord Jesus standing
at the door saying, Behold, I stand at the door to knock. This is
a pair of disciples saying, Come in with us, blessed of the Lord,
abide with us. And as he blessed Jacob, so he
came in and blessed them. He promised where two or three
are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them,
gathered, knowing their need of me, gathered to seek my glory,
gathered to honor me, gathered, knowing their only acceptance
with God is me. There am I in the midst of them.
And when he comes in and abides with us and makes himself known,
when he shows himself through the lattices, through the ordinances
of the gospel, the preaching of the word, the singing of his
praise, the ordinances of worship, Then, oh, how we are blessed. Often it comes in our midst and
we don't know it. But, oh, when He comes and makes
Himself known, that's something else. Look what He did with His
disciples. When He came in, He sat at meat with them. Unless I'm just very, very busy,
I try always to sit down with my wife and eat as family. When our daughters at home try
to eat, every meal is a family. Very, very important. Because
that's the time when the family discusses family things. And
family needs are just kind of freely bounced around the table.
The Lord Jesus comes in with His family and sits down at the
table with His family. And He gave them bread to eat.
That's strange language. He would go into their house.
They compelled him to come in, and he sat down and gave them
bread to eat. Bread that he had blessed. He comes into their
house, but he acts like the master of the house, because he is.
And he gave them bread to eat, but before he gave them bread
to eat, he blessed it. Blessed the bread specifically
for them in their presence. And he opened their eyes in verse
31, and caused them to know it. and caused their hearts to burn
within them. They said, did not our hearts
burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while
he opened to us the scriptures? He comes in, he's been talking
with them, oh, for hours now, they walked about eight miles.
He comes in and he sits down with them in the evening, and
once he makes himself known to them, then they understood all
that he'd been discussing with them. They constrained him saying,
abide with us, because they weren't willing to part with him. Spirit
of God, give me that. Give me that. An absolute unwillingness
to be without my Savior. An absolute unwillingness not
to have Him with me manifestly. If we would constrain the Lord
Jesus to abide with us, we must do so like these disciples. How? Pour out your heart's need to
Him. Let me show you two passages. Job 23. Job 23. Verse 4. Job's in a mess. The Lord has put him in the sea
of unless Satan sicked him real good. And his friends are all
turned against him. He's lost everything that was
ever dear to him except his Redeemer. And even now, his Redeemer, his
Savior, appears far from him. And he says, Oh, I wish I could
find God. Isn't it amazing how different
the language of men who knew God in this book is than the
language of religious fools in our day? Everybody today just
presumes God's in their hip pocket. Job was a perfect man and upright,
loved God, trusted Him. He says, oh, I wish I could find
Him. And then in verse 4 he says, if I find Him, if I find out
how to get to His throne, if I find out how to approach Him,
if I find Him, I would order my cause before Him and fill
my mouth with arguments. I'd tell Him why I've got to
have Him. I'd tell him why I've got to
have him. I'd fill my mouth with arguments. That's the way to approach Christ
the Lord. Fill your mouth with arguments. Look at Isaiah 43. The Lord God
urges us to do just that. To fill our mouths with arguments.
What kind of arguments? Our goodness? Our strength? Our
faith? Our promises? No! What kind of
arguments? Our needs. I need. Don't ever promise God anything. You can't keep it. Don't do it. And He won't take it. Don't ever
promise God anything. No, no, no. Take God's promises
to God. That's what you need. Go with
arguments and spread your need before Him. Look at this. Isaiah
43, 26, the Lord God says, Put me in remembrance. In remembrance
of what? My promises. My covenant. My grace. My goodness. Folks,
talk about trying to believe and can't believe. I know, I
know, I know that's so. I know you can't, but I know
one reason why you can't. It's because you keep trying to drive
a bargain with God. You keep trying to work a deal
with God. And God's not going to work a deal with you. Not
with you who are lost, no, with you who are His people. He's
not going to work a deal. He delights for us to pour out
our hearts' need to Him. Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together. David said, Oh, plead my cause,
O God. Be surety for me. And the Lord
got our surety. He said, Okay, let's plead together.
I'll plead my merit. You plead your need. Declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. All right? What argument do these
men use to constrain the Savior? Abide with us for the night's
coming, the days far spent. Lord, abide with us because these
are days of great trouble and heaviness and sorrow. How often
we speak of the days of trouble and darkness. And these are dark
days. These are dark days. Perilous
times. Lord, abide with us, lest we
be consumed in them. Abide with us, because this house
where we are is empty without you. This world is empty without
you. I didn't always know that, but
I know that now. Life without Him is not life,
it's death. This world without Him is empty. It's a house left desolate without
the sound of His voice, without the hearing of His footsteps.
All is emptiness. It's Christ who fills our lives
and rejoices our hearts and lights up our homes and lights up our
world and gives gladness to us in this wilderness. Oh, blessed
Savior, abide with me. Abide with us. which toward evening
and the day is far spent, because all is darkness without you.
I know the past, little anyway, and I know about the present.
I hope, God, tomorrow, tomorrow, the future. All that is full
of uncertainties. Abide with us. and light up our
path. Abide with us and defend and
keep us. Abide with us to comfort and
cheer us. Abide with us and hold us by
the right hand of your righteousness as we pass through the deep waters
and pass through the fiery trial. Abide with us and hold us by
your grace. Carry us at last across the swelling
Jordan and present us to the Father. Abide with us because
earth's night is at hand. We sang it just a little bit
ago. Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
me I see. O thou who changest not, abide
with me. Satan's doing his worst. Antichrist
rages. Evil men and seducers wax worse
and worse. Perilous times are come, wars
and rumors of war everywhere in the earth. If the foundations
be destroyed, David said, what can the righteous do? We can
do nothing. We can do nothing. We can do
nothing. I gave up a long time ago trying
to change this world. We're not going to change this
world. We can do nothing except constrain Him. to abide with
us. Now watch one more thing. Look
at the text one more time. They constrained him and he went
in to tarry with them. Turn back to the Song of Solomon.
Let me see if I can show you what I want you to see here.
Chapter 3. I'll tell you something about
people who seek the Lord. People who seek the Lord, it's
a good thing to seek Him. Those who seek Him, find Him.
And I'll tell you something else about them. They know their need
of Him. They seek Him because they've
got to have Him. They can't live without Him.
It's on Solomon chapter 3, verse 4. It was but a little while
that I passed from them, But I found Him whom my soul loveth. I hailed Him and would not let
Him go until He brought me into my mother's house, into the chamber
of her that conceived me. I hailed Him and took Him to
church with me Tuesday night. I hailed Him and brought Him
to church with me Sunday morning. I charge you, O ye daughters
of Jerusalem, by the rows and by the hinds of the field, that
you stir not up nor wake my love till He please. Grieve him not. Hold him tight. Hold him tight
with the grip of desperation. The grip of desperation. There's not a stronger grip in
the world than the grip of desperation. And he delights to be held in
the arms of desperate need. Desperate need. and compels Him
to abide with us. Amen.