Likewise, likewise, and likewise. John 19. I'm so grateful that I was asked
to come up and be here. A lot of wonderful times that's
been had here, a lot of wonderful meetings. The first time I came up here,
it was me and Don Fortner, Scott Richardson, and I think it was
Milton Howard. And Rick and Jenny got married that Saturday, so
that's going to be the 21st of this month. So that's how long
ago it was the first time I came up here. So I've been at it a
while. But I love every minute of it.
I wouldn't do anything else. And I remember Paul when he was Thinking about preaching, you
know, we have a lot of conversations. But I pray that the Lord will
be pleased to enable me to speak this evening. A lot of wonderful
friends, a lot of familiar faces and familiar hearts. There's old Darvin, oh my goodness,
many miles over the road. Gabe, just wonderful people. I'm blessed with my wife Shirley
to get to come with me and travel with me and appreciate that so
much. Let's start reading together
here in John 19, 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full
of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon
Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. And when Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed
his head, and gave up the ghost. I want to take a little while
and talk about those three words in verse 30. It is finished. It is finished. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is at His last breath. He's been on the cross for six
hours. And if you'll look at the mind
of our Lord Jesus as He's on this cross, the last moments
of His mind before He dies, His mind is clear. His purpose is
clear. Everything before him is clear. He knows why he's there. He knows
who he's there for. He knows what's going to be accomplished
by it. But most people in the last moments
of their life are troubled in their mind because of pain or
fear of death. They can't collect their thoughts.
or speak so that they're able to be understood. Sometimes they
can just whisper. But our blessed Redeemer's mind
is clear. Clear. His memory is perfect. His last acts were full of wisdom
and prudence, even though His sufferings were without measure.
When our Lord Jesus Christ declared here, It is finished. When He
said, It is finished, In his mind, his father's glory was
before him, the salvation of his sheep were before him, and
these were the foremost things in his mind. Even though he was
suffering, suffering greatly, his mind was clear, clear when
he said, it is finished. He understood everything that
he had been sent to do, was fulfilled here and now. Every purpose,
the purpose of God, was coming to a culmination here. The promises
of God in the Old Testament were coming to a finish here. Every
prophecy, every ceremony, every sacrifice, and every covenant
And all the eternal glories were fixed clearly in our Savior's
mind at this awful hour. For He knew that all these things
were comprehended in Him. He knew that. He knew that. And all of this, all of this,
when and while He is mocked by His enemies, derided, cursed,
ridiculed, made fun of, spat at, and cursed, and his hands
were nailed, and feet were nailed to a cross, and yet he still
was in absolute control of his situation. Still in absolute
control of his mind, of his heart, of the glory of his Father, and
the salvation of his sheep. And he knew that when this was
done, he was going to come back in three days And He is going
to make Himself known only to His sheep. And bless His name. And our blessed Savior, as He
beheld God's revelation, He cried, It is finished. And our blessed
Savior, by cause of the worth of His person, the worth of His
person, endured in six hours, six hours on His cross, and by
His sufferings and the agonies He endured, He took away all
of our everlasting punishment. In six hours, how can one man
suffer for so many and accomplish so much in six hours? He suffered Whatever we would
have had to suffer eternally, He suffered it all for us in
six hours on a cross. In six hours. And our Lord's
sufferings, our Lord's sufferings cannot be measured by our finite
minds. But this is what I do know about
it. Something that I know without a shadow of a doubt. I do know
that He took away what causes eternal punishment, and that
is sin. He put it away by Himself. Sin does not hold any power over
those whom Christ did a work in their heart and those for
whom He died. And I also know this, that what He suffered on
the cross was accepted by God Himself And when our Lord cried,
It is finished, as far as God His Father was concerned, everything
He had done was fully and completely accepted, especially on the behalf
of all for whom He suffered for and whom He is going to die for."
Oh my! You know, I was telling Bruce, we do not have the words or the
ability vocabulary to express the glories of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We do not have the power, we
don't have the mind, we don't have the heart. So the only word
we've got to use and are able to use is what He said about
Himself. And so that's all we can use
is what He said about Himself. And when our Lord Jesus said
it was finished, and it is finished, what was comprehended in this
statement? God helped us to grasp it and
understand this text. Our Lord Jesus, I do know this,
that all the types, and there were lots of them, all the promises,
and there were lots of them, All the prophecies, and there
were lots of them, are now fully and absolutely accomplished in
Him. Look what our Lord said in verse
28. After this, Jesus knowing that
all things were now accomplished, now accomplished, that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. He knows everything is done now. Everything's done, as in Jesus
knowing, that's what He says. Knowing that all things were
accomplished. And the Scriptures were fulfilled.
And oh my! And that's what He was. He says,
My hour has not yet come, but now it's come. And the whole
book, you was reading about the whole book, brought out and read,
stand up and read about it. The whole book. The whole book. Sixty-six books of the Old Testament. were fulfilled and accomplished
when our Lord Jesus Christ said, It is finished. It is finished. All the long prophets were finished
in Him. From Genesis 3.15, when God said
that He would be the seed of the woman, and all the way through
the Old Testament until the messenger of the covenant should suddenly
come to His temple, and that the Son of Righteousness would
arise with healing in His wings, That's exactly what He was talking
about. All of them fulfilled in Him.
All the types, from every goat, from the red heifer, to the turtledoves,
to the hyssop, and the blood that it was dipped in, all of
it were fulfilled in our blessed Savior. Every prophecy, every
prophecy was wrought out in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you take
for a moment. Let's just take for a moment. If you give this Old Testament,
you leave off Matthew and go back all the way to Malachi and
give him Genesis to Malachi, and you find the wisest man that
you can find. Find the wisest man on the earth.
Take Christ out and don't say nothing about him. And you hand
him the book. And say, now this is the problem.
This is a problem I want you to solve if you can. Construct
in your imagination as you read these 66 books an ideal character
who shall fit exactly all that is prophesied in those 66 books. All that's promised in those
66 books. Give it to him and see what he
comes up with. Let me show you something over
here, if you will. Look at me for just a moment.
This is exactly what I'm talking about in Acts chapter 8. This
happened to Philip one time. This happened to Philip. In Acts
chapter 8, in verse 26. And we're going to give this
book, the Old Testament, to the wisest man we live in. If you
could find who it is. But look what happens here. In Acts 8.26, And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, under the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is a desert. He arose, and away he went. And
there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority,
Under Candacy the queen of the Ethiopians had charge of all
of her treasure come to Jerusalem for the worship. He wanted to
worship. He come a long way to worship
and was returning and sitting in his chariot and he was reading
Isaiah the prophet. And the spirit said to Philip,
go close to this fellow. Go nearer and join myself to
this chariot. And Philip ran up to this chariot
and this Ethiopian sat in it reading. And he heard him read
the prophet Isaiah, evidently his reading out loud, and he
said, understand, he's standing there by the chair, and he said,
do you understand what you're reading? Do you understand what
you're reading? And he said, how can I? Some
men guide me. And the place of the Scripture,
verse 32, which he read was this, he was led as a lamb, lends a
sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shears,
opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? His life is taken from the earth."
Now here's the question. This is what we're going to do
when we hand this book to the wisest man. And the eunuch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom is the prophet speaking?
Who's he talking about? Is he talking about himself or
some other man? Who's he talking about? Is the
prophet talking about himself? Or is he talking about some other
man? And oh, Philip said, oh, I'm
going to tell you. He opened his mouth and began
at the same scripture. And what did he have? The Old
Testament. But let's take this Old Testament.
Let's give it to the wisest man that we can find. And we're going
to tell him this. Remember now. Remember now. He must be a prophet like Moses. One that goes to God. And God
speaks through him. He's got to be a prophet like
Moses and a mediator like Moses. He's got to be the captain of
the Lord's host like Joshua. He's got to be able to fight
the Lord's battles and win. He must be Melchizedek, a priest
that like him with no beginning and no ending, no father, no
mother, no beginning of days and ending of days. He must be
both David, the man after God's own heart, and a king like David,
and he must be like Solomon in all of his wisdom and all of
his glory. He must be Noah, whose very name
means comforter. So he must be a comforter for
his people. And then he's going to have to
be like Jonah. He's going to have to be thrown
overboard and spend three days and three nights down in the
belly of hell. and comes back out and says,
Salvation is of the Lord, and it is finished. He must be Judah, out of whom
Shiloh shall come, and all the gathering of the people shall
be unto Him. He must be Joseph, loved of his
father, hated and despised of his brethren, sold into slavery,
Put into prison and then brought out and exalted to be the highest
position. And if anybody got anything,
they got it from Joseph. He must be the lamb slain. Now
wise man, listen to me. He must be the lamb slain. And
he must be the scapegoat that's carried off into the wilderness
by the fit man. And he must, but that wasn't
slain, he must be that turtle dove that's dipped in the blood. He must be the priest who slew
the bird. And he must also be the altar on
which the blood is praised. He has to be the altar. He's
got to be two altars. He's got to be the brazen altar
on which God puts all of the offerings on. And the fire burns
all for nothing. Be able to bear the judgment
of God on the brazen altar. He must be the altar of incense,
and it must smoke and go up as a sweet-smelling savor into the
presence and muscles of God Himself. Oh, He must be the tabernacle
on the outside. It's just a tent. That all when
you go on the inside, and all that white linen, and all that
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and all that embroidery work,
and that blessed mercy seat, and that veil that only the high
priest can go behind once a year, He's got to be all those. He's
got to be the veil. He's got to be the mercy seat.
He's got to be the priest that goes behind the mercy seat. Oh
my! Oh, he got to be that tabernacle
where God dwells and that's where he meets men at. And oh, bless
his name. Oh, wise man, what do you think?
Do you reckon you can find somebody to fit this character? That you can find somebody that
meets the character described in this book? And all prophecies
All prophecies must meet on this one man, this one man you mentioned,
one man. And even though they sometimes
seem to contradict, they have to meet on this man. Prophecies
like all kings shall fall down before him, and all nations shall
serve him. And yet, yet, he is despised
and rejected of men. He must be born of a virgin,
He has to be a man. And yet this man has to be without
spot. He has to be without blemish.
And yet God turns around and causes all the sin of all of
His people of all time to meet on this man that doesn't have
a blemish. Has a pure heart. Has a pure
mind. Has a pure soul. Everything about
him. And, oh, He must be a glorious
King, the Son of David, and yet a root out of dry ground. Now, wise man, I gave you this
book. I gave you this book. Where is the man? Where is the
man that this book fits? Where is the man that this book
describes? Where is this man? What is the
key to unlock this book given to you? There's only one. Only one. One key. One man. One prophet. Like Moses. One priest. One place where he must go. And that's a cross. And the Son of God incarnate.
And in Him, in Him and His blessed person, in our Lord Jesus Christ, all things, all things are accomplished
in Him. When He said it is finished,
everything is summed up in the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything. Everything. All the typical sacrifices of
the Jewish law and the Jewish law and all the ceremonies and
every sacrifice that was used under the law are now abolished
and they're explained where their fulfillment was, is in the blessed
Son of God. And they were all finished in
Him. You know why? Because not one of them ever
put away one sin. But this man, by the sacrifice
of himself, put away sin, sin, sin, once and for all, by the
sacrifice of himself. And when he did that, he satisfied
God, and not only that, but he satisfied the conscience of every
believer for whom he died. Our conscience asks for no more
than what God asks for for Himself. And we never look for anything
else other than that one sacrifice that put away sin. And oh beloved,
he was the ram. You remember when Abraham took
Isaac up on the mountain? And he said, I'm the latter going
yonder to worship. We'll come back again. He took
him up there and put him on the altar. getting ready to plunge
in the knife, and then he would have lit the fire and consumed
him, believing that he is coming back down off that mountain with
Isaac. But God stayed in his hand, and he looked behind him,
and there's a ram caught in the thicket. He said, take that ram and put
him in the stand of Isaac. Christ was taken and put in the
stead of us. Of us. Now we come off of Mount Calvary.
We come off of Calvary. We come off away from that cross.
Just like Abraham came off that mountain. We worshiped up there
and we worship God when we come back down. Don't we? Our Lord Jesus Christ He entered
into the holy place made without hands, not with the high priest
robes on, but He went there clothed in human flesh. He went there
not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with His own blood. I'm going to stop preaching and
tell you what I think. When that three hours of darkness
was on the cross, I believe that there's a transaction when it
says that Christ entered into the presence of God, not with
the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood into the
holy place, and he put it there and he came back out and he obtained
eternal redemption for us. Now this, you don't have to believe
this, you don't want to, but I personally believe that when
our Lord Jesus Christ sat three hours on the cross that he went
into the eternal heaven and went into the presence of God and
he took his blood and put it on God's altar in heaven and
when he came back out of there God Almighty, right then and
there, every soul for whom Christ died, the blood still speaks. On that heavenly altar, the blood
of Christ now speaks. And that blood, that blood there,
obtained eternal redemption. Not just redemption. I read a
sign coming up the road today. It said, redeeming one soul at
a time. No, no, Christ redeemed all of
the souls for all who died once. One time, by one sacrifice. His
blood has such power, such efficacy, such purity, such glory, that
it can take away every sin of every soul for whom He died for
time and eternity. Oh my! And he comes from the
presence of God after putting that blood there. And he said,
it is finished. And if the Lord, it just makes
you want to fly away. It makes you want to fly away. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ has
finished redemption. has finished redemption. His
perfect obedience, this is what's finished. His perfect obedience
is finished. For sinful man, like us, to be
saved, the law must be kept. And a man, if he's to be saved,
he has to have a righteousness equal to God's Himself. He must
be as good as God. He must be as righteous as God.
If he ever hopes to see God's face, Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He finished the keeping of the law, brought in an everlasting
righteousness. He's Jehovah's Akinu, the Lord
our righteousness. And He is the end of the law
for righteousness. Righteousness, not to somebody
that does, but to Him that believes. And when you get to the end of
something, you can't go no further. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
the end of the law in three ways. First, He was the end of the
law as a covenant, the end of the
law as a work, and the end of the law as a curse. And He was
the end of the law even unto death. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
unto obedience and its curse and its covenant. And I tell
you something, beloved, bless His name. You know what the end
of the law for us was? Death. Christ went to the end
of it for us, and He died. Went to the end of its curse,
can't curse us anymore. Went to the end of it as obedience,
and His obedience is ours. And God Himself, can ask no more. The law has received its claims,
perfection. Justice cannot ask for another
moment of obedience. It's done. It's finished. It's complete. Look in Romans
8 with me a moment. Look here in Romans 8. You know, This is so wonderful about the
Gospel. So wonderful about the Gospel.
And Brother Henry is so blessed of God to teach me so much about
Christ and the Gospel. Thank God for him. But look what
it says here. Justice cannot ever ask for another
moment of obedience. It can't. It can't ask for nothing.
Romans 8.32. He that spared not his own son But delivered him up, delivered
him up for us all. Then how shall he not also turn
around and with him freely, freely, freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Is the law going to do it? Is
justice going to do it? Angels going to do it? The devils
can't even do it. My own conscience can't do it. It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemns? Who's going to judge us? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather. He's risen again. And where is He? He's sitting
right now at the right hand of God. That's where He's at. That's
where He's at. The uttermost farthing has been
paid. Huh? Let the debtor go free. The whip
of God's law, the whip of God's law wore itself out on the soul
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wore itself out. It was lifted
up against Him and for those for whom He suffered. And it
will never, ever be lifted up again against any of us. Never.
I was preaching one time in our place A fellow would come there,
him and his family would come and stay three weeks every summer
and they'd attend every service. And I got to preaching about
Christ fulfilling the law. And I got through preaching and
he said, Don, if I understand right, you don't believe a believer
is under the law? I said, no, no, no, no way, no
way, no way at all. Under no circumstances. He said,
well, that's being an anonymous. I said, I don't care what it
is. That's what I believe. I don't care what it is. Call
me what you want to. But I'm not bringing myself or
anybody I'm preaching to under the law under no circumstances. Man wants something to do. You can take people who really
believe the grace of God, and if you ain't careful, you can
have them trying to do something. And what we're trying our best
to do in preaching the Gospel is to tell people to stop doing
it. Just stop! Stop. Why? Because it's finished. And then not only stop, but sit
down. Rest. Rest in the blessed Son
of God. If the Lord Jesus is behind me,
I'd fall over on Him. If He's in front of me, I'd fall
forward on Him. If He is to my side, I'd turn
this way and fall. I'd fall on the Lord Jesus Christ,
whatever direction He's in, because I ain't got no place else to
fall. Oh, the Savior reached way, way,
way down for me. I got this from Scott Richardson
years ago. Men die and then face the judgment. Our Lord Jesus Christ faced the
judgment and then He died. And when He died and finished
everything, He totally destroyed all the enemies of our soul.
Sin, He put it away and washed it clean by His blood. He crushed
his head and bound him in chains. Death, he abolished it for everyone
who believed. And that's why we can say, O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? And we'll hear the voice of our
Lord Jesus Christ shout from heaven one of these days with
the voice of an archangel. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first, and every one which is alive and remain shall be
caught up together and be with them forever with the Lord."
Death. Death. He holds the keys to it.
And we don't even go through death. We just go into life. You know why? It is finished. It's done. It's done. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus
our Lord. What a wonderful Savior to me.
Amen.