John chapter 19, what our brother
just read. I'm a big fan of absolutes. I
like absolutes. There's a preacher that I believe
he's dead now. Last I heard he was in a rest
home, but I believe he died. His name was Dusty Rhodes. You
remember old Dusty Rhodes? He was a real strong Calvinist
preacher. A bit too legal for my taste
now, back then when I was a lost, legalist Calvinist preacher.
I liked him a whole lot. I liked him less in the latter
days. But I heard him in a radio interview one time. There was
kind of a debate going on between him and the radio announcer. He was on a religious station.
I think it was WPGD. Remember that? They said their letters meant,
we preach God's deliverance. I always thought it meant, we
preach God's deficiency. But nonetheless, this fellow
asked Dusty Rhodes, did he believe in absolutes? And Dusty said,
Yes, I do. I believe in absolutes. This
fellow said, Well, I don't believe in absolutes. He says, You don't
believe in absolutes? He says, No, I don't. He said,
Are you sure about that? He said, Absolutely. I love absolutes. I am a predestinarian, a practical
predestinarian, a natural predestinarian, and a spiritual predestinarian.
I don't do anything hardly without planning it, and neither do you.
So that makes you a predestinarian. I like it when God says something
is the way it is. In this passage of Scripture,
we have Three wonderful words here, spoken by our Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross of Calvary. He said, it is finished. That is an absolute. It's an absolute. Whatever he
was talking about, it was finished right then and there. And there are no more words in
scripture that are more familiar and more precious to the believer
than these three words. It is finished. It's actually one word in the
original language. It's the same word used in verse
28 twice and translated accomplish and fulfill. It comes from that
same root word translated into three words. It is finished,
but the word is perfect. That's what the word means. Accomplished
is a form of the word teleo. So is fulfilled. So is it is
finished. All of them is the same word.
Considering the circumstance of this language and these words,
our Lord, having stood the worst that men could do, having stood
the worst that God could do, came out on the other side of
it in agonies and blood. As far as human eyes could see,
his visage was marred more than any man. Torn up, ravaged, shredded
like a slaughtered beast. He wasn't hanging on a cross
with a little crown of rose thorns on his head and a tea towel wrapped
around his belly. He was buck naked, shamefully
mistreated, humiliated. And he raises his head and says
in a loud voice, Finished. This is poetry. This is prose. It's rhyme. It's reason. It's
sublime syntax. It is finished. These are words
that describe a crowning achievement. The achievement that began before
time when God picked out elected, selected, severed out from a
fallen race that did not yet even exist, a people for himself. His very own people. What he
would call his portion. Can you imagine that? Think of
yourself. You're God's portion. I know
He's our portion, but I can't imagine myself being called of
Him his portion, his portion. An innumerable company of sinners,
a gargantuan number of felonious miscreants on whom he would just
freely bestow his sovereign grace. He gave that crowd of convicts
to his son, who proceeded to sign his name on the debt of
the sin they owed. So that when they came into this
world as vile and as guilty as they were, they were never, for
one nanosecond, responsible for the payment of their sin. His Son, the Son of God, the
King of Kings, came into this world and assumed human flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh. And on the cross he stood in
the room instead of that naturally condemned company, and suffered,
indeed gladly suffered, the punishment that they were due, and for three
hours of darkness bore up under God's wrath and drank that punishing
cup of just condemnation. He drank it dry. And we arrive
at our text. It is finished. These words are a powerful declaration
of the successful completion of the redemption of that great
chosen company. Of the successful completion
of redemption. In time, The Holy Spirit will
make this vast scrap of humanity aware of what has been accomplished
for them through the preaching of the gospel, by taking the
things of Christ and showing them to the elect. This picture
the Holy Spirit paints. The report he tells, the doctrine
he teaches is so glorious and wondrous and matter-of-fact that
the elect become totally enamored and helplessly fall in love with
the chiefest among ten thousand. One of the things that will be
planted and ingrained and etched with a pen of a ready writer
and seared in the minds and hearts of the elect will be these three
words. It is finished. These words are spoken by Jesus
Christ the Lord. They are words stronger than
iron. and will ring true and absolute when time is no more.
Though religion endeavors to change the meaning of the words
or explain them away altogether, the believer knows what they
mean and willingly hangs his never-dying soul upon his Master's
utterance here. This is that nail in a sure place. One man said, ìNot only does
the Bible say what it says, it means what it means.î I've heard
many try to make these words say something other than what
they say. I was at a funeral one time and a preacher said
of these words that Christ meant that he had finished his part
and the rest was up to you. He should be glad that I didn't
have a gun that day. I heard another fellow down in
Atlanta, a very popular preacher, spend an hour trying to explain
how the work of Christ was finished but not complete, unless a person
believed it. How sad that is for the King
of Kings, the only true potentate, to dangle in limbo for two thousand
years until I, a maniacal maggot, came along and gave his words
some effectual value. Men certainly think a lot of
themselves, don't they? How desperate Christ must have
felt knowing that the efficaciousness of his work had to wait on the
wriggling, writhing worms of the earth to lift their heads
from the dunghill and make his great work viable, and this great
proclamation to have some semblance of clout. It is finished. It is. It really is. really is. These words have meaning. They have meaning. That is backed
up, that meaning, with the very authority of heaven itself, God
Almighty. Words that resound to the glory
of God and the honor of God. Words that fulfill all the prophecies
of the Scripture. Types and shadows. All that God
has spoken thus far in the Word of God is spoken right here in
these three words. It is finished. You want to know
what Genesis 1 means? It is finished. You want to know
what Revelation 22 means? It is finished. You want to know
what Malachi means? It is finished. That's what it
means. It is finished. Let's look at a few passages
of Scripture holding your place in John there. Turn back to the
prophet Isaiah, the gospel according to Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter
43. Listen to these words. Verse 25, I, even I, Am he that blotteth out thy transgressions,
for my own sake I will not remember thy sin. It is finished. It is finished. Look at chapter
44 and verse 22. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgression, and as a cloud thy sins, return unto
me, for I have redeemed thee. I have redeemed thee. Look at
Isaiah chapter 53, verses 5 and 6. But he was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the
chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
We, underline it, are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray,
we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid
on Jesus Christ the iniquity of us. Oh, look at verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, but
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He prolongeth his days, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see...
Oh, there's that little word again. Oh, I love that little
word. He shall see all the product
of what is derived of. He shall see all the travail
of his soul, and he shall be satisfied by his knowledge, his
wit, his skill. Shall my righteous servant justify
many? How come? For he shall bear their
iniquities. It is finished, Jeremiah 31. Look at verse 31. Behold the
days come, saith the Lord. This is quoted twice in the Hebrews
in chapter 6, or chapter 8 and chapter 10. Behold the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in that day, that I took
them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, which my covenant
they break, although I was a husband unto them. But this shall be
the covenant I will make with the house of Israel, after those
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts."
That's not talking about the Ten Commandments. That law can't
be written in your heart because it's written outside you on a
stone. And it can't be bent, it can only be broken. And that's
what we did when we drew our first breath. What is that? His book. His words. Do you know this book is in your
heart? Well, I don't know it all, I
can't quote it all, but I'll tell you what, when some preacher
stands up and says it, do you know what you say? There you
go. Don't you? Don't you? That's it. That's
it. I know that's true. Well, how
do you know it's true? Because this whole book is in
here. All right. in their inward parts,
and are writing in their hearts, and I will be their God, and
they shall be My people, and they shall no more every man
say to his neighbor, and every man to his brother, Know the
Lord. We don't have to say that to
each other. Why? Because we know the Lord. For they shall all
know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith
the Lord, and I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sins no more. Why? It is finished. It is finished. In Jeremiah chapter 15, verse
20, He says, they're going to look for your sins and they ain't
going to be there. But I'm going to pardon them, I reserve. It
is finished. These words mean something. These words mean something to
everyone. I want us to consider this fact and look at these words
from three points of view tonight. First of all, what do these words
mean to God? Secondly, what do these words
mean to the believer? And thirdly, what do these words
mean to the self-righteous? What do these words mean? First
of all, what do these words mean to God? Well, it's safe to say
that since God, since it is God incarnate who spoke these words
in triumphant glory and power, that these words are true, they're
true, or the one who said them is a fraud. That's the only two
choices you have in that. God cannot lie. He's not a man.
To God, these words are the completion of whatever he intended in the
suffering and death of his son. Whatever he intended. The promises
of the Old Testament are manifold concerning what God meant when
he spoke these very words. Every lamb, every bullet whose
blood was drained from its victimized body form a great coagulant finger
that point across history to the one who cried these three
words. Every day of atonement. Every
prophet, every priest, every king lived and died in this world. He existed in this world to point
to and picture this man who spoke these words. To find what God
intended is easy. I know people talk about, I just
don't know the will of God. That's because you don't know
God. If you knew God, you'd know His will. Wouldn't you? I know his will. So you know
what he's going to do? No, I don't know what he's doing
now. But I know what he's intended. I can tell you what he's intended.
It's real easy to do. I'll give you a very simple formula.
To find out what God has intended, all you have to do is look at
what's been done. That's easy, ain't it? One fellow
said, I'll pick up the newspaper in the morning and see what God's
done. Because that's what it is. You see, He does all things
after the counsel of His own will. He hath done what He pleased
in heaven and earth and all the deep places. You want to know
what God's intended to do? What's He done? That's what He
intended to do, because that's what He has out there to do. He is in the heavens. Paul told
Timothy what these words mean. He says, God has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us,
given us in Jesus Christ before the world was even thought of. Prior to the conception of the
word. How's that word? Like electricity. Real good. Perhaps the plainest explanation
of what is meant to God is found when He sent His angel to tell
Joseph what to name this one, and why name him that. He would,
after some thirty-three years, cry with a loud voice. After
all, it is finished what is finished. For he shall save his people
from their sin." God knew what was going to happen, didn't He?
That was His intent. And on that cross, He saved His people from
their sins. It is finished. And since this
addresses death, the penalty for sin to God, it means that
the law's demands are fulfilled completely by Christ's death. They're finished. The law's demands
are finished. We're not under the law. What
do you mean? Don't we have it as a rule of
life? You better not. You know what the law says, don't
you? You are under the law, don't you hear what the law says, too?
The law only says one thing. That word fulfilled, that don't
mean kept. It means finished. What does the law say to you? One thing. Die. You're sitting in the gas chamber,
and some fellow brings in a book, and he opens up the book and
tells you, this is why you're going to die. What's he got in
his hand? The law. Defines what you've done, condemns
you for it. sets the sentence, and executes
it. That's what the law does. I don't
want anything to do with it. My former husband escaped. Now,
I do go to the graveside occasionally to put flowers there. But I never
dig up the bones and ask for help. You better not either. What does it mean? To God it
meant that the requirement of the law That holy law, that perfect
law, that law that demands your and my death, it demands it. When Christ said, it is finished,
that demand is gone for everyone for whom Christ died. It's gone. Clean gone. Clean gone. Justice can demand no more than
death. And Christ died in the room instead
of His people. That's why when we take the Lord's
Table, we're not celebrating His life, though His life was
perfect and wonderful. That's not what we're celebrating.
What are we showing forth? We don't show forth His death
till He comes again. When we go into baptismal waters,
what are we doing? We're showing forth His death
and that we died with Him in the Beloved. When you put your
body in that creature's hands for a crazy—you must be crazy
to do something like that. And he's going to put you into
a situation you cannot live, into an element where death is
your only—that's it for you. You're talking about submission.
He's going to bring you out. What's that about? It's about
death. This is a bloody religion. It's a death religion. When you go into the Holy of
Holies, if you could get in there, you open up that curtain, it
ain't no nice little one-room apartment. It's stained from top to bottom. That ark, it ain't all gold and
shiny like Indiana Jones found it. It was covered in brown,
rusty-looking stains from blood that had been sprinkled on it
year after year after year. Damn it! But for you, because
Christ finished death, you're not going to die. It is
finished. It is finished. The law is satisfied. It has its pound of flesh. And
it is finished. Secondly, what does this word
mean to the believer? The short answer is everything. It just means
everything to us. It is finished. I'll elaborate
a little bit, though. One thing it means is that when
my salvation was finished, it was already done before I ever
heard about it. I've got so much trouble saying
things like that. I love that. That's just so true. Somebody told me, that night
when W.R. Cruz was preaching, and Moose
and I were sitting in that little old chapel over there in Western
San Juan, Carolina. Here's what we heard. We didn't
hear that we could be something. Could, did we? We didn't hear
if we did something, we'd be something. We didn't even hear
if we believed. We didn't hear that. What did
we hear? It's finished. What? It's finished. What's finished? Salvation. It's
done. The great transaction is done. I am the Lord's and He is mine.
It is finished. This means the world to me because
I know what I am. If something had been left up
to me, I simply had nothing to offer. It is finished. Something else.
I'm here now, and these words mean the world to me now. I live
and breathe and walk in this world and seek to serve the Lord
and love my family and love my spiritual family. I seek in my
crippled, impotent, inadequate way to please my Savior, but
wait, it's finished. It's finished. It's a constant,
pleasant, sweet reminder that my life has nothing to do with
my salvation. My salvation has something to
do with my life, but my life don't have a thing to do with
it. Look over at Numbers chapter 23 just for a moment. Verse 21. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob. In Jacob? That's what my name
is. James is the English word for
Jacob. That means supplant or snake.
I wouldn't like Jacob if I met him. I really wouldn't. He was
a mama's boy. He was a sneak. He was, wasn't
he? He was, wasn't he? He was a mama's
boy. Mama taught him anything. He
didn't do anything. He was sneaky. Betrayed his father. Betrayed
his brother. He was just all the time getting into trouble.
God said, I don't see nothing wrong with him. Ain't nothing
wrong with that boy. Jacob, we talk about the same
fellow. Neither has seen any perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him. And the shout of the king is
among them. And what is the shout? It is
finished. It is finished. All glory, for it belongs to
God. And he made it plain when he
said 2,000 years ago on Calvary Street, it is finished. These words also reveal to me
that no event or circumstance can change the fact. What preachers do? And I know
we talk about, you know, when we're trying to impress folks,
we talk about the sacredness of the desk, you know, and how
burdened we are. I love what I do. Don't you? And we got it made. We sit up here and talk out of
a book three or four times a week, tell people things, just tell
them the same thing over and over again. And they build us
houses. And put food on our table. Oh,
the poor preacher. We got him made in the shape
of... Like old Scott says, I hope they
don't ever figure out who I am. That'd be a bad thing, wouldn't
it? What we do up here is report.
We tell a report over and over again. We tell the same report
over and over again that God is gracious and has glorified
himself in the salvation of the elect by the blood and sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ, satisfied his law through his death, and
has saved every one of his people. We say that a thousand different
ways, but that's what we say. It's a report. Now, what do you
do with a report? What is a report? I'll tell you
something about a report. Whatever's in it, it's done.
A report ain't got a thing to do with the future, does it? Are we just reporters? I'm here
to report that no event or circumstances can change the fact of the report.
When I find myself in heights of glory like I have these last
few days, nothing's changed. It is finished. When I find myself
in death and despair, nothing about this changes. If I live
or die, nothing about this changes. If I live long enough to get
old and infirm, and I get dementia and forget God, nothing changes
about this. It's finished. It's finished. That's why we can say, we know
all things work together good to them that love God, to them
that call according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren,
moreover, whom he did predestinate, that he may also call, that he
may also justify, that he may also glorify." Sounds like finished
to me. Well, if that's the case, what
in the world can we say? Well, if God's for us, who can
be against us? It is finished. Thirdly, what
do these words mean to the self-righteous? I speak of self-righteousness,
and I'm not speaking strictly of those individuals who exhibit
such goody-two-shoes behavior that no one can hardly stand
to be around them. Self-righteous are those who
earnestly believe that they merit a righteousness before God based
on what they do or what they do not do. They believe that
somehow, in some way, their life is worthy of recommending them
to God They do not partake in social evils. They are kind and
philanthropic and spend their lives in the service of others.
Perhaps some feel righteous because they've embraced a system of
theology and joined themselves with those who worship God in
spirit and truth. Just this week, a man told me,
a dear man, sat under the gospel for years. And then one night,
God gave him ears to hear. All those things, philanthropy
and being in the service of others are good things. They're commendable
things and things that all men, especially believers, should
aspire to. But you see, it's finished. It's finished. You and I can
either add to it or take away from what's done. It's perfect,
complete, and finished. And it is finished. It sounds
like a death knell to every hope of salvation other than the work
of the One who proclaimed these three astounding words. It is
finished. It is my prayer that if anyone
in the sound of my voice tonight is considering that they have
by any means attributed sufficient righteousness To gain God's approval,
please listen closely to these words. Please listen. Listen. It's finished. It is finished. Well might the words of Revelation
22 be spoken from the cross. Let him that is righteous be
righteous to you. It's him that's ungodly. Be ungodly,
see? Why? Because 2,000 years ago. That's what happened. It is finished. God bless you
all.