I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of John. John chapter
19. John chapter 19. I'd like to
look at verses 28 to 30. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith I first. There was set a vessel full of
vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon
his, put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar, he said, it is finished. He bowed his head, gave up the
ghost. This morning, we are looking
at the Holy Scriptures and the actual fulfillment of these precious
words prayed by our Lord. John 17 1, he said, Father, the
hours come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. that the Lord Jesus Christ now
shall lay down his life for the sheep, suffering the immeasurable
wrath of Almighty God's justice for the broken law that had been
performed by his people. Now here he is. The one who will
absolutely stand is their surety. The Lord had prayed, John 12,
28, Father, glorify thy name. Then came a voice from heaven
saying, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again. So here we consider the glorifying
of the Father upon the Son. And these words, as all scripture,
but may we realize this morning, we're standing on holy ground.
We're about to hear the exposition of the Scriptures. There is nothing,
there's nothing that stands above, takes the place of, stands equal
to hearing the Word of God. And when we hear the Word of
God, may we be found praying and asking, Lord, speak to me. Heaven and earth are going to
pass away. Not this Word. This Word endures forever. This
Word is the Word by which every man, every woman is going to
be judged. I mean the Word of God is the standard. Life, death, set forth in the
revelation of these scriptures. Now, I want us to notice first
the deity. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone
may say, well, sure, he's the Lord, he's God. That's right.
Remember, devils believe that. Demons believe that. The scripture
says, sanctify the Lord in your heart. You know what that word
sanctify means? Make holy. Now, how in the world are we
going to make holy the Lord in our heart? Believe it, is what
it's saying. Declare it. Set it forth in your
heart. Here we are this morning. Now,
after this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished. All things were completed. Jesus
knowing that all things were finished. What? The parting of
his garments, the safekeeping of his mother, earthly mother
to the apostle that he loved. After this, knowing that all
things were now accomplished. Things that are recorded. Things that are not recorded.
Things that we know and things that we don't know. Here's the
comfort that we know. That Almighty God absolutely
has finished all things required. There's no skeletons in the closet.
Not for God's people, there's nothing that's not been taken
care of, nothing finished. He knew that all things were
now accomplished because He's omniscient. He's the maker. He's the Lord. He's the sustainer
of heaven and earth. And according to the divine revelation
of Holy Scriptures, you say, how do you know? God said he
did. The Lord said he did. The Scripture
says he did. Jesus knowing. That all things
demanded by God's law, all things that were needful for the establishment
of righteousness before God, all things were now performed,
executed, completed. Everything. Everything. Knowing
that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Now, here again, we understand
something else here. that the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ upon the cross was the fulfillment of everything that
has been predetermined by Almighty God eternally. Before He ever came
into this world, before He ever laid down His life, every part
of everything was accomplished concerning the glorifying of
Almighty God in the redemption of His people. Everything in
His life was absolutely geared to, performed by the Lord Jesus
Christ who is God Almighty. Therefore, whatever He did, was
absolutely ordered by God and accomplished by the Lord Jesus
Christ. How many things were done that
we don't know about? Well, look at the last verse
of the book of John. This is an amazing passage description. Last verse, John 21-25. And there
are also many other things. which Jesus did. The which, if
they should be written, every one, I suppose that even the
world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. What did he do? Everything. Everything. Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the
scripture might be fulfilled, He never ceased to be God. Totally
man. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God. The Word was God. Made flesh,
dwelt among us. He was God. He was man. And everything that He did as
a man, Everything that he did as Almighty
God, done, finished. Listen to this. You talk about
a scripture that sets forth the absolute deity of God and the
humanity of God. Mark 4, 38-39. He was in the
hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him
and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Now
here's the Lord. He wasn't pretending. He was
asleep. He was asleep. You know, if you're
asleep and something's going on around you, you're not aware
of what's going on around you. Now, I mean, I'm sitting here
thinking this through while I'm saying it. He was asleep on the
pillow. They woke him up. He's a man. Was he not aware of what was
going on as a man? As a man. He was asleep. And he arose and rebuked the
wind and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased
and there was a great calm. God in human flesh stood up and spoke to the wind
and charged and admonished the wind? You hush. And it did. What manner of man is this that
speaks to the wind and it obeys Him. God-man, there's no part
of His humanity that is not absolutely as we are except He was without
sin. He was asleep and they woke Him
up and He spoke to the wind. Listen to this, the deity. And
Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil
in your hearts? He's omniscient. Peter, do you
love me? Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Now listen to this verse. Luke 2.52. And Jesus increased
in wisdom and stature. and in favor with God and man.
Now, can we enter in as human beings to increase in wisdom
and stature? Yeah. He did too. He hungered, he slept, he marveled,
he wept, he prayed, he rejoiced, he groaned, and here He thirsted. He was thirsty. Now you know,
no scripture ever speaks of God thirsting. But the man, Christ
Jesus, did. In His humiliation upon this
earth, we have a Savior who is touched with the feelings of
our infirmities. Have you ever gotten thirsty?
Yeah, I have too. he thirsted but he also remembering
and knowing that all things now accomplished made this statement
I thirst he was thirsty and knowing that all things were now accomplished
he said I'm thirsty Psalm 69, 21. They gave me also gall for
my meat. And in my thirst they gave me
vinegar to drink. Now listen to the wording of
the scripture. This was written in Psalms hundreds of years before
the Lord Jesus Christ ever laid down his life on the cross. And
it's written, Frank, in the past tense. They gave me Also gall. And in my thirst, they gave me
vinegar to drink. They gave me. The father saw
this crucifixion before the foundation of the world. This was all accomplished.
And here it is, actually happening in time. They gave me something. Why? Because I was thirsty. They gave him vinegar after he
made that statement. I thirst. How beautiful is the
exactness of the Scriptures. You don't have to defend the
Scriptures. Somebody says, well that's written
in past tense. Well that's because it's written
exactly the way the Spirit of God moved upon men to write it
according to God's will and God's purpose. You say, yeah, but it
didn't happen until later. You let God be true. Because
I can't enter into all of the explanations of everything. Doesn't
change one thing about it. Did God create The heavens, was
it just six days, seven days, what? Was it six actual days
or is that metaphorical? Did it happen, you know, it wasn't
really 24 hours, it was just, how did it happen exactly the
way God did it? Well yeah, but don't you think
we ought to know? I don't. That's how God did it, that's
how He did it. And I'll tell you what I believe,
whatever God did, that was right. He was right. Almighty God, let
God be true, right on time. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
said, I thirst. Right on time. Right on time. Now listen, listen to this. Matthew,
I mean, 29 and 30. Now there was set a vessel full
of vinegar. and they filled a sponge with
vinegar and put it to his mouth. Then Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar. He said, It's finished. It is
finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. Now, Matthew's account, I'll
just read this to you, reveals that he was offered vinegar twice. Matthew 27, 34, it says, They
gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted
thereof, he wouldn't drink it. He would not drink. Mark's account
says that the vinegar was mixed with myrrh, which is the same
thing. And the effect of this, it said,
I read the reason they did this was to numb the senses, to kind
of like a you know, anesthetic, you just kind of make it where
they, you just don't feel the pain. It was given to those often
who were crucified and to render them insensible to the pain of
death. And our Lord knowing this, when
he tasted that vinegar that was mixed with gall, he wouldn't
drink it. The Lord had said, Mark 8, verse
31, concerning his sufferings. He said, you know, the cup which
the Father giveth me, gave me, shall I not drink it? He was
giving himself up to all of the pain, all of the suffering of
the cross. And therefore, when the vinegar
was first given to him, mixed with gall, with myrrh, He took
nothing to numb the pain. Then in Luke 23.36 it records
that first time also that he was offered vinegar and the soldiers
also mocked him, coming to him, offering him vinegar and saying,
if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. It was given in
a mocking way. And then Matthew 27.48 records
the second time they offered him vinegar. And straightway,
one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and
put it on the reed and gave it to him to drink. Obviously, that second time contained
nothing but vinegar. The scripture bears out. When
he tasted the vinegar with the gall, he would not drink it. He would not be numbed to the
pain and the suffering of his people. He absolutely suffered
everything that they would ever suffer that was due them because
of their rebellion. He suffered the eternity of wrath
by his one sacrifice for sin. I think about scripture, and
I've thought about this verse of scripture so many times, and
I still, I cannot enter into it. There shall be weeping, and
wailing, and gnashing of teeth. That rich man that died and went
to hell, and Lazarus died and went to the bosom of Abraham,
and that rich man, he could see, he could see. He could see, obviously,
I could see Father Abraham. He said, Father Abraham, would
you have Lazarus come by and just dip his finger? Here's a
man that's going to be in hell forever. Would you have Lazarus
dip his finger in some water and just touch my tongue? I am in torment. Now, what was
the difference in that man being in hell and Lazarus being in
the bosom of Abraham? The grace of God. The grace of
God. There's none righteous. No, not
one. There's not one. And here is a man in torment
receiving exactly what he is due. And he will be there forever. Not in a trillion years or a
hundred billion trillion years. He will never, never get out. He'll be there forever. My mind just won't go that far.
I don't know how far that is. It's forever. No reprieve. Not up for discussion. It's over. It's over. And it'll be over
forever. Suffering, suffering, suffering,
weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. That which his people
deserved. They tried to give him vinegar
with gall. He wouldn't drink it. Wouldn't
take it. But the scripture says, in verse
30, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he drank
that. for the fulfillment of the scriptures.
He drank it. It wasn't mixed with anything.
Obviously, it was vinegar. When Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar, he said, it's finished. That was the last thing. That
was the last, the very last thing. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. It's finished. You know eternity
would be required, and then some, I guess, I don't know, to manifest the fullness of that
statement. I mean, if all the books would
be written of those things that the Lord did, and the world wouldn't
contain them, what all did he do? Everything that was required.
And it's finished. All the prophecies, all the things demanded by the
law for redemption, all those things not only that were required
to do, but those things that we omit to do, that we should
have done, He omitted. Everything that set forth the
types, all the types, I can name a few. I can see the Lord in
the ark. I can see the Lord in the rock
that was smitten, the water, I can see that. That brazen serpent
that was raised, I can see that. I can see that. The tabernacle,
You know, the beautiful robe on the priest. I can see all
that. But how many others are there?
How many of... There's... I don't doubt for
one second that everything in this world... I'm looking at
a tree right there. I can see the tree. I can see
the root. I can see us as the branches. But how many others? All things.
Everything that the Father had given Him to do finished. And all of the suffering that
His people ever deserved was over. What did He suffer on the
cross? All of it. What I deserved for eternity
Everything that I or you that know him deserved an eternity
of suffering. How much is that? He knew, Jesus knowing, how he
suffered and how little, Freddie, that's what you talked about,
how little I think of it. Lord, I'm sorry. How little I
thank you. And then the scripture says,
after he'd received the vinegar, he said, it's finished, and he
bowed his head and gave up the ghost. You know, in closing,
look at the order. Look at the order of how this
was done. His spirit's departure. from this earth was unique only
to the Lord Jesus Christ. When scripture says he gave up
the ghost, here's the literal of this, and bowing his head
he delivered up the spirit. That's the literal. And bowing
his head. His death was absolutely voluntary. No man, no man has the power
to just give up his spirit. The Lord says I have power to
lay down my life, I have power to take it again. The Lord said
in John 10, 17, 18, Therefore doth my Father love me, because
I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No man taketh
it from me, but I lay it down of myself. Power to lay it down,
power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. All power is given unto Him that
He should give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given
Him. He has all power. And here's
the Lord, absolutely bowing His head in submission to His Father,
bowing His head and giving up the ghost. You know, for us,
if the ghost was taken, that's what Stephen, Lord, receive,
take my spirit, is what he was saying. If the spirit left first,
Then the head would bow. There's nothing left to tell
the muscles, hold the head up, hold the head up. Spirit leaves,
the head goes down, not him. He bowed his head and gave up
the ghost. The Lord Jesus Christ, in absolute
submission unto his Father, did that which was pleasing, honored
the law, honored the law. fulfilled all the righteousness,
finished all things, and knowing that all things were done, nothing
else left, he said, I thirst, bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. You know,
many that day saw the beauty, or I'm sorry, saw not the beauty.
Some did, some didn't. but none saw the completeness.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, in His final moments, did everything
demanded by His Father. And now, having finished all
things, this is what God's people have in Him, to look forward
to, to hearing these words, everything demanded of them, the Lord Jesus
Christ performed. And very soon, every believer
shall hear these words come, you blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Lord, have mercy and forgive us. where
we think not as we ought. But thanks be unto you that it
is by the grace of God that you've saved us, kept us. For Christ's
sake, amen.