These are the last words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And don't you love that the last
words of the psalm that he recited and caused people to recite with
him and to go back and contemplate with him finishes by saying,
be of good courage. He shall strengthen your heart,
all ye that hope in the Lord. What a blessed thing it is for
the Lord's people to have their hearts strengthened by Him. This is This is a remarkable psalm and
these are remarkable words of the Lord Jesus Christ and I want
us after we've sung again to go back and look at these words. They are words of contentment,
they're words of faith, they're words of love, they're words
of confidence. into thy hands I commend my spirit. It's in Luke chapter 23. But
I want us to remember that these are not only words that were
on our Saviour's lips. I want us to turn with me just
briefly to Acts chapter 7. These are words, we have a gospel
to live by. We have a gospel to die by. And you think of what Stephen
went through. He said, He said in verse 54 of Luke chapter
7, when they heard these things, when they heard the declaration
of the gospel, And he spoke about the prophets
that your fathers have persecuted and they have slain them which
showed you before the coming of the just one of whom you have
now been betrayers and murderers who have received the law by
the disposition of angels and have not kept it. When they heard
these things, including Saul of Tarsus, they were cut to the
heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth He being full
of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and
what did he see? The glory of God. As I said, this is a psalm. These are words to live by, and
these are words to die by, and these are words that God puts
into the hearts of his faithful people as they look to the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks steadfastly up into
heaven. I love this. And he saw the glory of God and
Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said to these
people, behold, I see the heavens open and the son of man standing
on the right hand of God. Then they cried with a loud voice
and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and
cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses
laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried
with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. What were the Lord's cries from
the cross? Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. Thank God there is a Father who forgives sins. And into thy hands I commend
thy spirit. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. As I said earlier, we have a
gospel to live by. We have a gospel to die with. Before we sing again, I want
us to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I know we know these verses
well, I just want us to read them. Because one of the things that
we wanted in the early days of our church when we didn't know
whether there were any other churches much or in the rest
of the world, we wanted to have the word gospel in our church.
And in some ways, as I've looked back on it over the years, I
would keep thinking, well, it would have been nice for us to
be called Sovereign Grace Church, but there were lots of those
around, and it would have been nice to have other names. But
anyway, it's been there for some time, and it's stuck there. We're
a church. that was founded, we believe, by God because a Gospel
came to us. Listen to these words from the
Apostle Paul. And I want us to have this in
mind of how that the Lord Jesus Christ died. He died with these
words. And may we do the same. Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also ye have received wherein you stand, by which also
you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless you have believed in vain. For or because I delivered unto
you, first of all, of the highest
priority, the most significant thing ever, that which I also received. The true gospel is a gospel of
God. It's a gospel from God. It's a gospel that declares the
glory of God. It's a gospel that declares all
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's an artistry receipt. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. Everything said on the cross
and everything that the Lord Jesus Christ said is scripture,
but he was a living embodiment of the Old Testament scriptures.
And there are so many Psalms that are just, all of the Psalms
are messianic Psalms, they all speak of him. And all of the
scriptures speak of him from Genesis to Malachi, they all
speak of him. But the Psalms that we are drawn
to on the cross. Psalm 22, for example, my God,
my God, why have you forsaken me? Psalm 69, I thirst. And here, Psalm 31, they all
speak of a union and a communion and they all speak of the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. How that, how
that Christ died for our sins. According to the scriptures,
and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the
Twelve, and after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren
at once, of whom the greater part remain unto the present. But some are fallen asleep. And
after that, he was seen of James and then all of the apostles.
And last of all, he was seen of me also as one born out of
due time. That's the gospel. That is the
gospel. There is no other gospel. The
gospel is a declaration from God. The gospel comes as a command
to men. It's not presented to men that
they would debate about it. The gospel is a gospel of commands
from God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Come to me, he said. The Lord Jesus Christ has just
been through on the cross of Calvary. He has been through
the infinite fiery wrath of a holy God upon the sin that was in
him, the sin that he bore in his own body on the tree. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians.
I just want us to appreciate how glorious the Gospel is and
I want us to see how serious it is. 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 2 says,
Grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it is meet, as it is right, because that
your faith groweth exceedingly and the love, charity, every
one of you toward all each other aboundeth. so that we ourselves
glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and
faith in all your persecutions and tribulation that you endure,
which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer, seeing it is
a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them
that trouble you. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus, shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. Listen to how
he comes back. In flaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Romans begins with the book ends,
doesn't it? The obedience of faith. The obedience of faith. Who shall be punished? Obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. The Lord Jesus Christ knew what
it was to be forsaken of God. He knew what it was for that
fire to fall upon him. And this glorious sacrifice consumed
the fire. This glorious sacrifice, this
glorious saviour, saved his people from that. And the very justice of God demands
that that fire cannot ever fall twice on the same sins. What a glorious God. What a glorious
saviour we have. May the Lord be merciful to us
and may he continue to hold us strong. As Psalm 31 finishes,
may he cause us to be of good courage. May he cause us to have
hearts that are strengthened. May he cause us to hope. We're
going to sing number 50. Thank you, Norm. Before the throne
of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high
priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me.
Thank you. So turn with me in your Bibles
to Luke chapter 23. You have to go to all gospel
accounts to get the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
other gospel accounts give account of him dying. They all record his death. Matthew says in Matthew 27, when
Jesus cried again with a loud voice and he yielded up the ghost,
he sent it forth. Mark 15 says he gave up the ghost,
he breathed out his last. And John, I love what John says
in John 19.30, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he
said, it is finished. And I just love this description
of him. He bowed his head. He bowed his head and gave up
the ghost. But Luke records these words
for us. He said, Father, Luke 23, verse
46. And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. It wasn't taken from him, he
gave it up. As I said earlier, these are
words of contentment and faith and love and confidence of his
acceptance with joy in the presence of his Father. He began his words
on the cross, Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. And in that darkness, he couldn't. He said, my God, my God. But now, these last words, he
begins, sorry, he finishes as he began. He says, Father, Father,
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He had six hours on
the cross, three in the hands of men when the sun shined, three
under the wrath of God. And then, having said those remarkable
words, I thirst and it is finished. He then declares this remarkable
finale to all of this before he died. The father gave the
cup into the hands of our savior and he drank it dry. How blessed is it for him to
call his father father again. How blessed. The sword of God's
holy justice, that sword in Zechariah 13 that, Lord willing, we'll
come back and look at again soon, but that sword, in verse seven of Zechariah, God
says, awake, O sword. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. And against the man that is my
fellow, my companion, my equal, saith the Lord of hosts, smite
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. And I will turn
my hand, my hand of love and compassion upon the little ones. My father, we're told to pray,
our father. How special it is for the Lord
Jesus Christ to call God his father. I love how after the
resurrection in John chapter 19, it's one of my favorite verses
in John 20 when he speaks to Mary, he says, I ascend unto
my father and your father, my God, All the what he does on the cross
and these psalms speak wonderfully and gloriously of the union he
had with his people. A union that he had with them
before the foundation of the world. My father, it was such
a common expression for him. On the Sermon on the Mount he
used it 17 times. In those last chapters in the
upper room, the Lord Jesus Christ used it 45 times. Amazing, isn't it? My father,
my father, my father. In John 17, he used it six times. What a wonderful thing it is
to be able to call God our father. Our father, the father saw the
travail of his soul and is satisfied. Two S words of the gospel aren't
they? A substitute The payment has been made in
full. Justice is satisfied. The law
has been honoured and magnified. The law is declared by the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ to be as Romans 7 says, holy, just
and good. Honoured in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Name of God has been exalted. He was obedient unto death. He was faithful to his Father
all through this. And all these people are saved
and their sins are blotted out. This was the determinate counsel and full
knowledge of God Almighty. What amazing hands they are that
he puts himself into. Daniel, those 70 weeks we spoke
about a little while ago, the 70 weeks are determined, determined
by God Almighty upon thy people, Daniel 9.24, and upon thy holy
city to finish transgression. to make an end of sin, to make
reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up the vision and prophecy, to anoint the most holy. He said, it's finished. He said, it's perfect. Now I can commend my soul into
the hands of my Father. Perfect righteousness has been
established, perfect satisfaction has been established, perfect
obedience, perfect redemption, a perfect result, perfect faithfulness
has now been established on this earth. God's darling son was lifted
up on that cross and he hung between heaven and earth as if
he was unworthy of either of them. No wonder Satan is called
the Prince of the Power of the Air as if he was in the hands
of Satan. It's the hour of darkness the
Lord Jesus Christ said He was made a curse. He was made
sin. He declared, didn't he, in Psalm
116, the sorrows of death have compassed me, surrounded me.
The pains of hell got hold upon me. All thy ways and billows
have gone over me. But here on the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ finishes this part of his earthly ministry with
a word of triumph. Salvation is sure. These are the words of contentment. This is the seventh word from
the cross. Seven is a number of completion.
It's the number of rest, it's the number of perfection, it's
the number that declares the work finished. And it brings
rest and contentment just as God saw all of it and he said
it's very good. It's now very, very good. And the Lord says these words
to assure all of his people that they can never suffer the
wrath of God Almighty ever again. And like Stephen, they shall
never die. What happens to God's children?
They fall asleep. They fall asleep into the arms
of God Almighty. Today you'll be with me in paradise. Fury is not in me. These are
amazing words. Turn with me back to Psalm 31
and we'll just look at the first few verses and I want to, Lord
willing, look at the rest later on. But I just love how this
psalm begins. And it's lovely to think, isn't
it, that the words, the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ
from the cross at Calvary were the scriptures. And it's the scriptures alone
which give the children of God the comfort and the understanding
and knowing of who God is. Listen to these first verses
again, which bring us to this verse 5. In thee, O Lord, do
I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. There he was in the midst of
this extraordinary shame and what extraordinary faithfulness
he's showing here in these words. Deliver me in thy righteousness. How amazingly he honours the
name of God. In John 17, in his High Priesthood
prayer, he says, O righteous Father, O holy Father, true God. And he says, bow down thine ear
to me, deliver me speedily, for thou art my strong rock, for
a house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress,
therefore, For thy name's sake, for all of your glorious character,
lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they
have laid privily for me. What horrible scheming of men
there was, they sweat about to destroy him. Pull me out of the net that they
have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth. The Father would redeem the flesh
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He puts his trust in him. in
this darkest, darkest hour. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver
me in thy righteousness. All of this transaction on the
cross of Calvary is a transaction of holiness, it's a transaction
of righteousness, it's a transaction which magnifies all of the name
of God. Don't you love how he says my
so often? He says he's my strong rock,
verse two. Verse three says he's my rock
and my fortress. In verse 4 he says, Thou art
my strength. He glorified the name of his
father. He came to glorify his father's
name. He came to declare the name of
God. He came to magnify the name of
God. And here in his greatest trial,
the honor and glory of his father's name was just paramount in his
thoughts. What a place to go for all of
us in our trials in this life. Father magnify your name. My
soul is troubled. Father glorify your name. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the
Word of God, but how he loved the Word of God. How he must
have rejoiced in those words in Psalm 119. Thy word have I
hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Thy word
is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it. Thy word is true from
the beginning. Every one of thy righteous judgments
endureth forever. Princes have persecuted me. This
is Psalm 119 verses 160 to 162. Princes have persecuted me without
a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. What a remarkable word. I rejoice
at thy word as one that findeth great spoil. Every word of God,
Proverbs 30, every word of God is pure. And he is a shielder
unto them that put their trust in him. The Lord Jesus Christ
spoke the words of scripture as he commended his soul into
the hands of his father. And his whole life was committed
to his father. And he was faithful. His faithfulness
was perfect faithfulness. Don't you love to think that
the Lord Jesus Christ did everything as an us? How faithful do we
have to be? How holy do we have to be? Him, we are, we are in Him. From whence this fear and unbelief
hast thou, O Father, put to grief, thy spotless Son for me? And will the righteous judge
of men condemn me for that debt of sin which, Lord, was charged
on thee? complete atonement thou hast
made, and to the utmost farthing paid, whate'er thy people owed,
how then can wrath on me take place, if sheltered in thy righteousness,
and sprinkled with thy blood? If thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my room endured, The whole of wrath divine, Payment
God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding surety's hand,
And then again at mine. Turn then, my soul, unto thy
rest. The merits of thy great High
Priest speak peace and liberty. Trust in his efficacious blood,
nor fear thy banishment from God, since Jesus died for thee. So said Augustus Toplady. Here we have amazing love. Having loved his own who are
in the world, he loved them to the end. He loved them to the
end. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. What hope the Lord causes his
people to have. Romans 5 is amazing, isn't it?
And hope make us not ashamed because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Amazing contentment, amazing
peace, amazing rest, amazing love, amazing faithfulness. You can't describe the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross of Calvary without using superlatives. Our
language is not good enough. Thank God we have his language
for it. His life was not taken from him. John chapter 10 verse 17, you
can turn over there if you wish, but for want of time, I'll read
them for you. He says, therefore doth my father
love me. Because I lay down my life that
I might take it again. The Gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. No man, verse
18, no man taketh it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power. authority and ability to lay
it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have
I received of my father." When did he receive that commandment?
when he was the surety of all of those people that the father
gave him for the foundation of the world. When he was the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, God the father looks
to his son for everything. Thank God. Thank God there is such a savior. What amazing hands they are that
he gave himself into. What amazing hands for us to
be in. He says further down in that
psalm, he says, my times are in thy hand. My times are in
thy hand. My times. What we think are our
times are actually his times. And he says, as he laid down
his life for us as a voluntary sacrifice and a sin offering,
he speaks as a substitute and a representative of all of his
own. He is seated in heaven and his owner always, where he is,
seated together with him. Father, into thy, into your hands,
I now place my spirit. Human life is much more than
these bodies. God breathed, in John 2.7, God
breathed into a man made from dust. And God breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life. And what did he become? A living
soul. A living soul. The Lord Jesus
Christ, his body is now about to be laid to rest in a cold
tomb, sealed and guarded by the religious and the powers of this
world. But his spirit knows no such
imprisonment. He said to that thief, today
you'll be with me in paradise. How precious are our souls. How precious are our souls. He is the God of the spirits
of all flesh. He formed the spirit of man within
him. People these days want to talk
about spiritual people and spiritual this and spiritual that until
you get sick to death and you keep wondering what on earth
do they mean. The only people who are spiritual people, who
are those who are the children of God, to whom the Spirit of
God indwells. The rest of them can talk about
all sorts of things and talk a whole lot of nonsense and give
themselves a whole lot of peace about those things. Now God says, may the very God
of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God, 1 Thessalonians
5, 23, that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says in Psalm 31, verse 7,
he says, I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, Thou hast considered
my trouble. Thou hast known my soul in adversities. Have known my soul in adversities. As I said before we began, Stephen died with these words,
and so when the Lord said from the cross, Father, forgive them,
he had a people in mind that were all going to be forgiven.
Thank God for forgiveness. Thank God that these words were
said on the cross of Calvary, and they reach down through time. They reach all the way down to
us. And Stephen, we can go back to
Acts chapter 7 because it's such a glorious story. As I said at the beginning, these
are words to live by. These are words to rejoice in,
to live in faithfulness and live in the faithfulness. The life
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son
of God. He was faithful all the way unto
death. He who is perfectly faithful
causes his people to be perfectly faithful and to look to him. These people were cut to the
heart, verse 55 of Acts chapter 7. But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked steadfastly into heaven." What a remarkable event
the dying of a saint is. How precious in the sight of
God is the death of his saints, Psalm 116 says. But the death
of his saints was the death that was died 2,000 years ago on the
cross of Calvary. That's why it's so precious. He looked up steadfastly into
heaven. And what do you see if you look
into heaven? The glory of God. And Jesus standing
on the right hand of God. And Stephen said, behold, I see
the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right
hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped their ears. Men are fully responsible for
their rebellion and rejection of such an amazing gospel proclaiming
such an amazing saviour. They stopped their ears and ran
upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city and
stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. Father forgive
them, they know not what they do. And they stoned Stephen,
calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried
with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. That's God's description of one
of his children going home to him. Father, forgive them. Into thy
hands I commend my spirit, said our saviour. That's how he died,
according to the scriptures. May his gospel be our gospel. It's how the Christ died, one
with him. Ere time began, one with him,
the God-man born, one with him as he obeyed, one with Christ,
our covenant head, one with him in agony, baptised with him in
fury's sea, one with him when he died for me, one with him
in victory. Amen, may the Lord. write his words and cause them
to be spirit and life to us. Amen. Let's have a break. Thank
you.