Such a blessing. What a masterful,
masterful handling of John chapter 9. Thank you, Brother Todd. Thank
you. I like to hear a fellow preach who instructs me and gives
me something good from my heart, don't you? If you'd like to follow along
with me, I'm going to be reading from John chapter 19, beginning at
verse 28. The Gospel of John chapter 19
and verse 28. Jesus knowing that all things
were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. Now there was a set of vessel
full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put
it upon his 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. The son of God had taken on himself
our humanity. God the Son stepped into human
flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God in human flesh walked on
the earth for 33 and a half years, the full age of a man. And as he walked on this earth,
God in our flesh, he did so as our representative. as the covenant
surety of God's elect on the behalf of God's chosen. He did not come here to live
for himself. He did not come here to perform
righteousness for himself. He did not come here to obey
God's law for himself. He came here to obey God's law
that thereby he might bring in everlasting righteousness for
his people. And as he obeyed God, Those commandments,
Brother Todd quoted just a little bit ago, as he obeyed God's commandments,
the 10 commandments, as he obeyed God's law, every jot and tittle
of the law, as he obeyed his father's will, not only that
which is revealed in the word, but that which was known only
to him and God, he obeyed God as the representative of our
soul. And we obey God in Him. That's how it really is. We obey God in Him. Just as we
sinned in Adam, we obey God in the last Adam. Just as Levi paid
tithes in the loins of Abraham, we obey God in Christ Jesus,
our Lord, our head and our representative. Our Lord then fulfilled all righteousness
by his obedience unto God. But all the while, he was despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. His enemies were many, his friends
were few, and those few were terribly faithless. At last,
he's delivered into the hands of those who hated him. He's
crudely arrested in the garden, arraigned in mockery before the
courts of law. They robed him in mockery, stripped
him in shame, and held him up as a spectacle of ridicule and
scorn. He is declared by Pilate, the
judge, to be perfectly innocent. without fault. And yet that cowardly
judge delivers him into the hands of his persecutors. It is written,
Pilate delivered Jesus to their will. If there is ever any statement
in the word of God sufficient in itself to utterly and forever
make the thought of man's will repugnant to our souls. It is
that statement. Pilate delivered Jesus to their
will. He's dragged through the streets
of Jerusalem in a hellish infamous parade. Those who killed the
prophets now bring upon themselves the blood of the prophet's master
and the prophet's God. The God-man is brought to the
hill called Calvary, Golgotha, and there he is stretched out
and nailed to a cross. They pick it up and drop the
cross in a socket prepared for it, and he is watched as he suffers
and dies. The sun burns him. The wounds
in his body infect his body with a scorching fever. God, his father,
whose will he came to perform, whose purpose he now fulfills,
whose people he came to redeem, whose glory he came here to uphold,
and to reveal, his God and Father forsakes him. And suffering all
the concentrated fullness of hell, suffering all the concentrated
fullness of God's wrath upon man in hell, he cries, my God,
my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? While he hangs there upon
the tree in mortal conflict with sin and Satan, his heart is broken. His guiltiness overwhelms him. His sin bars heaven from his
sights. His bones are dislocated. His father forsakes it. Heaven
forsakes it. Earth forsakes it. His disciples
forsake him, all of them, and flee from him. He looks everywhere,
but there's none to help. His eye looks around, and there's
none to share his toil. He treads the fierceness of the
winepress of the wrath of God in the day of the vengeance of
our God alone, altogether alone. Of the people, there was none
with him. And yet, he goes on relentlessly. His face set like a flinch. Resolved, determined, he goes
on, suffering yet the wrath of God in his body on the tree. He said, the Lord hath opened
mine ears, and I was not rebellious, neither turned I away back. I
gave my back to the spiders, my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. For the glory of God, for the
honor of God's holy law, for the redemption of our souls,
in order to complete the work for which you came into this
world, the Lord God, Our savior suffers all the wrath
of God in our stead until at last he cries, it is finished. And then we're told he gave up
the ghost. Do you hear the cry? The cry
of his anguish, the cry of his suffering, the cry of his sorrow
and the cry of his great great accomplishment, the Son of God
cries, it is finished. Oh, hear that cry as it is heard
in heaven. Hear that cry as the angels of
God hear it. Hear that cry as the damned in
hell hear it. Hear that cry as Satan hears
it. Hear that cry as the demons of
hell hear it. Hear that cry fresh today. Oh God, speak to our hearts and
make us to know the fact of it, the result of it, the experience
of it, and the cause of it. Let me spend most of my time
with this first thing, because this is the most important. I
want you to know the fact of it. It is finished. When the Lord Jesus hung upon
the curse tree, all the work of redemption was finished, finished,
brought to its conclusion, ended. It is finished. Nothing was left
undone. Nothing more needed to be done.
Nothing more could be done. Christ had come into the world
to redeem a people unto himself and those people are redeemed. Turn back to the book of Daniel,
the gospel of Daniel chapter nine, Daniel chapter nine. Now the scriptures are specific.
clear, unmistakable in declaring how the Christ would be identified,
how he would be known, how the seed of woman, the promised seed
of Abraham, the Redeemer of Israel, David's son would be identified. Daniel here gives us seven or
six very clear, plain statements identifying what Christ must
accomplish. These things must be accomplished
by that man who is the Christ. And if the one you trust as the
Christ did not at Calvary accomplish these six things, then you trust
a false Christ, not the Christ of God. Daniel 9 verse 24, 70
weeks are determined upon the people and upon the holy city. Now, Most folks get all caught
up in those 70 weeks and start to get a calculator out and figure
out the times and get charts out and calendars and, well,
which calendar do we use and how do we measure that and how
do we know when the 70 weeks... The 70 weeks are unimportant. The 70 weeks are unimportant.
Now I know you can go all over Nashville, Tennessee and hear
Baptist preachers talking about the 70 weeks almost any Sunday.
The 70 weeks are unimportant. But what was accomplished at
the end of the 70 weeks, that's vital. And this is what he accomplished. They're determined to finish
the transgression. To finish the transgression. To finish the transgression. Jesus the Christ finished the
transgression of his people. Finished. What's that mean? Second,
to make an end, a full stop of sins. To make an end of sins. He wrapped up our transgressions,
finished them all, and brought them to an end when He, by the
sacrifice of Himself, put away our sin. He didn't try. He didn't make
it possible. He didn't provide for it to be
done. He didn't secure that it would be done. He Finished the
transgression. He made an end of sin. He cast them behind his back. He cast them into the depths
of the sea. He removed them from us as far
as the east is from the west. He made an end of sins. God tells
us by the mouth of a false prophet that he sees no sin in Israel
and beholds no iniquity in Jacob. How can that be? God speaks by
his prophet and says their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. How can God not see my sin? I do. How can God not remember
my sin? I do. You do. How can God who knows all not
see and not remember our transgressions? because God never can see what
is not. Let that settle in. God never
can see what is not. Are you telling us, Brother Don,
that God's people are without seeing? Well, let's see. He came to finish the transgression
and to make An end of sins. What does it say? What does it
say? I will remove the iniquity of that land one day. I'll remove
it. Christ put away our sins by the
sacrifice of himself. Yes. God's people have no sin
before God. Now understand what I'm telling
you. Understand what God's telling you. Understand what the word
of God declares. Before God, we have no sin. And Todd, that's the way it really
is. But it's so contrary to my experience.
Yes, sir, it is. And will be until you yourself
have ceased from sin altogether, when you have at last dropped
this robe of sin and entered into the glory of Jesus Christ
himself, the glory of Christ in you. In whom? That one who is born of God has
no sin. That one which is of the devil
is full of sin. And that's what we are by nature.
But he made an end of sins. And to make reconciliation for
iniquity. I love the way the scriptures
use all three words by which sin is identified in the Word
of God when God speaks to us about the forgiveness of sin
and redemption from sin and salvation from sin. Iniquity, transgression,
and sin. Iniquity is our inability, our
failure to come up to the standard of God's law. It is inequity. Transgression is our seeing the
commandment of God, kicking over the fence and transgressing,
saying, God, get out of my way, I'll do what I want to. Sin is
what we are, and sins are the acts of what we are by nature. But Christ came to finish the
transgression, our breach of God's law, to make an end of
sins. all that we do in our fallen
humanity and to make reconciliation for iniquity, to reconcile sinners
to God, to reconcile sinners to God. God was in Christ reconciling
the world. Now, let me give you a very good
biblical paraphrase of that word world. God was in Christ reconciling
the world of his elect unto himself. That's exactly what Paul means
when he says that. God was not in Christ reconciling
everybody in the world to himself. That was never his design, his
intention, or his desire. Had he designed it, had he intended
it, had he desired it, everybody in the world would be reconciled
to God. You too. You too. But God was
in Christ, reconciling the chosen people, a multitude that no man
can number, scattered throughout the world among all the sons
and daughters of Adam, rich and poor, male and female, Jew and
Gentile, black and white, bond and free, learned and unlearned.
God has his elect everywhere in all races and people, and
God was in Christ, reconciling the whole world of his elect
unto himself. How? not imputing their transgressions,
their trespasses unto them. But rather when he made his son
sin for us, imputing our transgressions, our iniquities, our trespasses
to him. It is finished. Read on. To bring
in everlasting righteousness. to bring in everlasting righteousness. God not only punishes sin for
the satisfying of his justice. That must be done. But God cannot
receive us except he make us perfectly righteous. By the righteousness
of God accomplished for us by His darling Son. By the righteousness
of God given to us by divine imputation because we obey God's
law in His Son. God imputes righteousness where
righteousness is found. He does not impute righteousness
where there is no righteousness. That means if God imputes righteousness
to you, you're righteous. God doesn't lie. God doesn't
fake it. God doesn't pretend. He imputes
righteousness to sinners who obey his law in his son. And he imparts that righteousness
to us in the new birth, giving us to be partakers of the divine
nature, making us new creatures in Jesus Christ by the omnipotent
power of his grace. And the Lord God does this because
his son was punished for our transgressions and for our sins. Now, what's this? To seal up
the vision. To seal up the vision. Well, I finished the book. There
it is. To seal up the vision, to finish
the vision. To bring all that was written
in the Old Testament prophets to its conclusion. To bring all
that was written in the law to its conclusion. To bring all
that God said by His law and His prophets to its conclusion.
The whole vision of the Old Testament Scripture sealed up in one person
by one man's obedience unto death. Our substitute, Christ Jesus
the Lord. And to anoint the most holy. God poured his spirit upon him
and he sat him upon his throne. You remember what he promised
David? He said, David, there'll never lack a man to sit on your
throne. There'll never lack a man to sit on your throne. Well,
I scratch my head and I think, I can find a lot of times there
wasn't a king in Israel. I can show you a lot of times
there wasn't a king in Israel. There's not a king in Israel today. Not
in that one over yonder across the pond. They haven't had a
king in a long time. They didn't have a king back
when the gospels were written, when our Lord was walking on
this earth. They didn't have a king. They didn't have a king. They
hadn't had a king in a long time. Well, what's it mean? David,
you'll never lack a man to sit on your throne. He who is David's
son is David's Lord who sat on that throne from eternity. And
he came to be manifestly seated on that throne as the accomplisher
of redemption when he finished his work and is raised up in
glory. And God set him down at his old
right hand, having finished the work, the most holy has been
anointed. What did our Savior mean then
when he said it is finished? Let me make four or five statements
just very clear, and I'll just make the statements. He meant
that all the types Promises and prophecies of all the Old Testament
scriptures were fulfilled and finished forever. Well, Brother Don, you overstated
that. No, I stated it just the way I meant it. All the types
All the promises, all the prophecies of all the Old Testament scriptures
were fulfilled forever in Jesus Christ, in his life, in his obedience,
in his sacrifice, in his death, in his ascension, in his session
at the Father's right hand as our great high priest, our king,
our mediator, and our prophet sitting on the throne of glory,
all fulfilled in him. What about all those prophecies
that talk about the end times? All those prophecies tell us
that we're looking for signs. You're looking for the wrong
thing. You're looking for the wrong thing. The New Testament. The New Testament. Our Lord speaks
plainly. His apostles speak plainly. Tell
us not to look for signs. Oh, things are so bad. I hear
this so much. I don't, I don't, I don't use
the correct. I just, oh, well, all this stuff. That's the sign
the end's coming. The end's near. Oh, the sodomites,
the perversity. Down in Houston, they got that
sodomite mayor trying to harass churches and get notes and stuff,
passing laws. Oh, oh, that's the sign of the
end. No, it's not. That's the way it was in the
days of Noah. That's the way it was in the days of Lot. That's
the way it was in the days of Jonah. That's the way it is today.
That's the way it's always been. While flesh walks on this earth
in sin, men and women eat and drink and marry and are given
in marriage, and they live like hell. That's the way men live.
That's the way they live. Well, what about all those wars
over in Israel? I'm a fairly young fella. I haven't
had a lot of experience. But as long as I've been around,
for as long as I've been aware of anything going on in Israel,
they've been having war over there. Have any of you ever known
a nut to have? Anybody, since 1948 when they
were regathered as a nation, has anybody ever known not to
have war over there? And before that, before they were reorganized
as a nation, war was persistent all the way through their history,
ever since they nailed the Son of God to the curse tree. And
as long as time stands, there's going to be war over there. Oh,
this is it. Every time there's another conflict
over the Middle East, somebody writes a book, and they sell
100,000 copies, and then it doesn't come to pass, and somebody else
goes, oh, this is it, we won't mistake it, we got it now, and
they sell another 100,000 copies and go to the bank, and people
eat it up. Christ finished the work, and when he finished the
work, he fulfilled every prophecy and every promise and every type
in the Old Testament, all of them. All the Old Testament scriptures
are full of types, pictures of our Redeemer. He's the prophet
like Moses and the deliverer like Joshua. He's a priest like
Aaron and a priest like Melchizedek. You notice in the scriptures
that you read types. Never is one type used to picture
him in any way. Not a single type. Every time
there's a type of Christ, there's another one to finish out the
picture. Because no one type is sufficient. He's a priest
like Aaron, but he's also a priest like Melchizedek. He is a king
like David. And he's a king like Solomon.
He's a lamb, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And he's the scapegoat who's set free in the wilderness. The
Lord Jesus is the turtle dove dipped in blood and the priest
who killed the dove and dipped it in the blood. He's the altar
and he's the tabernacle. He's the mercy seat and the showbread,
the sacrifice and the sacrificer. Second, when our Lord said it
is finished, he meant for us to understand. that all the types
and ceremonies of the Old Testament law were finished. Hebrews chapter
10 says those things were a shadow of good things to come. Just
a shadow of good things to come. Not a shadow of bad things. A
shadow of good things to come. A shadow of the accomplishment
of redemption by Christ. The Passover. Mercy seat, the Ark of the Covenant,
the sacrifices, the morning sacrifice, the evening sacrifice, the priest,
the priestly garments, the priestly, gorgeous priestly garments that
he wore in public and the linen garments he wore in the Holy
of Holies. All those things in the Old Testament
were shadows of the coming of one who is the Christ of God,
who will bring in everlasting salvation. And when he came,
he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. He took away
the first. He took away the first. What's
that mean? It means exactly what it said.
He took away the first so that those things are all ended. They're
all finished. That he may bring in the second
by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ one time with finality. Third, when our Lord
Jesus cried, it is finished. He meant that all the commandments
of the law of God were at a full stop. at a full stop. I keep trying
to find words that will properly state what Paul states in Hebrews
10 for so properly, but we just somehow, we hear things just
twist there. He's not, that's not what it
meant. Christ is the end, the end Do you know the word
that's translated in John 19, 30, finished? You know what the
word is? End. Very same word. He finished the transgression.
He finished iniquity. He finished sin. He finished
the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes in him. The end,
the full stop. God's people are not under the
law. And children of God, you who
believe on the Son of God, hear me, it's high time you quit fretting
about the law. Christ is the end of the law.
He fulfilled it for you, Tommy. He satisfied it for you. And
now the law got nothing to do with you. And if you need the
law to get you to do something, you don't know him who's the
end of the law. Preachers are horrible. Preachers who know better when
church members don't attend church like they ought to, or they don't
give like they ought to, or they don't witness like they ought
to, or they get bent out of shape, match ugly, and don't behave
like they ought to. Preacher whips out the law. If
you were really a Christian, this is what you'd do. And so
you straighten up. Now I'm going to church regularly,
reading the Bible regularly, giving 10%, giving 10% more,
and I witnessed folks every day carry tax in their pocket. Now
I know I'm Christian. That's what the law does for
a fellow. Makes you look to you for hope. Christ is the end of
the law. God's people serve him because
they want to. God's people give because they want to. God's people
read his word because they want to. God's people seek his glory
because they want to. Because Christ has set us free
from the law. I know what it is to be in bondage. And I know what it is to be free. And freedom makes me grateful. Freedom makes me glad. Freedom makes me rejoice. Freedom compels me as nothing
else can to honor Him who is my freedom. When our Savior said
it is finished, He proclaimed that the way of access has been
opened up to God in the Holy of Holies. Turn to Hebrews 10
for a minute, I want you to see this. Hebrews 10. When our Lord
was crucified, there hung between the holy place
and the most holy place in the temple, a thick veil. It had been designed by God in
a pattern given to Moses, separating between the holy place and the
most holy place. Separating between the place
of common worship and the place where God's glory dwelt. The
place where God met his people on the mercy seat. The place
where God showed his glory. And when the Lord Jesus said,
it is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost,
that thick veil, it was... Brother Chris, that curtain was
about a foot thick. A little more, a little less, about a
foot thick. You wouldn't tear that like you'd tear up a big
catalog. It was about a foot thick. And it didn't rip from
the bottom to the top after it'd all been, it'd been hanging there
for 2,000 years, pre-schooling in and out every year. Somehow
I got a feeling the curtain that was a foot thick would not be
worn out by you moving it 2,000 times. I don't think it would. But just in case anybody should
imagine that was the case, it was rent from top to bottom. God ripped it open and he said
sinners now come with full assurance to me. Come with full assurance. Look here in Hebrews chapter
10 verse 19. Having therefore brethren boldness, the word is
confidence not cockiness, to enter 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, and having
a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near, draw
near to God, come to the holy Lord God, the holy Lord God in
all his purity, in all his reverence, in all his majesty, with a true
heart, in full assurance of faith. having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. What's
he talking about? Having all the Old Testament
ceremony of purification accomplished for us in our hearts by God the
Holy Spirit, purifying us with the washing of regeneration,
sprinkling on our consciences the blood of Christ. Ah, now
here's what he's talking about. When Aaron went in to the Holy
of Holies, you've all heard stories about how he had bells and pomegranates
around his garments, and he did, the ones he wore in public. But
when he went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement,
he took those garments off. I've heard preachers say he wore
those bells and pomegranates so that if he went in there and
something happened and he died, folks would know when the bells
stopped ringing, Aaron had died, they'd put a stick in there and
pull him out. No. No. No, he didn't go in there
fearing death. He had no reason to. God commanded
him to come in. As long as you come with the
blood of the Paschal Lamb, I ordained. Come and welcome. Not only are
you welcome to come, you're commanded to come. You're commanded to
come. Commanded to come with full assurance. with full assurance. Brother
Don, I sure would like to have full assurance. Bring Christ
to God. Bring Christ to God. Not your feelings, not your knowledge,
not your works, not your goodness, not your heredity, not your baptism,
not your pedigree, not the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper.
Bring Christ to God! and you'll come to God with full
assurance. Full assurance. I just got a
letter from a friend of mine today. I've, bless his heart,
been struggling with experience for years. And I keep telling
him, Christ is enough. But brother
Don, am I saying, I'm not about to tell you that. I'm not, I'm
not about to tell you whether you're saved or not. I'm not
about, I'm not about to try to convince you you know God when
you don't. I'm not about to do that, but I'm here to tell you
that if you bring Christ to God, you won't need me to tell you. You won't need me to tell you.
He speaks peace to the soul, and you come to God with full
worship. Abraham brought that blood in,
I can just picture it. As we get older, they call them
voluntary tremors, but they're involuntary, our hands shaking.
But I can just picture Abraham as an old man. He walks in there
with hands of steel and a heart full of joy and he takes that
blood and the hyssop and he sprinkles it on the mercy seat. How dare he? God said do it. and I'll meet you on the mercy
seat between the cherubs and there I'll commune with you.
Oh sinner, come to God by faith in Jesus Christ the Lord and
God promises he will meet you in his Son and commune with you. You remember when Moses had finished
building the tabernacle in the last chapter of Exodus? Get down
to the bottom of the page, that last chapter of Exodus, and about
third verse, I think, about 38, 39. The scripture tells us that
when the tabernacle was finished, the glory of God filled the tabernacle
so that Moses could not enter in. Moses could not enter in. But
Moses built the thing. He was the one who put it all
together. Moses did it. Moses did it. But he could not
enter in when the work was done. Because the work portrayed, the
whole tabernacle, all its instruments, all its furnishings, portrayed
Jesus Christ crucified and salvation accomplished by him. And Moses
couldn't enter in. The whole of God's salvation
was accomplished for us by the law. By Christ perfectly fulfilling
the law. And now that it's done, God showed
his glory in the face of the crucified Christ. Now, the law
can never enter into that place. Can never enter in because this
is God's work and God's work alone. when the Lord Jesus cried,
it is finished. He declared that he had perfectly,
fully, effectually, everlastingly accomplished the redemption of
his people. It's done, it's done. An old
lady in England many years ago, an old man, a friend of mine,
telling me about her, the last time I was there, he said she,
had a preacher come along trying to talk to her about religion.
She said, she said, son, your religion lacks two letters. What are you talking about? She
said, your religion lacks two letters. Your religion says do. The gospel proclaims done. Done. done as God himself would
have it. Christ Jesus, in his substitutionary
death at Calvary, fully accomplished the redemption of our souls.
Now, understand the result of it and rejoice. Because redemption's
work is finished by the Son of God, the covenant The testament
of our Savior is ratified. In the ninth chapter of Hebrews,
we're told about this testament. It's in force when a man dies. Now, when you read the word testament
in Hebrews, and you read the word covenant in Hebrews, you
read the word testament, the word covenant throughout the
New Testament, the two words are exactly the same word in
the Greek text. Why did the translators translate
them differently? Why? Because when it's translated
testament, it's obvious. He's talking to us about that
work of covenant grace accomplished by God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit before the world was. And we talk about
testament, he's talking about God's sovereign decree. And the two are the same. The
two are the same, identically the same. People argue, well,
we're covenant theologians, we're not, we believe in absolute predestination. They're not at odds with one
another. The covenant of grace is but God, now listen, when
God makes himself known to Bob Morrell, I'm sorry, Bob, but
this is what he has to do. He has to stoop real low. I mean, he got stooped real low
and use language that our puny brains can't get hold of. And
so he uses words like covenant and testament to speak of the
same thing. When he speaks of eternal life and everlasting
life, the words are exactly the same. But everywhere they're
used, our translators are very careful. When he speaks of eternal
life, he's talking about eternal life we had with Christ, who
is life before the world was given us in time, when he gives
us life and faith in the Redeemer in the new birth. When he talks
about everlasting life, Now, God's given me life and I have
everlasting life. He's talking about the experience
of it. Well, it speaks of this covenant, the testament. And
it says that Christ, by his blood, by his death, has now put in
force the testament. Which means that all the will
of God, all the promises of God, all the blessings of God, All
the inheritance of grace heaped upon us in Christ before the
world was in covenant mercy pledged to us by our Redeemer upon the
ground of his accomplished death at Calvary now flow in abundance
to God's elect. Well, how do you know he's going
to fulfill his covenant? This is the only man who ever died
who lives again to seek to it that his covenant, that his testament
is enforced. He's seated on the throne and
has power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the
Father has given him. Now, I want you to know the experience
of it. The prophet says, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Unlike, unlike every false prophet,
unlike every false prophet, God's servants proclaim redemption
done. Salvation accomplished. Pardon
performed. Forgiveness finished. Justification
finished. Sanctification finished. Righteousness
finished. Well, brother God, I don't know
anything about those things. We proclaim to sinners not the
possibility, but the certainty and the accomplishment of those
things through Christ the Lord. But you know nothing about it. until you experience it by His
grace." Nothing. I just spoke to the folks from
Wheelingburg and moved down here, and she learned to say grits. Yeah, that's good. Learned to
say grits. That's good. Keep it up and folks
won't suspect you from Ohio. I like that. I'm a Southern fella. I'm so Southern, if I couldn't
be Southern, I'd at least be ashamed. But I had to visit a
place on a few occasions and only went once to Appomattox
Courthouse. Once was enough. It was a scene
of a terrible, terrible incident. General Lee, at Appomattox Courthouse
in Appomattox, Virginia, surrendered the Confederate Army to a fellow
named Grant and President Lincoln, and surrender was made. I just
don't like that. I'm sorry, I still just don't
like that. But that's the way it is. But
the illustration has a point. During those days, folks didn't
have email. I know some of you young folks
can't imagine that. They didn't have text messaging.
They didn't have telephones. Telegraph wires were not dependable.
And many of the troops in the outlying reaches of the country
didn't know the war was over for a long time. And they went
on fighting. They went on fighting. And I
can just picture some of my southern ancestors here, a Union army
coming down the road, and they're out of bullets. They don't have
anything but just their rifles and bayonets and sabers and some
rocks. And they give it one last charge.
And they're going to die if they must fighting the Union Army. And so they let out a rebel yell
and go to charge the army. And the commander said, wait,
wait, wait! The war's over! What? What? The war's over. Truce was signed at Appomattox
Courthouse three months ago. The war's over? Yeah, you boys
can go home. The war's over! The war's over. No more warfare? No, it's done. And they drop the rocks. And
they turn and start heading for their homes. Because peace is
now proclaimed and they come to the experience of it. This
is what we do in the preaching of the gospel. We come to proclaim
peace to sinners who are yet rebels to God. The peace is not
something you accomplish. The peace is not something you
perform. The peace is something God proclaims in your soul by
the word of His grace. A preacher can't speak it. He
uses the preacher, but the preacher can't speak it. You read the
Bible and the Bible letter can't speak it. He uses the Bible,
but the Bible itself can't speak it. Only God the Holy Spirit
Breathing upon the valley of dry bones can speak peace to
the rebel soul. Oh, may God reveal his Son in
you. Calls you to see the Son. And
as surely as you see the Son, believe in him, you have peace
with God. You receive the atonement he
accomplished at Calvary. What's the cause of this? Two
things. the justice of God, and the love
of God. Christ died in the room instead
of his people, bearing our sins in his body on the tree, because
justice could be satisfied with nothing less. And Christ willingly
did so. He said, here Father, bore my
ear through with all, I'll be your servant forever, Because
I love my master, and I love my wife, and I love my children. Oh, wondrous, incomprehensible,
everlasting, immutable, saving love of God in Christ Jesus. That's why I did it. What's the
result? Salvation finished. means salvation
sure. Salvation sure for every sinner
for whom Christ died. No question about that. No question
about that. And salvation sure for every
sinner who believes on the Son of God. I wonder if you can believe Him. I wonder if you can believe Him.
Where you sit right now, without moving a muscle, don't even say
a prayer. Don't even move your lips. Believe on the Son of God. This is what God says. He that believeth on the Son
of God. What does it say? Hath. Hath. have everlasting life. Oh God help you to believe on
his son and go home with everlasting life in your soul. Amen.