Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's holy word. And now, the message. Welcome to our program. Now,
today I'm going to be preaching from John chapter 19, and the
message title is taken from verse 30. The title is, IT IS FINISHED. And obviously that refers to
the words of one of the statements, the phrases of our Lord on the
cross, IT IS FINISHED. Somebody said, what a treasure
chest of truth can be found in just a few words. And that is
certainly true of this sentence, IT IS FINISHED. Now in John 19,
there are some interesting things that lead up. to the crucifixion. Christ is on trial. He's before
Pilate. Pilate took him and had him scourged
or whipped, and that kind of whipping is what you may be familiar
with as far as reading the Scriptures. It was the 40 lashes minus one
with the cat of nine tail. It was a very severe whipping
where they had bones and pieces of metal on the end of the whips,
on the strands of the whip, and so it was a scourging It says
in verse 2 of John 19, "...the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns,
and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, and
said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him with their
hands." These were the haters of God, these idolaters. And
they mocked him with the crown of thorns and the purple robe,
and their words, Hail King of the Jews. And yet in all of this,
we see the truth of who Jesus Christ really is coming out.
He is truly King of the Jews. He is King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. He's King of this world. He's
the maker of this world. And it says in verse 4, "...Pilate
therefore went forth again, and said unto them, Behold, I bring
him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in
him." Pilate could find no just reason, no just cause, to put
Jesus of Nazareth to death. And I dealt with that last week
in the last point, that Christ is the perfect, sinless substitute,
the innocent victim. That was typified throughout
the Old Testament in the bringing of a lamb or a bullock or a goat. It had to be one without blemish.
And so Christ died, not for sins that he committed, and he died
not for sins within himself, but he died for the sins of his
people that were legally accounted or charged to him. And it was
a real death. It was a substitutionary death. And it says in verse 5, Then
came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
robe, and Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man. Think about this. Behold the man. When I read that
verse, I think of what Paul said. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And so when we
see Christ in salvation, we do behold the man, but more than
a man. He's God and man in one person. Now they crucified him. Pilate couldn't understand it.
He said, you say, take him and crucify him, for I find no fault
in him. Again, there was no just cause
among men to put him to death. There was just cause before the
Father when the Father laid the sins of his elect upon Christ. He did become guilty by imputation,
by legally charging the sins to his account. And so the Jews
answered him and said, we have a law, and by our law he ought
to die, because he made himself the Son of God. What they're
talking about is the claim of Christ to be the Son of God,
to be God himself, the Messiah. He wasn't made to be the Son
of God, he was declared to be the Son of God. He was made of
the seed of woman, made of the seed of David, rather, according
to the flesh, but declared to be the Son of God. And so Pilate
dealt with Christ even more, and he made this statement, he
asked this question, in verse 10, Pilate said unto him, Speakest
thou not to me? Because Christ wouldn't answer
him. You see, the Bible teaches that Christ was led as a lamb
to the slaughter. And though he was mocked and
tortured and derided and humiliated, he opened not his mouth. He was
the willing substitute, the willing sacrifice who laid down his life
willingly for his people. And Pilate asks, he says, knowest
thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to
release thee? Now listen to the answer the
Lord gives in verse 11. Jesus answered, Thou couldst
have no power at all against me, except it were given thee
from above. Therefore he that delivered me
unto thee hath the greater sin." Now what he's talking about there
is this. Everything that the Lord of glory here was experiencing
was by determinate counsel and power of the Father. This was
not the acts of men, the force of men, yet men were held accountable
for their evil, wicked ways. And though Pilate found no fault
in him, and Pilate didn't care who he was or what he'd done,
Pilate was an instrument in the hand of God to bring about the
death of Christ, and God overruled Pilate's evil. for the good of
his people, just like Joseph and his brethren back in the
book of Genesis. When Joseph looked at his brethren,
he stood there second in command of Pharaoh, and he told them,
he says, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. to
save much people alive. And then he mentions the Jews,
for he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. The
Jews were held more accountable because they willingly and rebelliously
and in hatred delivered him to Pilate to be killed. And so Pilate
was trying to find a just reason, he couldn't, yet he didn't want
the people stirred up and raised up. And so the Jews cried out. They said, well, he's not the
friend of Caesar's now. He makes himself king. And they
said, we have no king but Caesar. Now you think about that. Think
about the hatred that the Jews naturally had for Caesar. And
yet in order to bring about the death of Jesus of Nazareth, they
said, we have but one king, Caesar. And so the chief priest said
that down in verse 15. They cried out, Away with him,
away with him, crucify him. And Pilate saith unto them, Shall
I crucify your king? And the chief priest answered,
We have no king but Caesar. So Christ was delivered unto
them, and they took him away, and he bore his cross up to Calvary. Look at verse 19 of John 19.
It says, And Pilate wrote a title, Put it on the cross, And the
writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Think about
that. It's almost as if Pilate was
mocking them. It says, this title then read
many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was
nigh to the city, that is, nigh to the city of Jerusalem. There
were many cultures there. And it was written in Hebrew,
that is, the original language of the Old Testament scriptures.
It was written in Greek, which was the common language among
that day, and in Latin, which was the language of Rome. So
Pilate wrote it in all three languages as if to mock the Jews. And look at what happened. It
says in verse 21, Then said the chief priest of the Jews to Pilate,
they said, Write not the king of the Jews, but that he said,
I am king of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I've written,
I've written. Let it stand." Now that was the
work of God to show that this one who was being crucified was
truly King. He is, as I said, the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords. Well, then we see the fulfilling
of prophecy from the Old Testament. Verse 23 talks about the soldiers
who crucified him parting his garments. And they cast lots
for his garments, and that's the fulfillment of the prophecy
of Psalm 22, and I'll talk more about that in a minute. And then
the Lord of Glory was hanged there on that cross. It says,
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his
mother's sister Mary, and the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus therefore saw
his mother, and the disciples standing by whom he loved, He
saith unto his brother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he
to this disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that
disciple took her unto his own home." So Christ expressed a
compassion for his mother. He'd already said that the earthly
relationship of mother to son would be dissolved. He showed
no disrespect for his mother, but he made sure that she was
taken care of, and John is the one referred to here who would
take care of her. Well, verse 28, it says, "...after this,
Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the
scripture might be fulfilled, he saith, I thirst." That's a
quotation from Psalm 69, the suffering servant, suffering
for the sins of his people. He called them his own sins.
They became his own, again, by an act of legal imputation as
the father charged them to his account. He took responsibility
for the sins of his people. And it says, now there was a
vessel full of vinegar, which was probably spoiled wine, and
they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon Hyssop and put
it into his mouth. And then it says, when Jesus
therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. He died. He died. He breathed
his last physical breath. It is finished. He foresaw that
all things were now accomplished. And then he said, it's finished.
And he died. You see, in order for him to
put away the sins of his people, he had to actually die. But let
me ask you this question. What was finished? on the cross
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me give you several things.
Number one, all prophecy concerning him from the Old Testament was
completely finished as to his death on the cross. Now back
in the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, we see many things
in the history books that are written. We see many truths expressed
out in the poetry books. And then we see many things expressed
out in the prophecy books. But the main message of the Old
Testament is salvation by the grace of God through Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Now, that's the main message.
It's the gospel message. It's the same gospel message
that was preached out in the Old Testament, promised, typified,
prophesied, as we preach today who preach the gospel of the
glorious person and the finished work of Christ. He was identified
and distinguished in the Old Testament. He told the Pharisees
in John chapter 5 and verse 39, he said, you do search the scriptures,
speaking of the Old Testament. And he said, for in them you
think you have eternal life, for they are they which testify
of me. The first proclamation and promise
in the Old Testament of Christ and Him crucified is found in
Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 where He is identified as the
seed of woman. And then immediately after that
He was preached out in type and picture. when God killed animals
and shed blood and made coats of skin to replace the fig leaf
aprons that Adam and Eve had. That was a picture of Christ
and Him crucified. It was a picture of salvation.
by the grace of God, through the blood and righteousness of
Christ, and not by the works of man." And I believe there
in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 21, God instituted and established
the sacrificial system of the Old Testament to show that without
the shedding of blood, without death, there is no forgiveness.
And it has to be the death of a substitute who is appointed
of God, who is qualified, and who is willing and able. Well,
the only one appointed of God was Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. And
the only one who is qualified is Jesus Christ, God and man
in one person. You see, God cannot bleed and
suffer and die for sins. But this person who is God did
bleed and suffer and die for sins, and that's to be attributed
to his humanity. On the other hand, man cannot
give and sustain life. But this person who is man does
give and does sustain life, and that's to be attributed to his
deity. He is God-man. My friend, he's
qualified to save sinners. And he's the only one qualified.
And then he had to be willing. You see, we talked about that
last week, how he laid down his life willingly. They came to
arrest him. And he said, who do you seek?
And they said, we seek Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And
they fell backwards. He allowed them. He opened not
his mouth. He was led as a sheep, a lamb,
to the slaughter. And all of that he did for the
love of his people. He said, it is finished here.
The Bible says in John 13, 1, he loved his own to the end. That is the same word, finish.
He loved his sheep. so much that he gave his life
for them." Now all of that testimony of the Old Testament, all that
prophecy was fulfilled. When Abel brought a lamb and
shed its blood, that was a type of Christ. When Noah built the
ark, the ark was a type of Christ. Christ is our ark in whom when
we are safely closed in to Him, we are shielded from the wrath
of God outside, the flood of God's wrath. Everything in the
Old Testament, every lamb that was slain, every bullock, the
scapegoat, the tabernacle, the high priest and his duties, the
altar, the blood of animals, it was all a type of Christ and
Him crucified. His blood and His righteousness
for the sins of His people. In the wilderness, God gave Israel
a rock that moved and followed them around from which they could
get water. Paul wrote that rock was Christ.
Christ is our rock. He's the water of life. He's
the foundation. The manna which fell from heaven
to feed them was a picture of Christ, that bread from heaven.
And he said that in John chapter 6. He said, I'm the bread of
life. He's the light of the world. Everything typified, everything
that was to typify him was fulfilled. It's finished. Now what that
means is this. We no longer need the types because
we have Christ himself, the fulfillment. Listen, even the Sabbath day
was a type of Christ who is our rest. That's why we don't keep
a Sabbath day in the New Testament. What we do is we keep a Sabbath
by looking to Christ who is our Sabbath. And those who insist
on keeping those types deny the fulfillment, which is Christ
himself. It's all been fulfilled. Here's the second thing that
was finished, and it ties right in with the first thing. The
Old Covenant law of Moses on Sinai was abolished by way of
fulfillment. The Bible says in the book of
Hebrews chapter 10, I believe it's verse 9, it says, "...he
taketh away the first, that he may establish the second." In
other words, the first in time that was given was the Old Covenant
law given to Moses from Mount Sinai. Now, it included the Ten
Commandments. It included all the ceremonial
law, which was the priesthood and the sacrifices and the altar,
all those types and figures, foreshadowings under the Old
Covenant. When Christ came into the world,
when he became incarnate and walked this earth, he himself
as a Jew was under the Old Covenant. And he had to fulfill the law.
He told them, he said, I didn't come to break the law or to destroy
it. He said, I came to fulfill it.
And he said, I won't stop until every jot and every tittle is
fulfilled. Every smallest minute point of
the law had to be fulfilled. That's what it took for him to
fulfill all righteousness. And then when he went to the
cross and suffered and bled and died for the sins of his sheep
under the just wrath of God, He drank damnation dry, and he
fulfilled the old covenant law completely. And when he died,
that was signified in the temple when the veil that separated
the holy of holies from the holy place inside the temple, that
veil was torn in two from top to bottom. What was God saying? That was the Father's testimony
that the Son had done His work, He'd finished it, He had fulfilled
it, the Father was pleased, and the Old Covenant was now over.
We're not under the Old Covenant. We're under the New Covenant.
Now, we can go back and study the Old Covenant and see the
glories of Christ there that we see in Him now. But we're
not under it as a system of life and walk. We're under the New
Covenant in Christ. The Old Covenant has been abolished.
It's finished. The Bible says in Romans 10 and verse 4, for
Christ is the end of the law. That word, end, there is the
same word, finish, in John 19, 30. It's the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes it. Now, the third thing
that was finished by Christ on the cross was his sufferings
unto death. He told his disciples over and
over again, he said, for this reason came I into the world. He came into the world to suffer,
to bleed, and to die. He was born to die. Now, what the reason is, is because
that's what it took to save his people from their sins. But in
his whole life he suffered. He went through temptation, just
as we go through temptation, except he was without sin. He
hungered. He thirsted. He sorrowed. He felt pain. He felt sorrow
in his heart. He cried. Jesus wept over the
death of Lazarus, his friend. He wept because of the unbelief
of the people. He writhed in anguish over many
things in his life. The Bible says he was a man of
sorrows in Isaiah 53, acquainted with grief. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him. What that means is that the punishment
that God required in order to have peace with sinners was upon
Christ. So all that he suffered, the
Bible says that the captain of our salvation was made perfect
through suffering. You see, a lot of people today
do not understand how Christ was made sin, And they think,
well, if it was only by a legal act of charging or counting sin
or imputation, then it wasn't real. I've heard that. They don't
understand imputation. They don't understand how Christ
was made sin. You see, the fact that Christ
was only made sin by a legal charge of the account of sinners
to him doesn't mean that he didn't suffer in his soul. The Bible
calls his suffering a prevailing. Just like a woman in childbirth
who suffered. They tell me that's the greatest
pain that anyone can go through. I don't know. But you women who've
suffered that, you know something about it. Well, the suffering
of Christ is called the travail of his soul. He suffered within
himself, and it was real. It wasn't fake. It wasn't just
acting like he was suffering. He truly suffered, yet without
sin in himself. And the captain of our salvation
was made perfect through suffering. Now that doesn't mean Christ
was imperfect and then he had to be made perfect. What that
means is that all the work that he came to do was finished and
completed in perfection when he suffered. And that he, the
Bible says, he learned obedience in the things that he suffered.
What that's talking about is that Christ, in his suffering,
he experienced things that he had never experienced before.
Felt things he'd never felt before. But here, when he says it's finished,
that's done. He would suffer no more. Now
the promise of the gospel is that one day we who die in Christ,
we will be raised again to suffer no more. So our not suffering
in eternity is based upon the suffering that Christ went through
on the cross. Here's the fourth thing. It's
finished. The redemption of his people.
Christ redeemed his people from their sins. What is redemption?
Well, when something is sold into some kind of a pawn shop
or something like that, it is kept there legally by law until
a price is paid. And that's the situation here. We who are God's elect, the chosen
of God, the sheep of Christ, His church. We were sold into
slavery, the bondage of sin and Satan and the curse of the law
for our sin. And Christ, when He came, He
came to purchase His people. He was a ransom. Job said, I
found a ransom. Christ paid the ransom price
with His own blood. He bought us and redeemed us
with his own precious blood. Peter said you're not redeemed
with corruptible things like silver and gold by the traditions
of men, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without spot and without blemish. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. And then fifthly, the justification
of his people was finished. When Christ died on the cross,
he made an end of sin. He paid the price. He drank damnation
dry. Justice has no more claim. on
his people because of sin, because he bore them away, and then he
fulfilled the law perfectly. He was the end of the law. He
brought forth righteousness that was charged to them, right there
on that cross. He justified his people, and
that was finished. We only have to be justified
one time. We'll never have to be justified again. We were justified
in Christ on Calvary. Now, when the Holy Spirit gives
us life in the new birth, He shows us that justification.
He brings us to a knowledge of it, and rest in it, and peace
from it. But we're justified in Christ.
That was finished. And then, sixthly, it was finished,
the destruction of Satan. The destruction of Satan. The
Bible teaches that. We read it over in John chapter
12. When Christ speaking of his death,
he says, now is the prince of this world cast out. You see,
Satan was instrumental in bringing the whole human race under condemnation
when he brought sin into the world. And that's what we were
in Adam, condemned under the wrath of God, under the sentence
of death. But when Christ went to the cross,
He brought in the ground of justification for all his people. And when
he died on that cross, as I said, he drank damnation dry, he removed
that condemnation, and Satan has no hold upon the people of
God anymore. It's finished, you see. Now,
Satan's still alive on this earth, and he's awaiting his final destruction
in the lake of fire. But he has no hold upon God's
people, because what Christ accomplished and finished on the cross. When
Satan hurls his accusations against Christ's people, those accusations
cannot stick, because there is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. The Bible says, "...who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect. It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again, and seated at
the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us."
You see, God's people cannot be condemned because of what
Christ finished on the cross. Now, if you don't have Christ,
all you have is condemnation. And when Satan hurls his accusations,
they'll stick. But, my friend, run to Christ.
Believe in Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you shall be saved. Believe in Him who is God and
man in one person, and believe in His finished work, for it
is finished. Well, I hope that message has
been helpful to your understanding of the scriptures and of the
gospel itself. If you'd like a copy of this
message, listen to the announcer. He'll give you the details. The
title of the message, very simple, It Is Finished. And I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-432-6969. or visit our Reign of Grace website
at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you, and may the Lord be
with you.