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Greg Elmquist

Finished

Ruth 3:18
Greg Elmquist February, 19 2023 Audio
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Finished

In Greg Elmquist's sermon titled "Finished," the main theological topic revolves around the concept of redemption as illustrated in the narrative of Ruth 3:18. Elmquist argues that Ruth's dependence on Boaz serves as a type for humanity's dependence on Christ, our ultimate Redeemer. By exploring the Old Testament typology of Boaz—described as a strong and swift “kinsman-redeemer”—and contrasting it with Jesus Christ's finished work on the cross, he emphasizes that the work of salvation is wholly sufficient and secured by Christ. He supports his arguments with various Scripture references, including John 19:30, where Jesus declares “It is finished,” and underscores the importance of sitting still and trusting in God's Word for fulfillment of promises, as illustrated by Naomi's guidance to Ruth. The doctrinal significance of this sermon lies in the assurance of salvation that comes from acknowledging Jesus as the complete and perfect Redeemer who will not rest until His work is accomplished.

Key Quotes

“Sit still, my daughter, for the man will not rest until he has finished the work this day.”

“What the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross was not to offer us something to be accepted or rejected by us. He was making an offering of himself to his Father.”

“You add anything to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and all you do is take away from it.”

“Today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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in the hardback hymnal 326. More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More, more about Jesus More,
more about Jesus More of His saving fullness see More of His
love who died for me More about Jesus let me learn, more of His
holy will discern. Spirit of God, my teacher be,
showing the things of Christ to me. More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus, more of His saving fullness see, more
of His love who died for me. More about Jesus in His Word. Holding communion with my Lord. Hearing His voice in every line. Making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus More,
more about Jesus More of His saving fullness see More of His
love who died for me More about Jesus on his throne, riches in
glory all his own. More of his kingdom sure increase,
more of his coming Prince of Peace. More, more about ? More, more about Jesus ? ? More
of his saving fullness see ? ? More of his love who died for me ?
Be seated, please. I like that hymn. Paul said, I have determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And in Philippians chapter three,
he said, oh, that I might know Him, the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His suffering. I might be more fully acquainted
with who He is and what He accomplished. He said, I've not yet apprehended.
I'm not yet gotten a hold of that which has apprehended me.
But this one thing I do for getting those things which are behind,
I press towards the mark for the prize, the prize of the high
calling, Christ Jesus. I hope the Lord will show us
more of himself. this morning. That's why we're
here. The only reason we're here. He might be pleased to reveal
his grace and his glory to sinners. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Ruth, the book of Ruth chapter three, Ruth chapter
three, a very simple message this morning. Title of the message
is finished, finished. And the three simple points of
the message is, who is the man? What will he do? And when will
he do it? Who is the man? What will he
do? And when will he do it? What a blessing it's been to
see these Old Testament shadows, types and figures of the substance,
which is Christ. We look at Ruth as a type of
ourselves. These Old Testament characters
represent us and our Lord the unbeliever, and we don't, we're
not just looking at a historical event that took place thousands
of years ago. We're understanding these things
as types and shadows and pictures of the substance of where we
are. And so Ruth, this poor, destitute,
widowed Moabitess is a picture of me. She's a picture of you. She's a picture of the sinner
who's completely dependent upon the Lord to provide for her a
Redeemer. And Boaz is that Redeemer. And he's going to be successful. He's going to finish the work
as did our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was successful. He finished the work. So now,
Naomi as a type of the church, Naomi as one who is speaking
for God to Ruth, the sinner, says to her in verse 18 of chapter
three in the book of Ruth, Then she said, sit still my daughter,
don't move a muscle, until thou know how the matter
will fall. This word matter is most often translated word in
the Old Testament. When you see the phrase the word
of the Lord, it's the same word that the translators put matter
here. And what Naomi is saying to Ruth
is, sit still, don't add anything to what Boaz told you. Let's wait and see how his word
falls out. Whether he's going to be able
to finish the work. His word is what we're sitting
and waiting and trusting and hoping. in. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is that Word, and we never separate the written Word of God, which
is the Scriptures, from the living Word of God, which is the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word
was made flesh, and the Word dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and full of truth. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is this word. Let's wait, sit still. As Naomi
spoke to Ruth, I'm trying to speak to you right now saying,
sit still and see how the word falls out. See what happens. For the man will not rest. The
man will not rest. until he has finished the thing,
the thing that he promised this day. So here's our three questions. Who is the man? I remind you
that Boaz's name translated means strong. He's called a mighty
man of wealth. His name also means fleetness
or swift, and he represents the strength and the swiftness of
the Lord Jesus Christ in successfully finishing the work of redemption
on the part of God's church, his bride, his Ruth's, his Moabitess, The mighty man, Boaz, our Samson. Samson is a picture of strength
and type of Christ. You remember Samson went down
to Gaza and he took the gates from off the city of Gaza and
the name Gaza translated means strength. So the strength of
man, here we have Samson going down to Gaza and taking those
gates from that city and putting them on his back and carrying
them to Hebron and exposing the entire city of Gaza to the Israelites. And it is a picture of what the
Lord Jesus Christ promised that he would do when he said, Upon
this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. I'm going to tear down those
gates. I'm going to go into the very belly of hell, and I'm going
to lead captivity captive. I'm going to take those who are
blind and dead in their trespasses and sins, who are captive to
the lies and deceits of Satan, and I'm going to bring them out.
Why? Because as strong as they profess
themselves to be, I'm stronger. I'm stronger. Oh, here is who the man is. You remember also Samson slew
the lion with his bare hands. And Satan prowls about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour. And the Lord Jesus Christ defeated
him on Calvary's cross. In another place, Samson took...
I think about Samson because Boaz's name means strong. And
Samson, we just studied in the book of Judges what a beautiful
type of Christ Samson was. You remember the time he took
a jawbone of an ass? And he slew a thousand Philistines
with the jawbone of an ass. Picturing how God defeats his
enemy and makes those who are by nature at enmity with him
to sit at his footstool through the preaching of the gospel.
The jawbone of a beast of burden declaring the truth about who
Christ is. This is the means by which God
saves. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. And so our Samson, It's not my
words, it's not the audible words of a preacher that save. It's
the effectual working of the Spirit of God who miraculously
takes the jawbone of an ass and slays a thousand Philistines
with it. And then you remember, after
that, Samson was, he was, He was dying of thirst afterwards.
The scripture says, and there was a hollow spot in the jawbone
that God filled with water. And he took his drink of water
from the very jawbone that God used to slay the enemy. And so it is with the preaching
of the gospel. Here's what our Lord, our Boaz,
our strong man, here's the man. Naomi says, sit still for the
man, the man. The man that you just talked
to at the threshing floor, the man who made promises to you,
sit still for the man will not rest until he has finished the
work this day. And of course, at the end of
Samson's life, when they tied him to those two pillars of the
Temple of Dagon, the false gods of the Philistines, and God returned
his strength. And in his death, in Samson's
death, he pulled down that temple. And so it is, in the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ, his strength was to pull down our strongholds. to destroy the hope that we have
in a false God, and to deliver us from our dagons. Here's who the man is. This is
who Naomi's pointing to. She's pointing to Christ. She's
pointing to the God-man, the perfect man. Scripture says,
mark the perfect man. Take notice of that man. Sir,
we would see Jesus. Mark the perfect man, for in
him is peace. Another man in the Old Testament
that represents the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, is King David.
King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. King David, the prophet. King David, the shepherd of the
sheep. as a boy, took a sling with stones
and slew the giant and delivered all of Israel from the dominion
of the Philistines. Remember, this isn't a picture. So many times the story of David
is told to our young boys to be strong and courageous. The
story of David is about Christ. What he did in defeating the
Philistines is what the Lord Jesus Christ did in defeating
our giant, our enemy, the one who would conquer us. And he
delivered all of Israel. He was the representative man. The man, the man who never wavered
in the strength of his perfection, the man who had perfect faith,
the God-man, Emmanuel, God incarnate, the all-powerful, sovereign,
successful savior of sinners. And Naomi is saying to Ruth,
and I'm trying to say to you, sit still, my daughter, for the
man, the perfect man, the God-man will not rest. until he has finished
the work. Scripture says that he is able
to subdue all things unto himself. He is able to make his enemies
willing in the day of his power. What kind of strength is that?
That a man who would say, I'm not going to have this man reign
over me, all of a sudden one day would find himself sitting
at his feet. A man who was breathing out threatenings
against the Lord Jesus Christ and against his church, and all
of a sudden a voice comes from heaven and a light shines down
from heaven and knocks him off his high horse and causes him
to breathe it from breathing out threatenings to say, Lord,
what would you have me to do? What kind of power is that? The
power that can change the heart of a man, change the heart of
a sinner, The man will not rest until he has finished the work
this day. He's not going to lose a single
one. He's not going to be limited by your rebellion or by your
resistance. He will overcome you. He will
overpower you. You will find His grace to be
truly irresistible. You cannot resist Him. Why? Because He's a strong man. That's
the kind of man I need. That's the kind of God I need. If a God presents himself to
me in such a way as to be able to resist him, I will resist
him and you will too. You'll resist him. You need a
God who cannot be resisted. A God who makes you willing in
the day of his power. He's so strong as our Boaz, he's
able to bear the full weight of God's holy justice for all
the sins of all of God's people. The shame and guilt of one sin
can overwhelm one of us. And even at that, we have such
a light view of the real evil of our sin, don't we? And yet people lose their minds
over guilt. That's really the thing behind
it all, isn't it? And the false prophets try to
get you to think, well, you're not really responsible. So what
I'm saying to you is you are fully responsible for that which
you feel guilty for. But there is a man, for whom
the governments are upon his shoulder. There is a man who's
so strong that he is able to bear in his body all the sins
and all the shame and all the sorrow and all the guilt of all
of God's elect and put them away once and for all by the sacrifice
of himself. What a glorious man he is. That
you can stand in the presence of a holy God with a clear conscience. knowing that he has forgiven
you all your trespasses by the sacrifice of Christ. That's a
glorious man. That's a strong man. So I'm saying
to you that the Lord Jesus Christ is the man that Naomi is pointing
Ruth to. He never came short of the glory
of God and his perfect obedience. He fulfilled all the requirements
of all of God's law. Not one jot or tittle passed
from God's law. He said, I did not come to destroy
the law of God. I came to fulfill it. You and
I can't keep one part of God's law. Not one time He kept it
all. He kept it all. This is who the man is. This
is who Boaz is. This is our perfect man. This
is our God-man. He's God's perfect man. And he's
man's perfect God. Oh, what more could we ask for?
Sit still, my daughter, for the man, the man will not rest until
he has finished the work this day. Kings rise and fall at his authority
and at his command. What a strong man. What a strong
man. The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord. He directs it with us, whoever
he wills, like a river of water. God take a rebellious, godless
king and cause him to do exactly what he, a matter of fact, he
does. Not he can, he does. All the kings of the earth are
doing exactly what God has commanded them to do. They're but puppets
in his hand. What a strong man. What a strong
man. Nothing's out of order, nothing's
out of place. Second thing I want to say about
this man, not only is he strong and swift, he accomplished a
work quickly. He did in three hours. what all of humanity could not
do in a lifetime. He did. That's why the scripture
says he's swift. He's quick. He's going to do
it. The scripture says in Romans chapter 9, quoting Isaiah chapter
40, that he will do a quick work to bring about righteousness.
And that's what he did. He did a quick work. and he brought about perfect
righteousness. Boaz was Naomi's near kinsman. God had provided in his law a
place for a destitute widow or even an Israelite of any state
to recover that which was lost by having their near kinsman
step up and pay the full ransom price for what had been sold.
Now, Elimelech, Naomi's husband, had sold her property and she
came back to Bethlehem with nothing. And now Boaz steps up and says,
I'm a near kinsman. I have the means, I have the
ability, and I have the desire to purchase back what was lost. And here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ, who calls us our friend, calls us his friend. Scripture
calls him our brother. The scripture calls him our father. He is our near kinsman. He married a particular bride
in the covenant of grace before time ever began, and He's always
been united to that bride. And He's always provided for
her and cared for her. And though she sold her possessions,
she sold her birthright, she sold her union with God through
sin in her father Adam, The Lord Jesus Christ steps up as our
kinsman, as our strong man. And he says, I'll redeem her.
I'll buy her back. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
54. Isaiah 54. Sometimes I hear people say,
well, aren't all men the children of God? No, no, all men are not the children
of God. Verse five, for thy maker, all
men are the product of the, are the creation of the creator.
But this, this intimate union that God's people have with him
is not by virtue of the fact that he created them, it's the
fact that he has made them to be his bride. Look, for thy maker
is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. He's the Lord of hosts. He reigns sovereign over the
living and over the dead. And thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall He be called. He is the God of the whole earth.
He is the creator of all men. And He is Lord over the living
and over the dead. He reigns sovereign over the
lives of all men, whether they want Him to or not. But this
kinsman relationship, To as many as receive Him, to them gave
He the power to become the children of God. Behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God." You see, this matter of being a part of the
family of God, being His child and His bride and His wife, is
by virtue of our union with Christ. It's not because He's created
us. Turn to me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter
1. Verse 18, for as much as you know. that you were not redeemed with
corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers. See, that's how we come
into the world. We come into this world, the
word vain means empty, spiritually empty, dead in our trespasses
and sins. That's our life. The word conversation
doesn't just mean the words that you speak, it means your whole
life. Your whole life is empty, meaningless, vain. God has redeemed
us from that vain conversation. And He didn't redeem us with
corruptible things such as silver and gold. We're talking about
a spiritual truth here. People say, well, my life's got
meaning and I'm doing this and I'm doing that. Yeah, you might
have some Temporal meaning in this life, but we're talking
about being able to stand in the presence of God. Here's the
Lord describing our lives spiritually speaking. We're by nature empty. We're by nature at enmity with
God. And we receive this by tradition
from our fathers. We go all the way back to your
original father, Adam, and he passed it on to his son, and
they pass it on to theirs, and all the way down the line. Let
man say what they want to say about man evolving. He's not
evolving. Not evolving. Look at verse 19. You weren't redeemed, you weren't
purchased back from what your fathers lost with corruptible
things. You see, that would be me offering
God something for my salvation, whatever it is. Whether it be
a prayer that I'm going to pray or a a repentance I'm going to have
or a faith that I've decided to have or work that I'm going
to perform. These are all corruptible things.
That's not what God requires for redemption. But with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot, that's what the Lord Jesus Christ required. You
know, Michael, I was thinking when you were reading that passage
in Exodus that a Lord showed me something I'd never seen before.
That, you know, we always think of that Passover lamb being the
type of Christ, and He is. He is. He was slain. But is not
the firstborn a type of Christ? Do we not see here what the Lord
is doing in executing His justice for sin by killing the firstborn? The Lord Jesus Christ being the
firstborn among many brethren, he is the one and only son of
God who God killed? It pleased God to bruise him?
You see, what do we see in this? God's satisfaction for sin. What was God killing the firstborn
among all the Egyptians doing? He was showing his judgment and
justice against sin. And they had to have the blood
of the Lamb. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass by you. But it's all about Him. It's
all about Christ. It's all about our Redeemer.
And He didn't say, I'm going to offer you redemption. He said,
I'm going to be your Redeemer. I'm going to redeem you. I've said this many times, I
just want to say it as simply and clearly as I can. What the Lord Jesus Christ did
on Calvary's cross was not to offer us something to be accepted
or rejected by us. He was making an offering of
himself to his Father. God was doing business with God
on Calvary's cross. We're not saying, oh, won't you
let Jesus come into your heart? You know, God loves you and he
died for you and he wants to save you. And you know, he's
making you an offer for you to accept or reject. No, no, no,
no. What the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
on Calvary's cross was he made himself to be an offering for
sin to his father. And the father accepted that
offering. And by the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary's cross, all the sins of all of God's people were put
away once and for all. Right there, right there. As
a lamb, without spot and without blemish. You see, that's what
God requires. Yeah, the Bible calls us sheep.
Problem is we're just a bunch of dumb, dirty, dependent sheep,
like sheep are. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the Lamb of God. without spot and without blemish. It was a lamb that God slew in
the garden to clothe Adam with a robe of righteousness that
he had tried to cover up his nakedness by sewing together
fig leaves. Isn't that what we do? Isn't
that what we do? No, you've got to have a lamb,
a spotless lamb, a perfect lamb, a sinless lamb. And his blood
has to be perfect blood. And that's exactly what Christ
did. He redeemed His people from their sins. Not with silver and
gold as with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of
Christ. Wow. That was my first point. Who is the man? Who is the man? He's the strong man. He's our kinsman and he's our
redeemer. So quickly, my next question
is, what will he do? He will not rest until he has
finished the work. That's what he's gonna do. Oh,
we've already touched on that so many times, haven't we? You
know, I looked up the word finished in the Bible, and the first time
the word finished is mentioned is in Genesis chapter 6, when
Noah builds this ark. 450 feet long, 75 feet wide,
45 feet high. By the way, There's no indication in the
scriptures that this ark had a keel or a bow or a stern like
that thing they built up there in Kentucky or wherever that
is. This ark was probably nothing but a barge. Noah wasn't about
to try to steer it. He just had to make enough room
in it for all these animals. And the Bible tells us that it
was rectangular. It was just a great big three
story barge is what it was, with lots of rooms and one door. And the word finish is mentioned
in Genesis chapter six, when the Bible says on this huge barge,
God instructed Moses to make an 18 inch window, one window,
one window. And that was the finishing touch
on the ark was when Noah built that one cubit by one cubit,
that's 18 inches, one window. And he shut the window and God
shut the door and the deluge came. And for the next year, Noah and
his family lived on that ark till the 40 days of Rain had
stopped and the water had begun to recede and Noah opened the
window. He opened the window and he let
out a dove. What is that dove a picture of?
Wasn't it a dove that came and rested upon the Lord Jesus Christ
as a picture of the Holy Ghost anointing him at his baptism?
That's who that dove is. And the Lord opened the window,
or Noah opened the window and he let out the dove. What a picture. Here's the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The deluge of God's wrath and
justice fell upon Christ when he hung on Calvary's cross. He
was completely in the hands of the Father. He wasn't sailing a ship. He
was like that barge, just completely dependent upon whatever God would
do. And it pleased God to bruise him. And he bowed his mighty
head and he said, it is finished. It is finished. The work that
the father sent me to do has been accomplished. And then he
sent out his spirit. And we're living in that day
now. The deluge is over. The justice is satisfied. The judgment of God has been
poured out. We don't have to fear that anymore.
Christ received all of that. He received all of it. And he
opened that one window. And that window is a picture
of Christ. The ark is a picture of Christ. The window is a picture
of Christ. There's the finished work. Daniel chapter 9 says that
he will finish the transgression. And that word finish means to
stop or to shut up or restrain. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. He finished the transgression.
And then in Zechariah chapter 4, the scripture speaks of Zerubbabel,
another type of Christ, who laid the foundation and will finish
the work. He will finish the work that
he began. In Luke chapter 14, you remember,
the Lord's talking about counting the cost. Counting the cost,
this is very important. Please bear with me just a few
more minutes. And he says that a man will not build a tower,
until after first he has considered the cost of the tower, lest he
be halfway finished and he's not able to finish it. And other men mock him. Do we not mock the guy that's
trying to build that thing there on 436? The last 25 years that
building's been standing there? He's a religious huckster, you
know that. The one in Altamont Springs I'm talking about. The
eye for eyesore. Okay? I mock him every time I
go by there. He's a religious huckster, begging
men to give him money so that he can build this skyscraper. He's been working on it for 25
years. He didn't count the cost before
he got started. He presumed upon God. And then he goes on to say, what
king would there be that would go to battle before first considering
what his resources were and what the resources of the enemy were?
And if he determined that he could not defeat the enemy, then
he would send out ambassadors to negotiate with the enemy.
Well, you know what that ambassador is going to negotiate. The guy
who, the king who knows that he's got the army to defeat the
other king, he's going to demand submission from that king. Is
he not? When he sends out an ambassador,
that ambassador is going to come back and say, well, these are
his conditions. We have to submit to his authority. Now, in the context of Luke chapter
14, the Lord speaking of us counting the cost, of coming to Christ. But is this not also a picture?
Do men not, do the men of this world not mock the Jesus who
wants to save everybody? He loves everybody. He died for
everybody. He's trying to get it done, but
bless His heart, He's in the heavens wringing His hands, wishing
that men would let Him have His way. That is a God to be mocked. That is a God who started to
build a tower, but He didn't count the cost. Or a king who
sends out his ambassadors. That's what most preachers are.
They're ambassadors to a lesser king who says to the greater
king, What must we do? And the greater king says, you
must submit to me. You must submit to me. Is that
not what the free will gospel is all about? Men saying, you
know, to the ambassadors that the king sends out, you know,
you don't have the strength to win this battle. The strength
belongs in the other king. It belongs in the guy that's
sitting in the pew. And if you'll let that, You see, conditions
of submission is what most ambassadors are asking their king to do.
Does that sound like a God who finished
the work? Does that sound like a kinsman
redeemer? The God-man? who came in the full power of
the Spirit of God as the anointed one to accomplish the salvation
of his people. No, we worship a God who is God. And that God, like a man who
builds a tower without counting the cost, or a king who seeks
to go to battle without any hope of defeating the enemy, is mocked
by men. John chapter four. Well, no, I go back even before
that and the beginning chapters of Matthew when the Lord Jesus
Christ stayed back, he wasn't lost. I was talking to a brother on
the phone yesterday and he was talking about sharing the gospel
with this other person who kept saying that you got to find God
and he just kept saying, God's not lost. God's never been lost. The Lord Jesus Christ at 12 years
old wasn't lost. He knew exactly where he was.
And when his mother came and they finally found him, what,
three days later? Why did you not know that I must
be about my father's business? Did you know that this is where
I would be in the temple discussing the things of God and the gospel
among the men of God? Why did you look for me anywhere
else? This is my father's business. And those are the first recorded
words that we have of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the last recorded
words we have of him is when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross. And what did he say? It is finished. And in John 17,
when he prayed that high priestly prayer, he said this. He said,
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. He finished
it. Oh, he knew exactly what that
tower was gonna cost. He knew exactly what that battle
was going to be. And he counted all the costs
before he went to battle and he got the victory. Sit here,
my daughter, for the man will not rest. He's
not gonna rest until he's finished the work this day. In John chapter 4, when the disciples,
when the Lord was at the well with the woman in Sychar, the
disciples came back with lunch and they said, eat, Lord. And
he said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. I have meat
to eat that you know not of, for my meat is to do the will
of him that sent me and to finish the work. to finish the work. That's what He did. He finished
it. Yeah, finished is finished. You add anything to the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ and all you do is take away from
it. And my last point quickly is
when will He do it? Well, notice what Naomi said
to Boaz. The man, the strong man, the
swift man, The man who is our kinsman, the man who is our redeemer,
he will not rest until he's finished the work. That's what he's going
to do. And he didn't rest. He set his face. You know, people
think that the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ was the
tragic end of a misunderstood life. That could not be farther
from the truth. The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus
Christ was the purpose of his life. He came into this world
to die. He came into this world to finish
the work of redemption. He set his face like a flint
towards Jerusalem, the scripture says. He laid down his life,
no man took it from him. He lived to die. And he did not come into this
world to try to change the world. If he did, he was a miserable
failure. The world's only gotten worse since then. No, he came
into the world to save his people, to redeem them, and he accomplished
that. He was successful. And he did
it this day. He did it this day. He did not come to provide an
opportunity for all men to be saved. He came to save his people
from their sins. The cross was the whole purpose
of his life. The cross was the crowning glory
of his life. He did it exactly at the appointed
hour, the day that God had chosen. And I would only close with this
encouragement. So it is now. Today is the day
of salvation. Now is the accepted time. He
said, well, I need to wait for this or that. No, no. Scripture doesn't ever say, you
know, you need to go home and think about that and consider
it. No, come, come. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. Say, how do I come? Just like you are. Just like,
don't try to clean yourself up. Do like blind Bartimaeus. What
did he do when he came to the Lord? He was blind, he was dirty,
he was poor, and he had a filthy robe that he was covering himself
with, and he dropped his robe and came to the Lord to be covered
in his righteousness. That's how we come. Lord, I have
no righteousness. Everything I have is filthy rags. Today, if you will hear his voice
and harden not your heart, Give us this day our daily bread. The call to come to Christ is
an urgent call. Nothing more important. There's
nothing more important. Nothing. Nothing else matters. Come. For the man did not rest. He finished the work this day. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for this glorious revelation of thy
dear Son. We pray that your Holy Spirit
would make it effectual to our hearts. Lord, forgive us of our
unbelief and our sin. Enable us to sit still, to believe on Christ. For it's in His name we pray.
Amen. Adam. Number 15 in the Sproul
hymn, let's stand together. It is finished, Jesus cried. Then he bowed his head and died. Died for sins, but not his own. And redemption's work was done. Justice then was satisfied, God's
elect are justified. Righteousness our Lord brought
in, and removed His people's sin. Sin and death and hell subdued
by the power of Christ's blood, grace to sinners now is given,
pardon, holiness, and heaven. It is finished, can it be, that
Christ's blood was shed for me? Yes, I know He died for me, for
by grace I now believe. Squeeding Christ's atoning blood,
Kneeling at the throne of God. Gone my guilt, my sin is gone,
It is finished, all is done. you
Greg Elmquist
About Greg Elmquist
Greg Elmquist is the pastor of Grace Gospel Church in Orlando, Florida.
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