It's a privilege to be with you
once again. I always enjoy coming to this
conference and hearing these men preach. I was thinking just a few minutes
ago when we carried one of our grandsons recently to the zoo. He's two years old. That's a little young to take
to the zoo. We wanted to take him, give his
mother a break. She has another child, three
months old. And he wasn't too interested
in the animals there. We had a buggy or a carriage,
stroller you push him in, but for some reason I was carrying
him when we came to the place where the elephants are kept.
And we came walking up high, kind of looking down on the elephants,
and he turned his head and he said, elephants. That's the only,
that's the only animal he acknowledged that day seeing. And I tell you
that because I noticed that the troughs where they put the elephants'
food was so high up, about five or six feet off the ground. And
I couldn't help but think that when you feed sheep, you put
the food down close to the ground. And I appreciate these preachers
who put the food for the sheep down where we can feast upon
it, understand it, and receive a blessing. If you will, let's
open our Bibles today to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24, and I want to
read the last few verses in this chapter, beginning with verse
50. And he led them out as far as
Tibethany, 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. Now when the high priest of old,
the high priest of Israel, when he finished the work on the Day
of Atonement, and I mentioned something of that last night,
how that was the one day in the year when anyone and he alone
would go into the most holy place in that tabernacle. And he would
not go there without blood. There were two sacrifices which
were slain that day. First, there was a bullock, and
he would take some of that blood in and sprinkle that before and
on the mercy seat. And that blood was to atone for
his own sins. And then he was to take the blood
of the Lord's goat, that is, the goat upon which that lot
fell, into the holy place. Sprinkle it before and on the
mercy seat. He would come back out and lay
his hands upon the live goat called the scapegoat, confess
the sins and the iniquities and the transgressions of the people
of Israel upon the head of that goat. And that goat was led away
never to be seen again. And then he was commanded to
put a blessing upon the people. And the blessing that he was
to pronounce was, The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and
be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. In this passage of scripture,
the great high priest, our great high priest, had now finished
the actual work of atonement, of redemption, and he was now
to enter into his glory. We are told that for forty days,
from the day of his resurrection until this day, for forty days,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he showed himself to his disciples on a
number of occasions. He showed himself alive, as Luke
says in the book of Acts, by many infallible proofs. On this
particular occasion, if you look up above this in verse forty-five,
we are told that he opened the understanding of his disciples. The Scripture says, verse 44,
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto
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 concerning me. then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them,
Thus it is written, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer and
to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and
remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem." were not to get from this that these
disciples did not have any understanding of the Scriptures before this
time. But their understanding was certainly limited. It was
very limited to this point. And there's a good example of
this if you turn to Matthew chapter sixteen. of how limited their
understanding was. They had understanding, but yet
it was very limited. In Matthew chapter sixteen and
verse fifteen, our Lord had asked his disciples, whom do men say
that I the Son of Man am? And he said unto them, after
they had mentioned several people, that the people were saying that
they thought Christ was But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven." What a wonderful confession and
understanding did Peter here give, recognizing, and this was
revealed unto him by God the Father, that Jesus Christ, the
Son of Man, is the Messiah, that is, He is the Christ. Now think
about that. Thou art the Christ. Well, all
of the Old Testament has spoken about the Christ and the work
that He would accomplish. And Peter said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And our Lord said, Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona. But notice just after this, in
verse 21 here in Matthew 16, from that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then
Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Now he just confessed
out to Christ. And yet now when our Lord begins
to tell his disciples that soon he would go to Jerusalem and
he would be put to death, he would be crucified and again
rise from the dead, Peter takes him apart. The one who had just
made that wonderful, that tremendous, that great confession takes him
aside and said, Be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not be
unto thee. Don't speak like that. You will not be crucified, surely
you will not be put to death. And our Lord turned and said
unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto
me. For thou savourest, and that
word savourest is mindest, for thou mindest not the things that
be of God, but those that be of men. They did not mind the
things of God because they had taken in the doctrine of men,
the doctrine of man that had convinced them, and that whole
generation, I suppose, of Israelites, that when the Messiah would come,
he would set up a kingdom in this world, and once again the
nation of Israel would be restored and yes, even be greater than
the glory that it had known during the days of David and Solomon.
And that this nation would be the head again and not the tail
of the nations. That they would be rulers. This
nation would rule over all of the other nations. That's the
kingdom they were looking for. That's the kingdom they were
expecting. And they completely missed all
of the Old Testament Scriptures which show that Jesus Christ,
the Messiah, that he must first suffer and then enter into his
glory. All they were looking for was
the glory. That's all. Our great high priest had now
finished his work of redemption, his work of atonement. He was
now to ascend unto the Father, and he would sit down at the
Father's right hand. And you know that high priest
of old, he never sat down. He never sat down in that tabernacle. Why? Because his work was never
finished. On this day of this year, I am
here, I am here to sprinkle this blood, and God willing, next
year on the same day, I will be back again, and if I'm removed
from being high priest, there will be another in my place."
Because this was going to continue to continue, there would always
be a remembrance of sin. Because the blood, it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sin. But now, when
Christ has appeared, and the writer of Hebrews says, once
in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. He was now, Luke tells us, parted
from them and carried up into heaven. His last act, his last
act was he lifted up his hands and blessed them. As he was to be parted from them,
His last act was he lifted up his hands and blessed his disciples. And I believe that is to remind
us that all through this dispensation, over two thousand years have
passed now, but the Lord Jesus Christ still has his hands lifted
up to bless his people. He blesses us. He daily loatheth
us with benefits, with blessings. That's the reason the psalmist
said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless
his holy name. And then he begins to enumerate
the various blessings that God has bestowed upon us. What I
would like for us to do this morning is this, with God's help
by the power of the Holy Spirit, I would like for us to see with
the eye of faith three things in those hands of Christ. Three
things in those hands of Christ today that we should see by the
eye of faith. And if and as we are enabled
to do so, we too, those of us who know him as our Lord and
Savior, we too shall be blessed. First of all, when you see by
faith His hands see your name written there." By faith this
morning, by the grace of God, by His faith, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, not with these physical eyes, but with the eye
of faith, when you see His hands, see your name graven there. Let's turn back to Isaiah chapter
forty-nine. And I trust you will turn here
in your Bibles with me, because I want to point out several things
in this chapter. Isaiah 49, and it is a prophecy
of the coming Messiah, a prophecy written some 600 years before
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, a prophecy spoken
by Isaiah given by God concerning the Christ, the Messiah. And
you must be careful as you read through this chapter to see that
there are at least three who are speaking here. Christ himself
speaks, God the Father speaks, and the Church also speaks. Verse 1, it is Christ who is
speaking, Listen, O owls, unto me, and hearken, ye people from
far. The Lord hath called me, the
Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother
hath he made mention of my name. There is only one There's only
one individual out of all of the billions of men and women
who have lived on the face of God's earth. There is only one
that God has called, that God has anointed, that God has sealed
to reconcile this world unto Himself by. And that is this
one that He has called. The Lord has called me. The Lord
has appointed me, the Savior, say, no one else but me. But there's no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There are not
two Saviors, there are not two Redeemers. There's one Savior
and there's one Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. He said, no
man cometh unto the Father but by me. There is no other way. He's called me. He's anointed
me. Him, our Lord said, hath the
Father sealed. Notice in verse three, And he said unto me, still the
Father now speaking, said unto the Son, Thou art my servant,
O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Lord Jesus Christ came into this
world. We know He is God the Son, manifest
in the flesh, and He came here as the Father's servant. Now,
some people have a problem when they read sometimes in the Gospels. For instance, in John, when he
said, My Father is greater than I. He is speaking there as the
God-man, as Jehovah's servant. He became obedient. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no
reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant and became
obedient even unto the cross, the death of the cross. Thou art my servant, O Israel,
in whom I will be glorified. He glorified the Father. That's
what he said, isn't it, when he prayed, I have glorified thee
on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And he's the only one who has
glorified the Father in thought, in word, in deed, in every action,
thoughtless, without sin, without even the taint of sin in himself. He glorified the Father, and
that's how the Father is glorified in his obedience unto God. He honored God's law. He magnified
God's law. How? By his obedience, his perfect,
absolute obedience unto God's law in every way. If you notice
down to verse eight, In an acceptable time have I
heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will
preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people."
This servant is said to be given for a covenant of the people.
Now, I understand that is simply saying unto us that everything
in that covenant revolved around Jesus Christ our Lord. He's the
messenger of the covenant, isn't He? He's the surety of the covenant. He's the mediator of the covenant. So in a way, the covenant was
embodied in Christ. I've given Thee for a covenant
to the people. Now, listen to this. His person, who He is, is so
great, and his work of redemption is so great that it could not
apply only to Israel after the flesh. Now, that's what I see
in this chapter. If you look in verse six. Well, let's read verse five.
And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob again to him. Though Israel be not gathered,
yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God
shall be my strength." And he said, that is, God said now to
the servant, it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved
of Israel. Light only in the sense of who
he is and his sacrifice. It would not be a light thing
to redeem one soul. But because of the greatness
of this person and the greatness of his sacrifice, God said it
would be, it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved
of Israel. I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles. that thou mayest be my salvation
unto the end of the earth." Now, we read a very strange word
here from the church. Verse fourteen, But Zion said,
the church said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath
forgotten me. I said a strange thing, but let
me ask you, have we ever thought like that? Have you ever thought
like that? The Lord hath forsaken me, and
my Lord hath forgotten me. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ has sailed through some bloody days. Persecution has
raged at times so that the Apostle Paul, even in Romans said, we
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. The catacombs of Rome
witnessed to a time when the church was run underground, persecuted,
and had to worship in fear for their lives. And only eternity
is going to reveal how many of God's sheep, how many of God's
people have been persecuted even unto death by bloody dictators. The valley of Piedmont, where
the Huguenots shed their blood, the snow was discolored, the
white snow was turned red with the blood under the persecution
of the Duke of Savoy and the King of France and the Pope at
one time. Surely those people hunted like
dogs, like criminals, may be thought at one time or another,
the Lord hath forsaken me, the Lord hath forgotten me. There
was a woman in English history, I believe her name was Mary Askew,
and she was brought before the judge, she was brought before
a tribunal, being charged with teaching her children the Ten
Commandments. That was the charge against her.
And I have always remembered this about her because of what
she said when she was questioned and they gave her an opportunity
to recant. And she said, Mary Askew did
not come here today to deny her Lord. And so being the kind people
that they were, her being a woman of the weaker sex, rather than
burn her at the stakes like they did so many, they put her in
a bag and sewed it up and tossed it into the Thames River. God's
people through the centuries, many have been persecuted. I
would be surprised if there are not people today, God's sheep
in this world, who are not being persecuted for righteousness'
sake. The Apostle Paul said, Yea, all
that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And
not only persecution, but I would imagine some in this building
today, you are going through some things, some trials. Remember what? God said through
Isaiah 43, when you go through the waters, I will be with thee.
When you pass through the fire, it shall not overcome thee. There's
one thing that the trials and the persecutions of this world
and that God sends our way can never do, and that is they can
never separate us from our God. Though we may think, and yes,
we may even say, like the church here, the Lord hath forsaken
me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." But notice the verse that
follows. God asks, Can a woman forget
her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Yea, they may forget. Thank God that's not often. It does happen, but thank God
that's not often. God said, Yea, they may forget,
yet will I not forget thee. And now notice, Behold, I'll
not forget thee. Behold, I've graven thee upon
the palms of my hands. What does that signify? Well,
I've read some on that, and some people said, Well, it's a ring.
It signifies a ring, something like a signet ring with our names
upon it. I don't like that. I don't believe
that. Why? Because the ring can be
taken off. No, I believe we are to take
it just like it is written. Our names are engraved upon His
hands. It is to remind us today of how
near and how dear we are as His people to Him, of His great love,
and yes, of His care concerning us. Our Lord said this about
his sheep, "'Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.'" You may be here this morning
and you may say something like this. You may say, well, I followed
what you've said so far. I understand what you're saying,
preacher, but here's the problem. I just wish I could see my name,
Graven, there. I just wish this morning somehow
I could see my name, Graven, on his hands. Well, if that's
your thought this morning, let me ask you this. Do you hear
his voice? He said, My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life." Do you hear His voice? Do you hear His voice in the
gospel being preached? Do you hear His voice when He
said, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. They that are sick need a physician.
He's talking to me. He's speaking to me now. He's
talking to those who are sick. He's talking to those who have
this disease of sin, this incurable disease with which we were born. He's speaking to me. Do you hear
His voice in the gospel? Do your ears perk up? Does your
heart sort of warm within you when you hear this truth that
Jesus Christ came and saved sinners, that he said,
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Does he speak to you in the gospel? Can you say, Well, I hear that.
I hear that this morning. I hear that he came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I hear that. And
I hear him saying, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and I am burdened down
with sin. I labor under this load of sin."
Look at his words in John 4 that he spoke to that woman at the
well of Samaria. In John 4 and verse 10, do you
know the story? Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith
to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water." Do you know that salvation is
a gift? Are you convinced of that? That's
what the Bible says. That's what God says. The wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he hath saved us. Not for your sakes, God said,
but for mine own sake I will blot out thine iniquities. Salvation
is a gift. If thou knewest the gift of God,
do you know that? And who it is that saith to thee,
Give me to drink? Do you understand who he is?
That he is God, man, that he is fully God, the eternal Son,
and yet he is man, he is bone of our bone and flesh of our
flesh. He identified with us. He became, he was made flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh. that he might do for us what
we cannot do for ourselves? Do you know who he is? If you do, you would have asked.
Do you ask? That prayer Milton mentioned
the other day, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Our Lord Said that, didn't he?
Two men went up into the temple to pray, and one began to speak
with himself and tell about all of his accomplishments and all
of what he was. And that other man stood a great
way off and would not even so much as lift up his eyes, but
smote upon his breast and said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And our Lord said, that man went
home justified. Thou knewest the gift of God,
and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."
That living water, that eternal life that he gives. Do you see your name there this
morning written upon his hand? That rejoices my heart, doesn't
it, Jerry? That thrills me. And time, tribulation,
or anything else can never remove that name that is written upon
the palms of His hand. Written there by divine election,
written there by effectual redemption. Yes, it's written there, never
to be removed. The second thing I'd like for
us to see, when you, by faith, see His hands, see the print
of the nails there. It is, after all, the sight of
faith that saves. And when I say the sight of faith
that saves, I'm not saying that it is faith in our faith. Christ is the Savior. But it
is the sight of faith that saves. I'm sure that there were a number
of people outside the walls of Jerusalem that day that saw the
Lord Jesus Christ hanging on that tree who were never saved.
Many were, but I'm sure there were many who were never saved.
And it's altogether possible that some of those soldiers who
were gambling for His robe at the bottom of the cross had some
of that blood sprinkled down on them, and they were never
washed from their sins in that blood. It is faith. It is by faith. or by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. It is Christ Jesus, God's Son,
which blesses us, and it cost Him, and those pierced hands
remind us of what it cost Him to bestow that blessing upon
us. Three things, three possibilities. Christ must die, the sinner must
die, or justice must die, one or the other. And as our Lord
opened up the understandings of these apostles, He said, thus
it is written, and thus it behooved Christ. It was necessary for
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.
Had He never suffered in our stead, we could never have been
forgiven. We could never have been saved.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed. And only His hand, not the preacher's
hand, not the bishop's hand, not the hand of any man, can
touch the soul of those who are diseased by sin and heal. Only His hand, His nail, scarred
hands that touch the soul and heal the soul. A leper came to our Lord when
he was coming down from the mountain, given unto us in Matthew chapter
eight, after delivering the Sermon on the Mount. And our Lord was
coming down, and here comes this leper. And I know that By law,
he had to cry out unclean. I don't know if he did or not,
but he was easily recognized, and I can just see everyone else
moving back. Moving back, getting out of the
way. They did not want this man to breathe upon them. They did
not want to be contaminated by this man. He was a leper! He
was a sinner! But he came and fell down at
the feet of Jesus Christ and worshiped Him. And he said, If
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." And the Lord Jesus Christ
put forth his hand and touched him and said, I will be thou
clean. The third thing, when you see
by faith his hands today, and don't miss this, see the scepter
there. the scepter in his hands. Hebrews
chapter 1 in verse 8 says, But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne,
O God, is for ever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. You know what a scepter is? Those
I've seen are about, what, about 24 inches long or something like
that. It's a symbol of authority. It's
a symbol of power. kings and queens and potentates
of this world. Many of them have their scepters.
It's merely a symbolic thing. Several years ago, my wife and
I were privileged to visit England, and like most tourists, we went
to the Tower of London, and that's where they keep all of the jewels.
And they have some beautiful jewels there. They have the various
crowns that kings and queens have been crowned with, and they
have the scepter there of the Queen of England now, and it
is about that length, but it has a diamond in the middle of
it. And I held up my hands like that. I'm not embellishing the
story. The diamond weighs 540 carats. If any of you men would like to
get your wife a new ring, you might could purchase that. 540
carats. Why would they put a diamond
in her scepter? Well, the word diamond comes
from the Greek word that is spelled A-D-A-M-A-S, adamas, and it means
invincible. Invincible. Now, she's a make-believe
queen, that's all. She doesn't have any real power.
She's certainly not invincible. But I'm here to tell you this
morning that the scepter that is in the hand of the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, that is King Jesus, His power is invincible. It is invincible. He's exalted
as the man, Christ Jesus, at the Father's right hand. That
right hand is a place of power, place of authority, and He rules,
He reigns over What do you mean by that, all? I mean everything and everyone. There is nothing outside his
dominion, his power. He said, all power in heaven
and earth is given unto me. His power is invincible. He reigns over the evil angels
as well as the good angels. He reigns over the church. He
reigns over all things outside of the church. He reigns over
all things so that He makes all things work together for good
to those that love Him, to those who are the called according
to His purpose. His power is invincible. And let me close with just saying
this. Those hands are the hands we
are going to see on the morning of the resurrection. Those hands
that, yes, still bear the marks, the prints of the nails. I pray
the Lord would bless this word to us this day.