The title is THE DEATH OF JESUS
CHRIST. This is one of those portions
of scriptures, and I'm sure we can say about every scripture,
but I feel this one is like standing on holy ground. This is the death of our Lord, our substitute,
our representative. How many deaths have there been
since the fall? Billions. But there is only one
death that brought forth life. This
is the corn of wheat that's fallen into the ground, and now it bears
forth much fruit. Here you are who believe. We're
the fruit of this death, the fruit of it. He's that corn,
a grain of corn that fell, put into the ground, planted into
the ground. He said, let it be planted into the ground and die.
What a mystery. What a mystery. But out of that
has come life. Life to you and me. Life to sinful
people like you and me. In John's Gospel here there are
three of the seven sayings from the cross. Spurgeon has a book
that has the seven sayings on the cross. I think Pink may have
one too. But three of those seven sayings are given to us by John. When the Lord said, Behold thy
son takes care of Mary. John takes her home to take care
of her. And they're all three here in verse 19, of course.
And he says, I thirst. And then he says, it's finished. It's finished. Our Lord's mission was now finished
on this earth. Now he's still working, he's
still working, he's still bringing all things to pass, he's still
saving sinners, but his work of redemption, his work of satisfying
the law, his work of honoring God's law is finished. He did what he came
to do. And there's nothing left for
you and I to finish. That's very important. There's
nothing left for us to finish. He said in John 17, four, he
said, I have finished the work, speaking to the father, I have
finished the work thou gave us me to do. And he finished that
work perfectly, perfectly, because it must be perfectly accepted. We need, and this is important,
because so many believe, if they just believe on the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ, if they just believe that, they're saved. We need
the LIFE of Christ for 33 years. It's just as important as His
death. I never knew that until I understood the gospel. So I
heard and understood the gospel. I understood I need his 33 years
of living. I need his obedience in the home.
I need his civil obedience. He told Peter if it's right for
paying taxes or not. Peter asked him and he sent Peter
down and he took the coins out of the fish's mouth to do what?
Pay the taxes, he said, lest we offend them. I'm paraphrasing,
but he paid the taxes. He gave civil obedience. He gave parental obedience. He
obeyed his parents. He obeyed God in every jot and
tittle. We needed that. That's our righteousness. That's our righteousness. Now
his death puts away our sins. But without His life, there's
no salvation. Without His life, there's no righteousness. We
needed His death, or His life. We need those 33 years. And now,
these things that He said on the cross, first of all, He said
them because He experienced them. When He said, I thirst, He really
meant it. He wasn't just following script,
He really meant it. He said over in Psalm 22, his
tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth. He said, my moisture
is dried up. I've never, I tried to think
about what it would be like to be that thirsty. I can't imagine it, I've never
been there. But he was there. But when he cries, I thirst,
this shows his humanity. As a man, he hungered. He had to eat. As a man, he thirsted. He grew
weary. He wept, and the tears were real. They weren't Hollywood tears.
You see them crying in a movie, crying like crazy, but there's
no tears coming down. There's no tears. His tears were
real. He felt pain like we feel pain.
You know, when that crown of thorns was driven down on top
of his head, he felt the pain of that. He felt it. He felt
pain of heart. How many times? He groaned in
spirit. He groaned in spirit. Our Lord was a real man, a very
real man, very human. And what we see here also is
this, the water of life thirsting. Isn't that a paradox? The water of life
thirsting. Our Lord, and this shows us this,
Our Lord never relieved any part of His sufferings. Satan tried
to tempt him to turn the stones into bread. He was 40 days, 40
nights. He knew he was hungry. He's a
man. He knew he was hungry. He said, if you're the son of
God, prove it. First of all, God is not going
to prove anything to me and you. God is too great to stoop that
low, to go around trying to prove himself to us. And but Satan
said, prove that you're the son of God. Make these stones into
bread. I know you're hungry. I know you are. I can hear your
stomach growling. I know you're hungry. And he didn't do it because I
can't do it. I can't turn stones into bread
if I'm hungry. So he didn't do it either. He
never relieved any of his suffering. And his thirst was not only this
physical thirst like we get, but it was a soul-suffering thirst. It was a soul-suffering thirst.
Forsaken of God. Nobody in this room knows what
it is to be forsaken of God. Even the ones that don't believe
don't know what that is. Your sun's shining on you today, you
enjoy it. People out here, all those in this whole world, they
don't believe they're being fed today. Sun's shining on them,
rain falls on them, the blessings of God falls from heaven in rain
and sun's shining. They don't know what forsaken
of God is until they're in hell. You see, this thirst that he
has is not only a physical thirst, It's the same kind of thirst
that rich man experienced in hell. What's the first thing
that rich man said? He lifted up his eyes in hell.
Father Abraham, send someone to dip their finger in water
and cool the tip of my tongue. You see, our Lord has to suffer
both in soul and in body. You know why? Because that's
the way I've sinned. I've sinned in my soul is me. I've sinned in my very person.
And I use this body to sin with. I use this body to fulfill the
lust of my flesh. And I'm not talking about this
skin, the nature I've got. Both have to suffer That's why
that's why the Lord said don't fear them who can kill the body,
but they can't you know go any further than that but fear him
who can cast both body and soul into hell and Our Lord had to
suffer in soul and in body For him to be a real substitute
and take my place because that's what I was gonna have to suffer
And so when he says, I thirst, it's real, but it's not just
a physical thirst, it's his soul thirsty, forsaken of God. Our Lord thirsted here on this
cross in an unimaginable way so that you and I wouldn't have
to. We won't experience this thirst he's talking about. He
said that woman at the well, whosoever drinks of this water
shall what? Never thirst again. You'll never
thirst again. And the reason you'll never thirst
again is because the water of life is now thirsting on your
behalf. He's taking that thirst. That's
what he's doing. And they were set there, in verse
29, 30, they were set there a vessel, it was full of vinegar. Now that
vinegar is sour wine, that's what the soldiers drink, that
was their drink. And they filled a sponge with
it, and they put it on a reed, and they put it to his lips,
and they dabbed his lips with it, not realizing they are fulfilling
the Scriptures. fulfilling the Scriptures, Psalm
69, 21. Listen, it's just amazing that
they read the Scriptures, the scribes and the Pharisees, they
read the Scriptures daily. And this shows you how you can
read the Scriptures, the Word of God daily, and unless the
Lord opens them up to you, you're still completely ignorant of
what's being said. Always I'm to always seek the
Lord to open the Word of God to you just as I ask in my prayer
Lord open your word to us because if he doesn't we're not gonna
get it Psalm 69 21 they gave me also
gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink That's back there in the Psalms
they got the Psalms they read them all the time And when our Lord received the
vinegar, he cried, it is finished. And he bowed his
head, he submitted himself to death. He bowed his head so graciously,
so willingly, he bowed his head and died. Jesus Christ really
died. He really experienced death in
a way that you and I will not experience it. We will not experience
that second death, that death where we're cast into eternal
hell, eternal lake of fire, the scripture calls it. Our Lord
took that on our behalf. Think about that. This is holy
ground. We're reading and watching salvation
happen right before our eyes, our Savior saving. He's dying
for sinners, dying for sinners. In Luke's Gospel it says this,
in Luke 23, verse 46, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend
my spirit. And having said thus, He gave
up the ghost. FATHER INTO THY HANDS I COMMEND
MY SPIRIT." He couldn't die until He commended
His Spirit. He said this, our Lord said this
in John 10, 18, NO MAN TAKES MY LIFE FROM ME, I LET DOWN MYSELF. I lay it down and I take it up
again. This commandment have I received in my father. But
no man takes my life from me. But when he said it's finished,
he cried, it's finished, I've done the work, I've completed
it. Now it's time to put the period at the end of the sentence,
die. And he said, Father, into thy
hands I commend. And I looked that up and it means
I present, I deposit, I commit my spirit into your hands. And he really died. Now what
did our Lord FINISH when He said, IT'S FINISHED? You know, if you
say you've finished something, you have a TASK. You have a task
that you're doing and you've got to the end of the task and
you've done it, you've completed it, and you say, IT'S FINISHED. And this is so important here
because religion today does not have it finished. THEY HAVE US
FINISHING IT BY OUR FAITH. BY AN ACT OF FAITH WE'RE FINISHING
IT. NO WE'RE NOT. IT'S NOT THAT HE COMPLETED THIS
PART AND NOW THIS PART IS YOURS. NO, THIS PART IS HIS ALL THE
WAY. ALL THE WAY. BUT HERE'S WHAT HE FINISHED.
TURN OVER TO HEBREWS CHAPTER 10. In Hebrews chapter 10, look at verse 7. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it's written of me, to do thy will, O God. This is the book. And he's calling
it one volume. This is one volume. This is the
volume right here. It's all written of him. In the
volume of the book, it's written to me, I've come to do, to finish
thy will. And God's will is to make you
His people. A multitude of sinners throughout
this world, it's God's will, He pleased God to make you His
people. It's God's will that all the sheep that He gave to
the Lord Jesus Christ, He should lose none. It's God's will that
His Son should come into this world, that His Son, who is God,
become incarnate, keep His law, go to the cross, suffer, not
just die, not just die. He's got to suffer and die. The
reason He has to suffer is this, sin deserves suffering. Rebellion
deserves suffering. He's got to suffer. There's punishment
for it. Punishment is suffering. If it's
not suffering, there's no punishment in it. There's got to be punishment,
and punishment brings suffering. So Jesus Christ has to suffer
in my place. And then He's got to die. The
death that I was to die. It belonged to me. He came to
do the whole will of God, the whole redemptive will of God.
And right now he's doing God's will. Right now, he's still bringing
it to pass. What's written in this volume,
he's still bringing it to pass. He came to finish the work the
Father gave him to do. He said, the Father gave me a
work to do. It's finished. On this earth,
his 33 years, what he came for, that part's finished. It's finished. He came to put an end to all
the types and pictures and ceremonies. We don't have that now. We don't
have ceremonies going on here. I'm not dressed up in a robe. We don't offer incense. We do
offer prayer. That's the incense of the saints. But He put an end to them. He
put an end to the Levitical Law. All those types of ceremonies,
all those do's and don'ts. Aren't you glad you're not under
that? I'm so glad I'm not, I can't even keep the speed out there
on the road. I can't even obey the traffic
laws. You think we're going to obey all God's laws perfectly?
We can't even do that. We can't even do the lesser things.
And He came, now listen, I made this point earlier, He came to
fulfill all righteousness, but He came to produce a righteousness.
THAT GOD WOULD ACCEPT ON OUR BEHALF. HE CAME TO PRODUCE A
RIGHTEOUSNESS BY HIS OWN OBEDIENCE. HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. THAT'S WHAT HE CAME TO DO. AND
THE PROOF THAT HE DID ALL THAT IS OVER IN ACTS CHAPTER 17. TURN OVER TO ACTS CHAPTER 17. In Acts chapter 17, look in verse
31, because he at the point of the day IN THE WHICH HE WILL
JUDGE THE WORLD IN RIGHTEOUSNESS BY THAT MAN WHOM HE HATH ORDAINED,
BY THAT MAN HANGING ON THE CROSS, BY THAT MAN THAT WAS PUT TO DEATH,
HE IS GOING TO JUDGE THIS WORLD IN RIGHTEOUSNESS BY THAT MAN
WHOM HE HATH ORDAINED, WHEREOF HE HATH GIVEN ASSURANCE UNTO
ALL, IN THAT HE HATH RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD. We're witnesses of it. And we
have the witness of it written in this book. Now if this book's
not so, throw it in the trash. It'd be the worst book ever written
if it's not true. If it's not true, this is the
worst book ever written. But it's true. It's true. I believe
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I believe Jesus Christ right
now is seated at God's right hand running this whole world,
the whole universe. I believe that. I believe that, and that's by
the grace of God. That's by God's grace, because
there's a time I didn't believe it. Now that he has accomplished
this work, salvation and eternal life is a gift of God to all
those whom he died for, all those sinners, multitude, multitude,
multitude of sinners, innumerable the scripture says. And not one
of them, not one of them puts a finger to it to add anything
to it. Nothing. It's all complete. You
know, when Adam, listen, when God created Adam, when did he
create him? First? Did God create Adam first
and then ask him about how he wanted the garden? You know, a lot of times when
we say something about doing something here at the church,
I say, well, you might want to ask the ladies. As far as decorating, I don't decorate my house. Vicki
knows that. I just, whatever you want to
do, you can paint it pink. Well, I don't know about pink,
but that's a little bit much. But I don't care. You know, the
home we had back in Ashland, she must have painted the inside
of that house four or five times. I didn't care. I didn't care. God didn't create
Adam and ask him what he thought, or Eve, and ask him what they
thought. He created everything. And when
he put them in the garden, they brought nothing to it. They provided
nothing to it. And that's exactly the way salvation
is. When we enter into glory, when
all of God's children enter into glory, they will know and understand
they are there by the grace of God that they did nothing to
get there. Nothing. It's the gift of God. Eternal
life is the gift of God. Nothing can be added to His work
and nothing taken away from it. Our Lord finished the work. But
let me just throw out a word of warning here, because I hear
this, I've heard this said many times, that to believe in the
finished work of Christ. Christ finished the work, didn't
He? But the finished work is not my salvation, He is. The
one who finished the work is our salvation. So let's be careful
we're not just believing a story and we miss the one the story's
about. We miss HIM! I believe my Lord finished all
that need to be finished, and I trust Him for it. I trust Him. Now, verse 31, it was late in
the afternoon, it was a Jewish Sabbath, And it would begin immediately
after sunset, and it was a high day for them, a high day. This
is where all the Jews presented themselves before the Lord in
the temple, and this is a high day. In Deuteronomy 21, well,
let's read this. I'm trying to save a little time,
but let's read this over in Deuteronomy 21. In Deuteronomy 21 in verses 22
and 23, If a man have committed a sin
worthy of death, and he is to be put to death, and thou shalt
hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon
the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. for he
that is hanged is accursed of God, that thy land be not defiled,
which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." So,
here it is, the timing of God is impeccable. That jumped out at me. They're
right here at this special day, it's at the end of that day,
He's hanging on a cross, you know, our Lord is going to be
buried and in three days He's going to rise again. There's
no lag time here. There's no lag time. This is
impeccable timing by God Almighty. It's on this day, and God uses
their superstition, really, the way they had taken it, what it
had become. And they were like, well, we
can't have Him hanging on the cross. It'll ruin our day, really. You just murdered an innocent
man and you're worried about your day. Isn't that the hypocrisy
of that? The hypocrisy of religion is
sickening. You just crucified an innocent
man. Pilate said, I find no fault
in him three times. But you're going to hurry up
now and get him off the cross unless, you know, you don't want
to miss your special day. But this is God's impeccable
timing because this is the Passover right here. This is the Passover
lamb. This is it. And they broke the legs. They
asked them, they went to Pilate and said, break their leg. We
can't have him hanging on the cross. It's our special day. We gotta have him off the cross
here because of what the law says. So they broke the legs
of the two thieves. Apparently they not died yet.
But I thought this was interesting, usually you would break, this
is God's hand in this, you can see God's hand in it. Usually
you'd break, let's say the thief on the left, you'd break his
leg, then you'd go to the one in the middle, you'd break his
leg, then you'd go to the one on the right, you'd break his leg. And
that's the way you'd do it. They went to the one on the left,
the one on the right, they didn't touch our Lord. You know why
they didn't touch Him? The Word of God says not a bone
shall be broken. You know that Passover lamb?
You know what it says about that Passover lamb in Exodus 12? You're to
eat it, you're to roast it, but don't break a bone of it. Don't
you break a bone. And it's written in the Psalms
that a bone of his was not broken. How accurate the Word of God.
How accurate. those Pharisees and them fulfilling
the Scriptures and have no clue they're fulfilling the Word of
God. And the reason they didn't do
it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled. They didn't not break his legs
because they felt sorry for him. Because once the interior says,
surely this is the Son of God, No, they did it because God didn't
let them do it. He constrained them. God by His
providence and power constrained those soldiers from breaking
His legs. But there was a soldier standing
there and he had a spear. They saw that he was already
dead. But why would that soldier take that spear and run it into
his side, just take it and just jab it right into his side. Why
would he do that? They saw he was already dead,
that's why they didn't break his legs. To fulfill the scripture. To fulfill the Word of God. That
soldier standing there, he could burn the Bible, he didn't care.
He didn't care at all about it. He didn't care about Christ.
He just He fulfilled the Scripture. And
when he did that, blood and water gushed out. Blood and water. Now John says, he says, he that
saw this, his record is true. John is talking about himself.
Because it says over in 1 John 5, he writes about it, he says,
what I have seen is the truth, I saw it. I saw the blood and
the water come out of His side, and that blood and water signifies
this, it signifies justification and sanctification, BOTH are
in Christ. We are not sanctified and made
holy by what we do, we are justified in Christ, we are made holy in
Christ, completely holy. We don't grow in sanctification,
we are completely sanctified in Jesus Christ. We grow in grace.
We grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and the grace of God
teaches us to deny ungodliness. But we are sanctified in Christ,
set apart in Christ, made holy in Christ, and we are justified
in Christ. But all this was done that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled. I've got some written down here,
I was debating on which one to read. But you can go back later if you're
writing down anything. Exodus 12.46, Psalm 34.20, Zechariah
12.10, and Revelation 1.7. All of that is fulfilling the
Scriptures. It's written, written, written.
The Scripture interprets Scripture. All you have to do is go read
it. But God has to open your eyes, you won't see it either.
And then there was a man named Joseph of Arimathea, verse 38,
he was a rich man. Remember Thursday night, he made
his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death? Here's
the rich. There's a rich man. In Matthew
27, verse 57, it says he was rich, and it says he was a Jesus
disciple. He was a disciple of our Lord.
Mark 15.43 says he was an honorable counselor. He was an honorable
man. And he was a member of the Sanhedrin
court. God put that man right where he needed
him for this hour. This man that believed, this
Joseph Arimathea believed, even though it says in one place that
he didn't confess publicly because he feared. How many times have we not confessed
Him publicly? Boy, I tell you, as I get older, I'm getting out
of the business of saying who's lost and who's saved. God knows
that. Now I know this, if you believe
another gospel, you're lost. But this man believed on the
right Jesus, the Lord Jesus. He believed on the right one. But it says, I want you to see
this in Luke 23. This is concerning Him. In Luke 23. Luke 23, look in verse 50. 1551, And behold, there was a man named
Joseph, a counselor, and he was a good man and just. The same
had not consented to the counsel and deed of them. He didn't consent
to his death. He was of Arimathea, a city of
the Jews, who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This
child of God here, this man, this rich man, And he feared, you know, he feared
the Jews. He feared and he didn't publicly
confess him, but Peter denied him three times. Peter denied
him. I tell you what, all of God's
children are sinners, all the way home, all the way home. And then another one comes along
that came to Jesus by night, the Lord Jesus, Nicodemus. He brought some expensive
spices, 100 pounds it says. He was a leader, he was a ruler
in Israel. And he was afraid to confess
Christ, he came by night. But not now. He comes forth. He brings all these spices to
Joseph and they prepare his body for the burying. They wound him
up in linen. He's all these spices together. And then they bury him. They
bury him. They bury him in a cave. It looks
like, I mean, it's made like a cave. It's hewn into a rock.
I thought, how interesting that is, that he didn't bury him like
we do, you know, under six feet of dirt, underground. Because
if he had arose and came up out of the cemetery like that, they
would have said, well, that's somebody else. But this was a
cave, it was by itself, it belonged to no one else, it was not in
a cemetery, it's in a garden. Probably Joseph's garden, but
it's in a garden, since that was his tomb. And he's buried
there, and they seal it. You remember they went to Pilate
and said, you need to seal this. Unless somebody comes steals
the body and says he's risen. So he's put into this garden. It's in a garden. It's interesting
to me. Where did man fall? In a garden. Adam was cast out of the garden.
Jesus Christ is taken to the garden and buried, and He's going to rise from that
garden. The fall happened in a garden, our Lord was buried
in a garden, and resurrection is going to come out of that
garden. I didn't study this out or I
didn't seek it out, it just hit me this morning when I was reading
this, and this is just without any research. I wonder if that's
where Adam fell. I thought, I wonder if that's
where Adam fell. Now I know, you know, I didn't search the
geography and do all that, but it just struck me this morning
that he fell there and the Lord redeemed us there. We're gonna
rise from the grave there. I don't know, it's just a thought.
I don't know. Our Lord really died for us. When I say
us, I'm talking about everyone who believes and those who are
yet to believe. He truly died for us. He truly
suffered the hell of God's wrath. He was truly buried. And now next week, as Paul Harvey
used to say, the rest of the story. We'll have the rest of
the story where He rises from the grave, where He makes Himself known
to His disciples, and ascends back on high. And now we're waiting
for Him. You know, 2,000 years have gone
by now. 2,000 years. 2,000 years from Adam to Moses,
2,000 years from Moses to Christ, and it's been 2,000 years since
that. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.