Our scripture reading this evening is from the gospel according to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. I will read a few of the verses at the beginning of the chapter to pick up the thread. This is the account of Luke's, what he was given to write of the women coming to the grave. And I will not reread all of that, but let me read a few verses and then pick up the text at verse 13. And that goes all the way to verse 35. The entire passage is the text. So first of all, Luke chapter 24, verse 1. And then we have the account of them coming to the sepulcher. And then verse 9. and returned from the sepulcher and told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them, to the apostles, as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter and ran unto the sepulcher, and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. And now at verse 13, we begin to read the words of the text and read through verse 35. And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, "'What manner of conversations are these "'that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad?' "'And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, "'said unto him, "'Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem "'and hast not known the things "'which are come to pass there in these days?' "'And he said unto them, "'What things?' And they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. And besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done, yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher, when they found not the body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher and found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? and to enter into his glory. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to Terry with them. It came to pass as he sat at meat with them, he took the bread and blessed it and break and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking. of bread. So far we read God's holy word and that is also the conclusion of the text for the sermon tonight. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, what a strange, what a bewildering day for the disciples and the small band of followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. Having seen the unthinkable, that is, having seen the crucifixion of the Lord Himself on Friday night, they had been plunged into the deepest sorrow. despair, even complete confusion. That continued for them all through Friday night as their mind replayed the events over and over again and all day Saturday and Saturday night and Sunday morning. They were numbed by shock and in describable grief. And then that Sunday morning, these reports start coming into them. First, Mary Magdalene in a panic. Someone has stolen the body of the Lord. It's gone. We don't know where they've put the body. In response to that, John and Peter ran as fast as they could to the tomb, and it was true, the body was gone. The grave clothes were there, but the body was gone. And then the group of devoted women came to the disciples, and they were inexpressibly happy, overflowing with joy. And they told of how they had gone to the sepulcher and found it empty, the stone rolled away and empty, but an angel was there and an angel said, he is not dead, he is living, he is risen from the dead. And while that had numbed them with fear and terror, yet on the way to telling the disciples, Jesus himself had appeared to them and told them that he was indeed alive. But the disciples did not believe the report. We read it here in Luke. Their words seemed to the disciples as idle tales. You're imagining things. It's impossible. Jesus did not appear to you. But then there comes Mary Magdalene. Jesus appeared to me, standing by the tomb. But Mark says they didn't believe her either. What did it all mean? In that context is the story that we consider tonight of the two travelers to Emmaus. The Bible records at least 10 different appearances that Jesus made between the time that he arose from the dead and the time that he ascended up into heaven. At each of them, Jesus gave to his disciples a proof that he was risen from the dead and some more understanding of all these events. And it's this passage in particular where Jesus intended to do the latter, to give some understanding as he would explain to the two travelers why he had to suffer and why he would be glorified. And that the scriptures told them that. That was a main part of this appearance of Jesus. So with that in mind let's consider Jesus appears to the Emmaus travelers. Notice in the first place the surprising encounter, secondly the insightful interpretation, and thirdly the intended purpose. The encounter obviously was first of all between these two travelers to Emmaus and We know very little about them. We know that they were followers of Jesus, very much devoted to him. It's evident from what they said to Jesus before they knew who he was, how they said that this Jesus was a mighty prophet, a prophet mighty in deed and in word, and that he was someone that they hoped or trusted would redeem Israel. The very first verse of the passage of the text says, behold, two of them, that is two of the group of the disciples, went that same day to a village called Emmaus. They lived in Emmaus then, which is a village about seven miles away from Jerusalem, that's 60 furlongs. They lived in the same house, verse 29 tells us that, come and abide with us, they said. And one of them was named Cleopas, and the other's name is not given. The relationship, therefore, between the two is really two possibilities. First of all, they could be two very good friends, either unmarried or widowed men, widowers. who lived together. The other possibility is that it is a husband and a wife. Cleopas is the husband and the wife is not named. I realize that's not usually the way we think of this. We usually think of two men walking and Jesus coming to them. There is obviously that real possibility though that it is a husband and a wife. That a husband and wife would go to Jerusalem for the Passover would surely be what you would expect. That they obviously lived together, that both of them were devoted to Jesus, it could very well be a husband and a wife. And yet, in the end, we have to say we don't know. The Bible simply does not tell us. The second person, Cleopas I, but the other is not given. And then that means it's not important for us because the people are not so important. It's what Jesus does, what Jesus says to these two believers. That is what is significant here. These two travelers will encounter Jesus himself. Verse 15 makes a point of that. And that came to pass that while they communed together in reason, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Jesus himself, Jesus in his body. Jesus' body had been raised from the dead. And that body, as we saw this morning, was a changed body. It was not a material body, such as ours are, or anything that we have here in this room. This is all material things. That's why we can see them. But Jesus' body was heavenly, it was spiritual. And ordinarily, then, Jesus could be, you might say, right next to them in the way, and they would not see him. Because his body was not of the earth. It was a spiritual body. But Jesus could by a miracle, make himself visible to them, and even walk with them, and even partake of food. That's what Jesus could do. He had done this with Mary Magdalene. He had done this with the women who returned from the sepulcher. Later, he would do it with the disciples as they were locked in the upper room. Jesus would appear to them. Jesus made himself, therefore, visible to these two travelers and began to walk with them down the road to Emmaus. Now, Mark makes the point that he appeared to them in another form, in another form. So, in other words, They knew Jesus and they would immediately have recognized Jesus, but He appeared to them in such a way that they did not recognize Him. And the passage that we consider also makes that plain when it says that their eyes were held, holden, so that they did not recognize Him. They could not recognize that it was Jesus. It was not merely that Jesus wanted to show himself and say, look, here I am, I'm alive. But Jesus had another purpose, namely to instruct these travelers. And for that, it would be better if he did not come simply as Jesus, but someone else that could give instruction from scripture. So the two travelers left Jerusalem on Sunday, the same day that Jesus arose from the dead. They had heard the reports of the women, but they were not convinced of it. They were not convinced. The disciples did not believe the women. The disciples did not believe Mary Magdalene. Neither, obviously, did these travelers. What these travelers had heard had not convinced them either. And now they were walking and talking that it had about a two hour journey. If they would walk at a steady pace, it'd be at least two hours for them to walk home. And as they walk, they were talking in an extremely animated conversation. the words that are used, Jesus, when he said, what manner of conversation? It's a verb that it says, they're throwing things back and forth to each other. The words are just pouring out from one to the other. And another verb here speaks to the fact, this is a very intimate conversation. This is people who know each other well, they don't have to be guarded in what they're saying. And then besides that, they are, They're reasoning, they're questioning, what does this mean? And one would say, well, what about this? And then the other one would maybe try to figure that out and then say, well, what about that? And so they went down the road in this very animated conversation, trying to make things fit, make it sense. And they were sad. And they were bewildered and even very difficult to capture it, but a bit sullen. They were a bit angry. Their own leaders had made Jesus to be put to death. They were not merely sad. They were sad. They were sad because the one that they loved had been killed. They were devastated by that, but they were also a bit angry because of the fact that their rulers had done this. That's their mood. So Jesus joins himself to them as they are walking in this very animated And he asks them, verse 17, what manner of conversations are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad? And that word sad is the word that expresses that difficult, is a bit of angry sadness. What kind of a conversation is this? And Cleopas responds in absolute astonishment. How could you not know? Are you a stranger in Jerusalem? Are you living, we might say, in a cave? All by yourself? That's really the word he used there. Are you by yourself? This is partly the astonishment of someone who has just gone through something so tragic, so life-changing that he can't imagine that everybody doesn't know about it because it affects him so greatly. But the other part of it is, indeed, this was such a public thing. How can you not know? How could you have missed this? when it was so very public that the leaders of the Jews brought Jesus publicly with this large mob of people behind him to Pilate and demanded that he be put to death. And that then the soldiers and the leaders of the Jews and this mob traipsed across town to Herod and waited there until they sent Jesus back to Pilate. And they cried out for his death. And then this mob of people going to the streets of Jerusalem outside to Golgotha and the throngs of people gathered there at the crucifixion and the people going by and hurling their insults against them. How could you possibly not know about this? But Jesus simply responded, what things? And again, Jesus is a master teacher. And he's going to bring out of them what's in their heart. What are your convictions? What do you know? What are you struggling with? What are you struggling with? And when they laid that out, then Jesus would be able to instruct them when he understood exactly when they expressed their difficulties, their struggles, their convictions. When Jesus said what things, they both jump into the discussion. They said unto him, the words come tumbling out concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Their convictions about Jesus are very plain. Jesus of Nazareth, they're not embarrassed by that. Lowly Nazareth, The leaders of the Jews despised anyone who came from Nazareth, not these travelers. That didn't bother them a bit. He is a prophet. Now notice, Friday night we talked about how the centurion said, this man is son of God, no article, no a, no the. Well, that's the way they put it here too. This man was prophet. That's what he was. a prophet mighty, a prophet mighty in deed and in word. And they would be able to tell them, tell this traveler about the tremendous deeds of Jesus, his miracles that he had done. They would be able to describe some of the sermons they had heard, his authoritative teaching. He was a prophet, prophet he was, mighty in word and deed before God himself and all the people saw it. We all knew it. Their conviction of Jesus was even, clearly, He was the promised Messiah. We trusted, and the word trusted there is hoped, we hoped, we were confident that He is the one that would redeem Israel. And they didn't explain that, or at least the text doesn't explain that, but redemption is the word that is used whenever it speaks of Jesus redeeming His people from their sins. This is the word. We had trusted that he would redeem Israel. They also leave no doubt about their convictions of the guilt of the chief priests and the rulers of the people. They turned Jesus over. That word delivered is a word that is used when Judas Iscariot delivered Jesus to the chief priests. It implies something sinister. It implies a betrayal. They delivered Jesus into the hands of the rulers of this world unto the judgment of death. That's what they were looking for. They wanted him dead. And then, notice, and crucified him. That is, the rulers of the people crucified jesus that was their conviction and then their consternation increases they said but but that was three days ago and now and now we have women who made us absolutely astonished today absolutely astonished when they reported that they had gone to the tomb and not found the body the evidence of the resurrection, the angel's testimony, came back and said that they had seen the Lord. They didn't actually include that in this narrative, but it's there. And then they said, and the disciples went and they saw the empty tomb, but they didn't see him. They didn't see Jesus. And this is our problem. We thought this was the Messiah. We thought this is the one who would deliver Israel. We thought this was the one God had eternally promised for our salvation, and now he's dead with a curse of death. But now we hear these reports that he's living, and we absolutely can make no sense of this. Jesus responds, oh fools, He does not use the word fool that he said in the Sermon on the Mount, don't ever call anybody this. This is a word that Paul used when he wrote to the Galatians and said, oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? That's the word Jesus uses here. It means someone that is not understanding something. Something that they ought to understand, but they don't understand it. Oh, you on understanding people. That's that's the sense of honor of the word fool here. It's not due to ignorance so much, it's partly you're not trying, you're not you're not seeing it. Come on, get a hold of this. But it isn't merely that he says, oh, fools and slow of heart. to believe. Slow of heart. This isn't a matter of, well, they're not smart enough to figure it out. That's not it. It's a matter of faith. It's a spiritual problem. Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke. And with that, Jesus gave these travelers the privilege of hearing his own interpretation of all these events. We read in verse 27, and beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded. That word expounded is usually translated interpreted. He expounded. That's what a sermon does. It expounds a text. It opens it up. It explains. It interprets. That's what Jesus did. He preached a sermon. And the theme is in verse 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? That is, do you not see that this was absolutely necessary? He had to suffer. Christ, the Messiah now, has to suffer and enter into his glory. Verse 27, it says, all that the Scriptures said concerning himself, that's what it bring out. What did the Old Testament Scriptures teach about him? From Moses and the prophets, all the Old Testament. Jesus had said that before. to the leaders of the Jews who were criticizing him. And he said, go search the Scriptures. They testify of me. John 5 verse 39. Those Old Testament Scriptures testify of me. And then the Gospels. You remember the Gospels, especially Matthew, written for the Jews especially. And how many times Matthew would say, and this Jesus did in order that the word of the prophet might be fulfilled. The words of the prophets. And sometimes they were Psalms and sometimes they were other books of the Old Testament. which prophesied of Jesus, and Jesus specifically would go out of his way to make sure he did it. And then you have, besides that, in 1 Peter 1, this statement of Peter. He's talking about how the Old Testament prophets received a word from the Spirit And then in 1 Peter 1, verse 11, these prophets were searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified, notice, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. And the prophets were getting both messages. and trying to figure out how do these things fit together. The sufferings of Christ and the glory, how do they fit together? That's exactly the problem these people were having, these travelers. It has to do, of course, with God's way of salvation. The whole Old Testament is all about that. It's the word of God, it's the truth. Promise after promise and promise of what God would do. God said to Adam, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And that death is a punishment for sin. It is a physical, temporal death, but it is also a spiritual and eternal death. The wrath of God came on all the curse of God, the curse of God, which says you will die. And that death is an eternal death of the bearing of the wrath of God against the sin that man has committed. But God determined to redeem his people chosen in eternity. By sending his son in the flesh, by having his son satisfy the justice of God. having him come into this world in human flesh and take upon himself the curse, to take upon himself the guilt, and to bear the punishment for every one of the sins of his people. That was God's eternal plan. And following that, then to lift up this son to glory and to power. So those are the two points of Jesus' sermon. that the Messiah had to suffer, and secondly, that the Messiah would then enter into His glory. Now, I can't possibly pretend to piece together a sermon of Jesus, but I do think it's profitable for us to think a bit on that. What Jesus did for an hour-plus walking was bring out of the Scriptures those two ideas. He could have started already with Genesis chapter 3 and the word of God to the devil, the mother promise. I said, God, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, Thou shalt bruise his heel. Now when a poisonous, deadly, powerful serpent bites a man, even in a heel, that can mean death. So already right there in Genesis 3, 15, God is already saying, the seed of the woman will suffer, will suffer. He could have spoken about Abraham and God's command to Abraham, take your son to Mount Moriah and offer him. And how God then gave a substitute, a ram who died in the place of Isaac. Jesus could have talked about Egypt and the angel of death. And how the Passover lamb's blood, the death of that lamb and the blood on the door protected Israel from the angel of death. And he could have said, and that Passover lamb, remember, no bones may be broken. He could have said that. Because Jesus had no bones broken. He could have talked about the whole system of sacrifices, how an animal had to be brought in the place of the guilty Israelites, that the guilt was transferred to the animal, then the animal was killed, his life for the life of the Israelite, and then burned, symbolizing the wrath of God. He could have talked about the great day of atonement and how one of those animals had to be brought outside the camp and burned there. as this Jesus was crucified outside of Jerusalem and died. He could have talked about the law and how God in his law had said that there is a curse upon anyone who hangs on a tree and that that law was given in order to bring about the curse on the Messiah who would hang on the tree. He could have gone to the prophets, could have gone to Zechariah, many places. Zechariah chapter 10, chapter 12, verse 10, and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Or the next chapter, Zechariah chapter 13, six. And one shall say unto him, what are these wounds in thine hands? And he shall answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. And go on to verse 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. Or he could go to Lamentations, chapter 1, 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And then there's Isaiah. Isaiah 53. Or the Psalms. Psalm 22, which we sang Friday night and today. Psalm 69, which we sang about the floods coming up and being hated because of God and for the zeal that he had for God's house. Or Psalm 35, which speaks of how he is deserted by all, even his brothers do not recognize him any longer. We could go on and on. Psalm 44. Psalm 44. Verse 14, prophesies of this suffering. Psalm 44, verse 14. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. Psalm 109, verse 25. I became also a reproach unto them. When they looked upon me, they shaked their heads. The Old Testament scriptures made it plain, the Messiah had to suffer. This was necessary. This was the way of redeeming God's people. There was no other way. But the Old Testament also said that he would enter into glory. The victory was absolutely certain. And again, Jesus could go back to that very first promise, the seed of the woman. Thou shalt bruise his heel, but he will bruise thy head. He will crush the head of the serpent. And then all through the Old Testament, one victory after another was pointing ahead. There were types, there were shadows pointing ahead to the final victory of Jesus. The flood where the church is down to eight souls and millions of people are out there just ready to pounce on Noah and his family and destroy them. And God destroys them with a flood. The victory is God's. The Red Sea with Pharaoh and his host coming down upon them to destroy him. And Moses, a picture of the Messiah, leading them out of captivity, out of their danger, and destroying the Pharaoh and his host. Joshua, another type of the Messiah, fighting the battles of the Lord, conquering the land of Canaan, destroying the accursed people, giving them the land of promise. David and Solomon, two more types of the Messiah, and their kingdom, Solomon's kingdom of peace and prosperity, of course, that pointed ahead to the glory of Jesus, to the glory of the Messiah, and the Psalms. The Psalm we sang this morning, Psalm 24, ye gates lift your heads, this glad summons obey. The King of all glory shall enter in state. Psalm 2, this is my beloved son. Today have I begotten thee. I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance. Thou will dash them in pieces with a rod of iron. Psalm 2. Psalm 110, which we will sing later. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The exaltation, the glory of Jesus Christ found throughout the Old Testament. Also in Isaiah, to quote just a couple of more passages. Isaiah chapter 49, verse 7. Actually, you'll find both here. Isaiah 49, verse 7. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to Him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. You have the suffering of Jesus and his glory right there in the same verse, Isaiah 49, verse seven. And that well-known prophecy in Isaiah 9, And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth even forever. And so Jesus preached. And so he interpreted. So he expounded. A perfect explanation, as no sermon in this life ever is perfect, but his was. He's the word. And later the travelers would say to each other, did not our hearts burn within us as he was explaining these things? They couldn't get enough of it. And when they came to the village where they had to turn off and Jesus made as if he would continue, they constrained him, the text says. They begged him to come home. They could not get enough of this. Come with us. The day is far spent. It's almost even. You can abide here with us. Their eyes were being opened spiritually. They were beginning to understand. And then their natural eyes also would be opened when Jesus broke bread and gave thanks and handed it to them and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared. He left the realm of the earthly and went to the heavenly. But for all that, God's intended purpose is were being accomplished. First of all, it was another confirmation that Jesus was risen from the dead indeed. Acts chapter 1 speaks of the appearances of Jesus as being infallible proofs of His resurrection. God graciously gave these proofs to us. God could have simply informed us that Jesus arose from the dead, and we would have to believe that. God said it. God does not lie. But God gives these proofs, these 10 appearances, to help our weak faith. And these travelers to Emmaus then brought this proof back to the disciples. They couldn't stay home after this. They went as fast as they could, another seven miles back, arriving obviously sometime in the night. And they came to the disciples, and to their utter amazement, the disciples said to them when they walked in, The Lord is risen. Verse 34. The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon. Now they believed it. Peter had seen him. But the proofs kept coming. More and more proof. The Lord is risen indeed. And they could add their proof to it. God gave it to them. God gives it for us to confirm our faith because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so crucial that if Jesus did not arise from the dead, we have no hope. We have no salvation. It is so crucial that that never be questioned, that God loaded on the evidence. So that's one of God's purposes. But the other purpose is to help the believers make sense of Jesus' death and resurrection. Why was all this necessary? They could not make sense of it. If Jesus died, and if he died because there were evil men who hated him, and even if there were rulers of the people who hated him, and they put him to death, they could understand that. They could understand that they would do that. But why this kind of death? Why an accursed death? Why this humiliation? Why did Jesus have to go through all of that? And if Jesus then intended to rise again from the dead, why go through all of that? If he was going to come back now and restore his ministry and begin to preach and do miracles again. Why that death only to be raised again? They could not make any sense. They had to see God's perfect plan. God's way of salvation, that Jesus' death was not an ordinary death. It was a redeeming death. It was an atoning death. He was cursed not for himself, but in the place of his people. He died not for himself, but for his people. And he rose again as proof that he accomplished. But his resurrection was not a coming back to the earth. Status quo, now we just go back to Jesus teaching us. That's not what it was. His death had accomplished their salvation. His work here was finished. And part of his rising from the dead even was not merely to prove that he was alive, but it was a conquering of death. It was a breaking of the bars of the grave. It was deliverance of his people from death and hell in the grave. and all of that for God's glory. God could have formed a people for himself with whom God would have blessed covenant fellowship without any of this. He did it with Adam. He formed Adam and Eve. They were perfect. God would come and speak with them and they would enjoy fellowship together. But God's way was determined to bring out His infinite perfections for the glory of His own name. And that meant that Jesus had to suffer. To suffer in the place of His people to redeem them that would show us how righteous this God is that sin must be punished. There's no other way. It must be punished. God is that righteous, that holy, that He would pour out His wrath on His own Son. His Son had to suffer for the glory of God. How else would we know the depth of God's love god could tell us forever and ever and ever i love you i love you i love you but how would we know the depth of that love if we did not see jesus dying in our place there is love there is the love of god that gave his son there is the love of our savior how would we know the depth of his mercy of his grace to us so unworthy if jesus did not suffer and then to enter into his glory how would we know the true power of God over every creature if it were not that one of the greatest if not the greatest creature God made Satan rebelled against him and took a host of angels with him and the mass of humanity all united against God. And God demonstrates his power and he defeats them by Jesus. God has absolutely all power, you know that. And Jesus sitting upon the throne now is ruling even over the devil himself. He has all power and then all glory. And we will see that. We will see that every time we look at Jesus. Now we look at Him by faith. We look at Him through the pages of Scripture, but throughout all eternity when we see Jesus we will We'll think on his suffering, his love, the compassion of God, the depths of our horrible sin that we deserve, but salvation and the tremendous power and glory every time we look at him and we will erupt in praise to God for his glory. Jesus had to suffer and enter into His glory for the highest glory of God. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word. It is so rich, so glorious, and yet it's just the beginning of all that Thou wilt show to us Thy power, Thy might, Thy love, Thy glory forever and ever. We are so blessed. Make us to live out of this and to give Thee praise now until the day that we are brought into perfection and can praise Thee with the angels without sin. We thank Thee for Jesus and pray this in His name. Amen. Now we sing of his exaltation in Psalter number 124, the royal majesty of Christ, versification of Psalm 45. We'll sing the first four and six, one through four and six of 124. How goodly he is kind, Guiding her down with joyful song, The praise of Him divine. ♪ Our gifts may praise our God ♪ ♪ His praises, blessings evermore ♪ ♪ Our God, our King is God ♪ ♪ In our early days ♪ It's the majesty of thee, our Lord and our Son. Loyal, worthy, and born of thee, blessed truth and ♪ In the wind or in the storm ♪ Praise ye the Lord, ye house of love, when younger have we mined. Then bless the Lord, ye saints below, who in this way Let all his creatures let his name be honored and adored. Let all that breathe in praise to him, to all give my heart. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.