Our pastor may have promised
Hannah that he wouldn't make a big deal, but I didn't make
that promise. So it is a big deal. Anything that, well, and
I know that the definition of a minor illness is when somebody
else has it. But when you have it or those
you love have it, it's major. It's serious. And anything that
discomforts her and our pastor and his family in any way is
a big deal. We need to beseech our Lord to
fix it, which he's able to do, to heal her, which he's able
to do. And in the meantime, we will do as the Lord enables us.
And having said that, there's A little list on the back panel
there and you ladies can check it out and sign up if you have
something you could take over there to kind of ease the burden
of feeding the children and Gabe and Hannah. All right, let's
turn back to John chapter 19. John chapter 19. God the Father is the perfect
parent. God the Son, Jesus Christ, was
the perfect son, the perfect child. God the Holy Spirit is
the perfect spirit. One of the great problems in
our society today is that children no longer can trust or believe
their parents. They don't really know if their
parents are saying what they mean or if they mean what they
say. You say, I thought it was all
the kid's fault. No, no, no. My generation is
greatly responsible. I remembered an incident, and
I had to call my daughter to verify this to be sure I had
it right, but she was a freshman in high school, and she was way
too cute, and her mother and I discussed the fact These dances
are going to come, and you put them in pretty dresses and let
them get all made up. And there wasn't a lot we could
do about that. Those things were important.
And I guess you can deny your children these things, and then
they're a misfit in society. And that doesn't bode well. But we said we got to have some
guidelines here. And one of them is going to be
You don't ever go to a dance with a boy that's older than
you. Well, we had made that decision and discussed it with her. And
this, her best, my daughter's best friend's mother called Becky
and said, you know, Joe and I talk, and we don't want Whitney going
to a dance with one of these older boys. You know, that can
just lead to something that's not good, not good. And Becky
said, yeah, we agree with that. Well, if we take a stand together,
then that'll make it better. OK, that's fine. So we agreed. And of course, that night we
sat down and told our daughter, told Carrie, reiterated what
she already knew. And she said, I knew that. And
it's OK. It's OK. Because she knew we
meant what we said. And we said what we meant. It
wasn't three days later that this little friend, her best
friend, called her and said, you know what? You know what?
So and so asked me to the dance. And Carrie said, I thought he
was a senior. Yeah, he is, but mom and dad say fine. And it
was like, what? What? Is there any reason that children
grow up confused? And don't misunderstand, we weren't
perfect parents, far from it. You know, we would give a little
here and give a little there, and I hate the word compromise,
but that's probably what fits. But we'd give a little here and
give a little there, mainly trying to not make our children complete
outcasts in society over what we believed. when the fact of the matter was
our children weren't really sure yet what or who all they believed. Did you all catch that? Young
people, unless taught otherwise, will always do what they want
to do, and that's usually not a good thing. They will usually
always do what they want to do rather than what they ought to
do. Does that sound familiar? Because I'm telling you, I'm
looking at a bunch of folks and in their mirror, it's somebody
who's just like that. Left alone, I'll do not what
I ought to do, but what I want to do. Turn to Joshua, hold John 19,
but turn to Joshua 24. And you say, well, is there a
place to draw a line in the sand? I guess there is, but be prepared
to move the line some. It's just how things are in our
day. But here's the line, the best I know to tell it. Teach
our children that when we say we're going to go worship the
Lord, whether it's a Sunday morning, a Sunday night, or a Wednesday
night, teach them we mean it. This is what we're going to do.
And as long as they're under our roof, they will also attend. And as I said, don't be a fanatical
law keeper. Don't make them into Pharisees.
The first time something comes along that they perceive as the
most important thing in their life to date, and you say, well,
you can't do that because you got to be in church. That can
be worked out. Because if we make them into
those Pharisees, what they'll do is they'll despise you as
your parent and they'll hate your God for it. But they need
to know when we say in general and specifically in regard to
our Lord, we mean what we say. And here's
where I got all that. You say, do you just sit around
and think that up today? No. I found it right here in
Joshua 24, look at verse 14. Joshua said, now therefore fear
the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods,
which your father served on the other side of the flood and in
Egypt and serve you the Lord. Let's put aside the things we
pursued all given our whole lives to for the most part until we
knew Christ. Put that aside and worship the
Lord. That's the message to the children.
Verse 15, if it didn't seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, we'll
choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
which your father served that were on the other side of the
flood or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell. And
here's where it comes down to it. Here's the line in the sand.
But as for me and my house, Joshua says, we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said,
God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. All right, turn back to John
19. I said all that to say this,
this is not gonna be a message on how to raise your children,
okay? That just kind of happened as
I studied today. And I think it's true and I think
it's worth us understanding that. But I said all that to say this,
when God's word says what it says in John 19, 30, it says
what it means and it means what it says. So what does it say
here? Well, there's just three simple
points here. It won't take long. Our Lord
said, it is finished. That's the three points. When
God the Son said it, that's what he meant. When God the Son said
it, he meant what he said. When God the Father heard it,
he knew what the Son meant. When God the Father heard it,
it meant what he said. So the first point, it. It. Now we could spend a lot of time
on what it does not mean, but it's so much more important to
get what it does mean. If I were to have to say just
one word to put in the place of that little word, it, the
one that most closely defines it here is, it'd read this way,
salvation is finished. Salvation is finished. But what has to be clarified
to mean the salvation of God's people is where the clarification
needs, that's finished. As simple as I know how, here's
what salvation means. A person, in order to be saved,
salvation means to be saved. A person is saved from something,
a bad thing, to something, a good thing, by someone who is called
the Savior. Salvation means deliverance and,
you know, I could wish to deliver a package. But if I don't have
a deliverer, somebody who's going to take it from here to there,
it's not going to get there. And Jesus Christ is the one who
delivers. Notice somebody always has to
do the delivering. There's no deliveries without
a deliverer and no salvation without a Savior. Let me give
you these examples. If we were to wake up in a smoky
house, a house full of smoke, here's the situation. We need
to be delivered from the fire. We need to be delivered to the
safety that's outside. And who do you want to do that?
A fireman. Somebody who can come into that
smoke in a get up where it won't affect him. He can go right through
the fire, right through the smoke, get you and take you out to safety. If we're at the beach and we're
out there swimming and we get caught up in the tide and begun
to be swept out, we need to be delivered or saved from the flood
to the shore Who you want? You want the fireman to come
out there now in his suit? No, no, you want a lifeguard.
Somebody who knows how to deliver in those situations. If we're
desperately ill, we need to be saved, we need to be delivered
from the sickness, restored to good health, you want the lifeguard
now? You want the fireman? No, we
want the great physician, don't we? We want a doctor. So what's our case? Well, all
of us need to be saved. We need to be delivered from
our sin, we need to be delivered to righteousness, and we need
that done by the Deliverer, by a Savior, by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called our Savior with good
reason. You know, this Ebola thing has
people just panicked and frightened with With good reason, I looked
it up. You know what the percentage
of fatalities have been with this thing? One outbreak in 2002
or something, there was 90% of the people died who got it. We're
doing a lot better now. It only runs about 25 to 50%.
And people are terrified. And I'm sure with good reason. I got a news flash for everybody. God's word declares that there's
a disease way worse than Ebola. It's called sin. It's called
sin sick and the mortality rate is really bad. It's serious. In fact, you know what the mortality
rate is? 100%. Everybody who's got it is going
to die from it. It's fatal. And the newsflash
is we all got it. We already have it. In fact,
we already have dead from it. We're born spiritually dead. And we're just living in the
death throes of physical death right now. It's coming. The time
is already appointed. We need to be delivered from
our sin. To righteousness, that's a real
problem for us because there's none righteous among us, no not
one. There's not a one of us here
who can put away sin. Here's how big the problem is. Who here would like to go to
Hoxie? Who would like to go to Leota?
or Calvesta, or Sochan, or Tasco, or Athol, or Waikini, or Ogala. You say, what are you talking
about? I suspect no one here knows where
those places are, much less how to get there. That's a problem,
isn't it, if you've got to be there? Let me give you another
list. You've got some good names here.
Would you like to go to Eindhoven? or Abu Fada, Kekulé, Puiso, Opalzir,
Zupas, or Vallelov, you say, what are you talking about? What
is this all about? Okay, you know what the first
list is? Two weeks ago, I drove to Kansas. I drove by every one
of those places on the map from Hoxie to whatever that old gala. And I'm going, what a bunch of
strange places. And you say though, hey, if I
need to go to those places, I can get that done. I'll get me a
car and some gas and enough money and I can get to Hoxie if that's
where I gotta go. I'll agree you probably could.
Now that second list, you know where those places are? They
are names of craters. on a moon that is circling Pluto. And I tell you, you gotta be
there. Now you got a real problem. If you had the means and you
lived to be another thousand years and could go at the speed
of light for the rest of your life, you wouldn't get there
and be alive. You cannot get there from here
in a lifetime. Not in a thousand lifetimes or
a hundred lifetimes. You say, what's the point here,
Bob? If you and I have to get ourselves
from sin to righteousness, we got no hope. We cannot get there
from here. We must have somebody who will
deliver us from there to here. And the only one that can do
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Romans 3 with me. I said we need to be saved from
our sin. And folks, we got a lot of it. We got a lot of sin to be delivered
from. We've been stacking it up since
the day we were born. We've got a lot of it. And we
need to be delivered to righteousness when we by nature just don't
have any. Look at Romans 3 verse 20. Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. but being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has sent forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in God. Let me summarize that
for you. We're dead in trespasses and
sin and can't do a thing about it. Jesus Christ already did
something about it. He went up that hill at Calvary
and let him nail him to that tree. Why? For sin. He didn't have any. Whose sin
was it? All the sin of all his people.
We need righteousness. We don't have any. Jesus Christ
lived for 33 years. And everything he did was perfect. It was righteous from A to Z. You say, well, what did he do
with that righteousness? Those people for whom he put away their
sin, that wasn't enough. What they needed to be taken
from here in a sinless condition over here to where they are perfectly
righteous. That's what he did with his righteousness.
He gave it to each of his children. Why? His father is the perfect
parent. He knows exactly what his children
need. He provided for them perfectly. Turn now to 2 Corinthians 5. How can this be? Can this really
be so? That we're delivered? We've been delivered? 2 Corinthians 5, look at verse
21. There's two phrases here really,
two things said. First it says, for he, God, hath
made him, Jesus Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin. That
takes care of this right here. It's all done. God the Father
made God the Son sin. That fixes half my problem. But
then look at the second half of the verse, that we, his people,
might be made the righteousness of God in him. That takes care
of the rest of the problem. You know what that makes him?
Our Savior. Our Savior. Therefore, it, salvation, it's
finished. It's all done. The salvation
of God's people. God's people are saved from their
sin to Christ's righteousness by the Savior who proclaimed,
it is finished. Now he said, it, that's the first
point. Second point is, is. You know
what is means? It means a thing is true. Just
that simple. It means a thing is true. It
is. If it is, it is. It means a thing
is a fact. It just is. It's a fact. It means
reality. It is, something is. I know behavior
and language and attitudes in every generation attempt to undermine
the word of God. Some are more subtle than others,
but here's an example of which is currently enjoying a lot of
popularity. You ever hear on TV somebody
say, I see it a lot because I watch sports, and they say, well, you
know, one team gets way behind, and they say, it's not over till
it's over. Now, that all may sound okay. Let me tell you,
that's just eating away at the truth of the scriptures. You
say, well, it's just sports. Okay, it's just sports. And I
guess there's a truth there. But if you're looking at anything
in God's word, whatever it says, it means. And whatever it means,
it says. And let me tell you something,
it's over. It is over. That's the reality. That's the
fact. That's the truth. It is over. Salvation is done. Jesus Christ
did it. Now, don't fall for this. Don't fall for this. Modern religion
says, I got a silver dollar for you here. That look like a silver dollar
to you? You say, no, no, I don't think so. Well, no, it's not. But you know the only way, if
you've never seen anything, no coins ever, the only way you'll
know that this is not a silver dollar is if I do this. Now you're not confused anymore,
are you? Listen, false religion tries to tell us Sin's not that
bad. It's not that serious. Let me
tell you something. It is serious. It is. False religion tries to say,
you got to do the best you can. You don't need, you know, you
don't have to be perfect. You don't have to, no, no, no.
Righteousness is perfection. Do we see the importance of this
little bitty word? The isness of God is required. Nothing else will do. Nothing
else is true. Nothing else is a fact. Salvation
is of, by, and through Jesus Christ. It just is. And then
thirdly, it is finished. Finished. Now finished does not
mean, well, you know, it's okay. No. If it's just okay, then it's
going to take something else to be done to it before it's
finished. It's pretty much done. No, no. If that's the case, it's not
finished. It's got to be a contribution
made or something. You got to polish the corners.
You got to do something. That's not what finished means.
You can look it up. Christ, when he says, Finished. Here's what he meant. The sin
of his people is these things. It is over. It is done. It is
gone. It's eliminated. It's eradicated. I started to write evaporated,
but that's not true. It didn't change states. It's
gone. It's finished. It's put away. It does not exist. It is so finished it never existed. Can you imagine? I, Rebecca and
I talk sometimes and she says, do you remember when? And I usually
go, oh no, oh no, this is going to be one of those dumb things
I did or said or whatever. And I wish it were gone, forgotten. It never happened. Wish I had
not done it. Okay. When Christ says your sin
is finished, it never existed. I'll tell you, you don't have
to worry about one day in glory going, I wish that hadn't come
up, because it won't. It won't come up ever again,
because it is finished. And then, you know, they say it ain't over till it's
over. Well, sin, for God's people, it's over. It is over. It's finished. And what about
the righteousness of God's people, what we need? It is accomplished
by Christ alone. It is completed. It is fulfilled. It is done. It can't be bettered. It can't be undone. It always
was. It always has been. And it never
was not. It ain't over till it over. It
is over. It's over. You don't have to
add anything. You don't have to do anything
in this life thinking, I got to do just one more good deed.
I got it. I got it. No, no, it's over.
It's finished. It was over before our problem
ever arose. Christ died to put away our sin
before we ever sinned. had physical life and spiritual
life when God created him. But he ate of that fruit and
he died spiritually. He lived on physically for many
years and had many children. But you see, they were all born
spiritually dead. And they lived a while and they
had some children who were also born spiritually dead. And then
they died. And this just kept on going.
Do we see we don't have the solution for
our problem in ourselves? We all know by conscience that
something's wrong. Something's wrong with all this,
isn't it? Something's wrong with me. Why do I think the way I
do? Why do our children, let's be
honest about it, why do our children do the stuff they do that make
us just roll our eyes back and whatever? You know why? They're
just like us. They're dead spiritually, waiting
to die physically. There's something not right,
something terribly wrong. We look, but we don't see. We
listen, but we don't hear. We search, but we don't understand.
We don't find. We work, and we don't accomplish.
We can't ever finish it. We're not able. Dead folks never
get anything done. They never get anything finished.
And that's why God sent his son, the everlasting one, the ever-living
one, to live for us. Our life, our righteousness is
finished. And that's why God's son died.
Our sinful life is finished too. Therefore, God's people are delivered
from their sin to his righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. You
say, well, is there nothing I can do? Pretty much nothing. But I went
through the scriptures and looked at the list of things we're commanded
to do. And I want you to listen to this
list. And I want to ask you, how much work is there in not
sinning and how much work is there in our righteousness? Here's
what we can do. Be still. We can wait. We can bow. We can rest. We can worship. We can listen. We can ask. In fact, we can beg. We can be quiet, we can trust,
we can hope, and I like this, we can believe. Say believe what? On the son of God. We can believe
when he says, it is finished. What he means is our sins put
away, we've been delivered from it. to his righteousness by his
own self. He says, come on to me, come
on to me that you might have life. That doesn't sound like
much for me to do exactly. Therefore, when we're delivered,
when we're one day delivered, when it's finished in the sense
we think of it. Oh, it's over finally. You know
what we'll find out? I didn't do a thing and I don't
deserve any credit or any glory. But Jesus Christ did it all.
He put away my sin. He made this righteousness and
gave it to me all by himself. To him be glory and honor, all
praise. Why? It is finished. It's done. It is done. May the Lord bless
His Word.