And it is, as Joe said, an honor
to assemble with the saints of God here on the first evening
of the new year. Let's go to Luke chapter 23 for
an additional reading from the scripture. We do ask God to strengthen these
of our number who are sick. Nancy and I visited today with
Carol Lee and had a very good visit with her. It was so good
to see her again. And also visited with Kurt Robinette
and He is back in the rehab portion of Woodland Oaks. He's in room
number 10, if you happen to get by there. Carolee's in room 309. As you enter in, go to the left,
go to Carolee's room. But it was good to see them both
today. Others of our group are suffering
some, that we certainly ask God to undertake for them. You know, everything that happens
to the people of God happens for our good. And in that sense,
everything is a blessing. And we've been blessed already
in our Lord Jesus, even from the beginning of this old world. And he makes all things work
together for the good of his children. And this is most encouraging
to us. And as we begin a new year, new
decade, we do so thankful for him who has already ordained
the end from the beginning. and all of the things that will
happen to you and to me and to everyone throughout the world
will be the fulfillment of the purpose of God. And we rejoice
in Him who governs each and everything. Now I will begin reading here
this evening in Luke chapter 23 and verse 39. Luke 23, 39. And one of the malefactors, which
were hanged, railed on him, saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man, this man
hath done nothing amiss. He said to Jesus, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto
him, verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. And it was about the sixth hour,
and there was darkness over all the earth. until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened and
the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus
had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. Now when the centurion saw what
was done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a righteous
man. And all the people that came
together to that site, beholding the things which were done, they
smote their breasts and returned. And all his acquaintance, And
the women that followed him from Galilee stood afar off, beholding
these things. And we'll stop our reading there
with verse 49. Let's bow together. It's a wonderful
thing, Father, that you have given us the desire and indeed
have directed our steps to the place of worship this evening.
It is a wonderful way to begin this year by meeting and reading
the Word of God, singing of the redemption that our Lord Jesus
has accomplished once for all. And to now seek your face in
prayer and then listen to the gospel of your free grace. Lord,
we're so honored to be here. May we never take lightly and
may we never take for granted the privilege that you have given
to us to come and sit under the word of the ever-living God. Lord, we look back upon this
past year with thanksgiving. We are grateful for everything
that you brought to pass because, Lord, your will is perfect. And the things that you have
caused to happen have happened according to your eternal purpose.
And all things are working together for the good of your dear children. And we're ever grateful for that.
And Lord, it isn't that some of your people have escaped sickness
or severe trial because we know that several indeed have experienced
difficulties during this past year. But Lord, you have a way
to make even the storms of life to to be a blessing to us, and we
always rest assured that back of the dark clouds of thunder
and the crashing of the might of God in trouble, still you're
always doing good for your children, and we thank you. As we think about our Savior,
The one who loved us and gave himself for us as we think of
him seated upon the throne of glory. As the governor, the ruler
among the nations, Lord, our hearts are made to rejoice. Certainly
in the wickedness, the evil, the sinfulness of men in this
world, Lord, that grieves our hearts. Our own sin is a grief
to us. And yet we know that our great
God and Savior is governing all things. And even the wickedness
of men will praise thee, and we give you thanks. We ask that you give strength
to these, especially of our group. who know even now the weakness
of the flesh, the weakness of the years that
have taken their toll upon them. We ask that you'd encourage their
hearts, and if it be your will, grant strength. We certainly
pray to that end. And yet we know that for all
of us, Unless death comes to us soon, we're going to get into
the days and the weeks and the months of weakness. Lord, may
you always be our fortress and our strength. May we always look
to you for all things. And we give you thanks for Christ
Jesus, our great Savior. It will be our delight this evening
to once again consider his death until he comes again. And certainly
there's no more blessed subject for us to contemplate, even to
open up the new year with, than the one that is before us this
evening of the substitutionary atonement of our Savior. He is our salvation. He is our
life. He is our righteousness. He is
our sanctification. He is our wisdom. And yes, indeed,
He is our all in all. Speak to each of us tonight.
Bless as we open the Word of God. For Jesus' sake, we ask
these things with thanksgiving. Amen. All right, if you would,
go to the book of John again. We're going to go to John chapter
19, and seek to break open one little
verse of scripture for you tonight, and actually one expression in
a verse of scripture, and that is found in verse 30 of John
chapter 19. When Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar, that is the sour wine, which the soldiers had
available for them to drink, the Lord Jesus then said, it
is finished. That is, it is accomplished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. The Spirit of God has been pleased
to leave on a permanent record the seven words that our Lord
spoke from the cross, or also referred to sometimes as the
seven sayings of our Savior from the cross. We don't know everything
that he said. In fact, there's certainly a
reason to believe that he spoke the words of Psalm 22, which
are all about him. David wrote those prophetically
of our Savior, and so we have no doubt but what he spoke those
words, maybe audibly or maybe just within his own heart, but
we do have the record that the Spirit of God has given us, given
through the pens of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John concerning
these great seven sayings of our beloved Savior. There's a
wealth of knowledge in each of these seven sayings, and of course
I don't have the time to elaborate on the other six this evening,
but I would like to mention these to you, because our Lord Jesus,
he spoke these while he was suffering the agonies of the cross, and
while he was suffering at the hands of men, and suffering moreover
at the hands of God. The first one is a word of forgiveness. He said in Luke, 23, 34, Father
forgive them for they know not what they do. Here's our savior,
the advocate. Here's the one who is our high
priest. Here's the one who is our mediator. And that which he asks for, that
which he does pray for is forgiveness for wicked people. But we know
there can be no forgiveness apart from a sacrifice. So here He
is praying for forgiveness. Well, where's the sacrifice? Well, He's the sacrifice. He's
the Lamb. He's the Lamb God is offering
up to His own justice. And upon the basis of the blood
of the Lord Jesus poured out, He therefore says, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. You see, this is the reason
we should be forgiving. Why should we forgive those who
wronged us? In that prayer that is typically
called the Lord's Prayer, it's the Lord teaching His disciples
to pray. He says, forgive us of our debts
as we forgive our debtors. We want to forgive as God forgives,
and we endeavor to do that, though we can't forget. I understand
that. We can't erase the wrong that's
been done to us, but we can ask God to give us grace to be forgiving
of those who wrong us. Be forgiving of those who transgress
us. just as our Lord asked the Father
to forgive those who wronged Him. And you'll notice that He
addresses that prayer to the Father because who can forgive
sin but God alone? Only the one against whom we've
transgressed His law, He's the only one who can forgive the
transgressor. He's the only one who can wipe
the slate clean. He's the only one who can forgive
in such a way that he will never remember it again. He says to
his people, and it's recorded in Jeremiah, it's also recorded
again in Hebrews chapter 10, the Lord says, here's a new covenant
promise that their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more. May we be forgiving like that. Don't you want to be like that?
It reveals that we're the children of God. Because this is how God
forgives. And our Lord Jesus acknowledging
that this forgiveness must come from God. So He says, Father,
forgive them. Father, forgive them. On what
basis? On the basis of my sacrifice. On the basis of my life laid
down. Forgive. Forgive. Secondly, there is a word of
salvation. And I read to you there from
Luke chapter 23 that Thief, who was originally in rebellion against Christ Jesus
and speaking evil of him, even as the other one did. And then
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of grace got a hold of his heart.
The sovereign Savior poured mercy in to that man. And he said,
Lord, remember me. He called Jesus Lord. Lord, remember
me. And a man cannot call Jesus Lord
and really mean it except by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of
God was doing a work within his heart. There had been a lot going
on, and then Pilate put this plaque up, that board up with
this written on it. It says, Jesus, the King of the
Jews. This man, no doubt a Jew, being
raised in the Old Testament Scriptures, being instructed in the things
of God, probably from a very young child, has rebelled against
the things that he's been taught, and he's lived a very wild and
wicked and ungodly life, and he's dying a death that he deserves
to die, but now he's smitten in his heart and in his conscience
by the Spirit of grace. And he sees Jesus of Nazareth,
not merely as another man who's dying, but he sees him as the
Lord. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. And Jesus said, verily, I say
unto you, this is an absolute truth. He says, shalt thou be
with me in paradise. And he didn't just say to him,
today thou shalt be in paradise. No, because here's what paradise
is. It's to be with him, right? Today thou shalt be with me. That's what paradise is. Somebody
said, where is heaven? Is it in another dimension? I
don't know where heaven is except to say this, wherever the Lord
Jesus our Savior is, that's where paradise is. And that's where
this man went because the Lord Jesus went there first. And then
this man went to accompany him. And when the Savior said, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise, this is a real word of assurance
and salvation. This rules out this man going
to purgatory. He didn't go to purgatory. It
rules out any kind of soul sleeping intermediate state that lots
of folks believe in. Oh, here's the Savior and here's
a sinner. Here's a sinner marked out from
old eternity for the grace of God. An unworthy sinner, a vile
sinner, one deserving of the sentence of death, both by man
and by God, but he's a chosen sinner. He's a sinner marked
out to be God's property. He's a sinner in whose stead
Christ was about to die. And even as the Savior hung upon
the cross in His agony, He was still the sovereign saving Lord. And He showed Himself mighty
to save. Here's the King of grace opening
a door for this man that nobody could ever close. Grace flew from the lips of the
Savior right into the heart of this man. And you'll note who the Savior
speaks to in that first he was speaking to the father. Now he
speaks to a sinner. Verily, I say unto thee, today
you'll be with me in paradise. And then thirdly, there's a word
of tenderness. Here's our example. Here's our
leader. In fact, you're hearing John
chapter 19. Would you look at verse 25? Now,
there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister
was the wife of Zebedee, and then Mary, the wife of Cleophas,
and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw his
mother, he's got so many things on his mind. on his heart. But his mother is also upon his
heart. He saw his mother and he saw
the disciples standing by, that is, John, whom he loved. He saith
unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. He did not address her
as mother, He addressed her as woman. Had He addressed her as
mother, the Roman Catholic Church would have taken that and gone
even more further into error than they've gone, I suppose.
But He didn't address her as mother. He addressed her as woman. But I'll tell you this, here
is a son being faithful to the one who brought him into the
world. The scripture says, honor your
father and your mother that your days may be long upon the earth. We visited, as we said, down
at Woodland Oaks today And of course, over the course of my
ministry, I've visited many nursing homes and I've known nurses and
aides and so forth, people who worked in nursing homes. And
what several of them have told me is that lots of times, elderly
parents are put in there and virtually forgotten. That's an
awful thing. How can anybody expect the blessings
of God if they neglect to do what He told them to do? Honor
your father and your mother. And we look to our Savior. Here
He is. He is bearing the sins of His
people in His own body on the tree. He is bearing in His own
heart the glory of God. the welfare of his people. He
knows he's laying down his life for the sheep. He's pouring out
his life's blood as the ransom price. And yet still he is very
much aware of the need to take care of that woman right there.
And so he commits the care of Mary to John. Which would indicate,
by the way, that Joseph at this time is not in the picture. He is, most writers say he has
died sometime earlier, though the scripture doesn't tell us
exactly when that was. But the Savior speaks to Mary,
and he speaks also to John. And he gives to John a word of
direction. He says to John in verse 27,
Behold thy mother. Take care of her. Take care of
her. Our parents took care of us when
we were young. And when they get elderly, as
best we can. God helping us and God giving
us strength. We care for them. Our Lord is
the perfect example of that. You know, if you want to know
how to live, you want to know what to do, observe the Savior. Observe His labors. Observe His works. Observe His
attitude. He always did everything pleasing
to the Father. And he was always very much aware
of the neediness of those around him. He was a man whose heart was
touched with the feelings of the infirmities of those whom
he knew. Yes, indeed. Here is a word of
tenderness. Aren't you thankful your Savior
is so compassionate? He's so tender hearted. I know
he's the Lord of glory. There's no question about that.
I know he's going to sit upon the throne of judgment. and He's going to issue to all
men the edict of either you're saved forever, you're safe, or
depart from me, I never knew you. I knew that, I know that,
I know He's stern, I know He's strict, I know He must abide
by His own law, but concerning His own people, He is so full
of tenderness and mercy and compassion. Oh, what a Savior is ours. But then there is fourthly the
word of anguish. And though we haven't read it,
you can read it for yourself as you have before. He said,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And no longer does
he address his words to the father. He doesn't say father, he says
my God. Here He is, the faithful servant
of Jehovah, the one who is stooped down, though equal with God in
every way, He has humbled Himself to become obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross, and He addresses the Father,
not as the Father, but now He addresses Him as my God. Why
hast thou forsaken me? And the reason is because all
the sins of all of his people were made to meet on him and
the father abandoned his son. I cannot understand that, neither
can you. But he abandoned him, he forsook
him in order that we would never be abandoned and we would never
be forsaken. He was left alone in the midst
of his sufferings. He would say prophetically, there
was none to stand with me. When he entered into the winepress
of God's wrath, he said, I went in there alone. He did go in
there alone, and even the Father did not accompany him. He had
a work to do, a work which he did for God, holy God, righteous
God, just God, sin-hating God. And he did that work, forsaken
by God. Forsaken is a word that sits
before us a very sad scene, a word of abandonment. His father's face turned away
from him. At the very height of his suffering,
where is the father? Forsaken. What was the reason? Because
of sin. What does that mean for us? Preacher,
what does that mean for us? What does it mean for me? Here
I am, a sinner trusting the Savior. What does that mean? It means
you'll never be abandoned by God. It means you'll never be
forsaken by God. Our Lord Jesus says, I will never
leave you nor forsake you. that you may with boldness say,
the Lord is my helper. That's why Christ was forsaken.
And then the word of neediness. Here in John 19 and verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, and by the way, accomplished
is the same word as finished. knowing that all things were
now finished or accomplished that the scripture might be fooled,
he said this, I thirst. I thirst. What a statement. And
I sit at my desk today thinking about this. This is the one who
made all the water. He's not making any new water.
because he has instituted a law of evaporation and then it comes
back down as rain. I understand all of that. But
he who made the water to begin with and who waters the earth
regularly with dew and with rain and with ice and snow and so
forth, he who made the water is himself thirsty. How can that
be? He owns the rivers, all those
deep, hidden, hidden freshwater springs. You remember, I remember
very well, when I was young, you know, you'd find, maybe your
grandparents, it was with my case, my grandparents had a spring.
Had the best water. It's so cold. And some of you,
you know, you know what that was like. And you'd go and you'd
have a dipper, have an old tin cup or something. Your grandpa,
your grandma said, just go and get you some water. You drink
that water. That's so good. So thirst quenching. Our Lord didn't have a cup of
water. I'll tell you what it tells me. He is a real man. Don't
tell me he wasn't a real man. This is not make-believe. I know
he's God over all, blessed forever, but he's also one of us. He's
one of us. And he said, I thirst. Joe read
to us from Psalm 69, 21. They gave me also gall for my
meat and my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. This is
a very short saying, but it manifests to us the reality of his manhood. I thirst. I thirst. What kind of thirst was it? It
was physical thirst. His tongue, I suppose, was swollen. His mouth was so dry. Because like the rich man in
hell, he was enduring the heat of God's wrath in his body. He said, I thirst. I'm thirsty.
I tell you something, not only physical thirst, his soul thirst,
he thirsted for the Father's presence. Like David in the Psalms,
as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul
after thee, O God. This is an inward thirst, he
thirsted for the Father's presence, for the Father's fellowship,
and here's a heart thirst, thirdly. He thirsted for His people, which
is why He suffered, bled, and died. He wanted to have us forever
with Him. He thirsted for us. He desired
us. He wanted us. And then the sixth
word is the word of accomplishment, which I'll make a few comments
about in a little bit. It is finished. But then the
seventh word is the word of rest. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. And he immediately entered into
his rest. Having fulfilled everything God
would have him to endure, and now the sunshine has come back
out. The storm of wrath is just about
over. Only one more thing needs to
be done. give up his life. He's got to give it up. He's
got to lay it down. I lay down my life for the sheep. That's what he said, wasn't it?
I lay down my life for the sheep. He said, no man takes it from
me. Who can take life from him who is life? Who can take life
from him who gives life? Nobody can. If he is to die,
he must give up his life voluntarily and willingly to the glory of
God. And so, he said, Father, into
thy hands I commend, I commit my spirit. Bowed his head, gave
up the ghost. And you'll notice in that one,
he didn't say, My God, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. No, it's Father. It's once again
Father. It started out Father. In the
middle, it's God. In the end, it's Father again,
because the Father's wrath, He's born that. And now, it's just the penalty
of death that awaits Him. And so He bows His head, He dismisses
his spirit and his soul goes to rest in God. You see, when you and I have
finished life's journey, I'm talking about the people of God
now. And the Lord says it's time for you to come home. We breathe
our last. We close our eyes upon this old
sinful world, and we go home to be with God forever. Let's go back to that sixth word
from the cross, the word of accomplishment. Let me just make a few comments
about it. I think I've told you before
that in the Greek, language of the Greeks. They prided themselves
in being able to say a lot in just a few words. They were able to give an ocean
of substance, an ocean of information, an ocean of teaching in just
one drop of language. In the original, it is finished
as just one word. making it therefore in reality
the shortest of the seven sayings of the Savior from the cross. But in this one, there's an ocean
of doctrine, an ocean of mercy, an ocean of truth, and this one
single word translated here, it is finished. In this one word
is summed up the whole gospel of grace. How in the world could
you sum up the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in one
word? Well, we couldn't do it, but
he could. He could, and he says, it is finished. It's accomplished. In this word, it is finished
is set forth the answer to the riddle raised in Job's writings. How can he be clean who is born
of a woman? The answer is to be found right
here, it is finished. In this one single word is contained
the ground and the reason for our hope of glory. In this one
single word is the basis of our confidence of dwelling with our
Lord forever and ever. In this one single word is to
be found an ocean of grace for sinners. This is an ocean of
grace without a bottom. without a bottom, and you can
venture out, swim out into the ocean of grace. And though you
can't comprehend the immensity of grace, the enormity of grace,
the multitude of God's mercies toward you, you can't comprehend
it, but you can sure begin to enjoy it. And rejoice in Him
who is grace, for He's full of grace. The law came through Moses,
grace and truth through Christ Jesus our Lord. Just dip into the ocean of God's grace. And this one single word is to
be found in eternity of the divine purpose of God. Why does he die? Because God appointed this for
him. This is the way of salvation.
It is finished. And when he says it is finished,
this is not a cry of relief as if he were saying, well, it's
finally over. That's not what he's saying.
He's not saying at last this suffering is coming to an end. Oh no. Oh, this is a cry of victory. This is a cry of accomplishment.
This is a word of accomplishment. After all, why had He come into
this world? Was it not to do the Father's
will? Did He come to save His people
from their sins? Well, it is finished. Did He
come to this earth to fulfill all righteousness? Well, it is
finished. Did He finish the transgression
as Daniel said in Daniel 9? It is finished. Did He make an
end of sins? It is finished. Did He come to
make reconciliation for iniquity? It is finished. Did He come to
establish and bring in everlasting righteousness? It is finished. Did He come to redeem us from
the curse of a broken law? It is finished. Did He come to
reconcile us to the Father? It is finished. Did He come to
raise the poor out of the dust and lift up the beggar from the
dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the
throne of glory? It is finished. Did He come to
magnify God's law and make it honorable? It is finished. Did He come to die that God might
be just and justifier of everybody who believes on Jesus? It is
finished. He finished the work of redemption. He bought, He paid for us. What was the price? His precious
blood. Well, preacher, what is the evidence
that the work that He came to do is finished? The work of redemption,
reconciliation, establishing righteousness, putting away our
sins. What is the evidence that it
is finished? Could I give you three evidences?
Number one, His resurrection. His resurrection announces For
all to hear, for all who will hear, His resurrection announces
this. I can hear it right now. It is
finished. That's what the resurrection
declares. Secondly, His ascension. He went back to the Father, and
here's what His ascension back to the Father announces. as he
goes back and the Father says, sit here at my right hand till
I make your enemies your footstool. Here's what that announces. It
is finished. And then I read in Revelation
5 that all of the angels in glory and all of the saints are in
heaven. They're all singing. And this
is the third proof. and evidence that he finished
the work the father gave him to do. Because if you listen
in, you can hear them singing. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive, hear the power and riches and wisdom and honor and
glory and blessing. This is a word of accomplishment.
Be joyful, saints of God. I don't know what the Lord has
in store for this world or for His people or for everybody in
2020. I don't know. But I do know this. It'll all be good for His people
because of what happened 2,000 years ago when the Savior made
this glorious announcement, this word of accomplishment. It is
finished. So we'll go forth with boldness,
with thanksgiving, and with faith, trusting Him to do what's best
for all of His people. Let's sing a closing song. What
about let's sing Jesus' song?