All right, turn back with me
to John 19. John 19. We are in such a solemn
moment right here in this text. Such a solemn moment. Our Lord
just cried the three great words of salvation. It is finished. It is finished. Right there hangs
Christ crucified. The Lamb slain. God's sacrifice
for sin. The One who accomplished everything
that heaven and earth required. Every single thing. This is a
faithful saying, and it's worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and He did it. That's why He came, and He did
it. It is finished. It's finished. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us. He that knew no sin. that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ came into
this world to earn a righteousness for His people and He did it. He did it. He did it. I love the thought that I have
a brand new record in Him. I have a brand new record. All those things that I've done
That one's gone. I have a brand spanking new record. He came to live for me and earned
this perfect life, this perfect righteousness for me. And He
did it. And I get it. And when God looks
at me, He sees everything Christ did all that time. Well done. It's finished. He said, Father,
all that thou hast given me to do, I have finished the work. Every single thing. Here hangs our Savior. Here hangs our Redeemer, our
Lord, our King, Our husband, our brother, our friend. That's our friend hanging right
there. He's my friend. That's my friend. My friend hung there. He said,
greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friend. We always say the elect, and
that's true. All that the Father chose to
give him, that's true, but do you know who all those people
were? His friends. These are my friends. I came
to die for my friends. The gospel is hanging right there. The gospel's hanging right there.
If a sinner wants to know what is the gospel, He's hanging right
there on that cross. He's hanging right there on the
cross. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
gospel. Christ is all. Christ is all. Now look at verse 31. The Jews therefore, because it
was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon
the cross on the Sabbath day, For that Sabbath day was an high
day. Besought Pilate that their legs
might be broken and that they might be taken away. The Jews
were the religious people. They were the ones who went to
church. And this happened on a Friday and they went to church
on Saturday. It was their Sabbath. They were not allowed to cook.
They were not allowed to work. They were not allowed to do anything
on that particular day, on the Sabbath day. So they had to make
preparations for it. They had to prepare for that
day. They did that on Friday. Especially this particular Sabbath,
because they had the Sabbath every Saturday, but once a year
it was the Passover Sabbath. That was their big Passover Sabbath. And everybody came to observe
it. Just like Easter. Alright? Sunday just like every
other Sunday. But everybody is going to go
to church with Mama on Easter. Everybody is going to be a big
deal. Everybody is coming. This one is a special service.
All the other ones are just regular services. This one is the special
service. Here was the problem for the
Jews. Our Lord was nailed to a Roman cross. He was convicted and he was sentenced
to die by the Romans. And when the Romans crucified
the guilty, when they hung their guilty on a cross, they left
him on that cross for days and days and weeks until it was nothing
but bones hanging there. That's how they did it. That
was their custom. They did this to add to the guilty's shame. They shamed the guilty by leaving
him there. They let him rot on that cross. And they left him there until
one account said the buzzards and the vultures were finished
with him. That's how long they left him there. It was a horrible,
awful sight. It was awful, awful. Verse 31,
the Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, today's
the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross
on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath, that Sabbath day was
a high day. They besought Pilate that their
legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. They
came to Pilate and they said, we want him taken down. We want him taken down. He just
died. In one of the accounts, you remember
reading it, Pilate marveled that he was dead already. A lot of
times it took men days and days and days to die. And these other
two men, they were not dead. They had just been hung. Our
Lord gave up the ghost. No man takes my life from me,
I lay it down. So he gave up the ghost, and
Pilate marveled. Is he dead already? And they
came and said, We want him taken down. Pilate said, Why? Why? They said, Because tomorrow
is our holy day. Tomorrow is holy. It's the holy
day. Tomorrow we're going to worship
God. Isn't that something? That's what we're going to do
tomorrow. We have a lamb we're going to offer. We've been doing
it since Exodus 12. We have ceremonies that need
to be kept. We have a law that needs to be
carried out. And we do not want Him defiling
our worship. Isn't that something? Is that
not religion for you? They beat Him with their fists. They actually drove nails into
Him. Their hands were literally dripping
with His blood. Literally. They had His blood
on them while they said, He's interfering with our worship.
Take Him down. Take Him down. We want Him down. Beat Him, kill Him, and then
get Him out of our sight. Religious traditions. Religious
traditions, that's what they are, traditions and ceremonies
and laws, they are carried out to the letter. You will not find
them carried out any better than in the heart of a man who is
absolutely dead to God. That's where you'll find it.
All of that ceremony and all of that Law, that keeping of
the law, it will be carried out perfectly in a man who is dead
to God, just dead to God. The more dead the heart, the
more strictly it will enforce that law. It will enforce that
law. Get the crucified Christ out
of here. We're trying to worship God and
he's messing it up. Do not talk about a bloody sacrifice. We don't want to hear it. We
do not want to hear it. We don't like it. It's offending
people. It's offending people. The stuff
is offending people. The last thing we want to see
is the crucified Christ. What do we want to see? Oh man, we want to see a crucified
Christ, don't we? When we look at the crucified
Christ, you know what we're doing? We're worshiping God. He is our
Lamb who was slain. We have a law that has to be
kept, and there it is. We're going to worship God. Verse
32 says, they said, we want him taken down. So they asked that
Pilate would break their legs. And verse 32, then came the soldiers
and break the legs of the first and of the other, which was crucified
with him. Pilate gave the order. They obeyed
his command. They broke both the thieves legs. And the reason that they did
this is because they were still alive. They were still awake. They were still aware. This was
an excruciating thing to endure. Can you imagine? This was an
excruciating thing to endure. Now, our Lord just told one of
them. He just told one of them. Today,
you're going to be with me in paradise. He just told one of
them that. Today. I mean, the sun's not
going to go down before you're in paradise. He was a saved man. One of them was a saved man. But even though he only had hours
left to live, He still had to endure pain. He still had to
endure suffering. He still had to endure trial.
He was a saved man for just an hour, two hours, three hours. And like every believer before
him, he still had to endure all those sufferings. He belonged
to Jesus Christ, but he was not spared this pain." Pain and suffering
on this earth. Well, does the fact that he was
going through all that mean God was angry with him? No. Christ just died for him. Christ
literally just died for him. Well, does the fact that he was
going through all that mean Christ was punishing him for some reason?
Maybe Christ is punishing me for some reason. He was at that
moment being ushered into glory. At that moment. The fact that
they did that sped the process to usher him into glory. He was
on his way to paradise. The fact of the matter is we
don't need to be healed from pain and suffering. We would
love to be. But we don't need to be. What we need to be healed
from is our sin. That's what we need to be healed
from, our sin. And our Lord reminds us of that
every time He allows us to go through pain and suffering in
trial. It is through that suffering
that we learn our need of Him. Now look at John 16 with me. Back a couple of pages to John
16. I've always loved this verse. John 16 verse 33 our Lord said
these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have
peace. In me. In me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world." There was nothing they could do to that
thief that could separate him from the love of Christ. There
was nothing they could do to stop him from any minute being
in paradise. In this world you are going to
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. He has overcome the world. He has overcome every obstacle
in this world, every trial, every pain, every suffering. Back in
John 19 verse 32 says, Then came the soldiers and broke
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 there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record,
and his record is true. And he knoweth that he sayeth
true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that
the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken."
Not one bone. Upholding all scripture, all
scripture, and making Christ to be the perfect sacrifice. God in sovereignty controlled
those soldiers. And He wouldn't let them touch
one bone in His body. Not one bone in His body. They cannot touch His bones. Now turn with me to Numbers chapter
9. Numbers chapter 9, look at verse
2. Numbers 9, verse 2. Let the children of Israel also
keep the Passover at his appointed season. This chapter is describing
the Passover lamb. It's talking about the Passover
lamb, okay? Look at verse 11. The 14th day of the second month,
at even, they shall keep it and eat it with unleavened bread
and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it unto
the morning. nor break any bone of it. According to all the ordinances
of the Passover, they shall keep it. Don't break one bone, not
one bone. You be careful as you're eating
this Passover. Do not break one bone. Why is
that? Go to Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter 2, look at verse
21. And the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of
his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib
which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and
brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh, bone of his bones. Ephesians chapter 5 quoting
this talking about marriage said husbands love your wives as Christ
loved the church and he said we are his bones we are his body
we are his bones bone of his bones that's his people he is
the head and we are his body Now turn with me to Psalm 34.
Psalm 34, look at verse 20. He keepeth all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Not one. He said, you can break
me, but you cannot touch them. His body was broken, not his
bones. Not his bones. They beat him.
They pierced him. They spit on him. They plucked
his beard. They pressed thorns into his
head. And he let them do every bit
of that. But he said, you're not touching my bones. Not a
bone shall be broken. He was broken for us. We'll never
be broken. Go with me back to John 19. John 19 verse 32. 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 there out blood and water, just like Adam's side. The Lord
did operation on Adam's side, and his bride came out of there.
Well, the second Adam, God did operation on his side, and he
used this soldier to do it. And out came eternal life. That's what came out, eternal
life. Blood and water. That soldier, he didn't break
his legs because he knew he was dead already. And to prove it,
he ran a spear up in there. And justification came forth
and sanctification came forth. Blood and water. You know, Christ
really is all. I mean, He really is all. He
is all that heaven and earth needs. I love that song, Precious
Name, Oh How Sweet, Hope of Earth, Joy of Heaven. Christ is all.
He's all. Heaven is a place where everybody
is worshiping Christ. God the Father says to God the
Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever. All the cherubims and seraphims,
Christ is all. God needed blood and man needed
water. God needed to be appeased, man
needed to be cleansed. And Christ provided it all. Verse
34, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and
forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it
bare record, that's John. He that saw it bare record and
his record is true, and he knoweth that he sayeth true, that you
might believe. For these things were done that
the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith,
they shall look on him whom they pierced. He died. He truly did
die. He really did die. What that
means is we really do have a hope. I mean, we truly, truly have
a hope, a true hope. These things are true. And the
one that Bear Wet Record said, I know they're true. I mean,
we really do have a hope. We can rest in the fact that
God is appeased. We know what we are. And we know
what God is. And we can rest in the fact that
God is appeased. And I'll leave us with this,
verse 35. And he that saw it, John, he
that saw it bear record and his record is true. And he knoweth
that he sayeth true. That's my favorite line right
there. I know I'm saying true. There's no doubt in my mind.
I saw it. I was standing at the foot of
the cross and I saw it. He that saw it bare record, and
his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that you
might believe." After our Lord gave up the ghost, I'm sure everybody
left. It's over. Everybody left. But God caused John to stay to
be a witness to these things. And John said, I'm telling you,
this is true. And I'm telling you this, that you might believe. That you might believe. Our God
did not leave himself without a witness. Never did he leave
himself. When he came out of that tomb,
he had brought two angels down to witness it. He has never left
himself without a witness. And our God never will. He never
will. Until the day that He returns,
He will always have a voice in the wilderness crying, Behold
the Lamb. Always. He'll always have a witness. Behold the Lamb. And in goodness
and in mercy, He'll do that for us, that we might believe And
we do, don't we? He's given us faith and we believe
Him. We believe Him. We have a hope. We're all hoping
in this. Is this true? John said, I know
it's true. I know it's true. And I'm telling you this that
you might believe. All right, let's all stand together.