All right, thank you, Brother
Ravi. Let's go to John 19. John 19. It says there in verse 31, John
19, 31. The Jews, therefore, because
it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the
cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was a high day,
Besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they might
be taken away. Then came the soldiers and break
the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus and
saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith
came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record,
and his record is true. And he knoweth that he saith
true that you might believe. For these things were done that
the scriptures should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith
they shall look on him whom they have pierced. John had taken
Mary home, and he obviously had come back, and so he's an eyewitness. He's testifying of what he saw
so that we might believe. Pharisees wanted the Lord not
to remain on the cross until the morning, and so they sent
soldiers to break the legs of all three of the men on the cross
so that they would die and they could get them down off the cross.
But when they came to our Lord, he was already dead. And so the
soldier took a spear, pierced his side, and blood and water
came out. John said, he that saw it by
the record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he
sayeth true, that you might believe. We're going to focus mainly on
this fact that not a bone was broken. Not a bone was broken. Our Lord Jesus is the Passover
lamb who saves his people from our sins. And that's what we
see here first of all in the fact that his bone, not a bone
was broken, is he is the Passover lamb. He's the Passover lamb. Exodus 12, if you want to look
there at Exodus 12, this was something the Lord commanded This was concerning the Passover,
and he said in Exodus 12 in verse 46, In one house shall it be
eaten, the Passover lamb. Thou shalt not carry forth out
of the flesh abroad out of the house, neither shall you break
a bone thereof. It's repeated again in Numbers
9-12. The Pharisees did not want to leave the Lord Jesus on the
cross until the morning, but they just didn't want to break
the Sabbath. They didn't know why they were
saying that. That's the only thing that they
meant. But it was the fulfillment of Scripture. He was not left
on that cross until morning. And not a bone of his was broken.
And he brings his people to look on him whom we have pierced.
And all of that was the fulfillment of Scripture. And it was declaring
Christ Jesus is the Passover lamb. He's the one the Passover
typified. sacrificed in the place of his
people to save us from our sins. God provided his only son. Christ is God providing himself
a lamb. That's who he is, and he is the
Passover. He's satisfied the law, just
like you see him fulfill these scriptures as we saw before,
he fulfilled the whole law of God for his people. He satisfied
justice, justified us from our sins, and made us righteous in
him. All the firstborn in Egypt, the
night the Lord gave the Passover, provided them a physical Passover
lamb, all the firstborn in Egypt died. including those in the
house of the children of Israel. But they died in the substitute
lamb. That's all picturing our Lord
Jesus Christ. And when we see here that none
of our Lord's bones were broken, it tells us his life wasn't taken
by men. He laid down his life. He laid
down his life. He laid it down freely. His strength
was not broken. The being made to bear the sin
of his people didn't break his strength. The curse, being made
a curse for his people, bearing the wrath of God, the temptations
of Satan, none of this broke our Lord's strength. There was
no breaking of him. He laid down his life fully by
himself, freely, and by his strength he obtained eternal redemption
for his people. He accomplished what he came
to accomplish. There was no making salvation
possible. He saved his people. He came
and accomplished our redemption. Now, when the Passover lamb was
slain, The Lord commanded that the head of the house take the
blood with hyssop and put it on the lintel of the door. He
was the head of the house that did that. Christ is the head
of the house. He's the head of the house. That's
what the Hebrew writer said, faithful to his house. He's the
firstborn among many brethren. The father trusted him with the
whole house, with all his people. And it's Christ who sends the
Spirit and applies the blood to the heart of His children
and gives us faith to believe Him. And it's through that faith
in the blood of our Redeemer that God said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. I'll pass over you. Believe on
the Lord Jesus now. Can we be told that too often? It's always needful. For anybody
that's never believed on Him, believe on Him. on the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is what our Lord said. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And for you that
do believe, persevere in faith. Trust Him. no matter what, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God has promised, because
of Christ's righteousness, he said, when I see the blood, I
will pass over you. I love how he said, remember
he told Noah, when I see the bow in the cloud, I'll remember
my covenant. He says to us, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. Christ here is pictured as the,
or he is the fulfillment of the picture of that paschal lamb. Now secondly, his people are
entirely one with him. We are his bones. I was smiling
when Robbie said turn to Psalm 34. Turn back there. Psalm 34. Now I want you to hold your place
here for a little bit. This is probably where most of
the rest of the message will come from. First of all, this
is speaking of our Lord Jesus. He's our David, just like Ravi
said. This is how the Father delivered
him so that not one bone was broken. He says there in verse
17, the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth
them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
There was none so contrite as our Lord Jesus. So many are the
afflictions of the righteous. He's the righteous. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the righteous, preeminently. Many are the afflictions
of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not
one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and
they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The word is
guilty. The Lord redeemeth the soul of
his servants. None of them that trust in him
shall be desolate. They shall not be guilty. because
it's God that justified, it's Christ that redeemed us. The
Lord Jesus preeminently is the righteous. He is the righteous. He suffered afflictions like
nobody else suffered, and it all culminated there on the cross,
and we see Him on the cross there bearing soul agony as He was
forsaken by the Father on the cross. He was afflicted like
no other, and He cried to the Lord God, His Father, and He
heard Him. He heard Him, and He delivered
Him. God, our Father, kept all his bones. This was fulfilled
just like every word of scripture is fulfilled. Not in every eye,
cross, and every teeth. God promised not a bone of his
would be broken. And the Lord providentially made
it so they didn't break a bone of his. They didn't break a bone. Now, not only is the Lord Jesus
the righteous, but each of God's elect in him are the righteous. were righteous by the obedience
of our Lord Jesus Christ. By one man's obedience, by one
man's obedience, shall many be made righteous. Now, you recall
how Adam was put into a deep sleep and Eve was created out
of Adam's wounded side. Well, that was picturing our
Lord Jesus too. There he was on the cross. He
had already died when they came. death in scriptures called sleep. He had already slept when they
come, the deep sleep. He laid down his life on Calvary's
cross and so when his bones weren't broken, because he was already
dead, but that soldier took that spear and pierced his side and
out of his side came blood and water. Blood and water from his
wounded side. His church, every single member,
every elect child of God Everyone was created in Christ's righteousness,
His blood, and created in His holiness, the water. We were
all created. We were really and truly born
that day when we came out of that grave in our Lord Jesus,
in His righteousness and His holiness. And as Adam said of
Eve, whenever the Lord brought Eve to it, Adam said, This, and
this is what Christ says of each one he redeemed. You there sitting
here right now, this is what he said. This is now bone of
my bones and flesh of my flesh. We're members of his body. of
his flesh and of his bones, Paul said. He said, this is a great
mystery. It is a great mystery. But I
speak concerning Christ and the church. And when the Spirit of
God enters, it makes us to be born again and gives us faith
in Christ. Christ teaches us something of this. And we're
learning this all our days. But we, at that point, that scripture,
they'll look on him whom they've pierced. He brings each of his
children individually. That's when we see our sin. That's
when we know that we can't come to God in any other way but Christ's
the way. He's the righteousness we must
have. That's when we know this. And Christ teaches us we are
one with Him. That means you sitting here that
believe Him, been born of Him, you are His bone. You're that one with Him. You're
His bones. You're His bones. By divine election,
Of God are you in Christ Jesus. We were mysteriously in Christ
before this world was ever created and separately one with Him before
the world was made. By His blood redeeming us from
the curse, by the water of the Word and the washing of regeneration. He, when He made that first creation,
He didn't create it out of anything that was made. He created everything
from nothing. And this new man, new spirit
that he's created in you, he didn't use anything there was
in existence. He did it all himself. It's his
blood, his righteousness, it's the water, it's the word and
the spirit that regenerates and sanctifies and makes this new
man as holy and righteous in our Lord Jesus and by our Lord
Jesus. And we're one with him. We're bone of his bones, flesh
of his flesh. Now you get that, brethren. We're
his bones. We're his bones. Just like we
would say you're a member of his body, you're his bones. That
one with him. In the same way that our Savior's
physical bones were not broken, our Lord Jesus promises his spiritual
bones shall never be broken, will never be desolate, will
never be guilty, will never be separated from him. It's all
because of what he did for his people. all in Him. Look there
at verse 20 again, Psalm 34 20. He keepeth all his bones, not
one of them is broken. Look at verse 22. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of His servants, and none of them that trust in Him
shall be guilty. They won't be desolate. That's
what it means. God our Father gave His Son to
be complete redemption. And in Him, you that have been
brought to cast it all on Him, you are complete in Him. You
are complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ purchased us with
His own blood. He's going to have what He purchased.
The covenant, God entered covenant with God to save His people.
Not a word of that covenant is going to fail. Not a word of
it will fail. The Spirit of God will not fail. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made
us one. His church, His body is called
the fullness of Him. The fullness of Him. So not one
of His bones, not one of you that are His, shall be broken.
You won't be desolate, you won't be guilty, you won't be separated
from Him. He keepeth His bones. Now, I
have one more point. I'm going to spend a little more
time right here. I want you to remember that one of the thieves
on that cross was made to know that day that he was one with
the Lord, that he was one of our Lord's bones. But when they
came to him, he was still alive and they broke his bones. They
broke his bones. It's not that we will not have
trouble in this world. That's not what it means. Our
Lord, when He calls you, He's not going to blindfold you or
trick you. He tells you right up front.
He tells us right up front. He said, these things have I
spoken to you. In one place, He said that you
should not be offended, so you won't be tripped up when the
trouble comes. He said, and I've spoken these
things, that in me you might have peace. In the world you
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. Our physical bones may be broken. You know, somebody
will hear this, he keeps his bones, not ones broken. And they've
had broken bones, and they hear that and they think, oh, I must
not be his. No, it doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that we're
not going to suffer in this world. But we shall never be broken
away from our Lord Jesus. We'll never be severed from him.
We'll never be found guilty who are under his blood. Now, we'd rather not have trouble,
we'd rather not have any sufferings in this world, but the Lord's
thoughts are not our thoughts. The Lord's ways are not our ways.
This is what the Lord says in the scripture. He said, we shall
glorify him in the fires. He said he chose his people in
the furnace of affliction. He said he promises when they
pass through the waters, he'll be with them. And when they pass
through the rivers, they'll not overflow them. He promises, I
will bring the third part through the fire. But you see there,
we're going to go through the fire, we're going to go through
the waters. There's a lot of different things in this world
that would separate us from our Lord. Satan's desire is to separate
us from him. That's his chief desire, is to
break the Lord's bones, to break you that are his, to sever you
from Christ. That's his chief desire. Sometimes
the devil attempts to draw us away from Christ, who is our
righteousness and our sanctification, and tempt us to go after a righteousness
and a sanctification that we've worked out. Other times he comes
and he tries to convince you that, oh, you're the elect of
God, you're righteous, your sin won't hurt you at all. and whether
he tempts you to go into self-righteousness and self-sanctification or he
tempts you to sin, either way, then he turns right around and
starts whispering in your ear, you can't be a child of God.
You're just a hypocrite. You can't be a child of God.
Why don't you just curse God and die? Then you got the cares
of this world. genuine cares that we have, needs
we have, and trying to provide for those needs and for those
cares that we have, and they take our affection off the Lord
Jesus. That's all we can think about
sometimes. We have our sin nature, which is nothing but covetous,
wars against our soul, and it would break the bones. It would
break you. It would sever you from Christ
if left to yourself. God's saints. We can't boast
like you hear Armenian free will folks boasting about how they
keep their bones from being broken. We're not sacrificing to our
own net and burning incense to our drag. We can't do that, and
the Lord's gonna keep his people from doing it, because we know
if it wasn't for the Lord's everlasting arms underneath us and keeping
us, we'd be severed. We'd be broken away from our
Lord in a heartbeat. Now, if you have any understanding
of this warfare between the flesh and the spirit, you know that's
so. You know that's so. Satan, sin, the world, they make
us as sheep counted for the slaughter. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. But don't forget the next word.
Look there in Psalm 34, 19. But the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not
one of them is broken. All his bones, whether they're
weak in faith, the weakest in faith, or the strongest in faith,
he gave them as your faith. And if he didn't save the weakest
in faith, His surety engagements would be all null and void, the
same if he didn't save any. He's going to keep the weakest
and the strongest. He's saving all his bones. Spurgeon said, God's people shall
suffer, but we shall suffer no real lasting vital injury. You may have flesh wounds, but
as to the bones of your spirit, not one of them is broken. Now,
this is so, our faithful father will break our bones. You say,
well, not a bone will be broken, but he'll break our bones. In
this sense, he's going to keep our heart broken and contract.
He's going to do that by his chastening hand. He's going to
keep you crying out for Christ to save you. Verse 17, Psalm
34, 17, the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth
them out of all their troubles. The Lord's nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and save us such that we have a contrite
spirit. David experienced that when he
cried unto the Lord in Psalm 51a. He said, make me to hear
joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. This is a different kind of breaking
of the bone. This is not severing us from Christ. This is to keep
us united to Christ. This is to humble us. The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. But he will make our broken heart
rejoice. That's when we really do rejoice.
He's gonna make us look to no other deliverer but Christ. That's the whole purpose. Calvin
said, by this means, his power shines forth more clearly when
he raises us up again from the grave. Moreover, it's meet that
the faithful should be thus utterly cast down and afflicted that
they may breathe again in God alone. That's what he keeps doing. He keeps making himself shine
more and more to you. He's teaching us our weakness.
He's teaching us our weakness and he's showing us he's a full
power to keep us. He keepeth all of his bones and
not one of them is broken. We love that ending on that word
keepeth. The ETH means it's ongoing. He keepeth, he never stops. Peter
said we're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. It's through faith. It's through faith. This whole
thing is spiritual. We saw Sunday, not by might,
not by power, but by my Spirit said the Lord. It's through the
Spirit. It's through Him coming to you
and through the channel of faith keeping you fine in your all
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Making Himself to be magnified
to you as your only deliverer. One of the scriptures in Isaiah,
he said, God has appointed salvation for walls and bulwarks. And if
you go look at it, I can't remember if it's a capital
S in the scripture, but it should be. I think it is, but it's definitely
Christ. He is salvation. He's salvation,
and he's the wall and the bulwark for his people. He's a wall of
fire surrounding his people. The very fact that Christ is
called a fortress and a refuge tells us we got to be kept. We
need somebody to keep us. He's the fortress. He's the walls.
He's the bulwark. He's the refuge that's going
to save his people. He's showing us all the time
through these different sufferings we encounter that we need to
persevere believing on Christ himself. but he's showing you
that he's preserving you, and that in itself is growing you
in faith to trust him. We didn't learn this doctrine
all at once, and we don't learn it all at once. He's teaching
us this as we journey through this wilderness, the whole time. They used to say that milk makes
you have strong bones. Do they still say that? They
used to say, I know for about 10 years they said eggs were
good for you and then for 10 years they said don't eat eggs.
So they probably say milk's not good for you now, I don't know.
But they used to say when I was a kid, milk gives you strong
bones. Well, for about the first five
years of my life, I grew up on a dairy farm in Hope, Arkansas,
and they milked the cows directly across from where my house was.
And I could go in the milk house, and I could see the cows in that
room being milked with machines, and I could watch the milk go
up through the glass tube and go right into the vat. And my
mom would send me down there with pitcher, and I'd just dip
up a pitcher full of that milk and go back to the house. And
we drank milk coming straight from the cow. And maybe that's
why I never had a broke bone. I don't know. Well, I have, but
very few. But I do know this. I know the
milk that's keeping the Lord's bones from being broken is Christ. He's our strength. He's the strength
of His bones. He's your strength. He's the
only reason you're not broken. I know that. When all our strength
is gone and you're brought to a place where you just have no
strength, that's when the Lord strengthens us in the inner man
so that through faith we behold Him. It's a mysterious thing,
isn't it, when He does that and you see Him and you know everything's
fine. that he's your strength, that
you're saved by him, he's your righteousness, he's your holiness,
he's your full provision, he's your refuge, everything. That's
how he keeps his bone from being broken. What I'm trying to say
is Christ is the blessing. And he's always blessing his
people. It don't matter what you're going through, he's blessing
you right now, Adam. No matter what, he's blessing
you. And the blessing is we're learning
more of him. Joseph, when his brother sold him into slavery,
and he went down into Egypt, God was blessing him in that.
When he got down there, Potiphar's wife lied on him, and he had
to go in prison, God was blessing him in that. When he told the
dream, interpreted the dreams, and they forgot about him, he
had to stay in there for two more years, God was blessing
him in that. And in the end, you know what
he said? God meant it for good. God blessed him the whole way,
and God's blessing you the whole way through too. Our crying and
our groaning, we don't like to do it. I was talking to a brother
the other day, he said, I'll just be honest, I don't like
to suffer these trials. I don't think anybody does. Till
they're over, then you see what good God did for you. But our
crying and our groaning is as necessary as our rejoicing is. And the fact of the matter is,
when we've wept bitterly, that's usually when we rejoice most.
When He brought you to rejoice most is after you've wept bitterly.
Because you see it's all of grace then. You see it's all of His
power and His strength. He said this, and He tells us
what you're going to say. Look at Psalm 35. Hear Christ speaking right here.
He's telling you what you're going to say. All my bones shall
say, Lord, who's like unto thee, which delivers the poor from
him that's too strong from him, yea, the poor and needy from
him that spoileth him. That's what he brings you who
are bone, he brings you to say. He said, all my bones are going
to say this, and he brings you to say that. We are the poor
and needy. That's who we are. We're the
poor and we're the needy. And He's our riches for our poverty
and our one need for all our needs. Whether it's spiritual
or temporal, He said, Bread shall be given thee and thy water shall
be sure. Spiritually or temporally, that's
so. Is anybody here, you need basic needs? You need clothing?
He clothes the lilies. He clothes the lilies in the
field. He'll clothe you. He'll clothe you. Whatever the
provision is you need, your Heavenly Father knoweth you have need
of these things. But the real need above everything
is Christ. And that's what He's teaching
us. That's what He's teaching us. And He promised this. Peter
learned it. And Peter tells it to us. The
God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while. Make you
perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you unto him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Now when they came to that cross,
our Lord had already died. And believer, on that cross you
already died, and you arose with Him, and you're alive with Him,
seated at God's right hand. And so when you see that not
one of His bones was broken, hear Him declare to you, not
one of His spiritual bones will be broken. Not one will be severed
from Him. Weakest to strongest, not one
will be broken. Go over to Romans 8. And we'll
end with this. And here's what he's talking
about by broken, right here. Romans 8. He said there, if God's
for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? And look what he said. Verse
35. Who shall separate us? Who's
going to break us from the love of Christ? tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.
As it's written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long.
We're accounted as sheep for the slaughter. That's us, the
poor and needy. No, in all these things, we're
more than conquerors through Christ that loved us. For I am
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things come to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature." That covers it all,
don't it? He covered it all right there. None of it shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. That's what he's teaching us
every time. Let's go to him. Our God and
our Father, we thank you that you take something that's in
your word that we could just easily look over and declare to us the good news
that you are our salvation. That you have saved us and that
you are saving us and you shall save us. Lord, we cry to you. We're poor, we're needy. We don't
have any strength whatsoever. Lord, we ask you to keep us.
You've taught us in your word, this is how, this is how we keep
ourselves. We come to you and ask you to
keep us. And Lord, we beg you to keep
us. Don't let one of your bones be broken. Lord, break our heart,
humble us at your feet to trust you. But Lord, we beg of you,
please don't let us be broken away from Christ. Lord, we have several here that
have needs and some we probably don't even know about. We trust
you, Lord, that you'll provide. We pray you give us hearts to
help one another and help meet that need. And wherever
your people are, Lord, bless this word to their hearts and
make them to know you're keeping us through faith. Make us trust
your power. provide, to heal. Make us to
know, Lord, You didn't heal us one time on the cross. You healed
us there. You healed us in regeneration.
You keep healing us every day. Lord, we thank You for Your blood.
We thank You for the water. We pray, Lord, that You keep
us watched so we see we only have one righteousness and one
holiness. Lord, we sin, we're full of doubts,
we're full of fears, full of unbelief. We're a mess, Lord,
and we just ask You to keep us trusting You, keep us looking
to Your Son, keep us knowing that You've received Your people
in Him, and that for His sake, You're providing all we need
in this life. Lord, strengthen our faith. Thank you for your
mercy. Lord, thank you that you constantly
pour grace upon us. And Lord, most of all, we thank
you for our Lord Jesus, in whom we have all these blessings,
all these riches. Lord, we long for that day we'll
see him face to face. Lord, we pray you come quickly. In Christ's name we pray, amen.