Early on Sunday morning, after
our Savior had been in the tomb for three days, several women
who were his disciples got up and came to the tomb where the
Lord Jesus had been buried. They were bringing spices they
had prepared for the body of their beloved Master. But when
they arrived at the tomb, they found the stone rolled away.
They saw that the Lord's body was gone. how shocked they must
have been, how utterly dismayed. Then two angels appeared to them
and said, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here,
but is risen. And immediately they ran back
and told the disciples and the apostles what they had seen and
heard from the angels. But their words seemed to them,
the apostles and the other disciples, as an idle tale. Oh God, don't
let that happen tonight. That same day, two of the disciples
left Jerusalem, walking to Emmaus. As they walked the road to Emmaus,
they talked together about the things they had seen and heard
in recent days. I imagine over the course of
that eight-mile walk, they talked a lot about the things they had
seen and heard in recent days. the Lord's reported agony in
Gethsemane, the Lord's Supper, the things he instructed the
men as they ate the bread and drank the wine, Judas' betrayal,
the master's arrest, the mock trial. Peter now has abandoned
the master and abandoned them, gone back to fishing. They must
have discussed, I wonder what's happened to Brother Peter. Will
he never meet with us again? the Lord's Prayer as is recorded
in John 17, and that tremendous discourse that we find in John
13, 14, 15, and 16. All those things are
just one lengthy discourse, and we only have a portion of it
given to us that our Master gave in the night he instituted the
supper, just before he was crucified. They discussed those things as
they walked along. They talked about the crucifixion. How the Messiah, whom they had
trusted to be the Redeemer, is now crucified. And they didn't
understand it. They didn't understand it. I
don't know what they knew or didn't know, but they didn't
understand that. They said, we had trusted he would be the Redeemer,
and he had redeemed them. They didn't understand it. And
then they heard that he was risen from the dead. And it's just
almost too much for them to bear. Their minds were overwhelmed.
As they walked along discussing these things, the Lord Jesus
drew near to them and walked with them. But they didn't recognize
him. I wonder how often that's the
case with us. In verse 17, he asked them, what manner of communication
are these things that you have one to another as you walk and
are sad? And then Cleopas explained to
him, why they were so perplexed. Luke 24, verse 18. Then one of them whose name was
Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to
pass there in these days? And he said, What things? And
they told him, All these things I've just mentioned. And then
the Lord Jesus explained the scriptures to them. They still
don't know who he is. He's walking with them, talking
with them, and they still don't know who he is. It doesn't matter
how near he is, you'll never know him unless he makes himself
known to you. When he speaks, you won't know
his voice, except he make himself known to you. He spoke to them
and explained in verse 25, Then said he unto them, O fools, and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ, Lord willing, I'll come back to this another
time. Ought not Christ, this one who is the anointed of God,
the Messiah, whom you expected to be the redeemer of Israel,
ought not Christ who has suffered these things? Don't you understand
that the Scriptures told you plainly, everything you have
said to me is exactly what the Christ of God was to suffer. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? This is not accidental. This is the plan and purpose
of God by which he would glorify his Son as the God-man, our Mediator-King. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them In all the scriptures, the
things concerning himself, when they got to Emmaus, the Lord
Jesus made as though he would go on a little further and just
leave them, and they constrained him to stay with them, and they
ate together. And as the Master prayed at the
table, their eyes were opened, and they recognized, oh, he is
indeed risen. He's been with us walking along
these many hours. And then he vanished out of their
sight. The two disciples looked at each other, and they said
in verse 32, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked
with us by the way, while he opened to us the scriptures?
And immediately these two disciples, while they were going to Emmaus,
said, Don't know. Whatever their reason, it became
insignificant and unimportant. They got up and turned around
and walked right back to Jerusalem. Walked in a hurry. And they found
the apostles and their brethren, and they told them all that they
had seen and heard. As they talked to them, suddenly
the Lord Jesus appeared in their midst and said, Peace be unto
you. Let's read it, verse 36. And
as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and
saith unto them, Peace unto you. But they that were, they were
terrified and affrighted." What a strange response. They had
heard those words many times. He came to them walking across
the sea. Many times he said to them, Peace be unto you. They
had been discussing those very words. that he spoke in John
16, he said, My peace give I unto you. And now he appears to them
in bodily form and says to them, Peace unto you. But they were
terrified and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a
spirit. Now don't tell me what true believers
can't do or believe. These fellows thought they had
seen a ghost. And the one standing in front of them is the Christ
of God. And he said unto them, Why are
you so troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your
hearts, thoughts of unbelief, thoughts of confusion, thoughts
by which to try to explain to yourself all these things you've
been discussing? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself Now I love this next word, handle me. That
will tell you what John meant in 1 John 1, when he speaks about
the word, that our eyes have seen and our hands have handled
of the word of life. The Lord Jesus said, handle me,
here, touch me, and see. 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. And while
they yet believed not," but there's a little different sense here. He's not talking now about utter
unbelief. He's not talking now about being
slow to believe the prophets. Their unbelief now is the unbelief
of ecstatic joy. This is just too good to be true. preaching from a passage that
seems to make some statement that just, well, for example,
a few weeks ago I was preaching out in California, and I preached
to the folks on the subject, as He is, so are we in this world.
I said, that's just too good to be true. But it is. But it
is. They said, the Lord's standing
in front of us, in His body, and says, hand to me, and see,
it's me! Believe not, watch this now,
for joy and wonder." They were amazed. He said unto them, have
you here any meat? And they gave him a piece of
broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And he took it and did eat before
them. That ought to tell you something
about our resurrection bodies. He ate a piece of fish and some
honey, just like he had done before. We're going to really
have bodies and really live in resurrection? Looks like it.
Looks like it. And he took it and did eat before
them, verse 44, and he said unto them, These are the words which
I have spoken to you while I was yet with you, that all things
must be fulfilled. Not Christ who suffered. All
things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. All these
things which were written in all the Old Testament scriptures,
that's what they were all talking about concerning me. Then opened
he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures,
and said unto them, now this is what I'm telling you, thus
it is written, and thus it behooved Christ. What a word. It behooved
him. He was rest to this. He was constrained to this. The word could almost be translated,
thus it was forced upon him. What? I thought he did all this
willingly. He did. He did it willingly,
but in order that the scriptures be fulfilled. In order that the
word of God be fulfilled, in order that the covenant of grace
be fulfilled, in order that sin be put away, in order that his
people be redeemed, he must suffer and die exactly as he did when
he did, else the whole word of God falls to the ground. The
throne of God is toppled and there is no hope for any. It
behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. Not just
to suffer and rise from the dead, but to suffer and rise from the
dead the third day, just like Jonah came out of the belly of
the whale the third day. And that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name. It behooved him to
suffer, and it behooved us that by him repentance be preached
in his name everywhere. Everywhere, preached to men and
women in all nations. Now watch this. Beginning at
Jerusalem, beginning right here where men crucified Him, to the
very men who cried, crucify Him, crucify Him, let His blood be
on us and our children. Put Him away! We won't have Him,
because even amongst them were a people chosen of God and given
to him for whom he suffered and died. And you are witnesses of
these things. You are the folks to whom these
things have been revealed. And behold, I send the promise
of my Father fulfilled in Acts chapter 2, given in Joel chapter
2. the promise of the Spirit. Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree, that we should receive the promise of the Spirit, that
we should receive all the blessings of life and grace by God the
Holy Spirit, and it was given to be sent at one particular
time on the day of Pentecost after the Lord had ascended back
to glory. By this you shall know that the
King is overthrown. I'll pour out my Spirit on all
flesh. I'll call sinners from every
nation, kingdom, tribe, and tongue to hear and believe. I send the
promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye," wait for it, wait
for it, Carry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued
with power from on high. Folks talk about Pentecostal
power, and they've got the crazy idea somehow that the power of
God the Holy Spirit will cause you to jibber-jabber in some
kind of a faith language that doesn't mean anything to anybody,
roll in the floor and fall with the mouth. That ain't Pentecostal
power, that's hellish power. And in fact, oh, I remember when
I experienced it, it was hell you experienced. It wasn't grace.
What on earth is Pentecostal power? It's God giving dead sinners
life. It's exactly what it is. To you being do with power from
on high, verse 30. And he led them out as far as
to Bethany. I can't help but think there's
some significance to that. He led them out to Bethany, the
home of Mary and Martha. and Lazarus, out to Bethany,
where he said to Martha, said I nod unto thee, if thou wouldest
believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Let him out to
Bethany, where he said to Martha, Martha, honey, you're looking
at the resurrection. I am the resurrection. He let
him out to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands. You've seen preachers
imitate That old man in Rome who dresses up in a clown's outfit
and stands out on the balcony and lifts his hands. It won't
do me any good to lift my hands over you. I can't bless you.
How can this cursed, filthy hand bless you? No, no. But here's
a man who is God Almighty who lifts up his hands. Like Aaron
on the Day of Atonement, according to the law of the Nazarites,
That one, the only one, who was ever utterly, completely, absolutely
devoted to God, having fulfilled all the will of God all his life,
even when he cried, it is finished, bowed his head and gave up the
ghost, now is risen again. Our great high priest lifts up
his hands and says, the Lord bless you and keep you. Make
his face to smile upon you. And as he did, Do you really believe that? Oh,
you don't. He ascended. Watch now. And it
came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them
and carried up to heaven. And they worshipped him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple,
praising and blessing God. Amen. What a gracious Savior
Christ is. Here He is standing in the midst
of His disciples who just three days earlier had everyone shamefully
forsaken Him. One had denied Him three times.
All of them had been backsliders and cowards. Yet when our Lord
stood before them, There's an astonishing silence
here about something. He didn't say a word about all
that. He didn't even mention it. I
mean, didn't even mention it. Well, maybe we wouldn't expect
him to just scold him real bad after all he's the risen Lord.
Maybe we wouldn't expect him to reprimand him, but at least
he ought to warn him, don't do it again. He didn't even mention
it. Didn't even mention it. It is
as though he said, your sins are all forgiven you. My blood
has put them all away. Truly, the love of Christ is
love that passeth knowledge. It is as though he spreads out
his hands and says, blessed is he. whose iniquity is forgiven. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Oh, what a great forgiver he
is. Yet as the Lord stood in the
midst of these disciples, they were terrified. Even then, they
did not believe. He said, Why are you troubled?
Why do thoughts arise in your heart? I read that and I see so much of Don here. I
have learned in 40 years in the experience of grace, I'm beginning
to learn anyway, I can't see right now unless
He gives me light to see. I can't believe Him. I just can't. When your soul is troubled, when
you're downcast, when you receive some news, or you more likely
perceive that you're going to receive some news that you think
is going to just crush you to death, and you pace the floor
and bite your nails and fret and worry, and finally you say,
oh God, I want to believe you. And you can't believe it. You
can't believe it. You can't, unless He graciously
gives you faith to believe Him. Not going to happen. Well, you
talk about unbelievers. No. These were disciples and
apostles. The Lord didn't scold them or
even upbraid them, but rather, He stretched out His hands and
said, Now, handle me. And made Himself known to them.
And they walked on, believing and rejoicing and worshiping. Now, let me see if I can do something
with this. These are the hands of our sovereign,
the hands of our surety, the hands of our substitute, the
hands of our security, the hands of all soulless, and the hands
of salvation. That's the outline. Try to picture
the Lord Jesus standing here before you, before you, before
me, stretching out his hands, and he says, Behold my hands. Handle me and see. They are the
hands of our sovereign God and Savior. Come back to Psalm 93.
We're going to look at a few scriptures. Psalm 95, verse 3. The Lord is a great God and a
great King above all gods. When you talk about God, who
are you talking about? We're talking about the one who's in absolute control all
the time, everywhere. If you're talking about something
else, you're not talking about God. You might call him God, but you
may as well worship a rusty tin can. That ain't God. He who is
God is in absolute control all the time, everywhere. Well, what
all does that include? Some folks like to talk about
sphere sovereignty. God's sovereign in this sphere,
but not in that sphere. God's sovereign in the whole
sphere of everything. Everywhere. Heaven, Earth, and
Hell. Nothing breathes or wiggles except
by His decree and His order. Nothing. For the Lord permits,
forget permit. If God permits it, God decreed
it. You can cry to Him in awe all you want to, you ain't getting
around that. If God permits it, God decreed it, and He did it
for good. Look at the next line. The Lord's a great King above
all gods. He is a great God. In His hand
are the deep places of the earth, the strength of the hills, that
too. The sea He is, and He made it. and his hands formed the dry
land. O come, let us worship and bow
down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Now would you
tell me why I should ever be afraid of anything, or even of
the possible apprehension of anything? He's got the whole world in His
hands. Those hands that were pierced
for me. God forgive my unbelief. Our
Savior is not some great creature of God. He's God, our Creator. And the Creator is the absolute
sovereign of the universe. His hands are the hands that
rule the world. But not only does he rule the
world in his absolute sovereignty as God, he rules the world in
his absolute sovereignty as the God-man, our mediator, into whose
hands the Father has put all things. The Father loveth the
Son, and hath given all things into his hand. The Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, rules all things for the eternal good of
our souls. Everything. I recall preaching
on God's sovereign providence, His good providence. Many years
ago, there was a preacher sitting here. A preacher who claimed
to believe grace. This was his response. How can
you say that this is good? And pointed to a specific incident
we were both aware of. And I was so shocked. I looked
at him dumbfounded. I said, he didn't say it was
good. Didn't say it was good. Said it works for good. And that
makes it good for God's people. And good for you. Good. Good
for your soul. Good for God's glory. Good for
the honor of God's name. And that ought to be sufficient
for you and for me. The Savior said, Behold my hands.
These are the hands of our surety, our good shepherd. Listen to
this. My sheep hear my voice, the Savior said, and I know them,
and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man. Actually,
the word man was added by the translators. Neither shall any
man, event, devil in hell, thought, deed, wickedness from within
or without, neither shall any snatch them from thy hand." The
Father put us in His hand before the world was. Read the 6th chapter
of John and rejoice. The Father trusted us to his
hand as our surety and our substitute before the world began. Before
the world began, the Lion of the tribe of Judah said, I will
be surety for them. And he assumed total responsibility
for our souls before the world began. If you owned a flock of sheep,
and you hired a shepherd to take care of the sheep, and you said
to him, now, at the end of the day, you bring back my sheep,
and this is the hire I will give you. But I'm giving you now 100
sheep. And when you come in at the end
of the day, I'm expecting 100 sheep, safe and sound. I don't
want a hair to be missing off of them. And he comes back and
he brings in 99 sheep. And you start counting them. And he comes to the paymaster. Give me my wages. You're short
one sheep. Oh, well, I was very diligent.
I was very watchful. I kept my eye on them all the
time. Never went to sleep. I was very diligent. But a wolf
came and got that sheep. And you know no man's fast as
a wolf. And you know I couldn't handle the wolf. What was I to
do? It's just a little lamb. It's
insignificant. The sheep should have known better. If that sheep had stayed with
the flock, he'd have been alright. If that sheep hadn't run over
there behind that bush, he'd have been alright. If that sheep hadn't
stumbled down there, he'd have been alright. It wasn't my fault.
I was watching the sheep. The sheep is not the one responsible. I trusted them to you. That's exactly what our Master
did. He said, Give them to me. Give them to me. And when the
day is done, I'll come back to you and I'll say, Lo, I and the
children which thou hast given me, not one of them is missing. But you mean, Brother Doug, the
salvation of God's people doesn't depend on anything they do? You
mean it doesn't depend on anything we experience? You mean our safety
and our security and our salvation is totally, totally the responsible
of the shepherd? Would you tell me who else it
should be? He assumed the responsibility and fulfilling the responsibility.
The Father said, ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for
your inheritance. He said, sit down here. Everything's all right.
And wait till I make your foes your footstool. Here's the third
thing. Turn to Psalm 22. The Savior stretches out his
pierced hands and says, Behold my hands, handle me and see. Can you see them? These are the
hands of our blessed substitute. Verse 14, Psalm 22. The Lord
Jesus speaks and says, I am poured out like water. All my bones
are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted
in the midst of my bowels, my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me
into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed upon me. They pierced my hands
and my feet." In a sense, we ought to, every
one, be like Thomas. I've been preaching the gospel
to some of you for a long time, and you yet believe not. Don't
ever take my word for what I'm telling you about anything. Not
about anything, but rather be like Thomas. The disciples came
and they said, the Lord's risen. The Lord's risen. And Thomas
said, I won't believe until I put my finger in His hand. There is some reproof to be given
to Thomas, but you know what the Master said to his unbelieving
disciples? Handle me. Handle me for yourself. Don't pay attention to what you
heard those women talk about. You don't have to listen to what
the angel said. Come and handle me and you'll
see. You'll see. Handle me for yourself. I do. I behold his hands and
hear them speak as the Savior says, I freely all forgive. These
wounds were for your ransom made. I died that you might live. As
I behold his hands, the hands of the incarnate God who sits
on the throne ruling the world as the crucified substitute of
sinners. I see justice fully satisfied. As much as I am aware of the
desert of my sin, Bob Punter, we ought to have been in hell
a long time ago and forever. You and me too. Your wife and
mine too. Your grandbabies and mine too.
Fully deserve God's wrath. As much as I understand of the
indescribable desert of sin, For the wrath of God, when I
see Him, who is God, having died and rose again, my conscience
says, with God's Word, that's enough. Justice cannot demand more. God cannot demand more. Sacrifice
is made by which God is satisfied. That means my sin is put away,
and that means I shall never perish. Five bleeding wounds
he bears, received at Calvary. They pour effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry, nor let that ransom sinner die. The hands he beheld to his
disciples. The hands he held out to them
and said, Behold, my hands are the hands he spreads before his
Father as our perpetual advocate in heaven, pleading the merit
of his sacrifice for our perpetual acceptance with God. These hands,
fourthly, are the hands of our security. Turn to Matthew 14.
I want you to see this. Are you sometimes terrified by
your own weakness and insufficiency? Does Satan sometimes roar with
a whisper inside your soul? Say you're sinking. You're sinking. You'll soon be mine, you hypocrite. How can I stress the inability
of man, even of redeemed men? saw the Lord Jesus with the disciples
coming to them walking on the water. They first thought they'd
seen a ghost, and the Lord Jesus says to them here in Matthew
chapter 14, in verse 27, right at the end of the verse, it is
I, be not afraid. Peter said to him, Lord, if it's
you, if it be thou, then be coming to thee on the water. If he did
you to walk across the water, you'd make it. Because his call
gives the power to obey the call. And the Lord Jesus said, come.
And Peter climbed out of that boat and started walking to the
master. Other folks may think it's funny
when people refer to such things and make jokes of it. It ain't
funny. Ever the Pope thought it, God.
The Lord Jesus has bid him come, and Peter goes walking. clouds
began to rise. And the waves began to break. And Peter was terrified. And he began to sink, looking
at the storm rather than the Master. And he said, Lord, I
perish! Now watch this. Verse 30. When he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord,
save me. And immediately, he stretched
forth his hand and caught him. The same hand caught him. Peter experienced that again
a little later on. How weak is our flesh? How corrupt, how depraved? The Lord told Peter, you're going
to deny me three times tonight. Before the cock crows in the
morning, the second time, you're going to deny me three times.
Peter denied him. And he died again and rooster
crowed. Can you imagine how terrified
he must have been? Oh, Peter, you about messed up.
Oh, Lord, I'm sorry. I told you I wouldn't do that.
I repent. Merle knowing full well what
the Lord Jesus had said to him and what he had said to the Master,
he went right on cussed and denied him a third time. So weak are
we, so vile as our fallen, depraved, corrupt hearts, that even when
we behave or think in a way that we know to be horribly evil,
a way that we despise and you, I don't want to do this, there's
no stopping the downward spiral. except he stretch out his hand. And he always does. He always does. If he doesn't,
it's called you worthless. It's exactly right. That's our
security in every aspect of life. In the midst of tribulation,
stand by me. when the host of hell assail,
and thou who never lost a battle, stand by me." And this is our
Savior stretching forth His hands, His nail-pierced hands, and He
said, Behold My hands. These are the hands of blessing
and consolation. Look at verse 50. He led them
out as far as Tibetany and lifted up His hands. and blessed them. I'll let you fill in the blanks.
The Lord Jesus on one occasion took little children. The disciples
said, no, don't bother the master with them. The master said, you
leave those folks alone. I've got a lesson to teach you.
This is the way all my children are. They're little children.
And he took his hand Picked him up, set him on his knee, and blessed them. Oh, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest, and calls us to approach him
to thee. Blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin. Blessed. One more thing. Turn
to Isaiah 59. Let me show you one thing. Are you ready? Behold, the Lord's
hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. Trust your soul to His hand,
and you will find your sins all forgiven, your iniquities all
taken away, your transgressions all blotted out by His hand. Behold my hands, the Master says,
and go home rejoicing and worshiping God. Amen.