I just have one verse of Scripture
I want to remind you of here, verse 17 of Luke chapter 24. What manner of communications
are these that you have one to another as you walk and are sad? You are sad. This is a question
the Lord Jesus asked these two disciples Are you sad? Why are you sorrowful? Why is
your soul grieved? Why are you cast down? Why are
you so discouraged? And seemingly this sadness was
evident probably by two ways. One, he mentioned what they talked
about. He could tell what they were
saying that they were sad. You remember what Clarence read
to us this morning. You realize what made them sad.
And then I imagine also you could see that they were sad by their
countenance. Their countenance was fallen.
You can look upon a person and see that they're grieved, can't
you? You see that they're sad. And they weren't saddened over
a loss of health. Nothing said about any of them
being sick. They had no loss of food. They
weren't hungry. We told that they ate later. They weren't even sad over loss
of some family member or friend. We could have understood that.
Marion and Martha were saddened over Lazarus' death. But they
were saddened over something else. It was a spiritual sadness. A spiritual sadness. I tell you,
there's nothing like spiritual sadness. Sadness that reaches
the heart, that reaches the spirit of an individual. And these men
had suffered a loss of their chief friend. They didn't know very much about
the Lord Jesus. They had little knowledge about
His cross, about His suffering. We realize that. They knew not
the Scriptures that He was to raise from the dead. Their faith
was little. But they knew Him. They knew
Him. And they loved Him. They had
heard His Word. They had felt of His presence,
His bodily presence. They were extremely attached
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They felt their need of Him.
And I tell you, when He preached, it went home to their hearts.
They may not have been able to relate to too much of it. But
one day when He asked them would they go away, they said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? We've heard your message. We've
heard your preaching. And you have the words of eternal
life. And we can't leave you. What
you're saying is going to our hearts. And we love it. So this
sadness year was a soul sadness. And there's no sadness like spiritual
sadness. As I read and studied this, I
was reminded of Hannah, Samuel's mother, before she had any children.
In Samuel chapter 1, listen to her. She was sad. And here's
how Hannah prayed. Hannah was in bitterness of soul
and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. She said, I am a woman
of a sorrowful spirit and out of the abundance of my complaint
and grief have I poured out my soul unto the Lord. That's the trouble that these
men had. We're told that these other eleven apostles, Mark tells
us that they were in this upper room, hiding out for fear of
the Jews, and they mourned and they wept. They were grieved
in their souls and in their spirit, just like Anna was. How often
do we read this, especially in the book of Psalms? And I think
one of the reasons we like David's writing so much is because we
find him in this condition. And he often speaks like this,
My soul is vexed in me. My soul is cast down. My soul is disquieted within
me. My soul is bowed down and great. Now that's a spiritual sadness. A spiritual sadness. A grief
and sadness of a man's heart. And you know one of the reasons
that touches a believer? You know one of the reasons spiritual
sadness touches him more than anybody else? Because when the
Lord saves an individual, He takes this old stony heart out. And He puts in a heart of flesh. He puts in a pliable heart. A
tender heart. And things touch him. Things
touch you now that used to be never bothered you. Now you think
different. You think deeply. You feel deeply. Now you're tender. You're tender-hearted
because the Lord has put a heart in you that's pliable and tender. Mary said this. She was talking
about her soul. And listen to how the soul is
touched. She says, My soul doeth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. See, when we come to know the
Lord, we know Him in our spirits. And we worship God in our spirits. So when we worship Him and we
rejoice, it's in our spirits. But I tell you just the same,
when we have sadness, it touches our spirits. It touches our very
hearts. It goes deeper than just the
ascent of our minds. It touches our spirits. Now what
was the cause of their sadness? Why are you sad? Why were their
souls cast down and grieved within them? Well, it was because of
the loss. They had lost the manifested
presence of their Lord and of their Savior. You say, Bruce,
nobody ever completely loses the presence of the Lord Jesus. I know He's everywhere. He's
in spirit. He's everywhere, isn't He? But
you and I will agree that they had the special presence of the
Lord. If you're a child of God, you
have His presence too. And sometimes He manifests His
presence and sometimes He hides His presence. And they lost His
presence here. And I tell you, they felt this
loss. They knew they were going to
lose His presence. They were sad about that. He told them,
I'm going away. And where I'm going, you can't
follow me now. And Peter said, Lord, why can't
I follow you? I'll die for your sake. And every
one of them agreed and said, we'll die for you. So they knew
that he was going away. But I tell you, knowing that
he's going and facing the reality of his leaving got them down. That's why they were sad. They
had heard the Lord Jesus preach. My goodness, His preaching had
won their hearts. They had saw these miracles that
He did. They saw His mercy towards the
other. They witnessed His healing of cripples and the sick. They watched Him one day heal
a blind man that was born blind from his mother's womb. They
watched Him cleanse a man that had leprosy, that was full of
leprosy. They heard Him speak to a man
and raise him from the dead, a mother's only child. But not
only did they see Him do these physical miracles, but you know
something else that appealed to their heart more than anything?
When He looked at a man one day and said, Thy sins are forgiven
thee. And when that sinful woman in
the town was laying there weeping at His feet, and He said, Her
sins, which are many, are forgiven thee. Or when He said to that
woman, Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. These men, these apostles, and
many of these disciples, they had had the uninterrupted presence
of Jesus Christ for three years. They were with Him almost exclusively. And sometimes He would set them
down in private. And He would open some parable
up to them. Or it's the Word of God. And
then He would say, Blessed are your eyes, for they see. And
your ears, for they hear. There's been kings that desire
to hear Me speak. Watch you hear Me speak. And
they've not heard them. But you hear them. You're blessed.
You're blessed people. And boy, they knew it. They loved
his presence and now he's gone away. He's gone away. They hadn't heard his voice.
They hadn't felt him. They hadn't saw his smile. They
hadn't saw the twinkle in his eyes as he looked at them for
three days. They hadn't seen him. And what
made it worse? What made their sadness worse?
They thought for sure we've lost him forever. He's gone forever. And the way they lost Him, they
could not understand that they saw Him finally give Himself
over to His enemies. They saw Him beaten. They saw
Him tried. They saw Him carrying a cross
through the street. They saw Him hanging upon the
cross there on Calvary's tree. They heard Him expired. And they
knew that they put Him in the tomb. And they said it's been
three days since all of this has happened. And by now, his
body's decaying. Oh, they were filled with sadness.
That was the cause of their sadness. Why are you sad? Are you a stranger
here, they said? And don't you know what's happened
to this Jesus of Nazareth? You and I have never known the
physical presence of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And we'll never know it in this
life. They had the physical presence
of Christ. You and I have His spiritual
presence. And we won't have His physical presence till we die
and leave this world and are carried up to heaven. Or until
the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. But if He saves our souls and
quickens our spirits and makes us alive, we know something of
His spiritual And if you and I have felt something of His
power, something of His sweetness, something of the assurance that
His Word brings to our hearts, and then He withdraws from us,
He hides Himself from us, and our day turns to night, our joy
turns to sorrow, and then is said of us, Why are you sad? Some people seem to enjoy more
of the Lord's presence than others. I think a lot of times it's due
to the faith. It's due to our faith and the
exercise of it that we'll look at here in a minute. But everybody
that knows His presence, covets His presence. And after you've
known His presence long enough, One of the greatest fears is
losing His presence. Moses prayed like this. Moses
said, Lord, if Your presence don't go with us, then don't
lead me up from this place. I don't want to go anywhere,
he said, if Your presence doesn't go with us. John Newton wrote
a song about the presence of the Lord, and listen how he states
it. content with beholding His face,
His spiritual presence. My all to His pleasure resigned. No change of season or place
would make any change in my mind. While blessed with a sense of
His love, a palace, a toy would appear. And prison would a palace
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. That's what he thought
about the spiritual presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why these apostles rejoiced, even when they were beaten of
the Sanhedrin, because they had such a manifestation that Christ
was with them. Paul and Silas was beaten, and
while the blood was still running on their backs in jail, they
sang praises to God. Why? His presence was with them. Paul was writing to Timothy,
and I think here is the crutch of the whole matter. And he was
writing to this young preacher to encourage him, and this is
the way he closed his last epistle. This is the last letter, as far
as we know, Paul wrote to this young preacher, Timothy. And
here's how he stated. He knew if this would be true,
then Timothy could endear whatever persecutions he had to endear.
He said, Timothy, the Lord Jesus Christ, be with thy spirit. We don't have his physical company,
but we have his spiritual presence. And here's the advantage we had
even over these apostles before Pentecost. They only had his
physical presence. We have his spiritual presence.
He could not abide with their spirits. But He in us can abide
with our spirit. And I tell you, if He's with
a man spiritually, if He abides with our spirit to hold our spirit
up and comfort and strengthen our spirits, nothing can get
you down. But in turn, if He conceals Himself
from our spirit, nothing can make you happy. Nothing can make
you happy. You're sad indeed. Mr. Newton went on in the second
verse. And in the second verse, he talks about the Lord's presence
being lost. And listen how he says this. How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds
and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer
sun shines but dim. The fields strive in vain to
look gay. But when I am happy in Him, December
is as pleasant as May." Well, that's His presence, isn't it?
That's His presence. I was reading a story about a
man. He was an older man, but he said
when the Lord saved him, he said it was like birds coming and
lighting on his fence, and they sang continually. Somebody asked
him, why, John, are you always happy? Why are you always a cheerful
man? Because he said, the Lord has
sent His birds, and they sang continually on my fence. And
he was down one day at the train station to catch a train, and
somebody there at the counter was giving him a tough time,
and dear John lost his temper. and began to fuss at him. He
got his ticket and boarded the train and in a minute he came
right back off the train and went up to the ticket counter
and said, I've come back to humble myself and apologize. They said,
why would you do that? And he said, because the birds
just flew off of my face. That's the presence of the Lord,
isn't it? Oh, it's like the singing of birds. That's what Solomon
said. The time of the singing of birds is come. Oh, but a loss
of that presence makes us sad. And only those who know the presence
of the Savior knows the sadness of the loss of His presence. One person said this, what makes
heaven heaven is the Son of God is there. And what makes hell
hell is that He's not. I've often said I would rather
be in hell with Him than in heaven without Him. Hell would have
to be a heaven if Christ was there, and heaven would have
to be a hell if He wasn't. One of the things I was struck
with one day as I was reading the last, I think it's the last
eight chapters of Ezekiel. I thought that's very interesting.
He told of the temple, building the temple, and the porch and
the post and the beauty of it and the size of it. It took him
eight chapters to describe this beautiful temple, and he closed
the last line of that book. with this, and the name of the
temple was Jehovah Shema. The Lord is there. That's the
name of the temple. The Lord is there. Isn't that wonderful? Why are
you sad? Because we've lost His presence. And what makes us more sad, we
think that we've lost His presence forever. Secondly, and I'll skip over
some of this, I wanted to go into two or three things that
cause their sadness, but is there a remedy for spiritual sadness? Thank God there is a remedy for
spiritual sadness. But you know, not all together.
Not all together. I think when the Lord regenerates
a person, when He makes us in His likeness, in His image, He
makes us new creatures, I think down deep inside of this new
creature, there is a groaning, a longing that will never be
satisfied until the day of the resurrection. Until both soul
and body is perfectly conformed to the image of Him that created
him. So we'll never be perfectly content
with it. will never be perfectly happy
in this life, even when we know that His presence is with us.
David said, I'll be satisfied when I awake with our likeness,
both in soul and in body. But here's one remedy, here's
one remedy of this sadness to dispel it,
at least to a great part. And I think it's found in verse
25. O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken." Here's the remedy for sadness, and it's faith. It's believing. These poor apostles
refused to believe any of the witnesses that the Lord Jesus
sent to them. Mark tells us in Mark 16 that
the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene and those other women and said,
Go tell My disciples that I have risen again. But their words
seemed as idle tales and they did not believe Him. Mark tells
us that He sent two more witnesses and neither did they believe
them. And He appeared to the ten apostles when they were hid
out from the fear of the Jews. And He showed them His hands
and His feet. And they were glad when they
saw the Lord. But remember what Thomas said? Thomas said, unless
I put my fingers into the Prince of Nails and thrust my hand into
His side, I will not believe. Now, willful unbelief will harden
a man's heart. And willful unbelief will take
our blessings and turn them into curses. And that's one of their
problems. They refuse to receive the witnesses,
especially the witness of the Word of God. And the Lord told
Thomas. He said, Thomas, you've seen
me and you believe. But listen. He's a blessed man. She's a blessed
woman that has not seen Me and yet believed. What do they believe? This Bible. These were written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And we've got the advantage on
them. Christ would appear to them like He appeared here. Then
He'd disappear. He'd disappear. And there they
would be looking for Him physically so they could believe. But you
know something, brothers and sisters, you and I have a firmer
ground for our faith. We don't have to see anything,
do we? We can go here any time of our day, any time of our night. No matter what circumstances
we find ourselves in, we can go right here to this Bible and
take hold of this Word, and here's the advantage we have. He has
said in His Word, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Now, ain't that a blessing? When
we can't feel His presence, as we often say. When you don't
manifest Yourself to our hearts. We don't have to despair and
get so down and be so sad because He's with us. How do we know
He's with us? Because He said, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. And by believing that, we dispel
ourselves to a great part of spiritual sadness. It's utterly impossible, one
man said, that you and I can be joyful in the Lord and have
any measure of assurance apart from the exercise of faith in
the Word of God. It's just impossible to maintain
any degree of spiritual gladness and happiness and joy apart from
believing what God tells us in His written Word. Peter says
it like this. Whom have you not seen? You've
never seen Him. Yet you love Him. And whom though
now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. Believe Him. Believe Him. I'm careful when I make a statement
like this, but I know you know what I'm talking about. God's
Word will do me little good. in my heart if I don't believe
it. It's still His Word. It's still
truth. It's still sharper than the two-edged
sword. It will accomplish His purpose.
But it will do me and you little good if we don't believe it. Paul was writing Thessalonians
and he said, I thank God that when you receive the Word of
God, You received it not as the Word of men, but as it is in
truth the Word of God, which effectually worketh in you that
believe." Believing it dispels this sadness and this despair
and brings us joy. One man said, I'd rather be in
the Word as in heaven. Heaven and earth shall pass away.
But my word shall never pass away. Why is this true about
faith? Why is that true? Wayne taught
on it this morning. It's not because there's no merit
in believing. Faith never done anything for
us, did it? But faith honors God. Faith gives Him credit. that it's true what He's written.
Faith brings the blessing. It's the channel by which the
blessing comes to us. God could have done another way,
if He so pleased, but He didn't. It's faith. And why is it faith? Because, listen, brothers and
sisters, the things of God are so wonderful and they're so mysterious,
the only way you and I can enter into these things is by simply
believing them. Can you grasp the eternality
of God? One of the first things our little
children ask us, Dad, how can God have no beginning? How can
God be from everlasting? You cannot grasp that, can you?
We are creatures of time. How do we enter into that? By
believing Him. I am from everlasting to everlasting. And we grasp that by believing
Him. How can we grasp the Trinity,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in this one eternal
God? My goodness, we can't grasp that.
What a mystery that is to our finite mind. But we believe it,
don't we? We believe it. How do we grasp
the fact that this universe, even heaven and earth, was made
out of nothing? That it was all spoken into being
in six days. I'm going to hold to that until
the Lord shows me different. That this earth, this universe
was created in six days. Not 300 million years, nothing
evolved, but in six days God spake and it was. By faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. And
how do we grasp this wonderful truth that God formed a man? of the dust of the earth, and
breathed in his nostrils the breath of life." Can you grasp
the eternal Son of God conceived in a mother's womb? Only by faith. Only by faith. Can you see Him
upon the cross and the transaction that took place there? We can't
see that, can we? Those people who were standing
there couldn't see that. What was going on in that darkness
between the Father in heaven and the Son upon the cross? Transaction
was taking place. He was bearing our sins. And
the God of heaven was punishing Him because of it. We didn't
see that. But we entered into it by faith.
I didn't see my sins weighed and atoned for. I didn't see
them put away. But I believe it when He said
by the sacrifice of Himself, He put it away. Can you see? Can you understand
how you're a new creature in Christ? I've searched for a new
creature in me and I can't find it. I can't find it. But He's
there. I'm Him. You are a new creature. Can you grasp the future? The
reality of the resurrection? Of the body? Dead corpses? of the saints and their dust
and their ashes have blown away and they've ceased physically
to be. And yet when the Lord Jesus descends from heaven with
a shout, that's going to all come back together into a glorious
and perfect body. We can't grasp these things in
our poor intellect, but we believe them, don't we? And we believe
them because God said it. Oh, you of little faith. He rebuked
them because of their unbelief and hardness of their heart. These things are written that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you might have life through His name. Two valuable lessons, right quickly.
One is concerning the Word of the Lord. Always, brothers and sisters,
always, bring this Word to your memory. Let this Word always
be coming to your memory. That's what He said here in chapter
24 in verse 6 and 7. He is not here. He is risen. Remember how He spake unto you
when He was yet with you? saying the Son of Man must be
delivered unto the hands of sinful man and be crucified and the
third day raised again? Don't you remember? This would
have been a remedy for their sadness if they had remembered. How often do you and I become
sad and confused and frightened We look at the things that's
going on around us. We look at the sin that's going
on in us. We become so despondent. And
what's our problem? We forget the Word. We forget
it. Don't forget the Word. Scott
Richardson told me one time, he said, Bruce, when you're looking
for a text, don't forget the Bible. When you're looking for
help, don't forget the Bible. When you're sad, don't forget
the Bible. It's God's infallible Word. And
secondly, believe it in haste. Believe it. We don't have to
have proof that it's God's Word. We're beyond that, aren't we? We're not praying and asking
God, give me proof that you created this world. We've got it. Give
me proof that your Son came. Give me a feeling. Give me something.
We've got everything we need. Brothers and sisters, believe
it. If God said it, believe it. And lastly, we see something
else here. The loss of Christ's presence taught these disciples
some valuable lesson. Even though they loved His presence
before, boy, they loved it more now.
When the Lord was walking with these two on the road to a Mass,
He made as if He would go on and walk on by their house. But
what did they say? You're not going on. You're not
going on. They constrained Him. The Word
has to do with force. I imagine they were pleading
with Him. I imagine one had Him by the arm. Maybe both. You've
got to come in. You've got to come into our house.
We want you to talk to us more. Open the Scriptures to us more.
There's something about you. We want your presence. Oh, brothers
and sisters, if you and I get that covetous over His presence
and that jealous for His presence, He's out not to hide Hisself
from us. Let us covet His presence more
than anything else, and don't do anything to grieve His presence. Oh, Lord, abide with me. That's what they said. Abide
with me. Why are you sad? May God bless
His Word. Let's pray.