I'd like you to turn with me to Luke 23, and the text that is on my mind this evening, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross in verse 46. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said this, or thus, he gave up the ghost.

Those of you who were here on the Lord's Day evening, we looked at Psalm 31, verse 15, my times are in thy hands. And we looked at the frailty of our lives and the swiftness of time and the inability that we have to claim back those hours and minutes and seconds that have gone past. And as we look back over another year, we see no doubt there are many times of regret many times where we wish that we could turn back time and change things, but we know that that is an impossibility and that our time is very precious and very fragile.

and that it's God himself who set time in motion when he created the heavens and the earth and it is God who will put an end to time when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and we know in glory there will be no time, there will be no night, there will just be day, there will be no sun or moon but the Lord will be the light of the heavenly kingdom.

But in verse 5 of this chapter 31, the Psalmist, Psalm David says, And so the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross at Calvary quoting one of the other Psalms, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? But also quoting this Psalm 31, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said this, he gave up the ghost and thought as we come to the last evening of another year, we come here in our text to the last moments of the life, the physical life of the Lord Jesus Christ before he gives up the ghost, before his body and spirit are separated and his body ascends to be with the, sorry, his soul ascends to be with the Father and his body remains here on earth and is taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and is wrapped in the linen cloth and covered with spices and laid in the tomb and there it laid there for those three days fulfilling the prophecy that his body would not undergo decay.

and then rising again on that third day that his spirit entered in to the body and he has that glorified body and reveals himself to his brethren, reveals himself to above 500 others as he walks here on earth before he is taken to glory.

So these final words really are a final prayer, the last prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a praying man. He spent his time often in prayer, in communication with his father. Many nights were spent in prayer in his in the times of his earthly life when great decisions had to be made. He spent those times in prayer before he chose his apostles. He went into the mountains to to commune with his father before he goes on to trial. He's in the garden of Gethsemane pleading with the father, if it is possible let this cut pass from me and the angels of God descending to strengthen and encourage at the Lord Jesus Christ, and even then on the cross, right in the last moments of the Lord Jesus Christ's life, his final prayer, his final words, our Father, into thy hands I commend. my spirit and if you read old books you will often notice that it is recorded people's final words final sayings and it was it used to be quite a topic of conversation you know what were their final words what was the last thing that the person said upon earth. It seems as people's lives become longer, as people lie in hospital longer, as people are put under drugs that make them unconscious, morphine and things like that, they tend to drift away and their final moments or the hours leading up to their death, they're so unconscious that you can't communicate with them.

But in years gone by and in other countries, when we were in Kenya, it used to be, it seemed that people knew that they were going to die. Like Jacob, they gather up their feet into the bed and they give up the ghost, they die. They seem to be aware of this tension and that there is to be, death is imminent.

And it seemed to be in the olden days that there was those last words recorded. And here is the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought of John Newton. John Newton, there were a couple of last words that he said. He said, my memory is almost gone, but one thing or two things I remember. One is that I am a great sinner. And the other is that Christ is a great saviour.

It is also said that he said, I'm still in the land of the dying, but I will soon be in the land of the living. And so there was some awareness in him as he laid there waiting for the Lord to take his spirit, that these things were taking place.

And there are others also, if you read their books, their last words, different things that they said, that there was that conscious understanding that they were soon to be taken. to be with Christ and their faith was strengthened right up to the very end. The Lord never abandoned them. They were there right up to the end with their eyes fixed, their hope fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so the final words of the Lord Jesus, there are seven sayings, seven statements that the Lord Jesus Christ made. But the last two are found, one is in John, where the Lord Jesus said, it is finished. And the other is in Luke where he says, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

And you would think that it goes in that order. It is finished. into thy hands I commend my spirit. You see that the gospel writers come from different angles and by comparing the four gospels we can get a surround, a full picture of all that is taking place with the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross and as he says it is finished, what is he meaning?

His meaning, he has gained the victory. He has paid in full the debt that his people owed to God. It was a complete, a whole sacrifice. It was fully accomplished that all of these years that the prophets had been prophesying, All of these years that people had been waiting for the Messiah to come, now his work, his earthly work has finished.

He had gained the victory, he had paid in full, he had absorbed the wrath of God for the sins of his people and sin had now been atoned for. paid in full could be stamped next to the name of each of his dear people.

And so when he cried, it is finished, he was saying, I am victorious. Now into thy hands I commend my spirit. with the Lord Jesus Christ saying this, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He's showing us the complete trust that he had in God the Father, that he was to surrender his spirit into the hand of Almighty God, that he was committing his all He entrusted everything to God the Father.

Though we can't fully grasp how his human nature and his divine nature are so entwined in one person, yet he had to die. He had to have a human soul and that human soul had to separate itself from the human body to enable him to be dead. And that human soul had to ascend up to be with God the Father. And God the Father had to be well satisfied with the sacrifice of his beloved son, just like he says to the other thief upon the cross. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. His body was left there upon the cross, but his soul went to be with Christ forever and ever. And his body then waits for that time when Jesus Christ will come again and all bodies and souls will be reconciled.

And so Christ's spirit had to separate from his body upon the cross for him to be classed as dead. And so he says, into thy hands I commit my spirit. In John chapter 10, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us there that he gave up his life. John 10 17. Therefore does 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. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received from the father.

So the Lord Jesus Christ, his spirit did not succumb. His body and So when we die, for instance, our bodies cease to function and our spirits are separated. But Jesus Christ, he did not die because of the physical wounds that he experienced, but he gave up his life. He gave up his spirit there upon the cross. He gave himself as an offering for sin. He had the power to be able to stop the whole thing. He had the power to be able to come down from the cross as they mocked him and said, come down from the cross if you are the Christ, save yourself. He had that ability to do so. He had the ability to heal the wounds that had been delivered to his body.

Yet he says, no man takes my life. I lay it down of myself. He was willing to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and to restrain that divine power that he had and to give himself into the hands of sinful men and to be abused physically. by sinful people and then to be nailed upon the cross and then to be abandoned by his father and punished for the sins of his people for which he had no sin, yet he was made sin for them, was a loving choice that he made. Why? Because he loved his own and he loved them to the end. He was given his sheep and he would lose none of them.

And so there on the cross, he cries out into Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. And what a comfort that is for us as Christ Jesus, our head the one who walked this earth and set the example as he as he as he commended his spirit into the hand of the father to commend it means to to be to entrust he he says i entrust my spirit as you and I take those things that are precious, maybe our money, and we take it to the bank and we entrust that to the bank and we give it to the bank for the bank to look after it in a secure place that we can go to it and retrieve it.

And so it's the same word that Christ said, I commend my spirit, I entrust my spirit into the safekeeping of the Father, into his hands. Just as we saw in Psalm 5, he says, all my times are in thy hand. He put everything, he took everything and handed it over to God and to put into the safe keeping of God the Father. And Christ Jesus says, I take my spirit and I give it into the hands of the Father. He entrusts the Father with the keeping of his soul.

What a comfort that is for you and I as we begin a new year. We come to the end of this year and we look back and we can see that the Lord has kept us, preserved us in his hands. But more than that, if we were to come to the end of our lives to realise that even our soul have been dealt with and that can be kept in the safekeeping of God the Father.

If you think of Stephen, when Stephen was stoned to death and he looked up into heaven and he says, oh, see, Jesus Christ at the right hand of the throne. filled with the Holy Ghost. He saw the glory of God and Jesus Christ, Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.

And they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the young man's feet. His name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God.

What did he say? He said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. The same words, basically the same words as the Lord Jesus Christ said upon the cross to his father.

If you receive something, if someone gives you something, how do you receive it? You receive it with your hands. And so he's saying, Lord Jesus, take into my hands, take into your hands my spirit. As Jesus says upon the cross, into thy hands I entrust my spirit. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

In John it tells us, John chapter 10, verse 28, Verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. What is the rejection of the soul? It is damnation in hell. It is eternal death. But those who are in Christ Jesus shall never perish because he came to give them eternal life.

And he says, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. As Stephen, as he says, receive my spirit, take my spirit in your hands. He understood that there was complete security in Christ. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one."

And so there is that double security that Christ Jesus and God the Father and the Holy Spirit entered into that covenant of redemption before the foundation of the world and those souls that were in Christ Jesus are secured for time and for eternity.

And even when that moment comes, that the body and soul separate, and we say our last words. May our last words be just like Stephen's. May our last words be just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Into thy hands I commend my spirit. into God's hands.

If you think of our hands, our hands are most useful, are fearfully and wonderfully made. And to be given into the hands of God, it is to be kept. We are kept. We are kept for time and we are kept for eternity.

But also the hand of God is caring. with our hands we we care for for others we show them love and compassion and and sympathy and so God those who in God's hand they're under his care under his compassion under his protection, under his provision. All of these things are done with our hands. We labour with our hands to provide and God provides for his people.

His arm is not shortened that he cannot save, it's outstretched Yes, there are times when we need to be disciplined, and our hands are used to discipline. And so God uses his hands to discipline his dear children. No chastening for the present seems to be grievous, seems to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterwards. It reveals the peaceable fruits thereof. And so the hand of God, although God has no hands, yet it is used to describe the way that he deals with his beloved people. And as Christ gave up the ghost, before he gives up the ghost, he says, into my hands, I commend thy spirit. It displays absolute trust in the Father.

And it is such a comfort for the Lord's people to know that Christ upon the cross had absolute trust in the Father, that as body and soul separated, that his sacrifice was perfect, that his sacrifice was accepted, that his body was going to be laid in the grave again and his soul was one day going to enter into that body and that body was going to rise again from the grave. And that's a great comfort for the Lord's people. For as it happened to the Lord Jesus Christ, so it is going to happen to you and to me, for he is the first fruit of the resurrection.

And we don't know, do we, what's going to happen tomorrow. We don't know what's going to happen over this 2026. But what we do know, as the Lord's people, that if our life is secured in the hands of God, our salvation is secured in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, you are engraven in the palms of my hands. those wounds he still has today, those wounds in his hands and his feet. And he says, you are engraven upon the palms of my hands.

And so if you are in Christ and you look out at this 2026 and maybe you're concerned about what the future may hold, well, remember the Psalmist, remember the Psalmist, all My times are in thy hand. Every second, every minute, every hour of every day is in the hands of an almighty God. Nothing can happen to you without God allowing it to take place. Into thy hands I commend my spirit. Thou has redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. All my times are in thy hands. Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit.

May the Lord give us that absolute trust as we set out on this 26th, to have absolute trust in the sovereignty of God, to commit all our care unto him, knowing that he cares for us. And even if our lives have to come to the end, just like the Lord Jesus Christ, he gave up the ghost. Where did its spirit go? To glory. Where did the thief go? To glory. And where will each of the Lord's people go? They will go to glory, to be with the Lord forever and ever. May the Lord give us in that absolute trust. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Amen.

Our next hymn is from hymns of worship again at 184 to the tune 507.

When this passing world is done,
when has sunk yon radiant sun,
When I stand with Christ on high,
looking over life's history,
then, Lord, shall I fully know,
not till then, how much I owe.

Hymn 184, tune 507.

? His bosom gladdens all ?
? When he is on the wicked side ?
? When he is on the wicked side ?
? And good shall my glory do ?
? Until then have mercy on me ?
? Thou hast a cause for good in me ?

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? I walk beneath the clouds, dark as the night.

? For all is well ?
? Dressed in beauty not my own ?
? When I see thee as thou art ?
? Lovely with unseemly parts ?
? In the future I know only you ?
? All the way around the clock ?
? I am not so terrified yet ?
? Loudest thunder to be heard ?
? Loudest air, important voice ?
? Sweetest heart, harmonious voice ?
? Heav'n would shine ?