Well, you'll locate my text here
in verse 30. And the verse reads this way,
when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar or the sour wine,
He said, it is finished. It is accomplished. It is paid. And He bowed His
head and gave up the ghost. This is one of the seven sayings
of our Lord Jesus that He made from the cross of Calvary. Each
one addressed to a different person or to a different group
of people. First was a word of forgiveness
to the sinful. He said, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. The second, He said, And this
is the word of salvation to the thief. He said to him, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. And then as our brother read
to us, there's a word of affection addressed to his mother. And
he said to her, woman, behold thy son. And then there was the fourth
one, the word of anguish unto God. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And then the word of suffering
to all of the onlookers. I thirst. I thirst. I thirst for the presence of
the Father. I thirst from the agony that
I feel in my soul. I thirst. Then there's the word of victory
to His people, and that's what I want to consider this morning.
It is finished, which is good news for the church. This is
really good news. For all of the Lord's people,
it is finished. And then lastly, the word of
contentment. And that was addressed to His
Father. And He said, into Thy hands I
commend My Spirit. This is our motto as the people
of God. It is finished. everything God
demanded of us that we could never, never fulfill. Our Savior did so on our behalf. It is finished. It is one word
in the original. In our English Bible, it took
three words, but just one word. And therefore, of all the seven
sayings of our Lord Jesus, this is the briefest. But oh, how
heavy this Word is. Oh, how full of meaning. Oh,
how absolutely delightful to the people of God. As we hear
our Savior with His very dying breath, as He says to us, it
is finished. What a word of comfort for us. In order to make way for this
statement, I would direct your attention back to verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. He had a knowledge that all of
the sufferings that He had to endure for us. He had a knowledge
of that because He directed all things to fulfill His purpose
of His suffering. But having in His own heart and
soul experienced the agonies of all that was involved in the
death, the crucifixion, He knew all of these sufferings were
necessary to usher in His death. Well, how did He know all things? Listen, He knew all things that
would befall Him because He was directing all things and He had
ordained all things. He knew what it was going to
cost Him. Have you ever started some kind of project and you
got maybe midways or three quarters of the way through it and you
said, man, I didn't know it was going to cost me so much money.
And I didn't know it was going to cost me so much work. In fact,
I just wish I hadn't started on it. Listen, our Lord Jesus
knew what was involved. He had an absolute perfect knowledge
of all of his sufferings. And yet, he willingly entered
into this battle upon the cross of Calvary in order to satisfy
God and all of the demands of God. He had a perfect knowledge
of the price he had to pay. Let me put it this way. He did
not go into this blindfolded. He did not go into this without
any knowledge of what was going to come his way. He had an absolute
perfect knowledge of everything that he had to undergo, of all
the sufferings that he had to endure. He had a perfect knowledge
of it, but he was not reluctant to pay the price of redemption. and then consider that he knew
these things were now accomplished. He knew every facet of his sorrows. After all, in old eternity, he
ordained them. He knew that all of these
things were now in back of him, and all that remained now was
his death. And that is the final act of
His humiliation. His death. But as far as all
of the indignities of the cross of Calvary and all of the things
that our Lord had to suffer, these things were now fully accomplished. And He knew that. He knew that. He knew the saving work of Restoring
his people to salvation. Restoring his people to God.
He knew it was going to be an awful, an awful debt that had
to be paid. And he knew he was the only one
who could pay it. There was no way we could redeem
ourselves. We couldn't satisfy the justice
of God. We're a bunch of sinners. He
very well knew He had a perfect knowledge of that which was absolutely
necessary to rescue us. And He bore it all upon the cross
of Calvary. What does this mean? Let me ask
you three questions. What does this mean? It is finished. And if you ever understand really
what this means, it will be good news to you. This is good news
to the church. This is good news to all of the
people of God. For all of you who have been
brought to believe on the Son of God, this is the best news
you could ever hear. It is finished. Well, what does
this mean? It is finished. Well, number
one, all of the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah and
His sacrifice, His sufferings, and then His death, these were
now fully accomplished. His entrance into Jerusalem,
that had been prophesied by Zechariah. Zechariah 9, verse 9, he said,
Behold, thy king cometh, he's just and having salvation, lowly
and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. And that was fulfilled in Matthew
21. All of this was done that it
might be fulfilled which was written by Zechariah the prophet,
tell you the daughter of Zion, behold thy king cometh unto thee,
meek and sitting upon an ass in the fold of an ass. That's
fulfilled. That's finished. That's accomplished. The Scripture spoke how that
he would be betrayed by a very, very close friend. Psalm 41 and
verse 9 says, Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which
did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. And that
was fulfilled when our Lord Jesus sat down with His twelve disciples
to have that Lord's Supper where He instituted the Lord's Supper
which we call usually communion. He said to all of the disciples,
he that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, he shall betray
Me. The Old Testament Scripture says
he would be sold for 30 pieces of silver. Zechariah chapter
11 and verse 12. Which reads, so they weighed
for My price 30 pieces of silver. And we know that was fulfilled
because that was the money that Judas received from the chief
priests for doing this awful deed. And it was fulfilled from the
Old Testament that he being arrested, he would be treated in a barbaric
way. That's fulfilled. I shouldn't
say that's prophesied in the Old Testament. It was fulfilled
in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, we read
the Savior said, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks,
my cheeks, that they would pull out my hair. Well, that was fulfilled. Matthew 26, then they did buffet
Him, smote Him with the very palms of their hands. In Isaiah,
it says He gave His face to spitting That's fulfilled. Matthew 26,
67, they did spit in His face. Prophesied in the Old Testament
they would rend and tear His body. Isaiah 53 and verse 5,
He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was on Him and with His stripes
we're healed. That's fulfilled in Matthew 27
and 26. When they had scourged Jesus,
He was delivered up to be crucified. He would be put to death, as
was stated in Daniel 9, verse 26. Messiah would be cut off. Not for His own transgressions,
though. But He would be cut off. He had
to die. He would be put to death between
two thieves. The Scripture says that. Isaiah
53 was numbered with the transgressors. And we know that was fulfilled
because He was crucified between two thieves upon the cross. It was spoken in the Old Testament
He would pray for His persecutors. First thing He said was, Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. His thirst, that was prophesied. Psalm 69, 21, in my thirst they
gave me vinegar or sour wine to drink. And of course, it was
fulfilled right here in the verses that have been read to us. In
the Old Testament, it was prophesied they would divide His garments
and cast lots for His coat. Psalm 22.18, they part my garment
among them and they cast lots from my vesture. That's fulfilled
in Matthew chapter 27 in verse 35. And they crucified Him and
parted His garments, casting lots. In the Old Testament, Psalm
34.20 says not a bone of Him would be broken. Psalm 3420 again
says, He keepeth all my bones, not one of them is broken. That's
fulfilled here in John 19. Terry read it to us a while ago.
Not a bone is broken. Even when they came around to
break the legs of the thieves, and thinking they'd have to break
the legs of Jesus as well, He was dead already. So his legs
weren't broken. That fulfilled Scripture. But
even more, when that one soldier took that spear and rammed it
in his side, the Spirit of God directed that spear. It did not
pierce a rib. It didn't chip a rib. It didn't
touch a rib. Because it was written, not a
bone of him would be broken. All of these things happened
exactly as they were laid out in the Old Testament. For you
who are doubters, for you who are skeptics, for you who can't
see how all of this comes together, do you not realize that the events
that happened on this day of crucifixion, they were prophesied
and predicted hundreds and hundreds of years before they ever happened?
thus showing how truthful God's Word is. Not a word of God is
going to fall to the ground. You see, our Lord was the Master
of the entire situation. And no word of God can fail. The man on the middle cross,
he was the Messiah. He was the prophesied Messiah. in the Old Testament. What does
it as finished mean? Well, not only that all the prophecies
concerning Messiah had come to pass, but that the substance
of all the pictures of Him in the Old Testament were fulfilled. The offering of Isaac. And among
the people of God, we love that passage of Scripture in Genesis
chapter 22. And with the eye of faith, we
can see Isaac carrying the wood as he goes before his father
to be the burnt offering for God. And in the carrying of the
wood, do you not see a picture of our Savior? He bore His cross. And Isaac being up on the being
up on the mountain with his father, says to his father, Father, here's
the wood, the knife, here's the fire, where's the Lamb? Where
is the Lamb? I want to say that when I hear
preachers preach quite often. I want to say, where's the Lamb?
You can't worship God without the Lamb. I wish I could tell
the whole world, you can't worship God without the Lamb. All over this nation, people
are talking about worship. We're worshiping today. And yet
they avoid talking about the Lamb. There is no worship without
the Lamb. And Abraham said to Isaac, my
son, God will provide Himself a Lamb. Do you not see that being
a picture of our Lord Jesus? He is the Lamb of God. Then Isaac
is put up on the altar. And the angel of the Lord says
to Abraham, stop. I see you believe God. There's
a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Take that ram. Offer him up in the stead of
Isaac. There's substitution right there.
In the stead of Isaac. And you see our Lord Jesus, as
it were, He says to the justice of God, Release all of My people! I'm the one who will die today. And His death availed for a multitude
of sinners. You hear me. The only reason
why you The people of God will not perish. It's because the
Savior has died in your stead. All of us deserve to die. There's
no question about that. We deserve the agony of hell.
I'm sure that when the Savior said, I thirst, I'm sure built
into that was the meaning of when that rich man went to hell
and he said, I thirst! I thirst for God! I thirst for
life! I thirst for communion and fellowship
with the living God! I thirst! Our Lord Jesus said that. I thirst
for the Father. I thirst in my agony. I thirst. He is that water from the rock,
smitten so that thirsty sinners can drink
and live forever. Think about the Passover lamb.
God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. He saw the blood of His Son.
And the Lord says, when I see that blood, I'll pass over you. Make no mistake about it, His
eye is always on the blood. and therefore He passes over
all those for whom the blood was shed." The brazen serpent. Morning and evening sacrifice.
The two goats on the Day of Atonement. On that very special day, it's
set forth in Leviticus chapter 16. The Lord said to Moses, he'd
choose two goats and then cast lots. One of them is going to
be for God. And that goat is going to die.
And the other goat is going to be the scapegoat. And that picture
is the result of the death of Christ. Both those goats pictured
our Savior. You see, if this is finished,
it announces that the substance of all the Old Testament typologies
and pictures are finished. Good news for the church. Because you see, the blood of
bulls and goats could never put away sin. But this man, he offered
one sacrifice forever. And he put away our sins and
he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And then
thirdly, what does this mean? It is finished. It means it all
was finished as God God required them to be done before His death. Once He died, sin was forgiven. Righteousness was brought in.
Divine justice was honored and satisfied. And as far as the Father was
concerned, only one thing now needed to be done. The very last
act of absolute humiliation. What's that? Death. Death. Because the Scripture doesn't
merely say the soul that sinned shall suffer. The Scripture says
the soul that sinned shall die. He died for us. He died for us. We have no fear of the second
death. We have no fear of that everlasting
separation from God. Well, what is the basis for having
no fear? It is finished, the Savior said.
He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. Here's the very final straw of
His humiliation. His death. What's finished? The
work God gave Him to do. the work of saving us, the work
of reconciling us, the work of removing our sins from us as
far as the East is from the West. What is finished, He has now
brought in everlasting righteousness. That's what God demands. And
I assure you this, God will accept that which He demands and that
which He has provided. Who is our righteousness? The
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord our righteousness. And let me ask you a second question.
What are the evidences that He finished the work of redemption?
What are the evidences? Well, number one, the evidence,
I believe, must start with this, the dignity of the One who died. You tell me who died on that
cross, I'll tell you if He accomplished anything or not. Who died? The God-man. He died. And of Him, Isaiah said in Isaiah
45, He shall not fail. Whatever He set out to do, He
did it to the Father's full satisfaction. We see there on Golgotha's brow
three crosses. We see three men dying. And the death of one of them
is accompanied by so many unusual things. Events so unparalleled
by any other death that it drove many people to say, who is this? Who is this? When he dies, an
earthquake happens. When he dies, graves open up. When he dies, the veil in the
temple is rent from top to bottom. And that veil in the temple was
much, much larger than the veil in the tabernacle. The veil in
the tabernacle was 15 feet long, 15 feet wide, or 15 feet high
and long. I remind you that in the very
temple of Solomon, that veil was 80 feet long. 80 feet, and
the width of it was the width of a man's hand. And those who
were burning incense at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the day that
our Savior died, they're there at the altar of incense, the
golden altar of incense, going about their religious ritual.
All of a sudden, that big 80 foot tall veil ripped from the
top to the bottom. That tells me somebody specialized
out here. This is not an ordinary man.
This is the God-man. The God-man. It's ripped from top to bottom.
The Lord has opened up the way into His presence. My brother and my sister, I echo
what that centurion said. He said, truly, this was the
Son of God. This was the Son of God. On the day before the Twin Towers
fell, there were four men sitting across the street in a restaurant. One of them was a Jew. One of
them was a Muslim. One of them was a Baptist preacher. And one of them was a very good
friend of mine who believes the gospel of sorrow and grace. And
they got to talking about religion. Oftentimes, discussions around
the lunch table would go into religion. And the Jews said,
because then they got into about Jesus. And the Jews said, well,
I believe He was a prophet. And the Muslims said, I believe
He was a great prophet. And the Baptist preacher said,
He's my Savior. And my good friend said, let
me tell you something. If Jesus was not God in the flesh,
He's the biggest fraud and fake that ever lived. And he said
that those other three men got deathly quiet. Oh, you can say,
well, I believe He's a prophet. I believe He's a great prophet.
I believe He's the Savior. Hang on a minute! Is He God? If He's not God, nothing was
accomplished. If He is God and He was, then
everything He did, fully accomplished. God's eternal purpose of redemption. What are the evidences that He really did finish the work?
Well, I'd say secondly, not only who He is, but the greatness
of the punishment that was imposed on Him. If he suffered all of the punishment
that a holy God could dish out to him, dole out to him, pour
out on him, then nothing is left to be done. It is finished. Good news for the church. Good
news for the church. He said it is finished. Well,
what evidence can be offered? Well, He's the Divine One. He
suffered greatly to satisfy God. And then thirdly, in His resurrection. I offer that evidence. His death so satisfied God that
on the third day, God raised Him from the dead. That's never
happened before. We say, well, our Lord He had
Lazarus come back from the grave, but not in a glorified body. Lazarus just lived to die another
day. Our Lord Jesus, He came back
in a glorified body. Never to suffer, never to bleed,
never to die again. His resurrection, What evidence
can be offered that He really did finish the work? The Scripture
says in 1 Timothy 3, He was received up into glory. How for that is evidence. Forty
days after he had laid down his life and then took it up again.
Forty days later, he ascended into the very presence of God.
And the Father said, sit here at My right hand until I make
all your enemies your footstool. And you can say or believe whatever
it is you want to say or believe about Jesus of Nazareth, but
God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name that's above
every name. that at the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He's Lord to the
glory of God the Father. One other question, a third question,
what comfort can the church draw from this statement? Well, it answers the great question
about how can God be just and justify the ungodly? Right here. This is the only way. This answers the great question
as to how our sins were remitted. How they were forgiven. By His
bloody sacrifice. This answers the grand question
as to how we could ever be righteous. He is our righteousness. And
by His death, He brought in everlasting righteousness. What does God
demand of you? Righteousness. And you can't
produce it. Oh, that God would work in the
hearts of people, leading them to ask this question. How can
I be righteous before God and that One who is the Lord, our
righteousness? This answers the great question.
Does God require anything of us to satisfy His justice? No. No. Your faith doesn't add to the
price of redemption He paid. We're going to sing in just a
couple of minutes, Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Here
is great encouragement for us to preach the Gospel. Don't have
to twist anybody's arms. I'm not going to back you in
a corner. I'm not going to ask you to come down here to the
front and go with me and I'll take you back in my office and
see if I can browbeat you into some kind of religious decision.
We don't do that kind of stuff around here. I'm fully satisfied
and I fully believe if God's working in your heart today,
He'll be working in your heart every day. Every day. And when he sets out to do a
work, he'll finish it. He'll finish it. This furnishes
us with motivation to labor in the cause of Christ. Why do you
keep preaching the gospel, Jim? Even if you have allergies and
you're struggling a little bit with your voice, why do you keep
on doing this? Somebody asked me the other day,
are you ready to retire? And I said, what? What would
I do? My reason for living, my reason
for existing is preaching my Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
only reason for my existence as far as I'm concerned. Oh, this motivates me to labor
for the Savior. And this furnishes us with unbounded
thankfulness to God. to the Father who chose us to
salvation, to the Father who sent His Son into this world
to live, die, and live again for the salvation of His people. This furnishes us with unbounded
thankfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, O Son of God,
for finishing the work Oh, how blissful it is to see
that all is done to the Father's satisfaction. And unbounded thankfulness
goes to God the Spirit, who opened our eyes, our spiritual understanding,
and gave us repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I'll give you this. This
gives undeniable evidence of the love of God for us. I tell you, you want to be comforted
in this world? Evil world. Wretched world. Sad world. So much bad news on
every account. You want to be comforted? Well,
here's good news for the people of God. It's finished. It's finished. Can you just rest
in the Savior? Just rest in Him. Let's get our
psalm books. We'll sing one stanza only of
125. And it is Jesus paid it all.
Number 125.