Realities of a risen Christ (Quality: Good)

[0:00] Prayerfully to Luke 24 and reading verse 6. Luke 24 and verse 6.

[0:13] He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. Here we have the evidence of that great miracle of the angel of the Lord removing the stone.

[0:35] And I believe it's in Mark's gospel where it says, who rolled the stone away. And oh, doesn't this speak a little, dear friends, spiritually to you and me concerning the stone of our heart.

[0:50] We are by nature eternally minded, as I often may remind you. We have heart of the stone. We cannot believe unless the Lord takes away the heart of the stone and gives us a heart of flesh.

[1:08] We see here, too, in the Lord Jesus Christ, as declared by these angels, and how they were fearful, were these women that approached the sepulcher.

[1:25] Fearful to see such magnificent things done. To see these men in shining garments. Some may very well say, oh, this is all a bit of a historical myth.

[1:42] We have known it, dear friends, in our family. Circle, the larger circle of our family in England, how they are called religion a myth.

[1:54] But all the solemn reality of it is, dear friends, that the word of the Lord endureth forever. And all this word of the Lord, which you and I, as hungering and thirsting sinners, will desire to be fed upon.

[2:12] And to be enabled by living faith, which is the gift of God, to believe in his word. And to believe in him, who through mercy, the grave could not hold him.

[2:28] And now, as we touched on in prayer, he is ascended into heaven. He is there, set down at the right hand of God the Father, there to make intercession for sinners such as you and me.

[2:42] And so here they were looking for him. And oh, doesn't it speak to us, to you and me, we may be looking in the wrong direction before the Lord.

[2:54] But oh, how we need then the Lord in his sovereign mercy to open our blind eye. Oh, how it reveals to us in this word the ignorance of these disciples that were talking of these things that had happened and how they had to be shown by the Lord Jesus Christ himself to remove the scales from our eyes.

[3:21] Oh, how we have to continually prove again and again, though we would desire to know the truth. We may know it in the letter, but the letter killeth the spirit alone can give light.

[3:35] And oh, how we do need to be given broken hearts and contrite spirit to plead with the Lord, to send out his light and his truth, to lighten our darkness.

[3:47] Because as these angels said here, and are they not the angels as it speaks of in Hebrews, ministering servants to minister unto the people's need?

[4:03] And so when that blessed spirit of the Lord anoints the poor sinner and teaches him what a sinner he is, he'll go about with a burden, he'll go about with something mysterious and strange going on in his heart, and there'll be that looking unto the Lord that he would appear and shine to the gloom.

[4:26] And so we shall not find him in our own heart, shall we, unless the Lord himself quickens you and me to light by his spirit and exercises you and me with real repentance.

[4:39] For they said that when they went there, he is not here, he is not here. Now what a mercy that the Lord then dwells with him who is of a humble and a contrite spirit and trembles at his word.

[4:55] And he has promised. This is our mercy if the Lord so searches your heart and mine, it'll be the prayer of your soul and mine at times if we've been quickened into life by the spirit.

[5:09] Search me, O God. We have to pray, don't we? Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me. Know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and leave me in the way everlasting.

[5:24] What a terrible thing, dear friends, to live and die without Christ. We shall perish in our sin. No sin will go by unpunished of any man in the earth.

[5:38] Now I can say that with the authority of Scripture. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Oh, how vital it was then that the Lord Jesus Christ should be raised from the dead, having conquered sin, death, and hell, having conquered the powers of Satan.

[5:57] And it's Satan, isn't it, in his deeds and actions that blinds the eyes of men to their want and the need of the truth, for their need of the truth.

[6:08] But when the Lord, in his sovereign mercy, who has been given all power in heaven and earth, sees that appointed time, the appointed time, dear friends, to be called by grace, that some of us trust, if we're not mistaken, although we're tempted to die, not mistaken, the Lord appeared to us of all, awakened us from our calmality, and made us to realize that one thing was needful.

[6:39] Now here is this, here is this work of the Spirit to be begun. He is not here. Jesus told those so-called religious Jews that they were like a white, painted, walled sepulchre, full of dead men's bones, full of dead men's bones, having a form of godliness that denied the power.

[7:06] Now we need to be delivered from that religion. We can only die, dear friends, as grace is given to save us from our sins.

[7:18] Oh, the Lord then has said, he is not here, but is risen. A risen Christ, ascended, the ascended Saviour's love that we sung of on Friday.

[7:31] See how he carries on, lives to carry on his people's cause above. He knows your heart and mine, dear friends. The foundation of God stand is sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.

[7:47] And as he knows them that are his, in due time he'll make himself known to them. As he drew near to these sorrowful disciples, one whom they had witnessed here on the earth, and now he's no longer with them.

[8:04] But through mercy he has risen. The grave could not hold him. And here he is, coming in to meet with these two on this Emmaus road.

[8:20] And oh, how he drew near to them. How remove the scales from their eyes, unstop their deaf ears, and exercise them with a desire that he might stay with them.

[8:33] As we go on this afternoon to read the word. You see, he says, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expanded unto them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

[8:52] How he came into the world made under the law that he might go to the end of the law and magnify it and make it honourable. That when you and I come to the end of life's journey, such unworthy sinners that you and I are if we know our own hearts.

[9:12] Hearts deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Oh, and how we are brought to see it and feel it. Oh Lord, I am, oh prayer. Oh Lord, do deliver me from my sins.

[9:25] This is not a morbid religion. This is a joyous religion when the Lord so sets you at liberty, reveals to you that in spite of all your fears of the unknown way he has opened up a new and a living way whereby you can be redeemed from the curse of the broken law.

[9:43] He has paid the price for sinners brought under the sound of the truth and brought to repentance and confession of sins and faith to believe in him.

[9:55] Now it's all the work of his from first to last. If your soul and mine is to be saved, if ever my poor soul be saved, says one, his Christ must be the way.

[10:09] When he softens your heart and mine by due degrees and makes your spirit meek by the things that you have to pass through or he causes you to pass through when you see how light are your afflictions compared to him.

[10:26] and his way was much rougher and darker than mine. Did Christ my Lord suffer and shall I repine? He is not here but is risen.

[10:40] This is a this is a fact dear friends, a very truth of God's word. He is risen. Lord, we look to the Lord who has now sat down at the right hand of God and he comes.

[10:57] He has completed the work of salvation, the glorious plan. He has sealed the covenant with that sin atoning blood. And Lord, we come before him with a desire to sit at his feet and to learn of him that he might make us wise under salvation.

[11:16] Lord, it's this, isn't it? Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it from thy courts above. Grant me a real interest in the meritorious sufferings of thyself on Calvary's tree.

[11:34] Lead me, Lord, and guide me into these truths and don't leave me to be led captive by the devil again. You know what it is to be tempted to the devil?

[11:46] He walks about as a roaring lion, seeking him he may devour. He also is subtle as a serpent, but Christ has bruised the head of the serpent, Satan.

[11:58] But still, Satan is very active and especially in our present evil day. But through mercy, the Lord God omnipotent reigns reigns in the earth. And he is now ascended into heaven.

[12:15] And how these angels here spake, he is not here but he's risen. And how they told, how they reminded these disciples that the Son of Man had spoken unto them that he must be delivered in the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again.

[12:37] And they remembered his word. And we would bless God for these portions of word where we see here how even they were forgetful.

[12:48] and how they had to be reminded of the words that Jesus had spoken to them on. And how we need the blessed Spirit to put us in remembrance of the things that we may have heard countless times.

[13:05] But being what we are, our very best died and stained by sin, our all is nothing worth, so we know the Lord alone must put us in remembrance of these things.

[13:18] or to bring us to that place where we hope that we can say the Lord has done great things for us.

[13:30] In those words that have been laid in your heart, you meditated upon them. And perhaps then you've lost the sweetness now and the power of them.

[13:41] And you need the Lord to come and arise. Arise, dear friends, into your very soul. it's Jesus, come, reveal thyself to me, speak some words, give me some healing touch, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

[14:04] Because you know we can so get, our minds get so beclouded with so many carking cares here below and we're led captive so easily, aren't we, if I may speak for others, led captive so easily by so many carking cares of this life that are perishing with the using.

[14:33] when the Lord by his spirit brings to your remembrance what he has spoken in his word and what you hope he has spoken to yourself, so it revives your drooping spirit and encourages you still to hope in his mercy that you shall yet be saved.

[14:55] And so these, you see these disciples here that have been to the tomb, they had something to testify that had been revealed to them.

[15:09] It's not what we learn in the head, it's what's been revealed to us. When Paul went to preach the gospel, immediately he conferred not with flesh and blood, that is of those pharisaical folks that he had been akin to, but now immediately he preaches Christ Jesus the Lord, that he is the Son of God.

[15:40] That's what we need, don't we? Our preaching to be in demonstration of the spirit and of power and of much assurance and of the Holy God. Anything short of that will be a religious fleshly exercise.

[15:59] So how vital it is that the Lord in his sovereign mercy doesn't leave us to our own spirit as we stand up solemnly in his name and got to give one day account of the things that we say.

[16:15] Oh, how it makes us tremble at times for the, to be in this solemn office. But oh, when he is here, when he is, when he comes, when he is risen in your heart and mind, when you feel the joy and peace in believing in your soul, when he speaks peace and pardon to you, you feel the effects of a risen Saviour, the risen Saviour's love, that he has conquered sin and death and hell, that he has overcome, dear friends, that cross that he had to endure and that cross and that tempter's power and now he is overcome and all we shall overcome through him and he says, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

[17:08] So what an, what an object of faith this morning, a risen Christ, a risen Christ, dear friends, ascended on high, led captivity, the captivity of your poor sinful soul.

[17:26] Oh Lord, you say, do come and speak some word of pardon to me, assure my interest in the meritorious sufferings, death, crucifixion and death and now the ascension of Christ.

[17:43] He is not here, he is risen. And so we look at him and we desire that he might get a glimpse by faith of him, that he might speak of you a mere word in season.

[17:59] The Lord might not leave us to starve as we come into his earthly courts, as we come with a desire not out of a mere form, but with a desire in our hearts to see Jesus by the eye of thy.

[18:15] We want to see him, we want to be enabled to have those clearer views of this way that leads unto eternal life.

[18:27] And Jesus says, concerning our second hymn, I am the resurrection and the life. You see, it is as the Lord alone implants that fear in your soul and teaches you to number your days so there's an exercise with you, that the Lord might keep alive, if you have any faith, to keep alive that power of faith within you.

[18:56] That in spite of all your earthly responsibilities, and we are right to give diligence in them, that also seeking plainly to know the Lord, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, that know how he has been raised from the dead.

[19:19] Likewise, you and me in our souls have been raised from the dead and been given grace to walk in the fear of the Lord.

[19:30] transformed into the kingdom of his dear son as your soul is exercised in serving the Lord with reverence and godly fear.

[19:42] Now, Lord, you say, order my footsteps by thy word, all that I might know that thou hast led the captivity of my sins captive.

[19:54] in other words, thou shed thine atoning blood on Calvary's tree to wash my filthy garments and make them white in the blood of the man.

[20:07] You see, to live and die without a real exercise of soul, dear friends, will end, I believe, with a solemn awakening. And you may have said, Lord, but I have prayed in thy name, prophesied in thy name.

[20:22] And you know, they're not my words that we bring before you. And he says, depart from me, I never knew thee. You know, the word of the Lord will be fulfilled to every jot and every tittle on it.

[20:41] Oh, how does the case stand with you? How have you come this morning? Is there an exercise to enter a little into the experimental language of our hymn book?

[20:52] These are things penned by these God-fearing men of old that spake and wrote by experience. Men of the Church of England, men that are despised and rejected by the national church today, and rejected for the most part by the world, and even many religious circles will not have such a religion.

[21:22] people but you know, whatever we may call ourselves, unless we have been baptized by the Holy Spirit, quickened into life by the Spirit, what hope is there of knowing a risen Christ?

[21:40] What hope is there, dear friends, of eternal bliss? peace? My peace, he said, I leave with you.

[21:52] This peace of God, the past little knowledge of understanding, because he said, because he said, he is risen, he's not here, he's risen.

[22:05] And so vital that the Lord grant you that exercise that he might abide with you, that he might favour you with some living testimony, that you're a chosen vessel, and you know you'll give him all the praise and all the glory due unto his name if he ever favours you to hear his voice or shows you a token or teaches you his fear.

[22:31] You know, the further we go on, the more empty we sometimes feel. There was a good portion in the March Standard concerning William Tip Tap, that suited me.

[22:46] Oh, how little do we feel to know things, and how dependent, the more and more on the Lord, to touch our tongue with a life cold from the altar upon high, that we might exhort his name in this sanctuary in Geelong and elsewhere where we might be invited to go.

[23:06] It's to preach the word, says Paul to Timothy. What an exhortation. Be instant, in season and out of season. It's going in the strength of the Lord, making mention of his righteousness and his own.

[23:20] He's not here but risen. All this holy, harmless Son of God, arisen from the dead, to carry on his people's calls, in heaven where he watches and waits to answer prayer.

[23:39] Oh, he has overcome, hasn't he? He has overcome the terrible sufferings on Calvary's tree in a fulfilling of that word that he had spoken to them before he came to the cross, that he would rise from the dead.

[24:01] There's Matthew's gospel, speaks a little of it. He speaks concerning how this work was to be begun.

[24:14] He's charged, he says, and I will, he said, I say unto thee, Peter, that is, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou should bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatsoever thou should loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

[24:41] you see Christ is the rock, not Peter is the Catholic thing, or you see they're deceived in that, because he said, Simon Peter had said unto him, thou art Christ, the son of the living God, and Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon, by Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.

[25:11] And so Peter was to build upon the rock of ages, which is Christ, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. How vital then for you and me that we know something of building upon this rock, this rock that is risen, this Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, the one that is continually needful to guide you and compass you about, to send his angels to minister unto you for the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him.

[25:54] And this filial fear that the Lord alone teaches you by his spirit, exercises you in doing those things that are right and pleasing in his sight, and so you have to watch and wait.

[26:07] you have to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high, and if you and I are true believers, you'll wait upon him.

[26:19] You won't want to run before the Lord to do anything that's contrary to his will. You look to him then to set before you that open door that no man has shut in.

[26:32] And so in all your ways to acknowledge him and find him directing your path, he is not here. And you see now that he is in heaven, the eye of the Lord is upon the righteous, and his ear is open unto their cry, the righteous cry, and the Lord hear it.

[26:54] This poor man cried, all your failure, poverty ever. You know, if you're a true believer, you'll feel your poverty, all that I knew where I might find him.

[27:09] You feel such darkness, you can say these things in the lip, but they come from the heart sometimes when you feel your great need of Christ. He is risen. The word declares it, friends, and it'll never be taken away.

[27:24] God's word will endure forever. He is not here, but you see, the devil will tempt you to believe that God has turned a deaf ear towards you, but he is risen.

[27:39] His ear is not heavy that he cannot hear, neither his arms short that he cannot say. Or he has then, he has all power given unto him, both in heaven and earth.

[27:51] We look around in this perishing world and see much that calls us to be very dismayed. The powerful workings of the devil, the denying of God's holy word, the forsaking of the assembling of ourselves together, the forsaking of God's truth, his commandments in the land, the land full of corruption, as this corrupt world and it's full of corrupt sinners.

[28:21] But if ye being evil, says the Lord, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

[28:36] Oh, what a mercy to have a desire to ask that you might receive, see that you might find and not that the door of mercy might be opened unto you.

[28:47] Oh, it's salvation, dear friends. We're all dying creatures. We're no sooner born than we begin to die. What a mercy then to have a little felt exercise of soul to be looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ to speak peace and pardon to you and assure your conscience of its interest in the merits of Christ who has now risen.

[29:13] Oh, what a mercy Satan, dear friends, was defeated, wasn't he, at Calvary? Oh, as we spoke on Friday, it'll be the prayer of your soul and mine, Lord, remember me.

[29:30] Lord, remember me. You see, and the Lord alone can remember you as his omniscient eyes upon you, running to and fro from the whole of the earth, looking upon your heart and mine.

[29:43] do you ever tremble at the thoughts that God sees, God hears? God knows all about your sinful thoughts even.

[29:57] But he says, I know that the thoughts that I think towards you, oh Lord, speak it, you say with power to myself. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end.

[30:09] your heart then and mine, full of evil corruption, isn't it? But by the blood of Christ he can cleanse you.

[30:21] Oh, the love of Christ, how great and how precious it is to a poor sinner as is revealed to him. Oh, this great love of Christ that he should now have fulfilled the just demands of that holy law.

[30:38] now in heaven. Now sees you exactly as you are. Now waits to be gracious unto his chosen people.

[30:50] Brings back the prodigals. Causes them to smite upon their breasts with the prayer of the public and for mercy. And shows them those tokens for good.

[31:03] Even shows them how he suffered on Calvary's tree. And now that will melt your heart, friends. You get a glimpse by faith of Christ's suffering.

[31:15] Suffering on Calvary's tree and now still bears those marks of the suffering. The human heart he still retains though thrown in highest bliss.

[31:28] Oh, what a mighty saviour he is. It's, Lord, save me from myself. Save me from this bewitching world that hath the death ten thousand hurled.

[31:41] Save me for my, for thy mercy's sake. He is not risen. He is not here, but he's risen. He is risen, dear friends.

[31:54] And so, though many may think that death is the end of it all, death is the end of it all, sorrowful news that we heard this week.

[32:07] The man tried to take his life in England. He was prevented. Wonderful. He was the son of a minister. You see, it doesn't matter what religious connections we have, it's a personal thing, isn't it?

[32:22] As to how the case stands with your soul and mine, have we an interest in this glorious risen Saviour, ascended on high.

[32:38] And the ascended Saviour's love continues for having loved his own that were in the world. He loved them to the end and he never leave them, you know.

[32:49] Did Jesus once upon you shine than Jesus is ever thine? Well, we often have a distrustful heart, don't we? Get careless and prayerless, get very formal in our private meditations and even in our worship, we can get formal.

[33:08] And oh, we don't want to get complacent, do we? And I get very fearful about that concerning preaching and going on. Oh, you see, it's the continuing, it's very hard to start, dear friends, it's greater to continue, isn't it?

[33:25] As it is to walk in the fear of the Lord as a believer. But he has said, whosoever believeth in my name shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

[33:38] Oh, the love of Christ. And we would bless God that there is this left on record that he puts you in remembrance.

[33:49] He brings to your remembrance and sometimes you might be in some unexpected place and you seem to be going on so formally in your way and the Lord drops a word in.

[34:02] Maybe walking about the streets. Oh, I remember my first text came through that. Walking through the streets of Tunbridge, well, bow down, thine ear, O God, for I am poor and needy.

[34:19] Oh, we had to prove, dear friends, a word from the Lord. Word we had to go in to preach from in our felt ignorance. But you see, what the Lord speaks, he fulfills.

[34:33] It's dependence, isn't it, upon him for everything. For in him we live and move and have our being. Mercifully, he is risen. He's a living Christ and he says, because I live, shall ye live also.

[34:51] Lord, speak the word to my heart, give me some blessed interest in this sin-atoning blood. Don't leave me, Lord, to live that life with a form of godliness that denies the power.

[35:07] But grant that the power of Christ may rest upon me and do reveal that love to me that I might feel that love constraining me and constraining me, Lord, to constrain thee to dwell in my heart as the hope of glory.

[35:30] You see, these disciples, they having spoken unto them these things as he spake and spanned it unto them in the scriptures the things concerning himself, they drew nigh.

[35:45] And he made as though he would have gone further, but they constrained him saying, abide with us. And he went into tarry with them. And you know the Lord does tarry with his people still.

[35:58] He drops a word. Great is this mystery of godliness, the working of the spirit. He drops a word into your soul. He melts your hard heart. You come with weeping and supplication when he softens your heart.

[36:12] And you feel to receive a crumb that may fall from his table. And you bless God for it as he shows you a token. And you go on your way rejoicing.

[36:24] You see, because none can keep alive his own soul. With all your reading, all your religious activities, you cannot keep alive yourself.

[36:37] The spirit must have worked for for his all of grace. But he is not here, he is risen. He is risen. And we will bless God because he alone can visit your soul and mine and assure your interest in this meritorious sin-etoning blood.

[37:00] And so you see, even to others, it said here, they went from the sepulcher and they met these others and told them these things unto the apostles.

[37:15] And their words seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not. You see, it was not yet the time for these apostles to fully believe that Christ had risen.

[37:28] They seemed to be to them as idle tales. And the gospel truths are idle tales until the Lord of the spirit of life and glory takes them and reveals them to us.

[37:40] But he is still there. He's still that almighty omnipotent God. He has power to save. And so he tarries, dear friends, off until men are faint and comes at evening late.

[37:57] And he bids sinners, tarry ye here then in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. It's a waiting time, isn't it, for the Lord's appointed time.

[38:10] For he is not here but he's risen. All that he might then in his sovereign mercy reveal to you and me a little of this everlasting love and show you and me those tokens for God.

[38:27] Blessed mercy then that he is risen. It's Jesus Christ then your father's friend bid you undismayed go on.

[38:41] He's the sinner's friend. He is the son of God and he has promised to his people that he will never leave them nor forsake them so that we can boldly say at times under the influence of the spirit, the Lord is my helper, I not fear what man should do unto me, but I see the time has gone.

[39:06] I must leave it for now. May the Lord bless his own word and forgive all of this. Amen.