John chapter 19. John the 19th chapter. 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 upon hyssop,
and put it to his mouth. When therefore Jesus had received
the vinegar, he said, it is finished, and bowed his head and gave up
the ghost. God the son took upon himself
our humanity, took our flesh into union with deity, he lived
a life of perfect righteousness and complete obedience to the
triune God as a man. Not for himself, but for us. He has been all his life long
despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. His friends have been few, and
those few faithless and his enemies have been many. At last he's
arrested in Gethsemane, delivered over into the hands of them that
hate him. He's crudely arraigned before
the courts of law, and they robe him in mockery, plait a crown
of thorns, shove it down on his brow and stick a reed scepter
in his hand and mock him saying, hail king, and take the reed
and beat him with it, scourge him with a whip. And he's brought
before the people, declared repeatedly to be perfectly innocent. And
yet the cowardly judge, to whom God Almighty has given power
to do so, released Jesus to the will of the people. Pilate delivered
Jesus to their will. Anytime you think about man's
adoration of his will, anytime you think about men will-worshipping
Arminians bragging about their will, understand that the will
of man crucifies the Lord of Glory always. Always. Pilate delivered Jesus to their
will. He's dragged through the streets
of Jerusalem. Those who had killed the prophets
would now kill the prophets' master and their God. The God-man
is brought to the hill of Calvary, the place of the skull, Golgotha.
brutally nailed to the tree, and a hellish party ensues around
him. The sun beats upon him and beats
upon him. His wounds infect his body with
a terrible fever. God the Father, whose will he
came to perform. God the Father, whose glory he
sought, God the Father whose people he has come to save. God the Father forsakes him. Suffering all the fury of God's
unmitigated wrath. all the fury of God's concentrated
justice. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
darling son, when he was made sin for us, 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's broken. His limbs are dislocated. His
father forsakes him. The heaven forsakes him. The
earth forsakes him. His disciples forsake him, all
of them, and flee from him. He looks around for help, and
he says, there's none to help. He treads the winepress of the
fierceness of the wrath of God alone and of the people. He says, there's none with me.
Yet he never relents. He never goes back. He said to
Pilate, I could at this time call my father and he'd send
a legion of angels to set me free. He was never obliged to
endure the cross. He is Jehovah's righteous servant,
but he could go out free at any time. The only reason he didn't
was for his love for his wife, his bride, his church, and his
love for Jehovah himself. Listen to what he says. He never
backs up. On and on he goes, steadily determined
to drink the last bitter dregs of the cup of divine justice
and wrath. He says, the Lord God hath opened
mine ear. And I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting for the Lord. God will help me. Therefore, shall I not be confounded? Therefore, have I set my face
like a flint. I know that I shall not be ashamed. For the glory of God. For the
honor of God. For the accomplishment of God's
will and God's purpose. For the saving of God's elect.
The Lord Jesus Christ perseveres until at last he cries, I thirst. And he says, it is finished. Knowing that all things were
now accomplished. Knowing that all things were
now accomplished. Do you remember what Moses and
Elijah spoke to him about when he was on the Mount of Transfiguration?
Moses and Elijah were told in Luke's Gospel spoke to the master
about the death he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Who ever heard
tell of a man accomplishing death? But this man is God. He had come here to accomplish
death. To accomplish death. In fact,
the word that's translated death there would normally be translated
exodus. Moses and Elijah spoke to him
about the exodus that he should accomplish at Jerusalem. The
Exodus, that is the fulfilling of the type of the whole book
of Exodus. The bringing of God's people
out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the sons of God in
effectual redemption. The Exodus, he by his death would
accomplish. And now Jesus knowing that all
things were accomplished. He said, I thirst. And he said,
it is finished. Did you hear that mighty shout
of triumph? It's not the word of one who
is exhausted and overcome. It's not the word of one who
is defeated and just gives in. It's not the word of one who
is tired and weary with the labor and could go on no more. Oh,
no. This is the word of one who is
completely finished his work. This is the word of a king who's
conquered his enemies once and for all death held in the grave
by the sacrifice of himself. It is finished. Oh, Spirit of
God, write these words on our hearts and let them echo in every
soul here this day. When Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. I can almost see our savior as
he looks up to his father in heaven. and looks around upon
his disciples, his mother and his brother whom he'd sent away
to care for his mother, those disciples who had forsaken him
and abandoned him in his great hour, as he looks out to the
ages upon his people, and as he looks down upon death and
hell, and looks down upon Satan and the demons of hell, And he
speaks to that one whose head he had come to crush, and now
he says, it is finished. When he declares it's finished,
he's testifying to heaven, to earth, and to hell. And will
you hear me, you who need mercy and grace from God? You who are
yet without life before God, you who are yet in the bondage
of iniquity and sin and death, will you hear me? He speaks to
the multitudes of sinners in this world and declares it is
finished. Redemption's work is done. People
cry forever, forever cry as that soldier did, that jailer did
to Paul and Silas. Sirs, what must I do? What must
you do? It's your doing that's got you
where you are. What must I do? Preachers are
forever crying, do this, do that, do the other to find acceptance
with God. Do nothing! Christ did everything. It is finished. Men and women
want something to do. And preachers oblige and give
you something to do. Listen to me, listen to me. He
said, I'd do anything to have forgiveness. Would you do nothing? Would you do nothing? I would
sacrifice anything. Would you sacrifice nothing?
I'd go anywhere. Would you go nowhere? Redemption's
work is finished. Totally, completely finished. I want to spend the bulk of my
time declaring that fact to you. And then I'll wrap the message
up by showing you something about the result of that fact, and
something about the experience of it, and something about the
cause of it. First, the fact of it. It is
finished. Turn back to Daniel chapter 9.
Daniel chapter 9. What does he mean when he says
it's finished? What does he mean? Everything that God required
for the saving of his people. Everything the book of God declares
necessary for the saving of sinners. Everything God said would be
done in the saving of sinners is finished. Altogether finished. No more is needed to be done. Indeed, no more can be done. It's finished. Daniel 9 verse
24. I don't mean by that what you
hear preachers and have heard preachers all your life say,
God's done all he can, now the rest is up to you. If there's something up to you,
you're going to hell. If there's something up to you,
you're going to hell. That's exactly right. It's all right
to laugh or shout. That's just fact. That's just
fact. If something's left up to you,
what hope have you got? What hope does a man who's dead
have if something's left up to him? What hope does a man who's
all together over heels in debt with nothing to pay? What hope
does he have if something's up to him? If it's up to you, you're
going to hell. Oh, no. Oh, no. I don't mean
God's done all he can do. I mean, God's done everything.
God's done everything. And the God who did it is the
God-man, our Savior. Here's what he did, Daniel 9,
24. 70 weeks are determined upon thy people. Thy people. Skip, you were already his people
before you ever knew who he was. Thy people. And upon thy holy
city, not the physical city of Jerusalem. We're talking now
about a holy nation, a royal generation, a royal priesthood,
Christ elect. And this is what those weeks
are determined. To finish the transgression. To finish the
transgression. How far will Larry Brown's transgressions
go? How long will they exist? How
long can they stand? Until Christ cries, it is finished. And there they're finished. Number
two. To make an end of sins. end of sins. You remember how
folks would dictate letters and in the movies they'd be dictating
a telegraph to be sent and they get to the end of a sentence
they say full stop. That's what he said here. Christ comes to make a full stop
of sins so that there is shall be and
there is a people in this world to whom the Lord will not impute
sin." How can that be? Don Rene put
your sins on his son. He made your sins his sins. and punished his son for your
sins to the full satisfaction of God's justice. And that means
your sins are gone. It's finished. It's finished.
Read on. To make reconciliation for iniquity. What is it that
separates you from God? What is it that keeps you and
God apart? What is it that keeps you from walking into the holy
of holies? Sitting down at the right hand
of God like Christ himself with boldness and confidence. Sin! That's what. But Christ came
to make reconciliation for iniquity. He takes sin out of the way. Now listen to me. Listen to me.
you got no sin, no guilt, no guilt, no filth, no dirt. When that's gone, you tell me what's going to separate
you and God. Huh? No condemnation, causing no transgression,
and there'll be no separation. He made reconciliation, I love
the way he put it, for iniquity. It looks like he had said for
sinners, he made reconciliation for iniquity because of our iniquity. Here's another thing. And to
bring in everlasting righteousness. Everlasting righteousness, people
are forever asking me, Was Adam really righteous in the garden?
Well, you know, I really don't care. Why do you ask questions with
no answers? Why on earth do folks ask questions about which there
are no answers? They're just things they can
yak about. Was Adam righteous in the garden? All right, let's
say he was. I suspect he was. Some sort of
righteousness. But whatever it was, it was just
a temporary thing. And would forever remain a temporary
thing had there been no fall, bringing in the necessity of
a Redeemer. And this Redeemer brings in and
gives his people everlasting That's righteousness, Larry Chris,
that never varies, never has any ups or downs, never has any
high degrees or lower degrees and can never be taken away.
Righteousness of infinite worth before God Almighty. It's the
righteousness of God in Christ. Well, what's he going to do?
He's going to seal up to the vision and the prophecy. This book, from Genesis to Malachi,
is the vision of the word of the Lord. The prophecy. The prophecy. Oh, would God I
could get the ear of this generation. Everybody's interested in prophecy.
But the scripture says, you got it right here in front of you,
don't you, Daniel 9, 24? Are you still looking at it? The
scripture says that when Messiah comes, when the Christ comes,
when God's Son comes in human flesh, he will seal up the vision
and the prophecy. That means prophecy's done. Prophecy's
done. He came. Prophecy's done. Well,
what about his second coming? That's included in his first
coming. He's coming again. Well, what about what about what's
going on in the Middle East and all the oil and the Arabs fighting
the Jews and the Jews and Arabs fighting each other and Arabs
fighting each other and all of them fighting us? Oh, looks like
bad times are coming. Good times are coming. Christ
is coming. Christ is coming. He sealed up the prophecy. That
is to say, he fulfilled everything written in this book. from Genesis
to Malachi concerning the Messiah, the Christ, and redemption. Everything. Everything. Find me something
he didn't fulfill. I dare you. Find me something
he didn't fulfill. He fulfilled the whole of the
Old Testament prophets to anoint the most holy. God's given his
son his spirit without measure as our holy high priest. And do you know what his son
did for us? I finished preparing this message, went home, read
the gospel of John last night. Do you know what he's done for
us? Do you remember what he did for us? He called his disciples
and he said, as my father has sent me, so send I you. breathed on them. The risen Christ
breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. When Christ
said it's finished, He declared that all the Old Testament types
were fulfilled. He's the prophet like Moses.
He's the priest like Aaron. He's the king like David and
like Solomon. He's a priest like Melchizedek
He's he's that holy one spoken out throughout the scriptures
who would come be born at Bethlehem Ephrathah at exactly the hour
God had appointed in due time He fulfilled all the prophets
and all the types all those legal ceremonial types given in the
Old Testament he fulfilled them everyone so that Christ is the
scapegoat who's let go free. And he's the goat who sacrificed. And he's the priest who sacrificed
the goat. And he's the altar of which the
sacrifice is accepted. And the mercy seat of which the
blood is sprinkled. He's finished it all. And Lord
Jesus finished the commandment and the justice of the law. The
law requires that you be holy. that you love God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and being. The law requires that you love
your neighbor as yourself. The law requires that you keep
the Sabbath day holy. The law requires that. And you
better do it. You better do it. You better
love God with all your heart. Are you going to hell? Love your
neighbor like yourself. Are you a parish forever? Keep
the Sabbath day holy, or you'll be forever put to death if you
just pick up one stick. Just pick up one stick. Well,
so much for your pretending to keep it. So much for your pretending to
keep it. I know folks will be listening to this and they're
gonna, when they hear it, their hair stick up like they stuck
their fingers in a light socket. He said, we're not under the law.
No, you didn't hear me. You're not under the law. Not
if you're under grace. Not if you're under grace. God's
people were represented in Christ. Did you die in Adam? Did you
sin in Adam? Did you or didn't you? Was it
real or just fake? Did you really break God's law
that Adam stuck his fist in God's face and said, get out of my
way? Did you really do that? Did you? Was it real? In Jesus Christ,
the last Adam, I really obeyed God. I really did. I really did. When he died, I really died. When he arose, I really arose. When he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high, I really sat down. So I'm looking
at you. Yeah, I know you are, but you
can't see all of me. You can't see all of me. Christ
is our representative. He fulfilled all the law for
us. And now the book says Christ is the E-N-D. Oh, what does that mean? Oh,
let's get the creeds out and see what those confessors said.
Let's look back here and see what the Puritans said. Let's
look back here and see what the old church said. I don't give
a flip what any of them said. Let's look in his book and see
what God said. Christ is the E-N-D. Our brother called and
asked for directions to get here. I said, you go to the end of
the road. I just presumed he'd know when he got to the end of
the road. I mean, I know not everybody would, but I just,
I just presumed being a good Southern boy, you'd know when
you got to the end of the road. What's that mean? You can't go
any further. Christ is the end. In fact, that word translated
end is exactly the same word translated finished right here
in John 19 30. Christ is the finishing of the law. He finished
it. But Brother Dodd, what sense
is it that believers are under the law? Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness. So I reckon if you're under the
law, you're under the law for unrighteousness. You're not under law, but under
grace. Don't talk to me about believers
being under the law. It's not so. It's just not so. Well, that'll open the floodgates
and folks going to sin like they want to. I sin a whole lot more
than I want to, don't you? Do you or don't you? How's it going to help you to
pretend to keep the law, to pretend to keep it? I said pretend because
you're just pretending if you say keep the law. Oh, I keep
the Sabbath day. You go back and read Sabbath
laws. For one thing, it's on Saturday, it ain't on Sunday.
Never was on Sunday. And you can't decide it's going
to be on Sunday. Can't be. It was at the end of the week
of time. The Lord Jesus came into this
world and he is our Sabbath. We don't worship God one day
in seven. We worship God all time. What'd
they do on a Sabbath day? They quit working. They quit
working. They quit working! They quit
working! And if ever you come to know
the Son of God in saving faith, you will quit working. You'll
lay down and rest. You trust His Son. Christ is
the end. It is finished. What's that mean? Jesus Christ has opened up a
way into the holiest by the sacrifice himself. When he cried, it's
finished, the veil in the temple rent in two from top to bottom. I've often said I'd like to have
seen that priest who was faking it that day. You know, they faked
it for 400 years. There wasn't a mercy seat in
there. That was taken away in Nebuchadnezzar's days and never
found. There was no rock of the covenant in there. But those
religious hucksters called the Jewish high priest maintained
the facade for 450 years because that's how they lived. And they
pretended to be zealous. Well, come the Passover, they
set that high priest in the holy place, in the holy of holies.
And he had to be sitting on the floor because he wasn't in a
chair in there. And I suppose he was smoking his pipe for incense.
I don't know what he was doing. But how red his face must have been
when that veil ripped open and everything was exposed. Because Christ opened a way for
sinners to come with boldness. That's what he said, Merle, come
with full assurance of faith. Read the 10th chapter of Hebrews.
Come with boldness into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus
Christ. And if you come to God, trust
in Christ. Now, listen to me. If you come
to God, trust in Christ. you can come with boldness. Come
any other way, you've got to grovel and scrape. Come any other
way, you've got to offer something else besides blood. Come any
other way, you've got to make some preparation. But you come
to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, and you come to God saying,
Lord God, here's everything you can possibly want, ask, or demand. Because this is what you provided.
The blood and righteousness of your son. Christ has opened a
way into the holiest of all. So we can come to God with our
gifts and sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. What's the result of it? The
result of it is just this. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us, that we might
receive the promise, the blessing of the spirit, the promise of
God to Abraham. That we might receive the blessing
of the spirit. Since Christ died, all for whom
he died shall receive all the bounty of God's grace among all
nations. He's the king and he sits on
his throne and his first inaugural act is the outpouring of his
spirit upon all flesh. And he still gives his spirit
to his elect among all flesh. And I want to tell you something
about his elect. Tell you something about him. We hear a lot of talk
in this day of Pentecostal charismatic tomfoolery. And it is Pentecostal
charismatic tomfoolery. Brother Don, let's be clear.
It is Pentecostal charismatic tomfoolery. It's as fake as a
three dollar bill. But the whole world swept up
in it and folks talk about, oh, you need to be filled with the
spirit. And you need to speak in tongues. And you need to have gifts of
healing and miracles. It's fake, I'm telling you. It's
hellish and it's fake. And then there are folks who
back off saying, we don't speak in tongues and we don't have
the healing and all that stuff. But now, this is pretty good
to get thought of something to do. Be ye filled with the Spirit. How do we do that? Well, you
take your whip and beat yourself real good, and you read the Bible
real good, and you pray a lot of hours, and you'll be, oh,
now I'm filled with the Holy Ghost. Would you please find
me somewhere in this book, anywhere in the New Testament, a believer
who wasn't filled with the Spirit? Find me one. Find me one. You're not in the flesh. Is that
what Paul said, Romans chapter 8? The carnal mind's enmity against
God. But they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. Because the carnal mind's enmity
against God. But ye, brethren, are not in the flesh but in the
Spirit. You're in the Spirit. You can't believe God without
being filled with the Spirit. You can't have life without being
filled with the Spirit. It's God, the Holy Spirit, who
comes in you and gives you life. Well, why does He admonish us
to be filled with the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit? We do
walk in the Spirit if we're His. Does He admonish you to love
your brother? Did He admonish you to love your brother? I think
He did. Numerous occasions. And then
He turned around and said, if you don't love your brother,
you're not born of God. I reckon that means that believers
love one another and they seek to love one another because they're
born of God. Does He admonish you to trust
the Lord? To cast your care on Him? Oh, I have trouble with
that. Don't you? Don't you? But those who are born of God
do trust the Lord. And they do cast their care on
Him. But, Brother Don, what part of
this thing is up to us if all this is God's work? It seems
like what you're saying is everything depends on His grace and nothing
depends on my goodness. Isn't that amazing how simple
that is? It depends on one or the other.
It sure don't depend on both. If it's of grace, it's not of
works. If it's works, it's not of grace. Can't be both. What do you do to walk in the
Spirit and to love your brother and to live right, be motivated
and guided? As ye therefore have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Oh my soul, first time I had
a sense of pardon, forgiveness. My soul leaped and danced before
God. And in my inmost being, I could
kiss all God's creation with joy. And I wanted more than anything
on this earth to give my life in its totality to His glory
and His will. And all I knew was that by His
blood I was freed from sin and guilt and curse and perfectly
righteous before God. You go ahead and live the rest
of your life just like that, and you'll be all right. As you therefore
have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. It's finished. Fact. It's finished. The result is life everlasting
to all for whom the Savior died. People talk this nonsense of
universal redemption. Christ died for people who go
to hell anyway. I'll tell you what, if he did,
he ain't God. If he did, he's not God. God's
not a failure. God's not a failure. Folks declare
that Christ died for people and tried to redeem folks who aren't
redeemed is to declare that Jesus Christ is no more God than Buddha. Oh, no. All for whom he died
received the blessing of Abraham, the promise of the spirit. They
received God's eternal salvation. But all that took place long
before I knew anything about it. It was done. But I didn't
know anything about it. I had no apprehension of it.
Until one day, I was sitting where you're sitting, and I heard
a man preaching about the sacrifice of the Redeemer, and I heard
it was finished. It was finished. It's finished. I've often told you the story
about the surrender grounds over in Appomattox, Virginia. I've
only been once. It's all I could take. But I
heard Lee signed the truce of surrender. Those Confederate
soldiers lined up along the road going to Appomattox Courthouse,
stacked arms, standing at attention as the conquering Union troops
rode down the Appomattox Courthouse, but they didn't have e-mail in
those days. And I don't know that this is fact, but I suspect
there were lots of places where skirmishes went on a good while. One of John Wayne's movies, I
remember the fellows come out fighting. He said, don't you
know the war is over? Those fellows came out just throwing rocks.
They didn't have any bullets. They didn't have any ammunition.
They didn't have any gunpowder. All they had was their knives
and rocks. because nobody told him war was over. You mean the war's over? The
war's over? I go home? Will you hear me? The Lord God sends his servants
out to declare not the possibility of salvation, but the certainty
of it. Tell her her warfare is in. She's received to the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. I'm here to tell you Christ finished
the work. Christ finished the work. Believe him. Trust him. Rest in him. Can you? Can you trust the son of God?
Can you rest your soul on him? Dare you do so? Dare you cast
your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' faith and rest in Him,
in Him alone, gloriously complete? Dare you do so? Merle Hart, if
you can, it's because He's given you His Spirit. That's it. Oh, brother Don, I struggle with
assurance. Quit trusting something else. I, I just, I'm not sure
whether God had me or not. What are you bringing him? What
are you bringing him? God give you grace to trust his
son who finished the work, finished the work. Well, why did the son of God
suffer all the painful, shameful ignominy of the cross. Why was
he made sin for us? Why did he endure the wrath of
God for us? Because that's the only way under
God's heaven that God could be just and justify the ungodly. Justice must be satisfied. Righteousness
must be brought in. The law must be fulfilled. Like you, I suspect it's true
of all of you. I began to have a sense of guilt,
fear, and I started trying to make a bargain with God. I made promises I knew I had
no intention of keeping and couldn't keep. I'd go to bed at night
terrified, roll in my bed terrified, incapable of finding any rest.
Sleepless night after sleepless night and wake the next morning
and go cuss God. And go back to bed that night
terrified and tell God I'll do this and I'll do that. I tried
to do this, tried to do that, tried to straighten up and quit
this and start that, read the Bible and pray and go to church
and try to be a good boy. Nothing would satisfy my tormenting,
screaming conscience. I go to bed at night terrified. It's been 45 blessed years since
I went to bed terrified. I've never been afraid of God
since I was 16 years old. I'm telling you the truth. Never been afraid of him again.
How come? Because God himself can require
no more than his darling son. And Christ is mine. I know He
is, because I trust Him. It is written, he that believeth
on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Larry, Chris, I believe
on the Son of God. Do you? Not like I ought to, not like
I want to. Not like I sometimes do. But I believe on the Son of God.
That means one of two things is so. Either I have eternal
life or God's alive. One of the two. Take your pick.
I believe on the Son of God. I have everlasting life. Believe on the Son of God and
walk out of here today with the full confidence of everlasting
life in Him. Amen.