I've been preaching on the seven
sayings of the Savior from the cross. And we're down to the last one.
There in verse 26. 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. This is the last saying of our
Lord on the cross. This is the last word he spoke.
This is the last act before he dies. Before he dies. When our Lord Jesus hung upon
the cross seven times he spoke. Seven times He spoke. And seven
in the Scriptures always means completeness, it means perfection.
It means perfection. And when our Lord was on the
cross, as everywhere else you see Him in the Bible, we see
the perfections, the perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even
on the cross, seven sayings, perfect, complete. And the very
fact that shows us He's in control, He says when He cried with a
loud voice, He wasn't a weakling there. He wasn't a weakling there,
that was just, he was there still in absolute control of himself. And seven also, not only does
it mean perfect and complete, and our Lord was perfect in all
of his ways, and all his perfections were seen clearly on the cross. Seven is also the number of rest. God created the earth in six
days, on the seventh day he rested now God wasn't tired and it says
our Lord Jesus Christ he finished his work he cried it is finished
cried it is finished and he comes in to rest now into his father's
hands his work is done His work is complete, as God's was, and
now He's gonna put His health into the hands of His Father,
and that's where He's gonna leave them, and He's gonna leave them
there that day. And it brings Him into the Father's
rest, into Thy hands, O Father. I commend Thy Spirit. And as our Lord finished the
work, finished the work given to Him, He said, Father, I'm
done, I'm done. It's done. He said, it's finished,
it's done. I finished it, it's over. Now
the last thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put myself in your
hands, the most wonderful, most blessed, most glorious place
to be, in the hands of the Father. And he said, that's what I'm
gonna do. And seven times our Lord spoke, Three times he spoke
it concerned men. He said, first of all, Father,
forgive them. No, excuse me. First time he
spoke about men, he says, today, you'll be with me in paradise.
To another, when John stood before him, he said, son, behold your
mother. Mother, behold your son. Gave
his mother into the care of John. And then to the crowd at large,
he said, I thirst. Three times he spoke to men.
Three times he spoke to God. The first word out of his mouth
was, Father. See the relationship is still
good. The darkness hasn't come yet. God hasn't forsaken him
yet. And he says, oh Lord, forgive
them. Father, forgive them. They're
ignorant of what they're doing. They're ignorant of who they're
crucifying. They're ignorant that I'm the Lord of glory. They're
ignorant as to what they think they're accomplishing. They're
ignorant. So Father, forgive them. Forgive
them. And I'll tell you one thing,
God answered that prayer for me. When our Lord prayed, Father,
forgive them, He was praying down through eternity and praying
for all before and all that's after. And because He prayed
that prayer, I can stand here saying I'm forgiven because Christ
prayed for me and Christ continually prays for me. Ain't you thankful
that Christ said, Father, forgive them. They're ignorant of their
death, they're ignorant of their sin, they're ignorant of death,
they say I'm the Lord of glory, they're ignorant that I was God
made of flesh, they're ignorant that I was a man, they're ignorant
that I'm bearing their sins for them. Father forgive them. And then
he cried out, when that darkness came over the earth, he said, Father, my Father, Oh
my God, of all the people you've forsaken in this world, you forsake,
you forsake everybody in the flood. You forsook everybody
in Sodom and Gomorrah, but Lot and his two daughters. In that
territory, I have been forsaken. But oh my God, my God, Why hast
thou forsaken me? Me the son of your love, me the
one that was with you in eternity, me the living word, me the word
by which you created everything, why have you forsaken me? And here's the third thing he
says to his father, to God. Father into thy hands, my spirit
you know when our Lord and that's what he says now into thy hands
he commends his spirit in the hearing of men in the hearing
of God in the hearing of devils and it still rings out through
all eternity when our Lord cried in victory and he cried in triumph
he said it is finished It's done. You want to know why
it's how it's done? He said, look at that temple.
Go back in that temple. And there's priesthood back in
there. And that there is red from top to bottom. And the way
into the holiest of holies we'll see. And everybody that Christ
died for is gonna have access to it. Everybody can go behind
the veil now. Everybody can enter into the
holiest of holies now. Then, oh, he said, oh, Father,
into my hands. Oh, and you know that every word
that our Savior said was a prophecy that was fulfilled. You can find
every word he said in these Old Testament Scriptures. That's
what the Scriptures mean. By Him, the prophets give witness. Look over here in Psalm 31. Here's the prophecy concerning
this. Where our Lord Jesus cried into thy hands, I commend my
spirit. Psalm 31. Everything, everything
that our Savior said was a fulfillment of a prophecy. You know, after he was with his
disciples there in Luke 24, said he is walking with them, and
he opened the scriptures to their understanding. You know, if we
have any understanding of all the scriptures, He's the one
that opens it. If you don't open it, it ain't gonna be open. You
know, where's Barron with a shut mind? You say, boy, I'll tell
you what, he's got the, he's a narrow mind, you can't teach
him nothing, he just can't understand. But I'll tell you what, if God
gives you understanding, Christ gives you understanding, you
get a brand new Bible. Ain't that right? You got a Bible
that you didn't even know that there's verses and scriptures
and things you look at that you say, well, I didn't know that's
in the Bible. But boy, you find it in there,
and you know, you find out, oh, what a blessed Savior we have.
But look here at Psalm 31. Let's read these first five verses. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be ashamed. But here he is. Deliver me in
thy righteousness. And that's what's fixing to happen.
Bow down thine ear to me. God's gonna listen to me, Father.
You be my strong rock for a house of defense to save me. For you're
my rock, rock of ages. You're my fortress. Therefore
for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me. And he says, pull
me out of the net. And oh, they laid a net for our
Lord, that they laid privately for me, for thou art my strength.
Now listen to this, into thy hand I commit my spirit. Into thy hands I commit my spirit. So everything that our Savior
said on the cross, you can find it in the Old Testament. Now
let me Let me say this, I don't know
how many points of God I have to look to see, but I'm not going
to take all day to say them. But when our Savior said, Father,
into thy hands, I commend my spirit, the Savior comes back
into communion with the Father. You know, for a while, that fellowship
was broken. Why was it broken? because it
said it pleased the Father to make his soul an offering for sin. It pleased
the Father to bruise him. God made him to be sin, who knew
no sin. God made our sins to meet on
him on the cross and he was bearing our sins. And when sin's found
on someone, God himself cannot look. He's of purer eyes than
to behold evil. He's of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. And God said He will by no means
clear the guilty. And all of us was born in guilt. All of us lived under guilt until
Christ went to that cross. And as He was hanging on that
cross, when it got dark, it got dark because sin was found on
Him and in the sight of God, sin is black Sin is dark, sin
is horrible, sin is a disease, and when God made it to meet
on Christ, God said, I don't want the world to see this, and
pulled down the curtains in this world, and says, now, me and
my son will deal with one another here. And I'll tell you what,
you think it was darker in all the earth than this, you imagine
what darkness is gonna be for those who don't know God, and
don't know Christ, and don't trust Christ. He said, they'll
be cast into our darkness. And our Lord went through the
darkness that you and I would have went through eternally had
not our Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins. You know, the scripture says
we know we've passed from darkness to light. How do we know? Because we love
the bread. He says, you know, the light
shined in darkness. And that's why our Lord said,
Father, forgive them. They know not what to do. The
light shined in darkness. The darkness said, I don't comprehend. I don't understand that. I don't
see that. But yet, that's what God did. And the darkness now
has passed. It says, you know what it says
there? In verse 44 here of Luke 24,
and it was about the sixth hour, three o'clock in the afternoon,
and the darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. It
started at noon, and at three o'clock, the sun come back out. The light come back. And you
know why the light come back? Because our Lord said, it is
finished. Just like you preached on last
Sunday night. He entered once into that holy place and offered
his own blood and he came back out with eternal redemption.
Eternal redemption all the way from Abel to the last soul on
this earth. And all night he took that awful,
awful cup from his father's hand. He said, look with me in John
8, keep Luke 24, look over here in John 18 with me. Look in John
18, 11. You know, our Lord, he went off
into the garden and he prayed, Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. If it be possible, if it be possible. But look what it said here in
Luke, I mean, excuse me, John 18, 11. They're coming out of
the garden. And Simon cut off a man's ear. And our Lord said in verse 11,
then said Jesus unto Peter, put up thy sword into the sheath,
the cup, the cup, which my father hath given me. Do you think I
shouldn't drink it? Shall I not drink it? I cannot
do anything else but take it. Do you think I'm gonna let this
cup pass from me? God gave me a cup, my father
gave me a cup. It's full of his wrath, it's
full of his justice, it's full of sin, it's full of everything. And I got to drink it, got to
drink it all. Got to drink it all. And that
first cry from the Father, first cry was, Father, forgive them.
And the last cry from the cross was, Father, into thy hands I
commit. First cry was, Father. Second
cry was, Father. Father, into thy hands. Oh, when he was forsaken of God,
now it's all done. The cup is drained. God's wrath
and the storm clouds over. The sword smote his fellow, the
shepherd. And now the sword has already
went through and it's already pierced him and it's time to
bring it out. Justice wipes its blood off of
his blessed soul. And now, beloved, he's back in
fellowship with his Father, and he'll never be forsaken of God,
and that fellowship will never, ever be broken again. Never,
never. And you know, when our Lord said
here, our Father, Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. How often
do you reckon our Lord used that word, Father? First time you
mention him, mention the father, you know what it was? He's 12
years old. 12 years old. And his mother and father come
looking for him, and you know, they're scared, they're worried,
and they found him sitting there, a whole bunch of smart men around
him, the greatest men around him, the doctors and the lawyers
and the rabbis and the scholars, they're all sitting around 12
years old. He was confounding them at 12. And his mother said,
why are you wearing us so? Why are you fighting us? He said,
don't you know? Don't you understand? Wish you
not that I be about my father's business? He understood what
he was here for when he was a child. And oh my. And in the Sermon
on the Mount, the first sermon you find him preaching. other
than when he opened the scriptures there and looked for what he
quoted from Isaiah 61 and said, this day is this first scripture
fulfilled in your hearing. In the Sermon on the Mount, the
first sermon he preached, he spoke of the Father 17 times. Oh, what a relationship he had
with his Father. Spoke of his Father 17 times.
And starting in John 14, 1, and you go to the end of John 17,
those four chapters where he's alone with his disciples, and
he's teaching them and instructing them, and he's going away, and
all the things that they're gonna deal with while they're left
in this world. You know how many times he mentions the Father
in those four chapters? 45 times. And guess what? We say, Our Father. When I said, Lord, teach us to
pray, you know what He said? Say, Our Father. You're in heaven. You're in heaven. We're on this
earth. You've got all the power. You've got all the glory. You've
got all the might. You've got all the authority.
Father. Oh, my Father in heaven. You're
holy. Your name's holy. And that's
how we start praying. We address Him as He is. Ain't
it a blessed thing to say, Our Father. You're up there. And
yet you hear us. Yet you receive us. Yet you listen
to us. Yet you hear our You hear our
thoughts, you hear our desires, you hear our needs, you hear
our wants, you hear our fears, you hear our groans, you hear
our moans, you hear our sighs. Oh, Father, you're in heaven. Oh, what a blessed thing. He
said, our Father, our Father. And in John 17, John 17, That high priestly prayer that
our Lord, that last thing he said, the last thing he did with
his disciples was pray with them and pray for them. And you know
what he said? He spoke of the Father six times. And one of the things he says,
Father, thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. How much did the Father love
his son? He said, that's how much he loved
you, loved us. And here he speaks to the father,
another father six times. And now the last time he speaks,
before he dies, before he dies, he said, father,
into thy hands, I commend my spirit. Oh, I tell you, you're talking
about a wonderful place to put his soul, put himself into the
Father's hand. He was in the Father's hands
all of his life, and in the Father's will. But oh, as the Father loves,
he says, as my Father loved me, he loves you. As He cares for
me, He cares for you. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. And then let me show you a great,
great contrast here. You remember how many times our
Lord says that I must go up to Jerusalem and I must be delivered
into the hands sinful man. I must be delivered into the
hands and be crucified and be slain. How many times did he
say that? I mean here in Luke 24 and verse
7, look what he says there. The Son of Man must be delivered
into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third
day arise again. When Peter preached on the day
of Pentecost, you know what he said? You men of Israel, listen
to what I got to tell you. He said, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Yes, God
was in this. God sent Him. God was responsible
for this and God had pleased Him. But He said, I'll tell you
what you've done. You with your wicked hands, your
wicked hands have crucified and slain. the Son of God, the just
one. And I tell you, He was delivered
into the hands of men, and we went down through there and we
read all the things that these men did to Him. Do you know how
many things they did to Him when He was delivered into the hands
of sinful men? They spat on Him, plucked out His beard, they slapped
Him, they whipped Him, put a purple robe on Him, Nailed him to a
tree, gambled for his garments. When he said he was thirsty,
they gave him vinegar. And then they mocked him while
he was on the cross. He saved others, he can't even
save himself. If he's a king, let him come
down. If God's his father, let him come off that cross. Come
down and save us, and save yourself and save us. Man got him in his
hands and no man done the very worst they could possibly do
against the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, now, he's in the Father's
hands. Now he's in the Father's hands.
What a wonderful place to be, huh? Oh, now he delivers his
spirit into the father's hands. And I'll tell you something right
now. He'll never ever be in the hands of men ever again. No,
no, man did everything he possibly could do, but it'll never happen
again. In fact, now, you know, three
times they kept crying, away with him, away with him, away
with him, crucify him. And they're gonna hear one of
these days, Now you depart from me. I never ever knew you. They said,
away with him. And you know what he's going
to say? Away with you. Huh? Oh, my. I'll never hear those words.
I'll never hear those words. You won't either. You know why?
Because our Father said, into thy hand I commit my spirit.
And I tell you, it'd be awful, awful to hear the Savior say,
depart from me, depart from me, depart from me. Wouldn't it be
awful to hear that? I want to take just a minute
to say something about that. To think that the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you know how many people on this earth today are going into eternity. Going
into that great abyss. People want to use great phrases
to make it look better. Well, they passed away. They've
gone to peace. They've gone into their peace.
They've gone into their rest. They do everything to make it
look good. When the scripture calls it death. Dying. And all dying and never dying. for the Lord Jesus Christ to
look you right square in the eye, and you say, well, I attended
the services. I read a Bible, and I prayed,
and I certainly liked the preacher. I liked the preacher. Oh, the
preacher's a fine man. I liked him. I liked all the
people that was there. But to yet to hear The Lord Jesus
Christ saying, depart from me. I never knew you. I never knew you. That would
be the awfulest thing to imagine going through in this. To hear
the Lord Jesus Christ who bore sin, who was so willingly, so voluntarily,
so gloriously, so joyously, delivered himself up to death, even the
death of the cross, and took all this shame and all this beating
and all this mistreatment, and then beloved, for him to ascend
to the throne, and sat down, and at the judgment, at the judgment,
hear him say, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire
and darkness forever. And if I tell you what, if you
ever leave, if you go on in your life, I want to be as honest
as I can. I remember saying one time that
that the man that will tell you most the truth is the man you
ought to listen to. And I'm telling you the truth.
I try every time I get up here to tell you the truth, what God
says. But you listen to me. You leave here time after time
without believing Christ and trusting Christ and embracing
Christ and looking at Him as your Savior, and your Redeemer,
and your Mediator, and your Sin Bearer, and your Substitute,
and your Sacrifice, if you don't look to Him for that, you'll
wish you'd have never heard His name one of these days, when
He says, depart from me, I never knew you. You'll wish you'd never
heard it. I understand, I understand, What
Brother Henry said one time, said, I'd rather my son be a
bartender. Has to believe in free willism,
believe he can save himself. Oh, I don't want you to perish.
God knows I don't want you to. I don't want anybody that sits
under my ministry under any time. says under the sound of my voice
or any other preacher comes in here, I don't want you to go
into eternity without Christ. That's why I come here three
times a week, that's why we have special meetings, to exhort you,
our Lord Jesus Christ himself, he himself says come unto me. If Christ says come unto me,
if he himself says come on, why won't you come? If he says, come
to me, why don't you come? He says, you know, if you want
to have anything to do with the Father, come by me. If you want to learn something,
learn of me. With all your knowing in this world,
come to know me. Oh my. Don't leave this world without
Christ. Don't do it. Please don't do it. And then
let me tell you the second thing. Here's my second point. Not only
was our Lord Jesus Christ back in communion with His Father,
but we see our Savior as like no other. He is utterly and absolute
unique in everything about Him. Here he is, he yielded himself
up to God. It's not the first time he yielded
himself up to God. You see, his whole life, his
whole life was committed to his father. His whole life was committed
to the will of his father. His whole life was committed
to the purpose of his father. His whole life was committed
to His Father's will. His whole life was committed
to His Father's glory. His whole life was committed
to everything He could possibly do on this earth. Father, glorify
Thyself. And I tell you, His whole life,
He's the only person in this world who ever was saved by His
own works, His own right. He's the only one who ever did
it. And he gave, you know, in fact, he yielded up himself to
death. You know, nobody took our Lord's
death, life from him. Look over in Luke chapter, I
mean, excuse me, John chapter 10. Our Savior is unique like
no other. He yielded, he became obedient
even under the death of the cross. That's why it says, even he became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. I want you
to watch what he said. He said, you think he is obedient
unto death? That's one thing. But be obedient
unto death, even the cross. But he was unique, especially
in his death. Every word spoken on the cross
showed that he was controlled. He cried with a loud voice. And
oh, he has full power over his spirit. And he said, I commend
it to you, I deliver my soul up to you. But oh my, look what
it says here in verse 17. John 10, therefore doeth my father
love me, because I lay down my life. Did you hear that? I lay
down my life. And listen to this, that I might
take it again. But no man, listen to this now,
no man takes it from me. Nobody took Christ's life from
him. They didn't. Every time he spoke, he spoke
loudly, clearly, and here right at his last word before he died,
he cried with a loud voice, I want you, I want all of you to hear
me. Father! And there's a crowd around there.
Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And I tell you, not
only that, but look what he says. In verse 18, no man takes it
from me. I lay it down of myself. I've
got the power to lay it down. And here's what I'm trying to
tell you. I have power. This commandment, he even had
power. God commanded him and God gave
him this commandment. I read it in my father. You die
when you at my time, in your time, and you come out of the
grave at your time and my time. I command you to do that. And
our Lord obeyed him right to the minutest detail. Oh my, the end is reached now. Father into thy hands. God's
satisfied. Christ is satisfied. The Holy
Spirit's satisfied. Sins put away. Sins made an end
of once and for all. Righteousness has been established. And he says, now Father, into
thy hands, I commend my spirit. And let me give you something
this year. I'm gonna leave you with this.
We see also our eternal life and our security, eternal security
in what he said here. You know that? He said, Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And you
know what he said? He said, they'll never do anything
to make me ever cast them out. And he prayed there in John 17,
he said, Father, of all that you've given me, I've not lost
a one. I've not lost a one. Huh? If he commends his hand into
the Father's spirit, And He gave His Spirit to the Father. Now
this is what I'm going to tell you, and I've said this so many
times, whatever He did, we did. When He put His hands in the
Father's, His Spirit in the hands of the Fathers, we did too. You
know why? Because we were in Him and everything
He did, we did. Huh? Oh my. I tell you. Here's the thing. Here's the
thing. Christ neither lived for Himself
or died for Himself. He lived to the glory of His
Father And he lived as a representative and died for him, not for himself,
but for his people, for his elect people. Our Lord Jesus Christ
laid down his life for us. And the Father's hand is where
there's eternal security. I mean, you're talking about
an eternal communion. He said, my Father, he said,
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
They're in my Father's hands, and nobody's ever to take them
out of my Father's hands. Now, ain't that what Christ said?
He said, into thy hands. He said, in my Father's hands,
I give them to you. And I tell you, shut him, that's
where communion's at. And I tell you, eternal communion,
what a safer place to be than in the hands of Father. Noah, you know when Noah was
secure? You know when Noah was safe?
You know when Noah was saved? When God shut him in. You know
when I'm safe and I'm secure and I'm saved? When God shut
me in and cried and shut me in in his hand. There you are. There you are. Who are you? I'm in God's hand. How big is
God? How many people are in God's
God? Oh multitude no man can number, but he can hold every
one of them. If he can measure the waters in the hollow of his
head, he can hold a bunch of little old puny things like us
easy, can't he? Oh how much more saved and secure
can we be? We're kept by the power of God.
And I'll tell you something else, in that comes the hour for us
to leave, us, for our hour of death coming, I hope I'm able to say, Father,
into thy hands, here I come. Into thy hands, here I come.
Wouldn't that be a blessed place to be? Our Father, in the precious name,
blessed name, of our Lord Jesus Christ, glorious in his person,
perfect in his person, perfect in his word, Perfect in his accomplishments. Perfect sitting at the right
hand of God. And Lord Jesus, you teach us
and tell us that we're perfect in you. We're complete in you. Accepted in you. Righteous in
you. Life in you. Secure and safe
and saved in you. Lord, it's all to you we owe. everything you did it all you
did it all and father we're going to do like your blessed son did
we're going to rest in him as he after he finished the work
yielded himself up to you lord the work is finished and we're
going to rest rest our souls and our lives and our daily life
and every moment of it into your hands, and you'll see that it's
kept safe and secure until the day you call us from this world
to the next. God bless this gospel to the
hearts and hearers today. For Christ's sake, we thank you.
Amen. Amen. You got something, Houston? Okay.