Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to John 19. Verse 25, Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his
mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas and
Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his
mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he said unto
his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple,
Behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple
took her unto his own home. After this, and this was after
the three hours of darkness, Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. Now therefore, now there was
set 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. Our Lord Jesus says there in
verse 30, it is finished. It is finished. It was prophesied
that he would finish the transgression for his people. Other forms of
this word, the Greek lexicon gives us, shows us different
ways it's translated in the scripture. It's translated made an end of.
Daniel prophesied that the Lord by his death on the cross made
an end of sins, made reconciliation for iniquity. That's what it
is finished means. Performed, it's translated performed. He performed everything God the
Father sent him to do. It's translated accomplished.
It's the same word there in verse 29. All things were now accomplished. This is that baptism our Lord
was in a strait for and he said I'm in a strait till it be accomplished."
When he was in the Mount of Transfiguration, he and Moses and Elijah discussed,
they spoke of the decease he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
This is it. It's translated fulfilled. The Lord Jesus came to fulfill
the law and the prophets. He said it is finished. He did
that for his people. It's translated paid. The price
of redemption is His precious blood, and He paid it all. He
paid it all. And that means God is satisfied. When He said it is finished,
it means God is satisfied toward His people. Think of that. God is satisfied. He's satisfied
toward you, believer. God is holy. He is righteous. His glory is higher than the
heavens. He knows all things. He beholds all things. And our
Lord says, our God says He is satisfied in Christ. Satisfied
with His people in Christ. What does it take to satisfy
God? Christ said, I have glorified
you on the earth. I have finished the work you
gave me to do. That's what it takes. By his
work, by his person, Christ finished the work and God says, I am satisfied. That means the Lord Jesus is
all to his people. He's all salvation. He's all
righteousness. He's all holiness to us. He's
all wisdom to us. He's all redemption to us. He's
all our provision, all our protection, all our refuge. He's all to his
people. Now we're gonna see this in two
verses here. We see what our Savior is to
all his people and what he did here in providing for his mother.
Verse 25, now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother
and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary
Magdalene. Now this is before the three
hours of darkness. There's a small group of believers
that's standing by the cross. John records only four of them. He records the three Marys and
John. Verse 25, there stood by the
cross of Jesus his mother, and then his mother's sister Mary,
the wife of Cleophas. This was her sister-in-law. This
was Joseph's sister. And in Mary Magdalene, of whom
the Lord cast out seven devils, and then in verse 26, John always
refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He was there. Of the twelve apostles, Judas
had betrayed the Lord, and the other ten had fled, and John's
the only one standing by. And verse 26 says, When Jesus
therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by, whom
he loved, he said to his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith
he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that
disciple took her unto his own home. Mary means bitterness. You remember when Naomi came
back from being in a foreign land of Moab and she said, call
me no more Naomi, call me Mara, Mary, bitterness. Now you just
think about the bitterness that Mary was in, Mary the mother
of our Lord. Luke 2.35 said, yea, a sword
shall pierce through thine own soul also. That was told to her,
and it's being fulfilled right here. We don't exalt Mary like
the papacy does. She had nothing to do with our
Lord finishing this work of salvation for his people. But Mary carried
our Lord in her womb. This was her son, naturally speaking. carried him in her womb. She
raised him from a child. Now spiritually he is our Lord,
he's our Savior, but that's her son. That's her son. You can imagine how her soul
was pierced to see her son's visage marred more than any man. She was like every child of God
that He saved. She had a new spirit within her,
and she had flesh which is just weak. And in our flesh, we know
how it hurts when somebody we love dies, especially a child. But in her new spirit, our Lord
comforted her. He comforted her. And that's
what He's going to do for His people. We see how Christ here
is our righteousness. We talk about him being our righteousness
and our holiness. We see it here worked. We see him doing this. God commands in the law, honor
thy father and thy mother. That must be performed in perfection
from a perfectly holy heart for God to receive it. God says of his people in Christ,
I'm satisfied. It's finished. You've done it.
You've done it in perfection, in righteousness and holiness.
Now man, with all our sin and our total lack of perfection,
we can detect when something's flawed. You know, nowadays if
somebody says one thing, It's off. Everybody jumps online and
just points it out. We can hear when the piano's
out of tune. We can see a flaw when an artist
makes a drawing and the dimensions aren't right and the colors are
wrong. Now, if we're sinful, if we're sinful, totally unperfect,
in our flesh, and yet we can detect flaws? What about Holy
God? What about Holy God? Holy God requires, He requires,
in order to be satisfied with a sinner, in order to say we
have fulfilled His law, God requires we have to be as righteous and
holy as God is. as righteous and holy as God
is. For God to say we kept the law,
we have to do it in righteousness. We have to do it from a perfectly
holy heart. Christ is the one. who fulfilled
the law in perfect righteousness from a holy heart, and when he's
formed in us, a new holy man's created, and we're made to look
out of ourselves to Christ, and God makes you to know in Him
you are complete. God is satisfied. That's good
news. That's such good news. Here's
the righteousness God requires. Here's the perfection of holiness
God requires. The perfect love, the faithfulness,
the grace, the tenderness toward all his people. This is Christ's
perfection for us with God. Our Lord Jesus had been stripped.
He's naked. He'd been beaten. He'd been spit
upon. He'd been mocked. He'd been led
through the streets and everybody was mocking him and railing on
him. He's about to bear in his soul the agony of God forsaking
him in justice because he's bearing the sin of his people. And yet in all this, in perfect
righteousness, in holiness of heart, he fulfilled the law and
provided for his mother. He fulfilled the law and provided
for his mother. You know what that says to us?
That says he's finished. You see Christ providing for
his earthly mother, giving John to provide for her. That tells
you right there, he's finished. Christ is righteousness. He did
that for every law of God, everything. everything in perfect holiness
of heart. Now we see his love to us and
his full provision to his church right here in this too. He would
not leave his mother without a son to provide all for her. In verse 26, he said unto his
mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple,
Behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple
took her into his own home. Now that's exactly what Christ
finished on the cross for all his people, right there. for
all his elect church. The church in scripture, we've
seen this many times, is called the mother. All God's elect make
up the church, the mother. And Christ Jesus is the son who
provided all for his church, for his mother, for the church.
Christ laid down his life and provided all for us. The one
act right here that he did for her, assures us of his constant
provision for us in everything, in absolutely everything. He's
our great prophet. He's going to be tender, he's
going to teach his children spiritual things, he's going to provide
for us in that way. He spoke to her and he said,
woman, there's so much teaching in that, woman. We see how holy
and righteous and tender he is toward his people. Her heart's
breaking, he knows that. She is just, she is just broken. He knows that. And he's not gonna
add to that. He could have addressed her as
mother, and you know that would have just, that would have just
broken her more, to speak to her as his mother. but he's not
going to add to her brokenness. And he addressed her as woman.
This wasn't disrespectful. He's teaching something here.
Our Lord won't add to our heartbreak. When he's broken the heart, he's
going to be our comforter. And he commands his preacher,
he commands his people, comfort my people. Declare to them that
their warfare is finished. They need to hear this. They
need comfort. We need comfort for our souls.
We need comfort for our soul. We see here His holy, righteous
protection of His church. By calling her a woman, He protected
her from that mob of people. If He would have called her mother,
they would have turned on her just like they would have turned
on Him. So He protected her in that. Christ is our perfect refuge. He's always going to protect
His people. Nothing is going to separate His people from Him. Nothing, He will not let anybody
harm us. We may be harmed in our flesh,
but that's not harming us. He won't let anyone harm you
in spirit, in your soul. He won't let anybody separate
you from Christ. We see His holy and righteous
faithfulness to teach us here by addressing her as woman. He's
teaching her that their natural fleshly relationship is finished. It's finished. Their relationship
is only spiritual now. Her flesh and his flesh has nothing
to do with this as it did as mother and son. He's not her
son now. He's only her Lord and her Savior. This shows us that our relationship
to him and to our brethren is spiritual. If you're born of
God, you're connected in union, communion with Christ spiritually,
and you're united with your brethren spiritually, and that supersedes
all other relationships, all other fleshly relationships.
That's what Paul was saying when he said, henceforth know we no
man after the flesh, yet though we know Christ after the flesh,
or have known him after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him
no more after the flesh. The children of the resurrection
neither marry nor are given in marriage. We're one, that's what
he's saying, we're one. were one. She had unbelieving
natural family. She had some cousins and other
natural family. She had other believing children,
but John's there. And her and John are one spirit
in the Lord. And they're one with each other.
And this spiritual union takes precedence over all natural ties. This death on the cross made
an end of mere natural times. We have a nearer relationship
to Christ now. We're one in spirit with Him. One with Him. And His people
are one spirit with our Lord and one with one another. Now
lastly, I want you to see here why we should believe on our
Lord Jesus Christ and look to Him at all times. At all times. Our Lord finished the work. He
is the Son who provided and provides all for His church. He provided
all for us on the cross and He continues to provide all for
us in this life. He's provided righteousness and
holiness. He continues. He provides protection. He provides instruction. He provides
preservation. Everything, He provides it. You
see Him doing this for her in the midst of all this suffering.
And just know that by His suffering on the cross, He did this for
His whole church. And that should tell us now that
He's in glory, victoriously raised in glory, He shall provide everything
for us. He has and He shall. Christ has
not left the mother. He's not left the church. without
sons to provide for. John carried her home to his
house and John did whatever he could to provide for her. He
wanted to, he did that in temporal things. David said, I have been
young and now am old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Not temporal bread. Never saw it. Christ provides
for his brethren. He gives his people. He provides
for his people. And he gives us a heart to provide
for one another. And thus, you're not going to
find God's children begging bread. Because the Lord's going to keep
the heart set on him and see that he's our provision. We don't
have to worry about not being provided for. He's our provision
and he's going to do it by always having brethren who he's made
this so abundantly clear in their heart and blessed them to be
able to provide. And this is what he does. This
is one of the reasons why the church in this country was not
taxed by the government. Because God's people take care
of their own. Christ is going to do that for
his people. But the chief way John provided for her, the chief
way John provided for her, this is the chief way Christ is providing
for us. He preached the gospel of Christ
to her. He preached the gospel of Christ to her. The Lord has
provided the church with faithful sons, just like he provided John
to his mother. He provided the church with faithful
sons to minister the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to his
church. The Lord has provided that. John's
mother was also standing there. His natural mother was standing
there, but she was a born-again child of God. She was spiritually
his mother, now he's got another mother, Mary. God makes his people
to have more than one mother. We have many spiritual mothers
and fathers and brothers and sisters in the household of God
to whom we minister the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Provide
temporally, But this is the chief way provided through the preaching
of Christ. You see here how Christ is our
righteousness? Do you see how He's our holiness
and our protection and our provision? Here He is at the cross fulfilling
the law of love. That's what He's doing. That's
righteousness. And He's doing it perfectly.
It's finished. He fulfilled the law for His
people and made us the righteousness of God in Him. And so he will
provide all for us. He provided all for us on the
cross. He cried, it's finished. He's gonna keep that echoing
throughout time from his pulpit because it's finished. And because
that's the bread, because that is the strength of his people,
that's how he provides for us in spirit. And strengthens us
by him, showing us he's provided all. He said it's finished and if
he finished the work on the cross and we see him provide for her
in the midst of this critical time when everything is so troubling
and the whole world's against him. We see him providing for
his literal natural mother this way. Then rest assured on that
cross he provided all for his people. And now he's in glory,
he will provide for us. You see the glory shall follow.
Our Lord has entered into glory and his glory shall follow. Those
that he represented, everyone that he represented, are certainly
going to be born again and sanctified by the Spirit of God and brought
to believe on Christ and kept. Our Lord Jesus shall preserve
us through this veil of tears and keep his people the whole
way. He's going to have everlasting communion with us. We're going
to see him one day as he is. And when we see him, we're going
to say, lo, this is our God. We have waited for him. Now, you be sure to get this
last point. Arthur Pink pointed this out. The order here is indeed
striking. Christ bade Mary look to John
before he commanded him to take care of her. Mary was to look
to John to provide. And we're to look to Christ Jesus,
the Son of God, to provide everything. Everything. It's finished and
therefore he has provided and he shall provide. 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? That does everything in the heart
of His people. This is why we love one another.
This is why we keep walking by faith, trust in Christ. When
natural sight looks hopeless, all our hope is in Christ. This
is why we continue to love one another. It's Him providing for
us in our heart. It's Him keeping us seeing He's
provided and He is providing. He is righteousness. He is holiness
to us. He's going to keep us separated
into Him, following Him, trusting Him, believing Him. And by that,
He's going to keep us loving one another. By His cost of provision
and temporal things we need, He's going to keep us providing
temporal things for one another. But the chief way He's going
to keep us providing for one another is assembling together
and exhorting one another to continue worshiping our Lord
Jesus Christ together, trusting Him and depending upon Him entirely. Christ is our all. He is our strength. He is our
motive. He is our all. I say to you what He said that
day to her. Behold thy son. Woman, behold thy son. This is
the one, Christ Jesus, whose inner glory He will provide everything
for us. Everything for us. Go to Him
and look to Him only. Follow Him only. Trust Him only. All right, let's go to Him. Father, we thank you for providing us your son. We thank you for not leaving
us helpless widows in this world. I'm thankful, Lord, that you
have provided your son for us, to provide for us in all things. Lord, how we do thank You for making
Your people righteous in Him. How we thank You for putting
away our sin. Lord, we thank You for providing
us the Gospel so that we can constantly hear of Him. We thank
You, Lord, for continually turning us away from ourselves and from
this world to Him. Lord, help us today to behold
your son. Help us to behold this one who
is our full acceptance, our satisfaction with you. Lord, thank you that you have
made us one in Christ, one with one another in Christ, born of
one spirit. Make us value this. Make us cherish
this union. And make us helpers, Lord, to
one another. Close our ears to everything
but that glorious good news that something's always being done.
Christ is always, constantly, continually, ever saving us at
all times. Make us hear that. Make us hear
it in our heart. Lord, don't let us stray away
from Him. Don't let us turn back from Him. We ask you, Lord, don't let us go after anything else. We need you. We depend on you. We look to your promise. We look
to your faithfulness throughout the Scriptures. And we trust by our dear, glorified,
successful Redeemer, as you shall provide Lord, we come to you in Him.
We ask you to behold us in Him. We ask you to receive us in Him.
We ask you to keep us in Him. Thank you, Father. Thank you
for the gift of your dear Son and all spiritual blessings in
Him. Forgive us, Lord. Cleanse us right now. Forgive
us our sins. and so unbelieving, doubting,
taken up with things of this world. Don't let us think that
we've made satisfaction in the least bit. Keep us looking to
that One in whom you're satisfied. Keep us following after Him.
In His name we ask it. Amen.