If you will, be turned with me
to John chapter 19. I want to begin reading in verse
28, John 19, 28. The scene is the cross, the Lord
Jesus is hanging upon the cross, And we read in verse 28, after
this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was
set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with
vinegar, and put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When
Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. As the God-man hung upon the
cross, he accomplished everything that God the Father sent him
to accomplish. Jesus knowing that all things,
all things were now accomplished. And to show us that He accomplished
every last little detail, it says there, Jesus knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
said, I thirst. Everything, every detail He accomplished. So when he received the vinegar,
he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and did
what no man has ever done. He released his spirit to the
Father. Now I want our young people here
to pay close attention. I want everyone here to pay close
attention. This is the most important thing
that has ever happened in human history. This is the hour for
which the world was made. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man,
is the successful Savior. If you ever hear someone tell
you that Christ has done all that He can and now there remains
something that's left to the sinner to accomplish, Know for
certain that that man is speaking of an idle God. He's speaking
of a God that is not the true and living God. Because Christ
Jesus the Lord accomplished everything. It is finished. It is finished concerning all
the work that God the Father gave Him to accomplish. He finished
everything. He finished the whole work. That
is all my hope. My eternal hope rests in those
three words. It is finished. It is what Christ declared in
John 17 when He said, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work Thou
gavest Me to do. This is what is not being preached.
This is what the whole world is missing out on. They're not
hearing this declared in pulpits that it is finished. Now, I want
to show you today what our Lord Jesus accomplished when He said
it is finished. I want you to see what is finished. First of all, Christ finished
the transgression and made an end of sins for His people. Now, Here's the issue. This is the issue of the gospel. God is holy. God is holy. God will receive no one except
they be perfect. God is holy. He's holy. And because He's holy, because
He's righteous, God will by no means clear the guilty. Now here's the problem. Every
person born into this world is guilty. And everybody that God
saves by nature is guilty. How then can God receive us if
we're guilty? If we're sinners, how can a God
that will not look upon sin, that will not receive one who
is guilty, how can that God receive us? This is the question of the
Gospel. How is He going to receive a
sinner? Scripture says this, He sent forth His Son and the
Holy Spirit said His name shall be called Jesus. For He shall
save His people from our sins. Do you know what salvation is?
If a person needs to be saved, that person can do nothing to
save themselves. The very essence of salvation
means somebody else has got to do the whole thing for you. If
you can do something to help, you don't need to be saved. Salvation
is somebody else doing everything. His name shall be called Jesus
for He, not us, He, shall save His people from our sins. I want
you to turn to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Here is what Christ came to do
and here is what He did. Hebrews 9 verse 26. I want you to look at the second
part there after the colon. It says, Now once in the end
of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. Now you and I have come here
today, and you who believe, we are going to partake of the Lord's
table here in a moment. Whenever the Lord instituted
this table, He said this, He took that piece of unleavened
bread and He said, this is my body, which is broken for you. That means when we observe this
table, He tells us to do it remembering that He gave His body as a substitute
in the place of His people. You know when you have a, you
students, when you have a substitute teacher, Your teacher's sick. They can't be there that day.
The substitute comes and takes the place of your teacher. That's
what Christ was doing on Calvary's cross. He was taking the place
of His people. He was taking the place of His
people. He went there to the garden sinless,
spotless, without sin, the only man. That's why He's born of
a virgin. He's not born of Adam's corrupt
seed. He's holy, spotless. And He goes to the garden and
presents Himself to the Father just like the lamb, the spotless
lamb was brought. And God made Him sin. He took
the sin of His people and laid it on His Son and made Him sin
in place of His people. And Christ went to the cross
to bear the fury of God's justice in the place of his people and
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. He gave his sinless body and
there on that cross, bearing the sins of his people, he bore
the fury of God's justice. The fury of God's justice. I wish that that didn't just
go over our head. I wish that didn't just come
as just something we've heard over and over and over. I wish
that God would give us grace in our heart to hear that. The fierce fury of God. The world
went black. The world went dark. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me? Thou art holy, and I am a worm, and no man." And He satisfied divine justice. You see, this is what's not being
preached. The issue is not about you being moral. The issue is
not about you Everything that's being preached in the epistles
and what have you, the purpose of the epistles is to teach you
and me to stay out of the way. Don't draw attention to yourself.
That sums it all up. We want to focus on Christ. That's what the epistles are
teaching us. But here's the issue of the Gospel. Christ came to
declare the righteousness of God. He came to declare how God
can be just and the justifier of those that believe on Christ.
When He comes into the world, He said, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. And He
gave that body and we're sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ. There's priests standing, there's
people standing in churches and there's people in the world and
they're trying to make sacrifices to appease God. But this man,
after he had made one sacrifice for sin, one, sat down, from
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,
for by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. When he said it's finished, he
was saying he made an end of sin. an end of sin's condemnation,
an end of sin's curse, an end of sin's judgment, sin's consequence,
sin's guilt, sin's death, sin's past, present, and future. In
fact, if you're in Christ, I can tell you this, before God, your
sin does not even exist. Isn't that good news? When all
you see in yourself is sin, yet to the all-knowing eye of God,
because Christ so satisfied divine justice, our sin doesn't exist. Scripture says this, you know
that He was manifested to take away our sin, and in Him is no
sin. No sin. No charge can be brought
against us. No charge can be brought. In
those days and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
whom I reserve." No sin. Now that's the first thing he
meant when he said it's finished. He put away our sin. Number two. When Christ cried His finish,
He declared that He finished the work of making reconciliation
to God for our iniquity. By our sin, we became God's enemy. We became the enemy of God. You think about, do you have
an enemy? There's somebody that is an enemy
to you. We became the enemy of God. So whenever Christ came, He had
to make reparation because of the foulness of us toward God. And when He cried, It's finished,
He sang by His blood, by the sacrifice of Himself, by His
sufferings, by His death. He made full reparation to God
for the injury done to God by all our iniquities. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 5
with me. And you'll want to hold your
place there. I'm going to come back to it in just a moment. It says in 2 Corinthians 5.17,
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And all things are of God. who hath reconciled us to Himself
by Jesus Christ." Isn't that amazing? You think of somebody that is
the worst enemy you have. Everything they've ever done,
everything we ever did to God was cuss Him, blaspheme Him,
steal from Him, rob Him, Take everything He gave us and praise
ourselves for it. And just abuse everything God
ever gave us. We were His enemy. And yet God
sent His own Son. His own Son to reconcile us to
Himself. To reconcile us to Himself. And look now, and it says, and
He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That's what
you've heard preached this weekend is the ministry of reconciliation.
To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling the world, His people all over
the world. Reconciling the world unto Himself
and not imputing their trespasses unto them. And He's committed
to us the word of reconciliation. And so now we stand as ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead. We stand here in the place
of God, in the place of our Lord Jesus, sit by Him to be an ambassador
and say, Be ye reconciled to God. Brother Henry used to say,
lay down your shotgun. Quit firing off at God. Quit
rejecting God. Lay down your shotgun now. And
if God gives you the grace to do it, that's exactly what you'll
do. That's the only thing you can do. Because He's reconciled
His people. Look over at Romans 5 and verse
8. Romans 5 verse 8. It says here, God commendeth
His love toward us. Man, I always want to talk about
the love of God. Love of God is in Christ, and
the love of God successfully accomplishes something. Here's
what it does. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son." That doesn't mean Christ tried to reconcile us.
That doesn't mean He was attempting and now it's up to you to make
His reconciliation effectual. When we were enemies, and nothing
but enemies, Enemies in our mind by wicked works. When all we
thought of God was just hatred toward God, in Christ, God already
reconciled us to Him. He succeeded. That tells you
who's reconciled. That tells you who the world
is He reconciled. It's all those He successfully
reconciled. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more. Being
now reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. If He did that for
us when we were enemies, He said, now that we're the friend of
God, we're going to be saved by His life. And not only that,
we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
now received this atonement, this reconciliation. Now you
just think of that, brethren. Abraham, you read in the scripture
where it says, Abraham was called the friend of God. Everybody here that he's given
grace to believe on him, that can be said of you. You are the
friend of God. Isn't that amazing? The friend of God. That work's
finished. We don't have to try to put away
our sin anymore. It's finished. We don't have
to try to make ourselves be the friend of God anymore. God accomplished
it in Christ. It is finished. All right, here's
the third thing. Christ finished the work of bringing
in everlasting righteousness for His people. For all for whom
He died, our Savior restored that which He took not away.
He established perfect righteousness for us when He magnified the
law and made the law honorable. Do you remember what the Lord
told somebody one day that the fulfillment of the law is this,
love God and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the fulfillment
of the law. Love God and love your neighbor
as yourself. That's the righteousness of the
law. How did Christ do that? He's
the only one that ever did it. He didn't have to strive to do
it. It's who He is. It's who He is. It was His obedience. How did He do it? He was willing to take the sin
of His people. He made sin for His people. He
was willing to go and hang upon that cursed cross. Here's God
and here's His people. He's willing, out of a love for
His Father and a love for His people, He's willing to be forsaken
by both. I think it's amazing that, you
know, the positive righteousness of the law was fulfilled by Him
bearing the negative side of the law. Really and truly it
was. He bore our sin and bore the justice we deserve because
He loved God and would declare God just and the justifier and
He loved His people and He would save His people from our sin.
That's the righteousness the law declares. He denied Himself so much He
was willing to be forsaken of God and forsaken by His people. His people left Him. We turned
our back and ran. He hung there alone. on that
cross. Now, anybody that wants to say,
well, I believe I need to do something to fulfill the law,
that's what's required. You want to work the righteousness
of the law, that's what's required. He's the only person that ever
did it. The righteousness of God is not
a doctrine. The righteousness of God is a
person. He's declaring the righteousness of God. He's declaring what God's
with. That's God willing to give Himself
to be forsaken, give Himself to satisfy justice, give Himself
to bear what we deserve. That's the righteousness that
our God is. That's the love our God is. This
love men talk about is not love. That's true love. That's righteousness
right there. Do you get what I'm saying? He who knew no sin was made sin
for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's me. That's me there that
did that for God and for my brethren. That's you who believe Him. That's
you who did that for God and for your brethren. This thing
of, you know, well, I'm going to deny myself today. I really
want to go to the park, but I'm going to go over here and help
my brother dig out this ditch. Well, that's good. That's fine.
But that's not the denying yourself it requires to be righteous. You see that denial on the cross. That's the righteousness of God. And then the Lord sent the Spirit
of God in our hearts and the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.
What the law couldn't do because it was weak through our flesh,
God sent His Son and He condemned death. And He fulfilled
all righteousness. And when He comes into your heart,
He makes you to know that our righteousness was earned by His
obedience. Our righteousness is bestowed
upon us by His grace. Our righteousness is given freely
and received by the gift of faith that He gives you. Our righteousness
is an everlasting righteousness. We have a righteousness, brethren,
that is everlasting. It's forever. Our righteousness is seated there
at the right hand of God. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now understand
what he said there. He's not the righteousness of
God for everybody. Only for those that believe Him.
Those men that are telling you, well, it's okay to believe Him,
but now you've got to go back to Mount Sinai and there's some
things you have to do. They don't believe Him. They
don't believe Him. If they did, they would stop
working for righteousness because He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. How do you know those that trust
Him to be righteousness? They're not trying to earn a
righteousness for themselves. They trust Him. They believe
Him. I just knew Brother Peter was going to say this the other
day in the message. But you know, when you read Romans
3 and it gets to the end and it says, do we then make void
the law through faith? God forbid we establish the law
through faith. And you've heard men say there,
see there, even though we believe, we have to go and keep the law
now. That's not what that's saying.
Keep reading it. Don't even look at the chapter
break. Just keep reading it. It says just like what Abraham
found, that's what we found. He believed God. And that's how
he was made righteous. And do you know that Abraham
fulfilled all the righteousness of the law 430 years before the
law was given? What was his rule of life? The
law of Mount Sinai wasn't even given yet. What was Noah's rule
of life? What was Enoch's rule of life?
What was Abel's rule of life? The law wasn't even given yet!
And yet they fulfilled it perfectly. How? They trusted the righteousness
of God. They believed Christ, the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of God is a
person. So when he said it's finished, he's saying there's
no righteousness to be worked out anymore. I finished it. I
finished it. All right, fourthly, Christ finished
the work of sealing up the vision and prophecy. He said, think
not that I came to destroy the law. I came not to destroy the
law, but to fulfill it. He said, the law and the prophets.
He said, think not that I came to destroy the law and the prophets.
I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. There again, you've
heard it. People take that scripture and
they'll say, see there? He didn't do away with the law
and the prophets. We have to work it out. Well, let me ask
you something. Now, you take that logic. He
said, I came not to destroy the law and the prophets. If that
means he didn't destroy the law, that you have to do something
to fulfill the law, that also means you have to fulfill the
prophecies, right? He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law and the prophets. I came to fulfill them. If that
means now that, if that means what men say, that He didn't
put it into the law, you have to fulfill the law, then you
also are the one that has to fulfill the prophets. And you
know that's not up to us. You see, this cup right here,
that cup's not full. I filled it. Watch, even when
I fill this cup right here, I'm filling that cup, but I haven't
filled that cup full. It's not fulfilled. When it's
fulfilled, you won't be able to put another drop in it. It'll be filled full. That's
what Christ did to the Law and the Prophets. He said, I came
to fulfill, to fill it full. Everything that was written in
law, everything written in the prophets, everything in the types,
everything in the promises was all declaring Christ. Everything
in this book declares Christ Jesus the Lord. That's what the
Bible is given for. That's what the world was made
for. All the types and shadows of
the old covenant was all typifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
He's made, typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ didn't walk along this earth and pick up a seed and
say, well, now, that illustrates me. Seeds got to go into the
ground. Seeds got to be broken. And from
it comes the vine, and from the vine comes the fruit. That illustrates
me. I believe I'll use that to illustrate me. He made the seed
for that purpose. And everything he did when he
made Israel, he made Israel to show his people, a picture of
his people, his church. He made the high priest to show
him. He made the lamb to show him.
He made the mercy seat to show him. Everything about it was
a picture of him. And he came and fulfilled everything
that was written. The Gospel is that which He promised
to for by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His
Son, the Lord Jesus. And He came and fulfilled it
all. And to show us, it says there in our text, that the Scripture
might be fulfilled, that the Law and the Prophets might be
fulfilled. He even said, I thirst. Everything is showing you He
fulfilled everything. In intricate detail, He fulfilled
everything. And now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. But it's witnessed, it's borne
witness to by the law and the prophets. Everything we read,
when you read the Old Testament, I used to read it when I was
a boy and I thought, this makes no sense. I try to read it straight
through like you read a book, you know, and I start reading
it and I just It made no sense to me. The key to the Scriptures
is not to look at the Scriptures to try to find life in them.
Not to look at the Scriptures to try to find something you
can do to obtain life. It's to look in the Scriptures
to see, how does this glorify Christ? Where's Christ in this? Let me see Christ in this. That's
when the Scriptures just open up to you, when you start seeing
Christ. He fulfilled everything in it. I got my outline, you know now,
most of you know now. I got it from Daniel 9.24. It
says there that 70 weeks to determine upon thy people and thy holy
city, number one, it's telling what Christ would do, number
one, to finish the transgression and make an end of sins, to make
reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision and the prophecy. Christ said, it's
finished. It is finished. Now there's one
last thing that it says there in Daniel 9. He finished the
work of anointing the Most Holy, of anointing the Most Holy. When
Brother Allen read the Scripture there, it said that when he had
cried with a slow voice and said it's finished, he gave up the
ghost and it said the veil in the temple rent in two. That
veil in that temple was thick. It was not just a little piece
of cloth. It was thick. And that veil split from the
top to the bottom. You know what that veil was,
don't you? That veil was the place that made the holiest of
holies. It was the place that made that
inner chamber in the temple. And only the high priest could
go in there once a year. That high priest pictured Christ.
And he went in there with blood, the blood of a lamb. But that
blood and that lamb pictured Christ. And when Christ said
it's finished, He was declaring, I'm that high priest, I'm that
lamb, it's my blood, and I'm the mercy seat. And all that
old covenant is finished now. I'm the fulfillment of it. Now
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9 and look at verse 12. Hebrews 9 verse 12. It says here,
"...neither by the blood of goats..." Let's begin reading in verse
11. "...Christ being come a high priest of good things to come
by greater and a more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building..." We're not looking at that old
building anymore. It was a picture. Christ has
come now. He has entered a different place.
Verse 12, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His
own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Now turn with me over to Hebrews
chapter 10. When Christ Christ is finished
and gave up the ghost, our Lord Jesus through His own blood,
by His own blood, with His own blood entered in, not to a holy
place made with hands. He entered into the presence
of God. That's what that holy place represented.
God's presence. God's holy presence. And He entered
into that holiest of holies with His own blood because He had
obtained Eternal redemption. Redeemed from the law. Redeemed
from this body of death. And one day to be redeemed from
this world. He's our Redeemer. He obtained
redemption for us. And there's another thing that
He does when He anoints the holy place. He anoints His child. His Spirit enters in and He creates
new life in us and He writes a new law in our heart. You know
the law He writes in the hearts, not the Ten Commandments. You
have that written on your conscience now. You know stealing a chicken
is wrong. He writes the law of Christ,
the law of liberty, the law of love, the law of faith. He writes
that law in your heart that makes you say, here's your rule of
life, faith, I believe Christ, I trust Christ. He's the end
of the law of Christ, I believe Him. And everything I do now
is done from the motive, the heart's motive, the constraint
of His love. Constraint faith which worketh
by love. So that you do this now, in any
decision you have to make in life, whatever it is, here's
your guiding rule, here's your guiding principle. What's going
to glorify my Redeemer and what's going to be best for my brethren? What's going to glorify my Redeemer,
what's going to be best for my brethren? That's the rule we're
under. It's the rule of faith which works by love. That's the
law He writes on the heart. It's a whole different rule that
we're under. And look, and this is what you
find out, verse 19, Hebrews 10, 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
welcome access, into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which
He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His
flesh, not through that old cloth veil, through Him, through His
body. We have a high priest over the
house of God. Let us draw near now with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Let
me tell you something about holiness. What he told us right there is
that every child that's born of God that's been anointed by
Christ Jesus, our high priest, is holy. and has welcome access
into God's presence. You know what that tells you?
That tells you a man's either holy or he's not holy. He's not getting more holy. If
you're holy, you can go into God's holy presence now. That
tells you that there's not degrees of holiness. That tells you if
you're holy, you can enter God's holy presence. God will receive
you. That means you are holy. That means you have that holiness
without which no man will see the Lord. That thief on the cross
had both his hands and both his feet nailed to the cross. And
that day he entered into the presence, into the holiest of
holies, into the presence of the holy God. You know what that
means? He had that holiness. without which no man shall see
the Lord. He had it with both His hands and His feet nailed
to a cross. He had it without doing one thing.
What is it? It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. He makes His people holy. February 10th, 1970, I became
a human being. Well, no, no, no. That's when
I physically came forth. Nine months before that, I became
a human. I was conceived in my mother's womb. And from that
time forward, I grew as a human being. I have never grown to
be more of a human being. I've been a human since the moment
I was conceived. I've grown in that state of being
a human, but I've not grown more human. And when you're regenerated
by this, anointed by this Holy Spirit and made a child of God,
a quickened, redeemed, regenerated child of God, You're holy. You
don't get more holy. You grow in that state of holiness,
but you don't get more holy. The only place you're going to
find sinners spoken of as holier in a relative sense is not a
positive. It's a negative. It's where they
said, stand over there. Don't come near us. We're holier
than you are. And God said, Those rotten devils
are a stench in my nostrils. I can't stand to smell them.
It stinks. God makes His people holy. When
Christ said it's finished, He had entered into that holy place.
And He anoints us and gives us entrance into that holy place.
And if God receives you, you don't have to worry about anything
else. That means it's finished. And if every saint that is born
of God is fit right now to enter into God's presence and be accepted.
I pray that's a blessing to you, brethren.