I ask Merle to read Luke 24 because
I want that to be fresh on your mind as I try to give you the
message of this description the Holy Spirit has given us of that
which transpired between our Lord Jesus and these two disciples
on the Emmaus Road. Can you imagine what a day that
must have been in their lives? They take a walk from Jerusalem
to Emmaus, about sixty furlongs. That's somewhere between six
and a half and eight miles. It takes a while to walk eight
miles when you're talking. We've got just a little bit of
it recorded here, that which the Spirit of God intends for
us to see and hear and understand for our edification and our comfort. As they walk together, These
two disciples talked to one another of the things that had happened
in Jerusalem. The Lord's betrayal, his being
nailed to the cursed tree, the cries they heard. And then as
they talked together of him, the Lord Jesus appeared in their
midst. Oh, may he do so with us tonight. And they walked along and he
asked them why they were so sad, what was so bothersome to them.
And they said, don't you know what's going on? Are you a stranger
in these parts? They didn't know who he was.
They didn't know his presence, because their eyes were holding
that they should not see him. And if he holds our eyes, we
won't see him. As they walked along, they continued
to talk, and they told the Lord Jesus, we trust it, that is,
We're sad, we're so disappointed, because we had trusted that He
was the Christ, the Redeemer. And then they said, two of the
women, you know, nobody pays too much attention to women,
but two of the women, they came and told us He was risen from
the dead, and certain of our companions went to the tomb,
and they came back and said it's so. We've seen an angel. He told
us it's so. He's risen from the dead. terribly
confused, and our Lord said to them, O fools and slow of heart
to believe the Scriptures. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things? Isn't that what the Scriptures
taught you? Isn't that what He taught you? Isn't that what your
hope was? Isn't that the thing for which
you trusted Him? Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things? and risen from the dead. And
as they walked along, the Lord began at the scriptures, beginning
at Moses. When he says he began at Moses,
he began at Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. And in the Psalms, and
in the prophets, And in all the scriptures, showed them things
concerning himself. In all the scriptures. Now at
this time, all the scriptures they had was Genesis to Malachi. That's all they had. In all the
Old Testament, they didn't have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans,
Acts, all those, didn't have any of that. All they had was
Genesis to Malachi. And in all the scriptures, he
showed them things concerning himself, and they still didn't
see him. But as he spoke to them, their
hearts burned within them as he opened to them the scriptures.
And as they walked along and got close to Emmaus, the walk
is about over, and he made as though he was going to leave
them. It was never his intention to.
But he made as though he would have gone further on and just
kept on walking. Why would he do that? So that
they might beg him to stay. How often he does so with us
propitially, that we might beg him to stay with us, because
that's his intention all along. And they broke bread, and as
he broke bread, he showed himself to them. As He brought to them
that physical bread, He brought to them the bread of life and
fed their souls. And they said, did not our hearts
burn with us while He talked to us by the way and while He
opened to us the Scriptures? Now, what I want to do this evening
is by the Spirit of God, open to you the Scriptures. open to
you the Scriptures. And I can't do that. I can't
do that. But if God the Holy Spirit, whose
Word you have in your hand, is pleased to speak through this
worthless, empty vessel, He can open to you the Scriptures. And
I want you to see just one thing. Just one thing. This book is
all about Jesus Christ himself. It is all about Him. You didn't get that, did you?
It is all about Him. He is the singular, the solitary
message of Holy Scripture. He is the pearl of great price,
hidden in the field of divine revelation. As He drew near these
disciples, by the way may He draw near to us now. As he opened
to them the scriptures, may he open to us the scriptures. The Bible is a book about our
Savior. Christ is the key of knowledge,
the key that unlocks this treasure chest. And those who do not have
the key can't open the treasure. They just fumble around. This
book is not a book about science. Well, doesn't it teach us some
scientific facts? No. It declares scientific facts
that are true. It teaches us Christ. This is
not a book about history. Doesn't it teach us historical
facts? No. No. It declares historical facts. It teaches us Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. This is not a book about morality.
Oh, but don't we need to teach people morality? Teaching Morality
in Morality Classes. The book is not to teach morality.
That's not the purpose of the book. This book declares that
which is moral truth, but it teaches Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. This is not a book about theology,
church dogma, prophecy, not a book about creeds, not a book about
this thing or that. It is a book altogether about
Jesus Christ. He is the living word of whom
the written word speaks in its entirety. The Son of God himself
plainly declares that he is the message of scripture. Hold your
hands here in Luke 24 and turn over to John 5. If we would preach the scriptures,
if we would teach the scriptures, whether it be in the public preaching
of the gospel, Whether it be teaching the Bible classes here
on Sunday morning as Brother Lindsey does, or whether it's
sitting in your home and reading the scriptures to your family
and teaching the scriptures there. Or if it is opening the scriptures
and talking to a neighbor or a friend about them. If we would
teach and preach the scriptures. It is not enough simply to teach
that which is written in the book in the letter. That is not
teaching or preaching the scriptures. But rather it is to take that
which is written in the book and declare its message. And
its message is Jesus Christ. There's not a page in this book
that doesn't speak of him. Here in John 5, verse 39, our
Lord Jesus says, search the Scriptures. Search the Scriptures. For in
them you think you have eternal life. That might be read as a
command to these Pharisees who spent their lives studying and
defending and declaring the letter of Scripture. They could memorize
them and quote them. frontwards and backwards. He
said, you search the Scriptures all the time because you think
by being able to recite the Scriptures, by being able to tell folks the
historic facts of Scriptures, by being able to set forth the
right doctrine of Scriptures, you have eternal life. He said,
you've missed the boat, boy. They are they that testify of
me. They speak of me. Search them. They speak of me. In Luke 24,
verse 27, we read, Beginning at Moses and in all the prophets,
he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. Now, lest we miss what that means,
go down to verse 44. He said unto them, These are
the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms." Just in case
you missed the first part when he said all the scriptures, I'm
talking about all the scriptures. That's how the Old Testament
was divided. They had the law, and the prophets and the Psalms.
And our Lord Jesus is saying now, I taught you for three and
a half years, I taught you in the law and in the prophets and
in the Psalms, in the law and in the prophets and in the Psalms,
in the law and in the prophets and in the Psalms, the things
concerning myself. Read on. Then opened he their
understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, and
said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Not only did our
Lord declare that he is the message of Scripture, the Apostle Paul
did. Turn to Acts chapter 20. Paul was not one of our modern
preachers who preached one thing, one place, one thing, another.
Preachers do it all the time. Preachers do it all the time.
There are a lot of fellas I could call here during our Bible conference
while we've got sovereign grace preachers here from all over
the country. And I'd call them and they'd come down here and
man, they'd preach you a sermon on election or predestination. I
could assign them to preach on divine sovereignty. reprobation,
limited atonement, and they'd preach it. And I mean, they'd
preach it. Oh, boy, that's good. But if
you went to hear them in their own places, you'd come away scratching your
head and say, I wonder what was wrong with him today? Because
depending on to whom they preach, they decide what they will preach.
Not honest men. Not honest men. Not God's servants. What Paul preached in one place,
he preached in every place. His message didn't vary. I get
a little testy. Folks ask me, would you preach
that over here? I bet preachers ask me, would
you preach that there? Do what? Do you imagine that
somehow I'm just here to entertain you? That which I preach to you,
I preach to everybody I preach to all the time, all the time. And in Acts chapter 20, Paul
is about to leave the church at Ephesus, and he called the
elders of the church together, that is, the pastors of the various
congregations in Ephesus. And he said to them, Wherefore
I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood
of all men. For I have not shunned to declare
unto you all the counsel of God. But to the Corinthians he wrote,
I am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Over and over and over again
he said, we preach Christ. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ. We preach Christ. We preach Christ. But to the
Ephesians he said, oh now here, I spent a lot of time And boy,
I taught you all the intricacies of the prophets and all the timetables
of prophecy and all the timetables of history and gave you a good
background in the various aspects of Scripture. No. He said, I
declared Jesus Christ to you in all the book. He is all the
counsel of God. The Bible is A book with one
message, and that message is redemption, righteousness, and
eternal life in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament prophets, let's
start there. Come back to Genesis chapter
3. I want you to see that Christ is the message of all the Scripture,
and this is what I want you to see. He's the message of the
Old Testament. He's the message of the New Testament,
he's the message of the ordinances, and he's the message of all the
doctrine of scripture. First, the Old Testament prophets.
From the very beginning, from the first declaration of the
gospel, and it is clearly illustrated in Genesis 1, 1, 1, 1 through
3 in the creation and the restoration of the earth, but here in Genesis
3, 15, we have the first plain open declaration of the gospel. It's given here as Father Adam
and his wife Eve, our first mother, are about to be driven from the
garden. And the Lord Jesus speaks, and he says, I will put enmity
between thee and the woman. He's speaking now to the serpent. I will put enmity between thee
and the woman. I'm going to fix it so that you
and the woman are at odds forever, and between thy seed and her
seed. Speaking of those who are Satan's
own, those whom the Lord God has given over to him, and those
whom God has given to his son, his seed. the seed that shall
serve him. And it, the woman's seed, shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Our Lord Jesus
says in the presence of Adam and Eve, to this one who has
beguiled Eve, this one whom Adam subjected himself to because
of his love for Eve and his raised-up enmity against God, the Lord
God says to the serpent, to Satan, he who is the woman's seed will
crush your head. And when you crush somebody's
head, he's dead, and you'll bruise his heel. The place on the earth
or on a man's body where he could be crushed is in his heel. It ain't dead there, but it feels
like it. And Satan, you shall bruise his
heel, but in the process, he's going to crush you to death.
And that's the declaration of the gospel. Now it is repeated
over and over and over and over again in the Old Testament. Let's
look at just a few of the many countless prophecies of our Lord
Jesus Christ coming and him crushing the serpent's head. What does
he mean he's going to crush the serpent's head? He's going to
deliver his own. He who is the woman's seed shall
deliver those who are his seed from the clutches of Satan and
the clutches of hell, because they are his. He will do it by
destroying Satan and all his power, and he will do it in the
process by crushing his own heel. Look at Genesis 22. Genesis 22. Abraham is in Mount Moriah with
his son Isaac. By the command of God, he goes
there to offer his son. And in verse 13, Abraham lifted
up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. That's what substitution is. That's what it is when the
scripture says Christ died for us. He died in the stead of somebody. He offered him in the stead of
his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Jehovah-Jireh means
the Lord will provide, but it means more than that. The Lord
will see, and the Lord will provide, and the Lord will be seen in
the sacrifice he provides. Isaac had said to his father,
we've got the fire, and we've got the wood, but where is the
lamb? Daddy, you've told me all my
life we can't worship God without blood. You've told me all my
life we've got to have this lamb, like that one that was sacrificed
for Adam and Eve, like that one that Abel offered to God. We've
got to have a lamb. Where are we going to find this
lamb? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt-off lamb. Not for himself, himself. And
here he takes this ram, and he says, I told you, this place
is Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord has seen our need. The
Lord provides for our need, and the Lord is seen in His provision. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, you
don't need to turn there. Moses said, the Lord's going
to raise up a prophet to you from among your brethren, just
like me. Only this difference, you're going to hear him. Not
you might, you're going to hear him. When he speaks, you will
hear. This prophet is Christ, who is
our prophet. In Psalm 2, the Lord God speaks
of him as our king, to whom he gives all power over all flesh. Look at Psalm 45, Psalm 45 verse
6. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is
a right, or a righteous scepter. Thou lovest righteousness, and
hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
Now we've read just this one psalm, and sometimes you will
get folks who talk about psalms and they'll say, which ones are
the messianic psalms? All of them. There are 150 Messianic
Psalms in the book of the Psalms. You mean they're all talking
about Christ? I told you, every line, every word, every precept
is about Him. Well, didn't David and Asaph
and Moses write what they really felt, they did indeed. They did
indeed. And they gave out their own experience
of God's grace and their own sin. They gave out their own
experience of redemption by the blood of Christ. They gave out
their own experience of God's saving mercy. But as they did,
they spoke by inspiration as divinely inspired prophets, telling
us of Him of whom all the scriptures speak. You see it in Psalm 22,
you see it in Psalm 23, you see it in Psalm 24, you see it in
Psalm 40, in Psalm 69. Our Lord Jesus is prophesied
and spoken of in his suffering and death as our substitute throughout
the Psalms and in his resurrection glory as our King who rules the
world in righteousness on the basis of his own sin atoning
sacrifice as our representative for our everlasting salvation.
In the book of Proverbs, he speaks of himself being set up. Wisdom. I, wisdom. And one of these days,
I want to try to do some work on Proverbs. Not anything written
or worth reading that I've read. Not anything. Folks read the
book of Proverbs, and they'll here and there pick out a little
something about the gospel of God's grace. But for the most
part, now, if you'll follow this book and walk with these principles,
you'll live a good life. This is the book of wisdom. Our
Lord, right in the middle of the book, Proverbs chapter 8,
he says, this is wisdom. You look at it. I am the wisdom. I was set up from everlasting.
Well, how could he who is wisdom, how can first wisdom be a person,
and how can he who is wisdom be set up? As our covenant surety,
our Redeemer, our Mediator, the Lamb of God, our Savior, set
up from everlasting in the everlasting counsels of God as the revelation
of God Almighty in redeeming and saving our wretched souls.
And His delights were with me from before the world was. Now
turn to Isaiah 53. Let's look at a real familiar
passage. Isaiah 53, we'll start at verse
8, let's take our time. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, who shall declare his generation? For he was cut
off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people
was he stricken. Now wait a minute, this is prophetic,
but it's written in the past tense? Reckon why? Because it
was done. It was done before it was done.
Our God declares the end from the beginning, then he does it.
And Christ Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world, who came in time to be slain. He was cut off out
of the land of the living for the transgression of my people.
Was he stricken? And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no
violence. Neither was any deceit in his
mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him
to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong
his days, that is, he is going to rise from the dead, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. As he makes atonement
for sin, as our substitute, he will arise from the dead, prolong
his days, he'll live forever, and he'll live forever that the
pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand everywhere. He rules
over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the Father
has given him. Read on. He shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge,
not by knowledge of him, by his knowledge, by his knowledge of
all that he has accomplished, All that he agreed to, all that
he performed, all that he pledged himself to in eternity, by his
knowledge of justice satisfied by the sacrifice of himself,
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Job spoke of Christ as his Redeemer. whom he expected to see in his
flesh in resurrection glory. And Job probably is the first
book to have been written. Probably the first book to have
been written. It's probably the oldest of all the Old Testament
scriptures. And back in the days of Job,
he said, I want to see him, my Redeemer. Now, be sure you know
what I'm talking about. I'm talking about my Redeemer.
I'm going to see Him face to face. And I'm going to see Him
with these brown eyes. And I'm going to see Him for
myself. You're not going to have to tell me about it. I'm going
to see Him. And I'm going to see Him standing on this earth.
And I'm going to see Him in this body. Man, that's what Paul taught
in 1 Corinthians 15. The very same thing he taught
in 1 Corinthians 15. That's what Job declared back in the beginning.
Enoch, before the flood, said the Lord Jesus is coming. And
Enoch wasn't talking about his first coming. He was talking
about his second coming. He's coming with ten thousands
of his saints. This is back before the days
of the flood. All the Old Testament scriptures speak of him. And
types, when you read the scriptures, and you read about types in the
scriptures, every time you read, about various events and people
and places and things, look for Christ. And if you look for him,
you'll soon see him. He's there. The types and scriptures
are, I can't begin to think about calculating them. But in the
Old Testament, you can set them in three categories. Typical
people, typical places, and typical things. I've got several books
on typology in the scriptures. Do you know the one that's almost
always missed? It's Adam. Do you know the only
one that's named in the Word of God as a type? Adam. Adam. Adam representing a people before
God. Adam voluntarily, willingly,
because of his love for his wife, rather than lose her. plunged
himself under the wrath of God in sin for her. Died for her. That's the last Adam. That's
our Redeemer. That's what He did for us. Noah
prepared an ark for the saving of his house. Oh boy, look at
that fantastic story of the flood. When I was a boy, a few times
I went to church, I'd hear folks tell stories, tell Bible stories.
And they reminded me of Jack London Tales and Aesop's Fables.
They told wonderful, miraculous, great, powerful, supernatural
things and didn't tell me anything. The purpose of those supernatural,
wondrous works of God is not to convince you that God is omnipotent. If He made the world, I reckon
He is. Well, why'd He do them? To show
you what He does for sinners by His omnipotent grace. The
Lord Jesus is that great Noah who prepared an ark for the saving
of his house, and saved them in the ark, and the ark itself
is him. That ark, in that ark, by the
command of God, Noah was brought in, and his sons, and their wives,
and his wife, and God shut them in the ark. And God poured out
his wrath from heaven, and broke up the deep. And all the fury
of God's unmitigated wrath is poured out on that ark. All the
terror, all the horror, all the fury, all the destruction. And Noah is in the ark. And he
went through the whole thing until God had poured out his
anger. And he came out of the ark completely
whole. That's what Christ did for us.
He bore all the horror of God's holy wrath and justice, and we
in Him bore it all, and come out the other side of judgment
perfectly whole. All of the various things set
up under the Old Testament law, the sacrifices, the cities of
refuge, the tabernacle, the temple, the priesthood, the priest garments,
all of them speak of our Redeemer. Brother Larry read back in the
office a little bit ago in Colossians 2. These things, Paul said, are
a shadow of things to come. They were a shadow of things
to come. But the body is Christ. Now,
the shadow is real important. The shadow is real important.
If you see a shadow, there's something there. But the shadow
is not the thing of meaning. The shadow is just the indication
there's somebody there. And all of these things are shadows
of Jesus Christ coming. But he's the one of whom the
shadow is but the reflection and the picture. Not only is
Christ the message of Old Testament Scripture, he's the message of
the New in its entirety. We don't have two Bibles. We
just have one Bible. The Old Testament is the New
Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old
Testament revealed. Now let me see if I can summarize
the subjects of Scripture. Brother Mahan gave this years
ago, never forgot it. He said the Old Testament says
the Redeemer is coming. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and
Acts say the Redeemer has gone. Romans Revelation, He's coming
again. That's the message of this book.
All through from Genesis to Malachi. Hang on boys, He's coming. He's coming. Matthew, Mark, Luke,
or John, here he is. Here he is, the Son of God. Here he is, the servant of God. Here he is, the Son of Man. Here he is, God in human flesh. And then in the book of Acts,
see him yonder? He's seated on his throne, just
like God said he would be. He's given him power and dominion
over all flesh. And in the epistles, beginning
in the book of Romans, God the Holy Spirit gives us by divine
inspiration the explanation, the inspired explanation, not
a inspired explanation, the inspired explanation of everything the
Lord Jesus said and did while he walked on this earth. That's
what the New Testament's all about. The epistles are the inspired
explanation of the doctrine of Christ. And all his doctrine,
all his doctrine is about him. We love to talk about predestination.
How come? Because it is the predestination
of men and women chosen of God to be conformed to Christ. Election. Oh, what a great thing. Only
because we're chosen in him. and chosen in Him that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. Chosen in love. Chosen according
as God blessed us with Him. According to His choice of us,
He blessed us in Him with all things. Redemption. I've read and heard historically
of many acts of magnanimous self-sacrificing deeds of heroism in which men
sacrifice themselves for others. And while they are moving, none
of them are really precious to me because I have no interest
in them, no personal stake in what went on. Oh, but the blood
atonement of God's darling son. He loved me and gave himself
for me. Regeneration, it's not a mysterious
thing. It's Christ taking up residence
in you. Justification, it's nothing deep, mysterious, profound that
you can't get a handle on. It is God declaring us just and
making us just. Declaring us just because he
has made us just before him in Jesus Christ. Sanctification
is Christ living in us. And the ordinances of the gospel,
There's just two. We're going to observe one tonight.
The first is described in Romans chapter 6, baptism. Baptism is
the symbolic confession of faith in Christ by which we as believers
identify ourselves with Christ, His gospel, and His people. I
baptize somebody here in this baptism, and I bury them, and
I raise them up. and they walk out. That's what
baptism is supposed to symbolize. We were crucified with Christ. And what you do with dead folks
is you bury them. But blessed be God we live. Christ
is raised up from the dead and we were raised up with Him and
seated with Him at the right hand of the Father on the majesty
on high. And now we walk with Him. in
the newness of life, real life. In a little bit we're going to
take the Lord's table, this bread and this wine. Symbolic picture
of our Lord's death by which we remember Him. He said as He
took the bread, you take this and eat it. You take it and eat
it. You see pictures of fellows functioning
as priest in religion, they'll give you the bread. No? I try
my best to have as little to do with it as possible, because
these men will come and pass out the elements to you, and
each of you who believe will take the bread. How come? Because
that's how you receive Him. By faith, you take Him. He didn't
do it. This is my body, which is broken
for you. Jesus Christ assumed our nature. unleavened bread because he came
here, the holy, immaculate Lamb of God, without the aid of a
man, through the womb of a virgin, assuming our nature. And then
he was made sin and crushed beneath the load of God's holy wrath
because of sin, our sin, made his. Just eat it. Every time you do, remember me.
This is the New Testament in my blood. It gives them the wine.
Drink all of it. Drink all of it. What a word. Drink all of it. Drink all of
it. Take in all of me. This blood was shed for many
for the remission of sins. Shed for many. Many according
to covenant terms. Many in fulfillment of that covenant
made on your behalf with me, between me and my Father, before
the world was shed for you. The blood of the new covenant
by which I had been raised up from the dead. The blood of the
new covenant by which you live. The blood of the new covenant
by which you have been sent forth out of your prison. Drink all
of it. And as often as you do, remember
me. When you open the book, Look
for Him. When you read the book, ask God
the Holy Spirit to show you Him. When you study this book, study
Him. When you talk about this book,
talk about Him. I'm nearly 57 years old. Now
sometimes in these things I feel like an old, old man. But I'm
so weary of hearing folks yik-yak about things in this book. I'm weary of it. Sick of it.
God is talking about him. What's he talking about here?
That passage you asked me about in Romans 10.6. Faith doesn't
say who's going to come down from heaven, who's going to go
back to heaven. Faith says he came down. He's going back. Everything's
done. It's all about Him. All about
Him. All about Him. And when we see Him, we see the
Scriptures.