All right, turn with me to John
19. There are nine verses here that
we read, and you could devote 9,000 sermons
to them. John and I were talking how it
says here that all was accomplished, all fulfilled, and all finished
by Christ. Oh, what three wonderful words.
Accomplished, fulfilled, and finished by one man, by Christ,
on the cross. Verse 28 says, After this, Jesus
knowing that all things were now accomplished, Our Lord Jesus
Christ is God. He's the omniscient One. Known
unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. This
is our Lord God. God manifest in the flesh, knowing
all things, working all things after the counsel of His will.
In John 13 it says, knowing that all things were given in His
hands. Our Lord knowing that all things were accomplished,
now accomplished. What did he accomplish? When
our Lord came to glorify God, man failed, man dishonored God,
man rebelled against God, man still comes far short of the
glory of God. I will come far short of glorifying
the Lord as He needs to be glorified. But our Lord didn't come short.
He accomplished that. He glorified God. He magnified
the law. He kept the law. The law is wonderful. The law is holy. The law is just.
The law is true. Our Lord kept that law. He lived
by that law. The Lord fulfilled every word,
every jot and every tittle of that law, every type, every ceremony,
every ordinance, everything. Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
it, accomplished at all. He has to fit every single type,
shadow, and symbol and ceremony in the scripture to make him
the Christ. He accomplished that. He accomplished the redemption,
the full, final, eternal redemption of his people. He accomplished
that with his own blood. He imputed righteousness to them
all. He paid for their sins, every
one of them. He accomplished that. All was
accomplished by Christ, by Himself. Paul said, by Him, I said. And then verse 28 says that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled. Now it says this over and over,
verse 24. Verse 24, they said, let us not
rend the robe. but cast lots for it, whose it
shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled. They parted
my rank. In verse 28 we just read, then verse 36, they didn't
break his legs, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. A bone of
him shall not be broken. The scriptures. Our Lord said,
heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one word of mine shall
fail. Not one. Not one promise of God,
not one word, not one prophecy, not one thing God said. Christ
kept saying verily, verily, of the truth, of the truth. I say
unto you, and what he said goes. Everything God purposed will
come to pass. Everything God thought, he'll
do it. Every promise he made, you can
trust him. You can rest on it. Everything
Christ did, he accomplished. and that the Scriptures might
be fulfilled. You know, the Scriptures were
fulfilled by God Himself because God was manifest in the flesh.
And you know what His name was? The Word. God's magnified His
Word above every name, all His name. That's His name. Is God's
Word true? Is Christ true? You see? Is God's Word his power? Is Christ
his power? Is God's Word effectual? Did
Christ do that work effectually? God's Word eternal? Is Christ
eternal? Is God's Word life? Is Christ life? See, they're
one synonym. So he said that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. He said that. I thirst. Now, in Psalm 22 and 69, let
me just read it for you. I read to you where a dog was
cupping his tail and barking at him at the foot of the cross.
And it says in Psalm 22, the psalm of the cross, he said,
My strength is dried up like a pot shirt. My tongue cleaveth
through my jaws. That was Christ on the cross.
Thirsty, thirsty. And then in Psalm 69, listen
to this. Psalm 69 says, They gave me gall
for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. That the Scriptures might be
fulfilled, our Lord said, I thirst. Now what is it that we need to
live? Water. The water of life. It's a fact that you cannot go
more than a few days without water. You can go a long time
without food, but you cannot go without water. It's the water
of life. Life depends upon it. The water. Now what is the water? It's His
Word. What is the water? It's Christ.
It's Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to
a well one day. And he was sitting on that well,
and he was tired, and he was thirsty. He was weary from his
journey. He was thirsty. You know, he
never took a drink from that water. He didn't. One time, he was tired, and he
was hungry. They knew it. The disciples were
hungry, and they went to buy food, and they came back. This,
then, at the well. And he said, Lord, eat something.
He said, I am. He said, I have meat to eat you
don't know of. You see, in him was this well
springing up. He is the water. But this woman
came to the well, this woman, and our Lord had to make her
thirsty. She kept coming to this well day after day, year after
year, for the same thing. She kept trying to fulfill this
thirst, this longing, this desire that she had in herself for what
she didn't know. And this is mankind in it. Mankind
thirsts for pleasure. It's why the scripture says it's
vanity. It won't fulfill you no matter
how much you have. The pleasures of sin are a season. They don't last. Man thirsts
for riches. He won't satisfy. A man may be
a hundred heir. He wants to be a thousand heir.
A thousand wants to be a million. A million wants to be a billion.
Isn't that enough? No, it's never enough. It won't satisfy this
thirst for riches. Relationships. This woman thought
if I'd just marry the right man. So she tried. Oh, she tried.
She kept trying. You will not find any fulfillment
in any human being or anything, any earthly thing. You will not.
Our Lord said the water of this world. The people and things
of this world will leave you thirsty. Happiness. Man wants to be happy. He's never
satisfied. He's never quenched his desire,
his pursuit for happiness, for these things. It never quenched. It keeps going. And Scripture
says man drinks iniquity. Like what? Like the water. But, our Lord said to him, Blessed
are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They will
be fulfilled. What is righteousness? It ain't
of what? It's a person. The water. Our
Lord said to that woman, these things, He said, you're thirsty
for you don't know what. But the water that I give unto
you, you'll never thirst. She said, give me this water.
He said, it's me. I am. You know, she came for
water and she never did get it. She dropped her water pot and
went running. Her thirst was assuaged, was
quenched by Christ, the water of life. That's you. When do
you ever feel more filled than when you come in here and hear
the gospel of Christ? When do you ever think, I don't
need anything else? I don't need riches, I need not. We sing that song. Only when you hear the gospel,
Christ is lifted up, do you think, I don't need anybody else or
anything but Him. Isn't that true? So man thirsts for these things,
but God must create a thirst for him. Blessed are those that
come to Christ and take the water of life for him. David said this. Is this you? David kept saying
this. My soul thirsteth for thee. My God is in a dry and thirsty
land. Is that you? Is it really? Does
this world leave you thirsty? And you come in here and you
need, Lord, I need your word. I need your gospel, please. I'm so tired. I'm so thirsty. Please, I'm so hungry. Feed me.
Give me some of this water that I thirst not. Does it meet your
need? Does it? Does He? Well, Christ,
you see, on the cross has become our substitute. And God has made
Him to be sin. And God forsook him. God who
is peace. God who is love. God who is mercy. God who is goodness. God who
is everything. God who is joy. God who is all
these things that we need, might not even know it. For God to
forsake you is to have none of these things. And Lord, God forsook
his son. And he said, I thirst. And all mankind All mankind that
never drinks from the fountain filled with blood drawn from
Emmanuel's vein, all who do not wash in the blood of the Lamb
will someday be cast into a fiery furnace where the worm dieth
not, where the fire is not quenched. That's what it said. The rich
man inhaled, lifted up his eyes and said, I thirst. Christ is
hanging on the cross for you, for me. Bless Him. He's given you Himself. He's
given you this water. Right now, you're drinking this
water, sister. He gave it to you. He said, give
that girl a drink. Give that girl, give that man
water. Give him the truth that might
quench his thirst. And I'm going to take her sin. I'm going to take her guilt,
all her rebellion, all her life where she never gave me a thought.
I'm going to hang on the cross and God's going to forsake me.
And I'm going to cry on her behalf, his behalf, I thirst. I thirst. Well, there was a vessel, verse
29, there was a vessel there full of vinegar. Why was that
there? Because God had him put it there
to fulfill Scripture. Plus, these Romans and people,
they heaped cruelty upon cruelty. They saw that these criminals
were thirsty and they would put this, give them this and it made
their thirst worse. And no one could suffer like
our Lord did. No one. But anyway, they set
a vesicle full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar
and put it upon Hyssop and put it to his mouth. Hyssop put it
to his mouth. Matthew 27 said this was vinegar
mingled with gall. Gall was a plant, wormwood and
gall. Very bitter. You could not take
it. Very bitter. And bitter herb,
a bitter herb. And they took this vinegar and
mingled it with this bitter gall and they put it up to his mouth
and Luke's gospel, Matthew, said he tasted it but wouldn't drink
it. All right, listen to me. Vinegar,
gall, bitterness. Everything in this world is going
to turn to vinegar. Everything in this world, the
water of this world, the wine that men and women become intoxicated
with, whatever it may be, it's going to turn to vinegar. bitterness. It's going to end up bitter.
This life, when it's over, for everyone that's outside of Jesus
Christ, everyone that doesn't know Jesus Christ, everyone who's
not drunk of that fountain, who's not come to Christ, it's all
going to end very bitterly. Very bitterly. That's a fact.
And our Lord, Our Lord took that in His body on a tree. He took
that bitterness away. There is no bitter end. This
doesn't end bitterly for us. You hear me? Are you with me?
This is not going to end bitterly for us. It's going to end happy. It's going to be joy as much sorrow as we have, as
much pain and suffering as we have, as many barking dogs as
there are. It's going to end gloriously.
Our Lord said, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. How many
times have you twinkled your eye so far? That quickly, it
changes. No more pain, no more tears,
no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more death. No more bitterness. Done. What is it? Sweetness. Eternal sweetness. Eternal joy. Eternal happiness. Eternal...
My, my. No thirst. No hunger. No desire
for anything but Him. And that's fulfilled completely.
We're there with Him. Why? Because Christ took the
bitter dregs of that cup. Since He tasted it, He didn't
drink it. Well, our Lord was tempted at
all points like His will. Him being made sin is a mystery.
I hear men argue this. I hear men debate it and all
that, but they don't really know. Nobody knows. It's much more than imputation,
but it is imputation. Our Lord did no sin. He had no
sin. He could do no sin. He thought
no sin. But somehow or another, He was
filled with sin, not of His own doing. You say he was guilty. No, he wasn't. He never did anything
wrong. He took our guilt. We're guilty. He wasn't guilty. But God made
him be sin, and he tasted it. It's enough to know that our
Lord knows something of the bitterness of sin. It's enough to know we're
tempted at all points. He's tempted at all points as
we are, yet without sin. It's enough to know that He knows
How we're tempted and how we take it and often we drink it
and it leaves us so bitter. He knows that. He knows that. He knows our frame. He wouldn't
drink it. It was no temptation to him.
See, it was no temptation to him really. There's nothing in
him that Satan could find. There's everything in us. All
our lives. And often we drink of that cup
again. It leaves us bitter and hopeless. But no, no, hold on here. Christ
tasted it. Christ knows. He knows our price. Hyssop. What's hyssop? Well, it's a healing herb. You
know where it grows? Out of the rocks. What else do
you remember them using hyssop for? Exodus 12, we're going to see
how they all take hyssop and put the blood of that lamb on
the hyssop and strike it on the lintel and the doorpost. Hyssop,
that hyssop is Christ's healing herb. The blood is applied. David
said, purge me with hyssop and I'll be clean. In other words,
let everything that Christ did on Calvary's tree be applied
to me. His thirst, His blood, everything. Let it be applied to my heart
and soul and thereby cleansing me from all unrighteousness.
Is that you? Is that you? Is that your prayer? Purge me
with His. Christ took all this. in his
body on the tree. And when he received the vinegar,
verse 30, he said, it is finished. I dare not even try to say it
as he said it. We can't. No one can. His work
was finished. The work of salvation finished. All that God required for our
salvation, Jesus Christ finished it. I expect to see some smiles. You know, it was all up to Him.
You know, your salvation, your eternal salvation is all up to
Him. Completely 100% up to him. Not
up to you. He's done all he can do. Now
it's up to you. No, no, no. God laid on him all
of it. It's all up to him. Well, what
happened? He finished it. Naomi said to Ruth, Boaz, that
man whose field you happen to lie on, Whose table you sat at? Whose maidens you sit beside
and eat of His cornbread? That man won't rest until he
finishes the work. He's going to redeem you lock,
stock and barrel. He's going to buy back everything
you lost. You're poor now. You're going to be rich in the
end. Really? Really? He won't rest
until he's finished it. Christ said, this is our Boaz,
this is our King and Redeemer. He came to redeem us, His people. You know what He said? It's finished.
Finished. I'm laughing right now. Don't
you love Psalm 126? When the Lord turned our captivity,
we were like them that dreamed. And then our mouths were filled
with laughter. Boy, the children of Israel going out of Egypt,
they were laughing and singing. Who did that? Who brought them
out? What brought them out? Why are
they coming out? God. Blood. Word. A preacher. God can't lie. He said it's finished. The
law was satisfied. Finished. The law is finished.
End of the law. Isn't that what it says, John?
End of the law for righteous is the thing to believe. I want
to be righteous. Believe Christ. End of the law for righteous.
Finished. Iniquity was purged. Brothers and sisters, we haven't
quit sinning. I wish we would. I wish I would. But you know what? It's already
purged. Already purged. What you're going
to do is already purged. Purged. Paid. Pardoned. Put away. Put away. Finished. Finished. Nothing you need to do to get
rid of your sins. Christ finished it. Righteousness
imputed. Completed Him. Finished. Satan
defeated. Yep. He's on a chain. He knows his season is short
and the warfare is accomplished. The battle is over. All that's
left, there's nothing left but the shouting. It's all over with
the shouting. You didn't need to fight this
fight, but Christ did. And he won. Accomplished. Death's been abolished. Death
has been abolished by Jesus Christ. Finished. It's over. There is
no death for God's people. Mac did not die. He's living
like he never lived before. Mark, Henry, Cody. Our Lord said, He that liveth
and believeth in me Cannot die, shall not die. He can't lie. It's not death. It's sleep. How do we know that? Just hang
on. You're going to see him go to sleep. Wake up. Wake up. Death's been abolished. End of death. End of death. It's
finished. All the work of salvation was
accomplished by Jesus Christ. Completed by Jesus Christ. Finished
by Jesus Christ on Calvary tree. Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ
alone. By Himself. By Him, I say. Finished. There was nothing now
left for Him to do but to rest. And he did. He rested from his
work. And we're going to see that Wednesday
night, Lord willing. And there's nothing left for
us to do but rest. Do you like to sleep at night?
Do you like to go to sleep? Man, I look forward to it. Last
night, we were at somebody's house, and it was about 8.15.
I said, it's my bedtime. 8.15. Yeah, I want to go to sleep.
Well, I long to go to sleep someday and never wake up again in this
life, but wake up in glory. And he giveth his beloved sleep. Sleep. And look at this, verse
30. When he said it's finished with
a loud voice, he said, he bowed his head and gave up to God. He gave up,
he bowed his head. Now he said this over and over
again. No man taketh my life from me, I lay it down of my
sin. And you know no man takes your
life from you. You know that? God said, I kill. Don't fear
him who killeth and maketh alive. Our Lord feared God. That's amazing. That's always been amazing to
me. He feared God. God heard him. He feared. But
he said, No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down. Our Lord
bowed His head. Our Lord, in submission to the
Heavenly Father before the world began, God purposed our redemption. And this whole gospel story was
recorded and purposed by God and Christ willingly. bowed to
that will. He lived willingly, voluntarily,
lovingly, submissively, bowed to the Father's will. I'll do
it. I'll go down there. I'll live, I'll suffer, I'll
be bruised, I'll be killed. Like Isaac took that wood on
his shoulders, that whole burden on his shoulders up Mount Moriah,
and the Father had the knife in His hand. Isaac was a young,
strong young man. He willingly bore that burden
and willingly. That old man couldn't have tied
him, bound him, if that son had not willingly said, go ahead. And he laid on that altar. Our
Lord said, I lay down my life. We don't willingly die. We don't
lay down our life. God takes it. But our Lord Jesus
Christ bowed to the Father's will. He bowed His head. He bowed
His head as one who had finished a great work. He bowed His head
as one who had finished a great performance, the grand finale. He bowed His head and surely
the Father in heaven bowed His head. When David was dying on his bed,
he said, bring Solomon. Bring my son in here. This is
a true story. This is the king of king, David.
And he said, bring my son Solomon in here. That's my son who I've
ordained to be king in my place. He said, bring him in here. And
when they brought Solomon, the son of David in, listen to me
now. You're going to jump your feet. When they brought Solomon
in, it says, David bowed down to him. He bowed his head on
his bed. This is my king. Surely the Father
in all that Christ hath done for His glory, for all that Christ
hath done, shouldn't we bow our heads? Bend our knee? Say with this tongue, and not boasted anything or anybody
but Him. Surely when He bowed His head
after all He had done, surely Heaven gave Him a standing ovation. Man didn't kill Him. He laid
His life down. The Father killed Him. Oh, my. He said that every knee
will bow, every tongue will confess. Everyone's got to say it. Well, the Jews, here are those
Jews at the foot of the cross. Verse 31, the Jews, wicked religious
scribes, Pharisees, hypocrite, unaware of who this is, unaware
what he's doing unaware and not caring. As so many today are
gathered together in the name of Jesus, in the name of God,
and they don't care what he did, really. It's just a big social
club going through the motions. This is a holy day. Yeah, right. There ain't no day holy. Only
God's holy. They were concerned for their
laws. Don't leave the bodies on the tree. Break their legs. Look at this. In verse 31, the
salt pilot that their legs might be broken and been taken away
and buried, thrown in an open, common, public grave, all of
them, like worthless animals. Break their legs. Now, crucifixion. was a long and torturous, painful
death. That's why they did it. They
wanted this criminal to suffer a long, painful death. Most died from exposure. Most died from dehydration. Not
our Lord. Most died from shock, you know,
all this pain and suffering and heat and thirst and all that. They died in the shock of it
all. Not our Lord. He didn't die from
any of those things. A poor brother years ago, he
knows better now, he and I were talking, he said, you know what
happened with blood and water? He said, what happened was, what
do they call that when the heart fills with water? What do they
call that? Louder so I can hear you. It's loud and I can hear you. Well, anyway. Fluid. OK, fluid
around the heart. He said, that's what he, that's the reason. But
I said, no, he, he didn't die from heart failure. He didn't
die from whatever that is. He didn't die from that. That's
not why blood and water came out of his heart. He's sad. He
laid down his life. Nothing killed him. No disease
killed him. He had no sin. Well, most died. You know, long, painful death,
and then they die. And what they would do, from
everything I understand, it's what they would do, you know,
they've got them hanging on these beams, and unless they can support
their weight, they'll suffocate. You know, all the weight of their
body hanging, and finally, they can't breathe. So they would
put just a little wood, peat, wooden platform under their feet
where they could stand on that and lift themselves up. So now
they want these men to die and they're going to break their
legs where they can't lift themselves up and they're all going to die
suffocating. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him. It pleased God to kill Him. God
allowed, God directed everything that happened to Jesus Christ
on the cross in order to fulfill the Scripture, to show man's
utter wickedness, to show God's holiness, to show Christ's unspeakable
love and mercy and grace. It pleased the Father. Christ's
suffering didn't please Him. Christ's torture didn't please
Him. But it pleased God to make you
his people, so the son had to die. And this was the father's
good pleasure, to send the son. And he put him to death for everything
they did to him. And so finally, he would not
allow them to break his legs. You're not going to mutilate
my son's body like that. You hear me? We're going to see Wednesday.
You know they, all these criminals, you know what they did with them?
They didn't give them to their family. They didn't give their bodies
to their family. They threw it in an open grave, like a bunch of
dead cows. So you didn't know one from another. Just a pile of, like the Holocaust. God said, no, no. And God wrote it down, not a
bone of his body is to be broken. Why is that? Not a bone broken. It says that in verse 36. Scripture
is fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. Exodus 12. Numbers 9. He said
in Exodus 12, the burnt offering. Offer it with the head, the legs,
and the pertinence thereof. The whole complete lamb. Not one part missing. You see
it burnt with, roast with fire, you're going to know this was
a lamb. Though its visage was marred more than any lamb, you're
going to know this is a lamb. That's my sacrifice. Not bits,
not pieces, a whole lamb. And brother, when you hear the
gospel, you're going to hear the complete gospel, the whole gospel. And
what you're going to find out is Christ by Himself, the whole
picture, the whole story, the whole of redemption is in one
person and His one Word. And you're complete in Him. Complete. It also means not one bone broken,
not one separation. You know, compound fracture means
the bone is separated. I know that. That means the bone
is separated. Uh-uh. Not one bone. You are
Christ's body. Every believer is Christ's body.
And not one bone is going to be separated. You're vitally
joined to the head. If the head is separated, you
will be. If the head dies, you will. But
no, Christ lives. And we're members of His body.
Not one toenail will be lost. Not one hair of His head will
fall to the ground. Not a hoof left behind. Not a bone broken. And also,
the legs of our Lord You see, those men stood on those legs,
supported them. Everything about us and salvation
stands on Christ. It depends on Him. You know,
there were pillars of brass in the temple. Two great big pillars
of brass, and it all stood or would fall according to those
pillars of brass. Did they? And Revelation 1 says, I beheld
his feet were like fine brass, burning to burn. You know, everything,
we stand in him. He can't fail. He can't fall.
He can't fail. But one thing must be done. One
final thing must be done. That the Scriptures might be
fulfilled. God allowed this. God directed this. This has to
happen, okay? They have to take a sword, a
spear, and pierce his side. Have to. This man, out of cruelty,
this Roman soldier, this centurion, I wonder, I wonder if he later
realized whom he had pierced and heard Peter preach. And the
Lord said, I wonder. He says, they'll look on him
whom they pierced. I've seen him, haven't you? Well,
this soldier took this spear and verse 34 it says, one of
the soldiers pierced his side and forthwith came there out
blood and water. This soldier took this spear
and ripped open his side, his riven side, that's where we get
that word, his riven side. This is Christ the rock, okay? What he did was he put a cleft
in his side. He opened up His side. God had Him do that. Now, two
things happened. Two things came out, but two
things happened in that. It has to happen. Out of Him,
out of His side. See, it was in Him, came from
Him, and all our salvation depends on it. Out of His side. Christ
crucified, came out blood and water. Blood, that's justification
in it. Isn't it? Souls are saved. Sin's
punished by the blood. Without the shedding of blood,
no remission of sin. Out of his side came blood for the remission
of our sin. And water. What's that? Sanctification. And it all came from him, we
said. Him. Of him. Of him. Of God are you
in him. Who of God is made unto you.
Wisdom, Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And according
as it is written, that no flesh is glorious. He did it all, John
did it all. He's our sanctification, He's
our justification, He's our everything, and He's our salvation. Christ
is all. He did it all. He was doing it all on Calvary's
tree for all of His people. Did He do it? It's finished. Something else came out of His
side. Way back in the garden, when
God created the heavens and the earth, He said, let us create
man in our own image. All right? Adam, man. All right? One day, God said,
it's not good for that man to be alone. I'm going to make him
a helpmate. So God put him to sleep. Christ
was dead. No. Sleep. On Calvary's tree. The second Adam from above. And
God opened up Adam's side. What came out? A woman. A new creation. He's helped me. He's bride. He's beloved. Why? Because he slept. Because
his side was opened up. And so that's the second Adam.
And he prevailed in birth for us. And out of his side on Calvary's
tree, his bride was born. And these things were done according
to the Scriptures that they shall look on him whom they pierced. Okay, let's sing in closing that
song, Rock of Ages.