Jesus paid it all. I'd like to turn in your scriptures
to John chapter 19. John chapter 19. We will be After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith I first. Now there was a vessel full of
vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar. and put it upon
Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. I have as my subject today those
very last words of our Saviour. is finished. It is finished. We just sang Jesus paid it all. It is finished. He finished something,
didn't he? What did he finish? Well, in
John chapter 17, in our Lord's high priestly prayer, He prays
this, he says, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. What did he finish? He finished the work, the work
that the Father gave him to do. You recall when the Lord Jesus
was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, And the Lord
spoke with Moses and Eliah. And what was the subject? They
spoke of the decease that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. He accomplished his decease. His decease. He would accomplish
something by his death. And we think of the things that
we accomplish in our lives, but he accomplished something in
his death. What was the work that he accomplished? The scriptures are the record
for us of these things, of these things that are accomplished
by our Saviour. And they are foretold in such
great detail that there is no mistake, they must be undeniably
fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. on the earth. His coming was
foretold by the prophets. His birth was heralded by the
angels. The Son of God took on human
flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, John says. God became a man, as real a man
as you and I, except for one thing, except for sin. He never ceased being God. He
was always fully God. But having been made flesh, he
took our humanity into union with himself. These were the
things that were fulfilled when he said, it is finished. These
were the things that the Lord Jesus accomplished. They were
finished in him. He lived in this flesh as a representative
man, didn't he? The last Adam, just as the first
Adam walked as the representative of all the people of this world,
the Lord Jesus represents all his people whom he has come to
redeem and save. He lived as the representative
of his covenant people. The apostles testified of him. They testified that which they
heard, which they saw with their eyes, that which they looked
upon, that which their hands had handled. The Word of Life,
it says, they beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. And this is the One who accomplished
all things, all things written of Him in the Scriptures. He
was the fulfillment of all these things. All the pictures recorded
in the Old Testament have no meaning whatsoever. No meaning
whatsoever, except they relate to his life and his death. Recall
that lamb slain in the garden for Adam and Eve, whose skin
was used to cover their nakedness before God. That was a picture
of him, wasn't it? That was a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ covering our nakedness and by his death. And remember,
there was that scapegoat that the Israelites used to use to
place their sin upon that scapegoat, and that scapegoat would go into
the wilderness, never to come back. That scapegoat had the
sins of all the people symbolically placed upon it, and it was sent
away into the wilderness. In the book of Isaiah, we read
that the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. All the prophecies written of
him, all were finished in him and completed in him. All the
miraculous signs recorded of him, they were the accomplishment
and finishment of the Messiah that would come. In Matthew 11,
the Lord says, the blind received their sight, and the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised
up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. All the types
were in essence a representation of his work of redemption. You think of all those things,
the Passover, the tabernacle, the priests, the priestly garments,
all the sacrifices offered, all those holy days, all the Sabbath
days. He was the reason for them all.
They all pointed to him. And yet, those religious leaders
of his day who conducted themselves so meticulously in those laws
and in those ceremonies, they missed him altogether. Missed
him altogether. And more than that, they plotted
to kill him. But did any of this take God
by surprise? Far be it. The scripture says
that the Lord Jesus was delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. The Lord said to Pilate, to this
end I was born. This is my purpose. To this end
I was born, and for this cause came I into the world that I
should bear witness unto the truth." The truth about what? The truth about himself. The
truth about himself. The Lord said, everyone that
is of the truth, heareth my voice. Our Bibles are the story of him. But there is no real understanding
of any portion of scripture. until we understand how that
portion of scripture relates to the Lord Jesus Christ and
his accomplished work of redemption. They are meaningless without
that definition, without that explanation behind them. Mitch
has been reading through the book of Leviticus and he'll tell
you that the book is filled with laws and ceremonies It is full
of instruction for God's prescribed way of worshipping him under
the law. But none of those laws and none
of those ceremonies have any meaning, except they all represent
Christ in some way. Aaron was the priest of the Israelites. His name is actually mentioned
80 times in the book of Leviticus. You recall that the Israelites
could not approach God without an intercessor, without a priest.
They could not approach themselves, and to do so would mean certain
death. The people needed a priest, and God appointed Aaron, he appointed
Aaron, their priest, to approach for them, on their behalf, and
to make atonement for their sin. And it's no coincidence, is it,
that Aaron typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our great Aaron. The Lord said, No man cometh
unto the Father except by me, but by me there is no way approaching
God except by one man. We cannot make atonement for
ourselves. Aaron is a wonderful picture
of our Saviour, our great high priest. Still in Leviticus, if
you scan through, you will see that there are words, key words
used that are very important. The word sacrifice is used 40
times in the book of Leviticus. Blood is mentioned 88 times,
88 times. And offering, the word offering,
249 times, 249 times. Clearly we know what Leviticus
is saying. The priest always approached
with a sacrifice, always with an offering to God, always with
blood. Because without blood, there
is no remission of sins. And that offering, an offering
must be perfect. It must be perfect. So too, our
savior, our great high priest, our great Aaron, Brought all
those things, didn't he? He brought all those things.
He brought the sacrifice, he brought the blood, and he brought
the offering. The difference being that he was those things,
wasn't he was the offering, he was the blood, he was the sacrifice
himself. and he offered himself to God
and that offering was accepted. Why was it accepted? Because
it was the perfect sacrifice that fully met the demands of
God's justice. If you too would hit me just
for a moment to Hebrews chapter 9, that entire sacrificial system
spoke of him, didn't it? But those endless ceremonies
and animal sacrifices were only a temporary appeasement. They
were just a shadow of things to come. Listen to these beautiful
words from Hebrews, chapter 9 verse 11. But Christ being come and
high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle. What was that more perfect tabernacle? It was him, wasn't it? He was
the tabernacle, greater than that physical building called
the tabernacle under Moses. That building was just a representation
of him. He's the reality of that building
that came. Not made with hands, that is
to say not of this building, not of the physical tabernacle.
That building under Moses was made with human hands, wasn't
it? It was made exactly as God prescribed
it, but it was made with human hands. It was a place where God
would meet me. Christ is that place where God
meets man. He meets with chosen sinners
and there is no other place, appointed. Verse 12 of Hebrews
9, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. I love those
words, he obtained it. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. And if he obtained it for us,
there is no possibility that we should not receive it. It
is a completed task. These are the things that the
Lord Jesus finished. It is finished, he said. These
are the things that he accomplished. And towards the end of the Lord
Jesus' life, he began to tell his disciples plainly what was
soon to happen. And still his disciples had no
idea. He told them that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed
and be raised again the third day. And you remember what Peter
did. Peter took him aside and began
to rebuke him, saying, ìFar be it from me, Lord, that this should
happen to thee.î Of course, Peter is thinking calmly. He hasnít
yet understood the things which must be finished, the things
which must be accomplished by our Saviour. And he rebukes him,
he says, get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto
me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those
that be of men. So Peter's rebuke is a reminder
of the importance of this work. He must go to Jerusalem and suffer. the Lord Jesus had few friends,
but he had many enemies. And the scripture says that,
doesn't it? The scripture is a fulfillment of him. The scripture
says he was despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. And he was betrayed, wasn't he?
He was betrayed and handed over to those that hated him. And
we have the account of how he was treated. Let me just read
some of it to you out of Mark. And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple from him and put his own clothes on
him and let him out to crucify him. Of course, there are many
other things that transpired in the events leading up to the
Lord's crucifixion. The Lord was marred beyond recognition
and he was brought to the hill called Calvary. And there he
was brutally nailed to a cross. He'd been wounded and bruised
and whipped and beaten. And the scriptures, they're continually
a fulfillment of what this was. He was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities, the scripture says. And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
son of man be lifted up. And here in our text, in John,
our Saviour is hanging there under the sun until he cries,
I thirst. Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. And they filled a sponge with
vinegar and put it to his mouth. Those words were a fulfillment
of Psalm 69. Psalm 69 says, In my thirst they
gave me vinegar to drink. Long before the Lord appeared,
these things were prophesied of him. He was the fulfillment
of them. He finished it. And finally,
under that great burden, when God observed sin in his body,
the wrath of God in holy justice was concentrated upon him. And he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. It is finished. Nothing was left undone. Nothing
was left to be done. There was nothing else that could
be done. He did it perfectly. He did it
completely. And he did it successfully, didn't
he? He's a successful Savior. The Lord Jesus says, Father,
I've saved them. I've saved them. I've put away
their sins. I've finished the transgressions.
I've paid the price. Justice is satisfied. I've ended the law that stood
against them. I've redeemed them. I've finished
all things. All things are finished, and
so the redemption of the Lord Jesus could be termed finished
redemption. Finished redemption. There was
a price to be paid, and when the Lord cried, it is finished,
that term in the original sense means paid in full. Paid. It means he just discharged the
debt. We had a sin debt that we had
no way, no possible way of paying back to God. It must be paid. And it will be paid. It'll either
be paid in you or in the Saviour. And the question, the question
we all should ask is this, when the Lord Jesus paid that debt,
did he get what he paid for? Did he get what he paid for? When the Lord Jesus finished
redemption, were they all redeemed? Did he get what he paid for?
When the Lord Jesus paid that debt with his own blood, did
he get what he paid for? Did that blood actually save
those for whom it was shed? Now turn with me to Revelation
chapter five. Revelation chapter five. I want to be as clear as I possibly
can, unless there is any ambiguity in your mind concerning the scope
of redemption. There are many who would say
that the Lord Jesus intended to redeem all men and that his
blood was shed for all men. And so here in Revelation 5 we
have this heavenly picture, if you like, of our victorious saviour,
pictured as a lamb and worshipped and adored by the saints in heavenly
glory. And in their worship we read
this glorious summary of the work of redemption, verse 9,
chapter 5. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou wast slain and hath redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. So when
the scriptures speak of the scope of redemption, it always speaks
particularly. We are speaking now of particular
redemption. This is the teaching of Scripture.
When the Scripture says, He has redeemed us, who are the us?
That's what I want to know. We can't possibly mean everybody,
can it? If they are redeemed, they're
redeemed. Not all men are redeemed. The Scripture says in 2 Timothy
1, He has saved us. If the us are saved, then they're
saved. Not all saved. So who are the
us? They are a particular people. Particular redemption is the
teaching of scripture. He hath redeemed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Clearly the redeemed ones are
not all the people of the world. He has redeemed us out of the
peoples of this world. That's what the text says. If
the Lord Jesus came to redeem all men, and not all are redeemed,
then the Lord Jesus Christ has failed. He's failed. And we know that he cannot fail.
We know that's not true, don't we? What did the prophet Isaiah
say about the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, he shall not fail. He
shall not fail. There was absolutely no possibility
that he could fail. We have that commission, don't
we, from the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of Matthew. You can
read it. In Matthew 28, the Lord said to his disciples, Go ye
therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. We preach
the gospel, that gospel, to everyone who will hear us. But God is
saving a remnant, isn't he? He's saving a remnant. out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. Ephesians
5 is another passage that speaks clearly about these things. Ephesians
5, 25, just let me read it to you. Husbands, love your wives
even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's a glorious picture of
marriage represented by Christ and the church. He gave himself
for it. He gave himself for the church.
He gave himself for his bride. The love of the husband is for
the bride, and the love of the bride is for the husband, and
the husband gives himself for his bride. The commitment of
the husband is particular to his bride, and so too the blood
of Christ was shed for his bride, and no other. It's a particular
atonement. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
his life for the sheep. I trust you find these things
comforting. I don't want to be harsh. I once
believed these things myself. I once believed that God loves
everybody and Christ died for everybody, but such things are
not true in Scripture. They're just not true. The Lord
Jesus Christ has redeemed us to God by his blood, that is,
particular atonement. There are necessary implications
of a universal atonement. If the Lord Jesus Christ shed
his blood for everyone and some of those for whom he died go
to hell, then in that measure Christ died in vain. That's logical. It's clear, isn't it? If Christ
died to make an atonement for all men, and yet some still perish under the wrath of God, then
Christ has failed in his work. His work of redemption is at
risk, has failed. Friends, our Saviour said it
is finished. And he could not have said those
words unless that work was a successful work. A successful work. His redemption must redeem those
for whom he stood. And his blood, his blood must
remove the sins for whom they were shed. The Bible never speaks
of salvation being an offer. The mantra of false religion
is God has done everything he can and now it's up to you. That's the mantra of false teaching,
false religion. The truth is it was always up
to him, all of it, wasn't it? The Bible never speaks of those
people for whom Christ died as being redeemable or justifiable
or pardonable or savable. They're all redeemed and justified
and pardoned and saved. If you tell me that God loves
everybody, well, and most people end up in hell, you've taken
away the only hope that I have. If you tell me that God loves
me the same way as he loved Judas, or the same way as he loved Ananias
and Sapphira, who fell down dead because God killed them, That
might be a shocking thing, but that is what happened at the
feet of Peter in Acts. You can read it. Those people
fell down dead. If God loves me the same as them,
where's my hope in that? If God loves everybody, friends,
I need a saviour that actually saves. I need a saviour who particularly
saves me. I thank God for those words of
our Saviour, it is finished. That he actually did put away
sin, that he actually did redeem me back to God, that he actually
did it. And that everything he did, he
did it for me. The Apostle said, the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me. and gave himself for me." The Lord Jesus Christ was the
faithful one, wasn't he? He cannot fail. We live by the
faith of the Son of God. His faith never failed. He really
did finish the work the Father gave him, and he must get what
he paid for. paid for. He got the redemption of the
purchased possession. He got the purchased possession.
May the Lord show us these things. May the Lord teach us that He
really did do it all and He did it successfully. Amen.